Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

| and Shorty did not wonder at that. THE STRAY-MAN, Blandell said nothing. The girl saw him walk to his horse, climb into the saddle and ride into the darkness beyond the crest of the slope. She saw Shorty walk to this same crest and watch Blandell. After a time she saw Shorty turn-and come toward - her. When he reached her it seemed she could feél the grim humor that gripped him —it was expressed in his voice when he said, slowly: , “Tt don’t take much to make some men change their minds—does it, ma’am?” | CHAPTER VI. STICKING TO THE DEFINITE OBJECT. HE gray light of dawn was in the east when Shorty halted Red King at the -edge of a little clearing in a timber grove. Before him was a collection of small buildings which, he suspected, belonged to the father of the girl he had brought from the water-hole. Shorty reached that con- clusion of his own accord, for the girl was asleep in his arms, having succumbed sev- _ eral miles back. Shorty was holding her, as he might have held a child. When she had fallen asleep she had been sitting in front of him, hav- ing the saddle to herself; while he had been perched on the war-bag behind the cantle. When. he had noted that she had fallen asleep he had moved closer to her, and when, as Red King had descended a sharp slope, the girl had lurched perilously, Shorty had reached out a steadying hand. For a long time they had ridden thus— the girl asleep; Shorty steadying her with a hand that rested on one of her shoulders. Perhaps the position had become tire- some; or it may have been that Shorty feared the girl would tumble off Red King. At any rate they had not traveled much farther when Shorty was in the saddle with the girl lying across his knees. His movements had not awakened her; Her experience had been a trying one, and the sleep she had settled into was that of ex- haustion. Shorty had not been able to define the sensations that had beset him during the 3A It struck deeper than that. 41% ridé. He was convinced that he would never be able to define them. He had rid- _ den horses since he had been able to sit up- . right in a saddle, and he enjoyed riding— - had always enjoyed it. But never had he enjoyed a ndeé“ts he enjoyed this one. It was not his fault that the girl had been hurt; nor was he to blame because she had refused to ride with Blandell. But he was convinced that not a small portion of his joy was in the thought that she had chosen him instead of Blandell. However, Shorty’s joy was not physical. It was a hal- lowed thing; an emotion that swelled his huge chest with a tender elation that at times awed him with its intensity. | Not for all the riches in the West would Shorty have touched the pale face that was turned to his as it lay against his chest. It was a strange and wonderful experience to him—this of holding a sleeping woman in his arms—a woman who trusted him enough to choose him as her companion on the long ride; who trusted him enough to go to sleep in his presence, with nothing around them but space and the vast silence of the prairies. The girl had been sleeping for more than an hour. Shorty’s arms were beginning to feel the strain. From her description of the Circle Star he was convinced that they had at last reached their destination, but after bringing Red King to a halt, Shorty did not move. He sat, silently regarding the upturned face, noting—as he had noted before in the srowing light—how her hair, in glistening, golden, graceful disorder, framed it. Some distance back he had managed to remove his coat and had covered her with it; so that now only her face and hair were vis- ible to him—if he forgot the short skirt she wore, below which was one ridiculously thin little boot and a bare foot, much swollen. Her face was near enough for him to breathe the fragrance of her hair; and for an hour Shorty had been wondering about the hair—worshiping it with a reverence that was almost painful. - Shorty told himself that the reason he was delaying was that the girl needed the COL Elooolkks.conm