Cavanagh, Forest Ranger: A Romance of the Mountain West - 1

THE RANGER

CAVANAGH

Forest Ranger

A ROMANCE

OF THE MOUNTAIN WEST

HAMLIN GARLAND

AUTHOR OF

“THE CAPTAIN OF THE GRAY-HORSE TROOP”

“MAIN-TRAVELLED ROADS” ETC.

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

MCMX

Books by
HAMLIN GARLAND

Cavanagh—Forest Ranger	Post 8vo	$1.50
The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop	Post 8vo	1.50
Hesper	Post 8vo	1.50
Money Magic. Ill'd	Post 8vo	1.50
The Light of the Star. Ill'd	Post 8vo	1.50
The Tyranny of the Dark. Ill'd	Post 8vo	1.50
The Shadow World	Post 8vo	1.35
Main-Travelled Roads	Post 8vo	1.50
Prairie Folks	Post 8vo	1.50
Rose of Dutcher's Coolly	Post 8vo	1.50
The Moccasin Ranch. Ill'd	Post 8vo	1.00
Trail of the Gold-Seekers	Post 8vo	1.50
The Long Trail. Ill'd	Post 8vo	1.25
Boy Life on the Prairie. Ill'd	Post 8vo	1.50
(In Boys' and Girls' Library)		.75

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, N. Y.
Copyright, 1910, by Hamlin Garland
All rights reserved
Published March, 1910
Printed in the United States of America

TO THE FOREST RANGER

WHOSE LONELY VIGIL ON

THE HEIGHTS SAFEGUARDS

THE PUBLIC HERITAGE

Contents

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	The Desert Chariot	[1]
II.	The Forest Ranger	[20]
III.	Lee Virginia Wages War	[35]
IV.	Virginia Takes Another Motor Ride	[57]
V.	Two On the Veranda	[80]
VI.	The Voice from the Heights	[97]
VII.	The Poachers	[115]
VIII.	The Second Attack	[132]
IX.	The Old Sheep-Herder	[149]
X.	The Smoke of the Burning	[173]
XI.	Shadows on the Mist	[187]
XII.	Cavanagh’s Last Vigil Begins	[217]
XIII.	Cavanagh Asks for Help	[230]
XIV.	The Pest-House	[247]
XV.	Wetherford Passes On	[265]
	Conclusion	[295]

INTRODUCTION

My Dear Mr. Garland:—You have been kind enough to let me see the proofs of Cavanagh: Forest Ranger. I have read it with mingled feelings—with keen appreciation of your sympathetic understanding of the problems which confronted the Forest Service before the Western people understood it, and with deep regret that I am no longer officially associated with its work (although I am as deeply interested, and almost as closely in touch as ever).

The Western frontier, to the lasting sorrow of all old hunters like yourself, has now practically disappeared. Its people faced life with a manly dependence on their own courage and capacity which did them, and still 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, convinced, and effective support of the Conservation policies than in the West. The establishment of the new order in some places was not child’s play. 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—because the West believes in what it stands for.

I have lived much among the Western mountain men. I have studied their problems; 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 Pinchot.

March 14, 1910.

Cavanagh: Forest Ranger