The Argosy, Vol. 90 No. 1 — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

14 “T did it for you! So now!” She plunged back among the pillows. She sank her face into them. She began to cry again. Moore was completely nonplused. But he was more than that. A leaping ecstasy was chasing itself through every atom of him. Fine white thrills of light seemed to shoot in illuminating showers through his mind. Yet he tried in vain to read a solution to what she had said. ‘‘T don’t know what you mean!” he ex- claimed. “You don’t need to! me alone!”’ she wailed. ‘““T—I can’t let you alone!” Moore’s hands were clenched. His gray eyes flamed. About the corners of his lips a trembling threatened the smile that he had used often with telling effect. But the strange battle was unobserved. Fan interpreted his words as meaning that he proposed to manage the affairs of the ranch without her. With utter discourage- ment and complete physical exhaustion en- ervating her, she sobbed helplessly. “Fan, do you know that I’m engaged?” Conscience works strange freaks some- times. Ben ached for the feel of her small hands. in his. He felt the bigness of his body and the self-reliance of his nature form into a solid support on which the girl in the swing might lean and be consoled. But the great urge hung numbed and in- effective before the fact that he announced so awkwardly: A girl’s pride reacts as strangely as a man’s conscience. Fan stopped crying. For an instant Moore was grateful for the result without a thought of the expense at which he had achieved it. He did not guess that the moment’s breathing-space was simply the tiny interim in which her pride rose to flay him. Fan lifted her face. It was as hard as any face so gifted with the power to beam and melt could be. ‘What possible difference can that make?” she asked coolly. Ben turned chilly. He could not tell her how tragic it was to him. He saw his as- sininity in assuming that it meant anything to her. If you'll just let THE ARGOSY. “‘ Just what do you mean by daring to tell me anything of your personal affairs?” she demanded. ‘‘ I—it—anything was better than see- ing you cry!” he answered. ‘“T want to cry!” she snapped. ‘“‘T don’t want you to!” he asserted. With heedless speed he made at her. She gasped, and the rose came blooming wil- fully in her cheeks. But she put out her hands to hold him off. “Don’t! Don’t! He'll think you want the paper!” she implored. “But you know I don’t!” he exclaimed in triumph. He had stopped; but his blazing eyes bridged the distance between them. They held hers in a gaze that exulted. ‘You know what I want! Your words said so! You know!” he whispered; and the force of the whisper went echoing through her like the voice of a tempest. ‘““I—I only meant—” she began. “You meant that you knew I wasn’t coming toward you because I wanted any paper. Fan, I want—you!” ““@h! you’d worry death into turning on you!” she cried out desperately. “Tf that devil outside thought I wanted you, he’d fire! Is that what you mean?” he asked fiercely. ‘““No, but you—you seem to keep right on the edge of coming too close to me. He’d think—” A wonderful look of relief swept Moore’s face. For the moment he believed that the man outside was not interested in her. The smile she had rarely seen lighted his face. He looked down on her; and the strange- ness of the gay glance at such a time fasci- nated her. “If I come close to you, he’ll shoot me! You know that. Now, I’m coming—”’ He put his right foot forward. breath stuck in her throat. ““—unless you take that paper from— where it is and stick it right there at the corner of the swing.” He glanced toward the window through which he knew the watcher gazed. The end of the couch was well in line. The man outside could not fail to observe the paper. Her comicbool< CO