The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-12-12
HOOPS AND WHEELS.
BY A. L. VANCE.

oSdol vi Ollh III pei ICSb
aud early afternoon under sun tina:
biazed where never ID cloud had flown
for weeks. Even insects had persisted
from drought in that desolation-sO
anyone might have imagined had any
one been gazing about ON that Calico
MIA scene from Il point within hundred
yards OF the apparently deserted
wheels.
Had native ste cd there he would moi
have supposed th1 wheels deserted, but
guessed that the riders were concealed
III some crack of the sun-baked earth.
Indeed, Del Hall and | were almost
within springing distance OF our bikes
aud much dislncIined to remount them.
We had lunched fully if not comfort
ably on the provisions and drink we
carried; the earth-crack in which we
lay was deep and narrow enough "
ehade us from the slightly westerng
sun, and we shrank from more pedal
ing under its glare.
Del and |, college chums, had under
taken to wheel from San Francisco to
Los Angeles, nearly 400 miles as the
crow flies. Our guides were a POCKET
compass and the LAY of the land" Our
Interpreters were the natives and our
seives-their much Mexican being
about as clear to us as our little Spanish
to them. But they were wonderfully
quick in understanding all demands
nnade in the name of the white almighty
dollar of Uncle Sum.
Without good letters of introduction
to various owners of ranches, who
passed US on with equally good letters
TO others of their hospitable kind, we
could not have traversed the country.
Much of it lacks inns and stores, and
even places of public resort. But tor
hospitality we should have starved.
And on this blazing day we were MAX
int Tor the Rancho del Paso, an interest
aug old mission ranch established long
brture gold-seekers rushed to Cali
foluin.
we had not met a soul for ten miles
q, are lunching.
Are you sure we're on the way?" De-
n ed as the time came near when We
IH"". remount.
= ertainly; the track is plain enough, ="
& sad. The last man we met said We.
vcou."n't miss it as long as we kept
,anJi,t this far from the foothills"
,ut he said something else. | wish
Ne mad stopped longer to make Out
what he did mean. 1t was something
Anuut Plaza de ToroS. I've been think
aug he was warning us against cattle 9"
Pooh! Are you afraid of cows /?
Come along; we must move. There's
rise about half a mile ahead; perhaps
we shall see the rancho from there; it
cant be more than Is miles away; may
be not half SO far"
Again we sped over the vast PLAIN,
ocobwebbed with assures and cracks hy
the long drought, which had made
veritable desert of the tract within
sight
Five miles nearer the coast the cour-
try smiled with grass and grain, vine
yards and olive groves, but here
we were running through waste
edrearier than any we had traversec.
AS the assures and cracks mostly ran
ON II southerly course, we seldom need
ed to dismount, though frequently
forced to short detours. So we soon
climbed the gradual rise, whose sum
init extended on a level broad enough
ITO hide the lower tract Immediately oe-
,yOnd. Yet the more distant ground was
IN view, and there, as il it had suddenly
sprung from the earth. we saw the ir-
. regular, broken line of the adobe walls
>of Rancho del Paso. our resting place.
"~HurrahI 1t can't be more than four
miles away, Deli" cried. Come along;
let us drop into this dried-up arroyo and
get it's shade till it runs out in the next
lowland," for we knew that such an
arroyo, or water course, cuts somewhat
deeply through the slow rises and but
little into the hollows of these plains.
While we dipped into the arroyo the
tufts of cacti on the upland seemed
moving in the shimmering sunlight.
No more of the plain did we see until
we reached the lower level, when our
heads were higher than the frayed
tsides of the water course. Then Del and
i cried out together in umazement, tpr
countless cattle we're near us on tie
plain.
AS we ran up out of the water course
We saw groups scattered as far as tue
eye could reach. They fianked US On
both sides; hundreds were behind us;
a compact array, almost numerous
enough to be called herd, stood on our
path to the ranch.
Toward this mass all the Others
seemed to He converging, as the Stop
ing sides of funnel trend toward its
hoe, or rather as the horns of COW
often curve inward at the tips.
our course to the rancho lay almost
evenly betweeA the sides of this living
funnel. But it's opening was blocked.
Sun, we believed we could pass round
Shat small, massed herd.
1t was not at all necessary for us 10
snake the attempt, and we would not
have tried it had we imagined it to bt
dangerous. Nothing but little shade
and comfort could we gain by reach
ing the Rancho del Paso quickly. Time
was of no account just then, for Ne
meant to stay at the rancho until the
next morning. And yet we went
''scorching" along with never a thought
of prudence or delay.
None of the cattle that tlanked US on