Front matter
Reading edition
SLOWLY HE WAS LET DOWN
ROSS GRANT TENDERFOOT
BY
JOHN GARLAND
AUTHOR OF "Ross Grant, Gold Hunter" "Ross Grant on the Trail"
Illustrated by R. L. Boyer
THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 1917
COPYRIGHT 1915 BY THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY
Ross Grant, Tenderfoot
To Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Tewksbury whose life in the Wyoming Mountains has made Ross Grant, Tenderfoot, possible, I cordially dedicate this book
Introduction
When I went over the same route, some time before Ross Grant traveled it, from Cody eighty miles into the snow-capped Shoshones, I found how welcome a "Doc Tenderfoot" would be in the gold mining camp at the end of the route. There was, in camp, the superintendent of one of the mining companies, a man who had never had any instruction in things medical or surgical, but who, with a steady hand and a cool head, and an acquired knowledge of "first aids," was often called on in case of sickness and accident, as there was no doctor nearer than Cody. Such a state of affairs greeted Ross Grant when he arrived with his medical "emergency chest" and his real knowledge of the use to which its contents should be put.
Also, I found a certain "outfit" of men, not McKenzie in name but in nature, waiting to "jump" certain valuable "claims" provided the owners failed in any particular to measure up to the requirements of the law. Their intention was to do the "jumping" legally and not through "gun play," which is becoming an obsolete custom in that great state.
Then, too, I discovered over on a real Meadow Creek Valley–exactly the same place that Ross found–a real "Dutch Weimer" afflicted with snow-blindness, imprisoned for months at a time in the little valley because of the danger from snowslides on the mountainsides.
And, by the way, if you should ever follow this same interesting trail from Cody up into the mountains, you would find "Ross Grant, Tenderfoot" an accurate guide-book until you reached the end of the stage route. There you would find that Miners’ Camp is a fictitious name applied to a real place. And if you should chance to be in camp on the Fourth of July, you would realize fully the difficulties that Ross had to contend against in the vast snowfalls. For the year I visited the mountains the glorious Fourth was celebrated by snow-shoe races down the mountainsides! There are snow-storms every month in the year there, but Miners’ Camp is comparatively free from snow during August and September.
These are the months, then, when gold hunters, "prospectors," are most numerous in the mountains. I saw them everywhere with their "pack outfits" bound on wooden saddles, seeking in the rocks for indications of a fortune that is as elusive in their business as the proverbial "pot of gold at the end of a rainbow."
But, although Ross Grant did not immediately find a fortune, he found what is far more desirable, the development of muscle, quick wit and nerve in the situations which he was obliged to face and conquer in these adventure-breeding mountains.
"Ross Grant, Gold Hunter" tells of the hero’s further adventures in the mountains and of his hard won "find."
In "Ross Grant on the Trail" he meets many discouragements, but finally conquers them.
John Garland.
Contents
I.A Born Surgeon13
II.A Steady Hand34
III.Doc Tenderfoot in Action56
IV.The Fourth Man78
V.A Man Who Needed Bracing Up98
VI.The Men of Meadow Creek121
VII.Half-Confidences140
VIII.Ross’s "Hired Man"159
IX.Surprises176
X.A Newcomer on Meadow Creek197
XI.Meadow Creek Valley Misses Leslie216
XII.A Calamity Befalls Ross236
XIII.The Search258
XIV.A Perilous Journey277
XV.A New Camp297
XVI.The Ingratitude of Weston312
XVII.A Random Shot330
XVIII.A Humiliating Discovery348
XIX.An Unexpected Victory363
Illustrations
PAGE
Slowly He Was Let DownFrontispiece
Map of the Meadow Creek Trail59
"What’s the Latest Word?"72
He Struck the Trail134
Beside the Dynamite Box203
The Snow Hid It from View309
Map of the Crooked Trail359
"You’ve Paid for It"367