Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-03-29
The Snowfall
By Augustus Goodnrh Sherwin

lou got Iuem, ulu yOu! plSSoSu
eagerly one of two men hustling along
in the darkness.
81 got all the papers there We're;
yes" responded the other. "Now,
what are you going to do with them?'
sect a little further in among h
brush and I'll show you," chuckled
Boyd Willett.
They were rough men in a rough
community, and they had just accom-
plished a rough deed. Briefly, Willett
had hired a common criminal to bur-
glarize the home of a man with whom
he had q lawsuit over some land n
secure documents the lack of which
on the part of the latter would give
Willett all the advantage.
"What's this? What you sneaking
around here for?" suddenly burst
forth Willett, as he stumbled over a
PROSTATE form. "Oh Indian finland
drunk as usual"
mot fire-water this time," mumbled
the halfbreed. "Jim got rheumatism.
Can't go fast"
"Well, liven the way just now and
don't hang around here poking into
our business growled Willett, giving
the poor wretch a brutal kick that sent
him rolling out of the path.
"It come. I mark you for thatl"
growled Jim, and lay where he was
and glared after the fellow who had
humbled and hurt him. Willett and
his confrere advanced a little further
into the wood. Willett scraped III a
heap of dry leaves with his foot and
lit the mass.
"Dump ON the papers," he said, and
his associate opened a small a he
carried and a number of documents
fell into the flames.
"They're all there - gloated Willett.
"Once out of existence my game is
clear. Now let Richard West and his
slick young lawyer prove that they
have any claim to Moccasin ranch"
"Whew !" calculated the other, as a
whirl of the wind sent up spiral stray
ing wreaths of smoke and blinded his
sight, and neither he nor Willett OBJ
served that one yellow, time-worn
sheet flew free of flame contact. IL
whirled in among some bushes, out
of them and over to where Indian Jim
lay. He secured it, not then knowing
it's purport or value.
There was a pretty romance current
concerning the young lawyer, Vance
Dale, who had the Moccasin ranch lane
case, and the daughter of the man
who was his client. Gossip had it that
if Richard West won his rights he
would be a very rich man. Gossip,
too, foretold that If he won the case
Dale would win, as well, Elnora as a
reward for his labors.
In all good faith, never dreaming OF
the abstraction of the papers, Richard
West delivered over to his counsel the
box that had contained them. He was
crushed, Frustrated, when Vance Dale
one day informed him that the box
was empty.
"Then we will lose the case,"
mourned West. "There vas n paper,
a contract, that would have proved
our right of priority. 1t never was re-
corded. What can we do?"
'Fight to the end" replied young
Dale s~taunchly. "Willett has a cross
ueeu, IL Is lTOc, DQI yOo hufO PoooNo
sion. Yes, we will beat them yet,
Young Dale came across Indian Jim
one day, sick and half-staryed, in an
old dugout, provided for his needs
and Jim got on his feet.
Then all minor themes of interest
and excitement in the town were OBJ
scured by the great trial. Winter had
come, but the courtroom was thronged
each day of the trial.
at looks as if West is beaten out"
was the popular opinion, but Vance
Dale fought the opposite side every
inch of the way. The final afternoon
of the trial, however, the loss of the
papers told heavily against his client.
Dale arose to deliver his final argu-
ment in the case. All he could do was
to make a strong point of the actual
occupancy of the ranch by West
through the years. Willett based his
claim on the deed of a relative of the
original owner. The contract of this
man, now dead, with West would have
been conclusive, but, as shown, it had
been distracted by the criminal assoc
ciate of Willett.
Dale rose to make his great appeal
before the court. There was a hush
in the courtroom, and then, as Dale
lifted one hand to begin his perora-
ton, a crash sounded through the
room. A flying object had smashed a
pane of glass, striking the young law
yer sQuarely in the breast and then
dropping to the floor. A SNOWFALL had
come speeding from the outside. In
stantly there was commotion. Some
court officers ran out. There We're
echoes of rifle shots then affairs quiet
ed down as it was known that Indian
Jim had fired the SNOWFALL from an
overlooking building and had then fled