The Taming of Red Butte Western

Stones-was shunned alike by man and beast, and the bravest of the gold-hunters, seeking to penetrate to the

plane of a bonanza field. In the rush that followed, a few prudent ones chose the longer détour; others, hardier and more temerarious, o

reminders. In the longest of the thirsty stretches there were clean-picked skeletons, and they were not always the relics of the patient pack-animals. In which eve

p's sponsor who, visioning the things that were to be, borrowed from the California pioneers and named the halting-place on the desert's edge "Angels." But for the more material details Chandler was responsible. It was he who laid out the divisi

herbage of the desert borders was nutritious and fattening, a stock-shipping point. But even in the day of promise, when the railroad building was at its height and a handful of promoters were plotting streets and town lots on the second mesa, and printing glowing tributes-for strictly Eastern distr

swept out. For the gulch hamlets between the Timanyonis there was still an industrial reason for being; but the railroad languished, and Angels became the weir to catch and retain many of the leavings, the driftwood stranded in the slack water of the outgoing tide. With the railroad, the Copperette Mine, and the "X-bar-Z" pay-days to bring

andler, summoned from another battle with the canyons in the far Northwest, was sent in to make an expert report on the property. "Sell it for what it will bring," was the substanc

tern border. In the height of Angels's prosperity there had been electric lights and a one-car street tramway, a bank, and a Building and Loan Associati

rne stand; the bank, unable to compete with the faro games and the roulette wheels, had gone into liquidation; the Buildin

money, only two remained as residents of Angels the decadent. One of these was Gridley, the master-mechanic, and the other was Hallock, chief clerk f

these two had been at first yoke-fellows, and afterward, as if by tacit consent, inert enemies. As widely separated as

with the master-mechanic's gray eyes twinkling easily to a genial smile, but it stopped rather abruptly at the straight-lined, sensual mouth, and found a second negation in the brutal jaw which was only thinly masked by the neatly trimmed beard. Hallock's smile was bitter, and if he had a social side

o, the master-mechanic and the acting superintendent, met late in the evening of

her love nor money could have bought in Angels, was jocosely sarcastic. Hallock, shirt-sleeved, unk

said the smoker lazily, when the purely technical matter

d the curious similarity of the grating note in both voices as infallibly as a student o

commit his informant, "but it's on the wires. Vice-Presiden

ed forward i

e new man?

But he is a friend of Ford's all

and cut a small sliver from it for a chew. It was his

he commented. "Otherwise F

ss it's safe to

will carry out

own on his face the smile became a

he qualified; adding, "The desert will get hold

's hell, Gridley! I've hung on and waited and done the work for

's smile was a th

k?" he asked. "You have no use for the

don't have my clothes made in New York, or blow myself across the table

ng rejoinder. "And the title, when you have, and have a

ow fire, "this maverick railroad don't know the meaning of the word. By G

ily. "You're not built right for it, Hallock

quared off a few old debts, G

h retort, and the chief clerk

one, still good-naturedly sarcastic. "What w

off the pay-rolls; and I'd break even with at least one man over in the

n mild deprecation, "You are a bad loser, Hallock, a damned

s the night men were making up a westbound freight, and the crashing of box-cars carelessly

t dog. Suddenly the barking voice stopped, and the piano clamor ended futilely in an aimless tinkling. For climax a pistol-shot rang out, followed by a scattering volley. It was a p

acklings were coming only at intervals and from an increasing distance, that the corridor

line-end operator at Copah, and the chief cl

Naught-One, Bradford, conductor, will leave Copah at 12:01 A.M., and run

ick man was gone before he said, "Lidgerwood! Well, by all the gods!" then, with

o you k

and I get a hint now and then. I knew that Lidgerwood had been considered for the plac

e refuse?" de

ire-tapper fell dow

say there is stil

that he would refuse, it is still more likely that he won't s

ay what he though

n you found out he was a possible; I'd trust

duate of Purdue. He took the Civil degree, but stayed two years longer and romp

he'll need in the Red Desert will be nerve and a

, Rankin; you usually are when you can forget to be vindictive. And that brings us around to

t is my business,

h was never more than half veiled between thes

y. "But if you should decide to stay

out of Hallock's eyes, an

e sand; you know that, Gridley. Some day

holding out ore-cars on him, delaying his coal supplies, stirring up trouble wi

e," retorted the chief clerk, once m

cigar ash from his coat-sleeve with a handk

with his hand on the door-knob. "But what I have said will have to go as it lies.

is big frame made him look still more a fair ma

out of the loose-lipped mo

door and turned u

te Western nursing in the Ute Valley irrigation scheme he is promoting, and I want you to see that he gets it. You may take that as a word to the wise, or as a kicked-in hin