Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1917-09-07
CHAPTER X.
The Rocket and the Stick.

The Rocket and the Stick.
For a full fortnight after the pre-
liminary visit to the Brewster City
National bank Smith was easily the
busiest man in Timanyoni county. Es-
tablishing himself in the Hophra
House, and disCarding the working
khaki only because he was shrewd
enough to dress the new part becom-
ingly, he flung himself into what
Colonel Baldwin called the miracle
working campaign with a zest that
knew no tagging moment.
Within the fourteen-day period new
town offices We're occupied on the Sec
ond floor of the Brewster City Ma
tional building; Stillings, most efficient
of corporation cOunSelS, had secured
the new charter; and the stOck-books
of Timanyoni High Line had been
opened, with the Brewster City Ma
tional named as the cOmpany's deposit
tory and official tiduciary agent.
At the dam the building activities
had been generously doubled. An cleo
trio light plant had been installed, and
Williams was working day and night
shifts both in the quarrieS and on the
forms. Past this, the new financial
manager, himself broadening rapidly
as his field brOadened, was branching
out in other directions. After brief
conference with few Of his principal
stockholders he had instructed Stillings
to include the words Power and Light
In the catalOguing of the new COM
pany's possible and probable charter
activities, and by the end OF the fort
night the foundations of pOwerhOuse
were going in below the dam, and ne
gotiationS were already on foot with
the Brewster city council looking to-
ward the sale of electric current to the
city for lighting and other purposes.
Smith had made the planting of his
financial anchor securely to windward
| his first care. Furnished with a select
ed list by Colonel Baldwin, he had
made thorough canvas of possible in
vestors, and by the time the new stock
was printed and ready for delivery
| through Kinzie's bank. an irOnClad pool
of the majority Of the original Timan-
yOni Ditch stock had been organized.
and Smith had sold to Maxwell. Star
| buck, and other local capitalists suf-
| ficient amount OF the new treasury
stock to give him fighting chance :
! this, with a promise of more if it
should be needed.
Not to Maxwell or to any of the new
! investors had STlith revealed the full
| dimensions of the prize for which Tim
anyOni High Line was entering the
race. Colonel Baldwin and one Will
liam Starbuck, Maxwelrs brOther-in-
| the Little Alice mine, alone knew the
| wheel within the wheel; how the great
| eastern utility corporation represented
! by Stanton had spent a million or
more in the acquisition of the Esca-
lante grant, which would be practical.
ly worthless as agricultural land with
out the water which could be obtained
only by means of the TimanyOni dam
and canal system.
With all these strenuous STRINGS in
the business field 1t may say itself that
Smith found little time for social in
dulgences during the crowded fort
night. Day after day the colonel begged
him to take night off at the ranch,
and it was even more difficult to refuse
the proffered hospitality at the week
end. But Smith did refuse it.
1t was not until after Miss Corona
| driving to town with her father as she
frequently did-had thrice visited the
new Offices that Smith began to con-
graduate himself, rather bitterly, to
be sure, upon his wisdom in staying
away from Hillcrest. For one thing
he was learning that Corona Baldwin
was able to make him see rose-colored
When she was not with him, he was q
man In daily peril of meeting the
sheriff. But when she was present
calm sanity had a way of losing its
grip.
Miss Corona's fourth visit to the
handsome suite Of offices over the
Brewster City National CHANGED to
fall upon a Saturday. Her father
president of the new company, as he
had been of the old, had private of.
flee of his own, but Miss Corona soon
drifted out to the railed-off end of the
larger room, where the financial Sec
rotary had his desk.