dinner. She and Elsa wept a little on each other's necks, and Mamma Wolf
promised to take Dick to her heart and love him as another son. And
somehow Elsa put full faith in Ernest's bringing his father around.

No one talked business or politics at dinner. There were many details of
the camp life to be told and many stories of the Von Mindens that
invariably brought Papa Wolf to the verge of apoplexy with laughter.
Ernest never had been more charming than he was now. And by some magic
of his own, he drew Dick out to tell the story of his turquoise mining.
Like almost any story of desert endeavor it was full of drama, of quiet
heroism, and of weird humor. Papa and Mamma Wolf hung breathless on
every word of it.

"Himmel!" exclaimed Papa at the end, "if I were thirty years younger,
I'd like just such adventuring!" The others looked at one another and
smiled.

When the long dinner hour was over, Papa Wolf lighted his meerschaum.
"And now let's look at that engine again. You should come and see it,
Mamma. Run by sunshine and almost as silent as the sun and powerful like
it. Wonderful! Wonderful!"

"You've hardly looked at the alfalfa, Papa," said Ernest.

"Plenty of time for that. One thing at a time. Come along, Dean. If you
should explain that engine through to me two or three times more, I'll
understand it. Ernest and Roger, they never thought to take old Papa to
see the working model at the University. They thought because I was a
fool about the working drawings, I knew nothing. Come on, Dean! Come
along."

Seated on two up-ended boxes before the engine, the two gray headed men
spent the afternoon. The Dean could have been enticed away to examine
the alfalfa and the pumping system. But not Papa. He went out at
intervals to look at the absorber and to read the thermometer at the oil
storage pit, then back to the engine.

"And this is what Ernie has been working on for all these years. And I
never could get it through my old head."

"Ernest and Roger too," the Dean would suggest.

"Of course, Roger. But you know Ernest and his fine mind. Observe now,
Dean, out there the parching, cruel sun, that strikes and kills. Here
Ernest's magic, this silent machine that catches that sun and turns its
death kiss into life. And out there, where the honey bees buzz, the
magic made vital. My boy's brain did such miracles and I never knew it
until now. I even forbade him the house when he insisted on giving birth
to his idea."