The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1900-01-19
THE GAMBLERS OF GRAVEL MOUNTAIN.
By MORLEY ROBERTS.

1OT ~ sHlu tHe RTeHI pOss OF the Fall'
road "a he leaned back In his chair and
looked out through the windows Of his
frame biilt office. A snowy king Of
peaks was in the center Of the picture,
heavy blue sky wns balanced by shad.
0ws in glaciers far below, the snow ran
down the rock, then scant pines fringed
the shoulder of a mountain. dipping In.
to dark forest. with the roaring river at
its foot.
But you W mp fair and square
that this Is taking a risk 7" said Hol-
dredge. the contractor from Utah. 'It's
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 a 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. Ones word Is. why, certainly
and another's. 1T can't be done and
the third IL a Scotchman and has what
he calls his doots.' But IL You and Your
brother risk 1t and make It we pay
heavy. II you muck 1t, our share goes.
and you'll lose you labor. It's a gam.
ble."
He stirred up the stove with a burned
pine stick, which he Withdrew, blazing.
Mature always holds four aces, y said
the younger Holdredge.
"No," said Ross, shut she keeps her
gun ready for all Of us when we win.
Even a plain piece Of rock work at 81 a
yard or ~ may spell catastrophe and
sudden death"
The Holdredges looked at each other
for a 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.
"I'm glad you have the grit to take
this on said the dealer. std have
given considerable when I was 80 to
have such a level chance offered. If you
put 1t 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 i~oyially.
"And IL we don't, Mr.. Ross, y said
the younger Holdredge, "we'll estab.
lish a claim on you for a long station
In the Columbia valley, where two
men can start afresh with short shov.
els"
But when they were outside they
shock hands.
ut can be done" said Kelley Hol.
dredge, the elder.
~ reckon, assented Bill.
Yet without telling each other they
wrote that night to their wives in their
native state to 90 easy with the money
and ave what they could.
"We've got bold Of the biggest thing
here" they said, ''but it's the riskiest.
It's make Il spoon or spell a 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 1t WAS lost. And over
head was the great Gravel mountain,
through which they had undertaken to
put a tunnel.
The big men Of the east were in a
hurry to meet the big men Of the west.
BY the end Of May the valley wal a
hive Of men, and every hour came the
sound Of great rocks cast down. On
temporary rails fiat cars 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 xes The crash OF
falling pines re.echoed mountain sheep
and goats and stumbling bears won
dered and went north and south. A
world Of men divided their ancient do.
main.
Amid the sounds Of cataract and snow.
Glide was the eltin 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 a 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
or schist or clay IL another fitting slope,
but for all loose material only the nat
ural slope will hold, The angle at
which gravel runs Is the angle ut which
IT viii stay, That IL Its natural slope.
In June the tunnel began, and with
the tunnel the difficulties were unbur-
led, for In the gravel was a bed Of blue
clay that cut beautifully with a spade
or II shovel, 1t was as strangely pure in
oolo,, US II mop hcmauanan,1o Mot n