en years!"

Roger looked at his guest with interest. "You aren't an American?
There's just a little accent in your speech."

"Me? No. I'm German born and bred. What are you going to do with your
solar heat?"

"Harness it," replied Roger, "and see if I can make it work for me."

"There's a fool born every minute," said Von Minden.

"You're quite right," returned Roger, cheerfully.

There was no further conversation until Roger had put the coffee, bacon
and cold biscuits with a can of pie-fruit on the table. Von Minden fell
to voraciously. His table manners were very bad, his hands were dirty
but there was something about him that interested Roger.

"I've had great trouble getting water," he said. "Just struck it, this
noon. 'Twill be enough for drinking and my condenser, I guess, but
nothing for irrigation."

"Can't do anything with a dug well, here," grunted the guest. "Better
drive one."

"Is the sand really fertile in this region?" asked Roger.

"Fertile? Friend, there's an empire waiting to be born, right here, if
only they can get water and fuel."

"If we can get the fuel we can pump the water," said Roger. "You're
right! There is an empire here. Mineral resources beyond the dreams of
avarice, four or five crops a year of food-stuffs. Why, man, millions of
people could come in here and be self-sustaining."

"What do you mean by 'in here'?" Von Minden spoke sharply.

Roger hesitated. "I mean really something pretty big. A cheap fuel would
open up Arizona, New Mexico, Southern California and Northern old Mexico
as no one can conceive who's not studied the subject. If I can put over
my experiment, I shall add to the potential wealth of this country as no
single individual has ever done. I'm going to get some one's ear at
Washington, some day, if it's not till I'm a doddering old man. We ought
to have Mexico, you know, because when the inland empire begins to grow,
we'll overflow into Mexico. But we never can have her, of course. We can
only hope that she'll grow into a real nation we can neighbor with, like
Canada."

"Ah hah! And how're you going to bring about this millennium?" asked Von
Minden.

But Roger, whose outburst to a stranger had been unprecedented, had
nothing more to say on the subject.

"Will your burro eat table scraps?" he inquired.

"Yes, especially bacon rinds. Oh, Peter, come here, liebchen!" he
called.

There was a sound of little light footfalls in the sand and Peter's wise