The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1911-08-08
CHAPTER II.
THE RED DESERT.

figuring unpronounceably under
its Navajo name of Tsenastci-
u Circle of Red Stones-was shun-
ned alike by man and beast, and the
bravest Of the gold hunters, seeking
to penetrate TO the placer ground in
the hill gulches between twin Timan-
yoni ranges. made a hundred mile de-
tour TO avoid IL.
Later the discoveries OF rich ''pock-
ct" deposits in the Red Butte district
lifted the intermontane hill country
temporarily to the high plane Of bo-
nanZa field.
Why the railroad builders, with Co
pah for a starting point and Red Butte
for a terminus, had elected TO pitch
their headquarters camp In the west
ern edge Of the desert no later conner
could ever determine. Lost also Is
the identity Of the camps sponsor,
who. visioning the things that were to
be, borrowed from the California pio-
neers and named the hating place on
the deserts edge Angels
The town had followed the shops as
sheer necessity. First and always
the railroad nucleus, Angels became In
turn and In addition the forwarding
station for copper mining district in
the Timanyoni foothills. and little
later. when a few adventurous cattle
men had discovered that the sun cured
heritage Of the desert borders was nu-
tritious and fattening. a stock ship
ping point. 4 few Of the railroad men
transplanted their families. but apart
from these Angels was mans town.
with elemental appetites and with
| only the coarse fare OF the frontier
| fighting line to satisfy them.
Farther along the desert came more.
| definitely to its own. The rich Red
Butte pockets" began to show signs
Of exhaustion, and the guIch and ore
mining afforded but precarious al
| tentative to the thousands who had
| gone in on the crest of the bonanza
wave. Almost as unanimously as IT
had swept into the bill country. the
| tide Of population swept out. For the
| gulch hamlets between the Timan-
| yonis there was still an Industrial rea-
son for being, but the railroad Ian
| Su1Sucu. anu aHSclS pCNdu4c tut W eli
| to catch and retain many Of the leav-
ings, the driftwood stranded in the
slack water Of the outgoing tide. With
the railroad, the COpperette mine and
the ''XbarZ" pay days to bring regu-
| larry recurring moments of business
and with every alternate door in Mesa
avenue the entrance to a bar, dance
hall, gambling den or the three in
combination. the elemental appetites
| grew.
1t was during this period of dry rot
that the eastern owners Of the rail-
road lost heart. Since the year of the
Red Butte thrush there had been no
dividends. At the moment Of the
moribund railroads purchase by the
Pacific Southwestern the desert was
encroaching more and more upon the
town planted In Its western border.
In the height of Angels prosperity
there had been electric lights and a
one car street tramway, bank and a
building and loan association attesting
its presence In rows of ornate cot
tages on the second mesa. alluring bait
thrown out to catch the potential saw
fngs of the railroad colonists.
But now only the railroad plant was
electric lighted; the single ramshackle
street car had been turned into a chile
con-carne stand: the bank, unable to
compete with the faro games and the
roulette wheels. had gone into 1quida-
ton: the building and loan directors
had long since looted the treasury
and sought fresh fields, and the cot
tages were chiefly empty shells.
OF the charter members of the build
ing and loan association only two re-
manned as residents of Angels the de-
cadent. One of these was Gridley
the master mechanic. and the other
was HalloC'- chief clerk for a dimin-
fishing series Of imported superintend
ents and now for the third time the
disappointed applicant for the head
ship of the Red Butte Western.
Associated for some brief time in
the real estate venture and hailing
/ from the same far away eastern state
and city. these two had been at first
yoke fellows and afterward, as If by
tacit consent. inert enemies As wide
ly separated as the poles in character
istics, habits and I'm their outlook
upon life. they had little in common
and many antipathies.
Gridley was a large man. viriIe OF
face and figure. and he marched in the
ranks of the full fed and the self in
dulgent. Hallock was big boned and
cadaverous of face. but otherwise s
fair physical match for the master
mechanic. a dark man with gloomy
eyes and a permanent frown. Jovia
good nature went with the master me
chanic's gray eyes twinklinC easily tt
a genial smile. but it stopped rather
abruptly at the straight lined sensua
mouth and found second mega ton IL
! the brutal jaw. which was only thinIy
masked by the neatly trimmed beard
HallOck's smile was bitter. and if b,
had a social side no one in Angels hat
, ever discovered it.
| 1t was in an upper room of til,
Crows Nest headquarters building
. that these two, the master mechanic
and the acting superintendent, met Lat,
. in the evening OF the day when Vice
President Ford had kept his appoint
ment in Copah with I.idgerwood
} Gridley, clad Ike a gentleman ant
fitting comfortably in his chair as h'
| smoked Il cigar that neither love no
/ ira