The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

- heard a low cry. In the shadow he could not see, but~he knew it was'‘a human being. But it was not a man. No man ever fell against another with such light impact. Ted reached out and grabbed the intruder; he was as eager as any other Mesquite to lay hands on the one who embittered the spring. The person relaxed in his grip, He discovered that he held a woman. “ Great guns!” he breathed, so over- come with surprise that he let go. But the woman gasped and shook and clung to him, as if any human being might offer aid. She was frightened almost to death; Ted knew it. But, in her terror of Big Red and his gun and men, she forgot the lesser fright of finding him where she had fled for safety and just hung to him with the convulsive, unreasoning' rasp of a thoroughly scared child. Ted felt for her hands. He had a blind instinct to get hold of them and let her feel his strong, calm nerves till her own ceased to jump and twitch. He could feel her body shake with the pounding of her heart. But his hand closed on something scarcely less astounding than her own advent had been. It was a granite- ware stew-pan. Somehow the homely object. re- stored Radford’s wits. It started his sense of humor working. But it made him cling more securely to the little figure that he held in the circle of his right arm. There was not a woman on the Silsby ranches. Silsby hated them. He never hired a married man if he could help it, baldly proclaiming that he did not pay wages to fools. If he were forced by circumstances and the needs of his cattle into employing a man with a wife, the man had to agree that if the wife came within forty miles of the ranch he would shoo her off or throw up his job. Radford had not heard from Bess often. He felt aggrieved at her, and MESQUITE RANCH. 765 he had acknowledged to himself that something was radically wrong in their attitude toward each other. So there were two reasons why the fluttering little woman-thing pressed so tight against him filled an emptiness in life of which he had, till the moment of her sudden coming, not been really con- scious. But the stew-pan rather cooled the hot blood that danced through him as the little creature clung to him. Es- pecially it was effective when it drib- bled something wet and sticky over his hand. Suddenly the rain of rocks began again. He pulled the woman _ back under the shelf. “Oh! They are coming down the path!’ she whispered, clinging closer. “Sit down!” Radford ordered; and he felt a pleased masculine thrill when she obeyed and sank at his feet. He stepped from under the shelter. He looked up the trail that seemed to come directly down toward the platform formed by the shelf. Big Red was coming pell-mell down the steep route with the others sliding and running behind him. “T’ve got him!” Radford shouted, knowing that he was expected to cap- ture the culprit, and news that he had would make Big Red’s threatening gun assume less alarming conspicuousness. The men gave a whoop of triumph. Ted waited for them to get down with a grin of anticipation. He could al- most see the discomfiture of the men when they discovered that the man all seven chased was a woman, and a little one at that. Big Red stumped down behind the shelving rock first. The others came quickly. He waited till they were all there, peering into the deep shadow be- neath the shelf. Then he went to lead forth the quarry. But it would not come. A variety of slaps and scratches held Radford off for a second. Then he grabbed her bodily and stepped forth. ~ He felt her small body stiffen in his COMmmcloookxs (E@)