The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-08
convenient for tourists

 ed as if the world were coming to aD end. Mother cried because the! wouldn't let her go with them: She didn't know father was leading the other army"
 'She must have known soon. for il was reported that your father was among them. She certainly knew when they were driven to earth in that log fort. for they were obliged to restrain her by force from going to your ia ther. As run over those furious days it all seems incredible. like sud den reyerston to barbarism."
 "How d,i 1t all end? The soldiers came, didn't they?"
 "Yes; the long arm of Uncle Sam reached out and took hold upon the necks of both parties. l guess your father, and his band would have died right there had not the regular army interfered. It only required sergeant wearing Uncle Sam's uniform to come among those armed and furious cow boys and remove their prisoners"
 "I saw that. It was very strange that sergeant was SO young and so brave.''
 He turned and smiled at her. ''Do you know who that wasr'
 Her eyes flashed. She drew her breath with gasp. "Was 1t MT. Cav anaghY'
 "Yes, it was Ross. He was serving in the regular army at the time. He has told me since that he felt no fear like Siegfried's magic armor.' he said. 1t was the kind of thing the mounted police of Canada had been called upon to do many a time, and went in and got my men, That ended the war, so far as violent measures went, and 1t really ended the sovereignty of the cattleman. The power of the hester has steadily increased from that mo ment."
 But my father-what became of him? They took him away to the east, and that is all I ever knew. What do you think became of himT
 ''I could never make up my mind. All sorts of rumors come to us con- corning him. As matter of fact, the state authorities sympathized with the cattle barons, and my own opinion is that your father was permitted to es- cape. He was afterward seen in Tex as, and later it was reported that he had been killed there"
 The girl sat still, listening to the tire less whir of the machine and looking out at the purpling range with tear mist eyes. At last she said, "I shall never think of my father as a bad man he was always 80 gentle to me-"
 .You need not condemn him, my dear young lady. The people of the Forks-some of them, at lenst-con- slider him traitor and regard you as the daughter of renegade. but what does it matter? Each year sees the old west diminish. and already, in the work of the forest service. law and or der advance. Notwithstanding all the shouting of herders and the beating to death of sheep, no hostile shot has ever been fired within the bounds of a national forest. In the work of the forest rangers lies the hope of ultimate peace and order over all the public lands.
 The girl fell silent again, her mind filled with larger conceptions of life than her judgment had hitherto been called upon to meet She knew that Redfeld was right. and yet that world of the past-the world of the swift herdsman and his trampling. long horned, half wild kine-still appealed to her imagination. The west of her girlhood seemed heroic in memory. Even the quiet account of it to which she had just listened could not conceal its epic largeness of movement. The part which troubled her most was her fathers treachery to his neighbors. That he should fight. that he should kill men in honorable warfare, she could understand, but not his recrean- cy. his desertion of her mother and herself.
 She came back to dwell at last on the action of that slim young soldier who had calmly ridden through the infuriated mob. She remembered that she had thrilled even then at the vague and impersonal power which he represented. To her childish mind he seemed to bear a charm, like the he roes of her story books-something which made him invulnerable.
 After long pause Redfeld spoke again. "The memory of your father will make life for time bit hard for you in Roaring Fork. Perhaps your mothers advice is sound. Why not come to Sulphur City. which is almost entirely of the new spiritY'
 If l can get my mother to come. too. I will be glad to do so, for hate the Fork. But I will not leave her there. sick and alone"
 Much depends upon the doctors examination tomorrow"
 They had topped the divide now be- tween the Fork and Sulphur creek basin. and the green fields, the alfalfa meadows and the painted farmhouses thickened beneath them. Strange how significant all these signs were now! A few days ago they had appeared doubtful Improvements: now they rep resented the oncoming dominion Of the east. They meant cleanliness and de cent speech, good bread and sweet butter.
 Redfield swept through the town,