Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

WHISPERING SAGE, “ Fact is, water or no water, the only place for sale in this hull valley is the old Webster ranch. No water there at all now. Used to be plenty in the old days.” Wash drained his glass. ‘““Used to be some place then. Hank owned due west from where Rebel Creek forked into the Webster. Maybe you've seen those dead willows stringin’ across the valley? ‘They follow the dry wash that used to be Webster Creek. Wa’n’t another ranch below him clear to the river. He had all the water. A cloudburst changed that in one night. Water came rushin’ down carry- in’ ever’thin’ before it. When it was all over, Hank found the mouth of the Webster damned up like a mason had done the job. Rebel Creek has been some stream ever since. That was a long time ago.” Wash paused for a moment to ponder over that miracle. “Yep,” he went on, “ there was the hull valley changed overnight. Hank moaned and cursed. Nothin’ doin’! The courts couldn’t go back on old Mother Nature. Say,” he queried, “ ain’t the lawyers got sumthin’ to cover a trick like that? The ‘accomplished fact’? Well, it was that, all right. That there ‘ accomplished fact ’ made Paradise Valley. Look at those ranches bedded down along the Rebel clear to the Washoe. Pretty near all Basques down there. I ain’t so fond of them; but they know how to work. I guess nature knew her business. She most generally does.” ‘What happened to Hank?” Buck de-. manded. “Oh, Hank gave up the ship. He’s run- nin’ a store down in Golconda, accordin’ to last reports. He tried to sell his place; but, shucks, you couldn’t give that ranch away.” By the time they left the sleek Bodine, with his piercing black eyes and jaunty manner, could have retailed the past his- tory of the valley. Old man Webster’s pass- ing particularly interested Buck. For the next twenty-four hours it worried and then obsessed him. “ Why did he let go without a fight?” he repeatedly asked the puzzled Shorty. “It don’t sound right to me. Somebody wanted to get him out of the way; some friend! 803 There ain’t no big cattle outfit here except the Double A. Maybe they wanted to grab it; but ten years is a long time to wait. Nobody seems to have made a move in all that time. I tell you this thing just gets my nanny.” “Don’t make no difference to us,” Shorty grumbled. ‘“ We got other things to worry about.” “Don’t make no difference!” Buck ex- claimed. “‘ Why don’t it? I smell easy money here.” Shorty and he came down from the hills and camped at the deserted ranch. The ob- session grew on Bodine. Shorty, in his dumb way, tried to follow the workings of Bodine’s nimble mind. On the morning of the second day Buck came to a decision. He called Shorty to his side. ‘“‘T’m going into Winnemucca and have a look at the county records. If old Webster made a filing on his water rights I’m going to buy him out. You wait here; I may be back to-morrow. If I go to Golconda to see Webster I may be gone a week. You wait a week. If I don’t come back by then, you find Gloomy and go over into the Mal- heur Lake country.” The filing had been made. The State of Nevada guaranteed to Henry Webster the right to use a minimum of fourteen miners’ inches of water from Webster Creek. Bodine’s enthusiasm for the deal in hand soared. Even the State was on record that there were water rights along Webster Creek! Five days later Bodine returned. Be- hind him lumbered a freighter, bringing the tools and necessaries of life. Shorty shook his head. No need to ask; Bodine had done as he had said he would. Shorty found his tongue then, and what he said was to the point. He wiped the perspiration from his forehead. “* This és the cuckoo,” he stated. “ You'll be gettin’ married next.” ‘You watch my smoke,” Bodine an- swered knowingly. “I'll grow dollars on this little old ranch; before I’m through you'll see that creek runnin’ full of water. We're goin’ to be so respectable it 71 hurt. But you sit tight and keep still. You're my hired man from now on. Somebody’s comicloool C©