The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1909-10-21
SYNOPSIS.


Murray Sinclair and his gang Of wreck
srs 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 loouns
the wrecked train. Sinclair pleaded IN
nocence, declaring II only amounted TO
small sum--a treat for the men. McCloud
discharged the whole outfit and ordered
the wreckage 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 SIN
clair. Whispering Gordon Smith told
President Bucks of the railroad, or Mo-
Clouds brave fight against gang OF
crazed miners and that was the reason
for the superintendents appointment TO
his high office. McCloud arranged to
board at the boarding house OF Mrs. SIN
clair the ex-foreman's deserted wife.
Dicksie Dunning was the daughter or the
late Richard Dunning, who had died OF q
broken heart shortly after his wires
married life. Sinclair visited Marion Sim
clairs snop and a night between him and
McCloud was narrowly ayerted; , smoky
MeCloud prepared to face the situation.
President Bucks notified Smith that he
had WORK e aneHd M aSe Svis,oo Tnninr
in fairly good order. He overheard DICK
sic criticising his methods, to Marion
Sinclair. A stock train was wrecked rex ,ra ~
was held up and the express car robbed.
Two men OF posse pursuing the bandits
were killed. s MeSioud was notified leo that that
peradoes Bill Dancing, road lineman.
proposed that Sinclair and his gang be
sent to hunt the bandits A., str ans ap,
ahead. Dancing was told the stranger
was whispering Smith" Smith APP
or but tailed. He warned McCloud that
his life was in danger McCloud was car
ried forcibly into Lance Cummings pres
snse DgnnnE refused slrs shs r sr1eS ,or
Dicksie tnterfered to prevent shooting
ARRAY. Dicksie met McCloud on a lonely
trail to warn him his life was IN DANGER
his hat Whispering Smith reported that
bu Sang. one OF Sinclair's gang, had been
.ss pS s So XII smtS
,d Du Sang and told him to get out OF
Medicine Bend or suffer. Du Sang seemed
construction Job was taken from him be-
cause OF an injunction issued to Lance
Dunning by the United States court
CHAPTER xvl.-contlnued.
The Crawling Stone river is said to
embody, historically, all Of the de-
ceits known to mountain streams. Be
low the Box Canyon IL plows through
a 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 fnll OF snow had not been above
an average. but II had fallen In the
spring and had been followed by ex-
cessively low temperatures throughout
the mountains. June came again, but
a 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 flood. 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
bed of feathers began rolling it end
over end down the valley. In the Box.
40 feet Of water struck the canyon
walls and lce-hoes were hurled like
torpedoes against the granite spurs;
the Crawling Stone was starting after
It's own.
When the river rose. the earlier talk
of Dunning's 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 it had started. This
Duch 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.