Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 1, 1922 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

HOPELESS HOMESTEAD. a red-eyed, discouraged looking woman. No, sir! and if that woman ever comes after me I'll beat it out of there and keep on beating it till I get to where she'll never hear of me.” At first Kemp could scarcely believe his ears. He looked at Hubbard in utter amazement. Then, as he realized the utter worthlessness of this man who valued his wife only when he thought she could pro- vide an easy living for him, fiery indigna- tion flushed his face. His fists clenched and he took a step toward the fellow. Then he reconsidered. This was no ca- lamity, but a stroke of incredible good for- tune. With Hubbard out of the way, Alice would consider him dead, in fact, as he would be in law, and Kemp could marry her. He smiled grimly. ‘“‘ All right, Hubbard,” he said. give you a lift down to Hay Creek.” “Til Kemp took him all the way to the settle-’ ment. “I'd advise you to keep away from Ro- discaw for the next two or three weeks,” he said to Hubbard as they parted. “‘T sure will ” rejoined the latter. Vill. WHEN Alice Carter’s self-imposed im- prisonment on her worthless homestead ex- pired, she abandoned the place and moved to the Rodiscaw Hotel. She was no longer the slack and nervous person she had been when she resided in her temporary shack. Her six months of stress and strain at an end, she blossomed overnight into the beautiful and sunny-dis- positioned woman she had been when Kemp first sighted her in the land office. In fact, she was even more radiant now than she had been at that time. She had feared a possible meeting with her husband then, and now that fear no longer existed. Seven years had expired since he left her, and during that time.she had heard no word of him. The law therefore declared him dead, and so far as she knew, he was dead. But Kemp was not so easy in his mind. Conscience was gnawing at him again. He could marry Alice at any time now, but did he wish to do so with a secret between I’m going back to Hay Creek,. 841 them? Could he hope for happiness if he started his married life by lying to his wife? Because, if he kept from her the knowledge that Calvin Carter was alive, would not that be virtually a lie? He sought to draw her out on the sub- ject one day. ‘* Alice,” he said, “‘ what would happen if you learned that Calvin Carter is alive?” “TI would not then be a widow,” she re- plied. “I could not marry you.” For twenty-four hours after she made that assertion Kemp wrestled with the problem of whether he should tell her the truth. But he might as well have surren- dered at the start. The principles that had guided him through life were all arrayed against him. He could never be happy with Alice if he withheld the facts from her. He could not be happy with her if he told them, either, since she would not and could nat marry him, but at least he would be at peace with his conscience;. he would know that in this last and greatest test of all he had again emerged triumphant. Se he ‘made up his mind to tell her, and with that idea firmly fixed in his mind, he started for her hotel. But as he passed the barracks office he was called inside by a brother constable. ‘¢ Just received a bit of news from down river that I thought might interest you,’ said the latter. The news was staggering. Kemp made his companion repeat it in detail, then he took a long walk before calling on Alice. Now he was all at sea again; he did not know whether to tell her about Calvin Car- ter, alias Hubbard, or not. But in the end he decided to do so. She met him in the ladies’ parlor of the town’s one and only hotel. Never had she looked so beautiful, so radiant, so desirable. She was as different from the unkempt and anxious-eyed woman who had kept vigil on Hopeless Homestead as sunshine is different from fog. Her smart gown fitted her to perfection, her hair was becomingly dressed as though she had visited a metropolitan beauty parlor, her eyes were alight with happiness. Kemp looked at her for a long time before he foynd courage to speak. ** Alice,” he said at last, ‘“‘ I have come to comicloool C©