The Trail of The Badger: A Story of the Colorado Border Thirty Years Ago Read online

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  THE TRAIL OF THE BADGER

  "DICK PUSHED HIS RIFLE-BARREL THROUGH A CREVICE IN THEROCKS."]

  The Trail of The Badger

  _A STORY OF THE COLORADO BORDER THIRTY YEARS AGO_

  BYSIDFORD F. HAMP

  _Author of "Dale and Fraser, Sheepmen,""The Boys of Crawford's Basin," etc._

  ILLUSTRATED BYCHASE EMERSON

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  W. A. WILDE COMPANYBOSTON CHICAGO

  _Copyrighted, 1908_ BY W. A. WILDE COMPANY _All rights reserved_

  THE TRAIL OF THE BADGER

  PREFACE

  In writing the adventures of the boys who followed "The Trail of theBadger" down into that part of Colorado where the fringes of twodiscordant civilizations overlapped each other--the strenuousAnglo-Saxon and the easygoing Mexican--the author has endeavored to showhow two healthy, enterprising young fellows were able to do their littlepart in that great work of Desert Reclamation whose importance is now aswell understood by the general public as it always has been by thosewhose lot has been cast to the west of meridian one hundred and five.

  To some it may appear that the boys are ahead of their time, but to theauthor, whose introduction to "the arid region" dates back thirty yearsand more, remembering the conditions then prevailing, it seems no morethan natural that they should recognize the unusual opportunitypresented to them of making a career for themselves, and even that theyshould be dimly conscious of the fact that if they "could make two earsof corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground whereonly one grew before" they would be deserving well of the infantcommunity of which they formed a part.

  That in making this attempt they would meet with adventures--in fact,that they could hardly avoid them--the author, recalling his ownexperiences in that country at that time, feels well assured.

  CONTENTS

  I. DICK STANLEY 11

  II. SHEEP AND CINNAMON 32

  III. THE MESCALERO VALLEY 51

  IV. RACING THE STORM 68

  V. HOW DICK BROUGHT THE NEWS 87

  VI. THE PROFESSOR'S STORY 102

  VII. DICK'S DIPLOMACY 116

  VIII. THE START 129

  IX. ANTONIO MARTINEZ 147

  X. THE PADRON 165

  XI. THE SPANISH TRAIL 179

  XII. THE BADGER 191

  XIII. THE KING PHILIP MINE 203

  XIV. A CHANGE OF PLAN 221

  XV. DICK'S SNAP SHOT 241

  XVI. THE OLD PUEBLO HEAD-GATE 259

  XVII. THE BRIDGE 276

  XVIII. THE BIG FLUME 294

  XIX. PEDRO'S BOLD STROKE 313

  XX. THE MEMORABLE TWENTY-NINTH 333

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  "Dick pushed his rifle-barrel through a crevice inthe rocks" (_Frontispiece_) 42

  "It was a splendid chance; nobody could ask for abetter target" 57

  "Passing on our way through the town of Mosby" 137

  "Behind him, stood the squat figure of Pedro Sanchez" 213

  "I could not think what he was doing it for" 286

  The Trail of the Badger