Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 12, 1927 — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

i —e Sen >A — ee rigs ou: 6 gi iS ALKALI. 131 The mother, seeing that the unavoidable had come, drew close and took maiters into her own hands. “He told us about Hell Bend Mason,” she said in strained voice; “ he was right proud an’ he boasted bout the shootin’ you could do.. He said even when firewater had ’most shut your eyes, you was a shooter! ”’ ‘“He’s a fool!” Jimmie cried, his eyes dropping and a sudden sense of shame en- veloping him. “He said you an’ that feller Brant was pards and that all other men was afraid 0’ you an’ give in to you!” Betty supple- mented. Jimmie made no direct answer, his mind groping for a way out. He knew what such words must have meant to his religious father and mother. For their son to be a cohort of the man they knew as a thief would be well nigh unbearable to them. | At that moment he would have given up his chance for success and committed him- self eternally to the alkali valley could he thereby undo the few hours he had spent at Faro. He wondered if Betty knew that her own father was the founder of the crim- inal town. “ Your pa blamed ma fer lettin’ you go,” Betty said. “It was hard on her. The days was so long an’ the winter so bad we couldn’t git out at all. He talked about it most o’ the time!”’ Because he could see no other way around the damning facts, Jimmie resorted to anger. | ‘““T was drove to it!” he cried. “I never done anythin’ very bad. A man was com- in’ to kill me—” i “Over some other girl!” Betty cut in, her face pale as she said the terrible words. “Tt’s a lie!” Jimmie cried. ‘I don’t even know her name! I seen her just once, Betty. That night in—in—in—the dance hall!” He had been on the point of say- ing her father’s name and, even in his anger, was glad that he had not. Betty pouted. “ You drank, Jimmie?” his mother quer- ied. » 2 “ Yes. That oe —- T drank.” 2) - iC D9? an enw —Ss Sax — — ~~ -, - soy ie poe a — cr <a " See gly “Se ee ee Yes.” There was a moment of silence; a long moment. Then Betty spoke again: “You danced with that woman an’ all the men looked on an’ cheered, an’ called you Heil Bend Mason?” ““Yes—Gawd a’mighty, yes! I did!” Jimmie dropped his face into the palms of his hands and the steam from the dish be- fore him rose slowly and twined about his hair like tiny fog-strings that sought a place to fasten and cling. “You kissed her!” Betty insisted, her manner that of a person voicing suspicions that she prays may be ‘wrong. “No, Betty!” Jimmie said _listlessly. ‘No, I never kissed her! I never done a thing but dance with the little fool! She’s said things that ain’t right. Cimarron Jones come after me next mornin’ an’ we had to shoot at each other. But it was all wrong; all awful wrong. There wasn’t no. need o’ that thing!” ‘Your pa won’t believe it!”’ Betty chal- lenged, but there was a new note in her voice; one of relief. Jimmie raised his eyes to hers, a look of utter helplessness in them. “ Brant ‘Il swear I’m tellin’ only the truth!”’ Jimmie told her. ‘“Who’d believe a thief?” the girl de- manded. * Betty—don’t you believe what I say?’’- the lad asked earnestly. “I wouldn’t ae to you!” For a second the girl looked at him. She saw the acute misery in his face and her anger melted under the fires of her love. “I do believe you, Jimmie!” she said, at the same time taking his head in her arms. “Ido. An’ the others have got to!” Jennie Mason managed to fuss with the bowl of stew and to press it nearer Jimmie. that he might eat. She did not speak as the two lovers clung to each other. The ex- pression on her face seemed to indicate an infinite satisfaction in the trust that had been reborn between the two and a constant worry over what must be faced when Ma- son returned to face his son. The stew was nearly cold when Jimmie turned again foward the table. He ate | = conmicbooke: com