Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1917-06-27

motors found themselves confronting
invisible enemies and obstacle-raisers
at every turn.
The legal fight. as they soon found
out, cost much money in every phase
of 1t; and now, when the dam was
scarcely more than half completed
practically empty treasury was star
ing them In the face. There was no
Disgusting the fact that a crisis was
approaching. financial crisis which
no one among the amateur promoters
was big enough to cope with.
We've got TO go in deeper. colonel;
there is nothing else to do" was the
engineers summing up of the matter at
the close Of the conference THE snow
is melting pretty rapidly on the range
now, and when we get the June rise
We'll stand TO lose everything we have
if we can't keep every wheel turning
to get ready for the high water"
Baldwin was holding his cigar be-
tween his fingers and ScOwling at Il as
if 1t had mortally offended him.
Assessments on the stock. you
mean?" he said. I'm afraid our crowd
won't stand for that. A good part of 1t
is ready to lie down in the harness
right now"
How about a bond issue?" asked
the engineer.
"What do we. or any OF us know
about bond issues? Why. we knew
barely enough about the business at
the start to chip in together and buy us
charter and go to work on a plan a
little bit bigger than the neighborhood
ditch idea. You couldn't float bonds in
Timanyoni Park, and were none of us
foxy enough to go East and float EN-"
81 guess that's right. too" admitted
Williams. Besides. with the stock
gone off the way II has, it would take
mighty fine-haired financial sharp to
sell bonds
whats that?" demanded the presi-
dent. "Who's been selling any stock p
Buck Gardner for one: and that
man Boiling. up at the head of Little
creek, for another. Maxwell, the rail-
. road superintendent. told me about it,
and he says that the price offered, and
| accepted, was thirty-nine."
Dad burn cuss with a yellow
streak in him !" rasped the Missouri
colonel. eve had fair and square
agreement among ourselves that If any
body got scared he was to give the rest
of us chance to buy him out Who
bought from these welshers?"
Maxwell didn't know that. He said
ii was done through Kinzie's bank.
From what I've heard on the outside.
I'm inclined to suspect that Crawford
Stanton was the buyer"
stanton, the real-estate manT
"The same"
Again the president stared thought
fully at the glowing end of his cigar.
There's another of the COMPOUNDED
| mysteries" he growled who is Craw-
ford Stanton. and what is he here for7
know what he advertises. but every
body in Brewster knows that he hasn't
made living dollar in real estate
since he came here last summer. Will
llams, do you know. I'm beginning to
suspect that there Is mighty big
niger In our little wood pile?"
You mean that all these stubborn
holdups have been bought and paid
for? You'll remember that is what
Billy Starbuck tried TO tell us when
the first of the missing mining claim
owners began to shout at us"
"Starbuck has long head. and what
he doesn't know about mining claims In
this part of the country wouldn't fill a
very big book. I remember he said
there had never been any prospecting
done in the upper Timanyoni gulches,
and now you'd think half the people in
the United States had been nosing
around up there with a pick and shovel
at one time or another. But II was a
thing that Starbuck told me no longer
ago than yesterday mat set me to
thinking" Baldwin went on. Gas you
know. the old Escalante Spanish grant
: corners over In the western part of this
park. When The old grants were made,
they were ruled off on the map with
out reference TO mountain ranges or
other natural barriers"
Williams nodded.
We'll as l say, one corner Of the Es-
calante reaches over tne HOphras and
out into the park covering about eight
or ten square miles of the territory
just beyond us on our side of the river
Starbuck told me yesterday that big
Eastern colonization company had got
bill through congress alternating that
tract"
The chief of construction bounded
out of his chair and began 70 walk the
floor "By George - he said; and
| again: "By George! That's what
we're up against, colonel Where will
those fellows get the water for their
land? There is no site for dam lower
down than ours. and. anyway. that land
lies too high TO be wagered by any
thing but nighttime ditch -
mice little brace game. isn't it,"
g1owled Baldwin. IF we hadn't been
a lot Of hayseed amateurs. we might
have found ort long ago that someone
was running in a cold deck on US.
What's your notion7 Are we done up,
world without endf"