Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-05-25

1t was between two and three
o'clock in the afternoon Of the day in
which Mirapolis went placer mad
when word came to the reclamation
service headquarters that the power
was cut off and that there were no
longer men enough at the mixers and
on the forms to keep the work going
If the power should come on again.
Handley, the new fourth assistant,
brought the news, dropping heavily in
to a chair and showing his hat to the
back Of his head to mop his scanned
and sun-browned face
why the devil didn't you fellows
turn out?" he demanded savagely of
LeshingtOn, Arson and Grisl0w, who
were lCunging in the office and very
pointedly waiting for the lightning to
strike "Gassman and | have done
everything but commit cOld-blooded
murder to hold the men on the job.
Where's the bOss?"
Nobody knew, and Grislow, at least,
It was Arson who seemed to have the
latest information about Brouillard.
"He came in about eleven o'clock
rummaged for minute or two in that
drawer you've got your foot on, Grizzly,
and then went out again. Anybody
seen him since?"
There was a silence to answer the
query, and the photographer righted
his chair abruptly and closed the
opened drawer he had been utilizing
for a foot-rest He had a long mem
DRY for trifes, and at the mention Of
the drawer a disquieting picture had
flashed itself upon the mental screen.
There were two figures in the picture
BTouillard and himself, and Brouillard
was tossing the little buCkskin sack
of gold nuggets into the drawer. where
it had lain undisturbed ever since-un-
til now.
Moreover, Grislow's news Of Brouil-
lard, if he had seen fit to publish it,
was later than AnsOn's. At one o'clock,
or thereabout the chief had come in
to the mapping room for a glance at
the letters on his desk. One of the let
ters-a note in a square enyelope-he
had thrust into his pocket before 60
ing out.
1T looks as If the chief had gone
with the crowd" said Leshington when
the silence had grown almost portent-
Gus, though that wouldn't be like him.
Has anybody found out yet who
touched off the gold-mounted sky
rocket?"
Grislow came out of his brown study
with a start. Levy won't tell who
gave him those nuggets to put in his
window. | tried him.e All he will say
is that the man who left the sample
Ia perfectly reliable and that he die
Sated the exact wording of the placard
that did the business"
Il saw Harlan, of the Spotlight, half
an hour ago" cut in Arson. He's
plumb raving crazy, like everybody
else, but there is something family
resembling method in his madness. He
figures it that we government people
are out of a job permanently; that
with the discovery of these placers--
or, rather, with the practically certain
rediscovery of them by the mob-Mir
apolis will jump to the front rank as
gold camp and the reclamation serv
ice will have to call halt on the Buck
skin project"
Leshington's long, plain-song face
grew wooden. You say practically
certain The question is: Will they
be rediscovered? Bet any of you q
box of Poodles' Flor de near Havanas
that it's some new kind of fip-faI
invented by J. Wesley and his boom
ers. What do you say?"
Good Lord" growled Handley
They didn't need any new stunts
They had the world by the ear, as ii
was"
That's all right" returned Leshing
ton; maybe they didn't l heard a
thing or two over at Bongras' last
night that set me guessing There was