Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 68: what you’re looking at

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

eg RY - ee ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. POD AES Besa By Meta Fives rigorous old gentleman’s head swim. He He took the humble token of her com- would go on with the plan as he had first explained it to the family. While it would not profit them, it could be carried out without any loss to them, aside from a few hundred wagonloads of ore; and it would at least provide jobs for the bunch of loyal good fellows asleep in the tents up there in the moonlit canon. And when he had finally redeemed his word, what then? Was it not significant that he had been sent to-night to put up Dr. Hamilton’s horses? Reduced to the ranks of the unem- ployed, a captain of industry no longer, he would hang around Zeke Pelham’s barn again, a codfish on the sands of time, urged by the virtuous A. P. Horner to be the master of his fate, and warned by Mr. Horner in the same breath that vaunting ambition often o’erleaps itself and falls with a dull and sickening thud. No, on second thought, he wouldn’t stand that. Boulton might laugh; he would not stay to hear. He saw a lugubrious picture. He saw himself bidding Nell good-by in De- cember, when his lease had run its fatal course. He would clear out, leaving the field to the strictly moral Bruce Horner, the model son who had never tricked, cheat: ed or lied in his pure life. Yet never! Nell in the arms of that shrimp? A silent figure in khaki, venturing down from-the house, pitied him as he sat alone on a log beside the stables, counting his dead hopes. ““ Steve.” He did not look around. all right. Lightly she went to him, sat down beside him, tried to thrust a small object into his hand. He looked. It was a dark brown and misshapen lump exhaling a faint odor of licorice—his pledged plug of chewing tobacco. “Is the lease canceled, then?” he asked. “Not necessarily, Steve. But since you have bought everything else on the deferred payment plan, why not the lease? Rather than deprive you of your favorite means of consolation I’ll extend you credit. What they call a moratorium,” she explained. But that was passion and laid it down in the moonlight and the dew. “Listen, Nell; the Dorado Litharge peo- ple will be here next. They are big and sound and respectable. Suppose they offer your father a whale of a lot of money—a fortune. Will he still balk?” “Yes, Steve, if they come in answer to your advertising.”’ After a minute he asked: “ I’ve been dishonest?” ‘“No more than any man who takes a sporting chance,’ she answered. ‘“ The debts you have run up are ours, of course.” * Not legally.” “Morally they are. But they will be paid by the end of the year, and your prom- ise to the men will be kept, so that’s that.” ‘““T used to think I was square,” he com- plained, “ but I haven’t got corners on me like your father has.” She had no comment to make on the an- gularity of her parent. “Will he go ahead with the work as planned?” ‘“ He will if you don’t,” she replied. ‘“ Have I said anything about quitting?” ‘But our bargain is a hard one, Steve. I wouldn’t hold you to it for the world.” He reached for the symbol of agreement on the grass before them. ‘It takes two to break a bargain,” said he, and dropped the dark brown object into hands that closed upon it quickly. “Vou will have your year’s work for nothing, Steve.” As his biographer | am proud of the re- sponse that he made. He said: ‘‘ Oh, well, I'll get to see you oftener than other sum- mers—maybe once a week. ‘Tobacco’s a filthy weed, anyway. It stunts the growth.” A rabbit bound for the garden came hop- ping along in the moonlight and looked them over without fear. Something rose and fell with a plop in the purling waters of the creek; possibly the big rainbow trout that lived under the farmyard bridge. Do you think ‘“‘ Midnight,’’ said Steve. ‘Shall I see you home?” Her answer was irrelevant. ‘‘ Dr. Hamil- ton thinks,” she remarked, “ that motor trucks could get in here from Boulton.” COPMICLOOO KS