Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1916-09-07
CHAPTER xIV-continued.

'I didn't know you could be so con-
vincing," was Miss Genevieve's COM
ment. ut was splendid! Nobody will
ever believe that you are going to go
on building your dam and threatening
to drown us, after this"
what did l say?" queried Brouil-
lard, having, at the moment, only the
haziest possible idea of what he had
said.
"As If you didn't know!" she
laughed. "You congratulated every
body. And the funny thing about 1t is
that you didn't say single word about
the Niquoia DAM"
Didn't 1? That shows how COM
pletely your father has converted me,
how helplessly I am carried along on
the torrent Of events"
"But you are not" she said accus-
ingly. Deep down in your inner con-
seriousness you don't hAieve little bit
in Mirapolis. You ar% only playing the
game with the rest Of us, Mr.. Brouil-
lard"
German, Mr.. Cortwright's ablest
trumpeter in the realestate booming,
was holding the plaza crowd spell
bound with prophetic outlining Of the
Metropolitan future.
In the middle distance and back
grounding the buildings on the oppo-
site side Of the plaza, rose the false
work of the great dana standing for
est of sawed timbers, whose afternoon
shadows were already pointing like a
many-flngered fate toward the city of
the plain. But, though the face of the
speaker was toward the shadowing for
est, his words ignored it. "The snow
capped Timayonis," "the mighty Chi
gringo," and "the golden-veined slopes
of Jacks mountain" all came in for eC-
logistic mention; but the massive wall
of concrete, with its bristling parapet
of timbers, had no part in the orators
fiamboyant descriptive.
Brouillard loved Amy Massingale
with passion which, however blind it
ssmight be on the side of the higher
moralities, was still keen-sighted
enough to assure him that every
plunge he made in the Metropolitan
whirlpool was sweeping him farther
away from her.
He had transferred the power COM
pany's stock, minus single share to
q cover his official standing on the
power company's board, to Cartwright,
and had opened an account at the Nj
quota National. The ninety-nine thou
sand nine hundred dollars had since
grown by speculative accretions to the
rounded eighth of million which all
flnanciers agree in calling the stepping
stone to fortune.
He had regarded this money-was
still regarding it-7as loan; his lever
with which to pry out something which
he could really call his own. But more
and more possession and use were dull
ing the keen edge of accountability
and there were moments of insight
when the grim irony of taking the
price Of honor to pay an honor debt
forced itself upon him. At such mo-
ments he plunged more recklessly, in
one of them taking stock in a gold
dredge company which was to wash
nuggets by the wholesale out of the
Quadjenai bend, in another buying yet
other options in the newest suburb of
Mirapolis.
With the waning Of the day Of cele-
brations the temper of the street
throngs was changing. 1t is only the
people Of the Latinized cities who can
take the carnival spirit lightly; in
other blood liberty grows to license
and the thin veneer of civilized re-
straints quickly disappears. From
early dawn the saloons and dives had
been adding fuel to the flames, and
light-heartedness and good-natured
horseplay were giving way to sardonic
humor and brutality.
In the short taring through the