The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1939-02-16
CHAPTER vi

Again that call bursting through
the dawn: Roll out, Rangerl"
Breck threw back the hood OF his
tarp and looked up. Overhead, pine
branches waved against sky that
still held a few stars. AT his right
Dad Cook was crawling from his
own cocoon-Iike bed, while to the
left Sierra Slim had dressed as far
as trousers. and now sat morose and
silent, staring at the ground.
Breakfast was wordless meal.
But as Sierra finished his third cup
of coffee, he showed back his bench
and at once resumed his good ma
ture.
well chief" he asked, "where
do we head first?"
Cook rose and gathered the dishes
into pan with one sweep of his
arm. "You and Breck," he said,
will take the Little Whitney and
Kern River line going out, Then
come back by Sulphur Canyon. Un-
less the wire is all down you ought
to be here again in a week. I'll
go south to Temple Meadow"
He turned gravely to Breck. "If
you live through a week of Sims
dutch-oven bread you've got a tin
gizzard!"
Gruelling work filed the days that
followed, yet for Breck they were
strangely satisfying. Work oriented
his life. 1t was like the magnetic
pole that holds a compass needle
steady. He rose each morning with
definite purpose, and felt by night
that he had earned his sleep.
Work went on. From headquar-
ters station he and Sierra followed
a single strand of wire hung from
tree trunks, part of two hundred
miles that radiated like a SPIDERS
web over the mountain range. 1t
knew no trail, but climbed walls
and plunged across canyons in its
direct course from point to point.
AS days passed with long hours of
work and hardship mutually shared,
Breck felt bond growing between
himself and Sierra. Over the nights
campfire, with the mountain silence
about them and only their own
thoughts to break it, their compan-
ionship strengthened into conf
dences, and their separate natures
began to unfold. In these hours
men are apt to bare their best and
their worst, and show traits that
would have remained hidden during
years of acquaintance in the cities
below.
Talk drifted to Lone Tree, and
men, and girls. "Slim," Breck
asked. ''Why haven't you ever mar
ried?"
Sierra screwed his mouth side
wise. "Ah shucks What'd I do with
a woman? How could I pack her
around these sand hills? Besides,
] never seen any in my life that
I'd trade mule for, except one.
And she wouldn't want my kind.
Fact, is I wouldn't try to make her
want me-"
He looked up from close sur
vey of the Goals. Maybe you seen
her at the dance. / wasn't there
myself. Old man Temples kid"
The name jolted Breck from quiet
musing. "Louise?"
"Yeah. Louy. There's a girl!"
Sierra rolled another smoke.
"Most of the cowhands hereabouts
is spreadin' their ropes for her." he
went on. 'The dam foolsl Trying
to tie her in some shanty cookin'
their greasy grub!"
st saw her in Lone Tree" Breck
admitted. Doesn't she belong in
the cow-country?"
Sierra nodded. You'd say so,
sure you would"
Breck laughed, recognizing the re-
buke.
YOU'D say she belongs here"
Sierra explained, because you
found her here. That kids a thor
eughbred. Let me tell YOU There's
been four generations of Temples
grazing their stuff on Temple Mead
ow. Then along came a girl and
the old man tried to make her over
into a boy. Didn't work at all.
Louy went to school and got ideas
about paintin' pictures and then told
Tom she was clearin' out, goin' to
the city and learn more. She did
too, went plumb to New York
studyin'. | seen some of her pic
lures and they're pretty, sure
enough.
Then two years ago her old man