Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1909-11-05
SYNOPSIS.

Murray Sinclair and his gang Of wreck
ers were called out to clear the railroad
tracks at Smoky Creek. McCloud, a
young road superintendent, caught Sin
clair and his men in the act of looting
the wrecked train. Sinclair pleaded in
nocence, declaring 1t only amounted to a
small sum-a treat for the men. McCloud
discharged the whole outfit and ordered
the Hreckage burned. McCloud became
acquainted with Dicksie Dunning, a girl
OF the west, who came to look at the
wreck. She gave him a message for Sim
clair. Whispering" Gordon Smith told
president Bucks of the railroad, Of Nc
Clouds brave fight against a gang of
erazed miners and that was the reason
for the superintendent appointment to
his high office. McCloud arranged to
board at the boarding house Of Mrs. Sim
clair, the ex-foreman's deserted wife.
picksie Dunning was the daughter of the
late Richard Dunning, who had died of a
broken heart shortly after his wife's
demise. which occurred after one year Of
married life. Sinclair visited Marion Sin
clairs shop and a fight between him and
McCloud was narrowly averted Smoky
Creek bridge was mysteriously burned.
AeCloud prepared to face the situation.
President Bucks notified Smith that he
had work ahead. McCloud worked for
days and finally got the division running
In fairly good order. He overheard Dick
sic criticising his methods, to Marion
Sinclair. A stock train was wrecked by
an open switch. Later a passenger train
was held up and the express car robbed.
Two men Of posse pursuing the bandits
were killed. McCloud was notified that
Whispering Smith was to hunt the des-
peradoes. Bill Dancing, road lineman,
proposed that Sinclair and his gang be
sent to hunt the bandits. A stranger, ap-
parently with authority, told him to go
ahead. Dancing was told the stranger
was Whispering Smith" Smith APP
preached Sinclair. He tried to buy him
his life was In danger. McCloud was car
fied forcibly into Lance Cummings pres
ence. Dunning refused the railroad a
fight-of-way, he had already signed for.
Oicksie interfered to prevent a shooting
ARRAY. Dicksie met McCloud on a lonely
trail to warn him his life was in danger.
On his way home a shot passed through
his hat whispering Smith reported that
Du Sang, one Of Sinclair's gang, had been
assigned to kill McCloud. He and Smith
saw Du Sang. Whispering Smith taunt-
ed Du Sang and told him to get out Of
Medicine Bend or suffer. Du Sang seemed
70 succumb to the bluff. McCloud's big
construction Job was taken from him be-
cause Of an injunction issued to Lance
Dunning by the United States court.
CHAPTER XVI.-Ccntinued.
The Crawling Stone river is said to
Smbody, historically, all Of the de-
0eits known to mountain streams. Be-
low the Box Canyon 1t plows through
. great bed Of yielding silt, its own
deposit between the two imposing
lines Of bluffs that resist It's wander
ings from side to side of the wide val
ley. This fertile soil makes up the
rich lands that are the envy of less
fortunate regions in the Great: Basin;
but the Crawling Stone is not "a river
TO give quiet title to one acre of its
own making. The toll Of its centuries
spreads beautifully green under the
June skies, and the unsuspecting set
tier, lulled into security by many
years Of the rivers repose, settles on
Its level bench land and lays out his
long lines Of possession; but the Sioux
will tell you in their own talk that this
man is but a tenant at will; that in
another time and at another place the
stranger will inherit his fields; and
that the Crawling Stone always comes
back for its own.
The winter had been an unusual one
even in a land Of winters. The sea-
sons fall of snow had not been above
an average, but 1t had fallen in the
spring and had been followed by ex-
'cessively low temperatures throughout
the mountains. June came again, but
q strange June. The first rise of the
Crawling Stone had not moved out
the winter frost, and the stream lay
bound from bank to bank, and for hun
dreds of miles, under three feet of ice.
When June opened, backward and
cold, there had been no spring. Heavy
frosts lasting until the middle of the
month gave sudden way to summer
heat, and the Indians on the upper
valley reservation began moving back
into the hills. Then came the rise.
Creek after creek In the higher noun
tains, ice-bound for six months. burst
without warning into food. Soft winds
struck with the sun and stripped the
mountain walls Of their snow. Rains
set In on the desert, and far in the
high northwest the Crawling Stone
lifting its four.foot cap of ice like a
bed Of feathers began rolling it end
over end down the valley. In the Box,
20 feet of water struck the canyon
walls and ice-foes were hurled like
torpedoes against the granite spurs;
the Crawling Stone was starting after
its own.
Wien the river rose, the earlier talk
OF Cummings men had been that the
Crawling Stone would put an end to
the railroad pretensions by washing
the $50 miles Of track back to the
Peace river, where 1t had started. This
much in the beginning was easy to
predict; but the railroad men had
turned out in force to fight for their
holdings, and while the ranchers were
laughing, the river was flowing over
the bench lands in the upper valley.
CHAPTER XVII.
The Crawling Stone Rise.
So sudden was the onset Of the river