The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1922-02-02
CHAPTER ~.
Wallis and Straw.

Wallis and Strays.
When crawled out Of my berth at
the porter's call the next morning, nv
Pullman was standing in the Denver
yard. While was shaving in the
washroom 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 oues
tioning on my part. Tracing the
brown-benrded mining engineer who
had used me as n convenient dumping
grouE1 Cor his story was the least Of
my Intention at the moment For that
matter, since we hadn't exchanged
carus, and 1 wasn't even sure that Po
heard his name straight, l couldn't
have traced him If I had wanted to.
Recalling the story In the garish
light Of another day, 1T seemed bit
less credible than it had while was
listening to 1t, and began to wonder
II the teller of 1t might not be Il mem
Der OF the deathless guild of smoke
room romancers. l buried the story
amonf the things to be smiled at and
forgotten, when I took g taxi for the
hotel. After an excellent breakfast
made few inquiries about the meri-
dian; the 1O5th, 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
time Is reckoned, ran little west of
the city proper, and, by consequence,
west OF the two other principal cities
or the state. Colorado Springs and
Pueblo.
found that the 1O5th meridian.
tracing 1t north from Denver, stops
short against the 10th parallel Of lati-
.tude just south Of little town called
Erie. Traced south, 1t tracks the ID.
Il r. G. railroad for about twenty
mites and then takes to the mountain.
barely shutting out Manitou, and pass
Ing, OF course, well to the west
ward OF Pueblo. This smplified mat
ters-a little.
Yet this business Of wandering aim
iessly 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 1t without plan Of some kind
seemed worse than useless; so, for per
haps the first time in pretty rattle
Drained life. sat down to do some
ground-and-iofty 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 $4,000" What single piece
OF property outside Of large city
could be worth any such sum as that?
could think Of nothing but mine of
some kinds unless 1t might be cattle
ranch. or q growth Of standing TIMBER
and In the area laid out for me, mines
would outvote-cattle or timber about
hundred to one, I thought.
Then there was that other phrase:
1T lies In perfectly safe repository.
Repository" implied recep-
tacle or container Of some sort a brick
wall. or barbed-wire fence, or any in
closing thing you like to imagine. Could
mine be said to he "repository"f
Az you see, kept coming back to
the mine idea, in spite of all could
do; and at last, without a word of
warning, and right out Of a clear sky,
as you may say, smack q thing hit
me squarely between the shoulder.
blades-Brown-beard and his eccentric
old gentleman
After got cooled Off bit had to
admit that there was something less
than one chance In thousand that, at
the price of couple Of cigars given to
q fellow traveller In distress, had pur-
chased any real clue to my own puzzle.
Yet couldn't get away from the
motion that was on the verge Of dis
.cOvery. Oddly enough, the miraculous
part of 1.-THE one chance in a million
that i should run across the one per.
son In a hundred million who could tell
me that particular story-didn't i'm
press me at the time. Twas too busily
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 bis invest
ments. Added to that, he would be
the last man ip the world to have con-
fessed that he had been bitten, even In
directly. by af''gold-brick', game. Then,
too the eourae he had pursued With:
the mining engineer always granting
the truth Of I>rown-beard's story) was
I'M 1ike HIN sihe would have ,Rahta<1 .