The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1916-07-14

4
ordered to take charge OF the make.
shift concrete handlers as fast as they
materialized. squadding them and driv-
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 exne.
dents. The lower avenue had already
become double rank of dives, saloons
and gambling dens; here, if anywhere
In the crazedepopulated 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 we'll try to fill your gangs the
best way we can"
You'll be up on the staglngs 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, solutions, 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 q
dropping fire; a 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 9
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 Q
| Quickstep, Brouillard and Tig Smith
II was hot work and heavy for the
strangely assorted crew, and Brouil
lard drove it to the limit, bribing, ca
ioling or threatening, patrolling the
long line Of staging to encourage the
awkward puddlers, or side-stepping
swiftly to the mixers to bring back q
detachment Of skulkers at the rifles
muzzle. And by nightfall the thing
was done, with the loss reduced to q
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 IL we come bach
tomorrow, Mr.. Brouillard2" 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 descent upon the sup
per table. But Brouillard was dumt
and haggard, and when he had hung
his rife and cartridge belt on theil
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 10 no one in par
ticular, and it was Leshington who
took him up savagely and invited hin
to hold his tongue.
THE least said Is the soonest
mended--at a 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 were ringing
In Brouillard's ears when he strobe de
iectedly into the deserted maproom
and the cries were rising with a new
note and IN fresher frenZies little
later when Grislow came in. The by
drographer'a blue eyes were hard and
his voice had tang OF bitterness II
It when he said: well, you've done It
Three men have just come in with q
double handful Of nuggets, and Mirap
oils makes its bow. to the world al
large as the newest and richest Of
the gold camps"