The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, March 21, 1919, Page SEVEN, Image 7
?, ,/ SYNOPSIS. k |
CHAPTER I?K. C. Rickard, a :
engineer of the Overland Pacific, i j i
called to the office of President Mar j
. shall in Tucson, Ariz. "Casey" is an ,
enigma to the office force; he wear i
"dude" clothes, but he had resigned '
a chair of engineering in the East t -j '
go on the road as a fireman and hi ' ]
promotion had been spectacular.1
While waiting for.Marshall Richard '
reads a report on the ravages of the ]
Colorado, despite the efforts of Tho- ,
ma^Hardin of th e. Desert Reclama-j1
tion .company# This Hardin had been ,
- nn/iai> PiVIrnrH And had
CL Diuutui/ uimvi ~ 1 t
married Gerty Holmes, with whom .
Rickai'd had fancied he .was in love. |
CHAPTER II?Marshall tells Rick- 1
ard the Overland Pacific has got to 1
step, in tot save the * Imperial Valley '
* \and sends him to the break. Rickartl <
declines because he does not want to '
stfpplant Hardin, but is won over.'.
'.'Stop the River; damn the expense,": i
Say's Marshall.
CHAPTER III?Rickard journeys ;
to Calexico, sees the irrigated desert !
and learns much about Hardin and. 1
his work. j'
> CHAPTER IV?At the hotel he,'
meets Mr. and Mrs. Hardin and Innes j
Hardin, Hardin's half sister. Diaap-| (
pointed in her husband and an in- <
rvj corrigible coquette, Mrs. Hardin sets ]
her cap for her former lover and invites
him to dinner. . ,
CHAPTER V?Rickard visits the
company's offices and takes control. '
He finds the engineers loyal'to Har- 1
din and hostile to him. Estrada, a 1
Mexican, son of the "Father of the i
Imperial Valley," tells him of the ]
general situation. CHAPTER
VI?Rickard attends a
meeting of the directors and asserts .
his .authority. Hardin rages. Estrada .
tellk Rickard of his foreboding that
liis work will fail. "I can't see it
finished." ? 1
* CHAPTER VII?Innes is discovered
in her garden. She tries to cheer
up Hardin, who is furious against
Rickard.
(Continued From Tuesday)
CHAPTER Vin. '
*1 suppose you think I like to take
orders, to jump at the snap of the
whip?" Be was deliberately beating
up his anger Into a froth. ''Oh, sure, I
do. # That's a Hardin, through and*
through." . ?
Again the angry blood flooded his
wife's cheeks. He, too, was throwing j
the boarding house at her.
"You did it yourself/' Gerty with
difficulty was withholding the angry
tears. "I told you how It would be.
You would do it."
"Oh, hell!" cried Tom, pushing back j
his plate.
His sister looked drearily- out the
wire-screened door. "Her view was a
dusty street Hardin got up, scraping
his chair over the board floor.
. "And to keep }t from me," persisted ,
the wife. "To let me ask him to,din-'
ner?"
- - 1
"Does that dismal farce have to go ,
o!)?" demanded Hardin, turning back ]
to the table. "^You'll .ha*s to have It j
without me, then. Til not stay and
make a fool of myself. Ask him to
dinner. Me! Ill see myself."
Tnnos vUhoH aha was In tho npifh- <
boring tent. Tom was lashing himself {
Into a coarse fury. I <
her dismay, Gerty burst Into I <
tears. It was killing her, the disgrace,
she cried. She couldn't endure it. She
couldn't stand it there; she had not |
the courage to go to Los Angeles, <
u where her friends would pity her. It j
was crushing her. She was not a Hardin.;
she was sensitive; she could not i
Justify everything a Hardin did as ]
right, no matter what the consequences.
The pretty eyes obscured, she rushed, a \
streaming Nlobe, Jrom the room. . . \
The brother and sister avoided each I
other's eyes. Innes rose and cleared
the table of the dishes. She made a 1
loud noise with the running water in 1
the shed, racketing the pans to drown
the insistence of Gerty's sobbing.
She kept listening for Tom's step.
She wanted to go with h*u when he 1
left; he must not reach the office in ]
the blackness of that mood. She 1
wished he would not' betray his feel- 1
lngs; yet she knew it was not he who '
was to blame. ,
When she heard the screen door J
slam, she flashed out the back way.
"Going?" she called after him. "Walt
for me." She dashed into her tent for
her hat. She had to run to catch up
with him.
' * CHAPTER IX
; i
The Rival*.
Prom the window of the adobe office
building of the company, Hardin saW
RJekard Jump from the rear platform
. of the train bm It slowed into the eta- 1
? tion. He noticed that the new manage!
carried no bfg. - >?. v:
. -"Wooder. what he'e_ dedded to do
_ ?*%>*. i
mK
EDNAH
> AIKEN
<5> Twroooa& rt&wu. cowH#y
about the headgate. He didnrt waste
much time" out there." Hardin was
fidgeting in his seat, his eyes on the
annronrhinc ficrure.
Riekard passed through the room,;
nodding to his office force. The door
of the inner office shut behind him.
Hardin stared at the blank surface. He
moved restlessly in his swivel chair.
Did the fellow think a big thing like
that could hang on while he unpacked
tiis {runks and settled his bureau drawers?
He picket! up a pencil-, jabbing at'
the paper of his report. He covered
the sheet with figures?three hundred
?six hundred. Six hundred feet.
Whose fault that the intake had
(videqed, doubling Jts width, trebling
Its problem? Whose but-Marshall's,
svho had sent down one of his office
clerks to see what Hardin was doing?
Wouldn't any man In his senses know
that the way_Maitland would distinguish
himself would" be by discrediting
Hardin, "by throwing bouquets to Marshall;
praising his plan? They all go
at It the same sickening way.I.-Office
clerks, bah! Sure. Maitland had advised
against the completion of the
gate. Said it would cost more In time
and money than Hardin's estimates.
"Thanks to Maitland it did," growled
Hardin, scrawling figures over the
page. "By the time Maitland finished
monkeying with that toy dam of his
the river had widened the break from
three hundred to six hundred feet. For
that, they throw mtJd at me. Oh*, it
makes me sick." Hardin flung, his
broken pencil out of the window. >
Rlckard re-entered the room. The
question leaped from Hardin.
"The headgate?are you going on
Hth ltr. v . ' , . j .
' Rickard looked curiously at the
Elushed antagonistic face of the man
"Are You Going On With ItT*
tie had supplanted. The thought
crossed his mind that perhaps Hardir
bad taken to drinking. It' made his
answer curt.
"I don't know."
"You don't know!"
"I have no report to make, Mr. HarJin,
until I see the gate."
"And you went to the Crossing with3Ut
going down to the headgate?" HarJln
did not try to conceal his disgust.
"I did not go to the Crossing."
"Didn't go?!" Hardin's mouth was
igape. Then he rudely swivefed his
:hair. The door slammed behind Rlckird.
Hadn't been to the Crossing? Then
svhere in Hades did he go? He halted
MacLean who was passing him.
"Are you going to the Crossing tomorrow
?" Hardin knew he should be
too proud to betray his eagerness, but
the words ran away with him.
"Not tomorrow. Mr. Rickard just
told n.* I?e might not be able to get off
until nest week."
Harbin's anger sputtered. "Next
week. "Why does he rush so? Why
doesn't he go next year? The Colorado's
so gentle, it'd wait for him, I'm
sure. Next week! It's a put-up Job,
that's what it is. Oh, I can see through
a fence with a knothole as big as your
head. He doesn't want to finish the
hooHfyofrt T3a wonla fn rvtif nffi (rnlnf*
UVMUJjUlt. JLAt TT Ul^lO W J/Ul, ?v??'0
until It's too late to go on with it; I
know him. He'd risk the whole thing,
and all the money the O. P. has
chucked intOv it, just to start with a
clean slate; to get the glory of stopping
the river himself. It turns my
stomach; itfs a plot." The lower lip
shot out.
MacLean's attention was deferential.
He had always liked Hardin; all the
fellow's did. But he was jumping oft
wrong this time. He'd brought It all
on himself.
"He safd something about a levee for
the towns. He's got to Investigate that
before he goes to the front"
.__"A levee?, Wall, wouldn't that jar
you?" Hardin addressed the stenographer
in the transparent shirtwaist.
"Does he think we're going to have
another flood this season? Thinks it's
going to reach the hotel and wet his
clothes? Take the starch out of his
shirts?" He flung out of his chair,
throwing the papers back into the
drawer.
He stamped out of the office, mad
clear through. To this crisis they had
sent down a dandy, a bookman who
wanted to build a levee. Oh, hell!
"They'll come crawling after me "to
ihelp them after this fellow's buried
himself under river mud, come calling
to me as they did after Maitland failed.
'Please, Mr. Hardih, won't you come
back and finish your gate!' I'll see
them dead first. No, I'll be fool enough j
to do it. I can't help myself. I'm a
Hardin. I have to finish what I've begun."
It was not because this was a pet
pnfprnrisp tlip civnt xvnrlr nf Ills life.
that he must eagerly eat humble pie,
take the buffets, the falls, and eonje
whining back when they whistled to
him. He told himself it was because of
his debt to the valley, to the ranchers.
The colonists were about desperate.
Who could blame them ? The last year's
floods had worked havoc with their
crops; this year had been a horror.
The district they called No. G was a
screaming irony of ruin. The last debauch
of the river had made great
gashes through the ranches, had
scoured deep gorges which had undermined
the canals on which the water
supply for No. 6 depended. The suits
were piling up against the D. R., damage
suits, and they hold up his gate,
while he gets the, curses of the valley.
And Mr. Rickard thinks he'll
build .a levee I
Hp " '
' v , /
..unrig himself on. the couch in thfc
tent.' Gerty was laying a careful
Hnth cimnpr A hrnv#?. dptprminpri
smile was arranged on her-.jUEs- The
nooh stojjn had passed. She hammed a
gay little tune. If there was. anything
Hardin hated it was humming. , ,
"You'll have your dude to dinner all
right," her husband announced. "He's
in town." ^
"Yes, I know," rejoined his jjpouse.
"I had a letter from him yesterday!
From Imperial."
Tom sat up glaring. "He wrote to
you from Imperial?"
His wife misplaced the accent. She
misunderstood Tom's scowl. It was
the old story over again. Whenever
those two men came together the old
feeling of Jealousy must be revived
again! It was unpleasant, of course,
very unpleasant, to have men care like
that, but it made life 'excit'njr. Xti%.
had bfeen getting a little stale latelylike
a book of obvious, even plot.
Rlckard's entrance Into the story gave
a new interest, a new twist. She
hummed an air from a new opera that
had set the world waltzing.
Hardin's thoughts did not touch her
at the hem. He was at the headgate,
his gate. What the deuce had Rlckard
gone to Imperial for? If he wasn't the
darnedest aSs! Imperial! And the
gate hung up!
MFor God's sake stop that buzzing I"
- The happy little noise was quenched.
Innes, entering at that moment, heard
the rough order. She looked imploringly
at her slster-irT-law.
"Supper's on the table," cried Gerty,
the fixed, determined smile still on her
lips.
CHAPTER X.
, A Desert Dinner.
Innes Hardin was completing her
simple toilet.. Not even to please
Gerty would she -"dress up" for the
dinner. It would have b^en easy for
her sister-in-law to postpone it. How
could she expect Tom to gfo through
with It! She couldn't understand
Gerty!
An hour ago, hearing distinctly the
whir and splash of egg-beating, she
had run over to the neighboring tent.
The clinking of the cake tins had suddenly
silenced. ^"Excuse me, won't
you?" Gerty's voice had come from
the lean-to, the little kitchen shed.
*Tm lying down."
"Llelng, yes!" grimaced the Hardin
mouth to Its reflection In the mirror.
How many times that week had she
been repulsed by a locked door, a> sudden
curtain of silence or a "Run away
for a while. I'm trying to catch a
nap." Easy now to see why Gerty
had wanted to "hold the reins" that
week!
She didn't need to pierce those canvas
walls to' know that there had
been feverish activity for this dinner.
A. new gown would appear tonight,
made secretly. An exquisite meal,1
and no one must comment on its elaboration.
Twice Tom and she had
been asked to take their lunch at the
hotei. "Because of a headache!" A
headache!
lom's wife could not even shop.
openly! Bundles had always the air
of mysterjjdMiiffiS opened before, Tom
or hersdB^^sne^fimst have yards of
stuff laid away, kept for sudden emergencies.
"She can't help It. It's her dlsposli.tfii
i i_ i t I
iiuu. one can l neip ueiug scucuvc,
Look at your face, Innes Hardin!"
What was it to her, the pettiness of
a woman whom an accident of life had
swept upon the beach beside her?
Gerty was not her kind, not the sort
she would pick out for a friend. She
was an oriental, one of the harem
women, whose business it Is In life to
please one man, to keep Ms home soft,
hlg comforts ready, keep him convinced,
moreover, that It is the desire
of his life to support her. Herself dissatisfied,
often rebellious, staying by
him for self-interest, not for love?ah,
that was her impeachment, "Not lov?
I" ?
, t
Soberly she covered her plain brassiere
with a white waist of cotton
ducking. A red leather belt and crimson
tie she added self-consciously.
"Where is my bloodstone pin?" ?
Hadn't she spent an hour at least <
matching that particular leather belt? ]
But he was a man, in battle. The
headgate held up; It was too bad. "
Silent, Bodefeldt, Wooster, Grant, all .
of them fighting mad because of the
deadlock at the Heading. All up In
arms, at last, against Marshall, because
of this cruel cut to their hero,
Hardin. Her eyes glowed like yellow
lamps as she recalled their fervid partisanship.
"Only one man who can save tile
valley, and that's Tom Hardin." Wooster
had said that; but they all believed
it. The loyalty of the force
made Rer ashamed of her soft woman
fears. For there were times when
she questioned her brother's ability.
He had a large, loose way of handling
things.v He was,too optimistic. But
i those men, those engineers muft l*now.
j It was probably' the man's way of
j sweeping ahead; ignoring detail. The j
j verdict of those field-tried men -told j
I utrr uiui uit; uuier, uie uuciul, [huui
I ning way, was the office method. Rick- r
] ard, fis a dinner neighbor, she had
found interesting; but for great un-i
dertakings a man who would- let a!
Gerty Holmes jilt him, ruin his-life j
for him! The whole story sprang at'
last clear from the dropped innuendo*. j
j She adjusted a barrette in her j
smoothly brushed hair. Slowly she.
| walked over to the neighboring tent, j
Gerty frowned at the white duck, j
ICili'iy T'FJJUiJlliK?Lih# whlt? Dude
"You might at least have worn your
blue 1"
"You're elegaut enough for the two
of as. Is nit that -sojaethin^ newfl
(To be Continued Tuesday)
NEWS PROM MRS. STONE.
The news from Mrs. A. M. Stone
is that she is recovering her health
gradually. She is teaching near her
home in Rural Retreat, Va., andi|
walks to and from her school, a distance
of a mile. This is pleasant
news indeed, to her many friends in J
Abbeville. < |
!
i teWca.
Tobacco Co.
NEVER was such rig
fisted smokejoy as y
jimmy pipe packed with
That's because P. A.
You can't fool your ta
1 can get five aces out of
Prince Albert, coming an
earlier just to start stokii
you know you've got th
Prince Albert's quality
but when you figure thj
patented process that cu
feel like getting a flock ol
to express your happy da
Upppy red bags, tidy red tit
humidora?and?that classy, j
sponge moistener top that he
R J. Reynold* Tobacco
HAD NARROW ESCAPE.
News comes to us that Judge John
S. Wilson, of Manning* had a narrow
escape one day last week. The Judge
had been holding court in Berkeley,
FARM
FOR Si
87 ACRES?12 mil(
' McCormick Coi
of W. D. Morra'
' > ' . c
.T
40 ACRES?About
ville, no imp.rov
'V and timber.
79 3-4 ACRES?3 m
one settlementa
on place. Plenty
.a running througl
227 .1-2 ACRES?1
ville. This is a sj
erty. A lot of sa1
i
100 1-2 ACRES?1
ville. Good resit
. in^s. Well ater<
and timber.... P
189 1-4 ;ACRE$^-J
. ville. rA splenc
provements, abc
torn lands. - I
541 ACRES?1-2 *r
mile from Calh
^"^ far?i being ope:
Lies well/ Is we]
abundance of w
ri
Can Arrai
ROBERT
jilM| A_
ht-handed-two "
ou puff out of a
Prince Albert!
has the quality!
> : .
iste apparatus any more rnan
a family deck! So, when you
d going, and get up half an 1
ig your pipe or rolling cigare
e big prize on the end of your 1
alone puts it in a class of its c
at P. A. is made by our exclu
ts out bite and parch?well?
dictionaries to find enough w
ys sentiments!
/
is, handsome pound and half-pound tin
practical pound crystal glass humidor with
eps the tobacco in sach perfect condition,
Company, Wimtcn-Sa!em, ?
and at the adjournment of the court,
he went on a fishing excursion with
some of the lawyers. *In some way
the boat in which he was riding was
overturned. The judge was rescued
with the greatest difficulty.
LANDS
".N
1
3S from Abbeville,, in
inty,*adjoining lands '
h.
Vice, $30.00 per acre.
six miles from Abbe- /"
ements, all in wood
\ * 4
: ?
Price, $25 per acre.
iles from Abbeville?
X T -C -
-twu nurst; ictnii upen w
t wood, and stream
1 place, a I
Price, $2,000.00.'
1 miles from Abbe- '
plendid piece of propw
.timber on this place ,
*rice, $17.50 per. aire.
. ' i- ' p ., *
2 miles from Abbeience
and out build- r
3d and plenty Wood
Wee, $30.00 per acre.
' : 1 fi
,0 miles from Abbe- ' . 7:
lid farm but no im)tit
50 or 60 acres bot- r
ik .'* /t*? e\ A r\ t t
'rice, $18.uu p<er acre.
die from Hester, one . >
oun Ffclls. 15 horse
rated on the place.
It watered and has an >
pod akdNtimbe*^
ice, $40.00 per acre."^
sige
Terms
' S. LINK
rrirarMra
;JipAill