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Show m n n u n u n & u n u n 'n $ I RoadinastefsW frabnkh. 1 Story if SPEAR.MAN 1 it ft m I 1 n ((The Spider Waterg WS r. ySB 4k j v I It It It t it t t tt . ---- -- -y-y -"y tv rr r vt (""'rirl0T officially; I don't prJ- H RJ I might travel the Wat ffl , j Kml froln frcsn w ta ll Sgj to salt nml wo dlpnto 9 wffltaHlTOlJ both without ever yjeut- a by nlnp or by name. ( m Hut If you should happen anywhere M on the "West End to sit among a gang m of bridge carpenters, or get to confl- m deuce with a bridge foreman, or nnd tlio sprlnpy side of n roadmaster's M heart, then you might hear all you n wanted njiout tho Spider water, inaybo more; un'jrfvay full plenty, as Ilalley H used to say, m The SIouj: named It, and, whatever H may be thought of their Interpretation I of Scriptural views on land grabbing, no man with sense ever attempted to Improve on their naines for things, K whether birds or braves or winds or waters they know. 9 Our general managers hadn't always sense tills may seem odd, but on the H system It would excite no comment and one of them countenanced u shame ful change In the name of the Spider W water. Some polytechnlcnl Idiot at a I safe distance dubbed It the IMg Sandy, 9 and the Big Sandy It Is to this day on H map and In foldtfr, but not In the lingo a of trackmen nor the heart of the Sioux. 1 Don't say Hlg Sandy to trackmen and ji hand out a cigar. It will not go. Say Spider water without any cigar, and I you will get a word nml a stool and, If 3 you ask It, flue cut. 9 The Spider water although ours Is j the pioneer line was there when we II flrst bridged It. It is probably as old jg as sundown and nothing like as pretty. The banks It has none to speak of; S Us stones they arc whiskered; Its bed full of sand burs. Everything about 3 the villain stream has a dilapidate, bro-1 bro-1 ken down air. Tho very mud of the i Spider water Is rusty. I So our people bridged It, and the trou- Jy ' - we-wmi. Atituber" 6T'tehfterboth-ered 6T'tehfterboth-ered ou- pioneer mana'gcmcntB Indians, Indi-ans, outlaws, cabinet ofllccrs, cougrcs-; cougrcs-; slonal committees nml "Wall street mag natesbut at one time or another our folks managed all of them. Tho only thing tlicy couldn't at nny time satisfactorily satis-factorily inanago was tho Spider water. . Bridge nfW brldgo they throw across It and Into it Year after year tho Spider Spi-der water toyed with our civil engineers engi-neers and our material department. Ono man at Omaha given to asthma and statistics estimated between spells that tho Spider water . had cost us more money than all tho wnter. courses together from tho Missouri to tho Sierras. Sier-ras. t Then came to the West End a iiiusler- ful man, a Scotchman, pawky and 1 hard. Brodlo was his name, au Edlii- fl burgh man, with no end of degree., and m master of every one. Brodlo came to '1 bo superintendent of bridges on the JM western division and to boss every wa- $1 tcr course on tho plains and in the 81 mountnlns. But the Spider water took H a fall even out of Brodle. It swept out tA a Howe truss bridge for Brodle before Ml ho irnt lils bni iinnaekod. and thcrc- H after Brodle, who was reputed not to JB caro a stringer for anybody, did not J conceal a distinct respect for tlie Spl- J dcr. B Brodle went nt it right. Ho tried not B to make friends with tho Spider, for nobody could do that, but to get ac- qualnted with it For this he went to -3 Its oldest neighbors, tho Sioux. Brodlo I spent weeks and weeks up the Spldor m water hunting, summers, and with tho 8 Sioux he talked Spider water and drank Are water. That was Brodlo's shame the lire water. -m But ho was pawky, and ho chinned I unceasingly the braves and tho meill- n clno men about the uncommonly queer I wnter that took tho bridges so fast M tlie river tliat month in nnd montli out couldn't Kfiueoze up water enough to 1 baptize a pollywog and then of a sud- 1 dcu and for a few days would rage Hko jj tho Missouri, restore to tho desert its $ own and living Imago and lcavo our be- tM wildcred rails hung up cither sldo In f'SJBj the wind. ' Brodlo talked oloudbursts up coun- j try, for tho floods came, times, under t clear skies, and (ho Sioux' sulked in , S silence. Ho suggested an unsuspected SH Inlet from somo mountain stream which maybe, times, sent Its storm wn- I tcr over n low dlvldo Into tho Spider, I nnd tho retl men shrugged their fncos. 1 As n last resort and in desperation ho S hinted nt the devil, and- tho skeptics j took a quick braco with ns much as to 1 say, now j'ou are talking, nnd muttered very bad medicine. t Then they gnvo lilm tlio Indian BtufC flj about tho Spider water, took him nwny up whero onre n party of Pawnees ffi had cnmpil In tho dust of tho river JB . aS2 n'r t'I vt 'rv " v oeu to surprise" ino' " wioux ana told' Brodlo how tho Spldor, nforo sudden than buck, fleeter than pony, had come down In tho night and surprised tho Pawnees, nnd so well that the next morning there wasn't enough material left for n scalp dnnce. They took Brodle out into the ratty bed himself, nnd when ho said heap dry nnd snld no water they laughed, Indlamylse, and pointed to tho sand. Scooping little wells with their hands, they showed him the rising nnd the fllllng; tho Instant water where before was no wnter. And dropping Into tho wens reamers or tno grouse uioy snored snor-ed Brodlo how tho current carried them always across tho well every time nnd always, Brodlo noticed southeast. Then Brodle made Ilalley dig many holes, nnd the Spider welled into them, and ho threw In bits of notebooks note-books nnd tobacco wrappers, but always al-ways they traveled southeast always tho same nnd n bigger fool than Brodlo Bro-dlo could see thnt tho water was nil there, only underground. But when did it rlso? asked Brodle. "When the Chinook spoke, said tho Sioux. And why? persisted Brodle. Because the. Spider woke, said the Sioux. Ami Brodle went out of the camp of tho Sioux wondering. And he planned a new bridge which should stand the Chinook nnd tho Spider Spi-der nnd the do'll himself, said Brodle, medicine or no medicine. And full seven year it lasted; then the Are water wa-ter spoke for tlio wicked Scotchman, and he himself went out into the night 'And after ho died, miserable wreck of a man, nnd of n very great man, the Spider woko and took his pawky bridge nnd tied up tho main Hue for t,wo weeks and set us crazy, for wo were already al-ready losing our grip on the California, fast freight business. But at that tlmo Ilalley was superintendent of bridges on the West JEud. His father was a section foreman. Vheu'H,alley was-a kid a Inoroikld-. ho got Into Brodfo's ' offlco doing errands, er-rands, but whenever ho saw a draftsman drafts-man at work ho was no good for errands. er-rands. At such times lie went nil into n mental tangle that could neither be thrashed nor kicked out of him, though both were conscientiously tried by old man Ilalley nnd Superintendent Brodle, Bro-dle, and Brodle, since he could do nothing noth-ing else with him, Anally kicked him Into learning to read and to cipher, Brodle called It. Then by and by ilalley ilal-ley got an old tnble and part of n cake of India Ink himself, and himself became be-came n draftsman, and soon, with some cursing from Brodlo nnd n "Luk a' that now!" from ills paralyzed daddy, became chief draf tsmnn in Brodlo's of-Ace. of-Ace. Ilalley was no collego man. Ilalley Ilal-ley was n Brodle man. Single mind on Nhigle mind, concentration absolute. Mathematics, drawing, bridges, brains that was Ilalley. But no classics except ex-cept Brodle, who himself was a classic. All that Brodlo know Ilalley had from hlni, and whero Brodlo was weak Ilalley Ilal-ley was strong, master of himself. "When Brodio shamed the imago he was made in Ilalley hid tho sliamo best he could thouch never touched or mndo It his own nnd Brodle, who hnted even himself, showed still a light In tho wreck by molding Ilalley to his work. For ono day, said Brodlo In his heart, this boy shall bo mnster of these bridges. When I nm rot he will bo hero what I ought to have been this Irish boy and they will say ho was Brodlo's man. Ajul better than nny of these dough heads they send mo out, bettor than any of their eastern graduates lie shnll be, if ho was made engineer by a drunkard. And Ilalley was better far, far better than tho graduates, better than Brodle, nnd to Ilalley enmo tlie tlmo to wrestle the Spider. Stronger than any mnn before or since lie was for Unit work. All Brodle Bro-dle know, nil tho Indians knew, all that a life's experience, eating, living, watching, sleeping -with tlio big river had taught him, that Ilalley knew, and when Brodlo's brldgo went out Ilalley was ready with his now brldgo for the Spider water which should be better than Brodlo's, Just aB ho was better than Brodle. It was to ho such a brldgo ns -Brodlo's bridge, with the Aro wnter left out. And the plans for a IIowo truss, two pier, two nbutment, three- span, pneumatic caisson bridge to span tho Big Sandy river were submitted sub-mitted to headquarters. But tho cost! Tlio directors Jumped their table when they saw tho Agurcs. Wo wero being milked nt thnt time to put It bluntly, being sucked, worse tlinn lemons by n Wall street clique that robbed our good road, shaved our salaries, 'Impoverished our equipment and cut our maintenance to the quick. They talked economy nnd studied piracy. pira-cy. . In tho matter of appropriations t bbb x leinspives -f;ey wero rrceimoters; l?B'' ,llc-v Xvpro U,rlrt-r nH l,1(m -" "n town. When Ilnlley demand- fjlltliniisand guilders for his Spider ' bridge they laughed and said, "', take flfty." He couldn't do fifing else, and lie built u Af ty gull-" gull-" fridge to bar the Spider's crawl. Kkftcd really better than tho nverage 1)rM?o, nml since Ilalley never could n thousand guilders at onco ho CPt drawing flfty at a time and throw-'"gfoeiii throw-'"gfoeiii annually at the Spider. "it the dream of his llfe-thlH Wo all knoiv and the StoUX would have said pC 8pli)r know-was to build a Anal uTlasa ovcr tno sijiltlor water, n brldgo to throttle It for all time. It was the ono subject on which you could get a rise out of Ilnlley nny time, tiny or night -the two pier, two nbutment, nbut-ment, three span, pneumatic caisson Spider bridge. He would tnlk Spider brldgo to n Chinaman. Ills brldgo foreman. IM I'eeto, a staving big ouo o.ved Trench Canadian, actually had hut two idons In life one was Ilalley, tlio other the Spldor bridge. When tho management changed again, when tho pirates were sent out on the plnnk so n-nin- good men had wnlked at their command, and a great and public spirited man took control of the system, sys-tem, IM poet,, kicked his little water spaniel In n frenzy of delight. "Now, Sport, old boy," ho exclaimed riotously, "we'll got the bridge!"' So there were many long conferences confer-ences at division headquarters between Bucks, superintendent, and Callahan, assistant, and Ilalley, superintendent of bridges, nnd after, Ilalley went onco more to general headquarters lugging all his estimates revised and all his plans reflgured. All his expense estimates esti-mates ouMde tho Spider brldgo and one other point were slight, because Ilalley could skin nlong with less money than anybody ever In charge of tho brldgo work. He did It by keeping everything un; not a sleeper, not a splko- nothing got away from him. Tlie now president, as befitted a very big in an, was no end of a swell and received Ilalley with a considerate dignity dig-nity unknown on our end. lie listened cnrofully to the superintendent's statement state-ment of the necessities nt the Big Sandy San-dy river. The amount looked large, but the nrgument, supported by n mass of statistics, was convincing. Three bridges in ten years, and the California fast freight business lost twice. Hal-ley's Hal-ley's budget called, too, for a now bridge nt tho Peace river and a good ' ono. Glvo him these, he said in effect, nnd ho wouto guarantee tho worst stretch on the w?fiin forn, lifetime. 'ntraiJstltupdistorsXlInnoy stnyed' over tdSiwalttho decision, but ho was always in a hurry, and ho hnunted the general ofllcosjuntll the president told him ho could Lava the money. To Ilnlley Ilnl-ley tills mcnuF, particularly, the brldgo of his dreams. The wire flashed tho word to tho West End. Everybody at tho Wickiup was glad, but Ed Peeto burned red fire, nnd his little dog Sport nto rattlesnakes. The old shack of a depot building that served ns division headquarters at Medicine Bond wo called tho Wickiup. Everybody in it wns crowded for room, nnd Ilalley, whoso sharo was what was left, had hard work to keep out of tho wustcbnsket. But right away now It was different. Two extra olllccs wero now assigned to Ilalley, and ho took his plnco with those who sported windows nnd cuspidors In n word, had departments In the service. Old Denis Ilnlley went very near crnzy. He resigned re-signed ns section boss and took a place at smaller wages In the bridge carpenter's carpen-ter's gang so ho could work on tho boy's bridge, and Ed Peeto, savage with responsibility, strutted around the Wickiup Hko a evclons. For a-wonder tho bridge material camo In fast, tho Spider stuff flrst, and early In the summer Ilnlley, very quiet, and Peeto, very profane, with all and several their trails nnd slaves and belongings, be-longings, moved into construction headquarters head-quarters nt tlio Spider, and the flrst air lock over sunk west of the Missouri closed over the heads of tall Ilnlley nnd big Ed Peeto. Like n swarm of ants the hrldgoworkers cast the refuse up out of the -Spider bed. The blowpipes never slept; night and day tho sand streamed from below, and Halley's caissons, Hko armed cruisers, sunk foot by foot toward tho rock. By tho mid-dlo mid-dlo of September tho masonry was crowding high water mark nud tho following fol-lowing Saturday Ilalley and Peeto ran back to Medicine Bend to rest up n bit and B-'t,ncqualnteddwlth their families. Pccto was bo deaf ho couldn't hear himself swear, nnd Ilnlley looked ragged rag-ged and thin, Hko tho old depot, hut Immensely happy. Sunday morning counted a little even then In tho mountains. It was at least a day to get your feet on the tables up In Ilucks' ofllco and smoke Callahan's tobacco, which wns enough to makq a nitm bless Callahan If ho did forgot his Maker. Sunday mornings Bucks would get out tho dulnty, pearl handled Wostenholni tnnt j.nilenfcld, the big San Frnnclsco spirit shipper, left un-uuallj" un-uuallj" for htm nt the Bend, nnd open the H. H, U. ninll nnd read tho news aloud for (ho benefit of Callahan and Ilnlley nnd such hangers on as Peeto and nu occasional. stray dispatcher., (To bo continued.) |