Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1901-12-12
CHAPTER 1.
ANGUS THE FIRST.

pigments of mine; an evening vibrant
with the harmonies of the attitudes,
unspeakable for me, and altogether
indescriba bic to any who have
never looked upon the soul-quelling
glories of a Colorado mountain sun
set. Macpherson had propped me with
two bear-skins and a spare poncho
on the squared log which served as
a doorstone for the ranch house,
and had given me the field-glass
Wherewith to amuse myself 1t was
my first sane glimpse of the shell
tered upland valley watered by the
Torolito. Three days before, when
Macpherson had brought me up from
Fort Cowan swathed in blankets and
dashed lengthwise on his blackboard,
/ had been too i'll to know or care
greatly about the whence or whittier.
1t was stockman's paradise, the
park-like little valley shut in by lofty
mountains, and from the heaving
swell crested by the ranch buildings
and corral the metes and bounds of
Macpherson's small kingdom were
well within eye-sweep. Eastward, no
more than a rife-shot from the home
ranch black cash in Gringo noun
tain marked the portal of SiX-Mile
canyon, the only gateway to the par
adise; and from thence the inclosing
ranges diverged to meet again in the
.snow-coifed summit of Jim's peak at
the head of the valley. The "X-bar-
T. men, with the exception of the
mild-mannered desperate who cooked
for us, were still out; and Macpher-
son sat beside me, naming the mighti-
nesses in their order, and pointing
them out with the stem of his black
Guilty pipe. When lowered the field
glass in sheer weariness, he told me
about the single fly in his pot of oint-
ment.
Now it may chance that when one
has given hostages to death, pano-
ramic sunsets and friendly condolences
may become alike mere flotsam and
jetsam on the ebbing tideway of
time; but Macpherson was too good
n fellow to be fiouted in his time of
asking. Wherefore, when he had
made an end, | was fain to put a
little life, galvanic or otherwise, into
the moribund body of human inter-
est
"Then you think this land company
will ultimately drive you out of the
Torolito?" said |.
''Sure. It's only question of time
If the syndicate once gets hold. The
stock-raiser is like the Indian; he
must move on when the farmer
comes"
''The relentless march of civiliza-
zion, and all that, eh? quoth I, lying
in wait to spring upon him.
''Yes; it's the survival of the fit
test, l suppose"
a near-hand view of eternity is
subversive of many theories, and I
dashed out in fine scorn.
What an Internal lot of cant we
can swallow when it's sugar-coated
with the ipse dixit of the theorists!
Why don't you call things by their
right names and say that when the
strong man comes, the weak have to
give him the wall? You drove up
here five years ago when everybody
said that the first winter in this alti-
tude would cost you every hoof you
v ;
and now, when you've set up your
little kingdom in one of the waste
places of the earth, a lot of capital
lists come along and invite YOU to
abdicate. I'd see them hanged first!"
Macpherson made dumbs show of
applause. He is a latter-daY re-
'crudescence of the physically-fit he
roes of the HCmeric age, with square
shoulders and legs like posts; a man
who can bend nails in his bare hands,
and who has never found the bottom
of his well Of strength; but he has
laughing brown eyes with a woman
ish tenderness in them-eyes that
may glow with righteous indigna-
tion, but which know not vindictive-
ness.
'Oh, you be damned" he said, af-
fectionately. what would you do?"
"Id be governed by circumstances
and fight for my own to the last
gasp. You can do that as well as
another, can't you?"
He took time to think about it, oI
don't know. If Setter would stand
by me"
''Who is Selter?" As 1 have said,
1T was only my third day in the Toro-
Vito, and the first two had been spent
in the spare bunk of the ranch house.
"Pll have to begin back u bit to
account for him. Three years aro
q rnttletrap of a prairie schooner
aut say; you're sick, and ] don't
want to bore you with folklore"
$50 on; I'm three planetary orbits
beyond the boring point"
Are you? Wen. as ! was going to
say, shacllly old schooner drifted
mp SiX-Nile canyon and into the park.
Jake Setter was its skipper, and
the crew consisted of a wife, a half
grown daughter, and flock of little
ones. They were homestcaders look