Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 108: what you’re looking at

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

390 grazed to the roots. So, having made up his mind to go to the valley that night, he moved across the mountain in the early afternoon, driving his sheep to the timber- clover above the spring. One would hardly have guessed from his placid face that the long awaited fight was so near at hand. His present position af- forded him even a better view of the valley than was to be had from the coulee and, leaning on his staff, he stood for many minutes gazing moodily at old Angel’s caserio, a dazzling white in the afternoon sunlight. It pleased him to know that he would find his grandfather alone. Not for an- other two weeks would any of his sons or grandsons return from the Reserve for supplies. Joseph thought of the time when he had been turned away from the great man’s door without even a sight of him. It should be different this night. And yet, he deliberately kept himself from form- ing any definite plan of what he must do. This meeting to-night must be free to pro- ceed as fate willed. At best, it could be but the beginning of his grandfather’s retri- bution. It may have been fancy, but Joseph felt that Grimm and Slippy-foot caught his mood. Both were plainly nervous, and when he gave the word to start back down the mountain they obeyed eagerly. The sun had dropped below the horizon by the time Joseph reached the coulee and while Slippy-foot worked the flock until it was ready to bed down, Joseph cooked his supper. A peculiar sadness rested upon his face now. To his ears came the sounds he had always associated with evening— the calling of the whippoorwill, the cheep- ing of the plover in the sage and, from some distant peak, the barking of a coyote. Un- consciously he threw back his head and gazed up at the crest of Buckskin. He found it as he had ever found it at this hour—majestic in its rose colored mantle, the gift of the sun which he could no longer see. Already the valley was bathed in opalescent twilight. So vividly did these sights and sounds bring back the past that he turned and gazed across the coulee at the spot where the cabin had once ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. stood. All that was needed to complete the picture was his old home, a wisp of smoke curling lazily up from its wide chimney. Here, he had stood a hundred times and more at this hour, the appetiz- ing aroma of supper in. his nostrils. So poignant were his memories that he winced—all these years! He wet his lips with his tongue as he stared about him in the deepening twilight. Soon, night fell, and the valley faded from view. The time to go had arrived. Without invitation, Grimm fluttered to his shoulder. Slippy- foot needed no word and she slunk away. Joseph chose to follow the old trail which led into the valley by way of the Circle-Z fence—now just a fence, and no longer the barrier it once had been, for the West had changed. The boy communed with himself as he went along. The night had had its effect on him, and his thoughts were grim. In the days since he had roamed the mountain as a boy, old Thad Taylor, the owner of the Circle-Z, had built a new ranch house at the mouth of the box cafon in which Eagan and Tiny Mears had weathered the great storm. Joseph caught the glow of its lighted windows as he reached the fence. He had known of it, and he went on without halting. Some minutes later the moon peeked over the shoulder of the mountain and bathed the valley with its mellow light. Before long, Joseph came to an arroyo through which a well-worn trail led to Angel Irosabal’s caserio. He turned into it, but he had proceeded only a little way when he saw Slippy-foot pause and raise her nose. He stopped short, and the bleating of a lamb reached his ears. It was off to his right in the tumbled malpais. He started on, but the lamb bleated again. It was a pitiable cry, hopeless and entreating, and so out of key with his thoughts that Joseph trembled as he called Slippy-foot back and started across the arroyo in the direction from which the lamb had called. Five minutes later Slippy-foot announced that she had found the lamb. The coyote’s presence filled it with fear, and it bleated loudly until Joseph reached it. He saw COMicOolkxsS.Com