that the Doge happened to
be off the scene at the critical stage of the negotiations. When he went
to New York all that remained was for him to obtain the capital for his
scheme. Lefferts and his partners had the underlying rights and the Doge
the later rights, thanks to his improvements, and Prather has them both.
Well, Leddy and his crowd have been taking up plots right and left;
that's their share in the exploitation. They're here, waiting for the
announcement to be made and--well, the water users' association is still
in charge; but it won't be when Prather says the word."

"And you have no plans?" Jack asked.

"None."

"And the Doge?"

"None. What can the old man do? Though nobody exactly blames him, a good
many aren't of a mind to consult him at all. The crisis has passed beyond
him. Three or four men, good men, too, were inclined to have it out with
John Prather; but that would have precipitated a general fight with
Leddy's gang. The conservatives got the hot-heads to wait till you came.
You see, the trouble with every suggestion is that pretty much everybody
is against it except the fellow who made it. The more we have talked,
the more we have drifted back to you. It's a case of all we've got in the
world and standing together, and we are ready to get behind you and take
orders, Jack."

"Yes, ready to fight at the drop of the hat, seh, or to sit still on our
doorsteps with our tongues in our cheeks and doing the wives' mending, as
you say!" declared Bob Worther. "It's right up to you!"

"You are all of the same opinion?" asked Jack.

They were, with one voice, which was not vociferous. For theirs was that
significantly quiet mood of an American crowd when easy-going good nature
turns to steel. Their partisanship in pioneerdom had not been with
six-shooters, but with the ethics of the Doge; and such men when aroused
do not precede action with threats.

"All right!" said Jack.

There was a rustle and an exchange of satisfied glances and a chorus of
approval like an indrawing of breath.

"First, I will see the Doge," Jack added; "and then I shall go to
the house."

Galway, Dr. Patterson, Worther, and three or four others went on with him
toward the Ewold bungalow. They were halted on the way by Pete Leddy,
Ropey Smith, and a dozen followers, who appeared from a side street and
stopped across Jack's path, every one of them with a certain slouching
aggressiveness and staring hard at him. Pete and Ropey