Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1917-08-29
CHAPTER iV-Continued.

I'm afraid he'd have to loosen up
on his record a little before we could
bring him in here. Badly as we're
needing a money man, we can hardly
afford to put a John Smith into the
saddle-at least not without knowing
what his other name used to be-"
NO; of course not. I guess, after
all, he's only a lame duck like a good
many of the rest of them. Day before
yesterday, Burdell, the deputy sheriff,
was out at the camp looking the gangs
over for the fellow who broke into
Lannigan's place last Saturday night.
When he came into the office Smith
was busy with an estimate, and Bur
dell went up and touched him on the
shoulder. just to let him know that it
was time to wake up. Suffering cats !
1t took three of us to keep him from
breaking Burdell in two and throwing
him out of the Window"
THAT looks rather bad" was the
presidents comment. Col. Dexter Bald
win had been the first regularly elect
ed sheriff of Timanyoni county in the
early days and he knew the symptoms.
"Was Burdell wearing his star where
it could be seen?"
The engineer nodded.
"What explanation did Smith make?"
"Oh, he apologized like a gentleman,
and said he was subject to little nerv-
Gus attacks like that when anybody
foIohnI him 1oovnnotoJ1r H. 4ooJ,
Burdell over to Pete Simm's shack sa-
loon and bought him a drink. Perkins,
the timekeeper, says he's going to get
a megaphone so he can give due notice
in advance when he wants to call
Smiths attention..
The colonel pulled out a drawer in
the desk, found his box of diplomatic
cigars and passed it to the engineer,
saying: Light up a ~sure-enough good
one, and tell me what you think Smith
has been doing back yonder in the
other country"
Williams took the cigar but he SHE'D
at the conundrum.
"Ask me something easy" he said,
"Ive stacked up a few guesses. He's
from the middle West-as the Bible
says, his speech betrayeth' him-and
he's had a good job of some kind; the
kind that required him to keep abreast
of things. If there's anything in looks,
you'd say he wasn't a thief or an en-
bezzler, and yet it's pretty apparent
that he's been used to handling money
a. ol,,a1-, ,-J ,,o1;rr 81 1Y-orly p0p itS
living. I've put it up that there's a
woman in it. Perhaps the other fell
low got in his way, or came up behind
him and touched him unexpectedly. or
something of that sort. Anyway, I'm
not going to believe he's a crooked
crook until I have to-"
Colonel Baldwin helped himself to
one of his w cigars, and the talk
went back to business. In the irri-
cation project, Williams was a stock
holder as we'll as chief of construction,
and Baldwin had more than once
found him a safe adviser. There was
need for counsel. The Timanyoni
Ditch company was in a rather hazard-
Gus condition financially, and the presi-
dent and Williams rarely met without
coming sooner or later to a threshing
out of the situation.
The difficulties were those which are
apt to confront a small and local enter
prise when it is SO unfortunate as to
get in the way of larger undertakings.
Colonel Baldwin, and a group of his
neighbors on the north side of the
river, were reformed cattlemen and
horse breeders. Instead of drifting
farther west in advance of the incom-
ing tide of population following the
coming OF the railroad, they had
awaited themselves of their homestead
rights and had taken up much of the
grass land in the favorable valleys, ir-
rigating it at first with water taken
out of the river in private or neighbor-
hood bitches.
Later on came the sheep-feeding
period, and after that the utilization
of larger c%rop-raising areas. The small