Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 18, 1928 — page 130: what you’re looking at

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

928 Barb,” he would say enthusiastically. ‘‘ He has more plain courage than any other man who ever hit the Gold Coast! Everybody says so! They say without dad law never could have come to Frisco—and I’ve always tried to be like him.” At such times the girl would encourage him to talk by her interested silence. The situation was conducive to the baring of inner thoughts. She caught something of the fineness of this great lad with his won- derful physique and his ideals. It dawned on Barbara Howland that the Barb claim had paled somewhat in importance. Some- thing else had come that superseded it in her heart and mind. That something was Tad Raynor. She knew that she loved him. But, manlike, Raynor appeared not to see the light of love in her eyes. His constant courtesy and_ thoughtfulness seemed to come naturally to him. It was only at night when the girl had gone to her tent and he stood over the fire drying her furs that he let his thoughts take their own course. They were always of her. The natives were wont to gather close about the fire outside the two tents. Ray- nor could see that they had come to regard the girl with a sort of reverence that was tantamount to adoration. Her fine cour- age, her supple strength, the fortitude with which she smiled away the tortuous trail, impressed them. At first he had feared for her when the natives caught sight of her beauty and her femininity. That had passed now. They seemed to look upon her as a sort of god- dess, at whose feet they laid not only their best effort but their reverence. Through a pass in the mountains they fought their way one afternoon just as night rushed down upon them. In the lee of a clifi Raynor selected a camp site. Far below them, nestled upon the snow like a pale sapphire, stretched a tiny lake. “Lake Howland!” Tad Raynor cried in delight, and the girl went to his side and caught his arm again, and together they stood looking down upon the frozen water. “Tt must be Lake Howland, Barb!” Ray- nor continued. “You remember we Soci our position ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. last night and knew that we must be within striking distance.” The girl nodded, smiled through her parka, and squeezed his arm enthusiasti- cally. “ It must be,” she agreed. “ I’m glad, Tad—very glad. If that is Lake Howland, then it also is the Barb claim.” “Of course! It is wonderful to realize that we are here. I had come to think, I guess, that all our. lives would be spent pounding over the snow toward something that just wasn’t to come!” He laughed boyishly. “Would that have been so terrible, Tad?” she asked demurely. Once again he felt that feeling of awk- ward self-consciousness. He voutly that Barb would not say such things. They went deep with him, deeper than she knew. The natives fell to jabbering in their own tongue. They had sensed that the end of their quest lay before them. Raynor or- dered the tents pitched, and the usual ar- rangements for camping made, but he asked that the coffee be boiled in the lee of the cliff where the fire would be less apt to attract attention from any one at the claim. “After we have had supper, Barb,” he said tersely, ‘‘ I’m going to run down there to the lake and look about a mite. I be- lieve that some one is there at the claim. The best thing-to do is find out before they see us, if that is possible.” Camp was pitched, and in every move there was a tensity that had not marked the travelers hitherto. They ate in silence be- cause each felt tremendously impelled to words and feared the utterance of them because of the torrent that might thus be released. It was no time for excitement. “We have traversed a long way and a hard one for this moment,” Raynor sug- gested. ‘“ We don’t want to make any mis- takes now.” ‘We shall not,” Barbara said confident- ly. “You are not the kind to do that, Tad—you are like your father!” At that he laughed deprecatingly, but his face glowed with happiness, and the girl knew that she had pleased him a lot. After wished de- the meal Tad did not light his pipe. He 1 too anxious for the start to enjoy a 8A VOOKS GOMIE (EO)