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Show A Story, of Bonanza Days la : BY GEBALDZtTE BONNER. ? Nevada, . ' and San Francisco.- . (Copyright by Bobbs-Merrlll Co.)" CHAPTEB L , . ' ' ' . The Squaitter. : . It had been 6 o'clock In the clear, still freshness tof a May morning when the Colonel had started , from Sacramento. Now, drawing rein where the shadow of a live-oak lay like a black pool across the road, he looked at his watch almost 5. "Vn had nearly wheeled from horizon to norison. -J??ID tbf. Durn'n noon" hour he had fV. k ai Murderer s " Bar. Except for .r!'1. h had been in the saddle all day. e.n.,nt 'P4 where the road passed 2l2Ltb? Vrnt Moulder of the foothills, descending Into sheltered canyons by cool Il?Lbl?"vpacln alon tretches of deserted de-serted highway where his mounted ng- ?.-w.M tn ?ntY "vlng thing In sight. Stationary la the -shade of the live-oak ? 'ed. tout him. The rich foothill -nir. of California stretched away be-.i1 be-.i1 In lasy undulations, dotted with the forms of the oaks. The grass on unprotected hilltops was already do ing to an ocher yellow, the road was deep In iiSi - Fa'fway' haB'n on the norison like a faded mirage, was the high Sierra, thin, snow-touched, a faint, aerial vision. The : sleepy sounds of midday had died cown and the strange, dream-like silence o peculiar to Callfornlt held the scene. It was like looking at a picture, the Colonel Colo-nel thought, as he turned in his saddle and surveyed the misty line of hill after hill, bare and wooded, dwindling down to where- vast, sea-like expanse swimming !n ?Pttlecent tints stretched one of the fruitful valleys of the world. Kit Carson, the finest horse procurable in the Sacramento livery stable the Colonel Colo-nel patronised, stamped and nicked off a fly with his long tall. His rider muttered word of endearment and bent to pat the silky neck, while his eyes continued to move over the great panorama. He had traversed it many times. The "first i rose m nI" ro'nd. when in the flush or his splendid manhood, he had sought' rortuno on the bars and river-beds in forty-nine. Forty-nine! -That was twenty-one twenty-one years ago. Something in the thought clouded his brow and. called a sigh to his lips. He made a gesture as though shaking off a Kainful memory and gathered- up the an gin g rein. - . . "Come. Kit." he said aloud, "we've got to be moving. There's fifteen miles yet between us and supper." The rosd before them mounted a spur at the top of which it branched, one fork winding up and on to the mining towns hidden In the mountain crevices. The other turned to the right, and rising and falling over the buttresses that the foothills foot-hills thrust Into the plain, wandered down "the mother lode," the great mineral belt of California, f As they rose to the summit of the spur, the brilliancy of the air was tarnished by a cloud of dust, and the silence disrupted by sounds. The crack of whlDS cut into r 11 fl so we" ,n Pining riches. As "? k4 trted to remedy a deficit ln the other, and his fortune remained at about me same comfortable level, despite his preoccupation ln investments. i This very trip was to see about a new one in which there were great possibilities. possibili-ties. He had a strip of land at Foleys. back of the town, purchased fifteen years ago when people thought the little camp was to be the mining center of the region. Now, after he had been regularly paying his taxes, and hearlng that the place annually an-nually grew smaller and. deader, a mineral min-eral spring had been discovered on his Land. 11 wa" 1 rood thing that something had been discovered there. The hopes of Foleys had vanished soon after he had come into possession of the tract.- His efforts to sell It had been unsuccessful. Some-years ago the last time he was up there you couldn't get people to take land near Foleys, short of giving it to them. But a mineral spring was a very different matter. ( , As Kit Carson bore him swiftly onward he reviewed the idea of his new investment invest-ment with Increasing enthusiasm. - If the spring was ail they said it was, he would build a hotel near it. and transform the beautiful, unknown locality Into a summer sum-mer resort. There was an Ideal situation for a hotel, where the land swept upward Into a sort of natural terrace crested with enormous pines. Here the house wonld be built, and from Its front piazza guests rocking in shaker chairs could look over miles of hills and wooded canyons, and far away on clear days could see the mother-of pearl expanse of the Sacramento Sacra-mento valley. A few years ago the plan would have been Impossible. But now. with the railroad rail-road climbing over the Sierra, It would be quite feasible to run a line of stages from Sacramento; or, possibly. Auburn would be shorter. There was even I a hope in the back of the Colonel's mind that the railway might . be induced i to fling forth a epur as far as Placerville. The Colonel had friendships in high places. Things that ordinary mortals who were not rich, unattached pioneers, could not aspire . to, were entirely possible possi-ble for Col. James Parrlsh. But here came in the "but" which upsets the best-laid plans. At this point the squatter had loomed up. I The Colonel had hardly believed in the squatter at first. His claims were I so preposterous. He had come shortly after Parrlsh's last visit, nearly four years ago, and had taken up his residence I In the half-ruined cottage which had been built on the land in those days when people peo-ple had thought Foleys was going to 'be a great mining center. When Cusack, the drowsy lawyer who attendefl to Col. Parrieh's business Interests In Foleys," tas he expressed It, let his client know there was a squatter a married man with two children on the lend, the Colonel's reply had been, "Let him squat." And so the matter had rested. 1 Now. wheiT the Colonel wanted to take possession of his own, build his hotel and develop his mineral spring, he had received re-ceived the Intelligence that the squatter refused to go that. In fact, he claimed the land on a three ana a hair years tenancy undisturbed by notice to . leave, and on various and sundry "improvements" "improve-ments" he had made. ( It took the Colonel's breath away. That little clause in the lawyer's letter about the wife and children had Induced him to give his permission for the squatter to occupy his cottage. Having no wife or child of his own, he had a secret feeling feel-ing of friendliness to all men who, even in poverty and unsuccess, had tasted of this supreme happiness. And he had let the man remain there, undisturbed, throughout the three and a half years, had forgotten him ln fact, did not even know his name. ) And then to toe suddenly faced by ihe amazing Insolence of the claim! He with his flawless - title, his record of scrupulously scrupu-lously paid taxes! He wrote to the Foleys lawyer as to what "the Improvements" were, and received the reply that they consisted In "a garden planted out and tended by the squatter's daughters, and a bit of vineyard land that the girls had pruned and cultivated into bearing condition. condi-tion. There were repairs on the house, mending the roof and the porch which was falling down. Allen had made these himself." - Allen! It was the first time Col. pir-rish pir-rish had heard the squatter's name, j It sent a gush of painful memories out from his heart, and for a space he sat silent with drooped head. Why was not the world wide enough for him and all who bore this name to pass one another without with-out encounter? Now, as he rode on the last stage 'of his Journey, and over the hilltops saw the smoke of the Foleys chimneys, his mind had once again fallen on the squatter's squat-ter's name. Strance coincidence that after twenty-one years this name a common com-mon one should rise up uncomfortablyi ln his path. He smiled bitterly to himself. Fate played strange tricks, and he felt, with a sense of shamed meanness, . that he would have regarded the matter with more leniency If he had borne any other name than AHen. J (Chapter Two in-Tomorrow's Telegram! the tranquillity of the evening hour; the Jangling of bells and voices of men mingled min-gled In strident dissonance. Both Kit and the Colonel rose above the curve of the hilltop with pricked ears and alert eyes of curiosity. The left-hsnd road was blocked as far as could be seen -with a long mule train, one of the trains that a few years before had crossed the Sierra to Virginia City, and still plied a trade-with the California mountain towns. The dust rose from It and covered it as though to shut out from Heaven the vision of the straining animals, and deaden the blasphemies of the men. Looking along its struggling length, the end. of which was lost round a turn of the road, the Colonel could see the pointed ears, the strenched necks, and the arched collars of the mules, the canvas tops of the wagons and over all, darting back and forth, the leaping flash of the whips. A forward wagon was stuck, and. groaning and creaking from an unsuccessful unsuc-cessful effort to start It, the train subsided sub-sided Into panting relaxation.' From the dust the near-by drivers emerged, caught sight of the rider, and slouched toward him. They were powerful men great men ln their day, the California mule drivers. They passed the time of day, told him their destination and asked his. Going on to Foleys. was he? Mining? 8upposed not. Not much mining done round Foleys now. Like Virginia, pretty well petered. "Virginia!" said one of them, "you'd oughter see Virginia! I've taken my slx-teen-mule team over the 8trawberry Creek route and made my ten dollars a day in Virginia, but It's as dead now as forty-nine." Then they slouched back to their work. Through the churned-up dust, red with the brightness of the declining sun. men came swinging down from the forward end of the train, driving mules to attach to the stalled wagon. About it there was a concentrating of movement and then an outburst of furious energy. A storm of profanity arose, the dust ascended like a pillar of red smoke, and ln it the forms of men struggled, and the lashes of the whips- came and went like the writhing tentacles of an octopus. The watcher had a glimpse of the mules almost sitting ln the violence of their endeavor, and with a howl of triumph the wagon lurched forward. The next moment the entire train was In motion, seeming to advance with a single movement, like a gigantic serpent, each wagon-top a section of Its vetebrate length, the whole undulating slowly to the rhythmic Jangling of the bells. . The Colonel took the turning . to the right and was - soon traversing . a road which looped In gradual descent along the wall of a ravine. The air was chilled by a river that tumbled over stones below. be-low. Greenery of tree and chaparral ran up the' walls. A white root gripping a rock like knotty fingers, a spattering of dogwood here and there amid the foliage, caught his eye. Yes, Virginia had unquestionably "petered." It had had a short life for Its promise. Even in '68 they still had had hopes of it. This was May, the May of '70, and their hopes had not been realised. Forttinately he had Invested little there. California the Colonel had found a good enough field for his Investments. He rode on out of the ravine, once again into the dry rolling land, his mind turning over that question of investments. He had not much else to think of. He was a lonely man, unmarried, childless, and rich. What else was there for a man, who had passed his 65th year, who did not care for women or pleasure, to concern con-cern himself about? It was not satisfying; satisfy-ing; It brought him no happiness, but he had had no expectation of that. Twenty-one years ago the Colonel had waked' to the realisation that he had mlttsed happiness. She had been his. In his very arms then, and he had thought to keep her there for ever. Then suddenly she had srone, without warning, tearing herself her-self from his grasp, and ne had known that she would never return. So he had tried to fill the blankness she had left, with business a sorry substitute! He had spent a good dear of time and thought over this matter of Investing, and had seen his fortune accumulating in a safe, gradual way. It would have been much larger than it was If he could have cured himself of a tendency to give portions of It away. But the Colonel was a pioneer, and there were many pioneers who had succeeded better than he In finding happl-. |