t him off with a wave of her hand. "Nothing can explain away
that blow, Roger." Then she went on, soberly. "Do you suppose the old
lemon will pull us through our first crop?"

"I don't know, Charley. One never does about a gasoline engine. There's
always more life in an old one though than one realizes. If this does
fail you, however, I'll be in running shape in two months' time with my
solar engine. Don't forget that."

"When do you expect to make your first actual test?" asked Charley.

"Well, the engine will be here almost any time now. If the Dean has done
a good construction job, I ought to be able to make a tentative
connection in six weeks' time."

"How do you mean a good job?" asked Charley.

"Well, this is the first full size fifty horse power engine that we've
built. You see, I've had no money and we've worked from models, though I
did build one ten horse power engine. That worries me a little, but I'm
sure that any defects that appear will be easily remedied. Now then,
this old mule ought to begin to kick!"

Roger turned the fly wheel again and an obstinate Put! Put! Put! came
from the engine, then a long pause, during which the audience of three
waited anxiously, then a steady Put! Put! Put! Put! Put! that promised
to last as long as did the gasoline.

"If the old thing could just realize all that depends on its behaving
itself!" exclaimed Charley. "Roger, let's throw in the pump, I really
believe it's going to run!"

And run it did, during the entire day, with only three stops for repair.
Roger worked until late afternoon with Dick and the next day Gustav took
his place. The damage done by the dust storm to the absorber was now
completely remedied and Roger and Ernest began work on a shallow
concrete trough on which the condenser was to be erected. By the time
this was completed, Dick's second sowing was finished and he announced
himself ready for road building.

At first, Roger felt violently resentful at the thought of having to
build a road. It seemed to him that after all his years of patient
persistency, fate at the last was playing him a scurvy trick. She had
brought his goal within sight, only to beset it with delays and
difficulties whose very paltriness it seemed to him he could not endure.
And a feverish little flame of impatience began to glow within him that
was not to be extinguished for many months. However when, pick in hand,
he actually began with the others to break the road, a su