Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/86



URING the Summer of 1902, Township 22 South, Ranges 15 and 16 East, Willamette Meridian, became subject to public entry, the official surveys thereof having been approved about that time. They are situated in the central portion of Oregon, about thirty miles south of Prineville, and twenty miles east of the Deschutes river, in Crook county, and having received information through Henry Meldrum, at that time a United States Deputy Surveyor, who had subdivided the townships, that they were covered with a heavy growth of timber, I lost no time in taking a trip out there, and discovered that there were more than 20,000 acres of vacant Government land covered with valuable yellow pine, lying practically in one body. The best timber extended through the center of the two townships, the eastern portion of range 16 being comparatively barren prairie land, upon which was a dense growth of sagebrush.

"Old Pard" Mays figured out a scheme to get hold of these lands without running much risk of bumping into serious trouble with the Federal authorities. He always impressed me with his wizard-like ways in that respect, and I never failed to consult him whenever I had a hard game on hand. In that regard he reminded me of the quack doctor who always gave his patients medicine to throw them into fits. When asked why he did this, the reply was always given, "because I am 'up' on fits!" Mays may not have possessed any great amount of legal ability, but he was certainly skilled in the art of running close-hauled to the law.

After explaining his plan, Mays assured me that if I followed his prescriptions carefully, that there would be no ill-effects from my shady operations in connection with the lands in question. His plan contemplated a charge of $150 against each entryman as a location fee, taking a mortgage on the claim as security, and any time after final proof had been made, to get some outsider to purchase, subject to the mortgage; but under no circumstances to have anything to do with suggesting a purchaser, or offering to buy the claims myself, and for me to caution the entrymen at the time I filed them on the lands that the only interest I had therein was involved in my location fee; also, that anyone desirous of paying for his claim with his own money, was at liberty to do so, by allowing me my location fee of $150, and that anyone who did not have the money to prove up on, could borrow a sufficient amount from me for that purpose by giving me a mortgage on their holdings for a year or so. I was also to warn them that in the event of any hearing that any of them had offered to sell their claims before proving up, that I would decline to loan them any money.

This scheme looked all right to me, so I agreed to divide the location fees with Mays, he stipulating to advance out of his share whatever money was required in securing the patents. I was to pay him his half, amounting to $75 per claim, as fast as he secured the patents. Any money that I might make as commission on the sale of the lands, he was to have no interest in. Page 80