it could be constructed in summer and not
in haste? Strange the idea never occurred to you before--you,
Gretzinger, irrigation expert, though you never saw an irrigation
ditch till you came West. The sixty thousand dollars from bonds and
twenty thousand more I've put with it will be gone sometime next
month. Possibly I can stretch it out to the first of February. After
that, the bondholders will have to come forward to save their
investment."

Gretzinger unbuttoned his overcoat and sought his cigarette case. His
scowl as he struck a match was lighted by vicious gleams from his
eyes.

"Why didn't you stop work when you received notification from the
state engineer of the Land and Water Board's action?" he demanded.
"When you yet had the bulk of the money?"

"I preferred to continue."

"And now you're sinking it all."

"It costs money to move frozen dirt," said Bryant.

"Well, I tell you the bondholders won't put up another penny
unless----" The Easterner paused, growing thoughtful. Some minutes
passed before he resumed: "There's one condition on which they'll do
it, and I'll guarantee their support."

"And the condition?"

"That you surrender your stock to them."

"For the twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars more that will be
needed? My shares representing a hundred thousand? And I presume I
should have to withdraw altogether."

"Naturally," Gretzinger responded. "I should then take charge."

Bryant's expression exhibited a certain amount of curiosity.

"Do you really think you could finish the ditch on time?" he inquired.

A slight sneer was the answer. Gretzinger was one not given to wasting
time with men of Bryant's type.

"How about it? Am I to take back to New York with me your agreement to
this?" he asked, curtly.

The other spread his feet apart and hooked his thumbs in his coat
pockets and directed his full regard at the speaker.

"You think you have me in a hole, Gretzinger," he said. "You propose
to take me by the throat and shake everything out of my pockets and
then throw me aside. Well, I'm in a hole, no use denying that. But you
haven't me by the throat and you're not going to loot me. If I go
broke, it won't be through handing over what I have to you and your
gang of pirates, just make up your mind to that."

"Then you intend to wreck this project. A court action will stop that,
I fancy."

"The only court action you can demand is a receivership for the
company, and not until my