Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 64: what you’re looking at

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

584 Ballantine’s pie-bald horse standing near the structure, saddled and bridled, as Bal- dantine had obviously left him when he had «dismounted. Ballantine’s hat was hanging supon the high pommel of the saddle. The old man’s hair, wavy and abundant, -shone like a white flame in the sun. It was damp on his forehead, where his hat had ‘pressed it, and a big curl of it swept over his forehead. The rest bulged outward in waves. - “What are you wantin’ Jinny to know, Cameron?” he asked, gently. “That I love her,” Cameron replied. tric shock had passed through them. But finstantly they relaxed, although a tinge of color appeared momentarily in his cheeks, then died out, leaving them pale, as before. “You don’t waste any time, Cameron,” he observed, his voice carrying a note of ‘slight mockery. tion about three days.” < Four. ) Ballantine’s lips curved into the ghost of a derisive smile. “Well, have your way. Four days. I expect this love talk comes of you meetin’ * Jinny over there in the gully, when Dave Jenkins tried to shoot me. “Ym thankin’ you for that, Cameron. But you needn’t have been concerned. Dave Jenkins or no one else will ever kill me with a bullet! ~ “Fust the same, I thank you. But this love business is another matter. Jinny ain’t goin’ to love any man who comes here tryin’ to meddle with our lives.” ._ “With all respect to you, Mr. Ballan- tine,*I think that when love comes to Miss Ballantine, she will be the one to decide.” ““Mebbe she will,’ Ballantine acknowl- edged. “I don’t know that I’d have any call to interfere. She’s her own boss.” He jooked at Virginia, and saw the scorn in cher eyes. ~ “Seems hike you’ ve already been an- swered, Cameron,” he added. “ An’ a thing that’s been settled ain’t worth dis- ‘ussin,’ Did you come here just to tell __Jinny you love her, or was es somethin’ ‘ else?” “Yes; there is something else, Mr. Bal- “You've been in this sec-- ‘wasting your time. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. lantine.- yours. I’ve heard some rumors regarding your attitude toward improvements. I never pay any attention to rumors when I can get my information first-hand and I’ve come to have an understanding with you.” “There ain’t a lot to understand,” Bal- lantine announced. ‘If you go to clutter- in’ up that land with factories an’ mills an’ such like you'll wish you’d never bought!” “That is exactly what I intend to do, Mr. Ballantine. The land will be improved. We intend to go ahead. But we don’t want ~— any trouble.” Ballantine’s muscles leaped as if an elec- ~ © You bought trouble when you bought the land, Cameron. You bought it with your eyes open. You knowed there’d be trouble. Gideon Strong said you knowed.” Ballantine’s neck muscles worked. “If Jinny hadn’t told me about you interferin’ when Dave Jenkins tried to shoot me you wouldn’t be .worryin’ none about trouble right now!” “ Mr. Ballantine,” said Cameron, quiet- ly; “if you mean that as a threat you are Perhaps there was a day when men could be intimidated -by threats. But not in this day. “ There’s a better way to settle all dif- ferences. I don’t want to seem imperti- nent, but I think I must speak the things I feel. Improvements of the sort we con- template will increase the value of your land. Any inconvenience you suffer will. be more than made up if you should ever decide to sell. * “You can move your house back half a mile or so, or build a new one. That is being done all over the country. I could name, off-hand, a score of towns in the West in which the old citizens have been confronted by similar situations. Usually they are eager to get out because they real- ize how inevitable the thing is. They simply sell their old places, buy other land on the outskirts of town, and rebuild free from crowding. “J don’t foget. that your house is a homestead, and that it has a sentimental . value that can’t be computed upon a cash basis. But nearly everybody has to be transformed in the crucible of progress, has to watch old scenes and faces vanish, has I’ve bought the land adjoining -cComicbooks. co