The Water Doctor

■'My well has went dry this suinmer - plurnb gave out last month, an the river three mUes away. Hed to rig up a barrel on runners an haul all the water for the wimiueu folks." Tlie speaker was a new settler in one of the coast range valleys of southern California, far from the great irrigation ditches and prosperous orange growing colonies. He was talking to a neighbor whose land claim was j ust over the ridge n a mora fertile district. Gloriana, as ;he new settleinent was named. had only ;wo tlüngs to recommend it - the climate was fairly good and the land very clieap. ütherwise it was a sorry place. The soil was shallow and verv Door. the hills were lov.T, barren and without streams, so that any irrigation system was impossible. Nevertheless the Morisons had given np their little home in northern lowa and moved to California, aetuated by the same motive that often led millionaires- the daughter could not stand the winters. They and dozens of other families were scattered through the hills trying to make a living by chopping wood, keeping bees and doing a little farming. And now the well had gone dry, adding another burden to those already so severe. "All the wells hereabouts give out dry seasons," was the answer that Morison received. "There doesn"t seem to be any water in the hills this side of the range." "1 don't see what to do, then. Bees was beginnin to pay, an I thort of plantin an orchard down on the beach. There's about an acre of good land down that way. The chickins is doin pretty well, too, but it do take a dreadful lot of water when you hev to haul it three miles." "Well, Morison, mebbe Crane, the half cracked water doctor down at Sespe, might fix it up. He claims that he can find water; in fact. he does more than than that. He's queer and crazy, but for 20 years people haven't been goin to bis caDin arter uarK, mere s so inany exectric wires and things that miglit explode underfoot and overhead." "1 don't care," said Morison. "I"ll go see him right awayt" Dr. Orlando Grane was very tail and shaggy. broad shouldered, massive, with au immense booked nose and piercing eyes. He lived alone in a cabin at the head of a ravine. and he had arranged bell and wires along the naiTow path so that he liad ampie warning of the approach of a visitor. He received Morison with grave politeness. and listened to his story. "That's all right," he said, "you new corners in that dry country need help. Certainly you do. But it isn't a little ■water more or less in your wells that you want; it's a river - a subterranean river - tliat 1 might be able to find. If one of ïny inventions was only a trifle nearer completed, I would make the river for you settlers." "I hope so. doctor," said Morison, luinbly. "Yes. I will. and pretty soon too. FU ;ell you all about it some of these days. i's only electric action makes water, And the earth is a great electriu battery. There's a way to make gold, or diamonds or mineral water by elactric action. J know all abont it." Morison had driven to Sespe, so Dr. Cratio. "the world famous water developer," as his circnlars stated, rode back lo Gloriana that afternoon, carrying with him a long brass tube filled with elustered and tensely strung wires. He also had a simple galvanic battery tu which the wires could be attached. A number of the settlers of the mountain región assembled the next day to witness the operations of the necromancer, who fuily appreciated his importance and surrounded his mystic art with every accompaniment of surprise. He showed the wondering oompany that as he approached a vessel of water the wires grew tenser and fairly sang like violiü strings. "I must say it's providential we heard of you," said Mrs. Morison, with heartfelt earnestness and entire conviction. The water doctor finally began active operations at the lower corner of the Morison land claim and walked back and forth across it in various directious. At last he paused high up on the hillside and told hia followers to observe the behavior of his instrument. There certainly vras an electrical ilisturbance of a very violent sort, he said, and they wers standing over an underground reservoir. He marked the exact spot, and the mea began digging with violent energy, whne the women and children sat on the slope and awaited results. TI13 doctor encouraged them by storie3 of his previous exploits. "There's no chance of faünre with this electrical i chino of niiue. I cali it the 'infallïble water indicator.' The olil forked stick of hazel will sometinies turn over water, j but my way is a better. I know exaotly how lar yon have got to dig and exactly how nmch water yon'll find. I always know. Then, too, tliis machine tells me when I am over any mineral. such as gold and silver, and how far ofí it is; also how large the quantity. 1 should have been a rich man long ago if I wasn't so honest. I know of one man down at Sespe who has a mins on his land worth $1,000,000. I offered to show It to him f or half, but he offered me only 10 per cent, and of course I let him simmer awhile. But I carne out to give yon newcomers a lift without any charge, except nominal, because you're a different kind." After awhile the strain of excitement grew too great for speech. The raen wore far down in the pit they were sinking, and every few minutes they were relieved by others. Ten feet, 20 feet, 30 feet - a rude windlass had long been brought into use. Suddenly a hoarse cry rose f rom the well: "Water! Water f" An ampie spring in a ' channel of rock had been uncovered in such wise that it was certain that a cut cottld be made so as to let it flow to the very door of the Morisons. The old doctor's eyes f airly blazcd with excitement. Any physician trained in obscure mental disorders would have recognized cerebral trouble in his look and manner. He burst forth into a shout of victoi-y. "Edison ought to be here!" he cried. "The rnpn is all wrong on electricity. So are the rest of them. They have no system. I can niake power direct from raw material. I can taka the electricity straight out of the coal without burning it. I can set a machine at making water whenever a man wants it. This is the way nature does in the heart of the earth. Rivers are being created by electrical action in caverns where not a drop of rainwater can ever sink. This spring we have found has nothing to do with the surface and is not fed by rains. It is created by electrical action between two kinds of rock, and ït will flow alike at ailseasons." The settlers listened in dumb amazement, but with fnll faith in every word, They named it the "Crane spring" and praised hini with hearty enthusiasm. They feasted him on the best they had, escorted him back to Sospe and went way firm champions of the water doctor. Dr. Crane was a man of more than ordinary ability, but his education had been slight and his powers were entirely anbalanced. Whether he really had the sensitivo organization of the true seer. whether he was deceived or deceiver. sane or not wholly himself, no human being will ever know. But the records of whole districts, and even counties, remain to attest to the wonderf ui discoveries of hidden water that he managed to riake at intervals, in many places, far ap;: rt. He made some egregions failures ateo, and in time the community was divi-.led into two nearly equal bodies respectiTely arguing for and against his hoiiesty. Meanwhile he still dwelt in his lonely cabin, broöding over a larger enterprise. What was the use, he argued. of finding a spring now and then, or telling some poor settler where to fincl his wel!': Why not develop at one stroko a river- a large river in the Mohave desert- and so reclaim hundreds of thonsands of acres of rich land? Ey dint of earnest representaron of the fortunes to be obtained he succeeded in enlisting the help of a number of poor settlers in tae vicinity of Sespe, Gloriana and other places. They agreed to go with him to the Mohave desert, dig a great pit in the spot choson by the doctor and there develop the hidden river. Then, filing claim? on the adjacent lands. they would lay out a town and establish a colony. Tlms it happened that a few v.-eekr later The "Weekly Venturan published an article that startled the eoplo of i three counties. It was headed iu ' face screamers: I ORLANDO THE PROPHET. He Süccumbs to Ock Interviewer. Are We on the Vekgk of a Vast Industrial Revolution? The Sage of Sebpe Says We Aiie. These sentences, printed ia the largest available typs, loomed over a B-column article that was in its way a iaasícrpiece. Whoever wrote it bad a fresh, vivid genius for expressing the situation. Crane"s personal appearance, the very tones of his voice, his mingling of charlatan and fanatic, liis whole nature and history, stood out as under a calcium light. "Dr. Crane," said lïi? reporter, "consented at last to disclose the Bcientiilo pi-mei which ho worked, yielding to the argument that no one but himself could apply them." "The ebb and flowof electrioity maki unmakes trom the simple eleznents all forms of the animal, vegetable and mineral world. My discovery that the mineral tlu water is formed ín immense quantitiee in tï:e earth by electrical currents was followed by the greater di3covery that all minerals ire made in the same way. By modiiying my apparatus for aseertalning the presente of a ter, I was able to discover the exact distance uf deposits of niinerals, also their nature and quaiitity. Proceeding a step farther, I became able to lïnd certain places in caves and narrow canyons, where the natural ftow of the electrio current causod the slow deposit of variojs minerals. Tliere are mines in tho Sierras where gold is regularly and contlistently formed in the lower levéis. "After the hidden river of the Mohave is rcvealed, I shall ünd mountains of the precióos minerals. The next thing wOl be to make trees grow to full sÍ2e in a day or an hour. That wiil ícke larger machinery, but it can be done. The full control of animal lite will take still longer." "But what is the underlying principie, dootorV" asked the reporter. "Haven't I made it as plain as a primer? Don't I say it ia electrieity, and nothing elri? If lean handle it, I can get away with all lliü rest of them." "You certainly will. But how do you hiiudie it?" "To teil yoa the truth.it is a personal git. I spin fine wires of steel and stretch them wi: h other metáis lavo an instrument that I cali uy 'diviner.' Then I tune ít with whateverl waiTt -water or irau or gold or any other metal- and iix it perujanently on that keynote. After that wberever I talie it it reaponds to that and tJiat only. This is the way I make my instrumonta, and &a I don't really suppose any one else can do it I have never applied fora patent. Of course if I said much about these matters people would think I was crazy; so I expect to flnd the river fir&t, then I can do more." "Teil me about the river." ' 'I heard it a few weeks ago on the Mohave ; desert. It is several hundred feet wide and j EO feet deep, flowing far under ground, except at oie placa, vliere it can be reached ej-.silr Withín . year aftfir its discovery thonsands oi farma will be tukcn up, and t_;c desert wiil become oue of the gardeua of la'j world." The Ventaran explained at much length the inventora thcories of colonization and ended by advising those whc had leisure and a little nioney to spare te "tako a trip to the Mohave to wateb. the modern Moses perform his great transformation act." November saw 100 pioneers gathered at the mouth of a rocky ravine at the end of a chain of rocky mountains that thrust themsrives far into the desert. Their horses were staked out in the midst of cactus and yticcas; wagons fnllof hay, water, provisions- har, led 25 miles f rom the nearest oasis- were scattered about tho camp. Dr. Crane had chosen the place and marked the exact spot where he said tho river was hardly 50 feet undergronnd. The men dug throngh several feet of hard sand, the reaehed a tough, red clay. They toited in a great pit that steadily descended nntil one nightfall the doctor announced that on the morrow tiio river would be reaehed. He marked the conrse of the coming rivei across the barren desert and.far out on the plain; the wagons were moved toa place of safety, and every thought was given vip to rejoicing. At midnight the wind changed, the temperatnre feil sharply; an oíd prospector who had spent half his life in the Arizona deserts woke and went from man to man rousing them to bring in the animáis end seek shelter among the higher rocks away from the mouth of the ravine. "Thcre is a storm coming!" he cried. "I have seen storms in such places before now." By dint of rauch energy he was at last able to move the party out of the direct sweep of the canyon. Presently the storm aróse, temblé ae the desert itself , heralded by a mighty wind, darkened by wild clouds and blinding sheets of rain. Just at break of day, wlien the storm wasatits height, whilo the desert fov miles was onder water, w i Io-the raüroad track was beiagsw , : . sv-ay, and the hills were being fnrrowed by thouaands of new-channels, there caine ;i louder noise from the desertetl pit in the raviae. The men, clinsrag to shelters nmong the great bowlders on tho hill, saw a high, white wal! of r : .■ : i ■■, ; 3 i';;l :l ils1! scross the ílat, íis U tiuw rijen frota tho cliasrn they had cut with ti ir liovols. "it i.i the river -bursviaj; out!" cried Dr. Crane, leaplng forwai'ó to moet it and gtnmbluig into the fo,-.inin.i cr.nnt. 'It's a cloadönrst, Uqvs, anil tho old doctor s go'ae loTcvtr!" shoniod tiiepruspector :; ■ . ■ rr;slioil r;s.iuly froui l.is shel.. . . By ;;n :our.-.r r siüirise Sho '.vates lu;a spread far ovei'ïlif juiy ana f.iáuppísirud f rom sight ; the shy ■.. cU ai': .'.■ ; ;v irm was eiiGcd. A mile isíaat apon the drenclied sand tlie body of the water docior was fimndand laid to rest on the hillísitifí. Rndely carved ujon agranito bowlder, the epitaph Btiil retnains to are;,..-.' tau i:urío.-:iij' of an occasional hnrtw ■.!■ iirosp-.Hitor: "Orlando Crane, Wa r '■ . Dro"nod lu the Deaert.'" Date ;: . . foilow, and that is all. j Tho followers of the dead man contümed to sink the pit until it was f ar below the assiyiied depth. Some of them gave upthen; otliers continued to toil on in dogged despair; a few declared roundly that they might bore to the middle of the earth bef ore they fouud water. One after the other the followers of the late Orlando Crane collccted their horses from the plain, gathered np their belongings and abandoned the water claim in the Mohave. They drifted back to the fertile valleys of the coast, and little by little the memory of the episode pasr d out of the thoughts of men, until even in Gloriana the waters that once gushed from beneath the magician's rod have lost their eariier name and are now the "Morison Bprings." - Charles Howard Shinn in Argonaut.