The Argosy, Vol. 75, No. 4 — page 90: what you’re looking at

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

792 ‘She says he’s dead,” Silsby inter- rupted. ‘Dead!’ Ted exclaimed, amazed.’ When?” He recalled that Natalie had replied to his question about Bullen by saying that they knew nothing. ‘“Miss Thorpe said to ask you,” Silsby replied. “ T—I don’t know—I wonder if he died at our house!” Ted exclaimed, interrupting himself as his thoughts ran swiftly to the embarrassment and shock to his mother that might have resulted from the death of a strange man in the house. “The little one said he give her money to come out hyah. I never knowed Nick Bullen to give nuthin’ to nobuddy,” Silsby observed grimly. “ He had ten thousand dollars in his belt. He probably thought he would even up for sticking Frenchy on this land—or rock, rather,’ Ted said. “It’s mighty queer!” Silsby re- marked with such peculiar emphasis that Radford looked at him sharply. “ How is it queer?’”’ he asked. “Nick Bullen never give anything back he got his fingers on! I know. Sounds kinder strange to me thet these hyah wimmin got money that — that was hisn.”’ “You don’t mean to imply that you think they came by it—dishonestly!”’ Radford exclaimed, his fists clenching and his eyes fixed on Silsby’s, as if they demanded the expression of his thought. “T ain’t implyin’ nuthin’. I jes’ say it’s queer—an’ it is! Whut gits me is the way some devils gits off easy! Jes’ dying neat an’ nice in a bed ain’t whut I'd planned fur Nick Bullen!” Radford watched the grim, brown face and the wrathful eyes in silence for a while. Silsby appeared to have much that was disturbing to think out. Ted saw he had forgotten him. “Say, did you mean that about the west range for me?” he asked finally. “Reckon so,’ the ranchman replied indifferently. THE ARGOSY. “Til take my pay,” Ted said quietly. It seemed to startle Silsby out of his abstraction. He was short of men. He had taken a liking to Radford, built largely on KRed’s favorable re- port. The foreman acknowledged that Radford might have “ too much beauty fur his own good, but he hed too much all-fired hard sense fur his boss to be put on.” He had stopped the quizzing from the other boys by telling them that “ whut Pretty knowed in a minit they'd never find out long as they lived.” He made it perfectly clear to Sils- by that what Radford lacked in ex- perience on the range he more than made up in the quickness of his wits and his impulsive speed. Silsby set about persuading him to stay. “Look hyah, Radford,’ he said very seriously, “don’t ye let wimmin nur nuthin’ connected with wimmin git under yer skin. That’s whut makes me hot to hear that Bullen’s died easy. It was a woman an’ him thet—thet - knocked the puddin’ out uy things fur me. She wuz my wife, an’ they wuz a kid two years old. We wuz pros- pectin’ together; an’ I got a claim thet I wuz keepin’ dark. ’Course I tole her. Bullen got sweet on her an’ worked it out uv her where ’twas at. Then he put through the papers an’ hiked.” Radford felt his sympathy going out to the man who was breaking the silence of nearly twenty years and showing the effects of it. He listened without a word; and Silsby swallowed hard and went on. The death of Nick Bullen had dug like a sharp plow through the hardened surface of his nature and was turning up the buried feelings of years. “T wuz so—so—lI thought she wuz jes’ right! She tole me whut she’d done after she knowed he'd gone. I didn’t haf to fergive her; I jes’ loved her. But somehow it kinder worked in her till her—she got kinder crazy. An’ one day, when I come home, I found her an’ the kid—’ | Silsby paused. The wind sang its EOPMICLOOOKS (E@)