from making a bona fide discovery, it was deemed expedient that injunction proceedings should be brought in the United States Circuit Court at Los Angeles, restraining Chanslor & Canfield from continuing their drilling operations; and ni order to legally maintain this proceeding, it was considered absolutely necessary that our side should be in possession of the land at the time the injunction suit was brought.
Accompanied by a hired man, I reached Bakersfield on the night of January 4, 1900. On the same train going south was George E. Whitaker, who was interested with Crocker and his associates, and who continued on to Los Angeles for the purpose of filing the injunction suit before Circuit Judge E. M. Ross. The next morning after arriving in Bakersfield, I purchased a cook cabin, that had been constructed on wheels, and was of the type in use among grain threshing crews. It was late in the afternoon before I had everything in readiness for the trip to the land, so that it became necessary for me to camp out on the way on account of darkness, and to move onto the disputed tract early in the morning of January 6.
In discussing this feature of the situation afterwards, one of the Bakersfield papers stated that I took possession of the land "in the gray of the early dawn," but this statement was a stretch of the imagination. As a matter of fact, the roads leading into the oil fields at that time were exceedingly crude, and the cook-wagon, being of unwieldly design, and liable to upset on the slightest provocation, it would have been unsafe for me to have proceeded further that night, especially in view of the Egypt-like darkness pervading the "kopjes" that distinguished the oil fields. It was after 10 o'clock that Saturday morning before I reached a point on Section 4 where I knew that I was in actual possession of the tracts embraced in our forest reserve selection.
In the meantime, Whitaker had returned from Los Angeles armed with the temporary restraining order from Judge Ross, which was served upon the crew of the drilling rig by a deputy United States Marshal. I accompanied them back to town in their bugy with the idea of securing another vehicle and loading it with provisions for our improvised residence, the calculation being to return there that night.
I was on my way back when I met two men in a buggy, one of whom inquired if the cook wagon belonged to me. Upon my answering in the affirmative, he continued:
"Well, are you camping on the ground temporarily, or are you there permanently?"
"Why, I am going to settle permanently," was my rejoinder. "It is a nice looking country, and I have concluded to make it my future home!"
The speaker, who proved to be Frank Lindsay, of Fresno, grew furious at my nonchalent manner, and ejaculated:
"I am one of the mineral locators of that land, and myself and associates have leased the ground to Chanslor & Canfield, and they are coming down tonight from Fresno with fifty armed men to put you off!"
"The h—l they are!" I answered in assumedly surprised tones. "Are their lives insured?"
This reply angered Lindsay to such an extent that words were inadequate to express his indignation, and he drove off in the direction of Bakersfield at a rapid pace, leaving a stream of blasphemy behind that resembled the phosporescent glare from the tail of a meteor.
When I reached the cabin. Joe, the hired man whom I had left in charge during my absence, assured me that the same two men had called upon him, and had made similar threats about armed men putting us off. At that I concluded it was about time to take some kind of notice of what they had said, as I had considered previously that they were undertaking a game of "bluff." After Joe and myself had partaken of our evening repast, I told him it was nothing more than right that I should apprise Whitaker, one of our attorneys, of the situation, and
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