Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

CROSSROADS. “ Which I’m sort of silent,” she explained suspiciously. “Well, it’d be a funny thing, eh?” “That idea don’t interest me none,” she said coldly. | The silence fell heavily over them. Each knew that each was thinking of the other. As for the girl, she did not understand, very clearly, the imputations behind the unusual question of Dix Van Dyck, but what she did feel most acutely was the challenge of his personality. It was, in a way, like a hand that had reached out and touched her on the shoulder, compelling her attention. She resented it keenly and strove to fasten her attention once more on the cold twinkle of the stars. .“ D’you know,” she said, thinking out loud, ‘‘ that when the stars are as bright as they are to-night, sometimes I feel just as if the old earth was pushing up closer to them—feel as if I was sailing right up through the air!”’ “H-m!” grunted Dix Van “ That idea don’t interest me none.” She admitted the counterthrust by nod- ding her head sharply and scowling across to him. His vast, boyish grin of delight met her eye, and she jerked her head back to stare once more at the stars. However, Dyck. she was grateful that the night would ob- scure the burning heat of her face. The stars, alas, had grown into a con- fused swirl of faint light. She found that she was making no effort to see them clear- ly. She was concentrating on the effort to find an answer to this insolent fellow. All the time there was that old sensation of surrounding strength—surrounding person- ality. The man was reaching out to her. For what? “T feel,” she said, “as if I was inside a house and you was knockin’ at the door. What d’ye want?” “Tf you was inside a house and I was knocking at the door,” responded the ir- repressible Dix Van Dyck indirectly, “I got an idea that the door would stay locked.” “T got an idea,” said the girl coldly, “that you’re right.” This reply somewhat damped his spirits, but he rallied himself sternly to the trail. 175 After all, she was only a girl. Yet he began to guess more and more clearly at the soul of the sour-dough. “There ain’t no- use bein’ strange,” he assured her. “ You might as well get to know me to-day as to-morrow.” “To-morrow,” she said calmly, “TI ain’t going to be with you.” “Tf you leave,” he announced, “ I'll follow.” “ Tll go straight back to Double Bend,” she said maliciously. ‘“T’ll ride after you to Double Bend.” “To Marshal Glasgow?” she asked in real alarm. ‘Why not? I’d take a chance with him.” ‘“Some men was born. fools, edicated fools, and fools by choice, and I’m thinkin’ you're all three rolled into one.” Nevertheless, she was much moved. Her voice told the tale. ‘Now that this here partnership is be- gun—”’ he started. ; She cut in: ‘“ Who said partnership?” “Why,” he cried with a voice of much pain, “ I thought all the time that that was understood. That was why I tried out the bad luck back there in the dance-hall.” “Now,” she answered _ scornfully, “youre lyin’. You done that for pure deviltry. I seen it in your eye.” “Anyway,” he went on, contentedly, ‘that was the way I understood it, so we’ll leave it there.” _“ Will we?” she said with rising anger. ‘““ Am I going to have you trailin’ me around the desert whether I want you or not? Say, Dix Van Dyck, ain’t this a free country?” ‘Are you pretty mad?” he asked cau- tiously. “Well,” said he, “ that’s good.” * Good?” Her anger, apparently, choked back fur- ther words. “Yes,” he explained, “‘ it shows we’re on the way to being friends. That’s what I’ve learned from women. Get ’em mad and they’re two-thirds yours.” * T s’pose,” she answered with dangerous calm, ‘ that you know a pile about women. Kind of a heart-breaker, eh?”’ “IT know quite a bit about ’em,” ad- CORMMICLOOOKS (C@