Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 23, 1924 — page 70: what you’re looking at

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

WARS ehgie a 2 8 88) me 228 Ten minutes later when Bassett was just entering the house, the outfit rode south- ward. There were men in the outfit that -knew of the little intimacy that had sprung up between Channing and the woman who was now to become Mrs. Bassett, and they forbore to speak of the forthcoming mar- riage. But because they had seen Jane Win- throp, and because they knew her as a quiet, gentle voiced “lady,” they were not en- thusiastic over her choice, and a thoughtful silence had descended upon them. This silence was broken after a while. It was Ned Vallon who broke it. “* Hell!” he declared, his voice thick with rage and disappointment. ‘ He’ll kill her! Damn him, he’ll kill her! Nothin’ human ever does any growin’ around old Bassett!” CHAPTER X. YOUTH. HEN Eve stepped out of the kitchen door to the rear ‘porch her first glance went down the old path that led to the bunk and mess houses and the stable. She saw Channing standing at the corral fence looking at the horses. Eve smiled. Channing! The name was synonymous with service, gentleness, fidelity and consid- eration. He represented about everything good that had come into Eve’s life in the ten years that she had been at the Circle B. Her earliest recollections of him centered around a dark night, a railroad station plat- form, a ride in a buckboard, and a subse- quent sleep in a bed that had felt like down to her. Since that night she had depended upon Channing. He had never failed her. His manner toward her was the same as it had been on the night he had brought her and her mother to the Circle B. She had been eight then; she was now eighteen; and Channing treated her as he had treated her through all the years. He had been just what she felt a brother ought to be. Channing had brought her books, pres- ents. He had taught her to ride. He had advised her when she needed advice; he had ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. calmed her infrequent mental tempests— especially when Bassett had annoyed her in some way. : So great had been Channing’s influence upon her life that she felt she had grown to be almost like him. She had the same quiet manner, the same gentleness of voice, the same disturbing steadiness of eye. Eve’s slim young body was erect. was life, joy of living, vitality and zest in every line of her figure. When she saw Channing looking at her she smiled again, waved a hand at him and went down the path toward him. When she reached him he was blushing as furiously as when she had first looked at him that day on the station platform at Red Mesa. Eve’s memory of that meet- ing was still vivid, although each time she caught Channing blushing she found her- self marveling. Channing had never been able to con- quer the embarrassment that seized him whenever Eve came near him. He had al- ways felt as he felt now, that. her calm, direct gaze went straight through him, and that she knew his thoughts as quickly as they were formed. In ten years Evangeline had grown much taller. She was now able by standing on her toes to meet Channing’s eyes nearly on a level. And she had a trick of doing that very thing each time they met, much to his discomfiture. The slim figure that had been hers that There ~ day on the station platform at Red Mesa < had rounded and developed in the pure, keen air of the country. Her skin was still of the fine texture that had distin- guished it on the day of their first meeting, but the bloom of health was in it now, and maturity had brought a subtle charm which could be sensed, but which could not be analyzed. Eve had always made Channing think of roses. She seemed as fragrant, as pure. Her cheeks had the same satiny smooth- ness; the delicacy and grace of a rose’s unfolding petals was in the lithe lines of her figure; and he knew she was as sensi- tive to the moods of others as the rose to the changes of the atmosphere. “Larry,” she charged, “ you are in one EOPNIE OOOKS (E@)