Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 151: what you’re looking at

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

THE FREE TRADER. fiercely, and her eyes blazed as she looked up athim. “I’ve come. I’m yours. You said you loved me. I'll do anything. Only you must free my father of this terrible charge.” “Free him!” Alan repeated. “Yes. You can do it. Tell the truth. You’ve fought my father. You hated him because he called you a free trader. You have done all you could to humble him, to drive him mad, to force him to do foolish things because you knew you could make him lose his temper.”’ ‘Stop that!” Alan commanded furiously. He forgot his compassion. He forgot that he wished more than anything else to free this girl from a situation that was crushing her. He remembered only that she had entered that room once before and, through a soft voice and soft eyes, had dis- armed him and then had abandoned him to her father’s uncertain temper. He remem- bered how she had tricked him with a sprained ankle. He remembered the ar- rogance and contempt with which she had always met him and he saw now that she humbled herself only to deceive him once more, that she even offered herself as a tempting bait in a final effort to save her father. “Stop it!” he repeated. trick me again.” “Tm not trying to trick you,” she re- torted. “I meanit. Ill go with you, any- where, if you'll tell the truth, confess that you set that fire and stole the fur.” For the first time Alan realized the sig- nificance of her opening statement. She had come to him not because she trusted him, but to make terms with one whom she despised. Instantly that fierce, inexplica- ble desire to humble her returned. He wanted to compel her submission, to beat down her arrogance, to force her to admit his strength and seek its protection. “T don’t want you!” he exclaimed. “Not in the way you’ve come. You've scorned me ever since you first knew me. You’ve had nothing but contempt for me. You have now, when you come to make such an offer. Because I’m not one of the chosen, because my name is not at the bot- tom of a Great North contract, I’m an out- “Vou can’t 613 cast. I’m a weakling. I’m not fit to asso- ciate with. I’m only to be used when you need me, to be tricked. “And down at the bottom of your heart you know it isn’t true. You know that as a fur trader I’m far better than your father ever was. You know I’ve defeated him and you know, too, that I’ve done it de- cently. ‘And yet your damnable pride and your absurd prejudice leads you to believe you can come here and deceive and insult me. What did you think? Did you believe that for your favor I would admit a crime I never committed? And yet, God help me, I would have done more than that if you had been fair.” He stepped back to the door and placed one hand on the latch. ‘“‘T think you’d better go now,” he said. ‘Then you refuse to help me!” she cried. There was a despairing note in her voice that set Alan’s heart to leaping. “Help you!” he repeated. “I’ve been doing that. I sat up all night to guard you from those crazy Indians. It was for you I concealed facts about the fire and it was for your sake I tried to persuade Bicknell his charges were foolish. And just now, when we know Allardyce was murdered, Tf. was going over all the evidence trying to find a loophole for your father, trying to. help you, trying to save you from what this means. “You have hated me and tricked.me. You have had only contempt for me. You have put a bitterness into this winter’s work that T never felt. I have no prejudices. I didn’t hate. ‘ But I have some pride and I have faith in myself. You made a mistake when you first saw me, again when I came here, and now you have made the biggest blunder of all. Good-by.” He swung the door open, but Helen did not move. She had been watching him with wide, staring eyes. She had not winced or showed resentment when he had denounced her. She had seemed not to hear his words, but to be wakening to a new impression of him. “The trouble with you is that you don’t know a man when you see one,” Alan burst - Gomichboo > hae d *<