“I keep his hoofs hard.  When he fat he eat less on trail!” explained Firio, becoming almost voluble.  “All ready for trail!” he hinted.

“Not now, Firio,” said Jack.  “And, Firio, there’s a package at the station, a big, flat case.  It came by express on the same train with me—­the most precious package in the world.  See that it is taken to the house.”

“Si!  You ride?” asked Firio, offering P.D.’s reins.

“No, we’ll all walk.”

The procession had started toward the town when Jack felt something soft poking him in the small of the back and looked around to find that the cause was P.D.’s muzzle.  Wrath of God and Jag Ear might go with Firio, but P.D. proposed to follow Jack.

“And after I have ridden you thousands of miles and you’ve heard all my songs over and over!  Well, well, P.D., you are a subtle flatterer!  Come along!” Then he turned to Jim Galway:  “Has John Prather arrived?”

“Yes, last night.”

“He is here now?” Jack put in quickly.

“No; he pulled out at dawn on his way to Agua Fria.”

“Oh!” Jack was plainly disappointed.  “He has the grant for the water rights?”

“Yes,” said Jim, “though he hasn’t made the fact public.  He does everything in his smooth, quiet fashion, with a long head, and I suppose he hasn’t things just right yet to spring his surprise.  But there is no disputing the fact—­he has us!”

One man henceforth was in control of the water.  His power over the desert community would be equivalent to control of the rains in a humid locality.

“You see,” Jim continued, “old man Lefferts’ partners had really never sold out to him; so his transfer to the Doge wasn’t legal.  He turned his papers over to Prather, giving Prather full power to act for him in securing the partners’ surrender of their claims and straighten out everything with the Territory and get a bonafide concession.  That is as I understand it, for the whole business has been done in an underhand way.  Prather represented to the Doge that he was acting entirely in the interests of the community and his only charge would be the costs.  The Doge quite believed in Prather’s single-mindedness and public spirit.  Well, with the use of money and all the influences he could command, including the kind that Pete Leddy exercises, he got the concession and in his name.  It was very smart work.  I suppose it was due to the crafty way he could direct the Doge to do his wishes that the Doge happened to be off the scene at the critical stage of the negotiations.  When he went to New York all that remained was for him to obtain the capital for his scheme.  Lefferts and his partners had the underlying rights and the Doge the later rights, thanks to his improvements, and Prather has them both.  Well, Leddy and his crowd have been taking up plots right and left; that’s their share in the exploitation.  They’re here, waiting for the announcement to be made and—­well, the water users’ association is still in charge; but it won’t be when Prather says the word.”