OCR Text |
Show The Settling of the Sage CHAPTER I. A rider Jogged nun hv.ard along the road on ii big pinto bore. a ted buck skin, packed, trailing a hal l-lengi h be hind. A ranch mild hranclio'd oft to the left mill tin; 11:1 1 pulled iii his horse (0 view a sign that stood ut the forks. , "Squatter, don't let I ho sun go ilmvn on ynii," lie rend. "Tim I 's I tie lliinl one of llio.se rMiii ikIits. Calico." lie told the horse. "The wording n little dif fpront hut the sentiment all the same." Fifty y.-.i'l.-i oil the trail the charred and blackened f.a ginents of a mi;nn showed In sharp coin fast to the bleached white hones ot two horses. "The.v downed his team and torched his world.v goods." the rhlcr said. "All his hopes gone up In smoke." lie turned in his saddle i.nd looked orf across the urn-lull tin expanse or sage. Culdriver probably so runnel from the fact thai the three wells in the towD constituted Ihe only source of water within nu hour's ride lav thirtv miles to the soilh. a cluster of some forty buildings nestling on a wind-swept flat Seventy miles beyond be-yond It, and with hut two more such centers of civilization between, the railroad stretched across the rolling desolation. The man took one more look at the evidence U:ft behind to prove thai the sign was no empty threat before heading the paint-horse along the left hand fork, lie noted that the range cows along his route were poor and lent), their hip hones showing lumpily through sagging skin, giving them the appearance of milkers rather I ban beef slock. The preceding summer had been hot and dry. browning the range six weeks before its time, and the stock had gene Into ihe winter in poor shape. Heavy snowfalls had completed com-pleted t i-.e havoc and Id per cent of the range stock had been winterkilled. winter-killed. Those that had pulled through were slow in putting on weight and recovering their strength. A big red steer stood broadside to him. the Three Car brand looming ou Its side, and the man once more pulled up his horse and lost himselt in retrospection as he ga:'.ed at the brand. "The old Three Car, Calico." he re marked to the horse. "The old home brand. It's been many a moon since last I laid an eye on a Three Bar cow." The man was gazing directly at the steer hut he no longer saw it. In stead he was picturing the old-time scenes that the sight of the brand recalled. Step by step he v.sioned the long trail of the Three Car cows from Dodge City to the Platte, from the Platte to the rolling sage-clad hills round old Fort I.aramie and from Laramie to the present range. His mind pictured two boyi o; some where round eighteen years of age setting forth from the little home town of Kansas City, nestling at the confluence con-fluence of the Missouri and the Raw A year later Cal Warren was whack ing bulls on the Santa Fe trail while the ether. William Harris, was holding the reins over tour plunging horses as he tooled a lumbering Concord stage over the t: ail from Omaha to the little camp called Denver. It was five years before their trails crossed again. Cal Warren was the Crst of the two to v ed, and he had established post along the trail, a rambling structure of 'done, poles and sod, and there conoui ted the business of "Two f One," :. calling Impossible and unknown in any other than that day and place . The long bull trains were In sight from horizon to horizon every hour of the day. The grind ol the gravel wore down the hoofs of the unshod oxen, and when footsore they could not go on. One sound bull for two with tender feet was Warren's rule of trade. These crippled ones were soon made sound in t lie puddle pen. a sod corral Hooded with suttielent water to puddle the yellow clay Into a six-Inch layer of stiff, healing mud. then thrown out on the open range to fatten fat-ten tiufJ grow strong. liut transitions were swift and sweeping. Steel rails were crowding close behind the prairie schooners and the ox bows. Hull trains grew fever every year and eventually Cal War-en made his last trade of two for oue.- i'.ill Harris had come back to view the railroad ol which he had heard so much and he remained to witness anil to be a part ol the wild days ol Abilene. Hays and i odge. us each at taii.nl the apex ol its glory as the il road's end anil Ihe consequent des linalion of the Texas trail herds The id:: lit ol these droves ol thousands Implanted a desire to run cows him self and when lie was wed In Dodge be launched this prpjecl .0 his boy bond pal. It was the sincere wish ot each to piin ihe other as a partner In all fu lure enterprise, but this was not to ,i Warren had see.. Ihe hoi loin drop ,,i,t of tin bull trade and he would not relinquish the suspicion that any luii'lriess dealing In four-fooled stock was hazardous In Ihe extreme anil he Insisted that the solution of all theli c uncial problems rested upon owning iiul. not cows. Harris could not be nlucp' lo farm the soil while steers .,.,(. n.ilhig round eighl dollars a : . d Warren squalled on a quarter ol ll.nrN bought a few head ol fst..sto, I, hi d grazed his cows norlli und""''-! acro Ihe Kansas line Into the edge ol the greal unknown Hint v.;, -lyh'd Nebraska and Norl Invest By HAL G. EVARTS Copyright by Hal O. EvarU W':itj Servlc district. At first his range was limitless, limit-less, but in a few short years he could stand on Ihe roof of his sod hut and see the white points of light which were squaliers' wagons dotting the range to the far horizon in any direction direc-tion he chose to look. The (irsl ot these to invade his range had been Cal Warren, moving on before the swarm of settlers flocking into Ihe locality r;f his first choice In such alarming numbers that he feared an unhealthy congesilnii of humanity in the near future The debate of farming versus cows was resumed between th two. hut each held doggedly to his own particular views and the longed-for partnership was again postponed. Harris moved once more and then again and It was something over tvyo decades after his departure from Dodge with the Three Car cows that he made one final shift, faring on In search of that land where uesters.. were kmrnm The Vanguard of Each New Rush of Settlers. unknown He made a dry march that cost him a fourth of his cows, skirted the Colorado desert and made tiis siand under the first rim ot the hills. Those others who came to share this range were men wdiose views were identical with his own, whose watchword watch-word was: "Our cows shall run free on a thousand hills." They sought for a spot where fhe range was untouched by the plow and the water holes un fenced. They had moved, then .noved, again, driven on before the invasion of the settlers. These men bauded together to-gether and swore that here conditions should be reversed, that it was the squatter who should move, and on this principle 'hey grimlv rested. Cal Warren had been the vanguard of each new rush of settlers that had pushed Bill Harris on to another range, and the cowman had come to see the hand of fate In this persistence. persist-ence. When the Warren family found him again and halted their white-topped wagon before his door. Hill Harris gave It up. "I've come to see about getting that partnership fixed up. Bill," Warren greeted. "You know the one we talked over In Dodge a while ago, about our going In together when either of us changed his mind. Well. I ve changed mine. I've come to see that running cows Is a good game, Bill, so let's fix it up. I've changed my mind." "That was twenty years ago. Cal,' Harris said. "But It still holds good only I've changed my mind, too. You was dead right from the first. Squat-lers Squat-lers will come to roost on every foot of ground and there'll come a day when I'll have to turn squatter my self so 1 might as well start now The way to get used to crowds. Cal. is to go where the crowds are at I'm headed back for Kansas and you better come along. We'll get that partner ship fixed up." A single child had come to bless each union in the parents' late ndddle age. The Harris heir, a boy of eight, had been named Calvin lu honor of his father's friend. Cal Warren had as nearly returned the compliment as circumstances would permit, and his three-year-old daughter bore the name of Wllliamette Ann for both father j . and mother of the boy who was his namesake, and Warren styled her Bil-lie Bil-lie for fihrrt. Each man was as stubbornly set In his new views as Ik had been In the old. The Harrises came ln!o possession posses-sion of the Warren's prairie schooner and drove off to th east. The Warrens War-rens took over the Three Bar ranch and the little Williamette Anr slept in the tiny bunk built for the son of ihe Harris household. For a space of minutes these old pictures occupied the mind of the man on the pinto horse. Distant strings of prairie schooners and ox-bows faded from his mind's eye and be was once more conscious of the red steei wilh r lie Three Bar brand that had stirred up the train of relleetinus. He turned foi another glimpse of the distant sign as lu headed the paint-horse along t e road. "All that was quite a spell back. Calicc," he said. "Old Bill Harris planted the first one of those signs, and it served a good purpose then. It's a sign that stands for lack of progress today. Times change, and It's been eighteen years or so since old Hill Harris left." The road traversed the bench, tingled down a side hill to a valley somewhat more than a mile across. Calico pricked up his ears sharply toward the Three Bar buildings tha' stood at the upper end of it. Curious eyes peered from the hunk house as he neared It, for the paint-horse paint-horse and the buckskin were not with out fame even If the man himself were a stranger to them all. For the better part of a year the two high colored horses had been seen on the range south to tlie railroad, west to t lie Ida-no Ida-no line. The man had kep to himself and when seen by approaihing riders he had always been angling on a course lhat would miss their own. Those who had, out of curiosity, deliberately rid den out to intercept him reported that he seemed a decent sort of citizen, willing to converse on any known tonics except those concerning him self. lie dropped from the saddle before the bunk house and as he stoi d in the door he noted half a dozen men lounging on the hunks. This indolence apprised him of the fact that they were extra men signed on for the summer season and that their pay had not yet started, for the cowhand, when on the pay roll, works sixteeD hours daily and when he rests or frolics It Is. except in rare Instances, on his own rime and at hjs own expense. A tail, leaD Individual, who sat cross-legged on a bunk, engaged In mending a spur strap, was the first to answer hi.- inquiry for the foreman "Billie Warren Is the big he-coon of the Three Bar," he informed "You'll likely find the boss at the blacksmith shop." The lanky one grinned as the stranger turned hack through the llt-tei llt-tei of log outbuildings, guided by the hissing squeal' of bellows and the clang of a suedge on hot Iron Several Sev-eral men pressed close to the windows ir anticipation of viewing the newcomer's new-comer's surprise at greetinB the Three Bar boss. But the man did not seem surprised when a young girl emerged from the open door of the -hop as he neared it. She was clad in a gray flannel skirt and black angora chaps. The heavy brown hair was concealed bereath the broad hat that was nulled low over her eyes after the fashion of those who live much in the open. The man removed his hat and stood before her. "Miss Warren?" h Inquired. The girl nodded and waited for him to state his purpose. "What are the chances of my rid Ing for the Three Bar?" he asked. "We're full-handed." said the girl "I'm sorry." "You'll be breaking out the remuda right soor nr w." he suggested. "I'm real handy round u tv.'ealtlng corral." "They're aH handy ut that," she said Then she noted the two horses before the bunk house and frowned Her eyes searched the ijfranger's face and found no fault with It; she liked his level gaze. But she wondered what manner ot mar. this was who had so aimlessly wandered ulone for a year and avoided all other men "Since you've finally decided to work, how does II happeD that you choose the Three Bar?" she asked then flushed under his eyes as she remembered re-membered that so many men had wished to ride for her brand more than for another, their reasons In each case the same. (TO Ul CONTINUED.) |