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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Killer, by Stewart Edward White
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Killer
+
+Author: Stewart Edward White
+
+Release Date: August 24, 2005 [EBook #16589]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KILLER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Kathryn Lybarger, Gene Smethers and the Online
+Distributed Processing Team
+
+
+
+
+
+[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: In many older texts, the character combination "oe"
+was tied together with a ligature. Such instances are represented in
+this ASCII text by enclosing them in brackets. Hence in words
+such as Oedipus, for example, when the 'O' and the 'e' are connected with a
+ligature, they will be shown as [Oe]dipus. In addition, the text contains
+a ranch brand consisting of the characters J and H connected (no space
+between). This brand is shown in the text as [JH].]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: He had been shot through the body and was dead. His
+rifle lay across a rock trained carefully on the trail.]
+
+
+
+
+THE KILLER
+
+BY
+
+STEWART EDWARD WHITE
+
+AUTHOR OF
+THE BLAZED TRAIL,
+THE RIVERMAN,
+ARIZONA NIGHTS, ETC.
+
+
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS  NEW YORK
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1919, 1920, BY
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF
+TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES,
+INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
+
+
+
+PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
+AT
+THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
+
+COPYRIGHT 1919, 1920, BY THE RED BOOK CORPORATION
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                              PAGE
+
+THE KILLER                       3
+
+THE ROAD AGENT                 135
+
+THE TIDE                       157
+
+CLIMBING FOR GOATS             189
+
+MOISTURE, A TRACE              211
+
+THE RANCH                      229
+
+
+
+
+
+THE KILLER
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+I want to state right at the start that I am writing this story twenty
+years after it happened solely because my wife and Senor Buck Johnson
+insist on it. Myself, I don't think it a good yarn. It hasn't any love
+story in it; and there isn't any plot. Things just happened, one thing
+after the other. There ought to be a yarn in it somehow, and I suppose
+if a fellow wanted to lie a little he could make a tail-twister out of
+it. Anyway, here goes; and if you don't like it, you know you can quit
+at any stage of the game.
+
+It happened when I was a kid and didn't know any better than to do such
+things. They dared me to go up to Hooper's ranch and stay all night; and
+as I had no information on either the ranch or its owner, I saddled up
+and went. It was only twelve miles from our Box Springs ranch--a nice
+easy ride. I should explain that heretofore I had ridden the Gila end of
+our range, which is so far away that only vague rumours of Hooper had
+ever reached me at all. He was reputed a tough old devil with horrid
+habits; but that meant little to me. The tougher and horrider they came,
+the better they suited me--so I thought. Just to make everything
+entirely clear I will add that this was in the year of 1897 and the Soda
+Springs valley in Arizona.
+
+By these two facts you old timers will gather the setting of my tale.
+Indian days over; "nester" days with frame houses and vegetable patches
+not yet here. Still a few guns packed for business purposes; Mexican
+border handy; no railroad in to Tombstone yet; cattle rustlers lingering
+in the Galiuros; train hold-ups and homicide yet prevalent but frowned
+upon; favourite tipple whiskey toddy with sugar; but the old fortified
+ranches all gone; longhorns crowded out by shorthorn blaze-head
+Herefords or near-Herefords; some indignation against Alfred Henry
+Lewis's _Wolfville_ as a base libel; and, also but, no gasoline wagons
+or pumps, no white collars, no tourists pervading the desert, and the
+Injins still wearing blankets and overalls at their reservations instead
+of bead work on the railway platforms when the Overland goes through. In
+other words, we were wild and wooly, but sincerely didn't know it.
+
+While I was saddling up to go take my dare, old Jed Parker came and
+leaned himself up against the snubbing post of the corral. He watched me
+for a while, and I kept quiet, knowing well enough that he had something
+to say.
+
+"Know Hooper?" he asked.
+
+"I've seen him driving by," said I.
+
+I had: a little humped, insignificant figure with close-cropped white
+hair beneath a huge hat. He drove all hunched up. His buckboard was a
+rattletrap, old, insulting challenge to every little stone in the road;
+but there was nothing the matter with the horses or their harness. We
+never held much with grooming in Arizona, but these beasts shone like
+bronze. Good sizeable horses, clean built--well, I better not get
+started talking horse! They're the reason I had never really sized up
+the old man the few times I'd passed him.
+
+"Well, he's a tough bird," said Jed.
+
+"Looks like a harmless old cuss--but mean," says I.
+
+"About this trip," said Jed, after I'd saddled and coiled my
+rope--"don't, and say you did."
+
+I didn't answer this, but led my horse to the gate.
+
+"Well, don't say as how I didn't tell you all about it," said Jed, going
+back to the bunk house.
+
+Miserable old coot! I suppose he thought he _had_ told me all about it!
+Jed was always too loquacious!
+
+But I hadn't racked along more than two miles before a man cantered up
+who was perfectly able to express himself. He was one of our outfit and
+was known as Windy Bill. Nuff said!
+
+"Hear you're goin' up to stay the night at Hooper's," said he. "Know
+Hooper?"
+
+"No, I don't," said I, "are you another of these Sunbirds with glad
+news?"
+
+"Know about Hooper's boomerang?"
+
+"Boomerang!" I replied, "what's that?"
+
+"That's what they call it. You know how of course we all let each
+other's strays water at our troughs in this country, and send 'em back
+to their own range at round up."
+
+"Brother, you interest me," said I, "and would you mind informing me
+further how you tell the dear little cows apart?"
+
+"Well, old Hooper don't, that's all," went on Windy, without paying me
+any attention. "He built him a chute leading to the water corrals, and
+half way down the chute he built a gate that would swing across it and
+open a hole into a dry corral. And he had a high platform with a handle
+that ran the gate. When any cattle but those of his own brands came
+along, he had a man swing the gate and they landed up into the dry
+corral. By and by he let them out on the range again."
+
+"Without water?"
+
+"Sure! And of course back they came into the chute. And so on. Till they
+died, or we came along and drove them back home."
+
+"Windy," said I, "you're stuffing me full of tacks."
+
+"I've seen little calves lyin' in heaps against the fence like drifts of
+tumbleweed," said Windy, soberly; and then added, without apparent
+passion, "The old----!"
+
+Looking at Windy's face, I knew these words for truth.
+
+"He's a bad _hombre_," resumed Windy Bill after a moment. "He never does
+no actual killing himself, but he's got a bad lot of oilers[A] there,
+especially an old one named Andreas and another one called Ramon, and
+all he has to do is to lift one eye at a man he don't like and that man
+is as good as dead--one time or another."
+
+This was going it pretty strong, and I grinned at Windy Bill.
+
+"All right," said Windy, "I'm just telling you."
+
+"Well, what's the matter with you fellows down here?" I challenged. "How
+is it he's lasted so long? Why hasn't someone shot him? Are you all
+afraid of him or his Mexicans?"
+
+"No, it ain't that, exactly. I don't know. He drives by all alone, and
+he don't pack no gun ever, and he's sort of runty--and--I do'no _why_ he
+ain't been shot, but he ain't. And if I was you, I'd stick home."
+
+Windy amused but did not greatly persuade me. By this time I was fairly
+conversant with the cowboy's sense of humour. Nothing would have tickled
+them more than to bluff me out of a harmless excursion by means of
+scareful tales. Shortly Windy Bill turned off to examine a distant bunch
+of cattle; and so I rode on alone.
+
+It was coming on toward evening. Against the eastern mountains were
+floating tinted mists; and the canons were a deep purple. The cattle
+were moving slowly so that here and there a nimbus of dust caught and
+reflected the late sunlight into gamboge yellows and mauves. The magic
+time was near when the fierce, implacable day-genius of the desert would
+fall asleep and the soft, gentle, beautiful star-eyed night-genius of
+the desert would arise and move softly. My pony racked along in the
+desert. The mass that represented Hooper's ranch drew imperceptibly
+nearer. I made out the green of trees and the white of walls and
+building.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Hooper's ranch proved to be entirely enclosed by a wall of adobe ten
+feet high and whitewashed. To the outside it presented a blank face.
+Only corrals and an alfalfa patch were not included. A wide, high
+gateway, that could be closed by massive doors, let into a stable yard,
+and seemed to be the only entrance. The buildings within were all
+immaculate also: evidently Old Man Hooper loved whitewash. Cottonwood
+trees showed their green heads; and to the right I saw the sloped
+shingled roof of a larger building. Not a living creature was in sight.
+I shook myself, saying that the undoubted sinister feeling of utter
+silence and lifelessness was compounded of my expectations and the time
+of day. But that did not satisfy me. My aroused mind, casting about,
+soon struck it: I was missing the swarms of blackbirds, linnets, purple
+finches, and doves that made our own ranch trees vocal. Here were no
+birds. Laughing at this simple explanation of my eerie feeling, I passed
+under the gate and entered the courtyard.
+
+It, too, seemed empty. A stable occupied all one side; the other three
+were formed by bunk houses and necessary out-buildings. Here, too, dwelt
+absolute solitude and absolute silence. It was uncanny, as though one
+walked in a vacuum. Everything was neat and shut up and whitewashed and
+apparently dead. There were no sounds or signs of occupancy. I was as
+much alone as though I had been in the middle of an ocean. My mind, by
+now abnormally sensitive and alert, leaped on this idea. For the same
+reason, it insisted--lack of life: there were no birds here, not even
+_flies_! Of course, said I, gone to bed in the cool of evening: why
+should there be? I laughed aloud and hushed suddenly; and then nearly
+jumped out of my skin. The thin blue curl of smoke had caught my eye;
+and I became aware of the figure of a man seated on the ground, in the
+shadow, leaning against the building. The curl of smoke was from his
+cigarette. He was wrapped in a _serape_ which blended well with the cool
+colour of shadow. My eyes were dazzled with the whitewash--natural
+enough--yet the impression of solitude had been so complete. It was
+uncanny, as though he had materialized out of the shadow itself. Silly
+idea! I ranged my eye along the row of houses, and I saw three other
+figures I had missed before, all broodingly immobile, all merged in
+shadow, all watching me, all with the insubstantial air of having as I
+looked taken body from thin air.
+
+This was too foolish! I dismounted, dropped my horse's reins over his
+head, and sauntered to the nearest figure. He was lost in the dusk of
+the building and of his Mexican hat. I saw only the gleam of eyes.
+
+"Where will I find Mr. Hooper?" I asked.
+
+The figure waved a long, slim hand toward a wicket gate in one side of
+the enclosure. He said no word, nor made another motion; and the other
+figures sat as though graved from stone.
+
+After a moment's hesitation I pushed open the wicket gate, and so found
+myself in a smaller intimate courtyard of most surprising character. Its
+centre was green grass, and about its border grew tall, bright flowers.
+A wide verandah ran about three sides. I could see that in the numerous
+windows hung white lace curtains. Mind you, this was in Arizona of the
+'nineties!
+
+I knocked at the nearest door, and after an interval it opened and I
+stood face to face with Old Man Hooper himself.
+
+He proved to be as small as I had thought, not taller than my own
+shoulder, with a bent little figure dressed in wrinkled and baggy store
+clothes of a snuff brown. His bullet head had been cropped so that his
+hair stood up like a short-bristled white brush. His rather round face
+was brown and lined. His hands, which grasped the doorposts
+uncompromisingly to bar the way, were lean and veined and old. But all
+that I found in my recollections afterward to be utterly unimportant.
+His eyes were his predominant, his formidable, his compelling
+characteristic. They were round, the pupils very small, the irises large
+and of a light flecked blue. From the pupils radiated fine lines. The
+blank, cold, inscrutable stare of them bored me through to the back of
+the neck. I suppose the man winked occasionally, but I never got that
+impression. I've noticed that owls have this same intent, unwinking
+stare--and wildcats.
+
+"Mr. Hooper," said I, "can you keep me over night?"
+
+It was a usual request in the old cattle country. He continued to stare
+at me for some moments.
+
+"Where are you from?" he asked at length. His voice was soft and low;
+rather purring.
+
+I mentioned our headquarters on the Gila: it did not seem worth while
+to say anything about Box Springs only a dozen miles away. He stared at
+me for some time more.
+
+"Come in," he said, abruptly; and stood aside.
+
+This was a disconcerting surprise. All I had expected was permission to
+stop, and a direction as to how to find the bunk house. Then a more or
+less dull evening, and a return the following day to collect on my
+"dare." I stepped into the dimness of the hallway; and immediately after
+into a room beyond.
+
+Again I must remind you that this was the Arizona of the 'nineties. All
+the ranch houses with which I was acquainted, and I knew about all of
+them, were very crudely done. They comprised generally a half dozen
+rooms with adobe walls and rough board floors, with only such
+furnishings as deal tables, benches, homemade chairs, perhaps a battered
+old washstand or so, and bunks filled with straw. We had no such things
+as tablecloths and sheets, of course. Everything was on a like scale of
+simple utility.
+
+All right, get that in your mind. The interior into which I now stepped,
+with my clanking spurs, my rattling _chaps_, the dust of my
+sweat-stained garments, was a low-ceilinged, dim abode with faint, musty
+aromas. Carpets covered the floors; an old-fashioned hat rack flanked
+the door on one side, a tall clock on the other. I saw in passing framed
+steel engravings. The room beyond contained easy chairs, a sofa
+upholstered with hair cloth, an upright piano, a marble fireplace with a
+mantel, in a corner a triangular what-not filled with objects. It, too,
+was dim and curtained and faintly aromatic as had been the house of an
+old maiden aunt of my childhood, who used to give me cookies on the
+Sabbath. I felt now too large, and too noisy, and altogether mis-dressed
+and blundering and dirty. The little old man moved without a sound, and
+the grandfather's clock outside ticked deliberately in a hollow silence.
+
+I sat down, rather gingerly, in the chair he indicated for me.
+
+"I shall be very glad to offer you hospitality for the night," he said,
+as though there had been no interim. "I feel honoured at the
+opportunity."
+
+I murmured my thanks, and a suggestion that I should look after my
+horse.
+
+"Your horse, sir, has been attended to, and your _cantinas_[B] are
+undoubtedly by now in your room, where, I am sure, you are anxious to
+repair."
+
+He gave no signal, nor uttered any command, but at his last words a
+grave, elderly Mexican appeared noiselessly at my elbow. As a matter of
+fact, he came through an unnoticed door at the back, but he might as
+well have materialized from the thin air for the start that he gave me.
+Hooper instantly arose.
+
+"I trust, sir, you will find all to your liking. If anything is lacking,
+I trust you will at once indicate the fact. We shall dine in a half
+hour----"
+
+He seized a small implement consisting of a bit of wire screen attached
+to the end of a short stick, darted across the room with the most
+extraordinary agility, thwacked a lone house fly, and returned.
+
+"--and you will undoubtedly be ready for it," he finished his speech,
+calmly, as though he had not moved from his tracks.
+
+I murmured my acknowledgments. My last impression as I left the room was
+of the baleful, dead, challenging stare of the man's wildcat eyes.
+
+The Mexican glided before me. We emerged into the court, walked along
+the verandah, and entered a bedroom. My guide slipped by me and
+disappeared before I had the chance of a word with him. He may have been
+dumb for all I know. I sat down and tried to take stock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+The room was small, but it was papered, it was rugged, its floor was
+painted and waxed, its window--opening into the court, by the way--was
+hung with chintz and net curtains, its bed was garnished with sheets and
+counterpane, its chairs were upholstered and in perfect repair and
+polish. It was not Arizona, emphatically not, but rather the sweet and
+garnished and lavendered respectability of a Connecticut village. My
+dirty old _cantinas_ lay stacked against the washstand. At sight of them
+I had to grin. Of course I travelled cowboy fashion. They contained a
+toothbrush, a comb, and a change of underwear. The latter item was
+sheer, rank pride of caste.
+
+It was all most incongruous and strange. But the strangest part, of
+course, was the fact that I found myself where I was at that moment. Why
+was I thus received? Why was I, an ordinary and rather dirty cowpuncher,
+not sent as usual to the men's bunk house? It could not be possible that
+Old Man Hooper extended this sort of hospitality to every chance
+wayfarer. Arizona is a democratic country, Lord knows: none more so! But
+owners are not likely to invite in strange cowboys unless they
+themselves mess with their own men. I gave it up, and tried
+unsuccessfully to shrug it off my mind, and sought distraction in
+looking about me. There was not much to see. The one door and one
+window opened into the court. The other side was blank except that near
+the ceiling ran a curious, long, narrow opening closed by a transom-like
+sash. I had never seen anything quite like it, but concluded that it
+must be a sort of loop hole for musketry in the old days. Probably they
+had some kind of scaffold to stand on.
+
+I pulled off my shirt and took a good wash: shook the dust out of my
+clothes as well as I could; removed my spurs and _chaps_; knotted my
+silk handkerchief necktie fashion; slicked down my wet hair, and tried
+to imagine myself decently turned out for company. I took off my gun
+belt also; but after some hesitation thrust the revolver inside the
+waistband of my drawers. Had no reason; simply the border instinct to
+stick to one's weapon.
+
+Then I sat down to wait. The friendly little noises of my own movements
+left me. I give you my word, never before nor since have I experienced
+such stillness. In vain I told myself that with adobe walls two feet
+thick, a windless evening, and an hour after sunset, stillness was to be
+expected. That did not satisfy. Silence is made up of a thousand little
+noises so accustomed that they pass over the consciousness. Somehow
+these little noises seemed to lack. I sat in an aural vacuum. This
+analysis has come to me since. At that time I only knew that most
+uneasily I missed something, and that my ears ached from vain listening.
+
+At the end of the half hour I returned to the parlour. Old Man Hooper
+was there waiting. A hanging lamp had been lighted. Out of the shadows
+cast from it a slender figure rose and came forward.
+
+"My daughter, Mr.----" he paused.
+
+"Sanborn," I supplied.
+
+"My dear, Mr. Sanborn has most kindly dropped in to relieve the tedium
+of our evening with his company--his distinguished company." He
+pronounced the words suavely, without a trace of sarcastic emphasis, yet
+somehow I felt my face flush. And all the time he was staring at me
+blankly with his wide, unblinking, wildcat eyes.
+
+The girl was very pale, with black hair and wide eyes under a fair, wide
+brow. She was simply dressed in some sort of white stuff. I thought she
+drooped a little. She did not look at me, nor speak to me; only bowed
+slightly.
+
+We went at once into a dining room at the end of the little dark hall.
+It was lighted by a suspended lamp that threw the illumination straight
+down on a table perfect in its appointments of napery, silver, and
+glass. I felt very awkward and dusty in my cowboy rig; and rather too
+large. The same Mexican served us, deftly. We had delightful food, well
+cooked. I do not remember what it was. My attention was divided between
+the old man and his daughter. He talked, urbanely, of a wide range of
+topics, displaying a cosmopolitan taste, employing a choice of words and
+phrases that was astonishing. The girl, who turned out to be very pretty
+in a dark, pale, sad way, never raised her eyes from her plate.
+
+It was the cool of the evening, and a light breeze from the open window
+swung the curtains. From the blackness outside a single frog began to
+chirp. My host's flow of words eddied, ceased. He raised his head
+uneasily; then, without apology, slipped from his chair and glided from
+the room. The Mexican remained, standing bolt upright in the dimness.
+
+For the first time the girl spoke. Her voice was low and sweet, but
+either I or my aroused imagination detected a strained under quality.
+
+"Ramon," she said in Spanish, "I am chilly. Close the window."
+
+The servant turned his back to obey. With a movement rapid as a snake's
+dart the girl's hand came from beneath the table, reached across, and
+thrust into mine a small, folded paper. The next instant she was back in
+her place, staring down as before in apparent apathy. So amazed was I
+that I recovered barely soon enough to conceal the paper before Ramon
+turned back from his errand.
+
+The next five minutes were to me hours of strained and bewildered
+waiting. I addressed one or two remarks to my companion, but received
+always monosyllabic answers. Twice I caught the flash of lanterns beyond
+the darkened window; and a subdued, confused murmur as though several
+people were walking about stealthily. Except for this the night had
+again fallen deathly still. Even the cheerful frog had hushed.
+
+At the end of a period my host returned, and without apology or
+explanation resumed his seat and took up his remarks where he had left
+them.
+
+The girl disappeared somewhere between the table and the sitting room.
+Old Man Hooper offered me a cigar, and sat down deliberately to
+entertain me. I had an uncomfortable feeling that he was also amusing
+himself, as though I were being played with and covertly sneered at.
+Hooper's politeness and suavity concealed, and well concealed, a bitter
+irony. His manner was detached and a little precise. Every few moments
+he burst into a flurry of activity with the fly whacker, darting here
+and there as his eyes fell upon one of the insects; but returning always
+calmly to his discourse with an air of never having moved from his
+chair. He talked to me of Praxiteles, among other things. What should an
+Arizona cowboy know of Praxiteles? and why should any one talk to him of
+that worthy Greek save as a subtle and hidden expression of contempt?
+That was my feeling. My senses and mental apperceptions were by now a
+little on the raw.
+
+That, possibly, is why I noticed the very first chirp of another frog
+outside. It continued, and I found myself watching my host covertly.
+Sure enough, after a few repetitions I saw subtle signs of uneasiness,
+of divided attention; and soon, again without apology or explanation, he
+glided from the room. And at the same instant the old Mexican servitor
+came and pretended to fuss with the lamps.
+
+My curiosity was now thoroughly aroused, but I could guess no means of
+satisfying it. Like the bedroom, this parlour gave out only on the
+interior court. The flash of lanterns against the ceiling above reached
+me. All I could do was to wander about looking at the objects in the
+cabinet and the pictures on the walls. There was, I remember, a set of
+carved ivory chessmen and an engraving of the legal trial of some
+English worthy of the seventeenth century. But my hearing was alert, and
+I thought to hear footsteps outside. At any rate, the chirp of the frog
+came to an abrupt end.
+
+Shortly my host returned and took up his monologue. It amounted to
+that. He seemed to delight in choosing unusual subjects and then backing
+me into a corner with an array of well-considered phrases that allowed
+me no opening for reply nor even comment. In one of my desperate
+attempts to gain even a momentary initiative I asked him, apropos of the
+piano, whether his daughter played.
+
+"Do you like music?" he added, and without waiting for a reply seated
+himself at the instrument.
+
+He played to me for half an hour. I do not know much about music; but I
+know he played well and that he played good things. Also that, for the
+first time, he came out of himself, abandoned himself to feeling. His
+close-cropped head swayed from side to side; his staring, wildcat eyes
+half closed----
+
+He slammed shut the piano and arose, more drily precise than ever.
+
+"I imagine all that is rather beyond your apperceptions," he remarked,
+"and that you are ready for your bed. Here is a short document I would
+have you take to your room for perusal. Good-night."
+
+He tendered me a small, folded paper which I thrust into the breast
+pocket of my shirt along with the note handed me earlier in the evening
+by the girl. Thus dismissed I was only too delighted to repair to my
+bedroom.
+
+There I first carefully drew together the curtains; then examined the
+first of the papers I drew from my pocket. It proved to be the one from
+the girl, and read as follows:
+
+     I am here against my will. I am not this man's daughter. For God's
+     sake if you can help me, do so. But be careful for he is a
+     dangerous man. My room is the last one on the left wing of the
+     court. I am constantly guarded. I do not know what you can do. The
+     case is hopeless. I cannot write more. I am watched.
+
+I unfolded the paper Hooper himself had given me. It was similar in
+appearance to the other, and read:
+
+     I am held a prisoner. This man Hooper is not my father but he is
+     vindictive and cruel and dangerous. Beware for yourself. I live in
+     the last room in the left wing. I am watched, so cannot write more.
+
+The handwriting of the two documents was the same. I stared at one paper
+and then at the other, and for a half hour I thought all the thoughts
+appropriate to the occasion. They led me nowhere, and would not interest
+you.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+After a time I went to bed, but not to sleep. I placed my gun under my
+pillow, locked and bolted the door, and arranged a string cunningly
+across the open window so that an intruder--unless he had extraordinary
+luck--could not have failed to kick up a devil of a clatter. I was
+young, bold, without nerves; so that I think I can truthfully say I was
+not in the least frightened. But I cannot deny I was nervous--or rather
+the whole situation was on my nerves. I lay on my back staring straight
+at the ceiling. I caught myself gripping the sheets and listening. Only
+there was nothing to listen to. The night was absolutely still. There
+were no frogs, no owls, no crickets even. The firm old adobe walls gave
+off no creak nor snap of timbers. The world was muffled--I almost said
+smothered. The psychological effect was that of blank darkness, the
+black darkness of far underground, although the moon was sailing the
+heavens.
+
+How long that lasted I could not tell you. But at last the silence was
+broken by the cheerful chirp of a frog. Never was sound more grateful to
+the ear! I lay drinking it in as thirstily as water after a day on the
+desert. It seemed that the world breathed again, was coming alive after
+syncope. And then beneath that loud and cheerful singing I became aware
+of duller half-heard movements; and a moment or so later yellow lights
+began to flicker through the transom high at the blank wall of the
+room, and to reflect in wavering patches on the ceiling. Evidently
+somebody was afoot outside with a lantern.
+
+I crept from the bed, moved the table beneath the transom, and climbed
+atop. The opening was still a foot or so above my head. Being young,
+strong, and active, I drew myself up by the strength of my arms so I
+could look--until my muscles gave out!
+
+I saw four men with lanterns moving here and there among some willows
+that bordered what seemed to be an irrigating ditch with water. They
+were armed with long clubs. Old Man Hooper, in an overcoat, stood in a
+commanding position. They seemed to be searching. Suddenly from a clump
+of bushes one of the men uttered an exclamation of triumph. I saw his
+long club rise and fall. At that instant my tired fingers slipped from
+the ledge and I had to let myself drop to the table. When a moment later
+I regained my vantage point, I found that the whole crew had
+disappeared.
+
+Nothing more happened that night. At times I dozed in a broken sort of
+fashion, but never actually fell into sound sleep. The nearest I came to
+slumber was just at dawn. I really lost all consciousness of my
+surroundings and circumstances, and was only slowly brought to myself by
+the sweet singing of innumerable birds in the willows outside the blank
+wall. I lay in a half stupor enjoying them. Abruptly their music ceased.
+I heard the soft, flat _spat_ of a miniature rifle. The sound was
+repeated. I climbed back on my table and drew myself again to a position
+of observation.
+
+Old Man Hooper, armed with a .22 calibre rifle, was prowling along the
+willows in which fluttered a small band of migratory birds. He was just
+drawing bead on a robin. At the report the bird fell. The old man darted
+forward with the impetuosity of a boy, although the bird was dead. An
+impulse of contempt curled my lips. The old man was childish! Why should
+he find pleasure in hunting such harmless creatures? and why should he
+take on triumph over retrieving such petty game? But when he reached the
+fallen bird he did not pick it up for a possible pot-pie as I thought he
+would do. He ground it into the soft earth with the heel of his boot,
+stamping on the poor thing again and again. And never have I seen on
+human countenance such an expression of satisfied malignity!
+
+I went to my door and looked out. You may be sure that the message I had
+received from the unfortunate young lady had not been forgotten; but Old
+Man Hooper's cynical delivery of the second paper had rendered me too
+cautious to undertake anything without proper reconnaissance. The left
+wing about the courtyard seemed to contain two apartments--at least
+there were two doors, each with its accompanying window. The window
+farthest out was heavily barred. My thrill at this discovery was,
+however, slightly dashed by the further observation that also all the
+other windows into the courtyard were barred. Still, that was peculiar
+in itself, and not attributable--as were the walls and remarkable
+transoms--to former necessities of defence. My first thought was to
+stroll idly around the courtyard, thus obtaining a closer inspection.
+But the moment I stepped into the open a Mexican sauntered into view
+and began to water the flowers. I can say no more than that in his hands
+that watering pot looked fairly silly. So I turned to the right and
+passed through the wicket gate and into the stable yard. It was natural
+enough that I should go to look after my own horse.
+
+The stable yard was for the moment empty; but as I walked across it one
+of its doors opened and a very little, wizened old man emerged leading a
+horse. He tied the animal to a ring in the wall and proceeded at once to
+currying.
+
+I had been in Arizona for ten years. During that time I had seen a great
+many very fine native horses, for the stock of that country is directly
+descended from the barbs of the _conquistadores_. But, though often well
+formed and as tough and useful as horseflesh is made, they were small.
+And no man thought of refinements in caring for any one of his numerous
+mounts. They went shaggy or smooth according to the season; and not one
+of them could have called a curry comb or brush out of its name.
+
+The beast from which the wizened old man stripped a _bona fide_ horse
+blanket was none of these. He stood a good sixteen hands; his head was
+small and clean cut with large, intelligent eyes and little, well-set
+ears; his long, muscular shoulders sloped forward as shoulders should;
+his barrel was long and deep and well ribbed up; his back was flat and
+straight; his legs were clean and--what was rarely seen in the cow
+country--well proportioned--the cannon bone shorter than the leg bone,
+the ankle sloping and long and elastic--in short, a magnificent creature
+whose points of excellence appeared one by one under close scrutiny.
+And the high lights of his glossy coat flashed in the sun like water.
+
+I walked from one side to the other of him marvelling. Not a defect, not
+even a blemish could I discover. The animal was fairly a perfect
+specimen of horseflesh. And I could not help speculating as to its use.
+Old Man Hooper had certainly never appeared with it in public; the fame
+of such a beast would have spread the breadth of the country.
+
+During my inspection the wizened little man continued his work without
+even a glance in my direction. He had on riding breeches and leather
+gaiters, a plaid waistcoat and a peaked cap; which, when you think of
+it, was to Arizona about as incongruous as the horse. I made several
+conventional remarks of admiration, to which he paid not the slightest
+attention. But I know a bait.
+
+"I suppose you claim him as a Morgan," said I.
+
+"Claim, is it!" grunted the little man, contemptuously.
+
+"Well, the Morgan is not a real breed, anyway," I persisted. "A
+sixty-fourth blood will get one registered. What does that amount to?"
+
+The little man grunted again.
+
+"Besides, though your animal is a good one, he is too short and straight
+in the pasterns," said I, uttering sheer, rank, wild heresy.
+
+After that we talked; at first heatedly, then argumentatively, then with
+entire, enthusiastic agreement. I saw to that. Allowing yourself to be
+converted from an absurd opinion is always a sure way to favour. We
+ended with antiphonies of praise for this descendant of Justin Morgan.
+
+"You're the only man in all this God-forsaken country that has the
+sense of a Shanghai rooster!" cried the little man in a glow. "They ride
+horses and they know naught of them; and they laugh at a horseman! Your
+hand, sir!" He shook it. "And is that your horse in number four? I
+wondered! He's the first animal I've seen here properly shod. They use
+the rasp, sir, on the outside the hoof, and on the clinches, sir; and
+they burn a seat for the shoe; and they pare out the sole and trim the
+frog--bah! You shoe your own horse, I take it. That's right and proper!
+Your hand again, sir. Your horse has been fed this hour agone."
+
+"I'll water him, then," said I.
+
+But when I led him forth I could find no trough or other facilities
+until the little man led me to a corner of the corral and showed me a
+contraption with a close-fitting lid to be lifted.
+
+"It's along of the flies," he explained to me. "They must drink, and we
+starve them for water here, and they go greedy for their poison yonder."
+He indicated flat dishes full of liquid set on shelves here and about.
+"We keep them pretty clear."
+
+I walked over, curiously, to examine. About and in the dishes were
+literally quarts of dead insects, not only flies, but bees, hornets, and
+other sorts as well. I now understood the deadly silence that had so
+impressed me the evening before. This was certainly most ingenious; and
+I said so.
+
+But at my first remark the old man became obstinately silent, and fell
+again to grooming the Morgan horse. Then I became aware that he was
+addressing me in low tones out of the corner of his mouth.
+
+"Go on; look at the horse; say something," he muttered, busily
+polishing down the animal's hind legs. "You're a man who _saveys_ a
+horse--the only man I've seen here who does. _Get out_! Don't ask why.
+You're safe now. You're not safe here another day. Water your horse; eat
+your breakfast; then _get out_!"
+
+And not another word did I extract. I watered my horse at the covered
+trough, and rather thoughtfully returned to the courtyard.
+
+I found there Old Man Hooper waiting. He looked as bland and innocent
+and harmless as the sunlight on his own flagstones--until he gazed up at
+me, and then I was as usual disconcerted by the blank, veiled, unwinking
+stare of his eyes.
+
+"Remarkably fine Morgan stallion you have, sir," I greeted him. "I
+didn't know such a creature existed in this part of the world."
+
+But the little man displayed no gratification.
+
+"He's well enough. I have him more to keep Tim happy than anything else.
+We'll go in to breakfast."
+
+I cast a cautious eye at the barred window in the left wing. The
+curtains were still down. At the table I ventured to ask after Miss
+Hooper. The old man stared at me up to the point of embarrassment, then
+replied drily that she always breakfasted in her room. The rest of our
+conversation was on general topics. I am bound to say it was
+unexpectedly easy. The old man was a good talker, and possessed social
+ease and a certain charm, which he seemed to be trying to exert. Among
+other things, I remember, he told me of the Indian councils he used to
+hold in the old days.
+
+"They were held on the willow flat, outside the east wall," he said. "I
+never allowed any of them inside the walls." The suavity of his manner
+broke fiercely and suddenly. "Everything inside the walls is mine!" he
+declared with heat. "Mine! mine! mine! Understand? I will not tolerate
+in here anything that is not mine; that does not obey my will; that does
+not come when I say come; go when I say go; and fall silent when I say
+be still!"
+
+A wild and fantastic idea suddenly illuminated my understanding.
+
+"Even the crickets, the flies, the frogs, the birds," I said,
+audaciously.
+
+He fixed his wildcat eyes upon me without answering.
+
+"And," I went on, deliberately, "who could deny your perfect right to do
+what you will with your own? And if they did deny that right what more
+natural than that they should be made to perish--or take their
+breakfasts in their rooms?"
+
+I was never more aware of the absolute stillness of the house than when
+I uttered these foolish words. My hand was on the gun in my
+trouser-band; but even as I spoke a sickening realization came over me
+that if the old man opposite so willed, I would have no slightest chance
+to use it. The air behind me seemed full of menace, and the hair crawled
+on the back of my neck. Hooper stared at me without sign for ten
+seconds; his right hand hovered above the polished table. Then he let it
+fall without giving what I am convinced would have been a signal.
+
+"Will you have more coffee--my guest?" he inquired. And he stressed
+subtly the last word in a manner that somehow made me just a trifle
+ashamed.
+
+At the close of the meal the Mexican familiar glided into the room.
+Hooper seemed to understand the man's presence, for he arose at once.
+
+"Your horse is saddled and ready," he told me, briskly. "You will be
+wishing to start before the heat of the day. Your _cantinas_ are ready
+on the saddle."
+
+He clapped on his hat and we walked together to the corral. There
+awaited us not only my own horse, but another. The equipment of the
+latter was magnificently reminiscent of the old California
+days--gaily-coloured braided hair bridle and reins; silver _conchas_;
+stock saddle of carved leather with silver horn and cantle; silvered bit
+bars; gay Navajo blanket as corona; silver corners to skirts, silver
+_conchas_ on the long _tapaderos_. Old Man Hooper, strangely incongruous
+in his wrinkled "store clothes," swung aboard.
+
+"I will ride with you for a distance," he said.
+
+We jogged forth side by side at the slow Spanish trot. Hooper called my
+attention to the buildings of Fort Shafter glimmering part way up the
+slopes of the distant mountains, and talked entertainingly of the Indian
+days, and how the young officers used to ride down to his ranch for
+music.
+
+After a half hour thus we came to the long string of wire and the huge,
+awkward gate that marked the limit of Hooper's "pasture." Of course the
+open range was his real pasture; but every ranch enclosed a thousand
+acres or so somewhere near the home station to be used for horses in
+active service. Before I could anticipate him, he had sidled his horse
+skillfully alongside the gate and was holding it open for me to pass. I
+rode through the opening murmuring thanks and an apology. The old man
+followed me through, and halted me by placing his horse square across
+the path of mine.
+
+"You are now, sir, outside my land and therefore no longer my guest," he
+said, and the snap in his voice was like the crackling of electricity.
+"Don't let me ever see you here again. You are keen and intelligent. You
+spoke the truth a short time since. You were right. I tolerate nothing
+in my place that is not my own--no man, no animal, no bird, no insect
+nor reptile even--that will not obey my lightest order. And these
+creatures, great or small, who will not--_or even cannot_--obey my
+orders must go--or die. Understand me clearly?
+
+"You have come here, actuated, I believe, by idle curiosity, but without
+knowledge. You made yourself--ignorantly--my guest; and a guest is
+sacred. But now you know my customs and ideas. I am telling you. Never
+again can you come here in ignorance; therefore never again can you come
+here as a guest; and never again will you pass freely."
+
+He delivered this drily, precisely, with frost in his tones, staring
+balefully into my eyes. So taken aback was I by this unleashed hostility
+that for a moment I had nothing to say.
+
+"Now, if you please, I will take both notes from that poor idiot: the
+one I handed you and the one she handed you."
+
+I realized suddenly that the two lay together in the breast pocket of my
+shirt; that though alike in tenor, they differed in phrasing; and that I
+had no means of telling one from the other.
+
+"The paper you gave me I read and threw away," I stated, boldly. "It
+meant nothing to me. As to any other, I do not know what you are talking
+about."
+
+"You are lying," he said, calmly, as merely stating a fact. "It does not
+matter. It is my fancy to collect them. I should have liked to add
+yours. Now get out of this, and don't let me see your face again!"
+
+"Mr. Hooper," said I, "I thank you for your hospitality, which has been
+complete and generous. You have pointed out the fact that I am no longer
+your guest. I can, therefore, with propriety, tell you that your ideas
+and prejudices are noted with interest; your wishes are placed on file
+for future reference; I don't give a damn for your orders; and you can
+go to hell!"
+
+"Fine flow of language. Educated cowpuncher," said the old man, drily.
+"You are warned. Keep off. Don't meddle with what does not concern you.
+And if the rumour gets back to me that you've been speculating or
+talking or criticizing----"
+
+"Well?" I challenged.
+
+"I'll have you killed," he said, simply; so simply that I knew he meant
+it.
+
+"You are foolish to make threats," I rejoined. "Two can play at that
+game. You drive much alone."
+
+"I do not work alone," he hinted, darkly. "The day my body is found dead
+of violence, that day marks the doom of a long list of men whom I
+consider inimical to me--like, perhaps, yourself." He stared me down
+with his unwinking gaze.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+I returned to Box Springs at a slow jog trot, thinking things over. Old
+Man Hooper's warning sobered, but did not act as a deterrent of my
+intention to continue with the adventure. But how? I could hardly storm
+the fort single handed and carry off the damsel in distress. On the
+evidence I possessed I could not even get together a storming party. The
+cowboy is chivalrous enough, but human. He would not uprise
+spontaneously to the point of war on the mere statement of incarcerated
+beauty--especially as ill-treatment was not apparent. I would hardly
+last long enough to carry out the necessary proselyting campaign. It
+never occurred to me to doubt that Hooper would fulfill his threat of
+having me killed, or his ability to do so.
+
+So when the men drifted in two by two at dusk, I said nothing of my real
+adventures, and answered their chaff in kind.
+
+"He played the piano for me," I told them the literal truth, "and had me
+in to the parlour and dining room. He gave me a room to myself with a
+bed and sheets; and he rode out to his pasture gate with me to say
+good-bye," and thereby I was branded a delicious liar.
+
+"They took me into the bunk house and fed me, all right," said Windy
+Bill, "and fed my horse. And next morning that old Mexican Joe of his
+just nat'rally up and kicked me off the premises."
+
+"Wonder you didn't shoot him," I exclaimed.
+
+"Oh, he didn't use his foot. But he sort of let me know that the place
+was unhealthy to visit more'n once. And somehow I seen he meant it; and
+I ain't never had no call to go back."
+
+I mulled over the situation all day, and then could stand it no longer.
+On the dark of the evening I rode to within a couple of miles of
+Hooper's ranch, tied my horse, and scouted carefully forward afoot. For
+one thing I wanted to find out whether the system of high transoms
+extended to all the rooms, including that in the left wing: for another
+I wanted to determine the "lay of the land" on that blank side of the
+house. I found my surmise correct as to the transoms. As to the blank
+side of the house, that looked down on a wide, green, moist patch and
+the irrigating ditch with its stunted willows. Then painstakingly I went
+over every inch of the terrain about the ranch; and might just as well
+have investigated the external economy of a mud turtle. Realizing that
+nothing was to be gained in this manner, I withdrew to my strategic base
+where I rolled down and slept until daylight. Then I saddled and
+returned toward the ranch.
+
+I had not ridden two miles, however, before in the boulder-strewn wash
+of Arroyo Seco I met Jim Starr, one of our men.
+
+"Look here," he said to me. "Jed sent me up to look at the Elder
+Springs, but my hoss has done cast a shoe. Cain't you ride up there?"
+
+"I cannot," said I, promptly. "I've been out all night and had no
+breakfast. But you can have my horse."
+
+So we traded horses and separated, each our own way. They sent me out by
+Coyote Wells with two other men, and we did not get back until the
+following evening.
+
+The ranch was buzzing with excitement. Jim Starr had not returned,
+although the ride to Elder Springs was only a two-hour affair. After a
+night had elapsed, and still he did not return, two men had been sent.
+They found him half way to Elder Springs with a bullet hole in his back.
+The bullet was that of a rifle. Being plainsmen they had done good
+detective work of its kind, and had determined--by the direction of the
+bullet's flight as evidenced by the wound--that it had been fired from a
+point above. The only point above was the low "rim" that ran for miles
+down the Soda Springs Valley. It was of black lava and showed no tracks.
+The men, with a true sense of values, had contented themselves with
+covering Jim Starr with a blanket, and then had ridden the rim for some
+miles in both directions looking for a trail. None could be discovered.
+By this they deduced that the murder was not the result of chance
+encounter, but had been so carefully planned that no trace would be left
+of the murderer or murderers.
+
+No theory could be imagined save the rather vague one of personal
+enmity. Jim Starr was comparatively a newcomer with us. Nobody knew
+anything much about him or his relations. Nobody questioned the only man
+who could have told anything; and that man did not volunteer to tell
+what he knew.
+
+I refer to myself. The thing was sickeningly clear to me. Jim Starr had
+nothing to do with it. I was the man for whom that bullet from the rim
+had been intended. I was the unthinking, shortsighted fool who had done
+Jim Starr to his death. It had never occurred to me that my midnight
+reconnoitring would leave tracks, that Old Man Hooper's suspicious
+vigilance would even look for tracks. But given that vigilance, the rest
+followed plainly enough. A skillful trailer would have found his way to
+where I had mounted; he would have followed my horse to Arroyo Seco
+where I had met with Jim Starr. There he would have visualized a rider
+on a horse without one shoe coming as far as the Arroyo, meeting me, and
+returning whence he had come; and me at once turning off at right
+angles. His natural conclusion would be that a messenger had brought me
+orders and had returned. The fact that we had shifted mounts he could
+not have read, for the reason--as I only too distinctly remembered--that
+we had made the change in the boulder and rock stream bed which would
+show no clear traces.
+
+The thought that poor Jim Starr, whom I had well liked, had been
+sacrificed for me, rendered my ride home with the convoy more deeply
+thoughtful than even the tragic circumstances warranted. We laid his
+body in the small office, pending Buck Johnson's return from town, and
+ate our belated meal in silence. Then we gathered around the corner
+fireplace in the bunk house, lit our smokes, and talked it over. Jed
+Parker joined us. Usually he sat with our owner in the office.
+
+Hardly had we settled ourselves to discussion when the door opened and
+Buck Johnson came in. We had been so absorbed that no one had heard him
+ride up. He leaned his forearm against the doorway at the height of his
+head and surveyed the silenced group rather ironically.
+
+"Lucky I'm not nervous and jumpy by nature," he observed. "I've seen
+dead men before. Still, next time you want to leave one in my office
+after dark, I wish you'd put a light with him, or tack up a sign, or
+even leave somebody to tell me about it. I'm sorry it's Starr and not
+that thoughtful old horned toad in the corner."
+
+Jed looked foolish, but said nothing. Buck came in, closed the door, and
+took a chair square in front of the fireplace. The glow of the leaping
+flames was full upon him. His strong face and bulky figure were
+revealed, while the other men sat in half shadow. He at once took charge
+of the discussion.
+
+"How was he killed?" he inquired, "bucked off?"
+
+"Shot," replied Jed Parker.
+
+Buck's eyebrows came together.
+
+"Who?" he asked.
+
+He was told the circumstances as far as they were known, but declined to
+listen to any of the various deductions and surmises.
+
+"Deliberate murder and not a chance quarrel," he concluded. "He wasn't
+even within hollering distance of that rim-rock. Anybody know anything
+about Starr?"
+
+"He's been with us about five weeks," proffered Jed, as foreman. "Said
+he came from Texas."
+
+"He was a Texican," corroborated one of the other men. "I rode with him
+considerable."
+
+"What enemies did he have?" asked Buck.
+
+But it developed that, as far as these men knew, Jim Starr had had no
+enemies. He was a quiet sort of a fellow. He had been to town once or
+twice. Of course he might have made an enemy, but it was not likely; he
+had always behaved himself. Somebody would have known of any trouble----
+
+"Maybe somebody followed him from Texas."
+
+"More likely the usual local work," Buck interrupted. "This man Starr
+ever met up with Old Man Hooper or Hooper's men?"
+
+But here was another impasse. Starr had been over on the Slick Rock ever
+since his arrival. I could have thrown some light on the matter,
+perhaps, but new thoughts were coming to me and I kept silence.
+
+Shortly Buck Johnson went out. His departure loosened tongues, among
+them mine.
+
+"I don't see why you stand for this old _hombre_ if he's as bad as you
+say," I broke in. "Why don't some of you brave young warriors just
+naturally pot him?"
+
+And that started a new line of discussion that left me even more
+thoughtful than before. I knew these men intimately. There was not a
+coward among them. They had been tried and hardened and tempered in the
+fierceness of the desert. Any one of them would have twisted the tail of
+the devil himself; but they were off Old Man Hooper. They did not make
+that admission in so many words; far from it. And I valued my hide
+enough to refrain from pointing the fact. But that fact remained: they
+were off Old Man Hooper. Furthermore, by the time they had finished
+recounting in intimate detail some scores of anecdotes dealing with what
+happened when Old Man Hooper winked his wildcat eye, I began in spite
+of myself to share some of their sentiments. For no matter how flagrant
+the killing, nor how certain morally the origin, never had the most
+brilliant nor the most painstaking effort been able to connect with the
+slayers nor their instigator. He worked in the dark by hidden hands; but
+the death from the hands was as certain as the rattlesnake's. Certain of
+his victims, by luck or cleverness, seemed to have escaped sometimes as
+many as three or four attempts but in the end the old man's Killers got
+them.
+
+A Jew drummer who had grossly insulted Hooper in the Lone Star Emporium
+had, on learning the enormity of his crime, fled to San Francisco. Three
+months later Soda Springs awoke to find pasted by an unknown hand on the
+window of the Emporium a newspaper account of that Jew drummer's taking
+off. The newspaper could offer no theory and merely recited the fact
+that the man suffered from a heavy-calibred bullet. But always the talk
+turned back at last to that crowning atrocity, the Boomerang, with its
+windrows of little calves, starved for water, lying against the fence.
+
+"Yes," someone unexpectedly answered my first question at last, "someone
+could just naturally pot him easy enough. But I got a hunch that he
+couldn't get fur enough away to feel safe afterward. The fellow with a
+hankering for a good _useful_ kind of suicide could get it right there.
+Any candidates? You-all been looking kinda mournful lately, Windy;
+s'pose you be the human benefactor and rid the world of this yere
+reptile."
+
+"Me?" said Windy with vast surprise, "me mournful? Why, I sing at my
+work like a little dicky bird. I'm so plumb cheerful bull frogs ain't
+in it. You ain't talking to me!"
+
+But I wanted one more point of information before the conversation
+veered.
+
+"Does his daughter ever ride out?" I asked.
+
+"Daughter?" they echoed in surprise.
+
+"Or niece, or whoever she is," I supplemented impatiently.
+
+"There's no woman there; not even a Mex," said one, and "Did you see any
+sign of any woman?" keenly from Windy Bill.
+
+But I was not minded to be drawn.
+
+"Somebody told me about a daughter, or niece, or something," I said,
+vaguely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+I lay in my bunk and cast things up in my mind. The patch of moonlight
+from the window moved slowly across the floor. One of the men was
+snoring, but with regularity, so he did not annoy me. The outside
+silence was softly musical with all the little voices that at Hooper's
+had so disconcertingly lacked. There were crickets--I had forgotten
+about them--and frogs, and a hoot owl, and various such matters, beneath
+whose influence customarily my consciousness merged into sleep so
+sweetly that I never knew when I had lost them. But I was never wider
+awake than now, and never had I done more concentrated thinking.
+
+For the moment, and for the moment, only, I was safe. Old Man Hooper
+thought he had put me out of the way. How long would he continue to
+think so? How long before his men would bring true word of the mistake
+that had been made? Perhaps the following day would inform him that Jim
+Starr and not myself had been reached by his killer's bullet. Then, I
+had no doubt, a second attempt would be made on my life. Therefore,
+whatever I was going to do must be done quickly.
+
+I had the choice of war or retreat. Would it do me any good to retreat?
+There was the Jew drummer who was killed in San Francisco; and others
+whose fates I have not detailed. But why should he particularly desire
+my extinction? What had I done or what knowledge did I possess that had
+not been equally done and known by any chance visitor to the ranch? I
+remembered the notes in my shirt pocket; and, at the risk of awakening
+some of my comrades, I lit a candle and studied them. They were
+undoubtedly written by the same hand. To whom had the other been
+smuggled? and by what means had it come into Old Man Hooper's
+possession? The answer hit me so suddenly, and seemed intrinsically so
+absurd, that I blew out the candle and lay again on my back to study it.
+
+And the more I studied it, the less absurd it seemed, not by the light
+of reason, but by the feeling of pure intuition. I knew it as sanely as
+I knew that the moon made that patch of light through the window. The
+man to whom that other note had been surreptitiously conveyed by the
+sad-eyed, beautiful girl of the iron-barred chamber was dead; and he was
+dead because Old Man Hooper had so willed. And the former owners of the
+other notes of the "Collection" concerning which the old man had spoken
+were dead, too--dead for the same reason and by the same hidden hands.
+
+Why? Because they knew about the girl? Unlikely. Without doubt Hooper
+had, as in my case, himself made possible that knowledge. But I
+remembered many things; and I knew that my flash of intuition, absurd as
+it might seem at first sight, was true. I recalled the swift, darting
+onslaughts with the fly whackers, the fierce, vindictive slaughter of
+the frogs, his early-morning pursuit of the flock of migrating birds.
+Especially came clear to my recollection the words spoken at breakfast:
+
+"Everything inside the walls is mine! Mine! Mine! Understand? I will
+not tolerate anything that is not mine; that does not obey my will; that
+does not come when I say come; go when I say go; and fall silent when I
+say be still!"
+
+My crime, the crime of these men from whose dead hands the girl's
+appeals had been taken for the "Collection," was that of curiosity! The
+old man would within his own domain reign supreme, in the mental as in
+the physical world. The chance cowboy, genuinely desirous only of a
+resting place for the night, rode away unscathed; but he whom the old
+man convicted of a prying spirit committed a lese-majesty that could not
+be forgiven. And I had made many tracks during my night reconnaissance.
+
+And the same flash of insight showed me that I would be followed
+wherever I went; and the thing that convinced my intuitions--not my
+reason--of this was the recollection of the old man stamping the remains
+of the poor little bird into the mud by the willows. I saw again the
+insane rage of his face; and I felt cold fingers touching my spine.
+
+On this I went abruptly and unexpectedly to sleep, after the fashion of
+youth, and did not stir until Sing, the cook, routed us out before dawn.
+We were not to ride the range that day because of Jim Starr, but Sing
+was a person of fixed habits. I plunged my head into the face of the
+dawn with a new and light-hearted confidence. It was one of those clear,
+nile-green sunrises whose lucent depths go back a million miles or so;
+and my spirit followed on wings. Gone were at once my fine-spun theories
+and my forebodings of the night. Life was clean and clear and simple.
+Jim Starr had probably some personal enemy. Old Man Hooper was
+undoubtedly a mean old lunatic, and dangerous; very likely he would
+attempt to do me harm, as he said, if I bothered him again, but as for
+following me to the ends of the earth----
+
+The girl was a different matter. She required thought. So, as I was
+hungry and the day sparkling, I postponed her and went in to breakfast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+By the time the coroner's inquest and the funeral in town were over it
+was three o'clock of the afternoon. As I only occasionally managed Soda
+Springs I felt no inclination to hurry on the return journey. My
+intention was to watch the Overland through, to make some small
+purchases at the Lone Star Emporium, to hoist one or two at McGrue's,
+and to dine sumptuously at the best--and only--hotel. A programme simple
+in theme but susceptible to variations.
+
+The latter began early. After posing kiddishly as a rough, woolly,
+romantic cowboy before the passengers of the Overland, I found myself
+chaperoning a visitor to our midst. By sheer accident the visitor had
+singled me out for an inquiry.
+
+"Can you tell me how to get to Hooper's ranch?" he asked.
+
+So I annexed him promptly in hope of developments.
+
+He was certainly no prize package, for he was small, pale, nervous,
+shifty, and rat-like; and neither his hands nor his eyes were still for
+an instant. Further to set him apart he wore a hard-boiled hat, a
+flaming tie, a checked vest, a coat cut too tight for even his emaciated
+little figure, and long toothpick shoes of patent leather. A fairer mark
+for cowboy humour would be difficult to find; but I had a personal
+interest and a determined character so the gang took a look at me and
+bided their time.
+
+But immediately I discovered I was going to have my hands full. It
+seemed that the little, shifty, rat-faced man had been possessed of a
+small handbag which the negro porter had failed to put off the train;
+and which was of tremendous importance. At the discovery it was lacking
+my new friend went into hysterics. He ran a few feet after the
+disappearing train; he called upon high heaven to destroy utterly the
+race of negro porters; he threatened terrible reprisals against a
+delinquent railroad company; he seized upon a bewildered station agent
+over whom he poured his troubles in one gush; and he lifted up his voice
+and wept--literally wept! This to the vast enjoyment of my friends.
+
+"What ails the small party?" asked Windy Bill coming up.
+
+"He's lost the family jewels!" "The papers are missing." "Sandy here
+(meaning me) won't give him his bottle and it's past feeding time."
+"Sandy's took away his stick of candy and won't give it back." "The
+little son-of-a-gun's just remembered that he give the nigger porter two
+bits," were some of the replies he got.
+
+On the general principle of "never start anything you can't finish," I
+managed to quell the disturbance; I got a description of the bag, and
+arranged to have it wired for at the next station. On receiving the news
+that it could not possibly be returned before the following morning, my
+protege showed signs of another outburst. To prevent it I took him
+firmly by the arm and led him across to McGrue's. He was shivering as
+though from a violent chill.
+
+The multitude trailed interestedly after; but I took my man into one of
+McGrue's private rooms and firmly closed the door.
+
+"Put that under your belt," I invited, pouring him a half tumbler of
+McGrue's best, "and pull yourself together."
+
+He smelled it.
+
+"It's only whiskey," he observed, mournfully. "That won't help much."
+
+"You don't know this stuff," I encouraged.
+
+He took off the half tumbler without a blink, shook his head, and poured
+himself another. In spite of his scepticism I thought his nervousness
+became less marked.
+
+"Now," said I, "if you don't mind, why do you descend on a peaceful
+community and stir it all up because of the derelictions of an absent
+coon? And why do you set such store by your travelling bag? And why do
+you weep in the face of high heaven and outraged manhood? And why do you
+want to find Hooper's ranch? And why are you and your vaudeville make
+up?"
+
+But he proved singularly embarrassed and nervous and uncommunicative,
+darting his glance here and there about him, twisting his hands, never
+by any chance meeting my eye. I leaned back and surveyed him in
+considerable disgust.
+
+"Look here, brother," I pointed out to him. "You don't seem to realize.
+A man like you can't get away with himself in this country except behind
+footlights--and there ain't any footlights. All I got to do is to throw
+open yonder door and withdraw my beneficent protection and you will be
+set upon by a pack of ravening wolves with their own ideas of humour,
+among whom I especially mention one Windy Bill. I'm about the only thing
+that looks like a friend you've got."
+
+He caught at the last sentence only.
+
+"You my friend?" he said, breathlessly, "then tell me: is there a
+doctor around here?"
+
+"No," said I, looking at him closely, "not this side of Tucson. Are you
+sick?"
+
+"Is there a drug store in town, then?"
+
+"Nary drug store."
+
+He jumped to his feet, knocking over his chair as he did so.
+
+"My God!" he cried in uncontrollable excitement, "I've got to get my
+bag! How far is it to the next station where they're going to put it
+off? Ain't there some way of getting there? I got to get to my bag."
+
+"It's near to forty miles," I replied, leaning back.
+
+"And there's no drug store here? What kind of a bum tank town is this,
+anyhow?"
+
+"They keep a few patent medicines and such over at the Lone Star
+Emporium----" I started to tell him. I never had a chance to finish my
+sentence. He darted around the table, grabbed me by the arm, and urged
+me to my feet.
+
+"Show me!" he panted.
+
+We sailed through the bar room under full head of steam, leaving the
+gang staring after us open-mouthed. I could feel we were exciting
+considerable public interest. At the Lone Star Emporium the little freak
+looked wildly about him until his eyes fell on the bottle shelves. Then
+he rushed right in behind the counter and began to paw them over. I
+headed off Sol Levi, who was coming front making war medicine.
+
+"_Loco_," says I to him. "If there's any damage, I'll settle."
+
+It looked like there was going to be damage all right, the way he
+snatched up one bottle after the other, read the labels, and thrust
+them one side. At last he uttered a crow of delight, just like a kid.
+
+"How many you got of these?" he demanded, holding up a bottle of
+soothing syrup.
+
+"You only take a tablespoon of that stuff----" began Sol.
+
+"How many you got--how much are they?" interrupted the stranger.
+
+"Six--three dollars a bottle," says Sol, boosting the price.
+
+The little man peeled a twenty off a roll of bills and threw it down.
+
+"Keep the other five bottles for me!" he cried in a shaky voice, and ran
+out, with me after him, forgetting his change and to shut the door
+behind us.
+
+Back through McGrue's bar we trailed like one of these moving-picture
+chases and into the back room.
+
+"Well, here we are home again," said I.
+
+The stranger grabbed a glass and filled it half full of soothing syrup.
+
+"Here, you aren't going to drink that!" I yelled at him. "Didn't you
+hear Sol tell you the dose is a spoonful?"
+
+But he didn't pay me any attention. His hand was shaking so he could
+hardly connect with his own mouth, and he was panting as though he'd run
+a race.
+
+"Well, no accounting for tastes," I said. "Where do you want me to ship
+your remains?"
+
+He drank her down, shut his eyes a few minutes, and held still. He had
+quit his shaking, and he looked me square in the face.
+
+"What's it _to_ you?" he demanded. "Huh? Ain't you never seen a guy hit
+the hop before?"
+
+He stared at me so truculently that I was moved to righteous wrath; and
+I answered him back. I told him what I thought of him and his clothes
+and his conduct at quite some length. When I had finished he seemed to
+have gained a new attitude of aggravating wise superiority.
+
+"That's all right, kid; that's all right," he assured me; "keep your
+hair on. I ain't such a bad scout; but you gotta get used to me. Give me
+my hop and I'm all right. Now about this Hooper; you say you know him?"
+
+"None better," I rejoined. "But what's that to you? That's a fair
+question."
+
+He bored me with his beady rat eyes for several seconds.
+
+"Friend of yours?" he asked, briefly.
+
+Something in the intonations of his voice induced me to frankness.
+
+"I have good cause to think he's trying to kill me," I replied.
+
+He produced a pocketbook, fumbled in it for a moment, and laid before me
+a clipping. It was from the Want column of a newspaper, and read as
+follows:
+
+     A.A.B.--Will deal with you on your terms. H.H.
+
+"A.A.B. that's me--Artie Brower. And H.H.--that's him--Henry Hooper," he
+explained. "And that lil' piece of paper means that's he's caved, come
+off, war's over. Means I'm rich, that I can have my own ponies if I want
+to, 'stead of touting somebody else's old dogs. It means that I got old
+H.H.--Henry Hooper--where the hair is short, and he's got to come my
+way!"
+
+His eyes were glittering restlessly, and the pupils seemed to be unduly
+dilated. The whiskey and opium together--probably an unaccustomed
+combination--were too much for his ill-balanced control. Every
+indication of his face and his narrow eyes was for secrecy and craft;
+yet for the moment he was opening up to me, a stranger, like an oyster.
+Even my inexperience could see that much, and I eagerly took advantage
+of my chance.
+
+"You are a horseman, then?" I suggested.
+
+"Me a horseman? Say, kid, you didn't get my name. Brower--Artie Brower.
+Why, I've ridden more winning races than any other man on the Pacific
+Coast. That's how I got onto old H.H. I rode for him. He knows a good
+horse all right--the old skunk. Used to have a pretty string."
+
+"He's got at least one good Morgan stallion now," said I. "I've seen him
+at Hooper's ranch."
+
+"I know the old crock--trotter," scorned the true riding jockey.
+"Probably old Tim Westmore is hanging around, too. He's in love with
+that horse."
+
+"Is he in love with Hooper, too?" I asked.
+
+"Just like I am," said the jockey with a leer.
+
+"So you're going to be rich," said I. "How's that?"
+
+He leered at me again, going foxy.
+
+"Don't you wish you knew! But I'll tell you this: old H.H. is going to
+give me all I want--just because I ask him to."
+
+I took another tack, affecting incredulity.
+
+"The hell he is! He'll hand you over to Ramon and that will be the last
+of a certain jockey."
+
+"No, he won't do no such trick. I've fixed that; and he knows it. If he
+kills me, he'll lose _all_ he's got 'stead of only part."
+
+"You're drunk or dreaming," said I. "If you bother him, he'll just plain
+have you killed. That's a little way of his."
+
+"And if he does a friend of mine will just go to a certain place and get
+certain papers and give 'em to a certain lawyer--and then where's old
+H.H.? And he knows it, damn well. And he's going to be good to Artie and
+give him what he wants. We'll get along fine. Took him a long time to
+come to it; but I didn't take no chances while he was making up his
+mind; you can bet on that."
+
+"Blackmail, eh?" I said, with just enough of a sneer to fire him.
+
+"Blackmail nothing!" he shouted. "It ain't blackmail to take away what
+don't belong to a man at all!"
+
+"What don't belong to him?"
+
+"Nothing. Not a damn thing except his money. This ranch. The oil wells
+in California. The cattle. Not a damn thing. That was the agreement with
+his pardner when they split. And I've got the agreement! Now what you
+got to say?"
+
+"Say? Why its _loco_! Why doesn't the pardner raise a row?"
+
+"He's dead."
+
+"His heirs then?"
+
+"He hasn't got but one heir--his daughter." My heart skipped a beat in
+the amazement of a half idea. "And she knew nothing about the agreement.
+Nobody knows but old H.H.--and me." He sat back, visibly gloating over
+me. But his mood was passing. His earlier exhilaration had died, and
+with it was dying the expansiveness of his confidence. The triumph of
+his last speech savoured he slipped again into his normal self. He
+looked at me suspiciously, and raised his whiskey to cover his
+confusion.
+
+"What's it to yuh, anyway?" he muttered into his glass darkly. His eyes
+were again shifting here and there; and his lips were snarled back
+malevolently to show his teeth.
+
+At this precise moment the lords of chance willed Windy Bill and others
+to intrude on our privacy by opening the door and hurling several
+whiskey-flavoured sarcasms at the pair of us. The jockey seemed to
+explode after the fashion of an over-inflated ball. He squeaked like a
+rat, leaped to his feet, hurled the chair on which he had been sitting
+crash against the door from which Windy Bill _et al_ had withdrawn
+hastily, and ended by producing a small wicked-looking automatic--then a
+new and strange weapon--and rushing out into the main saloon. There he
+announced that he was known to the cognoscenti as Art the Blood and was
+a city gunman in comparison with which these plain, so-called bad men
+were as sucking doves to the untamed eagle. Thence he glanced briefly at
+their ancestry as far as known; and ended by rushing forth in the
+general direction of McCloud's hotel.
+
+"Suffering giraffes!" gasped Windy Bill after the whirlwind had passed.
+"Was that the scared little rabbit that wept all them salt tears over at
+the depot? What brand of licker did you feed him, Sandy?"
+
+I silently handed him the bottle.
+
+"Soothing syrup--my God!" said Windy in hushed tones.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+At that epoch I prided myself on being a man of resource; and I
+proceeded to prove it in a fashion that even now fills me with
+satisfaction. I annexed the remainder of that bottle of soothing syrup;
+I went to Sol Levi and easily procured delivery of the other five. Then
+I strolled peacefully to supper over at McCloud's hotel. Pathological
+knowledge of dope fiends was outside my ken--I could not guess how soon
+my man would need another dose of his "hop," but I was positively sure
+that another would be needed. Inquiry of McCloud elicited the fact that
+the ex-jockey had swallowed a hasty meal and had immediately retired to
+Room 4. I found Room 4 unlocked, and Brower lying fully clothed sound
+asleep across the bed. I did not disturb him, except that I robbed him
+of his pistol. All looked safe for awhile; but just to be certain I took
+Room 6, across the narrow hall, and left both doors open. McCloud's
+hotel never did much of a room business. By midnight the cowboys would
+be on their way for the ranches. Brower and myself were the only
+occupants of the second floor.
+
+For two hours I smoked and read. The ex-jockey did not move a muscle.
+Then I went to bed and to a sound sleep; but I set my mind like an alarm
+clock, so that the slightest move from the other room would have fetched
+me broad awake. City-bred people may not know that this can be done by
+most outdoor men. I have listened subconsciously to horsebells for so
+many nights, for example, that even on stormy nights the cessation of
+that faint twinkle will awaken me, while the crash of the elements or
+even the fall of a tree would not in the slightest disturb my tired
+slumbers. So now, although the songs and stamping and racket of the
+revellers below stairs in McCloud's bar did not for one second prevent
+my falling into deep and dreamless sleep, Brower's softest tread would
+have reached my consciousness.
+
+However, he slept right through the night, and was still dead to the
+world when I slipped out at six o'clock to meet the east-bound train.
+The bag--a small black Gladstone--was aboard in charge of the
+baggageman. I had no great difficulty in getting it from my friend, the
+station agent. Had he not seen me herding the locoed stranger? I
+secreted the black bag with the five full bottles of soothing syrup,
+slipped the half-emptied bottle in my pocket, and returned to the hotel.
+There I ate breakfast, and sat down for a comfortable chat with McCloud
+while awaiting results.
+
+Got them very promptly. About eight o'clock Brower came downstairs. He
+passed through the office, nodding curtly to McCloud and me, and into
+the dining room where he drank several cups of coffee. Thence he passed
+down the street toward Sol Levi's. He emerged rather hurriedly and
+slanted across to the station.
+
+"In about two minutes," I observed to McCloud, "you're going to observe
+yon butterfly turn into a stinging lizard. He's going to head in this
+direction; and he'll probably aim to climb my hump. Such being the case,
+and the affair being private, you'll do me a favour by supervising
+something in some remote corner of the premises."
+
+"Sure," said McCloud, "I'll go twist that Chink washee-man. Been
+intending to for a week." And he stumped out on his wooden foot.
+
+The comet hit at precisely 7:42 by McCloud's big clock. Its head was
+Brower at high speed and tension; and its tail was the light alkali dust
+of Arizona mingled with the station agent. No irresistible force and
+immovable body proposition in mine; I gave to the impact.
+
+"Why, sure, I got 'em for you," I answered. "You left your dope lying
+around loose so I took care of it for you. As for your bag; you seemed
+to set such store by it that I got that for you, too."
+
+Which deflated that particular enterprise for the moment, anyway. The
+station agent, too mad to spit, departed before he should be tempted
+beyond his strength to resist homicide.
+
+"I suppose you're taking care of my gun for me, too," said Brower; but
+his irony was weak. He was evidently off the boil.
+
+"Your gun?" I echoed. "Have you lost your gun?"
+
+He passed his hand across his eyes. His super-excitement had passed,
+leaving him weak and nervous. Now was the time for my counter-attack.
+
+"Here's your gun," said I, "didn't want to collect any lead while you
+were excited, and I've got your dope," I repeated, "in a safe place." I
+added, "and you'll not see any of it again until you answer me a few
+questions, and answer them straight."
+
+"If you think you can roll me for blackmail," he came back with some
+decision, "you're left a mile."
+
+"I don't want a cent; but I do want a talk."
+
+"Shoot," said he.
+
+"How often do you have to have this dope--for the best results; and how
+much of it at a shot?"
+
+He stared at me for a moment, then laughed.
+
+"What's it to yuh?" he repeated his formula.
+
+"I want to know."
+
+"I get to needing it about once a day. Three grains will carry me by."
+
+"All right; that's what I want to know. Now listen to me. I'm custodian
+of this dope, and you'll get your regular ration as long as you stick
+with me."
+
+"I can always hop a train. This ain't the only hamlet on the map," he
+reminded me.
+
+"That's always what you can do if you find we can't work together.
+That's where you've got me if my proposition doesn't sound good."
+
+"What is your proposition?" he asked after a moment.
+
+"Before I tell you, I'm going to give you a few pointers on what you're
+up against. I don't know how much you know about Old Man Hooper, but
+I'll bet there's plenty you _don't_ know about."
+
+I proceeded to tell him something of the old man's methods, from the
+"boomerang" to vicarious murder.
+
+"And he gets away with it?" asked Brower when I had finished.
+
+"He certainly does," said I. "Now," I continued, "you may be solid as a
+brick church, and your plans may be water-tight, and old Hooper may
+kill the fatted four-year-old, for all I know. But if I were you, I
+wouldn't go sasshaying all alone out to Hooper's ranch. It's altogether
+_too_ blame confiding and innocent."
+
+"If anything happens to me, I've left directions for those contracts to
+be recorded," he pointed out. "Old Hooper knows that."
+
+"Oh, sure!" I replied, "just like that! But one day your trustworthy
+friend back yonder will get a letter in your well-known hand-write that
+will say that all is well and the goose hangs high, that the old man is
+a prince and has come through, and that in accordance with the nice,
+friendly agreement you have reached he--your friend--will hand over the
+contract to a very respectable lawyer herein named, and so forth and so
+on, ending with your equally well-known John Hancock."
+
+"Well, that's all right."
+
+"I hadn't finished the picture. In the meantime, you will be getting out
+of it just one good swift kick, and that is all."
+
+"I shouldn't write any such letter. Not 'till I felt the feel of the
+dough."
+
+"Not at first you wouldn't," I said, softly. "Certainly not at first.
+But after a while you would. These renegade Mexicans--like Hooper's
+Ramon, for example--know a lot of rotten little tricks. They drive
+pitch-pine splinters into your legs and set fire to them, for one thing.
+Or make small cuts in you with a knife, and load them up with powder
+squibs in oiled paper--so the blood won't wet them--and touch them off.
+And so on. When you've been shown about ten per cent, of what old Ramon
+knows about such things, you'll write most any kind of a letter."
+
+"My God!" he muttered, thrusting the ridiculous derby to the back of his
+head.
+
+"So you see you'd look sweet walking trustfully into Hooper's claws.
+That's what that newspaper ad was meant for. And when the respectable
+lawyer wrote that the contract had been delivered, do you know what
+would happen to you?"
+
+The ex-jockey shuddered.
+
+"But you've only told me part of what I want to know," I pursued. "You
+got me side-tracked. This daughter of the dead pardner--this girl, what
+about her? Where is she now?"
+
+"Europe, I believe."
+
+"When did she go?"
+
+"About three months ago."
+
+"Any other relatives?"
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"H'm," I pondered. "What does she look like?"
+
+"She's about medium height, dark, good figure, good-looking all right.
+She's got eyes wide apart and a wide forehead. That's the best I can do.
+Why?"
+
+"Anybody heard from her since she went to Europe?"
+
+"How should I know?" rejoined Brower, impatiently. "What you driving
+at?"
+
+"I think I've seen her. I believe she's not in Europe at all. I believe
+she's a prisoner at the ranch."
+
+"My aunt!" ejaculated Brower. His nervousness was increasing--the
+symptoms I was to recognize so well. "Why the hell don't you just shoot
+him from behind a bush? I'll do it, if you won't."
+
+"He's too smooth for that." And I told him what Hooper had told me. "His
+hold on these Mexicans is remarkable. I don't doubt that fifty of the
+best killers in the southwest have lists of the men Old Man Hooper
+thinks might lay him out. And every man on that list would get his
+within a year--without any doubt. I don't doubt that partner's daughter
+would go first of all. You, too, of course."
+
+"My aunt!" groaned the jockey again.
+
+"He's a killer," I went on, "by nature, and by interest--a bad
+combination. He ought to be tramped out like a rattlesnake. But this is
+a new country, and it's near the border. I expect he's got me marked. If
+I have to I'll kill him just like I would a rattlesnake; but that
+wouldn't do me a whole lot of good and would probably get a bunch
+assassinated. I'd like to figure something different. So you see you'd
+better come on in while the coming is good."
+
+"I see," said the ex-jockey, very much subdued. "What's your idea? What
+do you want me to do?"
+
+That stumped me. To tell the truth I had no idea at all what to do.
+
+"I don't want you to go out to Hooper's ranch alone," said I.
+
+"Trust me!" he rejoined, fervently.
+
+"I reckon the first best thing is to get along out of town," I
+suggested. "That black bag all the plunder you got?"
+
+"That's it."
+
+"Then we'll go out a-horseback."
+
+We had lunch and a smoke and settled up with McCloud. About
+mid-afternoon we went on down to the livery corral. I knew the keeper
+pretty well, of course, so I borrowed a horse and saddle for Brower. The
+latter looked with extreme disfavour on both.
+
+"This is no race meet," I reminded him. "This is a means of
+transportation."
+
+"Sorry I ain't got nothing better," apologized Meigs, to whom I had
+confided my companion's profession--I had to account for such a figure
+somehow. "All my saddle hosses went off with a mine outfit yesterday."
+
+"What's the matter with that chestnut in the shed?"
+
+"He's all right; fine beast. Only it ain't mine. It belongs to Ramon."
+
+"Ramon from Hooper's?"
+
+"Yeah."
+
+"I'd let you ride my horse and take Meigs's old skate myself," I said to
+Brower, "but when you first get on him this bronc of mine is a
+rip-humming tail twister. Ain't he, Meigs?"
+
+"He's a bad _caballo_," corroborated Meigs.
+
+"Does he buck?" queried Brower, indifferently.
+
+"Every known fashion. Bites, scratches, gouges, and paws. Want to try
+him?"
+
+"I got a headache," replied Brower, grouchily. "Bring out your old dog."
+
+When I came back from roping and blindfolding the twisted dynamite I was
+engaged in "gentling," I found that Brower was saddling the mournful
+creature with my saddle. My expostulation found him very snappy and
+very arbitrary. His opium-irritated nerves were beginning to react. I
+realized that he was not far short of explosive obstinacy. So I conceded
+the point; although, as every rider knows, a cowboy's saddle and a
+cowboy's gun are like unto a toothbrush when it comes to lending. Also
+it involved changing the stirrup length on the livery saddle. I needed
+things just right to ride Tiger through the first five minutes.
+
+When I had completed this latter operation, Brower had just finished
+drawing tight the cinch. His horse stood dejectedly. When Brower had
+made fast the latigo, the horse--as such dispirited animals often
+do--heaved a deep sigh. Something snapped beneath the slight strain of
+the indrawn breath.
+
+"Dogged if your cinch ain't busted!" cried Meigs with a loud laugh.
+"Lucky for you your friend did borrow your saddle! If you'd clumb Tiger
+with that outfit you could just naturally have begun pickin' out the
+likely-looking she-angels."
+
+I dropped the stirrup and went over to examine the damage. Both of the
+quarter straps on the off side had given way. I found that they had been
+cut nearly through with a sharp knife. My eye strayed to Ramon's
+chestnut horse standing under the shed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+We jogged out to Box Springs by way of the lower alkali flats. It is
+about three miles farther that way; but one can see for miles in every
+direction. I did not one bit fancy the canons, the mesquite patches, and
+the open ground of the usual route.
+
+I beguiled the distance watching Brower. The animal he rode was a
+hammer-headed, ewe-necked beast with a disconsolate eye and a half-shed
+winter coat. The ex-jockey was not accustomed to a stock saddle. He had
+shortened his stirrups beyond all reason so that his knees and his
+pointed shoes and his elbows stuck out at all angles. He had thrust his
+derby hat far down over his ears, and buttoned his inadequate coat
+tightly. In addition, he was nourishing a very considerable grouch,
+attributable, I suppose, to the fact that his customary dose was just
+about due. Tiger could not be blamed for dancing wide. Evening was
+falling, the evening of the desert when mysterious things seem to swell
+and draw imminent out of unguessed distances. I could not help wondering
+what these gods of the desert could be thinking of us.
+
+However, as we drew imperceptibly nearer the tiny patch of cottonwoods
+that marked Box Springs, I began to realize that it would be more to the
+point to wonder what that gang of hoodlums in the bunk house was going
+to think of us. The matter had been fairly well carried off up to that
+moment, but I could not hope for a successful repetition. No man could
+continue to lug around with him so delicious a vaudeville sketch without
+some concession to curiosity. Nor could any mortal for long wear such
+clothes in the face of Arizona without being required to show cause. He
+had got away with it last night, by surprise; but that would be about
+all.
+
+At my fiftieth attempt to enter into conversation with him, I
+unexpectedly succeeded. I believe I was indicating the points of
+interest. You can see farther in Arizona than any place I know, so there
+was no difficulty about that. I'd pointed out the range of the
+Chiracahuas, and Cochise's Stronghold, and the peaks of the Galiuros and
+other natural sceneries; I had showed him mesquite and yucca, and mescal
+and soapweed, and sage, and sacatone and niggerheads and all the other
+known vegetables of the region. Also I'd indicated prairie dogs and
+squinch owls and Gambel's quail and road runners and a couple of coyotes
+and lizards and other miscellaneous fauna. Not to speak of naming
+painstakingly the ranches indicated by the clumps of trees that you
+could just make out as little spots in the distance--Box Springs, the
+O.T., the Double H, Fort Shafter, and Hooper's. He waked up and paid a
+little attention at this; and I thought I might get a little friendly
+talk out of him. A cowboy rides around alone so much he sort of likes to
+josh when he has anybody with him. This "strong silent" stuff doesn't go
+until you've used around with a man quite some time.
+
+I got the talk, all right, but it didn't have a thing to do with
+topography or natural history. Unless you call the skate he was riding
+natural history. That was the burden of his song. He didn't like that
+horse, and he didn't care who knew it. It was an uncomfortable horse to
+ride on, it required exertion to keep in motion, and it hurt his
+feelings. Especially the last. He was a horseman, a jockey, he'd ridden
+the best blood in the equine world; and here he was condemned through no
+fault of his own to straddle a cross between a llama and a woolly toy
+sheep. It hurt his pride. He felt bitterly about it. Indeed, he fairly
+harped on the subject.
+
+"Is that horse of yours through bucking for the day?" he asked at last.
+
+"Certain thing. Tiger never pitches but the once."
+
+"Let me ride him a ways. I'd like to feel a real horse to get the taste
+of this kangaroo out of my system."
+
+I could see he was jumpy, so I thought I'd humour him.
+
+"Swing on all at once and you're all right," I advised him. "Tiger don't
+like fumbling in getting aboard."
+
+He grunted scornfully.
+
+"Those stirrups are longer than the ones you've been using. Want to
+shorten them?"
+
+He did not bother to answer, but mounted in a decisive manner that
+proved he was indeed a horseman, and a good one. I climbed old crow bait
+and let my legs hang.
+
+The jockey gathered the reins and touched Tiger with his heels. I kicked
+my animal with my stock spurs and managed to extract a lumbering sort of
+gallop.
+
+"Hey, slow up!" I called after a few moments. "I can't keep up with
+you."
+
+Brower did not turn his head, nor did Tiger slow up. After twenty
+seconds I realized that he intended to do neither. I ceased urging on my
+animal, there was no use tiring us both; evidently the jockey was
+enjoying to the full the exhilaration of a good horse, and we would
+catch up at Box Springs. I only hoped the boys wouldn't do anything
+drastic to him before my arrival.
+
+So I jogged along at the little running walk possessed by even the most
+humble cattle horse, and enjoyed the evening. It was going on toward
+dusk and pools of twilight were in the bottomlands. For the moment the
+world had grown smaller, more intimate, as the skies expanded. The dust
+from Brower's going did not so much recede as grow littler, more
+toy-like. I watched idly his progress.
+
+At a point perhaps a mile this side the Box Springs ranch the road
+divides: the right-hand fork leading to the ranch house, the left on up
+the valley. After a moment I noticed that the dust was on the left-hand
+fork. I swore aloud.
+
+"The damn fool has taken the wrong road!" and then after a moment, with
+dismay: "He's headed straight for Hooper's ranch!"
+
+I envisaged the full joy and rapture of this thought for perhaps half a
+minute. It sure complicated matters, what with old Hooper gunning on my
+trail, and this partner's daughter shut up behind bars. Me, I expected
+to last about two days unless I did something mighty sudden. Brower I
+expected might last approximately half that time, depending on how soon
+Ramon _et al_ got busy. The girl I didn't know anything about, nor did I
+want to at that moment. I was plenty worried about my own precious hide
+just then. And if you think you are going to get a love story out of
+this, I warn you again to quit right now; you are not.
+
+Brower was going to walk into that gray old spider's web like a nice fat
+fly. And he was going to land without even the aid and comfort of his
+own particular brand of Dutch courage. For safety's sake, and because of
+Tiger's playful tendencies when first mounted, we had tied the famous
+black bag--which now for convenience contained also the soothing
+syrup--behind the cantle of Meigs's old nag. Which said nag I now
+possessed together with all appurtenances and attachments thereunto
+appertaining I tried to speculate on the reactions of Old Man Hooper,
+Ramon, Brower and no dope, but it was too much for me. My head was
+getting tired thinking about all these complicated things, anyhow. I was
+accustomed to nice, simple jobs with my head, like figuring on the
+shrinkage of beef cattle, or the inner running of a two-card draw. All
+this annoyed me. I began to get mad. When I got mad enough I cussed and
+came to a decision: which was to go after Old Man Hooper and all his
+works that very night. Next day wouldn't do; I wanted action right off
+quick. Naturally I had no plans, nor even a glimmering of what I was
+going to do about it; but you bet you I was going to do something! As
+soon as it was dark I was going right on up there. Frontal attack, you
+understand. As to details, those would take care of themselves as the
+affair developed. Having come to which sapient decision I shoved the
+whole irritating mess over the edge of my mind and rode on quite happy.
+I told you at the start of this yarn that I was a kid.
+
+My mind being now quite easy as to my future actions, I gave thought to
+the first step. That was supper. There seemed to me no adequate reason,
+with a fine, long night before me, why I shouldn't use a little of the
+shank end of it to stoke up for the rest. So I turned at the right-hand
+fork and jogged slowly toward our own ranch.
+
+Of course I had the rotten luck to find most of the boys still at the
+water corral. When they saw who was the lone horseman approaching
+through the dusk of the spring twilight, and got a good fair look at the
+ensemble, they dropped everything and came over to see about it, headed
+naturally by those mournful blights, Windy Bill and Wooden. In solemn
+silence they examined my outfit, paying not the slightest attention to
+me. At the end of a full minute they looked at each other.
+
+"What do you think, Sam?" asked Windy.
+
+"My opinion is not quite formed, suh," replied Wooden, who was a
+Texican. "But my first examination inclines me to the belief that it is
+a hoss."
+
+"Yo're wrong, Sam," denied Windy, sadly; "yo're judgment is confused by
+the fact that the critter carries a saddle. Look at the animile itself."
+
+"I have done it," continued Sam Wooden; "at first glance I should agree
+with you. Look carefully, Windy. Examine the details; never mind the
+_toot enscramble_. It's got hoofs."
+
+"So's a cow, a goat, a burro, a camel, a hippypottamus, and the devil,"
+pointed out Windy.
+
+"Of course I may be wrong," acknowledged Wooden. "On second examination
+I probably am wrong. But if it ain't a hoss, then what is it? Do you
+know?"
+
+"It's a genuine royal gyasticutus," esserted Windy Bill, positively. "I
+seen one once. It has one peculiarity that you can't never fail to
+identify it by."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"It invariably travels around with a congenital idiot."
+
+Wooden promptly conceded that, but claimed the identification not
+complete as he doubted whether, strictly speaking, I could be classified
+as a congenital idiot. Windy pointed out that evidently I had traded
+Tiger for the gyasticutus. Wooden admitted that this proved me an idiot,
+but not necessarily a congenital idiot.
+
+This colloquy--and more like it--went on with entire gravity. The other
+men were hanging about relishing the situation, but without a symptom of
+mirth. I was unsaddling methodically, paying no attention to anybody,
+and apparently deaf to all that was being said. If the two old fools had
+succeeded in eliciting a word from me they would have been entirely
+happy; but I knew that fact, and shut my lips.
+
+I hung my saddle on the rack and was just about to lead the old skate to
+water when we all heard the sound of a horse galloping on the road.
+
+"It's a light boss," said somebody after a moment, meaning a horse
+without a burden.
+
+We nodded and resumed our occupation. A stray horse coming in to water
+was nothing strange or unusual. But an instant later, stirrups swinging,
+reins flapping, up dashed my own horse, Tiger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+All this being beyond me, and then some, I proceeded methodically to
+carry out my complicated plan; which was, it will be remembered, to eat
+supper and then to go and see about it in person. I performed the first
+part of this to my entire satisfaction but not to that of the rest. They
+accused me of unbecoming secrecy; only they expressed it differently.
+That did not worry me, and in due time I made my escape. At the corral I
+picked out a good horse, one that I had brought from the Gila, that
+would stay tied indefinitely without impatience. Then I lighted me a
+cigarette and jogged up the road. I carried with me a little grub, my
+six-gun, the famous black bag, and an entirely empty head.
+
+The night was only moderately dark, for while there was no moon there
+were plenty of those candle-like desert stars. The little twinkling
+lights of the Box Springs dropped astern like lamps on a shore. By and
+by I turned off the road and made a wide detour down the sacatone
+bottoms, for I had still some sense; and roads were a little too
+obvious. The reception committee that had taken charge of my little
+friend might be expecting another visitor--me. This brought my approach
+to the blank side of the ranch where were the willow trees and the
+irrigating ditch. I rode up as close as I thought I ought to. Then I
+tied my horse to a prominent lone Joshua-tree that would be easy to
+find, unstrapped the black bag, and started off. The black bag, however,
+bothered me; so after some thought I broke the lock with a stone and
+investigated the contents, mainly by feel. There were a lot of clothes
+and toilet articles and such junk, and a number of undetermined hard
+things like round wooden boxes. Finally I withdrew to the shelter of a
+_barranca_ where I could light matches. Then I had no difficulty in
+identifying a nice compact little hypodermic outfit, which I slipped
+into a pocket. I then deposited the bag in a safe place where I could
+find it easily.
+
+Leaving my horse I approached the ranch under cover of the willows. Yes,
+I remembered this time that I left tracks, but I did not care. My idea
+was to get some sort of decisive action before morning. Once through the
+willows I crept up close to the walls. They were twelve or fifteen feet
+high, absolutely smooth; and with one exception broken only by the long,
+narrow loopholes or transoms I have mentioned before. The one exception
+was a small wicket gate or door. I remembered the various sorties with
+torches after the chirping frogs, and knew that by this opening the
+hunting party had emerged. This and the big main gate were the only
+entrances to the enclosure.
+
+I retired to the vicinity of the willows and uttered the cry of the
+barred owl. After ten seconds I repeated it, and so continued. My only
+regret was that I could not chirp convincingly like a frog. I saw a
+shadow shift suddenly through one of the transoms, and at once glided to
+the wall near the little door. After a moment or so it opened to emit
+Old Man Hooper and another bulkier figure which I imagined to be that
+of Ramon. Both were armed with shotguns. Suddenly it came to me that I
+was lucky not to have been able to chirp convincingly like a frog. They
+hunted frogs with torches and in a crowd. Those two carried no light and
+they were so intent on making a sneak on the willows and the
+supposititious owl that I, flattened in the shadow of the wall, easily
+escaped their notice. I slipped inside the doorway.
+
+This brought me into a narrow passage between two buildings. The other
+end looked into the interior court. A careful reconnaissance showed no
+one in sight, so I walked boldly along the verandah in the direction of
+the girl's room. Her note had said she was constantly guarded; but I
+could see no one in sight, and I had to take a chance somewhere. Two
+seconds' talk would do me: I wanted to know in which of the numerous
+rooms the old man slept. I had a hunch it would be a good idea to share
+that room with him. What to do then I left to the hunch.
+
+But when I was half way down the verandah I heard the wicket door
+slammed shut. The owl hunters had returned more quickly than I had
+anticipated. Running as lightly as possible I darted down the verandah
+and around the corner of the left wing. This brought me into a narrow
+little garden strip between the main house and the wall dividing the
+court from the corrals and stable yards. Footsteps followed me but
+stopped. A hand tried the door knob to the corner room.
+
+"Nothing," I heard Hooper's voice replying to a question. "Nothing at
+all. Go to sleep."
+
+The fragrant smell of Mexican tobacco reached my nostrils. After a
+moment Ramon--it was he--resumed a conversation in Spanish:
+
+"I do not know, senor, who the man was. I could but listen; it was not
+well to inquire nor to show too much interest. His name, yes; Jim Starr,
+but who he is----" I could imagine the shrug. "It is of no importance."
+
+"It is of importance that the other man still lives," broke in Hooper's
+harsher voice. "I will not have it, I say! Are you sure of it?"
+
+"I saw him. And I saw his horse at the Senor Meigs. It was the brown
+that bucks badly, so I cut the quarter straps of his saddle. It might be
+that we have luck; I do not count on it. But rest your mind easy, senor,
+it shall be arranged."
+
+"It better be."
+
+"But there is more, senor. The senor will remember a man who rode in
+races for him many years ago, one named Artie----"
+
+"Brower!" broke in Hooper. "What about him?"
+
+"He is in town. He arrived yesterday afternoon."
+
+Hooper ejaculated something.
+
+"And more, he is all day and all night with this Sanborn."
+
+Hooper swore fluently in English.
+
+"Look, Ramon!" he ordered, vehemently. "It is necessary to finish this
+Sanborn at once, without delay."
+
+"_Bueno_, senor."
+
+"It must not go over a single day."
+
+"Haste makes risk, senor."
+
+"The risk must be run."
+
+"_Bueno_, senor. And also this Artie?"
+
+"No! no! no!" hastened Hooper. "Guard him as your life! But send a
+trusty man for him to-morrow with the buckboard. He comes to see me, in
+answer to my invitation."
+
+"And if he will not come, senor?" inquired Ramon's quiet voice.
+
+"Why should he not come?"
+
+"He has been much with Sanborn."
+
+"It's necessary that he come," replied Hooper, emphasizing each word.
+
+"_Bueno_, senor."
+
+"Who is to be on guard?"
+
+"Cortinez, senor."
+
+"I will send him at once. Do me the kindness to watch for a moment until
+I send him. Here is the key; give it to him. It shall be but a moment."
+
+"_Bueno_, senor," replied Ramon.
+
+He leaned against the corner of the house. I could see the half of his
+figure against the sky and the dim white of the walls.
+
+The night was very still, as always at this ranch. There was not even a
+breeze to create a rustle in the leaves. I was obliged to hold rigidly
+motionless, almost to hush my breathing, while the figure bulked large
+against the whitewashed wall. But my eyes, wide to the dimness, took in
+every detail of my surroundings. Near me stood a water barrel. If I
+could get a spring from that water barrel I could catch one of the heavy
+projecting beams of the roof.
+
+After an apparently interminable interval the sound of footsteps became
+audible, and a moment later Ramon moved to meet his relief. I seized the
+opportunity of their conversation and ascended to the roof. It proved
+to be easy, although the dried-out old beam to which for a moment I
+swung creaked outrageously. Probably it sounded louder to me than the
+actual fact. I took off my boots and moved cautiously to where I could
+look down into the court. Ramon and his companion were still talking
+under the verandah, so I could not see them; but I waited until I heard
+one of them move away. Then I went to seat myself on the low parapet and
+think things over.
+
+The man below me had the key to the girl's room. If I could get the key
+I could accomplish the first step of my plan--indeed the only step I had
+determined upon. The exact method of getting the key would have to
+develop. In the meantime, I gave passing wonder to the fact, as
+developed by the conversation between Hooper and Ramon, that Brower was
+not at the ranch and had not been heard of at the ranch. Where had Tiger
+dumped him, and where now was he lying? I keenly regretted the loss of a
+possible ally; and, much to my astonishment, I found within myself a
+little regret for the man himself.
+
+The thought of the transom occurred to me. I tiptoed over to that side
+and looked down. The opening was about five feet below the parapet.
+After a moment's thought I tied a bit of stone from the coping in the
+end of my silk bandana and lowered it at arm's length. By swinging it
+gently back and forth I determined that the transom was open. With the
+stub of the pencil every cowboy carried to tally with I scribbled a few
+words on an envelope which I wrapped about the bit of coping. Something
+to the effect that I was there, and expected to gain entrance to her
+room later, and to be prepared. Then I lowered my contraption, caused
+it to tap gently a dozen times on the edge of the transom, and finally
+swung it with a rather nice accuracy to fly, bandana and all, through
+the opening. After a short interval of suspense I saw the reflection of
+a light and so knew my message had been received.
+
+There was nothing to do now but return to a point of observation. On my
+way I stubbed my stockinged foot against a stone _metate_ or mortar in
+which Indians and Mexicans make their flour. The heavy pestle was there.
+I annexed it. Dropped accurately from the height of the roof it would
+make a very pretty weapon. The trouble, of course, lay in that word
+"accurately."
+
+But I soon found the fates playing into my hands. At the end of a
+quarter hour the sentry emerged from under the verandah, looked up at
+the sky, yawned, stretched, and finally sat down with his back against
+the wall of the building opposite. Inside of ten minutes he was sound
+asleep and snoring gently.
+
+I wanted nothing better than that. The descent was a little difficult to
+accomplish noiselessly, as I had to drop some feet, but I managed it.
+After crouching for a moment to see if the slight sounds had aroused
+him, I crept along the wall to where he sat. The stone pestle of the
+_metate_ I had been forced to leave behind me, but I had the heavy
+barrel of my gun, and I was going to take no chances. I had no
+compunctions as to what I did to any one of this pack of mad dogs.
+Cautiously I drew it from its holster and poised it to strike. At that
+instant I was seized and pinioned from behind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+I did not struggle. I would have done so if I had been able, but I was
+caught in a grip so skillful that the smallest move gave me the most
+exquisite pain. At that time I had not even heard the words _jiu jitsu_,
+but I have looked them up since. Cortinez, the sleepy sentry, without
+changing his position, had opened his eyes and was grinning at me.
+
+I was forced to my feet and marched to the open door of the corner room.
+There I was released, and turned around to face Hooper himself. The old
+man's face was twisted in a sardonic half-snarl that might pass for a
+grin; but there was no smile in his unblinking wildcat eyes. There
+seemed to be trace neither of the girl nor the girl's occupation.
+
+"Thank you for your warning of your intended visit," said Hooper in
+silky tones, indicating my bandana which lay on the table. "And now may
+I inquire to what I owe the honour of this call? Or it may be that the
+visit was not intended for me at all. Mistake in the rooms, perhaps. I
+often shift and change my quarters, and those of my household;
+especially if I suspect I have some reason for doing so. It adds
+interest to an otherwise uneventful life."
+
+He was eying me sardonically, evidently gloating over the situation as
+he found it.
+
+"How did you get on that roof? Who let you inside the walls?" he
+demanded, abruptly.
+
+I merely smiled at him.
+
+"That we can determine later," he observed, resuming command of himself.
+
+I measured my chances, and found them at present a minus quantity. The
+old man was separated from me by a table, and he held my own revolver
+ready for instant use. So I stood tight and waited.
+
+The room was an almost exact replica of the one in which I had spent the
+night so short a time before; the same long narrow transom near the
+ceiling, the same barred windows opening on the court, the same closet
+against the blank wall. Hooper had evidently inhabited it for some days,
+for it was filled with his personal belongings. Indeed he must have
+moved in _en bloc_ when his ward had been moved out, for none of the
+furnishings showed the feminine touch, and several articles could have
+belonged only to the old man personally. Of such was a small iron safe
+in one corner and a tall old-fashioned desk crammed with papers.
+
+But if I decided overt action unwise at this moment, I decidedly went
+into action the next. Hooper whistled and four Mexicans appeared with
+ropes. Somehow I knew if they once hog-tied me I would never get another
+chance. Better dead now than helpless in the morning, for what that old
+buzzard might want of me.
+
+One of them tossed a loop at me. I struck it aside and sailed in.
+
+It had always been my profound and contemptuous belief that I could lick
+any four Mexicans. Now I had to take that back. I could not. But I gave
+the man argument, and by the time they had my elbows lashed behind me
+and my legs tied to the legs of one of those big solid chairs they like
+to name as "Mission style," I had marked them up and torn their pretty
+clothes and smashed a lot of junk around the place and generally got
+them so mad they would have knifed me in a holy second if it had not
+been for Old Man Hooper. The latter held up the lamp where it wouldn't
+get smashed and admonished them in no uncertain terms that he wanted me
+alive and comparatively undamaged. Oh, sure! they mussed me up, too. I
+wasn't very pretty, either.
+
+The bravos withdrew muttering curses, as the story books say; and after
+Hooper had righted the table and stuck the lamp on it, and taken a good
+look at my bonds, he withdrew also.
+
+Most of my time until the next thing occurred was occupied in figuring
+on all the things that might happen to me. One thing I acknowledged to
+myself right off the reel: the Mexicans had sure trussed me up for
+further orders! I could move my hands, but I knew enough of ropes and
+ties to realize that my chances of getting free were exactly nothing. My
+plans had gone perfectly up to this moment. I had schemed to get inside
+the ranch and into Old Man Hooper's room; and here I was! What more
+could a man ask?
+
+The next thing occurred so soon, however, that I hadn't had time to
+think of more than ten per cent. of the things that might happen to me.
+The outside door opened to admit Hooper, followed by the girl. He stood
+aside in the most courtly fashion.
+
+"My dear," he said, "here is Mr. Sanborn, who has come to call on you.
+You remember Mr. Sanborn, I am sure. You met him at dinner; and besides,
+I believe you had some correspondence with him, did you not? He has
+taken so much trouble, so very much trouble to see you that I think it a
+great pity his wish should not be fulfilled. Won't you sit down here, my
+dear?"
+
+She was staring at me, her eyes gone wide with wonder and horror. Half
+thinking she took her seat as indicated. Instantly the old man had bound
+her elbows at the back and had lashed her to the chair. After the first
+start of surprise she made no resistance.
+
+"There," said Hooper, straightening up after the accomplishment of this
+task; "now I'm going to leave you to your visit. You can talk it all
+over. Tell him all you please, my dear. And you, sir, tell her all you
+know. I think I can arrange so your confidences will go no further."
+
+For the first time I heard him laugh, a high, uncertain cackle. The girl
+said nothing, but she stared at him with level, blazing eyes. Also for
+the first time I began to take an interest in her.
+
+"Do you object to smoking?" I asked her, suddenly.
+
+She blinked and recovered.
+
+"Not at all," she answered.
+
+"Well then, old man, be a sport. Give me the makings. I can get my hands
+to my mouth."
+
+The old man transferred his baleful eyes on me. Then without saying a
+word he placed in my hands a box of tailor-made cigarettes and a dozen
+matches.
+
+"Until morning," he observed, his hand on the door knob. He inclined in
+a most courteous fashion, first to the one of us, then to the other,
+and went out. He did not lock the door after him, and I could hear him
+addressing Cortinez outside. The girl started to speak, but I waved my
+shackled hand at her for silence. By straining my ears I could just make
+out what was said.
+
+"I am going to bed," Hooper said. "It is not necessary to stand guard.
+You may get your blankets and sleep on the verandah."
+
+After the old man's footsteps had died, I turned back to the girl
+opposite me and looked her over carefully. My first impression of
+meekness I revised. She did not look to be one bit meek. Her lips were
+compressed, her nostrils wide, her level eyes unsubdued. A person of
+sense, I said to myself, well balanced, who has learned when it is
+useless to kick against the pricks, but who has not necessarily on that
+account forever renounced all kicking. It occurred to me that she must
+have had to be pretty thoroughly convinced before she had come to this
+frame of mind. When she saw that I had heard all I wanted of the
+movements outside, she spoke hurriedly in her low, sweet voice:
+
+"Oh, I am so distressed! This is all my doing! I should have known
+better----"
+
+"Now," I interrupted her, decisively, "let's get down to cases. You had
+nothing to do with this; nothing whatever. I visited this ranch the
+first time out of curiosity, and to-night because I knew that I'd have
+to hit first to save my own life. You had no influence on me in either
+case."
+
+"You thought this was my room--I wrote you it was," she countered,
+swiftly.
+
+"I wanted to see you solely and simply that I might find out how to get
+at Hooper. This is all my fault; and we're going to cut out the
+self-accusations and get down to cases."
+
+I afterward realized that all this was somewhat inconsiderate and
+ungallant and slightly humiliating; I should have taken the part of the
+knight-errant rescuing the damsel in distress, but at that moment only
+the direct essentials entered my mind.
+
+"Very well," she assented in her repressed tones.
+
+"Do you think he is listening to what we say; or has somebody
+listening?"
+
+"I am positive not."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I lived in this room for two months, and I know every inch of it."
+
+"He might have some sort of a concealed listening hole somewhere, just
+the same."
+
+"I am certain he has not. The walls are two feet thick."
+
+"All right; let it go at that. Now let's see where we stand. In the
+first place, how do you dope this out?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"What does he intend to do with us?"
+
+She looked at me straight, eye to eye.
+
+"In the morning he will kill you--unless you can contrive something."
+
+"Cheering thought."
+
+"There is no sense in not facing situations squarely. If there is a way
+out, that is the only method by which it may be found."
+
+"True," I agreed, my admiration growing. "And yourself; will he kill
+you, too?"
+
+"He will not. He does not dare!" she cried, proudly, with a flash of
+the eyes.
+
+I was not so sure of that, but there was no object in saying so.
+
+"Why has he tied you in that chair, then, along with the condemned?" I
+asked.
+
+"You will understand better if I tell you who I am."
+
+"You are his deceased partner's daughter; and everybody thinks you are
+in Europe," I stated.
+
+"How in the world did you know that? But no matter; it is true. I
+embarked three months ago on the Limited for New York intending, as you
+say, to go on a long trip to Europe. My father and I had been alone in
+the world. We were very fond of each other. I took no companion, nor did
+I intend to. I felt quite independent and able to take care of myself.
+At the last moment Mr. Hooper boarded the train. That was quite
+unexpected. He was on his way to the ranch. He persuaded me to stop over
+for a few days to decide some matters. You know, since my father's death
+I am half owner."
+
+"Whole owner," I murmured.
+
+"What did you say?"
+
+"Nothing. Go ahead. Sure you don't mind my smoking?" I lit one of the
+tailor-mades and settled back. Even my inexperienced youth recognized
+the necessity of relief this long-continued stubborn repression must
+feel. My companion had as yet told me nothing I did not already know or
+guess; but I knew it would do her good to talk, and I might learn
+something valuable.
+
+"We came out to the ranch, and talked matters over quite normally; but
+when it came time for my departure, I was not permitted to leave. For
+some unexplained reason I was a prisoner, confined absolutely to the
+four walls of this enclosure. I was guarded night and day; and I soon
+found I was to be permitted conversation with two men only, Mexicans
+named Ramon and Andreas."
+
+"They are his right and left hand," I commented.
+
+"So I found. You may imagine I did not submit to this until I found I
+had to. Then I made up my mind that the only possible thing to do was to
+acquiesce, to observe, and to wait my chance."
+
+"You were right enough there. Why do you figure he did this?"
+
+"I don't know!" she cried with a flash of thwarted despair. "I have
+racked my brains, but I can find no motive. He has not asked me for a
+thing; he has not even asked me a question. Unless he's stark crazy, I
+cannot make it out!"
+
+"He may be that," I suggested.
+
+"He may be; and yet I doubt it somehow. I don't know why; but I _feel_
+that he is sane enough. He is inconceivably cruel and domineering. He
+will not tolerate a living thing about the place that will not or cannot
+take orders from him. He kills the flies, the bees, the birds, the
+frogs, because they are not his. I believe he would kill a man as
+quickly who stood out even for a second against him here. To that extent
+I believe he is crazy: a sort of monomania. But not otherwise. That is
+why I say he will kill you; I really believe he would do it."
+
+"So do I," I agreed, grimly. "However, let's drop that for right now.
+Do you know a man named Brower, Artie Brower?"
+
+"I don't think I ever heard of him. Why?"
+
+"Never mind for a minute. I've just had a great thought strike me. Just
+let me alone a few moments while I work it out."
+
+I lighted a second cigarette from the butt of the first and fell into a
+study. Cortinez breathed heavily outside. Otherwise the silence was as
+dead as the blackness of the night. The smoke from my cigarettes floated
+lazily until it reached the influence of the hot air from the lamp; then
+it shot upward toward the ceiling. The girl watched me from under her
+level brows, always with that air of controlled restraint I found so
+admirable.
+
+"I've got it," I said at last, "--or at least I think I have. Now listen
+to me, and believe what I've got to say. Here are the facts: first, your
+father and Hooper split partnership a while back. Hooper took his share
+entirely in cash; your father took his probably part in cash, but
+certainly all of the ranch and cattle. Get that clear? Hooper owns no
+part of the ranch and cattle. All right. Your father dies before the
+papers relating to this agreement are recorded. Nobody knew of those
+papers except your father and Hooper. So if Hooper were to destroy those
+papers, he'd still have the cash that had been paid him, and an equal
+share in the property. That plain?"
+
+"Perfectly," she replied, composedly. "Why didn't he destroy them?"
+
+"Because they had been stolen by this man Brower I asked you about--an
+ex-jockey of Hooper's. Brower held them for blackmail. Unless Hooper
+came through Brower would record the papers."
+
+"Where do I come in?"
+
+"Easy. I'm coming to that. But answer me this: who would be your heir in
+case you died?"
+
+"Why--I don't know!"
+
+"Have you any kin?"
+
+"Not a soul!"
+
+"Did you ever make a will?"
+
+"I never thought of such a thing!"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you. If you were to die your interest in this property
+would go to Hooper."
+
+"What makes you think so? I thought it would go to the state."
+
+"I'm guessing," I acknowledged, "but I believe I'm guessing straight. A
+lot of these old Arizona partnerships were made just that way. Life was
+uncertain out here. I'll bet the old original partnership between your
+father and Hooper provides that in case of the extinction of one line,
+the other will inherit. It's a very common form of partnership in a new
+country like this. You can see for yourself it's a sensible thing to
+provide."
+
+"You may be right," she commented. "Go on."
+
+"You told me a while ago it was best to face any situation squarely. Now
+brace up and face this. You said a while ago that Hooper would not dare
+kill you. That is true for the moment. But there is no doubt in my mind
+that he has intended from the first to kill you, because by that he
+would get possession of the whole property."
+
+"I cannot believe it!" she cried.
+
+"Isn't the incentive enough? Think carefully, and answer honestly:
+don't you think him capable of it?"
+
+"Yes--I suppose so," she admitted, reluctantly, after a moment. She
+gathered herself as after a shock. "Why hasn't he done so? Why has he
+waited?"
+
+I told her of the situation as it concerned Brower. While the
+dissolution of partnership papers still existed and might still be
+recorded, such a murder would be useless. For naturally the dissolution
+abrogated the old partnership agreement. The girl's share of the
+property would, at her demise intestate, go to the state. That is,
+provided the new papers were ever recorded.
+
+"Then I am safe until----?" she began.
+
+"Until he negotiates or otherwise settles with Brower. Until he has
+destroyed all evidence."
+
+"Then everything seems to depend on this Brower," she said, knitting her
+brows anxiously. "Where is he?"
+
+I did not answer this last question. My eyes were riveted on the door
+knob which was slowly, almost imperceptibly, turning. Cortinez continued
+to breathe heavily in sleep outside. The intruder was evidently at great
+pains not to awaken the guard. A fraction of an inch at a time the door
+opened. A wild-haired, wild-eyed head inserted itself cautiously through
+the crack. The girl's eyes widened in surprise and, I imagine, a little
+in fear. I began to laugh, silently, so as not to disturb Cortinez.
+Mirth overcame me; the tears ran down my cheeks.
+
+"It's so darn complete!" I gasped, answering the girl's horrified look
+of inquiry. "Miss Emory, allow me to present Mr. Artie Brower!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Brower entered the room quickly but very quietly, and at once came to
+me. His eyes were staring, his eyelids twitched, his hands shook. I
+recognized the symptoms.
+
+"Have you got it? Have you got it with you?" he whispered, feverishly.
+
+"It's all right. I can fix you up. Untie me first," I replied.
+
+He began to fumble with the knots of my bonds too hastily and
+impatiently for effectiveness. I was trying to stoop over far enough to
+see what he was doing when my eye caught the shadow of a moving figure
+outside. An instant later Tim Westmore, the English groom attached to
+the Morgan stallion, came cautiously through the door, which he closed
+behind him. I attempted unobtrusively to warn Brower, but he only looked
+up, nodded vaguely, and continued his fumbling efforts to free me.
+Westmore glanced at us all curiously, but went at once to the big
+windows, which he proceeded to swing shut. Then he came over to us,
+pushed Brower one side, and most expeditiously untied the knots. I stood
+up stretching in the luxury of freedom, then turned to perform a like
+office for Miss Emory. But Brower was by now frantic. He seized my arm
+and fairly shook me, big as I was, in the urgence of his desire. He was
+rapidly losing all control and caution.
+
+"Let him have it, sir," urged Westmore in a whisper. "I'll free the
+young lady."
+
+I gave Brower the hypodermic case. He ran to the wash bowl for water.
+During the process of preparation he uttered little animal sounds under
+his breath. When the needle had sunk home he lay back in a chair and
+closed his eyes.
+
+In the meantime, I had been holding a whispered colloquy with Westmore.
+
+"He sneaked in on me at dark, sir," he told me, "on foot. I don't know
+how he got in without being seen. They'd have found his tracks anyway in
+the morning. I don't think he knew quite what he wanted to do. Him and
+me were old pals, and he wanted to ask me about things. He didn't expect
+to stay, I fancy. He told me he had left his horse tied a mile or so
+down the road. Then a while back orders came to close down, air tight.
+We're used to such orders. Nobody can go out or come in, you understand.
+And there are guards placed. That made him uneasy. He told me then he
+was a hop fiend. I've seen them before, and I got uneasy, too. If he
+came to the worst I might have to tie and gag him. I know how they are."
+
+"Go ahead," I urged. He had stopped to listen.
+
+"I don't like that Cortinez being so handy like out there," he
+confessed.
+
+"Hooper told him he could sleep. He's not likely to pay attention to us.
+Miss Emory and I have been talking aloud."
+
+"I hope not. Well, then, Ramon came by and stopped to talk to me for a
+minute. I had to hide Artie in a box-stall and hope to God he kept
+quiet. He wasn't as bad as he is now. Ramon told me about you being
+caught, and went on. After that nothing must do but find you. He thought
+you might have his dope. He'd have gone into the jaws of hell after it.
+So I came along to keep him out of mischief."
+
+"What are you going to do now?" asked the girl, who had kicked off her
+slippers and had been walking a few paces to and fro.
+
+"I don't know, ma'am. We've got to get away."
+
+"We?"
+
+"You mean me, too? Yes, ma'am! I have stood with the doings of this
+place as long as I can stand them. Artie has told me some other things.
+Are you here of your free will, ma'am?" he asked, abruptly.
+
+"No," she replied.
+
+"I suspected as much. I'm through with the whole lot of them."
+
+Brower opened his eyes. He was now quite calm.
+
+"Hooper sold the Morgan stallion," he whispered, smiled sardonically,
+and closed his eyes again.
+
+"Without telling me a word of it!" added Tim with heat. "He ain't
+delivered him yet."
+
+"Well, I don't blame you. Now you'd better quietly sneak back to your
+quarters. There is likely to be trouble before we get through. You, too,
+Brower. Nobody knows you are here."
+
+Brower opened his eyes again.
+
+"I can get out of this place now I've had me hop," said he, decidedly.
+"Come on, let's go."
+
+"We'll all go," I agreed; "but let's see what we can find here first.
+There may be some paper--or something----"
+
+"What do you mean? What sort of papers? Hadn't we better go at once?"
+
+"It is supposed to be well known that the reason Hooper isn't
+assassinated from behind a bush is because in that case his killers are
+in turn to assassinate a long list of his enemies. Only nobody is sure:
+just as nobody is really sure that he has killers at all. You can't get
+action on an uncertainty."
+
+She nodded. "I can understand that."
+
+"If we could get proof positive it would be no trick at all to raise the
+country."
+
+"What sort of proof?"
+
+"Well, I mentioned a list. I don't doubt his head man--Ramon, I suppose,
+the one he'd trust with carrying out such a job--must have a list of
+some sort. He wouldn't trust to memory."
+
+"And he wouldn't trust it to Ramon until after he was dead!" said the
+girl with sudden intuition. "If it exists we'll find it here."
+
+She started toward the paper-stuffed desk, but I stopped her.
+
+"More likely the safe," said I.
+
+Tim, who was standing near it, tried the handle.
+
+"It's locked," he whispered.
+
+I fell on my knees and began to fiddle with the dial, of course in vain.
+Miss Emory, with more practical decision of character, began to run
+through the innumerable bundles and loose papers in the desk, tossing
+them aside as they proved unimportant or not germane to the issue. I had
+not the slightest knowledge of the constructions of safes but whirled
+the knob hopelessly in one direction or another trying to listen for
+clicks, as somewhere I had read was the thing to do. As may be imagined,
+I arrived nowhere. Nor did the girl. We looked at each other in chagrin
+at last.
+
+"There is nothing here but ranch bills and accounts and business
+letters," she confessed.
+
+I merely shook my head.
+
+At this moment Brower, whom I had supposed to be sound asleep, opened
+his eyes.
+
+"Want that safe open?" he asked, drowsily.
+
+He arose, stretched, and took his place beside me on the floor. His head
+cocked one side, he slowly turned the dials with the tips of fingers I
+for the first time noticed were long and slim and sensitive. Twice after
+extended, delicate manipulations he whirled the knob impatiently and
+took a fresh start. On the proverbial third trial he turned the handle
+and the door swung open. He arose rather stiffly from his knees, resumed
+his place in the armchair, and again closed his eyes.
+
+It was a small safe, with few pigeon holes. A number of blue-covered
+contracts took small time for examination. There were the usual number
+of mine certificates not valuable enough for a safe deposit, some
+confidential memoranda and accounts having to do with the ranch.
+
+"Ah, here is something!" I breathed to the eager audience over my
+shoulder. I held in my hands a heavy manila envelope, sealed, inscribed
+"Ramon. (To be destroyed unopened.)"
+
+"Evidently we were right: Ramon has the combination and is to be
+executor," I commented.
+
+I tore open the envelope and extracted from it another of the
+blue-covered documents.
+
+"It's a copy, unsigned, of that last agreement with your father," I
+said, after a disappointed glance. "It's worth keeping," and I thrust it
+inside my shirt.
+
+But this particular pigeon hole proved to be a mine. In it were several
+more of the same sort of envelope, all sealed, all addressed to Ramon.
+One was labelled as the Last Will, one as Inventory, and one simply as
+Directions. This last had a further warning that it was to be opened
+only by the one addressed. I determined by hasty examination that the
+first two were only what they purported to be, and turned hopefully to a
+perusal of the last. It was in Spanish, and dealt at great length with
+the disposition and management of Hooper's extensive interests. I append
+a translation of the portion of this remarkable document, having to do
+with our case.
+
+"These are my directions," it began, "as to the matter of which we have
+many times spoken together. I have many enemies, and many who think they
+have cause to wish my death. They are cowards and soft and I do not
+think they will ever be sure enough to do me harm. I do not fear them.
+But it may be that one or some of them will find it in their souls to do
+a deed against me. In that case I shall be content, for neither do I
+fear the devil. But I shall be content only if you follow my orders. I
+add here a list of my enemies and of those who have cause to wish me
+ill. If I am killed, it is probable that some one of these will have
+done the deed. Therefore they must all die. You must see to it,
+following them if necessary to the ends of the earth. You will know
+how; and what means to employ. When all these are gone, then go you to
+the highest rock on the southerly pinnacle of Cochise's Stronghold. Ten
+paces northwest is a gray, flat slab. If you lift this slab there will
+be found a copper box. In the box is the name of a man. You will go to
+this man and give him the copper box and in return he will give to you
+one hundred thousand dollars. I know well, my Ramon, that your honesty
+would not permit you to seek the copper box before the last of my
+enemies is dead. Nevertheless, that you may admire my recourse, I have
+made an arrangement. If the gray slab on Cochise's Stronghold is ever
+disturbed before the whole toll is paid, you will die very suddenly and
+unpleasantly. I know well that you, my Ramon, would not disturb it; and
+I hope for your sake that nobody else will do so. It is not likely. No
+one is fool enough to climb Cochise's Stronghold for pleasure; and this
+gray slab is one among many."
+
+At this time I did not read carefully the above cheerful document. My
+Spanish was good enough, but took time in the translating. I dipped into
+it enough to determine that it was what we wanted, and flipped the pages
+to come to the list of prospective victims. It covered two sheets, and a
+glance down the columns showed me that about every permanent inhabitant
+of the Soda Springs Valley was included. I found my own name in quite
+fresh ink toward the last.
+
+"This is what we want," I said in satisfaction, rising to my feet. I
+sketched in a few words the purport of the document.
+
+"Let me see it," said the girl.
+
+I handed it to her. She began to examine carefully the list of names,
+her face turning paler as she read. Tim Westmore looked anxiously over
+her shoulder. Suddenly I saw his face congest and his eyes bulge.
+
+"Why! why!" he gasped, "I'm there! What've I ever done, I ask you that?
+The old----" he choked, at a loss and groping. Then his anger flared up.
+"I've always served him faithful and done what I was told," he muttered,
+fiercely. "I'll do him in for this!"
+
+"I am here," observed Miss Emory.
+
+"Yes, and that sot in the chair!" whispered Tim, fiercely.
+
+Again Brower proved he was not asleep by opening one eye.
+
+"Thanks for them kind words," said he.
+
+"We've got to get out of here," stated Tim with conviction.
+
+"That idea just got through your thick British skull?" queried Artie,
+rousing again.
+
+"I wish we had some way to carry the young lady--she can't walk," said
+Westmore, paying no attention.
+
+"I have my horse tied out by the lone Joshua-tree," I answered him.
+
+"I'm going to take a look at that Cortinez," said the little Englishman,
+nodding his satisfaction at my news as to the horse. "I'm not easy about
+him."
+
+"He'll sleep like a log until morning," Miss Emory reassured me. "I've
+often stepped right over him where he has been on guard and walked all
+around the garden."
+
+"Just the same I'm going to take a look," persisted Westmore.
+
+He tiptoed to the door, softly turned the knob and opened it. He found
+himself face to face with Cortinez.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+I had not thought of the English groom as a man of resource, but his
+action in this emergency proved him. He cast a fleeting glance over his
+shoulder. Artie Brower was huddled down in his armchair practically out
+of sight; Miss Emory and I had reseated ourselves in the only other two
+chairs in the room, so that we were in the same relative positions as
+when we had been bound and left. Only the confusion of the papers on the
+floor and the open safe would have struck an observant eye.
+
+"It is well that you come," said Tim to Cortinez in Spanish. "The senor
+sent me to conduct these two to the East Room and I like not the job
+alone. Enter."
+
+He held the door with one hand and fairly dragged Cortinez through with
+the other. Instantly he closed the door and cast himself on Cortinez's
+back. I had already launched myself at the Mexican's throat.
+
+The struggle was violent but brief. Fortunately I had not missed my
+spring at our enemy's windpipe, so he had been unable to shout. The
+noise of our scuffle sounded loud enough within the walls of the room;
+but those walls were two feet thick, and the door and windows closed.
+
+"Get something to gag him with, and the cords," panted Tim to the girl.
+
+Brower opened his eyes again.
+
+"I can beat that," he announced.
+
+He produced his hypodermic and proceeded to mix a gunful of the dope.
+
+"This'll fix him," he observed, turning back the Mexican's sleeve. "You
+can lay him outside and if anybody comes along they'll think he's
+asleep--as usual."
+
+This we did when the dope had worked.
+
+It was now high time to think of our next move. For weapons we had the
+gun and knife taken from Cortinez and the miserable little automatic
+belonging to Brower. That was all. It was perfectly evident that we
+could not get out through the regular doorways, as, by Tim's statement,
+they were all closed and guarded. On my representation it was decided to
+try the roof.
+
+We therefore knotted together the cord that had bound me and two sheets
+from the bed, and sneaked cautiously out on the verandah, around the
+corner to the water barrel, and so to the vantage point of the roof.
+
+The chill of the night was come, and the stars hung cold in the sky. It
+seemed that the air would snap and crackle were some little resolving
+element to be dropped into its suspended hush. Not a sound was to be
+heard except a slow drip of water from somewhere in the courtyard.
+
+It was agreed that I, as the heaviest, should descend first. I landed
+easily enough and steadied the rope for Miss Emory who came next. While
+I was waiting I distinctly heard, from the direction of the willows, the
+hooting of an owl. Furthermore, it was a great horned owl, and he seemed
+to have a lot to say. You remember what I told you about setting your
+mind so that only one sort of noise will arouse it, but that one
+instantly? I knew perfectly well that Old Man Hooper's mind was set to
+all these smaller harmless noises that most people never notice at all,
+waking or sleeping--frogs, crickets, owls. And therefore I was convinced
+that sooner or later that old man and his foolish ideas and his shotgun
+would come projecting right across our well-planned getaway. Which was
+just what happened, and almost at once. Probably that great horned owl
+had been hooting for some time, but we had been too busy to notice. I
+heard the wicket door turning on its hinges, and ventured a warning hiss
+to Brower and Tim Westmore, who had not yet descended. An instant later
+I could make out shadowy forms stealing toward the willows. Evidently
+those who served Old Man Hooper were accustomed to broken rest.
+
+We kept very quiet, straining our eyes at the willows. After an interval
+a long stab of light pierced the dusk and the round detonation of
+old-fashioned black powder shook the silence. There came to us the
+babbling of voices released. At the same instant the newly risen moon
+plastered us against that whitewashed wall like insects pinned in a
+cork-lined case. The moonlight must have been visibly creeping down to
+us for some few minutes, but so absorbed had I been in the doings of the
+party in the willows, and so chuckleheaded were the two on the roof,
+that actually none of us had noticed!
+
+I dropped flat and dragged the girl down with me. But there remained
+that ridiculous, plainly visible rope; and anyway a shout relieved me of
+any doubt as to whether we had been seen. Brower came tumbling down on
+us, and with one accord we three doubled to the right around the walls
+of the ranch. A revolver shot sang by us, but we were not immediately
+pursued. Our antagonists were too few and too uncertain of our numbers
+and arms.
+
+It was up to us to utilize the few minutes before the ranch should be
+aroused. We doubled back through the willows and across the mesquite
+flat toward the lone Joshua-tree where I had left my horse. I held the
+girl's hand to help her when she stumbled, while Brower scuttled along
+with surprising endurance for a dope wreck. Nobody said anything, but
+saved their wind.
+
+"Where's Tim?" I asked at a check when we had to scramble across a
+_barranca_.
+
+"He went back into the ranch the way we came," replied Artie with some
+bitterness.
+
+It was, nevertheless, the wisest thing he could have done. He had not
+been identified with this outfit except by Cortinez, and Cortinez was
+safe for twelve hours.
+
+We found the Joshua-tree without difficulty.
+
+"Now," said I, "here is the plan. You are to take these papers to Senor
+Buck Johnson, at the Box Springs ranch. That's the next ranch on the
+fork of the road. Do you remember it?"
+
+"Yes," said Brower, who had waked up and seemed quite sober and
+responsible. "I can get to it."
+
+"Wake him up. Show him these papers. Make him read them. Tell him that
+Miss Emory and I are in the Bat-eye Tunnel. Remember that?"
+
+"The Bat-eye Tunnel," repeated Artie.
+
+"Why don't _you_ go?" inquired the girl, anxiously.
+
+"I ride too heavy; and I know where the tunnel is," I replied. "If
+anybody else was to go, it would be you. But Artie rides light and sure,
+and he'll have to ride like hell. Here, put these papers inside your
+shirt. Be off!"
+
+Lights were flickering at the ranch as men ran to and fro with lanterns.
+It would not take these skilled _vaqueros_ long to catch their horses
+and saddle up. At any moment I expected to see the massive doors swing
+open to let loose the wolf pack.
+
+Brower ran to my horse--a fool proceeding, especially for an experienced
+horseman--and jerked loose the tie rope. Badger is a good reliable cow
+horse, but he's not a million years old, and he's got some natural
+equine suspicions. I kind of lay a good deal of it to that fool
+hard-boiled hat. At any rate, he snorted and sagged back on the rope,
+hit a yucca point, whirled and made off. Artie was game. He hung on
+until he was drug into a bunch of _chollas_, and then he had to let go.
+Badger departed into the distance, tail up and snorting.
+
+"Well, you've done it now!" I observed to Brower, who, crying with
+nervous rage and chagrin, and undoubtedly considerably stuck up with
+_cholla_ spines, was crawling to his feet.
+
+"Can't we catch him? Won't he stop?" asked Miss Emory. "If he gets to
+the ranch, won't they look for you?"
+
+"He's one of my range ponies: he won't stop short of the Gila."
+
+I cast over the chances in my mind, weighing my knowledge of the country
+against the probabilities of search. The proportion was small. Most of
+my riding experience had been farther north and to the west. Such
+obvious hole-ups as the one I had suggested--the Bat-eye Tunnel--were of
+course familiar to our pursuers. My indecision must have seemed long,
+for the girl broke in anxiously on my meditations.
+
+"Oughtn't we to be moving?"
+
+"As well here as anywhere," I replied. "We are under good cover; and
+afoot we could not much better ourselves as against mounted men. We must
+hide."
+
+"But they may find the trampled ground where your horse has been tied."
+
+"I hope they do."
+
+"You hope they do!"
+
+"Sure. They'll figure that we must sure have moved away. They'll never
+guess we'd hide near at hand. At least that's what I hope."
+
+"How about tracks?"
+
+"Not at night. By daylight maybe."
+
+"But then to-morrow morning they can----"
+
+"To-morrow morning is a long way off."
+
+"Look!" cried Brower.
+
+The big gates of the ranch had been thrown open. The glare of a
+light--probably a locomotive headlight--poured out. Mounted figures
+galloped forth and swerved to right or left, spreading in a circle about
+the enclosure. The horsemen reined to a trot and began methodically to
+quarter the ground, weaving back and forth. Four detached themselves and
+rode off at a swift gallop to the points of the compass. The mounted men
+were working fast for fear, I suppose, that we may have possessed
+horses. Another contingent, afoot and with lanterns, followed more
+slowly, going over the ground for indications. I could not but admire
+the skill and thoroughness of the plan.
+
+"Our only chance is in the shadow from the moon," I told my companions.
+"If we can slip through the riders, and get in their rear, we may be
+able to follow the _barranca_ down. Any of those big rocks will do. Lay
+low, and after a rider has gone over a spot, try to get to that spot
+without being seen."
+
+We were not to be kept long in suspense. Out of all the three hundred
+and sixty degrees of the circle one of the swift outriders selected
+precisely our direction! Straight as an arrow he came for us, at full
+gallop. I could see the toss of his horse's mane against the light from
+the opened door. There was no time to move. All we could do was to cower
+beneath our rock, muscles tense, and hope to be able to glide around the
+shadow as he passed.
+
+But he did not pass. Down into the shallow _barranca_ he slid with a
+tinkle of shale, and drew rein within ten feet of our lurking place.
+
+We could hear the soft snorting of his mount above the thumping of our
+hearts. I managed to get into a position to steal a glimpse. It was
+difficult, but at length I made out the statuesque lines of the horse,
+and the rider himself, standing in his stirrups and leaning slightly
+forward, peering intently about him. The figures were in silhouette
+against the sky, but nobody ever fooled me as to a horse. It was the
+Morgan stallion, and the rider was Tim Westmore. Just as the realization
+came to me, Tim uttered a low, impatient whistle.
+
+It's always a good idea to take a chance. I arose into view--but I kept
+my gun handy.
+
+"Thank God!" cried Tim, fervently, under his breath. "I remembered you'd
+left your horse by this Joshua: it's the only landmark in the dark.
+Saints!" he ejaculated in dismay as he saw us all. "Where's your horse?"
+
+"Gone."
+
+"We can't all ride this stallion----"
+
+"Listen," I cut in, and I gave him the same directions I had previously
+given Brower. He heard me attentively.
+
+"I can beat that," he cut me off. He dismounted. "Get on here, Artie.
+Ride down the _barranca_ two hundred yards and you'll come to an alkali
+flat. Get out on that flat and ride like hell for Box Springs."
+
+"Why don't you do it?"
+
+"I'm going back and tell 'em how I was slugged and robbed of my horse."
+
+"They'll kill you if they suspect; dare you go back?"
+
+"I've been back once," he pointed out. He was helping Brower aboard.
+
+"Where did you get that bag?" he asked.
+
+"Found it by the rock where we were hiding: it's mine," replied Brower.
+
+Westmore tried to get him to leave it, but the little jockey was
+obstinate. He kicked his horse and, bending low, rode away.
+
+"You're right: I beg your pardon," I answered Westmore's remark to me.
+"You don't look slugged."
+
+"That's easy fixed," said Tim, calmly. He removed his hat and hit his
+forehead a very solid blow against a projection of the conglomerate
+boulder. The girl screamed slightly.
+
+"Hush!" warned Tim in a fierce whisper. He raised his hand toward the
+approaching horsemen, who were now very near. Without attention to the
+blood streaming from his brow he bent his head to listen to the faint
+clinking of steel against rock that marked the stallion's progress
+toward the alkali flat. The searchers were by now dangerously close, and
+Tim uttered a smothered oath of impatience. But at last we distinctly
+heard the faint, soft thud of galloping hoofs.
+
+The searchers heard it, too, and reined up to listen. Tim thrust into my
+hand the 30-30 Winchester he was carrying together with a box of
+cartridges. Then with a leap like a tiger he gained the rim of the
+_barranca_. Once there, however, his forces seemed to desert him. He
+staggered forward calling in a weak voice. I could hear the volley of
+rapid questions shot at him by the men who immediately surrounded him;
+and his replies. Then somebody fired a revolver thrice in rapid
+succession and the whole cavalcade swept away with a mighty crackling of
+brush. Immediately after Tim rejoined us. I had not expected this.
+
+Relieved for the moment we hurried Miss Emory rapidly up the bed of the
+shallow wash. The tunnel mentioned was part of an old mine operation,
+undertaken at some remote period before the cattle days. It entered the
+base of one of those isolated conical hills, lying like islands in the
+plain, so common in Arizona. From where we had hidden it lay about three
+miles to the northeast. It was a natural and obvious hide out, and I
+had no expectation of remaining unmolested. My hope lay in rescue.
+
+We picked our way under cover of the ravine as long as we could, then
+struck boldly across the plain. Nobody seemed to be following us. A wild
+hope entered my heart that perhaps they might believe we had all made
+our escape to Box Springs.
+
+As we proceeded the conviction was borne in on me that the stratagem had
+at least saved us from immediate capture. Like most men who ride I had
+very sketchy ideas of what three miles afoot is like--at night--in high
+heels. The latter affliction was common to both Miss Emory and myself.
+She had on a sort of bedroom slipper, and I wore the usual cowboy boots.
+We began to go footsore about the same time, and the little rolling
+volcanic rocks among the bunches of _sacatone_ did not help us a bit.
+Tim made good time, curse him. Or rather, bless him; for as I just said,
+if he had not tolled away our mounted pursuit we would have been caught
+as sure as God made little green apples. He seemed as lively as a
+cricket, in spite of the dried blood across his face.
+
+The moon was now sailing well above the horizon, throwing the world into
+silver and black velvet. When we moved in the open we showed up like a
+train of cars; but, on the other hand, the shadow was a cloak. It was by
+now nearly one o'clock in the morning.
+
+Miss Emory's nerve did not belie the clear, steadfast look of her eye;
+but she was about all in when we reached the foot of Bat-eye Butte. Tim
+and I had discussed the procedure as we walked. I was for lying in wait
+outside; but Tim pointed out that the tunnel entrance was well down in
+the boulders, that even the sharpest outlook could not be sure of
+detecting an approach through the shadows, and that from the shelter of
+the roof props and against the light we should be able to hold off a
+large force almost indefinitely. In any case, we would have to gamble on
+Brewer's winning through, and having sense enough in his opium-saturated
+mind to make a convincing yarn of it. So after a drink at the _tenaja_
+below the mine we entered the black square of the tunnel.
+
+The work was old, but it had been well done. They must have dragged the
+timbers down from the White Mountains. Indeed a number of unused beams,
+both trunks of trees and squared, still lay around outside. From time to
+time, since the original operations, some locoed prospector comes
+projecting along and does a little work in hopes he may find something
+the other fellow had missed. So the passage was crazy with props and
+supports, new and old, placed to brace the ageing overhead timbers.
+Going in they were a confounded nuisance against the bumped head; but
+looking back toward the square of light they made fine protections
+behind which to crouch. In this part of the country any tunnel would be
+dry. It ran straight for about a hundred and fifty feet.
+
+We groped our way about seventy-five feet, which was as far as we could
+make out the opening distinctly, and sat down to wait. I still had the
+rest of the tailor-made cigarettes, which I shared with Tim. We did not
+talk, for we wished to listen for sounds outside. To judge by her
+breathing, I think Miss Emory dozed, or even went to sleep.
+
+About an hour later I thought to hear a single tinkle of shale. Tim
+heard it, too, for he nudged me. Our straining ears caught nothing
+further, however; and I, for one, had relaxed from my tension when the
+square of light was darkened by a figure. I was nearest, so I raised
+Cortinez's gun and fired. The girl uttered a scream, and the figure
+disappeared. I don't know yet whether I hit him or not; we never found
+any blood.
+
+We made Miss Emory lie down behind a little slide of rock, and disposed
+ourselves under shelter.
+
+"We can take them as fast as they come," exulted Tim.
+
+"I don't believe there are more than two or three of them," I observed.
+"It would be only a scouting party. They will go for help."
+
+As there was no longer reason for concealment, we talked aloud and
+freely.
+
+Now ensued a long waiting interim. We could hear various sounds outside
+as of moving to and fro. The enemy had likewise no reason for further
+concealment.
+
+
+"Look!" suddenly cried Tim. "Something crawling."
+
+He raised the 30-30 and fired. Before the flash and the fumes had
+blinded me I, too, had seen indistinctly something low and prone gliding
+around the corner of the entrance. That was all we could make out of it,
+for as you can imagine the light was almost non-existent. The thing
+glided steadily, untouched or unmindful of the shots we threw at it.
+When it came to the first of the crazy uprights supporting the roof
+timbers it seemed to hesitate gropingly. Then it drew slowly back a foot
+or so, and darted forward. The ensuing thud enlightened us. The thing
+was one of the long, squared timbers we had noted outside; and it was
+being used as a battering ram.
+
+"They'll bring the whole mountain down on us!" cried Tim, springing
+forward.
+
+But even as he spoke, and before he had moved two feet, that catastrophe
+seemed at least to have begun. The prop gave way: the light at the
+entrance was at once blotted out; the air was filled with terrifying
+roaring echoes. There followed a succession of crashes, the rolling of
+rocks over each other, the grinding slide of avalanches great and small.
+We could scarcely breathe for the dust. Our danger was that now the
+thing was started it would not stop: that the antique and inadequate
+supports would all give way, one bringing down the other in succession
+until we were buried. Would the forces of equilibrium establish
+themselves through the successive slight resistances of these rotted,
+worm-eaten old timbers before the constricted space in which we crouched
+should be entirely eaten away?
+
+After the first great crash there ensued a moment's hesitation. Then a
+second span succumbed. There followed a series of minor chutes with
+short intervening silences. At last so long an interval of calm ensued
+that we plucked up courage to believe it all over. A single stone rolled
+a few feet and hit the rock floor with a bang. Then, immediately after,
+the first-deafening thunder was repeated as evidently another span gave
+way. It sounded as though the whole mountain had moved. I was almost
+afraid to stretch out my hand for fear it would encounter the wall of
+debris. The roar ceased as abruptly as it had begun. Followed then a
+long silence. Then a little cascading tinkle of shale. And another dead
+silence.
+
+"I believe it's over," ventured Miss Emory, after a long time.
+
+"I'm going to find out how bad it is," I asserted.
+
+I moved forward cautiously, my arms extended before me, feeling my way
+with my feet. Foot after foot I went, encountering nothing but the
+props. Expecting as I did to meet an obstruction within a few paces at
+most, I soon lost my sense of distance; after a few moments it seemed to
+me that I must have gone much farther than the original length of the
+tunnel. At last I stumbled over a fragment, and so found my fingers
+against a rough mass of debris.
+
+"Why, this is fine!" I cried to the others, "I don't believe more than a
+span or so has gone!"
+
+I struck one of my few remaining matches to make sure. While of course I
+had no very accurate mental image of the original state of things, still
+it seemed to me there was an awful lot of tunnel left. As the whole
+significance of our situation came to me, I laughed aloud.
+
+"Well," said I, cheerfully, "they couldn't have done us a better favour!
+It's a half hour's job to dig us out, and in the meantime we are safe as
+a covered bridge. We don't even have to keep watch."
+
+"Provided Brower gets through," the girl reminded us.
+
+"He'll get through," assented Tim, positively. "There's nothing on four
+legs can catch that Morgan stallion."
+
+I opened my watch crystal and felt of the hands. Half-past two.
+
+"Four or five hours before they can get here," I announced.
+
+"We'd better go to sleep, I think," said Miss Emory.
+
+"Good idea," I approved. "Just pick your rocks and go to it."
+
+I sat down and leaned against one of the uprights, expecting fully to
+wait with what patience I might the march of events. Sleep was the
+farthest thing from my thoughts. When I came to I found myself doubled
+on my side with a short piece of ore sticking in my ribs and eighteen or
+twenty assorted cramp-pains in various parts of me. This was all my
+consciousness had room to attend to for a few moments. Then I became
+dully aware of faint tinkling sounds and muffled shoutings from the
+outer end of the tunnel. I shouted in return and made my way as rapidly
+as possible toward the late entrance.
+
+A half hour later we crawled cautiously through a precarious opening and
+stood blinking at the sunlight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+A group of about twenty men greeted our appearance with a wild cowboy
+yell. Some of the men of our outfit were there, but not all; and I
+recognized others from as far south as the Chiracahuas. Windy Bill was
+there with Jed Parker; but Senor Johnson's bulky figure was nowhere to
+be seen. The other men were all riders--nobody of any particular
+standing or authority. The sun made it about three o'clock of the
+afternoon. Our adventures had certainly brought us a good sleep!
+
+After we had satisfied our thirst from a canteen we began to ask and
+answer questions. Artie Brower had made the ranch without mishap, had
+told his story, and had promptly fallen asleep. Buck Johnson, in his
+usual deliberate manner, read all the papers through twice; pondered for
+some time while the more excited Jed and Windy fidgeted impatiently; and
+then, his mind made up, acted with his customary decision. Three men he
+sent to reconnoitre in the direction of the Bat-eye Tunnel with
+instructions to keep out of trouble and to report promptly. His other
+riders he dispatched with an insistent summons to all the leading
+cattlemen as far south as the Chiracahua Range, as far east as Grant's
+Pass, as far west as Madrona. Such was Buck Johnson's reputation for
+level-headedness that without hesitation these men saddled and rode at
+their best speed. By noon the weightiest of the Soda Spring Valley had
+gathered in conclave.
+
+"That's where we faded out," said Jed Parker. "They sent us up to see
+about you-all. The scouts from up here come back with their little Wild
+West story about knocking down this yere mountain on top of you. We had
+to believe them because they brought back a little proof with them. Mex
+guns and spurs and such plunder looted off'n the deceased on the field
+of battle. Bill here can tell you."
+
+"They was only two of them," said Windy Bill, diffident for the first
+time in his life, "and we managed to catch one of 'em foul. We been
+digging here for too long. We ain't no prairie dogs to go delving into
+the bosom of the earth. We thought you must be plumb deceased anyhow: we
+couldn't get a peep out of you. I was in favour of leavin' you lay
+myself. This yere butte seemed like a first-rate imposing tomb; and I
+was willing myself to carve a few choice sentiments on some selected
+rock. Sure I can carve! But Jed here allowed that you owed him ten
+dollars and maybe had some money in your pocket----"
+
+"Shut up, Windy," I broke in. "Can't you see the young lady----"
+
+Windy whirled all contrition and apologies.
+
+"Don't you mind me, ma'am," he begged. "They call me Windy Bill, and I
+reckon that's about right. I don't mean nothing. And we'd have dug all
+through this butte before----"
+
+"I know that. It isn't your talk," interrupted Miss Emory, "but the sun
+is hot--and--haven't you anything at all to eat?"
+
+"Suffering giraffes!" cried Windy above the chorus of dismay.
+"Lunkheads! chumps! Of all the idiot plays ever made in this territory!"
+He turned to the dismayed group. "Ain't any one of you boys had sense
+enough to bring any grub?"
+
+But nobody had. The old-fashioned Arizona cowboy ate only twice a day.
+It would never occur to him to carry a lunch for noon. Still, they might
+have considered a rescue party's probable needs.
+
+We mounted and started for the Box Springs ranch. They had at least
+known enough to bring extra horses.
+
+"Old Hooper knows the cat is out of the bag now," I suggested as we rode
+along.
+
+"He sure does."
+
+"Do you think he'll stick: or will he get out?"
+
+"He'll stick."
+
+"I don't know----" I argued, doubtfully.
+
+"I do," with great positiveness.
+
+"Why are you so sure?"
+
+"There are men in the brush all around his ranch to see that he does."
+
+"For heaven's sake how many have you got together?" I cried, astonished.
+
+"About three hundred," said Jed.
+
+"What's the plan?"
+
+"I don't know. They were chewing over it when I left. But I'll bet
+something's going to pop. There's a bunch of 'em on that sweet little
+list you-all dug up."
+
+We rode slowly. It was near five o'clock when we pulled down the lane
+toward the big corrals. The latter were full of riding horses, and the
+fences were topped with neatly arranged saddles. Men were everywhere,
+seated in rows on top rails, gathered in groups, leaning idly against
+the ranch buildings. There was a feeling of waiting.
+
+We were discovered and acclaimed with a wild yell that brought everybody
+running. Immediately we were surrounded. Escorted by a clamouring
+multitude we moved slowly down the lane and into the enclosure.
+
+There awaited us a dozen men headed by Buck Johnson. They emerged from
+the office as we drew up. At sight of them the cowboys stopped, and we
+moved forward alone. For here were the substantial men of this part of
+the territory, the old timers, who had come in the early days and who
+had persisted through the Indian wars, the border forays, the cattle
+rustlings, through drought and enmity and bad years. A grim, elderly,
+four-square, unsmiling little band of granite-faced pioneers, their very
+appearance carried a conviction of direct and, if necessary, ruthless
+action. At sight of them my heart leaped. Twenty-four hours previous my
+case had seemed none too joyful. Now, mainly by my own efforts, after
+all, I was no longer alone.
+
+They did not waste time in vain congratulations or query. The occasion
+was too grave for such side issues. Buck Johnson said something very
+brief to the effect that he was glad to see us safe.
+
+"If this young lady will come in first," he suggested.
+
+But I was emboldened to speak up.
+
+"This young lady has not had a bite to eat since last night," I
+interposed.
+
+The senor bent on me his grave look.
+
+"Thank you," said he. "Sing!" he roared, and then to the Chinaman who
+showed up in a nervous hover: "Give this lady grub, savvy? If you'll go
+with him, ma'am, he'll get you up something. Then we'd like to see you."
+
+"I can perfectly well wait----" she began.
+
+"I'd rather not, ma'am," said Buck with such grave finality that she
+merely bowed and followed the cook.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+They had no tender feelings about me, however. Nobody cared whether I
+ever ate or not. I was led into the little ranch office and catechized
+to a fare-ye-well. They sat and roosted and squatted about, emitting
+solemn puffs of smoke and speaking never a word; and the sun went down
+in shafts of light through the murk, and the old shadows of former days
+crept from the corners. When I had finished my story it was dusk.
+
+And on the heels of my recital came the sound of hoofs in a hurry; and
+presently loomed in the doorway the gigantic figure of Tom Thorne, the
+sheriff. He peered, seeing nothing through the smoke and the twilight;
+and the old timers sat tight and smoked.
+
+"Buck Johnson here?" asked Thorne in his big voice.
+
+"Here," replied the senor.
+
+"I am told," said Thorne, directly, "that there is here an assembly for
+unlawful purposes. If so, I call on you in the name of the law to keep
+the peace."
+
+"Tom," rejoined Buck Johnson, "I want you to make me your deputy."
+
+"For what purpose?"
+
+"There is a dispossession notice to be served hereabouts; a trespasser
+who must be put off from property that is not his."
+
+"You men are after Hooper, and I know it. Now you can't run your
+neighbours' quarrels with a gun, not anymore. This is a country of law
+now."
+
+"Tom," repeated Buck in a reasoning tone, "come in. Strike a light if
+you want to: and take a look around. There's a lot of your friends here.
+There's Jim Carson over in the corner, and Donald Macomber, and Marcus
+Malley, and Dan Watkins."
+
+At this slow telling of the most prominent names in the southwest cattle
+industry Tom Thorne took a step into the room and lighted a match. The
+little flame, held high above his head, burned down to his fingers while
+he stared at the impassive faces surrounding him. Probably he had
+thought to interfere dutifully in a local affair of considerable
+seriousness; and there is no doubt that Tom Thorne was never afraid of
+his duty. But here was Arizona itself gathered for purposes of its own.
+He hardly noticed when the flame scorched his fingers.
+
+"Tom," said Buck Johnson after a moment, "I heerd tell of a desperate
+criminal headed for Grant's Pass, and I figure you can just about catch
+up with him if you start right now and keep on riding. Only you'd better
+make me your deputy first. It'll sort of leave things in good legal
+responsible hands, as you can always easy point out if asked."
+
+Tom gulped.
+
+"Raise your right hand," he commanded, curtly, and administered the
+oath. "Now I leave it in your hands to preserve the peace," he
+concluded. "I call you all to witness."
+
+"That's all right, Tom," said Buck, still in his crooning tones, taking
+the big sheriff by the elbow and gently propelling him toward the door,
+"now as to this yere criminal over toward Grant's Pass, he was a little
+bit of a runt about six foot three tall; heavy set, weight about a
+hundred and ten; light complected with black hair and eyes. You can't
+help but find him. Tom's a good sort," he observed, coming back, "but
+he's young. He don't realize yet that when things get real serious this
+sheriff foolishness just nat'rally bogs down. Now I reckon we'd better
+talk to the girl."
+
+I made a beeline for the cook house while they did that and filled up
+for three. By the time I had finished, the conference was raised, and
+men were catching and saddling their mounts. I did not intend to get
+left out, you may be sure, so I rustled around and borrowed me a saddle
+and a horse, and was ready to start with the rest.
+
+We jogged up the road in a rough sort of column, the old timers riding
+ahead in a group of their own. No injunction had been laid as to keeping
+quiet; nevertheless, conversation was sparse and low voiced. The men
+mostly rode in silence smoking their cigarettes. About half way the
+leaders summoned me, and I trotted up to join them.
+
+They wanted to know about the situation of the ranch as I had observed
+it. I could not encourage them much. My recollection made of the place a
+thoroughly protected walled fortress, capable of resisting a
+considerable assault.
+
+"Of course with this gang we could sail right over them," observed Buck,
+thoughtfully, "but we'd lose a considerable of men doing it."
+
+"Ain't no chance of sneaking somebody inside?" suggested Watkins.
+
+"Got to give Old Man Hooper credit for some sense," replied the senor,
+shortly.
+
+"We can starve 'em out," suggested somebody.
+
+"Unless I miss the old man a mile he's already got a messenger headed
+for the troops at Fort Huachuca," interposed Macomber. "He ain't fool
+enough to take chances on a local sheriff."
+
+"You're tooting he ain't," approved Buck Johnson. "It's got to be quick
+work."
+
+"Burn him out," said Watkins.
+
+"It's the young lady's property," hesitated my boss. "I kind of hate to
+destroy it unless we have to."
+
+At this moment the Morgan stallion, which I had not noticed before, was
+reined back to join our little group. Atop him rode the diminutive form
+of Artie Brower whom I had thought down and out. He had evidently had
+his evening's dose of hop and under the excitation of the first effect
+had joined the party. His derby hat was flattened down to his ears.
+Somehow it exasperated me.
+
+"For heaven's sake why don't you get you a decent hat!" I muttered, but
+to myself. He was carrying that precious black bag.
+
+"Blow a hole in his old walls!" he suggested, cheerfully. "That old fort
+was built against Injins. A man could sneak up in the shadow and set her
+off. It wouldn't take but a dash of soup to stick a hole you could ride
+through a-horseback."
+
+"Soup?" echoed Buck.
+
+"Nitroglycerine," explained Watkins, who had once been a miner.
+
+"Oh, sure!" agreed Buck, sarcastically. "And where'd we get it?"
+
+"I always carry a little with me just for emergencies," asserted Brower,
+calmly, and patted his black bag.
+
+There was a sudden and unanimous edging away.
+
+"For the love of Pete!" I cried. "Was there some of that stuff in there
+all the time I've been carrying it around?"
+
+"It's packed good: it can't go off," Artie reassured us. "I know my
+biz."
+
+"What in God's name do you want such stuff for!" cried Judson.
+
+"Oh, just emergencies," answered Brower, vaguely, but I remembered his
+uncanny skill in opening the combination of the safe. Possibly that
+contract between Emory and Hooper had come into his hands through
+professional activities. However, that did not matter.
+
+"I can make a drop of soup go farther than other men a pint," boasted
+Artie. "I'll show you: and I'll show that old----"
+
+"You'll probably get shot," observed Buck, watching him closely.
+
+"W'at t'hell," observed Artie with an airy gesture.
+
+"It's the dope he takes," I told Johnson aside. "It only lasts about so
+long. Get him going before it dies on him."
+
+"I see. Trot right along," Buck commanded.
+
+Taking this as permission Brower clapped heels to the stallion and shot
+away like an arrow.
+
+"Hold on! Stop! Oh, damn!" ejaculated the senor. "He'll gum the whole
+game!" He spurred forward in pursuit, realized the hopelessness of
+trying to catch the Morgan, and reined down again to a brisk travelling
+canter. We surmounted the long, slow rise this side of Hooper's in time
+to see a man stand out in the brush, evidently for the purpose of
+challenging the horseman. Artie paid him not the slightest attention,
+but swept by magnificently, the great stallion leaping high in his
+restrained vitality. The outpost promptly levelled his rifle. We saw the
+vivid flash in the half light. Brower reeled in his saddle, half fell,
+caught himself by the stallion's mane and clung, swinging to and fro.
+The horse, freed of control, tossed his head, laid back his ears, and
+ran straight as an arrow for the great doors of the ranch.
+
+We uttered a simultaneous groan of dismay. Then with one accord we
+struck spurs and charged at full speed, grimly and silently. Against the
+gathering hush of evening rose only the drum-roll of our horses' hoofs
+and the dust cloud of their going. Except that Buck Johnson, rising in
+his stirrups, let off three shots in the air; and at the signal from all
+points around the beleagured ranch men arose from the brush and mounted
+concealed horses, and rode out into the open with rifles poised.
+
+The stallion thundered on; and the little jockey managed to cling to the
+saddle, though how he did it none of us could tell. In the bottomland
+near the ranch he ran out of the deeper dusk into a band of the strange,
+luminous after-glow that follows erratically sunset in wide spaces. Then
+we could see that he was not only holding his seat, but was trying to do
+something, just what we could not make out. The reins were flying free,
+so there was no question of regaining control.
+
+A shot flashed at him from the ranch; then a second; after which, as
+though at command, the firing ceased. Probably the condition of affairs
+had been recognized.
+
+All this we saw from a distance. The immensity of the Arizona country,
+especially at dusk when the mountains withdraw behind their veils and
+mystery flows into the bottomlands, has always a panoramic quality that
+throws small any human-sized activities. The ranch houses and their
+attendant trees look like toys; the bands of cattle and the men working
+them are as though viewed through the reverse lenses of a glass; and the
+very details of mesquite or _sacatone_ flats, of alkali shallow or of
+oak grove are blended into broad washes of tone. But now the distant,
+galloping horse with its swaying mannikin charging on the ranch seemed
+to fill our world. The great forces of portent that hover aloof in the
+dusk of the desert stooped as with a rush of wings. The peaceful, wide
+spaces and the veiled hills and the brooding skies were swept clear.
+Crisis filled our souls: crisis laid her hand on every living moving
+thing in the world, stopping it in its tracks so that the very
+infinities for a brief, weird period seemed poised over the running
+horse and the swaying, fumbling man.
+
+At least that is the way it affected me; and subsequent talk leads me to
+believe that that it is how it affected every man jack of us. We all had
+different ways of expressing it. Windy Bill subsequently remarked: "I
+felt like some old Injun He-God had just told me to crawl in my hole and
+give them that knew how a chanct."
+
+But I know we all stopped short, frozen in our tracks, and stared, and I
+don't believe man, _or_ horse, drew a deep breath.
+
+Nearer and nearer the stallion drew to the ranch. Now he was within a
+few yards. In another moment he would crash head on, at tremendous
+speed, into the closed massive doors. The rider seemed to have regained
+somewhat of his strength. He was sitting straight in the saddle, was no
+longer clinging. But apparently he was making no effort to regain
+control. His head was bent and he was still fumbling at something. The
+distance was too great for us to make out what, but that much we could
+see.
+
+On flew the stallion at undiminished speed. He was running blind; and
+seemingly nothing could save him from a crash. But at almost the last
+moment the great doors swung back. Those within had indeed realized the
+situation and were meeting it. At the same instant Brower rose in his
+stirrups and brought his arm forward in a wide, free swing. A blinding
+glare flashed across the world. We felt the thud and heave of a
+tremendous explosion. Dust obliterated everything.
+
+"Charge, you coyotes! Charge!" shrieked Buck Johnson.
+
+And at full speed, shrieking like fiends, we swept across flats.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+There was no general resistance. We tumbled pell mell through the breach
+into the courtyard, encountering only terror-stricken wretches who
+cowered still dazed by the unexpectedness and force of the explosion. In
+the excitement order and command were temporarily lost. The men swarmed
+through the ranch buildings like locusts. Senor Buck Johnson and the
+other old timers let them go; but I noticed they themselves scattered
+here and there keeping a restraining eye on activities. There was to be
+no looting: and that was early made plain.
+
+But before matters had a chance to go very far we were brought up all
+standing by the sound of shots outside. A rush started in that
+direction: but immediately Buck Johnson asserted his authority and took
+command. He did not intend to have his men shot unnecessarily.
+
+By now it was pitch dark. A reconnaissance disclosed a little battle
+going on down toward the water corrals. Two of our men, straying in that
+direction, had been fired upon. They had promptly gone down on their
+bellies and were shooting back.
+
+"I think they've got down behind the water troughs," one of these men
+told me as I crawled up alongside. "Cain't say how many there is. They
+shore do spit fire considerable. I'm just cuttin' loose where I see the
+flash. When I shoot, you prepare to move and move lively. One of those
+horned toads can sure shoot some; and it ain't healthy to linger none
+behind your own flash."
+
+The boys, when I crawled back with my report, were eager to pile in and
+rush the enemy.
+
+"Just put us a hoss-back, senor," pleaded Windy Bill, "and we'll run
+right over them like a Shanghai rooster over a little green snake. They
+can't hit nothing moving fast in the dark."
+
+"You'll do just what I say," rejoined Buck Johnson, fiercely. "Cow hands
+are scarce, and I don't aim to lose one except in the line of business.
+If any man gets shot to-night, he's out of luck. He'd better get shot
+good and dead; or he'll wish he had been. That goes! There can't be but
+a few of those renegades out there, and we'll tend to them in due order.
+Watkins," he addressed that old timer, "you tend to this. Feel around
+cautious. Fill up the place full of lead. Work your men around through
+the brush until you get them surrounded, and then just squat and shoot
+and wait for morning."
+
+Watkins sent out a dozen of the nearest men to circle the water troughs
+in order to cut off further retreat, if that were projected. Then he
+went about methodically selecting others to whom he assigned various
+stations.
+
+"Now you get a-plenty of catteridges," he told them, "and you lay low
+and shoot 'em off. And if any of you gets shot I'll sure skin him
+alive!"
+
+In the meantime, the locomotive lantern had been lit so that the
+interior of the courtyard was thrown into brilliant light. Needless to
+say the opening blown in the walls did _not_ face toward the water
+corrals. Of Artie Brower and the Morgan stallion we found hardly a
+trace. They had been literally blown to pieces. Not one of us who had
+known him but felt in his heart a kindly sorrow for the strange little
+man. The sentry who had fired at him and who had thus, indirectly,
+precipitated the catastrophe, was especially downcast.
+
+"I told him to stop, and he kep' right on a-going, so I shot at him," he
+explained. "What else was I to do? How was I to know he didn't belong to
+that gang? He acted like it."
+
+But when you think of it how could it have come out better? Poor, weak,
+vice-ridden, likeable little beggar, what could the future have held for
+him? And it is probable that his death saved many lives.
+
+The prisoners were brought in--some forty of them, for Old Man Hooper
+maintained only the home ranch and all his cow hands as well as his
+personal bravos were gathered here. Buck Johnson separated apart seven
+of them, and ordered the others into the stables under guard.
+
+"Bad _hombres_, all of them," he observed to Jed Parker. "We'll just
+nat'rally ship them across the line very _pronto_. But these seven are
+worse than bad _hombres_. We'll have to see about them."
+
+But neither Andreas, Ramon, nor Old Man Hooper himself were among those
+present.
+
+"Maybe they slipped out through our guards; but I doubt it," said Buck.
+"I believe we've identified that peevish lot by the water troughs."
+
+The firing went on quite briskly for a while; then slackened, and
+finally died to an occasioned burst, mainly from our own side. Under our
+leader's direction the men fed their horses and made themselves
+comfortable. I was summoned to the living quarters to explain on the
+spot the events that had gone before. Here we examined more carefully
+and in detail the various documents--the extraordinary directions to
+Ramon; the list of prospective victims to be offered at the tomb, so to
+speak, of Old Man Hooper; and the copy of the agreement between Emory
+and Hooper. The latter, as I had surmised, stated in so many words that
+it superceded and nullified an old partnership agreement. This started
+us on a further search which was at last rewarded by the discovery of
+that original partnership. It contained, again as I had surmised, the
+not-uncommon clause that in case of the death of one or the other of the
+partners without direct heirs the common property should revert to the
+other. I felt very stuck on myself for a good guesser. The only trouble
+was that the original of the second agreement was lacking: we had only a
+copy, and of course without signatures. It will be remembered that
+Brower said he had deposited it with a third party, and that third party
+was to us unknown. We could not even guess in what city he lived. Of
+course we could advertise. But Windy Bill who--leaning his long figure
+against the wall--had been listening in silence--a pretty fair young
+miracle in itself--had a good idea, which was the real miracle, in my
+estimation.
+
+"Look here," he broke in, "if I've been following the plot of this yere
+dime novel correctly, it's plumb easy. Just catch Jud--Jud--you know,
+the editor of the _Cochise Branding Iron_, and get him to telegraph a
+piece to the other papers that Artie Brower, celebrated jockey et
+ceterer, has met a violent death at Hooper's ranch, details as yet
+unknown. That's the catch-word, as I _savey_ it. When this yere third
+party sees that, he goes and records the paper, and there you are!"
+
+Windy leaned back dramatically and looked exceedingly pleased with
+himself.
+
+"Yes, that's it," approved Buck, briefly, which disappointed Windy, who
+was looking for high encomium.
+
+At this moment a messenger came in from the firing party to report that
+apparently all opposition had ceased. At least there had been for some
+time no shooting from the direction of the water troughs; a fact
+concealed from us by the thickness of the ranch walls. Buck Johnson
+immediately went out to confer with Watkins.
+
+"I kind of think we've got 'em all," was the latter's opinion. "We
+haven't had a sound out of 'em for a half hour. It may be a trick, of
+course."
+
+"Sure they haven't slipped by you?" suggested the senor.
+
+"Pretty certain. We've got a close circle."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't take chances in the dark. Just lay low 'till morning."
+
+We returned to the ranch house where, after a little further discussion,
+I bedded down and immediately fell into a deep sleep. This was more and
+longer continued excitement than I was used to.
+
+I was afoot with the first stirrings of dawn, you may be sure, and out
+to join the party that moved with infinite precaution on the water
+troughs as soon as it was light enough to see clearly. We found them
+riddled with bullets and the water all run out. Gleaming brass
+cartridges scattered, catching the first rays of the sun, attested the
+vigour of the defence. Four bodies lay huddled on the ground under the
+partial shelter of the troughs. I saw Ramon, his face frowning and
+sinister even in death, his right hand still grasping tenaciously the
+stock of his Winchester; and Andreas flat on his face; and two others
+whom I did not recognize. Ramon had been hit at least four times. But of
+Hooper himself was no hide nor hair! So certain had we been that he had
+escaped to this spot with his familiars that we were completely taken
+aback at his absence.
+
+"We got just about as much sense as a bunch of sheepmen!" cried Buck
+Johnson, exasperated. "He's probably been hiding out somewhere about the
+place. God knows where he is by now!"
+
+But just as we were about to return to the ranch house we were arrested
+by a shout from one of the cowboys who had been projecting around the
+neighbourhood. He came running to us. In his hand he held a blade of
+_sacatone_ on which he pointed out a single dark spot about the size of
+the head of a pin. Buck seized it and examined it closely.
+
+"Blood, all right," he said at last. "Where did you get this, son?"
+
+The man, a Chiracahua hand named Curley something-or-other, indicated a
+_sacatone_ bottom a hundred yards to the west.
+
+"You got good eyes, son," Buck complimented him. "Think you can make out
+the trail?"
+
+"Do'no," said Curley. "Used to do a considerable of tracking."
+
+"Horses!" commanded Buck.
+
+We followed Curley afoot while several men went to saddle up. On the
+edge of the two-foot jump-off we grouped ourselves waiting while Curley,
+his brows knit tensely, quartered here and there like a setter dog. He
+was a good trailer, you could see that in a minute. He went at it right.
+After quite a spell he picked up a rock and came back to show it. I
+should never have noticed anything--merely another tiny black spot among
+other spots--but Buck nodded instantly he saw it.
+
+"It's about ten rods west of whar I found the grass," said Curley.
+"Looks like he's headed for that water in Cockeye Basin. From thar he
+could easy make Cochise when he got rested."
+
+"Looks likely," agreed Buck. "Can't you find no footprints?"
+
+"Too much tramped up by cowboys and other jackasses," said Curley.
+"It'll come easier when we get outside this yere battlefield."
+
+He stood erect, sizing up the situation through half-squinted eyes.
+
+"You-all wait here," he decided. "Chances are he kept right on up the
+broad wash."
+
+He mounted one of the horses that had now arrived and rode at a lope to
+a point nearly half a mile west. There he dismounted and tied his horse
+to the ground. After rather a prolonged search he raised his hand over
+his head and described several small horizontal circles in the air.
+
+"Been in the army, have you?" muttered Buck; "well, I will say you're a
+handy sort of leather-leg to have around. He gave the soldier signal for
+'assemble'," he answered Jed Parker's question.
+
+We rode over to join Curley.
+
+"It's all right; he came this way," said the latter; but he did not
+trouble to show us indications. I am a pretty fair game trailer myself,
+but I could make out nothing.
+
+We proceeded slowly, Curley afoot leading his horse. The direction
+continued to be toward Cockeye. Sometimes we could all see plain
+footprints; again the trail was, at least as far as I was concerned, a
+total loss. Three times we found blood, once in quite a splash.
+Occasionally even Curley was at fault for a few moments; but in general
+he moved forward at a rapid walk.
+
+"This Curley person is all right," observed Windy Bill after a while, "I
+was brung up to find my way about, and I can puzzle out most anywhere a
+critter has gone and left a sign; but this yere Curley can track a
+humming bird acrost a granite boulder!"
+
+After a little while Curley stopped for us to catch up.
+
+"Seems to me no manner of doubt but what he's headed for Cockeye," he
+said. "There ain't no other place for him to go out this way. I reckon I
+can pick up enough of this trail just riding along. If we don't find no
+sign at Cockeye, we can just naturally back track and pick up where he
+turned off. We'll save time that-away, and he's had plenty of time to
+get thar and back again."
+
+So Curley mounted and we rode on at a walk on the horse trail that led
+up the broad, shallow wash that came out of Cockeye.
+
+Curley led, of course. Then rode Buck Johnson and Watkins and myself. I
+had horned in on general principles, and nobody kicked. I suppose they
+thought my general entanglement with this extraordinary series of events
+entitled me to more than was coming to me as ordinary cow hand. For a
+long time we proceeded in silence. Then, as we neared the hills, Buck
+began to lay out his plan.
+
+"When we come up on Cockeye," he was explaining, "I want you to take a
+half dozen men or so and throw around the other side on the Cochise
+trail----"
+
+His speech was cut short by the sound of a rifle shot. The country was
+still flat, unsuited for concealment or defence. We were riding
+carelessly. A shivering shock ran through my frame and my horse plunged
+wildly. For an instant I thought I must be hit, then I saw that the
+bullet had cut off cleanly the horn of my saddle--within two inches of
+my stomach!
+
+Surprise paralyzed us for the fraction of a second. Then we charged the
+rock pile from which the shot had come.
+
+We found there Old Man Hooper seated in a pool of his own blood. He had
+been shot through the body and was dead. His rifle lay across a rock,
+trained carefully on the trail. How long he had sat there nursing the
+vindictive spark of his vitality nobody will ever know--certainly for
+some hours. And the shot delivered had taken from him the last flicker
+of life.
+
+"By God, he was sure game!" Buck Johnson pronounced his epitaph.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+We cleaned up at the ranch and herded our prisoners together and rode
+back to Box Springs. The seven men who had been segregated from the rest
+by Buck Johnson were not among them. I never found out what had become
+of them nor who had executed whatever decrees had been pronounced
+against them. There at the home ranch we found Miss Emory very anxious,
+excited, and interested. Buck and the others in authority left me to
+inform her of what had taken place.
+
+I told you some time back that this is no love story; but I may as well
+let you in on the whole sequel to it, and get it off my chest. Windy's
+scheme brought immediate results. The partnership agreement was
+recorded, and after the usual legal red-tape Miss Emory came into the
+property. She had to have a foreman for the ranch, and hanged if she
+didn't pick on me! Think of that; me an ordinary, forty-dollar cow
+puncher! I tried to tell her that it was all plumb foolishness, that
+running a big cattle ranch was a man-sized job and took experience, but
+she wouldn't listen. Women are like that. She'd seen me blunder in and
+out of a series of adventures and she thought that settled it, that I
+was a great man. After arguing with her quite some time about it, I had
+to give in; so I spit on my hands and sailed in to do my little
+darndest. I expected the men who realized fully how little I knew about
+it all would call me a brash damn fool or anyway give me the horse
+laugh; but I fooled myself. They were mightily decent. Jed Parker or Sam
+Wooden or Windy Bill were always just happening by and roosting on the
+corral rails. Then if I listened to them--and I always did--I learned a
+heap about what I ought to do. Why, even Buck Johnson himself came and
+stayed at the ranch with me for more than a week at the time of the fall
+round-up: and he never went near the riding, but just projected around
+here and there looking over my works and ways. And in the evenings he
+would smoke and utter grave words of executive wisdom which I treasured
+and profited by.
+
+If a man gives his whole mind to it, he learns practical things fast.
+Even a dumb-head Wop gets his English rapidly when he's where he has to
+talk that or nothing. Inside of three years I had that ranch paying, and
+paying big. It was due to my friends whom I had been afraid of, and I'm
+not ashamed to say so. There's Herefords on our range now instead of
+that lot of heady long-horns Old Man Hooper used to run; and we're
+growing alfalfa and hay in quantity for fattening when they come in off
+the ranges. Got considerable hogs, too, and hogs are high--nothing but
+pure blood Poland. I figure I've added fully fifty per cent., if not
+more, to the value of the ranch as it came to me. No, I'm not bragging;
+I'm explaining how came it I married my wife and figured to keep my
+self-respect. I'd have married her anyhow. We've been together now
+fifteen years, and I'm here to say that she's a humdinger of a girl,
+game as a badger, better looking every day, knows cattle and alfalfa
+and sunsets and sonatas and Poland hogs--but I said this was no love
+story, and it isn't!
+
+The day following the taking of the ranch and the death of Old Man
+Hooper we put our prisoners on horses and started along with them toward
+the Mexican border. Just outside of Soda Springs whom should we meet up
+with but big Tom Thorne, the sheriff.
+
+"Evenin', Buck," said he.
+
+"Evenin'," replied the senor.
+
+"What you got here?"
+
+"This is a little band of religious devotees fleein' persecution," said
+Buck.
+
+"And what are you up to with them?" asked Thorne.
+
+"We're protecting them out of Christian charity from the dangers of the
+road until they reach the Promised Land."
+
+"I see," said Thorne, reflectively. "Whereabouts lays this Promised
+Land?"
+
+"About sixty mile due south."
+
+"You sure to get them all there safe and sound--I suppose you'd be
+willing to guarantee that nothing's going to happen to them, Buck?"
+
+"I give my word on that, Tom."
+
+"All right," said Thorne, evidently relieved. He threw his leg over the
+horn of his saddle. "How about that little dispossession matter, deputy?
+You ain't reported on that."
+
+"It's all done and finished."
+
+"Have any trouble?"
+
+"Nary trouble," said Senor Buck Johnson, blandly, "all went off quiet
+and serene."
+
+
+
+
+THE ROAD AGENT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The Sierra Nevadas of California are very wide and very high. Kingdoms
+could be lost among the defiles of their ranges. Kingdoms have been
+found there. One of them was Bright's Cove.
+
+It happened back in the seventies. Old Man Bright was prospecting. He
+had come up from the foothills accompanied by a new but stolid Indian
+wife. After he had grubbed around a while on old Italian bar and had
+succeeded in washing out a little colour, she woke up and took a slight
+interest in the proceedings.
+
+"You like catch dat?" she grunted, contemptuously. "Heap much over
+dere!"
+
+She waved an arm. Old Man Bright girded his loins and packed his
+jackass. After incredible scramblings the two succeeded in surmounting
+the ranges and in dropping sheer to the mile-wide round valley through
+which flowed the river--the broad, swift mountain river, with the
+snow-white rapids and the swirling translucent green of very thick
+grass. They were very glad to reach the grass at the bottom, but a
+little doubtful on how to get out. The big mountains took root at the
+very edge of the tiny round valley; the river flowed out of a gorge at
+one end and into a gorge at the other.
+
+"Guess the sun don't rise here 'til next morning," commented Old Man
+Bright. The squaw was too busy even to grunt.
+
+In six years Old Man Bright was worth six million dollars, all taken
+from the ledges of Bright's Cove. Of this amount he had been forced to
+let go of a small proportion for mill machinery and labour. He had also
+invested twenty-five thousand dollars in a road. It was a steep road,
+and a picturesque. It wound in and out and around, by loops, lacets, and
+hairpins, dropping down the face of the mountain in unheard-of grades
+and turns. Nothing was ever hauled up it, save yellow bars of
+bullion--so that did not matter. Down it, with a shriek of brakes, a
+cloud of dust, a clank of harness and a rumble of oaths, came divers
+matters, such as machinery, glassware, whiskey, mirrors, ammunition, and
+pianos. From any one of a dozen bold points on this road one could see
+far down and far up its entire white, thread-like length. The tiny
+crawling teams each with its puff of dust crawling with it; the great
+tumbled peaks of the Sierras; the river so far below as to resemble a
+little stream, the round Cove with its toy houses and its distant
+ant-like industry--all these were plainly to be seized by a glance of
+whatever eye cared to look.
+
+As time went on a great many teams and pack trains and saddle animals
+climbed up and down that road. Bright's Cove became quite a town. Old
+Man Bright made six millions; other men aggregated nearly four millions
+more; still others acquired deep holes and a deficit. It might be
+remarked in passing that the squaw acquired experience, a calico dress
+or so, and a final honourable discharge. Being an Indian she quite
+cheerfully went back to pounding acorns in a _metate_.
+
+In the fifth year of prosperity there drifted into camp two men,
+possessed of innocence, three mules, and a thousand dollars. They
+retained the mules; and, it is to be presumed, at least a portion of the
+innocence.
+
+The thousand dollars went to the purchase of the Lost Dog from Barney
+Fallan. The Lost Dog consisted quite simply of a hole in the ground
+guarded by an excellent five stamp-mill. The latter's existence could
+only be explained by the incurable optimism of Barney Fallan--certainly
+not by the contents of the hole in the ground. To the older men of the
+camp it seemed a shame, for the newcomers were nice, fresh-cheeked,
+clear-eyed lads to whom everything was new and strange and wonderful,
+their enthusiasm was contagious, and their cheerful command of
+vernacular exceedingly heart-warming. California John, then a man in his
+forties, tried to head off the deal.
+
+"Look here, son," said he to Gaynes. "Don't do it. There's nothin' in
+it. Take my word."
+
+"But Fallan's got a good stamp-mill all ready for business, and the
+ledge----"
+
+"Son," said California John, "every once in a while the Lord gets to
+experimentin' makin' brains for a new species of jackass, and when he
+runs out of donkeys to put 'em in----"
+
+"Meaning me?" demanded Gaynes, his fair skin turning a deep red.
+
+"Not at all. Meanin' Barney Fallan."
+
+Nevertheless the Babes, as the Gaynes brothers were speedily nicknamed,
+paid over their good thousand for Barney's worthless prospect with the
+imposing but ridiculous stamp-mill. There they set cheerfully to work.
+After a week's desperate and clanking experiment they got the machinery
+under way and began to run rock through the crushers.
+
+"It ain't even ore!" expostulated California John. "Why, son, it's only
+country rock. Go down on your shaft until you strike a pan test, anyway!
+You're wasting time and fuel and--Oh, hell!" he broke off hopelessly at
+the sight of the two cherubic faces upturned respectful but unconvinced.
+
+"But you never can tell where you will find gold," broke in Jimmy,
+eagerly. "That's been proved over and over again. I heard one fellow say
+once that they thought they'd never find gold in hornblende. But they
+did."
+
+California John stumped home in indignant disgust.
+
+"Damn little ijits!" he exploded. "Pigheaded! Stubborn as a pair of
+mules!" The recollection of the scrubbed red cheeks, the clear,
+puppy-dog, frank brown eyes, the close-curling brown hair, forced his
+lips to a wry grin. "Just like I was at that age," he admitted. He
+sighed. "Well, they'll drop their little pile, of course. The only ray
+of hope's the experience that old Bible fellow had with them turkey
+buzzards--or was it ravens?"
+
+The Babes pecked away for about a month, full of tribulation and
+questions. They seemed to depend almost equally on optimism and chance,
+in both of which they had supreme faith. A huge horseshoe was tacked
+over the door of the stamp-mill. Jimmy Gaynes always spat over his right
+shoulder before doing a day's work. They never walked under the short
+ladders leading to the hoppers. Neither would they permit visitors to
+their shafts. To California John and his friend Tibbetts they interposed
+scandalized objections.
+
+"It's bad luck to let another man in your shaft!" cried George. "I'm no
+high-brow on this mining proposition, but I know enough for that."
+
+"Bad as playing opposite a cross-eyed man," said Jimmy.
+
+"Or holding Jacks full on Eights," supplemented George, conclusively.
+
+"You're about as wise as a treeful of owls," said California John,
+sarcastically. "But, Lord love you, I ain't cherishin' any very burnin'
+ambition to crawl down your snake hole."
+
+The Babes used up their provisions; they went about as far as they could
+on credit; they harrowed the feelings of the community--and then, in a
+very mild way, they struck it. Together they drifted down the single
+street of the camp, arm in arm, an elaborate nonchalance steadying their
+steps. Near the horse trough they paused.
+
+"Gold," said Jimmy, oracularly, to George, "is where you find it."
+
+"Likewise horse sense," quoth George.
+
+Whereupon they whooped wildly and descended on the astonished group. To
+it they exhibited yellow dust to the value of an hundred dollars. "And
+more where that came from," said they.
+
+"What kind of rock did you find it in?" demanded Tibbetts, after he had
+recovered his breath from the youngsters' enthusiastic man-handling.
+
+"Oh, a kind of red, pasty-looking rock," said they.
+
+"Show us," demanded the miners.
+
+"What?" cried Jimmy, astounded, "and give Old Man Luck the backhand slap
+just when he's decided to buy a corner lot in the Gaynes Addition? Not
+on your saccharine existence!"
+
+"But we'll show you some more of this to-morrow Q.M.," said George.
+
+They bought drinks all round, and paid their various bills, and departed
+again feverishly to the Lost Dog whence rose smoke and clankings. And
+next day, sure enough, they left their work just long enough to exhibit
+another respectable little clean-up of fifty dollars or so.
+
+"And we're just getting into it!" said George, triumphantly.
+
+California John and all the rest of his good friends rejoiced
+exceedingly and genuinely. They liked the Babes. The little strike of
+the Lost Dog quite overshadowed in importance the fact that old man
+Bright's "Clarice" had run into a fabulously rich pocket.
+
+The end of the month drew near. The Lost Dog had produced nearly eight
+hundred dollars. The Babes waxed important and talked largely of their
+moneyed interests.
+
+"I think," said Jimmy, importantly, "that we will decide to keep three
+hundred dollars to boost the game; and nail down the rest where moths
+won't corrupt. Where do you fellows salt your surplus, anyway?"
+
+"There's an express goes out pretty soon," someone explained, "with the
+clean-up of the Clarice. We send our dust out with that; and I reckon
+you can fix it with Bright."
+
+They saw Bright, but ran up against an unexpected difficulty. Old Man
+Bright received them with considerable surliness. He considered himself
+as the originator, discoverer, inventor, and almost the proprietor of
+Bright's Cove and all it contained. Therefore, when he first heard of
+the new strike, he walked up to the Lost Dog to see what it looked like.
+The Babes, panic stricken at the intended affront to "Old Man Luck,"
+headed him off. Bright had not the least belief in the reason given. He
+surveyed them with disfavour.
+
+"I can't take your package," he told them. "Send it out yourself."
+
+"And that old skunk has cleaned up a hundred thousand this month!"
+complained Jimmy, pathetically, to the group around the horse trough.
+"And he won't even take a pore little five hundred package of dust out
+to some suffering bank! I suppose I'll have to cache it in a tomato can
+for Johnson's old billy goat to chew up."
+
+"Bring it over and I'll shove it in with mine," suggested California
+John.
+
+So it was done. The express, carrying nearly four hundred pounds of gold
+dust, set forth over the steep road. In two hours the driver and
+messenger sailed in, bung-eyed with excitement. They had been held up by
+a single road agent.
+
+"He come out right on that point of rocks where you can see the whole
+valley," said the driver in answer to many questions, "right where the
+heavy grade is and the thick chaparral. We was busy climbing; and he had
+us before we could wink. Made us drop off the dust and 'bout face. He
+was a big, tall feller; and had a sawed-off Winchester. Once, when we
+stopped, he dropped a bullet right behind us. He must have watched us
+all the way to camp."
+
+The camp turned out. As the men passed the Lost Dog someone yelled to
+the Babes. George, covered with mud, came to the door of the mill.
+
+"Gee!" said he. "Lucky we saved out that three hundred. I'm powerful
+sorry for that suffering bank. I'll join you as soon as I can get Jimmy
+up out of the shaft." Before the party had gone a mile they were joined
+by the brothers boyishly eager over this new excitement.
+
+The men toiled up the road to where the robbery had taken place. Plainly
+to be seen were the marks of the man's boots. The tracks of a single
+horse, walking, followed the man.
+
+"He packed off the dust, and he had an almighty big horse to carry it,"
+pronounced someone.
+
+They followed the trail. It led a half mile to a broad sheet of rock.
+There it disappeared. On one side the bank rose twenty or thirty feet.
+On the other it fell away nearly a hundred. On the other side of the
+sheet of rock stretched the dusty road unbroken by anything more recent
+than the wheel-tracks of the day before. It was as though man and horse
+had taken unto themselves wings.
+
+Immediately Bright took active charge of the posse.
+
+"Stand here, on this rock," he commanded. "This road's been tracked up
+too much already. You, John, and Tibbetts and Simmins, there, come 'long
+with me to see what you can make out."
+
+The old mountaineers retraced their steps, examining carefully every
+inch of the ground. They returned vastly puzzled.
+
+"No sabe," California John summed up their investigations. "There's the
+man's track leadin' his hoss. The hoss had on new shoes, and the robber
+did his own shoeing. So we ain't got any blacksmiths to help us."
+
+"How do you know he shod the horse himself?" asked Jimmy Gaynes.
+
+"Shoes just alike on front and back feet. Shows he must just have tacked
+on ready-made shoes. A blacksmith shapes 'em different. Those tracks
+leads right up to this rock: and here they quit. If you can figger how a
+horse, a man, and nigh four hundredweight of gold dust got off this
+rock, I'll be obleeged."
+
+The men looked up at the perpendicular cliff to their right; over the
+sheer precipice at their left; and upon the untracked deep, white dust
+ahead.
+
+"Furthermore," California John went on, impressively, after a moment,
+"where did that man and that hoss come from in the beginning? Not from
+up this way. They's no fresh tracks comin' down the road no more than
+they's fresh tracks goin' up. Not from camp. They's no tracks
+whatsomever on the road below, except our'n and the stage outfit's."
+
+"Are you sure of that?" asked Jimmy, his eyes shining with interest.
+
+"Sartin sure," replied California John, positively. "We didn't take no
+chances on that."
+
+"Then he must have come into the road from up the mountain or down the
+mountain."
+
+"Where?" demanded California John. "A man afoot might scramble down in
+one or two places; but not a hoss. They ain't no tracks either side the
+muss-up where the express was stopped. And at that p'int the mountain is
+straight up and down, like it is here."
+
+They talked it over, and argued it, and reexamined the evidence, but
+without avail. The stubborn facts remained: Between the hold-up and the
+sheet of rock was one set of tracks going one way; elsewhere, nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Nearly a year passed. If it had not been for the very tangible loss of a
+hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the little community at Bright's
+Cove might almost have come to doubt the evidence of their senses and
+the accuracy of their memories, so fantastic on sober reflection did all
+the circumstances become. Even the indisputable four hundred pounds of
+gold could not quite avert an unconfessed suspicion of the uncanny.
+Miners are superstitious folk. Old Man Bright remembered the parting and
+involved curses of his squaw before she went back to her acorns and pine
+nuts. To Tibbetts alone he imparted a vague hint of the imaginings into
+which he had fallen. But he brooded much, seeking a plausible theory
+that would not force him back on the powers of darkness. This he did not
+find.
+
+Nor did any other man. It remained a mystery, a single bizarre anomaly
+in the life of the camp. For some time thereafter the express went
+heavily guarded. The road was patrolled. Jimmy or George Gaynes in
+person accompanied each shipment of dust. Their pay streak held out,
+increased steadily in value. They would hire no assistance for the
+actual mining in the shaft, although they had several hands to work at
+the mill. One month they cleaned up twelve thousand dollars.
+
+"You bet I'm going," said Jimmy, "I don't care if it is only a little
+compared to what Bright and you fellows are sending. It's a heap sight
+to us, and I'm going to see it safe to the city. No more spooks in mine.
+I got my fingers crossed. Allah skazallalum! I don't know what a ghost
+would want with cash assets, but they seemed to use George's and my
+little old five hundred, all right."
+
+Twelve months went by. Two expresses a month toiled up the road. Nothing
+happened. Finally Jimmy decided that four good working days a month were
+a good deal to pay for apparently useless supervision. Three men
+comprised the shot-gun guard. They, with the driver, were considered
+ample.
+
+"You'll have to get on without me," said Jimmy to them in farewell. "Be
+good boys. We've got the biggest clean-up yet aboard you."
+
+They started on the twenty-fifth trip since the hold-up. After a time,
+far up the mountain was heard a single shot. Inside of two hours the
+express drew sorrowfully into camp. The driver appeared to be alone. In
+the bottom of the wagon were the three guards weak and sick. The gold
+sacks were very much absent.
+
+"Done it again," said the driver. "Ain't more than got started afore the
+whole outfit's down with the belly-ache. Too much of that cursed salmon.
+Told 'em so. I didn't eat none. That road agent hit her lucky this trip
+sure. He was all organized for business. Never showed himself at all.
+Just opened fire. Sent a bullet through the top of my hat. He's either a
+damn good shot or a damn poor one. I hung up both hands and yelled we
+was down and out. What could I do? This outfit couldn't a fit a bumble
+bee. And I couldn't git away, or git hold of no gun, or see anything to
+shoot, if I did. He was behind that big rock."
+
+The men nodded. They were many of them hard hit, but they had lived too
+long in the West not to recognize the justice of the driver's implied
+contention that he had done his best.
+
+"He told me to throw out them sacks, and to be damn quick about it,"
+went on the driver. "Then I drove home."
+
+"What sort of a lookin' fellow was he?" asked someone. "Same one as last
+year?"
+
+"I never seen him," said the driver. "He hung behind his rock. He was
+organized for shoot, and if the messengers hadn't happened to' a' been
+out of it, I believe he could have killed us all."
+
+"What did his hoss look like?" inquired California John.
+
+"He didn't have no horse," stated the driver. "Leastways, not near him.
+There was no cover. He might have been around a p'int. And I can sw'ar
+to this: there weren't no tracks of no kind from there to camp."
+
+They caught up horses and started out. When they came to the Lost Dog,
+they stopped and looked at each other.
+
+"Poor old Babes," said Simmins. "Biggest clean-up yet; and first time
+one of 'em didn't go 'long."
+
+"I'm glad they didn't," said Tibbetts. "That agent would have killed 'em
+shore!"
+
+They called out the Gaynes brothers and broke the news. For once the
+jovial youngsters had no joke to make.
+
+"This is getting serious," said Jimmy, seriously. "We can't afford to
+lose that much."
+
+George whistled dolefully, and went into the corral for the mules.
+
+The party toiled up the mountain. Plainly in the dust could be made out
+the trail of the express ascending and descending. Plain also were the
+signs where the driver had dumped out the gold bags and turned around.
+From that point the tracks of a man and a horse led to the sheet of
+rock. Beyond that, nothing.
+
+The men stared at each other a little frightened. Somebody swore softly.
+
+"Boys," said Bright in a strained voice, "do you know how much was in
+that express? A half million! There's nary earthly hoss can carry over
+half a ton! And this one treads as light as a saddler."
+
+They looked at each other blankly. Several even glanced in apprehension
+at the sky.
+
+In a perfunctory manner, for the sake of doing something, those skilled
+in trail-reading went back over the ground. Nothing was added to the
+first experience. At the point of robbery magically had appeared a man
+and--if the stage driver's solemn assertion that at the time of the
+hold-up no animal was in sight could be believed--subsequently, when
+needed, a large horse. Whence had they come? Not along the road in
+either direction: the unbroken, deep dust assured that. Not down the
+mountain from above, for the cliff rose sheer for at least three hundred
+feet. Jimmy Gaynes, following unconsciously the general train of
+conjecture, craned his neck over the edge of the road. The broken jagged
+rock and shale dropped off an hundred feet to a tangle of manzanita and
+snowbrush.
+
+California John looked over, too.
+
+"Couldn't even get sheep up that," said he, "let alone a sixteen-hand
+horse."
+
+Old Man Bright was sunk in a superstitious torpor. He had lost hundreds
+of thousands where he would have hated to spend pennies; yet the
+financial part of the loss hardly touched him. He mumbled fearfully to
+himself, and took not the slightest interest in the half-hearted
+attempts to read the mystery. When the others moved, he moved with them,
+because he was afraid to be left alone.
+
+After the men had assured themselves again and again that the horse and
+the man had apparently materialized from thin air exactly at the point
+of robbery, they again followed the tracks to the broad sheet of rock.
+Whither had the robber gone? Back into the thin air whence he had come.
+There was no other solution. No tracks ahead; an absolute and physical
+impossibility of anything without wings getting up or down the flanking
+precipices--these were the incontestable facts.
+
+After this second robbery a gloom descended on Bright's Cove which
+lasted through many months. Old Man Bright hunted out the squaw with
+whom he had first discovered the diggings, and set her up in an
+establishment with gay curtains, glass danglers and red doileys. Each
+month he paid for her provisions and sent to her a sum of money. In this
+manner, at least, the phantom road agent had furthered the ends of
+justice. The sop to the powers of darkness appeared to be effective in
+this respect: no more hold-ups occurred; no more mysterious tracks
+appeared in the dust; gradually men's minds swung back to the balanced
+and normal, and the life of the camp went forward on its appointed way.
+
+Nevertheless, certain effects remained. Each express went out heavily
+guarded, and preceded and followed by men on horseback. Strangely enough
+the gamblers left camp. In a little more than a year Old Man Bright fell
+into a settled melancholia from which his millions never helped him to
+the very day of his death a little more than a year later.
+
+In the meantime, however varied the fortunes of the other mines and
+prospects, the Lost Dog continued to work toward a steadily increasing
+paying basis. It never reached the proportions of the Clarice, but
+turned out an increasing value of dust at each clean-up. The Gaynes boys
+two years before had been in debt for their groceries. Now they were
+said to have shipped out something like three or four hundred thousand
+dollars' worth of gold. Their friends used to wander down for the
+regular clean-up, just to rejoice over the youngsters' deserved good
+luck. The little five stamp-mill crunched away steadily; the water
+flowed; and in the riffles the heavy gold dust accumulated.
+
+"Why don't you-all put up a big mill, throw in a crew of men, and get
+busy?" they were asked.
+
+"I'll tell you," replied George, "it's because we know a heap sight more
+about mining than we did when we came here. We have just one claim, and
+from all indications it's only a pocket. The Clarice is on a genuine
+lode; but we're likely to run into a 'horse' or pinch out most any
+minute. When we do, it's all over but a few faint cries of fraud. And we
+can empty that pocket just as well with a little jerkwater outfit like
+this as we could with a big crew and a real mill. It'll take a little
+longer; but we're pulling it and quick enough."
+
+"Those Babes have more sense than we gave 'em credit for," commented
+California John. "Their heads are level. They're dead right about it's
+bein' a pocket. The stuff they run through there is the darndest mixture
+_I_ ever see gold in."
+
+Two months after this conversation the Babes drifted into camp to
+announce that the expected pinch had come.
+
+"We're going," said Jimmy. "We have a heap plenty dust salted away; and
+there's not a colour left in the Lost Dog. The mill machinery is for
+sale cheap. Any one can have the Lost Dog who wants it. We're going out
+to see what makes the wheels go 'round. You boys have a first claim on
+us wherever you find us. You've sure been good to us. If you catch that
+spook, send us one of his tail feathers. It would be worth just twelve
+thousand five hundred to us."
+
+They sold the stamp-mill for almost nothing; packed eight animals with
+heavy things they had accumulated; and departed up the steep white road,
+over the rim to the outer world whence came no word of them more. The
+camp went on prospering. Old Man Bright died. The heavily guarded
+express continued to drag out yellow gold by the hundredweight.
+
+About six weeks after the departure of the Babes, California John
+saddled up his best horse, put on his best overalls, strapped about him
+his shiny worn Colt's .45 and departed for his semi-annual visit to the
+valleys and the towns. A week later he returned. It was about dusk. At
+the water trough he dismounted.
+
+"Boys," said he, quietly, "I've been held up." He eyed them quizzically.
+"Up by the slide rock," he continued, "and by the spook."
+
+"Who was he?" "What was it?" they cried, starting to their feet.
+
+"It was Jimmy Gaynes," replied California John.
+
+"The Babe?" someone broke the stunned silence at last.
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Well, I'll be damned!" cried Tibbetts.
+
+"Did he get much off you?" asked a miner after another pause.
+
+"He never took a thing."
+
+And on that, being much besieged, California John sat him down and told
+of his experience.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+California John was discursive and interested and disinclined to be
+hurried. He crossed one leg over the other and lit his pipe.
+
+"I was driftin' down the road busy with my own idees--which ain't many,"
+he began, "when I was woke up all to once by someone givin' me advice. I
+took the advice. Wasn't nothin' else to do. All I could see was a rock
+and a gun barrel. That was enough. So I histed my hands as per commands
+and waited for the next move." He chuckled. "I wasn't worryin'. Had to
+squeeze my dust bag to pay my hotel bill when I left the city."
+
+"'Drop yore gun in the road,' says the agent.
+
+"I done so.
+
+"'Now dismount.'
+
+"I climbed down. And then Jimmy Gaynes rose up from behind that rock and
+laughed at me.
+
+"'The joke's on me!' said I, and reached down for my gun.
+
+"'Better leave that!' said Jimmy pretty sharp. I know that tone of
+voice, so I straightened up again.
+
+"'Well, Jimmy,' said I, 'she lays if you say so. But where'd you come
+from: and what for do you turn road agent and hold up your old friends?'
+
+"'I'm holdin' you up,' Jimmy answered, 'because I want to talk to you
+for ten minutes. As for where I come from, that's neither here nor
+there.'
+
+"'Of course,' said I, 'I'm one of these exclusive guys that needs a gun
+throwed on him before he'll talk with the plain people like you.'
+
+"'Now don't get mad,' says Jimmy. 'But light yore pipe, and set down on
+that rock, and you'll see in a minute why I _pre_ferred to corner the
+gatling market.'
+
+"Well, I set down and lit up, and Jimmy done likewise, about ten feet
+away.
+
+"'I've come back a long ways to talk to one of you boys, and I've shore
+hung around this road some few hours waitin' for some of you terrapins
+to come along. Ever found out who done those two hold-ups?'
+
+"'Nope,' said I, 'and don't expect to.'
+
+"'Well, I done it,' says he.
+
+"I looked him in the eye mighty severe.
+
+"'You're one of the funniest little jokers ever hit this trail,' I told
+him. 'If that's your general line of talkee-talkee I don't wonder you
+don't want me to have no gun.'
+
+"'Never_the_less,' he insists, 'I done it. And I'll tell you just how it
+was done. Here's yore old express crawlin' up the road. Here I am behind
+this little old rock. You know what happened next I reckon--from
+experience.'
+
+"'I reckon I know that,' says I, 'but how did you get behind that rock
+without leavin' no tracks?'
+
+"I climbed up the cliff out of the canon, and I just walked up the canon
+from the Lost Dog through the brush.'
+
+"'Yes,' says I, 'that might be: a man could make out to shinny up. But
+how----'
+
+"'One thing to a time. Then I ordered them dust sacks throwed out, and
+the driver to 'bout-face and retreat.'
+
+"'Sure,' says I, 'simple as a wart on a kid's nose. There was you with a
+half ton of gold to fly off with! Come again.'
+
+"'I then dropped them sacks off the edge of the cliff where they rolled
+into the brush. After a while I climbed down after them, and was on hand
+when your posse started out. Then I carried them home at leisure.'
+
+"'What did you do with your hoss?' I asked him, mighty sarcastic. 'Seems
+to me you overlook a few bets.'
+
+"'I didn't have no hoss,' says he.
+
+"'But the real hold-up----
+
+"'You mean them tracks. Well, just to amuse you fellows, I walked in the
+dust up to that flat rock. Then I clamped a big pair of horseshoes on
+hind-side before and walked back again.'"
+
+California John's audience had been listening intently. Now it could no
+longer contain itself, but broke forth into exclamations indicative of
+various emotions.
+
+"That's why them front and back tracks was the same size!" someone
+cried.
+
+"Gee, you're bright!" said California John. "That's what I told him. I
+also told him he was a wonder, but how did he manage to slip out near a
+ton of dust up that road without our knowing it?
+
+"'You did know it,' says he. 'Did you fellows really think there was any
+gold-bearing ore in the Lost Dog? We just run that dust through the mill
+along with a lot of worthless rock, and shipped it out open and above
+board as our own mill run. There never was an ounce of dust come out of
+the Lost Dog, and there never will.' Then he give me back my
+gun--emptied--we shook hands, and here I be."
+
+After the next burst of astonishment had ebbed, and had been succeeded
+by a rather general feeling of admiration, somebody asked California
+John if Jimmy had come back solely for the purpose of clearing up the
+mystery. California John had evidently been waiting for this question.
+He arose and knocked the ashes from his pipe.
+
+"Bring a candle," he requested the storekeeper, and led the way to the
+abandoned Lost Dog. Into the tunnel he led them, to the very end. There
+he paused, holding aloft his light. At his feet was a canvas which,
+being removed, was found to cover neatly a number of heavy sacks.
+
+"Here's our dust," said California John, "every ounce of it, he said. He
+kept about six hundred thousand or so that belonged to Bright: but he
+didn't take none of ours. He come back to tell me so."
+
+The men crowded around for closer inspection.
+
+"I wonder why he done that?" Tibbetts marvelled.
+
+"I asked him that," replied California John, grimly, "He said his
+conscience never would rest easy if he robbed us babes."
+
+Tibbetts broke the ensuing silence.
+
+"Was 'babes' the word he used?" he asked, softly.
+
+"'Babes' was the word," said California John.
+
+
+
+
+THE TIDE
+
+
+A short story, say the writers of text books and the teachers of
+sophomores, should deal with but a single episode. That dictum is
+probably true; but it admits of wider interpretation than is generally
+given it. The teller of tales, anxious to escape from restriction but
+not avid of being cast into the outer darkness of the taboo, can in
+self-justification become as technical as any lawyer. The phrase "a
+single episode" is loosely worded. The rule does not specify an episode
+in one man's life; it might be in the life of a family, or a state, or
+even of a whole people. In that case the action might cover many lives.
+It is a way out for those who have a story to tell, a limit to tell it
+within, but who do not wish to embroil themselves too seriously with the
+august Makers of the Rules.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+The time was 1850, the place that long, soft, hot dry stretch of blasted
+desolation known as the Humboldt Sink. The sun stared, the heat rose in
+waves, the mirage shimmered, the dust devils of choking alkali whirled
+aloft or sank in suffocation on the hot earth. Thus it had been since in
+remote ages the last drop of the inland sea had risen into a brazen sky.
+But this year had brought something new. A track now led across the
+desert. It had sunk deep into the alkali, and the soft edges had closed
+over it like snow, so that the wheel marks and the hoof marks and the
+prints of men's feet looked old. Almost in a straight line it led to the
+west. Its perspective, dwindling to nothingness, corrected the deceit of
+the clear air. Without it the cool, tall mountains looked very near. But
+when the eye followed the trail to its vanishing, then, as though by
+magic, the Ranges drew back, and before them denied dreadful forces of
+toil, thirst, exhaustion, and despair. For the trail was marked. If the
+wheel ruts had been obliterated, it could still have been easily
+followed. Abandoned goods, furniture, stores, broken-down wagons,
+bloated carcasses of oxen or horses, bones bleached white, rattling
+mummies of dried skin, and an almost unbroken line of marked and
+unmarked graves--like the rout of an army, like the spent wash of a wave
+that had rolled westward--these in double rank defined the road.
+
+The buzzards sailing aloft looked down on the Humboldt Sink as we would
+look upon a relief map. Near the centre of the map a tiny cloud of white
+dust crawled slowly forward. The buzzards stooped to poise above it.
+
+Two ox wagons plodded along. A squirrel--were such a creature
+possible--would have stirred disproportionately the light alkali dust;
+the two heavy wagons and the shuffling feet of the beasts raised a
+cloud. The fitful furnace draught carried this along at the slow pace of
+the caravan, which could be seen only dimly, as through a dense fog.
+
+The oxen were in distress. Evidently weakened by starvation, they were
+proceeding only with the greatest difficulty. Their tongues were out,
+their legs spread, spasmodically their eyes rolled back to show the
+whites, from time to time one or another of them uttered a strangled,
+moaning bellow. They were white with the powdery dust, as were their
+yokes, the wagons, and the men who plodded doggedly alongside. Finally,
+they stopped. The dust eddied by; and the blasting sun fell upon them.
+
+The driver of the leading team motioned to the other. They huddled in
+the scanty shade alongside the first wagon. Both men were so powdered
+and caked with alkali that their features were indistinguishable. Their
+red-rimmed, inflamed eyes looked out as though from masks.
+
+The one who had been bringing up the rear looked despairingly toward the
+mountains.
+
+"We'll never get there!" he cried.
+
+"Not the way we are now," replied the other. "But I intend to get
+there."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Leave your wagon, Jim; it's the heaviest. Put your team on here."
+
+"But my wagon is all I've got in the world!" cried the other, "and we've
+got near a keg of water yet! We can make it! The oxen are pulling all
+right!"
+
+His companion turned away with a shrug, then thought better of it and
+turned back.
+
+"We've thrown out all we owned except bare necessities," he explained,
+patiently. "Your wagon is too heavy. The time to change is while the
+beasts can still pull."
+
+"But I refuse!" cried the other. "I won't do it. Go ahead with your
+wagon. I'll get mine in, John Gates, you can't bulldoze me."
+
+Gates stared him in the eye.
+
+"Get the pail," he requested, mildly.
+
+He drew water from one of the kegs slung underneath the wagon's body.
+The oxen, smelling it, strained weakly, bellowing. Gates slowly and
+carefully swabbed out their mouths, permitted them each a few swallows,
+rubbed them pityingly between the horns. Then he proceeded to unyoke the
+four beasts from the other man's wagon and yoked them to his own. Jim
+started to say something. Gates faced him. Nothing was said.
+
+"Get your kit," Gates commanded, briefly, after a few moments. He parted
+the hanging canvas and looked into the wagon. Built to transport much
+freight it was nearly empty. A young woman lay on a bed spread along the
+wagon bottom. She seemed very weak.
+
+"All right, honey?" asked Gates, gently.
+
+She stirred, and achieved a faint smile.
+
+"It's terribly hot. The sun strikes through," she replied. "Can't we let
+some air in?"
+
+"The dust would smother you."
+
+"Are we nearly there?"
+
+"Getting on farther every minute," he replied, cheerfully.
+
+Again the smothering alkali rose and the dust cloud crawled.
+
+Four hours later the traveller called Jim collapsed face downward. The
+oxen stopped. Gates lifted the man by the shoulders. So exhausted was he
+that he had not the strength nor energy to spit forth the alkali with
+which his fall had caked his open mouth. Gates had recourse to the
+water keg. After a little he hoisted his companion to the front seat.
+
+At intervals thereafter the lone human figure spoke the single word that
+brought his team to an instantaneous dead stop. His first care was then
+the woman, next the man clinging to the front seat, then the oxen.
+Before starting he clambered to the top of the wagon and cast a long,
+calculating look across the desolation ahead. Twice he even further
+reduced the meagre contents of the wagon, appraising each article long
+and doubtfully before discarding it. About mid-afternoon he said
+abruptly:
+
+"Jim, you've got to walk."
+
+The man demurred weakly, with a touch of panic.
+
+"Every ounce counts. It's going to be a close shave. You can hang on to
+the tail of the wagon."
+
+Yet an hour later Jim, for the fourth time, fell face downward, but now
+did not rise. Gates, going to him, laid his hand on his head, pushed
+back one of his eyelids, then knelt for a full half minute, staring
+straight ahead. Once he made a tentative motion toward the nearly empty
+water keg, once he started to raise the man's shoulders. The movements
+were inhibited. A brief agony cracked the mask of alkali on his
+countenance. Then stolidly, wearily, he arose. The wagon lurched
+forward. After it had gone a hundred yards and was well under way in its
+painful forward crawl, Gates, his red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes fixed and
+glazed, drew the revolver from its holster and went back.
+
+At sundown he began to use the gad. The oxen were trying to lie down.
+If one of them succeeded, it would never again arise. Gates knew this.
+He plied the long, heavy whip in both hands. Where the lash fell it bit
+out strips of hide. It was characteristic of the man that though
+heretofore he had not in all this day inflicted a single blow on the
+suffering animals, though his nostrils widened and his terrible red eyes
+looked for pity toward the skies, yet now he swung mercilessly with all
+his strength.
+
+Dusk fell, but the hot earth still radiated, the powder dust rose and
+choked. The desert dragged at their feet; and in the twilight John Gates
+thought to hear mutterings and the soft sound of wings overhead as the
+dread spirits of the wastes stooped low. He had not stopped for nearly
+two hours. This was the last push; he must go straight through or fail.
+
+And when the gleam of the river answered the gleam of the starlight he
+had again to rouse his drained energies. By the brake, by directing the
+wagon into an obstruction, by voice and whip he fought the frantic
+beasts back to a moaning standstill. Then pail by pail he fed them the
+water until the danger of overdrinking was past. He parted the curtains.
+In spite of the noise outside the woman, soothed by the breath of cooler
+air, had fallen asleep.
+
+Some time later he again parted the curtains.
+
+"We're here, honey," he said, "good water, good grass, shade. The desert
+is past. Wake up and take a little coffee."
+
+She smiled at him.
+
+"I'm so tired."
+
+"We're going to rest here a spell."
+
+She drank the coffee, ate some of the food he brought her, thrust back
+her hair, breathed deep of the cooling night.
+
+"Where's Jim?" she asked at last.
+
+"Jim got very tired," he said, "Jim's asleep."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three months later. The western slant of the Sierras just where the
+canon clefts begin to spread into foothills. On a flat near--too
+near--the stream-bed was a typical placer-mining camp of the day. That
+is, three or four large, rough buildings in a row, twenty or thirty log
+cabins scattered without order, and as many tents.
+
+The whole population was gathered interestedly in the largest structure,
+which was primarily a dance hall. Ninety-five per cent. were men, of
+whom the majority were young men. A year ago the percentage would have
+been nearer one hundred, but now a certain small coterie of women had
+drifted in, most of them with a keen eye for prosperity. The red or blue
+shirt, the nondescript hat, and the high, mud-caked boots of the miner
+preponderated. Here and there in the crowd, however, stood a man dressed
+in the height of fashion. There seemed no middle ground. These latter
+were either the professional gamblers, the lawyers, or the promoters.
+
+A trial was in progress, to which all paid deep attention. Two men
+disputed the ownership of a certain claim. Their causes were represented
+by ornate individuals whose evident zest in the legal battle was not
+measured by prospective fees. Nowhere in the domain and at no time in
+the history of the law has technicality been so valued, has the game of
+the courts possessed such intellectual interest, has substantial
+justice been so uncertain as in the California of the early 'fifties.
+The lawyer could spread himself unhampered; and these were so doing.
+
+In the height of the proceedings a man entered from outside and took his
+position leaning against the rail of the jury box. That he was a
+stranger was evident from the glances of curiosity, cast in his
+direction. He was tall, strong, young, bearded, with a roving, humorous
+bold eye.
+
+The last word was spoken. A rather bewildered-looking jury filed out.
+Ensued a wait. The jury came back. It could not agree; it wanted
+information. Both lawyers supplied it in abundance. The foreman, who
+happened to be next the rail against which the newcomer was leaning,
+cast on him a quizzical eye.
+
+"Stranger," said he, "mout you be able to make head er tail of all that
+air?"
+
+The other shook his head.
+
+"I'm plumb distracted to know what to do; and dear knows we all want to
+git shet of this job. Thar's a badger fight----"
+
+"Where is this claim, anyway?"
+
+"Right adown the road. Location notice is on the first white oak you
+come to. Cain't miss her."
+
+"If I were you," said the stranger after a pause, "I'd just declare the
+claim vacant. Then neither side would win."
+
+At this moment the jury rose to retire again. The stranger unobtrusively
+gained the attention of the clerk and from him begged a sheet of paper.
+On this he wrote rapidly, then folded it, and moved to the outer door,
+against the jamb of which he took his position. After another and
+shorter wait, the jury returned.
+
+"Have you agreed on your verdict, gentlemen?" inquired the judge.
+
+"We have," replied the lank foreman. "We award that the claim belongs to
+neither and be declared vacant."
+
+At the words the stranger in the doorway disappeared. Two minutes later
+the advance guard of the rush that had comprehended the true meaning of
+the verdict found the white oak tree in possession of a competent
+individual with a Colt's revolving pistol and a humorous eye.
+
+"My location notice, gentlemen," he said, calling attention to a paper
+freshly attached by wooden pegs.
+
+"Honey-bug claim'," they read, "'John Gates'," and the usual
+phraseology.
+
+"But this is a swindle, an outrage!" cried one of the erstwhile owners.
+
+"If so it was perpetrated by your own courts," said Gates, crisply. "I
+am within my rights, and I propose to defend them."
+
+Thus John Gates and his wife, now strong and hearty, became members of
+this community. His intention had been to proceed to Sacramento. An
+incident stopped him here.
+
+The Honey-bug claim might or might not be a good placer mine--time would
+show--but it was certainly a wonderful location. Below the sloping bench
+on which it stood the country fell away into the brown heat haze of the
+lowlands, a curtain that could lift before a north wind to reveal a
+landscape magnificent as a kingdom. Spreading white oaks gave shade, a
+spring sang from the side hill on which grew lofty pines, and back to
+the east rose the dark or glittering Sierras. The meadow at the back was
+gay with mariposa lilies, melodious with bees and birds, aromatic with
+the mingled essences of tarweed, lads-love, and the pines. At this happy
+elevation the sun lay warm and caressing, but the air tasted cool.
+
+"I could love this," said the woman.
+
+"You'll have a chance," said John Gates, "for when we've made our pile,
+we'll always keep this to come back to."
+
+At first they lived in the wagon, which they drew up under one of the
+trees, while the oxen recuperated and grew fat on the abundant grasses.
+Then in spare moments John Gates began the construction of a house. He
+was a man of tremendous energy, but also of many activities. The days
+were not long enough for him. In him was the true ferment of
+constructive civilization. Instinctively he reached out to modify his
+surroundings. A house, then a picket fence, split from the living trees;
+an irrigation ditch; a garden spot; fruit trees; vines over the porch;
+better stables; more fences; the gradual shaping from the wilderness of
+a home--these absorbed his surplus. As a matter of business he worked
+with pick and shovel until he had proved the Honey-bug hopeless, then he
+started a store on credit. Therein he sold everything from hats to 42
+calibre whiskey. To it he brought the same overflowing play-spirit that
+had fashioned his home.
+
+"I'm making a very good living," he answered a question; "that is, if
+I'm not particular on how well I live," and he laughed his huge laugh.
+
+He was very popular. Shortly they elected him sheriff. He gained this
+high office fundamentally, of course, by reason of his courage and
+decision of character; but the immediate and visible causes were the
+Episode of the Frazzled Mule, and the Episode of the Frying Pan. The one
+inspired respect; the other amusement.
+
+The freight company used many pack and draught animals. One day one of
+its mules died. The _mozo_ in charge of the corrals dragged the carcass
+to the superintendent's office. That individual cursed twice; once at
+the mule for dying, and once at the _mozo_ for being a fool. At
+nightfall another mule died. This time the _mozo_, mindful of his
+berating, did not deliver the body, but conducted the superintendent to
+see the sad remains.
+
+"Bury it," ordered the superintendent, disgustedly. Two mules at
+$350--quite a loss.
+
+But next morning another had died; fairly an epidemic among mules. This
+carcass also was ordered buried. And at noon a fourth. The
+superintendent, on his way to view the defunct, ran across John Gates.
+
+"Look here, John," queried he, "do you know anything about mules?"
+
+"Considerable," admitted Gates.
+
+"Well, come see if you can tell me what's killing ours off."
+
+They contemplated the latest victim of the epidemic.
+
+"Seems to be something that swells them up," ventured the superintendent
+after a while.
+
+John Gates said nothing for some time. Then suddenly he snatched his
+pistol and levelled it at the shrinking _mozo_.
+
+"Produce those three mules!" he roared, "_mucho pronto_, too!" To the
+bewildered superintendent he explained. "Don't you see? this is the same
+old original mule. He ain't never been buried at all. They've been
+stealing your animals pretending they died, and using this one over and
+over as proof!"
+
+This proved to be the case; but John Gates was clever enough never to
+tell how he surmised the truth.
+
+"That mule looked to me pretty frazzled," was all he would say.
+
+The frying-pan episode was the sequence of a quarrel. Gates was bringing
+home a new frying pan. At the proper point in the discussion he used his
+great strength to smash the implement over his opponent's head so
+vigorously that it came down around his neck like a jagged collar! Gates
+clung to the handle, however, and by it led his man all around camp, to
+the huge delight of the populace.
+
+As sheriff he was effective, but at times peculiar in his
+administration. No man could have been more zealous in performing his
+duty; yet he never would mix in the affairs of foreigners. Invariably in
+such cases he made out the warrants in blank, swore in the complaining
+parties themselves as deputies, and told them blandly to do their own
+arresting! Nor at times did he fail to temper his duty with a little
+substantial justice of his own. Thus he was once called upon to execute
+a judgment for $30 against a poor family. Gates went down to the
+premises, looked over the situation, talked to the man--a
+poverty-stricken, discouraged, ague-shaken creature--and marched back to
+the offices of the plaintiffs in the case.
+
+"Here," said he, calmly, laying a paper and a small bag of gold dust on
+their table, "is $30 and a receipt in full."
+
+The complainant reached for the sack. Gates placed his hand over it.
+
+"Sign the receipt," he commanded. "Now," he went on after the ink had
+been sanded, "there's your $30. It's yours legally; and you can take it
+if you want to. But I want to warn you that a thousand-dollar licking
+goes with it!"
+
+The money--from Gates's own pocket--eventually found its way to the poor
+family!
+
+They had three children, two boys and a girl of which one boy died.
+
+In five years the placers began to play out. One by one the more
+energetic of the miners dropped away. The nature of the community
+changed. Small hill ranches or fruit farms took the place of the mines.
+The camp became a country village. Old time excitement calmed, the pace
+of life slowed, the horizon narrowed.
+
+John Gates, clear-eyed, energetic, keen brained, saw this tendency
+before it became a fact.
+
+"This camp is busted," he told himself.
+
+It was the hour to fulfill the purpose of the long, terrible journey
+across the plains, to carry out the original intention to descend from
+the Sierras to the golden valleys, to follow the struggle.
+
+"Reckon it's time to be moving," he told his wife.
+
+But now his own great labours asserted their claim. He had put four
+years of his life into making this farm out of nothing, four years of
+incredible toil, energy, and young enthusiasm. He had a good dwelling
+and spacious corrals, an orchard started, a truck garden, a barley
+field, a pasture, cattle, sheep, chickens, his horses--all his creation
+from nothing. One evening at sundown he found his wife in the garden
+weeping softly.
+
+"What is it, honey?" he asked.
+
+"I was just thinking how we'd miss the garden," she replied.
+
+He looked about at the bright, cheerful flowers, the vine-hung picket
+fence, the cool verandah, the shady fig tree already of some size.
+Everything was neat and trim, just as he liked it. And the tinkle of
+pleasant waters, the song of a meadow lark, the distant mellow lowing of
+cows came to his ears; the smell of tarweed and of pines mingled in his
+nostrils.
+
+"It's a good place for children," he said, vaguely.
+
+Neither knew it, but that little speech marked the ebb of the wave that
+had lifted him from his eastern home, had urged him across the plains,
+had flung him in the almost insolent triumph of his youth high toward
+the sun. Now the wash receded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+It was indeed a good place for children. Charley and Alice Gates grew
+tall and strong, big boned, magnificent, typical California products.
+They went to the district school, rode in the mountains, helped handle
+the wild cattle. At the age of twelve Charley began to accompany the
+summer incursions into the High Sierras in search of feed. At the age of
+sixteen he was entrusted with a bunch of cattle. In these summers he
+learned the wonder of the high, glittering peaks, the blueness of the
+skies in high altitudes, the multitude of the stars, the flower-gemmed
+secret meadows, the dark, murmuring forests. He fished in the streams,
+and hunted on the ridges. His camp was pitched within a corral of heavy
+logs. It was very simple. Utensils depending from trees, beds beneath
+canvas tarpaulins on pine needles, saddlery, riatas, branding irons
+scattered about. No shelter but the sky. A wonderful roving life.
+
+It developed taciturnity and individualism. Charley Gates felt no
+necessity for expression as yet; and as his work required little
+cooeperation from his fellow creatures he acknowledged as little
+responsibility toward them. Thus far he was the typical mountaineer.
+
+But other influences came to him; as, indeed, they come to all. But
+young Charley was more susceptible than most, and this--on the impulse
+of the next tide resurgent--saved him from his type. He liked to read;
+he did not scorn utterly and boisterously the unfortunate young man who
+taught the school; and, better than all, he possessed just the
+questioning mind that refuses to accept on their own asseveration only
+the conventions of life or the opinions of neighbours. If he were to
+drink, it would be because he wanted to; not because his companions
+considered it manly. If he were to enter the sheep war, it would be
+because he really considered sheep harmful to the range; not because of
+the overwhelming--and contagious--prejudice.
+
+In one thing only did he follow blindly his sense of loyalty: He hated
+the Hydraulic Company.
+
+Years after the placers failed someone discovered that the wholesale use
+of hydraulic "giants" produced gold in paying quantities. Huge streams
+of water under high pressure were directed against the hills, which
+melted like snow under the spring sun. The earth in suspension was run
+over artificial riffles against which the heavier gold collected. One
+such stream could accomplish in a few hours what would have cost hand
+miners the better part of a season.
+
+But the debris must go somewhere. A rushing mud and boulder-filled
+torrent tore down stream beds adapted to a tenth of their volume. It
+wrecked much of the country below, ripping out the good soil, covering
+the bottomlands many feet deep with coarse rubble, clay, mud, and even
+big rocks and boulders. The farmers situated below such operations
+suffered cruelly. Even to this day the devastating results may be seen
+above Colfax or Sacramento.
+
+John Gates suffered with the rest. His was not the nature to submit
+tamely, nor to compromise. He had made his farm with his own hands, and
+he did not propose to see it destroyed. Much money he expended through
+the courts; indeed the profits of his business were eaten by a
+never-ending, inconclusive suit. The Hydraulic Company, securely
+entrenched behind the barriers of especial privilege, could laugh at his
+frontal attacks. It was useless to think of force. The feud degenerated
+into a bitter legal battle and much petty guerrilla warfare on both
+sides.
+
+To this quarrel Charley had been bred up in a consuming hate of the
+Hydraulic Company, all its works, officers, bosses, and employees. Every
+human being in any way connected with it wore horns, hoofs, and a tail.
+In company with the wild youths of the neighbourhood he perpetrated many
+a raid on the Company's property. Beginning with boyish openings of
+corrals to permit stock to stray, these raids progressed with the years
+until they had nearly arrived at the dignity of armed deputies and bench
+warrants.
+
+The next day of significance to our story was October 15, 1872. On that
+date fire started near Flour Gold and swept upward. October is always a
+bad time of year for fires in foothill California--between the rains,
+the heat of the year, everything crisp and brown and brittle. This
+threatened the whole valley and water shed. The Gateses turned out, and
+all their neighbours, with hoe, mattock, axe, and sacking, trying to
+beat, cut, or scrape a "break" wide enough to check the flames. It was
+cruel work. The sun blazed overhead and the earth underfoot. The air
+quivered as from a furnace. Men gasped at it with straining lungs. The
+sweat pouring from their bodies combined with the parching of the
+superheated air induced a raging thirst. No water was to be had save
+what was brought to them. Young boys and women rode along the line
+carrying canteens, water bottles, and food. The fire fighters snatched
+hastily at these, for the attack of the fire permitted no respite. Twice
+they cut the wide swath across country; but twice before it was
+completed the fire crept through and roared into triumph behind them.
+The third time the line held, and this was well into the second day.
+
+Charley Gates had fought doggedly. He had summoned the splendid
+resources of youth and heritage, and they had responded. Next in line to
+his right had been a stranger. This latter was a slender, clean-cut
+youth, at first glance seemingly of delicate physique. Charley had
+looked upon him with the pitying contempt of strong youth for weak
+youth. He considered that the stranger's hands were soft and effeminate,
+he disliked his little trimmed moustache, and especially the cool,
+mocking, appraising glance of his eyes. But as the day, and the night,
+and the day following wore away, Charley raised his opinion. The slender
+body possessed unexpected reserve, the long, lean hands plied the tools
+unweariedly, the sensitive face had become drawn and tired, but the
+spirit behind the mocking eyes had not lost the flash of its defiance.
+In the heat of the struggle was opportunity for only the briefest
+exchanges. Once, when Charley despairingly shook his empty canteen, the
+stranger offered him a swallow from his own. Next time exigency crowded
+them together, Charley croaked:
+
+"Reckon we'll hold her."
+
+Toward evening of the second day the westerly breeze died, and shortly
+there breathed a gentle air from the mountains. The danger was past.
+
+Charley and the stranger took long pulls from their recently replenished
+canteens. Then they sank down where they were, and fell instantly
+asleep. The projecting root of a buckthorn stuck squarely into Charley's
+ribs, but he did not know it; a column of marching ants, led by a
+non-adaptable commander, climbed up and over the recumbent form of the
+stranger, but he did not care.
+
+They came to life in the shiver of gray dawn, wearied, stiffened, their
+eyes swelled, their mouths dry.
+
+"You're a sweet sight, stranger," observed Charley.
+
+"Same to you and more of 'em," rejoined the other.
+
+Charley arose painfully.
+
+"There's a little water in my canteen yet," he proffered. "What might
+you call yourself? I don't seem to know you in these parts."
+
+"Thanks," replied the other. "My name's Cathcart; I'm from just above."
+
+He drank, and lowered the canteen to look into the flaming, bloodshot
+eyes of his companion.
+
+"Are you the low-lived skunk that's running the Hydraulic Company?"
+demanded Charley Gates.
+
+The stranger laid down the canteen and scrambled painfully to his feet.
+
+"I am employed by the Company," he replied, curtly, "but please to
+understand I don't permit you to call me names."
+
+"Permit!" sneered Charley.
+
+"Permit," repeated Cathcart.
+
+So, not having had enough exercise in the past two days, these young
+game cocks went at each other. Charley was much the stronger
+rough-and-tumble fighter; but Cathcart possessed some boxing skill.
+Result was that, in their weakened condition, they speedily fought
+themselves to a standstill without serious damage to either side.
+
+"Now perhaps you'll tell me who the hell you think you are!" panted
+Cathcart, fiercely.
+
+At just beyond arm's length they discussed the situation, at first
+belligerently with much recrimination, then more calmly, at last with a
+modicum of mutual understanding. Neither seceded from his basic opinion.
+Charley Gates maintained that the Company had no earthly business
+ruining his property, but admitted that with all that good gold lying
+there it was a pity not to get it out. Cathcart stoutly defended a man's
+perfect right to do as he pleased with his own belongings, but conceded
+that something really ought to be done about overflow waters.
+
+"What are you doing down here fighting fire, anyway?" demanded Charley,
+suddenly. "It couldn't hurt your property. You could turn the 'giants'
+on it, if it ever came up your way."
+
+"I don't know. I just thought I ought to help out a little," said
+Cathcart, simply.
+
+For three years more Charley ran his father's cattle in the hills. Then
+he announced his intention of going away. John Gates was thunderstruck.
+By now he was stranded high and dry above the tide, fitting perfectly
+his surroundings. Vaguely he had felt that his son would stay with him
+always. But the wave was again surging upward. Charley had talked with
+Cathcart.
+
+"This is no country to draw a salary in," the latter had told him, "nor
+to play with farming or cows. It's too big, too new, there are too many
+opportunities. I'll resign, and you leave; and we'll make our fortunes."
+
+"How?" asked Charley.
+
+"Timber," said Cathcart.
+
+They conferred on this point. Cathcart had the experience of business
+ways; Charley Gates the intimate knowledge of the country; there only
+needed a third member to furnish some money. Charley broke the news to
+his family, packed his few belongings, and the two of them went to San
+Francisco.
+
+Charley had never seen a big city. He was very funny about it, but not
+overwhelmed. While willing, even avid, to go the rounds and meet the
+sporting element, he declined to drink. When pressed and badgered by his
+new acquaintances, he grinned amiably.
+
+"I never play the other fellows' game," he said. "When it gets to be my
+game, I'll join you."
+
+The new partners had difficulty in getting even a hearing.
+
+"It's a small business," said capitalists, "and will be. The demand for
+lumber here is limited, and it is well taken care of by small concerns
+near at hand."
+
+"The state will grow and I am counting on the outside market," argued
+Cathcart.
+
+But this was too absurd! The forests of Michigan, Wisconsin, and
+Minnesota were inexhaustible! As for the state growing to that extent;
+of course we all believe it, but when it comes to investing good money
+in the belief----
+
+At length they came upon one of the new millionaires created by the
+bonanzas of Virginia City.
+
+"I don't know a damn thing about your timber, byes," said he, "but I
+like your looks. I'll go in wid ye. Have a seegar; they cost me a dollar
+apiece."
+
+The sum invested was absurdly, inadequately small.
+
+"It'll have to spread as thin as it can," said Cathcart.
+
+They spent the entire season camping in the mountains. By the end of the
+summer they knew what they wanted; and immediately took steps to acquire
+it. Under the homestead laws each was entitled to but a small tract of
+Government land. However, they hired men to exercise their privileges in
+this respect, to take up each his allotted portion, and then to convey
+his rights to Cathcart and Gates. It was slow business, for the show of
+compliance with Government regulations had to be made. But in this
+manner the sum of money at their disposal was indeed spread out very
+thin.
+
+For many years the small, nibbling lumbering operations their limited
+capital permitted supplied only a little more than a bare living and the
+taxes. But every available cent went back into the business. It grew.
+Band saws replaced the old circulars; the new mills delivered their
+product into flumes that carried it forty miles to the railroad. The
+construction of this flume was a tremendous undertaking, but by now the
+firm could borrow on its timber. To get the water necessary to keep the
+flume in operation the partners--again by means of "dummies"--filed on
+the water rights of certain streams. To take up the water directly was
+without the law; but a show of mineral stain was held to justify a
+"mineral claim," so patents were obtained under that ruling. Then
+Charley had a bright idea.
+
+"Look here, Cliff," he said to Cathcart. "I know something about
+farming; I was brought up on a farm. This country will grow anything
+anywhere if it has water. That lower country they call a desert, but
+that's only because it hasn't any rainfall. We're going to have a lot of
+water at the end of that flume----"
+
+They bought the desert land at fifty cents an acre; scraped ditches and
+checks; planted a model orchard, and went into the real estate business.
+In time a community grew up. When hydro-electric power came into its own
+Cathcart & Gates from their various water rights furnished light for
+themselves, and gradually for the towns and villages round-about. Thus
+their affairs spread and became complicated. Before they knew it they
+were wealthy, very wealthy. Their wives--for in due course each had his
+romance--began to talk of San Francisco.
+
+All this had not come about easily. At first they had to fight tooth and
+nail. The conditions of the times were crude, the code merciless. As
+soon as the firm showed its head above the financial horizon, it was
+swooped upon. Business was predatory. They had to fight for what they
+got; had to fight harder to hold it. Cathcart was involved continually
+in a maze of intricate banking transactions; Gates resisted aggression
+within and without, often with his own two fists. They learned to trust
+no man, but they learned also to hate no man. It was all part of the
+game. More sensitive temperaments would have failed; these succeeded.
+Cathcart became shrewd, incisive, direct, cold, a little hard; Charley
+Gates was burly, hearty, a trifle bullying. Both were in all
+circumstances quite unruffled; and in some circumstances ruthless.
+
+About 1900 the entire holdings of the Company were capitalized, and a
+stock company was formed. The actual management of the lumbering, the
+conduct of the farms and ranches, the running of the hydro-electric
+systems of light and transportation, were placed in the hands of active
+young men. Charley Gates and his partner exercised over these activities
+only the slightest supervision; auditing accounts, making an occasional
+trip of inspection. Affairs would quite well have gone on without them;
+though they would have disbelieved and resented that statement.
+
+The great central offices in San Francisco were very busy--all but the
+inner rooms where stood the partners' desks. One day Cathcart lit a
+fresh cigar, and slowly wheeled his chair.
+
+"Look here, Charley," he proposed, "we've got a big surplus. There's no
+reason why we shouldn't make a killing on the side."
+
+"As how?" asked Gates.
+
+Cathcart outlined his plan. It was simply stock manipulation on a big
+scale; although the naked import was somewhat obscured by the
+complications of the scheme. After he had finished Gates smoked for some
+time in silence.
+
+"All right, Cliff," said he, "let's do it."
+
+And so by a sentence, as his father before him, he marked the farthest
+throw of the wave that had borne him blindly toward the shore. In the
+next ten years Cathcart and Gates made forty million dollars. Charley
+seemed to himself to be doing a tremendous business, but his real work,
+his contribution to the episode in the life of the commonwealth, ceased
+there. Again the wave receded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+The third generation of the Gates family consisted of two girls and a
+boy. They were brought up as to their early childhood in what may be
+called moderate circumstances. A small home near the little mill town, a
+single Chinese servant, a setter dog, and plenty of horses formed their
+entourage. When Charles, Jr., was eleven, and his sisters six and eight,
+however, the family moved to a pretentious "mansion" on Nob Hill in San
+Francisco. The environment of childhood became a memory: the reality of
+life was comprised in the super-luxurious existence on Nob Hill.
+
+It was not a particularly wise existence. Whims were too easily
+realized, consequences too lightly avoided, discipline too capricious.
+The children were sent to private schools where they met only their own
+kind; they were specifically forbidden to mingle with the "hoodlums" in
+the next street; they became accustomed to being sent here and there in
+carriages with two servants, or later, in motor cars; they had always
+spending money for the asking.
+
+"I know what it is like to scrimp and save, and my children are going to
+be spared that!" was Mrs. Gates's creed in the matter.
+
+The little girls were always dressed alike in elaborately simple
+clothes, with frilly, starched underpinnies, silk stockings, high boots
+buttoned up slim legs; and across their shoulders, from beneath
+wonderful lingerie hats, hung shining curls. The latter were not
+natural, but had each day to be elaborately constructed. They made a
+dainty and charming picture.
+
+"Did you ever see anything so sweet in all your life!" was the
+invariable feminine exclamation.
+
+Clara and Ethel-May always heard these remarks. They conducted
+themselves with the poise and _savoir faire_ of grown women. Before they
+were twelve they could "handle" servants, conduct polite conversations
+in a correctly artificial accent, and adapt their manners to another's
+station in life.
+
+Charley Junior's development was sharply divided into two periods, with
+the second of which alone we have to do. The first, briefly, was
+repressive. He was not allowed to play with certain boys, he was not
+permitted to stray beyond certain bounds, he was kept clean and
+dressed-up, he was taught his manners. In short, Mrs. Gates
+tried--without knowing what she was doing--to use the same formula on
+him as she had on Ethel-May and Clara.
+
+In the second period, he was a grief to his family. Roughly speaking,
+this period commenced about the time he began to be known as "Chuck"
+instead of Charley.
+
+There was no real harm in the boy. He was high spirited, full of life,
+strong as a horse, and curious. Possessed of the patrician haughty good
+looks we breed so easily from shirtsleeves, free with his money, known
+as the son of his powerful father, a good boxer, knowing no fear, he
+speedily became a familiar popular figure around town. It delighted him
+to play the prince, either incognito or in person; to "blow off the
+crowd," to battle joyously with longshoremen; to "rough house" the
+semi-respectable restaurants. The Barbary Coast knew him, Taits,
+Zinkands, the Poodle Dog, the Cliff House, Franks, and many other
+resorts not to be spoken of so openly. He even got into the police
+courts once or twice; and nonchalantly paid a fine, with a joke at the
+judge and a tip to the policeman who had arrested him. There was too
+much drinking, too much gambling, too loose a companionship, altogether
+too much spending; but in this case the life was redeemed from its usual
+significance by a fantastic spirit of play, a generosity of soul, a
+regard for the unfortunate, a courtliness toward all the world, a
+refusal to believe in meanness or sordidness or cruelty. Chuck Gates was
+inbred with the spirit of _noblesse oblige_.
+
+As soon as motor cars came in Chuck had the raciest possible. With it he
+managed to frighten a good many people half out of their wits. He had no
+accidents, partly because he was a very good heady driver, and partly
+because those whom he encountered were quick witted. One day while
+touring in the south he came down grade around a bend squarely upon a
+car ascending. Chuck's car was going too fast to be stopped. He tried
+desperately to wrench it from the road, but perceived at once that this
+was impossible without a fatal skid. Fortunately the only turnout for a
+half mile happened to be just at that spot. The other man managed to
+jump his car out on this little side ledge and to jam on his brakes at
+the very brink, just as Chuck flashed by. His mud guards slipped under
+those at the rear of the other car.
+
+"Close," observed Chuck to Joe Merrill his companion, "I was going a
+little too fast," and thought no more of it.
+
+But the other man, being angry, turned around and followed him into
+town. At the garage he sought Chuck out.
+
+"Didn't you pass me on the grade five miles back?" he inquired.
+
+"I may have done so," replied Chuck, courteously.
+
+"Don't you realize that you were going altogether too fast for a
+mountain grade? that you were completely out of control?"
+
+"I'm afraid I'll have to admit that that is so."
+
+"Well," said the other man, with difficulty suppressing his anger. "What
+do you suppose would have happened if I hadn't just been able to pull
+out?"
+
+"Why," replied Chuck, blandly, "I suppose I'd have had to pay heavily;
+that's all."
+
+"Pay!" cried the man, then checked himself with an effort, "so you
+imagine you are privileged to the road, do whatever damage you
+please--and _pay!_ I'll just take your number."
+
+"That is unnecessary. My name is Charles Gates," replied Chuck, "of San
+Francisco."
+
+The man appeared never to have heard of this potent cognomen. A month
+later the trial came off. It was most inconvenient. Chuck was in Oregon,
+hunting. He had to travel many hundreds of miles, to pay an expensive
+lawyer. In the end he was fined. The whole affair disgusted him, but he
+went through with it well, testified without attempt at evasion. It was
+a pity; but evidently the other man was no gentleman.
+
+"I acknowledged I was wrong," he told Joe Merrill. He honestly felt that
+this would have been sufficient had the cases been reversed. In answer
+to a question as to whether he considered it fair to place the burden of
+safety on the other man, he replied:
+
+"Among motorists it is customary to exchange the courtesies of the
+road--and sometimes the discourtesies," he added with a faint scorn.
+
+The earthquake and fire of 1906 caught him in town. During three days
+and nights he ran his car for the benefit of the sufferers; going
+practically without food or sleep, exercising the utmost audacity and
+ingenuity in getting supplies, running fearlessly many dangers.
+
+For the rest he played polo well, shot excellently at the traps, was
+good at tennis, golf, bridge. Naturally he belonged to the best clubs
+both city and country. He sailed a yacht expertly, was a keen fisherman,
+hunted. Also he played poker a good deal and was noted for his accurate
+taste in dress.
+
+His mother firmly believed that he caused her much sorrow; his sisters
+looked up to him with a little awe; his father down on him with a
+fiercely tolerant contempt.
+
+For Chuck had had his turn in the offices. His mind was a good one; his
+education both formal and informal, had trained it fairly well; yet he
+could not quite make good. Energetic, ambitious, keen young men,
+clambering upward from the ruck, gave him points at the game and then
+beat him. It was humiliating to the old man. He could not see the
+perfectly normal reason. These young men were striving keenly for what
+they had never had. Chuck was asked merely to add to what he already had
+more than enough of by means of a game that itself did not interest him.
+
+Late one evening Chuck and some friends were dining at the Cliff House.
+They had been cruising up toward Tomales Bay, and had had themselves put
+ashore here. No one knew of their whereabouts. Thus it was that Chuck
+first learned of his father's death from apoplexy in the scareheads of
+an evening paper handed him by the majordomo. He read the article
+through carefully, then went alone to the beach below. It had been the
+usual sensational article; and but two sentences clung to Chuck's
+memory: "This fortunate young man's income will actually amount to about
+ten dollars a minute. What a significance have now his days--and
+nights!"
+
+He looked out to sea whence the waves, in ordered rank, cast themselves
+on the shore, seethed upward along the sands, poised, and receded. His
+thoughts were many, but they always returned to the same point. Ten
+dollars a minute--roughly speaking, seven thousand a day! What would he
+do with it? "What a significance have now his days--and nights!"
+
+His best friend, Joe Merrill, came down the path to him, and stood
+silently by his side.
+
+"I'm sorry about your governor, old man," he ventured; and then, after a
+long time:
+
+"You're the richest man in the West."
+
+Chuck Gates arose. A wave larger than the rest thundered and ran hissing
+up to their feet.
+
+"I wonder if the tide is coming in or going out," said Chuck, vaguely.
+
+
+
+
+CLIMBING FOR GOATS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Near the point at which the great Continental Divide of the Rocky
+Mountains crosses the Canadian border another range edges in toward it
+from the south. Between these ranges lies a space of from twenty to
+forty miles; and midway between them flows a clear, wonderful river
+through dense forests. Into the river empty other, tributary, rivers
+rising in the bleak and lofty fastnesses of the mountains to right and
+left. Between them, in turn, run spur systems of mountains only a little
+less lofty than the parent ranges. Thus the ground plan of the whole
+country is a good deal like that of a leaf: the main stem representing
+the big river, the lateral veins its affluents; the tiny veins its
+torrents pouring from the sides of its mountains and glaciers; and the
+edges of the leaf and all spaces standing for mountains rising very
+sheer and abrupt from the floor of the densely forested stream valleys.
+In this country of forty miles by five hundred, then, are hundreds of
+distinct ranges, thousands of peaks, and innumerable valleys, pockets,
+and "parks." A wilder, lonelier, grander country would be hard to find.
+Save for the Forest Service and a handful of fur trappers, it is
+uninhabited. Its streams abound in trout; its dense forests with elk
+and white-tailed deer; its balder hills with blacktail deer; its upper
+basins with grizzly bears; its higher country with sheep and that dizzy
+climber the Rocky Mountain goat.
+
+He who would enter this region descends at a little station on the Great
+Northern, and thence proceeds by pack train at least four days,
+preferably more, out into the wilderness. The going is through forests,
+the tree trunks straight and very close together, so that he will see
+very little of the open sky and less of the landscape. By way of
+compensation the forest itself is remarkably beautiful. Its undergrowth,
+though dense, is very low and even, not more than a foot or so off the
+ground; and in the Hunting Moon the leaves of this undergrowth have
+turned to purest yellow, without touch or trace of red, so that the
+sombre forest is carpeted with gold. Here and there shows a birch or
+aspen, also bright, pure light yellow, as though a brilliant sun were
+striking down through painted windows. Groups of yellow-leafed larches
+add to the splendour. And close to the ground grow little flat plants
+decked out with red or blue or white wax berries, Christmas fashion.
+
+In this green-and-gold room one journeys for days. Occasionally a chance
+opening affords a momentary glimpse of hills or of the river sweeping
+below; but not for long. It is a chilly room. The frost has hardened the
+mud in the trail. One's feet and hands ache cruelly. At night camp is
+made near the banks of the river, whence always one may in a few moments
+catch as many trout as are needed, fine, big, fighting trout.
+
+By the end of three or four days the prospect opens out. Tremendous
+cliffs rise sheer from the bottom of the valley; up tributary canons one
+can see a dozen miles to distant snow ranges glittering and wonderful.
+Nearer at hand the mountains rise above timber line to great buttes and
+precipices.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE FIRST CLIMB
+
+
+Fisher, Frank, and I had been hunting for elk in the dense forests along
+the foot of one of these mountains; and for a half day, drenched with
+sweat, had toiled continuously up and down steep slopes, trying to go
+quietly, trying to keep our wind, trying to pierce the secrets of the
+leafy screen always about us. We were tired of it.
+
+"Let's go to the top and look for goats," suggested Frank. "There are
+some goat cliffs on the other side of her. It isn't very far."
+
+It was not very far, as measured by the main ranges, but it was a two
+hours' steady climb nearly straight up. We would toil doggedly for a
+hundred feet, or until our wind gave out and our hearts began to pound
+distressingly; then we would rest a moment. After doing this a few
+hundred times we would venture a look upward, confidently expecting the
+summit to be close at hand. It seemed as far as ever. We suffered a
+dozen or so of these disappointments, and then learned not to look up.
+This was only after we had risen above timber line to the smooth,
+rounded rock-and-grass shoulder of the mountain. Then three times we
+made what we thought was a last spurt, only to find ourselves on a
+"false summit." After a while we grew resigned, we realized that we were
+never going to get anywhere, but were to go on forever, without
+ultimate purpose and without hope, pushing with tired legs, gasping with
+inadequate lungs. When we had fully made up our minds to that, we
+arrived. This is typical of all high-mountain climbing--the dogged,
+hard, hopeless work that can never reach an accomplishment; and then at
+last the sudden, unexpected culmination.
+
+We topped a gently rounding summit; took several deep breaths into the
+uttermost cells of our distressed lungs; walked forward a dozen
+steps--and found ourselves looking over the sheer brink of a precipice.
+So startlingly unforeseen was the swoop into blue space that I recoiled
+hastily, feeling a little dizzy. Then I recovered and stepped forward
+cautiously for another look. As with all sheer precipices, the lip on
+which we stood seemed slightly to overhang, so that in order to see one
+had apparently to crane away over, quite off balance. Only by the
+strongest effort of the will is one able to rid oneself of the notion
+that the centre of gravity is about to plunge one off head first into
+blue space. For it was fairly blue space below our precipice. We could
+see birds wheeling below us; and then below them again, very tiny, the
+fall away of talus, and the tops of trees in the basin below. And
+opposite, and all around, even down over the horizon, were other
+majestic peaks, peers of our own, naked and rugged. From camp the great
+forests had seemed to us the most important, most dominant, most
+pervading feature of the wilderness. Now in the high sisterhood of the
+peaks we saw they were as mantles that had been dropped about the feet.
+
+Across the face of the cliff below us ran irregular tiny ledges;
+buttresses ended in narrow peaks; "chimneys" ran down irregularly to the
+talus. Here were supposed to dwell the goats.
+
+We proceeded along the crest, spying eagerly. We saw tracks; but no
+animals. By now it was four o'clock, and past time to turn campward. We
+struck down the mountain on a diagonal that should take us home. For
+some distance all went well enough. To be sure, it was very steep, and
+we had to pay due attention to balance and sliding. Then a rock wall
+barred our way. It was not a very large rock wall. We went below it.
+After a hundred yards we struck another. By now the first had risen
+until it towered far above us, a sheer, gray cliff behind which the sky
+was very blue. We skirted the base of the second and lower cliff. It led
+us to another; and to still another. Each of these we passed on the
+talus beneath it; but with increasing difficulty, owing to the fact that
+the wide ledges were pinching out. At last we found ourselves cut off
+from farther progress. To our right rose tier after tier of great
+cliffs, serenely and loftily unconscious of any little insects like
+ourselves that might be puttering around their feet. Straight ahead the
+ledge ceased to exist. To our left was a hundred-foot drop to the talus
+that sloped down to the canon. The canon did not look so very far away,
+and we desired mightily to reach it. The only alternative to getting
+straight down was to climb back the weary way we had come; and that
+meant all night without food, warm clothing, or shelter on a
+snow-and-ice mountain.
+
+Therefore, we scouted that hundred-foot drop to our left very
+carefully. It seemed hopeless; but at last I found a place where a point
+of the talus ran up to a level not much below our own. The only
+difficulty was that between ourselves and that point of talus extended a
+piece of sheer wall. I slung my rifle over my back, and gave myself to a
+serious consideration of that wall. Then I began to work out across its
+face.
+
+The principle of safe climbing is to maintain always three points of
+suspension: that it to say, one should keep either both footholds and
+one handhold, or both handholds and one foothold. Failing that, one is
+taking long chances. With this firmly in mind, I spidered out across the
+wall, testing every projection and cranny before I trusted any weight to
+it. One apparently solid projection as big as my head came away at the
+first touch, and went bouncing off into space. Finally I stood, or
+rather sprawled, almost within arm's length of a tiny scrub pine growing
+solidly in a crevice just over the talus. Once there, our troubles were
+over; but there seemed no way of crossing. For the moment it actually
+looked as though four feet only would be sufficient to turn us back.
+
+At last, however, I found a toehold half way across. It was a very
+slight crevice, and not more than two inches deep. The toe of a boot
+would just hold there without slipping. Unfortunately, there were no
+handholds above it. After thinking the matter over, however, I made up
+my mind to violate, for this occasion only, the rules for climbing. I
+inserted the toe, gathered myself, and with one smooth swoop swung
+myself across and grabbed that tiny pine!
+
+Fisher now worked his way out and crossed in the same manner. But Frank
+was too heavy for such gymnastics. Fisher therefore took a firm grip on
+the pine, inserted his toe in the crevice, and hung on with all his
+strength while Frank crossed on his shoulders!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE SECOND AND THIRD CLIMBS
+
+
+Once more, lured by the promise of the tracks we had seen, we climbed
+this same mountain, but again without results. By now, you may be sure,
+we had found an easier way home! This was a very hard day's work, but
+uneventful.
+
+Now, four days later, I crossed the river and set off above to explore
+in the direction of the Continental Divide. Of course I had no intention
+of climbing for goats, or, indeed, of hunting very hard for anything. My
+object was an idle go-look-see. Equally, of course, after I had rammed
+around most happily for a while up the wooded stream-bed of that canon,
+I turned sharp to the right and began to climb the slope of the spur,
+running out at right angles to the main ranges that constituted one wall
+of my canon. It was fifteen hundred nearly perpendicular feet of hard
+scrambling through windfalls. Then when I had gained the ridge, I
+thought I might as well keep along it a little distance. And then,
+naturally, I saw the main peaks not so _very_ far away; and was in for
+it!
+
+On either side of me the mountain dropped away abruptly. I walked on a
+knife edge, steeply rising. Great canons yawned close at either hand,
+and over across were leagues of snow mountains.
+
+In the canon from which I had emerged a fine rain had been falling.
+Here it had turned to wet sleet. As I mounted, the slush underfoot grew
+firmer, froze, then changed to dry, powdery snow. This change was
+interesting and beautiful, but rather uncomfortable, for my boots,
+soaked through by the slush, now froze solid and scraped various patches
+of skin from my feet. It was interesting, too, to trace the change in
+bird life as the altitude increased. At snow line the species had
+narrowed down to a few ravens, a Canada jay, a blue grouse or so,
+nuthatches, and brown creepers. I saw one fresh elk track, innumerable
+marten, and the pad of a very large grizzly.
+
+The ridge mounted steadily. After I had gained to 2,300 feet above the
+canon I found that the ridge dipped to a saddle 600 feet lower. It
+really grieved me to give up that hard-earned six hundred, and then to
+buy it back again by another hard, slow, toilsome climb. Again I found
+my way barred by some unsuspected cliffs about sixty feet in height.
+Fortunately, they were well broken; and I worked my way to the top by
+means of ledges.
+
+Atop this the snow suddenly grew deeper and the ascent more precipitous.
+I fairly wallowed along. The timber line fell below me. All animal life
+disappeared. My only companions were now at spaced-out and mighty
+intervals the big bare peaks that had lifted themselves mysteriously
+from among their lesser neighbours, with which heretofore they had been
+confused. In spite of very heavy exertions, I began to feel the cold; so
+I unslung my rucksack and put on my buckskin shirt. The snow had become
+very light and feathery. The high, still buttes and crags of the main
+divide were right before me. Light fog wreaths drifted and eddied
+slowly, now concealing, now revealing the solemn crags and buttresses.
+Over everything--the rocks, the few stunted and twisted small trees, the
+very surface of the snow itself--lay a heavy rime of frost. This rime
+stood out in long, slender needles an inch to an inch and a half in
+length, sparkling and fragile and beautiful. It seemed that a breath of
+wind or even a loud sound would precipitate the glittering panoply to
+ruin; but in all the really awesome silence and hushed breathlessness of
+that strange upper world there was nothing to disturb them. The only
+motion was that of the idly-drifting fog wreaths; the only sound was
+that made by the singing of the blood in my ears! I felt as though I
+were in a world holding its breath.
+
+It was piercing cold. I ate a biscuit and a few prunes, tramping
+energetically back and forth to keep warm. I could see in all directions
+now: an infinity of bare peaks, with hardly a glimpse of forests or
+streams or places where things might live. Goats are certainly either
+fools or great poets.
+
+After a half hour of fruitless examination of the cliffs I perforce had
+to descend. The trip back was long. It had the added interest in that it
+was bringing me nearer water. No thirst is quite so torturing as that
+which afflicts one who climbs hard in cold, high altitudes. The throat
+and mouth seem to shrivel and parch. Psychologically, it is even worse
+than the desert thirst because in cold air it is unreasonable. Finally
+it became so unendurable that I turned down from the spur-ridge long
+before I should otherwise have done so, and did a good deal of extra
+work merely to reach a little sooner the stream at the bottom of the
+canon. When I reached it, I found that here it flowed underground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+OTHER CLIMBS
+
+
+For ten days we hunted and fished. When the opportunity offered, we made
+a goat-survey of a new place. Finally, as time grew short, we realized
+that we must concentrate our energies in one effort if we were to get
+specimens of this most desirable of all American big game. Therefore
+Fisher, Frank, Harry, and I, leaving our other two companions and the
+majority of the horses at the base camp, packed a few days' provisions
+and started in for the highest peaks of all.
+
+We journeyed up an unknown canon eighteen miles long, heavily wooded in
+the bottoms, with great mountains overhanging, and with a beautiful
+clear trout stream singing down its bed. The first day we travelled ten
+hours. One man was always in front cutting out windfalls or other
+obstructions. I should be afraid to guess how many trees we chopped
+through that day. Another man scouted ahead for the best route amid
+difficulties. The other two performed the soul-destroying task of
+getting the horses to follow the appointed way. After three o'clock we
+began to hope for horse feed. At dark we reluctantly gave it up. The
+forest remained unbroken. We had to tie the poor, unfed horses to trees,
+while we ourselves searched diligently and with only partial success for
+tiny spots level enough and clear enough for our beds. It was very cold
+that night; and nobody was comfortable; the horses least of all.
+
+Next morning we were out and away by daylight. If we could not find
+horse feed inside of four hours, we would be forced to retreat. Three
+hours of the four went by. Then Harry and I held the horses while our
+companions scouted ahead rapidly. We nearly froze, for in that deep
+valley the sun did not rise until nearly noon. Through an opening we
+could see back to a tremendous sheer butte rising more than three
+thousand feet[C] by a series of very narrow terraced ledges. We named it
+the Citadel, so like was it to an ancient proud fortress.
+
+Fisher reported first. He had climbed a tree, but had seen no feed. Ten
+minutes later Frank returned. He had found the track of an ancient
+avalanche close under the mountain, and in that track grew coarse
+grasses. We pushed on, and there made camp.
+
+It was a queer enough camp. Our beds we spread in the various little
+spots among the roots and hummocks we imagined to look the most even.
+The fire we had to build in quite another place. All around us the
+lodge-pole pines, firs, and larches grew close and dark and damp. Only
+to the west the snow ranges showed among the treetops like great,
+looming white clouds.
+
+For two days we lived high among the glaciers and snow crags, taking
+tremendous tramps, seeing wonderful peaks, frozen lakes, sheer cliffs,
+the tracks of grizzlies in numbers, the tiny sources of great streams,
+and the infinity of upper spaces. But no goats; and no tracks of goats.
+Little by little we eliminated the possibilities of the country
+accessible to us. Leagues in all directions, as far as the eye could
+reach, was plenty of other country, all equally good for goats; but it
+was not within reach of us from this canon; and our time was up.
+Finally, we dropped back and made camp at the last feed; a mile or so
+below the Citadel. Two ranges at right angles here converged, and the
+Citadel rose like a tower at the corner. Here was our last chance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+GOATS
+
+
+As we were finishing breakfast my eye was attracted to a snow speck on
+the mountainside some two thousand feet above us and slightly westward
+that somehow looked to me different from other snow specks. For nearly a
+minute I stared at it through my glasses. At last the speck moved. The
+game was in sight!
+
+We drew straws for the shot, and Fisher won. Then we began our climb. It
+was the same old story of pumping lungs and pounding hearts; but with
+the incentive before us we made excellent time. A shallow ravine and a
+fringe of woods afforded us the cover we needed. At the end of an hour
+and a half we crawled out of our ravine and to the edge of the trees.
+There across a steep canon and perhaps four hundred yards away were the
+goats, two of them, lying on the edge of small cliffs. We could see them
+very plainly, but they were too far for a sure shot. After examining
+them to our satisfaction we wormed our way back.
+
+"The only sure way," I insisted, "is to climb clear to the top of the
+ridge, go along it on the other side until we are above and beyond the
+goats, and then to stalk them down hill."
+
+That meant a lot more hard work; but in the end the plan was adopted.
+We resumed our interminable and toilsome climbing.
+
+The ridge proved to be of the knife-edge variety, and covered with snow.
+From a deep, wide, walled-in basin on the other side rose the howling of
+two brush wolves. We descended a few feet to gain safe concealment;
+walked as rapidly as possible to the point above the goats; and then
+with the utmost caution began our descent.
+
+In the last two hundred yards is the essence of big-game stalking. The
+hunter must move noiselessly, he must keep concealed; he must determine
+_at each step_ just what the effect of that step has been in the matters
+of noise and of altering the point of view. It is necessary to spy
+sharply, not only from the normal elevation of a man's shoulders, but
+also stooping to the waist line, and even down to the knees. An animal
+is just as suspicious of legs as of heads; and much more likely to see
+them.
+
+The shoulder of the mountain here consisted of a series of steep grass
+curves ending in short cliff jump-offs. Scattered and stunted trees and
+tree groups grew here and there. In thirty minutes we had made our
+distance and recognized the fact that our goats must be lying at the
+base of the next ledge. Motioning Harry to the left and Fisher to the
+front, I myself moved to the right to cut off the game should it run in
+that direction. Ten seconds later I heard Fisher shoot; then Harry
+opened up; and in a moment a goat ran across the ledge fifty yards below
+me. With a thrill of the greatest satisfaction I dropped the gold bead
+of my front sight on his shoulder!
+
+The bullet knocked him off the edge of the cliff. He fell, struck the
+steep grass slope, and began to roll. Over and over and over he went,
+gathering speed like a snowball, getting smaller and smaller until he
+disappeared in the brush far below, a tiny spot of white.
+
+No one can appreciate the feeling of relaxed relief that filled me. Hard
+and dangerous climbs, killing work, considerable hardship and discomfort
+had at length their reward. I could now take a rest. The day was young,
+and I contemplated with something like rapture a return to camp, and a
+good puttery day skinning out that goat. In addition I was suffering now
+from a splitting headache, the effects of incipient snow-blindness, and
+was generally pretty wobbly.
+
+And then my eye wandered to the left, whence that goat had come. I saw a
+large splash of blood; at a spot _before_ I had fired! It was too
+evident that the goat had already been wounded by Fisher; and therefore,
+by hunter's law, belonged to him!
+
+I set my teeth and turned up the mountain to regain the descent we had
+just made. At the knife-edge top I stopped for a moment to get my breath
+and to survey the country. Diagonally across the basin where the wolves
+were howling, half way down the ridge running at right angles to my own,
+I made out two goats. They were two miles away from me on an air line.
+My course was obvious. I must proceed along my ridge to the Citadel,
+keeping always out of sight; surmount that fortress; descend to the
+second ridge; walk along the other side of it until I was above those
+goats, and then sneak down on them.
+
+I accomplished the first two stages of my journey all right, though
+with considerably more difficulty in spots than I should have
+anticipated. The knife edge was so sharp and the sides so treacherous
+that at times it was almost impossible to travel anywhere but right on
+top. This would not do. By a little planning, however, I managed to
+reach the central "keep" of the Citadel: a high, bleak, broken pile,
+flat on top, with snow in all the crevices, and small cliffs on all
+sides. From this advantage I could cautiously spy out the lay of the
+land.
+
+Below me fifty feet dipped the second ridge, running nearly at right
+angles. It sloped abruptly to the wolf basin, but fell sheer on the
+other side to depths I could not at that time guess.[D] A very few
+scattered, stunted, and twisted trees huddled close down to the rock and
+snow. This saddle was about fifty feet in width and perhaps five hundred
+yards in length. It ended in another craggy butte very much like the
+Citadel.
+
+My first glance determined that my original plan would not do. The goats
+had climbed from where I had first seen them, and were now leisurely
+topping the saddle. To attempt to descend would be to reveal myself. I
+was forced to huddle just where I was. My hope was that the goats would
+wander along the saddle toward me, and not climb the other butte
+opposite. Also I wanted them to hurry, please, as the snow in which I
+sat was cold, and the wind piercing.
+
+This apparently they were not inclined to do. They paused, they nibbled
+at some scanty moss, they gazed at the scenery, they scratched their
+ears. I shifted my position cautiously--and saw below me,[E] lying on
+the snow at the very edge of the cliff, a tremendous billy! He had been
+there all the time; and I had been looking over him!
+
+At the crack of the Springfield he lurched forward and toppled slowly
+out of sight over the edge of the cliff. The two I had been stalking
+instantly disappeared. But on the very top of the butte opposite
+appeared another. It was a very long shot,[F] but I had to take chances,
+for I could not tell whether or not the one I had just shot was
+accessible or not. On a guess I held six inches over his back. The goat
+gave one leap forward into space. For twenty feet he fell spread-eagled
+and right side up as though flying. Then he began to turn and whirl. As
+far as my personal testimony could go, he is falling yet through that
+dizzy blue abyss.
+
+"Good-bye, billy," said I, sadly. It looked then as though I had lost
+both.
+
+I worked my way down the face of the Citadel until I was just above the
+steep snow fields. Here was a drop of six feet. If the snow was soft,
+all right. If it was frozen underneath, I would be very likely to
+toboggan off into space. I pried loose a small rock and dropped it,
+watching with great interest how it lit. It sunk with a dull plunk.
+Therefore I made my leap, and found myself waist deep in feathery snow.
+
+With what anxiety I peered over the edge of that precipice the reader
+can guess. Thirty feet below was a four-foot ledge. On the edge of that
+ledge grew two stunted pines about three feet in height--and only two.
+Against those pines my goat had lodged! In my exultation I straightened
+up and uttered a whoop. To my surprise it was answered from behind me.
+Frank had followed my trail. He had killed a nanny and was carrying the
+head. Everybody had goats!
+
+After a great deal of man[oe]uvring we worked our way down to the ledge
+by means of a crevice and a ten-foot pole. Then we tied the goat to the
+little trees, and set to work. I held Frank while he skinned; and then
+he held me while I skinned. It was very awkward. The tiny landscape
+almost directly beneath us was blue with the atmosphere of distance. A
+solitary raven discovered us, and began to circle and croak and flop.
+
+"You'll get your meal later," we told him.
+
+Far below us, like suspended leaves swirling in a wind, a dense flock of
+snowbirds fluttered.
+
+We got on well enough until it became necessary to sever the backbone.
+Then, try as we would, we could not in the general awkwardness reach a
+joint with a knife. At last we had a bright idea. I held the head back
+while Frank shot the vertebrae in two with his rifle!
+
+Then we loosed the cords that held the body. It fell six hundred feet,
+hit a ledge, bounded out, and so disappeared toward the hazy blue map
+below. The raven folded his wings and dropped like a plummet, with a
+strange rushing sound. We watched him until the increasing speed of his
+swoop turned us a little dizzy, and we drew back. When we looked a
+moment later he had disappeared into the distance--straight down!
+
+Now we had to win our way out. The trophy we tied with a rope. I
+climbed up the pole, and along the crevice as far as the rope would let
+me, hauled up the trophy, jammed my feet and back against both sides of
+the "chimney." Frank then clambered past me; and so repeat.
+
+But once in the saddle we found we could not return the way we had come.
+The drop-off into the feather snow settled that. A short reconnaissance
+made it very evident that we would have to go completely around the
+outside of the Citadel, at the level of the saddle, until we had gained
+the other ridge. This meant about three quarters of a mile against the
+tremendous cliff.
+
+We found a ledge and started. Our packs weighed about sixty pounds
+apiece, and we were forced to carry them rather high. The ledge proved
+to be from six to ten feet wide, with a gentle slope outward. We could
+not afford the false steps, nor the little slips, nor the overbalancings
+so unimportant on level ground. Progress was slow and cautious. We could
+not but remember the heart-stopping drop of that goat after we had cut
+the rope; and the swoop of the raven. Especially at the corners did we
+hug close to the wall, for the wind there snatched at us eagerly.
+
+The ledge held out bravely. It had to; for there was no possible way to
+get up or down from it. We rounded the shoulder of the pile. Below us
+now was another landscape into which to fall--the valley of the stream,
+with its forests and its high cliffs over the way. But already we could
+see our ridge. Another quarter mile would land us in safety.
+
+Without warning the ledge pinched out. A narrow tongue of shale, on so
+steep a slope that it barely clung to the mountain, ran twenty feet to a
+precipice. A touch sent its surface rattling merrily down and into
+space. It was only about eight feet across; and then the ledge began
+again.
+
+We eyed it. Three steps would take us across. Alternative: return along
+the ledge to attack the problem _ab initio_.
+
+"That shale is going to start," said Frank. "If you stop, she'll sure
+carry you over the ledge. But if you keep right on going, _fast_, I
+believe your weight will carry you through."
+
+We readjusted our packs so they could not slip and overbalance us; we
+measured and re-measured with our eyes just where those steps would
+fall; we took a deep breath--and we _hustled_. Behind us the fine shale
+slid sullenly in a miniature avalanche that cascaded over the edge. Our
+"weight had carried us through!"
+
+In camp, we found that Harry's shooting had landed a kid, so that we had
+a goat apiece.
+
+We rejoined the main camp next day just ahead of a big snowstorm that
+must have made travel all but impossible. Then for five days we rode
+out, in snow, sleet, and hail. But we were entirely happy, and
+indifferent to what the weather could do to us now.
+
+
+
+
+MOISTURE, A TRACE
+
+
+Last fall I revisited Arizona for the first time in many years. My
+ultimate destination lay one hundred and twenty-eight miles south of the
+railroad. As I stepped off the Pullman I drew deep the crisp, thin air;
+I looked across immeasurable distance to tiny, brittle, gilded buttes; I
+glanced up and down a ramshackle row of wooden buildings with crazy
+wooden awnings, and I sighed contentedly. Same good old Arizona.
+
+The Overland pulled out, flirting its tail at me contemptuously. A
+small, battered-looking car, grayed and caked with white alkali dust,
+glided alongside, and from under its swaying and disreputable top
+emerged someone I knew. Not individually. But by many campfires of the
+past I had foregathered with him and his kind. Same old Arizona, I
+repeated to myself.
+
+This person bore down upon me and gently extracted my bag from my grasp.
+He stood about six feet three; his face was long and brown and grave;
+his figure was spare and strong. Atop his head he wore the sacred
+Arizona high-crowned hat, around his neck a bright bandana; no coat, but
+an unbuttoned vest; skinny trousers, and boots. Save for lack of spurs
+and _chaps_ and revolver he might have been a moving-picture cowboy.
+The spurs alone were lacking from the picture of a real one.
+
+He deposited my bag in the tonneau, urged me into a front seat, and
+crowded himself behind the wheel. The effect was that of a grown-up in a
+go-cart. This particular brand of tin car had not been built for this
+particular size of man. His knees were hunched up either side the
+steering column; his huge, strong brown hands grasped most competently
+that toy-like wheel. The peak of his sombrero missed the wrinkled top
+only because he sat on his spine. I reflected that he must have been
+drafted into this job, and I admired his courage in undertaking to
+double up like that even for a short journey.
+
+"Roads good?" I asked the usual question as I slammed shut the door.
+
+"Fair, suh," he replied, soberly.
+
+"What time should we get in?" I inquired.
+
+"Long 'bout six o'clock, suh," he informed me.
+
+It was then eight in the morning--one hundred and twenty-eight
+miles--ten hours--roads good, eh?--hum.
+
+He touched the starter. The motor exploded with a bang. We moved.
+
+I looked her over. On the running board were strapped two big galvanized
+tanks of water. It was almost distressingly evident that the muffler had
+either been lost or thrown away. But she was hitting on all four. I
+glanced at the speedometer dial. It registered the astonishing total of
+29,250 miles.
+
+We swung out the end of the main street and sailed down a road that
+vanished in the endless gentle slope of a "sink." Beyond the sink the
+bank rose again, gently, to gain the height of the eyes at some _mesas_.
+Well I know that sort of country. One journeyed for the whole day, and
+the _mesas_ stayed where they were; and in between were successively
+vast stretches of mesquite, or alkali, or lava outcrops, or _sacatone_
+bottoms, each seeming, while one was in it, to fill all the world
+forever, without end; and the day's changes were of mirage and the
+shifting colours of distant hills.
+
+It was soon evident that my friend's ideas of driving probably coincided
+with his ideas of going up a mountain. When a mounted cowboy climbs a
+hill he does not believe in fussing with such nonsense as grades; he
+goes straight up. Similarly, this man evidently considered that, as
+roads were made for travel and distance for annihilation, one should
+turn on full speed and get there. Not one hair's breadth did he deign to
+swerve for chuck-hole or stone; not one fractional mile per hour did he
+check for gully or ditch. We struck them head-on, bang! did they happen
+in our way. Then my head hit the disreputable top. In the mysterious
+fashion of those who drive freight wagons my companion remained
+imperturbably glued to his seat. I had neither breath nor leisure for
+the country or conversation.
+
+Thus one half hour. The speedometer dial showed the figures 29,260. I
+allowed myself to think of a possible late lunch at my friend's ranch.
+
+We slowed down. The driver advanced the hand throttle the full sweep of
+the quadrant, steered with his knees, and produced the "makings." The
+faithful little motor continued to hit on all four, but in slow and
+painful succession, each explosion sounding like a pistol shot. We had
+passed already the lowest point of the "sink," and were climbing the
+slope on the other side. The country, as usual, looked perfectly level,
+but the motor knew different.
+
+"I like to hear her shoot," said the driver, after his first cigarette.
+"That's why I chucked the muffler. Its plumb lonesome out yere all by
+yourself. A hoss is different."
+
+"Who you riding for?"
+
+"Me? I'm riding for me. This outfit is mine."
+
+It didn't sound reasonable; but that's what I heard.
+
+"You mean you drive this car--as a living----"
+
+"Correct."
+
+"I should think you'd get cramped!" I burst out.
+
+"Me? I'm used to it. I bet I ain't missed three days since I got
+her--and that's about a year ago."
+
+He answered my questions briefly, volunteering nothing. He had never had
+any trouble with the car; he had never broken a spring; he'd overhauled
+her once or twice; he averaged sixteen actual miles to the gallon. If I
+were to name the car I should have to write advt. after this article to
+keep within the law. I resolved to get one. We chugged persistently
+along on high gear; though I believe second would have been better.
+
+Presently we stopped and gave her a drink. She was boiling like a little
+tea kettle, and she was pretty thirsty.
+
+"They all do it," said Bill. Of course his name was Bill. "Especially
+the big he-ones. High altitude. Going slow with your throttle wide open.
+You're all right if you got plenty water. If not, why then ketch a cow
+and use the milk. Only go slow or you'll git all clogged up with
+butter."
+
+We clambered aboard and proceeded. That distant dreamful _mesa_ had
+drawn very near. It was scandalous. The aloof desert whose terror, whose
+beauty, whose wonder, whose allure was the awe of infinite space that
+could be traversed only in toil and humbleness, had been contracted by a
+thing that now said 29,265.
+
+"At this rate we'll get there before six o'clock," I remarked,
+hopefully.
+
+"Oh, this is County Highway!" said Bill.
+
+As we crawled along, still on high gear--that tin car certainly pulled
+strongly--a horseman emerged from a fold in the hills. He was riding a
+sweat-covered, mettlesome black with a rolling eye. His own eye was
+bitter, and likewise the other features of his face. After trying in
+vain to get the frantic animal within twenty feet of our _mitrailleuse,_
+he gave it up.
+
+"Got anything for me?" he shrieked at Bill.
+
+Bill leisurely turned off the switch, draped his long legs over the side
+of the car, and produced his makings.
+
+"Nothing, Jim. Expaicting of anything?"
+
+"Sent for a new grass rope. How's feed down Mogallon way?"
+
+"Fair. That a bronco you're riding?"
+
+"Just backed him three days ago."
+
+"Amount to anything?"
+
+"That," said Jim, with an extraordinary bitterness, "is already a gaited
+hoss. He has fo' gaits now."
+
+"Four gaits," repeated Bill, incredulously. "I'm in the stink wagon
+business. I ain't aiming to buy no hosses. What four gaits you claim
+he's got?"
+
+"Start, stumble, fall down _and_ git up," said Jim.
+
+Shortly after this joyous _rencontre_ we topped the rise, and, looking
+back, could realize the grade we had been ascending.
+
+The road led white and straight as an arrow to dwindle in perspective to
+a mere thread. The little car leaped forward on the invisible down
+grade. Again I anchored myself to one of the top supports. A long, rangy
+fowl happened into the road just ahead of us, but immediately flopped
+clumsily, half afoot, half a-wing, to one side in the brush, like a
+stampeded hen.
+
+"Road runner," said Bill, with a short laugh. "Remember how they used to
+rack along in front of a hoss for miles, keeping just ahead, lettin' out
+a link when you spurred up? Aggravatin' fowl! They got over tryin' to
+keep ahead of gasoline."
+
+In the white alkaline road lay one lone, pyramidal rock. It was about
+the size of one's two fists and all its edges and corners were sharp.
+Probably twenty miles of clear space lay on either flank of that rock.
+Nevertheless, our right front wheel hit it square in the middle. The car
+leaped straight up, the rock popped sidewise, and the tire went off with
+a mighty bang. Bill put on the brakes, deliberately uncoiled himself,
+and descended.
+
+"Seems like tires don't last no time at all in this country," he
+remarked, sadly. He walked around the car and began to examine the four
+wrecks he carried as spares. After some inspection of their respective
+merits, he selected one. "I just somehow kain't git over the notion she
+ought to sidestep them little rocks and holes of her own accord," he
+exclaimed. "A hoss is a plumb, narrow-minded critter, but he knows
+enough for that."
+
+While he changed the tire--which incidentally involved patching one of
+half a dozen over-worn tubes--I looked her over more in detail. The
+customary frame, strut rods, and torsion rods had been supplemented by
+the most extraordinary criss-cross of angle-iron braces it has ever been
+my fortune to behold. They ran from anywhere to everywhere beneath that
+car. I began to comprehend her cohesiveness.
+
+"Jim Coles, blacksmith at the O T, puts them braces in all our cars,"
+explained Bill. "He's got her down to a system."
+
+The repair finished and the radiator refilled we resumed the journey. It
+was now just eleven o'clock. The odometer reading was 29,276. The
+temperature was well up toward 100 degrees. But beneath the disreputable
+top, and while in motion, the heat was not noticeable. Nevertheless, the
+brief stop had brought back poignantly certain old days--choking dust,
+thirst, the heat of a heavy sun, the long day that led one nowhere----
+
+The noon mirages were taking shape, throwing stately and slow their vast
+illusions across the horizon. Lakes glimmered; distant ranges took on
+the forms of phantasm, rising higher, flattening, reaching across space
+the arches of their spans, rendering unreal a world of beauty and dread.
+That in the old days was the deliberate fashion the desert had of
+searing men's souls with her majesty. Slowly, slowly, the changes
+melted one into the other; massively, deliberately the face of the world
+was altered; so that at last the poor plodding human being, hot, dry,
+blinded, thirsty, felt himself a nothing in the presence of eternities.
+Well I knew that old spell of the desert. But now! Honestly, after a few
+minutes I began to feel sorry for the poor old desert! Its spells didn't
+work for the simple reason that _we didn't give it time!_ We charged
+down on its phantom lakes and disproved them and forgot them. We broke
+right in on the dignified and deliberate scene shifting of mountains and
+_mesas_, showed them up for the brittle, dry hills they were, and left
+them behind. It was pitiful! It was as though a revered tragedian should
+overnight find that his vogue had departed; that he was no longer
+getting over; that an irreverent upstart, breaking in on his most
+sonorous periods, was getting laughs with slang. We had lots of water;
+the dust we left behind; it wasn't even hot in the wind of our going!
+
+In the shallow crease of hills a shimmer of white soon changed to
+evident houses. We drew into a straggling desert town.
+
+It was typical--thirty miles from the railroad, a distributing point for
+the cattle country. Four broad buildings with peeled, sunburned faces, a
+wooden house or so, and a dozen flat-roofed adobe huts hung pleasingly
+with long strips of red peppers. Of course one of the wooden buildings
+was labelled General Store; and another, smaller, contained a barber
+shop and postoffice combined. The third was barred and unoccupied. The
+fourth had been a livery stable but was now a garage. Six saddle horses
+and six Fords stood outside the General Store, which was a fair
+division.
+
+Bill slowed down.
+
+"Have a drink," I observed, hospitably.
+
+"Arizona's a dry state," Bill reminded me; but nevertheless stopped and
+uncoiled. That unbelievable phenomenon had escaped my memory. In the old
+days I used to shut my eyes and project my soul into what I imagined was
+the future. I saw Arizona, embottled, dying in the last-wet ditch, while
+all the rest of the world, even including Milwaukee, bore down on her
+carrying the banners of Prohibition. So much for prophecy. I voiced a
+thought.
+
+"There must be an awful lot of old timers died this spring. You can't
+cut them off short and hope to save them."
+
+Bill grunted.
+
+We entered the store. It smelled good, as such stores always do--soap,
+leather, ground coffee, bacon, cheese--all sorts of things. On the right
+ran a counter and shelves of dry goods and clothing; on the left
+groceries, cigars, and provisions generally. Down the middle saddles,
+ropes, spurs, pack outfits, harness, hardware. In the rear a glass
+cubby-hole with a desk inside. All that was customary, right and proper.
+But I noticed also a glass case with spark plugs and accessories; a rack
+full of tires; and a barrel of lubricating oil. I did not notice any
+body polish. By the front door stood a paper-basket whose purport I
+understood not at all.
+
+Bill led me at once past two or three lounging cow persons to the
+cubbyhole, where arose a typical old timer.
+
+"Mr. White, meet Mr. Billings," he said.
+
+The old timer grasped me firmly by the right hand and held tight while
+he demanded, as usual, "What name?" We informed him together. He allowed
+he was pleased. I allowed the same.
+
+"I want to buy a yard of calico," said Bill.
+
+The old timer reached beneath the counter and produced a strip of cloth.
+It was already cut, and looked to be about a yard long. Also it showed
+the marks of loving but brutal and soiled hands.
+
+"Wrap it up?" inquired Mr. Billings.
+
+"Nope," said Bill, and handed out three silver dollars. Evidently calico
+was high in these parts. We turned away.
+
+"By the way, Bill," Mr. Billings called after us, "I got a little
+present here for you. Some friends sent her in to me the other day. Let
+me know what you think of it."
+
+We turned. Mr. Billings held in his hand a sealed quart bottle with a
+familiar and famous label.
+
+"Why, that's kind of you," said Bill, gravely. He took the proffered
+bottle, turned it upside down, glanced at the bottom, and handed it
+back. "But I don't believe I'd wish for none of that particular breed.
+It never did agree with my stummick."
+
+Without a flicker of the eye the storekeeper produced a second sealed
+bottle, identical in appearance and label with the first.
+
+"Try it," he urged. "Here's one from a different case. Some of these
+yere vintages is better than others."
+
+"So I've noticed," replied Bill, dryly. He glanced at the bottom and
+slipped it into his pocket.
+
+We went out. As we passed the door Bill, unobserved, dropped into the
+heretofore unexplained waste-basket the yard of calico he had just
+purchased.
+
+"Don't believe I like the pattern for my boudoir," he told me, gravely.
+
+We clambered aboard and shot our derisive exhaust at the diminishing
+town.
+
+"Thought Arizona was a dry state," I suggested.
+
+"She is. You cain't sell a drop. But you can keep stuff for personal
+use. There ain't nothing more personal than givin' it away to your
+friends."
+
+"The price of calico is high down here."
+
+"And goin' up," agreed Bill, gloomily. He drove ten miles in silence
+while I, knowing my type, waited.
+
+"That old Billings ought to be drug out and buried," he remarked at
+last. "We rode together on the Chiracahua range. He ought to know better
+than to try to put it onto me."
+
+"???" said I.
+
+"You saw that first bottle? Just plain forty-rod dog poison--and me
+payin' three good round dollars!"
+
+"For calico," I reminded.
+
+"Shore. That's why he done it. He had me--if I hadn't called him."
+
+"But that first bottle was identically the same as the one you have in
+your pocket," I stated.
+
+"Shore?"
+
+"Why, yes--at least--that is, the bottle and label were the same, and I
+particularly noticed the cork seal looked intact."
+
+"It was," agreed Bill. "That cap hasn't never been disturbed. You're
+right."
+
+"Then what objection----"
+
+"It's one of them wonders of modern science that spoils the simple life
+next to Nature's heart," said Bill, unexpectedly. "You hitch a big
+hollow needle onto an electric light current. When she gets hot enough
+you punch a hole with her in the bottom of the bottle. Then you throw
+the switch and let the needle cool off. When she's cool you pour out the
+real thing for your own use--mebbe. Then you stick in your
+forty-cent-a-gallon squirrel poison. Heat up your needle again. Draw her
+out very slow so the glass will close up behind her. Simple, neat,
+effective, honest enough for down here. Cork still there, seal still
+there, label still there. Bottle still there, except for a little bit of
+a wart-lookin' bubble in the bottom."
+
+It was now in the noon hour. Knowing cowboys of old I expected no lunch.
+We racketed along, and our dust tried to catch us, and sleepy,
+accustomed jack rabbits made two perfunctory hops as we turned on them
+the battery of our exhaust.
+
+We dipped down into a carved bottomland, several miles wide, filled with
+minarets, peaks, vermilion towers, and strange striped labyrinths of
+many colours above which the sky showed an unbelievable blue. The trunks
+of colossal trees lay about in numbers. Apparently they had all been
+cross-cut in sections like those sawed for shake bolts, for each was
+many times clearly divided. The sections, however, lay all in place; so
+the trunks of the trees were as they had fallen. About the ground were
+scattered fragments of rock of all sizes, like lava, but of all the
+colours of the giddiest parrots. The tiniest piece had at least all the
+tints of the spectrum; and the biggest seemed to go the littlest several
+better. They looked to me like beautiful jewels. Bill cast at them a
+contemptuous glance.
+
+"Every towerist I take in yere makes me stop while he sags down the car
+with this junk," he said. Whenever I say "Bill said" or "I said," I
+imply that we shrieked, for always through that great, still country we
+hustled enveloped in a profanity of explosions, creaks, rattles, and
+hums. Just now though, on a level, we travelled at a low gear.
+"Petrified wood," Bill added.
+
+I swallowed guiltily the request I was about to proffer.
+
+The malpais defined itself. We came to a wide, dry wash filled with
+white sand. Bill brought the little car to a stop.
+
+Well I know that sort of sand! You plunge rashly into it on low gear;
+you buzz bravely for possibly fifty feet; you slow down, slow down; your
+driving wheels begin to spin--that finishes you. Every revolution digs a
+deeper hole. It is useless to apply power. If you are wise you throw out
+your clutch the instant she stalls, and thus save digging yourself in
+unnecessarily. But if you are really wise you don't get in that fix at
+all. The next stage is that wherein you thrust beneath the hind wheels
+certain expedients such as robes, coats, and so forth. The wheels, when
+set in motion, hurl these trivialities yards to the rear. The car then
+settles down with a shrug. About the time the axle is actually resting
+on the sand you proceed to serious digging, cutting brush, and laying
+causeways. Some sand you can get out of by these methods, but not dry,
+stream-bed sand in the Southwest. Finally you reach; the state of true
+wisdom. Either you sit peacefully in the tonneau and smoke until someone
+comes along; or, if you are doubtful of that miracle, you walk to the
+nearest team and rope. And never, never, never are you caught again! A
+detour of fifty miles is nothing after that!
+
+While Bill manipulated the makings, I examined the prospects. This was
+that kind of a wash; no doubt of it!
+
+"How far is the nearest crossing?" I asked, returning.
+
+"About eight feet," said he.
+
+My mind, panic-stricken, flew to several things--that bottle (I regret
+that I failed to record that by test its contents had proved genuine),
+the cornered rock we had so blithely charged, other evidences of Bill's
+casual nature. My heart sank.
+
+"You ain't going to tackle that wash!" I cried.
+
+"I shore am," said Bill.
+
+I examined Bill. He meant it.
+
+"How far to the nearest ranch?"
+
+"'Bout ten mile."
+
+I went and sat on a rock. It was one of those rainbow remnants of a
+bygone past; but my interest in curios had waned.
+
+Bill dove into the grimy mysteries of under the back seat and produced
+two blocks of wood six or eight inches square and two strong straps with
+buckles. He inserted a block between the frame of the car and the rear
+axle; then he ran a strap around the rear spring and cinched on it until
+the car body, the block, and the axle made one solid mass. In other
+words, the spring action was entirely eliminated. He did the same thing
+on the other side.
+
+"Climb in," said he.
+
+We went into low and slid down the steep clay bank into the waiting
+sand. To me it was like a plunge into ice water. Bill stepped on her. We
+ploughed out into trouble. The steering wheel bucked and jerked vainly
+against Bill's huge hands; we swayed like a moving-picture comic; but we
+forged steadily ahead. Not once did we falter. Our wheels gripped
+continuously. When we pulled out on the other bank I exhaled as though
+I, too, had lost my muffler. I believe I had held my breath the whole
+way across. Bill removed the blocks and gave her more water. Still in
+low we climbed out of the malpais.
+
+It was now after two o'clock. We registered 29,328. I was getting humble
+minded. Six o'clock looked good enough to me now.
+
+One thing was greatly encouraging. As we rose again to the main level of
+the country I recognized over the horizon a certain humped mountain.
+Often in the "good old days" I had approached this mountain from the
+south. Beneath its flanks lay my friend's ranch, our destination. Five
+hours earlier in my experience its distance would have appalled me; but
+my standards had changed. Nevertheless, it seemed far enough away. I was
+getting physically tired. There is a heap of exercise in many
+occupations, such as digging sewers and chopping wood and shopping with
+a woman; but driving in small Arizona motor cars need give none of these
+occupations any odds. And of late years I have been accustoming myself
+to three meals a day.
+
+For this reason there seems no excuse for detailing the next three
+hours. From three o'clock until sunset the mirages slowly fade away into
+the many-tinted veils of evening. I know that because I've seen it; but
+never would I know it whilst an inmate of a gasoline madhouse. We
+carried our own egg-shaped aura constantly with us, on the invisible
+walls of which the subtle and austere influences of the desert beat in
+vain. That aura was composed of speed, bumps, dust, profane noise, and
+an extreme and exotic busyness. It might be that in a docile, tame,
+expensive automobile, garnished with a sane and biddable driver, one
+might see the desert as it is. I don't know whether such a combination
+exists. But me--I couldn't get into the Officers' Training Camp because
+of my advanced years: I may be an old fogy, but I cherish a sneaking
+idea that perhaps you have to buy some of these things at the cost of
+the aforementioned thirst, heat, weariness, and the slow passing of long
+days. Still, an Assyrian brick in the British Museum is inscribed by a
+father to his son away at school with a lament over the passing of the
+"good old days!"
+
+At any rate, we drew into Spring Creek at five o'clock, shooting at
+every jump. My friend's ranch was only six miles farther. This was home
+for Bill, and we were soon surrounded by many acquaintances. He had
+letters and packages for many of them; and detailed many items of local
+news. To us shortly came a cowboy who had evidently bought all the
+calico he could carry. This person was also long and lean and brown;
+hard bitten; bedecked with worn brown leather _chaps_, and wearing a
+gun. The latter he unbuckled and cast from him with great scorn.
+
+"And I don't need no gun to do it, neither!" he stated, as though
+concluding a long conversation.
+
+"Shore not, Slim," agreed one of the group, promptly annexing the
+artillery. "What is it?"
+
+"Kill that ---- ---- ---- Beck," said Slim, owlishly. "I can do it; and
+I can do it with my bare hands, b' God!"
+
+He walked sturdily enough in the direction of the General Store across
+the dusty square. No one paid any further attention to his movements.
+The man who had picked up the gun belt buckled it around his own waist.
+Bill refilled the ever-thirsty radiator, peered at his gasoline gauge,
+leisurely turned down a few grease cups. Ten minutes passed. We were
+about ready to start.
+
+Back across the square drifted a strange figure. With difficulty we
+recognized it as the erstwhile Slim. He had no hat. His hair stuck out
+in all directions. One eye was puffing shut, blood oozed from a cut in
+his forehead and dripped from his damaged nose. One shirt sleeve had
+been half torn from its parent at the shoulder. But, most curious of
+all, Slim's face was evenly marked by a perpendicular series of long,
+red scratches as though he had been dragged from stem to stern along a
+particularly abrasive gravel walk. Slim seemed quite calm.
+
+His approach was made in a somewhat strained silence. At length there
+spoke a dry, sardonic voice.
+
+"Well," said it, "did you kill Beck?"
+
+"Naw!" replied Slim's remains disgustedly, "the son of a gun wouldn't
+fight!"
+
+We reached my friend's ranch just about dusk. He met me at the yard
+gate.
+
+"Well!" he said, heartily. "I'm glad you're here! Not much like the old
+days, is it?"
+
+I agreed with him.
+
+"Journey out is dull and uninteresting now. But compared to the way we
+used to do it, it is a cinch. Just sit still and roll along."
+
+I disagreed with him--mentally.
+
+"The old order has changed," said he.
+
+"Yes," I agreed, "now it's one yard of calico."
+
+
+
+
+THE RANCH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE NEW AND THE OLD
+
+
+The old ranching days of California are to all intents and purposes past
+and gone. To be sure there remain many large tracts supporting a single
+group of ranch buildings, and over which the cattle wander "on a
+thousand hills." There are even a few, a very few--like the ranch of
+which I am going to write--that are still undivided, still game haunted,
+still hospitable, still delightful. But in spite of these apparent
+exceptions, my first statement must stand. About the large tracts swarm
+real estate men, eager for the chance to subdivide into small farms--and
+the small farmers pour in from the East at the rate of a thousand a
+month. No matter how sternly the old land-lords set their faces against
+the new order of things, the new order of things will prevail; for
+sooner or late old land-lords must die, and the heirs have not in them
+the spirit of the ancient tradition. This is, of course, best for the
+country and for progress; but something passes, and is no more. So the
+Chino ranch and more recently Lucky Baldwin's broad acres have yielded.
+
+And even in the case of those that still remain intact, whose wide
+hills and plains graze thousands of head of cattle; whose pastures breed
+their own cowhorses; whose cowmen, wearing still with a twist of pride
+the all-but-vanished regalia of their all-but-vanished calling, refuse
+to drop back to the humdrum status of "farm hands on a cow ranch"; even
+here has entered a single element powerful enough to change the old to
+something new. The new may be better--it is certainly more
+convenient--and perhaps when all is said and done we would not want to
+go back to the old. But the old is gone. One single modern institution
+has been sufficient to render it completely of the past. That
+institution is the automobile.
+
+In the old days--and they are but yesterdays, after all--the ranch was
+perforce an isolated community. The journey to town was not to be
+lightly undertaken; indeed, as far as might be, it was obviated
+altogether. Blacksmithing, carpentry, shoe cobbling, repairing,
+barbering, and even mild doctoring were all to be done on the premises.
+Nearly every item of food was raised at home, including vegetables,
+fruit, meat, eggs, fowl, butter, and honey. Above all, the inhabitants
+of that ranch settled down comfortably into the realization that their
+only available community was that immediately about them; and so they
+both made and were influenced by the individual atmosphere of the place.
+
+In the latter years they have all purchased touring cars, and now they
+run to town casually, on almost any excuse. They make shopping lists as
+does the city dweller; they go back for things forgotten; and they
+return to the ranch as one returns to his home on the side streets of a
+great city. In place of the old wonderful and impressive expeditions to
+visit in state the nearest neighbour (twelve miles distant), they drop
+over of an afternoon for a ten-minutes' chat. The ranch is no longer an
+environment in which one finds the whole activity of his existence, but
+a dwelling place from which one goes forth.
+
+I will admit that this is probably a distinct gain; but the fact is
+indubitable that, even in these cases where the ranch life has not been
+materially changed otherwise, the automobile has brought about a
+condition entirely new. And as the automobile has fortunately come to
+stay, the old will never return. It is of the old, and its charm and
+leisure, that I wish to write.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE OLD WEST
+
+
+I went to the ranch many years ago, stepping from the train somewhere
+near midnight into a cold, crisp air full of stars. My knowledge of
+California was at that time confined to several seasons spent on the
+coast, where the straw hat retires only in deference to a tradition
+which none of the flowers seem bound to respect. As my dress accorded
+with this experience, I was very glad to be conducted across the street
+to a little hotel. My guide was an elderly, very brown man, with a white
+moustache, and the bearing of an army regular. This latter surmise later
+proved correct. Manning was one of the numerous old soldiers who had
+fought through the General's Apache campaigns, and who now in his age
+had drifted back to be near his old commander. He left me, after many
+solicitations as to my comfort, and a promise to be back with the team
+at seven o'clock sharp.
+
+Promptly at that hour he drew up by the curb. My kit bag was piled
+aboard, and I clambered in beside the driver. Manning touched his team.
+We were off.
+
+The rig was of the sort usual to the better California ranches of the
+day, and so, perhaps, worth description. It might best be defined as a
+rather wide, stiff buckboard set on springs, and supported by stout
+running gear. The single seat was set well forward, while the body of
+the rig extended back to receive the light freight an errand to town
+was sure to accumulate. An ample hood top of gray canvas could be raised
+for protection against either sun, wind, or rain. Most powerful brakes
+could be manipulated by a thrust of the driver's foot. You may be sure
+they were outside brakes. Inside brakes were then considered the weak
+expedients of a tourist driving mercenary. Generally the tongue and
+moving gear were painted cream; and the body of the vehicle dark green.
+
+This substantial, practical, and business-like vehicle was drawn by a
+pair of mighty good bright bay horses, straight backed, square rumped,
+deep shouldered, with fine heads, small ears, and alert yet gentle eyes
+of high-bred stock. When the word was given, they fell into a steady,
+swinging trot. One felt instinctively the power of it, and knew that
+they were capable of keeping up this same gait all day. And that would
+mean many miles. Their harness was of plain russet leather, neat and
+well oiled.
+
+Concerning them I made some remark, trivial yet enough to start Manning.
+He told me of them, and of their peculiarities and virtues. He descanted
+at length on their breeding, and whence came they and their fathers and
+their fathers' fathers even unto the sixth generation. He left me at
+last with the impression that this was probably the best team in the
+valley, bar none. It was a good team, strong, spirited, gentle, and
+enduring.
+
+We swung out from the little town into a straight road. If it has seemed
+that I have occupied you too exclusively with objects near at hand, the
+matter could not be helped. There was nothing more to occupy you. A fog
+held all the land.
+
+It was a dense fog, and a very cold. Twenty feet ahead of the horses
+showed only a wall of white. To right and left dim, ghostly bushes or
+fence posts trooped by us at the ordered pace of our trot. An occasional
+lone poplar tree developed in the mist as an object on a dry plate
+develops. We splashed into puddles, crossed culverts, went through all
+the business of proceeding along a road--and apparently got nowhere. The
+mists opened grudgingly before us, and closed in behind. As far as
+knowing what the country was like I might as well have been blindfolded.
+
+From Manning I elicited piecemeal some few and vague ideas. This
+meagreness was not due to a disinclination on Manning's part, but only
+to the fact that he never quite grasped my interest in mere
+surroundings. Yes, said he, it was a pretty flat country, and some
+brush. Yes, there were mountains, some ways off, though. Not many trees,
+but some--what you might call a few. And so on, until I gave it up.
+Mountains, trees, brush, and flat land! One could construct any and all
+landscapes with such building blocks as those.
+
+Now, as has been hinted, I was dressed for southern California; and the
+fog was very damp and chill. The light overcoat I wore failed utterly to
+exclude it. At first I had been comfortable enough, but as mile
+succeeded mile the cold of that winter land fog penetrated to the bone.
+In answer to my comment Manning replied cheerfully in the words of an
+old saw:
+
+    "_A winter's fog
+    Will freeze a dog_,"
+
+said he.
+
+I agreed with him. We continued to jog on. Manning detailed what I then
+thought were hunting lies as to the abundance of game; but which I
+afterward discovered were only sober truths. When too far gone in the
+miseries of abject cold I remembered his former calling, and glancing
+sideways at his bronzed, soldierly face, wished I had gumption enough
+left to start him going on some of his Indian campaigns. It was too
+late; I had not the gumption; I was too cold.
+
+Now I believe I am fairly well qualified to know when I really feel
+cold. I have slept out with the thermometer out of sight somewhere down
+near the bulb; I once snowshoed nine miles; and then overheated from
+that exertion, drove thirty-five without additional clothing. On various
+other occasions I have had experiences that might be called frigid. But
+never have I been quite so deadly cold as on that winter morning's drive
+through the land fog of semi-tropical California. It struck through to
+the very heart.
+
+I subsequently discovered that it takes two hours and three quarters to
+drive to the ranch. That is a long time when one has nothing to look at,
+and when one is cold. In fact, it is so long that one loses track of
+time at all, and gradually relapses into that queer condition of passive
+endurance whereto is no end and no beginning. Therefore the end always
+comes suddenly, and as a surprise.
+
+So it was in this case. Out of the mists sprang suddenly two tall fan
+palms, and then two others, and still others. I realized dimly that we
+were in an avenue of palms. The wheels grated strangely on gravel. We
+swung sharply to the left between hedges. The mass of a building loomed
+indistinctly. Manning applied the brakes. We stopped, the steam from
+the horses' shining backs rising straight up to mingle with the fog.
+
+"Well, here we are!" said Manning.
+
+So we were! I hadn't thought of that. We must be here. After an
+appreciable moment it occurred to me that perhaps I'd better climb down.
+I did so, very slowly and stiffly, making the sad mistake of jumping
+down from the height of the step. How that did injure my feelings! The
+only catastrophe I can remember comparable to it was when a teacher
+rapped my knuckles with a ruler after I had been making snowballs bare
+handed. My benumbed faculties next swung around to the proposition of
+proceeding up an interminable gravel walk--(it is twenty-five feet
+long!) to a forbidding flight of stairs--(porch steps--five of them!) I
+put this idea into execution. I reached the steps. And then----
+
+The door was flung open from within, I could see the sparkle and leap of
+a fine big grate fire. The Captain stood in the doorway, a broad smile
+on his face; my hostess smiled another welcome behind him; the General
+roared still another from somewhere behind her.
+
+Now I had never met the Captain. He held out both hands in greeting. One
+of those hands was for me to shake. The other held a huge glass of hot
+scotch. The hot scotch was in the right hand!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE PEOPLE AND THE PLACE
+
+
+They warmed me through, and then another old soldier named Redmond took
+me up to show me where I lived. We clambered up narrow boxed stairs that
+turned three ways; we walked down a narrow passage; turned to the right;
+walked down another narrow passage, climbed three steps to open a door;
+promptly climbed three steps down again; crossed a screened-in bridge to
+another wing; ducked through a passageway, and so arrived. The ranch
+house was like that. Parts of it were built out on stilts. Five or six
+big cottonwood trees grew right up through the verandahs, and spread out
+over the roof of the house. There are all sorts of places where you hang
+coats, or stack guns, or store shells, or find unexpected books;
+passageways leading to outdoor upstairs screened porches, cubby holes
+and the like. And whenever you imagine the house must be quite full of
+guests, they can always discover to you yet another bedroom. It may, at
+the last, be a very tiny bedroom, with space enough only for a single
+bed and not much else; and you may get to it only by way of out of
+doors; and it may be already fairly well occupied by wooden decoys and
+shotgun shells, but there it is, guests and guests after you thought the
+house must be full.
+
+Belonging and appertaining unto the house were several fixtures. One of
+these was old Charley, the Chinese cook. He had been there twenty-five
+years. In that time he had learned perfect English, acquired our kind of
+a sense of humour, come to a complete theoretical understanding of how
+to run a ranch and all the people on it, and taught Pollymckittrick what
+she knew.
+
+Pollymckittrick was the bereaved widow of the noble pair of yellow and
+green parrots Noah selected for his ark. At least I think she was that
+old. She was certainly very wise in both Oriental and Occidental wisdom.
+Her chief accomplishments, other than those customary to parrots, were
+the ability to spell, and to sing English songs. "After the Ball" and
+"Daisy Bell" were her favourites, rendered with occasional jungle
+variations. She considered Charley her only real friend, though she
+tolerated some others. Pollymckittrick was a product of artificial
+civilization. No call of the wild in hers! She preferred her cage,
+gilded or otherwise. Each afternoon the cage was placed out on the lawn
+so Pollymckittrick could have her sun bath. One day a big redtail hawk
+sailed by. Pollymckittrick fell backward off her perch, flat on her
+back. The sorrowing family gathered to observe this extraordinary case
+of heart failure. After an interval Pollymckittrick unfilmed one yellow
+eye.
+
+"Po--o--or Pollymckittrick!" she remarked.
+
+At the sight of that hawk Pollymckittrick had fainted!
+
+The third institution having to do with the house was undoubtedly
+Redmond. Redmond was another of the old soldiers who had in their age
+sought out their beloved General. Redmond was a sort of all-round man.
+He built the fires very early in the morning; and he did your boots and
+hunting clothes, got out the decoys, plucked the ducks, saw to the
+shells, fed the dogs, and was always on hand at arrival and departure to
+lend a helping hand. He dwelt in a square room in the windmill tower
+together with a black cat and all the newspapers in the world. The cat
+he alternately allowed the most extraordinary liberties or disciplined
+rigorously. On the latter occasions he invariably seized the animal and
+hurled it bodily through the open window. The cat took the long fall
+quite calmly, and immediately clambered back up the outside stairway
+that led to the room. The newspapers he read, and clipped therefrom
+items of the most diverse nature to which he deprecatingly invited
+attention. Once in so often a strange martial fervour would obsess him.
+Then the family, awakened in the early dawn, would groan and turn over,
+realizing that its rest was for that morning permanently shattered. The
+old man had hoisted his colours over the windmill tower, and now in a
+frenzy of fervour was marching around and around the tower beating the
+long roll on his drum. After one such outbreak he would be his ordinary,
+humble, quiet, obliging, almost deprecating self for another month or
+so. The ranch people took it philosophically.
+
+The fourth institution was Nobo. Nobo was a Japanese woman who bossed
+the General. She was a square-built person of forty or so who had also
+been with the family unknown years. Her capabilities were undoubted; as
+also her faith in them. The hostess depended on her a good deal; and at
+the same time chafed mildly under her calm assumption that she knew
+perfectly what the situation demanded. The General took her domination
+amusedly. To be sure nobody was likely to fool much with the General.
+His vast good nature had way down beneath it something that on occasion
+could be stern. Nobo could and would tell the General what clothes to
+wear, and when to change them, and such matters; but she never ventured
+to inhibit the General's ideas as to going forth in rains, or driving
+where he everlastingly dod-blistered pleased, or words to that effect,
+across country in his magnificently rattletrap surrey, although she
+often looked very anxious. For she adored the General. But we all did
+that.
+
+As though the heavy curtain of fog had been laid upon the land expressly
+that I might get my first impressions of the ranch in due order, about
+noon the weather cleared. Even while we ate lunch, the sun came out.
+After the meal we went forth to see what we could see.
+
+The ranch was situated in the middle of a vast plain around three sides
+of which rose a grand amphitheatre of mountains. The nearest of them was
+some thirty miles away, yet ordinarily, in this clear, dry, Western
+atmosphere they were always imminent. Over their eastern ramparts the
+sun rose to look upon a chill and frosty world; behind their western
+barriers the sun withdrew, leaving soft air, purple shadows, and the
+flight of dim, far wildfowl across a saffron sky. To the north was only
+distance and the fading of the blue of the heavens to the pearl gray of
+the horizon.
+
+So much if one stepped immediately beyond the ranch itself. The plains
+were broad. Here and there the flatness broke in a long, low line of
+cottonwoods marking the winding course of a slough or trace of subsoil
+water. Mesquite lay in dark patches; sagebrush; the green of
+pasture-land periodically overflowed by the irrigation water. Nearer at
+home were occasional great white oaks, or haystacks bigger than a house,
+and shaped like one.
+
+To the distant eye the ranch was a grove of trees. Cottonwoods and
+eucalyptus had been planted and had thriven mightily on the abundant
+artesian water. We have already noticed the six or eight great trees
+growing fairly up through the house. On the outskirts lay also a fruit
+orchard of several hundred acres. Opposite the house, and separated from
+it by a cedar hedge, was a commodious and attractive bungalow for the
+foreman. Beyond him were the bunk house, cook houses, blacksmith shops,
+and the like.
+
+We started our tour of inspection by examining and commenting gravely
+upon the dormant rose garden and equally dormant grape arbour. Through
+this we came to the big wire corrals in which were kept the dogs. Here I
+met old Ben.
+
+Old Ben was not very old; but he was different from young Ben. He was a
+pointer of the old-fashioned, stocky-built, enduring type common--and
+serviceable--before our bench-show experts began to breed for speed,
+fineness, small size--and lack of stamina. Ben proved in the event to be
+a good all-round dog. He combined the attributes of pointer, cocker
+spaniel, and retriever. In other words, he would hunt quail in the
+orthodox fashion; or he would rustle into the mesquite thorns for the
+purpose of flushing them out to us; or he would swim anywhere any number
+of times to bring out ducks. To be sure he occasionally got a little
+mixed. At times he might try to flush quail in the open, instead of
+standing them; or would attempt to retrieve some perfectly lively
+specimens. Then Ben needed a licking; and generally got it. He lacked in
+his work some of the finish and style of the dogs we used after grouse
+in Michigan, but he was a good all-round dog for the work. Furthermore,
+he was most pleasant personally.
+
+Next door to him lived the dachshunds.
+
+The dachshunds were a marvel, a nuisance, a bone of contention, an
+anomaly, an accident, and a farce. They happened because somebody had
+once given the hostess a pair of them. I do not believe she cared
+particularly for them; but she is good natured, and the ranch is large,
+and they are rather amusing. At the time of my first visit the original
+pair had multiplied. Gazing on that yardful of imbecile-looking canines,
+my admiration for Noah's wisdom increased; he certainly needed no more
+than a pair to restock the earth. Redmond claimed there were twenty-two
+of them, though nobody else pretended to have been able to disentangle
+them enough for a census. They were all light brown in colour; and the
+aggregation reminded me of a rather disentangled bunch of angle-worms.
+They lived in a large enclosure; and emerged therefrom only under
+supervision, for they considered chickens and young pigs their especial
+prey. The Captain looked upon them with exasperated tolerance; Redmond
+with affection; the hostess, I think, with a good deal of the
+partisanship inspired not so much by liking as by the necessity of
+defending them against ridicule; and the rest of the world with amused
+expectation as to what they would do next. The Captain was continually
+uttering half-serious threats as to the different kinds of sudden death
+he was going to inflict on the whole useless, bandylegged, snipe-nosed,
+waggle-eared----
+
+The best comment was offered last year by the chauffeur of the
+automobile. After gazing on the phenomenon of their extraordinary build
+for some moments he remarked thoughtfully:
+
+"Those dogs have a mighty long wheel base!"
+
+For some reason unknown two of the dachshunds have been elevated from
+the ranks, and have house privileges. Their names are respectively Pete
+and Pup. They hate each other, and have sensitive dispositions. It took
+me just four years to learn to tell them apart. I believe Pete has a
+slightly projecting short rib on his left side--or is it Pup? It was
+fatal to mistake.
+
+"Hullo, Pup!" I would cry to one jovially.
+
+"G--r--r--r--!" would remark the dog, retiring under the sofa. Thus I
+would know it was Pete. The worst of it was that said Pete's feelings
+were thereby lacerated so deeply that I was not forgiven all the rest of
+that day.
+
+Beyond the dogs lay a noble enclosure so large that it would have been
+subdivided into building lots had it been anywhere else. It was
+inhabited by all sorts of fowl, hundreds of them, of all varieties.
+There were chickens, turkeys, geese, and a flock of ducks. The Captain
+pointed out the Rouen ducks, almost exactly like the wild mallards.
+
+"Those are my live decoys," said he.
+
+For the accommodation of this multitude were cities of nest houses,
+roost houses, and the like. Huge structures elevated on poles swarmed
+with doves. A duck pond even had been provided for its proper denizens.
+
+Thus we reached the southernmost outpost of our quadrangle, and turned
+to the west, where an ancient Chinaman and an assistant cultivated
+minutely and painstakingly a beautiful vegetable garden. Tiny irrigation
+streams ran here and there, fitted with miniature water locks. Strange
+and foreign bamboo mattings, withes, and poles performed strange and
+foreign functions. The gardener, brown and old and wrinkled, his cue
+wound neatly beneath his tremendous, woven-straw umbrella of a hat,
+possessing no English, no emotion, no single ray of the sort of
+intelligence required to penetrate into our Occidental world, bent over
+his work. When we passed, he did not look up. He dwelt in a shed. At
+least, such it proved to be, when examined with the cold eye of
+analysis. In impression it was ancient, exotic, Mongolian, the abode of
+one of a mysterious and venerable race, a bit of foreign country. By
+what precise means this was accomplished it would be difficult to say.
+It is a fact well known to all Californians that a Chinaman can with no
+more extensive properties than a few pieces of red paper, a partition, a
+dingy curtain, and a varnished duck transform utterly an American
+tenement into a Chinese pagoda.
+
+Thence we passed through a wicket and came to the abode of hogs. They
+dotted the landscape into the far distance, rooting about to find what
+they could; they lay in wallows; they heaped themselves along fences;
+they snorted and splashed in sundry shallow pools; a good half mile of
+maternal hogs occupied a row of kennels from which the various progeny
+issued forth between the bars. I cannot say I am much interested in
+hogs, but even I could dimly comprehend the Captain's attitude of
+swollen pride. They were clean, and black, and more nearly approximated
+the absurd hog advertisements than I had believed possible. You know the
+kind I mean; an almost exact rectangle on four short legs.
+
+In the middle distance stood a long, narrow, thatched roof supported on
+poles. Beneath this, the Captain told me, were the beehives. They proved
+later to be in charge of a mild-eyed religious fanatic who believed the
+world to be flat.
+
+We took a cursory glance at a barn filled to the brim with prunes; and
+the gushing, beautiful artesian well; at the men's quarters; the
+blacksmith shop, and all the rest. So we rounded the circle and came to
+the most important single feature of the ranch--the quarters for the
+horses.
+
+A very long, deep shed, open on all sides, contained a double row of
+mangers facing each other, and divided into stalls. Here stood and were
+fed the working horses. By that I mean not only the mule and horse
+teams, but also the utility driving teams and the saddle horses used by
+the cowboys. Between each two stalls was a heavy pillar supporting the
+roof, and well supplied with facilities for hanging up the harness and
+equipments. As is usual in California, the sides and ends were open to
+the air; and the floor was simply the earth well bedded.
+
+But over against this shed stood a big barn of the Eastern type. Here
+were the private equipments.
+
+The Captain is a horseman. He breeds polo ponies after a formula of his
+own; and so successfully that many of them cross the Atlantic. On the
+ranch are always several hundred head of beautiful animals; and of
+these the best are kept up for the use of the Captain and his friends.
+We looked at them in their clean, commodious stalls; we inspected the
+harness and saddle room, glistening and satiny with polished metal and
+well-oiled leather; we examined the half dozen or so of vehicles of all
+descriptions. The hostess told with relish of her one attempt to be
+stylish.
+
+"We had such beautiful horses," said she, "that I thought we ought to
+have something to go with them, so I sent up to the city for my
+brougham. It made a very neat turnout; and Tom was as proud of it as I
+was, but when it came to a question of proper garb for Tom I ran up
+against a deadlock. Tom refused point blank to wear a livery or anything
+approaching a livery. He was perfectly respectful about it; but he
+refused. Well, I drove around all that winter, when the weather was bad,
+in a well-appointed brougham drawn by a good team in a proper harness;
+and on the box sat a lean-faced cow puncher in sombrero, red
+handkerchief, and blue jeans!"
+
+Tom led forth the horses one after the other--Kingmaker, the Fiddler,
+Pittapat, and the others. We spent a delightful two hours. The sun
+dropped; the shadows lengthened. From the fields the men began to come
+in. They drove the wagons and hay ricks into the spacious enclosure, and
+set leisurely about the task of caring for their animals. Chinese and
+Japanese drifted from the orchards, and began to manipulate the
+grindstone on their pruning knives. Presently a cowboy jogged in, his
+spurs and bit jingling. From the cook house a bell began to clang.
+
+We turned back to the house. Before going in I faced the west. The sky
+had turned a light green full of lucence. The minor sounds of the ranch
+near by seemed to be surrounded by a sea of silence outside. Single
+sounds came very clearly across it. And behind everything, after a few
+moments, I made out a queer, monotonous background of half-croaking
+calling. For some time this puzzled me. Then at last my groping
+recollection came to my assistance. I was hearing the calling of myriads
+of snow geese.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE EARLY BIRD
+
+
+I was awakened rather early by Redmond, who silently entered the room,
+lit a kerosene stove, closed the windows, and departed. As I was now
+beneath two blankets and an eiderdown quilt, and my nose was cold, I was
+duly grateful. Mistaking the rite for a signal to arise, I did so; and
+shortly descended. The three fireplaces were crackling away merrily, but
+they had done little to mitigate the atmosphere as yet. Maids were
+dusting and sweeping. The table was not yet set. Inquiry telling that
+breakfast was more than an hour later, I took a gun from the rack,
+pocketed the only five shells in sight, and departed to see what I could
+see.
+
+The outer world was crisp with frost. I clambered over the corral fence,
+made my way through a hundred acres or so of slumbering pigs, and so
+emerged into the open country.
+
+In the middle distance and perhaps a mile away was a low fringe of
+brush; to the left an equal distance a group of willows; and almost
+behind me a clump of cottonwoods. I resolved to walk over to the brush,
+swing around to the willows, turn to the cottonwoods, and so back to the
+ranch. It looked like about four miles or so. Perhaps with my five
+shells I might get something. At any rate, I would have a good walk.
+
+The mountains were turning from the rose pink of early morning. I could
+hear again the bickering cries of the snow geese and sandhill cranes
+away in an unknown distance, the homelier calls of barnyard fowl nearer
+at hand. Cattle trotted before me and to right and left, their heads
+high, their gait swinging with the freedom of the half-wild animals of
+the ranges. After a few steps they turned to stare at me, eyes and
+nostrils wide, before making up their minds whether or not it would be
+wise to put a greater distance between me and them. The close sod was
+green and strong. It covered the slightly rounding irrigation "checks"
+that followed in many a curve and double the lines of contours on the
+flat plain.
+
+The fringe of brush did not amount to anything; it was merely a
+convenient turning mark for my little walk. Arrived there, I executed a
+sharp "column left----"
+
+Seven ducks leaped into the air apparently from the bare, open, and dry
+ground!
+
+Every sportsman knows the scattering effect on the wits of the
+absolutely unexpected appearance of game. Every sportsman knows also the
+instinctive reactions that long habit will bring about. Thus,
+figuratively, I stood with open mouth, heart beating slightly faster,
+and mind making to itself such imbecile remarks as: "Well, _what_ do you
+think of that! Who in blazes would have expected ducks here?" and other
+futile remarks. In the meantime, the trained part of me had jerked the
+gun off my shoulder, pushed forward the safety catch, and prepared for
+one hasty long shot at the last and slowest of the ducks. Now the
+instinctive part of one can do the preparations, but the actual
+shooting requires a more ordered frame of mind. By this time my wits
+had snapped back into place. I had the satisfaction of seeing the duck's
+outstretched neck wilt; of hearing him hit the ground with a thud
+somewhere beyond.
+
+Marking the line of his fall, I stepped confidently forward, and without
+any warning whatever found myself standing on the bank of an irrigation
+ditch. It was filled to the brim with placid water on which floated a
+few downy feathers. On this side was dry sod; and on the other was dry
+sod. Nothing indicated the presence of that straight band of silvery
+water until one stood fairly at its brink. To the right I could see its
+sides narrow to the point of a remote perspective. To the left it ran
+for a few hundred yards, then apparently came to an abrupt stop where it
+turned at an angle.
+
+In the meantime, my duck was on the other side; I was in my citizen's
+clothes.
+
+No solution offered in sight, so I made my way to the left where I could
+look around the bend. Nearing the bend I was seized with a bright idea.
+I dropped back below the line of sight, sneaked quietly to the bank,
+and, my eye almost level with the water, peered down the new vista. Sure
+enough, not a hundred and fifty yards away floated another band of
+ducks.
+
+I watched them for a moment until I was sure, by various small
+landmarks, of their exact location. Then I dropped back far enough so
+that, even standing erect, I would be below the line of vision of those
+ducks; strolled along until opposite my landmarks; then, bolt upright,
+walked directly forward, the gun at ready. When within twenty yards the
+ducks arose. It was, of course, easy shooting. Both fell across the
+ditch. That did not worry me; if worst came to worst I could strip and
+wade.
+
+This seemed to be an exceedingly unique and interesting way to shoot
+ducks. To be sure, I had only two shells left; but then, it must be
+almost breakfast time. I repeated the feat a half mile farther on,
+discovered a flood gate over which I could get to the other side,
+collected my five ducks, and cut across country to the ranch. The sun
+was just getting in its work on the frost. Long files of wagons and men
+could be seen disappearing in the distance. I entered proudly, only ten
+minutes late.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+QUAIL
+
+
+The family assembled took my statement with extraordinary calm,
+contenting themselves with a general inquiry as to the species. I was
+just a trifle crestfallen at this indifference. You see at this time I
+was not accustomed to the casual duck. My shooting heretofore had been a
+very strenuous matter. It had involved arising many hours before sun-up,
+and venturing forth miles into wild marshes; and much endurance of cold
+and discomfort. To make a bag of any sort we were in the field before
+the folk knew the night had passed. Upland shooting meant driving long
+distances, and walking through the heavy hardwood swamps and slashes
+from dusk to dusk. Therefore I had considered myself in great luck to
+have blundered upon my ducks so casually; and, furthermore, from the
+family's general air of leisure and unpreparedness, jumped to the
+conclusion that no field sport was projected for that day.
+
+Mrs. Kitty presided beside a copper coffee pot with a bell-shaped glass
+top. As this was also an institution, it merits attention. A small
+alcohol lamp beneath was lighted. For a long time nothing happened. Then
+all at once the glass dome clouded, was filled with frantic brown and
+racing bubbling. Thereupon the hostess turned over a sand glass. When
+the last grains had run through, the alcohol lamp was turned off.
+Immediately the glass dome was empty again. From a spigot one drew off
+coffee.
+
+But if perchance the Captain and I wished to get up before anybody else
+could be hired to get up, the Dingbat could be so loaded as to give down
+an automatic breakfast. The evening before the maid charged the affair
+as usual, and at the last popped four eggs into the glass dome. After
+the mysterious alchemical perturbations had ceased, we fished out those
+eggs soft boiled to the second! One day the maid mistook the gasoline
+bottle for the alcohol bottle. That is a sad tale having to do with
+running flames, and burned table pieces, not to speak of a melted-down
+connection or so on the Dingbat. We did not know what was the matter;
+and our attitude was not so much that of alarm, as of grief and
+indignation that our good old tried and trained Dingbat should in his
+old age cut up any such didoes. Especially as there were new guests
+present.
+
+After breakfast we wandered out on the verandah. Nobody seemed to be in
+any hurry to start anything. The hostess made remarks to
+Pollymckittrick; the General read a newspaper; the Captain sauntered
+about enjoying the sun. After fifteen minutes, as though the notion had
+just occurred, somebody suggested that we go shooting.
+
+"How about it?" the Captain asked me.
+
+"Surely," I agreed, and added with some surprise out of my other
+experience, "Isn't it a little late?"
+
+But the Captain misunderstood me.
+
+"I don't mean blind shooting," said he, "just ram around."
+
+He seized a megaphone and bellowed through it at the stables.
+
+"Better get on your war paint," he suggested to me.
+
+I changed hastily into my shooting clothes, and returned to the
+verandah. After some few moments the Captain joined me. After some few
+moments more a tremendous rattling came from the stable. A fine bay team
+swung into the driveway, rounded the circle, and halted. It drew the
+source of the tremendous rattling.
+
+Thus I became acquainted with the Liver Invigorator. The Invigorator was
+a buckboard high, wide, and long. It had one wide seat. Aft of that seat
+was a cage with bars, in which old Ben rode. Astern was a deep box
+wherein one carried rubber boots, shells, decoys, lunch, game, and the
+like. The Invigorator was very old, very noisy, and very able. With it
+we drove cheerfully anywhere we pleased--over plowed land, irrigation
+checks, through brush thick enough to lift our wheels right off the
+ground, and down into and out of water ditches so steep that we
+alternately stood the affair on its head and its tail, and so deep that
+we had to hold all our belongings in our arms, while old Ben stuck his
+nose out the top bars of his cage for a breath of air. It could not be
+tipped over; at least we never upset it. To offset these virtues it
+rattled like a runaway milk wagon; and it certainly hit the high spots
+and hit them _hard_. Nevertheless, in a long and strenuous sporting
+career the Invigorator became endeared through association to many
+friends. When the Captain proposed a new vehicle with easier springs and
+less noise, a wail of protest arose from many and distant places. The
+Invigorator still fulfills its function.
+
+Now there are three major topics on the Ranch: namely, ducks, quail, and
+ponies. In addition to these are five of minor interest: the mail,
+cattle, jackrabbits, coons, and wildcats.
+
+I was already familiar with the valley quail, for I had hunted him since
+I was a small boy with the first sixteen-gauge gun ever brought to the
+coast. I knew him for a very speedy bird, much faster than our bob
+white, dwelling in the rounded sagebrush hills, travelling in flocks of
+from twenty to several thousand, exceedingly given to rapid leg work. We
+had to climb hard after him, and shoot like lightning from insecure
+footing. His idiosyncrasies were as strongly impressed on me as the fact
+that human beings walk upright. Here, however, I had to revise my ideas.
+
+We drove down the avenue of palms, pursued by four or five yapping
+dachshunds, and so out into a long, narrow lane between pasture fences.
+Herds of ponies, fuzzy in their long winter coats, came gently to look
+at us. The sun was high now, so the fur of their backs lay flat. Later,
+in the chill of evening, the hair would stand out like the nap of
+velvet, thus providing for additional warmth by the extra air space
+between the outside of the coat and the skin. It must be very handy to
+carry this invisible overcoat, ready for the moment's need. Here, too,
+were cattle standing about. On many of them I recognized the familiar
+J-I brand of many of my Arizona experiences. Arizona bred and raised
+them; California fattened them for market. We met a cowboy jingling by
+at his fox trot; then came to the country road.
+
+Along this we drove for some miles. The country was perfectly flat, but
+variegated by patches of greasewood, of sagebrush, of Egyptian-corn
+fields, and occasionally by a long, narrow fringe of trees. Here, too,
+were many examples of that phenomenon so vigorously doubted by most
+Easterners: the long rows of trees grown from original cotton wood or
+poplar fence posts. In the distance always were the mountains. Overhead
+the sky was very blue. A number of buzzards circled.
+
+After a time we turned off the road and into a country covered over with
+tumbleweed, a fine umber red growth six or eight inches high, and
+scattered sagebrush. Inlets, bays, and estuaries of bare ground ran
+everywhere. The Captain stood up to drive, watching for the game to
+cross these bare places.
+
+I stood up, too. It is no idle feat to ride the Invigorator thus over
+hummocky ground. It lurched and bumped and dropped into and out of
+trouble; and in correspondence I alternately rose up and sat down again,
+hard. The Captain rode the storm without difficulty. He was accustomed
+to the Invigorator; and, too, he had the reins to hang on by.
+
+"There they go!" said he, suddenly, bringing the team to a halt.
+
+I looked ahead. Across a ten-foot barren ran the quail, their crests
+cocked forward, their trim figures held close as a sprinter goes, rank
+after rank, their heads high in the alert manner of quail.
+
+The Captain sat down, jerked off the brake, and spoke to his horses. I
+sat down, too; mainly because I had to. The Invigorator leaped from hump
+to hump. Before those quail knew it we were among them. Right, left, all
+around us they roared into the air. Some doubled back; some buzzed low
+to right or left; others rose straight ahead to fly a quarter mile, and
+then, wings set, to sail another quarter until finally they pitched down
+into some bit of inviting cover.
+
+The Captain brought his horses to a stand with great satisfaction. We
+congratulated each other gleefully; and even old Ben, somewhat shaken up
+in his cage astern, wagged his tail in appreciation of the situation.
+
+For, you see, we had scattered the covey, and now they would lie. If the
+band had flushed, flown, and lighted as one body, immediately on hitting
+the ground they would have put their exceedingly competent little legs
+into action, and would have run so well and so far that, by the time we
+had arrived on the spot, they would have been a good half mile away. But
+now that the covey was broken, the individuals and small bands would
+stay put. If they ran at all, it would be for but a short distance. On
+this preliminary scattering depends the success of a chase after
+California quail. I have seen six or eight men empty both barrels of
+their guns at a range of more than a hundred yards. They were not insane
+enough to think they would get anything. Merely they hoped that the
+racket and the dropping of the spent shot would break the distant covey.
+
+We hitched the horses to a tree, released old Ben, and started forth.
+
+For a half hour we had the most glorious sport, beating back and forth
+over the ground again and again. The birds lay well in the low cover,
+and the shooting was clean and open. I soon found that the edges of the
+bare ground were the most likely places. Apparently the birds worked
+slowly through the cover ahead of us, but hesitated to cross the open
+spots, and so bunched at the edge. By walking in a zigzag along some of
+these borders, we gathered in many scattered birds and small bunches.
+Why the zigzag? Naturally it covers a trifle more ground than a straight
+course, but principally it seems to confuse the game. If you walk in a
+straight line, so the quail can foretell your course, it is very apt
+either to flush wild or to hide so close that you pass it by. The zigzag
+fools it.
+
+Thus, with varying luck, we made a slow circle back to the wagon. Here
+we found Mrs. Kitty and Carrie and the lunch awaiting us with the
+ponies.
+
+These robust little animals were not miniature horses, but genuine
+ponies, with all the deviltry, endurance, and speed of their kind. They
+were jet-black, about waist high, and of great intelligence. They drew a
+neat little rig, capable of accommodating two, at a persistent rapid
+patter that somehow got over the road at a great gait. And they could
+keep it up all day. Although perfectly gentle, they were as alert as
+gamins for mischief, and delighted hugely in adding to the general row
+and confusion if anything happened to go wrong. Mrs. Kitty drove them
+everywhere. One day she attempted to cross an irrigation ditch that
+proved to be deeper than she had thought it. The ponies disappeared
+utterly, leaving Mrs. Kitty very much astonished. Horses would have
+drowned in like circumstances, but the ponies, nothing daunted, dug in
+their hoofs and scrambled out like a pair of dogs, incidentally dipping
+their mistress on the way.
+
+In the shade of a high greasewood we unpacked the pony carriage. This
+was before the days of thermos bottles, so we had a most elaborate
+wicker basket whose sides let down to form a wind shield protecting an
+alcohol burner and a kettle. When the water boiled, we made hot tea, and
+so came to lunch.
+
+Strangely enough this was my first experience at having lunch brought
+out to the field. Ordinarily we had been accustomed to carry a sandwich
+or so in the side pockets of our shooting coats, which same we ate at
+any odd moment that offered. Now was disclosed an astonishing variety.
+There were sandwiches, of course, and a salad, and the tea, but
+wonderful to contemplate was a deep dish of potted quail, row after row
+of them, with delicious white sauce. In place of the frugal bite or so
+that would have left us alert and fit for an afternoon's work, we ate
+until nothing remained. Then we lit pipes and lay on our backs, and
+contemplated a cloudless sky. It was the warm time of day. The horses
+snoozed, a hind leg tucked up; old Ben lay outstretched in doggy
+content; Mrs. Kitty knit or crocheted or something of that sort; and
+Carrie and the Captain and I took cat naps. At length, the sun's rays no
+longer striking warm from overhead, the Captain aroused us sternly.
+
+"You're a nice, energetic, able lot of sportsmen!" he cried with
+indignation. "Have I got to wait until sunset for you lazy chumps to get
+a full night's rest?"
+
+"Don't mind him," Mrs. Kitty told me, placidly; "he was sound asleep
+himself; and the only reason he waked is because he snored and I
+_punched_ him."
+
+She folded up her fancy work, shook out her skirts, and turned to the
+ponies.
+
+It was now late in the afternoon. We had disgracefully wasted our time,
+and enjoyed doing it. The Captain decided it to be too late to hunt up a
+new covey, so we reversed to pick up some of those that had originally
+doubled back. We flushed forty or fifty of them at the edge of the road.
+They scattered ahead of us in a forty-acre plowed field.
+
+Until twilight, then, we walked leisurely back and forth, which is the
+only way to walk in a plowed field, after all. The birds had pitched
+down into the old furrows, and whenever a tuft of grass, a piece of
+tumbleweed, or a shallow grassy ditch offered a handful of cover, there
+the game was to be found. Mrs. Kitty followed at the Captain's elbow,
+and Carrie at mine. Carrie made a first-rate dog, marking down the birds
+unerringly. The quail flew low and hard, offering in the gathering
+twilight and against the neutral-coloured earth marks worthy of good
+shooting. At last we turned back to our waiting team. The dusk was
+coming over the land, and the "shadow of the earth" was marking its
+strange blue arc in the east. As usual the covey was now securely
+scattered. Of a thousand or so birds we had bagged forty-odd; and yet of
+the remainder we would have had difficulty in flushing another dozen. It
+is the mystery of the quail, and one that the sportsman can never
+completely comprehend. As we clambered into the Invigorator we could
+hear from all directions the birds signalling each other. Near, far, to
+right, to left, the call sounded, repeating over and over again a
+parting, defiant denial that the victory was ours.
+
+"You _can't_ shoot! You _can't_ shoot! You _can't_ shoot!"
+
+And nearer at hand the contented chirping twitter as the covey found
+itself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+PONIES
+
+
+Next morning the Captain decided that he had various affairs to attend
+to, so we put on our riding clothes and went down to the stables.
+
+The Captain had always forty or fifty polo ponies in the course of
+education, and he was delighted to have them ridden, once he was
+convinced of your seat and hands. They were beautiful ponies, generally
+iron gray in colour, very friendly, very eager, and very lively. Riding
+them was like flying through the air, for they sailed over rough ground,
+irrigation checks, and the like without a break in their stride, and
+without a jar. By the same token it was necessary to ride them. At odd
+moments they were quite likely to give a wide sidewise bound or a
+stiff-legged buck from sheer joy of life. One got genuine "horse
+exercise" out of them.
+
+The Captain, as perhaps I have said, invented these ponies himself. From
+Chihuahua he brought in some of the best mustang mares he could find;
+and, in case you have Frederick Remington's pictures of starved
+winter-range animals in mind, let me tell you a good mustang is a very
+handsome animal indeed. These he bred to a thoroughbred. The resulting
+half-breeds grew to the proper age. Then he started to have them broken
+to the saddle. A start was as far as he ever got, for nobody could ride
+them. They combined the intelligence and vice of the mustang with the
+endurance and nervous instability of the thoroughbred. The Captain tried
+all sorts of men, even sending at last to Arizona for a good bronco
+buster on the J-I. Only one or two of the many could back the animals at
+all, though many aspirants made a try at it. After a long series of
+experiments, the Captain came to the reluctant conclusion that the cross
+was no good. It seemed a pity, for they were beautiful animals, up to
+full polo size, deep chested, strong shouldered, close coupled, and
+speedy.
+
+Then, by way of idleness, he bred some of the half-bred mares. The
+three-quarter cross proved to be ideal. They were gentle, easily broken,
+and to the eye differed in no particular from their pure-blooded
+brothers. So, ever since, the Captain has been raising these most
+excellent polo ponies to his great honour and profit and the incidental
+pleasure of his friends who like riding.
+
+One of these ponies was known as the Merry Jest. He had a terrifying but
+harmless trick. The moment the saddle was cinched, down went his head
+and he began to buck in the most vicious style. This he would keep up
+until further orders. In order to put an end to the performance all one
+had to do was to haul in on the rope, thrust one's foot in the stirrup,
+and clamber aboard. For, mark you this, Merry Jest in the course of a
+long and useful life never failed to buck under the empty saddle--and
+_never_ bucked under a rider!
+
+This, of course, constituted the Merry Jest. Its beauty was that it was
+so safe.
+
+"Want to ride?" asked the Captain.
+
+"Surely," replied the unsuspecting stranger.
+
+The Merry Jest was saddled, brought forth, and exhibited in action.
+
+"There's your horse," remarked the Captain in a matter-of-course tone.
+
+We rode out the corral gate and directly into the open country. The
+animals chafed to be away; and when we loosened the reins, leaped
+forward in long bounds. Over the rough country they skimmed like
+swallows, their hoofs hardly seeming to touch the ground, the powerful
+muscles playing smoothly beneath us like engines. After a mile of this
+we pulled up, and set about the serious business of the day.
+
+One after another we oversaw all the major activities of such a ranch;
+outside, I mean, of the ranch enclosure proper where were the fowls, the
+vegetable gardens, and the like. Here an immense hay rick was being
+driven slowly along while two men pitched off the hay to right and left.
+After it followed a long line of cattle. This manner of feeding obviated
+the crowding that would have taken place had the hay not been thus
+scattered. The more aggressive followed close after the rick, snatching
+mouthfuls of the hay as it fell. The more peaceful, or subdued, or
+philosophical strung out in a long, thin line, eating steadily at one
+spot. They got more hay with less trouble, but the other fellows had to
+maintain reputations for letting nobody get ahead of _them_!
+
+At another point an exceedingly rackety engine ran a hay press, where
+the constituents of one of the enormous house-like haystacks were fed
+into a hopper and came out neatly baled. A dozen or so men oversaw the
+activities of this noisy and dusty machine.
+
+Down by the northerly cottonwoods two miles away we found other men with
+scrapers throwing up the irrigation checks along the predetermined
+contour lines. By means of these irregular meandering earthworks the
+water, admitted from the ditch to the upper end of the field, would work
+its way slowly from level to level instead of running off or making
+channels for itself. This job, too, was a dusty one. We could see the
+smoke of it rising from a long distance; and the horses and men were
+brown with it.
+
+And again we rode softly for miles over greensward through the cattle,
+at a gentle fox trot, so as not to disturb them. At several points stood
+great blue herons, like sentinels, decorative as a Japanese screen,
+absolutely motionless. The Captain explained that they were "fishing"
+for gophers; and blessed them deeply. Sometimes our mounts splashed for
+a long distance through water five or six inches shallow. Underneath the
+surface we could see the short green grass of the turf that thus
+received its refreshment. Then somewhere near, silhouetted against the
+sky or distant mountains, on the slight elevation of the irrigation
+ditch bank, we were sure to see some of the irrigation Chinamen. They
+were strange, exotic figures, their skins sunburned and dark, their
+queues wound around their heads; wearing always the same uniform of blue
+jeans cut China-fashion, rubber boots, and the wide, inverted bowl
+Chinese sun hat of straw. By means of shovels wherewith to dig, and iron
+bars wherewith to raise and lower flood gates, they controlled the
+artificial rainfall of the region. So accustomed did the ducks become
+to these amphibious people that they hardly troubled themselves to get
+out of the way, and were utterly careless of how near they flew. Uncle
+Jim once disguised himself as an irrigation Chinaman and got all kinds
+of shooting--until the ducks found him out. Now they seem able to
+distinguish accurately between a Chinaman with a long shovel and a white
+man with a shotgun, no matter how the latter is dressed. Ducks, tame and
+wild, have a lot of sense. It must bore the former to be forced to
+associate with chickens.
+
+Over in the orchard, of a thousand acres or so, were many more
+Orientals, and hundreds of wild doves. These Chinese were all of the
+lower coolie orders, and primitive, not to say drastic in their medical
+ideas. One evening the Captain heard a fine caterwauling and drum
+beating over in the quarters, and sallied forth to investigate. In one
+of the huts he found four men sitting on the outspread legs and arms of
+a fifth. The latter had been stripped stark naked. A sixth was engaged
+in placing live coals on the patient's belly, while assorted assistants
+furnished appropriate music and lamentation. The Captain put a stop to
+the proceedings and bundled the victim to a hospital where he promptly
+died. It was considered among Chinese circles that the Captain had
+killed him by ill-timed interference!
+
+Everywhere we went, and wherever a small clump of trees or even large
+brush offered space, hung the carcasses of coyotes, wildcats, and lynx.
+Some were quite new, while others had completely mummified in the dry
+air of these interior plains. These were the trophies of the
+professional "varmint killer," a man hired by the month. Of course it
+would be only too easy for such an official to loaf on his job, so this
+one had adopted the unique method of proving his activity. Everywhere
+the Captain rode he could see that his man had been busy.
+
+All this time we had been working steadily away from the ranch. Long
+zigzags and side trips carried us little forward, and a constant
+leftward tendency swung us always around, until we had completed a half
+circle of which the ranch itself was the centre. The irrigated fields
+had given place to open country of a semi-desert character grown high
+with patches of greasewood, sagebrush, thorn-bush; with wide patches of
+scattered bunch grass; and stretches of alkali waste. Here, unexpectedly
+to me, we stumbled on a strange but necessary industry incidental to so
+large an estate. Our nostrils were assailed by a mighty stink. We came
+around the corner of some high brush directly on a small two-story
+affair with a factory smokestack. It was fenced in, and the fence was
+covered with drying hides. I will spare you details, but the function of
+the place was to make glue, soap, and the like of those cattle whose
+term of life was marked by misfortune rather than by the butcher's
+knife. The sole workman at this economical and useful occupation did not
+seem to mind it. The Captain claimed he was as good as a buzzard at
+locating the newly demised.
+
+Our ponies did not like the place either. They snorted violently, and
+pricked their ears back and forth, and were especially relieved and
+eager to obey when we turned their heads away.
+
+We rode on out into the desert, our ponies skipping expertly through
+the low brush and gingerly over the alkali crust of the open spaces
+beneath which might be holes. Jackrabbits by the thousand, literally,
+hopped away in front of us, spreading in all directions as along the
+sticks of a fan. They were not particularly afraid, so they loped easily
+in high-bounding leaps, their ears erect. Many of them sat bolt upright,
+looking at least two feet high. Occasionally we managed really to scare
+one, and then it was a grand sight to see him open the throttle and scud
+away, his ears flat back, in the classical and correct attitude of the
+constantly recurring phrase of the ancients: "belly to earth he flew!"
+
+Jackrabbits are a great nuisance. The Captain had to enclose his
+precious alfalfa fields with rabbit-proof wire to prevent utter
+destruction. There was a good deal of fence, naturally, and occasionally
+the inquiring rabbit would find a hole and crawl through. Then he was in
+alfalfa, which is, as every Californian knows, much better than being in
+clover. He ate at first greedily, then more daintily, wandering always
+farther afield in search of dessert. Never, however, did he forget the
+precise location of the opening by which he had entered, as was wise of
+him. For now, behold, enter the dogs. Ordinarily these dogs, who were
+also wise beasts, passed by the jackrabbit in his abundance with only
+inhibited longing. Their experience had taught them that to chase
+jackrabbits in the open with any motive ulterior to that of healthful
+exercise and the joy of seeing the blame things run was as vain and as
+puppish as chasing one's tail. But in the alfalfa fields was a chance,
+for it must be remembered that such fields were surrounded by the
+rabbit-proof wire in which but a single opening was known to the jack in
+question. Therefore, with huge delight, the dogs gave chase. Mr. Rabbit
+bolted back for his opening, his enemies fairly at his heels. Now comes
+the curious part of the episode. The dogs knew perfectly well that if
+the rabbit hit the hole in the fence he was safe for all of them; and
+they had learned, further, that if the rabbit missed his plunge for
+safety he would collide strongly with that tight-strung wire. When
+within twenty feet or so of the fence they stopped short in expectation.
+Probably three times out of five the game made his plunge in safety and
+scudded away over the open plain outside. Then the dogs turned and
+trotted philosophically back to the ranch. But the other two times the
+rabbit would miss. At full speed he would hit the tight-strung mesh,
+only to be hurled back by its resiliency fairly into the jaws of his
+waiting pursuers. Though thousands may consider this another
+nature-fake, I shall always have the comfort of thinking that the
+Captain and the dogs know it for the truth.
+
+At times jackrabbits get some sort of a plague and die in great numbers.
+Indeed some years at the ranch they seemed almost to have disappeared.
+Their carcasses are destroyed almost immediately by the carrion
+creatures, and their delicate bones, scattered by the ravens, buzzards,
+and coyotes, soon disintegrate and pass into the soil. One does not find
+many evidences of the destruction that has been at work; yet he will see
+tens instead of myriads. I have been at the ranch when one was never out
+of sight of jackrabbits, in droves, and again I have been there when
+one would not see a half dozen in a morning's ride. They recover their
+numbers fast enough, and the chances are that this "narrow-gauge mule"
+will be always with us. The ranchman would like nothing better than to
+bid him a last fond but genuine farewell; but I should certainly miss
+him.
+
+The greasewood and thorn-bush grew in long, narrow patches. The ragweed
+grew everywhere it pleased, affording grand cover for the quail. The
+sagebrush occurred singly at spaced intervals, with tiny bare spaces
+between across which the plumed little rascals scurried hurriedly. The
+tumbleweed banked high wherever, in the mysterious dispensations of
+Providence, a call for tumbleweed had made itself heard.
+
+The tumbleweed is a curious vegetable. It grows and flourishes amain,
+and becomes great even as a sagebrush, and puts forth its blossoms and
+seeds, and finally turns brown and brittle. Just about as you would
+conclude it has reached a respectable old age and should settle down by
+its chimney corner, it decides to go travelling. The first breath of
+wind that comes along snaps it off close to the ground. The next turns
+it over. And then, inasmuch as the tumbleweed is roughly globular in
+shape, some three or four feet in diameter, and exceedingly light in
+structure, over and over it rolls across the plain! If the wind happens
+to increase, the whole flock migrates, bounding merrily along at a good
+rate of speed. Nothing more terrifying to the unaccustomed equine can be
+imagined than thirty or forty of these formidable-looking monsters
+charging down upon him, bouncing several feet from the surface of the
+earth. The experienced horse treats them with the contempt such
+light-minded senility deserves, and wades through their phantom attack
+indifferent. After the breeze has died the debauched old tumbleweeds are
+everywhere to be seen, piled up against brush, choking the ditches,
+filling the roads. Their beautiful spherical shapes have been frayed out
+so that they look sodden and weary and done up. But their seeds have
+been scattered abroad over the land.
+
+Wherever we found water, there we found ducks. The irrigating ditches
+contained many bands of a dozen or fifteen; the overflow ponds had each
+its little flock. The sky, too, was rarely empty of them; and the cries
+of the snow geese and the calls of sandhill cranes were rarely still. I
+remarked on this abundance.
+
+"Ducks!" replied the Captain, wonderingly. "Why, you haven't _begun_ to
+see ducks! Come with me."
+
+Thereupon we turned sharp to the left. After ten minutes I made out from
+a slight rise above the plain a black patch lying across the distance.
+It seemed to cover a hundred acres or so, and to represent a sort of
+growth we had not before encountered.
+
+"That," said the Captain, indicating, "is a pond covered with ducks."
+
+I did not believe it. We dropped below the line of sight and rode
+steadily forward.
+
+All at once a mighty roar burst on our ears, like the rush of a heavy
+train over a high trestle; and immediately the air ahead of us was
+filled with ducks towering. They mounted, and wheeled, and circled back
+or darted away. The sky became fairly obscured with them in the sense
+that it seemed inconceivable that hither space could contain another
+bird. Before the retina of the eye they swarmed exactly as a nearer
+cloud of mosquitoes would appear.
+
+Hardly had the shock of this first stupendous rise of wildfowl spent
+itself before another and larger flight roared up. It seemed that all
+the ducks in the world must be a-wing; and yet, even after that, a third
+body arose, its rush sounding like the abrupt, overwhelming noise of a
+cataract in a sudden shift of wind. I should be afraid to guess how many
+ducks had been on that lake. Its surface was literally covered, so that
+nowhere did a glint of water show. I suppose it would be a simple matter
+to compute within a few thousand how many ducks would occupy so much
+space; but of what avail? Mere numbers would convey no impression of the
+effect. Rather fill the cup of heaven with myriads thick as a swarm of
+gnats against the sun. They swung and circled back and forth before
+making up their minds to be off, crossing and recrossing the various
+lines of flight. The first thrice-repeated roar of rising had given
+place to the clear, sustained whistling of wings, low, penetrating,
+inspiring. In the last flight had been a band of several hundred snow
+geese; and against the whiteness of their plumage the sun shone.
+
+"That," observed the Captain with conviction, "is what you might call
+ducks."
+
+By now it was the middle of the afternoon. We had not thought of lunch.
+At the ranch lunch was either a major or a minor consideration; there
+was no middle ground. If possible, we ate largely of many most delicious
+things. If, on the other hand, we happened to be out somewhere at noon,
+we cheerfully omitted lunch. So, when we returned to the ranch, the
+Captain, after glancing at his watch and remarking that it was rather
+late to eat, proposed that we try out two other ponies with the polo
+mallets.
+
+This we proceeded to do. After an hour's pleasant exercise on the flat
+in the "Enclosure," we jogged contentedly back into the corral.
+
+Around the corner of the barn sailed a distracted and utterly stampeded
+hen. After her, yapping eagerly, came five dachshunds.
+
+Pause and consider the various elements of outrage the situation
+presented. (A) Dachshunds are, as before quoted, a bunch of useless,
+bandylegged, snip-nosed, waggle-eared----, anyway, and represent an
+amiable good-natured weakness on the part of Mrs. Kitty. (B) Dachshunds
+in general are _not_ supposed to run wild all over the place, but to
+remain in their perfectly good, sufficiently large, entirely comfortable
+corral, Pete and Pup excepted. (C) Chickens are valuable. (D) Confound
+'em! This sort of a performance will be a bad example for Young Ben.
+First thing we'll know, he'll be chasing chickens, too!
+
+The Captain dropped from his pony and joined the procession. The hen
+could run just a trifle faster than the dachshunds; and the dachshunds
+just a trifle faster than the Captain. I always claimed they circled the
+barn three times, in the order named. The Captain insists with dignity
+that I exaggerate three hundred per cent. At any rate, the hen finally
+blundered, the dachshunds fell upon her--and the Captain swung his polo
+mallet.
+
+Five typical "sickening thuds" were heard; five dachshunds literally
+sailed through the air to fall in quivering heaps. The Captain, his
+anger cooled, came back, shaking his head.
+
+"I wouldn't have killed those dogs for anything in the world!" he
+muttered half to me, half to himself as we took the path to the house.
+"I don't know what Mrs. Kitty will say to this! I certainly am sorry
+about it!" and so on, at length.
+
+We turned the corner of the hedge. There in a row on the top step of the
+verandah sat five dachshunds, their mouths open in a happy smile, six
+inches of pink tongue hanging, their eyes half closed in good-humoured
+appreciation.
+
+The Captain approached softly and looked them over with great care. He
+felt of their ribs. He stared up at me incredulously.
+
+"Is this the same outfit?" he whispered.
+
+"It is," said I, "I know the blaze-face brute."
+
+"But--but----"
+
+"They played 'possum on you, Captain."
+
+The Captain arose and his wrath exploded.
+
+"You miserable hounds!" he roared.
+
+With a wise premonition they decamped.
+
+"I'm going to clean out the whole bandylegged tribe!" threatened the
+Captain for the fiftieth time in the month. "I won't have them on the
+ranch!"
+
+That was seven years ago. They are still there--they and numerous
+descendants.[G]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+DINNER
+
+
+We washed up and came down stairs. All at once it proved to be drowsy
+time. The dark had fallen and the lamps were lit. A new fire crackled in
+the fireplace, anticipating the chill that was already descending.
+Carrie played the piano in the other room. The General snorted over
+something in his city paper. Mrs. Kitty had disappeared on household
+business. Pete and Pup, having been mistaken one for the other by some
+innocent bystander, gloomed and glowered under chairs.
+
+Both the Captain and myself made some sort of a pretence of reading the
+papers. It was only a pretence. The grateful warmth, the soothing
+crackling of the fire, the distant music--and, possibly, our state of
+starvation--lulled us to a half doze. From this we were aroused by an
+announcement of dinner.
+
+We had soup and various affairs of that sort; and there was brought on a
+huge and baronial roast, from which the Captain promptly proceeded to
+slice generous allowances. With it came vegetables. They were all cooked
+in cream; not milk, but rich top cream thick enough to cut with a knife.
+I began to see why all the house servants were plump. Also there were
+jellies, and little fat hot rolls, and strange pickled products of the
+soil. I was good and hungry; and I ate thereof.
+
+The plates were removed. I settled back with a sigh of repletion----
+
+The door opened to admit the waitress bearing a huge platter on which
+reposed, side by side, five ducks. That meant a whole one apiece! To my
+feeble protest the family turned indignantly.
+
+"Of course you must eat your duck!" Mrs. Kitty settled the whole
+question at last.
+
+So I ate my duck. It was a very good duck; as indeed it should have
+been, for it was fattened on Egyptian corn, hung the exact number of
+days, and cooked by Charley. It had a little spout of celery down which
+I could pour the abundant juice from its inside; and it was flanked
+right and left respectively by a piece of lemon liberally sprinkled with
+red pepper and sundry crisp slabs of fried hominy. Every night of the
+shooting season each member of the household had "his duck." Later I was
+shown the screened room wherein hung the game, each dated by a little
+tag.
+
+After I had made way with most of my duck, and other things, and had had
+my coffee, and had lighted a cigar, I was entirely willing to sink back
+to disgraceful ease. But the Captain suddenly developed an inexcusable
+and fiendish energy.
+
+"No, you don't," said he. "You come with me and Redmond and get out the
+decoys."
+
+"What for?" I temporized, feebly.
+
+"To keep the moths out of them, of course," replied the Captain with
+fine sarcasm. "Do you mean to tell me that you can sit still and do
+nothing after seeing all those ducks this afternoon? You're a fine
+sportsman! Brace up!"
+
+"Let me finish this excellent cigar," I pleaded. "You gave it to me."
+
+To this he assented. Carrie went back to the piano. The lights were dim.
+Mrs. Kitty went on finishing her crochet work or whatever it was. Nobody
+said anything for a long time. The Captain was busy in the gun room with
+one of the ranch foremen.
+
+But this could not last, and at length I was haled forth to work.
+
+The crisp, sharp air beneath the frosty stars, after the tepid air
+within, awakened me like the shock of cold water. Redmond was awaiting
+us with a lantern. By the horse block lay the mass of something
+indeterminate which I presently saw to be sacks full of something
+knobby.
+
+"I have six sacks of wooden decoys," said Redmond, "with weights all on
+them."
+
+The Captain nodded and passed on. We made our way down past the grape
+arbour, opened the high door leading into chickenville, and stopped at
+the border of the little pond. On its surface floated a hundred or so
+tame ducks of all descriptions. By means of clods of earth we woke them
+up. They came ashore and waddled without objection to a little
+inclosure. We followed them and shut the gate.
+
+One after another the Captain indicated those he wished to take with him
+on the morrow. Redmond caught them, inserted them in gunny sacks, two to
+the sack. They made no great objection to being caught. One or two
+youngsters flopped and flapped about, and had to be chased into a
+corner. In general, however, they accepted the situation
+philosophically, and snuggled down contentedly in their sacks.
+
+"They are used to it," the Captain explained. "Most of these Rouen ducks
+are old hands at the business; they know what to expect."
+
+He was very particular as to the colouring of the individuals he
+selected. A single white feather was sufficient to cause the rejection
+of a female; and even when the colour scheme was otherwise perfect, too
+light a shade proved undesired.
+
+"I don't know just why it is," said he, "but the wild ducks are a lot
+more particular about the live decoys than about the wooden. A wooden
+decoy can be all knocked to pieces, faded and generally disreputable,
+but it does well enough; but a live decoy must look the part absolutely.
+That gives us six apiece; I think it will be enough."
+
+Redmond took charge of our capture. We left him with the lantern,
+stowing away the decoys, live and inanimate, in the Invigorator. Within
+fifteen minutes thereafter I was sleeping the sleep of the moderately
+tired and the fully fed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+DUCKS
+
+
+The Captain rapped on my door. It was pitch dark, and the wind, which
+had arisen during the night, was sweeping through the open windows,
+blowing the light curtains about. Also it was very cold.
+
+"All right," I answered, took my resolution in my hands, and stepped
+forth.
+
+Ten minutes later, by the light of a single candle, we were manipulating
+the coffee-and-egg machine, and devouring the tall pile of
+bread-and-butter sandwiches that had been left for us over night. Then,
+stepping as softly as we could in our clumping rubber boots, our arms
+burdened with guns and wraps, we stole into the outer darkness.
+
+It was almost black, but we could dimly make out the treetops whipped
+about by the wind. Over by the stable we caught the intermittent flashes
+of many lanterns where the teamsters were feeding their stock. Presently
+a merry and vigorous _rattle_--_rattle_--_rattle_ arose and came nearer.
+The Invigorator was ready and under way.
+
+We put on all the coats and sweaters, and climbed aboard. The Captain
+spoke to his horses, and we were off.
+
+That morning I had my first experience of a phenomenon I have never
+ceased admiring--and wondering at. I refer to the Captain's driving in
+the dark.
+
+The night was absolutely black, so that I could hardly make out the
+horses. In all the world were only two elements, the sky full of stars
+and the mass of the earth. The value of this latter, as a means of
+showing us where we were, was nullified by the fact that the skyline
+consisted, not of recognizable and serviceable landmarks, but of the
+distant mountains. We went a certain length of time, and bumped over a
+certain number of things. Then the Captain pulled his team sharp around
+to the left. Why he did so I could not tell you. We drove an hour over a
+meandering course.
+
+"Hang tight," remarked the Captain.
+
+I did so. The front end of the Invigorator immediately fell away from
+under me, so that if I had not been obeying orders by hanging tight I
+should most certainly have plunged forward against the horses. We seemed
+to slide and slither down a steep declivity, then hit water with a
+splash, and began to flounder forward. The water rose high enough to
+cover the floor of the Invigorator, causing the Captain to speculate on
+whether Redmond had packed in the shells properly. Then the bow rose
+with a mighty jerk and we scrambled out the other side.
+
+"That's the upper ford on the Slough," observed the Captain, calmly.
+
+Everywhere else along the Slough, as I subsequently discovered, the
+banks fell off perpendicular, the water was deep, and the bottom soft.
+The approach was down no fenced lane, but across the open, with no other
+landmarks even in daylight than the break of low willows and
+cottonwoods exactly like a hundred others. Ten minutes later the
+Captain drew rein.
+
+"Here you are," said he, cautiously. "You can dump your stuff off right
+here. I can't get through the fence with the team; but it's only a short
+distance to carry."
+
+Accordingly, in entire faith, I descended and unloaded my three sacks of
+wooden decoys and my three sacks of live ducks and my gun and shells.
+
+"I'll drive on to another hole," said the Captain. "Good luck!"
+
+"Would you mind," I suggested, meekly, "telling me in which direction
+this mythical fence is situated; what kind of a fence it is; and where I
+carry to when I get through it?"
+
+The Captain chuckled.
+
+"Why," he explained, "the fence is straight ahead of you; and it's
+barbed wire; and as for where you're headed, you'll find the pond where
+we saw all those ducks last night about a hundred yards or so west."
+
+Where we saw all those ducks! My blood increased its pace through my
+veins. Now that I was afoot, I could begin to make out things in the
+starlight--the silhouettes of bushes or brush, and even three or four
+posts of the fence.
+
+The Invigorator rattled into the distance. I got my stuff the other side
+of the wires, and, shouldering a sack, plodded away due west.
+
+But now I made out the pond gleaming; and by this and by the dim
+grayness of the earth immediately about me knew that dawn was at last
+under way. The night had not yet begun to withdraw, but its first
+strength was going. Objects in the world about became, not visible, but
+existent. By the time I had carried my last load the rather liberal
+hundred yards to the shores of the pond the eastern sky had banished its
+stars.
+
+My movements had, of course, alarmed the ducks. There were not many of
+them, as I could judge by the whistling of their departing wings and by
+the silvery furrows where they had left the water. It is curious how
+strong the daylight must become before the eye can distinguish a duck in
+flight. The comparative paucity of numbers, I reflected, was probably
+due to the fact that the ducks used this pond merely as a loafing place
+during the day. Therefore I should anticipate a good flight as soon as
+feeding time should be over; especially as one end of the pond proved to
+be fairly well sheltered from the high wind.
+
+At once I set to work to build me a blind. This I constructed of
+tumbleweed and willow shoots, with a lucky sagebrush as a good basis. I
+made it thick below and thin on top, so I could crouch hidden, and rise
+easily to shoot. Also I made it hastily, working away with a
+concentration that would prove very valuable could it be brought to a
+useful line of work. There can nothing equal the busyness of a man
+hastening to perfect his arrangements before a flight of ducks is due to
+start. Every few moments I would look anxiously up to see how things
+were going with the morning. The light was indubitably increasing. That
+is to say, I could make out the whole width of the pond, for example,
+although the farther banks were still in silhouette, and the sky was
+almost free of stars. Also the perpendicular plane of the mountains to
+the west, in some subtle manner, was beginning to break. It was not yet
+daylight; but the dawn was here.
+
+I reached cautiously into one of the sacks and brought forth one of the
+decoy ducks. Around his neck I buckled a little leather collar to a ring
+in which had been attached a cord and weight. Then I cautiously waded
+out and anchored him.
+
+He was delighted, and proceeded immediately to take a bath, ducking his
+head under and out again, ruffling his wings, and wagging his absurd
+little tail. Apparently the whole experience was a matter of course to
+him; but he was willing to show pleasure that this phase of it was over.
+I anchored out his five companions, and then proceeded to arrange the
+wooden decoys artistically around the outskirts. By now it was quite
+genuinely early daylight. Three times the overhead whistle of wings had
+warned me to hurry; and twice small flocks of ducks had actually swung
+down within range only to discover me at the last moment and tower away
+again. When younger, I used, at such junctures, to rush for my gun. That
+is a puppy stage, for by the time you get your gun those ducks are gone;
+and by the time you have regained your abandoned task more ducks are in.
+Therefore one early learns that when he goes out from his blind to pick
+up ducks, or catch cripples, or arrange decoys, he would better do so,
+paying no attention whatever to the game that will immediately appear.
+So now the whistle of wings merely caused me to work the faster. At
+length I was able to wade ashore and sink into my blind.
+
+Immediately, as usual, the flights ceased for the time being. I had
+nothing to do but sit tight and wait.
+
+This was no unpleasant task. The mountains to the west had become
+lucent, and glowed pink in the dawn; those to the east looked like
+silhouettes of very thin slate-coloured cardboard stuck up on edge,
+across which a pearl wash had been laid. The flatter world of the plains
+all about me lay half revealed in an unearthly gray light. The wind
+swooped and tore away at the brush, sending its fan-shaped cat's-paws
+across the surface of the pond. My ducks, having finished their
+ablutions, now gave a leisurely attention to smoothing out their plumes
+ruffled by the night in the gunnysack. They ran each feather separately
+through their bills, preening and smoothing. All the time they conversed
+together in low tones of voice. Whenever one made a rather clever
+remark, or smoothed to glossiness a particularly rumpled feather, he
+wagged his short tail vigorously from side to side in satisfaction.
+
+Suddenly the one farthest out in the pond stilled to attention and
+craned forward his neck.
+
+"_Mark_!" quoth he, loudly, and then again: "_Mark_!
+_quok_--_quok_--_quok_!"
+
+The other five looked in the same direction, and then they, too, lifted
+up their voices. Cautiously I turned my head. Low against the growing
+splendour of the sunrise, wings rigidly set, came a flock of mallards.
+My ducks fairly stood up on their tails the better to hurl invitations
+and inducements at their wild brethren. The chorus praising this
+particular spot was vociferous and unanimous, I wonder what the mallards
+thought of the other fifty or sixty in my flock, the wooden ones, that
+sat placidly aloof. Did they consider these remarkably exclusive; or did
+they perhaps look upon the live ones as the "boosters" committee for
+this particular piece of duck real estate? At any rate, they dropped in
+without the slightest hesitation, which shows the value of live decoys.
+The mallard is ordinarily a wily bird and circles your pond a number of
+times before deciding to come in to wooden decoys. At the proper moment
+I got to my feet, and, by good fortune, knocked down two fat
+green-heads.
+
+They fell with a splash right among my ducks. Did the latter exhibit
+alarm over either the double concussion of the gun or this fall of
+defunct game from above? Not at all! they were tickled to death. Each
+swam vigorously around and around at the limit of his tether, ruffling
+his plumage and waggling his tail with the utmost vigour.
+
+"Well, I rather think we fooled that bunch!" said they, one to another.
+"Did you ever see an easier lot? Came right down without a look! If the
+Captain had been here he'd have killed a half dozen of the chumps before
+they got out of range!" and so on. For your experienced decoy always
+seems to enjoy the game hugely, and to enter into it with much
+enthusiasm and intelligence. And all the while the flock of wooden
+decoys headed unanimously up wind, and bobbed in the wavelets; and the
+sun went on gilding the mountains to the west.
+
+Next a flock of teal whirled down wind, stooped, and were gone like a
+flash. I got in both barrels; and missed both. The dissatisfaction of
+this was almost immediately mitigated by a fine smash at a flock of
+sprig that went by overhead at extreme long range, but from which I
+managed to bring down a fine drake. When the shot hit him he faltered,
+then, still flying, left the ranks at an acute angle, sloping ever the
+quicker downward, until he fell on a long slant, his wings set, his neck
+still outstretched. I marked the direction as well as I could, and
+immediately went in search of him. Fortunately he lay in the open, quite
+dead. Looking back, I could see another good flock fairly hovering over
+the decoys.
+
+The sun came up, and grew warm. The wind died. I took off my sweater.
+Between flights I basked deliciously. The affair was outside of all
+precedent and reason. A duck shooter ought to be out in a storm, a good
+cold storm. He ought to break the scum ice when he puts out his decoys.
+He ought to sit half frozen in a wintry blast, his fingers numb, his
+nose blue, his body shivering. That sort of discomfort goes with duck
+shooting. Yet here I was sitting out in a warm, summerlike day in my
+shirt sleeves, waiting comfortably--and the ducks were coming in, too!
+
+After a time I heard the mighty rattle of the Invigorator, and the
+Captain's voice shouting. Reluctantly I disentangled myself from my
+blind and went over to see what all the row was about.
+
+"Had enough?" he demanded, cheerily.
+
+I saw that I was supposed to say yes; so I said it. The ducks were still
+coming in fast. You see, I was not yet free from the traditions to which
+I had been brought up. Back in Michigan, when a man went for a day's
+shoot, he stayed with it all day. It was serious business. I was not
+yet accustomed to being so close to the game that the casual expedition
+was after all the most fun.
+
+So I pulled up my rubber boots, and waded out, gathering in the game. To
+my immense surprise I found that I had thirty-seven ducks down. It had
+not occurred to me that I had shot half that number, which is perhaps
+commentary on how fast ducks had been coming in. It was then only about
+eight o'clock. After gathering them in, next we performed the slow and
+very moist task of lifting the wooden decoys and winding their anchor
+cords around their placid necks. Lastly we gathered in the live ducks.
+They came, towed at the end of their tethers, with manifest reluctance;
+hanging back at their strings, flapping their wings, and hissing at us
+indignantly. I do not think they were frightened, for once we had our
+hands on them, they resumed their dignified calm. Only they enjoyed the
+fun outside; and they did not fancy the bags inside; a choice eminently
+creditable to their sense.
+
+So back we drove to the ranch. The Captain, too, had had good shooting.
+Redmond appeared with an immense open hamper into which he dumped the
+birds two by two, keeping tally in a loud voice. Redmond thoroughly
+enjoyed all the small details.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+UNCLE JIM
+
+
+Each morning, while we still sat at breakfast, Uncle Jim drove up from
+the General's in his two-wheeled cart to see if there might be anything
+doing. Uncle Jim was a solidly built elderly man, with the brown
+complexion and the quizzical, good-humoured eye of the habitual
+sportsman. He wore invariably an old shooting coat and a cap that had
+seen younger, but perhaps not better, days. His vehicle was a battered
+but serviceable two-wheeled cart drawn by a placid though adequate
+horse. His weapon for all purposes was a rather ponderous twelve-gauge.
+
+If we projected some sporting expedition Uncle Jim was our man; but if
+there proved to be nothing in the wind, he disappeared promptly. He
+conducted various trapping ventures for "varmints," at which he seemed
+to have moderate success, for he often brought in a wildcat or coyote.
+In fact, he maintained one of the former in a cage, to what end nobody
+knew, for it was a harsh and unsociable character. Uncle Jim began to
+show signs of life about July fifteenth when the dove season opened; he
+came into his own from the middle of October until the first of
+February, during which period one can shoot both ducks and quail; he
+died down to the bare earth when the game season was over, and only sent
+up a few green shoots of interest in the matter of supplying his
+wildcat with that innumerable agricultural pest, the blackbird.
+
+Sometimes I accompanied Uncle Jim, occupying the other side of the
+two-wheeled cart. We never had any definite object in view; we just went
+forth for adventure. The old horse jogged along very steadily,
+considering the fact that he was as likely to be put at cross country as
+a road. We humped up side by side in sociable silence, spying keenly for
+what we could see. A covey of quail disappearing in the brush caused us
+to pull up. We hunted them leisurely for a half hour and gathered in a
+dozen birds. Always we tried to sneak ducks, no matter how hopeless the
+situation might seem. Once I went on one hand and my knees through three
+inches of water for three hundred yards, stalking a flock of sprig
+loafing in an irrigation puddle. There was absolutely no cover; I was in
+plain sight; from a serious hunting standpoint the affair was quixotic,
+not to say imbecile. If I had been out with the Captain we should
+probably not have looked twice at those sprig. Nevertheless, as the
+general atmosphere of Uncle Jim's expeditions was always one of
+adventure and forlorn hopes and try-it-anyway, I tried it on. Uncle Jim
+sat in the cart and chuckled. Every moment I expected the flock to take
+wing, but they lingered. Finally, when still sixty yards distant, the
+leaders rose. I cut loose with both barrels for general results. To my
+vast surprise three came down, one dead, the other two wing-tipped. The
+two latter led me a merry chase, wherein I managed to splatter the rest
+of myself. Then I returned in triumph to the cart. The forlorn hope had
+planted its banner on the walls of achievement. Uncle Jim laughed at me
+for my idiocy in crawling through water after such a fool chance. I
+laughed at Uncle Jim because I had three ducks. We drove on, and the
+warm sun dried me off.
+
+In this manner we made some astonishing bags; astonishing not by their
+size, but by the manner of their accomplishment.
+
+We were entirely open minded. Anything that came along interested us. We
+investigated all the holes in all the trees, in hopes of 'coons or honey
+or something or other. We drove gloriously through every patch of brush.
+Sometimes an unseen hummock would all but upset us; so we had to
+scramble hastily to windward to restore our equilibrium.
+
+The country was gridironed with irrigation ditches. They were eight to
+ten feet deep, twenty or thirty feet wide, and with elevated,
+precipitous banks. One could cross them almost anywhere--except when
+they were brimful, of course. The banks were so steep that, once
+started, the vehicle had to go, but so short that it must soon reach
+bottom. On the other side the horse could attain the top by a rush;
+after which, having gained at least a front footing over the bank, he
+could draw the light vehicle by dead weight the rest of the distance.
+Naturally, the driver had to take the course at exactly right angles, or
+he capsized ingloriously.
+
+One day Uncle Jim and I started to cross one of these ditches that had
+long been permitted to remain dry. Its bottom was covered by weeds six
+inches high, and looked to be about six feet down. We committed
+ourselves to the slope. Then, when too late to reconsider, we discovered
+that the apparent six-inch growth of weeds was in reality one of four
+or five feet. The horse discovered it at the same time. With true
+presence of mind, he immediately determined that it was up to him to
+leap that ditch. Only the fact that he was hitched to the cart prevented
+him from doing so; but he made a praiseworthy effort.
+
+The jerk threw me backward, and had I not grabbed Uncle Jim I would most
+certainly have fallen out behind. As for Uncle Jim, he would most
+certainly have fallen out behind, too, if he had not clung like grim
+death to the reins. And as for the horse, alarmed by the check and
+consequent scramble, he just plain bolted, fortunately straight ahead.
+We hit the opposite bank with a crash, sailed over it, and headed across
+country.
+
+Consider us as we went. Feet in air, I was poised on the end of my
+backbone in a state of exact equilibrium. A touch would tumble me out
+behind; an extra ounce would tip me safely into the cart; my only
+salvation was my hold on Uncle Jim. I could not apply that extra ounce
+for the simple reason that Uncle Jim also, feet in air, was poised
+exactly on the end of his backbone. If the reins slackened an inch, over
+he went; if he could manage to pull up the least bit in the world, in he
+came! So we tore across country for several hundred yards, unable to
+recover and most decidedly unwilling to fall off on the back of our
+heads. It must have been a grand sight; and it seemed to endure an hour.
+Finally, imperceptibly we overcame the opposing forces. We were saved!
+
+Uncle Jim cursed out "Henry" with great vigour. Henry was the mare we
+drove. Uncle Jim, in his naming of animals, always showed a stern
+disregard for the female sex. Then, as usual, we looked about to see
+what we could see.
+
+Over to the left grew a small white oak. About ten or twelve feet from
+the ground was a hole. That was enough; we drove over to investigate
+that hole. It was not an easy matter, for we were too lazy to climb the
+tree unless we had to. Finally we drove close enough so that, by
+standing on extreme tip-toe atop the seat of the cart, I could get a
+sort of sidewise, one-eyed squint at that hole.
+
+"If," I warned Uncle Jim, "Henry leaves me suspended in mid-air I'll
+bash her fool head in!"
+
+"No, you won't," chuckled Uncle Jim, "it's too far home."
+
+It was a very dark hole, and for a moment I could see nothing. Then, all
+at once, I made out two dull balls of fire glowing steadily out of the
+blackness. That was as long as I could stand stretching out my entire
+anatomy to look down any hole.
+
+On hearing my report, Uncle Jim phlegmatically thrust the flexible whip
+down the hole.
+
+"'Coon," he pronounced, after listening to the resultant remarks from
+within.
+
+And then the same bright idea struck us both.
+
+"Mrs. Kitty here makes good with those angleworms," Uncle Jim voiced the
+inspiration.
+
+We blocked up the hole securely; and made rapid time back to the ranch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE MEDIUM-SIZE GAME
+
+
+Against many attacks and accusations of uselessness cast at her
+dachshunds, Mrs. Kitty had always stoutly opposed the legend of
+"medium-size game." The dachshunds may look like bologna sausages on
+legs, ran the gist of her argument; and they may progress like rather
+lively measuring worms; and the usefulness of their structure may seem
+to limit itself to a facility for getting under furniture without
+stooping, _but_--Mrs. Kitty's eloquence always ended by convincing
+herself, and she became very serious--but that is not the dogs' fault.
+Rather it is the fault of their environment to which they have been
+transplanted. Back in their own native vaterland they were always used
+for medium-sized game. And what is more they are _good_ at it! Come
+here, Pete, they shan't abuse you!
+
+Coyotes and bobcats are medium-size game, someone ventured to point out.
+
+Not at all, medium-size game should live in holes, like badgers.
+Dachshunds are evidently built for holes. They are long and low, and
+they have spatulate feet for digging, and their bandy legs enable them
+to throw the dirt out behind them. Their long, sharp noses are like
+tweezers to seize upon the medium-size game. In short, by much
+repetition, a legend had grown up around the dachshunds, a legend of
+fierceness inhibited only by circumstances, of pathetic deprivation of
+the sports of their native land. If only we could have a badger, we
+could almost hear them say to each other in dog language, a strong,
+morose, savage badger! Alas! we are wasting our days in idleness, our
+talents rust from disuse! Finally, Uncle Jim remained the only frankly
+skeptical member.
+
+At this time there visited the ranch two keen sportsmen whom we shall
+call Charley and Tommy; as also several girls. We burst on the assembled
+multitude with our news. Immediately a council of war was called. After
+the praetors and tribunes of the people had uttered their opinions,
+Uncle Jim arose and spoke as follows:
+
+"Here is your chance to make good," said he, addressing Mrs. Kitty.
+"Those badger hounds of yours, according to you, have just been fretting
+for medium-size game. Well, here's some. Bring out the whole flock, and
+let's see them get busy."
+
+The proposition was received with a shout of rapture Uncle Jim smiled
+grimly.
+
+"Well, they'll do it!" cried Mrs. Kitty, with spirit.
+
+Preparations were immediately under way. In half an hour the army
+debouched from the ranch and strung out single file across the plain.
+
+First came Uncle Jim and myself in the two-wheeled cart as scouts and
+guides.
+
+Followed the General in his surrey. The surrey had originally been
+intended for idle dalliance along country lanes. In the days of its
+glory it had been upholstered right merrily, and around its flat top had
+dangled a blithesome fringe. Both the upholstery and fringe were still
+somewhat there. Of the glory that was past no other reminder had
+persisted. The General sat squarely in the middle of the front seat,
+very large, erect, and imposing, driving with a fine military disregard
+of hummocks or the laws of equilibrium. In or near the back seat hovered
+a tiny Japanese boy to whom the General occasionally issued short,
+sharp, military comments or commands.
+
+Then came Mrs. Kitty and the ponies with Carrie beside her. Immediately
+astern of the pony cart followed a three-seated carry-all with assorted
+guests. This was flanked by the Captain and Charley as outriders. The
+rear was closed by the Invigorator rilled with dachshunds. Their pointed
+noses poked busily through the slats of the cage, and sniffed up over
+the edge of the wagon box.
+
+The rear, did I say? I had forgotten Mithradates Antikamia Briggs. The
+latter polysyllabic person was a despised, apologetic, rangy,
+black-and-white mongrel hound said to have belonged somewhere to a man
+named Briggs. I think the rest of his name was intended as an insult.
+Ordinarily Mithradates hung around the men's quarters where he was
+liked. Never had he dared seek either solace or sympathy at the doors of
+the great house; and never, never had he remotely dreamed of following
+any of the numerous hunting expeditions. That would have been
+lese-majesty, high treason, sublime impudence, and intolerable nuisance
+to be punished by banishment or death. Mithradates realized this
+perfectly; and never did he presume to raise his eyes to such high and
+shining affairs.
+
+But to-day he followed. Nobody was subsequently able to explain why
+Mithradates Antikamia should on this one occasion so have plucked up
+heart. My private opinion is that he saw the dachshunds being taken,
+and, in his uncultivated manner, communed with himself as follows:
+
+"Well, will you gaze on that! I don't pretend to be in the same class
+with Old Ben or Young Ben, or even of the fox terriers; but if I'm not
+more of a dog than that lot of splay-footed freaks, I'll go bite myself!
+If they're _that_ hard up for dogs, I'll be cornswizzled if I don't go
+myself!"
+
+Which he did. We did not want him; this was distinctly the dachshunds'
+party, and we did not care to have any one messing in. The Captain tried
+to drive him back. Mithradates Antikamia would not go. The Captain
+dismounted and tried force. Mithradates shut both eyes, crouched to the
+ground, and immediately weighed a half ton. When punished he rolled over
+and held all four paws in the air. The minute the Captain turned his
+back, after stern admonitions to "go home!" and "down, charge!" and the
+like, Mithradates crawled slowly forward to the waiting line, ducking
+his head, wrinkling his upper lips ingratiatingly, and sneezing in the
+most apologetic tones. Finally we gave it up.
+
+"But," we "saved our face," "you'll have to behave when we get there!"
+
+So, as has been said, Mithradates Antikamia Briggs brought up the rear.
+
+Arrived at the tree the whole procession drew into a half circle. We
+unblocked the opening, and the Invigorator was driven to a spot beneath
+it so each person could take his turn at standing on the seat and
+peering down the hole. The eyes still glowed like balls of fire.
+
+Next the dachshunds were lifted up one by one and given a chance to
+smell at the game. This was to make them keen. Held up by means of a
+hand held either side their chests, they curled up their hind legs and
+tails and seemed to endure. Mrs. Kitty explained that they had never
+been so far off the ground in their lives, and so were naturally
+preoccupied by the new sensation. This sounded reasonable, so we placed
+them on the ground. There they sat in a circle looking up at our
+performances, a solemn and mild interest expressing itself in their
+lugubrious countenances. A dachshund has absolutely no sense of humour
+or lightness of spirits. He never cavorts.
+
+By sounding carefully with a carriage whip we determined the depth of
+the hole, and proceeded to cut through to the bottom. This was quite a
+job, for the oak was tough, and the position difficult. Tommy had
+ascended the tree, and proclaimed loudly the first signs of daylight as
+the axe bit through. Mine happened to be the axe work; so when I had
+finished a neat little orifice, I swung up beside Tommy, and the
+Invigorator drove out of the way.
+
+My elevated position was a good one; and as Tommy was peering eagerly
+down the hole, I had nothing to do but survey the scene.
+
+The rigs were drawn up in a semi-circle twenty yards away. Next the
+horses' heads stood the drivers of the various vehicles, anxious to miss
+none of the fun. The dachshunds sat on their haunches, looking up, and
+probably wondering why their friend, Tommy, insisted on roosting up a
+tree. The Captain and Charley were immediately below, engaged in an
+earnest effort to poke the 'coon into ascending the hole. Tommy was
+reporting the result of these efforts from above. The General, his feet
+firmly planted, had unlimbered a huge ten-bore shotgun, so as to be
+ready for anything. Uncle Jim stood by, smoking his pipe. Mithradates
+Antikamia Briggs sat sadly apart.
+
+The poking efforts accomplished little. Occasionally the 'coon made a
+little dash or scramble, but never went far. There was a great deal of
+talking, shouting, and advice.
+
+At last Uncle Jim, knocking the ashes from his pipe, moved into action.
+He plucked a double handful of the tall, dry grass, touched a match to
+it, and thrust it in the nick.
+
+Without the slightest hesitation the 'coon shot out at the top!
+
+Now just at that moment Tommy happened to be leaning over for a right
+_good_ look down the hole. He received thirty pounds or so of agitated
+'coon square in the chest. Thereupon he fell out of the tree
+incontinently, with the 'coon on top of him.
+
+We caught our breath in horror. Although we could plainly see that Tommy
+was in no degree injured by his short fall, yet we all realized that it
+was going to be serious to be mixed up with a raging, snarling beast
+fight of twenty-two members. When the dachshunds should pounce on their
+natural prey, the medium-size game, poor Tommy would be at the bottom of
+the heap. Several even started forward to restrain the dogs, but stopped
+as they realized the impossibilities.
+
+Tommy and the 'coon hit with a thump. The dachshunds took one horrified
+look; then with the precision of a drilled man[oe]uvre they unanimously
+turned tail and plunged into the tall grass. From my elevated perch I
+could see it waving agitatedly as they made their way through it in the
+direction of the distant ranch.
+
+For a moment there was astounded silence. Then there arose a shriek of
+delight. The Captain rolled over and over and clutched handfuls of turf
+in his joy. The General roared great salvos of laughter. Tommy, still
+seated where he had fallen, leaned weakly against the tree, the tears
+coursing down his cheeks. The rest of the populace lifted up their
+voices and howled. Even Uncle Jim, who rarely laughed aloud, although
+his eyes always smiled, emitted great Ho! ho!'s. Only Mrs. Kitty, dumb
+with indignation, stared speechless after that wriggling mess of
+fugitives.
+
+The occasion was too marvellous. We enjoyed it to the full. Whenever the
+rapture sank somewhat, someone would gasp out a half-remembered bit of
+Mrs. Kitty's former defences.
+
+"Their long, sharp noses are like tweezers to seize the game!" declaimed
+Charley, weakly. [Spasm by the audience.]
+
+"Their spatulate feet are meant for digging," the Captain took up the
+tale. [Another spasm.]
+
+"Their bandy legs enabled them to throw the dirt out behind them--as
+they ran," suggested Tommy.
+
+"If _only_ they could have had a badger they'd have beaten all records!"
+we chorused.
+
+And then finally we wiped our eyes and remembered that there used to be
+a 'coon. At the same time we became conscious of a most unholy row in
+the offing: the voice of Mithradates Antikamia.
+
+"If you people want your 'coon," he was remarking in a staccato and
+exasperated voice, "you'd better come and lend a hand. _I_ can't manage
+him alone! The blame thing has bitten me in three places already. Of
+course, I like to see people have a good time, and I hope you won't
+curtail your enjoyment on my account; but if you've had _quite_ enough
+of those made-in-Germany imitations, perhaps you'll just stroll over and
+see what one good American-built DOG can do!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE
+
+
+Uncle Jim had friends everywhere. Continually we were pulling up by one
+of the tiny two-roomed shacks wherein dwelt the small settlers. The
+houses were always of new boards, unpainted, perched on four-by-fours,
+in the middle of bare ground, perhaps surrounded by young poplars or
+cottonwoods, but more likely fully exposed to the sun. A trifling open
+shed protected a battered buggy on the thills and wheels of which
+perched numerous chickens. A rough corral and windmill completed the
+arrangements. Near the house was usually a small patch of alfalfa.
+Farther out the owner was engaged in the strenuous occupation of
+brushing and breaking a virgin country.
+
+To greet us rushed forth a half-dozen mongrel dogs, and appeared a swarm
+of children, followed by the woman of the place. Uncle Jim knew them all
+by name, including even the dogs. He carefully wound the reins around
+the whip, leaned forward comfortably, and talked. Henry dozed; and I
+listened with interest. Uncle Jim had the natural gift of popularity. By
+either instinct or a wide experience he knew just what problems and
+triumphs, disappointments and perplexities these people were
+encountering; and he plunged promptly into the discussion of them. Also,
+I was never able to make out whether Uncle Jim was a conscious or
+unconscious diplomat; but certainly he knew how judiciously to make use
+of the subtle principle, so well illustrated by Moliere, that it pleases
+people to confer small favours. Thus occasionally he gravely "borrowed"
+a trifle of axle grease, which we immediately applied, or a cup of milk,
+or a piece of string to mend something. When finally our leisurely
+roadside call was at an end, we rolled away from unanimously hearty
+signals of farewell.
+
+In accordance with our settled feeling of taking things as they came,
+and trying for everything, we blundered into varied experiences, none of
+which arrange themselves in recollection with any pretence of logical
+order. Perhaps it might not be a bad idea to copy our method, to set
+forth and see where we land.
+
+One of the most amusing happened when we were out with my younger, but
+not smaller, brother. This youth was at that time about eighteen years
+old, and six feet two in height. His age _plus_ his stature _equalled_ a
+certain lankiness. As we drove peacefully along the highway we observed
+in the adjacent field a coyote. The animal was some three or four
+hundred yards away, lying down, his head between his paws, for all the
+world like a collie dog. Immediately the lad was all excitement. We
+pointed out the well-known facts that the coyote is no fool and is
+difficult to stalk at best; that while he is apparently tame as long as
+the wagon keeps moving, he decamps when convinced that his existence is
+receiving undue attention; that in the present instance the short grass
+would not conceal a snake; and that, finally, a 16-gauge gun loaded with
+number-six shot was not an encouraging coyote weapon. He brushed them
+aside as mere details. So we let him out.
+
+He dropped into the grass and commenced his stalk. This he accomplished
+on his elbows and knees. A short review of the possibilities will
+convince you that the sight was unique. Although the boy's head and
+shoulders were thus admirably close to the ground, there followed an
+extremely abrupt apex. Add the fact that the canvas shooting coat soon
+fell forward over his shoulders.
+
+The coyote at first paid no attention. As this strange object worked
+nearer, he raised his head to take a look. Then he sat up on his
+haunches to take a better look. At this point we expected him to lope
+away instead of which he trotted forward a few feet and stopped, his
+ears pricked forward. There he sat, his shrewd brain alive with
+conjecture until, at thirty-five yards, the kid emptied both barrels.
+Thereupon he died, his curiosity as to what a movable brown pyramid
+might be still unsatisfied.
+
+Uncle Jim, the kid, and I had great fun cruising for jackrabbits. Uncle
+Jim sat in the middle and drove while the kid and I hung our feet over
+the sides and constituted ourselves the port and starboard batteries.
+Bumping and banging along at full speed over the uneven country, we
+jumped the rabbits, and opened fire as they made off. Each had to stick
+to his own side of the ship, of course. Uncle Jim's bird dog, his head
+between our feet, his body under the seat, watched the proceedings,
+whining. It looked like good fun to him, but it was forbidden. A
+jackrabbit arrested in full flight by a charge of shot turns a very
+spectacular somersault. The dog would stand about five rabbits. As the
+sixth turned over, he executed a mad struggle, accomplished a flying
+leap over the front wheel, was rolled over and over by the forward
+momentum of the moving vehicle, scrambled to his feet, pounced on that
+rabbit, and most everlastingly and savagely shook it up! Then Uncle Jim
+descended and methodically and dispassionately licked the dog.
+
+Jackrabbits were good small-rifle game. They started away on a slow
+lope, but generally stopped and sat up if not too seriously alarmed. A
+whistle sometimes helped bring them to a stand. After a moment's
+inspection they went away, rapidly. With a .22 automatic one could turn
+loose at all sorts of ranges at all speeds. It was a good deal of fun,
+too, sneaking about afoot through the low brush, making believe that the
+sage was a jungle, the tiny pellets express bullets, the rabbits
+magnified--I am sorry for the fellow who cannot have fun sometimes
+"pretending!" In the brush, too, dwelt little cottontails, very good to
+eat. The jackrabbit was a pest, but the cottontail was worth getting. We
+caught sight of him first in the bare open spaces between the bushes,
+whereupon he proceeded rapidly to cover. It was necessary to shoot
+rather quickly. The inexperienced would be apt to run forward eagerly,
+hoping to catch a glimpse of the cottontail on the other side; but
+always it would be in vain. That would be owing to the fact that the
+little rabbit has a trick of apparently running through a brush at full
+speed, but in reality of stopping abruptly and squatting at the roots.
+Often it is possible to get a shot by scrutinizing carefully the last
+place he was seen. He can stop as suddenly as a cow pony.
+
+Often and often, like good strategic generals, we were induced by
+circumstances to change our plans or our method of attack at the last
+moment. On several occasions, while shooting in the fields of Egyptian
+corn, I have killed a quail with my right barrel and a duck with my
+left! Continually one was crouching in hopes, when some unexpected flock
+stooped toward him as he walked across country. These hasty concealments
+were in general quite futile, for it is a fairly accurate generalization
+that, in the open, game will see you before you see it. This is not
+always true. I have on several occasions stood stock still in the open
+plain until a low-flying mallard came within easy range. Invariably the
+bird was flying toward the setting sun, so I do not doubt his vision was
+more or less blinded.
+
+The most ridiculous effort of this sort was put into execution by the
+Captain and myself.
+
+Be it premised that while, in the season, the wildfowl myriads were
+always present, it by no means followed that the sportsman was always
+sure of a bag. The ducks followed the irrigation water. One week they
+might be here in countless hordes; the next week might see only a few
+coots and hell divers left, while the game was reported twenty miles
+away. Furthermore, although fair shooting--of the pleasantest sort, in
+my opinion--was always to be had by jumping small bands and singles from
+the "holes" and ditches, the big flocks were quite apt to feed and loaf
+in the wide spaces discouragingly free of cover. Irrigation was done on
+a large scale. A section of land might be submerged from three inches to
+a foot in depth. In the middle of this temporary pond and a half dozen
+others like it fed the huge bands of ducks. What could you do? There
+was no cover by which to sneak them. You might build a blind, but before
+the ducks could get used to its strange presence in a flat and
+featureless landscape the water would be withdrawn from that piece of
+land. Only occasionally, when a high wind drove them from the open, or
+when the irrigation water happened to be turned in to a brushy country,
+did the sportsman get a chance at the great swarms. Since a man could
+get all the ducks he could reasonably require, there was no real reason
+why he should look with longing on these inaccessible packs, but we all
+did. It was not that we wanted more ducks; for we held strictly within
+limits, but we wanted to get in the thick of it.
+
+On the occasion of which I started to tell, the Captain and I were
+returning from somewhere. Near the Lakeside ranch we came across a big
+tract of land overflowed by not deeper than two or three inches of
+water. The ducks were everywhere on it. They sat around fat and solemn
+in flocks; they swirled and stooped and lit and rose again; they fed
+busily; they streamed in from all points of the compass, cleaving the
+air with a whistling of wings.
+
+Cover there was none. It was exactly like a big, flat cow pasture
+without any fences. We pulled up the Invigorator and eyed the scene with
+speculative eyes. Finally, we did as follows:
+
+Into the middle of that field waded we. The ducks, of course, arose with
+a roar, circled once out of range, and departed. We knew that in less
+than a minute the boldest would return to see if, perchance, we might
+have been mere passers-by. Finding us still there, they would, in the
+natural course of events, circle once or twice and then depart for
+good.
+
+Now we had noticed this: ducks will approach to within two or three
+hundred yards of a man standing upright, but they will come within one
+hundred--or almost in range--if he squats and holds quite still. This,
+we figured, is because he is that much more difficult to recognize as a
+man, even though he is in plain sight. We had to remain in plain sight;
+but could we not make ourselves more difficult to recognize?
+
+After pulling up our rubber boots carefully, we knelt in the two inches
+of water, placed our chests across two wooden shell boxes we had brought
+for the purpose, ducked our heads, and waited. After a few moments
+overhead came the peculiar swift whistle of wings. We waited, rigid.
+When that whistle sounded very loud indeed, we jerked ourselves upright
+and looked up. Immediately above us, already towering frantically, was a
+flock of sprig. They were out of range, but we were convinced that this
+was only because we had mistakenly looked up too soon.
+
+It was fascinating work, for we had to depend entirely on the sense of
+hearing. The moment we stirred in the slightest degree away went the
+ducks. As it took an appreciable time to rise to our feet, locate the
+flock, and get into action, we had to guess very accurately. We fired a
+great many times, and killed a very few; but each duck was an
+achievement.
+
+Though the bag could not be guaranteed, the sight of ducks could. When
+my brother went with me to the ranch, the duck shooting was very poor.
+This was owing to the fact that sudden melting of the snows in the
+Sierras had overflowed an immense tract of country to form a lake eight
+or nine miles across. On this lake the ducks were safe, and thither they
+resorted in vast numbers. As a consequence, the customary resorts were
+deserted. We could see the ducks, and that was about all. Realizing the
+hopelessness of the situation we had been confining ourselves so
+strictly to quail that my brother had begun to be a little sceptical of
+our wildfowl tales. Therefore, one day, I took him out and showed him
+ducks.
+
+They were loafing in an angle of the lake formed by the banks of two
+submerged irrigating ditches, so we were enabled to measure them
+accurately. After they had flown we paced off their bulk. They had
+occupied a space on the bank and in the water three hundred yards long
+by fifty yards wide; and they were packed in there just about as thick
+as ducks could crowd together. An able statistician might figure out how
+many there were. At any rate, my brother agreed that he had seen some
+ducks.
+
+There was one thing about Uncle Jim's expeditions: they were cast in no
+rigid lines. Their direction, scope, or purpose could be changed at the
+last moment should circumstances warrant.
+
+One day Uncle Jim came after me afoot, with the quiet assurance that he
+knew where there were "some ducks."
+
+"Tommy is down there now," said he, "in a blind. We'll make a couple
+more blinds across the pond, and in that way one or the other of us is
+sure to get a shot at everything that comes in. And the way they're
+coming in is scand'lous!"
+
+Therefore I filled my pockets with duck shells, seized my close-choked
+12-bore, and followed Uncle Jim. We walked across three fields.
+
+"Those ducks are acting mighty queer," proffered Uncle Jim in puzzled
+tones.
+
+We stopped a moment to watch. Flock after flock stooped toward the
+little pond, setting their wings and dropping with the extraordinary
+confidence wildfowl sometimes exhibit. At a certain point, however, and
+while still at a good elevation, they towered swiftly and excitedly.
+
+"Doesn't seem like they'd act so scared even if Tommy wasn't well hid,"
+puzzled Uncle Jim.
+
+We proceeded cautiously, keeping out of sight behind some greasewood,
+until we could see the surface of the pond. There were Tommy's decoys,
+and there was Tommy's blind. We could not see but that it was a
+well-made blind. Even as we looked another flock of sprig sailed down
+wind, stopped short at a good two hundred yards, towered with every
+appearance of lively dismay, and departed. Tommy's head came above the
+blind, gazing after them.
+
+"They couldn't act worse if Tommy was out waving his hat at 'em," said
+Uncle Jim.
+
+We climbed a fence. This brought us to a slight elevation, but
+sufficient to enable us to see abroad over the flat landscape.
+
+Immediately beyond Tommy was a long, low irrigation check grown with
+soft green sod. On the farther slope thereof were the girls. They had
+brought magazines and fancy work, and evidently intended to spend the
+afternoon in the open, enjoying the fresh air and the glad sunshine and
+the cheerful voices of God's creatures. They were, of course, quite
+unconscious of Tommy's sporting venture not a hundred feet away. Their
+parasols were green, red, blue, and other explosive tints.
+
+Uncle Jim and I sat for a few moments on the top of that fence enjoying
+the view. Then we climbed softly down and went away. We decided tacitly
+not to shoot ducks. The nature of the expedition immediately changed. We
+spent the rest of the afternoon on quail. To be sure number-five shot in
+a close-choked twelve is not an ideal load for the purpose; but by care
+in letting our birds get far enough away we managed to have a very good
+afternoon's sport. And whenever we would make a bad miss we had ready
+consolation: the thought of Tommy waiting and wondering and puzzling in
+his blind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GRAND TOUR
+
+
+Almost always our sporting expeditions were of this casual character,
+sandwiched in among other occupations. Guns were handy, as was the game.
+To seize the one and pursue the other on the whim of the moment was the
+normal and usual thing. Thus one day Mrs. Kitty drove me over to look at
+a horse I was thinking of buying. On the way home, in a corner of brush,
+I hopped out and bagged twelve quail; and a little farther on, by a
+lucky sneak, I managed to gather in five ducks from an irrigation pond.
+On another occasion, having a spare hour before lunch, I started out
+afoot from the ranch house at five minutes past eleven, found my quail
+within a quarter mile, had luck in scattering them, secured my limit of
+twenty-five, and was back at the house at twelve twenty-five! Before
+this I had been to drive with Mrs. Kitty; and after lunch we drove
+twelve miles to call on a neighbour. Although I had enjoyed a full day's
+quail shoot, it had been, as it were, merely an interpolation.
+
+Occasionally, however, it was elected to make a grand and formal raid on
+the game. This could be either a get-up-early-in-the-morning session in
+the blinds, a formal quail hunt, or the Grand Tour.
+
+To take the Grand Tour we got out the Liver Invigorator and as many
+saddle horses as might be needed to accommodate the shooters. On
+reaching the hog field it was proper to disembark, and to line up for an
+advance on the corner of the irrigation ditch where I had so
+unexpectedly jumped the ducks my first morning on the ranch. In extended
+order we approached. If ducks were there, they got a great hammering.
+Everybody shot joyously--whether in sure range or not, it must be
+confessed. The birds went into a common bag, for it would be impossible
+to say who had killed what. After congratulations and reproaches, both
+of which might be looked upon as sacrifices to the great god Josh, we
+swung to the left and tramped a half mile to the artesian well. The
+Invigorator and saddle horses followed at a respectful distance. When we
+had investigated the chances at the well, we climbed aboard again and
+rattlety-banged across country to the Slough.
+
+The Slough comprised a wide and varied country. In proper application it
+was a little winding ravine sunk eight or ten feet below the flat plain,
+and filled with water. This water had been grown thick with trees, but
+occasionally, for some reason to me unknown, the growth gave space for
+tiny open ponds or channels. These were further screened by occasional
+willows or greasewood growing on the banks. They were famous loafing
+places for mallards.
+
+It was great fun to slip from bend to bend of the Slough, peering
+keenly, moving softly, trying to spy through the thick growth to a
+glimpse of the clear water. The ducks were very wary. It was necessary
+to know the exact location of each piece of open water, its
+surroundings, and how best it was to be approached. Only too often, peer
+as cautiously as we might, the wily old mallards would catch a glimpse
+of some slight motion. At once they would begin to swim back and forth
+uneasily. Always then we would withdraw cautiously, hoping against hope
+that suspicion would die. It never did. Our stalk would disclose to us
+only a troubled surface of water on which floated lightly a half dozen
+feathers.
+
+But when things went right we had a beautiful shot. The ducks towered
+straight up, trying to get above the level of the brush, affording a
+shot at twenty-five or thirty yards' range. We always tried to avoid
+shooting at the same bird, but did not always succeed. Old Ben delighted
+in this work, for now he had a chance to plunge in after the fallen. As
+a matter of fact, it would have been quite useless to shoot ducks in
+these circumstances had we not possessed a good retriever like Old Ben.
+
+The Slough proper was about two miles long, and had probably eight or
+ten "holes" in which ducks might be expected. The region of the Slough
+was, however, a different matter.
+
+It was a fascinating stretch of country, partly marshy, partly dry, but
+all of it overgrown with tall and rustling tules. These reeds were
+sometimes so dense that one could not force his way through them; at
+others so low and thin that they barely made good quail cover. Almost
+everywhere a team could be driven; and yet there were soft places and
+water channels and pond holes in which a horse would bog down
+hopelessly. From a point on the main north-and-south ditch a man afoot
+left the bank to plunge directly into a jungle of reeds ten feet tall.
+Through them narrow passages led him winding and twisting and doubting
+in a labyrinth. He waded in knee-deep water, but confidently, for he
+knew the bottom to be solid beneath his feet. On either side, fairly
+touching his elbows, the reeds stood tall and dense, so that it seemed
+to him that he walked down a narrow and winding hallway. And every once
+in a while the hallway debouched into a secret shallow pond lying in the
+middle of the tule jungle in which might or might not be ducks. If there
+were ducks, it behooved him to shoot very, very quickly, for those that
+fell in the tules were probably not to be recovered. Then more narrow
+passages led to other ponds.
+
+Always the footing was good, so that a man could strike forward
+confidently. But again there are other places in the Slough region where
+one has to walk for half a mile to pass a miserable little trickle only
+just too wide to step across. The watercress grows thick against either
+oozy bank, leaving a clear of only a foot. Yet it is bottomless.
+
+The Captain knew this region thoroughly, and drove in it by landmarks of
+his own. After many visits I myself got to know the leading "points of
+interest" and how to get to them by a set route; but their relations one
+to another have always remained a little vague.
+
+For instance, there was an earthen reservoir comprising two circular
+connecting ponds, elevated slightly above the surrounding flats, so that
+a man ascended an incline to stand on its banks. One half of this
+reservoir is bordered thickly by tules; but the other half is without
+growth. We left the Invigorator at some hundreds of yards distance; and,
+single file, followed the Captain. We stopped when he did, crawled when
+he did, watched to see what dry and rustling footing he avoided, every
+sense alert to play accurately this unique game of "follow my leader."
+He alone kept watch of the cover, the game, and the plan of attack. We
+were like the tail of a snake, merely following where the head directed.
+This was not because the Captain was so much more expert than ourselves,
+but so as to concentrate the chances of remaining undiscovered. If each
+of us had worked out his own stalk we should have multiplied the chances
+of alarming the game; we should have created the necessity for signals;
+and we should have had the greatest difficulty in synchronizing our
+arrival at the shooting point. We moved a step at a time, feeling
+circumspectly before resting our weight. At the last moment the Captain
+motioned with his hand. Wriggling forward, we came into line. Then, very
+cautiously, we crawled up the bank of the reservoir and peered over!
+That was the supreme moment! The wildfowl might arise in countless
+numbers; in which case we shot as carefully and as quickly as possible,
+reloading and squatting motionless in the almost certain hope of a
+long-range shot or so at a straggler as the main body swung back over
+us. Or, again, our eager eyes were quite likely to rest upon nothing but
+a family party of mud-hens gossiping sociably.
+
+Just beyond the reservoir on the other side was an overflowed small
+flat. It was simply hummocky solid ground with a little green grass and
+some water. Behind the hummocks, even after a cannonade at the
+reservoir, we were almost certain to jump two or three single spoonbills
+or teal. Why they stayed there, I could not tell you; but stay they
+did. We walked them up one at a time, as we would quail. The range was
+long. Sometimes we got them; and sometimes we did not.
+
+From the reservoir we drove out into the illimitable tules. The horses
+went forward steadily, breasting the rustling growth. Behind them the
+Invigorator rocked and swayed like a small boat in a tide rip. We stayed
+in as best we could, our guns bristling up in all directions. The
+Captain drove from a knowledge of his own. After some time, across the
+yellow, waving expanse of the rushes, we made out a small dead willow
+stub slanted rakishly. At sight of this we came to a halt. Just beyond
+that stub lay a denser thicket of tules, and in the middle of them was
+known to be a patch of open water about twenty feet across. There was
+not much to it; but invariably a small bunch of fat old greenheads were
+loafing in the sun.
+
+It now became, not a question of game, for it was always there, but a
+question of getting near enough to shoot. To be sure, the tiny pond was
+so well covered that a stranger to the country would actually be unaware
+of its existence until he broke through the last barrier of tules; but,
+by the same token, that cover was the noisiest cover invented for the
+protection of ducks. Often and often, when still sixty or seventy yards
+distant, we heard the derisive _quack_, _quack_, _quack_, with which a
+mallard always takes wing, and, a moment later, would see those wily
+birds rising above the horizon. A false step meant a crackle; a stumble
+meant a crash. We fairly wormed our way in by inches. Each yard gained
+was a triumph. When, finally, after a half hour of Indian work, we had
+managed to line up ready for the shot, we felt that we had really a few
+congratulations coming. We knew that within fifteen or twenty feet
+floated the wariest of feathered game; and _absolutely unconscious of
+our presence_.
+
+"Now!" the Captain remarked, aloud, in conversational tones.
+
+We stood up, guns at present. The Captain's command was answered by the
+instant beat of wings and the confused quicker calling of alarm. In the
+briefest fraction of a second the ducks appeared above the tules. They
+had to tower straight up, for the pond was too small and the reeds too
+high to permit of any sneaking away. So close were they that we could
+see the markings of every feather--the iridescence of the heads, the
+delicate, wave-marked cinnamons and grays and browns, even the absurd
+little curled plumes over the tails. The guns cracked merrily, the
+shooters aiming at the up-stretched necks. Down came the quarry with
+mighty splashes that threw the water high. The remnant of the flock
+swung away. We stood upright and laughed and joked and exulted after the
+long strain of our stalk. Ben plunged in again and again, bringing out
+the game.
+
+Of these tule holes there were three. When we had visited them each in
+turn we swung back toward the west. There, after much driving, we came
+to the land of irrigation ditches again. At each new angle one of us
+would descend, sneak cautiously to the bank and, bending low, peer down
+the length of the ditch. If ducks were in sight, he located them
+carefully and then we made our sneak. If not, we drove on to the next
+bend. Once we all lay behind an embankment like a lot of soldiers
+behind a breastwork while one of us made a long detour around a big
+flock resting in an overflow across the ditch. The ruse was successful.
+The ducks, rising at sight of the scout, flew high directly over the
+ambuscade. A battery of six or eight guns thereupon opened up. I believe
+we killed three or four ducks among us; but if we had not brought down a
+feather we should have been satisfied with the fact that our stratagem
+succeeded.
+
+So at the last, just as the sun was setting, we completed the circle and
+landed at the ranch. We had been out all day in the warm California sun
+and the breezes that blow from the great mountains across the plains; we
+had worked hard enough to deserve an appetite; we had in a dozen
+instances exercised our wit or our skill against the keen senses of wild
+game; we had used our ingenuity in meeting unexpected conditions; we had
+had a heap of companionship and good-natured fun one with another; we
+had seen a lot of country. This was much better than sitting solitary
+anchored in a blind. To be sure a man could kill more ducks from a
+blind; but what of that?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+RANCH ACTIVITIES
+
+
+Big as it was, the ranch was only a feeder for the open range. Way down
+in southeastern Arizona its cattle had their birth and grew to their
+half-wild maturity. They won their living where they could, fiercely
+from the fierce desert. On the broad plains they grazed during the fat
+season; and as the feed shortened and withered, they retired slowly to
+the barren mountains. In long lines they plodded to the watering places;
+and in long, patient lines they plodded their way back again, until deep
+and indelible troughs had been worn in the face of the earth. Other
+living creatures they saw few, save the coyotes that hung on their
+flanks, the jackrabbits, the prairie dogs, the birds strangely cheerful
+in the face of the mysterious and solemn desert. Once in a while a pair
+of mounted men jog-trotted slowly here and there among them. They gave
+way to right and left, swinging in the free trot of untamed creatures,
+their heads high, their eyes wild. Probably they remembered the terror
+and ignominy and temporary pain of the branding. The men examined them
+with critical eye, and commented technically and passed on.
+
+This was when the animals were alive with the fat grasses. But as the
+drought lengthened, they pushed farther into the hills until the boldest
+or hardiest of them stood on the summits, and the weakest merely stared
+dully as the mounted men jingled by. The desert, kind in her bounty, was
+terrible in her wrath. She took her toll freely and the dried bones of
+her victims rattled in the wind. The fittest survived. Durham died,
+Hereford lived through, and turned up after the first rains wiry, lean,
+and active.
+
+Then came the round-up. From the hidden defiles, the buttes and ranges,
+the hills and plains, the cowboys drew their net to the centre. Each
+"drive" brought together on some alkali flat thousands of the restless,
+milling, bawling cattle. The white dust rose in a cloud against the very
+blue sky. Then, while some of the cowboys sat their horses as sentinels,
+turning the herd back on itself, others threaded a way through the
+multitude, edging always toward the border of the herd some animal
+uneasy in the consciousness that it was being followed. Surrounding the
+main herd, and at some distance from it, other smaller herds rapidly
+formed from the "cut." Thus there was one composed entirely of cows and
+unbranded calves; another of strays from neighbouring ranges; and a
+third of the steers considered worthy of being made into beef cattle.
+
+In due time the main herd was turned back on the range; the strays had
+been cut out and driven home by the cowboys of their several owners; the
+calves had been duly branded and sent out on the desert to grow up. But
+there remained still compact the beef herd. When all the excitement of
+the round-up had died, it showed as the tangible profit of the year.
+
+Its troubles began. Driven to the railroad and into the corrals, it next
+had to be urged to its first experience of sidedoor Pullmans. There the
+powerful beasts went frantic. Pike poles urged them up the chute into
+the cars. They rushed, and hesitated, and stopped and turned back in a
+panic. At times it seemed impossible to get them started into the narrow
+chute. On the occasion of one after-dark loading old J.B., the foreman,
+discovered that the excited steers would charge a lantern light.
+Therefore he posted himself, with a lantern, in the middle of the chute.
+Promply the maddened animals rushed at him. He skipped nimbly one side,
+scaled the fence of the chute. "Now keep 'em coming, boys!" he urged.
+
+The boys did their best, and half filled the car. Then some other
+impulse seized the bewildered rudimentary brains; the cattle balked.
+J.B. did it again, and yet again, until the cars were filled.
+
+You have seen the cattle trains, rumbling slowly along, the crowded
+animals staring stupidly through the bars. They are not having a
+particularly hard time, considering the fact that they are undergoing
+their first experience in travelling. Nowadays they are not allowed to
+become thirsty; and they are too car sick to care about eating. Car
+sick? Certainly; just as you or I are car sick, no worse; only we do not
+need to travel unless we want to. At the end of the journey, often, they
+are too wobbly to stand up. This is not weakness, but dizziness from the
+unwonted motion. Once a fool S.P.C.A. officer ordered a number of the
+Captain's steers shot on the ground that they were too weak to live.
+That greenhorn got into fifty-seven varieties of trouble.
+
+Arrived at their journey's end the steers were permitted to get their
+sea legs off; and then were driven slowly to a cattle paradise--the
+ranch.
+
+For there was flowing water always near to the thirsty nose; and rich
+grazing; and wonderful wagons from which the fodder was thrown
+abundantly; and pleasant shade from a mild and beneficent sun. The thin,
+wiry beasts of the desert lost their angles; they became fat, and curly
+of hair, and sleek of coat, and much inclined to kink up their tails and
+cavort off in clumsy buck jumps just from the sheer joy of living. For
+now they were, in good truth, beef cattle, the aristocracy of fifty
+thousand, the pick of wide ranges, the total tangible wealth of a great
+principality. To see them would come red-faced men with broad hats and
+linen dusters; and their transfer meant dollars and dollars.
+
+I have told you these things lest you might have concluded that the
+Captain did nothing but shoot ducks and quail and ride the polo ponies
+around the enclosure. As a matter of fact, the Captain was always going
+to Arizona, or coming back, or riding here or driving there. When we
+went to the ranch, he looked upon our visit as a vacation, but even then
+he could not shoot with us as often as we all would have liked. On the
+Arizona range were the [JH] ranch, and the Circle I, and the Bar O, and
+the Double R, and the Box Springs, and others whose picturesque names I
+have forgotten. To manage them were cowpunchers; and appertaining
+thereunto were Chinese cooks, and horses, and pump mules, and grub
+lists, and many other things. The ranch itself was even more complicated
+an affair; for, as I have indicated, it meant many activities besides
+cattle. And then there was the buying and selling and shipping. The
+Captain was a busy man.
+
+And the ranch was a busy place. Its population swung through the
+nations. Always the aristocracy was the cowboy. There were not many of
+him, for the cattle here were fenced and fattened; but a few were
+necessary to ride abroad in order that none of the precious beef be
+mired down or tangled in barbed wire; and that all of it be moved hither
+and yon as the pasture varied. And of course the driving, the loading
+and unloading of fresh shipments in and out demanded expert handling.
+
+Some of them came from the desert, lean, bronzed, steady-eyed men
+addicted to "double-barrelled" (two cinch) saddles, ox-bow stirrups,
+straight-shanked spurs, tall-crowned hats, and grass ropes. They were
+plain "cowpunchers." Between them and the California "vaqueros," or
+"buckeroos", was always much slow and drawling argument. For the latter
+had been "raised different" in about every particular. They used the
+single-cinch saddle; long _tapaderos_; or stirrup hoods; curve-shanked
+spurs with jingling chains; low, wide-brimmed sombreros and rawhide
+ropes. And you who have gauged the earnestness of what might be called
+"equipment arguments" among those of a gentler calling, can well
+appreciate that never did bunk-house conversation lack.
+
+Next to these cow riders and horse riders came probably the mule
+drivers. There were many teams of mules, and they were used for many
+things: such as plowing, cultivating, harvesting, haying, the building
+of irrigation checks and ditches, freighting, and the like. A team
+comprised from six to twelve individuals. The man in charge had to know
+mules--which is no slight degree of special wisdom; had to know loads;
+had to understand conditioning. His lantern was the first to twinkle in
+the morning as he doled out corn to his charges.
+
+Then came the ruck of field hands of all types. The average field hand
+in California is a cross between a hobo and a labourer. He works
+probably about half the year. The other half he spends on the road,
+tramping it from place to place. Like the common hobo, he begs his way
+when he can; catches freight train rides; consorts in thickets with his
+kind. Unlike the common hobo, however, he generally has money in his
+pocket and always carries a bed-roll. The latter consists of a blanket
+or so, or quilt, and a canvas strapped around the whole. You can see him
+at any time plodding along the highways and railroads, the roll slung
+across his back. He much appreciates a lift in your rig; and sometimes
+proves worth the trouble. His labour raises him above the level
+degradation of the ordinary tramp; the independence of his spirit gives
+his point of view an originality; the nomadic stirring of his blood
+keeps him going. In the course of years he has crossed the length and
+breadth of the state a half dozen times. He has harvested apples in
+Siskiyou and oranges in Riverside; he has chopped sugar pine in the
+snows of the Sierras and manzanita on the blazing hillsides of San
+Bernardino; he has garnered the wheat of the great Santa Clara Valley
+and the alfalfa of San Fernando. And whenever the need for change or the
+desire for a drink has struck him, he has drawn his pay, strapped his
+bed roll, and cheerfully hiked away down the long and dusty trail.
+
+That is his chief defect as a field hand--his unreliability. He seems
+to have no great pride in finishing out a job, although he is a good
+worker while he is at it. The Captain used to send in the wagon to bring
+men out, but refused absolutely to let any man ride in anything going
+the other way. Nevertheless the hand, when the wanderlust hit him,
+trudged cheerfully the long distance to town. I am not sure that a new
+type is not thus developing, a type as distinct in its way as the
+riverman or the cowboy. It is not as high a type, of course, for it has
+not the strength either of sustained and earnest purpose nor of class
+loyalty; but still it makes for new species. The California field hand
+has mother-wit, independence, a certain reckless, you-be-damned courage,
+a wandering instinct. He quits work not because he wants to loaf, but
+because he wants to go somewhere else. He is always on the road
+travelling, travelling, travelling. It is not hope of gain that takes
+him, for in the scarcity of labour wages are as high here as there. It
+is not desire for dissipation that lures him from labour; he drinks hard
+enough, but the liquor is as potent here as two hundred miles away. He
+looks you steadily enough in the eye; and he begs his bread and commits
+his depredations half humorously, as though all this were fooling that
+both you and he understood. What his impelling motive is, I cannot say;
+nor whether he himself understands it, this restlessness that turns his
+feet ever to the pleasant California highways, an Ishmael of the road.
+
+But this very unreliability forces the ranchman to the next element in
+our consideration of the ranch's people--the Orientals. They are good
+workers, these little brown and yellow men, and unobtrusive and
+skilled. They do not quit until the job is done; they live frugally;
+they are efficient. The only thing we have against them is that we are
+afraid of them. They crowd our people out. Into a community they edge
+themselves little by little. At the end of two years they have saved
+enough capital to begin to buy land. At the end of ten years they have
+taken up all the small farms from the whites who cannot or will not live
+in competition with Oriental frugality. The valley, or cove, or flat has
+become Japanese. They do not amalgamate. Their progeny are Japanese
+unchanged; and their progeny born here are American citizens. In the
+face of public sentiment, restriction, savage resentment they have made
+head. They are continuing to make head. The effects are as yet small in
+relation to the whole of the body politic; but more and more of the
+fertile, beautiful little farm centres of California are becoming the
+breeding grounds of Japanese colonies. As the pressure of population on
+the other side increases, it is not difficult to foresee a result. We
+are afraid of them.
+
+The ranchmen know this. "We would use white labour," say they, "if we
+could get it, and rely on it. But we cannot; and we _must_ have labour!"
+The debt of California to the Orientals can hardly be computed. The
+citrus crop is almost entirely moved by them; and all other produce
+depends so largely on them that it would hardly be an exaggeration to
+say that without them a large part of the state's produce would rot in
+fields. We do not want the Oriental; and yet we must have him, must have
+more of him if we are to reach our fullest development. It is a dilemma;
+a paradox.
+
+And yet, it seems to me, the paradox only exists because we will not
+face facts in a commonsense manner. As I remember it, the original
+anti-Oriental howl out here made much of the fact that the Chinaman and
+Japanese saved his money and took it home with him. In the peculiar
+circumstances we should not object to that. We cannot get our work done
+by our own people; we are forced to hire in outsiders to do it; we
+should expect, as a country, to pay a fair price for what we get. It is
+undoubtedly more desirable to get our work done at home; but if we
+cannot find the help, what more reasonable than that we should get it
+outside, and pay for it? If we insist that the Oriental is a detriment
+as a permanent resident, and if at the same time we need his labour,
+what else is there to do but pay him and let him go when he has done his
+job?
+
+And he will go _if pay is all he gets_. Only when he is permitted to
+settle down to his favourite agriculture in a fertile country does he
+stay permanently. To be sure a certain number of him engages in various
+other commercial callings, but that number bears always a very definite
+proportion to the Oriental population in general. And it is harmless. It
+is not absolute restriction of immigration we want--although I believe
+immigration should be numerically restricted, but absolute prohibition
+of the right to hold real estate. To many minds this may seem a denial
+of the "equal rights of man." I doubt whether in some respects men have
+equal rights. Certainly Brown has not an equal right with Jones to spank
+Jones's small boy; nor do I believe the rights of any foreign nation
+paramount to our own right to safeguard ourselves by proper legislation.
+
+These economics have taken us a long distance from the ranch and its
+Orientals. The Japanese contingent were mainly occupied with the fruit,
+possessing a peculiar deftness in pruning and caring for the prunes and
+apricots. The Chinese had to do with irrigation and with the vegetables.
+Their broad, woven-straw hats and light denim clothes lent the
+particular landscape they happened for the moment to adorn a peculiarly
+foreign and picturesque air.
+
+And outside of these were various special callings represented by one or
+two men: such as the stable men, the bee keeper, the blacksmith and
+wagon-wright, the various cooks and cookees, the gardeners, the "varmint
+catcher," and the like.
+
+Nor must be forgotten the animals, both wild and tame. Old Ben and Young
+Ben and Linn, the bird dogs; the dachshunds; the mongrels of the men's
+quarters; all the domestic fowls; the innumerable and blue-blooded hogs;
+the polo ponies and brood mares, the stud horses and driving horses and
+cow horses, colts, yearlings, the young and those enjoying a peaceful
+and honourable old age; Pollymckittrick; Redmond's cat and fifty others,
+half-wild creatures; vireos and orioles in the trees around the house;
+thousands and thousands of blackbirds rising in huge swarms like gnats;
+full-voiced meadowlarks on the fence posts; herons stalking solemnly, or
+waiting like so many Japanese bronzes for a chance at a gopher;
+red-tailed hawks circling slowly; pigeon hawks passing with their falcon
+dart; little gaudy sparrow hawks on top the telephone poles; buzzards,
+stately and wonderful in flight, repulsive when at rest; barn-owls
+dwelling in the haystacks, and horned owls in the hollow trees; the
+game in countless numbers; all the smaller animals and tiny birds in
+species too numerous to catalogue, all these drew their full sustenance
+of life from the ranch's smiling abundance.
+
+And the mules; I must not forget them. I have the greatest respect for a
+mule. He knows more than the horse; just as the goose or the duck knows
+more than the chicken. Six days the mules on the ranch laboured; but on
+the seventh they were turned out into the pastures to rest and roll and
+stand around gossiping sociably, rubbing their long, ridiculous Roman
+noses together, or switching the flies off one another with their
+tasselled tails. Each evening at sunset all the various teams came in
+from different directions, converging at the lane, and plodding dustily
+up its length to the sheds and their night's rest. Five evenings thus
+they come in silence. But on the sixth each and every mule lifted up his
+voice in rejoicing over the morrow. The distant wayfarer--familiar with
+ranch ways--hearing this strident, discordant, thankful chorus far
+across the evening peace of the wide country, would thus have known this
+was Saturday night, and that to-morrow was the Sabbath, the day of rest!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE HEATHEN
+
+
+This must be mainly discursive and anecdotal, for no one really knows
+much more than externals concerning the Chinese. Some men there are,
+generally reporters on the big dailies, who have been admitted to the
+tongs; who can take you into the exclusive Chinese clubs; who are
+everywhere in Chinatown greeted cordially, treated gratis to strange
+food and drink, and patted on the back with every appearance of
+affection. They can tell you of all sorts of queer, unknown customs and
+facts, and can show you all sorts of strange and unusual things. Yet at
+the last analysis these are also discursions and anecdotes. We gather
+empirical knowledge: only rarely do we think we get a glimpse of how the
+delicate machinery moves behind those twinkling eyes.
+
+I am led to these remarks by the contemplation of Chinese Charley at the
+ranch. He has been with Mrs. Kitty twenty-five years; he wears American
+clothes; he speaks English with hardly a trace of either accent or
+idiom; he has long since dropped the deceiving Oriental stolidity and
+weeps out his violent Chinese rages unashamed. Yet even now Mrs. Kitty's
+summing up is that Charley is a "queer old thing."
+
+If you start out with a good Chinaman, you will always have good
+Chinamen; if you draw a poor one, you will probably be cursed with a
+succession of mediocrities. They pass you along from one to another of
+the same "family"; and, short of the adoption of false whiskers and a
+change of name, you can find no expedient to break the charm. When one
+leaves of his own accord, he sends you another boy to take his place.
+When he is discharged, he does identically that, although you may not
+know it. Down through the list of Gins or Sings or Ungs you slide
+comfortably or bump disagreeably according to your good fortune or
+deserts.
+
+Another feature to which you must become accustomed is that of the
+Unexpected Departure. Everything is going smoothly, and you are engaged
+in congratulating yourself. To you appears Ah Sing.
+
+"I go San Flancisco two o'clock tlain," he remarks. And he does.
+
+In vain do you point to the inconvenience of guests, the injustice thus
+of leaving you in the lurch; in vain do you threaten detention of wages
+due unless he gives you what your servant experience has taught you is a
+customary "week's warning." He repeats his remark: and goes. At
+two-fifteen another bland and smiling heathen appears at your door. He
+may or may not tell you that Ah Sing sent him. Dinner is ready on time.
+The household work goes on without a hitch or a tiniest jar.
+
+"Ah Sing say you pay me his money," announces this new heathen.
+
+If you are wise, you abandon your thoughts of fighting the outrage. You
+pay over Ah Sing's arrears.
+
+"By the way," you inquire of your new retainer, "what's your name?"
+
+"My name Lum Sing," the newcomer replies.
+
+That is about the way such changes happen. If by chance you are in the
+good graces of heathendom, you will be given an involved and fancy
+reason for the departure. These generally have to do with the mysterious
+movements of relatives.
+
+"My second-uncle, he come on ship to San Flancisco. I got to show him
+what to do," explains Ah Sing.
+
+If they like you very much, they tell you they will come back at the end
+of a month. They never do, and by the end of the month the new man has
+so endeared himself to you that Ah Sing is only a pleasant memory.
+
+The reasons for these sudden departures are two-fold as near as I can
+make out. Ah Sing may not entirely like the place; or he may have
+received orders from his tong to move on--probably the latter. If both
+Ah Sing and his tong approve of you and the situation, he will stay with
+you for many years. Our present man once remained but two days at a
+place. The situation is an easy one; Toy did his work well; the
+relations were absolutely friendly. After we had become intimate with
+Toy, he confided to us his reasons:
+
+"I don' like stay at place where nobody laugh," said he.
+
+As servants the Chinese are inconceivably quick, deft, and clean. One
+good man will do the work of two white servants, and do it better. Toy
+takes care of us absolutely. He cooks, serves, does the housework, and
+with it all manages to get off the latter part of the afternoon and
+nearly every evening. At first, with recollections of the rigidly
+defined "days off" of the East, I was a little inclined to look into
+this. I did look into it; but when I found all the work done, without
+skimping, I concluded that if the man were clever enough to save his
+time, he had certainly earned it for himself. Systematizing and no false
+moves proved to be his method.
+
+Since this is so, it follows, quite logically and justly, that the
+Chinese servant resents the minute and detailed supervision some
+housewives delight in. Show him what you want done; let him do it;
+criticize the result--but do not stand around and make suggestions and
+offer amendments. Some housekeepers, trained to make of housekeeping an
+end rather than a means, can never keep Chinese. This does not mean that
+you must let them go at their own sweet will: only that you must try as
+far as possible to do your criticizing and suggesting before or after
+the actual performance.
+
+I remember once Billy came home from some afternoon tea where she had
+been talking to a number of "conscientious" housekeepers of the old
+school until she had been stricken with a guilty feeling that she had
+been loafing on the job. To be sure the meals were good, and on time;
+the house was clean; the beds were made; and the comforts of life seemed
+to be always neatly on hand; but what of that? The fact remained that
+Billy had time to go horseback riding, to go swimming, to see her
+friends, and to shoot at a mark. Every other housekeeper was busy from
+morning until night; and then complained that somehow or other she never
+could get finished up! It was evident that somehow Billy was not doing
+her full duty by the sphere to which woman was called, etc.
+
+So home she came, resolved to do better. Toy was placidly finishing up
+for the afternoon. Billy followed him around for a while, being a
+housekeeper. Toy watched her with round, astonished eyes. Finally he
+turned on her with vast indignation.
+
+"Look here, Mis' White," said he. "What a matter with you? You talk just
+like one old woman!"
+
+Billy paused in her mad career and considered. That was just what she
+was talking like. She laughed. Toy laughed. Billy went shooting.
+
+After your Chinaman becomes well acquainted with you, he develops human
+traits that are astonishing only in contrast to his former mask of
+absolute stolidity. To the stranger the Oriental is as impassive and
+inscrutable as a stone Buddha, so that at last we come to read his
+attitude into his inner life, and to conclude him without emotion. This
+is also largely true of the Indian. As a matter of fact, your heathen is
+rather vividly alive inside. His enjoyment is keen, his curiosity
+lively, his emotions near the surface. If you have or expect to have
+visitors, you must tell Ah Sing all about them--their station in life,
+their importance, and the like. He will listen, keenly interested,
+gravely nodding his pig-tailed, shaven head. Then, if your visitors are
+from the East, you inform them of what every Californian knows--that
+each and every member of a household must say "good morning"
+ceremoniously to Ah Sing. And Ah Sing will smile blandly and duck his
+pig-tailed, shaven head, and wish each member "good morning" back
+again. It is sometimes very funny to hear the matin chorus of a dozen
+people crying out their volley of salute to ceremony; and to hear again
+the Chinaman's conscientious reply to each in turn down the long
+table--"_Good_ mo'ning, Mr. White; _good_ mo'ning, Mis' White; _good_
+mo'ning, Mr. Lewis----" and so on, until each has been remembered. There
+are some families that, either from ignorance or pride, omit this and
+kindred little human ceremonials. The omission is accepted; but that
+family is never "my family" to the servant within its gates.
+
+For your Chinaman is absolutely faithful and loyal and trustworthy. He
+can be allowed to handle any amount of money for you. We ourselves are
+away from home a great deal. When we get ready to go, we simply pack our
+trunks and depart. Toy then puts away the silver and valuables and
+places them in the bank vaults, closes the house, and puts all in order.
+A week or so before our return we write him. Thereupon he cleans things
+up, reclaims the valuables, rearranges everything. His wonderful Chinese
+memory enables him to replace every smallest item exactly as it was. If
+I happen to have left seven cents and an empty .38 cartridge on the
+southwestern corner of the bureau, there they will be. It is difficult
+to believe that affairs have been at all disturbed. Yet probably, if our
+stay away has been of any length, everything in the house has been moved
+or laid away.
+
+Furthermore, Toy reads and writes English, and enjoys greatly sending us
+wonderful and involved reports. One of them ended as follows: "The
+weather is doing nicely, the place is safely well, and the dogs are
+happy all the while." It brings to mind a peculiarly cheerful picture.
+
+One of the familiar and persistent beliefs as to Chinese traits is that
+they are a race of automatons. "Tell your Chinaman exactly what you want
+done, and how you want it done," say your advisors, "for you will never
+be able to change them once they get started." And then they will adduce
+a great many amusing and true incidents to illustrate the point.
+
+The facts of the case are undoubted, but the conclusions as to the
+invariability of the Chinese mind are, in my opinion, somewhat
+exaggerated.
+
+It must be remembered that almost all Chinese customs and manners of
+thought are the direct inverse of our own. When announcing or receiving
+a piece of bad news, for example, it is with them considered polite to
+laugh; while intense enjoyment is apt to be expressed by tears. The
+antithesis can be extended almost indefinitely by the student of
+Oriental manners. Contemplate, now, the condition of the young Chinese
+but recently arrived. He is engaged by some family to do its housework;
+and, as he is well paid and conscientious, he desires to do his best.
+But in this he is not permitted to follow his education. Each, move he
+makes in initiative is stopped and corrected. To his mind there seems no
+earthly sense or logic in nine tenths of what we want; but he is willing
+to do his best.
+
+"Oh, well," says he to himself, "these people do things crazily; and no
+well-regulated Chinese mind could possibly either anticipate how they
+desire things done, or figure out why they want them that way. I give
+it up! I'll just follow things out exactly as I am told"--and he does
+so!
+
+This condition of affairs used to be more common than it is now. Under
+the present exclusion law no fresh immigration is supposed to be
+possible. Most of the Chinese servants are old timers, who have learned
+white people's ways, and--what is more important--understand them. They
+are quite capable of initiative; and much more intelligent than the
+average white servant.
+
+But a green Chinaman is certainly funny. He does things forever-after
+just as you show him the first time; and a cataclysm of nature is
+required to shake his purpose. Back in the middle 'eighties my father,
+moving into a new house, dumped the ashes beside the kitchen steps
+pending the completion of a suitable ash bin. When the latter had been
+built, he had Gin Gwee move the ashes from the kitchen steps to the bin.
+This happened to be of a Friday. Ever after Gin Gwee deposited the ashes
+by the kitchen steps every day; and on Friday solemnly transferred them
+to the ash bin! Nor could anything persuade him to desist.
+
+Again he was given pail, soap, and brush, shown the front steps and walk
+leading to the gate, and set to work. Gin Gwee disappeared. When we went
+to hunt him up, we found him half way down the block, still scrubbing
+away. I was in favour of letting him alone to see how far he would go,
+but mother had other ideas as to his activities.
+
+These stories could be multiplied indefinitely; and are detailed by the
+dozen as proof of the "stupidity" of the Chinese. The Chinese are
+anything but stupid; and, as I have said before, when once they have
+grasped the logic of the situation, can figure out a case with the best
+of them.
+
+They are, however, great sticklers for formalism; and disapprove of any
+short cuts in ceremony. As soon leave with the silver as without waiting
+for the finger bowls. A friend of mine, training a new man by example,
+as new men of this nationality are always trained, was showing him how
+to receive a caller. Therefore she rang her own doorbell, presented a
+card; in short, went through the whole performance. Tom understood
+perfectly. That same afternoon Mrs. G----, a next-door neighbour and
+intimate friend, ran over for a chat. She rang the bell. Tom appeared.
+
+"Is Mrs. B---- at home?" inquired the friend.
+
+Tom planted himself square in the doorway. He surveyed her with a cold
+and glittering eye.
+
+"You got ticket?" he demanded. "You no got ticket, you no come in!"
+
+On another occasion two ladies came to call on Mrs. B---- but by mistake
+blundered to the kitchen door. Mrs. B----'s house is a bungalow and on a
+corner. Tom appeared.
+
+"Is Mrs. B---- at home?" they asked.
+
+"This kitchen door; you go front door," requested Tom, politely.
+
+The callers walked around the house to the proper door, rang, and
+waited. After a suitable interval Tom appeared again.
+
+"Is Mrs. B---- at home?" repeated the visitors.
+
+"No, Mrs. B---- she gone out," Tom informed them. The proper
+ceremonials had been fulfilled.
+
+To one who appreciates what he can do, and how well he does it; who can
+value absolute faithfulness and honesty; who confesses a sneaking
+fondness for the picturesque as nobly exemplified in a clean and
+starched or brocaded heathen; who understands how to balance the
+difficult poise, supervision, and interference, the Chinese servant is
+the best on the continent. But to one who enjoys supervising every step
+or who likes well-trained ceremony, "good form" in minutiae, and the
+deference of our kind of good training the heathen is likely to prove
+disappointing. When you ring your friend's door-bell, you are quite apt
+to be greeted by a cheerful and smiling "hullo!" I think most
+Californians rather like the entirely respectful but freshly
+unconventional relationship that exists between the master and his
+Chinese servant. I do.[H]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE LAST HUNT
+
+
+Of all ranch visits the last day neared. Always we forgot it until the
+latest possible moment; for we did not like to think of it. Then, when
+the realization could be no longer denied, we planned a grand day just
+to finish up on. The telephone's tiny, thin voice returned acceptances
+from distant neighbours; so bright and early we waited at the
+cross-roads rendezvous.
+
+And from the four directions they came, jogging along in carts or
+spring-wagons, swaying swiftly in automobiles whose brass flashed back
+the early sun. As each vehicle drew up, the greetings flew, charged
+electrically with the dry, chaffing humour of the out of doors. When we
+finally climbed the fence into the old cornfield we were almost a dozen.
+There were the Captain, Uncle Jim, and myself from the ranch; and T and
+his three sons and two guests from Stockdale ranch; the sporting parson
+of the entire neighbourhood, and Dodge and his three beautiful dogs.
+
+Spread out in a rough line we tramped away through the dried and
+straggling ranks of the Egyptian corn. Quail buzzed all around us like
+angry hornets. We did not fire a shot. Each had his limit of twenty-five
+still before him, and each wanted to have all the fun he could out of
+getting them. Shooting quail in Egyptian corn is, comparatively
+speaking, not much fun. We joked each other, and whistled and sang, and
+trudged manfully along, gun over shoulder. The pale sun was
+strengthening; the mountains were turning darker as they threw aside the
+filmy rose of early day; in treetops a row of buzzards sat, their wings
+outspread like the heraldic devices of a foreign nation. Thousands of
+doves whistled away; thousands of smaller birds rustled and darted
+before our advancing lines; tens of thousands of blackbirds sprinkled
+the bare branches of single trees, uttering the many-throated multitude
+call; underneath all this light and joyous life the business-like little
+quail darted away in their bullet flight.
+
+Always they bore across our front to the left; for on that side,
+paralleling our course, ran a long ravine or "dry slough." It was about
+ten feet deep on the average, probably thirty feet wide, and was densely
+grown with a tangle of willows, berry vines, creepers, wild grape, and
+the like. Into this the quail pitched.
+
+By the time we had covered the mile length of that cornfield we had
+dumped an unguessable number of quail into that slough.
+
+Then we walked back the entire distance--still with our guns over our
+shoulders--but this time along the edge of the ravine. We shouted and
+threw clods, and kicked on the trees, and rattled things, urging the
+hidden quail once more to flight. The thicket seemed alive with them. We
+caught glimpses as they ran before us, pacing away at a great rate,
+their feathers sleek and trim; they buzzed away at bewildering pitches
+and angles; they sprang into the tops of bushes, cocking their head
+plumes forward. Their various clicking undercalls, chatterings, and
+chirrings filled the thicket as full of sound as of motion. And in the
+middle distance before and behind us they mocked us with their calls.
+
+"You _can't_ shoot! You _can't_ shoot!"
+
+Some of them flew ever ahead, some of them doubled-back and dropped into
+the slough behind us; but a proportion broke through the thicket and
+settled in the wide fields on the other side. After them we went, and
+for the first time opened our guns and slipped the yellow shells into
+the barrels.
+
+For this field on the other side was the wide, open plain; and it was
+grown over by tiny, half-knee high thickets of tumbleweed with here and
+there a trifle of sagebrush. Between these miniature thickets wound
+narrow strips of sandy soil, like streams and bays and estuaries in
+shape. We knew that the quail would lie well here, for they hate to
+cross bare openings.
+
+Therefore, we threw out our skirmish line, and the real advance in force
+began.
+
+Every man retrieved his own birds, a matter of some difficulty in the
+tumbleweed. While one was searching, the rest would get ahead of him.
+The line became disorganized, broke into groups, finally disintegrated
+entirely. Each man hunted for himself, circling the tumbleweed patches,
+combing carefully their edges for the quail that sometimes burst into
+the air fairly at his feet. When he had killed one, he walked directly
+to the spot. On the way he would flush two or three more. They were
+tempting; but we were old hands at the sport, and we knew only too well
+that if we yielded so far as to shoot a second before we had picked up
+the first, the probabilities were strong that the first would never be
+found. In this respect such shooting requires good judgment. It is
+generally useless to try to shoot a double, even though a dozen easy
+shots are in the air at once; and yet, occasionally, on a day when
+Koos-ey-oonek is busy elsewhere, it may happen that the birds flush
+across a wide, bare space. It is well to keep a weather eye open for
+such chances.
+
+With a green crowd and in different cover such shooting might have been
+dangerous; but with an abundance of birds, in this wide, open prairie,
+cool heads knew enough to keep wide apart and to look before they shot.
+The fun grew fast and furious; and the guns popped away like
+firecrackers. In fact, the fun grew a little too fast and furious to
+suit Dodge.
+
+Dodge had beautiful and well-trained dogs. Ordinarily any one of us
+would have esteemed it a high privilege to shoot over them. In fact, I
+have often declared myself to the effect that of the three elements of
+pleasure comprehended in field shooting that of working the dogs was the
+chief. Just as it is better to catch one yellowtail on a nine-ounce rod
+than twenty on a hand line, so it is better to kill one quail over a
+well-trained dog than a half dozen "Walking 'em up." But this particular
+case was different. We were out for a high old time; and part of a high
+old time was a wild and reckless disregard of inhibitive sporting
+conventions. The birds were here literally in thousands. Not a third had
+left the slough for this open country; we could not shoot at a tenth of
+those flushed, yet the guns were popping continuously. Everybody was
+shooting and laughing and running about. The game was to pelt away,
+retrieve your bird as quickly as you could, and pelt away again. The
+dogs, working up to their points carefully and stylishly, as good dogs
+should, were being constantly left in the rear. They drew down to their
+points--and behold nobody but their devoted master would pay any
+attention to their bird! Everybody else was engaged busily in popping
+away at any one of the dozen-odd other birds to be had for the
+selection!
+
+Poor Dodge, being somewhat biased by the accident of ownership, looked
+on us as a lot of barbarians--as, for the time being, we were; nice,
+happy barbarians having a good time. He worked his dogs conscientiously,
+and muttered in his beard. The climax came when, in the joyous
+excitement of the occasion, someone threw out a chance remark on "those
+---- dogs" being in the way. Then Dodge withdrew with dignity. Having a
+fellow-feeling as a dog-handler I went over to console him. He was
+inconsolable; and so remained until after lunch.
+
+In this manner we made our way slowly down the length of the slough, and
+then slowly back again. Of the birds originally flushed from the
+Egyptian corn into the thicket but a small proportion had left that
+thicket for the open country of the tumbleweed and sage; and of the
+latter we had been able to shoot at a very, very small percentage.
+Nevertheless, when we emptied our pockets, we found that each had made
+his bag. We counted them out, throwing them into one pile.
+
+"Twenty-four," counted the Captain.
+
+"Twenty-four," Tom enumerated.
+
+"Twenty-four," Uncle Jim followed him.
+
+We each had twenty-four. And then it developed that every man had saved
+just one bird of his limit until after lunch. No one wanted to be left
+out of _all_ the shooting while the rest filled their bags; and no one
+had believed that anybody but himself had come so close to the limit.
+
+So we laughed, and shouldered our guns, and trudged across country to
+the clump of cottonwood where already the girls had spread lunch.
+
+That was a good lunch. We sat under shady trees, and the sunlit plains
+stretched away and away to distant calm mountains. Near at hand the
+sparse gray sagebrush reared its bonneted heads; far away it blurred
+into a monochrome where the plains lifted and flowed molten into the
+canons and crevices of the foothills. Numberless crows, blackbirds, and
+wildfowl crossed and recrossed the very blue sky. A gray jackrabbit,
+thinking himself concealed by a very creditable imitation of a
+_sacatone_ hummock, sat motionless not seventy yards away.
+
+After lunch we moved out leisurely to get our one bird apiece. Some of
+the girls followed us. We were now epicures of shooting, and each let
+many birds pass before deciding to fire. Some waited for cross shots,
+some for very easy shots, some for the most difficult shots possible.
+Each suited his fancy.
+
+"I'm all in," remarked each, as he pocketed his bird; and followed to
+see the others finish.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Next day, our baggage piled in most anywhere, our farewells all said, we
+bowled away toward town in the brand-new machine. Redmond sat in the
+front seat with the chauffeur. It was his first experience in an
+automobile, and he sat very rigidly upright, eyes front, his moustaches
+bristling.
+
+Now at a certain point on the road lived a large black dog--just plain
+ranch dog--who was accustomed to come bounding out to the road to run
+alongside and bark for an appropriate interval. This was an unvarying
+ceremony. He was a large and prancing dog; and, I suppose from his
+appearance, must have been named Carlo. In the course of our many visits
+to the ranch we grew quite fond of the dog, and always looked as hard
+for him to come out as he did for us to come along.
+
+This day also the dog came forth; but now he had no steady-trotting
+ranch team to greet. The road was smooth and straight, and the car was
+hitting thirty-five miles an hour. The dog bounded confidently down the
+front walk, leaping playfully in the air, opened his mouth to bark--and,
+behold! the vehicle was not within range any more, but thirty yards away
+and rapidly departing. So Carlo shut his mouth and got down to business.
+For three hundred yards he managed to keep pace alongside; but the
+effort required all his forces; not once did he manage to gather wind
+for even a single bark.
+
+Redmond in the front seat sat straighter than ever. From his lordly
+elevation he waved a lordly hand at the poor dog.
+
+"Useless! Useless!" said he, loftily.
+
+And looking back at the dog seated panting in a rapidly disappearing
+distance, we saw that he also knew that the Old Order had changed.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+     [Footnote A: Oiler = Greaser = Mexican.]
+
+     [Footnote B: Saddle pockets that fit on the pommel.]
+
+     [Footnote C: 3,350, to be exact. We later measured it.]
+
+     [Footnote D: 3,350 feet--later measurement.]
+
+     [Footnote E: 355 paces.]
+
+     [Footnote F: Somewhere between 500 and 700 yards. I am very practised at pacing and guessing such distances.]
+
+     [Footnote G: Ten years later sentence of death was passed and
+     carried out after they had killed _one wheelbarrow_ load of
+     broilers!]
+
+     [Footnote H: This chapter was written in the--alas--vanished past!]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Killer, by Stewart Edward White
+
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