So far, the damage reported had been only incidental and fortuitous. Two boys venturing out in a rowboat had lost their heads apparently, and overturned in the swirling channel; one of them had been drowned. A sudden outbreak of Stony Creek had swept away two hundred sheep! Seepage, caused probably by gophers working in the levee, was being fought near Meridian; local authorities reported the situation controlled. An incipient break in the Feather River levee had been discovered by a patrol before it had time to develop. The near-by ranchers had mobilized hastily. One of them donated some bales of hay, and these clogged the flow until a sand-bag defense could be built up.

“Hold up any more calls for me,” said the General into his telephone. “Unless there’s an emergency; I’ve got to do some figuring and get out a forecast.”

The American was the immediate problem. Reports from the mountains indicated very heavy rain was falling everywhere in that basin. Even worse, it was a warm rain and was washing off the snow-cover up to the five-thousand-foot level. Every creek and gully flowing into each of the three forks must be a-boiling. And of all the rivers the American was the most flashy; because of its steeper gradient and shorter length, its waters crested quickly, and came out with a rush. With Folsom gauge rising so rapidly, the lower country would soon feel the effects; by latest report Sacramento gauge had risen to twenty-one-point-eight.

The General dictated: “The Feather, Yuba, and upper Sacramento Rivers are rising slowly, but gauge-readings are not excessive; flood levels are not to be expected within the next twenty-four hours. The amount of water flowing through the by-passes will increase moderately. The American River is rising rapidly, and will reach twenty-five feet at Sacramento about midnight. This will necessitate closing the main highway between Sacramento and North Sacramento, and re-routing the traffic via Jib-boom Street.”

The General settled back in his chair and looked at his desk-clock. That statement would go out immediately, and in about twenty minutes he could expect the Committee.

The Committee consisted of three business-men, a type of humanity for which the General as a military man had no liking. Two of them were tall and thin, but the chairman and the most aggressive was short and fat.

“General,” he stated emphatically, “this has got to stop. When that road is closed, business in North Sacramento falls off fifty to a hundred thousand dollars each day. Sacramento clearing-house receipts fall off five hundred thousand dollars—each day!”

The man’s overemphasis made the General think of a dog’s barking; he disliked it intensely. Also, as a former officer he disliked being shouted at by a civilian. But he kept his temper.