Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 14, 1928 — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

196 are going to let them go ahead with a piece of construction that is doomed in advance to be a failure? “Or, maybe,” he questioned stiffly, as the suggestion struck him, “ you don’t take any stock in my story of these changes they are making?” “Don’t be silly!’ She gave a ges- ture of impatience. “I believe you absolutely. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be asking you to continue your investiga- tions.” She fell into silence for a minute or two, tapping reflectively with her fin- ger tips on the top of the desk. “Mr. Rich,” she said at length, “I am playing for a pretty big stake in this game. You may not know it, but I have taken up the entire bond issue on this irrigation project. If the sys- tem proves a failure, I am practically wiped out, a bankrupt.” “Then just for that reason,” he broke in warmly, ‘‘ you ought to take immediate steps to stop these ruinous changes.” “No.” She shook her head. “ That would only mean having them strike at me from a new and perhaps more insidious angle. I’ve tried that method with them, and always they came back at me with a more cunning form of at- tack. “ So I’ve decided to try a new line of strategy. : “Vou see—?” She paused again to tap with her fingers on the desk, as if hesitating whether dr not to take him fully into her confidence. Well, it’s this way,” she went on. “ What you’ve told me about these al- terations in the plans of the dam has confirmed a suspicion that’s been in the back of my head for some time. There’s some more powerful and far shrewder interest behind these various moves against me than is apparent on the surface. “Who, would you say,” she ques- tioned, turning to him abruptly, “is it that’s planning and directing all this funny business?” b ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “Why, Fenton, I suppose.” Nor- man ventured a bit uncertainly. “ He seems to be the head one among the commissioners. Or, maybe, Dick Crawford is advising them what to do.” But she dismissed the suggestion with a flick of the fingers. “That conceited salesman!’ she sneered. “ He isn’t enough of a heavy- weight. And the commissioners are absolutely out of consideration; they’re saps. Why, they haven’t the brains among them to see this thing, or the guts to put it through. “The most those cheap crooks could figure on is a few thousands of petty graft. “And they’d never dare, of them- selves, to turn against their own peo- ple, and alter the dam for the benefit of Bridger County. “No,” she declared emphatically. “This is a play for millions. The idea is to make the irrigation project a fail- ure by putting in an inadequate pump- ing plant, and building a dam that fur- nishes water only to the other side of the cafion. “Then the bonds I hold will become worthless, and the property against which they are issued—every acre of the Todd estate—will be thrown on the market and sold for a song.” “And then,” Norman broke in, catching her drift, “all that the pur- chaser will have to do is reénforce the dam to its original specifications, and increase the capacity of the pumping plant; and those barren acres he has bought will become immensely valu- able. I see.” “Exactly,” nodded Molly. “ That’s undoubtedly the scheme. And _ it’s equally certain that some rich and pow- erful influence is engineering it, not any stich small-time fry as Crawford or the county commissioners. ‘They’re simply pawns, obeying orders, and promised enough from the plunder to make it worth while to skip the coun- try when the crash comes.” Gomiuichbook (F@)