The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 53: what you’re looking at

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

THE TRACK OF MIDNIGHT. 245 ‘“Oh, no, not you,’’ the girl said quickly as she looked him in the face with a light in her eyes that sent Wilton’s bese surging through his veins. ‘‘T meant like some others who come here.’ ‘From over the ranges,’’ Wilton said rapidly. ‘‘Oh, they are horrible !’’ she replied, with a shudder. ‘Then you—but you are going to ges ‘‘T am going to what?’’ she asked archly. ‘Why your father said—didn’t you hear him ?’’ ‘*T only heard you talking about Johnson.”’ ‘* And don’t you like the men over the ranges ?”’ ‘‘T hate them !’’ she exclaimed warmly. ‘‘ Father brought one here and told me to marry him, and I tried to get over to Mr. Johnson and ask him to stop it, but the squatters turned out after Midnight, when he had killed Doolan, and I haven’t heard of him since.”’ It was dangerous ground for Wilton to encroach upon, but he did not stop to consider. ‘Tf your father brings another will you go to Johnson again ?’’ he asked, looking at her with eyes that would have told her plainly what was in his mind had she glanced at them. But she was looking away into the bush and wondering whether it was a man she had seen pass behind a tree, or only her fancy. She heard Wilton’s words and answered, without a moment’s hesi- tation, what was her intention. ‘‘No,’’ she said, ‘‘ I should come to you first.”’ Then she looked at him, and her eyes dropped before his. ‘(For ever?’’ he asked hoarsely, his features working with the emotion that broke from his control at her words. She stood silent, her color coming and going, and her frame trembling in a way she could not understand. On her lips the words hovered to answer him in the affirmative, but behind them there was something that held her back. She felt that she would like to throw her arms around him, as she had done with her father earlier in the day, with the knowledge that she would not be repulsed; but again something held her back. She glanced swiftly up into the strong, open, manly face, with a look of mingled love and fear. His eyes, gleaming in their passionate fervor, met hers. He seized her . two hands, and, holding them in a close grip, exclaimed, ‘Vou will come to me for ever?’’ ‘Vou will have to take me,’’ she answered with a smile. ‘‘ Narli says it is always done ; and you can be my champion then.’’ “‘T can and I will!’’ he said warmly. He drew her towards him, but she started back, and he, nearly losing his balance for the moment, staggered forward. As he did so his ears caught the sound of the report of a rifle, and a bullet struck a post of the veranda beside which he had been standing, and tearing off a splinter, buried itself in the wall of the house. The splinter flew sideways and struck Mary on the head with sufficient force to stun her. He caught her in his arms as she fell and quickly looking over his shoulder, saw the puff of smoke hanging over some low bushes. Eomicbooks 3