He seemed the least interested man in the group.

Once in a while he would consult his watch, counting the seconds, only to return to the gauge.
That thousands of dollars' damage had so far been done did not seem to affect him in the least.

Only when Jack would call out that everything so far was solid on the main "fill" did his calm face light up.
Tightening his wide slouch hat farther down on his head, he drew up the tops of his high-water boots and strode through the slush to the pick-handle.

His wooden record showed that half an hour before the water had been rising at the rate of an inch every three minutes; that it had then taken six, and now required eight! He glanced at the sky; it had stopped raining and a light was breaking in the West.
Pocketing his watch he beckoned to Jack: "The worst is over, Breen," he said in a voice of perfect calmness--the tone of a doctor after feeling a patient's pulse.

"Our culvert is doing its work and relieving the pressure.