Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-26
Copyright by Chas. scribner's sons
(Continued)

(Continued)
"I didn't mean to reflect upon
Colonel Baldwin and his friends,
rejoined the eX-cashier good natur'
edly. 1T is nothing especially dis
crediting to them that they are not
up in all the tricks of a trade which
is not theirs. The financing of a
scheme like this has come to be a
business by itself, Mr.. Williams. and
it is hardly to be expected that a
group of inexperienced men could do
il successfully
The construction chief turned alb
ruptly upon his cost-cutter.
Keeping in mind what YOU said a
few minutes ago about back num-
bers.' would il be climbing over the
fence too far for me to ask If your
experience has been such as would
warrant you in tackling a job of this
kind"
THAT is a fair question, and can
answer ii straight said the man un-
der fire. I've had the experience"
Il thought so. If the colonel should
as YOU to, would you consider as a
possibility the taking of the doctors
job on this sick project of ours?"
NO" was the brief rejoinder.
why not?"
square window in the shack at the
busy scene on the dam stagings.
Because I'm not exactly a born
simpleton. Mr.. Williams. There are a
number of reasons which are purely
personal to me, and at least one
which cuts ice on your side of the
pond. Your financial DOCTOR as you
call him. would have to be trusted
absolutely in the handling of the
20 % y 10
securities. You could, and should, put
him under a fairly heavy bond. I'll
not so into it any deeper than to
say that l can't give bond"
Williams took his defeat, If 1t
could be called a defeat, without fur
ther protest.
I thought it might not be amiss to
talk 1t over with YOU" he said. You
say it is impossible, and perhaps it is.
But it won't do any harm for you to
think it over, and If L were YOU, I
shouldn't burn all the bridges behind
me-"
Smith went back to his work in the
quarry with a troubled mind. The
little heart-to- heart talk with Will
1liams had been sharply Oppressive.
1t had shown him, as nothing else
could, how limited for all the re-
mainder of his life his chances must
lie. That he would be pursued, that
descriptions and photographs of the
eX-cashier of the Lawrenceville Bank
and Trust Company were already cir
culating from hand to hand among
the paid man-Catchers, he did not
doubt for a moment. While he could
remain as Il workman unit in an
isolated construction camp, there
was some little hope that he might
be overlooked. But to become the
public character of Williams sug-
Eestion in peopled city was to run
TO meet his fate.
1t is said that the flow of a mighty
river may owe it's most radical
change in direction to the chance
thrusting of a twig into the current
at some critical instant in the rise
or fall of the flood. To the reincarn-
ated Smith, Charting his course upon
the conviction that his best chance
of immunity lay in isolation and a
careful avoidance of the peopled
towns, came the diverting twig in
this wise
on the second morning following
the unofficial talk with BARLEY Will
liams in the iron-sheeted headquart-
crs office at the dam, a delayed con-
slEnment of cement, steel and COM
missary SUPPLIES was due at the side
track mile below the camp. Per-
kins, the timekeeper, called Smith
from the quarry and gave him the
invoices covering the shipment.
4 guess you'd better go down to
the siding and check this stuff in, so
that we'll know what we're getting"
was his suggestion to the general
utility man.
When the crookings of the tote
road let Smith get his first sight of
the sidetrack. he saw that the train
was already in. A few minutes suf-
ficied for the checking. He sent the
unloading gang back to camp with
the teams, meaning to walk back
himself after he should have seen
the car of steel and the two cars of
cement kicked in at the upper end
of the sidetrack.
While he was waiting for the train
to pull up and make the shift, he was
commenting idly upon the clumsy
layout of the temporary unloading
yard, and wondering il Williams were
responsible for it. The siding was on
the outside of a curve and within a
hundred yards of the river bank.
There was scanty space for the un-
loading of material, and a good bit
of what there was was taken up by
the curVing spur which led off from
the siding to cross the river on a
trestle, and by the wagon road itself,
which come down a long hill on the
south side of the railroad and made
an abrupt turn to cross the main
track and the siding fairly in the
midst of things.
AS the long train pulled up to clear
the road crossing, Smith stepped
back and stood between the two
tracks. A moment later the cut was
made, and the forward section of the
train went on to set the three loaded
cars out at the upper switch. leaving
the rear half standing on the main
= line.
One of the men of the unloading
gang, a leather-faced grade sffoveler
who had helped to bufld the Nevada
Shore Line. had Jagged behind the
departing wagons to fill and light his
pipe.
Wouldn't that jar you up right
good and hard f'r a way to run a
railroad" he said to Smith, indicat-
ing the wholly deserted standing sec
ton of the freight with the burnt
match-end. Them fellies we all gone
off up ahead, a-leavin' this yere hind
end without sign of man r a flag
to take keer of it."
Smith was listening only with the
outward ear to what the pipe-lighteI
was saying. Somewhere in the west
ward distances a thunderous murmur
NraS draining nnon The xuind dIaaa q fr ~