Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 7, 1928 — page 35: what you’re looking at

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

DAMMING HAIRPIN CANON. by the waving of red flags, would come the dull booming of a blast. Men were scurrying about like ants, engaged in a multiplicity of tasks— long lines of them pushing wheelbar- rows in a rhythmic progression, others manipulating the various machines, swinging out on slender cables, delving, tugging, hauling in unison and at the word of command. This was not to be an epochal dam —one of those that are pictured in the news reels of the movies, and in the feature sections of the papers. But even so, it was a titanic work, and in spite of his engrossing worries, Nor- man got a thrill out of watching the disorderly order spread out below him, the buzz and hum and stir of it all. Standing there on the edge of the pit, he could appraise the progress of the work. Already the concrete foun- dations of the great, retaining wall were beginning to rise. Out of the con- fusion and dust and clangor beneath him, he could visualize the completed achievement, with that trickling stream which now ran like a silver thread down through the valley, turned into a wide, spreading lake behind the white, man-made barrier, solid as the eternal rock, Then, as he studied the situation, a little wrinkle crept into his forehead and extended down between his eyes. He either was not seeing straight, or else something was wrong. Surely the base of the dam was not so broad as it had been shown in the blue prints on which he had figured when he submitted his bid for pump- ing machinery. Also, unless his mem- ory deceived him, the direction of it had been somewhat changed. Norman hesitated a moment; then on an impulse started to descend into the excavation, scrambling recklessly down the rough rock walls, and essay- ing a perilous flight of swaying ladders. Reaching the bottom, he made his way over to the dam, and choosing a completed section of the foundation, 25 SOO, paced off the breadth of it. He was right. The foundation was four feet narrower than the measure- ments given in the blue prints. This meant that for the height planned, the dam was no longer within the limits of safety. What was the idea? The men in charge ought to know what they were doing. Yet any one with even an ele- mentary knowledge of engineering must realize that so slender a dam as. would have to rise from that founda- tion could never serve to hold back the pressure of such a body of water. There was graft in the change, of course, but where? With the county commissioners? With the people who held the contract? dinates in actual charge of the work? And to what advantage; since who- ever was responsible must be aware that the water would no sooner be turned in than the flimsy construction would give way, creating a terrible dis- aster, and covering everybody con- cerned in it with obloquy and loss. It was a case like that of a man com- mitting a crime with the absolute cer- tainty that he is going to be found out and punished for it. Norman was disquieted by his dis- covery. He tried to tell himself that the affair was none of his business. Probably, within a day or two he would be gone from Los Chicos County for- ever; what happened there after that would be of slight consequence to him. But he could not dismiss the matter so lightly from his mind. Painstaking- ly exact himself, the thing irritated him in the same way that the sight of a dusty table top will irritate a careful housekeeper. He wanted to find out what was at the bottom of it. Such a marked dis- crepancy from the original plans could hardly be the result of a blunder or miscalculation, he felt. And yet—some funny things do happen in construction work. EOPMICE OO KS Or with the subor- | (E@)