"Perfectly sure. You see, it's simple. I plant my sticks—"
"Never mind about how you do it; I can't understand that ef you explain it; but look me in the eyes, boy. This thing means thousands o' dollars to Riley Vaughn ef you've got your answer right. I kin understand that much; an' ef you've worked out this big sum right for me, I'll choke the next man that says you're a dunce jest 'kase you don't take kindly to old Penruddock's chatterin' sort o' learnin'. I'll do it, or my name ain't Riley Vaughn, an' that's what I've been called for nigh onto fifty-five year now."
Old Riley was visibly excited. He called all his men to the place selected, and set them at work building the dam, while Hamp looked on, and occasionally made a suggestion for simplifying the work. The dam was finished at three o'clock in the afternoon, and at six o'clock the water had risen two feet six inches, while the back water had passed the quarry.
"There!" said Hamp; "that proves my work. The water is level, of course, as far up as back water shows itself, and we have six inches of back water at the quarry to two feet six inches at the dam: so the fall is two feet."
"It looks so," said Riley, who was also eagerly watching the rise of the water. The workmen had gone home, all of them convinced that this attempt to back the water a mile up the creek was the wildest foolishness; but old Riley and Hamp waited and watched.
"It doesn't rise so fast now," said Riley.
"That's because it has a larger surface; but it still rises, and the surface won't increase much more now, as there's a steep place just above the quarry, and it can't back any further up."
The two waited and watched. Midnight came, and the measurement showed three feet six inches depth at the dam. Still they waited and watched. At six o'clock in the morning the depth was four feet two inches. Then Riley sent a negro boy to his house with orders to bring back "a big breakfast for two." At seven o'clock the breakfast arrived, and the measurement showed four feet three inches and a half.
"It's a-risin' faster agin," said Riley.
"Yes; the level is climbing straight up the bluff banks now, and not spreading out as it rises," said Hamp.