The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1919-05-24

general manager of the company. he
was allowed to resign, TO save MS
face, as the Chinese say. | may tell
YOU that 1t was case of firing. He'd
made terrible fluke down there
Il know" murmured Richard. 1t
was growing more difficult, more dis
tasteful. If Marshall wanted him TO
supplant Hardin! II had been incred-
ible, that mans folly! Reckless gam
bling, nothing else. Make a cut in the
banks of wild river, without put
ting in head gates to control it; a
child would guess better! 1t was
problem now, all right; the writer of
the report he'd just read wasn't the
only one who was prOphesying failure.
Let the river cut back, and the gov
eminent works at Laguna would be
useless; a pickle Hardin had made.
Still to gain time he suggested that
Marshall tell him the situation. 1--WE
followed only the engineering side OF
1t. 1 don't know the relationship Of
the two companies"
inside of that story? I'm responsible
IL guaranteed to Faraday the closing
Of that break. There was a big dis
trict to save, district that the rail-
road tapped-but I'll tell you that
later" He was leisurely putting blue,
perfectly formed rings into the air,
his eyes admiring them.
, Perhaps you've heard how Estrada.
. the general. took a party of men into
; the desert TO sell a mine he owned.
: After the deal was made he decided
to let 1t slip. He'd found something
bigger to do, more to his liking than
/ the sale of a mine. Estrada was a
| big man, a great man. He had the
!, idea Powell and others had, of turn
: ing the river, of saving the desert. He
e dreamed himself of doing it. If sick
t ness hadn't come to him the Colorado
4 would be meekly carrying water now
: instead of flooding a country. Pity
! Eduardo, the son, is not like him. He's
o like his mOther-yOu never know what
= they are dreaming about. Not at al
alike, my wife and Estrada's."
n Then it came to Richard that hi
n had heard somewhere that Marshal
/, and General Estrada had married sis
, tiers, famous beauties of Guadalajara
, He began to piece together the per
+ sonal background of the story.
% at was long time before Estrad'
y could get it started, and it's loni
Ae hn hn
" knocked down. Other men took hold
I. You'll hear it all in the valley. Har
i, din took q day to tell ii to me! I'll
70 sees himself as a martyr. Promoter
n got in; the thing swelled into
n swindle, a spectacular swindle. The
;, showed oranges on Broadway befor
:, drop of water was brought in. Hal
din has lots of grievances! He'd mad
l, the original survey. So when he sue
for his back wages he took the paper
of the bankrupt company in settle
4, ment He's a grim sort of ineffectui
bulldog. He's chung with his teet
to the Estrada idea. And he's not bi
enough for it. He uses the optimist
method-gives you only half of cas-
half of the problem, gets started q
= a false premise Well, he got up al
+, other company on that method, Il
- Desert Reclamation company, tried
:. whitewash the desert project; it W;
- in bad odor then, and he managed
- bring a few drops of water to Il
IN desert"
49, a. 1T was Hardin who did that?"
10 "But he couldn't deliver enoug
Up The cut silted up. He cut again, Il
same story. He was in pretty b,
hole. He'd brought colonists in {
'' ready; he'd used their money, Il
money they'd paid for land with W
"e ter, to make the cuts. No wonder
-. was desperate"
iei 1t recalled the man Richard h
disliked, the rOugh-shod, loud-voic
student of his first class in engines
vi ing. That was the man who had ma
'oiI the fiamboyant carpets of the HOlm'
Oh boarding house impossible any long
to him. He had sudden discOnce
nat ing vision of large unfinished ia
peering through the hOneysuckles
OH a man and a girl drawing apart
10 confusion from their first and l;
kiss. He wanted to tell Marshall
lru. was wasting his time.
}i!' Overwhelmed with lawsuits" Nj
shall was saying. Hardin had to
1t! liver water to those cOlonists. 1t "