The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-25


stockholders keep putting up the cash
he can make mora money hauling
quicksand than he could operating the
road.
Yes. and it doesn't follow that he'll
never get through, either" added the
third Il have q plant viii cost a
pile of money, to be eure-by which
believe L can overcome this difficulty.
The time isn't ripe for it yet, though.
I'll wait till the stockholders begin To
get after the old man, and he finds him
self in tight box, then I'll spring my
plan on him and name my price. / tell
you, boys. there'1l be wagon loads of
money dumped into this hole, and /
propose to get some of it,
The train started again, and we were
carried to within fifty feet of where a
large gang of laborers were filing the
cars from pile of sand that sloped
down from the roof of the tunnel in
front. We watched them few min
utes, and observed that though they
worked fast, filing the cars sJery quick
iy, they made not the slightes. impress
sion on the pile, which flowed steadily
into the tunnel, retaining its formation
I in spite of their efforts.
advised Tommy to get quietly out
of the car on the dark side and wait
for me. He did so, and followed his
example, rolling over the edge so as to
/ CAPOSS liiySGl1 dS 4ltlie as possible. IN
fortunately, one of the laborers must
have caught a glimpse of me, for he
exclaimed in terrified tones:
Saints preserve usI Pwhat's that?"
Pwhat's attn We, Mike?' asked an
other, jeeringly
"Nothins atm me. an you'd say so
If We seen pwhat I seem.
An pwhat did We see, bye?"
| II seen horse wild horns on him a
tut long jump clane over d cyar an
through the side o. the tunnel like it
wuz paiper."
''Betther let up on Nolan's whisky a
bit, me boy; ye're gittin' 'em agin''
During the laugh that greeted this
undoubtedly good advice we sneaked
quietly along the dark side of the train,
past the engine, and out of the tunnel.
A Waterman hailed US, but we took leg
bail. He set his dog on us-a big, ugly
brute-and, knowing we could not out
run him, we took refuge behind the big
pile of quicksand, where there were
lots of handy stones. When the dog
found US he realized his mistake, for
we opened on him with fusilade that
sent him yelping back to his master
This brought an alarm whistle from the
Waterman, and we saw lights fitting
hurriedly. There was no time for plans.
and no choice, anyway, so we legged
it out of there lively
They chased US for half an hour, but
as they only had one dog, and he was
discouraged, we got away. When we
were sure they had given up the chase
we sat down to regain our breath, and
held consultation. We had learned
that there was an apparently insur-
mountable obstacle to tunneling into
Greytown. Why, then, could not Mel
ton successfully compete?
There's our cave" suggested Tom
my, that's about where they'd want
to go through; and it would be a big
Aelp, 1 sh'd think
Course it would; then there's the
coal; they could burn that in their en-
'gines-Save 'em buying COAL
20, / guess that don't amount to
much; we got most O. that; 1 don't be-
.9ieve there's much left
Don't you worry about that, there's
lots left. I'll tell you what we better
do, Tommy; this is too big job for us
to handle; we better tell Judge Davis
That's it," cried Tommy, enthusiast
tically, you've hit it; We'll tell the
Judge, and I'll bet Meltonll get the road
yet; what do you think?"
AS neither of US had ever spoken to
the great man-except the time he
spoke to me when he called at Mrs.
Stanwoods-we rang the bell at the |
door of the handsome mansion with |
had suddenly peeked around the cor
ner and said "boo!" 1 guess we would |
have taken to our heels, but nobody |
did Instead, a very prim old lady !
opened the door and stared at us in |
well-bred surprise when l asked to see
the judge.
She bowed gravely and opened a
door to the right. On entering the
handsome parlor, she asked us to be
seated saying the judge was occupied,
but would see us presently. After she |
left we sat in perfect silence, not dar-
ing to move for some time.
Then Tommy whispered; 81 wonder
where he tsp"
But I only replied: "Shr' and we re-
lapsed into fearsome silence.
Presently another door opened, the
same lady appeared, and said: Step
this way, please
We entered the office and found the
old gentleman seated at a large ma
hogany desk, writing. Without look
ink up, he said, abruptly: Take
seati'
Not daring to take our eyes off him,
we both backed into the same chair, /
resulting in a spill for Tommy, who
was the smallest. The judge paid no /
attention., enabling us to recover our
selves.
With disquieting suddenness he
whirled round facing US. well" said |
he, sharply, what can do for your"
I was conscious of blushing fear
fully, and of twirling my hat idiotical-
ly. but I managed to blurt out that
we had come to tell him about the
railroad.
THE railroad. hey? What about it?
I'm pretty well sick of that railroad.
so, unless you have something par
ticularly important to tell, 1 must ask
You to cut it very Short
He didn't appear to be overstocked
with either patience or good humor.
and 1 heartily wished we had stayed
away, for, with his cold gray eye look
ing right through me, I felt that our
news was extremely frivolous How
ever, l was in for it. and, as rapidly
as could. told of our trip the night
before, and of what we had discovered.
A grimly incredulous smile CLEANED
cynically across his stern features as
he interrupted me with:
"Quicksand, hey? I never heard of
quicksand in a ledge of rock before.
However, go on
When l finished he asked: well
why do you tell this to me?"
/ was so discouraged that 7 was
about to admit that L didn't know
when Tommy piped up with:
Because we thought you wanted to
get the railroad through here, an we
know how it can be done''
Do you, indeed? l assure Won vor,
are not alone in that respect. Hun
dreds of people have told me how RI
DO that, but all their plans are i'm
Did any of EN- know about our