Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

s 5 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. eyes played upon him, and he felt again that instinctive resentment which warned him against her, but he defied it. “It’s right!” he cried with a sudden, unexpected fire. ‘It’s right to hold on. If a man’s got hold of a thing and he knows it’s the right thing, he ought to hang on till he’s shot all to pieces. ‘Till he’s dead! If the thing’s right!” She settled back upon her heels and was amazed. ‘““ My Heavens!” she cried, looking down upon him. ‘I think that’s fine!” His fixed, determined face gazed directly at her. It was still the face of a boy, but it appeared to her handsomer and more aflame with the nobility of manhood than any countenance she had looked upon in her life. It came to her mind that this boy’s face was like the face of some old time crusading prince. “It’s fine!”’ she cried, and the fire died out of his eyes as he realized that he had betrayed himself to a stranger, and a girl. “ That’s the kind of a dog Id like,” he said simply. “ Hey, get yo’ ol’ head out of that wagon. It ain’t supper time yet!” A man’s voice roared jovial greeting from the trail. David withdrew his head from under the hood and turned to discover a horseman on the trail behind him. It was a young man, typical of the cattle country, with firm brown features contracted by long and unyielding resistance to the elements, and the tough, slender figure of a tireless horseman. With graceful, apparently neg- ligent ease, he sat astride a spirited piebald pony, and with one hand he held at his knee the bridle of a wiry little black mare. At the sight of him the boy’s face was illumined with the pleasure a boy has for only one human being in the world; it was the pleasure of comradeship. “ Hello, Aleck!” he cried. “ Better take back that pony before they miss it.” But Aleck was not to be outdone. ‘“Where’d you rustle the outfit?” he grinned. “ Jus’ passed my way,” returned the boy: “Since when yo’ taken to horse wrang- ling?” “This mare here, she belongs to a kid named Dave Parmelee, and she’s coasider- able of a horse. You'd better get up onto her, Dave. The old man’s askin’ about where you are, an’ moreover, you didn’t ought to go walkin’ out over the range this- away. You'll meet a bad cow one of these times an’ walk right into trouble.” David grinned widely, and walking to the black mare, took the reins from Aleck’s hand. The girl, having seen David desert her without a word of explanation, came resolutely around the wagon at that mo- ment and was just in time to see the black mare discover an imaginary telegraph pole and try to climb it. David, who had at the same time essayed to mount, brought down his raised foot to the earth, twisted expertly at the reins, brought the little mare back to earth in a swirling, dust raising chaos of hoofs, and leaped into the saddle with a splendid light- ness and a quickness of hand that instantly had the mare prancing under firm control. The girl liked that, but inasmuch as she hadn’t come around the wagon to admire David, she didn’t let him know it. She stood in the sunlight with her feet apart and her hands in the pockets of her skirt, re- garding the two friends resentfully. “I thought you’d got sunstroke and fallen off the wagon,” she said acidly. David, appreciating the neglected niceties of the situation, swept off his sombrero and spoke regretfully. “It was Aleck,” he explained. “ He just rode up, ma’am, and—this is Aleck.” He introduced his friend. “* How do you do?” asked the girl crisply. “Tm right fine, thank y’ ma’am,” grinned Aleck. He had been looking from David to the girl and back with a thousand speculations in his mind. ‘“ Nice day,” he added, congenially. *“ Aleck, he says, I’m wanted over to the house,” the boy declared. ‘“* Good-by,” said the girl. She made no secret of the fact that she was highly of- fended. “We'll ride along with you,” suggested David. “TY said good-by,” she pointed out. ‘Sure, but we'll ride aloné your way,” David smiled serenely. (C@) = a VOOKS (C@