ximately 200,000 acres of segregated land can be reclaimed
under your project?"

"Every foot of it."

"At an expense of $250,000, according to the figures in your
prospectus?"

"That's our estimate and the amount of our bond issue."

"You believe you will have no difficulty in disposing of this land at
$50 an acre?"

"Dispose of it? They'll fight for it! Why," declared Mr. Symes, striking
at the air with a gesture of conviction, "the whole country is land
hungry."

"It's a liberal return upon the investment," murmured Prescott.

"It's a big thing! And think of the Russian Jews."

"Pardon me?"

"Colonization, you know, hundreds of Russian Jews out there raising
sugar-beets for the sugar-beet factory, happy as larks."

"To be sure--I had forgotten." Mr. Prescott reached for a prospectus
upon the table at his elbow and looked at the picture of a factory with
smoke pouring from myriad chimneys and covering nothing short of an
acre.

"The soil is deep then--strong enough to stand sugar-beets?"

"Rotation of crops--scientific farming," explained Symes, "gives it a
chance to recover."

Prescott nodded.

"I see. The length of the ditch is----"

"Thirty-five miles and a fraction."

"What is the normal width and what amount of water does it carry?"

"Sixty-five feet and it carries six feet of water."

"What is the slope?"

"Two and a half feet per mile."

"How much water to the acre is applied in your State?"

Symes was showing some surprise. For a man who was not familiar with
irrigation projects Prescott was asking decidedly pertinent questions,
but Symes answered glibly--

"A cubic foot per second to each seventy acres."

"And the yardage? What are your engineer's figures on the yardage?"

Symes cleared his throat--a habit which manifested itself when he was
nervous--

"It can be moved for ten to fifteen cents a cubic yard."

"C-cheap enough." Prescott looked at him with interested intentness.
"And the loose rock?"

"Twenty-five to thirty." Symes stirred uneasily in his chair.

"And the cuts? the solid rock?"

"Fifty to sixty cents," Symes replied after an instant's hesitation.

"Ah, soft rock. These are your engineer's figures, of course?"

"Of course," Symes answered curtly, and added: "I should say that you
had a good deal of practical knowledge of such matters, Mr. Prescott."

Prescott answered easily--

"Superficial, v-very superficial, just a little I picked up in railroad
con