Leonard laughed. "Not much! They have other and safer methods of getting their own way in case Weimer doesn’t do the work the law requires this year."
Then he glanced at the unsmoked cigar, and repeated his question of some time before. "Don’t you smoke?"
Ross shook his head shortly.
"Why not?" Leonard looked at his old friend’s son in friendly interest.
Ross stretched out his right arm in an unconscious imitation of the test his uncle had required of him only a few mornings before. "It’s apt to get on a fellow’s nerves," was all the reply he made.
There was much to see during the day and much to hear. Leonard took the boy for a long drive up the cañon of the Shoshone, whose densely green waters have a background of brilliant reds and yellows in the sandstone sides of the wall through which the river has cut. Up and yet up the carriage went, with the walls rising higher and higher on either side, the road a mere thread blasted out of the rocks, up to the great dam which was beginning to raise its head across the river bed to hold back the water and distribute it over Big Horn Basin through irrigating canals.
Ross’s interest, however, during the drive was divided. He was glad to see the vast "Shoshone Project," as the government reservoir is called; but his most active thoughts were following Sandy McKenzie on his way to Miners’ Camp, and his questions were of the Camp and Wyoming mining laws and the conditions he would meet in this new and strange land.
But Leonard had never been up to Camp, and was not interested in mining, but in ranch lands; therefore, Ross got but little enlightenment from him, and finally, ceasing to question, listened in silence while the older man, in obedience to the senior Grant’s request, did his best to interest the junior Grant in the business prospects of Wyoming.
"I want you to come down to Basin at Christmas," Leonard said cordially as host and guest sat down to dinner in the dining-room of "The Irma" at six o’clock that night. "My home is in Basin. It’s the county-seat of Big Horn County, you know; and I want you to come down there. I want to show you more of this magnificent country."
Ross was grateful for this friendly invitation, but made no promises; and presently the two were eating in silence, Ross looking with interest on some of the contrasts which were too familiar for Leonard even to notice.