Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1908-12-31


bull's-eye with a precision altogether
appalling.
Remained but to purchase the
ticket And this at first was a diff
Guilty, for neither Don Carlos rancho,
nor "a lonely log cabin gilded by the
rays of the declining sum-" nor-alas-
Dead Mans gulch. are TO be found
upon the folders of any railroad. Yet
here Karl showed himself to be man
Of resource and worthy of great enter
prise. He bought ticket clear TO
the coast, and set out with the grave
determination to choose his place of
debarkation from the car window
Thus il happened that on a windy
day In March Don Quixote OF the Mar
ket, squireless and clad incredibly,
rode out of the picturesque little New
Mexican town of Medilla upon rock
ing old Rcsinante for which he had
paid four prices, bearing across his
saddle bow the long brassmounted
rifle of the Schutzenverein. Upon his
brow was the black frown of dire dis
comfort and of high purpose, bat in
his heart welled up the all-pervading
JOY of attainment Would but the
Fates be kind!
A read was their instruments - a
kindly, devious road that avoided alike
the baseball park just outside Of town.
the farmhouses along the river, and
the nearby grove, where at that very
moment an unmistakable Sunday
school picnic was rioting il in
finite ice cream. Out over rocky,
sun-scorched hills, and through dusty
barren valleys, the road led him, and
Fancy peopled their desolate solitudes
with all the puppets of our latter
day romance. The up-tossed dust
of the road was redolent of blood and
battle; the lowing OF distant cattle
was clamorous Of midnight raid and
deadly stampede; gold glistened in
each crystalline pebble And when a
string of steers passed over the brow
of neighboring hill, the heart Of
uncovered treasure and he fingered
his "lasso" with longing and-doubt.
A roadside cross, carved on a
boulder SO years before, by devout
Mexicans, who thought thereby to
commemorate some soon-forgotten
scalp-lifting, then caught Karl's eye.
Instantly he dismounted, and after
pious prayer for the repose of these
unshriven souls, spent rapturous
hour in lingering the time-worn in
scription and specializing upon the tu-
multuous day it recorded. To him
that bit of rock pictured whole troops
Of swarthy villains In velvet, a dark
eyed maiden radiant with all allure
ments, and a heroic cavalier whose
plunging steed bore a double burden
from out the smoke of battle.
The road beckoned Just over the
crest of rock-strewn ridge, II
brought him suddenly upon a wind
MILL solitary, gigantic, mysterious.
The cattle, for whom its Office was
TO pump water, were far abroad in the
hills; no human habitation was in
sight; the murmur of the faint noon
day wind in the motionless sails wills
pered dark tales of murder and of mas
sacre. Unguided, Rosinante sought
the water-trough; Karl dismounted
stiffly, and after shaking his own
thirst, fell to munching crackers and
sardines that he had regretfully sub
stituted for the unpurchasable glories
of pemmican and jerked buffalo
tongue. Then strolling warily about,
he came suddenly upon a thing which
brought him up short, open-mouthed
and saucer-eyed. A small thing, too.
Fact would have described ii as the
ashes of campfire built about a
dead yucca. the bones of calf that
had been roasted thereon, the empty
shell of the cartridge that had been
expended to slaughter the beast, and
pair of cast-off boots. Fancy told
another tale: of the lonely home Of
an adventurous pioneer; of demoniac
war-whoops at dead of night; of yell
ing savages leaping in glee around the
flames that flared about their victim
at the stake. Fascinated, Don Quixote
| tip-toed gingerly closer; furtively he
slipped in his pocket, as a memento,
the empty shell; furiously he vowed
vengeance on the first misguided red
skin that ventured to cross his path.
Alluring the road led on, over hill
and dale, ridge and arroyo. A mile or
so beyond the enchanted windmill Don
! Quixote pulled in his Rosinante with
jerk, for Enthusiastically he heard the
sound of footsteps approaching on
I horseback" A moment and then a sol
| itary horseman appeared trotting down
| the road toward him. and his heart
| beat fast for JOY. 1t might have been
Alkali Ike; ii might have been Chick
asaw Charlie, perhaps even Billy the
Kid; but, after all, Karl decided for
Deadwood Dick. Fact, indeed, knew
the rider for old man Johnston's ten
derfoot nephew, CARRIED in the remark
able attire affected by his kind-harm-
full and unnecessary chaparejos, the
widest of wide sombreros. and the
pearl-handled. nickel-plated revolver,
whose very shadow is tabooed Per-
haps he, too. in his small-souled way.
was Don Quixote-further exemplify-
ing the truth of Mr.. Oscar Wilde's par
adox that literature is not the criti-
4