Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-12-10
The Trouble on the Tort ito.
BY FRANCIS LYNDB.
Copyright, 1898. by Francis Iynd.a
BY FRANCIS LYNDB.


rows of the land company's canal,
and, in due course of leisurely equine
standings, beyond the last farm
house and so on up to the dam at the
canyon gateway.
Here was the battlefield upon
which Macpherson had elected to
fight for his kingdom. 1t was we'll
chosen. Unlike the Six-Mile, whose
walls were perpendicular cliffs, the
upper canyon was tortuous gulch
with precipitous slopes rising sharp
ly from the waters edge. Below the
settlers dam the wedge-like rift
widened and narrowed again, leav-
ing natural basin between noun
tain and "hog-back" which would
serve admirably as q reservoir for
the great irrigation ditch. In this
basin the stream had deposited a bar
Of silt and glistening mica-schist and
white quartz pebbles, the age-old
washings of it's swift rush down the
canyon; and this was doubtless the
background upon which Macpher-
son had fled claim as discoverer.
His outline of the status quo be-
came clearly ineligible. A dam at
the final narrowing of the gulch
would submerge the bar; and above
the basin 1t would have to be car
ried to an enormous height in the
V-shaped chasm to retain q suf-
floiently large body of water. I re-
membersd the stereotyped reply of
the lsxican vaqueros to the Grin
SO" Nenssrs and the Santa Fe trail
ers, "Carrajo! POGO mesa rio!" and
wondered how much farther up the
river the engineer OF the Glenlivst
company would have to go to find
Maopherson's "ready-made" site for
the dam.
It was at this point in the medita-
tive excursion that the fire of Curl
osity was lighted, and Macpherson's
air Of mystery added it's armful of
fagots. There was no good reason
why sick man who was at best but
a transient onlooker should trouble
himself about the matter, but Curl
osity knows not age, sex, or previous
conditions of servitude to maladies,
incurable or otherwise. Wherefore
the onlooker must needs slide tremu-
lousy from the saddle, tether the
clubfooted beast to stunted tree
growing from cleft in q nearby
bowlder, and make toilful way up the
canyon.
Wykamp's alternative came into
VII hauopI ha SnonpI a1hox,, L., tho
wedge-shaped gorge. 1t was another
scooped-out basin, similar to the one
below; and blazed fir-tree with
blue-pencil markings proved that the
engineer had already made his pre-
liminary reconnaissance. But the in
surmountable obstacle to which Mac
pherson's mysterious hint pointed
was altogether unapparent. Aside
from the added expense of tunneling
a spur of the mountain for an outlet
the upper basin seemedquite as prom.
Using as the lower-more promising
in fact, since less masonry would b.
required. Was there anything In the
topography of the canyon to forbid
the construction of the dam at this
point? To be sure, the steep slopes
We're inclined planes of crumbline
shale; but the native granite could
not be far to seek in excavating. And
with the everlasting mountains fol-
his dam-anchorages, the enginee,
might surely possess his soul in Sc.
curity.
The sharp-pitched ACTIVITY was
slippery with an OVERLAPPING OF
broken shale and dry fir-needles.
climbed little higher to shallow
niche where projecting rocl
promised o foothold, and sat down tx
try to puzzle it out and to gather
breath for the return. The thin
Tipped breeze, with the kiss of the
snow-caps lingering in its breath
swept softly down from the balc
summit OF Jim's mountain; and tn,
minimizcd thunder of the stream be
came the sub-bass in great organ
: symphony in which the Whispering
frs played the sibilant treble. From
: the wider world below, the voice O
a woman rose clear and strong in
prolonged double syllable
: farmers wife or daughter calling he
cow-and the familiar cry was re
minder that the day was done. I
one would not have soft-hearte,
!, giant and his following out scourin,
the valley for stray invalid, on
must scramble back and mount an
t ride.
! The deed, or at least the begin
!, ming of it. fitted itself to the thought
: But in the act of rising, the crun
. bling foothold gave way, and I sho
; down the slippery mountain-side int
the stream. For a single jubilant IL
: slant joy was uppermost. One ma
; well have shuddering horror Q
winning out of life by the consumI
: tiyes road, and welcome as me.
senger of Gods mercy an end swift
and measurably painless. But the il
e stinct OF self-preservation docs nc
a take into account possible lack {
d things worth living for. The plung
!, into the icy waters of the Torolit
4 was sharply reactionary, and wit
r the gasping baptism the battle fc
Q life was on.
!, Measured by agonizings it Taste
! long. The water was no more tina
: waist-deep. but the might of stron
: man would have availed little again
: the swift down-rush of the torrent
Y its bowlder-studded bed. Twice M
t yet once again, l made frenzied shi
8 to struggle to foot or knee in I'll
/ boiling raceway; anu at the fin
q emergence had vanishing glimp'
9 of the embankment of the Setter da
s with some one standing thereon