THE SKY PILOT
A TALE OF THE FOOTHILLS
BY
RALPH CONNOR
Author of "Black Rock"
The Westminster Co., Limited
Toronto, Canada
Entered according to the Act of Parliament of Canada, in the
year 1899, by the Westminster Company, in the
Office of the Minister of Agriculture
PREFACE
The measure of a man's power to help his brother is the measure of the love in the heart of him and of the faith he has that at last the good will win. With this love that seeks not its own and this faith that grips the heart of things, he goes out to meet many fortunes, but not that of defeat.
This story is of the people of the Foothill Country; of those men of adventurous spirit, who left homes of comfort, often of luxury, because of the stirring in them to be and to do some worthy thing; and of those others who, outcast from their kind, sought to find in these valleys, remote and lonely, a spot where they could forget and be forgotten.
The waving skyline of the Foothills was the boundary of their lookout upon life. Here they dwelt safe from the scanning of the world, freed from all restraints of social law, denied the gentler influences of home and the sweet uplift of a good woman's face. What wonder if, with the new freedom beating in their hearts and ears,some rode fierce and hard the wild trail to the cut-bank of destruction!
The story is, too, of how a man with vision beyond the waving skyline came to them with firm purpose to play the brother's part, and by sheer love of them and by faith in them, win them to believe that life is priceless, and that it is good to be a man.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE I. The Foothills Country 11 II. The Company of the Noble Seven 25 III. The Coming of the Pilot 33 IV. The Pilot's Measure 45 V. First Blood 55 VI. His Second Wind 69 VII. The Last of the Permit Sundays 79 VIII. The Pilot's Grip 91 IX. Gwen 107 X. Gwen's First Prayers 123 XI. Gwen's Challenge 139 XII. Gwen's Canyon 155 XIII. The Canyon Flowers 169 XIV. Bill's Bluff 183 XV. Bill's Partner 199 XVI. Bill's Financing 209 XVII. How the Pinto Sold 221 XVIII. The Lady Charlotte 231 XIX. Through Gwen's Window 241 XX. How Bill Favored "Home-Grown Industries" 257 XXI. How Bill Hit the Trail 267 XXII. How the Swan Creek Church was Opened 279 XXIII. The Pilot's Last Port 287
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1937, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 86 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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