“Why not?” Peter’s voice challenged him. “Merely because you hadn’t thought of its feasibility. Nobody thought of it. Why, you’re like all the rest, son. You can’t think constructively. You must have a precedent to hang onto with one hand, before you think out into the ocean of unguessed achievements. Fifty years ago, they would have shut you up in an asylum if you had declared it possible to telegraph without wires. How was the first telephone hooted? And history tells us that a large faction of religious people declared that anesthetics were contrary to the will of God, who meant that men should suffer. “When I show you the canyon, back here, and explain to you how we mean to do it, you’ll have to admit the simplicity of the thing. And that’s it! The very simplicity of it has prevented men from grasping it.” He laughed scornfully. “What a to-do about building a dam they make! They must have government backing, and political wirepulling, and they must fiddle around for years with hundreds of men building a dam up from bedrock, with cement and stone! Wait until I show you what _we_ mean to do! Simplest thing in the world--since we don’t want canals for irrigation and only want to get at the river below. Even if we did want to divert the water, instead of restraining it only, we could build our canals just the same, and at our leisure. “But it’s all desert, above and below. Already I’ve bought any little rancher out, that might have his land flooded when _we build our dam_.” Peter laughed again triumphantly. “I’ll arrange to get possession before we’re ready to back up the water--” “Will the government allow that?” Rawley’s tone was troubled. So great a hold had Peter’s argument taken upon him that he found himself _fearing_ that the government might object. Peter gave a contemptuous snort. “Give us a chance to rake the gold out of the river bed below here, and we can pay whatever fine or indemnity the government may see fit to levy,” he retorted. “But why should it object? We’ll be saving the folks away down below here a lot of trouble and loss from high water. They’ve been howling for flood control ever since the Imperial Valley began to be settled. The dams they’ve got don’t answer the problem. Sooner or later, the government, or somebody, will have to put a dam in the river, up this way. They will be mighty grateful, I should say, if we do it at our own expense while they’re talking about it. “Then, if they want to, they can pay us for our trouble and go ahead and build their canals, or power plants, or whatever they want. All we want is the gold that has been washed down during a few thousand years.” He lifted his arm and pointed down to where the river could dimly be seen moiling and grumbling over its rocky bed. “You see how rocky it is? Figure for yourself what a perfect trap for gold every bowlder makes! And there is gold! You don’t deny that, do you?”