“See Kendall, of The Tribune, about that. From what he told me a couple of hours ago, I should say that your petition for an injunction would be only a crude loss of time. We’ll try to think of a better way, or at least a more effective way. Good-night; and don’t omit to throw the gaff into Smith, good and hard.”
On the morning following Sprague’s visit to The Tribune editorial rooms, the newspaper-reading public of Brewster had a small sensation served, in Starbuck’s phrase, “hot from the skillet.” A good portion of the front page of The Tribune was given to a news story of the work which was under way in the Mesquite Valley, and pictures were printed of the camp, the dam, and the growing lake.
On the editorial page there was a caustic arraignment of the Mesquite Company, which was called upon to show cause why it should not be condemned as a public nuisance of a kind which had already brought much reproach upon the West as a field for legitimate investment, and the suggestion was made that a committee of responsible citizens be sent to investigate the Mesquite project, to the end that the charges made might be either substantiated or set aside.
Specifically, these charges were that there was no arable land within reach of the Mesquite dam, and that the dam itself was unsafe. Throughout his editorial Kendall had judiciously refrained from making any mention of a possible disaster to the railroad; but he hinted broadly at the danger to which the High Line dam—the source of the city’s power and lights—would be subjected in the event of a flood catastrophe on the distant project.
Maxwell, who was living at the hotel in the absence of his family, had read the paper before he came down to join Sprague at the breakfast-table, and, like every other newspaper reader in Brewster that morning, he was full of the latest sensation.
“By George, Calvin,” he began, “somebody has been stirring up the mud for those people we were talking about night before last. Have you seen The Tribune?”
Sprague nodded assent.
“What do you make of it?” asked the railroad man.
“I should say that somebody—possibly the High Line management—is beginning to sit up and take notice, wouldn’t you?”
“Y-yes; but see here—any such thing as Kendall hints at would knock the Nevada Short Line out long before it would get to the High Line dam!”