Honoré Willsie

“ As if to add to his discomfort, Fred, as the summer dragged on, reported findings on the Old Sioux Tract that confirmed Hugh’s conviction that here was one of the greatest fossil fields ever discovered. He chafed and fumed and wrote long letters to Miriam, and the days passed, as such days will. In mid-summer a group of young Cheyenne cub engineers did some survey work up the river, the perennial search for a dam site that always so hugely amused the citizens of Fort Sioux. ”

“ After that, we’ll have a session of the Committee of women who handled the Children’s Code. We’ll pay the car-fares. We’ll hold the meetings here in The Lariat. It has a lot of Bookie in it and is getting a lot of you,” glancing quickly at the fossil specimens that now packed the empty book shelves. “Women feel atmosphere much quicker than men.” She rose, head in air. “This is the biggest evening’s work of my life, Hughie. Good night.”
Hugh looked at her half humorously, half puzzled. ”

“ She’s in a bank. Make her get you some money. By the jumping heck, a woman ought to do a man a little real good once in a while!”
“If you think I’d get money from a woman, Fred, you don’t know me, that’s all. But I will write her for advice.”
“Advice, hell! What you want is enough money to go up to Cheyenne and buy the Public Utilities Commission with. Come down to earth, Hughie!”
“You talk like a crook, Fred. If I didn’t know you were so blamed honest you bend backward, I’d throw you out the rear window.” Hugh was smiling but his voice was deeply troubled. ”

“ I’m sort of a cross between an engineer and a real estate man.”
“The hell you are!” said Fred slowly.
Hugh, who had been leaning against the counter, straightened his long legs suddenly. “You say to ‘make plans’? Just how much does that mean, if you please, Mr. Grafton?”
“Well,” replied Grafton, slowly, “it means that the Eastern Electric Corporation of Chicago will begin next spring on a three-million-dollar water-power project at Fort Sioux. We have control of all the land necessary except such portions of the Old Sioux Tract as will be flooded. ”

“ No, I wouldn’t want to ask Miss Page for money.” This, always accompanied by his twisted and appealing smile, took the sting out of the purchaser’s disappointment but left him or her none the less empty of gossip. ”