"I do a little of everything, I think, but nothing perfectly," he admitted with some regret. "It seems to me you do everything excellently," she objected quite seriously; and she was, in fact, deeply impressed. He walked over to the stream, a trifle confused, but not displeased, by any means, by the earnestness of her compliment. "I must have the water analyzed to see if it has any medicinal virtue," he said. "The spring out of which we drank has a sweetish-like taste, but the water here--" and he caught up some of it in his hand and tasted it, "seems to be slightly salt." He had left her sitting on the log with the sketch in her lap. Now the sketch fluttered to the ground and the letter turned over, right side up. It was a letter which Sam had written to his brother Jack and had not mailed because he had suddenly decided to come down to the scene of action. As she stooped over to pick it up her eyes caught the sentence: "I love her, Jack, more than I can tell you, more than I can tell anybody, more than I can tell myself. It's the most important, the most stupendous thing--" She hastily turned that letter over and was very careful to have it lying upon her lap, back upward, exactly as he had left it there, and when he came back she was very, very careful indeed to hand it nonchalantly over to him, with the sketch uppermost. "Of course," he said, looking around him comprehensively, "this is only a day-dream, so far. It may be impossible to realize it." "Why?" she asked, instantly concerned. "This project _must_ be carried through! It is already as good as completed. It just must be done. I never before had a hand, even in a remote way, in planning a big thing, and I couldn't bear not to see this done. What is to prevent it?" "I may not be able to get the land," returned Sam soberly. "It is probably owned by half a dozen people, and one or more of them is certain to want exorbitant prices for it." "It certainly can't be very valuable," she protested. "It isn't fit for anything, is it?" "For nothing but the building of Lake Jo," he agreed. "Right now it is worthless, but the minute anybody found out I wanted it it would become extremely valuable. The only way to do would be to see everybody at once and close the options before they could get to talking it over among themselves." "What time is it?" she demanded. He looked at his watch. "Ten-thirty," he said. "Then let's go and see all these people right away," she urged, jumping to her feet. He smiled at her enthusiasm, but he was none loath to accept her suggestion. "All right," he agreed. "I wish they had telephones here in the woods. We'll simply have to walk over to Meadow Brook and get an auto."