Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-19
Copyright. 1918. by Doubleday, Page q c..

! der against the san Francisco firm
Then we wandered down to where we
could overlook the bar itself
! The entire bed of the river was filed
from rim TO rim with a rolling brown
4 flood. The bars. sand spits. gravel
banks had all disappeared. Whole
trees bobbed and sank and raised skel.
eton arms or tangled roots as they
were swept along by the current or
caught back by the eddies, and under
meath the roar of the waters we heard
the dull rumbling and crunching of
powders rolled beneath the food. A
crowd of men was watching in idle
curiosity. We learned that all the era.
dies and most of the tools had been
lost and heard rumors of cabins or
camps located too low having been
swept away.
That evening we held a very serious
discussion of our prospects and plans.
Iank announced himself as fit TO trav.
el and ready to do so. provided he could
have a horse. The express messengers
were out of job. l had lost all my
tools and was heartily tired of gold
washing, even had conditions permit
ted me 20 continue. Beside which we
were all feeling quite rich and prosper
Gus. We had not made enormous for
tunes, as we had confidently antici-
pated when we left New York, but we
were all possessed of good sums Of
money. Yank had the least, owing to
the fact that he had been robbed of
his Porcupine river product and had
been compelled for nearly three months
TO lie idle, but even he could count on
thousand dollars or so sent out from
Hangmans Gulch. | had the most, for
my digging had paid me better than
had Johnny's express riding. But much
of my share belonged OF right to Tai
bot Ward
Having once made up our minds to
leave, we could not so too soon. A re-
vulsion seized us. In two days the
high winds that Immediately sprang
up from the west had dried the sur
face moisture. We said goodby to all
our friends-Danny Randall, DR.. RAN
kin, Barnes and the few miners with
whom we had become ultimate Dan
ny was even then himself preparing
to return to Sonoma as soon as the
road should be open TO wagons. Dr.
Rankin intended to accompany him,
ostensibly because he saw fine pro-
fessional opening at Sonoma. in reality
because in his shy. hidden fashion he
loved Danny.
We made our way out of the hills
without adventure worth noting. The
road was muddy and n good deal
washed--in fact We had occasionally
to do considerable maneuvering to find
way at all around the landslides
from the hills above.
One afternoon we turned off on a
trail known to Old and rode a few
miles to where the Pine family had
made its farm. We found the old man
and his tall sons inhabiting a large
two roomed cabin situated on n fat.
They had already surrounded a field
with fence made of split pickets cr1
rails and we're working away with the
tireless energy of the born axmen at
inclosing still more. Their horses had
been turned into plowing, and from
somewhere or other they had procured
cock and dozen hens.
For brief period Yank and I quite
envied the lot of these pioneers who
had n settled stake in the country.
II wish j could so in for this sort of
thing" said Yank.
"Why don't you?" urged old man
Pine. There's fat just above u.s."
"How did you get hold of this land 2"
l inquired curiously.
Just took it,"
Doesn't it belong TO anybody"
ITS part OF one 'of these big Greascr
ranches" said Pine inpatiently. ~
made n good try to git to the bottom
of it. One fcllar says he owns it and
VIII sell; then comes another that says
he owns it and won't sell, and so on.
They don't nohGw use this country. ex-
cept few cattle comes through once
in awhile. l got tired of monkeying
with them. and l came out here and
squatted. If | owe anybody anything
they got to show me who it is. don't
believe none of them knows themselves
who it really belongs tor
I'D hate to put lot Of work into a
place and then have to move out" said
l dOubtfully.
"Td like to see anybody move me
out" observed old man Pine grimly.