In A State Of Sin
: The VirginianThunder sat imminent upon the missionary's brow. Many were to be at his
mercy soon. But for us he had sunshine still. "I am truly sorry to be
turning you upside down," he said importantly. "But it seems the best
place for my service." He spoke of the tables pushed back and the chairs
gathered in the hall, where the storm would presently break upon the
congregation. "Eight-thirty?" he inquired.
This was th
threw the unsmoked fractions of our cigars away, and returned to offer
our services to the ladies. This amused the ladies. They had done
without us. All was ready in the hall.
"We got the cook to help us," Mrs. Ogden told me, "so as not to
disturb your cigars. In spite of the cow-boys, I still recognize my own
country."
"In the cook?" I rather densely asked.
"Oh, no! I don't have a Chinaman. It's in the length of after-dinner
cigars."
"Had you been smoking," I returned, "you would have found them short
this evening."
"You make it worse," said the lady; "we have had nothing but Dr. Mac
Bride."
"We'll share him with you now," I exclaimed.
"Has he announced his text? I've got one for him," said Molly Wood,
joining us. She stood on tiptoe and spoke it comically in our ears. "'I
said in my haste, All men are liars.'" This made us merry as we stood
among the chairs in the congested hall.
I left the ladies, and sought the bunk house. I had heard the cheers,
but I was curious also to see the men, and how they were taking it.
There was but little for the eye. There was much noise in the room. They
were getting ready to come to church,--brushing their hair, shaving, and
making themselves clean, amid talk occasionally profane and continuously
diverting.
"Well, I'm a Christian, anyway," one declared.
"I'm a Mormon, I guess," said another.
"I belong to the Knights of Pythias," said a third.
"I'm a Mohammedist," said a fourth; "I hope I ain't goin' to hear
nothin' to shock me."
And they went on with their joking. But Trampas was out of the joking.
He lay on his bed reading a newspaper, and took no pains to look
pleasant. My eyes were considering him when the blithe Scipio came in.
"Don't look so bashful," said he. "There's only us girls here."
He had been helping the Virginian move his belongings from the bunk
house over to the foreman's cabin. He himself was to occupy the
Virginian's old bed here. "And I hope sleepin' in it will bring me some
of his luck," said Scipio. "Yu'd ought to've seen us when he told us in
his quiet way. Well," Scipio sighed a little, "it must feel good to have
your friends glad about you."
"Especially Trampas," said I. "The Judge knows about that," I added.
"Knows, does he? What's he say?" Scipio drew me quickly out of the bunk
house.
"Says it's no business of his."
"Said nothing but that?" Scipio's curiosity seemed strangely intense.
"Made no suggestion? Not a thing?"
"Not a thing. Said he didn't want to know and didn't care."
"How did he happen to hear about it?" snapped Scipio. "You told him!"
he immediately guessed. "He never would." And Scipio jerked his thumb
at the Virginian, who appeared for a moment in the lighted window of the
new quarters he was arranging. "He never would tell," Scipio repeated.
"And so the Judge never made a suggestion to him," he muttered, nodding
in the darkness. "So it's just his own notion. Just like him, too, come
to think of it. Only I didn't expect--well, I guess he could surprise me
any day he tried."
"You're surprising me now," I said. "What's it all about?"
"Oh, him and Trampas."
"What? Nothing surely happened yet?" I was as curious as Scipio had
been.
"No, not yet. But there will."
"Great Heavens, man! when?"
"Just as soon as Trampas makes the first move," Scipio replied easily.
I became dignified. Scipio had evidently been told things by the
Virginian.
"Yes, I up and asked him plumb out," Scipio answered. "I was liftin' his
trunk in at the door, and I couldn't stand it no longer, and I asked him
plumb out. 'Yu've sure got Trampas where yu' want him.' That's what
I said. And he up and answered and told me. So I know." At this point
Scipio stopped; I was not to know.
"I had no idea," I said, "that your system held so much meanness."
"Oh, it ain't meanness!" And he laughed ecstatically.
"What do you call it, then?"
"He'd call it discretion," said Scipio. Then he became serious. "It's
too blamed grand to tell yu'. I'll leave yu' to see it happen. Keep
around, that's all. Keep around. I pretty near wish I didn't know it
myself."
What with my feelings at Scipio's discretion, and my human curiosity, I
was not in that mood which best profits from a sermon. Yet even though
my expectations had been cruelly left quivering in mid air, I was not
sure how much I really wanted to "keep around." You will therefore
understand how Dr. MacBride was able to make a prayer and to read
Scripture without my being conscious of a word that he had uttered. It
was when I saw him opening the manuscript of his sermon that I suddenly
remembered I was sitting, so to speak, in church, and began once more to
think of the preacher and his congregation. Our chairs were in the
front line, of course; but, being next the wall, I could easily see
the cow-boys behind me. They were perfectly decorous. If Mrs. Ogden had
looked for pistols, daredevil attitudes, and so forth, she must have
been greatly disappointed. Except for their weather-beaten cheeks and
eyes, they were simply American young men with mustaches and without,
and might have been sitting, say, in Danbury, Connecticut. Even Trampas
merged quietly with the general placidity. The Virginian did not, to be
sure, look like Danbury, and his frame and his features showed out
of the mass; but his eyes were upon Dr. MacBride with a creamlike
propriety.
Our missionary did not choose Miss Wood's text. He made his selection
from another of the Psalms; and when it came, I did not dare to look at
anybody; I was much nearer unseemly conduct than the cow-boys. Dr. Mac
Bride gave us his text sonorously, "'They are altogether become filthy;
There is none of them that doeth good, no, not one.'" His eye showed us
plainly that present company was not excepted from this. He repeated the
text once more, then, launching upon his discourse, gave none of us a
ray of hope.
I had heard it all often before; but preached to cow-boys it took on
a new glare of untimeliness, of grotesque obsoleteness--as if some one
should say, "Let me persuade you to admire woman," and forthwith hold
out her bleached bones to you. The cow-boys were told that not only they
could do no good, but that if they did contrive to, it would not help
them. Nay, more: not only honest deeds availed them nothing, but even if
they accepted this especial creed which was being explained to them as
necessary for salvation, still it might not save them. Their sin was
indeed the cause of their damnation, yet, keeping from sin, they might
nevertheless be lost. It had all been settled for them not only before
they were born, but before Adam was shaped. Having told them this, he
invited them to glorify the Creator of the scheme. Even if damned, they
must praise the person who had made them expressly for damnation. That
is what I heard him prove by logic to these cow-boys. Stone upon stone
he built the black cellar of his theology, leaving out its beautiful
park and the sunshine of its garden. He did not tell them the splendor
of its past, the noble fortress for good that it had been, how its tonic
had strengthened generations of their fathers. No; wrath he spoke of,
and never once of love. It was the bishop's way, I knew well, to hold
cow-boys by homely talk of their special hardships and temptations.
And when they fell he spoke to them of forgiveness and brought them
encouragement. But Dr. MacBride never thought once of the lives of
these waifs. Like himself, like all mankind, they were invisible dots in
creation; like him, they were to feel as nothing, to be swept up in the
potent heat of his faith. So he thrust out to them none of the sweet but
all the bitter of his creed, naked and stern as iron. Dogma was his all
in all, and poor humanity was nothing but flesh for its canyons.
Thus to kill what chance he had for being of use seemed to me more
deplorable than it did evidently to them. Their attention merely
wandered. Three hundred years ago they would have been frightened; but
not in this electric day. I saw Scipio stifling a smile when it came to
the doctrine of original sin. "We know of its truth," said Dr. MacBride,
"from the severe troubles and distresses to which infants are liable,
and from death passing upon them before they are capable of sinning."
Yet I knew he was a good man; and I also knew that if a missionary is to
be tactless, he might almost as well be bad.
I said their attention wandered, but I forgot the Virginian. At first
his attitude might have been mere propriety. One can look respectfully
at a preacher and be internally breaking all the commandments. But even
with the text I saw real attention light in the Virginian's eye. And
keeping track of the concentration that grew on him with each minute
made the sermon short for me. He missed nothing. Before the end his gaze
at the preacher had become swerveless. Was he convert or critic? Convert
was incredible. Thus was an hour passed before I had thought of time.
When it was over we took it variously. The preacher was genial and spoke
of having now broken ground for the lessons that he hoped to instil.
He discoursed for a while about trout-fishing and about the rumored
uneasiness of the Indians northward where he was going. It was plain
that his personal safety never gave him a thought. He soon bade us good
night. The Ogdens shrugged their shoulders and were amused. That was
their way of taking it. Dr. MacBride sat too heavily on the Judge's
shoulders for him to shrug them. As a leading citizen in the Territory
he kept open house for all comers. Policy and good nature made him bid
welcome a wide variety of travellers. The cow-boy out of employment
found bed and a meal for himself and his horse, and missionaries had
before now been well received at Sunk Creek Ranch.
"I suppose I'll have to take him fishing," said the Judge, ruefully.
"Yes, my dear," said his wife, "you will. And I shall have to make his
tea for six days."
"Otherwise," Ogden suggested, "it might be reported that you were
enemies of religion."
"That's about it," said the Judge. "I can get on with most people. But
elephants depress me."
So we named the Doctor "Jumbo," and I departed to my quarters.
At the bunk house, the comments were similar but more highly salted. The
men were going to bed. In spite of their outward decorum at the service,
they had not liked to be told that they were "altogether become filthy."
It was easy to call names; they could do that themselves. And they
appealed to me, several speaking at once, like a concerted piece at
the opera: "Say, do you believe babies go to hell?"--"Ah, of course he
don't."--"There ain't no hereafter, anyway."--"Ain't there?"--"Who
told yu'?"--"Same man as told the preacher we were all a sifted set of
sons-of-guns."--"Well, I'm going to stay a Mormon."--"Well, I'm going
to quit fleeing from temptation."--"that's so! Better get it in the
neck after a good time than a poor one." And so forth. Their wit was not
extreme, yet I should like Dr. MacBride to have heard it. One fellow put
his natural soul pretty well into words, "If I happened to learn what
they had predestinated me to do, I'd do the other thing, just to show
'em!"
And Trampas? And the Virginian? They were out of it. The Virginian had
gone straight to his new abode. Trampas lay in his bed, not asleep, and
sullen as ever.
"He ain't got religion this trip," said Scipio to me.
"Did his new foreman get it?" I asked.
"Huh! It would spoil him. You keep around that's all. Keep around."
Scipio was not to be probed; and I went, still baffled, to my repose.
No light burned in the cabin as I approached its door.
The Virginian's room was quiet and dark; and that Dr. MacBride slumbered
was plainly audible to me, even before I entered. Go fishing with him!
I thought, as I undressed. And I selfishly decided that the Judge might
have this privilege entirely to himself. Sleep came to me fairly
soon, in spite of the Doctor. I was wakened from it by my bed's being
jolted--not a pleasant thing that night. I must have started. And it
was the quiet voice of the Virginian that told me he was sorry to have
accidentally disturbed me. This disturbed me a good deal more. But
his steps did not go to the bunk house, as my sensational mind had
suggested. He was not wearing much, and in the dimness he seemed taller
than common. I next made out that he was bending over Dr. Mac Bride. The
divine at last sprang upright.
"I am armed," he said. "Take care. Who are you?"
"You can lay down your gun, seh. I feel like my spirit was going to bear
witness. I feel like I might get an enlightening."
He was using some of the missionary's own language. The baffling I had
been treated to by Scipio melted to nothing in this. Did living men
petrify, I should have changed to mineral between the sheets. The Doctor
got out of bed, lighted his lamp, and found a book; and the two retired
into the Virginian's room, where I could hear the exhortations as I
lay amazed. In time the Doctor returned, blew out his lamp, and settled
himself. I had been very much awake, but was nearly gone to sleep again,
when the door creaked and the Virginian stood by the Doctor's side.
"Are you awake, seh?"
"What? What's that? What is it?"
"Excuse me, seh. The enemy is winning on me. I'm feeling less inward
opposition to sin."
The lamp was lighted, and I listened to some further exhortations.
They must have taken half an hour. When the Doctor was in bed again, I
thought that I heard him sigh. This upset my composure in the dark;
but I lay face downward in the pillow, and the Doctor was soon again
snoring. I envied him for a while his faculty of easy sleep. But I must
have dropped off myself; for it was the lamp in my eyes that now waked
me as he came back for the third time from the Virginian's room. Before
blowing the light out he looked at his watch, and thereupon I inquired
the hour of him.
"Three," said he.
I could not sleep any more now, and I lay watching the darkness.
"I'm afeared to be alone!" said the Virginian's voice presently in the
next room. "I'm afeared." There was a short pause, and then he shouted
very loud, "I'm losin' my desire afteh the sincere milk of the Word!"
"What? What's that? What?" The Doctor's cot gave a great crack as he
started up listening, and I put my face deep in the pillow.
"I'm afeared! I'm afeared! Sin has quit being bitter in my belly."
"Courage, my good man." The Doctor was out of bed with his lamp again,
and the door shut behind him. Between them they made it long this time.
I saw the window become gray; then the corners of the furniture grow
visible; and outside, the dry chorus of the blackbirds began to fill the
dawn. To these the sounds of chickens and impatient hoofs in the stable
were added, and some cow wandered by loudly calling for her calf. Next,
some one whistling passed near and grew distant. But although the cold
hue that I lay staring at through the window warmed and changed, the
Doctor continued working hard over his patient in the next room. Only a
word here and there was distinct; but it was plain from the Virginian's
fewer remarks that the sin in his belly was alarming him less. Yes, they
made this time long. But it proved, indeed, the last one. And though
some sort of catastrophe was bound to fall upon us, it was myself who
precipitated the thing that did happen.
Day was wholly come. I looked at my own watch, and it was six. I had
been about seven hours in my bed, and the Doctor had been about seven
hours out of his. The door opened, and he came in with his book and
lamp. He seemed to be shivering a little, and I saw him cast a longing
eye at his couch. But the Virginian followed him even as he blew out
the now quite superfluous light. They made a noticeable couple in their
underclothes: the Virginian with his lean racehorse shanks running to
a point at his ankle, and the Doctor with his stomach and his fat
sedentary calves.
"You'll be going to breakfast and the ladies, seh, pretty soon," said
the Virginian, with a chastened voice. "But I'll worry through the day
somehow without yu'. And to-night you can turn your wolf loose on me
again."
Once more it was no use. My face was deep in the pillow, but I made
sounds as of a hen who has laid an egg. It broke on the Doctor with a
total instantaneous smash, quite like an ego.
He tried to speak calmly. "This is a disgrace. An infamous disgrace.
Never in my life have I--" Words forsook him, and his face grew redder.
"Never in my life--" He stopped again, because, at the sight of him
being dignified in his red drawers, I was making the noise of a dozen
hens. It was suddenly too much for the Virginian. He hastened into his
room, and there sank on the floor with his head in his hands. The Doctor
immediately slammed the door upon him, and this rendered me easily fit
for a lunatic asylum. I cried into my pillow, and wondered if the Doctor
would come and kill me. But he took no notice of me whatever. I could
hear the Virginian's convulsions through the door, and also the Doctor
furiously making his toilet within three feet of my head; and I lay
quite still with my face the other way, for I was really afraid to look
at him. When I heard him walk to the door in his boots, I ventured to
peep; and there he was, going out with his bag in his hand. As I still
continued to lie, weak and sore, and with a mind that had ceased an
operation, the Virginian's door opened. He was clean and dressed and
decent, but the devil still sported in his eye. I have never seen a
creature more irresistibly handsome.
Then my mind worked again. "You've gone and done it," said I. "He's
packed his valise. He'll not sleep here."
The Virginian looked quickly out of the door. "Why, he's leavin' us!" he
exclaimed. "Drivin' away right now in his little old buggy!" He turned
to me, and our eyes met solemnly over this large fact. I thought that
I perceived the faintest tincture of dismay in the features of Judge
Henry's new, responsible, trusty foreman. This was the first act of his
administration. Once again he looked out at the departing missionary.
"Well," he vindictively stated, "I cert'nly ain't goin' to run afteh
him." And he looked at me again.
"Do you suppose the Judge knows?" I inquired.
He shook his head. "The windo' shades is all down still oveh yondeh."
He paused. "I don't care," he stated, quite as if he had been ten years
old. Then he grinned guiltily. "I was mighty respectful to him all
night."
"Oh, yes, respectful! Especially when you invited him to turn his wolf
loose."
The Virginian gave a joyous gulp. He now came and sat down on the edge
of my bed. "I spoke awful good English to him most of the time," said
he. "I can, yu' know, when I cinch my attention tight on to it. Yes,
I cert'nly spoke a lot o' good English. I didn't understand some of it
myself!"
He was now growing frankly pleased with his exploit. He had builded so
much better than he knew. He got up and looked out across the crystal
world of light. "The Doctor is at one-mile crossing," he said. "He'll
get breakfast at the N-lazy-Y." Then he returned and sat again on my
bed, and began to give me his real heart. "I never set up for being
better than others. Not even to myself. My thoughts ain't apt to travel
around making comparisons. And I shouldn't wonder if my memory took
as much notice of the meannesses I have done as of--as of the other
actions. But to have to sit like a dumb lamb and let a stranger tell yu'
for an hour that yu're a hawg and a swine, just after you have acted in
a way which them that know the facts would call pretty near white--"
"Trampas!" I could not help exclaiming.
For there are moments of insight when a guess amounts to knowledge.
"Has Scipio told--"
"No. Not a word. He wouldn't tell me."
"Well, yu' see, I arrived home hyeh this evenin' with several thoughts
workin' and stirrin' inside me. And not one o' them thoughts was what
yu'd call Christian. I ain't the least little bit ashamed of 'em. I'm a
human. But after the Judge--well, yu' heard him. And so when I went away
from that talk and saw how positions was changed--"
A step outside stopped him short. Nothing more could be read in his
face, for there was Trampas himself in the open door.
"Good morning," said Trampas, not looking at us. He spoke with the same
cool sullenness of yesterday.
We returned his greeting.
"I believe I'm late in congratulating you on your promotion," said he.
The Virginian consulted his watch. "It's only half afteh six," he
returned.
Trampas's sullenness deepened. "Any man is to be congratulated on
getting a rise, I expect."
This time the Virginian let him have it. "Cert'nly. And I ain't
forgetting how much I owe mine to you."
Trampas would have liked to let himself go. "I've not come here for any
forgiveness," he sneered.
"When did yu' feel yu' needed any?" The Virginian was impregnable.
Trampas seemed to feel how little he was going this way. He came out
straight now. "Oh, I haven't any Judge behind me, I know. I heard you'd
be paying the boys this morning, and I've come for my time."
"You're thinking of leaving us?" asked the new foreman. "What's your
dissatisfaction?"
"Oh, I'm not needing anybody back of me. I'll get along by myself." It
was thus he revealed his expectation of being dismissed by his enemy.
This would have knocked any meditated generosity out of my heart. But
I was not the Virginian. He shifted his legs, leaned back a little, and
laughed. "Go back to your job, Trampas, if that's all your complaint.
You're right about me being in luck. But maybe there's two of us in
luck."
It was this that Scipio had preferred me to see with my own eyes. The
fight was between man and man no longer. The case could not be one of
forgiveness; but the Virginian would not use his official position to
crush his subordinate.
Trampas departed with something muttered that I did not hear, and the
Virginian closed intimate conversation by saying, "You'll be late for
breakfast." With that he also took himself away.
The ladies were inclined to be scandalized, but not the Judge. When my
whole story was done, he brought his fist down on the table, and not
lightly this time. "I'd make him lieutenant general if the ranch offered
that position!" he declared.
Miss Molly Wood said nothing at the time. But in the afternoon, by her
wish, she went fishing, with the Virginian deputed to escort her. I
rode with them, for a while. I was not going to continue a third in that
party; the Virginian was too becomingly dressed, and I saw KENILWORTH
peeping out of his pocket. I meant to be fishing by myself when that
volume was returned.
But Miss Wood talked with skilful openness as we rode. "I've heard all
about you and Dr. MacBride," she said. "How could you do it, when the
Judge places such confidence in you?"
He looked pleased. "I reckon," he said, "I couldn't be so good if I
wasn't bad onced in a while."
"Why, there's a skunk," said I, noticing the pretty little animal
trotting in front of us at the edge of the thickets.
"Oh, where is it? Don't let me see it!" screamed Molly. And at this
deeply feminine remark, the Virginian looked at her with such a smile
that, had I been a woman, it would have made me his to do what he
pleased with on the spot.
Upon the lady, however, it seemed to make less impression. Or rather, I
had better say, whatever were her feelings, she very naturally made no
display of them, and contrived not to be aware of that expression which
had passed over the Virginian's face.
It was later that these few words reached me while I was fishing alone:
"Have you anything different to tell me yet?" I heard him say.
"Yes; I have." She spoke in accents light and well intrenched. "I wish
to say that I have never liked any man better than you. But I expect
to!"
He must have drawn small comfort from such an answer as that. But he
laughed out indomitably: "Don't yu' go betting on any such expectation!"
And then their words ceased to be distinct, and it was only their two
voices that I heard wandering among the windings of the stream.
More
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Hughie rose late next morning, and the hurry and rush of getting off to school in time left him no opportunity to get rid of the little packages in his pocket, that seemed to burn and sting him through his clothes. He determined to keep them safe ... Hunting Big Game
In point of fact, Denver's occupation at that moment was precisely what they had guessed it to be. He was sitting beside Nora Darling in the grand stand, explaining to her the fine points of "roping." Mr. Bob Austin, commonly known as "Texas," was m... I Accept An Offer
We found a small table, one of the several devoted to refreshments for the dancers, in a corner and unoccupied. The affair upon the floor was apparently past history--if it merited even that distinction. The place had resumed its program of dancin... I Cut Loose
I nodded; rebuffing his attentive eyes I stuffed the envelope into my pantaloons pocket. "Good-bye, sir." "Good luck. When you come back remember the Queen." "I'll remember the Queen," said I; and with the envelope smirching my flesh I ste... I Do The Deed
We had camped well beyond a last bunch of the red-shirted graders, so that the thread of a trail wended before, lonely, sand-obscured, leading apparently nowhere, through this desert devoid of human life. Line stakes of the surveyors denoted the g... I Don't Care Much About Girls
"There's no use asking the Injuns to go on the warpath," Gene announced disgustedly, coming out upon the porch where the rest of the boys were foregathered, waiting for the ringing tattoo upon the iron triangle just outside the back door which would... I Go To Rendezvous
The hotel lamps were being lighted by the gnome porter. When I stepped outside twilight had deepened into dusk, the air was almost frosty, and this main street had been made garish by its nightly illumination. It was a strange sight, as I paused... I Go Where Wagalexa Conka Say
That afternoon Ramon joined them, suave as ever and seeming very much at peace with the world and his fellow-beings. He watched the new leading woman make a perilous ride down a steep, rocky point and dash up to camera and on past it where she set h... I Meet Friends
What shall I say of a young man like myself, fresh from the green East of New York and the Hudson River, landed expectant as just aroused from a dream of rare beauty, at this Benton City, Wyoming Territory? The dust, as fine as powder and as white... I Rise In Favor
With that he went forward. So did I; but the barricade at the end of My Lady's seat was intact, and I sat down in my own seat, to keep expectant eye upon her profile--a decided relief amidst that crude melange of people in various stages of hasty ... I Stake Again
They were indistinguishable except as vocal sounds deadened by the impeding fog; but human voices they certainly were. Throwing off her robe she abruptly sat up, seeking, her features tensed with the strain. She beckoned to me. I scuttled over, as... I Stake On The Queen
Jim had disappeared; until when we had made way to another monte table there he was, his hands in his pockets, his cigar half smoked. More of a crowd was here; the voice of the spieler more insistent, yet low-pitched and businesslike. He was a s... I Take A Lesson
From this hour's brief camp, early made, we should have turned southward, to leave the railroad line and cross country for the Overland Stage trail that skirted the southern edge of the worse desert before us. But Captain Hyrum was of different mi... I'd Just As Soon Hang For Nine Men As For One
Baumberger climbed heavily out of the rig, and went lurching drunkenly up the path to the house where the cool shade of the grove was like paradise set close against the boundary of the purgatory of blazing sunshine and scorching sand. He had not go... I'll Never Go Back
A sharp affair indeed was that of this September day!--a fight long talked of on the frontier if soon forgotten in "the States." Obedient to his orders to push to the relief of the imperilled party on the Dry Fork, Ray had made good time to Moccas... I'm Here Neighbor
Moya still rode afternoons with her friends, fished occasionally, and took her regular hand at bridge. But it was unaccountably true that her zest in these amusements was gone. She could give no satisfactory reason for it, but she felt as if somet... In A Lady's Chamber
The drama of the hold-up and of the retribution that had fallen upon the bandits had moved as swiftly as though it had been rehearsed. There had been no wasted words, no delay in the action. But in life the curtain does not always drop at the righ... In A Pioneer Restaurant
CHAPTER I. There was probably no earthly reason why the "Poco Mas o Menos" Club of San Francisco should have ever existed, or why its five harmless, indistinctive members should not have met and dined together as ordinary individuals. Still l... In A State Of Sin
Thunder sat imminent upon the missionary's brow. Many were to be at his mercy soon. But for us he had sunshine still. "I am truly sorry to be turning you upside down," he said importantly. "But it seems the best place for my service." He spoke of ... In Butte
Dave overheard the conversation between the two rough-looking men in the crowded car, and so did Phil and Roger. All glanced at each other suggestively. "Do you think they are talking about the Abe Blower we want to find?" asked Roger of Dave, ... In Dead Man's Cache
Not since the start of their journey had Melissy broken silence, save to answer, in few words as possible, the questions put to her by the outlaw. Yet her silence had not been sullenness. It had been the barrier which she had set up between them--... In Los Angeles
When she felt bewildered, Jean had the trick of appearing merely reserved; and that is what saved her from the charge of rusticity when Robert Grant Burns led her through the station gateway and into a small reception. No less a man than Dewitt, Pr... In Quarantine
We reached Miles City shortly after midnight. It was the recognized cattle centre of Montana at that time, but devoid of the high-lights which were a feature of the trail towns. The village boasted the usual number of saloons and dance-houses, and l... In Sanctuary
When James Hurlstone reached the shelter of the shrubbery he leaned exhaustedly against the adobe wall, and looked back upon the garden he had just traversed. At its lower extremity a tall hedge of cactus reinforced the crumbling wall with a cheva... In The Arroyo
Senor Johnson quietly approached Estrella. The girl had, during the struggle, gone through an aimless but frantic exhibition of terror. Now she shrank back, her eyes staring wildly, her hands behind her, ready to flop again over the brink of hyster... In The Dark
Trevison faced the darkness between him and the pueblo with a wild hope pulsing through his veins. Rosalind Benham had had an opportunity to deliver him into the hands of his enemy and she had not taken advantage of it. There was but one interpret... In The Devil's Frying-pan
Luck, riding confidently on the trail of the three horsemen who had taken to the south along the front of the square butte, believed that the turn of the trail around the southern end meant simply that the three who came this way would meet their co... In The Fog
By noon of the following day the coast of the Peninsula of California had been sighted to leeward. The lower temperature of the northwest Trades had driven Mrs. Brimmer and Miss Chubb into their state-rooms to consult their wardrobes in view of an... In The Image Of God
Houck's jeering laugh of triumph came back to the humiliated boy. He noticed for the first time that two or three men were watching him from the door of the saloon. Ashamed to the depths of his being, he hung his head dejectedly. All his life he w... In The Land Of Revolutions
The knock that sounded on the door was neither gentle nor apologetic. It sounded as if somebody had flung a baseball bat at it. O'Connor smiled, remembering that soft tap of yore. "I reckon--" he was beginning, when the door opened to admit a visi... In The Lazy D Hospital
Helen's first swift glance showed that the wounded man was Bannister. She turned in crisp command to her foreman. "Have him taken to my room and put to bed there. We have no time to prepare another. And send one of the boys on your best horse for ... In The Mountain Cave
Dave had been in perilous situations before, and had learned the important lesson that if he lost his wits all would be lost. The mountain lion was large and powerful and evidently in full fighting humor. The youth was armed, carrying a pistol ... In The Saddle
White winter covered the sage hills and gave the country a bleak and desolate look. The Slash Lazy D riders wrapped up and went out over the wind-swept mesas to look after the cattle cowering in draws or drifting with the storm. When Bob could sle... In The Secret Chamber
The escaping party groped its way along the passage in the wall, down a rough, narrow flight of stone steps to a second tunnel, and along this underground way for several hundred yards. Since he was the only one familiar with the path they were trav... In The Tules
He had never seen a steamboat in his life. Born and reared in one of the Western Territories, far from a navigable river, he had only known the "dugout" or canoe as a means of conveyance across the scant streams whose fordable waters made even tho... In Which Hatred Is Born
For some persons romance dwells in the new and the unusual, and for other persons it dwells not at all. Certain of Rosalind Benham's friends would have been able to see nothing but the crudities and squalor of Manti, viewing it as Miss Benham did,... Injuns
Bob swung down from the saddle in front of the bunkhouse. Reeves came to the door and waved a hand. "'Lo, Sure-Shot! What's new in Bear Cat?" "Fellow thinkin' of startin' a drug-store. Jim Weaver is the happy dad of twins. Mad dog shot on Mai... International Courtesies
The garden over whose wall Brace had mysteriously vanished was apparently as deserted as the lane and plaza without. But its solitude was one of graceful shadow and restful loveliness. A tropical luxuriance, that had perpetuated itself year after ... Into The Depths
"Good Lord, Race! What's happened?" Senator Rexhill, on the next morning, surprised that Moran did not show up at the hotel, had gone in search of him, and was dumbfounded when he entered the office. Moran, in his desperate efforts to free hi... Into The Desert
If you want to know what mad adventure Bud found himself launched upon, just read a few extracts from the diary which Cash Markham, being a methodical sort of person, kept faithfully from day to day, until he cut his thumb on a can of tomatoes which he... Irish Works For The Cause
Big Medicine with Weary and Chip to bear him company, rode up to the shack nearest his own, which had been hastily built by a raw-boned Dane who might be called truly Americanized. Big Medicine did not waste time in superfluities or in making threat... Its Awful Easy To Get Lost
The Kid wriggled uncomfortably in the saddle and glanced at the narrow-browed face of H. J. Owens, who was looking this way and that at the enfolding hills and scowling abstractedly. The Kid was only six, but he was fairly good at reading moods and ... Jack Goes To The Head Of The Class
She trailed the bridle reins, went up the porch steps, and drew off her gauntlets. Her hand was outstretched to open the door when her gaze fell upon a large bill tacked to the wall. Swiftly she read it through, and, having read it, remained in su... Jane
After that night, there began a sort of persecution, skillfully conducted by Jasper and Betty, against the ferocity of Jane. It was a persecution impossible to imagine in any other setting, even the social simplicity of Lazy-Y found itself a trifl... Jealousy
Meantime, many things of great interest to Gordon Wade happened without his knowledge. A national election at which the previously dominant party was defeated, was a sad blow to Senator Rexhill, who not only suffered in prestige but in pocket. ... Jean
The still loneliness of desertion held fast the clutter of sheds and old stables roofed with dirt and rotting hay. The melancholy of emptiness hung like an invisible curtain before the sprawling house with warped, weather-blackened shingles, and sa... Jean Believes That She Takes Matters Into Her Own Hands
After all, Jean did not have to fight her way clear through "Warring Mexico" and back again, in order to reach Nogales. She let Lite take her to the snug little apartment which she was to share with Muriel and her mother, and she fancied that she h... Jean Learns What Fear Is Like
Sometime in the still part of the night which comes after midnight, Jean woke slowly from dreaming of the old days that had been so vivid in her mind when she went to sleep. Just at first she did not know what it was that awakened her, though her e... Jean Meets One Crisis And Confronts Another
"Well, say! This is like seeing you walk out of that picture that's running at the Teatro Palacia. You sure are making a hit with those moving-pictures; made me feel like I'd met somebody from home to stroll in there and see you and Lite come ridi... Jean Rides Into A Small Adventure
At the mouth of the coulee, she turned to the left instead of to the right, and so galloped directly away from the Bar Nothing ranch, down the narrow valley known locally as the Flat, and on to the hills that invited her with their untroubled lights... Jean Spoils Something
Jean found the padlock key where she had hidden it under a rock ten feet from the door, and let herself into her room. The peaceful familiarity of its four walls, and the cheerful patch of sunlight lying warm upon the faded rag carpet, gave her the... Jim Finds Sara And Pen
"Since time began Indians have climbed my back and have cried their joys and sorrows to the sky. I wonder who has heard!" MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT. Mr. Dennis laughed. He still was holdi... Jim Gets A Blow
"The eagle has lived long in my side. He is cruel with talons built for seizing. Is this why so many nations choose him as their emblem?" MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT. Jane never had looked ... Jim Makes A Speech
"I am permanent so I cannot fully understand the tragedy that haunts humans from their birth, the tragedy of their own transitoriness." MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT. Jim drank his tea, stari...