Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1916-06-30

ordered to take charge Of the make
shift concrete handlers as fast as they
matcrialized ~sqUadding them and driv.
ing the work Of wreck clearing for
every man and minute they could
command, with Gassman and Bender
10 act as foremen.
For himself, Brouillard reserved the
most hazardous Of the recruiting expe-
dents. The lower avenue had already
become a double rank Of dives, saloons
and gambling dens; here, II anywhere
in the craze-depopulated town, men
might be found, and for once in their
lives they should be shown how other
men earned money.
Shove it for every minute Of day.
light there is left" he ordered, snap
ping out his commands to his staff
while he was filling the magazine OF
his Winchester. Puddle what mate
rial there Is in the forms, dump the
telpher buckets where they stand, and
clean out the mixers; that's the size
Of the job, and it's got to be done.
Jump to 1t, Grizzly, you and Handley,
and wen try to fill your gangs the
best way we can"
You'll be up on the stagings your
self, won't you?" asked Grislow, strug.
Cling into his working coat.
After a bit. I'm going down to the
lower avenue to turn out the crooks
and diamond wearers. It's time they
were learning how to earn an honest
dollar"
You'll get yourself killed up" grum.
bled Leshington. Work Is the one
thing you won't get out OF that crowd. -
Watch me-" rasped the chief, and
he was gone as soon as he had said it.
Strange things and strenuous hap
pened in the lower end Of the Nj
quota valley during the few hours Of
daylight that remained. First, climb
ing nervously to the puddlers' staging
on the great dam, and led by Poodles
himself, came the Metropole quota Of
walters, solutions, cooks and porters,
willing but skill.less. After them, and
herded by Leshington, came a dapper
crew OF office men and clerks to snatch
up the pudding spades and to soil
their clothes and blister their hands
in emptying the concrete buckets. Mr..
Cortwright's contribution came as a
dropping fire; q handful of ~tree-cutters
from the sawmills. a few picked up
here and there In the deserted town,
an automobile load Of power-company
employees shot down from the gener'
ating plant at racing speed.
Last, but by no means least In num-
bers, came the human derelicts from
the lower avenue; men in f~rock-coats;
men In cowboy jeans taking 1t as q
huge joke; men with foreign faces and
lowering brows and with strange oaths
II their mouths; and behind the mot
ley throng and ~marshaling 1t to a
quickstep, Broulllard and Tig Smith.
1t was hot work and heavy for the
strangely assorted crew, and Brouil-
lard drove 1t to the limit, bribing, ca
joling or threatening, patrolling the
long line of staging to encourage the
awkward puddlers, or side-stepping
swiftly to the mixers to bring back a
detachment Of skulkers at the rifles
muzzle. And by nightfall the thing
was done, with the loss reduced to a
minimum and the makeshift laborers
dropping out In squads and groups,
some laughing, some swearing, and all
too weary and toil-worn to be danger
Gus. Give us a Job If we come back
tomorrow, Mr.. Brouillard?" called out
the king of the gamblers in passing;
and the cry was taken up by others In
grim jest.
THUS endeth the first lesson" said
Grislow, when the engineering corps
was reassembling at the headquarters
preparatory to a descent upon the sup,
per table. But Brouillard was dumb
and haggard, and when he had hung
his rifle and cartridge belt on their
pegs behind his desk, he went out,
leaving unbroken the silence which
had greeted his entrance.
THE boss is taking it pretty hard
said young Griffith to no one in par
ticular, and it was L%eshington who
took him up savagely and invited him
to hold his tongue.
The least said Is the soonest
mended-at q funeral" was the form
the first assistants rebuke took, "Yor
take my advice and don't mess OF
/ NEEDLE with the chief until he's had
time to work this thing out Of his sys
, tenn"
The shouts of the mob we're ringing
In Brouillard's ears when he strobe de
jectedly into the deserted maproom
[ and the cries were rising with a new
: note and in fresher frenzies a little
| later when Grislow came in. The by
| drographer's blue eyes were hard ant
his voice had a tang of bitterness II
, it when he said: well, you've done 1t
Three men have just come in with {
double handful Of nuggets, and Mirap
oils makes Its bow to the world a
: large as the newest and richest o
the gold camps"
Brouillard had been bumped owe,
his desk, and he sprang up with a or!
like that of a wounded animal.
TT can't be; Grizzly, l tell you 1
can't be! Steve Massingale planted