Murray Leinster

“ The low cliffs were lurking places of mystery. Now, the starlight softened the harshness of the sun-baked earth. The place could have been a paradise, with water. But all the water within many miles was a shallow, turgid pool with a winding, twisting passageway leading down into the bowels of the earth, whence the water came.
A wild rabbit crept beneath the starveling willows and to the edge of the pond. ”

“ The padded end of the rope seemed to feel its way down to the bowels of the earth, like some monster blind worm. The rounded water-passage curved and twisted. The weighted rope followed every curvature. It sank down, down, down, sometimes catching for a moment but inevitably slipping free and sinking further.
He bent yet another rope to the first. The other man watched with mad cunning. Soon the dynamite would explode. The man in the sand-pit staggered to his feet. ”

“ But tiny pebbles in the pool, brought up by the current when it was a rushing stream, were granite, and even a little black lava, and here and there translucent quartz. No man could tell but that somewhere down in darkness there was a mighty stream pouring through a channel forever unvisited of men, deep down in the bowels of the earth, full of cool melted snow water, rushing, rushing on somewhere, all moisture and coolness, while above it the earth gasped in heat and perpetual drought. ”

“ In the valley, certainly, there was little sign of life. The lone horse drooped, and sought the insufficient shade of the willows. The house seemed to dance in the heat, while the rocks jumped and wavered and slipped this way and that, sometimes joining in a momentary illusion of amalgamation, then slipping away again soundlessly. The glare was terrible, the heat horrible, and the silence that of something strangling in the choking stillness of the air.
The man was standing by the water-hole, a grim figure, listening to another man who had slipped in furtively. ”

“ The sun came up thunderously out of the east. From a pale and sickly green, the sky lightened to yellow, then pink, then crimson, and at last the great red ball of carmine fire peered above the horizon, climbed slowly upward, lingered a moment touching the edge of the world and then broke loose, swimming up toward mid-heaven.
Slowly, the desert awoke. Little furtive squeaking noises came from here and there. There was a tiny rustling as the infrequent creatures of the night fled, and the stranger things of the day awoke. ”

“ They were shown photographs, and the photographs showed a sparkling stream, winding between willow-lined banks. Fat cattle, grazing. Fields that were uncultivated, but yet were thick with lush grass. And dull, red sand-stone cliffs all about for a background.
The man had found the bed of the stream. It was a stretch of wind-smoothed sand. And he had seen where the willows had been. They were dried and desiccated stumps. And he had even found the natural, bubbling pool of cool and mineralized water, coming up from the depths of the earth, that had fed that stream. ”

“ The starlight shimmered upon a silvery stream, flowing where there had been only wind-blown sand. It seemed that one could hear the parched earth drinking, gratefully.
The man stood upon the porch, gazing over the ground he had bought. Six hundred acres. It would be a paradise.
His wife rested her head against his shoulder.
“On land like this,” said the big man, his voice booming, “water is worth its weight in gold. Its weight in gold!” ”

“ Then, presently, he flung stones just to hear the splashing. Any man may endure one day of insensate thirst and remain sane. Most men may endure even two, with the coolness of the night for refreshment. But in the basin, here, the nights did not cool as on the open desert. The encircling cliffs stored up the heat of the sun and poured it out again during darkness. And the air was dry with a dryness that sucked out moisture from every pore. ”

“ Dynamite—Water—Down the hole—Explode—Place stopped up. Dynamite loosen it.
“You want me to lower dynamite down the hole there, and explode it,” said the big man somberly.
The thing in the sand-pit watched him in a terrible, tremulous hope. His speech of release simply had not been understood. The bearded man watched without pity.
“Is that your way of bringing water?” The bearded mouth opened in a bitter laugh. “All right, I'll do it. It's my place, now. You'll never have the chance to swindle another man with it.” ”

“ They were bound for other acres, other places, to begin again the fight they had fought for ten years, and won, only for the benefit of the man lying there in the dried-up stream-bed. Ten years, gone! The best of his life—wasted! Beginning old age with empty hands—
Some thing of fire came into the bearded man's eyes. Hatred had not been appeased by the suffering of the man in the sand-pit. ”

“ They were desperately weary of grudging, greedy soil. They had dreams of rich earth, just a little land, but bountiful. The place they had made fertile had worn them out. They were growing old, and men offered them what seemed a fortune. ”

“ From the pit, tortured eyes looked up. The man there licked his lips with a dry and swollen tongue.
“I'll buy it back,” he articulated with difficulty. “You aint like the others. I'll buy it back.”
The big man shook his head deliberately. Implacable lines were etched about his eyes.
“I don't go back on my bargains, or lie when I make them. You said there was ample water here.” Rage came over him. “You said there was ample water! You swindled me—and there are two graves up yonder. Where is that water?”
Blake's eyes went to the pool, with infinite longing. ”

“ A man with a shot-gun, resting its butt on the ground, against a man with a revolver at his hip. That was easy.
BUT the shot-gun came up very swiftly. And Blake, in the act of drawing his own weapon, stiffened. There were two boxes of dynamite strapped behind him for the blasting at the dam, forty miles beyond. Any man may fight a gun-duel, but few men will care for it when there is a case of high-explosive close to him and adding to the target his body offers. Blake went suddenly very pale. ”

“ The rabbit knew what shotguns were, and might have considered—being not unlike most humans in thinking all things were done more or less because of him—that the bearded man, sitting there and oiling and re-oiling a shot-gun, was preparing for a hunt. ”

“ The dynamite was nitro-glycerin dynamite, not designed for use under water, but it would withstand the moisture for twenty minutes or more, and the whole mass would go off if a single stick were detonated. It only required that the wire connections to the fulminate cap be taped against a water short-circuit to make the thing fiendishly certain. The spark would set off one stick of explosive and the concussion would ignite the others in turn. ”

“ The wife of a farmer, fighting ever-present drought, learns much. She had seen the ground they had bought, and went sick within her. The man had had to go over every foot, exhaustively, before he could give up hope. ”

“ For ten years the man and woman had fought together against bitter want. Barren acres had been built up to a certain fertility by a terrible struggle. They had been close to starvation that the land might wax fat. ”