All that was left was a cloud of dust ...

.... leaving a cloud of dust behind ...

At the far end of the pond is the irrigation dock.  There is a square hole in the top end of the dock, where pipes went down into the water to pump out water for the crops.  Because of the amount of fish in the pond, the water had to be drawn from an area where fish couldn't swim.

The photo below is the end view of the dock, when the pond was pretty dry.  It shows where the hole (normally under water) in the dock opened to the pond itself.  A metal mesh was attached to a long metal rod that went from the top of the dock to cover this hole.  When water was pumped out of the dock, water would go into this hole.  Fish couldn't be drawn into the hole and into the irrigation pipes.  A fish in the pipe would stop the sprinkler and we'd lose valuable time clearing out the pipes.  

The hole that was normally under water was fairly large.  Plenty large enough for a thin hard-working farm boy to fit through.

Donald and Harold were working on the dock one way, working with the irrigation.  They had the wire mesh off the hole.  The pond was full of water.  No one could see the hole. The pond was as full as in the first photo.

Some of the young field hands had stopped work and was leaning on a nearby fence watching my brothers work.  Finally, Donald went into the water at the top of the dock and out the hole in the bottom.  He came to the surface on the opposite side of the dock where he couldn't be seen. 

The boys leaning on the fence were watching.  They finally asked my brother that was still on the dock where the other one went.  He looked down in to the hole, around the pond, and said, "I don't know; maybe the gators got him".  Then he kept on working.

All that was left was a cloud of dust as the field hands decided that it was time to go back to work ...