Flowing Gold

h, incidentally, for the limited number of people and the scanty amount of merchandise that passed through it. Ranger lay in the dry belt-considered an almost entire

emes, of extreme dryness during which flowers failed to bloom, the grass shriveled and died, and even the trees refused to put forth leaves; or, more rarely, of extreme wetness, when the country was drowned beneath torrential rains. Sometimes, during unusual winters, the heavens opened and spilled themselves, choking the narrow watercourses, washing out roads and

was a gehenna of mud and slush and stickiness, and entirely minus that beauty and freshness that attends the rainy seasons in a tropic clime. It was a land peopled by a ha

ompensation, upon a theory that a region so poor aboveground must of necessity contain values of some sort beneath the surface. But as for other natural resourc

hen into a town, and soon into a city of brick and iron and concrete. The railroad became clogged with freight, a tidal wave of men broke over the town. Wagons, giant motor trucks, caterpillar tractors towing long strings of trailers, lurched and groaned and creaked over the hills, following roads unfit for a horse and buggy. Straddling derricks reared themselves everywhere; their feet were

ork went on at top tension night and day amid a clangor of metal, a ceaseless roar of motors, a bedlam of hammers and saws and riveters. Men lived in greas

night train from Dallas; the fact that they were forced to carry their own luggage from the station uptown to the restaurant where they hoped to get

ed, and during breakfast he maintained a running fi

low here, but they call it Hog Town. More elegant! Down there the derricks actually straddle one another, and they have to board them over to keep from drowning one another out when they blow in. Fellow in Dallas brought in the first well, and it was so big that his stock went from a hundred dollars a share to twelve thousand. All in a few weeks. Of course, he started a bank. Funniest people I ever saw, that way. Usually when a rube makes a winning he gambles or gets him a woman, but these hicks take their coin and buy banks.... Ranger's a real town; everything wide open and the law in on the play. That makes good times. Show me a

ished breakfast, he even allowed his companion to hire an automobile and driver for him. They shook hands finally, the best of friends. Mallow wished him good luck and gra

y procession of vehicles moving country-ward, he covertly studied its driver and was gratified to note that the fello

e slightest attempts at road building they were now invisible, and the vehicular streams followed meandering wagon trails laid down by the original inhabitants of pre-petroleum days, which had not been bettered by the ceaseless pounding of the past twelve months. Up and down, over armored ridges and into sandy arroyos, along leaning hillsides and across 'dobe flats, baked brick hard by the sun, the current of travel roared and pounded with reckless disregard of tire and bolt and axle. In the main, i

aning trucks and plunging trailers were hot enough to fry eggs upon, but neithe

ach was worse than the other, the roadbeds everywhere were rut

he scattered ones, whose clean timbers gleamed in the sunlight, testifying to dry

ming, for this part of Texas had gone hog wild over oil. Abandoned straw stacks had settled and molded, cornfields had grown

the back of what had once been a cultivated field, and the place was distinctive only in the fact that it gave evidence of a good water well, or a capa

unbonnets topping two pairs of shoulders, and as he drew nearer he saw that one woman was bent and slow moving, while the other was a huge creature, wide of hip and deep of bosom, wh

efore Gray made his presence known and inqui

wd, benevolent face, and after a moment

led his best and announce

nd turned her back upon Gray. "Allie! Yore pa has gone

idden beneath their bonnets; then the mother exposed her countenan

al. Her feet were incased in a pair of men's cheap "brogans" that Gray could have worn; drops of perspiration gleamed upon her face, and her hair, what little was visible beneath the sunbonnet, was wet and untidy. Altogether she presented a picture such as some painter of peasant types might have sketched. Garbed appropriately, in shawl and sabots, she would have passed for some European ploww

ge, bold features, but of a stony immobility; the eyes were watchful, brooding, sullen. They regarded him with mingled defian

f. Pa and Buddy'll be home at dinner time." By now a fuller significance of this stranger's presence had struck home and she laughed softly as

ty must have been patent, for Allegheny became even more self-conscious

id service also as a parlor, Mrs. Briskow led the way. By now she was in quite a flutter of excitement. For the guest she drew forth the one rocking chair, a patent contraption, the rockers of which were held upon a sort of tra

th to match her tremendous vigor of limb; but she remained standing at the foot of the bed, too ill at ease to take a cha

h the chair of honor, and then devoted his attention to the elder woman.

things is changin' so fast we get a new surprise most every day. I s'pose you

If you have time I'd li

sparkle. Gray felt a warm thrill of compassion at the agitation of this kindly, worn old soul, and he rose quickly. As he gained his feet that amazing chair behaved in a manner wholly unusual and startling; relieved of str

serve the effect. Ma Briskow's hands fluttered toward the gems, then reclasped themselves in her lap; she be

s in pleasing contrast to the nasal notes of that interru

of them are of v

breathed the mother. "He'

I want you to look the

with trepidation. Gingerly, reverently she removed a ring from its resting place and

pon Gray. "You could fool us easy, 'cause we nev

ointed in them and I hope you are going t

see everything wuth seein', so Pa says. Anyhow, the children is. First off, Pa's goin' to take us to the mountains." The mother faced the visitor at thi

ns? A gr

s is just what I expected 'em to be. They ar

te or aspire to. It's the tragedy of accomplishment-to fin

ey cos

es are all plainly marke

on, expectancy, gave place to horrified amazement at the figures upon th

hy, your pa's cra

ly fitting ring after ring to her fingers. All were too small, however; most of them refused to pass even the first joint, and Gray realized now what Gus Brisk

me," she declared. "

d they were inlaid in deep mourning. "I don't believe you'll like that mounting," he said, gently. "It's what we call a man's ring. Th

FOR ME," SHE DECLARED.

hoed a row of 'taters," she declared.

r voice, "you probably wouldn't want t

ewel, then she voiced a complacent thought that has been variously expressed by other women b

ded did the girl's expression change. Then indeed her interest was arrested. She regard

Briskow farm," he ran on, "you won't have

t in her mind; that it intrigued her was