THE EAGLE’S WING By B. M. Bower Good Indian Lonesome Land The Ranch at the Wolverine The Flying U’s Last Stand The Heritage of the Sioux Starr, of the Desert Cabin Fever Skyrider Rim o’ The World The Quirt Cow-Country Casey Ryan The Trail of the White Mule The Voice at Johnnywater The Parowan Bonanza The Eagle’s Wing [Illustration: The man in the distance ducked out of sight amongst the bowlders.] THE EAGLE’S WING A STORY OF THE COLORADO BY B. M. BOWER WITH FRONTISPIECE BY FRANK TENNEY JOHNSON BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1924 Copyright, 1924, By Little, Brown, and Company. All rights reserved Published February, 1924 Printed in the United States of America To the American Eagle, fighting always the Vultures of the earth; whose protective wing extends even into the desert lands; whose shadow has fallen upon the great river, this story of the Colorado is loyally inscribed. B. M. B. CONTENTS I. King, of the Mounted II. Johnny Buffalo Bears Another Message III. “My Heart is Dead” IV. Rawley Reads the Bible V. A City Forsaken VI. Trails Meet VII. Nevada VIII. “Him That is--Mine Enemy” IX. “A Pleasant Trip to You!” X. A Family Tree XI. Rawley Thinks Things Out XII. Rawley Plays the Game XIII. The Colorado XIV. The Vulture Screams XV. The Land of Splendid Dreams XVI. Rawley Investigates XVII. Changed Relations XVIII. The Johnny Buffalo Uprising XIX. The Eagle Strikes XX. Nevada Analyzes XXI. The Truth About Riches XXII. Greater Than Gold XXIII. The Eagle Looks Upon a Great River XXIV. Anita XXV. The Eagle and the Vulture XXVI. “Take This Fighting Squaw Away!” XXVII. “You Tell Hoover I Said So!” XXVIII. The Vulture Makes Terms with the Eagle XXIX. Fate Has Decreed XXX. Dawn and the River XXXI. The Vulture Feasts XXXII. Another Rescue XXXIII. The Eagle’s Wing THE EAGLE’S WING CHAPTER ONE KING, OF THE MOUNTED On the wide south porch of the house where he had been born, Rawley King sat smoking his pipe in the dusk heavy with the scent of a thousand roses. The fragrant serenity of the great, laurel-hedged yard of the King homestead was charming after the hot, empty spaces of the desert. Even the somber west wing of the brooding old house seemed wrapped in the peace that enfolds lives moving gently through long, uneventful months and years. The smoke of his pipe billowed lazily upward in the perfumed air; incense burned by the prodigal son upon the home altar after his wanderings.