Westy Martin on the Santa Fe Trail

Westy felt that he was in hard luck! In fact, he felt that Fate had played the meanest kind of a trick on him, just when he needed all his vision to live up to the plaudits of t...

Westy stood where he was for a few moments, loathe to leave the spot where he had so recently been the cynosure of every eye. Truly, it was gratifying, that knowledge, and he wa...

It was quite late and the usual hum and buzz of masculine voices in the smoking room were missing. The train went screeching through the dark, rainy night, indifferent to all el...

It didn’t take Westy half a minute to dress on that occasion, but it took him longer than that to rouse Rip, tug as he did at his bed clothes.

Three guns immediately came tumbling out on the ground and within a few feet of each other. Their former owners were using violent language in deference to Bull and accusing him...

The porter had given them two calls and each time Westy and Rip dozed off again. Then when they were within ten minutes of their destination, Mr. Wilde had to pull the bed cloth...

At the start Westy and Rip’s interest was keenly aroused. They were stopping at places often and long enough to keep them from getting bored. Places that were rich in tradition...

The next morning, however, the outlines of the base became more perceptible as they drew nearer. At first sight it had a dark, grim look in the early morning light, a noticeable...

“Well, I’ll say you are, anyway,” Mr. Wilde said, as he viewed the place with a satisfied air. “It’s like manna in the wilderness to get a bunking-in place like this. I never wa...

“So you’re Lola, are you, and not some ephemeral wood-sprite that disappears with the advent of dawn? I feel disappointed that you cannot truthfully tell me your home is the tru...

In this everyday world of ours, what with the rapid strides that civilization has taken in every direction and the progress of our own generation, we have become cynical and apa...

“When the Moon of the Snow Shoes had come upon the prairies, the North Wind, cruel and merciless, blew its stinging fury in the faces of the red men. Ice and snow covered the ea...

“The years went by swiftly and Lone Star grew into girlhood. Adored by her foster father and his squaw, Singing Bird, her precocious wisdom soon made itself manifest among the t...

“The days and nights that followed were a period of torment, not only to the white men, but to Lone Star also as a result of her open display of pity for them. She was forced da...

Lola had evidently finished her tale. She still sat unmoved, hands clasped idly in her lap and staring out into blank space. Her physical being was there, living and breathing t...

Late that night when they got back to the little shack every one was sleepy enough to turn in. Long after Mr. Wilde and Billy had entered the somnolent state, Westy and Rip lay...

The next morning early, the Educational Film squad set out early to meet Lola, who had promised to show them some of the beauties of Raton Range that no one but a native of the...

“I don’t know who started it,” Lola answered complacently, “but people around here have believed it for many hundreds of years. I could neither deny nor affirm it, never having...

“When the enemy reached the cliff that had been so precipitous, their amazement knew no bounds to see that it had been reduced to half its former size and the cliff dwellings a...

On the way home it was pretty plain that Rip was peeved at Westy. He said nothing to either of them and when they left Lola at her cabin he said goodnight with the rest, but did...

He was tying a little string tie, trying to knot it at just the right angle. In a cracked mirror that was just half its original size, he valiantly tried to accomplish the feat....

Here and there he could see Rip’s tracks in the soft damp earth. The ground must always be damp around there, he thought, for it hadn’t rained in the mountains since they arrive...

Kicking off his heavy shoes, he dove straight in the water, striking it without hardly a ripple. He struck out with an overhand stroke and gained splendidly at the offset when s...

Westy never knew what great strength he had been given in that crucial moment. He only remembered afterward that every muscle in his body was strained to the utmost in being equ...

The desire to sleep soon overcame the desire to think and wonder more, and it made Westy powerless to do anything but just shut his eyes. It lulled his tired nerves like a power...

All through that long night Westy and Rip took turns trying to get some sleep on the hard bowlder. Tired and sleepy though they were, they couldn’t rest any more than a few mome...

“Don’t mention it, Rip. I only hope it gets light soon so we can get the lay of the land again and feed on some more berries. They’re individualists when it comes to the food li...

Looking around, Westy spied a huge tree, with big broad limbs, wide enough for them to recline on. The tree next to it was growing so close that its branches also added further...

Westy turned and watched the sun peeping through the curtain of dawn, so warm and friendly. It made him feel warm and partially dry for the first time in three days, but his spi...

It was perched low on a near-by tree and its plumage was of the most gorgeous coloring that Westy had ever seen. Its body was plump and quite long, and its tail was dotted like...

Westy made up his mind he’d get out of that forest before another night imprisoned them. With the help of the sun they could go directly east, then northeast. They’d be bound to...

Hap Westy been a medieval knight in quest of the Holy Grail and had at last beheld the object of his search before his very eyes, he couldn’t have been happier.

It was too dark to distinguish who the owner of the eyes happened to be. All Westy could see was the outline of a head, shoulders and paws resting on the rock’s edge.

The evening of the day that Rip had gone to the lake with Westy following in his wake, Mr. Wilde and Billy returned to the cabin, thoroughly tired and their clothes dripping wet.

There was little talk between them. Even the optimistic Billy was silent and when Lola caught up with them her face was so grave that it tended to make them more alarmed than ever.

All through that night Mr. Wilde, Billy and the two emergency nurses waited anxiously for the delirious chatter to stop--to hear the gratifying sound of slow yet steady breathin...

A week later Westy and Rip were back again in the cabin, looking none the worse for having gone through such an ordeal--thanks to the kindness of Mrs. Redmond and Lola.

“No, I don’t,” Westy said and meant it. “Any lake and forest that could make a fellow feel like that is supernatural and I don’t care what any hard-boiled scientist says.”

They returned from the Redmond cottage early in the evening. Walking back by way of the brook, each one seemed listening to all the familiar sounds for the last time.

Westy’s heart was wrung with pity when he saw the cottage! The whole side facing the arbor was one sheet of flame and the arbor now existed only in memory.

They met Rip, his uncle and Billy before they were half way. As he told them later, they’d make a fine lot of applicants for volunteer firemen, sleeping as sound as that.

They had left Lamy and were climbing steadily upward. Westy was looking out of the train window at the uninhabited miles of land, relieved by the juniper, piñon and scrub dottin...

As he got near him he walked slow on purpose and passed in front of him leisurely. He could feel the close scrutiny that young Mitchell gave him as he passed.

“You are right, Westy,” the older man said. “That envelope is in this house now. In my safe and worth a fortune---- Is it possible to wire Miss and Mrs. Redmond?”

“Everything’s set now, Martin,” he said excitedly. “Dad says the attorney O. K.’d opening the envelope and made an appointment to have him bring your friends to his office Monda...

They went out of the room and, as they padded down the stairs, Westy jumped up quietly and followed. As he got to the head of the stairs the other Mexican went on out, while Bap...

“Well, come on, kid.” Billy was attempting to lift Westy as if to carry him, but the scout frustrated his attempt and stood on his own feet. “All right”--Billy was not a bit bal...