Produced by Greg Bergquist, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) THE LAND of LURE A STORY OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN By ELLIOTT SMITH Author of "THE BELLS OF THE BOSQUE," "HULL 97." 1920 PRESS OF SMITH-KINNEY COMPANY Tacoma, Wash. Copyright, 1920 By ELLIOTT SMITH _DEDICATED TO MARIE SMITH--HIS WIFE Although I was one of those who "Tried, failed and went away to try and forget, if possible," her unfaltering faithfulness, and endurance, made it possible for me to see and feel the things that I have written in this--HER BOOK. --ELLIOTT SMITH._ [Illustration: _Misshapen and dwaft by the pitiless rays of the desert sun._] INDEX TO CHAPTERS Chapter I. 9 Chapter II. 20 Chapter III. 29 Chapter IV. 37 Chapter V. 42 Chapter VI. 57 Chapter VII. 64 Chapter VIII. 70 Chapter IX. 80 Chapter X. 90 Chapter XI. 96 Chapter XII. 104 Chapter XIII. 113 Chapter XIV. 123 Chapter XV. 136 Chapter XVI. 149 Chapter XVII. 163 Chapter XVIII. 179 Chapter XIX. 193 Chapter XX. 206 Chapter XXI. 223 Chapter XXII. 236 The Land of Lure CHAPTER I. The early March wind was blowing with its usual force, and white wisps of clouds were scurrying across the barren waste that lay between the rough canyon, through which the raging torrents of the Columbia River forced its way to the Pacific Ocean, and the range of hills thirty miles farther south. The clouds seemed to mount higher, and take on greater speed, while crossing this scene of desolation, and graveyard of buried hopes, as if anxious to leave behind them the glare of the desert sands, and the appealing eyes of the few unfortunate homesteaders, who were compelled to remain on their claims until they had complied with the demands made by a beneficient Government before they could become sole owners of the spot upon which many of them were now making their last efforts for a home of their own.