Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1919-02-28

~ Am Going to Send You Down to the
Break"
perfectly formed rings into the air,
his eyes admiring them.
Perhaps you've heard how Estrada,
the general, took party Of men into
the desert to sell mine he owned.
After the deal was made he decided
to let it slip. He'd found something
bigger to do, more to his liking than
the sale Of mine. Estrada was a
big man, great man. He had the
idea Powell and others had, of turn
ing the river, of saving the desert. He
| dreamed himself of doing it. If sick
ness hadn't come to him the Colorado
would be meekly carrying water now
instead of flooding a country. Pity
| Eduardo, the son, is not like him. He's
| like his mother-yOu never know what
they are dreaming about. Not at all
alike, my wife and Estrada's."
Then it came to Richard that he
had heard somewhere that Marshall
and General Estrada had married Sis
tiers, famous beauties of Guadalajara.
He began to piece together the per-
sonal background of the story.
ut was long time before Estrada
could get it started, and it's a long
story. AS soon as he began he was
knocked down. Other men took hold.
You'll hear it all in the valley. Har-
din took day to tell it to me! He
sees himself as martyr. Promoters
got in; the thing swelled into
Swindle, a spectacular swindle. They
showed oranges on Broadway before
a drop of water was brought in. Har-
din has lots of grievances He'd made
the original survey. So when he sued
for his back wages he took the papers
Of the bankrupt company in settle
ment. He's grim sort Of Intellectual
bulldog. He's chung with his teeth
to the Estrada idea. And he's not big
enough for it. He uses the optimistic
method-gives you only half Of case,
half of the problem, gets started on
false premise. Well, he got up an
other company on that method, the
Desert Reclamation company, tried to
whftewash the desert project; it was
in bad Odor then, and he managed to
bring few drops of water to the
desert"
sit was Hardin who did that?"
| "But he couldn't deliver enough.
The cut silted up. He cut again, the
same story. He was in pretty bad
hole. He'd brought colonists in al
ready; he'd used their money, the
money they'd paid for land with wa
ter, to make the cuts. No wonder he
was desperate"
| 1t recalled the man Richard had
disliked, the rough-shod, loud-voiced
student of his first class in engineer
ing. That was the man who had made
| the fiambOyant carpets of the Holmes
boarding house impossible any longer
to him. He had sudden disconcert-
ing vision of large unfinished face
peering through the honeysuckles at
a man and girl drawing apart in
confusion from their first and last
kiss. He wanted to tell Marshall he
was w sting his time.
Overwhelmed with lawsuits" Mar
shall was saying. Hardin had to de-
liver water to those colonists. 1t was
then that he ran over into Mexico.
! 50 rs TO get better gradient for his
canal. and made his cut there. You
| know the rest. It ran away from him
4 made the Salt0n sea-"
"Did he ever give you any reason"
frowned Richard reminiscently, 'any
reasonable reason why he made that
cut without any head gate?"
"N0 money!" shrugged Marshall,
getting out another cigar. II told you
he's raw dancer, always starts off
too quick, begins on the wrong foot.
Oh, yes, he has reasons, lots of them,
that fellow, but, as you say, they're
not reasonable. He never waits to get
ready"
Why was 1t that the face of the
half-sister came to Richard then, with
that look of sensitive high breeding
and guarded reserve? And she a Har-
din Sister to the loud-spilling mouth
Queer cards nature deals And pretty
cards Marshall was trying to deal out
to him. Go down there and finish
Hardin's job. show him up to be the
fumbler he was, give him orders, give
the husband of Gerty Holmes or
ders-!
ut was Hardin who came to me,
but not until he'd tried everything
else. They'd worked for months try
ing to dam the river with few lace
handkerchiefs, and perhaps a chiffon
veil! !" Marshall was twinkling over
his own humor. "Hardin did put up
a good talk. 1t was true, as he said;
we'd had to move our tracks three,
no, four times at Salton. It was true
that it ought to be one Of the richest
districts tapped by the 0. P. But he
clenched me by clever bait-t0 put
out spur in Mexico which would