ock the rapid runs across. Well, we'll call the
change of level twelve to sixteen feet, and, as Gordon has suggested,
a big strip of natural prairie is apt to make a particularly desirable
property, once you run the water out of it. You can get rid of a lot
of water when you have a fall of sixteen feet."

"How are you going to get it?" asked Wheeler.

"By cutting the strip of rock that holds the river up at the fall. I
think one could do it with giant-powder."

Again there was silence for a few moments, and Nasmyth looked at his
comrades quietly, with the firelight on his face and a gleam in his
eyes. They sat still and stared at him, for the daring simplicity of
his conception won their admiration. Mattawa slowly straightened
himself.

"It's a great idea," he declared. "Seen something quite like it in
Ontario; I guess it can be done." He turned to Nasmyth. "You can count
me in."

Wheeler made a sign of concurrence. "It seems to me that Mattawa is
right. In a general way, I'm quite open to take a share in the thing,
but there's a point you have to consider. Most of the work could be
done only at low water, and a man might spend several years on it."

"Well?" said Nasmyth simply.

Wheeler waved his hand. "Oh," he said, "you're like that other
Englishman, but you want to look at this thing from a business point
of view. Now, as you know, the men who do the toughest work on this
Pacific slope are usually the ones who get the least for it. Well, if
you run the river down, you'll dry out the whole valley, and you'll
have every man with a fancy for ranching jumping in, or some d----
land agency's dummies grabbing every rod of it. It's Crown land.
Anybody can locate a ranch on it."

"You have to buy the land," said Nasmyth. "You can't pre-empt it
here."

"How does that count?" Wheeler persisted. "If you started clearing a
Bush ranch, you'd spend considerably more."

Nasmyth smiled. "I fancy our views coincide. The point is that the
Crown agents charge the usual figure for land that doesn't require
making, which is not the case in this particular valley. Well, before
I cut the first hole with the drill, they will either have to sell me
all I can take up on special terms, or make me a grant for the work I
do."

Gordon laughed. "Are you going to hammer your view of the matter into
the Crown authorities? Did you ever hear of anyone who got them to
sanction a proposition that was out of the usual run?"

"Well," sai