The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1919-06-28

|
MarshalrS clerks. He was given
short time to blow himself out. A
boOkman, theorist.
AS we'll put sentinelS a few miles
from prison and leave the Jail doors
OPEN This was WooSter's gibe. All
saw the Colorado as marauder M
large. And a little heap of sand
stacked up to scare it of. It's a
Screamr'
Mrs. Hardin found it difficult 10
meet with diplomacy the condolences
which inevitably came her way. As
llardin'S wife she was expected to en-
joy the universal censure the new man
was acquiring. Gertys light touches.
too slight for championship, passed as
Il sweet charity. Her own position
those days was trying. She did not
Yet know her diplomatic lesson.
Apparently unaware of the talk,
Richard spent the greater part of his
time experimenting the levee. He
could trust no one else To do ii, no
one unless it were Estrada who was
rushing his steel rails through to the
front and was needed there.
Things were moving under his con-
slant goading. The extra pay was
showing results. He should be at the
Heading now, he kept telling himself,
| but he was convinced that the instant
he turned his back, the work on the
levee would stop; and all the reasons
excellent! Some emergency would be
cooked up to warrant the withdrawal
OF the hands. Chafe as he might at
the situation, II was to be guerrilla
warfare. Not fight in the open, he
knew how to meet that, but that baf-
| fling resistance, the polite silence of
| the office when he entered-"Well,
they'll be doing my way pretty soon.
or my name isn't Richard. That's
| fiat"
He was fretting to be at work, to
start the wheels of the o. p, its vast
machinery toward his problem. He
knew that that organization, like we'll
drilled militia, was ready for his call.
The call Jagged, not that he did not
need men, but there was no place
ready for them. The camp, that was
another rub. There was no camp, 1t
was not equipped for a sudden infa-
ton of men. The inefficienCy of the
projectors of this desert scheme had
never seemed so criminal as when he
had surveyed the equipment at the in
take. Get ready first; your tools.
your stoves, your beds" That was the
training of the good executive, Of men
like Marshall and MacLean. Nothing
to be left to chance; to fOreSee emer-
gencies, not to be taken by them un-
aware. The reason of Hardin's dOOaa-
fall was his slipshod habits. How could
he be a good officer who had never
drilled as soldier? There was the
gap at the intake. Hardin's grotcsque
folly, widened from one hundred feet
to ten times the original cut; widening
every day, with neither equipment nor
camp adequate to push through work
of half the original magnitude. Cut
ting away. moreover, was the island.
Disaster island; it had received apt
christening by the engineers, its bap-
|
floods had played with it as though it
were q bar of sugar. There was no
rock at hand; no rock on the way, no
rock ordered. Could anyone piece to-
gether such recklessness?
Richard knew where he would get
his rock. Already he had reauisitioned
the entire output of the Tacna and
Patagonia quarries. He had ordered
steam shOvels to be installed at the
quarry back of old Hamlin's. That
rock pit would be his first crutch, and
the gravel bed-that was a find AS
he paced the levee west of the towns,
he was planning his campaign. Por-
ter was securing Zacatecas for men !;
he himself had offered. as bait, free
transportation the o. p. he knew
throw out a spur-track from the Head
ing, touching at the quarry and gravel
pit, on to the main road at Yuma.
Double track most of the way; sidings
every three miles. Rock must be
rushed; the trains must be pushed
through. He itched TO begin. 1t never
occurred to him that. like Hardin, he
might fail.
Though it's no pink tea" he told
himself. its no picnic" At Tucson
he knew that the situation was a
grave one, but his talk with Brandon,
who knew his river as does good In
dian. made the year a significant.
eventful one. Matt Hamin, too, whose
shrewd eyes had grown rIver-wise, he.
too. had had tales to tell of the tricky
river. MaIdOnado, the half-hreed. had
confirmed their pOrtents while they sat
together under his Oleander. famous
throughout that section of the cOun-
try. And powerfully had COr'nel. the
Indian who had pilOted Estrada'S party
across the desert. whom Richard had
met ut the Crossing, deeply had he I'M
pressed him. The river grew into a
malevOlent, knocking personality; he
could see it a dragon of yellow waters,
dragging its slow, sluggish length
across the baked desert sands; deceiv-
inc men by its inertnesS: Turing the
explorer by q mild mood TO rise sud
denly with its wild fellow, the ella,
sending boat and bOatmen to their
swift doom.