Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1916-03-17
The City Of Numbered Days
w By FRANCIS LYNpE w
" Coprah by Charles SGhnr Sons


mapping pen on his thumb nail. Gu
rious that this particular fly should
drop into your pot of ointment on
your birthday. wasn't it?" he re-
marked.
20 suffering Jehul" gritted Brouil-
lard ragefully. Are you never going
to forget that senseless bit of twad-
dle?"
You're not giving me chance to
forget It," said the mapmaker soberly-
"You told me that night that the
seven-year characteristic was change;
and you're a changed man, Victor. if
ever there was one. Moreover it be-
gan that very night-or the next morn
ing"
Brouillard laughed
"All OF which is bad enough, you'd
say. Murray; but 1t isn't the worst of
It, I've Just run up against another
thing that is threatening to raise
merry hell In this valley"
Il know" said the photographer
slowly. You've been having a seance
with Steve Massingale. Leshington
told me about it,"
what did he tell your" Brouillard
demanded half angrily.
"Oh. nothing much; nothing to make
you hot at him. He said he gathered
the notion that the young sorehead
was trying to bully you"
''He was" was the brittle admission.
See here. Grizzly"
The thing to be seen was a small
buckskin bag which, when opened.
gave up a paper packet folded like a
medicine powder. The paper contained
spoonful of dust and pellets of metal
of dull yellow luster.
The photographer drew a long
breath and fingered the nuggets
"Gold-placer gold!" he exclaimed.
and Brouillard nodded and went on to
| tell how he had come by the bag and
its contents.
"Massingale had an ak to grind, oi
course. You may remember that
Harding talked loosely about the Mas
singale opposition to the building ol
the dam. There was nothing in it
The opposition was purely personal
and It was directed against Harding
himself. with Amy Massingale for the
exciting cause"
That girl?-the elemental brute!'
Grislow broke In warmly. He knew
the miners daughter fairly well by
this time, and, in common with every
man on the stan, not excepting the
staff's chief. would have fought fol
her in any cause.
Brouillard nodded. Il don't know
what Harding did but Smith, the Trl
angle-Circle foreman, tells me tha
Steve was on the warpath; he tols
Harding when he left, last summer
that IL he ever came back to Niquoia
he'd come to stay--and stay dead"
81 never did like Harding any to-
we'll" was the photographers defini
tive comment, and Brouillard wen
back to the matter of the morning
seance and it's golden outcome.
THAT is only a little side issu,
| OlGNG mdocluBhl0 CdAuG " ul6 I'LL
morning with a proposal that wa
about as cold-blooded as a slap in tn
face. Naturally, for good business res
sons of their own, the Massingale
want to see the railroad built owe
War Arrow pass into the NiQuoia. L
some way Steve has found out tina
II stand pretty well with Presiden
Ford and the Pacific Southwestern
people. His first break was to offe
to incorporate the Little Susan an
to give me block of the stock if l.
pull Ford's leg on the extension prof.
osition."
"Well?" queried Grislow.
Exactly You can imagine what
told him. Then he began to bully an
pulled the club on me-"
Again Grislow's smile was jocose.
We'll, when | turned him dow
young Massingale began to bluste
and to say that I'd have to boost th
railroad deal, whether | wanted to c
not. told him he couldn't prove i
and he said he would show me, if L
take half an hours walk up the vale
with him. You know that long, ma
row sandbar in the river Just belo
the mouth of the upper canyon?"
Grislow nodded
THAT is where we went for til
proof. Massingale dipped up panfl
Of the bar sand, which he asked N
to wash out for myself. did it, an
you have the results there in that D
per That bar is comparatively ric
placer dirt"
Good Lordl" calculated the ma
maker. Comparatively rich, you say
and you washed this spoonful out
a single PAM"
Keep your head" said Brouillal
coolly. "Massingale explained that
! had happened to make a ten-strik,
that the bar wasn't any such bonani
as that first result would Indicate
proved that, too, by washing son
more of 1t without getting any mo
y than a few 'colors.' But the fact l
. mains: It's placer ground"
II was at this point that the larg
y aspect of the fact launched itself up,
y the photographer.
II "A gold strike!" he gasped. "A
70 we-we're planning to drown it I
ie der two hundred feet of a lake!"
d Brouillard's laugh was harsh.
Ie Don't let the fever get hold of "
Grislow. Don't forget that we a
is here to carry .out the plans of the n