hilanthropist pure and simple, I take it, and want to
make money out of this thing. So agree to this change. You'll make a
saving both in time and cash. Carrigan's contract doesn't include the
building of these drops; you plan to do that yourself; and if you
substitute wood for concrete in these drops and in the gate-frames,
it would lessen the labour cost, the material cost, the freighting
cost, the----"

"And in five years the wood will have rotted and then concrete will
have to be put in after all," Lee interrupted. "More than that, the
water will undercut wooden drops, then rip the devil out of the canal
along the ridge, making the cost of rebuilding ten times what it is
now and very likely causing a water shortage in the middle of an
irrigating season so that the farmers' crops will be a dead loss.
Fine! I suppose you didn't allow yourself to think that far."

"Why should I?" Gretzinger retorted. "It's not our business to figure
on all the calamities that may occur in the next fifty years, or the
next ten, or the next five. We build the canal, then it's up to the
farmers to keep it in shape after we turn it over to them. If anything
happens, that's their lookout and the lookout of the engineer in
charge."

The two had come to a halt just out of earshot of the runabout. Bryant
could discover on the speaker's face no other expression than a fixed
intent to maintain his view.

"Leaving out the injustice of such a course----"

"Injustice, nothing!" the New Yorker derided. "This is cold business.
The project must be built as cheaply as possible in order to give the
investors the largest return. My father is one of them, and when he
puts money into a thing he wants all out of it that's coming to him.
So do his associates."

"Let me finish what I started to say," Lee remarked. "Aside from what
purchasers of land under this canal scheme have the right to expect,
and what they would suffer from a disaster, it hits our own pockets in
the end. Poor construction always turns out to be expensive
construction. Aside from the initial cash payments from buyers, all we
have from them will be notes--mortgage notes that can be paid only by
crops from the land. The water insures these crops. Let the canal
system go smash, and where are these notes? Nowhere. I don't propose
to lose fifty or sixty thousand dollars for a short-sighted gain of
ten."

Gretzinger laughed, then tapped the other's shoulder with a
forefinger.

"Do