Produced by Suzanne Shell, Beginners Projects, Mary Meehan, and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team
GUNSIGHT PASS
HOW OIL CAME TO THE CATTLE COUNTRY AND BROUGHT A NEW WEST
BY WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE
AUTHOR OF THE BIG-TOWN ROUND-UP, A MAN FOUR SQUARE, THE YUKON TRAIL, ETC.
1921
TO JAMES H. LANGLEY
WHO LIVED MANY OF THESE PAGES IN THE DAYS OF HIS HOT-BLOODED YOUTH
CONTENTS
I. "CROOKED AS A DOG'S HIND LAIG"
II. THE RACE
III. DAVE RIDES ON HIS SPURS
IV. THE PAINT HOSS DISAPPEARS
V. SUPPER AT DELMONICO'S INTERRUPTED
VI. BY WAY OF A WINDOW
VII. BOB HART TAKES A HAND
VIII. THE D BAR LAZY R BOYS MEET AN ANGEL
IX. GUNSIGHT PASS
X. THE CATTLE TRAIN
XI. THE NIGHT CLERK GETS BUSY PRONTO
XII. THE LAW PUZZLES DAVE
XIII. FOR MURDER
XIV. TEN YEARS
XV. IN DENVER
XVI. DAVE MEETS TWO FRIENDS AND A FOE
XVII. OIL
XVIII. DOBLE PAYS A VISIT
XIX. AN INVOLUNTARY BATH
XX. THE LITTLE MOTHER FREES HER MIND
XXI. THE HOLD-UP
XXII. NUMBER THREE COMES IN
XXIII. THE GUSHER
XXIV. SHORTY
XXV. MILLER TALKS
XXVI. DAVE ACCEPTS AN INVITATION
XXVII. AT THE JACKPOT
XXVIII. DAVE MEETS A FINANCIER
XXIX. THREE IN CONSULTATION
XXX. ON THE FLYER
XXXI. TWO ON THE HILLTOPS
XXXII. DAVE BECOMES AN OFFICE MAN
XXXIII. ON THE DODGE
XXXIV. A PLEASANT EVENING
XXXV. FIRE IN THE CHAPARRAL
XXXVI. FIGHTING FIRE
XXXVII. SHORTY ASK A QUESTION
XXXVIII. DUG DOBLE RIDES INTO THE HILLS
XXXIX. THE TUNNEL
XL. A MESSAGE
XLI. HANK BRINGS BAD NEWS
XLII. SHORTY IS AWAKENED
XLIII. JUAN OTERO IS CONSCRIPTED
XLIV. THE BULLDOG BARKS
XLV. JOYCE MAKES PIES
GUNSIGHT PASS
CHAPTER I
"CROOKED AS A DOG'S HIND LAIG"
It was a land of splintered peaks, of deep, dry gorges, of barren mesasburnt by the suns of a million torrid summers. The normal condition of itwas warfare. Life here had to protect itself with a tough, callous rind,to attack with a swift, deadly sting. Only the fit survived.
But moonlight had magically touched the hot, wrinkled earth with a fairygodmother's wand. It was bathed in a weird, mysterious beauty. Into thecrotches of the hills lakes of wondrous