n again rise to drive the work. The third day came sunny and
quiet, but with heavy warmth in the air wholly strange to the season.
During the night both Lee and Pat had continually and anxiously
watched the peaks of the Ventisquero Range for portent of the change
imminent in the weather; and now on this morning they beheld about the
crests long, low-lying layers of gray cloud.

Again McDonnell telephoned, but now with particulars of the storm. It
was general in character, covering the states from the Canadian line
southward, with very low temperatures and raging furiously, destroying
wire communications and blocking railroads, and at the moment was
bearing down across Utah, Colorado, and Kansas. The entire region from
the Pacific coast to the Mississippi was in its grasp.

"Ten days is all that's left of our time," Lee said to the contractor,
with a heavy heart. "And no one can tell how long this weather spree
will last."

"It's not a mile we've got to go any more, any way. With what we'll do
to-day it will be half a mile of dirt moved in three days. That leaves
but half a mile. This storm may be played out when it reaches us." But
the worry on his face showed that he put little faith in this
possibility.

What he stated in regard to the ditch was true. The work of night and
day had eaten well into the remaining mile between the two camps. To
be sure, it had been rushed work: the sides of the ditch were gouged
and ragged, the bottom uneven and rutted, and the removed dirt was
piled anywhere along its banks. But nevertheless there was a canal,
dug on grade and to measurement, and capable of carrying water.

During the afternoon a pair of men drove two lines of waist-high
stakes to mark the survey of the short section of ground yet
untouched, doing this under Carrigan's supervision. In case snow came,
he told Lee, he wanted something he could see. "Nine hundred yards of
unbuilt ditch will be lying buried," he added, "and I don't propose
to paw up the whole mesa finding this section."

About four o'clock Bryant rejoined him.

"Still lovely," said Pat with a grin. "I've just set some plows
tearing up the scalp on another two hundred yards. If this storm will
just hang off for three or four days longer, it can come and welcome.
I'll have my fresnos stacked and waiting to go down to Kennard."

"Take a look at the northwest," said Bryant, significantly.

A smoky haze lay along the horizon.

"Aye, I see. That's her