store, and also needed a
new stove. She perceived that her husband was staring at Bryant's back
with a thoughtful air. Undoubtedly he was thinking the same thing as
she.

"You yet want men and teams for your work, senor?" she inquired.

"All I can get."

"If a man falls sick while at work, would he have the services of the
doctor?"

"Yes, without charge. There will be work on the dam most of the
winter, where the building is only a matter of stone and brush. I can
use all who want employment. Then in the spring there will be the
digging of the ditch on the mesa."

"Five dollars for a man and his team, is it not so?" the Mexican
inquired.

"Yes."

"What if a man's wife or children fall sick?" the woman asked.

Bryant hid a smile at this shrewd bargaining. Yet he was perceiving an
opportunity. There were no Mexicans at work on the project; one and
all they had held off. Likewise they refused to sell him grain and
hay, which necessitated the hauling of feed from a distance. But now
this accident to the boy might prove a heaven-sent chance to break
Menocal's monopoly of influence.

"In case of sickness in the man's family, the doctor shall attend
free," he stated.

The woman took thought afresh.

"And if the man's horses are taken sick?"

"Nay, he's not a horse doctor," said Lee, smiling. And even the woman
smiled.

"But there's another matter. I fear it prevents," the man remarked.
"It is a note for fifty dollars that the bank holds against me. If I
work, Menocal will make trouble about that. I think we had best talk
no more of employment."

"Suppose I advance the amount in case he does, letting you work out
the debt. I could keep, say, two dollars out of each day's five until
you owed nothing."

"That would be agreeable to me, senor. But what if he then refuses to
sell me goods from his store?"

"You can buy at the commissary," Lee said. "Why should you lose five
dollars a day because of Menocal's bad feeling for me? You remain
idle--but does he pay you, or feed you? And the wages I offer you, and
the doctor's services, and the other accommodations, I also offer to
other Mexicans who will work. You may tell them so. Remember, there
will be teaming on the ditch until it freezes up, then work on the dam
throughout the winter, then scraper work on the mesa in the spring.
Five dollars a day coming in the door! You can buy meat and flour and
clothes and tobacco and candy for the children and a new wagon