The Press., 1897-12-16
WHALEN'S LUCK.

WHALEN ; LUCK.
 Whalen's luck was copious, and it became proverbiaL The facts here re- corded are but specimen pages from the book of his experience
 When the Consolidated Canal com pauy went into insolvency. its assets consisted of mortgaged right of way through the sagebrush and several com. pleted but detached sections of c big ditch
 MT Brick Whalen. the contractor on section 5, had finished the heavy work there and was preparing to move camp to section when the company vent broke It was. in fact. upon the very day the suspension was posted that Whalen. having had his contract work inspected. took the engineers certificate up to headquarters to get his cheek. He received instead statement that the company was in temporary difficulties and an assurance that it would soon re- sume
 Whalen had before this worked for shaky corporations He knew better and lost no time in acting on his knowledge
 No good howlin over a broken pipe or tryin to save the pieces. he told himself To his gang of 20 men he sad; "B ys. the company's broke and SO am l. l can t pay ye and l can't feed ye, You got to rustic.
 What s the matter with us taking the mules' said one
 Them mules and scrapers don't be- long to me. as I've often told ye, said WhaIen. W hose custom It was to refer to legendary packer This ditching outfit is the property of Martin of San Franoist O. and any man that meddles with It will get the sheriff after him.
 "lll take one, just the same," said Shorty. and tell Martin he can have him again when my wages is paid That g about fair '
 A few others took the same visw of the equities involved and took mules, to which Wbalen made only a wordy resistance Most of the men were in: duced Go accept orders on the defunct company for the amount due them, payable with large interest. "Ald if you don get it very soon the interest will double your money. said Whalen. When the last man had gone, Whalen went out to the corral and counted the muIea Forty one head. That was 8 pretty close call, " said he. It was late in the season to find an other Job of scraping, but the mules could not live on sagebrush and were at once started for the railroad. On a small stream where camp was made one night band of trail sheep was also camped Whalen eyed them dis dalnfully
 T see the beggars eat sage. ':' said he.
 Why, certainly" replied the sheep man That the finest kind of feed for sheep Il wish work mules would do that, said Brick ''I never was SO pear Q sheep Tn my life. he continuea es "The smell of em a mile away IS enough for me Funny little fellows. and they look some like mules with ears and tails cut of What do you do with themY" Double our money on them every l 9 months, was the reply No extended description et sheep | farming would have impressed the | fancy of the veteran mule skinner. but
 double your money was his@cwn fla miliar phrase for describing any hope ful venture. and on that evening be smoked many pipes of black plug over it A brute that can thrive on a brush diet and double your money every year | is an interesting creature
 At day break Whalen W as in che sheep camp negotiating 6 trade of sheep for mules on a basis of 50 to and pre- pared to accept much less Three days later he sat Tn the door of the shack which had long done duty as mess house on section of the canal. af many an evening before he had sal watching the mules come III from water Tonight there was never a mule III sight Down the breeze came 6 punRent odor and a tinkling of little bells Over the crest of an adjacent hill appeared the flock. browsing on the rank sage
 They do look some like mules, b. solIIoquized. and I'll bet I'm the only lrishnan Tn America ever owned ( herd ot sheep
 Winter came and passed. and the only IrIshman prospered By roofing in a GU, with brush he had commodious sheds, and cross sections of poles divided ths broad ditch into as many corrals as hG chose The sheep were fat and carried heavy fieeces
 Whalen had for help two boys wht
 had wandered there and asked for work
 He had proposed to hire one of them
 but the boys protested that they ha, never been separated. and that if the, got jobs at different ranches the othe one wouldn't know where the othe one was, contingency which the. } could not abide. So Whalen offered t take the two at the price of one. and ol
 that basis they shared with him tn
 shack. herded the flock and cooked tn
 grub They soon knew as much or a
 little about sheep as Brick himself
 and the proprietor found opportunit
 to break the monotony of camp life b occasional trips to the railroad am once to San Francisco
 "I'm going to see my friend Maj tin, " he told the boys Now, tend t
 business and don't let any get away. | And the boys gave their word that nc : one should escape
 During Whalen's absence in the cit he went out of the sheep business eve more abruptly than he went into it th previous autumn The instruction to th
 boys was fulfilled to the letter Not an
 got away.
 It happened on hot day in Jun when. contrary to the usual custom, th
 boys brought the flock to camp and th
 shade of sheds at noontime. It neve