The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 2 — page 134: what you’re looking at

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

316 strange way for a girl,” she continued. “My mother died when I was a small child, and since then I have lived with my father in any camps to which his life as a mining engineer took him. We have lived in South America and Mexico and in the north in Alaska. I have known hundreds of men, and many of them have said that they were in love with me.” Nancy’s manner was so that Derby forebore to smile. “Yet I have never known what love really was. I suppose that a girl who has been brought up in a normal way sees sO many men whom she would be willing to marry that the only trouble is in selecting one from among them.” This time Derby did laugh, but not in a mocking spirit. “Well, Nancy,” he responded, “ I have known hundreds of girls brought up in what you call the normal way, but very few of them seemed to know so much as you do about the subject of love and the qualities which it demands. As for their falling in love, I know that they have not fallen in love with me anyhow!” “Were you never in love yourself?” asked Nancy. Unconsciously her heart beat a little faster as she asked the question. “T asked a girl to marry me once,” Derby answered gravely. “What did she say?”’ Gerard rose and knocked the ashes of his pipe out in the fireplace. “She said a good deal, but it could be mostly boiled down into the one word: ‘No.’ She said that she cared and all that sort of dope; but she could not see life with a poor man in terms that tempted her to undertake it. I do not know that I particularly blame her.” “Tf that is the way in which a girl properly brought up looks at life I am glad that my education was neglected!” exclaimed Nancy. ‘“ However, in a few months you. will either be rich, or you can try your fortune somewhere else.” “Or more likely still,” added Derby, ingenuous THE ARGOSY. “IT may be where nothing will matter much.” As he spoke, his eyes were scanning carefully the entrance to the little shack. ‘Ts there any entrance to your bed- room except through this room?” he asked abruptly. “No,” answered Nancy, with a ques- tioning gaze. “Then this door is all that will need - guarding.” “You did not mind, did you?” ques- tioned his companion timidly. _ “Mind?” he replied, puzzled, “‘ mind what?” ‘““My question about love. —TI rather wanted to know. “Of course I did not mind,” he an- swered. A sudden wave of tenderness for this lonely little girl swept over him. “You poor child! If you are ever in love you will know all about it, and you will not need to ask questions of any one. But the problem before us now is your immediate safety. At the speed with which events have moved in the last few days I do not dare leave you unpro- tected, even though I were only fifty yards away. Those miscreants might come during the night and I not hear them. I think if you do not mind I will sleep here.” ‘Do whatever you think best.” Nancy spoke with a childish confidence which touched Gerard to the heart. He rose and limped to the door and across to Moran’s shack from which he took some blankets and returning, spread them upon the floor. Then he took down Mr. Gale’s rifle from the wall and laid it beside the improvised couch. “There,” he declared with grim satis- faction, ‘‘ they may get in, but not until after there has been a pretty fight.” “If it should come to that,” said Nancy, ‘you would not fight alone. You would find me by your side and this” (here she tapped the revolver in her belt) “ would give a good account of itself. My father taught me to shoot You see I COMMICLOOOKS (C@