The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hidden Water, by Dane Coolidge

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Title: Hidden Water

Author: Dane Coolidge

Illustrator: Maynard Dixon

Release Date: August 9, 2009 [EBook #29642]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: "I never saw a sheepman yet that would fight, but you've
got to"]

HIDDEN WATER

By DANE COOLIDGE

With Four Illustrations in Color

By MAYNARD DIXON

A. L. BURT COMPANY

Publishers--New York

COPYRIGHT

A. C. McCLURG & CO.

1910

Published October 29, 1910

Second Edition, December 3, 1910

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England

All rights reserved

ILLUSTRATIONS

"I never saw a sheepman yet that would fight, but
you've got to" _Frontispiece_
"Put up them guns, you gawky fools! This man ain't
going to eat ye!" 177
"No!" said Kitty, "you do not love me" 287
Threw the sand full in his face 462

HIDDEN WATER

CHAPTER I

THE MOUSE

After many long, brooding days of sunshine, when the clean-cut
mountains gleamed brilliantly against the sky and the grama grass
curled slowly on its stem, the rain wind rose up suddenly out of
Papagueria and swooped down upon the desolate town of Bender, whirling
a cloud of dust before it; and the inhabitants, man and horse, took to
cover. New-born clouds, rushing out of the ruck of flying dirt, cast a
cold, damp shadow upon the earth and hurried past; white-crested
thunder-caps, piling-up above the Four Peaks, swept resolutely down to
meet them; and the storm wind, laden with the smell of greasewood and
wetted alkali, lashed the gaunt desert bushes mercilessly as it howled
across the plain. Striking the town it jumped wickedly against the old
Hotel Bender, where most of the male population had taken shelter,
buffeting its false front until the glasses tinkled and the bar
mirrors swayed dizzily from their mo