THE TRAIL HERD Kent Williams went to Lazette, and Sanderson spent the interval during his departure and return in visiting the cattlemen and settlers in the basin.

The result of these visits was a sheaf of contracts for water, the charge based on acreage, that reposed in Sanderson's pockets.
According to the terms of the contracts signed by the residents of the basin, Sanderson was to furnish water within one year.
The length of time, Sanderson decided, would tell the story of his success or failure.

If he failed he would lose nothing, because of having the contracts with the settlers, and if he won the contracts would be valid.
Sanderson was determined to win.

When after an absence of a week Williams returned, to announce that he had made arrangements for the material necessary to make a "regular" start, and that he had hired men and teams to transport the material, Sanderson's determination became grim.

For Williams told him that he had "gone the limit," which meant that every cent to Sanderson's credit in the Lazette bank had been pledged to pay for the material the engineer had ordered.
"We're going to rush things from now on," Williams told Sanderson.
"Next week we'll need ten thousand dollars, at least." Sanderson went into the house and had a long talk with Mary Bransford.
Coming out, he went to the corral, saddled Streak, and rode to Okar.
Shortly he was sitting at a desk opposite a little man who was the resident buyer for an eastern live-stock company.
"The Double A has three thousand head of cattle," Sanderson told the little man.