Fair play., 1919-06-28

1T was long time De1Ore ESLrdud
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 a day to tell it to me! He
sees himself as a martyr. Promoters
got in; the thing swelled into a
swindle, a spectacular swindle. They
showed oranges on. Broadway before
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 a grim sort of Intellectual
bulldog. He's clung 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 am
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 a few drops Of water to the
| desert" ~-".-;~s- '.'-i'.Ss'5k-.{. ~
at was Hardin who did that?"
s''But he couldn't deliver enough.
The cut silted up. He cut again, the
| same story. He was in a 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 flamboyant carpets of the Holmes
boarding house impossible any longer
to him. He had sudden disconcert-
ing vision of a large unfinished face
peering through the honeysuckles at
a man and a 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. 1t 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. 1t ran away from him.
1t made the Salton sea-"
"Did he ever give you any reason"
frowned Rickard reminiscently, "any
reasonable reason why he made that
cut without any head gate?"
"No money! shrugged Marshall,
getting out another cigar. 81 told you
he's q 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 Rickard then, with
that look of sensitive high breeding
and guarded reserve? And she Har-
din Sister to the loud-spllling 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 uI
: good talk. It was true, as he said
= we'd had to move our tracks three
: no, four times at Salton. 1t was true
that 1t ought to be one of the riches,
| districts tapped by the o. p. But hs
1 clenched me by clever bait--to put
{ out a sRJr In Mexico which would
e keep any other railroad off by a fifty
}. mile parallel, and there the sandhill:
= make railroad impossible.
g "The government must eventual.
come to the rescue. Their works a
t Laguna hang on the control Of tn,
e river down at the heading. Once, h,
t told mel don't know how mucl
4 truth there was in 1.-THE service, rec
lamation service. did try to buy VI
e their plant for a paltry sum. H.
o wouldn't sell. The short is, recon
G mended long-sighted assistance t
s. Faraday. I promised to turn tha
l. river. save the district. We expecte
It before the year was out to have tn
2, government take the responsibility OF
r, our hands,"
Rlckard made an impatient shrul
1. A nice problem Marshall had take
o unto himself. He wanted none of i
]. Hardin-the thing was impossible.
d He met laggardly Marshall's stor.
g He heard him say: "Agreed with Fal
n aday. The Desert Reclamation con
a pany was as helpless as swaddle
le infant. We made the condition tha
n we reorganize the company. I wa
Ie put In Hardin's place as president {
k the corporation, and he was made gel
10 eral manager. OF course we had [
W control the stock. We put up tw
ty hundred thousand dollars - Hardi