Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-30
CHAPTER VII.
IiDlnnyOni Ditch

Smith had his vote of thanks from
Colonel Dexter Baldwin in Williams
sheet-iron office at the dam, the col
onel having driven out to the camp
Tor the express purpose and the
chief of construction himself was not
present.
you've loaded us up with toler-
al. heavy obligation, Smith-Cor-
rvs mother and me-" was the way
the colonel summed up. IF you
hadn't been on deck and strictly on
the Job at that railroad crossing yes
terday morning"
Don't mention it. colonel" Smith
broke in. Il did nothing more than
any man would have done for any
woman. You know it, and | know it.
Lets leave Il that way and forget il.
The tall Mssourian's laugh was
entirely approbative.
Il like that" he said. It's a good
man n-fashioned way of looking al it,
You know how | feel about it-how
any father would feel; and that's
enough"
Plenty" was the brief reioinder.
But there's another chapter to it
that neither of us can cross out;
you'll have to come out to the ranch
and let Corry's mother have a hack
ut you Baldwin went on. Il couldn't
figure you out of that if I should try
And now about those claim jumpers:
J suppose YOU didn't know any of
them by name?'
CORY says you gave them the
time of their lives. BY George. | wish
I'd been there to see!" and the col
onel slapped his leg and laughed
Did they look like the real thing
sure-enough prospectors?"
"TheV looked like n buncI Of bira1
assassins,' said Smith. with a grin.
IT'S some more of the interference,
isn't it,"
The colonel's square jaw settled
into the fighting angle.
How much do you know about
this business miX-up of Gus, Smith ~
he asked.
''All that Williams could tell me in
a little heart-to-heart talk we had
the other day"
you agreed with him that there
was tolerably big Niger in the
woodpile, didn't your"
u had already gathered that much
from the camp gossip
well, it's so. We're just about as
helpless as a bunch of cattle in a
sinkhole,' was the ranchman presl-
dents confirmation of the camp
guesses. What in the name of the
than we have done?"
There are u number OF things that
might be done" said Smith, falling
back refectively upon the presum-
ably dead and buried bank cashier
part of him. And if you can manage
to stay in the game and play it out,
there is big money in it for all of
you; enough to make it well worth
while for you to put up the fight of
your lives"
Big money?-.you mean in saving
our investment"
"Oh, no; not at all; in cinching the
other fellows" Smith put in genially.
Colonel Dexter Baldwin lifted his
Z soft hat and ran his fingers through
his grizzled hair.
Say, Smith; you mustn't forget
that I'm from Missouri" he said half
quiZzically.
But l shouldn't think you'd need
to be shown in this particular in
stance" was the smiling rejoinder.
THE chance to sell you people water
from your own dam isn't the only
thing or the main thing in this case.
They are obliged to have this dam
site, or, at least, one as high up the
river as this, in order to get the
water over to their newly alienated
grant in the western half of the
park"
you've got it straight" said the
colonel.
Very good. Then they're simply
obliged to have your dam, Or Don't
you see the alternative now. col
onel?"
Heavens to Betsy exclaimed