PINON WELL TO MECCA 155 



mark, the buildings of an abandoned mine, were a 

 welcome sight, for I confess that though I had had 

 some experience of Western travel I was often 

 anxious on these desert wanderings, where questions 

 of forage and water might render a mistake a serious 

 matter. 



On reaching the divide, a row of little buildings 

 came in sight, two miles away against the foot of a 

 mountain. This, I thought, was Dale, and headed 

 Kaweah toward it. As we came near I was wondering 

 at the deserted look of the place when, turning a 

 point, I saw the real Dale perched on the skyline far 

 above me. The other place was a sort of parasite, 

 whose only reason for being was to help the miners 

 of Dale to get rid of their money — a matter which 

 in a mining camp should be accomplished as speed- 

 ily as possible and with as much detriment to one's 

 self as circumstances allow. No means of attaining 

 these ends has yet been found that can compare 

 with investing in chemical whiskey or "dago red " at 

 fancy prices, getting gorgeously drunk thereon, and 

 then playing monte or poker with a sharper. But 

 now, prohibition days have fallen on Riverside 

 County, and only one, or perhaps two, "blind pigs" 

 grow fat on what they suck from the pockets of the 

 miners of Dale. 



One soon comes, in the West, to modify one's 

 qualms over acceptance of hospitality from strangers. 

 Emmons had urged me, at Piiion Well, to accom- 

 pany him to the mine he was bound for, and told 

 me gravely that "the boys" would n't like it if they 

 found that I (whom, of course, they had never heard 



