Adventure Magazine Cover, December 18, 1919 — page 180: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

166 : ness ain’t anybody’s ‘business, and this 1s a private matter if ever there was one. I—I knowed he was there but I forgot it, Tom.” “Handle it myself, you say?” . Alden turned back to Switser. had an:idea. “Listen to me, son,” he said to-Connie. “I hereby invite you to spend about four weeks ‘as my honored guest out at'Rancho Alden and I also advise you to accept the invite. There ain’t anybody but me and the boys and the black cook. There’ll be plenty o’ grub and plenty o’ fishin’. Do you accept or not?” “S’posen,” flared Connie, “I don’t? What’ll you do about it ?” 3 Alden All the masterfulness in Rancher Tom. came to the fore then. He looked Connie the crook squarely and narrowly in the eye for almost a minute before he spoke again. 7 “T think,” said he, “you'll accept. I’m ready to go. Are you?” A peculiar light flitted across Switser’s half-bloodless face. “Yes,” he answered, “I’m ready. Buy me some smoke-sticks, will you? I ain’t had one today.” Alden and Bill Maddon exchanged glances; then Alden and Switser walked together out of the office. Another mo- ment and they were in the buckboard fly- ing’ toward a small. store the length of a block up the street. Rancher Tom bought a dozen packages of cigarets for his seat- mate. ‘Switser began to smoke like a . burning brush-pile as they started for the Rancho Alden. | As they were about to pass Bill Mad- don’s cottage, Switser noted that the rose lady stood at the gate. He noted also that she Was smiling at Rancher Tom; it was a fulsome smile, a winning smile— it was a great deal more than that, and Connie was human enough to under- stand. Something akin to jealous rage rose within Switser then, but he knew in his soul that anything like that was far worse than hopeless, so he swallowed his feelings quickly and forevermore. Alden raised his hat, spoke and drove on. Switser watched to see whether the rose lady’s eyes followed them and saw that they did. Then Connie turned to the big ranchman at his side. “Who is she?” he wanted to know, Adventure “Sheriff Maddon’s girl.” “Oh, so that’s the one he’s bettin’ against your measly ranch. He’s bettin’ odds all right!” “Yes,” nodded*‘Tom Alden, “that’s the one, and you sure better not say anything about it. Get me?” - “I toller;- Connie was now glowering at the sor- rels.. As the daughter of one of the laws’ representatives, she belonged in the enemy’s camp, and couldn’t help it. One could not always choose one’s parents, of course. In the deepest analysis it did not lessen one whit his queer little idolatry for the lady of the roses. ““What’s her name, Rancher : ?”’ he made bold to ask. ‘*Alice.” They drove in silence for a few min- utes, Alden holding his horses to a trot by keeping the reins always taut. Then Connie spoke again— “T don’t blame you for likin’ her, Rancher.” “Everybody,” said Alden, “likes Alice. yet the poor girl. You do that just the same as you like | sunshine. I’d a little rather, son,” he continued soberly, “that you wouldn’t mention her to me any more.” It was because he did not wish to dis- cuss her witha man of Switser’s caliber, and Switser knew it just as well as . Switser’s lips. Rancher Tom knew it. tightened, curled bitterly and parted. “You go to the devil,” he clipped. “Thanks.” Tom. Alden smiled. “What’s your name, son?’ There was no answer. The ranchman studied his companion’s pale face out of the tail of his eye. Connie seemed intent upon watching the pine-straw road ahead of them, which ran through a palmetto-filled wilderness of tall pines that were draped in streamers of funeral-gray Spanish mosses. A pair of partridges whirred up suddenly from almost under the front feet of the sor- rels and the horses plunged, rendering it difficult for Connie to keep his place on the buckboard’s seat. Alden sawed on. the reins and checked the animals easily. The crook was compelled to give him a glance of admiration for his enviable strength. Soon they drew up before a gate in a Comichboo = “ <S Cor