Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 23, 1924 — page 60: what you’re looking at

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

218 calves out of the timber! You'd better drag it if you figure on gettin’ through to- day!” Bassett was standing near the edge of the porch. Neither Jane nor Channing had heard him approach, so intent had they been upon their talk. Jane took the interruption calmly, but a flood of red surged up Channing’s neck, suf- fused his face and then receded, leaving him pale. He looked straight at Bassett and smiled with maddening gentleness. “T’ve been warnin’ you about your voice, Bassett,” he said. “‘ It’s goin’ back on you. A few weeks ago you could whisper a mile away an’ scare the cows off the range. Now you've got to get right behind a man for him to hear you when you try to bellow.” He turned to Jane and smiled broadly. “As I was tellin’ you a little while ago, ma’am,” he said. ‘“ Don’t you get to wor- ryin’. No trouble is goin’ to bother you. An’ don’t you work too hard an’ spoil your health. An’ some day we’ll have that ride. T'll let you know when I’ve got a horse gen- tled for you.” He smiled at Jane, stepped down from the porch and walked past Bassett without looking at him. Both Jane and Bassett watched him go. But only the two men who had been in camp the night before rode southward into the timber to search for the missing calves. Channing roped the two pinto ponies in the corral, hitched them to the buckboard and drove northward, toward Red Mesa, to re- turn the vehicle to its owner. It was flagrant insubordination on Chan- ning’s part, and Jane looked at Bassett to see how he was taking it. To her aston- ishment Bassett betrayed no emotion of any kind except for a queer glint in his eyes, which might have been amusement. Ob- serving that she was watching him, Bassett smiled. “Channing’s headstrong, sort of,” he said. ‘“ I always let the cuss have his way.” Jane went inside. Bassett stood for some time on the porch, watching the prog- ress of the buckboard northward. So that was how matters stood between Jane and Channing, was it? Already, hav- ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ing known Jane only one day, he was ask- ing her to go riding with him. He’d gentle a horse for her! Bassett stood on the porch for a long time. A strange weakness had come upon him. It was as though a white hot fire was raging through him, consuming. his vitality. He knew now that he couldn’t put it off any longer; he’d have to devise some means of getting Channing out of the way! CHAPTER VI. AND JEALOUSY. that Bassett discovered what looked like a bundle of brown cloth lying on a chair in the sitting room of the ranch house. He wouldn’t have noticed the bun- [’ wasn’t until three or four days later ‘dle at all if a part of it that was draped over the seat of the chair hadn’t reminded him of a trouser leg. He walked back and forth past the bundle several times before he observed that there were buttons on the thing, and then he gingerly seized it and held it up. The piece he held up was a coat. The coat had a narrow waist, a belt, and wide pleats. Buttons, larger than those he wore on his own clothing, ran down the front. A wide collar gave his blood impetus, drew his lips together, brought suspicion and dis- approval into his eyes. He discovered he had only inspected one piece of apparel; he took up another piece, ° spread it in his big hands and stared at it. Knee length riding breeches! He crushed the garment in one hand, reached down and took up a third. A short riding skirt, pleated like the coat! Bassett stood for an instant, rigid, silent. Every muscle in his body was taut, every nerve was tingling. His face whitened, he breathed fast. He wanted to rage up and down the room; he wanted to tear the three garments into pieces and hurl them out of an open window near him; he was beset with a bit- ter impulse to storm out into the kitchen to ask Jane Winthrop where she had got the “fool stuff” he had found. EOPMIG MOO KS Eo