The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-20
CHAPTER XVI.
New Plans.

hand so ! am sorry To add, he con-
cluded to McCloud, that you are now
out of a job" The two men were fac
ing each other across the table in Nc
Clouds office. Personally, I am not
sorry to say it. either" added Gala
han, slowly filling the bowl of his pipe,
McCloud said nothing to the point,
as there seemed to be nothing to say
until he had heard more. 81 never knew
before that you were left-handed," he
returned, evasively.
IT'S a lucky thing, because It won't
do for freight traffic man, nowadays,
to let his right hand know what his
left hand does" observed Callahan, feel
ing for match. Il am the only left
handed man in the traffic department,
but the man that handles the rebates,
Jimmie Black, is crOss-eyed. Bucks Of
fered TO send him to Chicago to have
BrysOn straighten his eyes, but Jimmie
thinks it is better to have them as they
are for the present, so he can look at a
thing in two different ways-one for the
interstate commerce commission and
one for himself. You haven't heard,
them" continued Callahan, returning to
his riddle about McClOud's job. why,
Lance Duuning has gone into the Unit
ed States court and got an injunction
against US on the Crawling Stone line
tied US up tighter than zero. No more
construction there for year at least.
Dunning comes in for himself and for
a cousin who is his ward, and three or
four little ranchers have filed bills-sO
it's up to the lawyers for so per cent of
the gate receipts and peace. Personally
I'm glad of it. 1t gives you chance
to look after this operating for a year
yourself. We are going to be swamped
with freight traffic this year, and I
want il moved through the mountains
like checkers for the next six months.
You know what / mean, George
To McClOud the news came, in spite
of himself. as a blow. The results he
had attained in building through the
lower valley had given him a name
among the engineers Of the whole line
The splendid showing of the winter con-
structiOn. on which he had depended
TO enable him to finish the whole work
within the year was by this news
brought to naught. Those of the rail-
road men who said he could not deliver
a completed line within the year could
never be answered now. And there was
some slight bitterness in the reflection
that the very stumbling block to hold
him back, to rob him of his chance for
a reputation with men like Glover and
Bucks, should be the lands of Dicksie
Dunning.
He made no complaint. On the di-
VislCn he took hold with new en-
ergy and bent his faculties on the op-
Grating problems. At Marion's he
saw Dicksie at intervals, and only to
fall more hOpelessly under her spell
each time. She could be serious and
she could be volatile and she could be
something between which he could
never quite make out. She could be
serious with him when he was serious,
and totally irresponsible the next min
ute with Marion. On the other hand,
when McClOud attempted to be flip
pant, Dlcksie could be cOnfusingly
grave. Once when he was bantering
with her at MaTiOn's she tried to say
something about her regret that COM
plcations over the right of way
should have arisen: but McCloud made
light of il. and waved the matter aside
as If he were a cavalier. Dicksie did
not like il. but 1t was only that he
was afraid she would realize he was a
mere railroad superintendent with
hopes Of a record for promotion quite
blasted. And as if this obstacle to a
greater reputation were not enough. a
Wilier enemy threatened in the spring
TO leave only shreds and patches of
what he had already earned.
The Crawling Stone river is said 10
embOdy. historically. all of the de-
celts known to mountain streams. Be
low the Box canyon IL plows through
a. great bed of yielding SLIT its own
deposit between the two imposing
lines of bluffs that resist its wander
ings from side to side of the wide val
Ley. This fertil soil makes up the
rich lands that are the envy of less
fortunate regions i'm the Great Basin.
but the Crawling Stone IS not a river
TO give quiet title to one acre of its
own making. The toll of its centuries
spreads beautifully green under the
June skies. and the unsuspecting set
tier. lulled into security by many
years of the rivers repose. settles on
its level bench land and lays out his
long lines of possession; but the Sioux
viii tell YOU I'M their own talk that this
man IS but a tenant at will; that In
another time and in another place the
stranger viii inherit his fields; and
that the Crawling Stone always comes
back 10 its own.
The winter had been an unusual one
even in q land of winters. The sea
sons fall Of snow had not been above
an average. but il had fallen In the
spring and had been followed by eX-
cessively low temperatures throughout
the mountains. June came again. but
a strange June. The first rise or the
crawling Stone had not moved out
the winter frost, and the stream lay
bound from bank To bank. and for hun
dreds Of miles. under three feet of ice.
When June opened. backward and
cold there had been no spring. Heavy
frOsts lasting until the middle of the
month gave sudden way to summer
heat. and the Indians on the upper
valley reservation began moving back
into the hills. Then came the rise.
Creek after creek in the higher noun
tains. ice bound for six months. burst
without warning into flood. Soft winds
struck with the sun and stripped the
mountain walls of their snow. Rains
set I'm on the desert, and far in the
high northwest the Crawling Stone
lifting its four-foot cap of ice like a
he'd of feathers began rolling il end
over end down the valley. In the Box
forty feet of water struck the canyon
walls and ice-floes were hurled like
torpedoes against the granite spurs;
the Crawling Stone was starting after
its own.
When the river rose. the earlier talk
Of Dunning's men had been that the
Crawling Stone would put an ord 10