things he'd ought to. I don't mean in engineering. He just can't be beat
at that. I don't know just what it is, but he's a big enough man to have
this valley in the hollow of his hand. And he ain't. I want you to help
me find out why and then _make_ him get away with it. This little old
United States needs men of his blood and kind of mind. I've fell down on
my job. Don't you let him fall down on his. It's the one way you can pay
up for--for the other thing you took out of his life."

Pen stood with tear-blinded eyes and trembling lips. Iron Skull cleared
his throat: "I hope you don't mind my butting in this-a-way!"

Pen shook her head. "I'll do my best," she said. "Only I'm pretty small
for the job."

"Here he comes now," said Williams.

Jim rode up and dismounted. "Hello, Pen! What do you think of my roads?
I'm crowding as many men onto the roads as I can until the water goes
down. Idleness is bad for them. You see, in spite of electric lights and
a water system we're a long way from civilization and it gets on the
men's nerves unless we keep 'em busy. I'm going to start a moving
picture show in the lower camp. The official photographer will run it
for us. Just the usual five-cent movies, you know. Anything above
running expenses will go toward the farmers' debt."

Iron Skull moved away to speak to Suma-theek. Jim went on slowly: "You
can see what I'm up against in Ames. Any day I may get a recall. Every
farmer on the project hates me for some reason or other. I tell you,
Pen, if they don't let me finish my dam and the roads to and from it, it
will ruin my life."

Pen's tender eyes studied Jim's face. Long and thin, with its dreamer's
forehead and its steel jaw, it was the same dear face that Penelope had
carried in her heart since that spring day long ago when a long-legged
freshman had said to her, "I'm glad you came. I'm going to think a lot
of you. I can see that."

"You know, Jim," she said, "that your mother and Uncle Denny always
shared your letters with me?"

Jim nodded. "I wrote them for that."

"And so I really know a good deal about your work. Uncle Denny and I
studied the maps and the government reports and then he actually saw the
dams, you know, and would tell me all the details. Honestly, we'd
qualify as experts in any court! And if you'll just let me share your
worries while I'm out here, I shall be prouder even than Uncle Denny
after you've asked his advice. And won't I crow over him after I