Red Saunders 
 
*fi d Saunders 
 
Red Saunders 
 
 His Adventures West & East 
 
 By 
 Henry Wallace Phillips 
 
 New York 
 
 McClure, Phillips & Co. 
 Mcmv 
 
Copyright, 1902, by McCLURE, PHILLIPS & Co, 
 
 Copyright, 1900 and 1901, by S. S. McCLURE Co. 
 Copyright, igor,* &y.B.ERNARD-Rfc$A^Rnfr Co., LTD. 
 
 Published, March, IQO2, R. 
 Seventh Impression. 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A CHANCE SHOT i 
 
 A RED-HAIRED CUPID 17 
 
 THE GOLDEN FORD 53 
 
 WHEN THE CHINOOK STRUCK FAIRFIELD . . 93 
 
 M18191 
 
A Chance Shot 
 
A Chance Shot 
 
 REDDY and I were alone at the Lake 
 beds. He sat outside the cabin, 
 braiding a leather hat-band eight 
 strands, and the " repeat " figure an art that 
 I never could master. 
 
 I sat inside, with a one-pound package of 
 smoking tobacco beside me, and newspapers 
 within reach, rolling the day s supply of cigar 
 ettes. 
 
 Reddy stopped his story long enough to 
 say : " Don t use the Princess Slipper, Kid 
 that paper burns my tongue take the 
 Granger ; there s plenty of it." 
 
 WELL, as I was saying, I d met a lot of 
 the boys up in town this day, and they 
 threw as many as two drinks into me; I know 
 that for certain, because when we took the 
 parting dose, I had a glass of whisky in both 
 my right hands, and had just twice as many 
 friends as when I started. 
 
 When I pulled out for home, I felt mighty 
 3 
 
Saunders 
 
 good v for; myself not exactly looking for 
 trouble, but not a-going to dodge it any, 
 either. I was warbling " Idaho " for all I 
 was worth you know how pretty I can sing? 
 Cock-eyed Peterson used to say it made him 
 forget all his troubles. " Because," says he, 
 " you don t notice trifles when a man bats you 
 over the head with a two-by-four." 
 
 Well, I was enjoying everything in sight, 
 even a little drizzle of rain that was driving by 
 in rags of wetness, when a flat-faced swatty at 
 Fort Johnson halted me. 
 
 Now it s a dreadful thing to be butted to 
 death by a nanny-goat, but for a full-sized 
 cowpuncher to be held up by a soldier is worse 
 yet. 
 
 To say that I was hot under the collar don t 
 give you the right idea of the way I felt. 
 
 " Why, you cross between the Last Rose of 
 Summer and a bobtailed flush ! " says I, 
 "what d yer mean? What s got into you? 
 Get out of my daylight, you dog-robber, or 
 I ll walk the little horse around your neck 
 like a three-ringed circus. Come, pull your 
 freight!" 
 
 It seems that this swatty had been chucked 
 
A Chance Shot 5 
 
 out of the third story of Frenchy s dance em 
 porium by Bronc. Thompson, which threw a 
 great respect for our profesh into him. Con 
 sequently he wasn t fresh like most soldiers, 
 but answers me as polite as a tin-horn gambler 
 on pay-day. 
 
 Says he : "I just wanted to tell you that 
 old Frosthead and forty braves are some ers 
 between here and your outfit, with their war 
 paint on and blood in their eyes, cayoodling 
 and whoopin fit to beat hell with the blower 
 on, and if you get tangled up with them, I 
 reckon they ll give you a hair-cut and sham 
 poo, to say nothing of other trimmings. They 
 say they re after the Crows, but it s a ten-dol 
 lar bill against a last year s bird s-nest that 
 they ll take on any kind of trouble that comes 
 along. Their hearts is mighty bad, they state, 
 and when an Injun s heart gets spoiled, the 
 disease is d d catching. You d better stop 
 awhile." 
 
 " Now, cuss old Frosthead, and you too ! " 
 says I. " If he comes crow-hopping on my 
 reservation, I ll kick his pantalettes on top of 
 his scalp-lock." 
 
 " All right, pardner ! " says he. " It s your 
 
6 Red Saunders 
 
 own funeral. My orders was to halt every one 
 going through; but I ain t a whole company, 
 so you can have it your own way. Only, if 
 your friends have to take you home in a coal 
 scuttle, don t blame me. Pass, friend ! " 
 
 So I went through the officers quarters 
 forty miles an hour, letting out a string of 
 yells you might have heard to the coast, just 
 to show my respect for the United States 
 army. 
 
 Now this has always been my luck : When 
 ever I made a band-wagon play, somebody s 
 sure to strike me for my licence. Or else the 
 team goes into the ditch a mile further on, 
 and I come out about as happy as a small yal- 
 ler dog at a bob-cat s caucus. 
 
 Some fellers can run in a rhinecaboo that 
 d make the hair stand up on a bufreler robe, 
 and get away with it just like a mice; but that 
 ain t me. If I sing a little mite too high in the 
 cellar, down comes the roof a-top of me. So 
 it was this day. Old Johnny Hardluck socked 
 it to me, same as usual. 
 
 Gosh a mighty ! The liquor died in me after 
 a while, and I went sound asleep in the saddle, 
 and woke up with a jar to find myself right 
 
A Chance Shot 7 
 
 in the middle of old Frosthead s gang; the 
 drums " &00w-blipping," and those forty-odd 
 red tigers " hyah-hayahing " in a style that 
 made my skin get up and walk all over me 
 with cold feet. 
 
 How in blazes I d managed to slip through 
 those Injuns I don t know. Twould have 
 been a wonderful piece of scouting if I d 
 meant it. You can most always do any darn 
 thing you don t want to do, Well, there I was, 
 and, oh Doctor ! but wasn t I in a lovely mess ! 
 That war-song put a crimp into me that Jack 
 Frost himself couldn t take out. 
 
 It was as dark as dark by this time. The 
 moon just stuck one eye over the edge of the 
 prairie, and the rest of the sky was covered 
 with cloud. A little light came from the In 
 juns camp-fire, but not enough to ride by, 
 and, besides, I didn t know which way I ought 
 to go. 
 
 Says I to myself, " Billy Sanders, you are 
 the champion all-around, old-fashioned fool of 
 the district. You are a jackass from the coun 
 try where ears less n three foot long are curi 
 osities. You sassed that poor swatty that 
 wanted to keep you out of this, tooting your 
 
8 Red Saunders 
 
 bazoo like a man peddling soap; but now it s 
 up to you. What are you going to do about 
 it? " and I didn t get any answer, neither. 
 
 Well, it was no use asking myself conun 
 drums out there in the dark when time was so 
 scarce. So I wraps my hankercher around 
 Laddy s nose to keep him from talking horse 
 to the Injun ponies, and prepared to sneak to 
 where I d rather be. 
 
 Laddy was the quickest thing on legs in 
 that part of the country out of a mighty spry 
 little Pinto mare by our thoroughbred Ken 
 tucky horse and I knew if I could get to the 
 open them Injuns wouldn t have much of a 
 chance to take out my stopper and examine 
 my works not much. A half-mile start, and 
 I could show the whole Sioux nation how I 
 wore my hair. 
 
 I cut for the place where the Injuns seemed 
 thinnest, lifting myself up till I didn t weigh 
 fifteen pound, and breathing only when neces 
 sary. We got along first-rate until we reached 
 the edge of em, and then Laddy had to stick 
 his foot in a gopher-hole, and walloped around 
 there like a whale trying to climb a tree. 
 
 Some darn cuss of an Injun threw a handful 
 
A Chance Shot 9 
 
 of hay on the fire, and, as it blazed up, the 
 whole gang spotted me. 
 
 I unlimbered my gun, sent the irons into 
 Laddy, and we began to walk. 
 
 I didn t like to make for the ranch, as I 
 knew the boys were short-handed, so I pointed 
 north, praying to the good Lord that I d hit 
 some kind of settlement before I struck the 
 North Pole. 
 
 Well, we left those Injuns so far behind 
 that there wasn t any fun in it. I slacked up, 
 patting myself on the back; and, as the trouble 
 seemed all over, I was just about to turn for 
 the ranch, when I heard horses galloping, and 
 as the moon came out a little I saw a whole 
 raft of redskins a-boiling up a draw not half a 
 mile away. That knocked me slab-sided. It 
 looked like I got the wrong ticket every time 
 the wheel turned. 
 
 I whooped it up again, swearing I wouldn t 
 stop this deal short of a dead sure thing. We 
 flew through space Laddy pushing a hole in 
 the air like a scart kiyote making for home and 
 mother. 
 
 A ways down the valley I spotted a little 
 shack sitting all alone by itself out in the 
 
10 Red Saunders 
 
 moonlight. I headed for it, hollering mur 
 der. 
 
 A man came to the door in his under-rig 
 ging- 
 
 "Hi, there! What s eating you?" he 
 yells. 
 
 " Injuns coming, pardner ! The country s 
 just oozing Injuns! Better get a wiggle on 
 you ! " 
 
 "All right slide along, I ll ketch up to 
 you," says he. 
 
 I looked back and saw him hustling out 
 with his saddle on his arm. " He s a particu 
 lar kind of cuss," I thought; " bareback would 
 suit most people." 
 
 Taking it a little easier for the next couple 
 of miles, I gave him a chance to pull up. 
 
 We pounded along without saying any 
 thing for a spell, when I happened to notice 
 that his teeth were chattering. 
 
 " Keep your nerve up, pardner ! " says I. 
 " Don t you get scared we ve got a good 
 start on em." 
 
 He looked at me kind of reproachful. 
 
 " Scared be derned ! " says he. " I reckon 
 if you was riding around this nice cool night 
 
A Chance Shot 11 
 
 in your drawers, your teeth ud rattle some, 
 too." 
 
 I took a look at him, and saw, sure enough, 
 while he had hat, coat, and boots on, the pants 
 was missing. Well, if it had been the last act, 
 I d have had to laugh. 
 
 " Couldn t find em nohow/ says he; 
 " hunted high and low, jick, Jack, and the 
 game just comes to my mind now that I had 
 em rolled up and was sleeping on em. I 
 don t like to go around this way I feel as if I 
 was two men, and one of em hardly respect 
 able." 
 
 " Did you bring a gun with you? " 
 
 He gave me another stare. " Why, pard- 
 ner, you must think I have got a light and 
 frivolous disposition," says he, and with that 
 he heaves up the great-grand-uncle of all the 
 six-shooters I ever did see. It made my forty- 
 five-long look like something for a kid to cut 
 its teeth on. " That s the best gun in this 
 country," he went on. 
 
 " Looks as if it might be," says I. " Has 
 the foundry that cast it gone out of business? 
 I d like to have one like it, if it s as dangerous 
 as it looks." 
 
ii Red Saunders 
 
 " When I have any trouble with a man," 
 says he, " I don t want to go pecking at him 
 with a putty-blower, just irritating him, and 
 giving him a little skin complaint here and 
 there; I want something that ll touch his con 
 science." 
 
 He had it, for a broadside from that battery 
 would scatter an elephant over a township. 
 
 We loped along quiet and easy until sun-up. 
 The Grindstone Buttes lay about a mile ahead 
 of us. Looking back, we saw the Injuns com 
 ing over a rise of ground way in the distance. 
 
 " Now," says my friend, " I know a short 
 cut through those hills that ll bring us out at 
 Johnson s. They ve got enough punchers 
 there to do the United States army up 
 starched and blued. Shall we take it? " 
 
 " Sure ! " says I. " I m only wandering 
 around this part of the country because this 
 part of the country is here if it was any 
 wheres else I d be just as glad." 
 
 So in we went. It was the steepest and 
 narrowest kind of a canon, looking as if it had 
 been cut out of the rock with one crack of the 
 axe. I was just thinking: "Gee whiz! but 
 this would be a poor place to get snagged in," 
 
A Chance Shot 13 
 
 when bang! says a rifle right in front of us, 
 and m-e-arr! goes the bullet over our heads. 
 
 We were off them horses and behind a 
 couple of chunks of rock sooner than we 
 hoped for, and that s saying a good deal. 
 
 " Cussed poor shot, whoever he is," says my 
 friend. " Some Injun holding us here till the 
 rest come up, I presume." 
 
 " That s about the size of it and I d like 
 to make you a bet that he does it, too, if I 
 thought I d have a chance to collect." 
 
 " Oh, you can t always tell you might lose 
 your money," says he, kind of thoughtful. 
 
 " I wouldn t mind that half as much as win 
 ning," says I. " But on the square, do you 
 think we can get out? I ll jump him with you 
 if you say so, although I ain t got what you 
 might call a passion for suicide." 
 
 " Now you hold on a bit," says he. " I 
 don t know but what we d have done better 
 to stick to the horses, and run for it, but it s 
 too late to think of that. Jumping him is all 
 foolishness; he d sit behind his little rock and 
 pump lead into us till we wouldn t float in 
 brine and we can t back out now." 
 
 He talked so calm it made me kind of mad. 
 
14 Red Saunders 
 
 " Well," says I, " in that case, let s play Si 
 mon says thumbs up till the rest of the crowd 
 
 comes." 
 
 " There you go ! " says he. " Just like all 
 young fellers gettin hosstyle right away if 
 you don t fall in with their plans. Now, 
 Sonny, you keep your temper, and watch me 
 play cushion carroms with our friend there." 
 
 " Meaning how? " 
 
 " You see that block of stone just this side 
 of him with the square face towards us? Well, 
 he s only covered in front, and I m a-going to 
 shoot against that face and ketch him on the 
 glance." 
 
 " Great, if you could work it ! " says I. " But 
 Lord!" 
 
 " Well, watch ! " says he. Then he squinched 
 down behind his cover, so as not to give the 
 Injun an opening, trained his cannon and 
 pulled the trigger. The old gun opened her 
 mouth and roared like an earthquake, but I 
 didn t see any dead Injun. Then twice more 
 she spit fire, and still there weren t any desir 
 able corpses to be had. 
 
 " Say, pardner," says I, " you wouldn t 
 make many cigars at this game ! " 
 
A Chance Shot 15 
 
 " Now, don t you get oneasy," says he. 
 " Just watch ! " 
 
 "Biff!" says the old gun, and this time, 
 sure enough, the Injun was knocked clear of 
 the rock. I felt all along that he wouldn t be 
 much of a comfort to his friends afterwards, 
 if that gun did land on him. 
 
 Still, he wasn t so awful dead, for as we 
 jumped for the horses he kind of hitched him 
 self to the rock, and laying the rifle across it, 
 and working the lever with his left hand, he 
 sent a hole plumb through my hat. 
 
 " Bully boy ! " says I. I snapped at him, and 
 smashed the lock of his rifle to flinders. Then, 
 of course, he was our meat. 
 
 As we rode up to him, my pard held dead on 
 him. The Injun stood up straight and tall, 
 and looked us square in the eye say, he was 
 a man, I tell you, red-skin or no red-skin. The 
 courage just stuck out on him as he stood 
 there, waiting to pass in his checks. 
 
 My pardner threw the muzzle of his gun up. 
 " D n it ! " says he, " I can t do it he s 
 game from the heart out ! But the Lord have 
 mercy on his sinful soul if he and I run foul of 
 each other on the prairie again ! " 
 
16 Red Saunders 
 
 Then we shacked along down to Johnson s 
 and had breakfast. 
 
 "What became of Frosthead and his 
 gang? " Oh, they sent out a regiment or two, 
 and gathered him in bout twenty-five sol 
 diers to an Injun. No, no harm was done. Me 
 and my pard were the only ones that bucked 
 up against them. Chuck out a cigarette, Kid; 
 my lungs ache for want of a smoke. 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 
 
 44 IT "W OW did I come to get myself dis- 
 I I liked down at the Chanta Seechee? 
 A A Well, I ll tell you," said Reddy, the 
 cow-puncher. " The play came up like this. 
 First, they made the Chanta Seechee into 
 a stock company, then the stock company 
 put all their brains in one think, and says 
 they, * We ll make this man Jones super 
 intendent, and the ranch is all right at 
 once. So out comes Jones from Boston, 
 Massachusetts, and what he didn t know about 
 running a ranch was common talk in the coun 
 try, but what he thought he knew about run 
 ning a ranch was too much for one man to 
 carry around. He wasn t a bad-hearted feller 
 in some ways, yet on the whole he felt it was 
 an honour to a looking-glass to have the pleas 
 ure of reflecting him. Looking-glass? I 
 should say he had ! And a bureau, and a boot- 
 blacking jigger, and a feather bed, and cur 
 tains, and truck in his room. Strange fellers 
 used to open their eyes when they saw that 
 19 
 
20 Red Saunders 
 
 room. Helloo-o! they d say, whose little 
 birdie have we here? And other remarks 
 that hurt our feelings considerable. Jonesy, 
 he said the fellers were a rank lot of barbarians. 
 He said it to old Neighbour Case s face, and he 
 and the old man came together like a pair of 
 hens, for Jonesy had sand in spite of his faults. 
 That was a fight worth travelling to see. 
 They covered at least an acre of ground; they 
 tore the air with upper swats and cross swipes; 
 they hollered, they jumped and they pitched, 
 and when the difficulty was adjusted we found 
 that Jonesy s coat was painfully ripped up the 
 back and Neighbour Case had lost his false 
 teeth. One crowd of fellers patted Jones 
 on the back and said, Never mind your coat, 
 old horse; you ve licked a man twice your 
 age, and the other comforted Neighbour, say 
 ing, * Never mind, Case; you can ease your 
 mind by thinking how you headed up that 
 rooster, and he fifty pounds lighter than you/ 
 " Jonesy put on airs after that. He felt he 
 was a hard citizen. And then he had the mis 
 fortune to speak harshly to Arizona Jenkins 
 when Old Dry Belt was in liquor. Then he 
 got roped and dragged through the slough. 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 21 
 
 He cried like a baby whilst I helped him scrape 
 the mud off, but not because he was scared! 
 No, sir ! That little runt was full of blood and 
 murder. 
 
 " You mark me, now, Red/ says he, the 
 tears making bad-land water courses through 
 the mud on his cheeks, I shall fire upon that 
 man the first time I see him will you lend me 
 your revolver? 
 
 " Lord, Jones, see here/ says I, don t 
 you go making any such billy-goat play as 
 that keep his wages until he apologizes; put 
 something harmful in his grub; but, as you 
 have respect for the Almighty s handiwork as 
 represented by your person, don t pull a gun 
 on Arizona Jenkins that s the one thing he 
 won t take from nobody. 
 
 " D-d-darn him ! snivels Jonesy, I ain t 
 afraid o-o-of him; and the strange fact is that 
 he wasn t. Well, I saw he was in such a tak 
 ing that he might do something foolish and 
 get hurt, so I goes to Arizona and says I, You 
 ought to apologize to Jones. What Zony re 
 plied ain t worth repeating and you along 
 with him/ he winds up. 
 
 " * Now ain t that childish? I says. A six- 
 
22 Red Saunders 
 
 footer like you that can shoot straight with 
 either hand, and yet ain t got generosity 
 enough to ease the feelings of a poor little 
 devil that s fair busting with shame. 
 
 " Well, what did he want to tell me to shut 
 up my mouth for? cried Old Dry Belt. Men 
 have died of less than that/ 
 
 " Aw, shucks, Zony/ I says, a great, big 
 man like you oughtn t to come down on a little 
 cuss who s all thumb-hand-side and left feet. 
 
 " That be blowed, says he only he says 
 it different. I d like to know what business 
 such a sawed-off has to come and tell a full- 
 grown man like me to shut up his mouth? 
 He d ought to stay in a little man s place and 
 talk sassy to people his own size. When he 
 comes shooting off his bazoo to a man that 
 could swaller him whole without loosening 
 his collar, it s impidence; that s what it is. 
 
 " Well, as a favour to me? I says. 
 
 " * Well, if you put it in that way I don t 
 want to be small about it. 
 
 " So Arizona goes up to Jones and sticks 
 out his hand. There s my hand, Jones/ he 
 says. I m mighty sorry you told me to shut 
 up my mouth/ says he. 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 23 
 
 " So am I, says Jones heartily, not taking 
 in the sense of the words, but feeling that it 
 was all in good intention. So that was all right 
 and I stood in with the management in great 
 shape for fixing up the fuss so pleasant. But 
 it didn t last. They say nothing lasts in this 
 world. There s some pretty solid rocks in the 
 Coeur d Alene, however, and I should like to 
 wait around and see if they don t hold out, 
 but I ll never make it. I ve been in too much 
 excitement. 
 
 " Well, the next thing after Jonesy got 
 established was that his niece must come out 
 during vacation and pay him a visit. Jee- 
 rusalem ! thinks I, Jonesy s niece ! I had 
 visions of a thin, yaller, sour little piece, with 
 mouse-coloured hair plastered down on her 
 head, and an unkind word for even-body. 
 Jonesy told me about her being in college, and 
 then I stuck a pair of them nose-grabber 
 specks on the picture. I can stand most any 
 kind of a man, but if there s anything that 
 makes the tears come to my eyes it s a botch 
 of a woman. I know they may have good 
 qualities and all that, but I don t like em, and 
 that s the whole of it. We gave three loud 
 
24 Red Saunders 
 
 groans when we got the news in the bull-pen. 
 And I cussed for ten minutes straight, with 
 out repeating myself once, when it so fell out 
 that the members of the board rolled out our 
 way the day the girl had to be sent for, and 
 Jonesy couldn t break loose, and your Uncle 
 was elected to take the buckboard and drive 
 twenty miles to the railroad. I didn t mind 
 the going out, but that twenty miles back 
 with Jonesy s niece! Say, I foamed like a 
 soda-water bottle when I got into the bull 
 pen and told the boys my luck. 
 
 " Well/ says Kyle Lambert, that s what 
 you might expect; your sins have found you 
 out/ 
 
 " No, they ain t; they ve caught me at 
 home as usual/ says I. Well, I ll give that 
 Eastern blossom an idea of the quality of this 
 country anyhow. So I togs myself up in the 
 awfullest rig I could find; strapped two ca - 
 tridge belts to me, every hole filled, and a gun 
 in every holster; put candle-grease on my mus 
 tache and twisted the ends up to my eye-wink 
 ers; stuck a knife in my hatband and another 
 in my boot; threw a shotgun and a rifle in 
 the buckboard, and pulled out quick through 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 25 
 
 the colt-pens before Jonesy could get his peeps 
 onto me. 
 
 " Well, sir, I was jarred witless when I laid 
 my eyes on that young woman. I d had my 
 mind made up so thorough as to what she 
 must be tha^ the facts knocked me cold. She 
 was the sweetest, handsomest, healthiest fe 
 male I ever see. It would make you believe in 
 fairy stories again just to look at her. She 
 was all the things a man ever wanted in this 
 world rolled up in a prize package. Tall, round 
 and soople, limber and springy in her action 
 as a thoroughbred, and with something mod 
 est yet kind of daring in her face that would 
 remind you of a good, honest boy. Red, 
 white, and black were the colours she flew. 
 Hair and eyes black, cheeks and lips red, and 
 the rest of her white. Now, there s a pile of 
 difference in them colours; when you say 
 red, for instance, you ain t cleaned up the 
 subject by a sight. My top-knot s red, but 
 that wasn t the colour of Loy s cheeks. No; 
 that was a colour I never saw before nor since. 
 A rose would look like a tomater alongside of 
 em. Then, too, I ve seen black eyes so hard 
 and shiny you could cut glass with em. And 
 
26 Red Saunders 
 
 again that wasn t her style. The only way you 
 could get a notion of what them eyes were like 
 would be to look at em; you d remember em 
 all right if you did. Seems like the good Lord 
 was kind of careless when he built Jonesy, but 
 when he turned that girl out he played square 
 with the fambly. 
 
 " I ain t what you might call a man that s 
 easily disturbed in his mind, but I know I says 
 to myself that first day, If I was ten year 
 younger, young lady, they d never lug you 
 back East again. Gee, man ! There was a time 
 when I d have pulled the country up by the 
 roots but I d have had that girl! I notice I 
 don t fall in love so violent as the years roll on. 
 I can squint my eye over the cards now and 
 say, Yes, that s a beautiful hand, but I reckon 
 I d better stay out, and lay em down without 
 a sigh ; whereas, when I was a young feller, if I 
 had three aces in sight I d raise the rest of the 
 gathering right out of their foot-leather or 
 get caught at it. Usually I got caught at it, 
 for a man couldn t run the mint long with the 
 kind of luck I have. 
 
 " Well, I was plumb disgusted with the fool 
 way I d rigged myself up, but, fortunately for 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 27 
 
 me, Darragh, the station-man, came out with 
 the girl. There s Reddy, from your ranch 
 now, ma am/ says he, and when he caught 
 sight of me, What s the matter, Red; are the 
 Injuns up? 
 
 " Darragh was a serious Irishman, and that s 
 the mournfullest thing on top of the globe; 
 and besides, he believed anything you d tell 
 him. There ain t any George Washington 
 strain in my stock, so I proceeded to get out 
 of trouble. 
 
 " They ain t up exactly, says I, * but it 
 looked as if they were a leetle on the rise, and 
 being as I had a lady to look out for, I thought 
 I d play safe. 
 
 " The colour kind of went out of the girl s 
 cheeks. Eastern folks are scandalous afraid 
 of Injuns. 
 
 " Perhaps I d better not start? says she. 
 
 Don t you be scart, miss, says Darragh. 
 
 You re all right as long as you re with Red 
 
 he s the toughest proposition we ve got in 
 
 this part of the country. 
 
 " I m obliged to you, Darragh, says I. He 
 meant well, but hell s full of them people. I d 
 have given a month s wages for one lick at him. 
 
28 Red Satmders 
 
 Nice reputation to give me before that girl! 
 She eyed me mighty doubtful. 
 
 " I stepped up to her, with my hat in my 
 hand. Miss Andree/ says I (she was Jonesy s 
 sister s child), if you come along with me I ll 
 guarantee you a safe journey. If any harm 
 reaches you it will be after one of the liveliest 
 times in the history of the Territory. 
 
 "At this she laughed. Very well/ says 
 she, I ll chance it, Mr. Red/ 
 
 His name ain t Red/ puts in Darragh, 
 solemn. His name s Saunders. We call him 
 Red becus uf his hair/ 
 
 " I m sure I beg your pardon/ says Miss 
 Loys, all of a fluster. 
 
 " That s all right, ma am; no damage done 
 at all/ says I. It s useless for me to try to 
 conceal the fact that my hair is a little on the 
 auburn. You mustn t mind what Darragh 
 says. We ve had a good deal of hot weather 
 lately and his brains have gone wrong. Now 
 hop in and we ll touch the breeze/ So I piled 
 her trunk in and away we flew. 
 
 " Bud and Dandy were a corking little 
 team. They d run the whole distance from 
 the railway to the ranch if you d let em and 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 29 
 
 I never interfered. A straight line and the 
 keen jump hits me all right when I m going 
 some place, although I can loaf with the next 
 man on occasion. So we missed most of the 
 gulleys. 
 
 " The ponies were snorting and pulling 
 grass, the buckboard bouncing behind em 
 like a rubber ball, and we were crowding into 
 the teeth of the northwest wind, which made 
 it seem as if we were travelling 100 per cent, 
 better than a Dutch clock would show. 
 
 " * Goodness gracious ! says the girl, do 
 you always go like this in this country? And 
 aren t there any roads? 
 
 " Why, no/ says I. Hike! and I 
 snapped the blacksnake over the ponies ears, 
 and they strung themselves out like a brace of 
 coyotes, nearly pulling the buckboard out 
 from under us. Sometimes we travel like 
 this, I says. And as for roads, I despise em. 
 You re not afraid, are you? 
 
 " Indeed I m not. I think it s glorious. 
 Might I drive? 
 
 " If I can smoke, says I, then you can 
 drive. I d heard about young women who d 
 been brought up so tender that tobacker 
 
30 Red Saunders 
 
 smoke would ruin their morals or something, 
 and I kind of wondered if she was that sort. 
 
 " That s a bargain/ says she prompt. But 
 how you re going to light a cigar in this wind 
 I don t see. 
 
 " Cigarette, says I. And if you would 
 kindly hold my hat until I get one rolled I ll 
 take it kind of you. 
 
 " But what about the horses? says she. 
 
 " Put your foot on the lines and they ll 
 make. That s the main and only art of driv 
 ing on the prairie not to let the lines get 
 under the horses feet all the rest is just sit 
 still and look at the scenery. 
 
 " She held my hat for a wind-break, and I 
 got my paper pipe together. And then not 
 a match. I searched every pocket. Not a 
 lucifer. That is more of what I got for being 
 funny and changing my clothes. And then 
 she happened to think of a box she had for 
 travelling, and fished it out of her grip. 
 
 " l Young lady, I says, i until it comes to 
 be your bad luck which I hope won t ever 
 happen to be very much in love with a man 
 who won t play back, you ll never properly 
 know the pangs of a man that s got all the ma- 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 31 
 
 terials to smoke with except the fire. Now, if 
 I have a chance to do as much for you some 
 time, I m there. 
 
 " She laughed and crinkled up her eyes at 
 me. All right, Mr. Saunders. When that 
 obdurate man disdains me, I ll call for your 
 help/ 
 
 " The place for the man that would disdain 
 you is an asylum, says I. * And the only help 
 I d give you would be to put him there. She 
 blushed real nice. I like to see a woman blush. 
 It s a trick they can t learn. 
 
 " But I see she was put out by my easy talk, 
 so I gave her a pat on the back and says, 
 Don t mind me, little girl. We fellers see an 
 eighteen-carat woman so seldom that it goes 
 to our heads. There wasn t no offence meant, 
 and you ll be foolish if you put it there. Let s 
 shake hands. 
 
 " So she laughed again and shook. I mean 
 shook. It wasn t like handing you so much 
 cold fish the way some women shake hands. 
 And Loys and me, we were full pards from 
 date. 
 
 " I made one more bad break on the home 
 trip. 
 
32 Red Saunders 
 
 " Jonesy will be powerful glad to see you/ 
 says I. 
 
 " Jonesy ! says she, surprised. Jonesy ! 
 Oh, is that what you call Uncle Albert? 
 
 * Well, it does sometimes happen that 
 way," says I. And then my anti-George 
 Washington blood rose again. You see, he 
 was kind of lonesome out there at first, and 
 we took to calling him Jonesy to cheer him up 
 and make him feel at home, I says. 
 
 " Oh ! says she. And I reckon she didn t 
 feel so horribly awful about it, for after 
 looking straight towards the Gulf of Mexico 
 for a minute, suddenly she bust right out and 
 hollered. It seems that Jones cut a great deal 
 of grass to a swipe when he was back home in 
 his own street. It s astonishing how little of 
 a man it takes to do that in the East. We had 
 an argument once on the subject. It s intel 
 lect does it/ says Silver Tompkins. l Oh, 
 that s it, eh? says Wind-River Smith. Well, 
 I m glad I m not troubled that way. I d 
 rather have a forty-four chest than a number 
 eight head any day you can find in the alma 
 nac. And I m with Smithy. This knowing 
 so much it makes you sick ain t any better 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 33 
 
 than being so healthy you don t know noth 
 ing, besides being square miles less fun. An 
 other thing about the Eastern folks is they re 
 so sot in their views, and it don t matter to 
 them whether the facts bear out their idees or 
 not. 
 
 " i Here, take a cigar, says one of the Board 
 of Directors to me a little fat old man, who 
 had to draw in his breath before he could cross 
 his legs * them cigarettes ll ruin your 
 health, says he. Mind you, he was always 
 kicking and roaring about his liver or stum- 
 mick, or some of his works. I m a little over 
 six-foot-three in my boots when I stand up 
 straight, and I stood up straight as the Lord 
 would let me and gazed down at that little 
 man. Pardner, says I, I was raised on 
 cigarettes. When I was two years old I used 
 to have a pull at the bottle, and then my cigar 
 ette to aid digestion. It may be conceit on my 
 part, I says, but I d rather be a wreck like 
 me than a prize-fighter like you. They re 
 queer; you d think that that little fat man 
 would have noticed the difference without my 
 pointing it out to him. 
 
 " Well, I don t have to mention that Loys 
 
34 Red Saunders 
 
 stirred things up considerable around the 
 Chanta Seechee and vicinity. Gee! What a 
 diving into wannegans and a fetching out of 
 good clothes there was. And trading of use 
 ful coats and things for useless but decorating 
 silk handkerchers and things! And what a 
 hair cutting and whisker trimming! 
 
 " But Kyle was the man from the go in. 
 And it was right it should be so. If ever two 
 young people were born to make trouble for 
 each other it was Kyle and Loys. 
 
 " A nice, decent fellow was Kyle. Nothing 
 remarkable, you could say, and that was one 
 of his best points. Howsomever, he had a 
 head that could do plain thinking, a pair of 
 shoulders that discouraged frivoling, and he 
 was as square a piece of furniture as ever came 
 out of a factory. More n that; he had quite a 
 little education, saved his money, never got 
 more than good-natured loaded, and he could 
 ride anything that had four legs, from a saw- 
 horse to old tiger Buck, who would kick your 
 both feet out of the sturrups and reach around 
 and bite you in the small of the back so quick 
 that the boys would be pulling his front hoofs 
 out of your frame before you d realize that the 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 35 
 
 canter had begun. Nice horse, Buck. He 
 like to eat Jonesy up one morning before Sliver 
 and me could get to the corral. Lord ! The 
 sounds made my blood run cold ! Old Buck 
 squealing like a boar-pig in a wolf trap, and 
 Jonesy yelling, Help ! Murder ! Police ! 
 Even that did not cure Jones from sticking his 
 nose where it wasn t wanted. Why, once 
 but thunder ! It would take me a long while 
 to tell you all that happened to Jones. 
 
 " One thing that didn t hurt Kyle any in 
 the campaign was that he was most as good- 
 looking for a man as she was for a woman. 
 They made a pair to draw to, I tell you, lop 
 ing over the prairie, full of health and young- 
 ness! You wouldn t want to see a prettier 
 sight than they made, and you could see it at 
 any time, for they were together whenever it 
 was possible. Loys was so happy it made you 
 feel like a boy again to see her. She told me 
 in private that it was wonderful how the air 
 out here agreed with her, and I said it was 
 considered mighty bracing, and never let on 
 that they proclaimed their state of mind every 
 time they looked at each other. I reckon old 
 smart-Aleck Jonesy was the only party in the 
 
36 Red Saunders 
 
 township who didn t understand. Kyle used 
 to put vinegar in his coffee and things like 
 that, and if you d ask him, What s that fel 
 low s name that runs the clothing store in 
 town? he d come out of his trance and say 
 Yes, and smile very amiable, to show that he 
 thoroughly admitted you were right. 
 
 " Well, things went as smooth and easy as 
 bob-sledding until it came time for Loys to 
 be moseying back to college again. 
 
 " Then Kyle took me into his confidence. 
 I never was less astonished in my whole life, 
 and I didn t tell him so. Well, what are you 
 going to do about it? says I. 
 
 " He kind of groaned and shook his head. 
 I dunno, says he. Do you think she likes 
 me, Red? I felt like saying, Well, if you 
 ain t got all the traits but the long ears, I miss 
 my guess, but I made allowances, and says I, 
 1 Well, about that, I don t think I ought to say 
 anything; still, if I had only one eye left I 
 could see plain that her education s finished. 
 She don t want any more college, that girl 
 don t. 
 
 " Think not? says he, bracing up. And 
 then, by-and-by, they went out to ride, for 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 37 
 
 Jonesy was good to the girl, I ll say that for 
 him. He was willing to do anything for her 
 in reason, according to his views. But Kyle 
 wasn t in them views; he was out of the pict 
 ure as far as husbands went. 
 
 " They came back at sunset, when the 
 whole world was glowing red the same as they 
 were. I reached for the field glasses and took 
 a squint at them. There was no harm in that, 
 for they were well-behaved young folks. One 
 look at their faces was enough. There were 
 three of us in the bull-pen Bob, and Wind- 
 River Smith, and myself. We d brought up 
 a herd of calves from Nanley s ranch, and we 
 were taking it easy. Boys, says I, under my 
 breath, they ve made the riffle. 
 
 " No ! says they, and then everybody had 
 to take a pull at the glasses. 
 
 " Well, I m glad, says Smithy. And darn 
 my buttons if that old hardshell s voice didn t 
 shake. They re two of as nice kids as you d 
 find in many a weary day, says he. And I 
 wish em all the luck in the world. 
 
 " So do I, says I, and I really think the 
 best we could do for em would be to shoot 
 Jones/ 
 
38 Red Saunders 
 
 " Man ! Won t he sizz ! says Bob. And 
 you can t blame us old codgers if we had a 
 laugh at that, although it was such a powerful 
 serious matter to the youngsters. 
 
 Let s go out and meet em/ says I. And 
 away we went. They weren t a particle sur 
 prised. I suppose they thought the whole 
 universe had stopped to look on. We pump- 
 handled away and laughed, and Loys she 
 laughed kind of teary, and Kyle he looked red 
 in the face and proud and happy and ashamed 
 of himself, and we all felt loosened up con 
 siderable, but I told him on the quiet, Take 
 that fool grin off your face, unless you want 
 Uncle Jones to drop the moment he sees 
 you/ 
 
 " Now they only had three days left to 
 get an action on them, as that was the time 
 set for Loys to go back to college. 
 
 " Next day they held a council behind the 
 big barn, and they called in Uncle Red 
 otherwise known as Big Red Saunders, or 
 Chanta Seechee Red, which means i Bad- 
 heart Red in Sioux language, and doesn t ex 
 plain me by a durn sight to get the benefit of 
 his valuable advice. 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 39 
 
 " Skip/ says I. Fly for town and get 
 married, and come back and tell Jonesy about 
 it. It s a pesky sight stronger argument to 
 tell him what you have done than what you re 
 going to do. 
 
 " They couldn t quite agree with that. 
 They thought it was sneaky. 
 
 " So it is, says I. The first art of war 
 is understanding how to make a grand sneak. 
 If you don t want to take my advice you can 
 wait. That didn t hit em just right either. 
 
 " What will we wait for? says Kyle. 
 
 " Exercise and the kind you won t take 
 when you get as old and as sensible as me. 
 You re taking long chances, both of you; but 
 it s just like playing cards, you might as well 
 put all your money on the first turn, win or 
 lose, as to try and play system. Systems don t 
 work in faro, nor love affairs, nor any other 
 game of chance. Be gone. Put your marker 
 on the grand raffle. In other words take the 
 first horse to town and get married. Ten 
 chances to one Jonesy will have the laugh on 
 you before the year is out. 
 
 I don t think you are a bit nice to-day, 
 Red, says Loys. 
 
40 Red Saunders 
 
 " He s jealous/ says Kyle. 
 
 1 That s what I am, young man/ says I. 
 If I had ten years off my shoulders, and a 
 little of the glow off my hair, I d give you a 
 run for your alley that would leave you 
 breathless at the wind-up/ 
 
 " * I think your hair is a beautiful color, 
 Red/ says Loys. * Many a woman would like 
 to have it. 
 
 " Of course they would/ I answered. 
 * But they don t get it. I m foxy, I am/ Still 
 I was touched in a tender spot. That young 
 woman knew just the right thing to say, by 
 nature. Well, what are you young folks go 
 ing to do? I asked them. 
 
 " They decided that they d think it over 
 until next day, but that turned out to be too 
 late, for what must Kyle do but get chucked 
 from his horse and have his leg broke near the 
 hip. You don t want to take any love affairs 
 onto the back of a bad horse, now you mark 
 me! There was no such thing as downing 
 that boy when he was in his right mind. 
 
 " Now here was a hurrah ! Loys, she dasn t 
 cry, for fear of uncle, and Kyle, he used the 
 sinfullest language known to the tongue of 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 41 
 
 man. Twas the first time I d ever heard him 
 say anything much, but he made it clear that 
 it wasn t because he couldn t. 
 
 " What will we do, Red? What will we 
 do? says he. 
 
 " Now, says I, don t bile over like that, 
 because it s bad for your leg. 
 
 " He cussed the leg. 
 
 " Go on and tell me what we can do, says 
 he. 
 
 " When you ask me that, you ve pulled 
 the right bell, says I. I ll tell you exactly 
 what we ll do. I go for the doctor. Savvy? 
 Well, I bring back the minister at the same 
 time. Angevine, he loses the Jersey cow over 
 in the cane-break, and uncle and Angevine go 
 hunting her, for not even Loys is ace high in 
 uncle s mind alongside that cow. The rest is 
 easy. 
 
 " Red, you re a brick you re the best fel 
 low alive/ says Kyle, nearly squeezing the 
 hand off me. 
 
 " I ve tried to conceal it all my life, but I 
 knew it would be discovered some day, says 
 I. Well, I suppose I d better break the news 
 to Loys twouldn t be any more than polite. 
 
42 Red Saunders 
 
 " Oh, Lord ! I wonder if she ll be will 
 ing? says he. 
 
 " No reason I shouldn t turn an honest 
 dollar on the transaction I ll bet you a 
 month s wages she is, says I. He wanted to 
 do it, thinking I was in earnest, but I laughed 
 at him. 
 
 " She was willing all right even anxious. 
 There s some women, and men, too, for that 
 matter, who go through life like a cat through 
 a back alley, not caring a cuss for either end 
 or the middle. They would have been content 
 to wait. Not so Loys. She wanted her Kyle, 
 her poor Kyle, and she wanted him quick. 
 That s the kind of people for me ! Your cau 
 tious folk are all the time falling down wells 
 because their eyes are up in the air, keep 
 ing tabs so that they can dodge shooting 
 stars. 
 
 " Now, I had a minister friend up in town, 
 Father Slade by name. No, he was not a 
 Catholic, I think. They called him Father 
 because it fitted him. His church had a steeple 
 on it, anyhow, so it was no maverick. Just 
 what particular kind of religion the old man 
 had I don t know, but I should say he was a 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 43 
 
 homeopath on a guess. He looked it. Twas 
 a comfort to see him coming down the street, 
 his old face shining in his white hair like a 
 shrivelled pink apple in a snowdrift, God-bless 
 ing everything in sight good, bad, or indif 
 ferent. He had something pleasant to say to 
 all. We was quite friends, and every once in a 
 while we d have a chin about things. 
 
 " Are you keeping straight, Red? he d 
 ask when we parted. 
 
 " Urn, I d say, I m afraid you d notice 
 a bend here and there, if you slid your eyes 
 along the edge. 
 
 " Well, keep as straight as you can; don t 
 give up trying, my boy/ he d tell me, mighty 
 earnest, and I d feel ashamed of myself clear 
 around the corner. 
 
 " I knew the old man would do me a fa 
 vour if it could be done, so I pulled out easy in 
 my mind. 
 
 " First place, I stopped at the doctor s, be 
 cause I felt they might fix up the marrying 
 business some other time, but if a leg that s 
 broke in the upper joint ain t set right, you can 
 see a large dark-complected hunk of trouble 
 over the party s left shoulder for the rest of 
 
44 Red Saunders 
 
 his days. The doctor was out, so I left word 
 for him what was wanted, and to be ready 
 when I got back, and pulled for Father 
 Slade s. The old gentleman had the rheuma 
 tism, and he groaned when I come in. Rheu 
 matism s no disease for people who can t 
 swear. 
 
 How are you, my boy? says he; I m 
 glad to see you. Here am I, an old man, 
 nipped by the leg, and much wanting to talk 
 to somebody. 
 
 " I passed the time of day to him, but felt 
 kind of blue. This didn t look like keeping 
 my word with the kids. I really hated to say 
 anything to the old man, knowing his disposi 
 tion; still I felt I had to, and I out with my 
 story. 
 
 " Dear ! dear ! says he. The hurry and 
 skurry of young folks! How idle it seems 
 when you get fifty years away from it, and see 
 how little anything counts! For all that, I 
 thank God, says he, that there s a little red 
 left in my blood yet, which makes me sympa 
 thise with them. But the girl s people object 
 you say? 
 
 " I made that all clear to him. The girl s 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 45 
 
 always all right, Father/ says I, and as for the 
 man in this case, my word for him/ 
 
 " Now it ain t just the right thing for me to 
 say, but seeing as I ve never had anything in 
 particular to be modest about, and I m proud 
 of what the old gentleman told me, I m going 
 to repeat it. 
 
 " Your word is good for me, Red, says he. 
 You re a mischievous boy at times, but your 
 heart and your head are both reliable; give me 
 your arm to the waggon. 
 
 " Then I felt mighty sorry to think of lug 
 ging that poor old man all that ways. 
 
 " Here ! says I. Now you sit down 
 again; don t you do anything of the sort you 
 ain t fit. 
 
 " He put his hand on my shoulder and hob 
 bled his weight off the game leg. 
 
 " Reddy, I was sitting there thinking 
 when you came in thinking of how comfort 
 able it was to be in an easy-chair with my foot 
 on a stool, and then I thought, " If the Lord 
 should send me some work to do, would I 
 be willing? " Now, thanks be to Him! I am 
 willing, and glad to find myself so, and I do 
 not believe there s any work more acceptable 
 
46 Red Saunders 
 
 to Him than the union of young folk who love 
 each other. Ouch ! says he, as that foot 
 touched the ground. Perhaps you d better 
 pick me up and carry me bodily/ 
 
 " So I did it, the old housekeeper following 
 us with an armful of things and jawing the 
 both of us him for a fool and me for a villain. 
 She was a strong-minded old lady, and I wish 
 I could remember some of her talk it was 
 great. 
 
 " We went around and got the doctor. 
 
 " Hoo ! says he. Is it as bad as that? 
 I winked at Father Slade. 
 
 " It s a plenty worse than that/ says I; 
 you won t know the half of it till you get 
 down there. 
 
 " But of course we had to tell him, and he 
 was tickled. Funny what an interest every 
 body takes in these happenings. He wanted 
 all the details. 
 
 " By Jove ! says he, the man whose 
 feelings ain t the least dimmed by a broken 
 leg horse rolled on him, you said? Splin 
 tered it, probably that man is one of the 
 right sort. He ll do to tie to. 
 
 "When we reached the ranch the boys 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 47 
 
 were lined up to meet us. Hurry along ! 
 they called. Angey can t keep uncle amused 
 all day ! 
 
 " So we hustled. Kyle was for being mar 
 ried first, and then having his leg set, but I put 
 my foot down flat. It had gone long enough 
 now, and I wasn t going to have him Gripping 
 it all his life. But the doctor worked like a 
 man who gets paid by the piece, and in less 
 than no time we were able to call Loys in. 
 
 " Wind-River Smith spoke to get to give 
 the bride away, and we let him have it. 
 
 " We d just got settled to business when in 
 comes Angevine. puffing like a buffalo. For 
 Heaven s sakes! Ain t you finished yet? 
 says he; well, you want to be at it. for the old 
 man ain t over two minutes behind me, com 
 ing fast. I took the distance in ten-foot steps. 
 Just my luck ! Foot slipped when I was talk 
 ing to him, and I dropped a remark that made 
 him suspicious I wouldn t have done it for a 
 ton of money but it s too late now. I ll 
 down him and hold him out there if you say 
 so/ 
 
 " Well, sir, at this old Father Slade stood 
 right up, forgetting that foot entirely. 
 
48 Red Saunders 
 
 " Children, be ready/ says he, and he went 
 over the line for a record. 
 
 " Hurry there ! hollers old Bob from the 
 outside, where he was on watch; here comes 
 uncle up the long coulee ! 
 
 " What are your names? says Father 
 Slade. They told him, both red ning. 
 
 " Do you, Kyle, take this woman, Loys, to 
 have and keep track of, come hell or high 
 water, her heirs and assigns for ever? or 
 such a matter says he, all in one breath, 
 They both said they did. 
 
 " Things flew till we came to the ring. 
 There was a hitch. We had plumb forgotten 
 that important article. For a minute I felt 
 stingy; then I cussed myself for a mean old 
 long-horn, and dived into my box. 
 
 " Here, take this ! I says. It was my 
 mother s! 
 
 " Oh, Red ! You mustn t part with that ! 
 cried Loys, her eyes filling up. 
 
 " Don t waste time talking; I put through 
 what I tackle. Hurry, please, Father. 
 
 " Has anybody any objections to these 
 proceedings? says he. 
 
 " I have, says I, but I won t mention 
 em. Give them the verdict. 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 49 
 
 " I pronounce you man and wife. Let us 
 pray/ says he. 
 
 " What s that? screeches Uncle Jonesy 
 from the doorway. And then he gave us the 
 queerest prayer you ever heard in your life. 
 He stood on one toe and clawed chunks out 
 of the air while he delivered it. 
 
 " He seemed to have it in for me in particu 
 lar. You villain ! You rascal ! You red 
 headed rascal! You did this! I know you 
 did! 
 
 " Oh, uncle ! says I, forgive me ! With 
 that I hugged him right up to me, and he 
 filled my bosom full of smothered language. 
 
 " Cheese it, you little cuss ! I whispered 
 in his ear, or I ll break every rib in your poor 
 old chest ! I came in on him a trifle, just to 
 show him what I could do if I tried. 
 
 " NufT ! he wheezes. Quit. NufiV 
 
 " * Go up and congratulate em/ I whis 
 pered again. 
 
 " I won t/ says he. Ouch ! Yes, I will! 
 I will ! So up he goes, grinding his teeth. 
 
 " I wish you every happiness/ he grunts. 
 
 " Won t you forgive me, uncle? begs 
 Loys. 
 
jo Red Saunders 
 
 " Some other time; some other time! he 
 hollers, and he pranced out of the house like a 
 hosstyle spider, the maddest little man in the 
 Territory. 
 
 " Loys had a hard time of it until Kyle got 
 so he could travel, and they went up to the 
 Yellowstone with a team for a wedding trip. 
 
 " The rest of Loys s folks was in an un 
 pleasant frame of mind, too. They sent out 
 her brother, and while I d have took most any 
 thing from Loys s brother, there comes a 
 place where human nature is human nature, 
 and the upshot of it was I planked that young 
 man gently but firmly across my knees. Suf 
 fering Ike! But he was one sassy young 
 man! Howsomever, the whole outfit came 
 round in time all except uncle and me. He 
 used to grit his teeth together till the sparks 
 flew when he saw me. I was afraid he d bust 
 a blood-vessel in one of them fits, so I quit. I 
 hated to let go of the old ranch, but I m pretty 
 well fixed I m superintendent here. It s 
 Kyle s ranch, you know. That s his brand 
 the queer-looking thing on the left hip of that 
 critter, over the vented hash-knife. Loys s 
 invention, that is. She says it s a cherublim, 
 
A Red-Haired Cupid 51 
 
 but we call it the flying flap-jack. There s 
 a right smart lot of beef critters toting that 
 signal around this part of the country. Kyle s 
 one of the fellers that rises like a setting of 
 bread quiet and gentle, but steady and sure. 
 He s going to the State Legislature next year. 
 Twon t do no harm to have one honest man 
 in the outfit. 
 
 " Now, perhaps if I d married some nice 
 woman I might have had 1,000 steers of my 
 own, and a chance to make rules and regula 
 tions for my feller-citizens and then again I 
 might have took to gambling and drinking 
 and raising blazes, and broke my poor wife s 
 broom-handle with my hard head. So I reck 
 on we ll let it slide as it is. Now you straddle 
 that cayuse of yours and come along with me 
 and I ll show you some rattling colts." 
 
The Golden Ford 
 
The Golden Ford 
 
 REDDY was on the station platform, 
 walking up and down, looking about 
 him anxiously. We caught sight of 
 each other at the same time. 
 
 " Hi, there ! " said he and jumped for me. 
 "Gad-dog your little hide!" he cried as he 
 put my right hand in line for a pension. " I 
 thought I was booked to go without saying 
 good-bye to you you got the note I pinned 
 on your shack? " 
 
 " Sure." 
 
 " Well, there s time for a chin before the 
 choo-choo starts thought I d be early, not 
 savvying this kind of travelling a great deal. 
 Darned if you ain t growed since I saw you 
 getting fat, too ! Well, how s everything? I 
 didn t say nothing to the other boys about 
 pulling my freight, as I wanted to go sober for 
 once. You explain to em that old Red s head 
 ain t swelled, will you? Seems kind of dirty 
 to go off that way, but I m bound for God s 
 country and the old-time folks, and somehow 
 55 
 
56 Red Saunders 
 
 I feel that I must cut the budge out of it. 
 Nother thing is I m superstitious, as you may 
 or may not have noticed, and I believe if you 
 try the same game twicet you ll get just as 
 different results as can be the second time 
 you heard how I hit it in the mines, didn t 
 you? No? Well, that s so; you ain t seen 
 many people out on the flat, have you? Hum. 
 I don t know principally where to begin. You 
 remember Wind-River Smith s pardner that 
 the boys called Shadder, because he was so 
 thin? Nice feller, always willing to do you a 
 favour, or say something comical when you 
 least expected it had kind of a style with 
 him, too. Yes, sir, that s the man. Well him 
 and me was out in the Bend one day, holding 
 a mess of Oregon half-breeds that was to be 
 shipped by train shortly, when old Smithy 
 comes with the mail. Letter for you, Shad 
 der, says Smith, and passes over a big enve 
 lope with wads of sealing wax all over it. 
 Shadder reads his letter, and folds it up. Then 
 he takes a look over the countty the kind of 
 a look a man gives when he s thinking hard. 
 Then says he, Red, take off your hat/ I 
 done it. Smithy, take off your hat. All 
 
The Golden Ford 57 
 
 right/ says Smith; but you tell me why, or 
 I ll snake the shirt off you to square things/ 
 
 "Boys/ says Shadder, I m Lord Wai- 
 ford. 
 
 " Lord Hellford; hollers Smithy. You d 
 better call somebody in to look at your plumb 
 ing what you been drinkin , Shadder? 
 
 " * Read for yourself/ says Shadder, and he 
 handed him the letter. 
 
 " Wish t you could have seen old Smithy s 
 face as he read it ! He thought his pardner 
 had been cut out of his herd for ever. 
 
 " It s the God s truth, Red/ says he slowly, 
 and he had a sideways smile on his face as he 
 turned to Shadder. Well, sir/ says he, I 
 suppose congratulations are in order? 
 
 " Shadder s hand stopped short on its way 
 to the cigarette, and he looked at Smithy as 
 if he couldn t believe what he saw. 
 
 " To hell with em ! says he, as savage as 
 a wildcat, and he jabbed the irons in and 
 whirled his cayuse about on one toe, heading 
 for the ranch. 
 
 Now you go after him, you jealous old 
 sore-head/ says I. Go on ! I says, as he 
 started to argue the point, or I ll spread your 
 
58 Red Saunders 
 
 nose all the way down your spinal column! 
 The only time to say no to me is when I m 
 not meaning what I say, so away goes Wind- 
 River, and they made it up all right in no time. 
 Well, Shadder had to pull for England to take 
 a squint at the ancestral estates, and all of us 
 was right here at this station to see him off 
 Lord ! it seems as if that happened last world ! 
 well, it took a little bit the edge off any and 
 all drunks a ranch as an institution had ever 
 seen before. There was old Smithy crying 
 around, wiping his eyes on his sleeve, and 
 explaining to a lot of Eastern folks that it 
 wasn t Shadder s fault gad-hook it all! He 
 was the best, hootin , tootin son-of-a-sea- 
 cook that ever hit a prairie breeze, in spite of 
 this dum foolishness. 
 
 " They can t make no "lord" of Shadder! 
 hollers Smithy. That is, not for long he s 
 a man, Shadder is ain t cher, yer damned old 
 gangle-legged hide-rack? 
 
 " And Shadder never lost his patience at 
 all, though it must have been kind of trying 
 to be made into such a holy show before the 
 kind of people he used to be used to. All he d 
 say was * Bet your life, old boy ! Well, it was 
 
The Golden Ford 59 
 
 right enough too, as Smithy had nursed him 
 through small-pox one winter up in the Sho- 
 shonee country, and mighty near starved him 
 self to death feeding Shadder out of the slim 
 grub stock, when the boy was on the mend; 
 still some people would have forgot that. 
 
 " But did your uncle Red get under the 
 influence of strong drink? DID he? Oh my! 
 Oh MY ! I wish I could make it clear to you. 
 The vigilantes put after a horse thief once in 
 Montana, and they landed on him in a butt- 
 end canon, and there was all the stock with 
 the brands on em as big as a patent medicine 
 sign, as the lad hadn t had time to stop for 
 alterations. 
 
 " Well, says they, what have you got to 
 say for yourself? He looked at them brands 
 staring him in the face, and he bit off a small 
 hunk of chewing Ptt-chay ! Says he, 
 Gentlemen, I m at a loss for words ! And 
 they let him go, as a good joke is worth its 
 price in any man s country. I m in that lad s 
 fix; I ain t got the words to tell you how 
 seriously drunk I was on that occasion. I re 
 member putting for what I thought was the 
 hotel, and settling down, thinking there must 
 
60 Red Saunders 
 
 be a lulu of a scrap in the barroom from the 
 noise; then somebody gave me a punch in the 
 ribs and says, i Where s your ticket? and I 
 don t know what I said nor what he said after 
 that, but it must have been all right. Then it 
 got light and I met a lot of good friends I 
 never saw before nor since; then more noise 
 and trouble and at last I woke up in a hotel 
 bedroom, all right, but not the one I was used 
 to. I went to the window, heaved her open 
 and looked out. It was a bully morning and 
 I felt Ai. There was a nice range of moun 
 tains out in front of me that must have come 
 up during the night. I d like to know where 
 I am/ I thinks. * But somebody will tell me 
 before long, so there is no use worrying 
 about that the main point is, have I been 
 touched? I dug down into my jeans and 
 there wasn t a thing of any kind to remember 
 me by. No/ I says to myself, I ain t been 
 touched I ve been grabbed they might 
 have left me the price of a breakfast! Well, 
 it s a nice looking country, anyhow ! So 
 down I walks to the office. A cheerful-seem 
 ing plump kind of a man was sitting behind 
 the desk. Hello ! says he, glancing up and 
 
The Golden Ford 61 
 
 smiling as I came in. How do you open up 
 this morning? 
 
 " * Somebody saved me the trouble/ says 
 I. Tm afraid I ll have to give you the strong 
 arm for breakfast. 
 
 " He grinned wide. Oh, it ain t as bad as 
 that, I hardly reckon/ says he. He dove into 
 a safe and brought out a cigar-box. 
 
 " * When a gentleman s in the condition 
 you was in last night/ he says, I always 
 make it a point to go through his clothes and 
 take out anything a stranger might find use 
 ful, trusting that there won t be no offence the 
 next morning. Here s your watch and the 
 rest of your valuables, including the cash 
 count your money and see if it s right/ 
 
 " Well, sir ! I was one happy man, and I 
 thanked that feller as I thumbed over the bills, 
 but when I got up to a hundred and seventy 
 I begun to feel queer. Looked like I d made 
 good money on the trip. 
 
 " What s the matter? says he, seeing my 
 face. * Nothing wrong, I hope ! 
 
 " Why, the watch and the gun, and the 
 other things is all right/ says I. But I m 
 now fifty dollars to the good, even figuring 
 
62 Red Saunders 
 
 that I didn t spend a cent, which ain t in the 
 least likely, and here s ten-dollar bills enough 
 to make a bed-spread left over/ 
 
 " Pshaw! says he. Blame it! I ve 
 mixed your plunder up with the mining 
 gentleman that came in at the same time. 
 You and him was bound to fight at first, and 
 then you both turned to to lick me, and what 
 with keeping you apart and holding you off, 
 and taking your valuables away from you all 
 at the same time, and me all alone here as it 
 was the night-man s day-off, I ve made a 
 blunder of it. Just take your change out of 
 the wad, and call for a drink on me when you 
 feel like it, will you? 
 
 " I said I would do that, and moreover that 
 he was an officer and a gentleman, and that 
 I d stay at his hotel two weeks at least to show 
 my appreciation, no matter where it was, but to 
 satisfy a natural curiosity, I d like to know what 
 part of the country I was at present inhabiting. 
 
 " You re at Boise, Idaho, says he, one 
 of the best little towns in the best little Terri 
 tory in the United States of America, includ 
 ing Alaska/ 
 
 " Well . . . says L Well . . . 
 
The Golden Ford 63 
 
 for again I was at a loss for words. I had no 
 idea I d gone so far from home. I believe 
 what you say, says I. What do you do 
 around these parts? 
 
 " Mining/ says he. You re just in time 
 big strike in the Bob-cat district. Poor man s 
 mining. Placer, and durned good placer, 
 right on the top of the ground. The mining 
 gentleman I spoke about is having his break 
 fast now. Suppose you go in and have a talk 
 with him? Nice man, drunk or sober, al 
 though excitable when he s had a little too 
 much, or not quite enough. He might put 
 you onto a good thing. I m not a mining 
 person myself. 
 
 " Thanks, says I, and in I went to the 
 dining room. 
 
 There was a great, big, fine-looking man 
 eating his ham and eggs the way I like to see 
 a man eat the next morning. He had a black 
 beard that was so strong it fairly jumped out 
 from his face. 
 
 " MorninY says I. 
 
 " Good morning, sir! says he. A day of 
 commingled lucent clarity and vernal soft 
 ness, ain t it? 
 
64 Red Saunders 
 
 " Well, I wouldn t care to bet on that with 
 out going a little deeper into the subject/ 
 says I ; * but it smells good at least so does 
 that ham and eggs. Mary, I ll take the same, 
 with coffee extra strong/ 
 
 " You have doubtless been attracted to 
 our small but growing city from the reports 
 which are happily true of the inexhaustible 
 mineral wealth of the surrounding region? 
 says he. 
 
 " * No-o not exactly/ says I; but I do 
 want to hear something about mines. Mr. 
 Hotel-man out there (who s a gentleman of 
 the old school if ever there lived one) told 
 me that you might put me on to a good 
 thing/ 
 
 " Precisely/ says he. Now, sir, my name 
 is Jones Agamemnon G. Jones and my 
 pardner, Mr. H. Smith, is on a business trip, 
 selling shares of our mine, which we have 
 called " The Treasury " from reasons which 
 we can make obvious to any investor. The 
 shares, Mr. 
 
 " Saunders Red Saunders Chantay 
 Seeche Red/ 
 
 " * Mr. Saunders, are fifty cents apiece, 
 
The Golden Ford 65 
 
 which price is really only put upon them to 
 avoid the offensive attitude of dealing them 
 out as charity. As a matter of fact, this mine 
 of ours contains a store of gold which would 
 upset the commercial world, were the bare 
 facts of its extent known. There is neither 
 sense nor amusement in confining such enor 
 mous treasure in the hands of two people. 
 Consequently, my pardner and I are present 
 ing an interest to the public, putting the nomi 
 nal figure of fifty cents a share upon it, to save 
 the feelings of our beneficiaries. 
 
 " What the devil do I care? says I. I m 
 looking for a chance to dig could you tell 
 a man where to go? 
 
 " Oh ! says he, when you come to that, 
 that s different. Strictly speaking, my pard 
 ner Hy hasn t gone off on a business trip. As 
 a matter of fact, he left town night before last 
 with two-thirds of the money we d pulled out 
 of a pocket up on Silver Creek, in the com 
 pany of two half-breed Injuns, a Chinaman, 
 and four more sons-of-guns not classified, all 
 in such a state of beastly intoxication that 
 their purpose, route, and destination are 
 matters of the wildest conjecture. I ve been 
 
66 Red Saunders 
 
 laying around town here hating myself to 
 death, thinking perhaps I could sell some 
 shares in a mine that we ll find yet, if we have 
 good luck. If you want to go wild-catting 
 over the hills and far away, I m your huckle 
 berry. 
 
 " That hits me all right/ says I. For 
 what I don t know about mining, nobody 
 don t know. When do we start? 
 
 " This, or any other minute/ says he, get 
 ting up from the table. 
 
 " Wait till I finish up these eggs/ says I. 
 And there s a matter of one drink coming to 
 me outside I may as well put that where it 
 won t harm any one else before we start. 
 
 " All right ! says he, waving his hand. 
 You ll find me outside at your pleasure, 
 sir. 
 
 " I swallered the rest of my breakfast whole 
 and hustled out to the bar, where my friend 
 and the Hotel-man was waiting. Now I ll 
 take that drink that s coming, and rather than 
 be small about it, I ll buy one for you too, and 
 then we re off/ says I. 
 
 " You won t do no such thing/ says the 
 Hotel-man. It s a horse on me, and I ll sup- 
 
The Golden Ford 67 
 
 ply the liquor. Mr. Jones is in the play as 
 much as anybody/ 
 
 " So the Hotel-man set em up, and that 
 made one drink. Then Jones said he d never 
 let a drink suffer from lonesomeness yet when 
 he had the price, and that made two drinks. 
 I had to uphold the honour of the ranch, and 
 that made three drinks. Hotel-man said it 
 was up-sticks now, and he meant to pay his 
 just debts like an honest man, and that made 
 four drinks, then Jones said well, by this 
 time I see I needn t have hurried breakfast so 
 much. More people came in. I woke up the 
 next morning in the same old bedroom. 
 Every breakfast Aggy and me got ready to 
 pull for the mines, and every morning I woke 
 up in the bedroom. I should like to draw a 
 veil over the next two weeks, but it would 
 have to be a pretty strong veil to hold it. I 
 tried to keep level with Aggy, but he d spend 
 three dollars to my one, and the consequence 
 of that was that we went broke within fifteen 
 minutes of each other. 
 
 " Well, sir, we were a mournful pair to draw 
 to that day. We sat there and cussed and said, 
 Now, why didn t we do this, that, and t other 
 
68 Red Saunders 
 
 thing instead of blowing our hard earned 
 dough? till bimeby we just dripped melan 
 choly, you might say. Howsomever, we 
 weren t booked for a dull time just yet. That 
 afternoon there was a great popping of whips 
 like an Injun skirmish and into town comes a 
 bull train half-a-mile long. Twelve yoke of 
 bulls to the team; lead, swing, and trail wag 
 gons for each, as big as houses on wheels. 
 You don t see the like of that in this country. 
 Down the street they come, the dust flying, 
 whips cracking and the lads hollering Whoa 
 haw, Mary up there ! Wherp ! whoa haw. J 
 
 " And those fellers had picked up dry 
 throats, walking in the dust. Also, they had a 
 month s wages aching in their pockets. We 
 hadn t much mor n got the thump of their ar 
 rival out of our ears, when who comes roaring 1 
 into town but the Bengal Tiger gang, and they 
 had four months wages. Owner of the mine 
 got on a bender and paid everybody off by 
 mistake. You can hardly imagine how this 
 livened up things. There ain t nobody less 
 likely to play lame-duck than me, but there 
 was no dodging the hospitality. The only 
 idea prevailing was to be rid of the money as 
 
The Golden Ford 69 
 
 soon as possible. The effects showed right 
 off. You could hear one man telling 
 the folks for their own good that he was the 
 Old Missouri River, and when he felt like 
 swelling his banks, it was time for parties who 
 couldn t swim to hunt the high ground; whilst 
 the gentleman on the next corner let us know 
 that he was a locomotive carrying three hun 
 dred pounds of steam with the gauge still 
 climbing and the blower on. When he whis 
 tled three times, he said, any intelligent man 
 would know that there was danger around. 
 
 " Well, sir, I put the Old Missouri River to 
 bed that night, and he d flattened out to a very 
 small streamlet indeed, while the locomotive 
 went lame before supper, and had to be put 
 in the round-house by a couple of pushers. 
 That s the way with fine ideas. Cold facts 
 comes and puts a crimp in them. Once I 
 knew a small feller I could have stuck in my 
 pocket and forgot about, but when we went 
 out and took several prescriptions together 
 on a day, he spoke to me like this. * Red, says 
 he, put your little hand in mine, and we ll 
 go and take a bird s-eye view of the Universe/ 
 Astonishin idea, wasn t it? And him not 
 
70 Red Saunders 
 
 weighing over a hundred pound. Howsom- 
 ever, he didn t take any bird s-eye view of the 
 Universe he only become strikingly indis 
 posed. 
 
 " Well, to get back to Boise, you never in 
 all your life saw so many men and brothers 
 as was gathered there that day, and old Aggy, 
 he was one of the centres of attraction. That 
 big voice and black beard was always where 
 the crowd was thickest, and the wet goods 
 flowing the freest. Gentlemen ! says he, 
 Let s lift up our voices in melody ! That 
 was one of Ag s delusions he thought he 
 could sing. So four of em got on top of a 
 billiard table and presented Rocked in the 
 Cradle of the Deep to the company, which 
 made me feel glad that I hadn t been brought 
 up that way. After Ag had hip-locked the 
 last low note, another song-bird volunteered. 
 
 " This was a little fat Dutchman, with pale 
 blue eyes and a mustache like two streaks of 
 darning cotton. He had come to town to sell 
 a pair of beef-steers, but got drawn into the 
 general hilarity, and now he didn t care a cuss 
 whether he, she, or it ever sold another steer. 
 He got himself on end and sung Leeb Fad- 
 
The Golden Ford 71 
 
 derlont moxtrue eckstein in a style that 
 made you wonder that the human nose could 
 stand the strain. 
 
 " Aw, cheese that ! says a feller near the 
 door. Come get your steers, one of em s 
 just chased the barber up a telegraph pole ! 
 
 " So then we all piled out into the street to 
 see the steers. Sure enough, there was the 
 barber, sitting on the cross-piece, and the 
 steer pawing dirt underneath. 
 
 " He done made me come a fast heat from 
 de cohner, says the barber. i I kep hollerin 
 " next ! " but he ain t pay no Mention he 
 make it " next " fur me, shuah ! Yah, yah, 
 yah ! You gents orter seen me start at de 
 bottom, an* slide all de way up disyer tele- 
 graft pole ! 
 
 " One of the bull-whackers went out to rope 
 the steers, and Ag gave directions from the 
 sidewalk. He wasn t very handy with a riata, 
 and that s a fact, but the way Ag lit into him 
 was scandalous. When he d missed about six 
 casts of his rope, Ag opened up on him : 
 
 " Put a stamp on it and send it to him by 
 mail, says Aggy, in his sourcastic way. Ad 
 dress it, " Bay Steer, middle of Main St., 
 
72 Red Saunders 
 
 Boise, Idaho. If not delivered within ten 
 days, return to owner, who can use it to hang 
 himself." Blast my hide if I couldn t stand 
 here and throw a box-car nearer to the critter ! 
 Well, well, WELL ! How many left hands 
 have you got, anyhow? Do it up in a wad and 
 heave it at him for general results he might 
 get tangled in it/ 
 
 " It rattled the bull-whacker, having so 
 much attention drawn to him, and he stepped 
 on the rope and twisted himself up in it and 
 was flying light generally. 
 
 " Say ! says Ag, appealing to the crowd, 
 * won t some kind friend who s fond of puz 
 zles go down and help that gentleman do him 
 self? 
 
 " That made the whacker mad. He was as 
 red in the face as a lobster. 
 
 " You come down and show what you 
 can do/ says he. You ve got gas enough for 
 a balloon ascension, but that may be all there 
 is to you/ 
 
 " Oh, I ain t so much/ says Aggy, al 
 though I m as good a man to-day as ever I 
 was in my life but I have a little friend here 
 who can rope, down, and ride that critter from 
 
The Golden Ford 73 
 
 here to the brick-front in five minutes by the 
 watch; and if you ve got a twenty-five dollar 
 bill in your pocket, or its equivalent in dust, 
 you can observe the experiment. 
 
 "Til go you, by gosh! says the bull- 
 whacker, slapping his hat on the ground and 
 digging for his pile. 
 
 " Say, if you re referring to me, Ag, I says, 
 it s kind of a sudden spring I ain t what 
 you might call in training, and that steer is 
 full of triple-extract of giant powder. 
 
 " G wan ! says Ag. You can do it and 
 then we re twenty-five ahead. 
 
 " * But suppose we lose? 
 
 " Well ... It won t be such an aw 
 ful loss. 
 
 " * Now you look here, Agamemnon G. 
 Jones, says I, I ain t going to stand for put 
 ting up a summer breeze ag in that feller s 
 good dough that s a skin game, to speak it 
 pleasantly. 
 
 " Then Aggy argues the case with me, and 
 when Aggy started to argue, you might just 
 as well moo and chase yourself into the cor 
 ral, because he d get you, sure. Why, that 
 man could sit in the cabin and make roses 
 
74 Red Saunders 
 
 bloom right in the middle of the floor; whilst 
 he was singing his little song you could see 
 em and smell em; he could talk a snowbank 
 off a high divide in the middle of February. 
 Never see anybody with such a medicine 
 tongue, and in a big man it was all the stran 
 ger. * Now, he winds up, as for cheating that 
 feller, you ought to know me better, Red 
 why, I ll give him my note ! * 
 
 " So, anyhow, I done it. Up the street we 
 went, steer bawling and buck-jumping, my 
 hair a-flying, and me as busy as the little bee 
 you read about keeping that steer underneath 
 me, stead of on top of me, where he d ruther 
 be, and after us the whole town, whoopin , 
 yellin , crackin off six-shooters, and carryin 
 on wild. 
 
 " Then we had twenty-five dollars and was 
 as good as anybody. But it didn t last long. 
 The tin-horns come out after pay-day, like 
 hop-toads after a rain. Twould puzzle the 
 Government at Washington to know where 
 they hang out in the meantime. There was 
 one lad had a face on him with about as much 
 expression as a hotel punkin pie. He run an 
 arrow game, and he talked right straight along 
 
The Golden Ford 75 
 
 in a voice that had no more bends in it than 
 a billiard cue. 
 
 " Here s where you get your three for one 
 any child may do it no chance to lose make 
 your bets while the arrow of fortune swings 
 all gents accommodated in amounts from two- 
 bits to double-eagles and bets paid on the 
 nail/ says he. 
 
 " Red/ says Aggy, * I can double our pile 
 right here let me have the money. I know 
 this game/ You d hardly believe it, but I dug 
 up. Double-or-quits? says he to the dealer. 
 
 " * Let her go/ says the dealer; the arrow 
 swung around. Quits/ says the dealer, and 
 raked in my dough. It was all over in one 
 second. 
 
 " I grabbed Aggy by the shoulder and 
 took him in the corner for a private talk. 
 * I thought you knew this game? says I. 
 
 " I do/ says he. That s the way it always 
 happens/ And once more in my life I experi 
 enced the peculiar feeling of being altogether 
 at a loss for words. 
 
 " A gy> sa Y s I at l ast > I ve T ot a gd 
 notion to lay two violent hands on you, and 
 wind you up like an eight-day clock, but rather 
 
76 Red Saunders 
 
 than make hard feelings between friends, I ll 
 refrain. Besides you are a funny cuss, that s 
 sure. One thing, boy, you can mark down. 
 We leave here to-morrow morning. 
 
 " All right, says Ag. This sporting life 
 is the very devil. I like out doors as well as 
 the next man, when I get there/ 
 
 " So the morrow morning, away we went. 
 All we had for kit was the picks, shovels, and 
 pans; the rest of our belongings was staying 
 with the Hotel-man until we made a rise. 
 
 " Ag said he d be cussed if he d walk. A 
 hundred and fifty miles of a stroll was too 
 many. 
 
 " But we ain t got a cent to pay the stage 
 fare, says I. 
 
 " * Borrow it of Uncle Hotel-keep, says he. 
 
 " Not by a town site/ says I. We owe 
 him all we re going to, at this very minute 
 you ll have to hoof it, that s all/ 
 
 " I tell you I won t. I don t like to have 
 anybody walk on my feet, not even myself. 
 I can stand off that stage driver so easy, that 
 you ll wonder I don t take it up as a profes 
 sion. Now, don t raise any more objections 
 please don t/ says he. I can t tell you how 
 
The Golden Ford 77 
 
 nervous you make me, always finding some 
 fault with everything I try to do. That s no 
 way for a hired man to act, let alone a pard- 
 ner. 
 
 " So, of course, he got the best of me as 
 usual, and we climbed into the stage when she 
 come along. Now, our bad luck seemed to 
 hold, because you wouldn t find many men in 
 that country who wouldn t stake two fellers 
 to a waggon ride wherever they wanted to go, 
 and be pleasant about it. I d have sure seen 
 that the man got paid, even if Aggy forgot it, 
 but the man that drove us was the surliest 
 brute that ever growled. When you d speak 
 to him, he d say, * Unh a style of thing 
 that didn t go well in that part of the country. 
 I kept my mouth shut, as knowing that I 
 didn t have the come-up-with weighed on my 
 spirits; but Aggy gave him the jolly. He only 
 meant it in fun, and there was plenty of reason 
 for it, too, for you never seen such a game of 
 driving as that feller put up in all your life. 
 The Lord save us! He cut around one corner 
 of a mountain, so that for the longest second 
 I ve lived through, my left foot hung over 
 about a thousand feet of fresh air. I d have 
 
78 Red Saunders 
 
 had time to write my will before I touched 
 bottom if we d gone over. I don t know as I 
 turned pale, but my hair ain t been of the same 
 rosy complexion since. 
 
 " Well ! says Aggy in a surprised tone of 
 voice when we got all four wheels on the 
 ground again. Here we are ! says he. 
 Who d have suspected it? I thought he was 
 going to take the short cut down to the creek. 
 
 "The driver turned round with one corner of 
 his lip h isted a dead ringer of a mean man 
 Says he to Aggy, Yer a funny bloke, ain t 
 yer? 
 
 " Why ! says Ag, that s for you to say - 
 wouldn t look well coming from me but if 
 you press me, I ll admit I give birth to a little 
 gem now and then. 
 
 " Our bold buck puts on a great swagger. 
 Well yer needn t be funny in this waggon, 
 says he. The pair of yer spongin a ride ! 
 Yer needn t be gay yer hear me, don t 
 cher? 
 
 " Why, I hear you as plain as though you 
 set right next me, says Ag. l Now, you listen 
 and see if I m audible at the same range 
 You re a blasted chump ! he roars, in a tone 
 
The Golden Ford 79 
 
 of voice that would have carried forty mile. 
 Did you hear that, Red? he asks very inno 
 cent. I was so hot at the driver s sass the 
 cussed low-downness of doing a feller a favour 
 and then heaving it at him that you could 
 have lit a match on me anywheres, but to save 
 me I couldn t help laughing Ag had the 
 comicallest way! 
 
 " At that the driver begins to larrup the 
 horses. I ain t the kind to feel faint when a 
 cayuse gets what s coming to him for raising 
 the devil, but to see that lad whale his team 
 because there wasn t nothing else he dared hit, 
 got me on my hind legs. I nestled one hand 
 in his hair and twisted his ugly mug back. 
 
 " Quit that ! says I. 
 
 " You let me be I ain t hurting you, 9 he 
 hollers. 
 
 " That ain t to say I won t be hurting you 
 soon/ says I. You put the bud on them 
 horses again, and I ll boot the spine of your 
 back up through the top of your head till it 
 stands out like a flag-staff. Just one more 
 touch, and you get it ! says I. 
 
 " He didn t open his mouth again till we 
 come to the river. Then he pulled up. This 
 
8o Red Saunders 
 
 is about as far as I care to carry you two gents 
 for nothinY he says. Of course you re two 
 to one, and I can t do nothing if you see fit to 
 bull the thing through. But I ll say this: if 
 either one or both of you roosters has got the 
 least smell of a gentleman about him, he won t 
 have to be told his company ain t wanted 
 twice/ 
 
 " Now, mind you, Ag and me didn t have 
 the first cussed thing not grub, nor blankets, 
 nor gun, nor nothing; and this the feller well 
 knew. 
 
 Red/ says Aggy, what do you say to 
 pulling this thing apart and seeing what 
 makes it act so? 
 
 " No/ says I, don t touch it it might 
 be catching. Now, you whelp ! says I to the 
 driver, you tell us if there s a place where we 
 can get anything to eat around here? We d 
 expected to go hungry until we hit the camp 
 some forty mile further on, where we knew 
 there d be plenty for anybody that wanted it. 
 
 " Yes/ says he; there s a man running a 
 shack two mile up the river/ 
 
 " All right/ says I. Drive on. You ve 
 played us as dirty a trick as one man can play 
 
The Golden Ford 81 
 
 another. If we ever get a cinch on you, you 
 can expect we ll pull her till the latigoes snap/ 
 
 " He kept shut till he got across the river, 
 where he felt safe. 
 
 " It s all right about that cinch ! he hollers 
 back, grinning. Only wait till you get it, yer 
 suckers! Sponges! Beats! Dead-heads! 
 Yah! 
 
 " Well, a man can t catch a team of horses, 
 and that s all there is about it, but I want to 
 tell you he was on the anxious seat for a quar 
 ter of a mile. We tried hard. 
 
 " When we got back to where we started 
 and could breathe again, we held a council of 
 war. 
 
 " Now Aggy, says I, we re dumped 
 what shall we do? 
 
 He sat there awhile looking around him, 
 snapping pebbles with his thumb. 
 
 " Tell you what it is, Red, he says at last, 
 we might as well go mining right here. This 
 is likely gravel, and there s a river. If that bar 
 in front of you had been further in the moun 
 tains, it would have been punched full of holes. 
 It s only because it s on the road that nobody s 
 taken the trouble to see what was in it. This 
 
82 Red Saunders 
 
 road was made by cattle ranchers, that didn t 
 know nothing about mining, and every miner 
 that s gone over the trail had his mouth set to 
 get further along as quick as possible just 
 like us. Do you see that little hollow running 
 down to the river? Well you try your luck 
 there. I give you that place as it s the most 
 probable, and you as a tenderfoot in the busi 
 ness will have all the luck. I ll make a stab 
 where I am/ 
 
 " Well, sir, it sounds queer to tell it, and it 
 seems queerer still to think of the doing of it, 
 but I hadn t dug two feet before I come to 
 bed rock, and there was some heavy black 
 chunks. 
 
 " Aggy, says I, what s these things? 
 throwing one over to him. He caught it and 
 stared at it. 
 
 " Where did you get that? says he, in al 
 most a whisper. 
 
 " Why, out of the hole, of course ! says I, 
 laughing. Come take a look ! 
 
 " Aggy wasn t the kind of man to go off 
 the handle over trifles, but when he looked 
 into that hole he turned perfectly green. His 
 knees give out from under him and he sat on 
 
The Golden Ford 83 
 
 the ground like a man in a trance, wiping the 
 sweat off his face with a motion like a machine. 
 
 " What the devil ails you? says I aston 
 ished. I thought maybe Fd done something 
 I hadn t ought to do, through ignorance of 
 the rules and regulations of mining. 
 
 " Red/ says he dead solemn, I ve mined 
 for twenty year, and from Old Mexico to 
 Alaska, but I never saw anything that was ace- 
 high to that before. Gold laying loose in 
 chunks on top of the bed-rock is too much 
 for me I wish Hy could see this. 
 
 " Gold! says I. What you talking 
 about? What have those black hunks to do 
 with gold? 
 
 " The only answer he made was to lay the 
 one I had thrown to him on top of a rock and 
 hit her a crack with a pick. Then he handed 
 it to me. Sure enough ! There under the 
 black was the yeller. Of course, if I d known 
 more about the business I could have told it 
 by the weight, but I d never seen a piece of 
 gold fresh off the farm before in my life. I 
 hadn t the slightest idea what it looked like, 
 and I learned afterward it all looks different. 
 Some of it shines up yaller in the start; some 
 
84 Red Saunders 
 
 of it s red, and some is like ours, coated black 
 with iron-crust. 
 
 " So I looked at Ag, and Ag looked at me, 
 neither one of us believing anything at all for 
 awhile. I simply couldn t get hold of the 
 thing I ain t yet, for that matter. I expect 
 to wake up and find it a pipe dream, and in 
 some ways I wouldn t mind if it was. I never 
 was so completely two men as I was on that 
 occasion. One of em was hopping around 
 and hollering with Ag, yelling hooray ! and 
 the other didn t take much interest in the pro 
 ceedings at all. And it wasn t until I thought, 
 Now I can pay that cussed cayote of a stage 
 driver what I owe him ! that I got any good 
 out of it. That brought it home to me. 
 When I spoke to Ag about paying the driver, 
 he says, That s so, then he takes a quick look 
 around. We can pay him in full, too, old 
 horse ! he hollers, and there was a most joyful 
 smile on his face. 
 
 " Red, say he, do you know this is the 
 only ford on the river for I don t know how 
 many miles perhaps the whole length of 
 her? 
 
 " Well? says I. 
 
The Golden Ford 85 
 
 " Our little placer claim/ says Aggy 
 slowly, rubbing his hands together, covers 
 that ford; and by a judicious taking up of 
 claims for various uncles and brothers and 
 friends of ours along the creek on the low 
 lands, we can fix it so they can t even bridge 
 it 
 
 " Do you mean they can t cross our claim 
 if we say they can t? 
 
 " Sure thing ! says Aggy. There s you 
 and me and the law to say " no " to that I 
 wish I had a gun. 
 
 " You don t need any gun for that skunk 
 of a driver. 
 
 " Of course not, but there ll be passengers, 
 and there s no telling how excited them pas 
 sengers will be when they find they ve got to 
 go over the hills ford-hunting. 
 
 " Are you going to send em all around, 
 Ag? 
 
 " l The whole bunch. Anybody coming 
 back from the diggings has gold in his clothes, 
 so it won t hurt em none, and I propose to 
 give that stage line an advertising that won t 
 do it a bit of good. Come along, Red; let s 
 see that lad that has the shack up the river. 
 
86 Red Saunders 
 
 We need something to eat, and maybe he s 
 got a gun. If he s a decent feller, we ll let him 
 in on a claim. Never mind about the hole! 
 it won t run away, and there s nobody to 
 touch anything come on. 
 
 " So we went up the river. The man s 
 name was White, and he was a white man by 
 nature, too. He fed us well, and was just as 
 hot as us when we told him about the stage 
 driver s trick. Then we told him about the 
 find and let him in. 
 
 " Now, says Aggy, have you got a gun? 
 
 " I have that, 9 says the man. My dad used 
 to be a duck-hunter on Chesapeake bay. 
 When you say " gun," / // show you a gun. 
 He dove in under his bunk and fetched out 
 what I should say was a number one bore shot 
 gun, with barrels six foot long. 
 
 " Gentlemen, says he, holding the gun up 
 and patting it lovingly, if you ram a quarter- 
 pound of powder in each one of them barrels, 
 and a handful of buck-shot on top of that, 
 you ve got an argument that couldn t be upset 
 by the Supreme Court. I ll guarantee that 
 when you point her anywheres within ten feet 
 of a man not over a hundred yards away, and 
 
The Golden Ford 87 
 
 let her do her duty, all the talent that that 
 man s fambly could employ couldn t gather 
 enough of him to recognise him by, and you 
 won t be in bed more n long enough to heal 
 a busted shoulder. 
 
 " I hope it ain t going to be my painful line 
 of performance to pull the trigger, says Aggy. 
 I think the sight of her would have weight 
 with most people. When s the stage due 
 back? 
 
 " Day after to-morrow, about noon. 
 
 " That gives us lots of time to stake, and 
 to salt claims that can t show cause their own 
 selves/ says Aggy. I think we re all right. 
 
 " The next day we worked like the Old 
 Harry. We had everything fixed up right by 
 nightfall, and there was nothing to do but dig 
 and wait. 
 
 " Curious folks we all are, ain t we? I 
 should have said my own self that if I d found 
 gold by the bucketful, I d be more interested 
 in that, than I would be in getting even with 
 a mut that had done me dirt, but it wasn t so. 
 Perhaps it was because I hadn t paid much 
 attention to money all my life, and I had paid 
 the strictest attention to the way other people 
 
88 Red Saunders 
 
 used me. Living where there s so few folks 
 accounts for that, I suppose. 
 
 " Getting even on our esteemed friend the 
 stage driver was right in your Uncle Reddy s 
 line, and Aggy and our new pard White 
 seemed to take kindly to it, also. 
 
 " If ever you saw three faces filled with in 
 nocent glee, it was when we heard the wheels 
 of that stage coming why, the night before 
 I was woke up by somebody laughing. There 
 was Aggy sound asleep, sitting up hugging 
 himself in the moonlight. 
 
 " Oh, my ! Oh, MY ! says he. It s the 
 only ford for four thousand miles ! 
 
 " We planted a sign in the middle of the 
 road with this wording on it in big letters, 
 made with the black end of a stick. 
 
 NOTICE ! ! 
 
 THIS AND ADJOINING CLAIMS ARE THE 
 PROPERTY OF AGAMEMNON G. JONES, 
 RED SAUNDERS, JOHN HENRY WHITE, 
 ET AL. 
 
 TRESPASSING DONE AT YOUR OWN 
 RISK. OWNERS WILL NOT BE RESPON 
 SIBLE FOR THE REMAINS. 
 
The Golden Ford 89 
 
 " There was a stretch of about a mile on the 
 level before us. When the stage come in plain 
 sight Aggy proceeds to load up Old Moral 
 Suasion/ as he called her, so that the folks 
 could see there was no attempt at deception. 
 They come pretty fairly slow after that. At 
 fifty yards, Ag hollers Halt ! The team sat 
 right down on their tails. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Snick umfritz/ says Aggy, 
 6 you that drives, I mean, come here and read 
 this little sign/ 
 
 " Suppose I don t? says the feller, trying 
 to be smart before the passengers. 
 
 " It s a horrible supposition/ says Aggy, 
 and the innocent will have to suffer with the 
 guilty/ Then he cocks the gun. 
 
 " * God sakes ! Don t shoot ! yells one of 
 the passengers. Man, you ought to have 
 more sense than to try and pick him out of a 
 crowd with a shot-gun ! Get down there, you 
 fool, and make it quick ! 
 
 " So the driver walked our way, and read. 
 He never said a word. I reckon he realized it 
 was the only ford for four thousand miles, more 
 or less, just as Aggy had remarked. There 
 he stood, with his mouth and eyes wide open. 
 
go Red Saunders 
 
 " I d like to have you other gentlemen 
 come up and see our first clean up, so you 
 won t think we re running in a windy/ says 
 Aggy. They wanted to see bad, as you can 
 imagine, and when they did see about fifteen 
 pound of gold in the bottom of my old hat, 
 they talked like people that hadn t had a 
 Christian bringing up. 
 
 " l Oh Lord ! groans one man. * Brigham 
 Young and all the prophets of the Mormon 
 religion ! This is my tenth trip over this line, 
 and me and Pete Hendricks played a game of 
 seven-up right on the spot where that gent hit 
 her, not over a month ago, when the stage 
 broke down ! Somebody just make a guess at 
 the way I feel and give me one small drink/ 
 And he put his hand to his head. * Say, boys ! 
 he goes on, you don t want the whole blamed 
 creek, do you ? Let us in ! ? 
 
 " How s that, fellers? says Ag to me and 
 White. We said we was agreeable. 
 
 " All right, in you come ! says Aggy. 
 There ain t no hog about our firm but as 
 for you/ says he, walking on his tip-toes up 
 to the driver, as for you, you cock-eyed 
 whelp, around you go ! Around you go ! he 
 
The Golden Ford 91 
 
 hollers, jamming the end of Moral Suasion 
 into the driver s trap. Oh, and WON T you 
 go round, though ! says he. * Listen to me, 
 now : if any one of your ancestors for twenty- 
 four generations back had ever done anything 
 as decent as robbing a hen-coop, it would have 
 conferred a kind of degree of nobility upon 
 him. It wouldn t be possible to find an 
 ornerier cuss than you, if a man raked all hell 
 with a fine-toothed comb. Now, you stare- 
 coated, mangey, bandy-legged, misbegotten, 
 out-law coyote, fly ! fly ! whoops Aggy. 
 jumping four foot in the air, before I squirt 
 enough lead into your system to make it a 
 paying job to melt you down ! 
 
 " The stage driver acted according to or 
 ders. Three wide steps and he was in the 
 waggon, and with one screech like a p izened 
 bob-cat, he fairly lifted the cayuses over the 
 first ridge. Nobody never saw him any more, 
 and nobody wanted to. 
 
 " So that s the way I hit my stake, son, just 
 as I d always expected by not knowing what 
 I was doing any part of the time and now, 
 there comes my iron-horse coughing up the 
 track! I ll write you sure, boy, and you let 
 
92 Red Saunders 
 
 old Reddy know what s going on and on 
 your life, don t forget to give it to the lads 
 straight why I sneaked off on the quiet ! I ve 
 got ten years older in the last six months. 
 Well, here we go quite fresh, and damned if 
 I altogether want to, neither too late to 
 argue though by-bye, son ! " 
 
When the Chinook Struck 
 Fairfield 
 
When the Chinook Struck 
 Fairfield 
 
 MISS MATTIE sat on her little front 
 porch, facing the setting sun. 
 Across the road, now ankle deep 
 in June dust, was the wreck of the Peters 
 place : back-broken roof, crumbling chimneys., 
 shutters hanging down like broken wings, the 
 old house had the pathetic appeal of ship 
 wrecked gentility. A house without people 
 in it, even when it is in repair, is as forlorn as 
 a dog who has lost his master. 
 
 Up the road were more houses of the non 
 descript village pattern, made neither for com 
 fort nor looks. God knows why they built 
 such houses perhaps it was in accordance 
 with the old Puritan idea that any kind of 
 physical perfection is blasphemy. Some of 
 these were kept in paint and window glass, 
 but there were enough poor relations to spoil 
 the effect. 
 
 95 
 
Red Saunders 
 
 Down the road, between the arches of the 
 weeping willows, came first the brook, with 
 the stone bridge this broken as to coping 
 and threadbare in general then on the hither 
 side of the way some three or four neighbour s 
 houses, and opposite, the blacksmith s shop 
 and post-office, the latter, of course, in a store, 
 where you could buy anything from stale 
 groceries to shingles. 
 
 In short, Fairfield was an Eastern village 
 whose cause had departed. A community 
 drained of the male principle, leaving only a 
 few queer men, the blacksmith, and some 
 halfling boys, to give tone to the background 
 of dozens of old maids. 
 
 An unsympathetic stranger would have felt 
 that nothing was left to the Fairfieldians but 
 memory, and the sooner they lost that, the 
 better. 
 
 Take a wineglassful of raspberry vinegar, 
 two tablespoonsful of sugar, half a cup each 
 of boneset and rhubarb, a good full cup of the 
 milk of human kindness, dilute in a gallon of 
 water, and you have the flavor of Fairfield. 
 There was just enough of each ingredient to 
 spoil the taste of all the rest. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 97 
 
 Miss Mattie rested her elbow on the railing, 
 her chin in her hand, and gazed thoughtfully 
 about her. As a matter of fact, she was the 
 most inspiring thing in view. At a distance 
 of fifty yards she was still a tall, slender girl. 
 Her body retained the habit, as well as the 
 lines of youth; a trick of gliding into unex 
 pected, pleasing attitudes, which would have 
 been awkward but for the suppleness of limb 
 to which they testified, and the unconscious 
 ness and ease of their irregularity. 
 
 Her face was a child s face in the ennobling 
 sense of the word. The record of the years 
 written upon it seemed a masquerade 
 the face of a clear-eyed girl of fourteen made 
 up to represent her own aunt at a fancy dress 
 party. A face drawn a trifle fine, a little as 
 cetic, but balanced by the humour of the large, 
 shapely mouth, and really beautiful in bone 
 and contour. The beauty of mignonette, and 
 doves, and gentle things. 
 
 You could see that she was thirty-five, in 
 the blatant candor of noon, but now, blushed 
 with the pink of the setting sun, she was still 
 in the days of the fairy prince. 
 
 Miss Mattie s revery idled over the year 
 
g8 Red Saunders 
 
 upon year of respectable stupidity that repre 
 sented life in Fairfield, while her eyes and soul 
 were in the boiling gold of the sky-glory. She 
 sighed. 
 
 A panorama of life minced before Miss 
 Mattie s mind about as vivid and full of red 
 corpuscles as a Greek frieze. Her affectionate 
 nature was starved. They visited each other, 
 the ladies of Fairfield these women who had 
 rolled on the floor together as babies in their 
 best black, or green or whatever it might be, 
 and gloves! This, though the summer sun 
 might be hammering down with all his might. 
 And then they sat in a closed room and talked 
 in a reserved fashion which was entirely the 
 property of the call. Of course, one could 
 have a moment s real talk by chance meeting, 
 and there were the natural griefs of life to 
 break the corsets of this etiquette, although 
 in general, the griefs seemed to be long drawn 
 out and conventional affairs, as if nature her 
 self at last yielded to the system, conquered 
 by the invincible conventionality and stub 
 bornness of the ladies of Fairfield. It was the 
 unspoken but firm belief of each of these 
 women, that a person of their circle who had 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 99 
 
 no more idea of respectability than to drop 
 dead on the public road would never go to 
 Heaven. 
 
 Poor Miss Mattie! Small wonder she 
 dropped her hands, sat back and wondered, 
 with another sigh, if it were for this she was 
 born? She did not rebel there was no vio 
 lence in her but she regretted exceedingly. 
 In spite of her slenderness, it was a w r ide, 
 mother-lap in which her hands rested, an ob 
 vious cradle for little children. And instinc 
 tively it would come to you as you looked at 
 her, that there could be no more comfortable 
 place for a tired man to come home to, than 
 a household presided over by this slow r -mov- 
 ing, gentle woman. There was nothing old- 
 maidish about Miss Mattie but the tale of her 
 years. She had had offers, such as Fairfield and 
 vicinity could boast, and declined them with 
 tact, and the utmost gratitude to the suitor 
 for the compliment; but her " no " though 
 mild was firm, for there lay within her a cer 
 tain quiet valiant spirit, w r hich would rather 
 endure the fatigue and loneliness of old age 
 in her little house, than to take a larger life 
 from any but the man who was all. A com- 
 
ioo Red Saunders 
 
 monplace in fiction; in real life sometimes 
 quite a strain. 
 
 The sun distorted himself into a Rugby foot 
 ball, and hurried down as though to be 
 through with Fairfield as soon as possible. It 
 was a most magnificent sun-set; flaming, 
 gorgeous, wild beyond the management of 
 the women of Fairfield and Miss Mattie 
 stared into the heart of it with a longing for 
 something to happen. Then the thought 
 came, " What could happen? " she sighed 
 again, and, with eyes blinded by Heaven- 
 shine, glanced down the village street. 
 
 She thought she saw she rubbed her eyes 
 and looked again she did see, and surely 
 never a stranger sight was beheld on Fair- 
 field s street! Had a Royal Bengal tiger 
 come slouching through the dust it could not 
 have been more unusual. The spectacle was 
 a man; a very large and mighty shouldered 
 man, who looked about him with a bold, im 
 perious, keep-the-change regard. There was 
 something in the swing of him that suggested 
 the Bengal tiger. He wore high-heeled boots 
 outside of his trousers, a flannel shirt with a 
 yellow silk kerchief around his neck, and on 
 
The Chinook Struck ! Fairfield 101 
 
 his head sat a white hac which seetrad tp Miss. 
 Mattie to be at least a yard In diaftiefer. 
 Under the hat was a remarkable head of hair. 
 It hung below the man s shoulders in a silky 
 mass of dark scarlet, flecked with bro\vn gold. 
 Miss Mattie had seen red hair, but she remem 
 bered no such color as this, nor could she recall 
 ever having seen hair a foot-and-a-half long 
 on a man. That hair would have made a 
 fortune on the head of an actress; but Miss 
 Mattie w r as ignorant of the possibilities of the 
 profession. 
 
 The face of the man was a fine tan, against 
 which eyes, teeth, and moustache came out in 
 brisk relief. The moustache avoided the trop 
 ical tint of the upper hair and was content 
 with a modest brown. The ow^ner came right 
 along, walking with a stiff, strong, straddling 
 gait, like a man not used to that way of travel 
 ling. 
 
 Miss Mattie eyed him in some fear. He 
 would be by her house directly, and it was 
 hardly modest to sit aggressively on one s 
 front porch, while a strange man went by 
 particularly, such a very strange man as this! 
 Yet a thrill of curiosity held her for the mo- 
 
Saunders 
 
 rnent, and then -it was. too late, for the man 
 stopped ^and : asked little Eddie Newell, who 
 was playing placidly in the dust all the 
 children played placidly in Fairfield asked 
 Eddie, in a voice which reached Miss Mattie 
 plainly, although the owner evidently made no 
 attempt to raise it, if he knew where Miss 
 Mattie Saunders lived? 
 
 Eddie had not noticed the large man s ap 
 proach, and nearly fell over in a fright; but 
 seeing, with a child s intuition, that there was 
 no danger in this fierce-looking person, he 
 piped up instantly. 
 
 " Y-y-yessir ! I kin tell yer where she lives 
 Yessir ! She lives right down there in that 
 little house I kin go down with you jes 
 swell s not! Why there she is now, on the 
 stoop!" 
 
 " Thankee sonny," said the big voice. 
 " Here s for miggles," and Miss Mattie caught 
 the sparkle of a coin as it flew into the grimy 
 fists of Eddie. 
 
 " Much obliged ! " yelled Eddie and van 
 ished up the street. 
 
 Miss Mattie sat transfixed. Her breath 
 came in swallows and her heart beat irregu- 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 103 
 
 larly. Here was novelty with a vengeance! 
 The big man turned and fastened his eyes 
 upon her. There was no retreat. She noticed 
 with some reassurance that his eyes were 
 grave and kindly. 
 
 As he advanced Miss Mattie rose in agita 
 tion, unconsciously putting her hand on her 
 throat what could it mean? 
 
 The gate was opened and the stranger 
 strode up the cinder walk to the porch. He 
 stopped a whole minute and looked at her. 
 At last. 
 
 " Well, Mattie ! " be said, " don t you know 
 me?" 
 
 A flood of the wildest hypotheses flashed 
 through Miss Mattie s mind without enlight 
 ening her. Who was this picturesque giant 
 who stepped out of the past with so familiar 
 a salutation? Although the porch was a foot 
 high, and Miss Mattie a fairly tall woman, 
 their eyes were almost on a level, as she looked 
 at him in wonder. 
 
 Then he laughed and showed his white 
 teeth. " No use to bother and worry you, 
 Mattie," said he, " you couldn t call it in ten 
 years. Well, I m your half-uncle Fred s boy 
 
104 Red Saunders 
 
 Bill and I hope you re a quarter as glad to 
 see me as I am to see you." 
 
 " What ! " she cried. " Not little Willy who 
 ran away ! " 
 
 "The same little Willy," he replied in a 
 tone that made Miss Mattie laugh a little, 
 nervously, " and what I want to know is, are 
 you glad to see me? " 
 
 " Why, of course ! But, Will I suppose I 
 should call you Will? I am so flustered not 
 expecting you and it s been so warm to-day. 
 Won t you come in and take a chair? " wound 
 up Miss Mattie in desperation, and fury at 
 herself for saying things so different from 
 what she meant to say. 
 
 There was a twinkle in the man s eye as he 
 replied in an injured tone : 
 
 " Why, good Lord, Mattie ! I ve come two 
 thousand miles or more to see you, and you 
 ask me to take a chair, just as if I d stepped in 
 from across the way ! Can t you give a man a 
 little warmer welcome than that? " 
 
 "What shall I do?" asked poor Miss 
 Mattie. 
 
 " Well, you might kiss me, for a start," said 
 he. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 105 
 
 Miss Mattie was all abroad still one s half- 
 cousin, who has come such a distance, and 
 been received so very oddly, is entitled to con 
 sideration. She raised her agitated face, and 
 for the first time in her life realised the 
 pleasure of wearing a moustache. 
 
 Then Red Saunders, late of the Chanta 
 Seeche Ranch, North Dakota, sat him down. 
 
 " I m obliged to you, Mattie," he said in all 
 seriousness. " To tell you the truth, I felt in 
 need of a little comforting here I ve come all 
 this distance and, of course, I heard about 
 father and mother but I couldn t believe it 
 was true. Seemed as if they must be waiting 
 at the old place for me to come back, and when 
 I saw it all gone to ruin Well, then I set out 
 to find somebody, and do you know, of all the 
 family, there s only you and me left? That s 
 all, Mattie, just us two ! whilst I was growing 
 up out West, I kind of expected things to be 
 standing still back here, and be just the same 
 as I left them hum Well, how are you any 
 how? " 
 
 "I m well, Will, and" laying her hand 
 upon his, " don t think I m not glad to see you 
 please don t. I m so glad, Will, I can t tell 
 
io6 Red Saunders 
 
 you but I m all confused so little happens 
 here." 
 
 " I shouldn t guess it was the liveliest place 
 in the world, by the look of it," said Red. 
 " And as far as that s concerned, I kinder don t 
 know what to say myself. There s such a heap 
 to talk about it s hard to tell where to begin 
 but we ve got to be friends though, Mattie 
 we ve just got to be friends. Good Lord! 
 We re all there s left ! Funny, I never thought 
 of such a thing! Well, blast it! That s 
 enough of such talk! I ve brought you a 
 present, Mattie." He stretched out a leg that 
 reached beyond the limits of the front porch, 
 and dove into his trousers pocket, bringing 
 out a buck-skin sack. He fumbled at the knot 
 a minute and then passed it over saying, " You 
 untie it your fingers are soopler than mine," 
 Miss Mattie s fingers were shaking, but the 
 knots finally came undone, and from the sack 
 she brought forth a chain of rich, dull yellow 
 lumps, fashioned into a necklace. It weighed 
 a pound. She spread it out and looked at it 
 astounded. " Gracious, Will ! Is that gold? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " That s what," he replied. " The real ar- 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 107 
 
 tide, just as it came out of the ground: I dug 
 it myself. That s the reason I m here. I d 
 never got money enough to go anywheres 
 further than a horse could carry me if I hadn t 
 taken a fly at placer mining and hit her to beat 
 h er the very mischief." 
 
 Miss Mattie looked first at the barbaric, 
 splendid necklace and then at the barbaric, 
 splendid man. Things grew confused before 
 her in trying to realise that it was real. What 
 two planets so separated in their orbits as her 
 world and his? She had the imagination that 
 is usually lacking in small communities, and 
 the feeling of a fairy story come true, pos 
 sessed her. 
 
 " And now, Mattie," said he, " I don t know 
 what s manners in this part of the country, but 
 I ll make free enough on the cousin part of it 
 to tell you that I could look at some supper 
 without flinching. I ve walked a heap to-day, 
 and I ain t used to walking." 
 
 Miss Mattie sprang up, herself again at the 
 chance to offer hospitality. 
 
 "Why, you poor man!" said she. "Of 
 course you re starved ! It must be nearly eight 
 o clock ! I almost forget about eating, living 
 
io8 Red Saunders 
 
 here alone. You shall have supper directly. 
 Will you come in or sit a spell outside? " 
 
 " Reckon I ll come in," said Red. " Don t 
 want to lose sight of you now that I ve found 
 you." 
 
 It was some time since Miss Mattie had felt 
 that anyone had cared enough for her not to 
 want to lose sight of her, and a delicate warm 
 bloom went over her cheeks. She hurried into 
 the little kitchen. 
 
 " Mattie ! " called Red. 
 
 " What is it, Will? " she answered, coming 
 to the door. 
 
 " Can I smoke in this little house? " 
 
 " Cer tainly ! Sit right down and make 
 yourself comfortable. Don t you remember 
 what a smoker father was? " 
 
 Red tried the different chairs with his hand. 
 They were not a stalwart lot. Finally he 
 spied the home-made rocker in the corner. 
 There s the lad for me," he said, drawing it 
 out. " Got to be kinder careful how you throw 
 two-hundred-fifty pounds around." 
 
 " Mercy ! " cried Miss Mattie, pan in hand. 
 " Do you weigh as much as that, Will? " 
 
 " I do," returned Red, with much satisfac- 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 109 
 
 tion. " And there isn t over two pounds of it 
 fat at that." 
 
 " What a great man you have grown up to 
 be, Will!" 
 
 Red took in a deep draught of tobacco and 
 sent the vapor clear across the little room. 
 
 " On the hay-scales, yes," he answered, with 
 a sort of joking earnestness but otherwise, 
 I don t know." 
 
 The return to the old home had touched the 
 big man deeply, and as he leaned back in his 
 chair there was a shade of melancholy on his 
 face that became it well. 
 
 Miss Mattie took in the mass of him 
 stretched out at his ease, his legs crossed, and 
 the patrician cut of his face, to which the 
 upturned moustache gave a cavalier touch. 
 They were good stock, the Saunders, and the 
 breed had not declined in the only two extant. 
 
 " He s my own cousin ! " she whispered to 
 herself, in the safety of the kitchen. " And 
 such a splendid looking man ! " She felt a 
 pride of possession she had never known be 
 fore. Nobody in Fairfield or vicinity had such 
 a cousin as that. And Miss Mattie went on 
 joyfully fulfilling an inherited instinct to min- 
 
no Red Saunders 
 
 ister to the wants of some man. She said to 
 herself there was some satisfaction in cooking 
 for somebody else. But alack-a-day, Miss 
 Mattie s ideas of the wants of somebody else 
 had suffered a Fairfield change. Nothing was 
 done on a large scale in Fairfield. But she sat 
 the little cakes lucky that she had made them 
 yesterday and the fried mush, and the small 
 pitcher of milk, and the cold ham, and the cold 
 biscuit on the table with a pride in the appear 
 ance of the feast. 
 
 " Supper s ready, Will," said she. 
 
 Red responded instanter. Took a look at 
 the board and understood. He ate the little 
 cakes and biscuit, and said they were the 
 durned best he ever tasted. He also took 
 some pot-cheese under a misapprehension; 
 swallowed it, and said to himself that he had 
 been through worse things than that. Then, 
 when his appetite had just begun to develop, 
 the inroads on the provisions warned him that 
 it was time to stop. Meanwhile they had 
 ranged the fields of old times at random, and 
 as Red took in Miss Mattie, pink with excite 
 ment and sparkling as to eyes, he thought, 
 " Blast the supper ! It s a square meal just to 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield in 
 
 look at her. If she ain t pretty good people, 
 I miss my guess." 
 
 It was a merry meal. He had such a way of 
 telling things! Miss Mattie hadn t laughed 
 so much for years, and she felt that there was 
 no one that she had known so long and so 
 well as Cousin Will. There was only one 
 jarring note. Red spoke of the vigorous cele 
 bration that had been followed by the finding 
 of gold. It was certainly well told, but Miss 
 Mattie asked in soft horror when he had fin 
 ished, "You didn t get intoxicated Will? " 
 
 " DID I? " said he, lost in memory, and not 
 noticing the tone. " Well, I put my hand 
 down the throat of that man s town, and 
 turned her inside out ! It was like as if Christ 
 mas and Fourth of July had happened on the 
 same day." 
 
 "Oh, Will!" cried Miss Mattie, "I can t 
 think of you like that rolling in the gutter." 
 Her voice shook and broke off. Her knowl 
 edge of the effect of stimulants w y as limited to 
 Fairfield s one drunkard old Tommy McKee, 
 a disreputable old Irishman but drunken 
 ness was the \vorst vice in her world. 
 
 " Rolling in the gutter! " cried Red, in as- 
 
112 Red Satmders 
 
 tonishment. " Why girl ! What for would I 
 roll in the gutter? W hat s the fun in that? 
 Jiminy Christmas ! I wanted to walk on the 
 telegraph wires there wasn t anything in 
 that town high enough for me what put 
 gutters into your head?" 
 
 " I I supposed people did that when they 
 were like that." 
 
 " I wouldn t waste my money on whisky, 
 if that s all the inspiration I got out of it," re 
 plied Red. 
 
 " Well, of course I don t know about those 
 things, but I wish you d promise me one 
 thing." 
 
 " Done ! " cried Red. " What is it? " 
 
 " I wish you d promise me not to touch 
 whisky again ! " 
 
 " Phew ! That s a pretty big order ! " He 
 stopped and thought a minute. " If you ll 
 make that never touch it when it ain t 
 needed, leaving when it s needed to what s 
 my idea of the square thing on a promise, I ll 
 go you, Mattie there s my hand." 
 
 " Oh, I shouldn t have said anything at all, 
 Will ! I have no right. But it seemed such 
 a pity such a splendid man I mean I 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 113 
 
 think . You mustn t promise me anything, 
 Will," stammered Miss Mattie, shocked at her 
 own daring. 
 
 "Here!" he cried, "I m no little kid! 
 When I promise I mean it ! As for your not 
 having any right, ain t we all there is? You ve 
 got to be mother and sister and aunt and 
 everything to me. I ain t as young as I have 
 been, Mattie, and I miss she-ways terrible at 
 times. Now put out your fin like a good pard- 
 ner, and here goes for no more rhinecaboos 
 for Chantay Seeche Red time I quit drink 
 ing, anyhow," he slipped a ring off his little 
 finger. " Here, hold out your hand," said he, 
 " I ll put this on for luck, and the sake of the 
 promise by the same token, I ve got a noose 
 on you now, and you re my property." 
 
 This, of course, was only Cousin Will s jok 
 ing, but Miss Mattie noticed with a sudden 
 hot flush, that he had chosen the engagement 
 finger in all ignorance, she felt sure. The last 
 thing she could do would be to call his atten 
 tion to the fact, or run the risk of hurting his 
 feelings by transferring the ring; besides, it 
 was a pretty ring a rough ruby in a plain 
 gold band and looked very well where it was. 
 
ii4 Red Saunders 
 
 Then they settled down for what Red called 
 a good medicine talk. Miss Mattie found her 
 self boldly speaking of little fancies and no 
 tions that had remained in the inner shrine 
 of her soul for years, shrinking from the 
 matter-of-fact eye of Fairfield; yet this big, 
 ferocious looking Cousin Will seemed to find 
 them both sane and interesting, and as her 
 self-respect went up in the arithmetical, her 
 admiration for Cousin Will went up in the 
 geometrical ratio. He frankly admitted weak 
 nesses and fears that the males of Fairfield 
 would have rejected scornfully. 
 
 Miss Mattie spoke of sleeping upstairs, be 
 cause she could not rid herself of the fear of 
 somebody coming in. 
 
 " I know just how you feel about that," 
 said Red. " My hair used to be on its feet 
 most of the time when we were in the hay 
 camp at the lake beds. Gee whizz ! The rat 
 tlers! We put hair ropes around but them 
 rattlers liked to squirm over hair ropes for 
 exercise. One morning I woke up and there 
 was a crawler on my chest. * For God s sake, 
 Pete ! says I to Antelope Pete, who was rolled 
 up next me, come take my friend away ! and 
 
The Chinook Struck F airfield 115 
 
 I didn t holler very loud, neither. Pete was 
 chain lightning in pants, and he grabs Mr. 
 Rattler by the tail and snaps his neck, but I 
 felt lonesome in my inside till dinner time. 
 You bet ! I know just how you feel, exactly. 
 I didn t have a man s sized night s rest whilst 
 we was in that part of the country." 
 
 It struck Miss Mattie that the cases were 
 hardly parallel. " A rattlesnake on your chest, 
 Will ! " she cried, with her hands clasped in 
 terror. 
 
 " Oh ! it wasn t as bad as it sounds he was 
 asleep coiled up there to get warm sharp 
 ish nights on the prairie in August but darn 
 it ! Mattie ! " wrinkling up his nose in disgust, 
 " I hate the sight of the brutes ! " 
 
 " But you wouldn t be afraid of a man, 
 Will ! " 
 
 " Well, no/ admitted he. " I ve never been 
 troubled much that way. You see, everybody 
 has a different fear to throw a crimp in them. 
 Mine s rattlesnakes and these little bugs with 
 forty million pairs of legs. I pass right out 
 when I see one of them things. They give me 
 a feeling as if my stummick had melted." 
 
 " Weren t the Indians terrible out there, 
 
ii6 Red Saunders 
 
 too? " asked Miss Mattie. " I m sure they 
 must have been." 
 
 " Oh, they ain t bad people if you use em 
 right," said Red. " Not that I like em any 
 better on the ground, than in it," he added 
 hastily, fearful of betraying the sentiment of 
 his country, " but I never had but one real 
 argument, man to man. Black Wolf and I 
 come together over a matter of who owned 
 my cayuse, and from words we backed off and 
 got to shooting. He raked me from knee to 
 hip, as I was kneeling down, doing the best 
 I could by him, and wasting ammunition be 
 cause I was in a hurry. Still, I did bust his 
 ankle. In the middle of the fuss a stray shot 
 hit the cayuse in the head and he croaked 
 without a remark, so there we were, a pair of 
 fools miles from home with nothing left to 
 quarrel about ! You could have fried an egg 
 on a rock that day, and it always makes you 
 thirsty to get shot anyways serious, thinking 
 of which I hollered peace to old Black Wolf 
 and told him I d pull straws with him to see 
 who took my canteen down to the creek and 
 got some fresh water. He was agreeable and 
 we hunched up to each other. It ain t to my 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 117 
 
 credit to say it, but I was worse hurt than that 
 Injun, so I worked him. He got the short 
 straw, and had to crawl a mile through cactus, 
 while I sat comfortable on the cause of the 
 disagreement and yelled to him that he looked 
 like a badger, and other things that an Injun 
 wouldn t feel was a compliment." Red leaned 
 back and roared. " I can see him now putting 
 his hands down so careful, and turning back 
 every once in awhile to cuss me. Turned out 
 that it was his cayuse, too. Feller that sold it 
 to me had stole it from him. I oughtn t to 
 laugh over it, but I can t help but snicker 
 when I think how I did that Injun." 
 
 Generally speaking, Miss Mattie had a 
 lively sense of humour, but the joke of this 
 was lost on her. Her education had been that 
 getting shot w r as far from funny. 
 
 " Why, I should have thought you would 
 have died, Will ! " 
 
 "What! For a little crack in the leg!" 
 cried Red, with some impatience. " You 
 people must quit easy in this country. Die 
 nothin . One of our boys came along and 
 took us to camp, and we was up and doing 
 again in no time. Course, Black Wolf has a 
 
u8 Red Saunders 
 
 game leg for good, but the worst that s stuck 
 to me is a yank or two of rheumatism in the 
 rainy season. I paid Wolf for his cayuse," he 
 finished shamefacedly. " I had the laugh on 
 him anyhow." 
 
 Miss Mattie told him she thought that was 
 noble of him, which tribute Red took as medi 
 cine, and shifted the subject with speed, to 
 practical affairs. He asked Miss Mattie how 
 much money she had and how she managed 
 to make out. Now, it was one of the canons 
 of good manners in Fairfield not to speak of 
 material matters perhaps because there was 
 so little material matter in the community, but 
 Miss Mattie, doomed to a thousand irksome 
 petty economies, had often longed for a sym 
 pathetic ear, to pour into it a good honest 
 complaint of hating to do this and that. She 
 could not exactly go this far with Cousin Will, 
 but she could say that it was pretty hard to 
 get along, and give some details. She felt that 
 she knew him so very well, in those few hours ! 
 Red heard with nods of assent. He had 
 scented the conditions at once. 
 
 " It ain t any fun, skidding on the thin ice," 
 said he, when they had concluded the talk. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 119 
 
 " I ve had to count the beans I put in the pot, 
 and it made me hate arithmetic worse than 
 when I went over yonder to school. Well, 
 them days have gone by for you, Mattie." He 
 reached down and pulling out a green roll, 
 slapped it on the centre table. " Blow that 
 in, and limber up, and remember that there s 
 more behind it." 
 
 Miss Mattie s pride rose at a leap. 
 
 " Will! " she said, " I hope you don t think 
 I ve told you this to get money from you? " 
 
 He leaned forward, put his hand on her 
 shoulder and held her eyes with a sudden 
 access of sternness and authority. 
 
 " And I hope, Mattie," said he, " that you 
 don t think that I think anything of the 
 kind?" 
 
 The cousins stared into each other s eyes for 
 a full minute. Then Miss Mattie spoke. 
 " No, Will," said she, " I don t believe you 
 do." 
 
 "I shouldn t think I did," retorted Red. 
 " What in thunder would I do with all that 
 money? Why, good Lord, girl, I could paper 
 your house with ten-dollar bills now you try 
 to fly them green kites, like I tell you." 
 
120 Red Saunders 
 
 Miss Mattie broke down, the not fully real 
 ised strain of fifteen years had made itself felt 
 when the cord snapped. " I don t know how 
 to thank you. I don t know what to say. Oh, 
 William ! it seems too good to be true." 
 
 " What you crying about, Mattie? " said he 
 in sore distress. " Now hold on ! Listen to 
 me a minute ! There s something I want you 
 to do for me/ 
 
 " What is it? " she asked, drying her eyes. 
 
 " For dinner to-morrow," he replied, " let s 
 have a roast of beef about that size," indicat 
 ing a wash-tub. 
 
 The diversion was complete. 
 
 " Why, Will ! What would we ever do witi 
 it?" said she. 
 
 "Do with it? Why, eat it!" 
 
 " But we couldn t eat all that ! " 
 
 " Then throw what s left to the cats. You 
 ain t going to fall down on me the first favour 
 I ask? " with mock seriousness. 
 
 " You shall have the roast of beef. Tears 
 to me that you re fond of your stomach, Will," 
 said Miss Mattie, with a recovering smile. 
 
 " I have a good stomach, that s always done 
 the right thing by me, when I ve done the 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 121 
 
 right thing by it," said Red. " And moreover, 
 just look at the constitution I have to support. 
 But say, old lady, look at that ! " pointing to 
 the clock. " Eleven-thirty; time decent peo 
 ple were putting up for the night." 
 
 The words brought to an acute stage a wan 
 dering fear which had passed through Miss 
 Mattie s mind at intervals during the evening. 
 Where was she to look for sleeping accom 
 modations for a man? She revolted against 
 the convention, that, in her own mind, as well 
 as the rest of Fairfield, forbade the use of her 
 house for the purpose. Long habit of thought 
 had made these niceties constitutional. It was 
 almost as difficult for Miss Mattie to say " I ll 
 fix up your bed right there on the sofa " as it 
 would have been for Red to pick a man s 
 pocket, yet, when she thought of his instant 
 and open generosity and what a dismal return 
 therefor it would be to thrust him out for 
 reasons which she divined would have no 
 meaning for him, she heroically resolved to 
 throw custom to the winds, and speak. 
 
 But the difficulty was cut in another 
 fashion. 
 
 " There s a little barn in the back-yard that 
 
122 Red Saunders 
 
 caught my eye," said Red, " and if you ll lend 
 me a blanket I ll roll it out there." 
 
 " Sleep in the barn ! You ll not do any such 
 thing ! " cried Miss Mattie. " You ll sleep 
 right here on the sofa, or upstairs in my bed, 
 just as you choose." 
 
 " If it s all the same to you, I d rather not. 
 So help me Bob ! I d smother in here. Had 
 the darnedest time coming on that ever was 
 hotels. Little white rooms with the walls 
 coming in on you. Worse than rattlesnakes 
 for keeping a man awake. Reminds me of 
 the hospital. Horse fell on me once and 
 smashed me up so that I had to be sent to 
 get puttied up again, and I never struck such 
 a month as that since I was born. The doc. 
 told me I mustn t move, but I told him I d 
 chuck him out of the window if he tried to 
 stop me, and up I got. I d have gone dead 
 sure if they d held me a week more. I speak 
 for the barn, Mattie, and I speak real loud; 
 that is, I mean to say I m going to sleep in 
 the barn, unless there s somebody a heap 
 larger than you on the premises. Now, there s 
 no use for you to talk I m going to do just 
 as I say." " 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 123 
 
 " Well, I think that s just dreadful ! " said 
 Miss Mattie. " I d like to know what folks 
 will think of me to hear I turned my own 
 cousin out in the barn/ 1 Her voice trailed off 
 a little at the end as the gist of what they 
 might say if he stayed in the house, occurred 
 to her. " Well," she continued, " if you re set, 
 I suppose I can t object." Miss Mattie was 
 not a good hand at playing a part. 
 
 " I m set," said Red/ " Get me a blanket." 
 As she came in with this, he added, " Say, 
 Mattie, could you let me have a loaf of bread? 
 I ve got a habit of wanting something to eat 
 in the middle of the night." 
 
 " Certainly ! Don t you want some butter 
 with it? Here, I ll fix it for you on a plate." 
 
 " No, don t waste dish-washing I ll show 
 you how to fix it." He cut the loaf of bread 
 in half, pulled out a portion of the soft part 
 and filled the hole with butter. " There we 
 are, and nothing to bother with afterwards." 
 
 " That s a right smart notion, Will but 
 you ll want a knife." 
 
 In answer he drew out a leather case from 
 his breast pocket and opened it. Within was 
 knife, fork, spoon and two flat boxes for salt 
 
124 Red Saunders 
 
 and pepper. " You see I m fixed," said 
 he. 
 
 " Isn t that a cute trick ! " she cried admir 
 ingly. " You re ready for most anything." 
 
 " Sure," said Red. " Now, good night, old 
 lady ! " He bent down in so natural a fashion 
 that Miss Mattie had kissed him before she 
 knew what she was going to do. 
 
 Down to the barn, through the soft June 
 evening, went Red, whistling a Mexican love 
 song most melodiously. 
 
 Miss Mattie stood in the half-opened door 
 and listened. Without was balm and starlight 
 and the spirit of flowers, breathed out in 
 odours. The quaint and pretty tune rose and 
 fell, quavered, lilted along as it listed without 
 regard for law and order. It struck Miss 
 Mattie to the heart. Her girlhood, with its 
 misty dreams of happiness, came back to her 
 on the wings of music. 
 
 " Isn t that a sweet tune," she said, with a 
 lump in her throat. 
 
 She went up into her room and sat down a 
 moment in confusion, trying to grasp the 
 reality of all that had happened. In the middle 
 of the belief that these things were not so, came 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 125 
 
 the regret of a sensitive mind for errors com 
 mitted. She remembered with a sudden sink 
 ing, that she had not thanked him for the 
 necklace and the money lay even now on the 
 parlor table, where he had cast it ! This added 
 the physical fear of thieves. Down she went 
 and got the money, counted out, to her un 
 mitigated astonishment, five hundred dollars 
 and thrust it beneath her pillow with a shiver. 
 She wished she had thought to tell him to take 
 care of it but suppose the thieves were to fall 
 on him as he slept? Red s friends would have 
 spent their sympathy on the thieves. She 
 rejoiced that the money was where it was. 
 Then she tried to remember what she had said 
 throughout the evening. 
 
 " Well, I suppose I must have acted like a 
 ninny," she concluded. " But isn t he just 
 splendid ! " and as Cousin Will s handsome 
 face, with its daring, kind eyes, came to her 
 vision she felt comforted. " I don t believe 
 but what he ll make every allowance for how 
 excited I was," said she. " He seems to un 
 derstand those things, for all he s such a large 
 man. Well, it doesn t seem as if it could be 
 true." With a half sigh Miss Mattie knelt 
 
126 Red Saunders 
 
 and sent up her modest petition to her Maker 
 and got into her little white bed. 
 
 In the meantime Red s actions would have 
 awakened suspicion. He hunted around until 
 he found a tin can, then lit a match and rum 
 maged the barn, amid terror-stricken squawks 
 from the inhabitants, the hens. 
 
 " One, two, three, four/ he counted. 
 " Reckon I can last out till morning on that. 
 Mattie, she s white people just the nicest I 
 ever saw, but she ain t used to providing for 
 a full-grown man." 
 
 He stepped to the back of the barn and 
 looked about him. " Nobody can see me from 
 here," he said, in satisfaction. Then he scraped 
 together a pile of chips and sticks and built a 
 fire, filled the tin can at the brook, sat it on 
 two stones over the fire, rolled himself a 
 cigarette and waited. A large, yellow tom-cat 
 came out of the brush and threw his green 
 headlights on him, meaowing tentatively. 
 
 " Hello, pussy ! " said Red. " You hungry 
 too? Well, just wait a minute, and we ll help 
 that feeling like bread, pussy? " The cat 
 gobbled the morsel greedily, came closer and 
 begged for more. The tin can boiled over. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 127 
 
 Red popped the eggs in, puffed his cigarette 
 to a bright coal, and looked at his watch by 
 the light. " Gee ! Ten minutes more, now ! " 
 said he. " Hardly seems to me as if I could 
 wait." He pulled the watch out several times. 
 " What s the matter with the damn thing? 
 I believe it s stopped/ he growled. But at 
 last " Time ! " he shouted gleefully, kicked the 
 can over and gathered up its treasures in his 
 handkerchief. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Cat, we re going to do some 
 real eating," said he. " Just sit right down 
 and make yourself at home this is kind of 
 fun, by Jinks ! " Down went the eggs and 
 down went the loaf of bread in generous 
 slices, never forgetting a fair share for the 
 cat. 
 
 " Woosh! I feel better!" cried Red, "and 
 now for some sleep." He swung up into the 
 hay-loft, spread the blanket on the still fragrant 
 old hay, and rolled himself up in a trice. 
 
 " I did a good turn when I came on here," 
 he mused. " If I have got only one relation, 
 she s a dandy so pretty and quiet and nice. 
 She s a marker for all I ve got, is Mattie." 
 
 The cat came up, purring and " making 
 
128 Red Saunders 
 
 bread." He sniffed feline fashion at Red s 
 face. 
 
 " Foo ! Shoo ! Go way, pussy ! Settle 
 yourself down and we ll pound our ear for 
 another forty miles. I like you first rate when 
 you don t walk on my face." He stretched and 
 yawned enormously. " Yes sir ! Mattie s all 
 right," said he. " A-a-a-11 ri-" and Chantay 
 Seeche Red was in the land of dreams. Here, 
 back in God s country, within twenty miles of 
 the place where he was born, the wanderer laid 
 him down again, and in spite of raid and foray, 
 whisky and poker-cards, wear-and-tear, hard 
 times, and hardest test of all, sudden fortune, 
 he was much the same impulsive, honest, gen 
 erous, devil-may-care boy who had left there 
 twenty-four years ago. 
 
II 
 
 THE next morning when Red awoke, 
 arrows of gold were shooting through 
 the holes in the old barn, and outside, the bird 
 life, the twittering and chirping, the fluent 
 whistle and the warble, the cackle and the 
 pompous crow, were in full chorus. 
 
 "Where am I at, this time?" said he, as 
 he took in the view. " Oh, I remember ! " and 
 his heart leapt. " I m in my own home, by 
 the Lord ! " 
 
 He went down to the brook and washed, 
 drying hands and face on the silk neckerchief, 
 which is meant for use as well as for decora 
 tion. 
 
 In the meantime, Miss Mattie had awak 
 ened, with a sense of something delightful at 
 hand, the meaning of which escaped her for 
 the time. And then she remembered, and 
 sprang out of bed like a girl. She went to 
 the window, threw open the shutters and let 
 the stirring morning air flow in. This had 
 been her habit for a long time. The window 
 129 
 
*3o Red Saunders 
 
 faced away from the road, and no one could 
 see who was not on Miss Mattie s own prem 
 ises. 
 
 But this morning Red had wandered 
 around. Stopping at the rose bushes he 
 picked a bud. 
 
 " That has the real old-time smell," he said, 
 as he held it to his nose. " Sweetbriars are 
 good, and I don t go back on em, but they 
 ain t got the fram these fellers have." 
 
 Bud in hand he walked beneath Miss Mat- 
 tie s windows, and he was the first thing her 
 eye fell upon. 
 
 Her startled exclamation made him look up 
 before she had time to withdraw. 
 
 " Hello there ! " he called joyfully. " How 
 do you open up this day? You look pretty 
 well ! " he added with a note of admiration. 
 Miss Mattie had the wavy hair which is never 
 in better order than when left to its own de 
 vices. Her idea of coiffure was not the most 
 becoming that could have been selected, as 
 she felt that a " young " style of hair dressing 
 was foolish for a single woman of her years. 
 Now, with the pretty soft hair flying, her 
 eyes still humid with sleep, and a touch of 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 131 
 
 color in her face from the surprise, relieved 
 against the fleecy shawl she had thrown about 
 her shoulders, she was incontestably both a 
 discreet and pretty picture. Yet Miss Mattie 
 could not forget the bare feet and night-gown, 
 although they were hidden from masculine 
 eyes by wood and plaster, and she was em 
 barrassed. Still, with all the super-sensitive 
 fancies, Miss Mattie had a strong back-bone 
 of New England common-sense. She an 
 swered that she felt very well indeed, and, to 
 cover any awkwardness, inquired what he had 
 in his hand. 
 
 " Good old rose/ replied Red. " Old-time 
 smeller better suited to you than to me 
 ketch ! " 
 
 At the word he tossed it, and Miss Mattie 
 caught it dexterously. Red had an exceed 
 ingly keen eye for some things, and he noticed 
 the certainty of the action. He hated fum- 
 blers. "A person can do things right if they ve 
 got minds that w r ork," was one of his pet say 
 ings. " Taint the muscles at all it s in the 
 head, and I like the kind of head that s in use 
 all the time." Therefore this small affair made 
 an impression on him. 
 
132 Red Saunders 
 
 " Why, you could be a baseball player," said 
 he. 
 
 " I used to play with Joe, when I was a 
 girl," said Miss Mattie, smiling. " I always 
 liked boy s play better than I did girl s. Joe 
 taught me how to throw a ball, too. He said 
 he wouldn t play with me unless I learned not 
 to scoop it, girl fashion. I suppose you will 
 be wanting breakfast? " There was a hint of 
 sarcasm in the doubt of the inquiry. 
 
 "That s what I do!" said Red. "You 
 must just hustle down and get things to boil 
 ing, or I ll throw bricks through the windows. 
 I ve been up for the last two hours." 
 
 "Why! I don t believe it!" said Miss 
 Mattie. 
 
 " No more do I, but it seems like it," re 
 plied Red. " Don t you want the fire started? 
 Come down and open up the house." 
 
 When Miss Mattie appeared at the door, in 
 he strode with an armful of wood, dropping 
 it man-fashion, crash! on the floor. 
 
 " Skip out of the way ! " said he. " 1*11 show 
 you how to build a fire ! " 
 
 The early morning had been the most deso 
 late time to Miss Mattie. As the day warmed 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 133 
 
 up the feeling of loneliness vanished, perhaps 
 to return at evening, but not then with the 
 same absoluteness as when she walked about 
 the kitchen to the echo of her own footsteps 
 in the morning. 
 
 Now the slamming and the banging which 
 accompanied Red s energetic actions rang in 
 her ears most cheerily. She even found a 
 relish in the smothered oath that heralded 
 the thrust of a splinter in his finger. It 
 was very wicked, but it was also very much 
 alive. 
 
 Red arose and dusted off his knees. " Now 
 we re off ! " he said as the fire began to roar. 
 "What s next?" 
 
 " If you d grind the coffee, Will? " she sug 
 gested. 
 
 " Sure ! Where s the hand organ? " 
 
 He put the mill between his knees, and con 
 verted the beans to powder, to the tune of 
 " Old dog Tray " through his nose, which Miss 
 Mattie found very amusing. 
 
 She measured out the coffee, one spoonful 
 for each cup, and one for the pot. Red 
 watched her patiently, and when she had fin 
 ished, he threw in the rest of the contents of 
 
134 Red Saunders 
 
 the mill-drawer. " I like it fairly strong," said 
 he in explanation. 
 
 "Now, Will!" protested Miss Mattie. 
 " Look at you ! That will be as bitter as 
 boneset ! " 
 
 " Thin her up with milk and she ll be all 
 right," replied Red. 
 
 " Well, such wasteful ways I never did see. 
 Nobody d think you were a day over fifteen." 
 
 " I m not," said Red stoutly, " and," catch 
 ing her chin in his hand and turning her face 
 up toward him " Nobody d put your score 
 much higher than that neither, if they trusted 
 to their eyes this morning." 
 
 The compliment hit so tender a place that 
 Miss Mattie lacked the resolution to tear it 
 out, besides, it was so honest that it sounded 
 much less like a compliment than a plain state 
 ment of fact. She bent hastily over the fire. 
 " I m glad I look young, Will," she said softly. 
 
 " So m I ! " he assented heartily. " What s 
 the sense in being old, anyhow? I m as lim 
 ber and good for myself as ever I was, in spite 
 of my forty years." 
 
 "You re not forty years old!" exclaimed 
 Miss Mattie. "You re joking!" 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 135 
 
 " Nary joke forty round trips from flying 
 snow to roses since I hit land, Mattie why, 
 you were only a little girl when I left here 
 don t you remember? You and your folks 
 came to see us the week before I left. I got 
 a thrashing for taking you and Joe to the mill- 
 pond, and helping you to get good and wet. 
 The thrashing was one of the things that gave 
 me a hankering for the West. Very liberal 
 man with the hickory, father. Spare the 
 clothes and spoil the skin was his motto. He 
 used to make me strip to the waist phee-hew ! 
 Even a light breeze rested heavy on my back 
 when dad got through with me say, Mattie, 
 perhaps I oughtn t to say so, now that he s 
 gone, but I don t think that s the proper way 
 to use a boy, do you?" 
 
 " No, I don t," said Miss Mattie. " Your 
 father meant well, but his way was useless and 
 cruel." 
 
 " I ve forgiven him the whole sweep," said 
 Red. "But damn me! If I had a boy I 
 wouldn t club the life out of him I d try to 
 reason with him first, anyhow. Makes a boy 
 as ugly as anybody else to get the hide whaled 
 off his back for nothing once in a while he 
 
136 Red Saunders 
 
 needs it. Boy that s got any life in him gets 
 to be too much occasionally and then a 
 warming is healthful and nourishing. Lord! 
 You d think I was the father of my country 
 to hear me talk, wouldn t you? If somebody d 
 write a book, e What Red Saunders don t 
 know about raising children it would be full 
 of valuable information how s that breakfast 
 coming on? " 
 
 " All ready sit right down, Will." 
 
 " Go you ! " cried Red, and incautiously 
 flung himself upon one of the kitchen chairs, 
 which collapsed instantly and dropped him to 
 the floor. 
 
 " Mercy on us ! Are you hurt? " cried Miss 
 Mattie, rushing forward. 
 
 "Hurt?" said Red. "Try it! just jump 
 up in the air and sit on the floor where you 
 are now, and see if you get hurt ! Oh, no ! 
 I m not hurt, but I m astonished beyond 
 measure, like the man that tickled the mule. 
 I ll take my breakfast right here shouldn t 
 wonder a bit if the floor went back on me arid 
 landed me in the cellar no sir ! I won t get 
 up ! Hand me the supplies, I know when I m 
 well off. If you want to eat breakfast with 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 137 
 
 me come sit on the floor. I m not going to 
 have my spine pushed through the top of my 
 head twice in the same day." 
 
 " Will ! You are the most ridiculous per 
 son I ever did see ! " said Miss Mattie, and 
 she laughed till she cried in sheer light- 
 heartedness. " But there s a chair you can 
 trust come on now." 
 
 " Well, if you ll take your solemn oath that 
 this one has no moustache to deceive me," 
 said Red doubtfully. " It looks husky well, 
 I ll try it Hooray ! She didn t give an inch. 
 This kind of reminds me of the time Jimmy 
 Hendricks came back from town and walked 
 off the edge of the bluff in the dark. It just 
 happened that Old Scotty Ferguson s cabin 
 was underneath him. Jim took most of the 
 roof off with him as he went in. He sat 
 awhile to figure out what was trumps, having 
 come a hundred and fifty feet too fast to do 
 much thinking. Then, Hello ! he yells. 
 Old Scotty was a sleeper from way back, but 
 this woke him up. 
 
 " Hello ! says he. Was er matter? 
 
 " Jim saw he wasn t more than half awake 
 yet, so he says, Why, I was up on the bluff 
 
138 Red Saunders 
 
 there, Scotty, and seeing it was such a short 
 distance I thought I d drop in ! 
 
 11 Aw ri / grunted Scotty. Make y self t 
 home/ and with that he rolls over. 
 
 " Jim couldn t wait for morning, and though 
 his leg was pretty badly sprained, he made the 
 trip all the way round the trail and woke us 
 up to tell us how he d gone through Fergu 
 son s roof and the old man asked him to make 
 himself at home. Next morning there was 
 Scotty out in front of his cabin, his thumbs in 
 his vest holes, looking up. 
 
 " What s the matter, Scotty? says I. 
 
 " Well, I wisht you d tell me what in the 
 name of God went through that roof ! says 
 he. 
 
 " I swallered a laugh cross-ways and put on 
 a serious face. Must have been a rock/ 
 says I. 
 
 " Rock nothin ! says he. If it had been 
 a rock twould have stayed in the cabin, 
 wouldn t it ! Well, there ain t the first blasted 
 thing of any shape nor description in there but 
 the hole you can go in and look for your 
 self/ 
 
 " It cost Scotty one case of rye to make us 
 forget those circumstances." 
 
The Chinook Struck Fair-field 139 
 
 " I should have thought the man would be 
 killed, striking on the roof that way," said 
 Miss Mattie. 
 
 " Oh, no ! Roof was made of quaking-asp 
 saplings, just about strong enough to break 
 his fall. Scotty was the sleeper, though ! It 
 wasn t hardly natural the way that man could 
 pound his ear through thick and thin. He 
 had quite a surprising time of it once. He d 
 been prospecting round the Ruby refractory 
 ore district and he came out at Hank Cutter s 
 saw-mill, just at sun-down. Hank s place was 
 full of gold rushers, so Old Scotty thought 
 he d sleep out-doors in peace and quiet. He 
 discovered some big boxes, that Hank wis 
 making for ore bins for the new mill, and as 
 the ground was kind of damp from a thunder- 
 shower they had that day, he spreads his 
 blanket inside the box and goes to sleep; ore 
 bins have to be smooth and dust tight, so it 
 wasn t a bad shanty. 
 
 " Well, there came a jar and waked him up. 
 The box was rolling a little, and going along, 
 going along forty mile an hour. Scotty lit a 
 match and found he was in a kind of big tun 
 nel but the wall was flying by so fast, he 
 
140 Red Saunders 
 
 couldn t make out just what kind of a tunnel 
 it was. Now, he d gone to sleep in peace and 
 quiet on a side hill, and to wake up and find 
 himself boat-riding in a tunnel was enough 
 to surprise anybody. First he pinched him 
 self to see if it was Hank s pie, or a cold fact, 
 found it was a fact, then he lit another match 
 and leaned over and looked at the black water 
 underneath, but this made the box tip so it 
 scart him and he settled down in the bottom 
 again. He didn t try to think what was the 
 use? No man living could have figured things 
 out with the few facts Scotty had before him. 
 All of a sudden the box made a rush and shot 
 out into the air, and Scotty felt they were 
 falling. God sakes ! he says to himself. 
 What s next, I wonder? Then they hit the 
 water below with a ker-flap that nearly tele 
 scoped Scotty and sent the spray flying. After 
 that they went along smooth again. Well/ 
 says Scotty, 1 don t know where I am, nor 
 who I am, nor what s happened, nor who s it, 
 nor nothing about this game. So far I ain t 
 been hurt, though, and I might just as well 
 lie down and get a little more rest/ 
 
 " It was broad daylight when he woke up 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 141 
 
 again, and a man was looking into the box. 
 Hello, pardner! he says. I hope you ve 
 had a pleasant journey do you always travel 
 this way? 
 
 " Scotty raised up and found his craft was 
 aground high and dry no water within a 
 hundred feet of it. On one side was quite a 
 little town. 
 
 " Say/ says he, could I trouble you to tell 
 me where I am, friend? 
 
 " * You re at Placerville/ answers the other. 
 
 " Placerville ! yells Scotty, and I went to 
 sleep at Cutter s Mill, sixty-five miles from 
 here ! what are you giving us, man? 
 
 " * I m putting it to you straight/ says the 
 stranger. * Take a look around you. 
 
 " Scotty looked and there was all kinds of 
 wreckage, from a dead beef critter to a wheel 
 barrow. 
 
 " What in nation s all this? says he. 
 
 " Washout/ says the man. Cloud burst 
 up on the divide worst we ve ever had 
 your box is about high water mark you see 
 there was water enough for awhile I reckon 
 you re about the only thing that came through 
 alive. 
 
142 Red Saunders 
 
 " Well, wouldn t that knock you? says 
 Scotty. 
 
 " Whilst the rest of the folk at the mill 
 was taking to the high ground for their lives, 
 with the water roaring and tearing through 
 the gulch, Scotty had peacefully gone off in 
 his little boat, down the creek, and instead of 
 going over the rapids, where he d have been 
 done, for all his luck, the box ambles through 
 the flume they was building for the new mill. 
 Of course there was the jounce over the tail 
 race, but that hadn t hurt him much, and after, 
 he rocked in the cradle of the deep, until he 
 got beached at Placerville. 
 
 " Come along, friend, says Scotty to the 
 feller, you and me are going to have a little 
 drink on this, if it is the last act. And I 
 reckon probably they made it two, for when 
 Scotty got back again he was in a condition 
 that made everybody believe that he d only 
 guessed at the story he told. But they found 
 out afterward it was a solemn fact. Mattie, 
 give us some more coffee." 
 
 Thus abruptly recalled to Fairfield, Miss 
 Mattie started up. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 143 
 
 " Well, Will, it does seem as if that was a 
 dangerous country to live in," said she. 
 
 " Oh, not so awful ! " said Red. " Just as 
 many people die here as they do there this 
 world s a dangerous place to live in, wherever 
 you strike it, Mattie." 
 
 " That s so," said she, thoughtfully. 
 
 " And now," said Red, pushing back his 
 chair, " it s time I got to work and left you to 
 do the housework undisturbed." 
 
 "What are you going to do, Will?" 
 
 " First place, there s fences and things to 
 be tinkered up, I see. I suppose a millionaire 
 like me ought to hire those things done, but 
 I d have measles of the mind if I sat around 
 doing nothing." 
 
 " I have been wanting to get the place in 
 good order for some time," said Miss Mattie, 
 " but what with the money I had to spend for 
 this and that, and not being able to get Mr. 
 Joyce to come in for a day s work when I 
 wanted him, it s gone on, until there is a good 
 deal of wrack to it." 
 
 " We ll wrack it t other way round in no 
 time got any tools here?" 
 
144 R e( i Saunders 
 
 " Out in the barn is what s left of father s 
 tools people have borrowed em and forgot 
 to return em, and they ve rusted or been 
 lost until I m afraid there ain t many of em 
 left." 
 
 " Well, I ll get along to-day somehow, and 
 later on we ll stock up want any help around 
 the house?" 
 
 " Thank you, no, Will." 
 
 " Then I m off." 
 
 It was almost with a feeling of terror that 
 Miss Mattie beheld him root up the fence. 
 Her idea of repairing was to put in a picket 
 here and there where it was most needed; 
 Red s was to knock it all flat first, and set it 
 up in A i condition afterward. So, in two 
 hours time he straightened up and snapped 
 the sweat from his brow, beholding the slain 
 pickets prone on the grass with thorough sat 
 isfaction. Yet he felt tired, for the day was 
 already hot with a moist and soaking sea- 
 coast heat, to which the plainsman was unac 
 customed. A three-quarter-grown boy passed 
 by, lounging on the seat of a farm waggon. 
 
 " Hey ! " hailed Red. The boy stopped and 
 turned slowly around. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fail-field 145 
 
 " Yes, sir/ he answered courteously enough. 
 
 "Want a job?" said Red. 
 
 " Well, I dunno," replied the boy. He was 
 much astonished at the appearance of his in 
 terrogator, and he was a cautious New Eng 
 land boy to boot. 
 
 " You don t know? " retorted Red. " Well," 
 with some sarcasm, " d ye suppose I could 
 find out at the post-office?" 
 
 The boy looked at Red with a twinkle in his 
 eye, and a comical drawing of his long mouth. 
 
 " I calculate if you cud fin out anyweres, 
 twould be there," said he. 
 
 Red laughed. He had noticed the busy 
 post-mistress rushing out of her store to way 
 lay anyone likely to have information on any 
 subject, a stream of questions proceeding from 
 her through the door. 
 
 " Say, you got anything particular to do? " 
 
 " No, sir leastways th ain t no hurry about 
 it." 
 
 " Can I buy stuff to make a fence with, 
 around here? " 
 
 " Yes, sir Mister Pettigrew s got all kinds 
 of buildin material at his store two mile over 
 yonder," pointing with the whip. 
 
146 Red Saunders 
 
 " You drive over there for me, and get 
 some just like this here pickets and posts 
 and whatever you call them long pieces, and 
 I ll make it right with you." 
 
 " Yes, sir how much will I get? " 
 
 " Oh, tell him to fill the waggon up with 
 it, and I ll send back what I don t want 
 hustle, now, like a good boy; I want to get 
 shut of this job; I liked it better before I be- 
 gun." 
 
 When his Mercury had speeded on the 
 journey at a faster gait than Red would have 
 given him credit for, the architect strode 
 down to the blacksmith s shop. There was a 
 larger crowd than usual around the forge, as 
 the advent of the stranger had gotten into 
 the wind, and the village Vulcan was a person 
 who not only looked the whole world in the 
 face, but no one of the maiden ladies of Fair- 
 field could have excelled his interest in look 
 ing the whole world as much in the inside 
 pocket as possible. The blacksmith was em 
 phatically a gossip, as well as a hardworking, 
 God-fearing man. 
 
 " Say, there he comes now, Mr. Tuttle ! " 
 cried one of the loungers, and nudged the 
 smith to look. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 147 
 
 " Well, let him come ! " retorted the smith, 
 testily, jamming a shoe in the fire with un 
 necessary force; as a matter of fact, he was 
 embarrassed. The loungers huddled together 
 for moral support, as the big cow-man loomed 
 through the doorway. 
 
 " Good morning, friends! " said he. 
 
 "Good morning, sir!" replied the black 
 smith, rubbing his hands on his apron. " Nice 
 day, sir? " 
 
 " For the sake of good fellowship, I ll say 
 yes to that," responded Red. " But if you 
 want my honest opinion on the subject, it s 
 damn hot." 
 
 " Tis that," assented the smith, and a si 
 lence followed. 
 
 " Say, who s your crack fence-builder 
 around here?" asked Red. "The man that 
 can make two pickets grow where only one 
 grew before and do it so easy that it s a 
 pleasure to sit and look at him?" 
 
 " Hey? " inquired the smith, not precisely 
 getting the meaning of the address. 
 
 " Why, I ve got a fence to build," exclaimed 
 Red. " And now I want some help want it 
 so bad, I ll produce to the extent of three a 
 
148 Red Saunders 
 
 day and call it a day from now till six o clock 
 any takers here? Make your bets while the 
 little ball rolls." 
 
 The loungers understood the general drift 
 of this and pricked up their ears, as did the 
 blacksmith. " Guess one of the boys will help 
 you," said the latter. 
 
 "Well, who s it?" asked Red, glancing at 
 the circle of faces. Three dollars a day was 
 enormous wages in that part of the country. 
 Nobody knew just what to say. 
 
 " Oh, well ! " cried Red, " let s everybody 
 run I reckon I can find something to do for 
 the five of you are you with me? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," they said promptly. 
 
 " Can I borrow a hammer or so off you, old 
 man? " questioned Red of the smith. 
 
 " Certainly, sir," returned the latter heartily. 
 " Take what you want." 
 
 " Much obliged and the gate hinges are 
 out of whack Miss Saunders place, you 
 know come over and take a squint at em 
 in the near by-and-by, will you? May as well 
 fix it up all at once come on, boys ! " 
 
 It was thus that the greatest enterprise that 
 Fairfield had seen in many a day was under- 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 149 
 
 taken. Miss Mattie was simply astounded as 
 the army bore down upon the house. 
 
 " Whatever in the world is Cousin Will do 
 ing? " said she; but resting strong in the faith 
 that it was necessarily all right, she was con 
 tent to wait for dinner and an explanation. 
 Not so the post-mistress. The agonies of 
 unrequited curiosity the worthy woman suf 
 fered that morning until she at last summoned 
 up her resolution and asked the smith plump 
 out and out what it all meant, would have to 
 be experienced to be appreciated. And the 
 smith kept her hanging for a while, too, say 
 ing to himself in justification, that it wasn t 
 right the way that old gal had to get into 
 everybody s business. The smith was like 
 some of the rest of us; he could see through 
 a beam if it was in his own eye. 
 
HI 
 
 THERE was a great din of whacking and 
 hammering that morning. Red worked 
 like a horse, now that he had company. A 
 sudden thought struck him and he went into 
 the house. 
 
 " Mattie," said he. 
 
 "Well, Will?" 
 
 " I see a use for the rest of that nice big 
 roast of beef I smell in the oven let s have 
 all these fellers stay to dinner, and give em 
 one good feed what do you say?" 
 
 " Why, I d like to, Will but I don t know 
 where ll I set them?" 
 
 " Couple of boards outside for a table let 
 them sit on boxes or something got plates 
 and things enough? " 
 
 " My, yes ! Plenty of such things, Will." 
 
 " Then if it ain t too much trouble for you, 
 we ll let it go." 
 
 " No trouble at all, Will it will be a regu 
 lar picnic." 
 
 " Boys, you ll eat with me this day," said 
 
 Red. 
 
 150 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 151 
 
 They spread the board table beneath an old 
 apple tree, and cleaned up for the repast in 
 the kitchen storm-shed with an apologetic, 
 " Sorry to trouble you, Miss Saunders," or 
 such a matter as each went in. 
 
 Just as Miss Mattie was withdrawing the 
 meat from the oven, there came a knock at 
 the door. 
 
 " Goodness, gracious ! " she exclaimed. 
 " Who can that be now? Will, will you see 
 who that is? I can t go." 
 
 " Sure ! " said Red, and w^ent to the door. 
 There stood two women of that indefinite 
 period between forty and sixty, very decently 
 dressed and w r ith some agitation visible in the 
 way they fussily adjusted various parts of their 
 attire. 
 
 They started at the sudden spectacle of the 
 huge man who said pleasantly, " Howderdo, 
 ladies ! " 
 
 " Why, how do you do? " replied the taller 
 instantly, and in a voice she had never heard 
 before. " I hope you re well, sir? " A remark 
 which filled her with surprise. 
 
 " Thanks I m able to assume the perpen 
 dicular, as you can see," responded Red with 
 
152 Red Saunders 
 
 a handsome smile of welcome. " How do you 
 find yourself? " 
 
 " I m pretty well," said the flustered lady. 
 " How do you do? " 
 
 " Durned if we ain t right back where we 
 started from/ mourned Red to himself. " If 
 it s one of the customs of this country saying 
 howderdo an hour at a stretch, I pass it np." 
 Aloud, he said, " Coming along fine how s 
 your father? " " Cuss me if I don t shift the 
 cut a little, anyhow," he added mentally. 
 
 " Why, he s very well indeed ! " exclaimed 
 the lady with fervor. " How " She got 
 no further on the query, for the other woman 
 interrupted in a tone of scandal. " Mary Ann 
 Demilt ! How can you talk like that ! Your 
 father s been dead this five year last August ! " 
 
 The horror of the moment was broken by 
 the appearance of Miss Mattie, crying hospit 
 ably on seeing the visitors, " Why, Mary and 
 Pauline ! How do you do? " 
 
 The shorter one Pauline looked up and 
 said sharply, " We re well enough, Mattie." 
 She was weary of the form. 
 
 " Come right in," said Miss Mattie. 
 " You re just in time for dinner." 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 153 
 
 There was a great protest at this. They 
 " hadn t a moment to spare," they were " just 
 going down to the corner, and had stopped 
 to say," etc., etc. 
 
 " You ve got to help me," said Miss Mattie. 
 " Will here has invited the boys who are work 
 ing for him to stay to dinner, and it won t be 
 any more than Christian for you to help me 
 out." 
 
 " Ladies ! " said Red. " If you don t want 
 to starve a man who s deserving 1 of a better 
 fate, take off your fixings and come out to 
 dinner. No," he continued to their protests, 
 which he observed were growing weaker. 
 " It s no trouble at all : there s plenty for 
 everybody come one, come all, this house 
 shall fly, clean off its base as soon as I Now 
 for Heaven s sake, ladies, it s all settled 
 come on." 
 
 Whereat they laughed nervously, and took 
 off their hats. 
 
 It was a jolly dinner party. The young 
 fellows Red had picked up in the blacksmith s 
 shop were not the ordinary quality of loungers. 
 They were boys of good country parentage, 
 with a common school education, who, unfort- 
 
154 Red Saunders 
 
 unately, could find nothing to do but the oc 
 casional odd job. Of course it would not take 
 long to transform them into common n er-do- 
 wells, but now they were merely thoughtless 
 boys. 
 
 The whole affair had an al fresco flavor 
 which stoppered convention. The two women 
 visitors pitched in and had as good a time as 
 anybody. 
 
 In the middle of the festivities a young man 
 walked past the front fence; a stranger evi 
 dently, for his clothes wore the cut of a city, 
 and a cosmopolitan, up-to-date city at that. 
 He stopped and looked at the house, hesitated 
 a moment and then walked in, back to where 
 the folk were eating. 
 
 " Excuse me," said he, as they looked up at 
 him, "but isn t this Mr. Demilt s house?" 
 
 A momentary silence followed, as it was not 
 clear whose turn it was to answer. Miss 
 Mattie glanced around and finding Red s eye 
 on her, replied, " No sir Mr. Demilt s house 
 is about a mile further up the road." 
 
 " Dear me ! " said the young man ruefully. 
 He was a spic-and-span, intelligent looking 
 man, with less of the dandy about him than 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 155 
 
 the air of a man who had never worn anything 
 but clothes of the proper trim, and become 
 quite used to it. Nevertheless the sweat stood 
 out in drops on his forehead, for Fairfield s 
 front " street " savoured of a less moral region 
 than it really was, on a broiling summer day. 
 
 The young man sighed frankly and wiped 
 his head. "Well, that s too bad/ he said. 
 " I m a stranger here would you kindly tell 
 me where I could get some dinner? " 
 
 "What s the matter with that?" inquired 
 Red, pointing to the roast, which still pre 
 served an air of fallen greatness. He had liked 
 the look of the other instantly. 
 
 The stranger looked first at Red and then 
 at the roast. " The only thing I can see the 
 matter with that," he answered, " is that it is 
 a slice too thick." 
 
 " Keno ! " cried Red, " you get it. Mattie, 
 another plate and weapons to fit. Sit down, 
 sir, and rest your fevered feet. If you don t 
 like walking any better than I do, you ve prob 
 ably strewn fragments of one of the command 
 ments all the way from where the stage 
 dropped you to this apple tree." 
 
 " It seems to me that I did make some re- 
 
156 Red Saunders 
 
 marks that I never learned at my mother s 
 knee," returned the other laughing. " And 
 I m exceedingly obliged for the invitation, as 
 there doesn t seem to be a hotel here, and I 
 am but a degree south of starvation." 
 
 "Red or black?" asked the host, with a 
 quick glance at his guest. 
 
 The other caught the allusion. " I haven t 
 followed the deal," he replied, " but I ll chance 
 it on the red." 
 
 Somehow he felt instantly at home and at 
 ease; it was a quality that Red Saunders dis 
 persed wherever he went. 
 
 " There you are, sir," said Red, forwarding 
 a plate full of juicy meat. " The ladies will 
 supply the decorations." 
 
 " Do you like rice as a vegetable, sir? " in 
 quired Miss Mattie. 
 
 No he doesn t," interrupted Red. " He 
 likes it as an animal never saw anyone who 
 looked less like a vegetable than our friend." 
 The young man s laugh rang out above the 
 others. 
 
 Poor Miss Mattie was confused. " It s too 
 bad of you, Will, to put such a meaning on my 
 words," she said. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 157 
 
 " The strange part of it is," spoke the young 
 man, seeing an opportunity for a joke, and to 
 deal courteously with his entertainers at the 
 same time. " The peculiar fact is, that my 
 name is Lettis." 
 
 " Lettuce? " cried Red. " Mattie, I apolo 
 gise he is a vegetable." 
 
 At which they all laughed again. 
 
 " And now," said Red, " I m Red Saunders, 
 late of the Chantay Seeche Ranch, Territory 
 of Dakota State of North Dakota, I mean, 
 can t get used to the State business; there s 
 a Bill and a Dick on this side of me and two 
 Johns and a Sammy on the other. Foot of 
 the table is Miss Mattie Saunders, next to her 
 just as they run Miss Pauline Doolittle 
 and Miss Mary Ann Demilt, who may be kin 
 to the gentleman you re seeking." 
 
 "Mr. Thomas F. Demilt?" asked the 
 stranger. 
 
 " He s my sister," responded Miss Mary 
 Ann. Whereat the youths buried their faces 
 in the plates, as Mr. Thomas F., in spite of 
 many excellent qualities, bore a pathetic re 
 semblance to the title. 
 
 " I mean," continued the lady hurriedly, 
 " that I m his brother." 
 
158 Red Saunders 
 
 " By Jimmy, ma am ! " exclaimed Red. 
 " But yours is a strange family ! " 
 
 " What Miss Demilt wishes to say," cut in 
 Miss Doolittle with some asperity, " is that 
 Mr. Thomas Faulkenstone Demilt is her 
 brother." She did not add, as extreme candour 
 would have urged, " And I have some hope 
 remote, alas ! but there of becoming sister 
 to Miss Demilt myself." 
 
 "Thank you!" said Lettis. "Shall I be 
 able to see him this afternoon? " 
 
 " Oh, mercy, yes ! " said Miss Mary Ann. 
 " Tom is home all day." 
 
 " I can thank the kind fates for that," said 
 Lettis. " I had begun to think he was a 
 myth," and he fell in upon the tender meat 
 with the vigorous appetite of youth and a 
 good digestion. 
 
 Nathaniel Lettis was by no means a fool, 
 and he had experience in business, but the 
 mainspring of the young fellow was frank 
 ness, and in the course of the dinner he told 
 his errand. Mr. Demilt had written to his 
 firm explaining the advantages of starting a 
 straw-board factory in Fairfield. It was too 
 small a thing for the firm to be interested in, 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 159 
 
 but Lettis had a small capital which he wished 
 to invest in an enterprise of his own handling, 
 and it had struck him that there might be a 
 chance for independence; therefore he had 
 come to find out the lay of the land. 
 
 Red Saunders first-glance liking of the 
 stranger deepened as he told of his business. 
 The cowman did not blame people who took 
 devious ways and dealt in ambiguities, for his 
 experience in the world, which was pretty 
 fairly complete, had told him that craft was a 
 necessity for weak natures; nevertheless he 
 cared not for those who used it. 
 
 In his part of the West, a man would no 
 more think of giving a false impression of his 
 financial standing to alter his position in one s 
 regard, than he would wear corsets. Money 
 was of small consequence; its sequelse of less. 
 Men spoke openly of how much they made; 
 how they liked the job; how their claims were 
 paying; such matters were neutral ground of 
 chance conversation, as the weather is in the 
 East. The rapid and unpredictable changes 
 of fortune gave a tendency to make light of 
 
160 Red Saunders 
 
 one s present condition. A man would say 
 " I m busted " without any more feeling than 
 he would say " I have a cold." Now, in Fair- 
 field, that is not likely lonesome in that re 
 spect, one of the principal objects in life was 
 to conceal the poverty which would persist in 
 sticking its gaunt elbows through the cloth 
 of words spread over it. Red asked straight 
 forward questions shrewd ones, too seeing 
 that the other was one of his own kind and 
 would not resent it. 
 
 Lettis wanted nothing better than a chance 
 to expand on the subject. It was close to his 
 heart. He had been a subordinate about as 
 long as a proud and masterful young fellow 
 ought to be. Now he was quivering to try 
 his own strength, and seeing, for his part, that 
 his host was inspired with a genuine interest 
 and not curiosity, he gave him all the infor 
 mation in his power. 
 
 " But a plant like that is going to cost some 
 money, ain t it? " asked Red. 
 
 " Too much for me, I m afraid," replied 
 Lettis. " I have five thousand to put in, and 
 I suppose I could borrow the rest, but that s 
 saddling the business with too heavy charges 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 161 
 
 right in the beginning. Still, it may not be 
 as bad as I fancy." 
 
 Red drummed on the table, thinking. " I 
 wouldn t mind getting into a business of some 
 kind, as long as it was making things," he 
 said. " I don t hanker to keep store much 
 suppose I go along with you, when you 
 look up how much straw is raised and the 
 rest of it?" 
 
 "Would you?" cried the young fellow, 
 eagerly. " By George, sir, I wish you could 
 see your way clear to take hold of it. Could 
 you stand ten thousand, for instance? Ex 
 cuse the question, but I m so anxious over 
 this " 
 
 " Lord ! What s the harm of asking facts? " 
 said Red. Then with a gleam of genial pride, 
 " Ten thousand wouldn t break me by a durn 
 sight." 
 
 Lettis boyish face fairly glowed. " It was 
 my good angel made me stop in front of your 
 fence," he said. " I saw you all eating in here 
 and you looked so jolly, that I thought I d 
 stop, on the chance you might be the man I 
 was looking for; now I ll go right on and see 
 Mr. Demilt and find out what he wants to 
 do in the matter." 
 
Red Saunders 
 
 " Wait for the waggon and you can ride," 
 said Red. " Boy s gone home to see his dad 
 about working for me this afternoon; in the 
 meantime, if you re not too proud to take hold 
 and help us with this dod-ratted fence, I ll be 
 obliged to you." 
 
 " Bring on your fence ! I m ready," said 
 Lettis. 
 
 " Come on, boys ! " said Red, and the party 
 rose from the table. Later the waggon came 
 up. 
 
 " Well, good day, Lettis," said Red. " If 
 you can t get quarters anywhere else, come 
 on and help me hold the barn down." 
 
 "Do you sleep in the barn? Then I ll 
 come back sure. Tell you how it is, Mr. 
 Saunders. I ve been stuck up in a three-by- 
 nine office for four years nose held to A to 
 M, Western branch, and if I m not sick of 
 it there s no such thing as sickness; to get 
 out and breathe the fresh air, to see the 
 country, to be my own master! Well, sir, it 
 just makes me tremble to think of it. I hope 
 you find the straw-board what you want to 
 take up." 
 
 " I shouldn t wonder if it would be," an- 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 163 
 
 swered Red. " We ll make a corking team 
 to do business, Lettis, I can see that so 
 cautious and full of tricks, and all that." 
 
 The young man laughed and then sobered 
 down. " Of course, I know the w^hole thing 
 would look insane to most people," he said 
 sturdily, " but I ve been in business long 
 enough to see sharp gentlemen come to grief 
 in spite of their funny work. I don t believe 
 a man ll come to any more harm by believing 
 people mean well by him than he would by 
 working on the other tack." 
 
 " Good boy ! " said Red, slapping him on 
 the back. " You stick to that and you ll get 
 a satisfaction out of it that money couldn t 
 buy you. Another thing, you d never get a 
 cent out of me in this world if you were one 
 of these smooth young men. My eye teeth 
 are cut, son. for all I may seem easy. The 
 man that does me a trick has a chance for bad 
 luck, and you can bet on that." 
 
 "Lord! I believe you!" replied Lettis, 
 taking in the dimensions of his new friend. 
 " Well, good-bye for the present, Mr. Saun- 
 ders thank you for the dinner and still more 
 for the heart you have put into me." 
 
164 Red Saunders 
 
 At six o clock the fence was not quite fin 
 ished. 
 
 " If you ll stay with me until the thing s 
 done, I ll stand another dollar all around," 
 said Red. " I don t want it to stare me in 
 the face to-morrow." 
 
 The eldest spoke up. " We ll stay with you, 
 Mr. Saunders, but we don t want any money 
 for it, do we, fellers? " 
 
 " No," they replied in chorus, well meaning 
 what they said. 
 
 " Why, you re perfectly welcome to the 
 cash ! " said Red. 
 
 " And you re welcome to the work," re 
 torted the boy. " We re paid plenty as it 
 
 is." 
 
 " If that s the way you look at it, I m much 
 obliged to you," said Red, who would not 
 have discouraged such a feeling for anything. 
 He said to himself, " This don t seem much 
 like the kind of people I ve heard inhabited 
 these parts. Those boys are all right. Reckon 
 if you use people decent they ll play up to 
 your lead, no matter what country it is." 
 
 At seven thirty the fence was done, gor 
 geous in a coat of fresh red paint, and the 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 165 
 
 hands departed, each with a slice of Miss 
 Mattie s chocolate cake, a thing to make the 
 heathen gods feel contemptuous of ambrosia. 
 
 They went straight to the blacksmith s shop, 
 where they were anxiously expected. 
 
 " Good Lord ! " he said a little later, " if you 
 fellers will talk one at a time, p r aps I can 
 make out what s happened. Now, Sammy, 
 sp ose you do the speaking? " 
 
 Whereupon Sammy faithfully chronicled 
 the events of the day. The boys had behaved 
 themselves as if there was nothing out of the 
 common happening while they were with Red, 
 being held up by a sense of pride, but natur 
 ally, the splendid physique of the cowman, his 
 picturesque attire, his abandoned way of scat 
 tering money around and the air of a frolic 
 he had managed to impart to a day s hard 
 work, all had effect on imagination, and the 
 boys were very much excited. 
 
 " I d like to know how many Injuns that 
 feller s killed ! " piped up the youngest. " My ! 
 he could grab hold of a man and wring his 
 neck like a chicken." 
 
 " Aw, tst ! " remonstrated the blacksmith. 
 But the elders stood by the younker this time. 
 
166 Red Saunders 
 
 "Yes, he could, Mr. Farrel!" said they. 
 " You ought to seen him when he rolled up 
 his sleeves ! He s got an arm on him like the 
 hind leg of a horse, and he uses an ax like a 
 tack-hammer. He got mad once when he 
 pounded his thumb, and busted the post 
 square in two with one crack." 
 
 " Well, he looks like a husky man," ad 
 mitted the blacksmith. " But why didn t you 
 boys take the extry dollar when he made the 
 offer? He pears to know what he was about 
 and looks kind of foolish to say no to it." 
 
 There was a moment s silence. " We 
 wanted to show him we were just as good 
 as the folks he knew," explained the eldest, 
 somewhat shame-facedly. 
 
 The blacksmith straightened himself. 
 " Quite right, too," said he. " We air, when 
 you come to that." A little pride is a won 
 derful tonic. Each unit of that gathering felt 
 himself the better for the display of it. 
 
 r 
 
 In the meantime, Red was repairing the 
 ravages of the day opposite Miss Mattie at 
 a supper table which was bountifully spread. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 167 
 
 Miss Mattie put two and two together, and 
 found they meant a larger sum of eatables 
 than she had hitherto felt sufficient, and with 
 a little pang at the thought of the inadequacy 
 of her first offering to her cousin, provided 
 such fatness as the land of Fairfield boasted. 
 
 They discussed the events of the day with 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " My ! " said Miss Mattie. " You do things 
 wholesale while you are about it, Will, don t 
 you?" 
 
 Red smiled in pleased acknowledgment. 
 " I m no peanut stand, old lady," said he. " I 
 like to see things move." 
 
 Then Miss Mattie broached the question 
 she had been hovering around ever since her 
 guests had taken their leave. 
 
 " Do you think you ll really go into busi 
 ness with that young man who was here to 
 dinner? " she asked. 
 
 " Why, I think it s kinder likely," said Red. 
 
 " But you don t know anything about him, 
 Will," she continued, putting the weak side 
 of her desire forward, in order to rest more 
 securely if that stood the test. 
 
 " No, I don t," agreed Red. " But here s 
 
i68 Red Saunders 
 
 the way I feel about that : I want to be doing 
 something according to my size; besides that, 
 it would be a good thing for this place if some 
 kind of a live doings was to start here. All 
 right, that s my side of it. Now, as far as 
 not knowing that young feller s concerned, I 
 might think I knew him from cyclone-cellar 
 to roof-tree, and he might do me to a crowded 
 house. My idea is that life s a good deal like 
 faro you know how that is." 
 
 " I remember about his not letting the peo 
 ple go, but I m afraid I don t know my Bible 
 as well as I ought to, Will," apologised Miss 
 Mattie, rather astonished at his allusion. 
 
 "Let the people go? Bible?" cried Red, 
 laying down his knife and fork, still more 
 astonished at her allusion. " Will you kindly 
 tell me what that has to do with faro-bank? 
 Girl, one of us is full of ghost songs, and far, 
 far off the reservation. What in the name 
 of Brigham Young s off-ox are you talking 
 about?" 
 
 " Why, you spoke of Pharaoh, Will, and I 
 can remember about his holding the children 
 of Israel captive, and the plagues, but I really 
 don t see just how it applies." 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 169 
 
 " Oh ! " said Red, as a great light broke 
 upon him. " Oh, I see what you re thinking 
 about. The old boy who corralled the Jews, 
 and made em work for the first and last time 
 in their history, and they filled him full of 
 fleas, and darkness, and all kinds of unpleasant 
 experiences to break even? Well, I was not 
 talking about him at all. My faro is a game 
 played with a lay-out and a pack of cards and 
 a little tin box that you ought to look at care 
 fully before you put any money on the board, 
 to see that it ain t arranged for dealing sec 
 onds; and there s a lookout and a case keeper 
 and well, I don t believe I could tell you just 
 how it works, but some day I ll make a lay 
 out and we ll have some fun. It s a bully 
 game, but I say, it s a great deal like life 
 the splits go to the dealer; that is to say, that 
 if the king comes out to win and lose at the 
 same time, you lose anyhow, see?" 
 
 " No," said Miss Mattie, truthfully. 
 
 Red thrust his fingers through his hair and 
 sighed. " I m afraid I know too much about 
 it to explain it clearly," he replied. " But 
 what I mean is this: some people try to play 
 system at faro, and they last about as quick 
 
170 Red Saunders 
 
 as those that don t. I always put the limit on 
 the card that s handiest, and the game don t 
 owe me a cent; as a matter of fact, some of 
 the tin-horns used to wear a pained expres 
 sion when they saw me coming across the 
 room. I ve split em from stem to keelson 
 more than once, and never used a copper in 
 my life played em wide open, all the time. 
 Now," and he brought his fist down on the 
 table, " I m going to play that young man 
 wide open, and I ll bet you I don t lose by 
 him neither. He looks as honest as a mastiff 
 pup, for all he dresses kind of nice. I might 
 just as well try him on the fly, as to go lunk- 
 heading around and get stuck anyhow, with 
 the unsatisfactory addition of feeling that I 
 was a fool, as well as confiding." 
 
 Most of the argument had been ancient 
 Aryan to Miss Mattie, but the ring of the 
 voice and the little she understood made the 
 tenor plain. A sudden moisture gathered in 
 her eyes as she said, " You re too good and 
 honest and generous a man to distrust any 
 body: that s what I think, Will." 
 
 " Mattie, I wish you wouldn t talk like 
 that," said he, in an injured voice. " It ain t 
 hardly respectable." 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 171 
 
 After which there was a silence for a short 
 time. Then said Miss Mattie, " Do you think 
 you could content yourself here, Will, after 
 all the things you ve seen? " 
 
 Red brightened at the change of topic. 
 " I ll tell you how that is : if I hadn t any 
 capital, and had to work here as a poor man, 
 I don t believe I d take the trouble to try 
 and live I d smother; but having that pleas 
 ant little crop of long greens securely planted 
 in the bank where the wild time doesn t grow, 
 and thusly being able to cavort around as it 
 sweetly pleases me, why, I like the country. 
 It s sport to take hold of a place like this, 
 that s only held together by its suspenders, 
 and try to make a real live man s town out of 
 it." 
 
 Miss Mattie drew a deep breath of relief. 
 " You came like the hero in a fairy story, 
 Will, and I was afraid you d go away like 
 one," she said. 
 
 He reached across the table and patted her 
 hand. " You d have had to gone, too," said 
 he. " The family ll stick together." 
 
 She thanked him in a soft little voice. 
 " Dear me ! " she murmured. " It does seem 
 that you ve been here a year. Will." 
 
172 Red Saunders 
 
 " Never was told that I was such slow com 
 pany before." 
 
 " You know perfectly well that that isn t 
 what I mean." 
 
 " Well, you ll have to put up with me for 
 a while, whatever I am; insomuch as I m to 
 be a manufacturer and the Lord knows what. 
 Then some day I m going to have an awful 
 hankering for the land where the breeze blows, 
 and then we ll take a shute for open prairie. 
 It s cruelty to animals for me to straddle 
 a horse now, yet there s where I m at home, 
 and I m going to buy me a cayuse of some 
 kind say, I ought to get at that; if I m go 
 ing around with Lettis I want to ride a horse 
 know anybody that s got a real live horse 
 for sale, Mattie? No? Well, I ll stop in and 
 see the lady that deals the mail I ll bet you 
 what that woman doesn t know about what s 
 going on in this camp will never get into his 
 tory be back right away." 
 
 Said he to the post-mistress, " My name s 
 Saunders, ma am cousin to Miss Mattie. I 
 just stopped in to find out if you knew any 
 one that had a riding horse for sale; horse 
 with four good legs that ll carry me all day, 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 173 
 
 and about the rest I don t care a frolicsome 
 cuss." 
 
 The post-mistress replied at such length, 
 and with such velocity that Red was amazed. 
 He gathered from her remarks that a certain 
 Mr. Upton had an animal, purchased of a 
 chance horse dealer, which it was altogether 
 likely he would dispose of, as the first time 
 he had tried the brute it went up into the 
 air all sorts of ways, and caused the owner 
 to perform such tricks before high Heaven 
 as made the angels weep. 
 
 " Where does this man live? " asked Red, 
 with a kindling eye. 
 
 " He lives about three miles out on the 
 Peterville road, but he s in town to-night 
 visitin Miss Alders Johnny ! " to a small boy 
 who had been following the conversation, his 
 wide-open eyes bent on Red, and his mouth 
 and wiggling bare toes expressing their de 
 light in vigorous contortions, " Johnny, you 
 run tell Mr. Upton there s a gentleman in 
 here wants to see him about buying a 
 horse." 
 
 " Don t disturb him if he s visiting," remon 
 strated Red. 
 
174 Red Saunders 
 
 " He won t call that disturbing him," re 
 plied the post-mistress, with a shrill laugh. 
 " He ll be here in no time." 
 
 She was a true prophet. It seemed as if 
 the boy had barely left the store when he 
 returned with a stoop-shouldered, solemn- 
 faced man, who had a brush-heap of chin- 
 whisker decorating the lower part of his face. 
 After greetings and the explanation of the 
 errand, Mr. Upton stroked his chin-whisker 
 regretfully. " Young man," said he, " I m in 
 a pecooliar and onpleasant position; there s 
 mighty feyew things I wouldn t do in a hawse 
 trade, but I draw the line on murder. That 
 there hawse ll kill you, just s sure as you re 
 fool enough to put yerself on his back. I ll 
 sell you a real hawse mighty reasonable " 
 
 " I ll risk him," cut in Red. " Could you 
 lead him down here in the morning? " 
 
 " Yes, indeedy he s a perfect lady of a 
 horse to lead you can pick up airy foot 
 climb all over him in fac , s long s you don t 
 try to ride him or hitch him up>. If you do 
 that well, young man, you ll get a pretty fair 
 idee of what is meant by one of the demons 
 of hell." 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 175 
 
 " What kind of saddle have you got? " 
 
 " One of them outlandish Western affairs 
 that the scamp threw in with the animal 
 you see, I thought I d take up horse-back 
 riding for my health; I was in bed three weeks 
 after my fust try." 
 
 " I ll go you seventy-five dollars for the out 
 fit, just as you got it chaps, taps, and latigo 
 straps, if you ll have it in front of my house 
 at nine o clock to-morrow." 
 
 " All right, young man all right sir now 
 don t blame me if you air took home shoes 
 fust." 
 
 " Nary," said Red. " Come and see the 
 fun." 
 
 " I shorely will," replied the old gentleman. 
 
IV 
 
 AT nine the next morning there was a 
 crowd in front of the house. 
 
 " What have you been doing now, Will? " 
 asked Miss Mattie with prescience. 
 
 " Only buying a horse, Mattie," returned 
 Red soberly. " Seems to be quite an event 
 here." 
 
 "Is that all?" 
 
 "That s all, so help me Bob!" Red had 
 a suspicion that there would be objections if 
 she knew what kind of a horse it was. 
 
 Lettis, who had roomed with Red over 
 night, was in the secret. 
 
 The horse arrived, leading very quietly, as 
 Mr. Upton had said. It was a buckskin, fat 
 and hearty from long resting. Nothing could 
 be more docile than the pensive lower lip, and 
 the meek curve of the neck; nothing could 
 be more contradictory than the light of its 
 eye; a brooding, baleful fire, quietly biding its 
 time. 
 
 " Scatter, friends ! " cried Red, as he put his 
 176 
 
The Chinook Struck F airfield 177 
 
 foot in the stirrup. " Don t be too proud to 
 take to timber ! " 
 
 He swung over as lightly as a trapeze per 
 former, deftly catching his other stirrup. The 
 horse groaned and shivered. 
 
 " Don t let him get his head down ! Gol- 
 ding it ! Don t you ! " screamed Mr. Upton 
 in wild excitement. 
 
 Red threw the bridle over the horn of the 
 saddle. " Go it, you devil ! " cried he. And 
 they went. Six feet straight in the air, first 
 pass. The crowd scattered, as requested. 
 They hurried at that. Red gave the brute 
 the benefit of his two hundred and a half as 
 they touched earth, and his opponent grunted 
 when he felt the jar of it. They rocketted 
 and ricochetted; they were here, they were 
 there, they were everywhere, the buckskin 
 squealing like a pig, and fighting with every 
 ounce of the strength that lay in his steel 
 strung legs; the dust rose in clouds; Red s hat 
 flew in no time; he was yelling like a maniac, 
 and the crowd was yelling like more maniacs. 
 Now and then a glimpse of the rider s face 
 could be caught, transported with joy of the 
 struggle; then the dust would roll up and hide 
 
178 Red Saunders 
 
 everything. No one was more pleased at the 
 spectacle than the blacksmith. He was caper 
 ing in the middle of the road, waving a hand- 
 hammer and shouting " Hold him down! 
 Hold him DOWN ! Why do you let him jump 
 up like that? If / was on that horse Pd show 
 you ! Aw, there it is again Stop him ! Stop 
 him!" 
 
 At this point the buckskin made three 
 enormous leaps for the blacksmith, as though 
 he had understood. The smith cast dignity 
 to the winds and went over the nearest fence 
 in the style that little boys, when coasting, 
 call " stomach-whopper " or words to that 
 effect and took his next breath two minutes 
 later. He might have saved the labour, as the 
 horse wheeled on one foot, and pulled fairly 
 for the picket fence opposite. Red regretted 
 the absence of herders as the sharp pickets 
 loomed near. It was no time for regrets. 
 The horse was over with but little damage 
 a slight scratch, enough to rouse his tem 
 per, however, for he whaled away with both 
 hind feet, and parts of the fence landed a 
 hundred feet off. Then a dash through an 
 ancient grape arbor, and they were lost to 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 179 
 
 view of the road. Some reckless small boys 
 scampered after, but the majority preferred 
 to trace the progress of the conflict by the 
 aboriginal " Yenvhoops " that came from 
 somewhere in behind the old houses. 
 
 " There they go ! " piped up a shrill voice 
 of the small-boy brigade. " Right through 
 Mis Davisses hen coops! you ought to see 
 them hens FLY ! " The triumphant glee is 
 beyond the reach of words. Simultaneous 
 squawking verified the remark, as well as a 
 feminine voice, urging a violent protest, cut 
 short by a scream of terror, and the slam of 
 a door. The inhabitants of " Mis Davisses " 
 house instantly appeared through the front 
 door, seeking the street. 
 
 To show the erraticalness of fate, no sooner 
 had they reached the road, than Red s mount 
 cleared the parapet of the bridge in a single 
 leap a beautiful leap and came down upon 
 them in the road. 
 
 All got out of the way but a three-year- 
 old, forgotten in the excitement. Upon this 
 small lad, fallen flat in the road, bore the 
 powerful man and horse. Then there were 
 frantic cries of warning. Fifty feet between 
 
180 Red Saunders 
 
 the youngster and those mangling hoofs 
 twenty five! the crowd gasped they were 
 blotted together! Not so. A mighty hand 
 had snatched the boy away in that instant of 
 time. He was safe and very indignant in a 
 howling, huddled heap in the ditch by the 
 roadside, but alas, for horse and rider! The 
 buckskin was not used to such feats, and 
 when Red s weight was thrown to the side 
 for the reach he missed his stride, struck his 
 feet together, and down they went, while the 
 foot-deep dust sprang into the air like an ex 
 plosion. 
 
 Miss Mattie rushed to the scene of the 
 accident, followed by everybody. Young 
 Lettis, equally frightened, was close beside 
 her. 
 
 " Oh, Will ! Are you killed? " she cried. 
 
 And then a voice devoid of any signs of 
 weakness, but loaded to the breaking point 
 with wrath, told in such language as had never 
 been heard in Fairfield that the owner was 
 still much alive. 
 
 " Run away, Mattie ! Run away and let 
 me cuss ! " shrieked Red. Miss Mattie col 
 lapsed into the arms of Lettis. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 181 
 
 The dust settled enough so that the anx 
 ious villagers could see horse and man; the 
 former resting easily, as if he had had enough 
 athletics for one day, and the latter sitting 
 in the road. Neither showed any intention 
 of rising. 
 
 " What s the matter, Mr. Saunders, are you 
 hurt? " inquired the fussy post-mistress. 
 
 " Please go way, ma am," said Red, waving 
 his arm. 
 
 " I m sure you re hurt I m perfectly sure 
 you re hurt," she persisted, holding her 
 ground. " Now, do tell us what can possibly 
 be the matter with you? " 
 
 " Very well," returned the exasperated cow- 
 puncher, " I will. My pants, ma am, have 
 suffered in this turn-up, and they re now in 
 a condition to make my appearance in polite 
 society difficult, if not impossible; now please 
 go way and somebody fetch me a horse 
 blanket" 
 
 It is regrettable that the discomfiture of 
 the post-mistress was received with undis 
 guised hilarity. The blanket was produced, 
 and Red stalked off in Indian dignity, marred 
 by a limp in his left leg, for he had come upon 
 
i8i Red Saunders 
 
 Mother Earth with a force which made itself 
 felt through all that foot of soft dust. 
 
 "Bring that durn-fool horse along," he 
 called over his shoulder. Buckskin rose and 
 followed his owner. There was no light in 
 his eye now; he looked thoughtful. He, too, 
 limped, and there was a trickle of blood down 
 his nose. Verily it had been a hard fought 
 field. 
 
 r 
 
 As both men were anxious to see the lay 
 of the land as soon as possible, Red took 
 his place in the waggon that day, after the 
 damages were repaired, content to wait until 
 his leg was less sore for horseback riding. 
 
 There followed a busy two weeks for them. 
 Mr. Demilt had some money he wished to 
 put into the enterprise, but his most valuable 
 assistance was, of course, his thorough knowl 
 edge of the resources of the country. 
 
 They found an admirable site for the mill, 
 in an old stone barn, which had stood the 
 ravages of desolation almost unimpaired. 
 Red s mining experience told him that the 
 creek could easily be flumed to the barn, and 
 as that was the only objection of the others 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 183 
 
 to this location, they wrote the owner of the 
 property for a price. They were astonished 
 when they received the figures. It had come 
 by inheritance to a man to whom it was a 
 white elephant of the most exasperating sort, 
 and he was glad to get rid of it for almost a 
 song. They were a jubilant three at the news. 
 It saved the cost of building a mill, and in 
 cluding that, the price was as low per acre 
 as any land they could have obtained. Red 
 closed the bargain instantly. 
 
 Lettis part of the business was chiefly to 
 arrange for the disposal of their product, and 
 when he explained to his partners what he 
 could reasonably hope to do in that line, the 
 affair lost its last tint of unreality, and became 
 a good proposition, for Lettis had an excellent 
 business acquaintance, who would be glad to 
 deal with the straightforward young fellow. 
 
 The night after the signing of the deeds, 
 Red said to Miss Mattie, " We ought to have 
 a stockholders dinner to-morrow night, Mat- 
 tie. If you could hire that scow r -built girl, 
 who wears her hair scrambled, to come in and 
 give you a lift, would you feel equal to it? " 
 
 " You always put it that I m doing you a 
 
184 Red Saunders 
 
 great favour in such things, Will, but you 
 know perfectly well there s nothing I d rather 
 do," replied Miss Mattie, with a dimpling 
 smile. " However, it adds to the pleasure of 
 it to have it put in that way, so I won t com 
 plain. I ll just have my supper first, and then 
 you men can talk over your business undis 
 turbed." 
 
 " You will not you ll eat with the rest of 
 
 us." 
 
 Yes, but you stockholders" The word 
 had an import to Miss Mattie; a something, 
 if not regal, at least a kinship to the king. 
 Under her democracy lay a respect for the 
 founded institution; impersonal; an integral 
 part of the law of the State; in fact, a minor 
 sovereignty within an empire. 
 
 "Stockholder yourself!" retorted Red. 
 " Don t you call me names." 
 
 " What do you mean, Will?" asked Miss 
 Mattie, with wide-opened eyes. 
 
 " I mean you re a stockholder as good as 
 anybody you ve got half my stack. Now, 
 hold on ! Just listen ! This is a queer run, 
 Mattie, from the regulation point of view, this 
 company of ours; I know enough about fillin 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 185 
 
 and backin* to know that you ought to have 
 seen the pryin , and pokin , and nosin 1 around 
 them Boston men did before they took holt 
 of the Chantay Seeche and made it a stock 
 company! One feller was the ablest durn 
 fool I ever come acrosst. I used to let on I 
 didn t savvey anything about it. Now, ex 
 plain to me/ says I to him. You say you 
 have so many shares of them stock, waving 
 my hand to a bunch of critters in the dis 
 tance. What part do you take? I mean, 
 what s your share of each animal, and does 
 the last man get the hoofs and the tail? 
 Oh ! you don t understand, says he. I ll 
 explain it to you. So he starts in to tell me 
 that stock didn t necessarily mean beef crit 
 ters, and a lot more things, whilst old man 
 Ferguson, who was putting the deal through, 
 stood listening and chewing his teeth, think 
 ing I was going to give our friend the frolic 
 some hee-hee at the wind-up. But I stood 
 solemn, and never even drew a smile, for fear 
 of queering Ferguson. Well. That s the 
 proper way to start a company; make it as 
 dreary and long-winded as possible. We 
 ain t done that, and perhaps we ll go broke 
 
i86 Red Saunders 
 
 for breaking the rules, and then your stock 
 won t be worth a cuss; so don t you get ex 
 cited about it. I wanted the Saunders family 
 to be represented. Pretty soon the old lad 
 with the nose will be around, and you ll have 
 a chance to read about the parties of the first 
 part/ and second parts of the party and 
 aforesaids and behindsaids and the rest 
 of the yappi them lawyers swing so that 
 honest men won t know what the devil they re 
 up to." 
 
 " Oh, Will ! How can I ever thank you ! " 
 cried Miss Mattie, her eyes filling. It seemed 
 a great and responsible position to the gentle 
 lady to be a stockholder in the corporation. 
 It wasn t the monetary value of the thing; it 
 was the pride of place. 
 
 " If you don t know how, don t try," re 
 turned Red. " You give the other three 
 stockholders a good feed to-morrow and the 
 thanks will be up to you. Hello ! There s 
 the old lad now ! " as a trumpet blast rang 
 out from the front porch. " It must take 
 some practise to blow your nose like that. 
 I ve heard jackasses that could not bray in 
 the same class with that little old gent come 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 187 
 
 in. Come in! You needn t sound the rally 
 again." 
 
 Thus adjured the lawyer made his entrance, 
 and Miss Mattie became in due and involved 
 course of law a stockholder in the Fairfield 
 Strawboard Mfg. Co. 
 
 Fairfield rose to activity like a very small 
 giant refreshed. Teams and their heavy loads 
 kept the respectable dust in constant com 
 motion. A grist mill was added to the in 
 tended plant, thus offering an inducement to 
 the farmer to raise grain, and incidentally 
 straw, " So we can ketch em on both ends, 
 too," as Red put it. 
 
 The time seemed like enchantment to Miss 
 Mattie. As a bringer of the tidings, and a 
 stockholder in the company, she had risen to 
 be a person of importance, with the result 
 that she was even more modestly shy than 
 before, although in her heart she liked it; but 
 more delightful yet was the spirit of holiday 
 activity which inspired and pervaded the 
 place. 
 
 Red had insisted on operating on the lines 
 that are laid down with railroad spikes in the 
 Western communities; to patronise home in- 
 
i88 Red Saunders 
 
 dustries as much as possible. Therefore the 
 machinery orders went through Mr. Parrel, 
 the blacksmith, initiating that worthy man 
 into the mysteries of making money without 
 doing anything for it, which seemed little less 
 than a miracle to him. Everything that could 
 be bought through local people was obtained 
 in that way. It cost a trifle more, but it 
 brought more money into the place, and en 
 abled the villagers to partake of the enliven- 
 ment, without the feeling that it was a Bar 
 mecide feast. The post-mistress furnished the 
 paint, and it is painful to add that she tried 
 to furnish a number three paint for a number 
 one price, arguing that she was a poor, lone 
 woman, struggling through an uncharitable 
 world and that the increased profit would do 
 her considerable good a view which Red did 
 not share. He would willingly have made her 
 a present of the difference, but he did not in 
 the least intend to be choused out of it by 
 man nor woman. They had a very funny de 
 bate in private, wherein the feminine tried to 
 dominate the masculine principle by sheer 
 volubility and found to its disgust that the 
 method didn t work. Red listened most re- 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 189 
 
 specttully and always replied, "Yes ma am, 
 but we don t want that paint. Get us some 
 good paint bully old paint with stick um in 
 it this stuff is like whitewash, only feebler. 
 We re going to put on a swell front up at the 
 mill, and we ve got to have the right thing." 
 And at last the post-mistress said that she 
 would, her respect for the ex-cowpuncher 
 having risen noticeably in the meantime. 
 
THE work on the mill was pushed, and 
 in spite of the usual amount of unfore 
 seen delays, it was ready for work by the 
 latter part of September. The official open 
 ing was set for the twenty-seventh Miss 
 Mattie s birthday and the village of Fairfield 
 was invited to a picnic to be held at the mill 
 in honor of the occasion. It is needless to 
 say that the Fairfield Strawboard Mfg. Co. 
 did the thing up in shape. Waggons loaded 
 with straw, and drawn by four-horse teams, 
 went the rounds of the village, collecting the 
 guests. It is doubtful if Fairfield was ever 
 more surprised than at the realisation of how 
 much there was of her using the pronoun 
 out of respect to the majority " when she 
 was bunched," as Red said. You would not 
 have believed that straggling, lonesome-look 
 ing place held so many people. As Red could 
 discover no means in the town s resources to 
 provide a meal for three hundred people it 
 was necessarily a basket party, which struck 
 190 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 191 
 
 Mr. Saunders as being grievously like a Swede 
 treat. He made up for it in a measure by 
 having barrels of lemonade and cider on tap 
 at the grounds stronger beverages being 
 barred and by hiring a quartette of strings 
 " clear from town." 
 
 At half-past two on a resplendent but hot 
 September afternoon the caravan started for 
 the mill grounds, the women dressed in the 
 most un-picnicky costumes imaginable, and 
 the men ostentatiously at ease in their store 
 clothes. Everyone was in the best of spirits, 
 keen for the excitement and pleasure that was 
 sure to mark the occasion. 
 
 Red rode old Buckskin, who had suc 
 cumbed to the inevitable, and only "jumped 
 around a little," as Red put it, on being 
 mounted. It was pretty lively " jumping 
 around," but perhaps Mr. Saunders found 
 some satisfaction in sitting perfectly at his 
 ease, smoking his cigarette, while Buck 
 jumped and Fairfield admired. And, at any 
 rate, Buck had legs of iron, and the wind of 
 a locomotive, carrying Red all day, and will 
 ing to kick at anything which bothered him 
 when night came. He was a splendid beast 
 
192 Red Saunders 
 
 through and through, from forelock to tail- 
 tip, but he had learned who was his master 
 and obeyed him accordingly. 
 
 It was a five mile ride, mostly under the 
 shade of fine old trees. The road wound 
 around the hills; here and there a break in 
 the arboreal border showed views of rolling 
 country, well-shaped and pleasing, winding 
 up grassy slopes in groves of verdure. Of 
 course most of the freshness of leaf was past, 
 yet the modest gray-green gave a silvery 
 sheen to the landscape that brought it into 
 unity. 
 
 One member of the party felt that his heart 
 was very full as he looked at it. That was 
 Lettis. " Blast the old office ! " he kept say 
 ing to himself. " Blast its six dingy win 
 dows, and the clock at the end ! Doesn t this 
 look good, and doesn t it smell good, dust 
 and all? " and then he d howl at the horses 
 in sheer exuberance of good feeling, making 
 the mild old brutes put a better foot of it 
 to the front. 
 
 Red cantered up beside his waggon. " Well, 
 Lettis," he said, " here we go for the open 
 ing overture, with the full strength of the 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 193 
 
 company we re great people this day, ain t 
 we? " And the big man smiled like a pleased 
 big boy. 
 
 "Oh, what a bully old fellow you are!" 
 thought Lettis as he looked at him. Lettis 
 was thinking of other qualities than flesh, but 
 the physical Red Saunders on horseback was 
 deserving of a glance from anybody; the 
 massive figure so well poised; the clear cut, 
 proud profile; the shapely head with its crown 
 of red-gold hair; the easy grace of him by 
 virtue of his strength it would be a remark 
 able crowd in which Chanta Seechee Red 
 couldn t pass for a man. He was every inch 
 of that from the ground up. 
 
 Lettis had come to bow down to him in 
 adoration, with all an affectionate boy s wor 
 ship. To those eyes Red was just right, in 
 every particular. Likewise to Miss Mattie, 
 who even now was filling her eyes with him, 
 from behind the vantage of a broad-brimmed 
 straw hat. 
 
 At last the whole party disembarked at the 
 flat before the mill, and made ready for the 
 official starting of the machinery. The big 
 doors were thrown open, so that the company 
 
194 Red Saunders 
 
 could see within while resting outside in the 
 shade, and under the cooling influence of 
 what breeze there was. The mill was officially 
 started. Red climbed the bank to the flume, 
 and raised the gate. The crowd cheered as 
 the imprisoned waters leapt to freedom with a 
 hollow roar, raising in pitch as the penstock 
 filled and the wheels began to go round. 
 Speech was called for, and the vigorously 
 protesting Red forced to the front by his 
 former friends, Demilt and Lettis. Thus be 
 trayed by those he trusted, Red made the 
 best of it. 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens ! " 
 said he. " The mill is now open to all comers. 
 We hope to make this thing a success; we 
 hope to see every horny-handed, hump-backed 
 farmer in the country rosin the soles of his 
 moccasins, and shove his plough through twice 
 as much ground as he ever did before, and if 
 he comes here with his plunder, we ll give 
 him a square shake. We ll pay him as much 
 as we dast, and not let him in on the ground 
 floor, so he can crawl out through the coal 
 hole, as is sometimes done. Now, everybody 
 run away and have a good time, for I don t 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 195 
 
 like to talk this yappi any more than you like 
 to hear it. Kola geus ! By-bye ! " 
 
 It was a very successful picnic. They spent 
 the afternoon in wandering around in the 
 usual picnic fashion, developing appetites, 
 until it occurred to Red to liven the perform 
 ance by showing them the art of roping, as 
 practiced upon an old cow found in the woods. 
 As a spectacle it was a failure. The com 
 bined efforts of all the hooting small boys 
 could not make that cow run; she even 
 stretched her neck toward Red, as though 
 saying, " Hurry up with your foolishness. I 
 have a cud to chew and can t stand here idle 
 all day." So Red galloped by and threw the 
 noose over her head as an exhibition of how 
 the thing was done, rather than how it ought 
 to be done. Nevertheless, picnic parties are 
 not hypercritical in the matter of amusement, 
 and the feat received three encores. The last 
 time he missed his cast through overconfi- 
 dence. Whereat the old cow tossed her head 
 and tail in the air, and tore off at an elephan 
 tine gallop, with a bawl that sounded to Red 
 mightily like derision. 
 
 " Burned if she ain t laughing at me ! " he 
 
196 Red Saunders 
 
 cried. But as a matter of fact, it was a hornet 
 and its unmistakable sting that injected this 
 activity into her system. 
 
 It was all very pleasant to Miss Mattie, as 
 one s first picnic in many years should be. 
 She enjoyed the crisp green sod, the great 
 trees standing around, park-like, with the sun 
 light falling between their shade like brilliant 
 tatters of cloth-of-gold; while from the near 
 distance came the tiny shouting of cool waters. 
 They had a camp-fire at night, making the 
 moonlight still more mysterious and remote 
 by contrast. The quartette of strings played 
 for the ears of those who cared to listen and 
 for the legs of those who chose to take chances 
 on tripping their light fantastic toes over tree 
 roots in the grass. 
 
 Red loved music, and he loved the night. 
 The poetic side of his memories of watching 
 the Dipper swing around Polaris, while he 
 sung the cows to sleep, came back to him. 
 In his mind he saw the vast prairie roll on to 
 infinity; saw the mountains stand out, a world 
 of white peaks, rising from a sea of darkness. 
 Again he heard the plaintive shrilling of an 
 Indian whistle, or the song of the lad down 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 197 
 
 creek made tuneful and airy by the charm of 
 distance. 
 
 " Having a good time, Mattie? " he asked, 
 with a smile. 
 
 " The best I ever had, Will," she answered, 
 smiling back unsteadily. Poor lady ! The size 
 of an occasion is so many standards, whether 
 the standard be inches or feet, or miles. Miss 
 Mattie s events had been measured in hun- 
 dredths of an inch, and it took a good many 
 of them to cover so small an action as a suc 
 cessful picnic on a beautiful night. Her eyes 
 were humid; her mouth smiled and drooped 
 at the corners alternately. Red felt her hap 
 piness with a keen sympathy, and as he looked 
 at her, suddenly she changed in his eyes. 
 Just what the difference was he could not 
 have told; nor whether it was in her or in 
 him. A sudden access of feeling, undefin- 
 able, unplaceable, but strong, possessed him. 
 There is a critical temperature in the life of 
 a man, when no amount of pressure can ever 
 make the more expansive emotions assume 
 the calmer form of friendship. There was 
 something in Miss Mattie s eye which had 
 warmed Red to that degree, but he didn t 
 
198 Red Saunders 
 
 know it. He only knew that he wanted to 
 sit rather unnecessarily close beside her, and 
 that he would be sorry when it came time to 
 go home. And he was very silent. 
 
 During the drive back to the house he 
 spoke in monosyllables; he went straight to 
 the barn with Lettis afterward, and made no 
 attempt to take the usual frank and hearty 
 good-night kiss. 
 
 " You re as glum as an oyster ! " said Lettis, 
 when they reached their quarters. " What s 
 the matter, old man?" 
 
 " I don t know, Let ; I feel kind of quiet, 
 somehow." 
 
 " Sick? Or something go wrong? " 
 
 " No; nothing of the kind; it s just sort of 
 an attack of stillness, but I feel durn good." 
 
 Lettis laughed. " If it wasn t you, Red, I d 
 say you were in love," he said. 
 
 It was well the barn was dark; or he would 
 have seen a change wonderful to behold come 
 over the ex-puncher s face. " The lad has 
 hit it," he said to himself in astonishment; 
 aloud he grunted " hunh " scornfully, and 
 aroused himself for an unnecessary joke or 
 two. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 199 
 
 Miss Mattie had noticed the " attack of 
 stillness " and immediately tried to fasten the 
 blame upon herself. What had she done? 
 She couldn t recall anything. She remem 
 bered she had said something about the way 
 his hair looked with the moon shining on it; 
 perhaps he had taken offence at that; the re 
 mark was entirely complimentary, but some 
 times people are touchy about such things; 
 still that was not the least like Cousin Will. 
 She must have said or done something though 
 what could it be? Oh what a pitiful mem 
 ory that could not recollect an injury done 
 to one s best friend! She tossed and won 
 dered over it for a long time before at length 
 she fell asleep. 
 
 Red also looked up at the roof, and took 
 account of stock. His face was radiant in the 
 dark. "If I could only pull that off!" he 
 thought. " I must seem an awful rough cuss 
 to her, though; all right for a cousin, but it s 
 different when you come to the other propo 
 sition. My Jiminy ! I ll take a chance in the 
 morning and find out anyhow ! " said he, and, 
 eased in mind by the decision of action, he 
 too shook hands with Morpheus and was 
 presently dreaming. 
 
200 Red Saunders 
 
 It had never occurred to Red Saunders 
 that he was afraid of anybody. He even 
 chuckled, when he got Lettis out of the way 
 with a plausible excuse the next morning. 
 Then he strode briskly into the house, his 
 question on his lips in a plump out-and-out 
 form. 
 
 Miss Mattie looked at him with her slow 
 smile. " What is it? " she asked. 
 
 Red swallowed his question whole. " I I 
 wanted a little hot water to shave with," said 
 he. Then a fury took hold of him. " What 
 the devil am I lying like this for? " he thought. 
 He exhorted himself to go on and say what 
 he had to say like a man; but the other Red 
 Saunders refused to do anything of the sort. 
 He took the cup of hot water most abjectly 
 and fled from the house. He had to shave 
 then, and in his hurry and indignation he 
 turned the operation into a clinic. " Oh 
 Jiminy ! Look at that ! " he cried, as the 
 razor opened up another part of the subject. 
 " There s a slit an inch long ! If I keep on 
 at this gait, I won t have face enough to say 
 good morning, let alone what I want to do. 
 What ails me? What ails me? Why should 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 201 
 / 
 
 I be scart of the nicest woman God ever built? 
 Now by all the Mormon Gods ! I ll post right 
 into the house and say my little say as soon 
 as these cuts stop bleeding!" 
 
 Cob-webs stopped the cuts, and other cob 
 webs stopped Red Saunders, late of the Chanta 
 Seechee ranch; two hundred and fifty pounds 
 of the very finest bone and muscle. And 
 the cob-webs held him, foaming and boiling 
 with rage and disgust, calling himself all the 
 yaller pups he could think of, but staying 
 strictly within the safe limits of the barn. It 
 was a revelation to the big man, and not a 
 pleasant one. How was he to know that the 
 most salient point of his apparent cowardice 
 was nothing less worthy than respect for the 
 woman s purity? That if he would stop swear 
 ing long enough to get at the springs of his 
 action, he would find that he hesitated be 
 cause the new light on the matter made huge 
 shadows of the slips in the career of a strong, 
 lawless, untrained but sorely tempted man? 
 He knew nothing of the sort, and the fun 
 niest of comedies took place in the barn. 
 He would reach the sensible stage. " Pah ! 
 All foolishness. Go? Of course he d go, and 
 
202 Red Saunders 
 
 this very minute, and have the thing done 
 with, good or bad "; he was quite amused 
 at his former conduct until he reached the 
 door. Then he d skip nimbly back again, 
 with a hot feeling that somebody was watch 
 ing him, although a careful inspection 
 through the crack of the door revealed no 
 one. 
 
 Red discovered another thing that after 
 noon, which was that the more nervous you 
 are the more nervous you get. He groaned 
 in perfect misery : " Ohoho ! That I should 
 have seen the day when I was afraid to ask 
 anybody anything. What s come over me 
 anyhow? It s this darn country, I believe 
 tain t me," then he stopped short. "What 
 you saying, Red? " he queried. " Why don t 
 you own up like a man ! " The fact that it 
 had a funny side struck him, and he laughed, 
 half forlornly, and half in thorough enjoy 
 ment. He suddenly sobered down. " She s 
 worth it, anyway," said he. " She s the best 
 there is, and I ought to feel kind of leery of 
 the outcome Well Now, I guess I won t 
 say anything till there s a downright good 
 chance. I see I didn t savvy this kind of 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 203 
 
 business like I thought I did. Twouldn t be 
 no kind of manners to step up to a lady and 
 shout. I d like to have you marry me, if 
 you feel you ve got the time! That don t 
 go no more than a Chinaman on roller-skates. 
 Your work is good. Red, but it s a little 
 lumpy in spots; them two left feet bother you; 
 you re good in your place, but you d better 
 build a fence around the place damn the 
 luck! Smotheration ! I think she likes me, 
 all right, but when it comes to more n that 
 oh, blast it, I ll just have to wait for a real 
 good chance; now come, old man, get four 
 feet on the ground and don t roll your eyes, 
 take it easy till the chance comes." 
 
 Little he knew the chance was coming up 
 the street at that moment. He only saw Miss 
 Mattie step out into the bed of flowers, her 
 face looking unusually pretty and youthful 
 under the big straw hat, and start to reduce 
 the weeds to order. She glanced around as 
 though in search of some one, and Red felt 
 intuitively that the one was himself. 
 
 " Here s where I ought to act as if I wore 
 long pants," said he; " now, what s to hinder 
 me from going out there and get a-talking? " 
 
204 R e d Saunders 
 
 And then he sat down hastily, more disgusted 
 than ever, and smote the air with his fist. 
 " You d think the nicest, quietest woman 
 that ever lived was a wild beast, the way I 
 act; yes sir, you would! 
 
 Meantime the chance drew nearer. It was 
 not a pleasant looking opportunity. Its eyes, 
 full of dread and dreadful, peeped out from 
 beneath a brush of matted hair; a tough, 
 ropy foam hung from its mouth. If you put 
 as much of that foam as would go on the 
 point of a pin in an open cut, you would 
 have an end that your worst enemy would 
 shudder at. For this was the most horrify 
 ing of dangerous animals a mad dog. Poor 
 brute! As he came shambling down the 
 road, he was the grisly mask of tragedy. 
 
 It was near noon, intensely hot, and the 
 street of Fairfield was deserted. No one 
 saw the dog, and if his occasional rattling, 
 strangling howl reached any ears, they were 
 dead to its meaning. He was unheeded until 
 he lurched through the gate which Lettis 
 had left open, as usual, and spinning around 
 in a circle gave voice to his cry. 
 
 It brought Miss Mattie to her feet in an 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 205 
 
 unknown terror; it brought Red from the 
 barn in a full cognizance he had heard that 
 sound before, when a mad coyote landed in 
 a cabin-full of fairly strong nerved cowmen, 
 and set them screeching like hysterical women 
 before a chance shot ended him. 
 
 Red saw the brute jump toward Miss 
 Mattie. Instantly his hand flew to his hip, 
 and as instantly he remembered there was 
 nothing there. Then with great, uneven leaps 
 he sprang forward. " Keep your hands up, 
 Mattie, and don t move ! " he screamed. 
 " Let him chew the dress ! For God s sake, 
 don t move ! " 
 
 She turned her white face toward his, and 
 through the dimness of sight from his strain 
 ing efforts, he saw her try to smile, as she 
 obeyed him to the letter, and without a sound. 
 " O, brave girl ! " he thought, and threw the 
 ground behind him desperately. 
 
 At twenty feet distance he dove like a base- 
 runner, and his hands closed around the dog s 
 neck. Over they went with the shock of the 
 onset, and before they were still, the hands 
 had finished their work. A clutch, and a 
 snap, and it was done. 
 
2 o6 Red Saunders 
 
 The dog lay quivering. Red rose to his 
 knees wondering at the humming in his head. 
 His wits came back to him sharply. 
 
 " Did he bite you, Mattie? " he cried. But 
 she had already caught his hands and was 
 looking at them, with a savage eagerness one 
 would not have believed to be in her. 
 
 " There is no mark," she said, suddenly 
 weak, " he didn t touch you? " 
 
 " Answer me when I speak to you ! " 
 shouted Red, beside himself. " Did he bite 
 you? " 
 
 She answered him with a sob " No." And 
 then his question asked itself, and answered 
 itself, although, again, he did not know it. 
 He gathered her up in his arms, kissed her 
 like one raised from the dead, and swore and 
 prayed and thanked God all in the same 
 breath. 
 
 His old imperious nature came back with 
 the relief. " Here ! " said he, putting her 
 away for a moment. " Take off that dress 
 that slime on there s enough to kill a hundred 
 men take it right off." 
 
 Miss Mattie started blindly to obey, then 
 stopped. "Not here, Will I ll go in the 
 house," she said. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfieid 207 
 
 "You ll take it off right here and now," 
 said Red, " and I ll burn it up on the spot. 
 I d ruther have forty rattlesnakes around than 
 that stuff off with it. This is no child s play, 
 and I don t care a damn what the old lady 
 next door thinks." 
 
 Miss Mattie slipped off her outer skirt, and 
 stood a second, confused and dainty. She took 
 flight to the house, running as lithely as a 
 greyhound. 
 
 " By Jingo ! " said Red in admiration. 
 " Let s see you bring another woman that 
 can run like that ! " 
 
 He gathered some hay and piled it on the 
 dress, firing the heap. 
 
 Then he turned to his antagonist. " Poor 
 old boy! Hard luck, eh? But I had to do 
 it," he said, and gave him decent interment 
 at the end of the garden; washed his hands 
 carefully and went into the house on pleasanter 
 duties. 
 
 " I ll ask her now, by the great horn spoon ! " 
 said he, valiantly. 
 
 Miss Mattie was in a curious state of mind. 
 There was an after effect from the fright, 
 which made her tremble, and a remembrance 
 
208 Red Saunders 
 
 of Cousin Will s actions which made her 
 tremble more yet. When she heard him com 
 ing she started to fly, although now clothed 
 beyond reproach, but her knees deserted her, 
 and she was forced to sink back in her chair. 
 Red came in whistling blithely vainglorious 
 man! 
 
 He had his suspicions, generated by the 
 peculiar fervour Miss Mattie had shown in 
 regard to his hands. 
 
 " Mattie," quoth he, " I m tired of living 
 out there in the barn I want a respectable 
 house of my own." 
 
 "Yes, Will," replied Miss Mattie, aston 
 ished that he should choose such a subject at 
 such a time. 
 
 " Yes," he continued, " and I want a wife, 
 too. You often said you d like to do some 
 thing for me, Mattie; suppose you take the 
 job?" 
 
 How much of glancing at a thing in one s 
 mind as a beautiful improbability will ever 
 make such a cold fact less astonishing? Miss 
 Mattie eyed him with eyes that saw not; 
 speech was stricken from her. 
 
The Chinook Struck Fairfield 209 
 
 Red caught fright. He sprang forward and 
 took her hand. " Couldn t you do it, Mat- 
 tie? " said he. There was a world of pleading 
 in the tone. Miss Mattie looked up, her own 
 honest self; all the little feminine shrinkings 
 left her immediately. 
 
 " Ah, but I could, Will ! " she said. 
 
 Lettis came up on the stoop unheard. He 
 stopped, then gingerly turned and made his 
 way back on tip-toe, holding his arms like 
 wings. 
 
 " Well, by George ! " he murmured, " I ll 
 come back in a little while, when I ll be more 
 welcome." 
 
 He spoke to Red in strong reproach that 
 night, in the barn. " You never told me a 
 word, you old sinner ! " said he. 
 
 "Tell you the honest truth, Let," replied 
 Red earnestly, looking up from drawing off 
 a boot, " I didn t know it myself till you told 
 me about it." 
 
 They talked it all over a long time before 
 blowing out the light, but then the little win 
 dow shut its bright eye, and the only life the 
 mid-night stars saw in Fairfield, was Miss 
 
210 Red Saunders 
 
 Mattie, her elbow on the casement, looking 
 far, far out into the tranquil night, and think 
 ing mistily. 
 
 THE END 
 
THE BLAZED TRAIL 
 
 1TJ.R. WHITE has intermingled the romance 
 of the forests with the romance of a man s 
 heart, making a story that is big and elemental, 
 while not lacking in sweetness and tenderness. 
 It is an epic of the life of the lumbermen in the 
 great forests of the Northwest, permeated in 
 every line by out-of-door freshness and the 
 glory of the labor of the struggle with nature. 
 It wih 1 appeal to everyone who cares for trees, 
 the forests or the open air. 
 
 44 Mr. White has the power to make you feel the woods 
 as the masters of salt-water fiction make you feel the 
 sea." The Boston Herald. 
 
 44 Of the majesty of the falling forests the book is elo 
 quent, and its place in the history of our literature is 
 secure." The Chicago News. 
 
 4 He has realized to the full the titanic character of the 
 struggle between man and nature in the forest, and has 
 reproduced it in his pages with an enthusiasm and 
 strength of insight worthy of his theme." 
 
 The St. James Gazette. 
 
 Eighteenth Edition $1.50 
 
 SlpcClure, ^tUtpg & Co. 
 
George Bouglas 
 
 THE HOUSE WITH THE 
 GREEN SHUTTERS 
 
 r 
 
 A. STORY remarkable for its power, remark 
 able for its originality, and remarkable for its suc 
 cess. The unique masterpiece of an unfortunate 
 young author, who died without knowing the 
 unstinted praise his work was to receive. The 
 book portrays with striking realism a phase of 
 Scottish life and character new to most novel- 
 readers. John Gourlay, the chief personage in 
 the drama, inhabitant of the "House With 
 the Green Shutters " and master of the village 
 destinies, looms up as the personification of the 
 brute force that dominates. He stands apart 
 from all characters in fiction. In the broad 
 treatment and the relentless sweep of its trage 
 dy, the book suggests the work of Dumas. 
 
 " If a more powerful story than this has been written in 
 recent years we have not seen it. It must take first 
 honors among the novels of the day." 
 
 Philadelphia Item. 
 
 " One of the most powerful books we have seen for a 
 long time, and it marks the advent of a valuable writer." 
 
 New York Press. 
 
 $1.50 
 
 jftcClure, ^illipjS & Co. 
 
^eumas 
 
 Author of "Through the Turf Smoke" 
 
 A LAD OF THE OTRIEL S" 
 
 A HIS is a story of Donegal ways and customs ; 
 full of the spirit of Irish life. The main char 
 acter is a dreaming and poetic boy who takes 
 joy in all the stories and superstitions of his 
 people, and his experience and life are thus 
 made to reflect all the essential qualities of the 
 life of his country. Many characters in the 
 book will make warm places for themselves in 
 the heart of the reader. 
 
 Goth, 12mo $1.50 
 
 & Co, 
 
Author of "The Barrys," " Irish Pastorals" 
 
 THE SQUIREEN 
 
 r 
 
 MR. BULLOCK takes us into the North of 
 Ireland among North-of-Ireland people. His 
 story is dominated by one remarkable character, 
 whose progress towards the subjugation of his 
 own temperament we cannot help but watch 
 with interest. He is swept from one thing to 
 another, first by his dare-devil, roistering spirit, 
 then by his mood of deep repentance, through 
 love and marriage, through quarrels and sepa 
 ration from his wife, to a reconciliation at the 
 point of death, to a return to health, and 
 through the domination of the devil in him, 
 finally to death. It is a strong, convincing 
 novel suggesting, somewhat, " The House with 
 the Green Shutters." What that book did for 
 the Scotland of Ian Maclaren and Barrie, " The 
 Squireen " will do for Ireland. 
 
 Cloth, 12mo $1.50 
 
 & Co. 
 
JHorrtson 
 
 THE HOLE IN THE WALL 
 
 r 
 
 IM O ONE knows the lower side of London life 
 so well as Arthur Morrison, and this novel is 
 his most masterly presentation of the under 
 world with which he is so familiar. He has knit 
 mean characters, mean passions, mean stage 
 setting into a powerful drama of life that thrills 
 as much because of the realism with which it is 
 drawn as because of the exciting scenes that 
 come treading helter-skelter upon each others 
 heels. The rough sailors, the thugs and crim 
 inals that frequent the "Hole in the Wall" 
 Inn lose none of their picturesqueness, nor any of 
 their sordidness either, from Mr. Morrison s treat 
 ment of them. He handles his material in a 
 way that suggests strongly the work of Dickens. 
 As an intimate picture of the lowest life in 
 London, the novel is without an equal. 
 
 " It is a section of human life showing true lights and 
 shadows, a section cut by an exceedingly sharp blade. 
 Some of the things that Dickens is most praised for are 
 evident in the work of Mr, Morrison." 
 
 Springfield Republican. 
 
 " All of Mr. Morrison s work deserves the recognition it 
 has attained, but this is undoubtedly the most artistic, 
 the most virile, and the most heartrendingly true." 
 
 Baltimore Sun. 
 _ $1.30 
 
 jHcClurc., fillips & Co, 
 
Bennett 
 
 Author of " The Great Babylon Hotel" 
 
 ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS 
 
 J; ROBABLY no story of the year is so simply 
 and yet so artistically told as this one. It 
 portrays the development of a sweet and nat 
 ural girl s character, amid a community of strict 
 Wesleyan Methodists in a Staffordshire town. 
 How her upright nature progresses with con 
 stant rebellions against the hypocrisy and cant 
 of the religionists, by whom she is surrounded, 
 is brought out by the author faithfully and 
 with great delicacy of insight. Many will love 
 Anna, and not a few will find something in her 
 to suggest " Tess of the Durbervilles." The 
 plot is extremely simple, but the reader will 
 find a surprise in the last chapters. 
 
 The English letter from W. L. Alden, in the New York 
 
 Times Review says : 
 
 "It will be promptly recognized by the critics whose 
 
 opinion is worth something a* the most artistic story of the 
 
 year" 
 
 Goth, 12mo $1.50 
 
 , fillips & Co. 
 
Ml8 191 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY