Argosy All-Story Weekly, May 17, 1924 — page 166: what you’re looking at

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

316 isn’t any one that we know of in New Jersey who is going to throw any somer- saults over our getting a New Jersey con- tract and try to bury us in sand.” Blake had got his hands still, and after trying out his voice by saying, “ Hell!” several times, finally inquired: ‘What could you afford to pay for sand and gravel if you could get it within one mile of where we are?”’ “Why, we could afford to pay the dollar and twenty-five and dollar and fifty that we are paying, if we could cut the cost of our trucking in half, Say, what the hell are you talking about, Sand? Do you know something that no one else knows? Why, the Johnston Supply Com- pany we are buying our sand and gravel from will make over a half a million dollars off this job. What do you know, anything?” ‘“‘ Spare half an hour to come with me?” asked Blake. “Tf it’s about sand and gravel, I can spare the rest of the week. Here, Walls,” he called to his assistant, who was passing the open door, “ take charge of everything until I return,” and he and Blake started off down the road in the direction of the Blake farm. They jumped a stone wall, and effected a short-cut without having to pass the house up the valley through the center of the farm. When they arrived at the place where Blake had dug into the bank and screened the pile of sand, Rice*placed his hands on his hips; looked the bank up and down, and exclaimed: “ Who the hell put this back here! Why, damn it, Blake, you can stand right there with your hands in your pockets and get rich. How far back does that thing go?” He scrambled to the top, where after look-« ing the surface over, he did a hula hula dance that executed in a public place would have caused his immediate apprehension. “Why, Sand, there’s a million yards piled here; it’s gravel clear back to the slope in the woods,” and he slid down the gravel bank like a little boy who had just discovered a bird’s nest. “Will it mean anything to your concern if you can buy the gravel for a dollar flat ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, a yard and a dollar and twenty-five cents for the screened sand? Will it mean any feather in your helmet?” asked Blake. “Say, Sand, if I can send in a report that I can do that, I can depend on feathers enough to fly with; oh boy, but you sure are a welcome pirate this day of our Lord. When can we begin hauling from here; I will provide the labor for excavating, screening and loading, until you can install an excavator, screener and conveyor at just what we hire them for—four dollars a day of eight hours—and which you should be able to do in two weeks. We pay every Saturday night for the sand used that week. Start to-morrow?” “Tf you want to, but you have a con- tract with the Johnston people, haven’t you?” “No contract, just get what we want every day. They wouldn’t make a con- tract with us; that wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t be so easy to jack us up until they have our socks. If it wasn’t so late in the after- noon, I’d put a gang in here to-day, with your sayso, and lay off half the trucks. But we'll let it go until morning; I'll get a couple of sand screens, put twelve men in, two to screen and ten to excavate and load.” They walked back to the road, where Grant Rice indulged in more vigorous hand shaking, and went off in the direction of his construction work. Blake went to the house along the foot- path, where he told his mother of their good fortune. Mrs. Blake poured cold water on the proposition by going to her late husband’s desk and bringing back a letter which she handed to her son. He read: Nort Brake, Ferndale, N. J., R. F. D. No. 3: Sir—It has been brought to my attention that you are contemplating giving to one Ralph Marsden a lease permitting said Mars- den to remove sand and gravel from one part of your land. As mortgagee, I wish to call your attention to the clause in the mortgage which prohibits you from leasing any part of the mortgaged land to any one or ones who intend to remove therefrom any land, lumber or stone, without the mortgagee’s consent. This I shall refuse to give. Ezra WATSON. Cherry Ridge, Pa. Gomiicbook (C@