C. & W. He even got
his scheme into the private office of the president, and from the
president word ran down to Gray. I think even Gray began then to get
shaky in the knees. I tell you, Conniston, the Old Man's project is so
big that until it is consummated there will always be a doubt in other
men's minds whether the thing ever can be done. If it can't, if it
proves impracticable to irrigate this country, to build first Valley
City and then a string of settlements across the desert, why then of
course there would be nothing in it for the P. C. & W. to run a spur
across to Indian Creek.
"And Oliver Swinnerton made it his business to show the management of
the railroad that the thing was impossible, that it was a mad fool's
dream, that when the first day of October came there would be nothing
accomplished because there never could be anything accomplished. He
scored his point, and then he played his trump card. He showed that
the same money which the railroad would have to spend in stringing
rails across the sand here could be spent more advantageously in
another direction.
"On the other side of Bolton there are grassy foothills, well watered--a
big stretch of country very much like that about Crawfordsville.
Already there are orchards there, considerable small farming,
grain-raising and hay. Swinnerton planned to build a town out there in
the heart of that fertile country where there are now a number of
settlements and to have the P.
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