Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 12, 1927 — page 139: what you’re looking at

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

ALKALI. 138 The words fell upon silence and were an- swered by silence. Mason stuffed some of the tobacco into the bow! of his pipe, press- ing it home carefully and with overdone fastidiousness. Then he poked among the flames and found a stick which he held over the bowl. Shortly, his face was wreathed in smoke clouds, Then he dropped into his chair. “JT got hungry a little early, ma,” he mumbled, ‘ Could you be fixin’ a snack?” “ Ain’t you goin’ to speak to your own son?” Jennie Mason asked. Taking particular care that none of his words might be construed as being directed at Jimmie, Mason answered: “Myson? Your son? We bred a thief, a killer, a drinker, a gambler, an’ a woman hunter—”’ “Pa,” Jimmie snapped, his face gone white at the open charge, “ yo’re lyin’ like an Injun with a forked tongue!” Mason leaped to his feet, white anger gleaming from his eyes. “ Out o’ this house!” he bellowed, once again raising a trembling finger and point- ing toward the placid valley. “Out! You ain’t fit to touch the hand o’ any one that’s here! You ain’t no son o’ mine!” Jimmie recoiled at the words, an enor- mous disappointment tempering the flash of anger he showed. For a fleeting second he seemed at a loss as to what to do, then he seized his hat and started away. Jennie Mason caught his-arm holding him tight as she turned to face her husband. “Jim,” she said, and once again they caught that indescribable something about her that was power. It seemed actually to increase her stature. ‘ Jim—he ain’t goin’ like that! Mebbe he ain’t your son—he is mine! He’s my boy. I love him. There never was a time he needed me more.” “You won’t never learn!”» Mason shout- ed. “ You said that afore. Some folks is born with the light o’ hell gleamin’ in their eyes; he’s like that! Some folks is cast out by God ’cause 0’ the hell that boils in their hearts—he’s one o’ them! “You told me once afore you’d go— you’d leave me fer him—this time, God a —— Go with | him!” . his arm about his mother’s waist and urged her toward the door. Jennie Mason re- sisted, stood quite calm, her eyes so stead- ily gazing into those of her husband that his found themselves unable to stand the strain and dropped, though his trembling hand still pointed toward the door and his belligerent manner persisted. ‘“ Pa,” she said softly. “ Pa, look up at me!” Mason’s shoulders writhed as though they were being lashed by a whip, but his eyes did not meet those of the little woman suddenly grown big. He sensed the pres- ence of her power even as Betty and Jimmy were awed by it; silenced by it. ‘“ Look up at me, pa,” she repeated slow- ly. Mason might have been a fractious child from the tone she used. But he did not look up. The doggedness of him held him fast. And there came to them the sound of hoofbeats in the valley. Hoofbeats that were thunderous as are those of an animal being pressed for all the speed that it can offer. So unusual a sound was certain to take their minds from even this drama of finality. Mason raised his eyes toward the door. Jimmie swung about, and Betty drew nearer to him. Jennie Mason showed no change, her eyes still clinging to her husband’s flushed face, Suddenly the horse came to a sliding stop before the door, and a man lunged from the saddle and dashed into the house. In his hands he carried a rock. He seemed oblivious of them as separate entities. He came into the room on the run, his boots clattering on the worn floor, his eyes fas- tened to the rock he carried. ‘ Brant!” Jimmie Mason cried in sur- prise, “Gold!” Brant babbled almost incoher- ently. ‘‘ My Gawd, Jimmie, gold! Tons o’ it! Tons o’ it! Gold! Real gold! Gawd alive, man, we’ve struck it rich! Right here in the valley—up there where I was waitin’ fer yuh to come back! Gold —gold—”’ He dropped the rock onto the table and laughed almost in hysteria. Jimmie Mason went to the table and exnnined the Byes a . « a te ae = ' - 7 < co Tiebook= .com