Abe Lee explained to Barbara that other camps were located at points farther on, thus dividing the whole district to be excavated into several sections. "You see," he said turning to Holmes, "the waste from Dry River Heading coming down the old channel gives us water at several points so that we can handle this work to a little better advantage than we used to do with the first of the Company canals."
"I see," said the Company man. "And how many head of stock are you working?"
"About fifteen hundred now, but we are increasing the force right along. We expect to handle about twice that."
Instantly Willard Holmes saw that he could still save Jefferson Worth
from heavy financial loss. But it was to the interest of The King's
Basin Land and Irrigation Company for Jefferson Worth to lose heavily.
What should he do?
They had left the first section of the work now and were following the line of the survey where the brush had been roughly cleared. The engineer, preoccupied in his struggle with the question that confronted him, had dropped behind the others, when suddenly Barbara, looking back, checked El Capitan. "What's the matter, Mr. Holmes?" she called.
The others also looked back to see the engineer kneeling on the ground. Jefferson Worth glanced quickly at his superintendent who chuckled outright.
"What is it?" cried Barbara at Abe's unusual laugh. "What's the joke?"
Before either of the men could answer, Holmes sprang to his saddle and, with a quick jab of his spurs in the horse's flanks, rejoined them on the run. In his excitement the mental habits of his life asserted themselves and he was again the typical corporation official dealing with a mere private individual operating on a small scale. "Look here!" he burst forth sharply to Abe; "these are not our Company stakes. You are not following Black's line."
The surveyor grinned. "We followed it for a half mile this side of the cut, then we branched off. You evidently did not notice."
"Where do you strike it again?"