Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

DOGGIE. good natured, in spite of the introduction of the threadbare and dangerous subject of work. But the mention of time brought to his mind, by association, the desire that had tormented his thoughts ever since that dim past in which the calamity of his father’s death had overtaken them. His naturally firm jaw set harder and his head lowered slightly. ‘The only watch I got is the sun,” he growled, “ and that don’t stay up long this time of year!” “And that’s the only watch you’ll get as long as I’m top of the ground!” Mrs. Bull straightened up in her chair as though to brace herself for battle. ‘‘ Not umless you go to work and earn you one! You ain’t going to lay hands on the beautiful watch your pa paid seventy- -five dollars for—not while I live!” That watch was the open wound in Deg- gie’s imagination. It had a gold hunting- case engraved with the head of a stag and a scroll for the owner’s initials; but it ticked uselessly from a nail above his mother’s bureau and it seemed certain to tick on in that place until she passed out -of this world. He had tried persuasion, trickery, and then a dark hint of leaving home forever—and all to no purpose. Of course he could have taken the watch by force but this solution did not occur to him any more than it would have occurred to him to kick his own dog. The watch was necessary to his being. Without a good watch he lacked something in self-respect. He could hardly think of a man in the county who did not carry a good watch, even though it might bg en- closed in a silver or nickel case, while he was obliged to beg the time when the sun failed him. money ahead to buy anything better than a cheap, turnip affair that failed its duty within a few weeks. He had abandoned that sort of experiment; and given him- self over to bitterness that his father’s single heritage should hang unused because of an old woman’s whim. He was a man going on thirty and she would not trust him with what belonged to him by rights! Even Turkey Walker, who had done time in the penitentiary, had a first-class set of works! 5 Arcosy 225 Thus Doggie worked himself‘ up to a sullen rage against fate as he got his coat and rifle, and filled his pockets with car- tridges. He didn’t much care if he did get arrested for shooting squirrels on the land of those rich New York hogs, the Gard- ners; it would mean a jail sentence and per- haps the old woman would feel differently about the watch when he got out. Yet he knew that she wouldn’t and realized that he was childish to think of such a thing— and this realization made him furious. ‘You keep the damned watch!’ he barked, as he strode out of the house. ‘ But you keep still about a job, too, or I'll put a bullet through the cussed thing!”’ He meant that; and he knew she Would know from his tone thaf he meant it. It would worry her+—maybe.she wouldn’t nag about tying him up to a plow handle. He felt a little better as he swung off through the keen autumn afternoon: the mountains were blue with a color that made him ache and the woods lay brown “and crisp before him. His head went up and his natural springing ease of movement re- turned to his muscles. And half an hour later he picked his first gray squirred out of a tree on which was nailed the weather beaten notice of John Gardner that tres- passing was forbidden. Doggie had just put the squirrel in his coat-pocket and was walking lightly with his gaze searching the branches for another when his quick ear caught the sound of a footstep. Instantly his rifle went into a waist-high clump of young hemlocks and he began to move in a circle with the deé- liberate effort to make as much noise as possible. The person he had heard came nearer, hesitated, and then appeared in a He had never got enough frame of parted undergrowth as one of the most effective surprises Sidney Bull had ever received. He saw a girl who might have been any- where between twenty and twenty-five and who looked him straight in the eye with a cold, inquiring glance; as though she had a right to be there and knew very well that he did not. Not this, however, was the cause of his surprise. Up to that moment he had not known that such a creature existed in the same world with himself. CORNICLOOOLK (C@