The work was the most pleasant of any Bob had ever undertaken.  It demanded accuracy, good judgment, knowledge.  It did not require feverish haste.  The surroundings were wonderfully beautiful; and if the men paused in their work, as they often did, the spirit of the woods, which as always had drawn aside from the engrossments of human activity, came closer as with fluttering of wings.  Sometimes, nervous and impatient from the busy, tiny clatter of facts and figures and guesses, from the restless shuttle-weaving of estimates and plans, Bob looked up suddenly into a deathless and eternal peace.  Like the cool green refreshment of waters it closed over him.  When he again came to the surface-world of his occupation, he was rested and slowed down to a respectable patience.

Elliott was good company, interested in the work, well-bred, intelligent, eager to do his share—­an ideal companion.  He and Bob discussed many affairs during their rides to and from the work and during the interims of rest.  As time went on, and the tracts to be estimated and plotted became more distant, they no longer attempted to return at night to Headquarters.  Small meadows offered them resting places for the day or the week.  They became expert in taking care of themselves so expeditiously that the process stole little time from their labours.  On Saturday afternoon they rode to headquarters to report, and to spend Sunday.

IX

Toward the end of the season they had worked well past the main ridge on which were situated Welton’s operations and the Service Headquarters.  Several deep canons and rocky peaks, by Thorne’s instructions, they skipped over as only remotely available as a timber supply.  This brought them to the ample circle of a basin, well-timbered, wide, containing an unusual acreage of gently sloping or rolling table-land.  Behind this rose the spurs of the Range.  A half-hundred streams here had their origin.  These converged finally in the Forks, which, leaping and plunging steadily downward from a height of over six thousand feet, was trapped and used again and again to turn the armatures of Baker’s dynamos.  After serving this purpose at six power houses strung down the contour line of its descent, the water was deflected into wide, deep ditches which forked and forked again until a whole plains province was rendered fertile and productive by irrigation.

All this California John, who rode over to show them some corners, explained to them.  They sat on the rim of the basin overlooking it as it lay below them like a green cup.

“You can see the whole of her from here,” said California John, “and that’s why we use this for fire lookout.  It saves a heap of riding, for let me tell you it’s a long ways down this bluff.  But you bet we keep a close watch on this Basin.  It’s the most valuable, as a watershed, of any we’ve got.  This is about the only country we’ve managed to throw a fire-break around yet.  It took a lot of time to do it, but it’s worth while.”