The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1919-02-14

1 "
knocked down. Other men took hold
You'll hear 1t all in the valley. Har-
din took a day to tell 1t to me! lie
sees himself as a martyr Promoters
got in; the thing swelled into a
swindle, a spectacular swindle. They
showed oranges on Broadway before
La drop of water was brought in. HAIR
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 a 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 a case,
half Of the problem, gets started on
a false premise. Well, he got up an
other company ON that method, the
Desert Reclamation company, tried to
whitewash the desert project; it was
in bad odor then, and he managed to
bring few drops Of water to the
desert"
1T 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 tiamboyant 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
man and girl drawing apart in
confusion from their first and last
kiss. He wanted to tell Marshall he
was wasting his time.
Overwhelmed with lawsuits" Mar.
shall was saying. Hardin had to de-
liver water to those colonists. It was
then that he ran over into Mexico.
so as to get better gradient for his
canal, and made his cut there. You
know the rest. It ran away from him.
1t made the Salton sea-"
did he ever give you any reason, !"
frowned Richard reminiscently, "any
reasonable reason why he made that
cut without any head gateY
mo money" shrugged Marshall,
getting out another cigar. 81 told YOU
he's a raw dancer, always starts off
too quick, begins on the wrong foot
on, 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 it that the face of the
half-sister came to Richard then. with
that look of sensitive high breeding
and guarded reserve? And she Hor.
din! Sister to the loud-spilling month
queer cards nature deals! And prettv
cards Marshall was trying to deal ont
70 him, Go down there and finish
Hardin's job, show him up to be tbe
fumbler he was, give him orders giye
the husband of Gerty Holmes or.
ders-!
1T was Hardin who came 10 mo
but not until he'd tried everything
else. They'd worked for months iii
ing to dam the river with a few loco
handkerehiefs, and perhaps chiffon
ven y Marshall was twinkling over
his own humor. Hardin did nnt II
a good talk. 1t was true, as he said
we'd had to move our tracl,s tbroa
no, four times at Salton. It was trna
that It ought to be one of the richas+
districts tapped by the o. P. Bnt ho
clenched me by a clever baltic MI
out spur in Mexico which won,5
keep any other railroad off bv = fifty.
mile parallel, and there the sandbi,Is
make a railroad impossible
The government must evan+rol,u
come to the rescue. Their works ~
Laguna hang on the control Of tbo
river down at the heading. Once ~
told mel don't know how n, -
truth there was In 1.-THE service - 80
lamation service, did try to bnv Nm
their plant for paltry sum ny
wouldn't sell. The short is. / reoon,
mended long-sighted assistance a.
Faraday / promised to tnrn ~ ~
river save the district. We exnactad
before the year was out 10 bsra 80 =
government take the responsihtlitv ~, nss
our hands," '0''i'S OH
hckard made an impatient sbrra
a nice problem Marshall had tal'os
unto himself. He wanted nona - s
thing was impossihla =
He met laggardly Marshau,s 50.
He heard him say; agreed with ~ ny y
aday. The Desert Reclamation 90 =
pauy was as helpless as 4 s,yad Az,
infant. We made the condition az.
We reorganize the COMPANY a nat
put In Hardin's place as pres,dar. "aS
the corporation, and he was n,ado -, y
eral manager. OF course we baS Se !.
control the stock. We put M ~
hundred thousand dollars IN ~
had estimated it would cost ne ~, w
than half thatl It's cost ms OH. 80
a million. Things haven't been , so,'ls