Argosy All-Story Weekly, August 9, 1924 — page 121: what you’re looking at

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

CHANNING COMES THROUGH. woman could send a man like that away!” he declared. “Eve,” he added reproachfully; ‘“ you must have known that he loves you!” She sat very still for a time. Her face seemed suddenly white and drawn. At last she looked up at Warren and spoke quietly: ‘“‘ Wayne, I want to be alone.” Eve did not sit long on the veranda after Warren left her. She got up and walked slowly down to the corral fence op- posite the bunk house. She stood there for many minutes, white and still, looking at the open door of the bunk house. The moonlight made an oblong patch on the bunk house floor. Just beyond the patch of moonlight was where Channing had been standing when she had talked with him just before he had left her. She hadn’t been able to see his face while she had been talking to him, and so she had no knowledge of how he had taken what must have been, to him, the blow that had shattered his dreams. But she knew he had received the hurt as he had always received adversity—with a steady gravity:of expression which revealed noth- ing of his emotions. But his voice was so vivid in her memory that she could hear it even now, ringing in her ears with its old, lingering drawl. Only once while she had been speaking to him had she detected emotion when he had replied. It had been when he had said: “T’ve hoped for this day. I’ve dreamed of it, but I never thought it could be. I’m mighty glad!” His voice had leaped, vibrated. The memory of it thrilled her. And then there was the solemn gentleness with which he had delivered himself of the words which had destroyed his dream: “ Eve; I’d sure like to please you. More than at any time since I’ve known you I want to do what you ask. But I can’t for- get Vali®n.” And then his last words. She cringed as she mentally repeated them: “T’m sorry, ma’am. I was hopin’ it would be different. Ill say good-by to you.” His last words! 271 He was gone! She would never see him again! She stood near the fence. She was now breathing fast, her heart was sending the blood in a surging flood through her veins. Ah! What a fool she had been! Here was a man who had spent ten years of his life in her service. He had sacrificed, én- dured; had worshiped her! He had had no thought but for her happiness. He had been courageous enough to lose his own happiness rather than prove false to his friend Vallon! There had not been the slightest hesita- tion on his part when she had given him the alternative. He had uttered no word of. blame or of reproach. “T’m sorry, ma’am. I was hopin’ it would be different. I'll say good-by to you.” That had been the extent of his reproach; that had been the way he had told her of the frail quality of her love for him. And he had ridden away without another word to her. Never would she forget the light in his eyes as when passing her to go out of the door he had looked at her! Con- siderate and kindly to the end. Her breast heaving from emotion she walked to the house, entered her room and changed her clothing. She put on her rid- ing togs, her boots, an old felt hat. She strapped her cartridge belt around her waist, examined the small pistol she some- times carried, and shoved it into its hol- ster. Then she went out, taking care that she was not seen by Betty or Warren. A few minutes later she was roping her horse in the corral. She had selected Mazeppa, and while she was strapping the bridle on the animal’s head she drew his muzzle to her and hugged’ it. “We'll find him, Mazeppa!” she whis- pered. A few minutes later she was riding north- ward, away from the house, and keeping a low ridge between herself and the buildings so that she might not be seen. When she was certain that the corrugations of the land would keep her invisible from the view of Betty and Warren she gave Mazeppa his GOMIIGIOO S (C@) nn