lighted at the opportunity
to serve her big husband.

"When shall we take Genevieve to see the canyon?" asked the girl. "I am
sure she can ride up safely on old Buck."

"We have only the two saddle horses today," replied Blake. "If our
measurement settles that 'if' one way, I shall start a line of levels
up the mountain tomorrow morning, if the other way, any irrigation
project is out of the question, and we shall go up to the canyon merely
as a sightseeing party."

"Ah!" sighed the girl. "'If!' 'if'--I do so hope it turns out to be
the last one!"

Blake looked at her with a quizzical smile. "Perhaps you would not,
Miss Chuckie, if you could see all the results of a successful water
system."

"You mean, turning our range into farms for hundreds of irrigationists,"
she replied. "I suppose I am selfish, but I am thinking of what it
would mean to Daddy. Just consider how it will affect us. For years
this land has been our own for miles and miles!"

"Well, we shall see," said Blake, his eyes twinkling.

"Yes, indeed!" she exclaimed. "Lafe, if you'll help me saddle up and
help Mr. Blake rush up to do that measuring, I'll--I'll be ever so
grateful!"

Though all the more resentful at Blake over having to leave her
company, Ashton eagerly sprang forward to help the girl saddle the
ponies. When they were ready, she filled his canteen for him and took
a sip from it "for luck." Genevieve had packed an ample lunch in a
gamebag, along with her husband's linked steel-wire surveyor's chain.

Ten minutes after Blake's arrival, he handed the baby to its mother
and swung into the saddle. Ashton had already mounted, fired by a kind
glance from the girl's forget-me-not eyes. In his zeal, he led the way
at a gallop around the craggy hill and across the intervening valley
to the escarpment of High Mesa. Had not Blake checked him, he would
have forced the pace on up the mountain side.

"Hold on," called the engineer. "We want to make haste slowly. That
buckskin you're on isn't so young as he has been, and my pony has to
lug around two hundred pounds. We'll get back sooner by being
moderate. Besides you don't wish to knock up old Buck. He is about the
only one of these jumpy cow ponies that is safe for Jenny."

"That's so," admitted Ashton. "Suppose you set the pace."

He stopped to let Blake pass him, and trailed behind up the mountain
side. He had headed into a draw. The engineer at once turned and began
zigzagging up the ste