A Shot From The Dark
: Rowdy Of The Cross L"I call that a bad job well done," Pink remarked, after a long silence,
as he gave over trying to catch a fish in the muddy Milk River.
"What?" Rowdy, still prone to day-dreams of matters domestic, came back
reluctantly to reality, and inspected his bait.
"Oh, come alive! I mean the horse round-up. How we're going to keep that
bunch uh skeletons under us all summer is a guessing contest for fair.
<
he wants me t' hit 'er up on circle the way I'm used to. I bet their
back-bones'll wear clean up through our saddles."
"Oh, I guess not," said Rowdy calmly. "They ain't so thin--and they'll
pick up flesh. There's some mighty good ones in the bunch, too. I hope
Wooden Shoes don't forget to give me the first pick. There's one I got
my eye on--that blue roan. Anyway, I guess you can wiggle along with
less than forty."
Pink shook his head thoughtfully and sighed. Pink loved good mounts, and
the outlook did not please him. The round-up had camped, for the last
time, on the river within easy riding distance of Camas. The next day's
drive would bring them to the home ranch, where Eagle Creek was fuming
over the lateness of the season, the condition of the range, and the
June rains, which had thus far failed even to moisten decently the
grass-roots.
"Let's ride over to Camas; all the other fellows have gone," Pink
proposed listlessly, drawing in his line.
Rowdy as listlessly consented. Camas as a town was neither interesting
nor important; but when one has spent three long weeks communing with
nature in her sulkiest and most unamiable mood, even a town without a
railroad to its name may serve to relieve the monotony of living.
The sun was piling gorgeous masses of purple and crimson clouds high
about him, cuddling his fat cheeks against their soft folds till, a
Midas, he turned them to gold at the touch. Those farther away
gloomed jealously at the favoritism of their lord, and huddled closer
together--the purple for rage, perhaps; and the crimson for shame!
Pink's face was tinged daintily with the glow, and even Rowdy's lean,
brown features were for the moment glorified. They rode knee to knee
silently, thinking each his own thoughts the while they watched the
sunset with eyes grown familiar with its barbaric splendor, but never
indifferent.
Soon the west held none but the deeper tints, and the shadows climbed,
with the stealthy tread of trailing Indians, from the valley, chasing
the after-glow to the very hilltops, where it stood a moment at bay
and then surrendered meekly to the dusk. A meadow-lark near-by cut the
silence into haunting ripples of melody, stopped affrighted at their
coming, and flew off into the dull glow of the west; his little body
showed black against a crimson cloud. Out across the river a lone coyote
yapped sharply, then trailed off into the weird plaint of his kind.
"Brother-in-law's in town to-day; Bob Nevin saw him," Pink remarked,
when the coyote ceased wailing and held his peace.
"Who?" Rowdy only half-heard.
"Bob Nevin," repeated Pink naively.
"Don't get funny. Who did Bob see?"
"Brother-in-law. Yours, not mine. Jessie's tin god. If he's there yet,
I bid for an invite to the 'swatfest.' Or maybe"--a horrible possibility
forced itself upon Pink--"maybe you'll kill the fattest maverick and
fall on his neck--"
"The maverick's?" Rowdy's brows were rather pinched together, but his
tone told nothing.
"Naw; Harry Conroy's a fellow's liable to do most any fool thing when
he's got schoolma'amitis."
"That so?"
Pink snorted. The possibility had grown to black certainty in his mind.
He became suddenly furious.
"Lord! I hope some kind friend'll lead me out an' knock me in the head,
if ever I get locoed over any darned girl!"
"Same here," agreed Rowdy, unmoved.
"Then your days are sure numbered in words uh one syllable, old-timer,"
snapped Pink.
Rowdy leaned and patted him caressingly upon the shoulder--a form of
irony which Pink detested. "Don't get excited, sonny," he soothed. "Did
you fetch your gun?"
"I sure did!" Pink drew a long breath of relief. "Yuh needn't think I'm
going t' take chances on being no human colander. I've packed a gun for
Harry Conroy ever since that rough-riding contest uh yourn. Yuh mind
the way I took him under the ear with a rock? He's been makin' war-talk
behind m' back ever since. Did I bring m' gun! Well, I guess yes!" He
dimpled distractingly.
"All the same, it'll suit me not to run up against him," said Rowdy
quite frankly. He knew Pink would understand. Then he lifted his coat
suggestively, to show the weapon concealed beneath, and smiled.
"Different here. Yuh did have sense enough t' be ready--and if yuh see
him, and don't forget he's got a sister with a number two foot, damned
if I don't fix yuh both a-plenty!" He settled his hat more firmly over
his curls, and eyed Rowdy anxiously from under his lashes.
Rowdy caught the action and the look from the tail of his eye, and
grinned at his horse's ears. Pink in warlike mood always made him think
of a four-year-old child playing pirate with the difference that Pink
was always in deadly earnest and would fight like a fiend.
For more reasons than one he hoped they would not meet Harry Conroy.
Jessie was still in ignorance of his real attitude toward her brother,
and Rowdy wanted nothing more than to keep her so. The trouble was that
he was quite certain to forget everything but his grievances, if ever he
came face to face with Harry. Also, Pink would always fight quicker for
his friends than for himself, and he felt very tender toward Pink. So
he hoped fervently that Harry Conroy had already ridden back whence he
came, and there would be no unpleasantness.
Four or five Cross L horses stood meekly before the Come Again Saloon,
so Rowdy and Pink added theirs to the gathering and went in. The Silent
One looked up from his place at a round table in a far corner, and
beckoned.
"We need another hand here," he said, when they went over to him. "These
gentlemen are worried because they might be taken into high society some
day, and they would be placed in a very embarrassing position through
their ignorance of bridge-whist. I have very magnanimously consented to
teach them the rudiments."
Bob Nevin looked up, and then lowered an eyelid cautiously. "He's a
liar. He offered to learn us how to play it; we bet him the drinks he
didn't savvy the game himself. Set down, Pink, and I'll have you for my
pretty pardner."
The Silent One shuffled the cards thoughtfully. "To make it seem like
bona-fide bridge," he began, "we should have everybody playing."
"Aw, the common, ordinary brand is good enough," protested Bob. "I ain't
in on any trimmings."
The Silent One smiled ever so slightly. "We should have prizes--or
favors. Is there a store in town where one could buy something
suitable?"
"They got codfish up here; I smelt it," suggested Jim Ellis. Him the
Silent One ignored.
"What do you say, boys, to a real, high society whist-party? I'll invite
the crowd, and be the hostess. And I'll serve punch--"
"Come on, fellows, and have one with me," called a strange voice near
the door.
"Meeting's adjourned," cried Jim Ellis, and got up to accept the
invitation and range along the bar with the rest. He had not been
particularly interested in bridge-whist anyway.
The others remained seated, and the bartender called across to know what
they would have. Pink cut the cards very carefully, and did not look up.
Rowdy thrust both hands in his pockets and turned his square shoulder
to the bar. He did not need to look--he knew that voice, with its shoddy
heartiness.
Men began to observe his attitude, and looked at one another. When one
is asked to drink with another, he must comply or decline graciously, if
he would not give a direct insult.
Harry Conroy took three long steps and laid a hand on Rowdy's
shoulder--a hand which Rowdy shook off as though it burned. "Say,
stranger, are you too high-toned t' drink with a common cowpuncher?" he
demanded sharply.
Rowdy half-turned toward him. "No, sir. But I'll be mighty thirsty
before I drink with you." His voice was even, but it cut.
The room stilled on the instant; it was as if every man of them had
turned to lay figures. Harry Conroy had winced at sight of Rowdy's
face--men saw that, and some of them wondered. Pink leaned back in
his chair, every nerve tightened for the next move, and waited. It
was Harry--handsome, sneering, a certain swaggering defiance in his
pose--who first spoke.
"Oh, it's you, is it? I haven't saw yuh for some time. How's
bronco-fighting? Gone up against any more contests?" He laughed
mockingly--with mouth and eyes maddeningly like Jessie's in teasing
mood.
Rowdy could have killed him for the resemblance alone. His lids drooped
sleepily over eyes that glittered. Harry saw the sign, read it for
danger; but he laughed again.
"Yuh ought to have seen this bronco-peeler pull leather, boys," he
jeered recklessly "I like to 'a' died. He got piled up the slickest I
ever saw; and there was some feeble-minded Canucks had money up on him,
too: He won't drink with me, 'cause I got off with the purse. He's got
a grouch--and I don't know as I blame him; he did get let down pretty
hard, for a fact."
"Maybe he did pull leather--but he didn't cut none, like you did, you
damn' skunk!" It was Pink--Pink, with big, long-lashed eyes purple with
rage, and with a dead-white streak around his mouth, and a gun in his
hand.
Harry wheeled toward him, and if a new light of fear crept into his
eyes, his lips belied it in a sneer. "Two of a kind!" he laughed. "So
that's the story yuh brought over here, is it? Hell of a lot uh good
it'll do yuh!"
Something in Pink's face warned Rowdy. Harry's face turned watchfully
from one to the other. Evidently he considered Pink the more uncertain
of the two; and he was quite justified in so thinking. Pink was only
waiting for a cue before using his gun; and when Pink once began, there
was no telling where or when he would leave off.
While Harry stood uncertain, Rowdy's fist suddenly spatted against his
cheek with considerable force. He tumbled, a cursing heap, against the
foot-rail of the bar, scrambled up like a cat--a particularly vicious
cat--and came at Rowdy murderously. The Come Again would shortly have
been filled with the pungent haze of burned powder, only that the
bartender was a man-of-action. He hated brawls, and it did not matter
to him how just might be the quarrel; he slapped the gaping barrels of
a sawed-off shotgun across the bar--and from the look of it one might
imagine many disagreeable things.
"Drop it! Cut it out!" he bellowed. "Yuh ain't going t' make no
slaughter-pen out uh this joint, I tell yuh. Put up them guns or else
take 'em outside. If you fellers are hell-bent on smokin' each other up,
they's all kinds uh room outdoors. Git! Vamose! Hike!"
Conroy wheeled and walked, straight-backed and venomous, to the door.
"Come on out, if yuh ain't scared," he sneered. "It's two agin' one
and then some, by the look uh things. But I'll take yuh singly or in
bunches. I'm ready for the whole damn' Cross L bunch uh coyotes. Come
on, you white-livered--!"
Rowdy rushed for him, with Pink and the Silent One at his heels. He had
forgotten that Harry Conroy ever had a sister of any sort whatsoever.
All he knew was that Harry had done him much wrong, of the sort which
comes near to being unforgivable, and that he had sneered insults that
no man may overlook. All he thought of was to get his hands on him.
Outside, the dusky stillness made all sounds seem out of place; the
faint starlight made all objects black and unfamiliar. Rowdy stopped,
just off the threshold, blinking at the darkness which held his enemy.
It was strange that he did not find him at his elbow, he thought--and
a suspicion came to him that Harry was lying in wait; it would be like
him. He stepped out of the yellow glare from a window and stood in
more friendly shade. Behind him, on the door-step, stood the other two,
blinking as he had done.
A form which he did not recognize rushed up out of the darkness and
confronted the three belligerently. "You're a-disturbin' the peace,"
he yelled. "We don't stand for nothing like that in Camas. You're my
prisoners--all uh yuh." The edict seemed to include even the bartender,
peering over the shoulder of Bob Nevin, who struggled with several
others for immediate passage through the doorway.
"I guess not, pardner," retorted Pink, facing him as defiantly as though
the marshal were not twice his size.
The marshal lunged for him; but the Silent One, reaching a long arm from
the door-step, rapped him smartly on the head with his gun. The marshal
squawked and went down in a formless heap.
"Come on, boys," said the Silent One coolly. "I think we'd better go.
Your friend seems to have vanished in thin air."
Rowdy, grumbling mightily over what looked unpleasantly like retreat,
was pushed toward his horse and mounted under protest. Likewise Pink,
who was for staying and cleaning up the whole town. But the Silent One
was firm, and there was that in his manner which compelled obedience.
Harry Conroy might have been an optical--and aural--illusion, for all
the trace there was of him. But when the three rode out into the little
street, a bullet pinged close to Rowdy's left ear, and the red bark of a
revolver spat viciously from a black shadow beside the Come Again.
Rowdy and the two turned and rode back, shooting blindly at the place,
but the shadow yawned silently before them and gave no sign. Then the
Silent One, observing that the marshal was getting upon a pair of very
unsteady legs, again assumed the leadership, and fairly forced Rowdy and
Pink into the homeward trail.
More
-
A Modern Horse Fair
They departed as they had entered, by way of the window, Dorothy lifted through it by her admiring Captain Lem, whose heart she had wholly won by her music the night before, and by the deference she paid to his talk. She was eager to find out the ... A More Important Arrival
The Commander was the first to recover his presence of mind. Taking the despatch from the hands of the unlooked-for husband of the woman he loved, he opened it with an immovable face and habitual precision. Then, turning with a military salute to ... A Mother Of Five
She was a mother--and a rather exemplary one--of five children, although her own age was barely nine. Two of these children were twins, and she generally alluded to them as "Mr. Amplach's children," referring to an exceedingly respectable gentlema... A Moving Chapter In Events
Having nothing more than a general warning of trouble ahead to disturb him, Andy rode blithely back down the coulee and met the herd just after sunrise. Dreams of Miss Allen had left a pleasant mood behind them, though the dreams themselves withdrew... A Mutual Benefit Association
Unheeding the drama that was rapidly and invisibly (except for the incident of Braman and the window) working itself out in its midst, Manti lunged forward on the path of progress, each day growing larger, busier, more noisy and more important. Pe... A Mysterious Shot In The Darkness
"I am going to keep my eyes open for that cut-throat that was under the bed. There's no telling what he might not do," said John with quiet determination, to Ree, when the peddler had left them and they were fairly under way for the journey of ano... A Mystery Is Unravelled
Lieutenant Burrell was considerably taken aback when, a quarter of an hour after the young lover's ecstatic return to his quarters, Gale knocked at his door, for the trader's visit, coupled with the late hour and his sombre countenance, forecast n... A New Kind Of Picture
"What you doing now?" Robert Grant Burns came around the corner of the house looking for her, half an hour later, and found her sitting on the doorstep with the old atlas on her knees and her hat far back on her head, scribbling away for dear life. ... A New Trail Begins
If he had been an ordinary rider, sitting heavily far back in the saddle, at the end of a long ride, Barry would either have been flung clear and smashed horribly against the rocks, or, more likely, he would have been entangled in the stirrups and c... A Night At Hays
CHAPTER I. It was difficult to say if Hays' farmhouse, or "Hays," as it was familiarly called, looked any more bleak and cheerless that winter afternoon than it usually did in the strong summer sunshine. Painted a cold merciless white, with s... A Night Encounter
Comforted by abundant food, refreshed and stimulated by more than two or three enthusiastic toasts to the health of the major the men so loved, Trooper Kennedy, like a born dragoon and son of the ould sod, bethought him of the gallant bay that had... A Night With The Indians
To shut out from his thoughts the horrid memory of the bloody scalp at Big Buffalo's belt, Ree turned and busied himself with the fire, which had burned quite low, and soon a roaring blaze was leaping skyward, shedding good cheer around. The wo... A Pair Of Blue Eyes
In the estimate of the affable brakeman (a gentleman wearing sky-blue army pantaloons tucked into cowhide boots, half-buttoned vest, flannel shirt open at the throat, and upon his red hair a flaring-brimmed black slouch hat) we were making a fair ... A Party Call
The mistress of the Lazy D, just through with her morning visit to the hospital in the bunkhouse, stopped to read the gaudy poster tacked to the wall. It was embellished with the drawing of a placid rider astride the embodiment of fury incarnate, un... A Photograph
On the third morning Beauchamp Lee returned to Mesa--unshaven, dusty, and fagged with hard riding. He brought with him a handbill which he had picked up in the street. Melissy hung over him and ministered to his needs. While he was eating breakfas... A Practical Man
Bruce's thoughts were a jumble of dynamos and motors, direct and alternating currents, volts and amperes, when James J. Jennings' papier-mache suitcase hit him in the shins in the lobby of a hotel which was headquarters for mining men in the somno... A Prison
Barbara Morgan had not been able to sleep except by fits and starts. A dozen times during the night she had caught herself on the verge of sinking into deep slumber, and each time she had got up and washed her eyes with some water from a pitcher o... A Prisoner
It chanced that as I lay on my side my eye caught a gleam of light through a little ragged hole in the matting of pine branches. Part of the interior of the cabin, the doorway, and some space outside were plainly visible. The thud of horses had give... A Problem Solved
Hopalong worried his way out of the desert on a straight line, thus cutting in half the distance he had traveled when going into it. He camped that night on the sand and early the next morning took up his journey. It was noon when he began to no... A Question Of Stocks
"Some rain, believe me!" It was Dave who uttered the remark, as the touring-car commenced the long and dangerous descent of Sugar Hill. A sheet of water was dashing against the wind-shield, which had been raised as high as possible. "I wish i... A Ranger's Horse
Onward through the dense foliage the two friends wound. Now and then they stopped to listen, but the rain was heavy enough to drown all other noises. Encountering fresh tracks finally, Dave leaned from his saddle and studied them. What he saw caus... A Recruit Joins The Rangers
Harshaw did not, during the first forty-eight hours after leaving Bear Cat, make contact with either the Indians or the militia. He moved warily, throwing out scouts as his party advanced. At night he posted sentries carefully to guard against a s... A Rehearsed Quarrel
Because he could not persuade him to join in their drinking bouts, Stone nicknamed Curly the good bad man. "He's the prize tough in Arizona, only he's promised his ma not to look on the wine when it is red," Blackwell sneered. Flandrau smiled... A Rell Old Cowpuncher
The hills began to look bigger, and kind of chilly and blue in the deep places. The Kid wished that he could find some of the boys. He was beginning to get hungry, and he had long ago begun to get tired. But he was undismayed, even when he heard a c... A Rescue And A Vigilance Committee
At the end of an hour, or so, the lion withdrew and Wade thought he had seen the last of it. He began to pace up and down the fissure once more, for now that his thin shirt was damp with perspiration, set flowing by the nervous strain he had been ... A Responsible Citizen
Dillon and Hollister were lounging on the bank of Elk Creek through the heat of the day. They had been chasing a jack-rabbit across the mesa for sport. Their broncos were now grazing close at hand. "Ever notice how a jack-rabbit jumps high when ... A Return To Command
With but a single orderly at his back, Mr. Blakely had left Camp Sandy late at night; had reached the agency, twenty miles up stream, two hours before the dawn and found young Bridger waiting for him. They had not even a reliable interpreter now. ... A Ride From Sunrise To Sunset
Next morning, when Madeline was aroused by her brother, it was not yet daybreak; the air chilled her, and in the gray gloom she had to feel around for matches and lamp. Her usual languid manner vanished at a touch of the cold water. Presently, when ... A Ride In The Rain
There are two Colorados within the boundaries of the state of that name, distinct, almost irreconcilable. One is a plain (smooth, dry, monotonous), gently declining to the east, a land of sage-brush, wheat-fields, and alfalfa meadows--a rather com... A Rifle Practice
"Mother, what do you mean? Don't turn so white and do speak! What 'tragedy' could have happened up here in this lovely place?" demanded Leslie, putting his arm around the lady's shoulders and wondering if she had suddenly become ill. She was slend... A Rifled Desk
Events moved swiftly in the week that followed. Particulars of the accident to General Field, however, were slow in reaching Fort Frayne; and, to the feverish unrest and mental trouble of the son, was now added a feverish anxiety on the father's a... A Rumble Of War
The train that carried Corrigan's letter eastward bore, among its few other passengers, a young man with a jaw set like a steel trap, who leaned forward in his seat, gripping the back of the seat in front of him; an eager, smoldering light in his ... A Scandal Scotched
Before the door of the room opened Tolliver heard the high-pitched voice of his daughter. "If you'd only stood up to him, Bob--if you'd shot him or fought him ... lemme go, Jake. You got no right to take me with you. Tell you I'm married.... Ye... A Scouting Trip
"What ails you?" Law inquired as he and Blaze rolled away in the buckboard. "Serves me right for leaving my six-shooter at home," panted the rancher. "Well, I might have known they'd find me some day." "'They'? Who?" "That hombre and his w... A Secret Kept
Because of that singular reply Madeline found faith to go farther with the cowboy. But at the moment she really did not think about what he had said. Any answer to her would have served if it had been kind. His silence had augmented her nervousness,... A Shepherd Of The Desert
It had been Helen Messiter's daily custom either to take a ride on her pony or a spin in her motor car, but since Bannister had been quartered at the Lazy D her time had been so fully occupied that she had given this up for the present. The arrival ... A Shot From The Dark
"I call that a bad job well done," Pink remarked, after a long silence, as he gave over trying to catch a fish in the muddy Milk River. "What?" Rowdy, still prone to day-dreams of matters domestic, came back reluctantly to reality, and inspected h... A Shot From The Rim-rock
Good Indian was going to the stable to feed the horses next morning, when something whined past him and spatted viciously against the side of the chicken-house. Immediately afterward he thought he heard the sharp crack which a rifle makes, but the w... A Slap For The Major
The columns of Colonel Henry and Major Webb, as said "the Chief," had united, and here were two men who could be counted on to push the pursuit "for all they were worth." Hitherto, acting in the open country and free from encumbrance, the Indians ... A Soldier Entangled
December and bitter cold. The river frozen stiff. The prairie sheeted in unbroken snow. Great log fires roaring in every open fireplace. Great throngs of soldiery about the red hot barrack stoves, for all the columns were again in winter columns, ... A Soldier's Honor
Delivery day dawned with a heavy fog hanging over the valley of the Yellowstone. The frosts had ceased, and several showers had fallen during the night, one of which brought our beeves to their feet, but they gave no serious trouble and resumed thei... A Spanish Will
With a singing heart Alaire rode through the night at her husband's side. The strain of the last few hours had been so intense, the relief at her deliverance so keen, that now she felt curiously weak, and she kept close to Dave, comforted by his ... A Spill By The Way
The "line" remained busy for so long that the loungers in the hotel lobby grew amused at Leslie's impatience while the two girls became very anxious. "It was only an hour or so, Mr. Ford said, before Aunt Betty's train would leave and I shall b... A Spunky Li'l' Devil
Houck rode away next morning after breakfast, but not before he had made a promise June construed as a threat. "Be back soon, girl." Her eyes were on the corral, from which her father was driving the dogies. "What's it to me?" she said with s... A Stable On The Flat
When the first landmark, the lone clump of cottonwoods, came at length in sight, dark and blurred in the gentle rain, standing out perhaps a mile beyond the distant buildings, my whole weary body hailed the approach of repose. Saving the noon hour... A Stop By Wire
Three days later the infantry guard of the garrison were in sole charge. Wren and Sanders, with nearly fifty troopers apiece, had taken the field in compliance with telegraphic orders from Prescott. The general had established field headquarters t... A Story Is Begun
"It's fonny t'ing how two brown eye Was changin' everything-- De cloud she's no more on de sky, An' winter's jus' lak' spring Dey mak' my pack so very light, De trail, she's not so long-- I'd walk it forty... A Strange Coming
With one orderly and a pair of Apache Yuma scouts, Neil Blakely had set forth in hopes of making his way to Snow Lake, far up in the range to the east. The orderly was all very well,--like most of his fellows, game, true, and tried,--but few were ... A Stranger Going
At the first faint flush of dawn the little train of pack mules, with the rations for the beleaguered command at Sunset Pass, was started on its stony path. Once out of the valley of the Beaver it must clamber over range after range and stumble th... A Stricken Sentry
Sentry duty at Camp Sandy along in '75 had not been allowed to bear too heavily on its little garrison. There was nothing worth stealing about the place, said Plume, and no pawn-shop handy. Of course there were government horses and mules, food an... A Tangled Skein
When Burrell entered he wasted no time in greetings. "I know why you sent for me, Poleon. I've heard the news, and I would have been up anyhow to congratulate her very soon. I call it pretty fine." "Yes, dere's been beeg strike all right, an'... A Telegram And A Girl
Banker Braman went to bed on the cot in the back room shortly after Corrigan departed from Manti. He stretched himself out with a sigh, oppressed with the conviction that he had done a bad day's work in antagonizing Trevison. The Diamond K owner w... A Thankless Task
Modoc waited, as if for an answer, and when it did not come, his face took on an expression of anger, in which cunning seemed to be mingled. "What's yore message?" he rasped. It took Kid Wolf several seconds to recover his composure. Was the w... A Tilt With Sir Redmond
Beatrice, standing on the top of a steep, grassy slope, was engaged in the conventional pastime of enjoying the view. It was a fine view, but it was not half as good to look upon as was Beatrice herself, in her fresh white waist and brown skirt, w... A Touch Of The Third Degree
Cullison was not the man to acknowledge himself beaten so long as there was a stone unturned. In the matter of the Del Oro homestead claim he moved at once. All of the county commissioners were personal friends of his, and he went to them with a p... A Trap For Job Haskers
"What do you think of it, Dave?" "I think Job Haskers is up to some game, Roger." "Selling worthless stocks?" "Yes, or else stocks that are next door to worthless." "I wonder who the old gentleman can be? He looks as if he might have mon... A Treasure Of The Galleon
Her father's house was nearly a mile from the sea, but the breath of it was always strong at the windows and doors in the early morning, and when there were heavy "southwesters" blowing in the winter, the wind brought the sharp sting of sand to he... A Trip To Bald Eagle Rock
Molly gave one glance and screamed. Then flung herself to her knees and buried her face in Helena's lap, who pityingly drew her light skirt over the child's head. Nobody else moved nor spoke. All felt their last hour had come. "An Indian raid!"... A Vanished Heroine
Within forty-eight hours of the coming of Trooper Kennedy with his "rush" despatches to Fort Frayne, the actors in our little drama had become widely separated. Webb and his sturdy squadron, including Ray and such of his troop as still had mounts ... A Villon Of The Desert
When Alice Mackenzie looked back in after years upon the incidents connected with that ride to the Rocking Chair, it was always with a kind of glorified pride in her villain-hero. He had his moments, had this twentieth-century Villon, when he repres... A Walk In The Park
June was the first to speak. "So you're here. You didn't get away." "I'm here," Houck growled. "No chance for a getaway. I ran out the back door of the bank an' ducked into the hotel. This was the first door I come to, an' I headed in." She w... A War Of Wits
"Kidnaped? Gordon Wade?" At Dorothy's announcement, Mrs. Purnell sank, with a gasp, into her rocking-chair, astonished beyond expression. She listened, with anxiety scarce less than her daughter's, to the girl's account of the event as she had ... A Warning
Joyce, a lover of luxury, usually had a roll and coffee in bed as a substitute for breakfast. Sometimes she varied this by appearing late at the table and putting the attendants to unnecessary trouble. This she always paid for with murmurs of apol... A Warning And A Surprise
Dave Law slept for twenty hours, and even when he awoke it was not to a clear appreciation of his surroundings. At first he was relieved to find that the splitting pain in his head was gone, but imagined himself to be still in the maddening local ... A Wild Cat
The Lazy-Y ranch-house, a one-storied building of logs, was built about three sides of a paved court. In the middle of this court stood a well with a high rustic top, and about this well on a certain brilliant July night, a tall man was strolling ... A Woman Rides In Vain
Out of Rosalind Benham's resentment against Trevison for the Hester Harvey incident grew a sudden dull apathy--which presently threatened to become an aversion--for the West. Its crudeness, the uncouthness of its people; the emptiness, the monoton... A Woman's Plot
Woman's intuition often far outstrips the slower mental process of the other sex. The mother who has to see a beloved daughter's silent suffering, well knowing another girl to be, however indirectly, the cause of it, sees all manner of other iniqu... A Yellow Dog
I never knew why in the Western States of America a yellow dog should be proverbially considered the acme of canine degradation and incompetency, nor why the possession of one should seriously affect the social standing of its possessor. But the f... Absent From Duty
For a moment the major stood in silence; then, briefly saying, "Call Captain Ray," turned again to the dimly lighted hallway of his commodious quarters, (the women thought it such a shame there should be no "lady of the house" for the largest and ... Adore Has Only One D
After all, adventures are to the adventurous. In this prosaic twentieth century the Land of Romance still beckons to eager eyes and gallant hearts. The rutted money-grabber may deny till he is a nerve-racked counting-machine, but youth, even to the ... Adventure Comes Smiling
Luck, in the course of his enthusiastic picture making, reached the point where he must find a bank that was willing to be robbed--in broad daylight and for screen purposes only. If you know anything at all about our financial storehouses, you know ... Aftermath
Joan waited for Prosper on the appointed afternoon. There was a fire on her hearth and a March snow-squall tapped against the window panes. The crackle of the logs inside and that eerie, light sound outside were so associated with Prosper that, ev...