Mexico Missouri message., 1917-07-12

AFTER some little bargaining, the
dam site and the overflow land for the
reservoir lake had been secured. and
the work was begun. Out of a clear
| sky, however, came trouble and harass.
ment. Alien holders of mining claims
In the reservoir area turned up and
demanded damages. Some few home.
steaders who had promised TO sign
quitclaims changed their minds and
sued for relief, and after the work was
well under way it appeared that there
was cloud on the title of the dam site
itself. All of these clashings were car
ried into court, and the rancher pro-
motors found themselves confronting
invisible enemies and obstacle-raisers
at every turn.
The legal fight as they soon found
out, cost much money In every phase
Of It; and now, when the dam was
scarcely more than half completed, a
practically empty treasury was star
ing them in the face. There was no
Disgusting the fact that a crisis was
approaching, q finadcial crisis which
no one among the amateur promoters
was big enough to cope with.
"We've got to go IN deeper, colonel {;
there is nothing else ito do" was the
engineers summing uR of the matter at
the close of the conference. "The snow
is melting pretty ra pidiS on the range
now, and when we get ethe June rise
We'll stand to lose everything we have
If we can't keep eyar*b wheel turning
to get ready for the Righ water"
Baldwin was hoIdthg o.his cigar be-
tween his fitgets' and $S3wling at it as
If 1t had mortality oheRaed him.
Assessments on 1the stock, you
mean?" he saidM6I I'd afraid our crowd
won't stand for that "A good part of it
is ready to lbe do Hh in the harness
right now"
"How about a bond issue?" 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 a
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 EN-"
81 guess that's right. too" admitted
Williams. Besides, with the stock
gone off the way it has, it would take
mighty fine-haired financial sharp to
sell bonds"
whats that?" demanded the presl-
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. ave had a fair and square
agreement among ourselves that If any
body got scared he was 10 give the rest
of us chance to buy him out. Who
bought from these weIshersT
Maxwell didn't know that. He said
it was done through Klnzie'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 manr7
"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
Hams, do you know, I'm beginning to
suspect that there is a mighty big
niger In our little wood plle?"
"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 mining 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 q
very big book. / remember he said
there had never been any prospecting
done in the upper Tlmanyoni gulches
and now you'd think half the people in
the United States had been nosing
around up there with pick and shovel
at one time or another. But it was Q
thing that Starbuck told me no longer
ago Than yesterday that set me t.
thinking" Baldwin went on. "As you
know, the old Escalante Spanish grant
corners over In the western part of thl;
park. When the old grants were made
| thn.r ,....... ,.r,Ind az IN Ahn r,np MIL