The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-08-16
THE INDIAN

Then Dry Valley saturated a small
sponge with the liquid and rubbed il
carefully into the roots OF his hair. Be-
sides sulphur there was sugar of lead
In 1t and tincture of nux vomica and
Day rum. Dry Valley found the recipe
IN Sunday newspaper. You must next
DC told why strong man came to fall
victim 20 a Beauty Hint
Dry Valley had been a sheepman. His
real name was Hector, but he had been
Techr:stened after his range TO distin-
6ulsh MIN from Elm Creek Johnson,
who ran sheep further down the Frio.
Many years of living face to face with
sheep on their own terms wearied Dry
Naiiey johnson. So he sold his ranch
Tor $4,000 and moved to Santa Rosa
10 live life Of gentlemanly ease. Be
ing a silent and melancholy person of
Cor perhaps 3S-he soon became that
curst and earth-cumbering thing-an ell
derry bachelor with hobby Some one
gave him his first strawberry to eat.
and he was doHe for
Dry Valley bought n four-room cot
tage in the village. and a library on
strawberry culture. Behind the cottage
was n garden Of which he made a
hlriwDerry patch. In his old gray
WOODEN shirt. his brown duclxing trous-
erS and high-heeled boots he sprawled
all day on a canvas cot under a live
oak tree at his back door studying the
history of the seductive scarlet berry.
The school teacher Miss De Witt,
spoko OF him as "a fine. presentable
man. for all his middle age" But the
locus of Dry Valleys eye embraced no
woman. They were merely beings who
Flew skirts as a signal for him to lift
aWkWardly his heavy, round-crowned
broad brimmed felt Stetson whenever
he met them. and then hurry past to
get back TO his beloved berries.
And all this recitative by the chorus
Is only TO bring us to the point where
you may be told why Dry Valley shook
up the insoluble sulphur in the bottle
so lons-drawn and inconsequential a
thing is history-the anamorphus shad-
ow OF milestone reaching down the
'oaa between us and the setting sun.
When his strawberries were begin
ming TO ripen Dry Valley bought the
heaviest buggy whip i'm the Santa Rosa
store. He sat for many hours under
the live oak tree plating and weaving
I'm an extension 10 its lash. When il
was done he could snip a leaf from a
Dush twenty feet away with the crack
er For the bright predatory eyes of
santa Rosa youth We're watching the
ripening berries. and Dry Valley was
arming himself against their expected
raids. No greater care had he taken
of his tender lambs than he did of his
cherished fruit. warding il from the
hungry wolves that whistled and howl
&c and shot their marbles and peered
through the fence that surrounded his
property.
In the house next to Dry Valleys
lived widow with a pack of children
he he Iat,
anxious misgivings. In the woman
there was strain of the Spanish She
had welded one of the name of O'Brien.
Dry Valley was connoisseur in crossed
strains; and he foresaw trouble in the
offspring of this union.
Between the two homesteads ran 4
crazy picket fence overgrown with
morning glory and wild gourd vines.
Often he could see little heads with
mops OF black hair and flashing lark
eyes lodging in and on. between The
pickets keeping tabs on the reddening
berries.
Late one afternoon Dry Valley went
10 the postofflce. When re came, back
like Mother Hubbard. he found the
deuce to pay. The descendants Of lhe-
rian bandits and Hibernian cattle raid
crs had swooped down upon his straw
berry patch. To the outraged vision
of Dry Valley there seemed TO be a
sheep corral fun of them: perhaps they
numbered five or six Betwee, the
rows OF green plants they We're stopped.
hopping about like toads. gobbling 81
lently and voraciouslv his finest fruit
Dry Valley slipped INTO the house, got
his whip and charged the marauders.
The lash curled about the legs of the
nearest-a greedy 10-year-old-before
they knew they We're discovered. His
screech gave warning. and the flock
scampered for the fence like a drove
of javelis flushed in the chaparral Dry
Valleys whip drew a toll of two more
clfin shrieks before they dived through
the vineclad fence and disappeared.
Dry Valley. less fleet. followed them
carly To the pickets. Checking his
useless pursuit. he rounded a bush.
dropped his whip and stood. voiceless.
-notionless. the capacity of his DOW
eis consumed ~ the act of breathing
ana preserving the perpendicular
Behind the bush stood ParChitl
O'Brien. scorning TO fly. She was 70, |
the oldest OF the raiders. Her night
black hair was gathered back in a wild
mass and tied with scarlet ribbon |
She stood. with reluctant feet, yet near
or the brook than l. 'he river: Cor child |
hNOd had environcl and detained Ter.
She looked at Dry Valley johnson for
moment with magnificent inSOlc1cc. |
and before his eyes slowly crunchei a |
luscious berry between her white teeth. |
Then she turned and walked slowly To !
the fence with a swaying. conscious mo
ton such as duchess might make use
OF in leading promenade. There she !
turned again and grilled Dry Valley |
johnson once more In the dark flame |
of her audacious eyes. laughed a tri-
file schoolgirlishly and twisted herself |
with pantherish quickness between the |
pickets TO the O'Brien side OF the wild |
sourd vine.
Dry Valley picked up his whip and |
went into his house. He stumbled as |
he went up the two wooden steps, The |
old Mexican woman who cooked his |
meals and swept his house called him to |
supper as he went through the rooms |
Dry Valley went on, stumbled down the |
front steps. out the gate and down the |
road into a mesquite thicket at the |
edge OF town. He sat down in the |
grass and laboriously plucked the spines |
from a prickly pear. one by one. This |
was his attitude of thought. acquired |
in the days when his problems were |
or.ly those of wind and wool and VA