The Huttig news., 1916-06-24
IE5A CHAPTER XVIII A The Setting of the Ebb


 peetations of the speculators-con1 trary, perhaps. even to those of MT. J. Wesley Cortwright-the upward surge in Mirapolis values, following the visit of the distinguished citizens" proved to be more than a tidal wave; it was series of them. Day after day the "curb" markets were reopened, with prices mounting skyward; and when the news of how fortunes could be made in a day in the Miracle city of 1 the Niquoia got abroad in the press dis patches there was fresh influx of mad money hunters from the East.
 Now, if never before, the croaker was wrathfully shouted down and si- l fenced. No one admitted or seemed to admit, the possible impermanence Of l the city.
 To the observer, anxious or casual. there appeared to be reasonable grounds for the optimistic asser.ion. It was an indubitable fact that Brouil- lard's force had been cut down, first to one-half, and later to barely enough men to keep the crushers and mixers moving and to add fresh layers of con- crete to the huge wall of sufficient quantities to prevent the material-in technical phrase-from dying" The Navajos had been sent home to their 1 reservation, the tepees were gone, and two-thirds of the camp shacks were empty.
 Past these material facts 1t wae known to everybody in the frenzied market place that Brouillard himself was. according to his means. one of l the most reckless of the plungers, buy. ing, borrowing, and buying again as If the future held no threat of possible debacle. It was an object lesson fol the timid. Those who did not them, selves know certainly argued thai there must be few who did know and among these few the chief of the reclamation service must be in tn. very foremost rank.
 For the better part of fortnight the l tidal waves of prosperity. as evinee6 by increasing speculative values, kept on rolling in, each one apparently lit tie higher than it's immediate prede cessor. Then the flood began to sub side, though so slowly that at first il was only by careful comparison ot the daily transfers that the recession could be measured
 Causes aid consequences eatraneoue to the city itself contributed to tho al most imperceptible reactionary ten. dency. For one, the Buckskin Mining and Milling company reluctantly aban doned it's pastime of blowing barron furrows on Jacks mountain, and a 1t, tie later went into liquidation, as the phrase ran. though tho eastern bond holders probably called 1t bankruptcy About the same tir1e the great cernen. plant, deprived of the government market by the slacken!ng O; the work on the dam, reduced it's output to less than one-fourth of it's full capacity. Most portentous Of all, perhaps, YVES the rumor that the plaoars at Qusi- jenai were beginning to show signs of exhaustion. It was even whispered about that the two huge gold drejgas recently installed were not paying the expenses of'operating them.
 Quite naturally, the pulse of the Wonder city beat sensitive to all these depressive rumors and incidents, re- spending slowly at first but a little later in accelerated throbbings which could no longer be ignored by the most optimistic bidder at the curb" ex- changes.
 Still there was no panic. AS the ac- tivities in local sales fell of and the Mirapolitans themselves were no lonS. CT crowding the curbs or standing in line at the real estate offices for their turn at the listings, the prudent ones, with MT. Cartwright and his chosen associates far in advance of the field. were placing Mirapolis holdings tempt ingly on view in distant markets; piac- ing them and selling them with blazonry of advertising worthy of the envy of those who have called them. selves the suburb builders Of Greater New York.
 It was after this invasion of the dis tant market was fully in train that Cartwright once more sent for brouil- lard, receiving the engineer this .iIle i'll the newest offices of the power com pany, on the many t:mes.b .bought-and- sold corner opposite Borgras'
 Hello, Brouilardi" said the mag nate jocosely, indicating chair and the never-absent open box of cigars in the same gesture. You're getting to be as much of a stranger as a man might wish his worst enemy to oe
 You sent for me-" Brouillar1 broke in tersely. More aud more he was coming to acknowledge a dull ra~a when he heard the can of his master.
 "Yes. What about the dam? Is you work going to start up again? Or Is