The Iron Furrow

construct a canal system linking the Pinas River and the Perro Creek ranch, he had no definite promise of funds from a

t. The history of the property, so far as he could glean from Stevenson, disclosed on the part of no one any serious effort ever to develop the ranch. In the beginning Menocal had probably had some faint notion of carrying out the scheme, but if so, had afterward abandoned the enterprise. The tract of five thousand acres of land had originally been a small Mexican grant; it lay in the midst of government land; and when Menocal came into possession of the ranch, some c

his host would consider any offer which would enable him to realize something on the ranch and to depart; so that particular aspect of the matter if undertaken, namely, securing title to the land and water

o the Pinas River. Afterward he reconnoitered the mesa, hitting at last on a slight elevation, hardly to be called a ridge, that projected from a hillside a mile below Bartolo an

ument proved the correctness of his conclusion regarding the crescent-shaped elevation as a practical grade for a canal, which though necessitating a longer course would nevertheless immensely lessen the time, expense, and difficulties of digging when compared with a line along the mountains' flanks with its danger of washouts and earth slides. Nor did he stop there. He made rapid but reliable topographical measurements, on a general scale, of the mesa for five miles out from the mountains, bet

f the ranch and commit

, and with his wife and boy drove away in his sheep wagon for Kennard and for the new farm in Nebraska. Bryant's own effects-trunk, bedding, provisions, surveying instruments, draughting-board, and the like, came up from the rail

, where it ran from the Pinas River along the base of a hill to the low ridge that bore out upon the mesa, that they received their first interruption. The worst and most expensive part of the canal to build would be this section, and the engineer was therefore taking especial car

h his transit, and asked, "What's on your m

was the unkempt

hy

ome on my ra

de from one filed in the land commissioner's office thi

ointing with a finger. "Now look at that line; it runs across this field right

at the earth

now looking right and left as if

the trouble. Hello, does that surprise you? Yes, Mr. Menocal got the water right and dug the ditch in the first place; and he also secured a right of way across these fields, sixty feet wide, by buying it from whoever owned the ground at that time, and the right of way is

an blinke

ved here," he said. "There have been little ditches, many of

Go see Mr. Menocal and

cal, who said to dr

this dish, or he may find it full of pepper, a

red it to his pocket, while the

they were in the fields again. Knowing that the Menocals had set about impeding and if possible altogether obstructing him, he proposed

on of the canal by another survey, but that would have involved him in a host of troubles, very likely unsolvable ones, in securing title to another strip of ground across the fields. Without question Menocal's influence would prevent the owners from selling, even if Bryant had the money with which to buy a secon

ed from the hillside and a bullet whined near by. The engineer pivoted about. Another shot followed, and he beheld a

oints within the field, a horseman with a gray moustache came galloping up along the stretch of barb wire. He

this; glad you didn't arriv

stated. "The injunctions cover all these places between here and the river. You and any

till I take a last squin

lifted his tripod over the wire and told his assistant Dave they would call it a day and

rked, expelling a thread of smoke. "All the Mexicans from here down t

took a couple of shots at my instrument a while ago from up

gazed at t

he meditated, then went on, "You're a white man and so am I; they do

hey'll be dismissed eventually, for there's no question about my right of way through here. Menocal sec

got it,

ve expected to water Perro Creek ranch, whi

t I didn't know it carried a water right from the

ryant explained. "I suppose it's been taken for granted by nearly every

water in t

twenty-five

Pinas. And I presume that by this t

him. He doesn't l

espect to features the two men were not unlike: both had

n addition: several Mexicans are going to file on homesteads or desert claims along the base of the hills south of here, scattered along like and running part way up the mountai

where those fellows may

d if they began stringing them along a couple of m

de was but half a mile away. Beyond that the Mexicans could file to their hearts' content, for t

"I'll see if I can't find some way to s

ose and put f

f in order to look at you, for they were saying you are a trouble-maker, but that's what these natives frequently state when they want to fix an alibi for themselves before they start something. I'll see if I ca

t lau

he's all there. Looks don

can," Dave resp

Feed up and get fat. A kid like you has no busine

ast winter, and this spring, to

" the horsem

n very well after that; not much there for

t's your l

rri

ion to Jac

s my f

died four years ago. And your mother di

of bigger ones I know of," Dave asse

uess you don't remember that, and I'm mighty sorry to learn your mother's gone

eins, nodded, and rode awa