“What?”
“He’s been saving every grain he could scrape together, for fifty years, Rawley. And it’s a good claim—group of claims, rather. No one in the country has ever dreamed that we’ve done more than scratch a living here. Some day, when your arm is well, I’ll show you. Yes, he has his million.
“For a long time, now—several years—we’ve been getting ready for the dam. That tunnel you saw is part of the work. When you’re better, I’d like to take you through our workings and see what we’ve done and what we expect to do. Maybe you can give us some advice. We’ve had to use our own wits, because we can’t consult with experts, in the very nature of things. We are not,” he said cynically, “the only vultures in the world. The country would be black with them. And when all’s said and done, we have first right. Why, look at El Dorado! Men sat down there and cursed their luck—and looked straight at the richest gold mine in the world! This canyon was here, everything was here, ready for them to go to work and get the gold just as we are going to do. But nobody thought of it. Sheep—that’s what men are. Not one in a thousand does any thinking outside the beaten path. Nobody had dammed the river to get the gold; they had no precedent to follow—no bell wether to show them the way. So nobody ever thought of the possibility of doing it. Old Jess, I must say, shot up head and shoulders above the ruck when he conceived the idea. His avariciousness and dwelling on that one thought all these years have given him a mental twist. He’d kill any man who seemed to be standing in his way. He’s gone too far now—he has lived with that air castle too long. But my God, think what a castle he’s built!” Peter’s voice was vibrant with emotion. Here, as with Old Jess, was the dream of a lifetime revealed.
“Yes—it’s a tremendous scheme,” Rawley admitted guardedly. “I’m afraid it won’t work, Uncle Peter. It doesn’t, somehow, seem feasible.”
“Why not?” Peter’s voice challenged him. “Merely because you hadn’t thought of its feasibility. Nobody thought of it. Why, you’re like all the rest, son. You can’t think constructively. You must have a precedent to hang onto with one hand, before you think out into the ocean of unguessed achievements. Fifty years ago, they would have shut you up in an asylum if you had declared it possible to telegraph without wires. How was the first telephone hooted? And history tells us that a large faction of religious people declared that anesthetics were contrary to the will of God, who meant that men should suffer.
“When I show you the canyon, back here, and explain to you how we mean to do it, you’ll have to admit the simplicity of the thing. And that’s it! The very simplicity of it has prevented men from grasping it.” He laughed scornfully. “What a to-do about building a dam they make! They must have government backing, and political wirepulling, and they must fiddle around for years with hundreds of men building a dam up from bedrock, with cement and stone! Wait until I show you what we mean to do! Simplest thing in the world—since we don’t want canals for irrigation and only want to get at the river below. Even if we did want to divert the water, instead of restraining it only, we could build our canals just the same, and at our leisure.
“But it’s all desert, above and below. Already I’ve bought any little rancher out, that might have his land flooded when we build our dam.” Peter laughed again triumphantly. “I’ll arrange to get possession before we’re ready to back up the water—”
“Will the government allow that?” Rawley’s tone was troubled. So great a hold had Peter’s argument taken upon him that he found himself fearing that the government might object.
Peter gave a contemptuous snort. “Give us a chance to rake the gold out of the river bed below here, and we can pay whatever fine or indemnity the government may see fit to levy,” he retorted. “But why should it object? We’ll be saving the folks away down below here a lot of trouble and loss from high water. They’ve been howling for flood control ever since the Imperial Valley began to be settled. The dams they’ve got don’t answer the problem. Sooner or later, the government, or somebody, will have to put a dam in the river, up this way. They will be mighty grateful, I should say, if we do it at our own expense while they’re talking about it.
“Then, if they want to, they can pay us for our trouble and go ahead and build their canals, or power plants, or whatever they want. All we want is the gold that has been washed down during a few thousand years.” He lifted his arm and pointed down to where the river could dimly be seen moiling and grumbling over its rocky bed.