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lb 7 INTRODUCTION. My Dear Mr. Garland— You have been kind enough to let me iaea the proo/e of "Cavanagh, Forest Ranger." I have read it wtth mingled feelings—with keen appreciation of year sympathetic mnderstanding of the problems which confronted the forest serv ice) before the western people mnderstood it and with deep re '\jgnt that lam no longer officially associated with its work, al though I am as deeply interested and almost as closely in touch as ever. Western frontier people faced life with a manlp dependence on their own courage and capacity which did them and stilt does them high honor. Some of them were naturally slow to see the advantages of the new order. But now that they have seen it there is nowhere more intelligent, con vinced and effective support of the conservation policies than in the west. The establishment ^of the new order in some places was not child's ptay. But there is a strain of fairness among the western people which you can always count on in such a fight as the forest service has made and won. The service contains the best body of young men I know and many splendid veterans. It is nine-tenths made up of western men. It has met the west on its own ground, and it has won the contest—an episode of which you have so well described—be cause the west believes in what it stands for. have lived much among the western mountain men, differed with some of them and worked with many of them. Sometimes I have lost, and sometimes I have won, but every time the fight was worth while. I have come out of it all with a respect and liking for the west which will last as long as I do. Very sincerely yours, GIFFORD PINC HOT. CHAPTER I. LEEtion.mountaireturnt THE DESERT CHARIOT. VIRGINIA WETHERFORD began her journey into the wes with exulta- 3 From the moment she opened her car window that August morning In Nebraska the plain called to her, sustained her illusions. It was all quite as big, as tawny, as she re membered it, fit arena for the epic deeds In which her father had been a leader bold and free. Her memories of Roaring Fork and Its people were childish and romantic. She recalled vividly the stagecoach which used to amble sedately, not to •ay wheezily, from the railway to the Fork and from the Fork back to the railway In the days ten years before *when she had ridden away In it a tearful, despairing, long limbed girl I and fully expected to find It waiting for her at Sulphur City,,with old Tom guentan still as Its driver. The first hint of "the new west" came to her by way of the pretentious Hotel Alma, which stood opposite the station at Sulphur and to which she was led by a colored porter of most elaborate and kindly manners. This house, which furnishes an ex cellent dinner and an absorbing mix tare of types both American and Eu ropean, was vaguely disturbing to her. It was plainly not the old time west— the west her father had dominated In the days "before the Invasion." It was indeed distinctly built for the tourist trade and was filled with all that might indicate the comfortable nearness of big game and good fish ing. Upon inquiry as to the stage she was*amazed to bear that an automo bile now made the journey to the Fork in five hours and that it left imme diately after the midday meal. At 2 o'clock, as the car came to the door, she entered It with a sense of having stepped from one invading chariot of progress to another, so big and shining and up to date was its ^Uttering body, agleam with brass and glowing with brave red paint As they whirled madly down the val ley the girl was astonished at the transformation in the hot, dry land Wire fences ran here and there, in closing fields of alfalfa and wheat where once only the sagebrush and the greasewood grew. Painted farm houses shone on the banks of the creeks end irrigating ditches flashed --sad vrith an air of business v\Ai «t«»«*t«f*«** For the first half hour it seemed as If the dominion of the cattleman had enaed, but as the swift car drew away from the valley of the Bear and climbed the divide toward the north the free range was disclosed, with few changes save in cattle, which were all of the harmless or hornless variety, appearing tame and spiritless In comparison with the old time half wild broadborn breeds. Lee began to wonder If she should And the Fork much changed—her mother was a bad correspondent. Her unspoken question, opportunely asked by another, was answered by a woman passenger. "Oh, Lord, yes! Summer tourists are crawlin' all over us sence this otto line begun. 'Pears like all the bare armed boobies and crosslegged little rips In Omaha and Denver had jest got to ride in and look us over. Two of them new hotels in Sulphur don't do a thing but feed these tenderfeet. I s'pose pro-bi-bitlon will be the next grand stand play on the part of our town lot boomers. We old cowpunchers don't care whether the town grows or not, but these hyer bankers and truck farmers are all for raisin' the price o' land and taxin* us quiet fellers out of our boots." The girl was brought back toftbe vital pbases of her life by the harsh voice of one of the men. "Lize Weth erford is goin' to get jumped one o' these days for selhn' whisky without a license I've told her so too. Everj body knows she's a-dom' it, and what beats me is her gom' along in that way when a little time and money would set her straight with the law The shock of all this lay in the fact that Eliza Wetherford was the mother to whom Lee Virginia was returning after ten years of life in the east, and the significance of the man's words froze her blood for an instant. The young fellow on the back* seat slowly said, "I don't complain of Lize sellin' bad whisky, but the grub she sets up is fierce." "The grub ain't so bad it's the way she stacks it up," remarked another. "But, then, these little flybit cow towns are all alike and all bad, so far as hotels are concerned." Lee Virginia, crimson and burning hot, was in agon? lest they should go further in their criticism. She knew that her mother kept a boarding house, and, while she was not proud of it, there was nothing dis graceful in it. Happily, the conversa tion turned aside and fell upon the government's forest policy, and Sam Gregg, a squat, wide mouthed, harsh voiced individual, cursed the action of Ross Cavanagh, the ranger in the dis trict above the Fork. "He thinks he's IiBB VTBQIHIA. secretary of war, but I reckon he won't after I interview him. He can't shuffle my sheep around over the hills at his own sweet will." The young fellow on the back seat quietly Interposed. "You want to be sure you've got the cinch on Cava nagh good and square, Sam, or he'll be a-ridln' you." "He certainly is an arbitrary cuss," said the old woman. "They say he was one of Teddy's rough riders in the war. He sure can ride and handle a gun. 'Pears like he thinks %e's run nln' the whole range." she continued, after a pause "Caln't nobody so much as shoot a grouse since he come in, ana the supervisor upholds him in it" Lee Virginia wondered about all this supervision, for it was new to her. Gregg, the sheepman, went on: "As I tell Redflald, I don't object to the forest policy—it's a good thing for me I get my sheep pastured cheaper than I could do any other way, but It makes «X met to have gracing lines run on one bunch off the reservation last Fri day. I'm gclng to find out about that. He'll learn he can't get 'arbitrary' with me." The old woman chuckled, "'Pears like you've changed your tune since •©8, Sam." The car was descending into the val ley of the Roaring Fork now, and wire fences and alfalfa fields on either side gave further evidence ot the change in the land's dominion Down past the courthouse, refurbished and deeper sunk in trees, Lee Virginia rode, re calling the wild night when 300 armed and vengeful cowboys surrounded it, holding three cattle barons and their hired invaders against all comers, res olute to be their own judge, jury and hangman It was all as peaceful as a Sunday afternoon at this moment, with no sign of the fierce passions of the past The car crossed the Roaring Fork and drew up before two small shacks, one of which bore a faded sign, "The Wetherford House," and the other fresher paint, "The Wetherford Cafe." On the sidewalk a group of Indians were sitting, and a half dozen slouch ing white men stood waiting at the door. As Lee went past the hotel porch her heart beat hard and her breath shortened. In. a flash she divined the truth. She understood why her moth er had discouraged her coming home It was not merely on account of the money. It was because she knew that her business was wrong What a squalid little den it was' How cheap, bald and petty the whole town seemed of a sudden! Lee Vir ginia halted and turned. There was only one thing to be done, and that was to make herself known. She re traced her steps, pulled open the bro ken screen door and entered the cafe. It was a low, dingy dining room filled with the odor of ham and bad coffee. At the tables ten or fifteen men, a mot ley throng, were busily feeding their voracious jaws, and on her left behind a showcase filled with cigars, stood her mother, looking old, unkempt and worried. The changes in her were so great that the girl stood in shocked alarm. At last she raised her veil. "Mother," she said, "don't you know me?" A look of surprise went over the older woman's flabby face—a glow which brought back something of her other self, as she cried, "Why, Lee Virginny. where did you come from?" The boarders stopped chewing and stared in absorbed Interest, while Vir ginia kissed her biowsy mother. "By the Lord, it's little Virginny!'' said one old fellow. "It's her daugh ter." Upon this a mutter of astonishment arose, and the waiter girls, giggling, marveling and envious, paused, their platters in band, to exchange comment on the newcomer's hat and gown. A cowboy at the washing sink In theger corner suspended his face polishing and gaped over his shoulder in silent ecstasy. Some of the men came for ward to greet her, and, though she had some difficulty in recognizing one or two of them (so hardly had the years of her absence used them), she even tually succeeded in placing them all. At length her mother led her through the archway which connected the two shanties, thence along a narrow ball into a small bedroom, into wblch the western sunset fell. It was a shabby place, but as a refuge from the crowd in the restaurant it was grateful. Lize looked at her daughter critical ly. "I don't know what I'm going to do with a girl like you. Why, you're purty—purty as a picture. You were skinny as a child. I'm fair dazed Great snakes, how you have opened out! You're the living image of your dad. What started you back? I told you to stay where you was." "I had no place to go after Aunl Celia died. I had to come home." "You wrote they was willing to keep you" "They were, but I couldn't ask it of them. I had no right to burden them, and, besides, Mrs. Hall wrote me that you were sick "I am. but I didn't want you to come back. Lay off your things and come out to supper. We'll talk afterward." The eating house, the rooms and hallways were all of that desolate shabbiness which comes from shlftless ness joined with poverty. Everything on which the girl's eyes fell contrasted me ana my Berbers jacked up every strongly with ner aunts borne on tne time they get over the Hue. Ro#s run Brandywine—not because that house He admitted his conversion shame lessly. "I'm for whatever will pay best Just now, with a high tariff, sheep are the boys. So long as I can get on the reserve at 7 cents a head lambs free—I'm going to put every dol lar I've got Into sheep." "You're going to get thrown off al-should—they together one of these days." said the young man on the back seat. Thereupon a violent discussion arose over the question of the right of a sheepman to claim first grass for hiswhich flocks, and Gregg boasted that he cared nothing for "the dead line." "They've tried to run me out of Deer Creek, but I'm there to stay. I have 10,000 more on the way. and the man that tries to stop me will find trouble." was large or luxurious, but because it was exquisitely In order and sweet with flowers and dainty arrangement of color. She regretted bitterly that she had ever left her eastern friends. Her mother, in truth, showed little pleasure at her coming and almost nothing of the Illness of which a neighbor had written. It was, Indeed, this letter which had decided her to return to the west She had come, led by a sense of duty, not by affection, for she bad never loved her mother as a daughter were In some way antl pathetic—and now she found herself an unwelcome guest With aching head and shaking knees Virginia re-entered the dining room, was now nearly empty of its "guests," but was still misty with the steam of food and swarming with flies. These pests buzzed like bees around the soiled places on the tablecloths, and one of her mother's first remarks was a fretful apology regarding her trials with those insects. "Seems like you can't keep 'em out," she said. With desperate effort Lee conquered her disgust. "Never mind I'm tired and a little upset. I don't need any dinner Hastily sipping a cup of cof fee, she tried hard to keep back the tears, but failed, and no sooner did her mother turn away than she fled to her ///•ret "MOTHER, DON'T YOU KNOW ME'" room, there to sob unrestrainedly her despair and shame "Oh, I can't stand it!" she called. "I can't, I can't!" She felt heiself alien and solitary in the land of her birth. Lize caine in half an hour later, pa thetic in her attempt at "slicking up." She was still handsome in a large fea tured way, but her gray hair was there and her face laid with a network of fretful lines. Her color was bad. At the moment her cheeks were yellow and sunken. She complained of being short of breath and lame and tired. "I'm al ways tired," she explained. "'Pears like sometimes I can't scarcely drag myself around, but I do." A pang of comprehending pain shot through Virginia's heart. If she could not love she could at least pity and help, and, reaching forth her hand, she patted her mother on the knee "Poor old mammy!" she said. "I'm going to help you." Lice was touched by this action of her proud daughter and smiled sadly. "This is no place for you. It's nothing but a measly little cow town gone to seed—and I'm gone to seed with it I know it But what is a feller to do? I'm stuck here, and I've got to make a living or quit I can't quit, so I stag along." "I've come back to help you, mother. You must let me relieve you of some of the burden." "What can you do, child?" Lize asked gently. "I can teach." "Not In this town you can't" "Why not?" "Well, there's a terrible prejudice against—well, against me. And, be sides, the places are all filled for next year. The Wetherfords ain't among the first circles any more." Lee Virginia remembered Gregg's charge against her mother. "What do you mean by the prejudice against you?" she asked. Lize was evasive. "Since I took to running this restaurant my old friends kind of fell off, but never mind that tonight. The girl's thought% was now turned +, into other half forgotten channels. «l wish you would tell me more about I father. I don't remember where he was buried." "Neither do I, child. I mean I don't know exactly. You see, after that cat tle war he went away to Texas. He never came back and never wrote, and by and by word came that he bad died and was buried, but I never could go "When did you reach town?" he down to see where his grave was at. "Didn't you know the name of the town?" "Yes, but it was a new place away down in the Panhandle and nobody I knew lived there. And I never knew anything more. Well, I must go back Into the restaurant _Lbaj£Lgot a girl I Use heme: drawn back_la_a«r^a*s can trust to count the cash." Left alone, Lee Virginia wept no more, but her face settled Into an ex pression of stern sadness. It seemed as If her girlhood had died out of her and that she was about to begin the same struggle with work and worry which had marked the lives of all the women she had known In her child hood. CHAPTER II. THE FOREST BAKQEB. EE VIRGINIA was awakened next morning by the passing of some one down the hall calling at each door, "Six.o'clock!" She had not slept at all tm after 1 She was lame. heart weary and dismayed, but shethe rose and dressed herself as neatly as before. She had decided to return to Sulphur. "I cannot endure tola," she had repeated to herself a hundred times. "IwUZnot!" Hearing the clatter of dishes, she ventured with desperate courage into the dining room, which was again filled with cowboys, coal miners, ranchers and their tousled families and certain nondescript town loafers of tramp-like appearance. Slipping into a seat at the end of the table which offered the cleanest cloth. Lee Virginia glanced round upon her neighbors with shrinking eyes. All were shoveling their food with knife blades and guzzling their coffee with bent heads. Their faces scared her, and she dropped her eyes. At her left however, sat two men whose greetings were frank and man ly and whose table manners betrayed a higher form of life. One of them was a tail man with a lean red face, against which his blond mustache lay like a chalk mark He wore a cordu roy jacket cut in Norfolk style, and in the collar of his yellow shirt a green tie was loosely knotted. His bands were long aDd freckled, but were man ifestly trained to polite usages. The other man was younger and browner and of a compact, athletic fig ure. On the breast of his olive green coat hung a silver badge which bore a pine tree in the center. His shirt was tan colored and rough, but his head was handsome. He looked like a young officer in the undress uniform of the regular army. His hands were strong, but rather small, and the lines of his shoulders graceful. Most at tractive of all were his eyes, so brown, so quietly humorous and so keen. In the nimble of cheap and vulgar talk the voices of these men appealed to the troubled girl with great charm She felt more akin to them than to anv one else in the room, and from lime to time she raised her eyes to their faces. They were aware of her also, and their gaze was frankly admiring as well as wondering, and in passing the ham and eggs or the sugar they con trhed to show her that they consid ered her a lady in a rough place and that they would like to know more about her. She accepted their civilities with gratitude and listened to their talk with growing interest It seemed that the young man had come down from the hills to meet his friend and take him back to his cabin. "I can't do it today, Ross," said the older man. "I wish I could, but one meal of this kind is all I can stand these days." Mrs. Wetherford, seizing the mo ment, came down to do the honors. "You fellers ought to know my girl. Virginny, this Is Forest Supervisor Redfleld, and this Is Boss Cavanagh, his forest ranger In this district You ought to know each other. My girl's just back from school, and she don't think much of the Fork. It's a little too coarse for her." Lee flushed under this introduction, and her distress was so evident that both men came to her rescue. The older man bowed and said, "I didn't know you had a daughter, Mrs. Wetherford." And Cavanagh, with a glance of admiration, added, "W*'ve been wondering who you might b»»." Lite went on: "I thought I'd got rid of her. She's been away now for about ten years. I don't know but it was a mistake. Look's like she's grown a little too fine haired for us doughles out here." "So much the worse for replied Redfleld. This little dialogue gave the girl time to recover herself, but as Cavanagh watched the blush fade from her face, leaving it cold and white, he sympa thized with her—pitied her from the bottom of his heart. He perceived that he was a chance spectator of the first a a in a S a one that might easily become a trag edy. He wondered what the forces might be which had brought such a daughter to this sloven, this virago. To see a maid of this delicate bloom thrust into such a place as Lize Wetb erford's "hotel" had tbe reputation of being roused indignation. asked, and into his oice his admira tion crept "Only last night." 'You find great changes here?" "Not so great as in my mother. It's all"— She stopped abruptly, and be understood. -M**llN^MNB*l»Wfr*M"^^"-«qMH register, Redfleld turned to say: "My I dear young lady, I don't suppose youl remember me, but I knew you whear you were a tot of five or six. 1 knew your father very well." "Did you?" Her face lighted up. "Yes, poor fellow he v|knt away from here rather under a (loud, you know." "I remember a little of it. I was here when the shooting took place." "So you were. Well, since then much has happened to us all," be explained to the ranger. "There wasn't room for a dashing young blood such as Bd Wetherford was is those day*" He turned to Lee. "He waa no warsa than men on the other side—IT was dog eat dog-but so** way flss people rather settled on Mm a* Mapogoat He was forced out, and yow mother has borne the bruat of It sttM*. Those were lawless daya." More and more Lee Virginia's heart went out In trust toward tbwe two men. Opposed to the maljdowma, un shaven throng which Alios) the room* they seemed wondrously softened and sympathetic, and In the ranger's gaze was something else—something which made her troubles somehow less intol erable. She felt that be understood tbe difficult situation in watch she found herself. Redfleld went on "Ten flat us hor ribly uncivilized after ten years' ab sence?" "I find this uncivilized," sac replied with fierce intensity, looking around tbe room. Then, on tbe impulse, she added "I can't stand it! 1 MUM here to live with my mother, but tins is too —too horrible!" "I understand your repuMaa." re plied Redfleld. "A thousand* times 1 repeat, apropos of this countuy, 'Where every prospect pleases and easy man is vile.'" "Do you suppose it was aa bad ten years ago?" she asked. "Ifan every thing as dirty—as mean? Were the houses then as full of flies audVanells?' "I'm afraid tbey were. W course tbe country isn't all like this, and there are neat homes and gentle peo ple in Sulphur, but most cattlemen are—as they've always beea—a shift less, happy-go-lucky lot at beat, and some of them have beea worse, as you know." "I -never dreamed of lading my mother in such a place," she west on. "I don't know what to do or say. She isn't well. I ought to stay and help her. and yet—oh, it is disheartening!" Lize tapped Redfleld on too shoul der. "Come over here. Redd*, you have finished your tneahJasa. I want to talk with you." ITO BE coirmrtrBn,f SIM Reward, *IM. Tbe readers of this paper willfeepleased to learn that there Is at least eae dreaded disease that science ba»been«tlet« cure in all its stag-eci, andtliattoCa*«rifc. Ball'» Catarrh Cure is the only poaitiveeon- now known to the medical trmtemityu Catarrh being a constitutional disease, muaUes a constitutional treatment, Bairn. Catarrh Cure is taken internally, actiaw dfOKtly upon the blood and mucons surfaces of the system, thereby destroying the founda tion of tbe disease, and Hiving: the patient strength by building up the constitution and assisting nature in doing Ha work. The proprietors have so much faith in Its curative powers that they oner One Hun dred Dollars for any case that It falls to cure. Send for list of testimonials. Add ress: F. J. CHBNBT A Co. Toledo, O, Sold by Druggists, 76c. eHall'sFamllyPUlsforconstipatloni Takel Wanted Regular Work. A farm hand bad worked to the field? from dawn till darkness, dofeog the chores by lantern light "I'm going to quit." he said to the farmer at the end of the month. "You promised me a steady job "Well, haven't you got oner* was the astonished reply. "No." said tbe man "there are three or four hours every night that I don't have anything to do and fool say time away sleeping."—Success Magazine. A Gentle Hint. "But look here. Snip," said Skrwpay. "you haven't put any pockets) hi these trousers. What's the matter with you/" "Why. Mr. Slowpay," replied the man of clothes, "1 was going to sug gest that in case you ever bad any thing to put into them- yeu»aend it up to us to keep for you "—Harper*» Weekly. Not True to Life. "How very few statues there are of real women." "Yes it's bard to get them to look right" "How so?" "A woman remaining stilt and say ing nothing doesn't seem true to life." —Boston Transcript His Curiosity. Stranger—I noticed your advertise ment In the paper this nMmdag for a man to retail imported canaries. Pro prietor of Bird Store—Yea, aw." Are you looking for tbe Job? Sfmumer— Oh, no. I merely had a eutmsMy to know how the canaries lost tteJr tailsr Net Worth Botherins} Customer—Confound youv iftwtte a .piece of my ear! Barber—Only email tnt, sir not sufficient to aSeel vW 'ear-^ lag!—London Opinio*. "i if *3& I *s *-C ?*&.>* 4-