already paved the way for the hold which she was to
have upon him. Much as he had despised the boomers and their methods, as
exemplified in the handling of Ysleta lots, when he came to dwell among
the manipulators, familiarity with the men had modified and finally all
but eliminated this feeling. In Ysleta, Elijah's scheme, for so it was
regarded, was looked upon as a fairly shrewd move in the speculative
field. When the Las Cruces Company was formed and work on the great
Sangre de Cristo dam and canal was actually begun, they saw Elijah only
as they saw themselves, a schemer after unearned money. In the end,
Elijah came to be regarded as a smooth, shrewd man who possessed
qualities worthy of a better cause.

The duties which had compelled Elijah to make his headquarters in
Ysleta, had also compelled a more intimate association with the men of
the town. He was consulted as to their plans and indirectly encouraged
in his own. He never for a moment dreamed that his surroundings were
insidiously dangerous, or that his associates were infected with a moral
dry rot, more to be feared than a running sore. These men were engaged
in buying and selling. They bought with the expectation of selling for
more than they gave. Ysleta was growing. He who bought today could sell
tomorrow at a big advance, or the day after at a still greater. To be
sure there were chances of failure, but nothing was certain. Were there
not thousands and thousands of persons who preferred to take chances
with the possibility of sudden and great profit? To put it at its worst,
if fools had money which they were bound to get rid of, might not Ysleta
furnish the opportunity as well as the next place? This was the dry rot
which was infecting Elijah.

Day by day, almost hour by hour the possibilities of his scheme grew
upon him. There were thousands upon thousands of acres of land, still
barren and worthless, that needed only water to make them fertile as the
gardens of the gods. There were other streams fed by the melting snows
of the San Bernardinos, that rushed and roared among the mountains; only
to be swallowed up by the dry sands of the desert in summer, or to tear
a desolate and desolating path in the early spring. The idea of
impounding the floods in the mountain recesses was his own; if not
strictly his own, then his own by right of first demonstration. These
lands were valueless as they were. If he could only gain them, bring
water to them, plant th