Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1916-08-31

ing the work of wreck clearing for
every man and minute they could
command, with Gassman and Bender
to act as foremen.
For himself, Brouillard reserved the
most hazardous of the recruiting expe-
dents. The lower avenue had already
become double rank of dives, saloons
and gambling dens; here, II anywhere
in the craze-depepulated 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 it, Grizzly, you and Handley,
and we'll try to fill your gangs the
best way we can"
You'll be up on the staginss your
self, won't your" asked Grislow, strug-
Cling into his working coat.
After 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, scullions, cooks and porters,
willing but skill-less. After them, and
herded by Leshington, came 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; handful Of tree-cutters
from the sawmills, 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 mum
bers, came the human derelicts from
the lower avenue; men in frock-coats;
: men in cowboy jeans taking it as
huge joke; men with foreign faces and
lowering brows and with strange oaths
in their mouths; and behind the mot
, ley throng and marshaling it to 6
quickstep Brouillard and Tig Smith
It was hot work and heavy for the
: strangely assorted crew, and Brouil
: lard drove it to the limit, bribing, ca
joling or threatening, patrolling the
long line of staging to encourage the
awkward puddlers, or side-steppint
swiftly to the mixers to bring back
detachment of skulkers at the rifles
muzzle. And by nightfall the thing
was done, with the loss reduced to
minimum and the makeshift laborer'
dropping out in squads and groups
some laughing, some swearing, and al
too weary and toil-worn to be danger
Gus. "Give us job if we come bacl
tomorrow, Mr.. Brouillard?" called GU
the king of the gamblers in passing
and the cry was taken up by others il
grim Jest.
THUS endeth the first lesson" salt
Grislow, when the engineering corp
was reassembling at the headquarter
preparatory to a descent upon the sup
per table. But Brouillard was dunn
and haggard, and when he had hum
| his rife and cartridge belt on thei
| pegs behind his desk, he went out
leaving unbroken the silence whicl
| had greeted his entrance.
"The boss is taking it pretty hard,
said young Griffith to no one in pal
ticular, and it was Leshington VIII
took him up savagely and invited hin
to hold his tongue.
1.-THE least said is the soones
= mended-at a funeral" was the form
the first assistants rebuke took. "Yo
d take my advice and don't mess o
t NEEDLE with the chief until he's ha1
time to work this thing out Of his syf
@ tenn"
" The shouts of the mob were ringin
v in Brouillard's ears when he strobe d.
q jectedly into the deserted maproon
Il and the cries were rising with ne'
D note and in fresher frenzies a littl
d later when Grislow came in. The h!
IL drographer's blue eyes were hard an
his voice had tang Of bitterness l
q it when he said: "Well, you've done 1
Three men have just come in with
e double handful Of nuggets, and Miral
10 oils makes its bow to the world
t. large as the newest and richest
1. the gold camps"
ia Brouillard had been bumped owe
Ie his desk, and he sprang up with CT
- like that of a wounded animal.
70 1T can't be; Grizzly, l tell you
"a can't be! Steve Massingale plante
,e that gold that l washed out-playe
~ me for fool to get me to work Il