Adventure, August 3, 1919 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

; 4 Adventure over quizzically, Carlton let his absent gaze go through a side window to where, thirty miles to the south, a copper-colored moun- tain stood out from a gaunt and treeless range of hills and glistened in the sunlight as if it held the treasures of the Incas. “It—it sounds like a nightmare,” he be- gan cautiously. “You see, I'm a civil engineer. Six years ago I came through this country ona railroad survey, One day while hunting in the hills I eame into a little valley that made my mouth water, There was a bare copper mountain standing over a tinrbered slope leading to a little stream, and that led to a big meadow and lost itself in a little green marsh. Willows by the marsh, and oaks in the meadows, and pines up the slope. It was a lost valley— only one way in. You pass a lot of loose- dirt scenery till you turn around a bare granite knoll and look into—paradise!” “That’s Lost Deer Valley, all right,” nodded Dolan. “It’s a fine place.” The big man smiled a bit at the rhapsody. Carlton's regular-featured, fine-drawn face was alight. If it were not for his square jaw and level eyes, Dolan might have ap- praised him differently. But, though Carl- ton was a “city man,” he was not a tender- foot. He was an engineer who had sur- veyed part of the desert. “After I went away, I got office work,” continued Carlton. “It lasted five years, and then I got—sick. Meantime I'd been dreaming about that valley. So, before the sickness pulled me down for keeps, I decided to come out here with my wife and settle down on the place, I had enough money to buy about one-third of the valley; so I bought it. The fellow who owned the place was Ebenezer Finch. A. fine, wholesouled, noble character. A regular prince!” Dolan grinned. The bitter words seemed to caricature the miser of Lost Deer Valley —the stoop-shouldered, sharp-faced, red- haired slouch whose cheating and sancti- mony were known through the county. “He only asked a reasonable price for the two hundred acres,’ continued the engineer. “It’s right at the lower end of the valley, straddling the creek and strad- dling the road that runs out. I made a ‘topographic survey and planned an irriga- tion system. The ground makes an easy slope toward the lower end of the valley; so, by diverting the stream where it enters my place T ied The stream runs all yea ietin Lost ‘eee Spring; so I figured ra have water enough to raise anything. My water-rights were a ditch along the inner rim of the shoot the water down to an perfect, Everything was fine as silk, And then the stream qui business.” “T knew it,” grunted Dolan. ‘‘Hosses.” “It was the horses,” nodded Carlton, “Ebenezer Finch suddenly brought three hundred head of stock over from his Esca- lante ranch, and they drank the water at the source,” “Did you speak to him about it?” “Speak? I spoke, argued, raved, prayed and swore! He just there and sniveled his regrets.” Carlton’s bitter voice took a high-pitched, mournful imtonation. that mimicked Finch’s whine exactly. “I’m right sorry abaout it,” he mocked, “but I don’t see’s haow I kin change things. O’ course, you got your rights to the lower stream. | don’t deny no man his rights. Live an’ let live—that’s my mot- tow. The law sez the man on the upper stream kin only hold water fer domestic an’ stock purposes; so I’m right glad to let ye hev what I kin let through.” Carlton took his own voice. “—— him! He’s en- titled to the upper stream for stock purposes only; so he brought in the stock!” ‘Um. How did the talk wind up?” grunted Dolan. “Why—he almost cried. Said I mustn’t judge him wrongly. Told me how good a friend he was. Described every neighborly act he'd done. I didn’t know whether to apologize or knock him down. Finally he shook hands and left me standing there, wondering, That was two months ago. After that he’d drop over and give me help- ful hints on how to run my ranch. Mean- time, not a drop from Lost Deer Creek. T couldn’t decide whether I was being helped or victimized till finally I stumbled on to his full history.”’ Dan Dolan chuckled. “What happened next?” “Well—I can’t afford to nurse a dry ranch; so I put it up to himstraight. First he said, ‘Harsh words butter no parsnips;’ then he just yelled. I’m not very strong; so I used a fence-rail. hen, when my temper went down, I regretted things . comicbooks.com