The Green Forest tribune., 1916-05-12


 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-devilish bad" The
 promoter was planted heavily in his pivot chair, and the sandy-gray eyes dwindled to pin points. We are up
 against 1t, 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: r 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. Cortwrights frown figured as 8 fieshly mask of irritability. Let il once get out that the railroad people
 don't believe in the future of Mirapo 3 lis and we're done" l Brouillard's retort was the expres. ? sion of an upf1ash of sanity.
 "Mirapolis has no future; it ha, l only an exceedingly precarious pres : ent'
 7. A 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; Mirapoli. ! is only good joke, after all. Some
 times I get bamfoozled 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, dt . you? What do you think?" n 'It is not my turn to think, MT. Cort Q wright"
 . "Oh, yes, it is; very pointedly. Your' :, one of us, to a certain extent; and 1 n you were not you would still be inter Q ested. A smash just now would ham .. per the reclamation service like tn n. mischief; the entire> works shut down .. no cement, no lumber, no power
 everything tied up in the courts unt1 v. the last creditor quits ta.king appeals ,s Oh, no, Brouillard; you idont want \ s. see the end of the worl come oefor lr it's due" II. -g..aipI a.I u was the consulting etl|h.n :, st the power company rather sb> n reclamation service chief W Q and went to the window to look d3 d upon the morning briskness of Oh ,, gringo avenue And it was the ma o who saw one hundred thousand do lars, the price of freedom, slippin ,. away from him who turned after . minute or two of the absent street gaz n ing and said: What do you want m |. to do, MT. Cartwright? I did put m. :, shoulder to the wheel when Ford wa
 here. I told him if were in his plac , I'd take the long chance and build th extension"
 Did you-and before you had ;
 stake in the game? That was whit' mans boost, right! Think you coult manage to get Ford on the wire ant encourage him little more?" "It isn't Ford; 1t is the New Yorl bankers. You can read that betweer the lines in your man Ackerman's tele gram"
 The stock gentleman in the pivo chair thrust out his jaw and tilted hi: 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 or Jacks mountain would only stumble across something big enough to adver tise-"
 Brouillard started as if the wishfu magic had been a blow. Like hot wave from furnace mouth it swept over him-the sudden realization thai the means the one all-powerful, earth moving lever the promoter was SC anxiously seeking, lay in his hands. "The Buckskin people, yes," he said
 making talk as the rifleman digs pii
 to hold his own on the firing line. "1i they should happen to uncover gold s reef just now it would simplify mat 8 ters immensely for Mirapolis, wouldn't r it? The railroad would come on, then n without a shadow of doubt. All the 3 bankers in New York couldn't hold il f back"
 + Now came MT. Cortwright's turn to
 get up and walk to one of the win @ dows.
 l Come here," he called curtly, with l quick finger crook for the engineer and when Brouillard joined him: I | Gan you size m that little caucuS