Argosy, Vol. 119, No. 2 — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

by | Chasdes Alden a Author of “‘ Riddle Gawne,” “‘ Beaw Rand,”’ “ Square Deal Sanderson,”° etc. : a WHAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED HE first inkling of a conspiracy. to ruin him came to Kane Lawler, of the Circle L, wherr Gary Warden, buyer for a cattle company at Willets, repudiated. Lawler’s. oral contract with Warden’s predecessor, Lefingwell. Lawler’s meeting with Simmons, freight agent, turther strengthened this belief. Warden had stated that he could have all the cars he wanted—Simmons had said there were none. Prior to his trip to town, Lawler, who had inherited his father’s prowess with a gun, thrashed the son of Dave Singleton for attacking Ruth Hamlin, whom Lawler loved, amd whose father had been encouraged to rustle Lawler’s. stock by Singleton. But at Simmons’s. suggestion that Lawler would make it hot for them—in the matter of the refusal of cars for the shipment of his stock—-Warden sneered. Bas ; Lawler went immediately to the Willets Hotel, where, in a conversation with several ranch owners, they appointed him spokesman to visit the capital—-for they were all in the same beat. Meantime, following Warden’s talk with Singleton, in which the latter had spoken of a certain Blondy Antrim and Kinney’s Cafion, and his encouragement of the latter’s hatred for Lawler, . Warden, yielding to his passier for Ruth, attacked her at her cabin in her father’s absence. Lawler, however, coming on the scene, spared Warden at Ruth’s plea, later dispatching Hamlin—whom he had given a job at the Circle L—on a mysterious mission prior to his futile visit to the capital and his interviews with Hatfield, railroad commissioner, and Governor Haughton. Lawler was now convinced that the invisible power was widespread. Hatfield was a part of it—as well as Haughton. After giving the story of the Governor’s refusal to help him to Metcalf, of the News, Lawler, returning to Willets, met with an added proof, if such were necessary, of the far-reaching conspiracy against hina; a new ordinance had been passed abrogating the old “vent” law by which owners, registering their cattle, had been protected against rustlers. Then, after leaving three thousand head at home, at Blackburn, the foreman’s suggestion, Lawler, with his men, took the Tom Long trail to Red Rock, five hundred miles away. But of the hazards which confronted them Warden knew, and Singleton knew.. The latter snarled bestially. ‘Showed yellow at the last minute,’ he whispered to Warden; “ only drivin’ about half of them. Well, we'll take care of them he’s leavin’, before the winter’s over.” CHAPTER XII OBLIGATION. _FTER the departure of Lawler on the night of Gary Warden’s visit to the Hamlin cabin, silence, vast and deep, reigned inside. The last golden shadows from the sinking sun yielded to the somber shades of twilight as Ruth came to the door and peered outward, to see Lawler riding away. For a long time the girl watched Lawler, her face burning with shame over what had happened, her senses revolting from the realization of the things Lawler knew con- cerning her father. Then she seated her- . self on the threshold of the doorway, watch- _ Ing the long shadows steal over the plains. She loved Lawler; she had never at- tempted to deny it, not even to herself. And she had found it hard to restrain herself when he had stood outside the door of her room gravely pleading with her. Pride only had kept her from yielding—the humiliat- Ing conviction that she was not good enough for him—or rather that her father’s crimes had made it impossible for her to accept Lawler upon a basis of equality. She felt that Lawler would take her upon any terms—aindeed, his manner while in the cabin shortly before convinced her of that: but she did not want to go to him under those conditions. She would have felt, al- ways, as though pity for her had influ- enced him. She felt that she would al- ways be searching his eyes, probing them This story began in The Argosy for March 13. 6 ARGOSY | 241 (E€(0) "EOMIGIOOKS im 2% Sree ware