Argosy All-Story Weekly, 4 February 1922 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

- bring him to her feet. 324 you if you have decided to return to the Circle Six?” Garrison Chanler had famil- iarized himself with the roads about Dexter and he knew that the one upon which this innocently beguiling infant had waylaid him was a roundabout way indeed to the Bently ranch, but there was only grave deference in the manner with which he cupped: her tiny foot in his hand and as- sisted her to mount once more. “ Tt—it seems to me there’s a little breeze coming up, don’t you think so?” Sylvia turned the full battery of her limpid, round eyes upon him as he stood for a moment beside her. ‘ We could take the trail over by Grosscup’s Pool if you’re not in a hurry to get back to Dexter?” “Indeed I’m not. Grosscup’s Pool sounds refreshing. It lies to the north, doesn’t it?” He turned his broncho’s head, vaulted into the saddle, and they cantered off side by side at an easy gait. “It’s where the creek which crosses our ranch winds around to the northwest and widens out in a basin of rocks in a gully,” Sylvia explained. “‘ Grosscup was a pros- pector who came looking for gold ever so long ago and was supposed to have. discov- ered it there and gone crazy from joy over it, but nobody else ever found any. I like it because it is cool and shady and mossy, and it’s so out of the way that hardly any- body goes there.” She did not add that, as the one spot in the vicinity which most nearly ap- proached her conception of a romantic set- ting, she had led more than one awkward and bashful swain thither to torment him with her newly found coquetry. She meant _ to test its effect now upon this maddeningly cool, self-contained denizen of a world which she knew only vicariously, through the medium of magazines and best-sellers. Without knowing why, she resented the fact that his amused, tolerant attitude should disconcert her, and more than anything else in her humored young life she wanted to Tad Mason’s esti- mate had not been far from the truth. ‘“‘T haven’t seen your brother since I met him at the Bar D,” Garry Chanler remarked when they had turned from the highway into the lesser trail. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “Oh, Lee is riding line,” responded Syl- via absently. “ He is getting back into har- ness again so as to take over the manage- ment of the ranch, now that he has finished college.” “But your foreman—”’ “Wes Hayward is all right, of course, and I don’t suppose we should know what to do without him, but it is not like having an owner at the head of things. You don’t know much about ranching, do you, Mr. Chanler?” He shook his head smilingly. “T’ve had my first glimpse of it during these last few weeks, but it seems to be a great life; a real man’s game! I should imagine, though, that a girl would find it monotonous and a trifle lonely.” “ It’s—unspeakable!”’ Sylvia gave .a vicious little jerk on her broncho’s mouth. ‘“‘ Never going anywhere or—or meeting the right sort of people! I wonder that Lee can settle down contentedly to it after hav- ing been away to college, but he is like Susanna, just simply crazy about carrying out father’s plan to make the Circle Six the greatest ranch in this section of the State. Sue has managed it ever since father’s death, you know, and Mr. Hay- ward says there isn’t a better man on the place. I—TI hate it!” “TI have heard a great deal about your sister, although I haven’t had the honor of meeting her yet.” The easy tolerance was gone from Garry’s voice and he spoke with unconsciously quickened interest. ‘ The other ranch-owners hereabout have a tre- mendous respect for her; they tell me that she can rope, and brand, and cut cattle out of a milling bunch as expertly as any puncher could, and that she is quite a re- markable shot, too.” “Yes!” Sylvia’s keen ear had caught, and as instantly resented the change in his tone, and her own was edged slightly with sarcasm. “You can imagine how proud you would feel to hear your sister called * Two-Gun Sue’! Oh, I know it was only meant for a compliment, and Sue just laughed when she heard about it first, but I think it’s a—a disgrace! As though she were some sort of a dreadful hold-up per- son! And she needn’t have bothered with rt Comicbooks. (E(o)