The Pulaskian., 1916-03-24

time his hint had grown to rumor size MT. Cartwright had sent for Brouil- lard
 Pull up chair and have a cigar" said the great man when Brouillard had penetrated to the nerve-center of the Mirapolitan activities in the, Metro pole suite and the two stenographers had been curtly dismissed. Have you heard the talk of the street? There is rumor that the railroad grading has been stopped"
 Brouillard, busy with the work of setting the third series of forms on his great wall, had heard nothing.
 I've noticed that they haven't been blasting for two or three days. But that may mean nothing more than a delayed shipment of dynamite" was his rejoinder.
 "It looks bad-deyilish bad" The promoter was planted heavily in his pivot chair, and the sandy-gray eyes dwindled to pin points. We are up against it, that's all Read that" and the promoter handed a telegram across the desk.
 The wire was from Chicago, was signed "Ackerman," and was still damp from the receiving operator's copying press. It read:
 Work on P S-W.'s Buckskin ex tension has been suspended for the present. Reason assigned, shrinkage in securities and uncertainty of busi ness outlook in Niquoia."
 Mr. Cortwright's frown figured as 8 fleshly mask of irritability. Let it once get out that the railroad people don't believe in the future of Mirapo. lis and we're done."
 Brouillard's retort was the expres. sion of an upflash of sanity.
 "Mirapolis has no future; it haf only an exceedingly precarious pres ent.''
 For a moment the sandy-gray eye became inscrutable. Then the masl of irritation slid aside, revealing tn, face which MT. J. Wesley Cartwright ordinarily presented to his world the face of imperturbable good nature
 You're right, Brouillard; Mirepelis is only a good joke, after all. Some times I get bamfooz1ed into the idea that it isn't-that it's the real thing That's bad for the nerves. But about this railroad fizzle; I don't relish the notion of having our little joke sprung on us before we're ready to laugh, de ryo.xc VNIof 1o xyof1 +hiuIx
 .It is not my turn to think, MT. Cort wright"
 "Oh, yes, it is; very pointedly. You're one of us, to certain extent; and il, you were not you would still be inter ested A smash just now would ham per the reclamation service like the mischief; the entire works shut down; no cement, no lumber, no power; everything tied up in the courts until the last creditor quits taking appeals Oh, no, Brouillard; you don't want to see the end of the world come before it's due.'
 It was the consulting engineer ot the power company rather than the reclamation service chief who rose and went to the window to look down upon the morning briskness of Chi gringo avenue. And it was the man who saw one hundred thousand dol. lars, the price of freedom, slipping away from him who turned after 9 minute or two of the absent street gag ing and said: What do you want me to do, MT. Cartwright? I did put my shoulder to the wheel when Ford was here. I told him if were in his place I'd take the long chance and build the extension.'
 Did you-and before you had a stake in the game? That was white mans boost, right! Think you could manage to get Ford on the wire and encourage him little more?"
 Tt isn't Ford; it is the New York bankers. You can read that between the lines in your man Ackerman's tele. gram"
 The stock gentleman in the pivot chair thrust out his jaw and tilted his freshly-lighted cigar to the aggressive angle.
 Say, Brouillard, we've got to throw fresh piece of bait into the cage, something that will make the railroad crowd sit up and take notice. By George, if those gold hunters up on Jacks mountain would only stumble across something big enough to adver. tise-"
 Brouillard started as if the wishful magic had been a blow. Like q hot wave from a furnace mouth it swept over him-the sudden realization that the means, the one all-powerful, earth moving lever the promoter was so anxiously seeking, lay in his hands.
 "The Buckskin people, yes," he said. making talk as the rifleman digs pit to hold his own on the firing line. If they should happen to uncover a gold reef just now it would simplify mat ters immensely for Mirapolis, wouldn't 1t? The railroad would come on, then, without shadow of doubt. All the bankers in New York couldn't hold it back"
 Now came MT. Cortwright's turn to get up and walk to one of the win