Newspaper Page Text
March i6, 1910. THE
veek, I don't know! Last veek I haf here
von pony vat I t'ink even de deffil heself
can not ride."
"Where is he now?" I asked, as though
1 would say: "I should be glad to try his
back myself."
"Vere is he?" returned Simon. "Vy. I
send heem on to 'Rio Grande' Chim, de
manager at Sapio. Chim was de nearest
deffil vat I know, so I make two of dem.
Chim vill ride him or he vill ride Chim.
You can }*)ost bet on dat; you vill gif
Chim my compleements. Chim vas a
dandy, I declare."
Thus it was that we began to get forevisions
of conditions at the ranch. We
asked few questions beyond those which
related to our contract; but Simon's volubility
let out much that we could never
have thought to inquire about, and so
we had all but a blue book to start with.
"Dem ranch fellows vas all of dem de
hot stuff," declared Simon. "Dere vas,
after Chlm, 'Hook-Nosed' Chake, der
'Kid,' und der rest. You boys vould better
look pretty veil out, eh?"
"We'll hold our hand," I returned, determined
now to take things as I found
them.
"You bet we will," added Mayfield in a
tone of like confidence.
"Sure you vill hold your hands," laughed
Simon; "of you don't holdt dem, vat
for you haf got two hands?"
After purchasing a carbine and revolver
each, and getting our traps and supplies
Secured behind our saddles, we
were ready to mount for our more than
one hundred miles' ride to Sapio Ranch.
"Hello dere!" called out Simon as we
were in the act of mounting. "You poys
haf forget somet'ings."
"What is it?" I asked in surprise, withdrawing
my foot from the stirrup and
facing about.
"Vy, vat you trink?" was the reply interrogatory.
"Nothing," I answered; "that is, nothing
but water."
"No peer, no vine, no veesky?" asked
the incredulous Jew.
"Nothing but water," I insisted.
"Veil, I -declare] Nothing but vasser!"
"Don't you believe me, Mr. Simon?"
"O, yes, I pelief you, pecause you tell
me so. But vat for you poys vant to be
"cow punchers?'" I declare!"
Both Mayfield and I vaulted into our
saddles with an ease which surprised Simon,
for we had been horsemen in Tennessee.
We waved him farewell, and he
dismissed us with the appreciation: "I
say, poys, ven you come dees vay again
den .1 gif de two of you a chromo each.
3 declare!"
Never did the desert receive to itself
two more unsophisticated tenderfeet
than the two who in that fresh morning
rode out Into its vastness and mystery. I
"have now a recollection of looking back
and soeing the line of telegraph poles,
with their single transverse beams fading
info the haze of the desert eastward.
A spell of prophecy and mysticism fell
upon me, though I did not then understand
what I felt. It is a miracle of coincidence
that the ingenuity of man In ac
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU
commodating the greatest discovery of
the age?the electric telegraph?should
have counterfeited the popular conception
of the cross of Golgotha. The cross
thus winged with fire belts the globe. It
is no more the symbol of shame and torture,
but is become the fiery pathway of
the evangel. The desert spoke to me,
but I could not understand. The flying
cross also spoke, but I could not interpret.
It is not given to men always to
linHorafon/i f V* c? "
U__v.>muu lUCU UKII leenngs.
The long cactus-sentineled trail which
we followed wound over a wild reach of
rolling, broken plain, with no tree life in
sight save a solitary clump of mesquite
here and there, marking the spots where
there were traces of soil or moisture.
Far in the distance rose a range of hills
with one prominent peak in the center.
That was Sapio Mountain, the Mont
Blanc, so to speak, of the straggling,
range, and a prime landmark for ranchmen
and cowboys in the adjacent valleys.
We were now oblivious of everything
except the sight of the uplooming mountains,
when suddenly a sound of hoofs
and a rattle of metal fell on our ears.
"What is this?" exclaimed Mayfield as
we both looked inquiringly behind us.
"Where do you kids be a-drivin?" came
from the foremost of three woolly-looking
but well-mounted men, who led a pack
train of some half dozen or more burros.
We were especially impressed with the
splendid horseflesh they bestrode. Each
was mounted upon a beast at least a*
hand taller than our own, and their saddles
and bridles were of choice leather
and manufacture.
"We are bound for Sapio Ranch," I replied
as indifferently as I could.
"That ain't bad," returned the other.
"We're a-gwine to the left uv Sapio ourselves,
an' we mout do worse nor ride
that fur together."
I felt the least bit doubtful of the desirability
of this fellowship, and could
see that Mayfield was of the same mind;
but we were in for it, and besides, we
had willingly sought adventure and
should not be choice about what sort It
was.
"Them's spankin' saddles an' fine critters
you fellers has got," observed the
leader of the woollies.
"Yes," I replied; "they're our start in
the cow-punching business."
"I seen you was tenderfeet," graciously
returned the other; "an' now, pardner,
we can jist put you fellers on to a dead
shore thing, one 'at'll beat cow punchin'
for wages all holler. If you'll jist pull ofT
with us, en' ain't too nice, we'll put you
on to a big thing in a week."
"How's that?" I asked, with as little
show of interest as I could assume.
"We've got a gol' mine staked out over
thar," he replied, pointing to the blue
nuis tnat lay in the wavering mists a
hundred miles or more away to southward.
"And you are going out now to settle
and work it, I suppose," innocently suggested
Mayfleld.
"That's our calc'lation, pardner," re
TH. 339
turned the other. "We've already struck
good dirt."
Then turning again to me, he said:
"You tenderfeet would jist better turn
heads an' go 'long with us, specially if
you're in fur the dust an' ain't afeard.
We're just dead shore to strike it rich
afore winter."
"Dead shore," echoed both his com
naninns nnH thaii- *
. , iuuro aeemeu 10 snow
that they meant it.
Their apparent candor and honesty
won my confidence completely, and I began
secretly to wish myself purged of
Sapio Ranch altogether, that I might be
free to join myself to these gold hunters
on the way to what I doubted not was a
veritable Ophir. When I came to think
of it narrowly, I was an Argonaut (had
I then but had the word), and not a
neathered, as I had slavishly bound myself
to become. But for our contract
and the ponies and saddles, which were
not ours, I should have proposed to Mayfield
an instant change of front; but he
came at the crucial moment to my relief
by asking: "Penn, what do you say
to our going in for gold if Sapio Ranch
doesn't come up to the notch?"
"That's it," I assented. "If Sapio does
not make good pretty soon, you may
look out for us; we're a-coming."
"It's a shore thing against a booby,
kids; an' we've got more'n one iron in
the fire, too. With them critters uv
your'n I'll garr'ntee you can pile up
a big stake in little uv no time," and
the leader almost whispered the words
into my ear.
The whole thing was mystifying, but it
was all the more captivating for that
reason. "A sure thing" continued to
rintr V* **/-??? ?*? "*
. luiuugu my imna, ana tne Temptter
had me instantly on the top of Sapio
showing me where the wealth of Croesus
might be raked from the soil.
We came at last to the place where
our paths parted. The " woollies/ had
turned their horses' heads toward the
south, but held rein while the leader
said insinuatingly: "It's your fling, kid,
an' you've got the cards."
The moment was a tense one. I looked
at Mayfleld. His face was a mute appeal.
I saw that he was ready to follow
me to the most desperate end, and only
awaited my decision. I gave it by plunging
my roweled heels into the flanks
of my broncho, and taking the trail
which led at right angles from that to
he taken by the woollies. Mayfleld fol
lowed at a like gait, and we were soon
ascending the slope leading toward the
Sapio ridge.
Looking back, after the space of half
an hour, we saw our woolly friends and
their packs drifting like shadows toward
the deeper shadows of the southern foothills.
As I watched them moving specterlike
out of the field of vision, 1 could
not help thinking of them as darkbrowed
thoughts expelled from amongst
the fancies of my brain. We were to
meet these woollies again, and under
conditions that both we and they should
long remember.
(Continued Next Week.)