Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 25, 1924 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

6 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. heat arose between them, and she seemed to float in it, hardly touching the earth. A question came to his lips. He would have asked her who she was, and where she came from; but the custom of his coun- try provided that the stranger be accepted without question, and instinctively he yield- ed to that custom. At any rate, she, unper- turbed by custom or restraint, would have been before him. “Tt must be hard for a man who has run his own ranch to work as a common cow- boy,” she said. David wrinkled his brow. ‘Well, it ain’t just that way,” he ex- plained. ‘‘ You see, dad’s got a lot of busi- ness round the range, and Jud, he’s foreman over at the Monkey-wrench.”’ “Where’s that?” ‘““ Monkey-wrench is just a name we got for a kind of brand that looks kind of like it. The Monkey-wrench brand belongs to Hendry’s ranch. That’s an outfit that’s owned by people back in the East.” She looked around at him with a quick, searching look, and he smiled slowly, slight- ly. His smile was hardly discernible, but she liked it very much. “That’s funny,” she grinned. ‘“ He works for your father, and he’s foreman on another ranch.” But he was gazing at the wagon which, motionless in the sun’s glare, stood on the trail before them. ‘Looks like yore teamster ain’t visible,” he said. . She felt the decision with which he changed the subject, and it nettled her. “You didn’t answer my question,” she maintained stoutly. “ You asked me a question?” He turned his calm boy’s face directly toward her, and she could see no guile in it. “T asked you how this Bud what’s-his- name could work for two people at once,” she insisted. “Yes,” he agreed. ‘It’s certainly a queer thing. But this teamster of your’s. Seems like he’s lit out.” She regarded him with a new interest, and as she did so she appeared to become miraculously older, clothed with a dignity which surprised the boy as much as his guileless evasion had astonished her. “Tm driving the team myself,” she said coldly. They walked on to the wagon in silence. CHAPTER MIT. THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE SEX. HE wagon was a vehicle of rough pine boards, rudely put together and pro- vided with neither springs nor cush- ion seat. A canvas hood, thickly coated with white paint which had long since turned dirty gray, covered the length of the body, and a pair of typical ranch work horses drooped in the traces. Altogether the equipage, as it stood unrelieved in the consuming sunlight, gave the effect of prim- itive desolation. The boy and girl approached it slowly, incapable of haste in a heat which, as they strolled, drenched them with a perspiration that evaporated as quickly as it was brought forth. David placed one hand on the boards of the wagon as he reached it, and withdrew his hand abruptly. The wood was burning hot. The girl noticed his gesture and relaxed her dignity with an impulsive smile; but at the same time she had noticed the shape- liness of David’s hand, the satin brown skin which covered it, and flashed in the sun as he moved it; and she puckered her brow, incredulous that this boy could be- long to the harsh country and could have spent his whole life there. “It’s hot,” he remarked seriously. “Poor puppies!” she exclaimed; and very nimbly she clambered up to the driv- er’s seat. He, still holding the pail of water, stood beside her, ready to assist. She stepped across the seat, and for a mo- ment disappeared beneath the canvas hood. ‘“* Now let me have that water,” she com- manded, as she bobbed forth again. She held a dish pan in her hand. ‘“ What’s the matter ?”’ He was gazing at her with a peculiar, grave interest. At her question he smiled his slow, good-humored smile. “ Nothing,” he said. ‘ You want to fill that with water?” She watched him as he took the dish pan Gomichbooks (E@)