Macon beacon., 1916-05-26
CHAPTER iV-Contlnued.

During the weeks which followed, |
the same trail, and little later that |
from the Navajo reservation on the |
south, were strung with antlike pro- |
cessions of laborers pouring into the |
shutin valley at the foot of Mount |
Chigringo. Almost as If by magic q |
populous camp of tents, shelter shacks |
and Indian tepees sprang up In the |
level bed-bottom of the future lake;
campflres gave place to mess kitch- |
ems; the commissary became busy
department store stocked with every
thing that thrifty or thriftless labor
might wish to purchase; and daily the
great foundation scorings in the but
tressing shoulders of Jacks mountain
and Chigringo grew deeper and wider
under the churning Of the air-drills,
the crashings Of the dynamite and the
rattle and chug of the steam shovels.
1t was after the huge task Of foun-
dation digging was well under way
and the work of constructing the small
power dam In the upper canyon had
been begun that the young chief Of
details, had his first forcible reminder
of the continued existence of Mr.. J.
Wesley Cortwright
1t came In the form of communi-
cation from Washington, forwarded by
special post-rider service from Que
sado, and 1t called halt upon the up
river power project. In accordance
with its settled policy, the reclamation
service would refrain, in the Niquoia
as elsewhere, from entering into COM
petition with private citizens; would
do nothing to discourage the invest
ment of private capital. A company
had been formed to take over the
power production and to establish a
plant for the manufacture Of cement,
and Brouillard was instructed to gov
ern himself accordingly. For his in
formation, the department letter
writer went on to say 1t was to be
understood that the company was
duly organized under the provisions of
an act Of congress; that 1t had bound
itself to furnish power and material
at prices satisfactory to the service;
and that the relations between it and
the government tield-staff on the
ground were to be entirely friendly.
Its a graft-a pulldown with
profit in 1t for some bunch of money
leeches little higher up!" was the
young chiefs angry comment when he
had given Grislow the letter to read.
without knowing any more Of the
details than that letter gives, I'd be
willing to bet months pay that this
Is the fine Italian hand of Mr.. j. Wes-
ley Cortwright!"
Grislow's eyebrows went up in
doubtful interrogation.
Ought l to know the gentleman"
he queried mildly. Il don't seem to
recall the name"
mo, you don't know him. 1t was
his motor party that was camping at
the Buckskin ford the night we broke
in here-the night when we saw the
searchlight."
And you met him? thought you
told me you merely went down and
took look-didn't butt in?"
"I didn't-that night. But the next
morning they wanted to see the val
ley, and l showed them the way in.
Cartwright is the multimillonaire pork
packer of Chicago, and he went up
into the air like lunatic over the
moneymaking chances there were to
be in this Job. l didn't pay much at
tention to his chortlings at the time.
1t didn't seem remotely credible that
anybody with real money to invest
would plant 1t in the bottom Of the Nj
quota reservoir"
But now you think he Is going to
make his bluff good?"
THAT looks very much like It," said
Brouillard sourly. pointing to the let
ter from Washington. THAT scheme
is going to change the whole face Of
nature for us up here, Grislow. 1t
will spell trouble right from the
jump"
"Oh, | don't know" was the depre-
catory rejoinder 1T will relieve us
of lot of side-issue industries-cut
'em out and bury EN-, so far as we
are concerned.
That part of it is all right, OF
course but 1t won't end there; not by
hundred miles. Jobson says in that
letter that the relations have got to
be friendly! I'll bet anything you like
that I'll have to go and read the riot
act to those people before they've
been twenty-four hours on their job!"
Grislow was trying the point of his