Cavanagh, Forest Ranger: A Romance of the Mountain West Read online

  Produced by Roger Frank and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  THE RANGER]

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  CAVANAGHFOREST RANGER

  A RomanceOf The Mountain West

  ByHAMLIN GARLAND

  Author Of"The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop""Main-Travelled Roads" Etc.

  HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERSNew York and LondonMCMX

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  Books byHAMLIN GARLAND

  Cavanagh--Forest Ranger Post 8vo $1.50The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop. Post 8vo 1.50Hesper Post 8vo 1.50Money Magic. Ill'd Post 8vo 1.50The Light of the Star. Ill'd Post 8vo 1.50The Tyranny of the Dark. Ill'd. Post 8vo 1.50The Shadow World Post 8vo 1.35Main-Travelled Roads Post 8vo 1.50Prairie Folks Post 8vo 1.50Rose of Dutcher's Coolly Post 8vo 1.50The Moccasin Ranch. Ill'd Post 8vo 1.00Trail of the Gold-Seekers Post 8vo 1.50The Long Trail. Ill'd Post 8vo 1.25Boy Life on the Prairie. Ill'd Post 8vo 1.50 (In Boys' and Girls' Library) .75

  HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, N. Y.

  Copyright, 1910, by Hamlin Garland

  All rights reserved

  Published March, 1910

  Printed in the United States of America

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  TO THE FOREST RANGER

  WHOSE LONELY VIGIL ONTHE HEIGHTS SAFEGUARDSTHE PUBLIC HERITAGE

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  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE I. The Desert Chariot 1 II. The Forest Ranger 20 III. Lee Virginia Wages War 35 IV. Virginia Takes Another Motor Ride 57 V. Two On the Veranda 80 VI. The Voice from the Heights 97 VII. The Poachers 115 VIII. The Second Attack 132 IX. The Old Sheep-Herder 149 X. The Smoke of the Burning 173 XI. Shadows on the Mist 187 XII. Cavanagh's Last Vigil Begins 217 XIII. Cavanagh Asks for Help 230 XIV. The Pest-House 247 XV. Wetherford Passes On 265 Conclusion 295

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  INTRODUCTION

  My Dear Mr. Garland:--You have been kind enough to let me see the proofsof _Cavanagh: Forest Ranger_. I have read it with mingled feelings--withkeen appreciation of your sympathetic understanding of the problems whichconfronted the Forest Service before the Western people understood it, andwith deep regret that I am no longer officially associated with its work(although I am as deeply interested, and almost as closely in touch asever).

  The Western frontier, to the lasting sorrow of all old hunters likeyourself, has now practically disappeared. Its people faced life with amanly dependence on their own courage and capacity which did them, andstill does them, high honor. Some of them were naturally slow to see theadvantages of the new order. But now that they have seen it, there isnowhere more intelligent, convinced, and effective support of theConservation policies than in the West. The establishment of the new orderin some places was not child's play. But there is a strain of fairnessamong the Western people which you can always count on in such a fight asthe Forest Service has made and won.

  The Service contains the best body of young men I know, and many splendidveterans. It is nine-tenths made up of Western men. It has met the West onits own ground, and it has won the contest--an episode of which you haveso well described--because the West believes in what it stands for.

  I have lived much among the Western mountain men. I have studied theirproblems; differed with some of them, and worked with many of them.Sometimes I have lost and sometimes I have won, but every time the fightwas worth while. I have come out of it all with a respect and liking forthe West which will last as long as I do.

  Very sincerely yours, Gifford Pinchot.

  March 14, 1910.

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  Cavanagh: Forest Ranger

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