dden elation
swept over him. After all, primitive as this work might be, it was
empire building of the most fundamental sort. And, in spite of his
anxieties and impatience, Roger did his share of the road building with
right good will.

They began work in the range back of the ranch, taking advantage of
draw and canyon whenever possible, even when this demanded a long
detour. Sometimes, the canyon bottoms were astonishingly level. At other
times boulders and crevices would block them until they had made free
use of dynamite. They had all sorts of minor mishaps. Dick was not an
expert either in road grading or blasting, although he was far ahead of
the Sun Planters in his information about both.

In running the road up the side of Snake Peak he used too heavy a charge
and brought down a land slide which it took them a day to clear. On a
previous day he had blasted too close to the wagon and a bowlder had
smashed the rear axle. He took extraordinarily narrow chances with the
steepness of grade but in spite of the Sun Planters' prophecies they did
not lose either horses or wagon down canyon or mountain side. Ernest,
however, slipped on top of one of the finished sections and rolled two
hundred feet before he could stop himself.

When, after two weeks' steady labor, Dick pronounced the road good
enough, the others looked at him aghast. "You'll break your wagon and
your horses' necks, to say nothing of losing the oil!" protested Ernest.

Dick only laughed. "This is a boulevard compared with some of the desert
routes I've taken. With just a few drums of oil lashed on at a time,
we'll make it."

And make it he did, though nearly another week was consumed in the
doing, and four drums of the oil were lost in different draws and
canyons. After the road was finished, the transporting of the oil was
turned over to Ernest and Dick while Roger and Gustav began the
erecting of the condenser. Ernest was now quite reconciled to the use of
the oil for Hackett had received a telegram from the owner in San
Francisco that the deal was more than satisfactory to him.

Roger and Gustav worked well together. The self-controlled German,
evidently accustomed to hard grind and overwork in an office job, was
not in the least ruffled by Roger's impatient ways. And he distinctly
enjoyed the vim and imagination that were characteristic of Roger's work
even when it involved the seemingly simple task of cutting and threading
condenser pipe. For c