Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1922-01-19
CHAPTER ~.
Waits and strays.

Waits and Strays.
When I.crawled out of my berth at
the porter's call the next morning, my
Pullman was standing in the Denver
yard. While l was shaving in the
Mushroom I asked the colored boy II
my sm0king-room chum of the night
before was up vet.
"Yas. sab he done been up an gone,
for the longest"
OF sourse, this was mere idle ques-
tioning on my part. Tracing the
brown-bearded mining engineer who
had used me as convenient dumping
ground for his story was the least of
my intention Mt the moment. For that
matter, since we hadn't exchanged
cards, and l wasn't even sure that I'd
heard his name straight. l couldn't
have traced him If lad wanted tn.
Recalling the story in the gartsh
light of another day, it seemed bit
less credible than it had while was
listening to 1t, and began to wonder
n the teller of it might not be a men,
Der of the deathless guild of smoke
room rOmancers. l buried the story
among the things to be smiled at and
forgotten, when tool, taxi for the
motel. After an excellent breakfast
made few inquiries about the meri-
-alan; the lO5th, that the maps showed
as passing just west<o 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
OF the state, Colorado Springs and
Pueblo.
I found that the 1O5th meridian,
tracing it north from Denver. stops
short against the 10th parallel Of lati-
tude just south of little town called
Erie. Traced south. 1t tracks the d.
f. K. G. railroad for about twenty
miles and then takes to the mountain.
barely shutting out Manitou, and pass:
ing, of course. we'll to the west
ward of Pueblo. This simplified mat
ters-a little.
Yet this business of wandering aim
lessly 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
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-lofty head work, with
Cousin Percy's letter for u 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
lcould think of nothing but a mine Of
some kind. unless 1t might be a cattle
ranch, or growth Of standing timber {;
and in the area laid out for me, mines
I would outvote cattle or timber about q
I hundred to one, thought.
Then there was that other phrase:
1T lies in perfectly safe repository.
Repository" implied a recep-
tacle or container of some sort; brick
wall, or barbed-wire fence, or any in
& closing thing you like to imagine. Could
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 a word Of
. warning, and right out Of a clear sky,
as you may say, smack! thing hit
me squarely between the shoulder
blades-Brown-beard and his eccentric
old gentleman!
& After / got cooled off bit had to
2 admit that there was something less
than one chance in thousand that, at
the price of couple Of cigars given to
& u fellow traveller in distress, had pur-
chased any real clue to my own puzzle.
Yet 1 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 afmillfon
/ that + should run across the one per.
son In q hundred million who. could tell
me that particular story-didn't I'm.
press me at the time. was too busily
engaged In trying to at the puzzle
pieces together to think Of anything
xslsp nj the moment. 3ts HI; ~