The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1921-12-02
CHAPTER III.
Waits and Strays.


the porter's call the next morning. m,
Pullman was standing in the Denver
gard. While | was shaving In the
Mushroom l 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 oues-
tioning on my part. Tracing the
brown-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 If | lad wanted to.
Recalling the story in the garish
light of another day, II seemed a bit
less credible than ii had while | was
listening to 1t, and l began to wonder
If the teller of 1t might not be men,
Der of the deathless guild of smoke
room romancers. | buried the story
among the things to be smiled at and
forgotten. when / 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 were right. The l05th meridian,
which Is the one from which mountain
time is reckoned. ran 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. II tracks the d.
& r. 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 simplifed mat
ters-a little.
Yet this business OF wandering aim
Iessly from post to pillar. comhing 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
body could conceive OF doing. To at
tempt 1t without a plan OF some kind
seemed worse than useless; so. for per
baps the first time In pretty rattle |
Drained life. ] sat down to do some |
ground-and-lofty head work. with |
Cousin Percy's letter for sort of |
nexus.
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 $440O00." What single piece
of property outside of large city
could be worth any such sum as thai =?
could think of nothing but a mine of
some kind unless 1t might be cattle
ranch. or growth of standing timber;
and 3, the area laid out for me, mines
wou.o outvote cattle or timber about a
huph' ed to one, thought.
Then there was that other phrase:
1T lies in perfectly safe repository.
. depository" implied recep-
tacle or container of some sort brick
wall. or barbed-wire fence or any In
closing thing you like 10 imagine. Could
n mine be said to be repository?
As you see. kept coming back to
the mine Idea. in spite of all | could
do: and at last without word Of
warming. and right out of clear sky.
as you may say. smack thing hit
me squarely tetween the shoulder
Newfoundland and his eccentric
I'D gentleman
After | got cooled off a hit had to
ldmit that there was something less
Ian one chance in n thousand that. at .
he price of a couple Of cigars given to ,
fellow traveller In distress had pur-
hased any Teal clue To my OWN puzzle.
YET couldn't get away from the
lotion that was on the verge Of dis
every. C.ioly enough the miraculous r
arr nf Ii. -,he one chance III million 1t
al | should run across the one per- {
ON in n hundred million W o could tell +
re thai .arricuar story didn't i'm n
rc.ss Inc nj fIe time. | was too busily n
icr, x together 10 think of anything IL
lse al tie moment. II
Cosn, - sum them up, they fitted MS b
,rndingly we'll Grandfather Jasper
sd always been exceedingly close II
Iouthcd when speaking of ais Invest ii
,eirs. Added to that, he would be I,