."
"I think," Mr. Crawford said, quietly, as he sent his horses racing
into the night, "that Oliver Swinnerton won't be looking for any more
trouble from now on."
Where the road forked, one branch running straight on to
Crawfordsville, the other turning off toward Deep Creek, Mr. Crawford
took Conniston's horse, and Conniston got into the buckboard. Mr.
Crawford was to ride alone to Crawfordsville, see Colton Gray, of the
P. C. & W., tell him that the Crawford Reclamation Company had made
good its part of the contract, invite him out to Dam Number One to see
what was done, and to insist that the P. C. & W. keep to its part of
the contract, beginning work immediately upon the railroad into the
Valley. Conniston and Argyl were to drive on to the dam, and to open
the gates controlling the current to be poured into the big flume.
The darkness had not yet gone, but was lifting, turning a dull gray,
when Argyl and Conniston came to the dam. And now the engineer told
her of two things which until now he had mentioned to no one save the
men whom he had been obliged to call in to do the work for him. From
Dam Number One for thirty miles, reaching to Valley City, there were
small groups of his men stationed a mile apart. Each group had piled
high the dry limbs of trees, scrub brush, and green foliage brought
from the mountains. Each group was instructed to watch for the water
which was to be turned at last into the ditch and to set fire to its
pile of brushwood when the precious stuff came abreast of them. And
so, by day or night, there was to be thirty miles of signal fires to
proclaim with flame and smoke that the Great Work was no longer a
man's dream, but an accomplished, vital thing.
The second thing he explained as Argyl walked with him to the dam
across Deep Creek. He showed her the accomplished work, showed her the
deep, wide flume, and as they stood upon the dam itself pointed out an
intricate set of levers controlling the great gates.
"Argyl," he told her, speaking quietly, but knowing that there was a
tremor in his voice which he could not drive from it--"Argyl, do you
know how much to-day means to me? Do you know that it is the most
gloriously wonderful day I have ever known? Do you know that I have
fought hard for this day, and that the hardest fighting I had before
me was the fight against Greek Conniston the snob? Do you know that at
least I have tried to make a man of myself, even as I have tried to
bui
|