The City of Numbered Days

of Litt

capital, Brouillard, returning from a horseback trip into the Buckskin, where Anson and Griffith were

r that the office afforded was sufficient to awaken an alert antagonism. Quick to found friendships or enmities upon the intuitive first impressio

nd resident engineer," said the lounger, shifting the dead cigar from one corner of

n with a careful effacement of the final saving trace of hospi

of my outfit, and you can put me up somewhere until I get a camp

aff mess. Moreover, the law of the desert prescribes that not even an enemy shall be refused bread and bed. "You'll make

id the self-invited guest. "Now for the busi

nd began to fill his blackened office pipe,

the business matter,

r the power dam in the upper canyon. If

to light his pipe

sford," he said, when the tobacco was glowing militantly in the pipe bowl. "Have you been giv

acquired certain rights in this valley, and I'm taking it for granted that you've had the s

rds. "At the same time, if you think that we are going to do your engineering work, or any part o

omebody has bungled in giving you the dop

department's attitude toward your enterprise. I shall be exceeding my inst

ly, staring up at the log beaming of the office ceiling. When he began again h

sts. I didn't especially want to begin by knocking you into line, but I guess it'll have to be done. In the first place, let me tell you that there ar

d. "I can't count beyond

e. Suppose I should tell you that practically

ern me even less than your capita

Niquoia Improvement took tim

nd a little wire to Washington," he said

to do," said Brouillard. "At the same time, as I have already

ouched you,

if you like. You may have the use of the government tele

y you don't w

er and seller. I merely wished to make it plain that the Reclamation Service doesn'

e plans for this powe

ment. If you want them, I'll turn them over t

e it. Where did you say I

ime, and as Hosford went out, Grislow came

pointedly, with a sly glance at his chief. "He's been plo

nformation, I suppose

articularly, but out of everybody. Also, he was willing to

was the crabb

-covering a multitude of sins. Do you know what that plank-faced organizer has got up his sleeve? He is going to build us a neat, up-to-date little city right here

m? I guess not. He was only stri

race of God and the kindness of these promoters. The remainder of the valley is laid off into cute little squares and streets, with everything named and

lowing got to do with the building of a temporary pow

side and whirled aroun

ople are going to take over the sawmills, open up quarries, build a stub railroad to the Hophra mines, grade a practicable stage road ov

t upon one solitary, lonesome fact-the fact that we're here, with a job on our hands big enough to create an active, present-moment market for labor and

as seen a chance to skin somebody, the mere fact that the end of the world is due to come along down the pike some day isn't going to cut

as Brouillard's reply; and with th

rouillard was given to see another and still less tolerable side of his temporary guest. Hosford had come into th

ouillard had been careful not to break. "You're making a capital mistake in trying to transplant the old Connect

mself at his desk, but he looked up l

don't allow any open gambling, or any women

was the shor

er after we get thin

are concerned, if I have to build a stoc

marked. "When I find a man bearing down hard on all the little vices, it always

ed acquaintance the new-comer was painstakingly developing new antagonisms. Sooner or later, Brouillard knew, it would come to an open rupture, but h

he easy-chair smoked on in

y outfit, and she's a peach; came riding down the trail with her brother from that mine u

otes when the page has suddenly bec

Then the control mechanism burned out in a flash of fiery rage and he cursed the guest fluently and comprehensively, winding up with a crude an

ly, and his big fac

, Lord! I didn't suppose anything like that ever happened outside of the ten-cent shocker

ndisturbed for five full minutes, he began to realize that the hot Brouillard temper, which he had heretofore been able to keep within prudent bounds, had latterly been growing more and more rebellious. He could no longer be sure o

ently, ignoring the big figure in the easy-chair by the window, and striving to regain his lost equilibrium. To have shown Hosford the weakness of the control barriers was bad enough, but to have pointed out the exact spot at which they were most e

project and everything connected with it, he made no manner of doubt. How was he to hold a camp of several hundred men in decent subjection if the temptations and allurements of a boomers' city were to be

s composing his message of inquiry when the door opened and Quinlan, the operator, came in with a communication fresh from the Washington wire. The message was an indirect

handing the roll to the man in the chair. And a little later he went out