Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1919-02-07

Then it came to Richard that he |
had heard somewhere that Marshall |
and General Estrada had married sis |
ters, famous beauties of Guadalajara.
He began to piece together the per-
sonal background of the story.
"It was a long time before Estrada |
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, q 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 ineffectual
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 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
fbring a few drops of water to the
desert"
SIT was Hardin who did that?'
"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 coIonists 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 Rickard had
disliked, the rough-shod, loud-voiced
student of his first class in engineer
ing. That was the man who had made
the f1amboyant 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
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. 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. 1t ran away from him
1t made the Salton sea-
''Did he ever give you any reason,
= !. frowned Richard reminiscently, san.
reasonable reason why he made tina
cut without any head gate?"
mo money!" shrugged Marshall
getting out another cigar. II told yo'
Il he's a raw dancer, always starts of
too quick, begins on the wrong foot
Oh, yes, he has reasons. lots of them
l. that fellow. but, as you say, they'r
y not reasonable. He never waits to ge
ready"
= Why was it that the face of tn
. half-sister came to Rickard then, wit
d that look of sensitive high breedin
u and guarded reserve? And she a Hal
II din Sister to the loud-spilling mouth
Queer cards nature deals! And prett
. cards Marshall was trying to deal OF
III to him. Go down there and finis
- Hardin's job, show him up to be th
&c fumbler he was, give him orders, Civ
the husband of Gerty Holmes O.
+ ders-!
III ''It was Hardin who came to M
~ but not until he'd tried everythin
y else. They'd worked for months tr,
" ing to dam the river with a few Lac
" handkerchiefs, and perhaps a chiffo
ie veil!" Marshall was twinkling ovt
1u his own humor. Hardin did put I
~ ~ a good talk. 1t was true, as he sait
- no, four times at Salton. 1t was trr
a. that it ought to be one of the richie
A districts tapped by the o. P. But
- clenched me by a clever bait-to p1
r. out q spur in Mexico which wou
oh keep any other railroad off by fift
mile parallel, and there the sandhil
m make railroad impossible.
+o "The government must eventual
come to the rescue. Their works
alt Laguna hang on the control of Il
river down at the heading. Once,
ns told mel don't know how mul
no truth there was in 1.-THE service, re
n? lamation service, did try to buy
their plant for paltry sum. T
wouldn't sell. TIE short is, I recol
rd mended long-sighteI assistance
hit Faraday. promised to turn tn
ar. river, save the district. We expect
before the year was out to have t
go government take the responsibility
as our hands,"
He Rickard made an impatient shirt
his A nice problem Marshall had TAX
ell unto himself. He wanted none lof
ed Hardin-the thing was impossible.
He met laggardly Marshall's stol
If He heard him saw: agreed with E: