Part II.

The Scowers.

Chapter I.

The Man.

It was the fourth of February in the year 1875.

It had been a severe winter and the snow lay deep in the gorges of the Gilmerton mountains.

The steam plows had, however, kept the railroad open, and the evening train which connects

the long line of coal mining and iron-working settlements was slowly groaning its way

at the steep gradients which lead from Stagvell on the plain to Vermissa, the central township

which lies at the head of the Vermissa Valley.

From this point the track sweeps downward to Barton's crossing, Helmdale, and the purely

agricultural county of Merton.

It was a single railroad track, but at every siding and there were numerous.

Long lines of trucks piled with coal and iron ore, told of the hidden wealth which had

brought a rude population and a bustling life to this most desolate corner of the United

States of America.

For desolate it was.

Little could the first pioneer who have traversed it have ever imagined that the fairest prairies

and the most lush water pastures were valueless compared to this gloomy land of black

crag and tangled forest.

Of the dark and often scarcely peniturable woods upon their flanks, the high bare crowns

of the mountains, white snow, and jagged rock towered upon each flank, leaving a long,

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