nally sat down to the belated supper, Roger began at once to
tell of the crop conditions and of the call on old Rabbit Tail.

"Let's see, this is Friday and he promises the gang here on Monday. I
think we'd better get busy to-morrow and make the drill connections on
the old Lemon. What do you think of the whole scheme, Dick?"

"I think it's perfect!" exclaimed Dick.

"Perfect if my engine works," said Roger. "But even if it doesn't,
you'll still have the old Lemon and a real well. So I'll have done you
no harm."

"Have you got to dismantle that condenser to move it?" asked Dick.

"Pretty thoroughly, I'm afraid. But if the Indians are any good at
all--"

"If Rabbit Tail brings his pet gang," said Dick "there'll be four first
class machinists in it, trained at Carlisle. Fellows who work only when
they please, but Lord, they are wonders. I saw them put up an oil engine
once that had been badly smashed en route. It was a poem, I tell you."

"Heaven send them then!" exclaimed Roger. "If they put this thing over
for us, I'll pay for it in cold cash as soon as I get it."

"Rabbit Tail won't take money for this deal," said Charley.

"The others will, but they won't ask for it." Dick filled his pipe, and
pushed his coffee cup away with a little smile for Elsa.

"My debts are getting so large now," mused Roger, "that I can begin to
take a sort of pride in them. Gustav, as Dick's home now, will you come
down to the Plant in the morning?"

And at Gustav's nod Roger made his adieux and went home to bed.

Monday dawned with the usual promise of merciless heat. It seemed as if
the torrid days of late summer were harder to bear than July had been.
Though there was an occasional dust storm, the air was quiet except for
the little gusts of burning wind. These gusts were too transitory to
carry a sand storm. But all day long, tall spirals of sand, like water
spouts, whirled across the desert. One struck Dick's corral, during his
absence, ripped off the roof of the tool house and overturned the
watering trough. Several days later, one brought up against the
condenser and after knocking off the thatch, collapsed, deluging the
apparatus with sand. There was something uncanny about these gigantic
figures, whirling suddenly across the desert, now viciously ripping up a
cholla or a Joshua tree, now collapsing ridiculously against a rock.

It was now too, that thunderstorms were occasionally heard in the
distant western ranges, tho