until the cases come up before the judge."

"All right, sheriff. Wait till I take a last squint or two and I'll
vacate."

The horseman idly watched the engineer make his final measurements,
then when Bryant had lifted his tripod over the wire and told his
assistant Dave they would call it a day and stop, he dismounted and
sat down for a smoke with the man on whom he had served his papers.

"Looks as if you've stirred up some interest in your doings," he
remarked, expelling a thread of smoke. "All the Mexicans from here
down to Rosita are gabbling about your canal. Don't seem pleased with
you."

"There's one who doesn't, in any case," was the response. "He took a
couple of shots at my instrument a while ago from up yonder in the
sagebrush when I had stepped aside for a moment."

The sheriff gazed at the hillside.

"A few _hombres_ around here will bear watching," said he. For a
little he meditated, then went on, "You're a white man and so am I;
they don't like our colour any too well, at bottom. I s'pose you know
that."

"Yes. But they needn't express their feelings with rifles. As far as
these injunctions are concerned, they'll be dismissed eventually, for
there's no question about my right of way through here. Menocal
secured it himself and it's all a matter of record--the deeds, the
certificate to the state, and the rest."

"Menocal got it, you say?"

"Nobody else. Some time or other he must have expected to water Perro
Creek ranch, which he owned until he sold it to Stevenson."

"I knew he had that place," said the visitor, "but I didn't know it
carried a water right from the Pinas. Where does this move of yours
hit Menocal?"

"In his ranches down the river; he's been using this water for them,"
Bryant explained. "I suppose it's been taken for granted by nearly
everyone that the water belonged to those farms down there, but it
doesn't."

"How much water in this right?"

"Hundred and twenty-five second feet."

"Whew! That takes a chunk out of the Pinas. And I presume that by this
time Menocal knows what you're doing?"

"Oh, yes; I told him. He doesn't like it, of course."

The sheriff turned for a full view of Bryant's face. In respect to
features the two men were not unlike: both had the same thin curving
nose and level eyes and cut of jaw.

"Well, let me say as between man and man," the elder spoke, "that
Menocal won't let you take away that much water from him if he can
help it. And I'll dr