t I want you to work harder! Get me? And I am
going to pay you four dollars a day instead of three. Wait. I am going
to make you another proposition: over and above your wages I'll pay
each man of you for every day between the day we get water on the land
and the first of October. And for that time I'll pay each man of you
at the rate of twenty dollars a day!"

"Gee!" exclaimed the Lark. "You ain't stringing us, are you?"

"No. Understand what I mean: in case we get the work done five days
before the first each man of you draws down one hundred dollars above
his wages. Drive your men as hard as you can; but don't forget what
will happen if you try to do too much. What wages are your men
getting?"

"Two dollars and a half."

"Go back and offer them two-seventy-five. And tell them that for every
day between the first of October and the day we get water on the land
each and every man of them will draw down an extra five dollars. Now
get to work. I want to see what you can get done by quitting-time."

That afternoon Conniston left everything in the hands of his foremen.
He did not once go to the ditch to see what they were doing. Instead
he took Truxton's note-book from the table in the tent--Truxton was
still in a deep stupor--and from one o'clock until dark worked over
it, seeking desperately to grasp every detail which he must know
later and to plan for the morrow and the morrows to come.

When he heard the men coming in from work he got his horse and saddled
it, and then waited for the foremen with their daily reports.

"I beat my record by twenty feet to-day," the Lark told him, with a
cheerful grin, as he handed Conniston a soiled bit of paper. "I'm hot
on the trail of my bonus, take it from me."

That evening Conniston spent with Tommy Garton. He did not even take
the time to call on Argyl. He told the little fellow what had
happened, received a hearty grip of the hand which meant more to him
than a wordy congratulation, laid what few plans he had had time to
outline before him, and asked his advice upon them.

"I want the plans and specifications for Dam Number One, Tommy."

Garton took them from a drawer and passed them across the table.

"I will look over them on the job to-morrow. And I want to know how
long you think it will take to get that dam built when once we get to
work on it?"

"I don't see how it can be done and done right," Garton answered,
promptly, "in much less than thirty days. You mig