TON, JR.,

"Rattlesnake Valley.

"Am starting for New York. Meet me. Drop work. I have a
million dollars at stake in Oliver Swinnerton project. Will
lose all if you don't quit.

"WM. CONNISTON, Sr."

And it gave Greek Conniston a great, unbounded joy to answer:

"WM. CONNISTON, Sr.,

"Paris.

"Sorry, dad. You lose million. I have reputation at stake.

"WM. CONNISTON, Jr."

CHAPTER XXV

The days ran on, each twenty-four hours seeming shorter, swifter than
the preceding twenty-four. Although everywhere in the Valley there was
a glad confidence that the reclamation project was an assured thing,
although feverish anxiety had been beaten back and driven out, there
was no slightest slackening of unremitting toil. Upward of seven
hundred men worked as they had never worked before. As the end of the
time drew nearer, as success became ever more assured, they worked
longer hours, they accomplished swifter results. For each man of them,
from Brayley to the ditch-diggers, was laboring not only for the
company, but for himself. Each and every man had been promised a bonus
for every day between the time when water was poured down into the
sunken Valley and the coming of high noon upon October the first. And
Conniston still held to his determination to have everything in
readiness by the twenty-fifth of September.

Upon the evening of the twenty-fourth of September Conniston called
upon Mr. Crawford at his cottage in Valley City. He found his employer
smoking upon the little porch alone.

When he was seated and had accepted a cigar, Conniston began abruptly
what he had to say.

"If you have time, Mr. Crawford, I want to make a partial report to
you to-night. Thank you. To begin with, I have completed the big dam,
Dam Number One. It is all ready for business. The flume is finished,
the cut made across the ridge to Dam Number Two across Indian Creek.
Dam Number Two is ready. From these two dams the main canal runs,
completed entirely, thirty miles and into Valley City. Dam Number
Three, Miss Crawford's Dam, is finished, and the branch canal from it
to the main canal will be completed in two days. I do not believe that
this dam is going to be an absolute necessity to us now. I think that
we are going to have all the water from Deep Creek and Indian Creek
that we need. But Dam Number Three makes us more than confident. And
when later you want to extend your area of ir