The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1919-03-21

write there, stating the need. A2d
there was q man In Zacatecas, named
Porter
Frank Porter?" sneered Hardin.
''that-murdererT
pleasantly. Jim furnishes the men
for the big mines in Sonora and Sina-
Ioa. He'll send us all the labor we
want. the best for our purpose. When
Ii gets red-hot. there's no one like n
peon or an Indian.
You'll be infringing on the interna-
tional contract law" suggested Mac
Lean.
NO. The camp is on the Mexican
side" laughed Casey. "Td thought of
that. Wen have them shipped to the
nearest Mexican point, and then
brought TO the border. Mr.. Estrada
will help u.s.
The meeting had already adjourned
They were standing around the flat
top desk. Estrada invited them all 70
lunch with him, in the car on the sid
ing. MacLean said that he had TO get
back to Los Angeles. Mr.. Babcock
was going TO take him out to Grants
Heading in the machine. He had new
er been there. They had breakfasted
late. He looked very much the colonel
TO Richard, his full chest and stiff car
riage made more military by his trim
uniform of khaki-colored cloth.
May 1 speak to you about your boy.
Mr.. MacLean?"
Hardin caught a slight that was not
Int Il
ut the door without civility or cere-
mony.
The steady grave eyes of the big
frame looked at Richard inquiringly.
HE wants TO stay out another year.
hope you will let him. It's not disin-
terested. 1 shall have to take a stenog-
rapher to the Heading this summer.
There is a girl here; | couldn't take
her, and then, too, I'm old-faShioned
don't like women in offices. My posi-
ton promises to be u peculiar one. I'd
like to have your s1n TO rely on for
emergencies a stenographer could not
cover"
MacLean's grave features relaxed as
he looked down on the engineer. who
was no small man himself, and sug
gested that his son was not very well
up In stenography.
That's the least of It"
81 hope that he will make good
stenographer Good morning, gentle
men,
At table, neither Estrada nor his
guest uncovered their active thought
which revolved around Hardin and his
hurt. Instead, Richard had questions
to ask his host on river history As
they talked, it came to him that some
thing was amiss-Estrada was ac-
curate; he had all his facts. Was ii
enthusiasm, sympathy, he lacked? Pres
emily he challenged him with it.
Estrada's eyes dreamed out of the
window, followed the gorge of the New
river, as though out there. somewhere.
the answer lowered.
DO you mean, do you doubt it?" ex-
claimed Richard. watching the melan-
choly in the beautiful eyes.
Estrada shook his head, but without
decision. Nothing you'd not laugh at
1 can laugh at IL myself, sometimes"
Richard waited, not sure that any
thing more was coming. The Mexi-
cans dark eyes were troubled; puzzle
brooded in them. Its purely mega
tive sense that I've had, since 1 was
child. Something falls between me
and q plan. If l said 1t was a veil, 1t
would be-something His voice fell
to q ghost of tunefulness. "And its
nothing. A blank know then it's
not going to happen. 1t is terribly
final! It's happened, often. Now. /
wait for that-veiI. When it falls. 1
know what 1T means"
And you have had that-sense
about this river business?"
Estrada turned his pensive gaze on
the American. "Yes, often. ! thought,
after fathers death, that that was
what it meant. But it came again. 1t
kept coming. l had 1t while you were
all talking. just now. / don't speak of
this. 1t sounds chicken-hearted. And
I'm in this with all my soul-my IA
ther-I couldn't do it any other way,
but"
You think we are going to fail?"
Il can't see it finished" was Estra-
da's mournful answer. He turned
again to stare out of the window.
who are the river men in the val
ley?" demanded the newcomer. Il
want to meet them. to talk to them"
"Cor'nel, he's an Indian. He's worth
talking to. He knows It's history, its
legends. Perhaps some of it is his
tory"
Where's he to be fOund?"
You'll run across him. Whenever
anything's up. he is on hand. He senses
it. And then there's Matt Hamlin."
'.rll see him, of course. Has he
been up the river?'
No, but I'll tell you two who have.
Maidonado, a half-breed, who lives
some twenty miles down the river
from Hamlin's. He knows the ella as
though he were pure Indian. The
elias tricky Maldonado's GRANDPA
Their was trapper, his great-grandfa-
Their, they say, q priest. The women
were all Indian. He's smart. Smart
and bad"