Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-03-11
CHAPTER Ill.
Waits and q

When ! crawlcd out Of ny berth at
the portcr'a call the next morning,
my l'uIln1n'n wa3 standing in the
Denver yard. While ! was aha wing
in the Mushroom asked the colorcd
boy III my smoking -roomG 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
had uEcd me AS IL convenient Dump
ing ground for his story Wac the least
Of my intention at the moment. FOR
that matter. since we hadn't cx-
changed cards, and | waan't even
suT" that ia heard his namc
straight. I couldn't have traced him
II had wanted 10.
Recaiing the story in the 'gnrtsh
light OF another day, it seemed a bit
less credible than It had while I was
listening 10 1t. and | began to won
der il the teller of it might not be a
member OF the deathless guild OF
smoke-roon, romancers. I buried the
story among the things 10 be smiled
at and forgotten, when I took q taxi
for the hotel. After an excellent
breakfast, I made u lew inquiries
about the meridian; the 105th, that
the maps showed as passing just
west. OF tho city. The maps were
right The 1e5th meridian, which is
the from which mountain time
is reckoned, ran & little west OF the
city proper. and, by consequence, wes1
of the two other principal cities O,
the state, Colorado Springs ant
Pueblo.
/ found that the 1o5th meridian
tracing it north from Denver. stop
short against the 40th parallel OF lati
tude just outh of a little town callet
Erie. Traced south, it tracks the u
& r. G.. railroad for about twent,
miles and then takes to the mountain
barely shutting out Manitou, n pass
ing. Of course. well to the WESTWARD
of Pueblo. This simplified matters
a little.
Yet this business of wandering aim
lcasly from post to pillar. combing TIT
face of nature for blue-cyed maiden!
and piebald horses and harlequin.
faced dogs was already beginning tt
strike me as about the most fantasti,
thing a body could conceive of doing
To attempt it without a plan of som,
kind seemed worse than useless; SO
for perhaps the first time In a prett,
rattle Drained life. l sat down to d.
some ground -and-lofty, head work
with Cousin Pcrcy's latter for a scr
Of nexus.
The third paragraph contained tn.
meat of the matter: Your portion O
Grandfather Jasper's property wa
worth. at its latest valuation, some
thing like $440.o00." What single
city could be worth any such sum a.
that? I could think of nothing but {
a mine Of some kind. unless it nigh
be a cattle ranch, OR a growth o.
standing timber: and in the area laiC
out for me; mines would ,outvote cat,
tie or timber about a Hundred to one
I thought.
Then there was that other phrase
TT lies in a perfectly safe repository
tacle Or c%ontatner Of some sort:
brick wall. Or a barbed-wire fence, OF
any inclosing thing you like to i'm.
agine. Could a mine be said>to be /
repository?
As you see: / kept coming back Il
the mine idea, in spite OF all I couit
do; and at last. without a word o,
warning, and right out Of a clear sky
az you may say, smack! q thing hi
me squarely between the shoulder.
blades-Brown-beards and hts ecccn'
trio old gentleman!
After ! got cooled off q bit I had Il
admit that there was something les,
than one chance In q thousand that a
the price ofa couple Of cigars given Il
q fellow traveller In distress, had
purchased n real clue to my owr
puzzle.
Yet / couldn't eet away from til,
notion that was on the verge Of 4
discovery. Oddly enough, the rntracu.
Ious part OF 1.-THE one chance ii .
million that ! should run across Thu
one person In a. 1hundrAd mfilf0n5 vKS