Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-05-04
WIZ CHAPTER II
]. Wesley Croesus
-

BroulIlard was not what the West
calls 'jumpy.' Four years of field
| work, government or other, count for
something; and the man who has
proved powder-shy in any stage of his
is customarily dead man.
In spite Of his training, however, the
young chief Of construction, making an
early morning exploration Of the site
for the new dam, WINGED handsomely
when the shock Of a distance-muff1ed
explosion. trembled upon the crisp
morning air, coming, as it seemed,
from some point near the lower end
| of the canyon.
The decorating crash reminded him
forcibly that the presence of the tour
| ing party was asserting itself. The ex-
plosion was too heavy to. figure as a
| gunshot Therefore it must have been
an accident of some sort-possibly the
| blowing up of the automobile.
Between this and a hurried weight
| ing Of the sheaf of blueprints with his
! fieldglass preparatory to a frst-aid
| dash down the outlet gorge, there was
no appreciate interval But when he
| came to his outlook halting place of
the night before, he saw that there had
been no accident. The big touring car
| yellow with the dust of the Buckskin
stood intact On the sand fiat where
| it had been backed and turned and
| headed toward the desert Wading in
| the shadows of the liver with linen
| dust robe for a seine, the two younger
men of the party were gathering the
choicest of the dead mountain trout
with which the eddy was thickly dot
ted.
Coming toward him on the upward
trail, and climbing laboriously to gain
the easier path among the pines, were
! the two remaining members of the
party-an elderly, pudgy, stockily built
man with a gray face, stiff gray mus
taches and sandy-gray eyes to match,
and the young woman, booted, gaunt-
| leted, yelled, and bulked into shape,
lessness by her touring coat. Brouil-
| lard had a sudden rush of blood to the
anger cells when he realized that the
alarm which had brought him two
hard-breathing miles out of his way
had been the discharge of stick OF
| dynamite thrown into the Niquoia for
the fish-killing purpose. II. his code
the dynamiting of stream figured as
a high crime. But the two on the trail
had come UP, and his protest was fore
| n1d n-Iyy
gray face and the sandy-gray eyes
whose explosive Hal was as much :.
| measure Of his breathlessness as OF
his surprise.
Il was just telling Van Bruce that
his laundering fish cartridge would
raise the neighbors, the trail climber
went on with a stout mans chuckle
And then: you're one of the reclama-
ton engineers? Great work the gov.
eminent is undertaking here You
are connected with it, aren't your
Brouillards nod was for the man,
but his words were for the young
woman whose beauty refused to be
quenched by the touring handicaps
Yes, l am in charge of it, he said
"Ha!" said the stout man, and this
time the exclamation was purely ap-
probative, Chief engineer, eh? That's
fine, fine! Ny name is Cartwright
J. Wesley Cartwright Of Chicago And
yours is-?"
Brouillard named himself in one
word. Strangers usually found him
bluntly unresponsive to anything like
effusiveness, but he was finding it GU
riously difficult to resist the good
natured heartiness which seemed to
exude from the laxative gentleman
OVERLAPPING him like the honeydew on
the leaves in droughty forest
If Mr.. J. Wesley Cortwright's sur
prise on hearing the Brouillard sur
name was not genuine it was at least
an excellent imitation.
! We'll, well, well-you don't say!
Not of the Brouillards of Knox county,
Indiana?-but OF course, you must be-