Читать книгу The Temptress (La tierra de todos) онлайн

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“In a few years, or even in a few months, I may strike gold,” he was saying. “Everything depends of course on how the river behaves. If it amiably allows itself to be divided up, and doesn’t rise suddenly, in the grip of one of those violent convulsions which are so frequent there, and which destroy the work of years in a few hours.... Meanwhile my partner and I have been constructing with the strictest economy all the minor canals and the other arteries which are to irrigate our waste lands; and on the day when the dike is finished, and the Rio Negro waters flow outward into our desert property....”

Robledo stopped short, smiling.

“Then,” he went on, “I shall be a millionaire in regular American style. No one knows what the extent of our fortune may be. One square mile of irrigated land is worth several millions, and I own several square miles.”

Elena was listening breathlessly. But Robledo, as if made uneasy by the admiring glance Elena’s green gold eyes shot at him, hastened to add: