The Argosy, Vol. 82 No. 2 — page 123: what you’re looking at

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

THE OLD WEST certain. You are apt to bubble over when you are in a taking like this, and I warn you.” ‘ Not a word from Lady Ann reached Reeves’s ears. The door opened, the dim figures disappeared into the gloom beyond, the door closed and a bolt rattled; then there was a light, presently melting away toward the rear of the adobe. Up the street the lamplight faded from the judge’s windows. A man walked brisk- ly past the hotel and turned in at the mar- shal’s office. It was Robbins. Within a few minutes, Martin Reeves was the only one in the Notch who had not gone to bed and to sleep. There in the old mining camp he seemed to be threading a maze, with things unknown hedging him round at every step. When would the curtain lift so that he might see his way clearly? To the fore- bodings that had filled him before there was now added a sense of helplessness, of ignorance and inability in the affairs of Lady Ann. His spirit was depressed and his heart was grieved and sore. Only when his thoughts concerned themselves with Gen- tleman Jim could he feel determined and competent. That chain of linked nuggets! This, in all that maze of mystery, stood out clear and distinct. The chain was something tangible; something which, if the fates were kind, he could use as a starting point in un- raveling Rayner’s schemes. It was nearly one o’clock when he locked the hotel door, blew out the light in the office and groped his way to bed. Although late in retiring, he was abroad early and taking his morning dip in the pool. The talk of the camp was the .eccentric old judge, and the way his course had crossed that of Lady Ann Bobbett, the evening before, at El Rio Rey. Lady Ann an Adams, and not a Bobbett at all! ‘This development was bandied back and forth in hushed tones. | Ezra Bobbett had declared the fact, and the judge had seemed to make much of it, and of that nugget chain. But every theory regarding the linked nuggets, Lady Ann, Adams and the judge ran into nothing more substantial than thin air. All the Forty- Niners, except those about whom the mys- tery revolved, were left stranded on the reef of their own speculations. Reeves wanted to get away from the talk, 8 A. PER CONTRACT. 305 to be by himself so that he could think, if possible, to some purpose. Hiring a saddle-horse of Smedders, he galloped down the gulch, and on into a lateral defile that opened out the wall of Nugget Gulch. Half a mile up the smaller gash Reeves drew rein, hitched his horse to a lonely cot- tonwood, took to a boulder and fell into a brown study. He was not there long before a patter of hoofs roused him and he turned to see Lady Ann cantering toward him. His heart bounded. In plain defiance of Jim Rayner the girl had taken to the saddle and followed. “Trying to run away, Marty?” asked Lady Ann, as she slid to the ground and led her mount toward the cottonwood. ‘There was too much guessing and chat- tering in the camp this morning, to suit me,” he answered, “‘so I thought I would flock by myself for a while.” “Ym in the way, then?” she hazarded mischievously, her hazel eyes dancing. “VYou—in the way?” He laughed. “You know better than that, Lady Ann. Do the Bobbetts know where you have come?” “T took French leave, and no one in the camp knows where I am. I simply hired the horse of Lafe Smedders, after I saw you galloping off, and rode in this direction. Mr. Perdue told me you had turned this way.” He tied the horse for her and invited her to sit beside him on the big rock. A wonderful transformation had been wrought in Lady Ann. There was a smile on her lips and happiness in her eyes; and she carried herself as one who had written a personal declaration of independence and was resolutely standing by its terms. “My name is Adams, Marty,” said she, “if the whole wonderful story is true, and I am more than twenty-one by a few months and able to do as I please. It pleased me to follow you, this morning, and have a talk. I want you to know of this marvel- lous thing that has happened to me, and how that magic chain of linked nuggets has bound me to my birthright. “Of course,” she added deprecatingty, “‘it isn’t all settled yet, and I am supposed not to speak about it until the affair is cleared up beyond all doubt; but, Marty,” and here her brown hand touched his caressingly, “TY feel that I’ve just got to tell you. I can do it, too, without breaking a confidence.” ‘““That’s fine,” returned Reeves heartily. ECORMICLO® (C <S) (C@