Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

4 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. dealt with the problem in his mind, as he had been accustomed to deal with it for the most part—all alone. “Oh, mister! Hey! Yoo-hoo!”’ David turned in the direction whence came the voice. “Oh, boy! water?” And David sprang to his feet as a girl came hesitantly up the trail from the wagon road. Can you get me some CHAPTER II. WATER-BOY. AVID thought that she looked like a D kid. She was in fact seventeen years old, but her short wide skirt, her trim, small form, and the freedom with which she moved, gave her the boyish as- pect of a girl much younger. She carried a tin pail in one hand, and walked over the stony, uneven pathway to the hilltop with a joyous disregard for dig- nity. Her white blouse revealed a brown triangle of throat, and two brown arms which gave off the sunlight as gold does; a wide-brimmed yellow hat of some cotton stuff concealed everything of her face but a delicate, rounded chin, wide red lips and a short freckled nose. That is what David saw as he stood up beneath the cypress tree so that his head was brushed .by the downsweeping branches, and his body, on the edge of the sunlight, was dappled with the shadow. He was abashed, for he met few women, and this girl was obviously not of the range. For her part she saw a tall youth clad in corduroy trousers that were tucked into riding boots, a khaki shirt that was unbut- toned at the throat, and a bandanna which negligently hung beneath his chin. These articles of apparel, however, were not strange to her; she had been long enough in the cattle country to take them for granted; and yet to her the boy seemed strange. She didn’t know that it was strange to find in this country of men whose skins were tanned to the creased roughness of red leather, a youth whose cheek was bis- cuit brown and flushed with the blood that ran under a transparent skin. She didn’t consciously reason that among a race of men whose limbs since childhood had been grotesquely twisted to the saddle, it was strange to see a boy standing upright upon straight, well formed legs with strong an- kles and the sure-footed grace of an ath- lete. And when, instinctively she looked into David’s eyes, she didn’t know that what pleased her there was a serene wide- ness of glance which is seldom seen among plainsmen whose eyes are narrowed by the eternal protective squint with which they resist the sun. Yet it was these things which made David seem strange to her. Without consciously realizing it she was looking upon a youth who was inexplicably different from all the men she had seen since she had come into the West. So for a moment she stood and looked at him, and David stood silent, looking back at her. It was his habit to speak only such words as the occasion demanded. “Will you get me some water?” She held the pail out to him. “ Please,” she said. “To drink?” he asked her. “Well, yes. Ive got some pups back in the wagon. It’s for them. Why do you ask?” ‘‘ Because this water ain’t for humans,” he explained briefly. ** What’s the matter with it?” Taking the pail from her, he turned away toward the steep bank which fell away from the hilltop to the water. “You can taste,” he said. She watched him as he started for the bank and then turned abruptly, retracing his steps to the cypress tree. Seeing her with her eyes upon him and divining her surprise, he smiled at her quickly. becom- ing instantly serious again as he picked up his sombrero and put it on. Underneath its wide brim his face became more boyish than ever, and she, the eternal woman, puckered her lips in an instant response to the youthfulness of him. The sombrero didn’t seem his accustomed headgear, she thought; under its brim he looked like a boy playing at being a cow-puncher. Gomichbooks 4 Go