The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1919-04-25
CHAPTER xvIIi-Continued.

/ O1AP En- AHfff-@ChLihucO.
His eyes glued to che lurching sta
tion-house, Babcock took a brown
paperrolled cigarette from the prof
fered box.
Look" he cried. There. she'll go
( See that"
4 There was a splash of splinterinI
timber: a Niagara OF spray as thu
building fell into the flood. A minute
later, a wreckage of painted board:
vas floating downstream.
AT table Babcock resumed his cam
paign. 1.-The trouble with you all
you have cold feet. You're all scared
off too SOON"
Wooster, up from his nap. looked
across the table. Gold feetS Sc
you'd have If you had been up fol-
nights, wetting your feet on the levee
as some of US have. as Hardin has
Mine are cold all right" He lifted IN
amazed foot. "Coldi Look here
boys. they're weti' The men looked
to find the water creeping ln-Bab-
cock climbed on his chair.
This means the station" cried
Wooster. Every man jumped. If the
waters had got to them, 1t wouldn't
be long before they were reaching the
o. Z. depoti The tracks would go =
They were piling out of the door
when the telephone caught them It
was message from Rickard. A car
was to be rugged up. papers, tickets
and express matter taken from the
station. The river was cutting close
to the track. The ca- would be the
terminal. half-mile from town.
The situation looked black. CouI-
ter, Eggers, began to pack their stock.
The levee. it was said, would not hold
half Of MexicaH was gone. Calexico
would go next. Richards Indians
were kept stolidly piling brush and
stuffed sacks on the Ievee. This, the
word ran, would be the fierce night
no one expected TO sleep.
They were preparing for the big
battle, the rnal struggle. when the
grade recession passed the town.
Spectacular as was tts coming, there
was an anticlimaX il its retreat. The
water reached the platform of the
depot. and halted. The town held its
night
The next day, the nerves of the val
ley relaxed. The river was not cut
ting back. The meE at the levee
dropped their shOvels, and went back
TO the discussion of their lawsuits.
Their crops were ruined; too much
water, or too little. Whatever way
they had been hurt, the company
would have to pay for it,
A small Shift guarded the river.
Richard, in his room at the Desert
hotel, and Hardin up the river. slept a
day and night without waking. The
chair-tilters picked up their argument
where they had left it; was the rail-
road reapng a harvest of damage
suits when they should be thanked
instead? Faraday, the newspapers
reported. was trying to shift his re-
he had appealed to the
president. Their correspondence was
published. The government was in no
hurry to take the burden. A tele-
graphic sermon, preaching duty. dis
blame, was sent from Wash !
ngton. Perhaps not Faraday himself
vas more disturbed than the debaters
If the Desert hotel.
"The railroads no infant in armsI
L wasn't asleep when it took over
he affairs of the d. r." Here smoke /
he majority. "a benefaction! It
vas selfinterest! When the river Is
who'll profit the most from
he valley prosperity? 1t can afford |
o pay the obligations; that is. il
'ould. 1t will find way" the ravens
''of shaking the Desert Re-
,lamation company's debts; of evad-
ng the damage suits. Look how
Hardin WAS treated Z"
The feeling ran higher. For many
# the ranchers were ruined; there
vas no money TO put in the next
ears crop unless the promises of the
irrigation company were kept. A
ew landowners, and others who had
Ot completed their contracts, dis
rusting the good faith of the COM
any, or its ability to pay, had quit
n disgust, to begin again some
where else. Parrish. and Dowker
nd others of the sixth" secured dis
riot had secured the promise of EN-
loyment Mt the Heading. Work, IL
-as expected, would be begun at once
ow that the danger to Calexico had
aSSed.