. MacGregor would guide. She was a human pirate, pure and
simple. In her piratical cruises, she flew any pennon which policy
dictated, while Elijah took refuge under letters of marque.

Mrs. MacGregor shrugged her shoulders gently as she took her place
beside Elijah and threw a suggestive backward glance at the Rio Vista.

"I think it is wonderful that you have passed through such fires with no
smell of smoke on your garments."

"If you could see what I have seen, it would not seem so wonderful."

"But I have seen, and it only increases my wonder. You might have
accumulated safely in weeks what will take you years in the line you
have chosen."

Elijah laughed. It was a gratified laugh.

"It isn't what I am after. These boomers are trying to give nothing the
appearance of something. They began to build on nothing; I am laying a
foundation. I may build the super-structure or I may not, that is for
the Lord to say; but on my foundation the future of this part of
California must be built."

"And where no blade of grass grew, you have made a paradise! Your
modesty may call it accident, but I call it a design which has been
given into hands willing and able to execute it."

Elijah looked thoughtful. Mrs. MacGregor's words were grateful to him,
but they were wide of his purpose just now. He made up his mind to a
bold plunge.

"It may be a design, but others now see not only the design, but its
possibilities as well." Elijah hesitated for a moment, then resumed
slowly. "It may be that I have blazed the way; it seems to me that I
have. But here is my problem. Shall I rest content with having blazed
the way, or shall I struggle with others for the rewards?"

Mrs. MacGregor did not hesitate.

"I have often thought of the parable of the talents. I have thought of
another bit of scripture that is not a parable. 'To him that hath shall
be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he
hath.'"

"You think then, that I have no right to rest on what I have done, or
rather, that I ought to finish what I have undertaken?"

"Most assuredly."

Elijah felt solid ground beneath his feet. There was more than a touch
of pride in his voice.

"Do you know that my every word is snapped up; my every action watched
by those sharks?" he indicated Ysleta with his whip. "If I should point
my whip to those hills to which I am pointing now, they would snap them
up and organize an orange growing company." Elijah pau