The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 46: what you’re looking at

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

40 THE he would think the two fugitives had joined hands to lie for each other. The less he talked to the district attorney the better. He started to go away. The district at- torney laid a hand on his arm, but he shook it off. ‘“’‘You’ve saved my life—” ‘Qh, forget it! JI hadn’t the nerve to shoot you. Isn’t it awkward for a mur- cerer to be like that?” He turned abruptly. “* Good-by!” ‘“‘ Lord—just a moment!” the district at- torney called after him. Lord did not turn his head. He went down a gulch, and almost immediately the snow-storm separated them as if they had been parted by miles on miles of distance. But he knew that he and the district at- torney would meet again—some day. CHAPTER IV. ACCOMPLICES. [t was such a warm day as now and then falls in midwinter in the Rockies. The sun sparkled on the white breasts of the low hills on either side of the trail. But there was little snow remaining on those vast patches of prairie weeds, which _ looked soft as brown velvet, and really were full of sharp thorns and _ beggars’ weeds, with their prickling seeds. Horned larks and goldfinches in winter plumage were feasting on these seeds, de- vouring by hundreds the future generations of the weeds. In the wheel-ruts the sun had melted and the brown earth sent up a steam that smelled like spring. A loaded beet-wagon, with nothing unusual in its appearance, traveled slowly along the road toward Ruckingham Dump. But the wagon was driven by Ed Bay- liss of the tar-papered shack; and beside him, on the high seat, sat Hilairy. She had refused to be left at home. At home she would have gone wild with fears. So she was now accessory after the fact in anything Rawley Lord had done. He bad implored her with his tongue to have nothing more to do with him, and with his eyes’ never to leave him. Well, she had ARGOSY. known from the first that sorrow would come of letting her life become intertwined with Rawley Lord’s. While her brother lived it had not been hard to fight against the charm of this turbulent lover. She had come West, as the doctor had said she must, with Harry; they had taken a homestead, and Harry had thought he would soon be able to care for it. Rawley Lord had followed to help, not to hinder. About the time Harry died and she got the Baylisses to keep the claim, Rawley had suddenly wrecked his life in Kahokia. After that, though she had leave of absence from the homestead, she could not go away to earn money. She had stayed on; and now she was doing what would send her to jail if it should be known. Ed Bayliss had taken the risk for a hun- dred dollars. Hilairy’s face was concealed by a sun- bonnet of black sateen warmly quilted with cotton. Lest any one know her by her eyes she wore large blue glasses. Her body had been made shapeless by clothing, on top of all an old and dusty coat with wisps of straw clinging to it. In the bottom of the wagon Lord’s body had been protected by a false bottom from the weight of the beets. This space, boarded up at the end, had a peculiar look which might catch the eye of a very close cbserver. ‘But the wagon had passed, unquestioned and apparently unnoticed, through two little towns. Now, if all went well, in an hour Lord would be safe aboard a freight. The wagon drove into a winding cafion. _At the other end of the cafion were two roads, one leading to Buckingham beet dump, the other to that station in the woods where Lord was to catch his freight. Already, in the purple hills rising toward the west, the sunset was here and there reflected, as lakes of fire. It was very dark in the cafon; but when they reached its end they emerged into twilight. It was a shadowy road that led to the station. In a little while now he would be safely away. And she would never see him again in this world! She drew a deep breath with a catch in it. comicbool< CO