Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-23

put him into the quarry az first a!
you suggested, and in three days h,
had revolutionized things to the tun,
of 20 per cent. saving in production
costs. Then 1 gave him n hack at tn,
concrete-mixers, and he's makirs
good again in the cost reduction
That seems to be his specially"
The president nodded and was suf
ffciently interested to follow up VIVA
had been merely casual inquiry.
What are you coIling him now
"a betterment engineer! You know
your first guess was that he Wa:
somebody's bookkceper out of {
| job
He's a three-cornerel puzzle tC
me, yet. He isn't an engineer, bu
| when YOU drag bunch of COS
money up the trail, lie goes after il
/ Ike a dog after rabbit. I'm Du'
/ anxious to lose him, but l really De
lieve YOU could make better use o.
him here in the town office than
/ can on the job"
/ Baldwin was shaking his head
| obviously.
I'm afraid he'd have to loosen UP
/ on his record a little before we could
I bring him in here. Badly as were
needing 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. ! 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 Sat-
urday night. When he came into the
office Smith was busy with an esti-
mate, and Burdell 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
Baldwin had been the first regularly
elected sheriff of Timanyoni county
in the early days and he knew the
symptoms. Was Burdell wearing his
star where it could be SEEM"
The engineer nodded.
What explanation did Smith
make? ?"
"Oh. he apologized like a gentle
man, and said he was subject to little
nervous attacks like that when any
body touched him Unexpectedly. He
took Burdell over to Pete Simm' S
shack saloon and bought him a
drink. Perkins. the timekeeper, says
he's going to get 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
/ f1ig aF-g- Nj . -
saying: Light up 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.
I've 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 embezzler. and yet it's pretty
apparent that he's been used ia
/ handling money in chunks and ma
| king it work for it's living. I've put
| it up that there's a woman in il. Per-
| haps the other fellow 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
l have to-"
Colonel Baldwin helped himself tC
one of his own cigars, and the talk
went back to business. In the irri-
/ cation project, Williams was a stock
I holder as we'll as chief of construc-
| ton, and Baldwin had more than
once found him a safe adviser. There
was need for counsel. The Timan-
yoni Ditch company was in rather
| hazardous condition financially, and
the president and Williams rarel,