“Charlie, Charlie, control yourself.  Don’t exhaust your strength by being angry; it’s bad for you in this heat; sunstrokes are sometimes brought on that way.  Besides, such talk as you uttered is foolish and dangerous.”

“Bah, I’m not afraid of a sunstroke.”

“Anyway, it’s unwise to be angry,” his father warned.  “When you’re in a temper, you talk loud; and people may hear it and repeat it, making trouble.  Now I must return to the bank.  But remember what I say:  you’re not to meddle in this Perro Creek matter.  Do you hear?”

“Oh, yes, I hear,” said Charlie.

His face as his father walked away did not, however, indicate acquiescence in this tame course.  His heart was full of rancour for the insulting stranger of the ford; and where the fires of his hatred blew, his feet would follow.

CHAPTER V

Though Lee Bryant, during his colloquy with Menocal, had spoken confidently of his ability to obtain money wherewith to construct a canal system linking the Pinas River and the Perro Creek ranch, he had no definite promise of funds from any source.  Nor would the project be ripe for financing before he had completed his surveys and made his cost estimates.

He had become interested in the undertaking in this way.  Staying over night with the Stevensons by chance a month previous, a stranger, his speculation was aroused when through questions about the ranch he learned of the unused Pinas River water right, a right valid but apparently impracticable.  Was it indeed impracticable?  Would the cost of bringing water to the land be, after all, prohibitive?  In fact, had a competent engineer ever gone into the matter?  He doubted it.  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 conception of utilizing water from the Pinas must have inspired him to acquire the appropriation of one hundred and twenty-five second feet.  Well, the land, theoretically at any rate, had water; and if water actually could be delivered, an extraordinary value would accrue to the now nearly worthless tract.  It was a problem for engineers; it was one of the possibilities that if seized might be converted into a fact.  Bryant was an engineer, and he was just then foot-loose.

From the worried ranchman, Stevenson, who appeared glad to talk of his affairs to someone, he learned that the man was both dissatisfied with the country and straitened in circumstances.  Bryant judged that 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 right, seemed favourable.  If no insurmountable obstacle stood in the way of building a dam and a canal, arising from construction elements, it assuredly looked as if money was to be made out of the project.