Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 7, 1928 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

DAMMING HAIRPIN CANON, 7 pin Cafion, or Molly Todd’s irrigation — scheme. In fact, if anybody had asked him regarding those two subjects he would probably have guessed that Molly Todd was the woman who made the first American flag, and Hairpin Canon a new form of machine gun. So, as all his conjectures on being let out seemed about equally wide of the mark, he gave up the mystifying riddle after a day or two, and set him- self to looking for a new job. But this proved not so easy as he had fondly hoped. His line was rather narrowly technical, and most of the machinery houses were already sup- plied with competent men of that sort. There came then—to mix the movies up with Shakespeare—quite a winter of discontent for Norman. Finally, with his funds running low, and the outlook about as gloomy as a rainy day in February, he accepted in desperation a berth as salesman with a small con- cern in St. Louis, and was assigned to the Southwest as his territory. Dutifully he canvassed the States of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Cali- fornia for his firm; but since about all he sent back to the house were his weekly expense accounts, prospects be- gan to look bright for Norman return- . ing to the ranks of the unemployed. Then, one sweltering night at Fres- no, when things seemed at their lowest ebb, and he sat dejected and forlorn in the hotel office, he happened to over- hear three men discussing the question of irrigation machinery. They were evidently back-country Westerners, sun-dried, - tawny-mus- tached, drawling of speech; and they seemed so hazy and ill-informed on the subject at issue that Norman, overcom- ing his natural bashfulness, could not help breaking in to set them right. Irrigation machinery was his long suit; and once started on it, he was soon talking away six to the dozen, spilling facts and figures in a steady stream, while the three men hung en- tranced upon his words. It developed in the course of the con- versation that they were Fenton, Creel, and Thornley, the three commissioners of Los Chicos County, and were mak- ing an inspection trip to different irri- gation plants in the hope of finding some solution to the problem which confronted them as a result of the mis- calculation of their dead surveyor. They confessed to Norman, how- ever, that their investigation had proved distinctly discouraging, for it had been made plain to them that the engineering costs on their project would run so high as to leave nothing for the purchase of machinery. Los Chicos County was poor, they told him; and they did not see how the additional funds fequired could possibly be raised. The upshot of the matter was that Norman accompanied them home, and put in three weeks there at his own ex- pense, studying the situation. Then, with the aid only of the young county surveyor, he drafted a complete set of blue prints, plans and specifications for a pumping system capable of meeting every conceivable requirement in the case, yet still falling within the amount voted for the improvement, Armed with these plans and the ad- ditional data he had gathered, he hur- ried on to St. Louis, and figured so painstakingly with the members of his firm that they were able to submit a bid on the work which he was satisfied no competitor could approximate. So now, with the bids about to be opened and the contract awarded the following day, he was journeying back to New Mexico and Los Chicos Coun- ty with a feeling of triumph; for his contract, he was sure, was as good as already in his pocket, and his house would reap a substantial profit on it. As his train roared through the famed Raton Pass, and wound in and out among the towering mountains, he told himself elatedly that for once he had got the jump on the other boys, and had redeemed all his previous poor showing. Blair & Co, would begin comicbooks