But if their faces showed the handiwork of the devil, from their chins
down they were men cast in the mold of the image of God. From the
biggest Dane standing close to six feet six inches to the smallest Jap
less than five feet tall, they were men of iron and steel. Quick-eyed,
quick-footed, hard, they were the sort of men to drive the fight
against the desert.
Breakfast finished, the men dropped their cups and plates into one of
two big tubs as they passed by the tent, their knives and forks into
another, and went quietly and promptly to work. Each man had his duty
and went about it without waiting to be told. They filled buckets at
the water-barrels and watered their horses; they harnessed and hitched
up to plows and scrapers; half a dozen of them hitched four horses to
each of six of the wagons whose barrels had been emptied, and swung
out across the plain toward the Half Moon for more water.
Truxton beckoned to Conniston and led him toward the south. And
suddenly, coming about the foot of a little knoll, Conniston had his
first glimpse of the main canal.
Here it was a great ditch, ten feet deep, thirty feet wide, its banks
sloping, the earth which had been dragged out of it by the scrapers
piled high upon each side in long mounds, like dikes. Truxton stood
staring at it, his eyes frowning, his jaw set and stern.
"There she is, Conniston.
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