"Let us get out, then!" I cried. "I've had enough of them for one day!"
The others were quite ready to move, so, jumping down from our fortress we started along the ravine again, this time keeping our ears wide open for suspicious sounds, and feeling a good deal relieved when, on the edge of the lake, we sat down to our lunch with an old low-branching pine tree close by, up which we could go in a jiffy if need be.
But though the presence of so many wolves on the "island" was something we had not anticipated, something, moreover, which was likely to add very much to the difficulty of our undertaking, we did not for a moment contemplate its abandonment. It meant the use of great caution in going about the work, but as to backing out, I do not think the idea so much as occurred to either of us.
As soon as we had sat down to our lunch, therefore, we began the discussion of the best method of procedure.
"It is a big undertaking, Dick," said I, "a very big undertaking; but it looks like a straightforward piece of work; and it seems to me that what has been done once can certainly be done again, especially as we have our line already laid out for us. Don't you think so?"
"Yes, I certainly think so," replied my partner. "What those Pueblos accomplished with their poor implements, we can surely do again with our superior tools. And some of it, at least, we can do ourselves, I believe—with our own hands, I mean. When it comes to digging out the ditch on the other side of the cañon, it will pay us to hire Mexicans; but the preliminary work of bringing the water down to the cañon, and, perhaps, the building of the flume, I believe we can do ourselves."
"The building of the flume," said I, "is likely to be a pretty big job by itself. We can undoubtedly get the water down that far—that is simple—but the building of the flume is quite another thing. A small flume won't do; it has to be a big, strong, solid structure, and it strikes me that the very first thing to be done—the laying of the two big stringers across the cañon—is going to take us all we know, and a trifle over. In fact, I don't see myself how we are to do it."
"I think I do," rejoined my partner; "but we shall need tools for the purpose. We can't build a big, solid flume with one pick, one shovel and two axes."
"No, we certainly can't," I replied.
"We shall need, too, a large amount of lumber," continued Dick, "heavy pieces, besides boards for floor and sides—two inch planks, at least—three inch would be better. We shall need several thousand feet altogether."