Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-06-08

now, and when we get the June rise
Wen stand to lose everything we have
IL 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 1t as
If 1t had mortally offended him.
Assessments on the stock, you
mean?" he said. 'T'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 issue2' 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
little bit bigger than the neighborhood
ditch idea. You couldn't float bonds in
Timanyoni Park, and we're none of us
foxy enough to go East and float 'em."
81 guess that's right, too" admitted
Williams. Besides, with the stock
gone Off the way it has, it would take
a mighty fine-haired financial sharp to
sell bonds"
whats that?" demanded the presi-
dent who's been selling any stock?"
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. "We had a 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 welshersY
Maxwell didn't know that. He said
1t 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 MANI"
"The same"
Again the president stared thought
fully at the glowing end of his cigar.
There's another of the confounded
mysteries" he growled. "Who is Craw-
ford Stanton, and what is he here for?
know what he advertises, but every
body in Brewster knows that he hasn't
made a living dollar in real estate
since he came here last summer. Will
liams, do you know, I'm beginning to
suspect that there is a 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 minlng-claim
owners began to shout at u.s."
"Starbuck has long head, and what
he doesn't know about mining claims in
this part of the country wouldn't fill n
very big book. 1 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
ut 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. "As Won
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, one corner of the Es-
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 bic
Eastern colonization company had got
bill through congress alternating that
tract"
The chief Of construction bounded
out of his chair and began to walk the
floor. "By George! I" he said; an6
again: "By Georgel That's what
we're up against, colonel! Where will
those fellows get the water for theil
land? There Is no site for a dam lower
down than ours, and, anyway, that lant
lies too high to be watered by any
thing but high-line ditch I"
"Nlce little brace game, isn't it?'
growled Baldwin. "If we hadn't beer
lot of hayseed amateurs, we nigh
have found out long ago that someon,
was running in a cold deck on us
What's your notion? Are we done up
, world without endT
, Williams laugh was grim.
, "What we need, colonel, is to 90 ou
on the street and yell for DOCTOR" h.
q said. "Its beginning to look as If w
} had acquired pretty bad case of ma
I lignant strangle-itis."
r Baldwin ran his fingers through hi
: hair and admitted that he had lost hi
q sense of humor.
4 "This Eastern crowd IS trying (
: freeze us out, to get our dam and resel
n voir and ditch rights for their Esca
4 lante scheme. When they do, they
$ turn around and sell us water-at fit
e dollars an inch, or something lik
O that p
: "What breaks my heart is that W
, haven't been able to surround the sure
g enough fact while there was still tim
s to do something" lamented the el
reclamation man. "The first thing W
d know, Stanton will own a majority {
e the stock and be voting us all out {
S job. You'll have to come around {
a my suggestion, after all, and advertis
= for a doctor" 1t was said of the chic
o Of construction that he would hay
q foIy hf1 -Bn6 nd 20
h lower for the joke, he added: "Wh
8 don't you call Smith in and give hil
the job"
!; "You don't really mean that. Wi
e llams, do your" growled the colonel.
It "No, didn't mean it when said it
" | Nvns the on rinner,s admission 81 Nrf