Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/250

238 the idea became public. From the scientists he got little satisfaction. This country had never been geologically surveyed. The only point of value he learned was that if the dip was such that artesian water existed in one place, it probably would be found almost anywhere. This was satisfactory. But evidently the only thing to do was to try.

The task of inducing Colonel Peyton to drill was a delicate one. The Colonel was not looking for a chance to make new expenditures. Boyd reached him through Kenneth. It was another delicate task to keep Kenneth from knowing that he was used. Fortunately for Boyd the succession of dry years had shortened the supply in the surface wells. His secret ownership of the Western Construction Company enabled him to tip the balance of decision. They offered the Colonel absurdly low prices and easy terms, with a proviso that he should pay nothing if no water was found. To anybody but the Colonel this would have showed on the face of it as absurd. The Construction Company had to invest in well-boring machinery and some expert assistance; but Boyd did not begrudge that. As for Ephraim Spinner; if he suspected anything queer in this haphazard way of doing business, he gave no indication. He had hitched his wagon to an eastern star of the first magnitude, and he could see no reason for cutting the traces. A rig was erected half way down the knoll, just out of sight of the house, and the operations began.

The rest of Arguello was exactly where it had been two years before. Some of the children had grown up; some had gone away to school or college. Mrs. Carlson's highbrows continued to monkey with the sacred art of poetry. Carlson continued to drink a good deal, play rough games and frequent rough company just to prove that he was not a poet. The Soeiedad came over the mountains and went back again at irregular intervals. The mountains and the sea slumbered on, as did the inhabitants of the little village.

for California herself these two years had meant the changing of the gray dawn to rose. She was stirring from the