human
Somebody was telling me that you let out another batch of your Buckskin ditch diggers to-day, Brouillard, he began. And then, without any bush beating, the critical question was fired point-blank:
gpt
What becomes of all these fellows you are dropping? They don't stay in town or go to the mines--not one of them.
human
Don't they?
gpt
You know mighty well they don't. And they don't even drift out like other people; they go in bunches.
human
Anything else remarkable up your sleeve?
gpt
Yes; Conlan, the railroad ticket agent, started to tell me yesterday that they were going out on government transportation--that they didn't buy tickets like ordinary folks; started to tell me, I say, because he immediately took it back and fell all over himself trying to renege.
human
You are a born gossip, Harlan, but I suppose you can't help it. Did no one ever tell you that a part of the government contract with these laborers includes transportation back to civilization when they are discharged?
gpt
No, not by a jugful! retorted the newspaper man.
human
And you're not telling me so now. For some purpose of your own you are asking me to believe it without being told. I refuse. This is the closed season, and the fish are not biting.
gpt
You are trying mighty hard to make a mountain out of a mole-hill. You say the men clear out when they are discharged--isn't that about what you'd do if you were out of a job?
human
Not with such unfailing unanimity if there were several hundred of me. Mirapolis isn't such an infernally good place to go away from--not yet.
gpt
You are a most persistent gadfly, Harlan. If I tell you one small, trifling, and safely uninflammable fact, can I trust you not to turn it into a house afire in the columns of the _Spot-Light_?
human
You know well enough you can! was the eager protest.
gpt
When have I ever bleated when I should have kept still?
human
Well, then, the fact is this: the men leaving the Niquoia are not discharged from the service. They are merely transferred to the Escalante project, which the department is trying to push through to completion before the northern winter sets in and freezes the concrete in the mixers.
gpt
Ah! said Harlan with a quick indrawing of his breath.
human
That brings on more talk--about a thousand miles of it, doesn't it?
gpt
For example?
human
To put it baldly, is the government really quitting on the Niquoia project, or is it merely transferring its force from a job that can wait to one that can't wait?
gpt
You see, he said;
human
I'm doing a little sum in simple equations, was the thoughtful answer--
gpt
What is your tip?
human
It's this: that Congress does really propose to interfere in behalf of Mirapolis.
gpt
How can any one predict that when Congress is not in session?
human
The tip asserts that the string-pulling is all done. It will be a quiet bit of special legislation smuggled through, I suppose, like the bills for private relief. All it will need will be the recommendation and backing of a handful of Western members and senators. Nobody else is very vitally interested, outside of your own department, and there are always plenty of clubs at hand for killing off department opposition--threats of cutting down the appropriations and so on. Properly engineered, the Mirapolis bill will go through like a greased pig under a gate. You know it will.
gpt
You say nobody else is vitally interested--that's a mistake big enough to be called a crime, said Brouillard with emphasis.
human
The reclamation of the Buckskin Desert is a matter of moment to the entire nation. Its failure would be a public disaster.
gpt
You are talking through your hat now--the salaried government engineer's hat. Let your topographers go out and find some other stream to dam up. Let them hunt up some other desert to reclaim. The supply of arid lands isn't exhausted yet by a good bit.
human
How straight is your tip, Harlan?
gpt
So straight that I'd print it in to-morrow's _Spot-Light_ if I wasn't afraid of queering the deal by being too previous. The necessary backing has been secured, and the bill is already prepared. If you don't believe it, ask your own big bosses in Washington.
human
You are certain that your information didn't originate right here in Mirapolis--in Mr. Cortwright's office, to locate it more exactly?
gpt
It didn't; it came from a purely personal source and direct from Washington.
human
And the source couldn't possibly have become contaminated by the Cortwright germs?
gpt
You are pushing me too hard, he protested.
human
I know that there are wheels within wheels. You'd say it would be a foxy move to have the local newspaper in Mirapolis get such a tip from a strictly unprejudiced source. I'll have to admit that myself.
gpt
It's all right, Harlan, he said at the leave-taking.
human
Believe as much as you like, but take my advice in just one small matter. Don't buy Mirapolis dirt to hold; buy it to sell--and sell the minute you see your profit. I told you I'd give you a pointer if I didn't forget; you've got it.