Gunnison news-champion., 1921-12-30

y
have traced him II I Lad wanted TO-
Recalling the story In the szrtsh
Hight OF another day. IL seemed . bis
less credible than IL had while ! Was
listening to IL. and ! began to wondes
II the teller Of Il might not be . metp
Der OF the deafhless guild Of smoke
room romancers. I buried the story
among the things 70 be smiled NJ and
forgotten. when I took Q taxi for the
hotel After an excellent breakfast I
made few inquiries about the neri.
dian; the io5th. that the maps showed
as passing jus; west Of the city. The
maps were right. The l05th meridian,
which Is the one from which mountain
time In reckoned. ran q little west o<
the city proper. and. by consequence,
west Of the two other principal cities
Of the state. Colorado Springs and
Pueblo.
found that the losth meridian,
tracing II north from Denver. stops
short against the soth parallel Of lati-
tude Just south Of little town called
Erie. Traced south. II tracks the d.
& II. G. railroad for about twenty
miles and then takes to the mountain.
barely shutting out Manitou. and pass.
ing. Of course. well TO the vest
ward OF Pueblo. This simpiified mat
ters-a little
Yet this business Of wandering aim
lessly from post TO pillar. combing the
face of nature for biue-eyed maIcens
and piel'ald horses and bariequin-faced
dogs was already beginning to strike
me ns about the most fantastic thing q
body could conceive Of doing. To at
tempt IL without plan OF some kind
seemed worse than useless: so. for per-
haps the frs; time In a pretty rattle
Drained life, l sat down to do some
ground-and-lofty head work. with
Cousin Percy's letter for a sort Of
nexus.
The third paragraph contained the
meat Of the matter: your portion Of
Grandfather Jasper's property was
worth. Mt its latest valuation. some
thing like S44O0CO." What single piece
Of property outside of 4 large city
could he worth any such sum as thatf
| could think of nothing but mine Of
some kind. unless ii might be cattle
ranch. or growth Of standing timber;
and In the area laid out for me, mines
would outvote cattle or timber about
hundred to one. ! thought.
Then there was that other phrase:
1T lies In a perfectly safe repository.
''Iiepository" implied recep-
tacle or container Of some sort: brick
wall. or u barbed.wire fence. or any In
closing thing you like To imagine. Could
a mine be said TO be a -repository"1
As you see. kept coming back to-
the mine idea. in spite of all l could
do; and ut last. without a word Of
warning. and right out OF clear sky.
as you may say. smack, thing hit
me squareiy between the shoulder
old gentleman
After ! got cooled OF bit I had to
admit that there was something less
than one chance In n thousand that. at
the price OF a couple Of cigars given to
a fellow traveller In distress. had pur.
chased any real clue TO my own puzzle.
Yet I couldn't get away from the
notion that was on the verge Of dis
coyery. Oddly enough. the miraculous
part of 1.-THE one chance In a million
that / should run across the one per-
son in hundred million who could tell
me that particular story-iidnt inn
press me ut the time. was too busily
engaged In trying to ut the puzzle
pieces together to think OF anything
else at the moment.
Come to sum them up, they fitted as
toundingly well. Grandfather Jasper
had always been exceedingly close
mouthed when speaking OF his invest
ments. Added to that, he would b.
the last man In the world to have con-
fessed that he had been bitten, even In
directly, by 'gold-brick" game Then,
too. the course he had pursued with
the mining engineer always granting
the truth Of Brown-beard's story was
just like him: he would have wanted .
year in which to think 1t over-or may
be longer. Also. !" was like him to
keep all the identifying marks ~
carefully hidden n nut meat in It's
shell.
Al this point began to think about
getting action. One word from Bull.
ton. or Bulletin. or whatever his name
was. would settle the Identities beyond
question. and that word was his ''old
gentleman's'' name. He hadn't mem
toned II once In telling his yarn
which might have been by design, or
just happen-so. But. By heavens, I'd
make him mention It!
! happened to think Of the Mining
exchange, and to wonder II somebody
connected with 1t might not have list
Of engineers and mining experts. A
hike through the streets brought me to
the exchange and the secretary NOT
only had such list. but was willing
to show II to me. In Its proper place
found the name, Charles Bullerton.
A query shot ut the man behind the