Publisher's Synopsis
Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1917. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Rickart's master stroke in dealing with Tierra Longa was to take Elwood away with him. The third day the great car, like the passing of a sinister portent, raced northward, dust at its tail as if the land had yielded to the primitive impulse to defile what it found contemptible. Followed a few lowering days lightened by subtle intimations of triumph; succeeded to these a general slackening of the tension of opposition. And then doubt. The visible presence of the party of attack had whetted the fighting humor of the Tierra Longans; its removal to regions whence no sign issued, and to which the rural imagination could not follow them, left both sentiment and opinion absurdly toppling over an empty chasm. It is true young Brent professed to know what the enemy might be about and from what quarter they could be expected next to strike; but considering that they had known Brent since he was knee-high to them, was it likely? To the rural mind, a proper sense of caution demands that you suspect something. Deprived of Elwood and Rickart, they suspected the device which would have bound them to concerted opposition. Most of all they suspected its even-handedness. According to Brent it made you safe against every contingency; its weakness was that it provided an equal security for old man Tuttle who was suspected of being a Mormon and Sturgis who made you ridiculous by succeeding with his silo in the face of your confident prediction. Not for mere poetizing has the ancient word for countryman come to be the word for unbeliever, for Christianity is a religion of togetherness, and, pagan to the soul, the ranchers of Tierra Longa preferred to trust to the partial gods of their own boundaries, the secret stroke of fortune. That week saw the end of the Rains. They blew in on the c...
