The Winning of Barbara Worth Read online

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  Barbara. Often as Barbara sat looking over that greatbasin her heart cried out to know the secret it held.]

  THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH

  BY

  HAROLD BELL WRIGHT

  ACKNOWLEDGMENT

  While this story is not in any way a history of this part of theColorado Desert now known as the Imperial Valley, nor a biography ofanyone connected with this splendid achievement, I must in honestyadmit that this work which in the past ten years has transformed avast, desolate waste into a beautiful land of homes, cities, and farms,has been my inspiration.

  With much gratitude for their many helpful kindnesses, I acknowledge myindebtedness to H. T. Cory, F. C. Hermann, C. R. Rockwood, C. N. Perry,E. H. Gaines, Roy Kinkaid and the late George Sexsmith, engineers andsurveyors identified with this reclamation work; to W. K. Bowker,Sidney McHarg, C. E. Paris, and many other business friends andneighboring ranchers among our pioneers; and to William Mulholland,Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

  I am particularly indebted to C. K. Clarke, Assistant Manager and ChiefEngineer of the California Development Company, and to Allen Kelly,whose knowledge, insight and observations as a journalist and as astudent of Reclamation in the Far West have been invaluable to me.

  To my friend, Mr. W. F. Holt, in appreciation of his life and of hiswork in the Imperial Valley, this story is inscribed. H. B. W.

  Tecolote Rancho, April 25, 1911.

  "Give fools their gold, and knaves their power; Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall, Who sows a field, or trains a flower, Or plants a tree, is more than all."

  CONTENTS

  I. INTO THE INFINITE LONG AGO

  II. JEFFERSON WORTH'S OFFERING

  III. MISS BARBARA WORTH

  IV. YOU'D BETTER MAKE IT NINETY

  V. WHAT THE INDIAN TOLD THE SEER

  VI. THE STANDARD OF THE WEST

  VII. DON'T YOU LIKE MY DESERT, MR. HOLMES?

  VIII. WHY WILLARD HOLMES STAYED

  IX. THE MASTER PASSION--"GOOD BUSINESS"

  X. BARBARA'S LOVE FOR THE SEER

  XI. ABE LEE RESIGNS

  XII. SIGNS OF CONFLICT

  XIII. BARBARA'S CALL TO HER FRIENDS

  XIV. MUCH CONFUSION AND HAPPY EXCITEMENT

  XV. BARBARA COMES INTO HER OWN

  XVI. JEFFERSON WORTH'S OPERATIONS

  XVII. JAMES GREENFIELD SEEKS AN ADVANTAGE

  XVIII. THE GAME PROGRESSES

  XIX. GATHERED AT BARBARA'S COURT

  XX. WHAT THE STAKES REVEALED

  XXI. PABLO BRINGS NEWS TO BARBARA

  XXII. GATHERING OF OMINOUS FORCES

  XXIII. EXACTING ROYAL TRIBUTE

  XXIV. JEFFERSON WORTH GOES FOR HELP

  XXV. WILLARD HOLMES ON TRIAL

  XXVI. HELD IN SUSPENSE

  XXVII. ABE LEE'S RIDE TO SAVE JEFFERSON WORTH

  XXVIII. WHAT THE COMPANY MAN TOLD THE MEXICANS

  XXIX. TELL BARBARA I'M ALL RIGHT

  XXX. MANANA! MANANA! TO-MORROW! TO-MORROW!

  XXXI. BARBARA'S WAITIN' BREAKFAST FOR YOU

  XXXII. BARBARA MINISTERS TO THE WOUNDED

  XXXIII. WILLARD HOLMES RECEIVES HIS ANSWER

  XXXIV. BATTLING WITH THE RIVER

  XXXV. NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE

  XXXVI. OUT OF THE HOLLOW OF GOD'S HAND

  XXXVII. BACK TO THE OLD SAN FELIPE TRAIL

  XXXVIII. THE HERITAGE OF BARBARA WORTH