igh water in the spring. We all got out in May to
strengthen the dam, hauling brush and stone. But the water rose like the
very devil. We divided into night and day shifts, then we worked all the
time. But it was no use. The whole darned thing went out like Niagara.
Forty-three hours at a stretch I worked and the dam went out! And the
next year the same. Then it was that we began to ask for the Reclamation
Service."

Pen drew a long breath and looked from Ames' strong tanned face out at
the breathless wonder of the landscape. Far beyond the brooding bronze
Elephant lay the chaos of the desert, yellow melting into purple and
purple into the faint peaks of the mountains.

"What I can't understand, Ames," said Jim slowly, "after all this, is
why you roast the Service so."

Ames flushed. "Because," he shouted, "you are so damned pig-headed! You
aren't building the dam for us farmers. You are building it for the
glory of your own reputation as an engineer."

There was a moment's silence in the tent house.

CHAPTER XIII

THE END OF IRON SKULL'S ROAD

"The Indians know that the spirit blends with the Greater
Spirit, and I myself have seen every atom that was mortal
lift again and again to new life, out of the desert's atom
drift."

MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT.

Jim shrugged his shoulders. Sara's eyes narrowed as he half smiled to
himself.

"For instance," Ames went on, "what are you making the third canal so
big for? We don't need it that size. You're wasting time and our money.
We've got to pay for the project, us farmers. You don't take any
interest in that fact though."

"You don't need a canal that big, but your children will," said Jim.
"I'm building this dam for the future. You farmers never built for
anything but the present. That's why your dams went and the water wars
were on. But you can't teach a farmer anything."

Jim spoke with a cold contempt that startled Penelope. Ames' kindly eyes
were blazing.

"No, but maybe us farmers can teach an engineer something. And I don't
know a better talking point for starting an investigation than the way
you let the flood rip everything to pieces."

"Which portion of your land is for sale, Mr. Ames?" asked Pen. "My
husband has a map of the valley over there."

Jim rose and took up his pony's reins. "I'm sorry anything unpleasant
came up, Pen. But you'll find out I'm a fool and a crook some time,