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Between Roche-Vive and Montegnac there are three distinct mountains with three hollows between them, down which the waters, stopped by the schist barrier, turn off into the Gabou.
The engineer, encouraged by so much success, now conceived a scheme of a nature to render Madame Graslin's fortune colossal, she herself having by this time recovered possession of the income which had been mortgaged for the repayment of the loan. Gerard's new scheme was to make a canal of the little river, and turn into it the superabundant waters of the Gabou.
"She has just arrived from New York," she added, by way of introduction to Gerard. The engineer put several questions about the new world to the young woman, while Veronique, leaving them alone, went to look at the third and more distant lake of the Gabou. It was six o'clock as Veronique and Gerard returned in the boat toward the chalet. "Well?" she said, looking at him. "You have my promise."
But after following the course of the water, as I have done by the traces left of its passage, it is easy to convince any one of the fact. The Gabou thus receives the water-shed of both mountains, that which ought to go down the mountain face on which your park and garden are to the plain, and that which comes down the rocky slopes before us.
After several days' careful exploration, Gerard found that the base of the two parallel slopes was sufficiently solid, though different in composition, to hold the water, allowing none to escape. During the month of January, which was rainy, he estimated the quantity of water flowing through the Gabou.
Thence she could see that portion of the forest which clothes the side of the valley down which flows the torrent of the Gabou, now dry, a mass of stones, looking like a huge ditch cut between the wooded mountains of Montegnac and another chain of parallel hills beyond, the latter being much steeper and without vegetation, except for heath and juniper and a few sparse trees toward their summit.
A few days later Veronique went to walk with the rector through the part of the forest that was nearest the chateau, wishing to descend with him the terraced slopes she had seen from the house of Farrabesche. In doing this she obtained complete certainty as to the nature of the upper affluents of the Gabou.
This meadow, watered by several clear streamlets, lay at the foot of the fine ampitheatre where the valley of the Gabou begins. The woods, cleared in a scientific manner, so as to produce noble masses and vistas that were charming to the eye, enclosed the meadow and gave it a solitude that was grateful to the soul.
The soil above it, which is of course softer than rock, has been hollowed out by the action of the water, which is turned at right angles by the barricade of rock, and thus flows naturally into the Gabou. The trees and underbrush of the forest conceal this formation and the hollowing out of the soil.
The first important point was to estimate the amount of water flowing through the Gabou, and to make sure whether or not the slopes of the valley allowed any to escape in other directions. Veronique gave Farrabesche a horse, and directed him to accompany the engineer and to explain to him everything he had himself noticed.
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