"Come home. Leave that work alone. Start minute you get this. Wiring you thousand dollars Crawfordsville. Corliss will advance all you want in New York. Do as I command immediately or I disinherit you. "WM. CONNISTON, Sr." "WM. CONNISTON, Jr., "Rattlesnake Valley. "At your father's orders have wired thousand to you Crawfordsville. "CORLISS." "EDW. CORLISS, "New York. "Money you wired remains subject your orders. I don't need it. Inform dad. "WM. CONNISTON, Jr." When William Conniston, Junior, received the second message from William Conniston, Senior, a swift understanding came to him, an understanding not only of the reason for the attitude Corliss had taken, but of what Oliver Swinnerton had had in mind when he had talked slyly of Conniston's intentions, and had expressed his confidence that the young superintendent was preparing to double cross his employer. "WM. CONNISTON, JR., "Rattlesnake Valley. "Am starting for New York. Meet me. Drop work. I have a million dollars at stake in Oliver Swinnerton project. Will lose all if you don't quit. "WM. CONNISTON, Sr." And it gave Greek Conniston a great, unbounded joy to answer: "WM. CONNISTON, Sr., "Paris. "Sorry, dad. You lose million. I have reputation at stake. "WM. CONNISTON, Jr." CHAPTER XXV The days ran on, each twenty-four hours seeming shorter, swifter than the preceding twenty-four. Although everywhere in the Valley there was a glad confidence that the reclamation project was an assured thing, although feverish anxiety had been beaten back and driven out, there was no slightest slackening of unremitting toil. Upward of seven hundred men worked as they had never worked before. As the end of the time drew nearer, as success became ever more assured, they worked longer hours, they accomplished swifter results. For each man of them, from Brayley to the ditch-diggers, was laboring not only for the company, but for himself. Each and every man had been promised a bonus for every day between the time when water was poured down into the sunken Valley and the coming of high noon upon October the first. And Conniston still held to his determination to have everything in readiness by the twenty-fifth of September. Upon the evening of the twenty-fourth of September Conniston called upon Mr. Crawford at his cottage in Valley City. He found his employer smoking upon the little porch alone. When he was seated and had accepted a cigar, Conniston began abruptly what he had to say.