Page:Jackson Gregory--joyous trouble maker.djvu/193

Rh advantage of a lawlessness made possible by the quarrelling of Carranza and Villa, he had pillaged ranches and held up trains. Wonderful, no less, is the growth of rumour!)

Further, to go on sketchily, he was more a fool than a business man; he had bought a lot of land lately, heaven only knew how much, timber lands on the fringe of the government reserve, whose standing forests were worthless because they were inaccessible and would remain inaccessible until the youngest Sierra baby was a greybeard or a tottering grandmother, as the case might be. Also that, in the flats at both ends of Sunrise Pass, in Indian Valley on one hand, in Bear Valley on the other, he had bought all the land to be had and had installed lumber camps … was actually cutting timber right and left! He had bought … the price varied from five thousand to two hundred thousand, as prices have a way of doing! … Grouse Lake and Mirror Lake, both twenty miles from nowhere. Over some two hundred square mountain miles Bill Steele was the busiest man to be found, busy in the achievement of absurdities. And, to put the proper crown upon all of this nonsense, he was building a town in Indian Valley, a town in Bear Valley!

"Just because he's set out to buck Summit City," people agreed. "Trying to run the Queen out of business!"

Whereat there were many winks and smiles and quiet nods.

Finally let it be mentioned in passing that those who