River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-03-10
The Hoodoo Of
the CrosSbar q
By IzoLA L. FORESTER

Copyright, 1903, By Daily story Pub. Co.,

Z A
w brand new wife home from Kan
sas City the second time he went down
with 1000 head of sound stock, there
was a favorable ripple of public opinion
from Sunrise to the Crossbar.
The Crossbar had been a white ele-
phant on the hands of several until
Travers took it in hand. He sold on
the old herd at a sacrifice, and filled up
the ranch with fine, new picked STOCK.
His ideas of breeding and grazing were
somewhat ahead of Sunrise, and its
environs, but he perseyered, and pros
pered in the face of the Crossbar hoo
doc.
You may come out fair and square
The first year. sonny" old Hickson told
him the first time he showed up in the
social circle on the front stoop of the
Rough Diamond" Wen get an easy
winter anyhow, but wait till an eight
day blizzard strikes you in that shack,
with hundreds of your finest dropping
under the drifts, you'll wish the whole
Crossbar in Tunket There amt de-
ont weather shed on the place, and the
last two fellows there settled the hoo
doc on it for sure. Rocky Davis and his
brother Jim. We found Jim froze stlH
with the cattle last March, and Rocky s
going to the dogs Better look out for
Rocky. He isn't very sweet on the
Crossbar
Travers nodded with a grin OF de-
termination He had bought up the
ranch cheap from Rocky Davis, and be-
lieved modern methods would go far
towards chasing the hoodoo. The pas
turage was good. He made new fence
divisions on his own judgment, against
the advice of Rocky, and cut down the
stock 500 head the first year, to run no
risk Of over crowding.
When he went TO Kansas City the
second year he took along the finest
herd Sunrise section had ever seen, and
ii brought his own price. Rocky heard
OF the sale with sullen moroseness, but
Hickson and the rest averred mildly
that the youngster had mighty good
stuff in him.
So when along with his business en-
terprise, Travers returned with q pretty
wife, public opinion sided with Hick-
son. and admired the hustling qualities
Of Travers without regard for Rocky
or his failure.
AS for Betty herself, she was more
than pretty. There was a poise to her
carriage, and a style to her dress that
set the pace among the feminine ele-
ment of Sunrise.
At first she was said to be stuck up,
Bunny Pierce said SO when she sug-
gested that he lift his hat when he sale
good morning, but when she pitched in
and made Minnie Hickson's wedding
dress by the pattern of her own, and
sent her off to Sioux Falls ON her we'd
ding trip with Bunny, looking like some
body, the verdict was reversed, and she
was held to be worthy of Trsvers.
1t was in February that the big bliz-
card came. After week of clear skies
and wind-swept wastes, the clouds closed
in. and by the first nightfall, old ranch
ers were driving in all they could OF
their herds
Travers watched and waited hoping
the worst was over. 1t was well into
the third day when Rocky Davis brought
word CT over a hundred deaths the night
before in the northwest division of the
ranch. The boys had tried to bunch
the cattle, and drive them south, he said
but the snow was too deep.
Betty watched him as he stood by the
kitchen stove, one foot on the hearth
She had never liked the boy Travers
had found him one night down in Sun
rise, a few months after his marriage
going to the devil as fast as an empty
purse would let him. He had heard
himself cursed ait the bar of the Rough
Diamond" and the novelty of it had
struck him unpleasantly when he found
that Rocky was the cursor.
With a variety of side compliments
on the subject delivered in his own pc
culiar style. Rocky was declaring to the
world at large his undylng hatred of one
Travers, an outsider who had come in,
and dared to make money out of the
ranch that had been the death of his
brother and the ruin of himself.
Whereupon TraveTs had promptly
offered him all the help in his power
and had given him work at the Cross
bar. and tried to brace him up.
You won't be afraid, will you,
Betty" Travers asked, anxiously: 1T
may be for all night"
The previous winter he had been out
with the boys, sharing the hardships
and danger and enjoying the fight for
success. but now the charm of her face
and the fear for her safety held him
back.
Rocky can stay and look out for you, .
he added.
I'm going along with you,'' said
Rocky, carelessly.
Something in his tone made Betty
turn and look him in the eyes His
glance fell, shiftily. before the steady
questioning of her own. but Travers did
not notice it, and she hesitated to tell
him of her suspicion.
I'm not afraid" she told him. Just
be careful" -
After the two had gone, she barred the
heavy door and stood at the window.
trying 10 see in the blackness outside.
II was several miles to the northwest
division. If Travers' horse. Chance,
should give out. or they should lose
their way. or if Rocky were treacherous
She shuddered and thought of poor Jim
Davis. No wonder Rocky was grim and
sullen. She could not sleep. and as she
sat by the fire listening and waiting the
~i1opae erpU tarrihln The tho,xch+e