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

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 a long head, and what
he doesn't know about mining claims in
this part of the country wouldn't fill a
very big book. l 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 it was a
thing that Starbuck told me no longer
ago than yesterday that 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. .
well, as L say, n corner of the Els
calante reaches over the 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 a big
Eastern colonization company had got
a bill through congress alternating that
tract"
The chief of construction bounded
out of his chair and began to walk the
floor. SPY 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 a dam lower
down than ours, and, anyway, that land
lies too high to be watered by any,
thing but a nighttime ditch! !"
"Nice little brace game, isn't #?
growled Baldwin. IF we hadn't been
a lot of hayseed amateurs. we might
have found out long ago that someone
was running in a cold deck on us.
What's your notion? Are we done up,
world without end?"
Williams laugh was grim.
"What we need, colonel, is to go out
on the street and yell for a DOCTOR" he
said. ITS beginning to look as if we
had acquired a pretty bad cas- of ma
lignant strangle-itis."
Baldwin ran his fingers through his
hair and admitted that he had lost his
Ems of humor.
This Eastern crowd is trying to
freeze is out, to get wi dam and reser-
voir and ditch rights for their Esca-
lante scheme. When they do, they'll
turn around and sell us water-at fifty
dollars an inch. or something like
that !"
what breaks my heart is that we
haven't been able to surround the sure
enough fact while there was still time
to do something" lamented the ex-
reclamation man. "The first thing we
know, Stanton will wv a majority of
the stock and be voting us all out of
a job. You'll have to cOme around to
my suggestion, after all, and advertise
for a DOCTOR 1t was said of the chief
of construction that he would have
joked on his death-bed. and, as a fol-
lower for the joke, he added: "Why
don't you call Smith in and give him
the job?"
"You don't really mean that, Will
liams, do you?" growled the colonel.
"No, l didn't mean it when l said it."
was the engineers admission; 81 vas
only trying to get a rise out of you. But
really, colonel, on second thought, [
don't know but it is worth considering.
AS l say, Smith seems to know the
money game from start to finish. What
is better still, he is a fighter from the
word go-what you might call a joyous
fighter. Suppose you drive out tomor-
row or next day and pry into him a
little"
The rancher-president had relapSed
once more into the slough of discour-
agement.
"You are merely grabbing for hand
holds, Bartley-as | was a minute ago.
We are in a bad row of stumps when
we can sit here and talk seriously
about roping down a young hobo and
putting him into the financial harness.
Let's go around to F~rascati's and eat
before you go back to camp. It's bread
time, anyway"
The chief of construction said no
more about his joking suggestion at the
moment, but when they were walking
around the square to the Brewster Del
monico's he went back to the dropped
subject in all seriousness, saying:
"Just the same, wish you could know
Smith and size him up as l have. l
can't help believing, some way, that
he's all to the good"
CHAPTER "