reams myself for this country, you know."

"What are they, Rog?" asked Dick. "I know in only the vaguest way."

"If I can irrigate your twenty-five acres with my little plant, don't
you see that I have proven that I am able to tap unlimited cheap power.
The possibilities of this country with cheap power are staggering. I
don't blame Von Minden for calling it a kingdom. That's just what it
might be, with the mountains of the west range and the Rockies to the
east forming natural boundaries. It seems as if a kingdom really could
be self-supporting in here. If only I can harness the sun to a cheap
apparatus that any one can buy and operate! Why all these ranges would
be studded with going mines. Every valley would be green with growing
crops. I hardly dare let my imagination go on it. Our little old U. S.
has got a wonderful unborn commonwealth down here."

"Well, your dreaming is a lot more practical than his, anyhow," said
Dick. "More power to your elbow, old man, I say."

"I won't forget what you people have done for me!" Roger returned the
papers to the dispatch box.

They found the crude grave intact, the next morning. They were able with
the aid of the pick to make a shallow trough in the rock. They built
this up with stone and the last chapter of the Von Minden story was
ended. They reached home at dusk.

Ernest and Roger sat before the tent alone that night while Gustav wrote
a letter in the cook house. The heat did not seem to have lessened much
with the going down of the sun. The stars low-hung over the engine house
seemed to glow with fire and the darkness was like a hot blanket over
the sand. Ernest was unusually silent. He sat with his pipe unlighted,
staring at the stars so long that Roger said, at last:

"Homesick, Ern?"

Ernest grunted. "What did you say? Eh--no--I don't think so. Say, Roger,
old man, she's refused me."

"She? Who? What are you talking about, Ernest?"

"About Charley. Who else would it be?"

Roger nearly fell off the box on which he was sitting. "Proposed to
Charley? Why, you weren't in love with her, were you, Ernest?"

"You great nut! Why else should I propose to her? Just because you don't
admire her is no reason that other men are wooden headed."

"I never said I didn't admire her," exclaimed Roger.

"You did. You said you didn't care for big women."

"Did I? Well, I guess I don't. But I never think of her as a woman.
She's just like a fine young fellow that you want fo