Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 109: what you’re looking at

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

THE that the lamb had stepped into an old, rusted coyote trap. Using his staff as a pry, he opened the trap and picked up the lamb. Its right foreleg was torn, and it began to swell rapidly. Joseph looked at the lamb wonderingly, seeing in it the’symbol of helplessness and, as such, at variance with the spirit which motivated him this night. The lamb raised its head and, with eyes heavy with suffering, gazed at him questioningly. Sud- denly, Joseph saw himself mean—the busi- ness he was about less vital, less urgent than it had been. Slippy-foot had gone on and she turned and eyed Joseph sullenly as she saw that he made no move to follow her. Grimm fluttered his wings as if impatient. Joseph shook his head as he sensed their urging. To leave the lamb here was to let it die. He was quite aware of the tragedies that befall stock running wild on the range, and in a way he was hardened to it, recog- nizing it as inevitable. Nevertheless, he could not go on, knowing that but for his refusing to accept the responsibility of car- ing for it the lamb would live. The Circle-Z ranch house was no great distance away, and although old Thad Taylor was reputed to have never over- come his hatred of sheep and all that sheep- men stood for, Joseph decided to take the stricken lamb to him. Slippy-foot still stood her distance and she came back grudgingly when Joseph called to her. He smiled as he glanced from her to Grimm and found the crow shaking his head solemnly as if decrying this move. ““ No—,” he said banteringly; “ you can- not tempt me. We are going back. And if this lamb had half the wisdom of either of you, he would smile with me for, beyond doubt, he belongs to Angel Irosabal.” CHAPTER XI. THE SEED IS PLANTED. OME there were who had smiled when Angel Irosabal had first sown wheat in Paradise Valley, but in those days water rights were not so jealously guarded, AVENGING SHEPHERD. 891 and he had irrigated his fields to suit his pleasure. Martin Creek came tumbling out of the Santa Rosas on his range and with much ado, especially in early spring, cut ‘ across his ranch to the Circle-Z line. To help himself to its bounty was quite in keeping with the code of practice of those early days. It followed, therefore, that his wheat thrived. With passing years he had given more and more acreage to it, for he was shrewd enough to see that it was more profitable to send his flocks into the re- serve than to graze them on land which could be sown to crops. Other men followed his lead. Water rights became of vital importance, bring- ing a mass of litigation which still clogs the courts of Nevada. Wheat became an item of importance in the life of the Valley and, with the thriftiness of the Basque, Angel had built a mill in which to grind the golden harvest. At best, it was a crude affair which the valley soon outgrew, but the old Basque did not hurry to replace it with a larger and better mill, for it was like him to have his investment guaranteed before making it. A new mill would need more water. To make the mill profitable, the valley must produce a larger crop, and only more water could make that possible. And from where was this water to come? Martin Creek was the one unfailing source of supply, and from the Santa Rosas to the Little Hum- boldt every man with a water right was either using or selling the maximum number of inches allowed him by law. So Angel saw his mill standing idle if in the future some other crop should prove more profit- able, for it would claim part of the water now being used in the irrigation of wheat. Not only to guard against this, but to make some alliance that would guarantee him an even larger sowing, became his chief concern and for three months he had pursued it. Next to himself, the Circle-Z claimed the greatest number of inches. Taylor had leased his water rights in Mar- tin Creek to Paradise ranchers, depending on the North Fork for his own supply. And now a strange thing happened, for although it was popularly supposed that Thad Taylor would have nothing to do with COMmiclooe S C©