The Snyder signal. (Snyder, Tex.) 1887-????, 1920-04-09


pony on the side of Red Butte, and, letting
him Craze, sat on a piece of broken stone
while he watched the cattle in the flat valley
of Berry Creek There were six hundred oil
the cattle, and they were all headed the same
way as they moved along, step by step
Red Butte rose TO a long flat top win steep
sides Opposite another eminence of land stoou
against the sky line-Story Hills because they
had benches like steps. around Their sides, Up
the valley the slope led out into vast llmitless
plain. Down the valley, miles away were gray
bad lands. If it had not been for the catte' 1he
herder and his horse, the eye could have ais
covered no sign of life in any direction, no eVl-
dence that any man had ever come that way oe-
FORE except that on the nose OF keo buIte
little black monument stood against the pIue
sky-a Johnnie of flat stones built as li'lu-
mark by some cowman.
Tule found little path through the grass
leading up the slope and around the end OF the
ridge. IL.
"Just rabbit tracks," Tule muttered having
made that little discovery. Just naturally rap-
bits wear trail up around this butte J!
Probably he would never have thought OF
that rabbit runaway again II he had not as
covered another one like it the following morn
mo when he came out from the wagon to
day herd again. This other runaway was near
w two miles down the valley, and 1t came down
the valley through the grass, Just as the otner
one had done but Tule sat sideways on his
horse to look at 1t. -.
81 inst don't remember eveh seeing a jack
rabbit runway excepting oven the top OF Il
butte or around the end" he told himself
"Shucks What's jack rabbit runaway
He Strengthened himself up in his saddle ana
trotted down to the creek to look at the puddleS
of water with dry mud between them down the
deep course When a man is out on the prairie.
he has TO go look at something. 1t is dscon-
certing when one finds himself paying atten-
RI a
bits trail in the grass. Tue turned his MIND
to Whmsy.
Whimsy was the town, twenty-five miles to-
ward the SOUTH There were fourteen houses
in that town Four of them saloons, two stores
one post offiqe, and people lived in the other
houses In one of these houses, which was
twelve feet square and built Of imitation brick,
pressed metsA lived girl, regular, long
skirted. long Nhaired. slim-footed Jennie Dear
There WASN'T another girl within forty miles,
and she was' right there in town, and only
mile from the post office. Blue eyes, brown
throat and al}ms, and lips that faded the RED
OF any prairie(flower, were part of her features
She lived ALONE and was a homesteader
Tule h9& seen her several times. He had md
den in after the mail, and each time he had
-Seen her once right close up, there in the post
office, and other times kind of clrcllng around
within few hundred feet of her shack, he
had caught sight of her working out in her
GOTH pdlCn anu SdluCll, NlliIl SilS was 'Ni'''N
according to the governments demand that
homesteader do certain work to prove intention
TO make a home of the unbroken scotland.
A horse and buggy suddenly appeared in sill
houette over the ridge two miles to the south
ward from Tue, and he Strengthened up with
interest and wonderment. Somebody must DE
driving that horse, and perhaps 1t was some
body coming to the 10 wagon No. 8. mat
meant kind of excitement, a break IN the grip
ping loneliness of the open prairie.
Tue recognized the horse when it was three
quarters Of mile distant-Colonel RolWeyS
The colonel was general manager OF the W
Company and this was Just little excursion
out around the wagons to see how things were
coming along.
The buggy came up to Tue. who met 1t Just
north of the herd. and Colonel Rolwey greeted
him by name, with friendly smile.
"Why hello. Tule, Yo' heah? ] lowed yo
was oveh theh in the Diamond Bar outfit.
Whend yo' take up with we-uns. now
Just lately colonel. ! come through glen
dive. you know and only stayed three days.
and met Mr.. Hardwick, and he said ] should
take on with him, being as he'd day herder
60"
Who'd he let go?"
Jim Feey."
&C did NO heah what fo'?"
! .xr{ykv YES, Colonel Rolwey. ! expect it's all
rfeht. to say so tofyou, sir. He was mean to
his horses-"Ss
That's righs,-4s know that man. Anybody
abuses his horses cayii't live in any of Duh
wagons. no. sub Have 20 seen any strangers
round heah?"
mo, colonel aary q stranger"
- "Well. they's stranger faded out of Alkali
Butte. with jos thirty thousand dollars in
good papah money, Tule. He come in afoot
an he wen around the butte onto Case o
Whiskey's pinto mare, an Case o. sure did took
on some when he come out the do of the Oasis
an found hit gone, vas, huh The money was
out the Alkali Butte National Bank. Mr.. Cole
lie cnchiah WINS theh alone. an the little fel-