THE FR \.UDULENT IK MESTE \l>Kk 



thirty-seven mile- from Kverett. Index 

 is a picturesque mountain io\\n. with 

 towering peaks around it, and is the 

 great gau entrance to most of the 

 claims takm in that region. ( a-cadc 

 Kill dn>pp -d into that country from 



g 



California with a pretty good know- 

 ledge of the Ken- 'ii-l lyde system, and 

 some idea-- of his own. He located 

 with his wife <m a tract of land, built 

 a cabin and -everal outbuilding-, cul- 

 tivated a patch of potatoe^. and pro 

 ceeded to put his "system" into exe- 

 cution. 



And so it came to pass that hundreds 

 of people, mostly hard-working, ignor- 

 * nt Swedes, Danes, and German-. 

 b '-an to -warm into Index, lured by 

 th- inducement- thrown out by their 

 friends already snugly settled on mil- 

 li< ui-foot timber homestead tracts of 160 

 acre-. ( 'a.-cade Kill, with his gang, 

 would meet the new victims at the 

 train upon its arrival at Index, con- 

 duct them up the trail, and over the 

 ''Settlers' 1 5 ridge" (about which I will 

 tell later) con-tructed across the 

 Skykomish River, a beautiful mountain 

 -t ream, dashing in a swift, tumbling 

 fashion along the edge of the town, and 

 skirting i'a-cade Kill's land on the east. 

 Alter a three-mile walk between mau 

 nihcent fir- and -tately cedar-, drink- 

 ing in the crystal air, and listening to 

 lavi-h de-criptions of the timber 

 "chance-" to make a "-take" out of 

 homestead "busine--." the new 

 arrival i- <|iiitc willing and anxiou- to 

 part with his ready cash a- soon a- he 

 i- "located." 



After a good "feed," for Mrs. Bill is 

 a capital o>. ,k. and a sound night'- r 

 the victim wa- conducted to his "land." 

 and Cascade Kill -bowed him what 

 were -uppo-ed to be the corner stake- 

 and witne-- trees It so hai)pene<l. 

 however, that the would-be home- 

 -tealer. knowing little or nothing ah 

 -uch matter-, was perhap- -hmvn the 

 corner -take- of -i.me claim alread\ 

 -ettled on. The wily locator wa- care 

 fill to keep "locaters" far enough 

 apart on the land, so that when the 

 cabin- wen- built they would be at a 

 re-peciable di-tance from each other. 



the 



the 



Then the party would pay over t-> ' 

 cade Kill S^_>5 a- a locating fee, or 

 all the cash he had on hand, and give 

 hi- note with "certain agreement-" on 

 it- face for the balance. "It come- 

 high," says the one-eyed man. "but I 

 ain't takin' no chances for MothinY 



A VALUABLE "CLAIM" 



(oO-dCre Tract in Washington, with Five Million Feet ol 

 Timber. Worth about S25 000 



And -o for \rar- this state of affair- 

 went merrily on. and hundred- of po. ,r 

 people were filched out of hard-earned 

 money, and located on land, some if 

 uhich had been "located" a- high a- 

 ten times before. Cascade Kill actually 

 -bowed four men the timber on the ea-t 

 lorties i.) hi- own claim, and ingeni- 

 oii-ly piloted them around trail-, cov- 

 ering the -ame ground until they had 

 tram] ied over Km acre- of land then 

 "located" them on hi- o\\ n land. The 

 innocent- took hi- \\ord for it. and 

 built cabins which to-day -tand on tin- 

 claim originally -|natted on b\ - 

 Kill. 



