swamp."

"Swamp?" exclaimed Shepherd. "It's as dry as a bone. I looked it over
last night and am going out to-day to study the possible approaches to
it."

"But you say it is dry!" protested Bobby, unable to believe it.

"Dry as powder," asserted Shepherd. "There has been an immense amount
of water out there, but it has been well taken care of by the splendid
drainage system that has been put in."

"It cost a lot of money to put in that drainage system," commented
Bobby; "but we found it impracticable to drain an entire river."

It was Shepherd's turn to be puzzled, a process in which he stopped to
laugh.

"This is the first time I ever heard an owner belittle his own
property," he declared. "I suppose that next you'll only accept half
the price we offer."

Bobby kept up his part of the conversation but feebly as they whirled
out to the site of the old Applerod Addition. He was lost in
speculation upon what could possibly have happened to that unfortunate
swamp area. When they arrived, however, he was surprised to find that
Shepherd had been correct. The ground, though sunken in places and
black with the residue of one-time stagnant water, was firm enough to
walk upon, and after many tests he even ran the machine across and
across it. Moreover, grass and weeds, forcing their way here and
there, were already beginning to hide and redeem the ugly earthen
surface.

Bobby surveyed the miracle in amazement. It was the first time he had
seen the place in a year. Even in his trips to the waterworks site,
which was just north, beyond the hill, he had chosen the longer and
less solid river road rather than to come past this spot of
humiliating memories.

"I can't understand it," he said again and again to the two men. "Why,
Mr. Shepherd, I spent thousands of dollars in filling this swamp and
draining it, with the idea of making a city subdivision here. Silas
Trimmer, the man from whom I bought the place, imagined it to be fed
by underground springs, but he let me spend a fortune to attract
people out to see my new building lots so that he could, without cost,
sell his own. That is his addition up there on the hills, and I'm glad
to say he has recently mortgaged it for all that it will carry."

"How about the springs?" asked Shepherd with a frown. "Did you find
them? You must have stopped them. Are they liable to break out again?"

"That's the worst of it," replied Bobby, still groping. "It wasn't
springs at all.