Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 2 — page 157: what you’re looking at

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

ABOVE GROUND. not like your woman, Jack. I am not gentle and soft.” “Gentle? Soft?” laughed Dix Van Dyck. “ Dolores, that girl can ride any wild mus- tang on the range She can jan a gun from the hip as good as I can—or better. She can throw a knife like El Tigre. And there’s no wear-out to her. She can ride that white hoss of hers all day and all night. I know, because I’ve tried to catch her. Tried for days.” ‘“ And she was swifter than you? you? asked the astonished girl. ‘““A whole pile,” he answered emphati- cally. ‘‘ But let’s forget her.” “Tt is good,” said Dolores with much relish. ‘‘ She was a coward. She did not stay with the white father when he fell in the trap for her sake. She is a devil, not a woman. And Senor Van Dyck hates her. It is very good. The heart of Dolores is warm!” But he pondered this question a moment seriously. “ Hate her?” he answered at length. ‘“ I can’t say that I do, Dolores. No, I got no reason to like her, and a lot to dislike her, Than 307 but somehow I can’t get rid of the thought of her, and I can’t say that it’s hate that keeps me thinkin’ of her. You know how some gents like whisky? They can’t get rid of the taste of it? Well, that’s the way the thought of this Jack follows me, Dolores.” ‘“ So?” said the girl gloomily. ‘ That’s straight. D’you know, after I’m ‘through with Onate I s’pose I'll make a dead line for Jack and try to get on her trail.” The Yaqui drew her knife in a silent fury and drove it to the hilt in the dead stump on which she sat. ‘“ That is fool’s talk!” she said furiously. ‘“Ain’t it?”’ said the whimsical Van Dyck. “ But it’s straight talk, too.” Her glanced narrowed, piercing the gloom of the cafion. ‘And this girl, senor ?”’ “Yes, why?”’ ‘* Nothing.” But far away, through the gloom, she had seen the glint of a moving object. It must have been white to show so plainly at so great a distance. she rides a white horse, (To be concluded NEXT WEEK.) Above Vou by Roy W Hinds I. AXON, at the door, turned for a final sweeping look over the one- room hut before he departed. There were no signs of a struggle. The scanty and decrepit furniture, though not set in order by any means, betrayed nothing of the thing that had just been done there. @ Vilas WA - The few tattered rugs on the floor were no more disorderly than they always had bgen. A few old books and newspapers lay on the table beside the door, on which also re- posed the dingy kerosene lamp which shed its feeble glow over the scene. Cooking things were in their places near the stove. Articles of clothing lay or hung in their ac- customed places. (e(0) vOOK (E@)