Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/74

 appointed Marie as his successor. She was an exceedingly vivacious girl, brimful of spirit, and very attractive in many ways, with rich auburn hair resembling burnished gold. McKinley, although already married, had been her sweetheart for years, and their infatuation has since culminated in the divorce of the McKinleys and the subsequent marriage of Horace and Marie.

When McKinley and I came to an understanding with reference to filings in Township "24-1," it was agreed between us to dispense with the formality of securing bona fide settlers, as that process would only incur unnecessary expense, and because of the intimacy which existed between Horace and Marie, the "dummy" proposition could be resorted to without fear of detection, and would prove by long odds the most satisfactory from a financial standpoint. This plan, therefore, was decided upon, and McKinley suggested that I go to Eugene and call on Marie, informing me at the same time that he had previously talked the matter over with her and that everything would be all right.

Visiting Eugene, I called upon Miss Ware and advised her of the object, whereupon she expressed a willingness to do the work and wanted to know what there would be in it for her. We eventually reached an agreement whereby I was to allow her $100 on each claim put through, which was to be paid her as soon as final proof was made and the certificate issued by the Receiver of the Land Office, and in addition, I was also to pay the land office fee, advertising expenses, and cost of final proof, which altogether, amounted to practically $50. This township being double-minimum land, i. e., within the indemnity limits of the California & Oregon Railway Company's grant, the expense was doubled.

In return for the consideration named, Marie agreed to fill in on the filing papers the description of the land to be located, attend to the advertising, and at the time of making final proof, to fill in all the questions asked on the blanks, both for the entrymen and their witnesses. This she did on the typewriter, so it only became necessary for me to procure signatures to represent the different entrymen and their witnesses to the various blanks.

After reaching an agreement with Marie, she handed me several sets of papers, including homestead applications, homestead affidavits, final proof blanks for claimants and witnesses, affidavits of publication, non-mineral affidavits, blank deeds, and one or two other forms such as were required in making homestead entries. This was for the purpose of enabling the applicant to sign all the papers at the same time, thus obviating the necessity of appearing before her or anyone else again. Although illegal, it avoided a whole lot of red tape procedure. It will be seen that this method guaranteed an exact duplicate of the signature on each set of papers from the application down to and including the very deed itself, and as Marie had agreed to act as notary in the taking of acknowledgments of the signatures in question, there could be no hitch in the proceedings, nor would it be possible to introduce an outsider at some later date to prove that the signatures were other than genuine throughout.

Returning to Portland, I called on McKinley and informed him of the arrangements I had made with Marie, and stated that it was my intention to call on my old stand by, F. Pierce Mays, and let him in with me on the deal.

My object in so doing, as I explained to McKinley, was to secure the expediting of the patents at the earliest date possible, and this, I believed, could be accomplished through Mays quicker and better than through any other source, and besides Mays felt more or less aggrieved because of being left out on the "11-7" deal, and I thought, by letting him in on the "24-1" deal, to right matters with the old man and place him in line again for further operations. I suggested to McKinley that he. too, take Mays in with him, in whatever claims he might put through personally in the same township.

I then called on Mr. Mays and explained to him the scheme, whereby it was proposed to secure a lot of homestead claims, which were situated in a township, the surrounding conditions being similar to those in Township "11-7." I gave him full particulars with reference to my arrangement with Marie Ware,

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