Argosy, Vol. 117, No. 2 — page 78: what you’re looking at

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

228 “ Ye-ah.” Doggie drew a deep inhala- tion: le must have it understood once for all that she was different. ‘ Nice girl—no nonsense about her. Kind of housekeeper, or something like that.” “They’s another one up there, too,” vol- unteered Turkey cautiously. ‘‘ Looks like a nice girl, too. Family’s coming to-morrow from New York.” “ Going to stay long?” Sidney Bull was thinking with thankfulness of his narrow escape from a job and very little of the Gardners. He didn’t care when or how they came or went—or did he care now? - “They think they’re going to stay! ploded Turkey with a dark mottling “of rage. “ Don’t it beat the devil how some folks can have houses scattered ’round the country, full of silver and stuff, and folks like us—” “Shut up!” barked Tatro. too much! pen, you rummy!” Walker subsided, grumbling to himself. Doggie now felt a mild interest, particularly as he noticed the serious expression on the face of Tatro. ‘‘ What’s going on?” he asked. ‘“ Are they going to have Turkey put in the cala- boose for hunting on their land?” “T don’t know!” Mose laughed. “ How about you? Where’s your gun, anyway?” “Over there in them hemlocks,” grinned Doggie. “I got to get it and start along— it ain’t safe to shoot here now with a couple of girls loose and the Gardners coming.” “Vou bet it ain’t!”” agreed Mose, with great heartiness. ‘‘It ain’t even safe to walk across their place—unless a feller’s got a girl!” Bull rather liked that. Of course he didn’t have a girl but it gave him a pleas- ant feeling to think that somebody thought he had a girl like the one he had met there: he was extremely light hearted as he res- cued his rifle and waved .good-by to the others, already apparently getting ready to move. He left the Gardner forest but, in spite of-scarcer game, it was not long before he had enough squirrels for a meal. It seemed that his hand had never been as steady nor his aim as true. 1? “You talk That’s what got you into the THE ARGOSY. It was on the way home that Doggie first really considered the girl and himself in re- lation to each other. Up to that time he had merely enjoyed the effect she had had upon him, without any attempt at self- analysis or-any thought for the morrow. Now he began to wonder if he would see her again, and when, and how; and whether a girl like that would care to have a man like him get acquainted with her. Of course he was as good as anybody but, just the same, there was a difference. She’d had more schooling, and had been around more. He wondered just what it was that she did for a living and how much she got paid for it. He had heard that the cook at the Gardners’ had saved up a thousand dollars out of her sable. but he didn’t believe it. For the first time in-his life Sidney Bull became a little dissatisfied with himself. He took stock and found that he possessed one rifle, one shotgun, one hound dog, and the clothes he wore. If he had had his father’s watch he would have felt a little better; he could have displayed it carelessly as evi- dence that he was not as poor as a church mouse. But he didn’t have it. And as he skinned and dressed the squirrels at home he experienced a revulsion of feeling. What did it matter if his mother did hang on to the watch? He had been a fool to think twice about the girl he had met in the -woods—she’d made a fool of him with her talk about an easy job when she knew he had one of Gardner’s squirrels in his pocket. Like as not she was a spy, and they’d have a warrant out for him. Well, he didn’t care what happened to him—nor what happened to a girl that wandered around in the woods alone. With Mose Tatro and Turkey Walker in the same reighborhood— Doggie Bull suddenly stopped feeling sorry for himself—his knife remained mo- tionless and his head lifted. What were Tatro and Walker after up along that part of the shore? If they had carried rifles the answer would have been simple; but it was not a hunting expedition that had taken them to the Gardner acres that day. Neither one of them was a man to walk five or ten miles without a definite object. Gomichbooks (C@