The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-11-17
CHAPTER III.
Wallis and Strays.

When / crawled out or my berth at
the porter's call the next morning, my
Pullman was standing In the Denver
yard. While / was shaving In the
Mushroom I asked the colored boy II
my smoking-room chum Of the night
before was up yet.
"Yas, sab; he done been up an gone,
for the longest"
OF course, this was mere idle ques-
tioning on my part. Tracing the
br~own-bearded mining engineer who
had used me as a convenient dumping
ground for his story was the least of
my intention at the moment. For that
matter, since we hadn't exchanged
cards, and / wasn't even sure that I'd
heard his name straight, / couldn't
have traced him II / had wanted to.
Recalling the story In the garish
light of another day, 1t seemed a bit
less credible than 1t had while I was
listening to 1t, and I began to wonder
II the teller of 1t might not be a men,
Der of the deathless guild of smoke
room romancers. / buried the story
among the things to be smiled at and
forgotten, when / took a taxi for the
hotel. After an excellent breakfast I
made a few inquiries about the meri-
l the 105th, that the maps showed
as passing just west Of the city. The
maps were right. The 1O5th meridian,
which Is the one from which mountain
lime Is reckoned, ran a little west Of
h city proper, and, by consequence,
west of the two other principal cities
OF the state. Colorado Springs and
Pueblo.
I found that the 105th meridian,
tracing 1t north from Denver, stops
short against the 10th parallel Of lati-
Jude just south of a little town called
Erie. Traced south, 1t tracks the ID.
4 h. G. railroad for about twenty
miles and then takes to the mountain,
barely shutting out Manitou, and pass
Ing, Of course. well to the west
ward Of Pueblo. This simplified mat
ters-a little.
Yet this business Of wandering aim
lessly from post to pillar, combing the
face Of nature for blue-eyed maidens
and piebald horses and harlequin-faced
dogs was already beginning to strike
me as about the most fantastic thing a
body could conceive Of doing. To at
tempt It without a plan Of some kind
seemed worse than useless so, for per
haps the first time In a pretty rattle
Drained life, / sat down to do some
ground-and-lofty head work, with
Cousin Percy's letter for a sort Of
MENUS.
The third paragraph contained the
meat Of the matter: "Your portion of
Grandfather Jasper's property was
worth, at its latest valuation, some
thing like $4,000" What single piece
Of property outside of a large city
could be worth any such sum as that?
! could think of nothing but q mine of
some kind, unless 1t might be O cattle
ranch, or a growth of standing timber;
and In the area laid out for me, mines
would outvote cattle or timber about a
hundred to one, I thought.
Then there was that other phrase:
1T lies In a perfectly safe repository.
-. . Repository" implied a recep-
tacle or container Of some sort a brick
wall, or a barbed-wire fence, or any in
closing thing you like to imagine. Could
q mine be said to be a "repository"2
As you see, l kept coming back to
the mine idea, In spite Of all l could
do; and at last, without a word Of
warning. and right out Of a clear sky.
as you may say, smack! a thing hit
me squarely between the shoulder
blades-Brown-beard and his eccentric
old ~gentlemani
After l got cooled of a bit l had to
admit that there was something less
than one chance In q thousand that, at
the price OF a couple of cigars given to
q fellow traveller In distress. / had pur-
chased any real clue to my W puzzle.
Yet I couldn't get away from the
notion that I was on the verge Of a dis
covery. Oddly enough, the miraculous
part Of 1.-THE one chance In q million
that I should run across the o per-
D In q hundred million who could tell
that particular story-didn't i'm
press me- at the time. I ri too busily
engaged In trying to Ct the pusxle
pieces together 70 think Of anything
olts Il the moment.
Come to spun them up they atted A.
(oundinsiy well. GRANDFATHER Jasper
~ always been exceedins1y eloeD-
rGskhed When speekine - ~ i1ysgtr