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Show ffe' WATER BEARER By J. ALLAN DUNN ! Auor of "A MAN TO HIS MATE" Do Meafl & Co- jj j I "RIMROCK TRAIL" WNU Service jjj face. He stood down-wind from the group and it was plain that he resented re-sented their presence. The great head was raised and lowered uncertainly, uncer-tainly, the wide curving horns tossed menacingly. There was no shelter if the bull meant mischief. To run was to court disaster. Carmen clung to her friend trembling, trem-bling, her eyes big with fear. Betty Clinton was pale but she faced the bull and not a muscle had quivered. "I don't know just what we had better do," she said Quietly to Caleb. "He's working himself up into a rage. If we could make Padilla hear and understand." Caleb resented this a little. He did not realize that the girl was thinking of Padilla mounted, acting as vaquero. Perhaps the resentment quickened his wits to action. Carmen screamed again just as the bull lowered his head and charged straight for them. Caleb snatched at Carmen's hair and grabbed the scarlet beret. "It's your hat that bothers him," he cried. "I'll handle him. Run both of you. I'll hold him. Run !" He waved them off with a shout as the bull came on. He saw Carmen, her black hair streaming from his careless tug for the hat, snatch at Betty's hand and start to, run swiftly toward the wall. He saw, for a split-second, split-second, Thurston's startled face appearing ap-pearing over the stones as he ascended, ascend-ed, heard the girls cry out and Thurston Thurs-ton shout. He faced the bull, the flaming beret in his hand, prepared to play toreador, unarmed. The bull roared as his glaring eyes caught the flare of the scarlet taunt waved by the man. Blind to everything every-thing else, centered in the desire to glut his rage on the offending color, he raced over the turf, leaving a little cloud-trail of dust, shaking the ground with his weight as he pounded it with his hoofs. 1 Caleb waited, not quite as coolly as he had wished, warily judging distance. dis-tance. As the sharp horns swept up, scooping for the cloth he held out at arm's length, Caleb sprang to one side and ran forward as the baffled brute, snorting and maddened, plowed past him, front legs stiffened in the attempt at-tempt to stop and wheel, the great head clumsily turned toward the red beret and Caleb, who halted twenty yards away and provokingly displayed dis-played the bait. The girls had got safely beyond the wall. In a second or so they would be out of sight He had now only himself to look out for. The bull turned and came racing back. Caleb knew that he could not dodge forever. He could distinguish Betty's clear, high voice calling for Padilla. The words were in Spanish. He recognized recog-nized a few of them. "Toro ! Riata ! 'C'avalho !" Then the bull took up all his attention. It came on with incredible in-credible speed, the lumbering gait seemed freed by rage. As Caleb leaped aside the brute swerved so swiftly that a horn grazed Caleb's arm, ripping cloth. This time he had to turn and run down hill, away from the trees. His foot caught in the hole of a ground squirrel and his ankle was wrenched as he stumbled and jerked it clear. It was not a bad sprain but It handicapped handi-capped him and would not get better with exertion. The bull had halted more easily going up hill. It was chasing him before he had got well into his stride. He had to sprint to get the chance to dodge. And this time he ran for all he was worth. He had almost won the trees when the bull caught up the distance between them. Caleb glanced over his shoulder. He could hear the snorts of the crazed brute. He saw the massive head shift sideways for the toss, saw the roll of the blood-rimmed eyes and he leaped sideways with the last of his energy, his lungs straining and his hearl pounding. And, ns he jumped, he made the sacrifice of the beret, drop ping it fairly In the bull's course while he felt the sweep of air -as the beast's head was flung up. backed by the force of mighty shoulders, one honi impaling the beret that clung there, driving the bull to frenzied fury while Caleb, panting, dodged among tne aspens and saw Padilla, mounted, swinging his rope, top the rise and tear in at top speed, yelling as he came. The bull got rid of the offending Tam-o'-Shanter. He ground it into the turf, stamping on It and bellowing. bellow-ing. He tore it to rags and trampled them. And then he flung up his head to see what had become of Caleb. He heard the yell of Padilla, a vigorous "yahoo!" that seemed to revive mera ories none too pleasant. He wheeled and surveyed the rider uneasily. To chase a two-legged creature was one thing, a man mounted, swinging a loop the sight of which also stirred his sluggish brain, was quite another. Before the lariat was flung he turned and trotted off, disappearing at the far end of the plateau before Padilla reined up and offered to take Caleb back behind his saddle. "I don' theenk. senor, that he weel come back. He has been brand' that toro an' he remember. Eet is bueno that he does. Eef I rope an' tie heem, I mus' let heem go again. But eet weel be better, p'raps, eef you ride, senor. Me, I like eet better foi myself." He. laughed and Caleb essayed to retrieve what was left of the beret. He gave it up as a hopeless job and mounted behind Padilla. "Senor," said the Mexican, "you hav' save la senorita's 'life. She an' her padre weel thank you. I thank you too. Luis Padilla weel not for get." CHAPTER VII The Water Mine ' They were all in the patio, talking in the dusk. The conversation had become general. Caleb was a listener. He had found, to his relief, that, after the earnestly expressed thanks of Clinton, of his daughter and of Carmen, Car-men, he was not regarded in the light of a hero. It seemed to be generally granted that any of them would have done or tried to do exactly as he had done and he was grateful for the way they took it. Carmen managed to infuse something personal into her thanks, a warmth that hinted that the exploit had been all for her sake, with Betty a more or less incidental accessory. acces-sory. Caleb was a listener from preference. prefer-ence. He wanted to analyze, if he could, something of the stirrings of these Westerners. The talk was mainly of Brompton's historic series of panels, the subject introduced by Betty Clinton, with the idea, Caleb thought, of covering him from Carmen's sallies. It was very plain that the artist was head over heels in love with the vivacious bru- nette, who kept him dangling. Caleb; smoking, pondered over Betty Clinton's Clin-ton's attitude. Did she intend to marry Thurston? he wondered. The rancher was on eminently intimate terras with the family. She called him by his first name, Wendell. He went early the next morning, returning to Golden. There he packed a grip with clothing and some of his instruments, nnd left a note for Baxter, Bax-ter, saying that he would be away for several days. He took up his quarters quar-ters at a country hotel near the station sta-tion in Coyote canyon and hired a rig, determined to make a thorough investigation inves-tigation of Callente plain. With his pocket instruments he managed to get, unnoticed, tolerable surveys of elevations and distances. He had proven, to his own satisfaction, satisfac-tion, that the upper end of the plain was furnished with a basin of water at uniform level, a great supply, bottomed bot-tomed and sided with clay and capped with the same, through . which capping cap-ping the artesian water spouted wherever wher-ever it was bored for. The Welsh Water-Finder did not have to be a great wizard to scorchits in this region, re-gion, he decided. But he had a further fur-ther use In mind for the man. . Caleb is evidently up against : a hard alternative water or j girl. Which way will he decide. (TO BE CONTINUED.) THE RESCUE SYNOPSIS. Idly fishing Her-manos Her-manos creek, in California, Caleb Warner, civil engineer und a New Englander, is witness of the end of a coyote pulled down by two wolfhounds, urged on by a girl rider. Admiring the hounds, he Introduces himself, and learns her name is Clinton. With western west-ern hospitality she invites him to the ranch to meet her father. At the Clinton home Warner learns r his new friend's name is Betty. ' He Is welcomed by her father. Southern Civil war veteran and owner of Hermanos valley. He tells them something of his ambitions am-bitions and hi feeling that he is destined to be a "Water-Bearer." In the town of Golden Warner shares an apartment with his old Columbia college chum, Ted Baxter, Bax-ter, carefree and somewhat dissipated dissi-pated youth, only child of his widowed mother, who controls the family fortune. At a club luncheon Baxter introduces Caleb to Wilbur Cox, leading business man and president of the water company which supplies the needs of Golden. He grives Cox an inkling of his ambitions, and Cox, Impressed, invites him to dinner that night. During dinner T Cox asks Caleb to call at his office next day. He does so and Cox arranges a meeting between Caleb and Hinckley, the water company's chief engineer. Eaxter tells Caleb he is in difficulties with a girl, Mary Morgan, Cox's stenographer, who insists he must marry her. With Hinckley, Caleb looks oyer the water company's com-pany's source of supply, the Crystal springs, in Hermanos valley. Prospecting in Hermanos valley, Caleb Tweets a man, Evans, who boasts of his ability, through "divining rods," to locate water without boring. Caleb comes upon a picnic party, the festivities festivi-ties being in honor of Betty Clinton's Clin-ton's birthday, and is welcomed. CHAPTER VI Continued 9 "I don't know," he answered. "I have been given a chance to go up to Beaver lake on a new project, but I do not have to accept just yet. Meantime Mean-time I am looking around. I went over the Crystal Springs property yesterday." yes-terday." "Did you?" broke in the other girl. "I've been there. Isn't it an ideal place for a picnic or a honeymoon?'1 Caleb laughed. "I am afraid I was more practical in my imagination," he said. "I suppose, sup-pose, being from New England, I can't help that. I was chiefly interested in the water supply. But it was beautiful." beauti-ful." He gave them a little description of the trip and of how the dams had withstood the earthquake. And he added what Hinckley hod told him of Crystal Springs valley b'efore It had been turned Into a great artificial lake. "I can't help feeling sorry for the farms that had to he abandoned." said Betty Clinton. It seems a shame when you think of the fertile fields being turned to silt, the schoolhouse and the little church that had stood so long being torn down." "Think of what the reservoir meant to Golden! It made a city possible," returned Caleb. "There Is sentiment on both sides of the matter. Where a dozen families were displaced the water wa-ter gave opportunity to thousands, rubllc utility must be the first consideration." con-sideration." "I suppose so. Just the same, if I had owned a farm there, I would not have sold." "If the rest were willing they might have compelled you to." "You mean by condemnation proceedings? pro-ceedings? Well, they'll never do anything any-thing like that to Hermapos valley, for we own the whole of it." "Not even for the good of the many? If It was necessary?" asked Caleb. Carmen looked at him curiously, curi-ously, struck by a sudden change in his voice. He took things concerning his profession very seriously, did this young engineer, she decided. Betty Clinton shook her head determinedly deter-minedly In answer to Caleb's query. "Not while my father lives. Nor while I do. We might sell a part of the valley. We have talked of doing so. We do not use much of It. And the land has advanced in value. But nothing must touch El Nido. You did not see the little cemetery In the cedar ce-dar grove. There are throe generations genera-tions of Clintons buried there. My mother's grave among them. They must never be disturbed." Carmen saw the muscles bunch In Caleb's jaws nnd wondered. For a moment he was silent. For a part of his vision had seen Hermanos valley restored to a bike, dammed and holding hold-ing storm waters. Betty Clinton sat quietly anil Caleb gazed at nothing through half-closed eyes. Carmen regarded re-garded them wilh a pout. "You're a cheerful couple for a birthday picnic." she observed. "As for Thurston, he nu-M be making ther camera, or gone to town for a ti!m."' She got up and si retched lithely. Then she screamed suddenly and shrilly, turning to cling to Hetty Clinton. Clin-ton. A big bull had come into his pasture, pas-ture, the upland plateau that he regarded re-garded as his own, a magnificent Hereford, red of ?oat and white of |