Adventure, August 1917 — page 40: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

38 money in a proposition the bottom of which is liable to fall out at any time? There are plenty of water-power sites in the States and Canada where you can be sure of what you’ve got without having to take a chance on this.” Wallace felt the futility of arguing further. He knew he had nothing but conjecture to present, and this man accustomed only to reality, only to facts, with a mind trained only for the absorption of facts, could be moved by nothing less. “And you won’t give me another day?” the engineer asked. ‘Just about one more hour. I’ve been talking with these men’—and he nodded toward the two breeds who had paddled him from the railroad—‘‘and they tell me that tomorrow the wind is going to blow and we have two big lakes tocross. They want to start tonight, right after supper. They say the night-time is the best for travel in this country anyhow, and it suits me because I’ll get out to a shave and a clean shirt all-the sooner. No, we start in an hour.” It was the end. Until then Wallace had hoped, had seen a chance. Now failure was absolute. With Madison gone he might as well go. His father’s dream, kis own life’s ambition, even Joan and his future happiness, were wiped out. In the blackness of this despair he turned away and walked slowly to the edge of what had once been the river. Without seeing it. he looked across the dry rocks on which the slime and marine growth had been baked by the sun. There came to his eyes only that memory of his father that had remained so clear and distinct ever since their final parting. “They think I’m crazy, boy. But it’s there. Show them.” | Wallace turned suddenly and strode back to the promoter. “Look here, Mr. Madison,” he began, and there was something in his tone that made the other glance up quickly. ‘I’m not blaming you. You came solely on my word that there was a big thing up here in the wilderness. You got here and there wasn’t anything except a dry river bed. On the whole, I think you’ve been pretty decent, and I appreciate it. It was decent of you to stay here three days after you saw what had happened to the falls, and I won’t ask you to stay any longer. But-——” Adventure He stopped and turned his head to one side as if listening for the roar which had always filled the gorge near the end of which they were camped. When he began to speak again the quick, decided tone was lacking. It was more of a reverie than a statement. “T’ll admit I’m not interested so much in the financial end of this thing, except to see that it could be done cheaply. That isn’t what sent me up here into this country. I’m not fond of it and never have been one who belonged in these out-of-the-way places. “I told you a little something of why I came. Every since I was a boy in short pants I’ve been thinking about these falls. I had them pictured in my mind, from what I had heard about the place, and that picture was so true it seemed natural when I first saw them. -I wasn’t surprised by anything. They were exactly as I knew they would be. “All the time I was in high school and afterward in college there were few days that I didn’t think about the falls and the big lake back of them. They got to be part of me, or the harnessing of them did, and as I look back on it now nothing else ever seemed to count for much before this. “You see, no one ever understood my father. I don’t think he tried very hard to make himself understood. I think he was more of a poet than anything else, only he didn’t write his poems. He only thought them, and dreamed them. And all the time, too, I think he realized that he could only dream. Every one said he was a failure and in time he came to believe it, too, I’m afraid perhaps that was the trouble. “Even my mother, I am sure, never understood him. She was too much like her father, too practical. ‘There wasn’t any room for theory or visions in grandfather’s life. I’ve often thought that mother might have done differently, might have furnished the things my father lacked, and, together, they might have accomplished wonders. But she never understood him, and grandfather never did, and I think it was their plan that I was to forget him. They never mentioned him, never told me things about him, and all that I know is what I remember, what I saw myself. ‘‘Maybe I wasn’t old enough to judge. Maybe I was wrong. But I can’t believe it. He was my father, Mr. Madison, and CoOMmiclsoo C© S|