Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net [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 moorings. Then with a sudden thunder on the tin roof the flood came down, and Black Tex set up the drinks. It was a tall cowman just down from the Peaks who ordered the round, and so all-embracing was his good humor that he bid every one in the room drink with him, even a sheepman. Broad-faced and huge, with four months' growth of hair and a thirst of the same duration, he stood at the end of the bar, smiling radiantly, one sun-blackened hand toying with the empty glass.