Adventure Magazine, December 10, 1924 — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

62 some detective work in the quarters, but it didn’t get us anywhere. Our man had just naturally melted away. When the searchin’ played out, Mr. John kept on as deputy. The sheriff liked him, and it gave him a chance to keep goin’ while he was lookin’ round. I used to see him when I'd go in for the pay roll, and he always asked me about the place. He’d ask about the major too, but only how he was. There was some things I.wanted to say to Mr. John, but I never got to ’em. When it come to talkin’ about the holdup, he was a good deal like his father. The first and only time I mentioned it, he broke me right off. _ “All right, Nick,” says he, “that’s over and done with. Let’s forget it from now on.” I was sure he knew that I understood. It was Just that his pride wouldn’t let him acknowledge the need of squarin’ himself. I liked him as much as I missed him, which is sayin’ a lot. Because once he’d gone, I had my hands full. Right on the jump the major left me in entire charge of the field. I say “‘left’’ as he didn’t come out with it in so many words. He’d ride round some and give me an order or so, but he never checked up afterward on what I’d done. He was hit hard from the hour Mr. John rode off the place and for once he didn’t take the trouble to hide his feelin’s. Mostly he spent his days in the office and, from the way the lights burned at night in the li- brary of the big house, it looked like he never went to bed. For all his hard- headedness I felt sorry for him. He was old and lonely, and the only comfort he _could-find was in his books and his bottle. He sure went after the last item in his cold, quiet way. Jim, his house-servant, put it right when he says to me— “Majuh done increase his dram.”’ Things rocked on like this through the Winter, with the major stayin’ away more and more from the field. Then with the start of Spring plantin’, he got a fresh grip on himself and begun to take notice again. Each day he got about more, till he was makin’ his regular round. When he’d been at it long enough to show he was back for keeps, I got all mixed up in my feelin’s. One minute I was glad at havin’ him round again. The next I was sorry to see him strike out fresh without Adventure Mr. John. It didn’t look much like the two would get together now. I was mighty doubtful. But you never could put your finger. on the major. Just when things seemed at their worst, he made another move. It began one day when we was ridin’ past a gang-plow that had been layin’ out all year on a turnrow. The major pulled up and looked at it. “Can you put that in shape?” he asks. “Easy enough,” I answers. “All right. Start it tomorrow,” says he; and he growls out a second later, ‘No need to let it rust to pieces. We’re wasting enough money as it is.” I nearly fell off my horse, first because the major had explained himself, and second because that particular make of plow had been one of Mr. John’s pet ideas. Next mornin’ I had it out with our best team and driver and by the end of the week we was usin’ two others that had been laid away, and the major was talkin’ of orderin’ more, After this come other changes. The major went slow, but, once he’d tried a scheme of Mr. John’s and found it worked, he stayed right with it. Naturally I figured all this meant just one thing: The major was sorry and anxious to square things, and he was showin’ it in the only way his pride would let him. Now was the time for me to speak up and explain, I told myself. So I watched for a chance, and one day, when we was discussin’ a feed Mr. John had planned for the mules, I waded in. “So it’s goin all right?’’ asks the major. “Mighty well,” says I. “But there’s one or two things about it I don’t exactly under- stand. Now if we just had Mr. John back os I didn’t get any further. The way the major swung on me made me want to dodge. “Mr. Wilson,” says he, “you are getting absent-minded. Tl put it that way in view of your past services. But please re- member one thing: As long as I am running this plantation, no man can disobey me and stay.” After this I threw up my hands. Mr. John had been right. You couldn’t tell the major anything. And how was I to show him? I could only stand aside while the two dragged on as they was. It looked like the end to me. , But I’d forgot there was still a fourth CoMmicbook A) © =