The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1921-12-09
CHAPTER III.
Waits and strays.


Pullman was standing In the Denver
gard. While ! was shaving In the
Mushroom | asked the colored boy IL
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
brown-bearded mining engineer who
bad used me as convenient dumping
ground for his story was the least of
my intention at the moment. For that
matter, since we hadn't exchanged
cards, md | wasn't even sure that I'd
heard his name straight couldn't
have traced him II lad wanted to.
Recalling the story In the garish
light of another day, 1t seemed bit
less credible than 1t had while was
listening to II, and begun to wonder
II the teller of It might not be ii mem-
Der of the deatiiless guild of smoke
room romancers. buried the story
among the things to be smiled at and
forgotten, when i took taxi for the
hotel. After an excellent breakfast |
made few Inquiries about the meri-
dian; the 105th, that the maps showed
as passing just west of the city. The
maps We're right. The 105th meridian.
which Is the one from which mountain
time Is reckoned, ran a little west of
the 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 II north from Denver, stops
short against the 10th parallel Of lati-
tude Just south Of a little town called
Erie. Traced south, 1t trucks the p.
II. G. railroad for about twenty
miles and then takes to the mountain,
barely shutting out Manitou. and pass
Ing, OF course, well 10 the west
ward Of Pueblo. This simplihed mat
ters-a little.
Yet this business Of wandering aim.
lessly from post 10 pillar. comblng the
face OF nature for blue-eyed maidens
and plebald horses and harleqnin-faced
dogs was already beginning to strike
me as about the most fantastic thing d
body could conceive OF doing. TO ut
tempt It without plan Of some kline
seemed worse than useless, so, for per
hnps the first time In pretty rattle
Drained life, sat down to do som,
ground-and-lofty head work, Will
Cousin Percy's letter for u sort .
MENUS
'rhe third paragraph continued TIL
meat OF the matter: "Your portion o
Grandfather Jasper's property wa
worth, at Its latest valuation, some
thing like $440,00O What single piec
Of property outside of large cit
could be worth any such sum as that
could think Of nothing bur mine o
some kind, unless II might be cattl
ranch, or a growth of standing timber
and A. the area laid out for me, mine
wou,o outyote cattle or timber about
hunh'ed to one, thought.
Then there was that other phrase
at lies In perfectly safe repository
., Repository" implied a receY
tacle or.container OF some sort; a brio
vail, or n barbed-wlre fence, or any ii
closing thing you like to imagine. Cuul
mine be said 70 be a repository"
AS you see. kept coming back {
the mine idea, in spite of all coul
do; aud at last. without word {
warning, and right out of a clear SIX,
as you may say. smack thing h
me squarely between the shoulde
blades Brown-beard and his eccentr
old gentleman
After | got cooled off bit had
admit that there was something lie.
tian one chance in a thousand that. I;
the price Of couple of cigars given
fellow traveller III distress. | had pu
chased any real clue TO my own puzzl
Yet | couldn't get away from q
notion that was on the verge Of a dl
covery. C,ddIy enough. the miraculov
part If il she one chance In MILL,
ti,ai should run across the one pc
s,ni III a hundred million who could u
me that .articular story didn't Il
press NE al the time. | was too bust
engaged in irving 10 fit the puzz
pleeps together TO think 81 anythil
else III tae moment.
Come = Sum them up, they fitted Z
tolntlingIs veil Grandfather Jasp
hnd .Iways been exceedingly eloi
uoufsssI when speaking OF ais inye
usenrs. Added TO that, ne would
IN