Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

THE LOST ORANGE GROVE. let them in, Phil was handed a warrant of arrest, charging him with the theft of a yearling heifer belonging to Dimlock. The boy was dazed. The stolen heifer, Dim- lock declared, was in the Pomeroy cowshed at this moment. Phil could say nothing. But Bert’s mind went to the correct conclusion at once. Some time during the blustery night, Dim- lock had brought the heifer to the cow- barn and placed it inside. He was so sure that the heifer would be found there that he said: “T found the heifer freezing outside the house last night. I put it in to keep warm. Are you goin’ to arrest my brother for a neighborly act?” Dimlock called him a liar. He had wit- nesses to prove that Phil had stolen the animal. He had been seen stealthily lead- ing it away on a rope the evening before. ‘““T closed up the barn myself last night,” the dazed Phil insisted. ‘‘ Your heifer wasn’t there. I did not steal your heifer!” The sheriff suggested that they take a look in the cowbarn. And there the heifer was found. When Phil’s trial came up, two of the town’s drug store corner loafers took their oaths and declared that they had seen Phil Pomeroy stealing Lee Dimlock’s heifer. Its markings were unique. It had a white patch resembling the map of South Ameri- ca on its off-side; they would recognize that heifer among carloads. They had seen Phil Pomeroy leading the heifer on a rope through the elm trees that ran in a thin grove across the back of the two farms; and they had remarked upon the furtiveness of Phil Pomeroy’s actions. Yes, sir, he had been leading the heifer away from Mr. Dim- lock’s place. The lawyer Bert had hired to defend his brother sealed the boy’s fate with what he stupidly believed to be a stroke of foren- sic genius. He had five heifers led past one of the court room windows, and he dramati- cally dared the two witnesses to identify the one that belonged to Lee Dimlock. Few people in the crowded court room did not say “ Ah!” rapturously when the heifer with the map of South America on its side was led past. 41 Phil Pomeroy was sentenced to eighteen months for grand larceny. A year later, in the spring, Bert had plac- ards printed announcing that the farm would be auctioned off. Immediately more rumors were heard. The farm was utterly worthless. The house was on its last legs. The roof leaked like a sieve. Last summer’s caterpillar blight had ruined the apple ot chard. The soil was so thin and poor it would not nourish a blade of grass. There was nothing in the house but junk. The farm was worth about nine thousand dollars. It carried a three thousand dollar mortgage. Bert should have netted upward of six thousand dollars for the farm and buildings, and perhaps a thousand addi- tional for the contents and live stock. The proceeds of the sale were less than three thousand five hundred dollars. Lee Dimlock stopped Suzanne as she left the Nardon post office next day and asked what her plans were. She admitted that she and Bert were going away, and she refused to tell him where. Dimlock said that he would die without her. He tried to grab her hands, but she ran down the steps past him, jumped into her flivver and drove away. She and Bert left that night for Hart- ford without saying good-by to any one. They waited there a week at an obscure boarding house. Phil had the address and would meet them there if he could effect the escape he was planning. And at the end of the week he joined them, leaving six months of his sentence unserved. Florida, they had decided, was the best place to go; and they drove south day and night, taking turns at the wheel and sleeping as best they could in the car. Then, after three years, a Nardon family, touring through Majolica, had seen Su- zanne, made inquiries there, and from them Dimlock had learned where the Pomereys had fled. He had come to Vingo, intending to take Suzannne away with him—or report Phil’s whereabouts to the authorities. VI. SUZANNE’S monotonous voice ceased, and she looked drearily out of the window at COnNICGLOO© S (C@