The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-01-24
HOOPS AND WHEELS.
By A. t. VANCE.


Of scattered cacti; no human being,
beast or bird in sight; perfect stiffness
and early afternoon under sun trat
blazed where never 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 Califor-
MIA scene from point within hundree
yards Of the apparently-des
wheels.
Had a native stood there he would not
have supposed the wheels deserted, but
guessed that the riders were concealed
in some crack Of the sun-baled earth
Indeed, Del Hall and / were almost
within springing distance Of our bike =
and much disinclined to remount them.
We had lunched fully If not comfort
ably on the provisions and drink we
carried: the earth-crack In which we
Law was deep and narrow enough 10
shade us from the slightly westering
sun. and we shrank from more pedal
ing under it's glare.
Del and ], college chums, had under
taken to wheel from San Francisco 10
Los Angeles, nearly 400 miles as the
crow flies. Our guides were pocket
compass and the LAY of the land" Our
Interpreters were the natives and our
selyes-their much Mexican being
about as clear to us as ou4ittle Spanish
to them. But they were wonderfully
Quick in understanding all deman Is
made in the name of the white almighty
dollar of Uncle Sam.
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, ard
even places of public resort. But for
hospitality we should have starved.
And on this blazing day we were MAX
ing for the Rancho del Paso, an interest
ing old mission ranch established long
before gold-seekers rushed to Cali
! fornia.
We had not met soul for ten miles
before lunching.
/ Are you sure we're on the way?' lie!
asked as the time came near when We
must remount.
''Certainly; the track is plain enough,
l said. 1.-The last man we met said WI
about this far from the foothills"
but he said something else. l wish
we had stopped longer to make out
what he did mean. 1t was something
about Plaza de Toros. I've been think
ing. he was warning us against cattle "
Pooh! Are you afraid of cows :!
Come along; we must move. There's II
rise about half mile ahead; perhaps
we shall see the rancho from there; it
can't be more than Is miles away; may
be not half so far"
Again we sped over the vast PLAIN
cobwebbed with assures and cracks by
the long drought, which had made "a
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 a waste
drearier than any we had traversec.
AS the assures and cracks mostly ran
on a southerly course, we seldom need
ed to dismount, though frequently
J forced to short detours. So we soon
climbed the gradual rise, whose sum-
NIT extended on a level broad enough
to hide the lower tract Immediately Oe-
yond. Yet the more distant ground was
In view, and there, as if 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.
"Hurrah! 1t can't be more than four
miles away, Dell" cried "Come along;
let us drop into this dried-up arroyo anu
| ;te IL. 4 in ho
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 seelnee!
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 fray"d
sides Of the water course. Then Del AMI
] cried out together in amazement. to9
countless cattle were near US on the
plain
AS we ran up out of the water coul Sc
we saw groups scattered as far as the
eye could reach. They fanked us On
both sides; hundreds were behind us:
compact array, almost numerous
enough to be called a herd. stood on oul
path to the ranch.
Toward this mass all the other :
seemed to he converging, as the slop-
ing sides of funnel trend toward its
hole. or rather as the horns of a COW
often curve inward at the tips.
Our course to the rancho lay almost
evenly between the sides of this living
funnel But its opening was blocked
Still, we believed we could pass round
that small, massed herd.
1t was not at all necessary for us tC
make the attempt, and we would not
have tried it had we imagined it to be
dangerous Nothing but little shade
and comfort could we gain by reach
ing the Rancho del Paso quickly. Tims
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 thought
of prudence or delay
None of the cattle that thanked us on
either side were within 200 yards when
we began the run. They were slowly
moving in groups. and those which
formed. as il were. the tips of the horns
were not within 80 yards of the herd
directly in our way An opening lay