rofessor he wants to find a claim, as I was telling you, but he
wants one that's handy to the place he's selected for the tunnel. Of
course he won't say just where that is till we get the papers made out,
but he gave me a kind of a general idea of it, and the land around
there's all mine. He'd have to go 'way over east to find a government
section that hasn't been filed on, and of course there'd be a big
expense for pipe; so he offers to locate the tunnel for half the water
if we get ten inches or over, and I'm to make the tunnel, and deed him
twenty acres of land."

"Suppose you get less than ten inches--what then?"

"Then it's all to be mine; but I'm to deed him the land all the same."

"How many inches of water have you from your spring now?"

"About ten, as near as I can guess."

"Well, suppose he locates the tunnel so it will drain your spring; are
you to have the expense of the work and the privilege of giving him half
the water and twenty acres of land--is that it?"

John rubbed the back of his neck and reflected.

"The professor laughs at the idea of ten inches of water. He says we'll
get at least a hundred, maybe more. You see, if we were to get that
much, I'd have a lot of water to sell to the settlers below. It 'u'd be
a big thing."

"So it would; but there's a big 'if' in there, Dysart. Do you know
anything about this man's record?"

"I asked about him down in Los Angeles. Some folks believe in him, and
some don't. They say he struck a big stream for them over at San Luis. I
don't go much on what people say, anyway; I size a man up, and depend on
that. I like the way the professor talks. I don't understand all of it,
but he seems to have things pretty pat. Don't you think he has?"

"Yes; he has things pat enough. Most swindlers have. It's their
business. Not that I think him a deliberate swindler, Dysart. Possibly
he believes in himself. But I hope you'll be cautious."

"Oh, I'm cautious," asserted John. "I'd be a good deal richer man to-day
if I hadn't been so cautious. I've spent a lot of time and money looking
into things. I'll get there, if caution'll do it. Now, Emeline she's
impulsive; she has to be held back; she never examines into anything:
but I'm just the other way."

In spite of Palmerston's warning and Mrs. Dysart's fears, temporal and
spiritual, negotiations between Dysart and Brownell made rapid progress.
The newcomer's tent was pitched upon the twenty acres selected, and
gleamed