The calm way in which the boys announced their feat forced Whiskers to believe what at first glance seemed to be a preposterous yarn.
“I’m sure proud of you two,” he said warmly. “But I ought not to be. It was a foolhardy thing to do and if you had asked my permission I certainly would not have given it.” But as he reproved them his eyes glistened with the pride he felt. “I want to hear all about it, but first tell me, did you find a place where you think a dam could be built? There is a wonderful valley out there ready to spring into life if we only could get water to it.”
“You bet we found a place,” said Jerry. “The dam is already half built by nature. Besides, I feel sure a road can be made down from the top of the canyon.”
“That’s great!” said Steve Whitney. “Now go ahead and spin me the whole yarn.”
Jerry let Bob tell of their adventure, putting in a word here and there. But when it came to the part where Bob had saved his life after dropping over the waterfall, he took the narrative in his own hands and in spite of Bob’s protests, told the Chief the whole story of the rescue.
When they had finished, Mr. Whitney was very much excited. “We’ll have to make a report of your find to Washington at once and, if possible, get a bill brought up in the next Congress to authorize us to make a preliminary survey. We can do it next summer.”
That their discovery had a good chance of being acted upon, was a big measure of reward to the two boys. Mr. Whitney’s interest seemed to settle the matter.
“You—you think Congress will authorize it?” ventured Bob, just to make sure.
“They will have to!” was the confident reply. “I’ll draw up a report the moment we strike camp! But now we’ll have to run for our train. I’ve been so interested, I forgot the time.”
The trip passed quickly for Bob and his Chief. Mr. Whitney was on his way to the biggest job he had yet tackled, and Bob would taste for the first time the flavor of the work he felt he most wanted to do. To Jerry, however, the train was only bringing him to a new spell of hard labor.