nd that you have secured the
water rights."

"Well, then, I have!" declared Prather, confidently, "and I mean to have
the rights for the whole valley!" and he struck his fist into his palm.
"You see," he went on, with another flash of satire, "it is not exactly
fair that you should have the store and Little Rivers, too. I had heard
of the possibilities here from my friend Leddy, who was also at
Goldfield. A useful man in his place! He got his sixth notch there. When
I came and looked around and saw that here was the opportunity I wanted,
I wired father that in any fair division of territory everything west of
the Mississippi belonged to me"--he was showing some bravado in his sense
of security now, when he saw that Leddy and his men were returning
through the cotton-woods to the water-hole--"and I should like to have
you out of my way. I told him you were the picture of health, even if you
didn't have anything in your head, and if you were ever going to learn
the business it was time that you began. But father is always careful.
Naturally he wanted to check off my report with another's; for he didn't
want you back if you were ill. So he sent Dr. Bennington out to get
professional confirmation of my statement."

"And you told Jasper Ewold that you wanted the rights only to turn them
over to the water users' association and then bring in capital to build a
dam, with everybody sharing alike in the prosperity that was to come."

"Yes, and Jasper Ewold was so simple! Well, what I told him was
strategy--strategy of which I think father would approve. When you have a
big object in view the end must justify the means. Look at the situation!
Two hundred thousand acres of land waiting on water to be the most
fertile in the world! Why, when I rode up the valley the first time and
saw what could be done, I was amazed to think that such an opportunity
should be lying around loose. Little Rivers was so out of the way that
other promoters had overlooked it, and everybody had sort of taken it for
granted that Jasper Ewold and his water users' association really had
legal possession. It was my chance. I thought big. That dam should be
mine. I had the money I had made in Goldfield, but it was not enough for
my purpose.

"Where should I turn for outside capital that would not demand a
majority interest in the project? I concluded that it was time father
did something for me in return for giving up the store. Besides this
call of justi