n was much in dispute as early as 1884
and 1885, when Captain "Oklahoma" Payne and Captain Couch did their best
to force an entrance for the boomers under them. Boomers remained in the
neighborhood for years, and another attempt was made to settle Oklahoma
in 1886, and up to 1889, when, on April 22, the land was thrown open to
settlement by a proclamation of the President. The mad rush to gain the
best claims followed, and some of these scenes are related in the
present volume.

The boomers, who numbered thousands, had among them several daring and
well-known leaders, but not one was better known or more daring than
the leader who is known in these pages as Pawnee Brown. This man was not
alone a great Indian scout and hunter, but also one who had lived much
among the Indians, could speak their language, and who had on several
occasions acted as interpreter for the Government. He was well beloved
by his followers, who relied upon his judgment in all things.

To some it may seem that the scenes in this book are overdrawn. Such,
however, is not the fact. There was much of roughness in those days, and
the author has continually found it necessary to tone down rather than
to exaggerate in penning these scenes from real life.

CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL.

THE BOY LAND BOOMER.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.

DICK ARBUCKLE'S DISCOVERY.

"Father!"

The call came from a boy of sixteen, a bright, manly chap, who had just
awakened from an unusually sound sleep in the rear end of a monstrous
boomer's wagon.

The scene was upon the outskirts of Arkansas City, situated near the
southern boundary line of Kansas and not many miles from the Oklahoma
portion of the Indian Territory.

For weeks the city had been filling up with boomers on their way to
pre-empt land within the confines of Oklahoma as soon as it became
possible to do so.

The land in Oklahoma had for years been in dispute. Pioneers claimed the
right to go in and stake out homesteads, but the soldiers of our
government would not allow them to do so.

The secret of the matter was that the cattle kings of that section
controlled everything, and as the grazing land of the territory was
worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to them they fought desperately
to keep the pioneers out, delaying, in every manner possible,
legislation which tended to make the section an absolutely free one to
would-be settlers.

But now the pioneers,