The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-01-30
CHAPTER l..
ANGUS THE FIRST.

SOrC unpalntaDle IN any poor word
pigments of mine; an evening vibrant
with the harmonies of the attitudes,
unspeakable for me, and altogether
1ndescribable 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
. door-stone 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,
I had been too i'll to know or care
greatly about the whence or WHITTIER
It 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 rifle-shot from the home
ranch, a black cash in Grinko noun
tain marked the portal Of six-Mile
canyon, the only gateway to the par
adise; and from thence the Enclosing
ranges diverged to meet again in the
snow-coifed summit of Jim's peak at
the head of the valley. Tie 'X-bar-
z" men, with the exception of the
mild-mannered desperate who cooked
for us, were still out; and Macpher-
son sat beside me, naming the might
nesses in their order, and pointing
them out with the stem of his black
Guilty pipe. When I lowered the field
glass in sheer WEAKNESS, he told me
about the single fly in his pot of ONT
ment.
Now it may chance that when one
has given hostages to death, piano.
ramic sunsets and friendly condolences
may become alike mere fotsam and
jetsam on the ebbing tideway of
time; but Macpherson was too good
fellow to be fouted in his time of
asking. Wherefore, when he had
made an end, I was fain to put a
little life, galvanic or otherwise, into.
the moribund body Of human inter-
est.
"Then you think th;z land company
will ultimately drive you out of the
Torolito?" said I.
"Sure. It's only a question of time
If the syndicate once gets hold. The
stock-raiser is like +ae Indian; he
must move on whom the farmer
comes"
''The relentless march of civiliza-
ton, and all that, eh?" quoth I, lying
in wait to spring upon him.
Eyes; it's the survival of the fit
test, I suppose"
A near-hand view of eternity is
subversive of many theories, and I
dashed out in fine scorn.
'What an Internal lot of can't 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
owned. You proved the contrary;
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 frst!"
Macpherson made a dumb show of
applause. He is a latter-day re-
crudescence of the physically-ft 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 we'll Of strength; but he has
laughing brown eyes with woman
1sh tenderness in them-eyes that
may glow with righteous indigna-
ton, but which know not vindictive-
ness.
ooh, you be damned" he said, af-
fectionately. "What would you do?"
I'D be governed by circumstances
and fight for my own to the last
gasp. You can do that as we'll as
another, can't your"
He took time to think about it. IT
don't know. If Setter would stand
by me-"
''Who is Selter?'' AS I have said.
it was only my third day in the Toro-
Ito, and the first two had been spent
in the spare bunk of the ranch house.
It'll have to begin back bit to
account for him. Three years ago
rattletrap of prairie schooner
but say; you're sick, and I don't
want to bore you with fol]1-lore''
go on; I'm three planetary orbits
beyond the boring point"
care you? Well, as was going to
say, shackly old schooner drifted
up Six-Mile canyon and into the park.
Jake Setter was it's skipper, and
the crew consisted of wife, half
grown daughter, and flock of little
ones. They were homesteaders look
ing for bit of prairie with stream