The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 12, 1900, Page 9

A= AR, MAGATINE SECTIoN AUGUST 12 hop zat far—one man m count m but one big oonlight mon Dieut AT B A - Un mo= next the other zey roll fight ash so. Z zey hold togethem all {la, pull hard, ooked. What for there “Mon Dieu zat next day to_get zem o From the Dark Wood Where the kives OF Men Ebb Away With the kives ©f the 25 QOmes a Story That Rivals the Weird Tales of Tke Bartz Mountains. 1T is more than passing strange that shadows of L: y of our nef slipped through should have be “We notice a m as, but the culprit s fingers. is missing,” says Mr. an, “but we can find no proof of so the crime goes unpunished Not long ago I found a body in the brush, hacked beyond recognition. We buried pays the penaity of the the body and that was the last of it It is as though it were King Willlam is straight, but most of the S— ¢ des e in so often fallen . i v 7l RSN measured by rule and line—the 1t rest are a bad lot.’ ; L 1 o2 ?‘ R humen belng for the lives of & certaln King Willlam's hut Is in a tiny canyon i 2] 3 s «’{fl(fl AN RN A number of trees that timidly clasps hands with its big. 3 i/ i i WGl «Q There 1s one man who has the secrets sister canyon, Lagunitas. “I cannot look of the y Lagunitas in ze face,” he says nalvely, breast. “since zey spoll her. So I come here X after work and live by myself. Lons time ago old Mr. llard, the boss of '(\ll. g Willlam, “Lagunitas zis land, he come and say, ‘King Willlam, too. Mon Dieu, she you keep zis place so long you live, ana t for blood! I hear his son, Joe Maillard, say ze same.” and I know sure some For almost forty years King Willlam to die. For why she de- has wielded his twin scepters, the saw Bacre bl All ze time zey and ax, over Lagunitas. ‘The hireling of chop, chop, chop away her beauty and she others, his strong blows have helped no ke zat bring the canyon from its high estate. s Wil ppers has her pay @ have ze one big th her, I hear her not lke What she 1@ pay= for interest, were two? it not to get do? Dem: ment. One man for pa Cer- “It is it of ze canyon zat make To-day it lies with its bosom bared by the her get Mon Dieu, what I say, woodchoppers’ ax, scarred by a track, King Wil o L chop Lagunitas? « g around it like a serpent, over e slersl 1 Dieu, some one get w I h the timber is shipped. The waters K ell t Eh blen, I w darip listlessly in myriad teardrops and wateh very closely. By and by three men meander through the canyon. already dead. Zen I know how much In the elder days, glant trees locked trees she give for one life. Some time branches above Lagunitas and the creek e time leetls ss, but tumbled briskly over bowlders or tripped > zo right guess when lightly over pebbles. Slender ferns swayed gracefully forward to catch thelr reflections in the clear pools. But that was before the need or greed of man made havoc of the works of nature. ‘ J 0 y his computations are Willlam Tique saw Lagunitas in the obiihe Some one is found elther dead pride of u-‘n ength and beauty. Its wild s he predicts. And in loveliness fhscinated him and he made e missing and the dead are pause in a life that had been already lued less than a plug of spiced with much adventure and a tinge >, of romance. The world, with the fever e last time that King Willlam heara ©f gold in its veins, passed by Willlam Tique and his canyon. Then the day came when it found them out. fagnifique,” simple William bad said, nd her wed t fe hs, but by the mil s 74, but he is 1 chops on erying for blood ered the summons. - Wi tisfy his meag King Wil- r wants, . afterwara 2nd pitched camp in the canyon. o wilt 36 Ming of 10 - 2 Pete was AlL!” said shrewd Capital when its eye murder spreads its e~ supposed assassin, fell on Lagunitas. Capital stroked its e hopper, was caught and chin, did a little figuring and the doom s his gullt was not proven. of Lagunitas was sealed—for so much per as n not even to Mr. Stedman, who for cord King William knows. * ' I have over t vears has been official for- The woodchoppers came. For many lost ze count of t says. ester of that section of Marin County, years they were few in number and e most honest, law- worked intermittently. Slowly and surely pper that ever swung an the forest was shorn of its stately trees. iias. Mr. Stedman says Even in the carly days they were an un- } r has a finger In usually surly, troublesome lot, those the ug , though he always knows woodchoppers. They gave their employ- He is of the wood- ers so much trouble, they were so quick ders and r erucifiz years aga 4 ‘ e apart. They fear to shed biood, so slippery to catch, that a5 'j}':::‘k,),lfi 1am. perfodically the whole gang would be dis- - Seve 2 . s that murders un- missed and a fresh start made. But the days. This king of the canyon was King Willlam he still is to the woodchop- woodchepper he coms to zis place to kill from the “King's” shanty. “It ees tres horses that weighed 23 ach and told have been ¢ mitted in Lagunitas germ of strife was in thq air and each christened plain Willlam Tique, but from ' pers. me, I have the one other man here, and droll,” he said, “so many men get the a double team “hm‘, welgh ® pounds M ot which the world knew not. The Kill- new squad only turned another blood- San Geronimo to Camp Taylor ‘he is . Certaln it was, this title did not keep he know mot zat. So he kill him. I no knife here. Nobody know, nobody care. A luage Shuee N2 "m"i*‘l“n::{ Pete crept out because stalned page In the story of the unwrit- dubbed King Willlam of Lagunitas. It him clear of the knife thrust unawares. know nothing till I find him in the morn- Man get a leetle drink in him, get one big nt and excited over ten, unpunished murders. may have been his unconscious afr of su- King Willlam ‘says it is a little silver ing., What I do? Mon Dieu! I bury him mad. and kill other man. Mon Dieu! one p griy Sadied ad the report in San King Willlam’s ax swung with the first perfority, mayhap it was a French finish cross' that, ‘sallor-like,” hangs round his under zis tree and walk to San Rafael to time two men get kill. Jumbo which weighed ) pounds, and Then for the first time the long woodchoppers who felled in the canyon. to his speech that earned him the title, neck. have ze mass said for his soul.” “It happen zis way. So many feet I one in Beverly, Yorkshire, used as a -ja-a redwood not ten feet pace and mark, then I know when we switch engine, weighed 2600 pounds, _ e groped its way through the He earned his royal title in those early but King William he has always been and - “I prove,” he says, "It ees ze cross. One -_*Zis tree’ ) /