“Bill!”
“Honest to God, Tony! Why, I’ll be drivin’ hosses all my life—seems. Couldn’t do anythin’ else if I wanted to. Shut up now. G’wan an’ tell yer boss ye’re layin’ off a day or two, an’ then go to bed. I’ll see ye in the mornin’. Cole of Spyglass Mountain—that’s the stuff!”
There came a severe tickling in Joshua’s throat when he tried to raise further protest against the old man’s generosity, but Bill grabbed him by the arm and turned him about. Then, administering a light kick, he bade him to “shut up an’ hit the hay,” and Joshua, too hopefully elated to refuse good fortune when it came his way, hurried into camp and to the walking boss.
Next morning he rode around the lake with California Bill toward G-string, his body on the high seat over the rolling backs of Bill’s slick mules, his soul sailing in the heavens.
CHAPTER XIX
A TRIO OF SHOCKS
MR. JOHN GOLDEN, mining engineer at G-string, readily consented to help Joshua Cole for the sake of his friendship with California Bill. Nor did he ask anything for his trouble and experience, for such is the custom among friends who live in the free and generous outlands. Bill would have helped him build a stable or a house, had he required such aid, and would have been offended if he had offered pay. So now he helped Bill’s friend.
California Bill drove on to Spur after leaving the two in the vicinity of the newly named Spyglass Mountain. Joshua and Golden spent the entire day searching for the stakes of the recent survey and running lines. They discovered that only a part of Spyglass Mountain was covered by the survey, and the portion that had been included was within the limits simply because it had been impracticable to leave it out.
But this did not down Joshua’s ardor. The hundred and sixty acres finally settled upon lay at the foot of the steep rise, and a great deal of the land beyond it, on the desert side, would be in the forest reserve. It would therefore be open to his use, and it might be, even, that he could obtain a special permit from the forest service to build an observatory on the mountain’s top. So California Bill had encouraged him, anyway, and Bill knew much about the workings of the government offices that control the forest privileges of homesteaders and cattlemen.
So with the legal description of the desired land in his pocket, Joshua walked to Ragtown early next morning and took the stage to Spur. That evening he reached Los Angeles by train, and was on hand at the Federal Building next morning when the land office was opened.
He found the land office people unwilling to aid him beyond showing him a formidable-looking book wherein the land was listed. Unfamiliar with such procedures, he wrestled with the big book for an hour, then gave it up, secured an application blank, filled in the data, and passed it to a clerk. It was taken in to the commissioner, presumably, and presently he was called inside, where the fee was extracted from him. He was told that he would be notified by letter whether or not his claim would be allowed, and that if it was not allowed his money would be returned to him. This seemed to be all that was required of him, so he took his leave, in the dark as to whether or not his mission had been a success.