Show I I Bill went to his cabin so full of out and he saw his Tie knew wherein she was happy antagonist still trouble that he couldn't sleep and unhurt he cursed his luck and turned that It was none of his business but after all it Beemed his down In the camp Jim was entertainback down the trail knowing that In fight' He would run a bluff for Es- ed by Mrs Tibbets until he was ready a mere physical contest be would be to die for her If It came to a question merelda no match for that giant above who "Oh the girl that's here's got the of right and title was also hurrying to his cabin for Two days’ armistice went by Bill So the war ended more cartridges papers all right Jim” he said "She’s told she’s Besides and Doc awaiting events and Ttm got the papers that day and Jim went under the me all about It an' I know It’s on the his head over the advice of lawcamp Burgeon’s care to wait until his square There ain’t nobody got no yers who always wanted a little wounded arm healed further time to look Into the case on Four days of waiting rights tff this claim but Esmerelda passed Brown" and used Latin terms which he Number Three in which time Bill Now Jim Tipton was a man of couldn’t understand The next day he carefully cleaned up his rifle each F It Ntlaos strong opinions himself and was of took a trip to his own claim but In- morning and passed the day with an inquiring turn of mind needing to stead of working crawled up on the Doc who was a trifle inconvenienced Sisters let ue all be up and doing Let us take our places In the mines have proot for any assertion made ridge to see what was doing on Mari- from the effects of the bullet which ua show the hulking with such confidence The bluff didn’t We are not behind the times was as usual the had glanced along his skull but had posa Everything the shadows It had sounded rather Inspiriting work and before Bill could Interfere trees standing silent brought no more serious Injury Then he had turned to Esmerelda with and askcrawling then when read at "The Woman's bringing with it the regularity along the the mall came Esmeralda be- canon fall and the big giant down missing deed for the property duly Advancement Club" but ed to see the papers Saturday below raping and tearing away at signed attested and recorded back In ing truthful at once said the papers when put to the test Its ringing turnwere in In back earth a the This vault Iowa was and Bill felt greater confidence too much last ed to pitiable tinkllngs She decided Iowa Jim hurried back across the divide This was broken In upon by the shershe would hare to have help "Bill" Jim said "this ain't my fu- and then down to the camp where iff So It was that one night Bhe took Bill’s advice He agreed to hire a neral but I reckon this girl ain't got on the following day he expostulated It was well along In the afternoon no papers and Mrs Tibbets has So with the lawyers man for her let the man live at his when the officer arrived with a posse “I tell you” he said banging his fist this here girl’s got to go" cabin and "kinder boss the Job" The sufficient to make It Interesting for BUI were as men felt his hair raise This was on the nearest table "this law game's the most desperate man in the range hiring wasn’t easy all right but It ain't the way to hanscarce in those days in Mariposa — too much First because he felt himand by his side triumphantly rode Jim dle a feller or a woman either that’s Tipton with his arm In a sling self to be Esmerelda's only champion Bill that Is men who would work for Jumped a claim" Esmerelda’s because but Bill hired an ancient and second at this evidence grinned maliciously word had been doubted miner whose chief claim to notice was of his marksmanship and with a non“Easy easy” urged the lawyer which was as the that he complained about most every- beyond endurance Big as he was "Easy bedpmned! Can’t you see chalant air chewed a and therefore according to the rules they’re the mine all the posse came to a halt in front of the thing in sight from the way the wilof size lows grew on the creek to his daily time and agettln’ out pay while cabin he flashed out like been a rheumatism fuse him of around called has "Doc" you’re cadgin’ here and doin’ that “Bill" the sheriff opened “I think They piece nothin’?" overdried because he had never been a doctor you're on the wrong trail I’ve come but had taken more patent medicines not “Got to go has she? Well Then he tore madly out of the up here with the papers frdm the than any other man on the Big Diwhile I’m here my bucko She don’t shanty walked gloomily around the court and If you want to see It I've vide and titles don't count much camp for a while and decided tq talk got the deed glvln’ this Number Three go till I aay so an I ain’t done none after all In hydraullcklng That lat- so much talkin’ about it yet I ain’t to his protegee She had taken to to the Widder Tibbeta Guess you’ll ter part he understood and in a few have to hike” to tears by this time and that strengthtrouble but it's He went to bed days more there might be heard each take an officer to show me why she's ened his resolution Bill’s expression of confidence wanresolved tfhq t on the morrow he would morning the mighty rush of got to git off Number Three" ed and be thought of his gun waters on Number Three He advanced as he talked until he end the law's'detay' conduct the af“Deeds deeds” he growled In a fair according to his own code and surprised tone "If you’ve got a deed Miss Esmeralda did learn one thing faced Jim who stood his ground force a settlement about mining though She knew how It's probable and unafraid Hank I’d like to see It squarely We've got to clean np the sluices and treasure the war would have broken out then It was barely daylight when he one too" the gold that came In inviting yellow ‘bad not Mrs Mirandy with good judg rode up the Mariposa trail followed It was the officers’ turn to be sur- between So riffles the before grains long affairs on Mariposa were and pleasant There came a day as before when the stage came up with a jerk before the Palace Hotel and as If In repetition dumped out another woman who didn’t have much luggage and was not alone She was accompanied by about the ugliest brindle bulldog that ever came west of the Rockies She stepa air ped out with glowered unabashed at the men who gaped at her and said to the proprietor of the Palace "Here you! Hook onto them things THE MARIPOSA somehow WAR By ROY NORTON H Co Vyrighl bjr ir HEY were betb miners and owned claims on the same but were neither gulch friends nor well acquaint ed otherwise there probably would have been no Mariposa War to pass down In district legend even though It escaped the light of school histories But there was a war as any man la Mariposa will testify Bill Thompson stood six feet three In his stocking feet and wasn't given He owned to much conversation Number Four on Mariposa had good ground and worked it well Jim owned Number Two on the same jrreek but didn’t work it save for assessment because ' he had another good piece of ground across the low where he held divide on Goldpan forth They were about the same age and neither of them had any bad habits —that is so far as any one in the camp ever knew Maybe this was one reason why they weren’t well known A man has to have some bad habits In order to be what is generally called “popular” The war was caused by two women a bulldog and a claim The claim Number Three Was on Mariposa s which stood between their and had once been owned and banks Old Old Bill worked by Bill bad a good piece of ground a and a hydraulic plant Being a man who preferred telling about what he was going to do in preference to what be got done he had showing (ust about that far and quit He died His heirs put Number Three in the hands of an eastern pgent who has since changed his home address and perhaps his name Anyhow It’s a certainty he never came West where several of the boys wanted to meet him and give him a reception He knew the kind of reception it would be and wasn’t anxious and look lively! I’m Mrs Mirandy One noon when the sun was shinTibbets and I’ve bought and dust was Number ing in the Three gold mine on a river called the on the trails the stage from Burdick came rattling along and dumped out Mariposa Take them things Inside a woman together with several boxes till I find some one who ain’t too lazy to take me up to my property” and bundles and she wasn't the kind the camp knew She didn't look as if She was business all right and §hq for dancing She talked knew Woman’s rights and Mrs for a minute with the proprietor of from A to Z She made folks the Palace Hotel which really wasn’t step around lively and partly bea palace and he called Bill Thompcause he was afraid of her and part- son over from where he had been ly because he didn’t want to work the throwing supplies on the back of a landlord “slutted her off” on Jim mountain huckboard he always had She started in to boss Jim from when getting an outfit the minute ahe met him but he He wasn't the kind to be bossed ’Bill” he said "this Is Miss sized her up critically and decided as Brown She’s bought Number Three on Mariposa and Is goin’ he afterward Bald that if she were to be a neighbor of yours "well Can't you and taught not to she wouldn’t give her a lift up the gulch?” tangle her be a bad one to own” So he called Bill wasn’t much of a ladles’ man her down and at first didn’t like the job but "Look here Mrs Mirandy” he said she put out her hand and gave him one of those smiles that a woman with his soft drawl "I don't know never learns until she is at least nothin’ about wimmen’s rights nor none of them things so don't give me thirty years old and from that minnone of your guff on that line You ute she owned both Bill and the ain’t got no soft snap buttin' up agin’ There’s a woman They drove away out through the you Number Three now an’ she says she t shacks and tents and over the Ef you’ve got the goods it's into the canon and she talked owns It Ef ain’t your’n you you’ve been a'ndBill said “Sho” or “Do tell” or bunked an’ somebody’s peddled you a anything else In the way of conversat brick Now let’s git down to busitlon that seemed polite and interestness” ing and before they had driven two That took her down some miles be learned that she had sunk all She looked at Jim for a minute as if she her money In buying Number Three had read In the Weekly Woman’B Adthought of sicking the dog on him visor' published at Page Center Iowa but he didn’t look the kind to be afraid They stared into each other’s of how women made the best miners in the world and bo had come West eyes for about a moment and from to make her fortune She was willing then on she belonged to James She was a widow and underto stay till she lnade it even if It Bill did take a couple or months stood men After that they got on thought probably it would take that amicable terms and it wasn’t very until Jim was involved in all the He her he didn't tell long anyway long trouble about Number Three had been mining for twenty years He and hadn’t made It yet pacified her as best he could and told her that on the following day he They drove away past the flats and would take her up to the claim and up where the timber grows big and and the farther they fine stately try to get the tangle straightened out The sun was shining the birds drove the more confidential she got and the more certain Bill was that singing and everything bright and she had quite a little to learn about gay when they came up to Number He tried to picture her In Three on the following the West morning rubber boots holding the nozzle of a heard the boom of the hydraulic and the singing notes of a woman’s voice giant but somehow it didn’t seem to work Bill didn’t have much faith In Doc was hard at work grumbling to himself as usual and Bill was just Advisor the Weekly Woman's at least not as much as she had coming down the trail when the visiarrived It all looked peaceful Finally when the sun was setting tors and very little like war and they swung round a bend to the “Morning’" said Jim after stopping cabin on Number Three standing his horses there with its door closed and almost "Mornin’” answered Bill coming to surrounded by big tamaracks she seemed a little awed by the lonesomea halt and looking at them He conness of It and the only comforting fessed after that he thought ly the over thing he could offer was that his way Jim assumed proprietorship the woman and the bulldog that ho cabin was Just "up the gulch a little Then she reciprocated by owned them both farther” Jim calmly climbed down from his Inviting him to come back down for buckboard dinner and he being polite accepted after throwing the reins to Besides he was hungry Mrs Mirandy and sauntered forward The the cabin had came on first ainglng inside the When she big up and Esmerelda stood in the bank above the cut and watched Bill stopped doorway looking with wonderment on swinging the nose of the hydraulic toward the face or shifting the muck the meeting at the bottom it seemed "Bill” began Jim "there’s somethin’ off The swirling of the water crooked about this deal out here on very fine Three This here woman with me Is and the ease with which he handled It appealed to her as she sat down in Mrs Mirandy Tibbets and she’s got a deed of sale for this mine She's come4 but it grada clump of wild daisies after It” ually became borne In upon her that Bill stopped an Instant aghast He woman’s work It wasn’t though the editor of the Advisor in recalled now that he had never seen editorial had couna any papers conveying the claim to Esmerelda and suddenly it came over seled her readers to "Take their true him strongly that he would hate to She recalled places In the world" see her worsted In something on with some faintness a poem In those which she had set her heart and game pneew It It was dusk when Bill rod np to the cabin door on Number Three wttb the determination to break the new as gently as possible and at about the same time Jim Tipton waa explaining his forebodings to the widow in the camp below Then came several days of waiting with nearly every one In the camp making bets as to which one of the contestants would win out at the next encounter and all expectant and argumentative The result of this was that pretty nearly every man In Mariposa had taken sides and was ready if it came to a final settlement to enlist actively in the war were about Sympathies and things were quiet evenly divided at night because nearly all the partisans were busily engaged In the back ends of their cabins cleaning up their Weapons to be It promised warm Both Jim and the widow bad disappeared from the rude public gaze and were said to have gone to burdick to congult otner lawyers Bill was reported to be too busy nursing Dos and guarding Number Three to appear in the camp and only the bulldog waa left to howl dismally In an kennel until his mistress Improvised Bhould call for him And in the meantime the lawyers were busy and fussy and Important most of them being very young men or very old men who had come to the West because their talents didn’t seem to be in demand elsewhere The break came unexpectedly A man on horseback partisan of the faction pulled up one afternoon In front of Bill’s cabin and hailed Bill came to the door and peered out his fingers clutched on a behind the door until he could recognize the character of reception awaiting him "Bill" the rider said throwing one leg over the pommel of his saddle and dexterously rolling a cigarette “Jim’s back from up at Burdick but he ain’t got nothin’ to say He Jest naterally came In on the stage with that widder of his’n acted grouchy as usual and pulled out with her for his claim over on Goldpan” “Yes?” said Bill emerging from the door and looking disconsolately at his friend I’d better come by anr "Thought you 8o’s you can keep on the lookout No tellln’ what’ll happen next now them lawyers Is figbtln’ "Lawyers fightin’ now "Yes they ve got into a row among ’emselves each one In the camp claimin’ he saw you an’ Jim first Three of ’em’s dissolved partnership and are fightin over which one the case belongs to” Yes?” "Humph! "You- see Number Three’s a good piece of ground an’ they kalkerlate there’s fat pickin’ cornin’ In somewhere when It gits to trial” “Thanks paL” And the door shut with a bang This was the limit Bill walked up and down and thought out a solution which resulted in a trip to camp by the Doe on the following morning It was late on the following even lng when Bill contented and whist ling his mind made up crashed through the brush on the hillside of and came cautiously Goldpan down Into the flat in front of Jim’s cabin He was wise as to the frontier and on an errand of peace came being unarmed and ostentatiously whistling and swinging his Idle hands Jim saw him made a quick reach for his gun and then slowly dropped his fingers away at the evident signs of amity He advanced to meet his and waited quietly for him enemy to approach within speaking distance "Hello there Jim” said Bill and without waiting for a return of hla salutation continued: “I’ve got no on my belt and no in mw head I’ve come to bo friends with you Jim If you’ll let tell me” ment swooped down on Jim pinioned his arms and called a halt "Don't pay no attention to him" she said "You just take me back to town where I can get at court an’ I’ll have I’ll show him something the law on him — that’s what I will" And Jim being under her arms and a little surprised and a little Blow allowed himself to be tolled off to the buckboard and back to camp As the buckboard went wobbling off down the trail In a cloud of dust Bill's big fists relaxed and he turned toward the weeping girl In the doorway "Esmereldy” he said and hie Voice was husky "it ain't true is it that this woman beat you to it? You have got real papers ain't you? You didn’t let nobody akin you did you? I ain’t wantin’ to do nothin' that ain't on the If you’ve got dockyments it’s square hut if you ain't all well and good I'm ready to fight for you anyhow an’ if they clean you out they’ll have to take me In too” And then he tried to comfort her while she sobbed against his shoulder and assured him that she had the papers and that if there was any mistake she didn’t know what It could be That night Doc swearing alternateIn ly at his rheumatism womanfolk and his horse rode to Burgeneral dick where he sent a telegram East for the missing deeds Then he whipped a somewhat coarse Jester who wanted to know how the "petticoat" was that “bossed the work on which had by the brindle bulldog adopted him as a master and seemed with the new partnership pleased came to the cut first and found They Doc with the stream working It’s possible that there would have been an arbitration had not Doc been so peculiar He pretended not to see but spotted Jim the bulldog and switched the lever There was one frightened yowl and for one quick instant the air was filled with water and dog The bull landed about 50 feet' up the hank caught his breath his tall between tucked his legs and made a speed for the record camp But in the meantime things were doing with Jim and Doc a Colt’s of antique Jim unlimbered but trustw "hy pattern and his first shot brought Doc into the air sprawlThe report had ed out and quiet barely died away when there came another "Bang" from up the gulch where Bill had appeared on the scene Jim felt nis left arm go numb and dropped to cover until he could see Then the where the shot came from two combatants arose and blazed away at each other but with bad aim because between them was a sheet of water where the hydraulic spraying was playing silvery sheets aimlessly into the air heedless of the part It was taking In the little war Jim soon realized that he had made one mistake that of not coming preduel with no pared for a other ammunition than the cartridges As his last shot blazed in his gun prised They hesitated dismounted and held a confab wherein the two documents were compared and found to have been Issued on the same date and recorded in two different places at the same hour Matters were growing complicated Jim and Bill had nothing to say and the sheriff was puzzled He looked at the two papers again and softly swore at the agent who had sold the property twice for the same amounts of money and with different sets of witnesses It was too much for him “I reckon there ain’t nothin’ to do but to take both these documents back to the court” he finally said but I d' n’t think It’s a square deal for you to keep your giants on the bank Bill until it’s settled" Bill was about to explain that there wasn’t any power on earth that iie knew of that would keep him from turning on the stream each day as long as he bossed the mine for Esmerelda but she herself white trembling and wanting to avoid trouble silenced him and assured the sheriff the pipes should rest It was up to the law now the thing that took away property by means not understandable and always left people poorer than when they started along its devious trails but there was nothing else for it The next day found the big miner in the camp seeking legal advice for Esmerelda and burdened with forebodings and Like Jim he felt himself gloom hopelessly enmeshed as he turned homeward after his Jim paused a moment and at him from under his heavy peered gray and then as If satisfied eyebrows extended his hand which was They stood awkwardly for a moment each waiting for words and then Bill continued “I come to tell you I don’t want the Number Three If I’ve got to fight for If You can tell the widder sho can have it Esmereldy nor me ain’t goin’ to fight for it no more and wo don’t want to be bad friends with either you or Mrs Tibbets" A slow grin overspread Jim’s face "The widder don’t want it either Bill and I’m mighty glad you come over Somebody was bunked by that pesky agent but it don’t make no difference nohow Mrs Tibbets got other things to think about uow We went up to Burdick and got married and she don’t have to have Number Three so long's I’ve got a pretty nice patch of ground myself” ‘‘Hell!’ said Bill "That’s kind of the same as with me and Esmereldy We had the parson over from the camp a couple of days ago and we ain’t In a fightin mood none so's you can notice” Then they laughed together slapped eacn other on the back a ad forthwith proceeded to talk It over with Mirandy That’s how the war on Mariposa ended There are' two cabins on Three now Number and any night you ride by there you can see two fellows smoking on the peacefully same bench partners In this claim and several others while a big brindle bulldog sleeps around their feet or is wooled about by a very old man who Is taking a new cure for rheumatism and standing loyally by Well And the lawyers? fliar didn’t get the fees they expected and ar the only enemies left |