rigated acreage you will
want it.

"I have examined the country about the spring which Miss Crawford
discovered, and have men working there now boring wells. There is
water there--how much I do not yet know. I have a hope, which Tommy
Garton thinks foolish, that we may strike artesian water out there in
the sand. At any rate, we'll get enough out of it eventually to aid in
the irrigation of that location, to be useful when you get ready to
found your second desert town. About Valley City itself I have all the
cross-ditches required by your contract with Colton Gray of the P. C.
& W."

He paused, and Mr. Crawford after a moment's thoughtful silence said,
quietly:

"In other words, Mr. Conniston, you have completed all of the work
which the contract calls for?"

"Except one thing." Conniston smiled. "I have not put the water on the
land yet. A rather important matter, isn't it?"

"But you are ready to do that?"

"I shall be ready to do that to-morrow at noon. And I want you to help
me. Will it be possible for you and Miss Crawford to come out to Dam
Number One in the morning?"

"You are kind to ask it," Mr. Crawford said, inclining his head. "We
shall be glad to come, Mr. Conniston. Is that the extent of your
report?"

"Yes. I have something else I want to say to you--but it is not about
reclamation."

"Shall I make my report to you first? For I feel that after all you
have done for me I should like to report, too. Every one of my
cattle-ranges is mortgaged to the hilt. I do not believe that I could
raise another thousand dollars on the combined ranges. I have been
driven so close to the wall that I could not go another step. I have
been forced to sell during the last two weeks over a thousand of my
young cattle--to sell them at a sacrifice in order to obtain ready
money. I have enough money in the bank to conclude the financing of
our reclamation project. After the first day of October, when the P.
C. & W. begins its road out to us, I can raise whatever more funds I
want, and raise them easily.

"You have succeeded, Mr. Conniston, and thereby you have saved me from
being absolutely, unqualifiedly ruined. Within six months I shall have
doubled my fortune. And I shall have lived to see the most cherished
dream of my older manhood materialize. I owe very much to you, I am
very grateful to you, and I am very proud to have been associated in
business with a man of your caliber. And there is my hand on it!"

"