and was standing behind the shelves of books listening. She had intended coming in but had been deterred by the sound of his voice. She could hear him talking over the telephone to Hanley about the spillway of the Buckeye dam.

“And by the way,” Dick’s voice went on, “you’ve been over the reports on the Big Miramar?� Very good. Discount them. I disagree with them flatly. The water is there. I haven’t a doubt we’ll find a fairly shallow artesian supply. Send up the boring outfit at once and start prospecting. The soil’s ungodly rich, and if we don’t make that dry hole ten times as valuable in the next five years � “

Paula sighed, and turned back down the spiral to the library.

Red Cloud the incorrigible, always planting his acorns —