The flood order

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

By noon, the canal had climbed over the lowest stones of the lock. Elias kept the company's instruction pinned inside the hut: neither the main gate nor any sluice was to be opened until the engineer arrived. Beyond the lock, a loaded boat had broken from its tow rope and was drifting sideways. If it struck the gate broadside, its timbers might split. The boatman's wife and young son were still aboard.

Letting water through the lock would draw the boat towards the lock chamber. It would also release a rush of water into the lower channel, where the bank beside three cottages had softened during the night. Mrs Dale, standing ankle-deep in her garden, called that water was already entering her kitchen. Elias looked from her cottage to the approaching boat and then back at the company's instruction.

His assistant urged him to wait. The order, written after the last flood, had surely been written for a day such as this, he said. From the boat came the crack of a steering pole. Elias took the instruction from the wall, read it once more and folded it into his pocket. He told his assistant to open the small side sluice while he fastened a rope around the gate post.

The first pull of water turned the boat only slightly. Elias ordered the sluice raised another inch and sent a boy to ring the warning bell for the cottages. The boat's bow moved towards the chamber, but water spread across Mrs Dale's doorstep. When the engineer's carriage appeared on the distant road, Elias was still at the rope, unable to tell whether he had saved the boat or merely chosen where the damage would fall.

“Elias breaks the company’s order, yet the writer makes his choice seem careful rather than rash.”

Evaluate how successfully the writer presents this idea. Support your judgement with detailed references to the passage.