Part 19 (1/2)
”I use 'shopping' as a pretext for a jaunt now and then,” she laughed, when they were seated. ”Once in a while the lure of city dissipations seizes me; I had a week in Was.h.i.+ngton and three in New York with friends, which will satisfy me for a few months. You were just starting work on your project when I went away. Are you making good progress?”
”Very. But I'll make still better from now on. It's a case with me of do or be 'done', of dig out or be buried. I may as well be open about it, for everyone will know presently, anyway. The project must be completed in ninety days.”
”Ninety days? Great heavens!”
”That's what I said, too,” Lee stated, with a smile. ”Several times, in fact. There is an old law, it seems, that enables interested parties to hold a stop-watch on me.”
”And what's the penalty if you fail to finish the work in those three months?”
”Cancellation of my water right.”
”Cancellation? Surely not.”
”I tried to convince the Land and Water Board of that in Santa Fe, but made no headway.”
”How outrageous!” she exclaimed.
The waiter at her elbow recalled her to the requirements of the moment. Still with a trace of colour in her cheeks, the result of her indignation, she scanned the menu and wrote out her order.
”The thing is so utterably unreasonable,” she resumed, more calmly.
”Why did they let you start if they proposed afterward to hang a sword above your head?”
”The Board was ignorant of this law, as was everybody else, until it was brought to light by the applicant for cancellation,” said Lee, ”a certain Rodriguez, of Rosita.”
”Who is he?”
Bryant shook his head.
”Don't ask me. No friend, at any rate.”
She regarded him steadily for a moment.
”Probably a man put forward by Mr. Menocal.”
”I suppose so,” said he.
”But the idea of expecting you to build all those miles of ditch in ninety days and in the winter time! I wonder that you can be so calm.”
”Why shouldn't I be calm? My mind's made up. I'm going to complete the project on time.”
The words were uttered in a matter-of-fact tone that impressed Louise Graham far more than would any vehement a.s.sertion. As he had stated, his mind was made up, quite made up on the point. Others might think what they pleased: it carried no weight with him. The thing was certain.
She examined the engineer with a new interest. There was a difference in him, what would be hard to say. One couldn't exactly put finger on it. Something in his gray eyes, perhaps; something in the sharper stamp of his aquiline nose, of his lips, of his bronzed jaw; something in his whole bearing. It went deeper than features, too; she sensed a change in the spirit of the man from what it had been that day of his going down to Kennard, when he strolled with her in her garden. He was less bouyant, less manifest, less elated, but more poised and sure. A change, yes.
Then her thoughts reverted to his tremendous undertaking.
”How long have you known this?” she inquired.
”Since the day before yesterday. Pat Carrigan, my contractor, and I came to the capital at once to discuss the affair with the Board. The news was--well, a good deal of a facer.”
She nodded.