Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-05-25

daylight that remained. First, climb
ing nervously to the puddlers' staging
the great dam. and EPnodles
himself, came the Metropole quota. Of
| walters, scullions, cooks and porters,
willing but skill-less. After them, and
nerded by Leshington, came a 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 a
dropping fire; handful of tree-cutters
from the sawmills. a 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 nc means least in mum.
bers, came the human derelicts from
the lower avenue; men in frock-coats;
men in cowboy jeans taking it as a
huge joke; men with foreign faces and
lowering brows and with strange .naths
IN their mouths; and behind the mot
ley throng and marshaling it to a
quickstep, Brouillard and Tig Smith.
1t was hot work and heavy for the
strangely assorted crew, and Brouil-
lard drove it to the limit, bribing, ca
1oling 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 a
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 job if we come back
tomorrow, Mr.. Brouillard?" 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 dumb
and haggard, and when he had hung
his rife and cartridge belt on their
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 to no one in par
ticular, and it was Leshington who
took him up savagely and invited him
to hold his tongue.
"The least said is the soonest
mended-at a funeral" was the form
the first assistants rebuke took. You
take my advice and don't mess or
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 a little
later when Grislow came in. The n.y.
drographer's blue eyes were hard and
his voice had a tang of bitterness in
it when he said: "Well, you've done it.
Three men have just come in with a
double handful of nuggets, and Mirap-
oils makes it's bow to the world at
large as the newest and richest of
the gold camps"
Brouillard had been bumped over
his desk, and he sprang up with cry
like that of wounded animal.
1T can't be; Grizzly, I tell you it
can't be! Steve Massingale planted
that gold that I washed out-played
me for a fool to get me to work for
the railroad | didn't know it until
until"
Until Amy Massingale told you
about it this afternoon" cut in the
mapmaker shrewdly. That's all right.
The bar Steve took you to was barren
enough; they tell me that every cubic
foot of it has been washed over in
dishpans and skillets in the past few
hours. But you know the big bend OPP
posite the Quadjenai hills; the river
has built that bend out of its own
washings, and the bulletin over at the
Spotlight Office says that the entire
peninsula is one huge bank of gold
bearing gravel"
At the word Brouillard staggered as
from the impact Of a bullet. Then he
crossed the room slowly, cropping his
way toward the peg where the coat he
had worn in the afternoon was hang
ing. Grislow saw him take something
out of the pocket of the coat, and the
next moment the door opened and
closed and the photographer was left
alone.
Having been planned before there
was city to be considered, the gov
eminent buildings inclosed three sides
of a small open square, facing toward
the great dam. In the middle of this
open space Brouillard stopped, kicked
up little mound of earth, and stood
the two paper cylinders on it, side by
side.
The tempered glow from the city
electrics made soft twilight in the
little plaza; he could see the wrapper
colors of the two signal fires quite
well A sharp attack of indecision had
prompted him to place both of them on
the tiny mound. With the match in
his hand, he was still undecided Amy
|7IT[|II : 81 70
IIIlk1 $50 49, ~, ~ XXI