Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

y CHANNING COMES THROUGH. | sett would fall in love with Jane. Jane had been divorced from her husband. Seems he was no account. “ Anyway, he got hold of a wad of coin, an’ when he died he left it to Eve. Wayne Warren’s father was appointed Eve’s guar- dian by an Eastern court. Warren came out here to search for Eve. He’d had some clew to work on. He stayed over on Two Forks, takin’ in the lay of the land, before he sprung what he had to tell. He didn’t say a lot until after Green came with that fake deputy to claim that he was Eve’s guardian. That was after Jane died, you'll remember.” “ Eve fell in love with Warren first pop,” said Vallon. Channing did not answer. “ Seems mighty damned lonesome, some- how,” said Vallon. “ Nothin’ like it used to be. Things won’t never be the same. Seems like you never had a chance with Eve, eh? Well, you never can tell about a woman!” No; Channing had never had a chance. He perceived that now. the beginning. If he had been endowed with even ordinary intelligence he should have been able to see that Evangeline had never been meant for him. He had only - to send his thoughts back to that first day ~ at Red Mesa to convince himself of that. Eve had been too fine for him, too deli- cately nurtured. From the first she had represented the unattainable, and in his blundering way he had disregarded his own inferiority. His passion for her had blind- ed him to his impudence in even thinking of her. She reminded him of a fragile flow- er transplanted into the desert. And he, as a blundering horseman, would have rid- den over her to crush out every vestige of her beauty. Sure; he had wanted her. And if Providence had not conspired against him he would have taken her. She would have been crushed against the iron- like traditions of desert life. Ten years! He had known her that long! So vivid were his thoughts of the past that he had only to close his eyes to see her standing before him as a child again, looking at him with eyes which had - always seemed to search his soul. No chance from «648 “The Circle B belongs to her, I reckon,” came Vallon’s voice. “Yep. Bassett died without heirs.” “« She left you in charge, I reckon?” ‘“ Yep.” Channing had promised Eve he would take charge. And now, suddenly, he knew he could never stay at the Circle B. He couldn’t bear to stay where every tree and bush, every little stretch of grass would re- mind him of her. “The boys certainly did like Eve,” Val- lon interrupted, almost startling Channing. ‘An’ little things about her keep stickin’ ‘in my mind. The day before you brought her here the Circle B was nothin’ but a hell hole, an’ ol’ Bassett was the devil, lackin’ nothin’ but a tail. Murder was in the air. Nobody liked nothin’. All a man had to do to start a fuss was to look a second too long at another guy. But the day after Eve an’ her mother come they wasn’t a man in the outfit that wouldn’t make sugar look sour. The day she come I was figger- in’ to quit Bassett; I’d rode in for my time. “The boys was envyin’ you a heap, Channing. Eve took a shine to you from the beginnin’. She growed up alongside you, you might say. Always hangin’ around you, especially after her mother got hooked up with ol’ Bassett. I was bettin’ on you till I seen how she took up with Wayne Warren. Must have been sort of hard on you standin’ there at Red Mesa an’ watchin’ the train pull out, takin’ her an’ Warren away to get married—an’ them mebbe not figgerin’ on comin’ back here.” Channing said nothing just then. Val- lon lit another cigarette, and in the light of the match tried to see Channing’s face. But Channing’s face was averted. “You'd take it, I reckon,” said Chan- ning. Vallon was startled. Embers from his cigarette fell upon his shirt, glowed there and were brushed off. He gulped. “What you sayin’ I’d take?” “The foremanship of the Circle B,”’ re- turned Channing. ‘““Meanin’ you’re not takin’ it yourself?” ‘“‘ Meanin’ that.” “Thought you said Eve had left you in charge?” said Vallon. O CoOmMiIiGhdoo Ss (S@) . yy yi ay oe