EBOOK THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS ***
Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS
BY
PETER B. KYNE
AUTHOR OF CAPPY RICKS, THE LONG CHANCE, Etc.
ILLUSTRATED BY DEAN CORNWELL
TO MY WIFE
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS
CHAPTER I
In the summer of 1850 a topsail schooner slipped into the cove under
Trinidad Head and dropped anchor at the edge of the kelp-fields.
Fifteen minutes later her small-boat deposited on the beach a man
armed with long squirrel-rifle and an axe, and carrying food and
clothing in a brown canvas pack. From the beach he watched the boat
return and saw the schooner weigh anchor and stand out to sea before
the northwest trades. When she had disappeared from his ken, he swung
his pack to his broad and powerful back and strode resolutely into
the timber at the mouth of a little river.
The man was John Cardigan; in that lonely, hostile land he was the
first pioneer. This is the tale of Cardigan and Cardigan's son, for
in his chosen land the pioneer leader in the gigantic task of hewing
a path for civilization was to know the bliss of woman's love and of
parenthood, and the sorrow that comes of the loss of a perfect mate;
he was to know the tremendous joy of accomplishment and worldly
success after infinite labour; and in the sunset of life he was to
know the dull despair of failure and ruin.
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