lood roaring down that bumpy
shoot-the-chutes."

"I can't! It's too terrifying. Is that the way it will be if you get
the water and dig the tunnel?"

"No. At this end, the tunnel may terminate any place from down here to
a thousand feet up, but in any event far below the top. I hope it
proves to be well up. The greater the drop to the level of the mesa,
the more turbines could be put in to generate electricity."

"That sounds so inspiring! But, Dear--" Genevieve looked at her
husband with a shade of anxiety--"even if this project is feasible, do
you feel you should carry it through?"

"You mean on account of Miss Chuckie and her father," he replied. "I
have considered their side of the matter, and even at the first I saw
how--Listen, Sweetheart. No one knows better than you that I'm an
engineer to the very marrow of my bones. My work in life is to
construct,--to harness the forces of nature and compel them to serve
mankind; and to save waste--waste material, waste energy--and put it
to use."

"Don't I know, Tom!"

"Well, then," he went on, "in the bottom of Deep Canyon is a
river--waste waters down there beyond the reach of this rich but
waterless land, down in the gloom, doing no good to anything or
anybody, frittering away their energy on barren rocks. Why, it's as
bad as the way Ashton, with all the good qualities we now see he has
in him--the way he dissipated his strength and his brains and his
father's money."

"Ah, Dear! wasn't it a splendid thing when he was thrown out of his
rut of wastefulness?"

"Otherwise known as the primrose path, or the great white way," added
Blake. "It certainly was a throw out. I'm as pleased as I am
astonished that he seems to have landed squarely on his feet."

"What a marvelous change it has made in him!" exclaimed Genevieve.
"Sometimes I hardly can believe it really is Lafayette. He is so
serious and manly."

"Good thing he has changed," replied Blake. "If Miss Chuckie hadn't
told us he had made a clean breast of that bridge, I should begin to
feel worried about--Do you know, Sweetheart, it's the strangest thing
in the world the way I feel towards that girl. It's not because she is
so lovely. Of course I enjoy her beauty, but that's not it. If Tommy
were a girl and grown up--that's how I feel."

"She is a very dear, sweet girl."

"So are several of your friends--our friends," said Blake. "This is
different. The very first day we met her, there was something about