The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-07-26
THE GAMBLERS OF GRAVEL MOUN1h|A
By MORLEY ROBERTS.

~ Nonoo4 4sS0AAsASs
copyright, 1899. by Morley Roberts.J
1--WE give you mighty good price
for itl' said the great boss Of the rail-
road as he leaned back in his chair and
looked out through the windows Of his
frame built Office. A snowy king Of
peaks was in the center Of the picture,
heavy blue sky was balanced by shad-
ows in glaciers far below, the snow ran
down the rock, then scant pines fringed
the shoulder of mountain, dipping in
to dark forest, with the roaring river at
its foot.
"But you own up fair and square
that this is taking riskf" said Hol-
dredge, the contractor from Utah. tits
no common kind Of job-put work in
and take dollars out. "
1--WE lay the cards on the table, Mr.
Holdredge."
The lord Of railroads threw packet
down before him and, rising, went to
the stove. Except about noon, the air
was chill at the altitude Of the summit
when the month was May.
"There's nothing underhand here"
said Ross. "What our engineers say you
know. One word is, why, certainly
and another's, 1T can't he done, and
the third Is Scotchman and has what
he calls his doots. But If You and your
brother risk it and make it we pay
heavy. If you muck it, our share goes,
and you'll lose you labor. It's gam.
BILE"
He stirred up the stove with burned
pine stick. which he withdrew, blazing.
mature always holds four aces, said
the younger Holdredge.
"No," said Ross, "but she keeps her
gun ready for all Of us when we win.
Even a plain piece Of rock work at 81
yard or 81 may spell catastrophe and
sudden DEATH"
The Holdredges looked at each other
for long minute and then at the table.
This was a strangely quiet gambling
house far among the hills.
And the dealer waited.
"I'll straddle the blind" said Hol-
dredge, and his brother nodded.
But as they put their names on pa
per they felt that on that plain bit Of
pine lay ten years work and ten years
money, to be returned with mighty in
terest or swept off by Ross and those
behind him.
"Pm glad you have the grit to take
this on" said tho dealer. "I'd have
given considerable when was 80 to
have such level chance offered If you
put it through, you make three times
as much in half the time as the man
who has the latest job between the
summit and the Cascades.
He laughed jovially.
"And If we don't, Mr.. Ross" said
the younger Holdredge, "we'll estab-
lish a claim on you for long station
in the Columbia valley, where two
men can start afresh with short shov.
els"
But when they were outside they
shook hands.
'It can be done." said Kelley Hol-
dredge, the elder.
II reckon" assented Bill.
Yet without telling each other they
wrote that night to their wives in their
native state to go easy with the money
and save what they could.
"We've got hold of the biggest thing
here" they said, "but it's the riskiest
It's make spoon or spoil horn. But
we'll make the spoon, never fear"
They dreamed as they slept in their
tent by the foaming waters of the Kick.
ing Horse river that they were rich,
that they were poor, that the world was
theirs and that it was lost. And over
head was the great Gravel mountain,
through which they had undertaken to
put tunnel.
The big men Of the east were in
hurry to meet the big men of the west.
By the end Of May the valley was
hive of men, and every hour came tho
sound of great rocks cast down. On
temporary rails fiat care ran. Explo.
sions shattered the air and beat the
white river winter yet with the wreck
of mountains In the forests strong men
from Michigan and Wisconsin hewed
piles of ties, and many working on con-
tract for the Holdredges squared huge
balks with broad axes The crash Of
falling pines re-echoed; mountain sheep
and goats and shambling bears won.
dered and went north and south. A
world Of men divided their ancient do
main.
Amid the sounds of cataract and snow.
slide was the elfn shrek of the far loco
motive now dominant on the conquered
summit, and in the great gravel hill the
Holdredges' ants were working, prepar-
ing natural slope among the disinte-
grated wash Of a thousand years. For in
solid rock the engineer may cut to what
steep angle he will; in hardened earth
OF schist or clay is another fitting slope,
but for all loose material only the nat.
ural slope will hold. The angle at
which gravel runs is the angle at which
it will stay. That is its natural slope.
In June the tunnel began, and with
the tunnel the difficulties were un5ny-
led, for in the gravel was bed Of blue
clay that cut beautifully with spade
or shovel 1t was as strangely pure in
color as it was homogeneous. Not
grain Of sand gritted on knife passed
through it. A man could stand on q
fresh cut slab and hardly leave mark.
When they came to 1t, the men called
to the foreman, and he sent for Kelley.
The sight and feel Of it gladdened his
heart.
"If 1t runs through, this will save
half the labor" he said, for to timber
up the gravel seemed more and more
terrible to him