Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

30 Pomeroy. What’s the matter with Vingo? You can buy a fine farm here for a song.” ‘The sheriff just finished telling me,” said Suzanne, ‘“ that nothing grows in Vingo but lost hopes and hard feelings.” Gene snorted mirthfully. “ Just because a New York commission dealer trimmed him last month on a carload of potatoes, he blames Vingo. T’ll tell you what I’ll do, Miss Pomeroy,” he went on energet- ically. “Il just beat it back to the quarry, get a team of mules and pull your car out, then we’ll all go down and have a talk with old man Bell. He owns four hundred acres of the finest land in Florida, and you can have it at your own price. That patch of jungle over there is part of it. I’ve prospected for rock all along the edge, and if it’s cleared off it will grow anything from cane to grapefruit.” “Did you see the lost orange grove?” Suzanne eagerly demanded. “ No, ma’am, but it’s always had a hold on my imagination, and some day, when I catch up to myself, I’m going to find it. What there is left of it is probably some- where in the heart of the growth—where a grove would naturally be planted. Those people grew oranges before people knew what oranges were. ‘““Now’s the time to plant orange trees. You could protect them on three sides, and there’s a pond in there fed from under- ground springs that would keep frost away. That patch of jungle takes up about one hundred acres. There is some rock there, but it’s ojus. Otherwise, that patch would be worth a fortune. Ojus is soft, crumbly stuff, and what we want is hard coquina—that is, for road and building work. “All this section was under the Atlantic at one time and there is a ridge of rock running through here as far south as New Smyrna, maybe farther. Both ojus and coquina are a composition of tiny sea-shells naturally cemented together in ledges some- times as thick as ten feet, but usually less, In the ojus, the binder didn’t seem to take. Ojus is no more valuable than so much sand. “ Coquina is the most practical road and building rock there is for this climate. I’m are ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. working on some experiments now, making bricks of it. Simply mix ground up coquina with water and mold it. Those bricks are almost as hard as kiln-baked bricks.” Gene was gazing at Miss Pomeroy eager- ly, and her large, soft brown eyes were glowing up at him. Gene was an eager, enthusiastic young man, but his excitement now made me wonder. Those coquina bricks of his were a secret; he expected to make a fortune with them. Suzanne’s dark-eyed, pink-cheeked beauty had evi- dently intoxicated him; he was babbling like a child. “My quarry—trather, the quarry I’m part owner of,” he resumed, after studying her a few seconds, “ adjoins Bell’s jungle. I can tell you all you want to know about the land. Shall we run down and talk to him?” ‘“ But you must be busy,” Suzanne ob- jected. Gene laughed. ‘“‘ Time, as my black cook says, is something I ain’t got nothin’ else of but.” ““T want you to talk to my brothers,” Suzanne said suddenly, and ran into the house. Gene Bantry released his breath in a long, fragile sigh, and shifted dreamy blue eyes from the empty doorway to me. He placed his two large sunburned hands on my shoulders and waved me gently back and forth, staring at me somberly. ‘ Buck,” he said in a hushed tone, “ have you just been listening to the music of the spheres?” “Tt sounded to me,” I replied, “ like an essay on coquina rock. It seems to me you getting pretty careless with your bricks.” He grinned excitedly. ‘“Isn’t she the loveliest thing you ever laid eyes on?” ‘““She’s a cute kid,” I agreed. “ Cute!” he groaned. “ I want to know —as man to man—did you ever see such eyes in your life? Did you see the little specks of gold in them? Did you notice how they grew bright, then dark, then bright, time after time, as if clouds were passing over them? Did you see how big the irises were when she got excited?” He lowered his hands slowly from my Gomichbooks (C@)