Copper Streak Trail by Eugene Manlove Rhodes
page 81 of 197 (41%)
page 81 of 197 (41%)
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axles; about twenty barrels; two pack-saddles and kegs for same, for
packing water from some tanks when your water wagons don't do the trick. Ship all this plunder up to Mohawk. "Here's the idea: I'm goin' back East for capital, and I'm comin' back soon. Me and my friends--not a big bunch, but every man-jack of 'em to be a regular person--are goin' to start from Tucson, or Douglas, and hug the Mexican border west across the desert, ridin' light and fast; you're to go south with water; and Cobre is to be none the wiser. Here, I'll make you a map." He traced the map in the sand. "Here's the railroad, and Mohawk; here's your camp on the Gila. Just as soon as you get back, load up one of your new wagons with water and go south. There's no road, but there's two ranges that makes a lane, twenty miles wide, leadin' to the southeast: Lomas Negras, the black mountain due south of Mohawk, and Cabeza Prieta, a brown-colored range, farther west. Keep right down the middle, but miss all the sand you can; you'll be layin' out a road you'll have to travel a heap. Only, of course, you can straighten it out and better it after you learn the country. It might be a pious idea for you to ship up a mowing machine and a hayrake from Yuma, like you was fixin' to cut wild hay. It's a good plan always to leave something to satisfy curiosity. Or, play you was aimin' to dry-farm. You shape up your rig to suit yourself--but play up to it." "I'll hay it," said Carr. "All right--hay it, by all means. Take your first load of water out about twenty-five miles and leave it--using as little as you can to camp on. |
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