The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1917-06-30
CHAPTER IV-continued.

on his record little before we could
bring him in here. Badly as we're
needing money man. we can hardly
afford to put q 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 lame duck like 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
1T could be scent"
The engineer nodded.
"What explanation did Smith maker
ooh, he apologized like gentleman,
and said he was subject to little nerv-
Gus attacks like that when anybody
touched him Unexpectedly. He took
Burdell over to Pete Simm's shack sa-
loon and bought him 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 drawer In
the desk, found his box Of diplomatic
cigars and passed 1t to the engineer,
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,
ave stacked up few guesses. He's
from the middle West-as the Bible
SAYS, his speech betrayeth' him-and
he's had q 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 thief or an en-
'bezzler, and yet it's pretty apparent
that he's been used to handling money
In chunks and making 1t work for Its
living. I've put it up that there's q
woman in It. Perhaps the other fel-
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 have to-"
Colonel Baldwin helped himself to
one of his own cigars, and the talk
went back to business. In the irri-
cation project, Williams was 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 Ttmanyonl
Ditch company was In rather hazard
ous condition financially, and the presi.
dent and williams rarely met without
coming sooner or later to threshine
out of the situation.
The diffculties were those which are
ant to confront q small and local enter
Drise when It Is so unfortunate as to
GOT In the way Of larger undertakings
Colonel Baldwin. and group OF his
ineighbors on the north side OF the
river. were reformed cattiemen ano
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
lights and had taken up much OF the
rass land In the favorable valleys, r.
rtgating it at first with water taken
ont of the river in private or neignoor'
hood bitches.
later on came the sheep-feeding
neriod. and after that the utilization
Of larger crop-raising areas. The small
.d,tcbes proving inadequate for these
Colonel Baldwin had formed a stocs
company among his neighbors IN the
GRO 60 lands and his friends in Brewster
eor the building Of a substantial dam
a. tho eastern hills. The project mao
seemed simple enough in the beginning
The stock vas sold for cash and each
.stockholder would be participating
user of the water. Williams, VINO mac
rhoon q United States reclamation man
before he came. to the Timanyoni. hao
made careful estimates, and the stocs
subscription provided money enough
70 cover the cost Of the dam and the
main Glitch.