Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.
OVER THE PASS
BY FREDERICK PALMER
AUTHOR OF THE VAGABOND, DANBURY RODD, ETC.
1912
CONTENTS
PART I—AN EASY TRAVELLER
CHAPTER
I YOUTH IN SPURS
II DINOSAUR OR DESPERADO
III JACK RIDES IN COMPANY
IV HE CARRIES THE MAIL
V A SMILE AND A SQUARE CHIN
VI OBLIVION IS NOT EASY
VII WHAT HAPPENED AT LANG'S
VIII ACCORDING TO CODE
IX THE DEVIL IS OUT
X MARY EXPLAINS
XI SEÑOR DON'T CARE RECEIVES
XII MARY BRINGS TRIBUTE
XIII A JOURNEY ON CRUTCHES
XIV "HOW FAST YOU SEW!"
XV WHEN THE DESERT BLOOMS
XVI A CHANGE OF MIND
XVII THE DOGE SNAPS A RUBBER BAND
XVIII ANOTHER STRANGER ARRIVES
XIX LOOKING OVER PRECIPICES
XX A PUZZLED AMBASSADOR
XXI "GOOD-BY, LITTLE RIVERS!"
XXII "LUCK, JACK, LUCK!"
PART II—HE FINDS HIMSELF
XXIII LABELLED AND SHIPPED
XXIV IN THE CITADEL OF THE MILLIONS
XXV "BUT WITH YOU, YES, SIR!"
XXVII BY RIGHT OF ANCESTRY
XXVIII JACK GETS A RAISE
XXIX A MEETING ON THE AVENUE TRAIL
XXX WITH THE PHANTOMS
XXXI PRATHER WOULD NOT WAIT
XXXII A CRISIS IN THE WINGFIELD LIBRARY
XXXIII PRATHER SEES THE PORTRAIT
XXXIV "JOHN WINGFIELD, YOU—"
PART III—HE FINDS HIS PLACE IN LIFE
XXXV BACK TO LITTLE RIVERS
XXXVI AROUND THE WATER-HOLE
XXXVII THE END OF THE WEAVING
XXXVIII THEIR SIDE OF THE PASS
PART I
AN EASY TRAVELLER
I
YOUTH IN SPURS
Here time was as nothing; here sunset and sunrise were as incidentsof an uncalendared, everlasting day; here chaotic grandeur was thatof the earth's crust when it cooled after the last convulsivemovement of genesis.
In all the region about the Galeria Pass the silence of the dry Arizonaair seemed luminous and eternal. Whoever climbed to the crotch of that V,cut jagged against the sky for distances yet unreckoned by touristfolders, might have the reward of pitching the tents of his imaginationat the gateway of the clouds.
Early on a certain afternoon he would have noted to the eastward a speckfar out on a vast basin of sand which was enclosed by a rim of tumblingmountains. Continued observation at long range would have shown the speckto be moving almost imperceptibly, with what seemed the impertinence ofinfinitesimal life in that dead world; and, eventually, it woul