The Argosy, November 1908 — page 62: what you’re looking at

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

628 ducing a folded-up slip of paper from the cash-drawer. Lank Rake inspected the message cu- riously. “Say, Jack, Nesotercd, eh it d™be anything of a accommodation to yer, I'll take that down to the station fer yer. I’m a headin’ that way right now, an’ I kin do it jest as well as not.” The hotel man looked a little surprised, since the other was not usually of such an obliging disposition. Still, busy as he was, looking after the comfort of the new arrival, he was not inclined to question motives too narrowly, and therefore hand- ed over the telegram without comment. ‘“An’ by the way, Lank,” he added, ‘ef you’re goin’ to the station anyhow, s’posin’ you look after this stranger’s trunk, will yer, an’ git it up here fer him? He shipped it.on ahead, he says ; so I ’low you'll find it a layin’ on the platform. Here’s the check fer it, an’ I’ll square up with yer on the job when yer git back.” ‘All right,” assented the mountaineer carelessly, and, shoving the check and message into his pocket, he lurched out at the door and down the street. He had not proceeded more than be- yond the landlord’s sight, however, when he drew from his pocket the folded paper and laboriously spelled out its contents, which proved to be as follows: G. WEATHERBY, Ravenswood: Have secured undoubted evidence of crooked dealing, and shall lay it before Prentice at once in order that he may take immediate steps to protect myself and other stockholders. R. BEHAN. “ Whew!’ whistled Lank Rake, with consternation written large upon his face. “T knowed thar was somep’n wrong about him as soon as I seen him come sneakin’ out’n them bushes ; but this here is wuss’n I thought. I guess I don’t want to lose no time huntin’ up Ralph Jones an’ lettin’ him know what’s up.” To his relief, however, the object of his search—Colonel Jones’s son, and the manager of the Verdee mines in his father’s absence—swung into sight at that very moment, cantering up the road on horseback with a young lady at his side. : Still, for all his expressed desire, Rake THE ARGOSY. made no attempt to intercept the other or hail him. Indeed, he did not even glance in that direction, but, as he slouched up the street, he pulled three times at the ragged hat-brim above his brow, and the young horseman, a quick glint coming into his eye, slapped his gaitered calf three times lightly with his riding-stock. CHAPTER VII. DAFFODIL GETS A POINTER. Dick BEHAN perhaps saw the covert signal exchanged between the mining superintendent and his henchman; for, his attention drawn by the clatter of hoofs, he had looked out from behind his flimsy window-curtain just as the couple on horseback swept by the hotel. But though he may have seen, he of course attached no significance to the action; and, anyway, his eyes were all engaged with the girl rather than with the mountaineer or young Jones. The latter he may have noted, indeed, as a dark, heavy-browed chap, rather good-looking except for a forbidding twist to his mouth; but the girl was Daf- fodil, and never had he imagined such a picture of grace and dash and beauty as she made in the saddle. Her face glowing with the exercise under the Di Vernon hat she wore, with its long sweeping plumes; her slender figure becomingly set forth in her trim riding habit ; her eyes sparkling with ani- mation, and her perfect poise upon her mount, not only made an entrancing vision, but also betokened that she pos- sessed a mind absolved from care. Yet, somehow, the sight of her did not seem altogether enrapturing to the unseen watcher behind the window-curtain. He drew back with an unmistakable frown upon his face, and muttered sulkily: ‘‘ Doesn’t seem to be grieving very hard over my departure, does she? At any rate, it looks as though she were able to console herself pretty quick.” But in this he did Miss Prentice a> marked injustice, for she had passed a most anxious and miserable time, blaming herself in some illogical fashion for the mishap which had overtaken her compan- ion on the train. Her present gaiety and high spirits were entirely due to the fact Comiclbooks.conm °