The L'Anse sentinel., 1919-04-18

I ultimate failure the growing belief In
the omnipotence of the Great Yellow
Dragon as the Cocopahs visualized 1t,
Estrada's work was as intense as
though he were Fastening sure VIC
tory. The dauntless spirit Of the elder
Estrada pushed the track over the hot
sands where he must dance ut times
to keep his feet from burning. Many
Of the rails they laid at night
Richards gone hog-wlld." Hardin
told his family the next morning.
Building a levee between the towns |!
The mans off his head"
"There isn't any danger?" Gerty's
anxiety made the deep blue eyes look
black.
Innes looked up for Toms answer.
His face was ugly with passion.
Danger! It's bluff, big show
OF activity here because he's buffa-
loed; hc doesn't know how to tackle
the job out there"
1t had begun to look that way TO
more than one. 1t was talked over
at Coulters store; In the outer office
of the ID. r. company where the engi-
neers foregathered; among the chair
filters who idled in front Of the Des-
ert hotel. "The man does not know
how to tackle his job" A levec. and
the gate held up! What protection TO
the towns would be that toy levee If
the river should return on one Of its
spectacular sprees? A levce, and the
intake itself not guarded? He was
whispered of as incompetent; one of
Marshall's clerks. He was given a
short time to blow himself out. A
bOOkman, a thcOrist.
"As well put sentinels a few miles
from prison and leave the Jail doors
open!" This was Wooster's gibe. All
saw the Colorado as marauder at
large. "And little heap of sand
stacked up to scare 1t off It's a
! scream"
Mrs. Hardin found 1t difficult to
meet with diplomacy the condolences
which inevitably came her way. As
Hardin's wife she was expected to en-
JOY the universal censure the new man
was acquiring. Gerty's light touches,
too slight for championship, passed as
a sweet charity. Her own position
those days was trying. She did not
yet know her diplomatic lesson.
Apparently unaware of the talk,
Rickard spent the greater part of his
time experimenting the levee. He
could trust no one else to do 1t, no
one unless 1t were Estrada, who was
rushing his steel rails through to the
front and was needed there.
Things were moving under his con-
slant goading. The extra pay was
showing results. He should be at the
Heading now, he kept telling himself
but he was convinced that the instant
he turned his back, the work on the
levee would stop; and all the reasons
excellent! Some emergency would be
cooked up to warrant the withdrawal
Of the hands. Chafe as he might al
the situation, It was to be guerrilla
warfare. Not fight in the open, he
knew how to meet that, but that baf.
fling resistance, the polite silence OF
tho office when he entered-"Well
they'll be doing my way pretty soon
or my name isn't Rickard. That's
fat"
He was fretting to be at work, to
start the wheels of the o. p, its vas,
machinery toward his problem. He
knew that that organization, like we'll
drilled militia. was ready for his call
The Gull Jagged, not that he did moi
need men. but there was no place
ready for them. The camp, that was
another rub. There was no camp! II
was not equipped for sudden infla.
tion of men. The inefliciency of the
projectors of this desert scheme had
never seemed so criminal as when he
had surveyed the equipment at the in
take. "Get ready first; your tools
your stoves, your beds" That vas the
training Of the good executive, Of mer
like Marshall and MacLean. Nothing
to be left to chance; to forcsee emer
gencies, not to be taken by them un.
aware. The reason of Hardin's down
fall was his slipshod habits. How could
he be good officer who had never
drilled as a soldier? There was the
gap at the intake, Hardin's grotesque
folly, widened from one hundred feet
to ten times the original cut; widening
every day. with neither equipment mol
camp adequate to push through work
of half the original magnitude. Cut
ting away, moreover. was the island
Disaster island; It had received apt
christening by the engineers. its bap
tismal water the Colorado. The last
floods had played with 1t as though II
i Wore n bar of Surnr Where was nc