Hidden Valley
: Bucky O'connorAcross the desert into the hills, where the sun was setting in a great
splash of crimson in the saddle between two distant peaks, a bunch of
cows trailed heavily. Their tongues hung out and they panted for water,
stretching their necks piteously to low now and again. For the heat of
an Arizona summer was on the baked land and in the air that palpitated
above it.
But the end of the journey was at hand and
the drive relaxed in the saddle after the easy fashion of the vaquero
when he is under no tension. He did not any longer cast swift, anxious
glances behind him to make sure no pursuit was in sight. For he had
reached safety. He knew the 'Open sesame' to that rock wall which rose
sheer in front of him. Straight for it he and his companion took their
gather, swinging the cattle adroitly round a great slab which concealed
a gateway to the secret canon. Half a mile up this defile lay what was
called Hidden Valley, an inaccessible retreat known only to those who
frequented it for nefarious purposes.
It was as the man in charge circled round to head the lead cows in that
a faint voice carried to him. He stopped, listening. It came again, a
dry, parched call for help that had no hope in it. He wheeled his pony
as on a half dollar, and two minutes later caught sight of an exhausted
figure leaning against a cottonwood. He needed no second guess to
surmise that she was lost and had been wandering over the sandy desert
through the hot day. With a shout, he loped toward her, and had his
water bottle at her lips before she had recovered from her glad surprise
at sight of him.
"You'll feel better now," he soothed. "How long you been lost, ma'am?"
"Since ten this morning. I came with my aunt to gather poppies, and
somehow I got separated from her and the rig. These hills look so alike.
I must have got turned round and mistaken one for another."
"You have to be awful careful here. Some one ought to have told you," he
said indignantly.
"Oh, they told me, but of course I knew best," she replied, with quick
scorn of her own self-sufficiency.
"Well, it's all right now," the cowpuncher told her cheerfully. He would
not for a thousand dollars have told her how near it had come to being
all wrong, how her life had probably depended upon that faint wafted
call of hers.
He put her on his horse and led it forward to the spot where the
cattle waited at the gateway. Not until they came full upon them did he
remember that it was dangerous for strange young women to see him with
those cattle and at the gateway to the Hidden canon.
"They are my uncle's cattle. I could tell the brand anywhere. Are you
one of his riders? Are we close to the Rocking Chair Ranch?" she cried.
He flung a quick glance at her. "Not very close. Are you from the
Rocking Chair?"
"Yes. I'm Mr. Mackenzie's niece."
"Major Mackenzie's daughter?" demanded the man quickly.
"Yes." She said it with a touch of annoyance, for he looked at her as a
man does who has heard of her before. She knew that the story had been
bruited far and wide of how she had passed through the hands of the
train robbers carrying thirty thousand dollars on her person. She had no
doubt that it was in this connection her rescuer had heard of her.
He drew off to one side and called his companion to him.
"Hardman, you ride up to the ranch and tell Leroy I've just found Miss
Mackenzie wandering around on the desert, lost. Ask him whether I'm to
bring her up. She's played out and can't travel far, tell him."
The showman rode on his errand and the other returned to Helen.
"You better light, ma'am. We'll have to wait here a few minutes," he
explained.
He helped her dismount. She did not understand why it was necessary to
wait, but that was his business and not hers. Her roving eyes fell upon
the cattle again.
"They ARE my uncle's, aren't they?"
"They were," he corrected. "Cattle change hands a good deal in this
country," he added dryly.
"Then you're not one of his riders?" Her stark eyes passed over him
swiftly.
"No, ma'am."
"Are we far from the Rocking Chair?"
"A right smart distance. You've been traveling, you see, for eight or
nine hours."
It occurred to her that there was something elusive, something not quite
frank, about the replies of this young man. Her glance raked him again
and swept up the details of his person. One of them that impressed
itself upon her mind was the absence of a finger on his right hand.
Another was that he was a walking arsenal. This startled her, though
she was not yet afraid. She relapsed into silence, to which he seemed
willing to consent. Once and again her glance swept him. He looked a
tough, weather-beaten Westerner, certainly not a man whom a woman need
be afraid to meet alone on the plains, but the oftener she looked the
more certain she became that he was not a casual puncher busy at the
legitimate work of his craft.
"Do you--live near here?" she asked presently.
"I live under my hat, ma'am," he told her.
"Sometimes near here, sometimes not so near."
This told her exactly nothing.
"How far did you say it was to the Rocking Chair?"
"I didn't say."
At the sound of a horses footfall she turned, and she saw that whereas
they had been two, now they were three. The newcomer was a slender,
graceful man, dark and lithe, with quick, piercing eyes, set deep in the
most reckless, sardonic face she had ever seen.
The man bowed, with a sweep of his hat almost derisive. "Miss Mackenzie,
I believe."
She met him with level eyes that confessed no fear.
"Who are you, sir?"
"They call me Wolf Leroy."
Her heart sank. "You and he are the men that held up the Limited.''
"If we are, you are the young lady that beat us out of thirty thousand
dollars. We'll collect now," he told her, with a silky smile and a
glitter of white, even teeth.
"What do you mean? Do you think I carry money about with me?"
"I didn't say that. We'll put it up to your father."
"My father?"
"He'll have to raise thirty thousand dollars to redeem his daughter." He
let his bold eyes show their admiration. "And she's worth every cent of
it."
"Do you mean--" She read the flash of triumph in his ribald eyes and
broke off. There was no need to ask him what he meant.
"That's what I mean exactly, ma'am. You're welcome to the hospitality of
Hidden Valley. What's ours is yours. You're welcome to stay as long
as you like, but I reckon YOU'RE NOT WELCOME TO GO WHENEVER YOU WANT
TO--not till we get that thirty thousand."
"You talk as if he were a millionaire," she told him scornfully.
"The major's got friends that are. If it's a showdown he'll dig the
dough up. I ain't a bit worried about that. His brother, Webb, will come
through."
"Why should he?" She stood as straight and unbending as a young pine,
courage regnant in the very poise of the fine head. "You daren't harm a
hair of my head, and he knows it. For your life, you daren't."
His eyes glittered. Wolf Leroy was never a safe man to fling a challenge
at. "Don't you be too sure of that, my dear. There ain't one thing on
this green earth I daren't do if I set my mind to it. And your friends
know it."
The other man broke in, easy and unmoved. "Hold yore hawses, cap. We
got no call to be threatening this young lady. We keep her for a ransom
because that's business. But she's as safe here as she would be at the
Rocking Chair. She's got York Neil's word for that."
The Wolf snarled. "The word of a miscreant. That'll comfort her a heap.
And York Neil's word don't always go up here."
The cowpuncher's steady eyes met him. "It'll go this time."
The girl gave her champion a quiet little nod and a low "Thank you." It
was not much, but enough. For on the frontier "white men" do not war on
women. Her instinct gave just the right manner of treating his help. It
assumed that since he was what he was he could do no less. Moreover, it
had the unexpected effect of spurring the Wolf's vanity, or something
better than his vanity. She could see the battle in his face, and the
passing of its evil, sinister expression.
"Beg your pardon, Miss Mackenzie. York's right. I'll add my word to his
about your safety. I'm a wolf, they'll tell you. But when I give my word
I keep it."
They turned and followed through the gateway the cattle which Hardman
and another rider were driving up the canon. Presently the walls fell
back, the gulch opened to a saucer-shaped valley in which nestled a
little ranch.
Leroy indicated it with a wave of his hand. "Welcome to Hidden Valley,
Miss Mackenzie," he said cynically.
"Afraid I'm likely to wear my welcome out if you keep me here until my
father raises thirty thousand dollars," she said lightly.
"Don't you worry any about that. We need the refining influences of
ladies' society here. I can see York's a heap improved already. Just to
teach us manners you're worth your board and keep." Then hardily, with a
sweeping gesture toward the weary cattle: "Besides, your uncle has sent
up a contribution to help keep you while you visit with us."
York laughed. "He sent it, but he didn't know he was sending it."
Leroy surrendered his room to Miss Mackenzie and put at her service
the old Mexican woman who cooked for him. She was a silent, taciturn
creature, as wrinkled as leather parchment and about as handsome, but
Alice found safety in the very knowledge of the presence of another
woman in the valley. She was among robbers and cutthroats, but old
Juanita lent at least a touch of domesticity to a situation that would
otherwise have been impossible. The girl was very uneasy in her mind.
A cold dread filled her heart, a fear that was a good deal less
than panic-terror, however. For she trusted the man Neil even as she
distrusted his captain. Miscreant he had let himself be called, and
doubtless was, but she knew no harm could befall her from his companions
while he was alive to prevent it. A reassurance of this came to her
that evening in the fragment of a conversation she overheard. They were
passing her window which she had raised on account of the heat when the
low voices of two men came to her.
"I tell you I'm not going, Leroy. Send Hardman," one said.
"Are you running this outfit, or am I, Neil?"
"You are. But I gave her my word. That's all there's to it."
Alice was aware that they had stopped and were facing each other
tensely.
"Go slow, York. I gave her my word, too. Do you think I'm allowing to
break it while you're away?"
"No, I don't. Look here, Phil. I'm not looking for trouble. You're
major-domo of this outfit What you say goes--except about this girl. I'm
a white man, if I'm a scoundrel."
"And I'm not?"
"I tell you I'm not sayin' that," the other answered doggedly.
"You're hinting it awful loud. I stand for it this time, York, but never
again. You butt in once more and you better reach for your hardware
simultaneous. Stick a pin in that."
They had moved on again, and she did not hear Neil's answer.
Nevertheless, she was comforted to know she had one friend among these
desperate outlaws, and that comfort gave her at least an hour or two of
broken, nappy sleep.
In the morning when she had dressed she found her room door unlocked,
and she stepped outside into the sunshine. York Neil was sitting on the
porch at work on a broken spur strap. Looking up, he nodded a casual
good morning. But she knew why he was there, and gratitude welled up in
her heart. Not a young woman who gave way to every impulse, she yielded
to one now, and shook hands with him. Their eyes met for a moment and he
knew she was thanking him.
An eye derisive witnessed the handshake. "An alliance against the teeth
of the wolf, I'll bet. Good mo'ning, Miss Mackenzie," drawled Leroy.
"Good morning," she answered quietly, her hands behind her.
"Sleep well?"
"Would you expect me to?"
"Why not, with York here doing the virgin-knight act outside your door?"
Her puzzled eyes discovered that Neil's face was one blush of
embarrassment.
"He slept here on the po'ch," explained Leroy, amused. "It's a great
fad, this outdoor sleeping. The doctors recommend it strong for sick
people. You wouldn't think to look at him York was sick. He looks plumb
husky. But looks are right deceptive. It's a fact, Miss Mackenzie, that
he was so sick last night I wasn't dead sure he'd live till mo'ning."
The eyes of the men met like rapiers. Neil said nothing, and Leroy
dropped him from his mind as if he were a trifle and devoted his
attention to Alice.
"Breakfast is ready, Miss Mackenzie. This way, please."
The outlaw led her to the dining room, where the young woman met a
fresh surprise. The table was white with immaculate linen and shone with
silver. She sat down to breakfast food with cream, followed by quail on
toast, bacon and eggs, and really good coffee. Moreover, she discovered
that this terror of the border knew how to handle his knife and fork,
was not deficient in the little niceties of table decorum. He talked,
and talked well, ignoring, like a perfect host, the relation that
existed between them. They sat opposite each other and ate alone, waited
upon by the Mexican woman. Alice wondered if he kept solitary state when
she was not there or ate with the other men.
It was evening before Hardman returned from the mission upon which he
had been sent in place of the obstinate Neil. He reported at once to
Leroy, who came smilingly to the place where she was sitting on the
porch to tell her his news.
"Webb Mackenzie's going to raise that thirty thousand, all right. He's
promised to raise it inside of three days," he told her triumphantly.
"And shall I have to stay here three whole days?"
He looked with half-shut, smoldering eyes at her slender exquisiteness,
compact of a strange charm that was both well-bred and gypsyish. There
was a scarce-veiled passion in his gaze that troubled her. More than
once that day she had caught it.
"Three days ain't so long. I could stand three months of you and wish
for more," he told her.
Lightly she turned the subject, but not without a chill of fear. Three
days was a long time. Much might happen if this wolf slipped the leash
of his civilization.
It was next day that an incident occurred which was to affect the course
of events more than she could guess at the time. A bunch of wild
hill steers had been driven down by Hardman, Reilly, and Neil in the
afternoon and were inclosed in the corral with the cows from the Rocking
Chair Ranch. Just before sunset Leroy, who had been away all day,
returned and sauntered over from the stable to join Alice. It struck the
girl from his flushed appearance that he had been drinking. In his eye
she found a wild devil of lawlessness that set her heart pounding. If
Neil and he clashed now there would be murder done. Of that she felt
sure.
That she set herself to humor the Wolf's whims was no more for her own
safety than for that of the man who had been her friend. She curbed her
fears, clamped down her startled maiden modesty, parried his advances
with light words and gay smiles. Once Neil passed, and his eyes asked
a question. She shook her head, unnoticed by Leroy. She would fight her
own battle as long as she could. It was to divert him that she proposed
they go down to the corral and look at the wild cattle the men had
driven down. She told him she had heard a great deal about them, but had
never seen any. If he would go with her she would like to look at them.
The outlaw was instantly at her service, and they sauntered across. In
her hand the girl carried a closed umbrella she had been using to keep
off the sun.
They stood at the gate of the corral looking at the long-legged, shaggy
creatures, as wild and as active almost as hill deer. On horseback one
could pass to and fro among them without danger, but in a closed corral
a man on foot would have taken a chance. Nobody knew this better than
Leroy. But the liquor was still in his head, and even when sober he was
reckless beyond other men.
"They need water," he said, and with that opened the gate and started
for the windmill.
He sauntered carelessly across, with never a glance at the dangerous
animals among which he was venturing. A great bull pawed the ground
lowered its head, and made a rush at the unconscious man. Alice called
to him to look out, then whipped open the gate and ran after him. Leroy
turned, and, in a flash, saw that which for an instant filled him with a
deadly paralysis. Between him and the bull, directly in the path of its
rush, stood this slender girl, defenseless.
Even as his revolver flashed out from the scabbard the outlaw knew he
was too late to save her, for she stood in such a position that he could
not hit a vital spot. Suddenly her umbrella opened in the face of the
animal. Frightened, it set its feet wide and slithered to a halt so
close to her that its chorus pierced the silk of the umbrella. With one
hand Leroy swept the girl behind him; with the other he pumped three
bullets into the forehead of the bull. Without a groan it keeled over,
dead before it reached the ground.
Alice leaned against the iron support of the windmill. She was so white
that the man expected her to sink down. One glance showed him other
cattle pawing the ground angrily.
"Come!" he ordered, and, putting an arm round her waist, he ran with her
to the gate. Yet a moment, and they were through in safety.
She leaned against him helpless for an instant before she had strength
to disengage herself. "Thank you. I'm all right now."
"I thought you were going to faint," he explained.
She nodded. "I nearly did."
His face was colorless. "You saved my life."
"Then we're quits, for you saved mine," she answered, with a shaken
attempt at a smile.
He shook his head. "That's not the same at all. I had to do that, and
there was no risk to it. But you chose to save me, to risk your life for
mine."
She saw that he was greatly moved, and that his emotion had swept away
the effects of the liquid as a fresh breeze does a fog.
"I didn't know I was risking my life. I saw you didn't see."
"I didn't think there was a woman alive had the pluck to do it--and for
me, your enemy. That what you count me, isn't it--an enemy?"
"I don't know. I can't quite think of you as friend, can I?"
"And yet I would have protected you from any danger at any cost."
"Except the danger of yourself," she said, in low voice, meeting him eye
to eye.
He accepted her correction with a groan, an wheeled away, leaning his
arms on the corral fence and looking away to that saddle between the
peak which still glowed with sunset light.
"I haven't met a woman of your kind before in ten years," he said
presently. "I've lived on you looks, your motions, the inflections
of your voice. I suppose I've been starved for that sort of thing and
didn't know it till you came. It's been like a glimpse of heaven to me."
He laughed bitterly: and went on: "Of course, I had to take to drinking
and let you see the devil I am. When I'm sober you would be as safe with
me as with York. But the excitement of meeting you--I have to ride my
emotions to death so as to drain them to the uttermost. Drink stimulates
the imagination, and I drank."
"I'm sorry."
Her voice said more than the words. He looked at her curiously. "You're
only a girl. What do you know about men of my sort? You have been
wrappered and sheltered all your life. And yet you understand me better
than any of the people I meet. All my life I have fought with myself.
I might have been a gentleman and I'm only a wolf. My appetites and
passions, stronger than myself dragged me down. It was Kismet, the
destiny ordained for me from my birth."
"Isn't there always hope for a man who knows his weaknesses and fights
against them?" she asked timidly.
"No, there is not," came the harsh answer. "Besides, I don't fight. I
yield to mine. Enough of that. It is you we have to consider, not me.
You have saved my life, and I have got to pay the debt."
"I didn't think who you were," her honesty compelled her to say.
"That doesn't matter. You did it. I'm going to take you back to your
father and straight as I can."
Her eyes lit. "Without a ransom?"
"Yes."
"You pay your debts like a gentleman, sir."
"I'm not coyote all through."
She could only ignore the hunger that stared out of his eyes for her.
"What about your friends? Will they let me go?"
"They'll do as I say. What kicking they do will be done mostly in
private, and when they're away from me."
"I don't want to make trouble for you."
"You won't make trouble for me. If there's any trouble it will be for
them," he said grimly.
Neither of them made any motion toward the house. The girl felt a
strange impulse of tenderness toward this man who had traveled so fast
the road to destruction. She had seen before that deep hunger of the
eyes, for she was of the type of woman that holds a strong attraction
for men. It told her that he had looked in the face of his happiness
too late--too late by the many years of a misspent life that had decreed
inexorably the character he could no longer change.
"I am sorry," she said again. "I didn't see that in you at first. I
misjudged you. One can't label men just good or bad, as the novelists
used to. You have taught me that--you and Mr. Neil."
His low, sardonic laughter rippled out. "I'm bad enough. Don't make any
mistake about that, Miss Mackenzie. York's different. He's just a good
man gone wrong. But I'm plain miscreant."
"Oh, no," she protested.
"As bad as they make them, but not wolf clear through," he said again.
"Something's happened to me to-day. It won't change me. I've gone too
far for that. But some morning when you read in the papers that Wolf
Leroy died with his boots on and everybody in sight registers his
opinion of the deceased you'll remember one thing. He wasn't a wolf to
you--not at the last."
"I'll not forget," she said, and the quick tears were in her eyes.
York Neil came toward them from the house. It was plain from his manner
he had a joke up his sleeve.
"You're wanted, Phil," he announced.
"Wanted where?"
"You got a visitor in there," Neil said, with a grin and a jerk of
his thumb toward the house. "Came blundering into the draw sorter
accidental-like, but some curious. So I asked him if he wouldn't light
and stay a while. He thought it over, and figured he would."
"Who is it?" asked Leroy.
"You go and see. I ain't giving away what your Christmas presents are. I
aim to let Santa surprise you a few."
Miss Mackenzie followed the outlaw chief into the house, and over his
shoulder glimpsed two men. One of them was the Irishman, Cork Reilly,
and he sat with a Winchester across his knees. The other had his back
toward them, but he turned as they entered, and nodded casually to
the outlaw. Helen's heart jumped to her throat when she saw it was Val
Collins.
The two men looked at each other steadily in a long silence. Wolf Leroy
was the first to speak.
"You damn fool!" The swarthy face creased to an evil smile of derision.
"I ce'tainly do seem to butt in considerable, Mr. Leroy," admitted
Collins, with an answering smile.
Leroy's square jaw set like a vise. "It won't happen again, Mr.
Sheriff."
"I'd hate to gamble on that heavy," returned Collins easily. Then
he caught sight of the girl's white face, and rose to his feet with
outstretched hand.
"Sit down," snapped out Reilly.
"Oh, that's all right I'm shaking hands with the lady. Did you think I
was inviting you to drill a hole in me, Mr. Reilly?"
More
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At the edge of the big level, where it merged into the floor of the basin, Harlan drew Purgatory to a halt. For an instant he sat in the saddle scrutinizing a section of buffalo grass that fringed a clump of willows near the almost dry bed of the ... Harlan Rides Alone
Upon the morning of the fourth day following Haydon's visit to the Rancho Seco, a dust cloud developed on the northwestern horizon. Harlan observed the cloud; he had been watching for it since dawn, when he had emerged from the stable door, where ... Harlan Strikes
Joe Barr laughingly replied to Johnny Nelson's growled remarks about the condition of things in general and tried to soothe him, but Johnny was unsoothable. "An' I've been telling him right along that he's got the best of it," complained Jackson ... Harlan Takes Charge
Barbara could not have told why she had not acted upon her determination to ride westward to the Star ranch to acquaint John Haydon with the predicament into which the events of the past few hours had plunged her. She could not have explained why ... Harley Makes A Proposition
Apparently the head of the great trust intended to lose no time in having that business talk with Ridgway, which he had graciously promised the latter. Eaton and his chief were busy over some applications for leases when Smythe came into the room wi... Harley Scores
What Harley had sought in the subornation of Eaton had been as much the moral effect of his defection as the tangible results themselves. If he could shake the confidence of the city and State in the freebooter's victorious star, he would have done ... Harry Conroy At Home
It was late next morning when they got under way; for they had not reached camp until long after midnight, and Wooden Shoes was determined the cattle should have one good feed, and all the water they wanted, to requite them for the hard drive of the... Harry Lossing
THE note-book of Mr. Horatio Armorer, president of our street railways, contained a page of interest to some people in our town, on the occasion of his last visit. He wrote it while the train creaked over the river, and the porter of his Pullman ... Head South And Keep Going
At a lunch wagon down near the water front, Bud stopped and bought two "hot dog" sandwiches and a mug of hot coffee boiled with milk in it and sweetened with three cubes of sugar. "O-oh, boy!" he ejaculated gleefully when he set his teeth into biscuit ... Held Up By Mr Kelly
"'Traveler, what lies over the hill?'" questioned a mischievous voice. Keith, dreaming along a winding, rock-strewn trail in the canyon, looked up quickly and beheld his Heart's Desire sitting calmly upon her horse, ten feet before Redcloud's no... Her Majesty's Rancho
FIVE months brought all that Stillwell had dreamed of, and so many more changes and improvements and innovations that it was as if a magic touch had transformed the old ranch. Madeline and Alfred and Florence had talked over a fitting name, and had ... Her Name Was Rosemary
Andy Green came in from a twenty-hour ride through the Wolf Butte country and learned that another disaster had followed on the heels of the first; that miss Allen had been missing for thirty-six hours. While he bolted what food was handiest in the ... Hidden Valley
Across the desert into the hills, where the sun was setting in a great splash of crimson in the saddle between two distant peaks, a bunch of cows trailed heavily. Their tongues hung out and they panted for water, stretching their necks piteously to ... High And Dry
The counsel to don a garb smacking less of the recent East struck me as sound; for although I was not the only person here in Eastern guise, nevertheless about the majority of the populace there was an easy aggressiveness that my appearance eviden... High-water Mark
When the tide was out on the Dedlow Marsh, its extended dreariness was patent. Its spongy, low-lying surface, sluggish, inky pools, and tortuous sloughs, twisting their slimy way, eel-like, toward the open bay, were all hard facts. So were the few... Higher Than Statute Law
Wade descended the stairs of the hotel and went into the barroom, fuming with rage and chagrin because Helen had seen him in such a temper. Like most men of action, he took pride in his self-control, which seldom failed him, but the villainy of th... His Only Asset
It would be a pleasure to record that Capital found Bruce's personality so irresistible that his need of funds met with instant response, that the dashing picturesqueness of his appearance and charm of his unconventional speech and manner was so f... His Shadow Before
At ten o'clock the following morning, in a rear room of "Balleau's First Chance" saloon--which was directly across the street from the Lamo Eating-House--Luke Deveny and two other men were sitting at a card-table with bottle and glasses between th... His Stock In Trade
"The science of salesmanship is quite as exact as the science of astronomy," said Mr. Gross, casting his eyes down the table to see that he had the attention of the other boarders, "and much more intricate. The successful salesman is as much an ar... Holding The Claim
"Oh, we're that gang from th' O-Bar-O," hummed Waffles, sinking the branding-iron in the flank of a calf. The scene was one of great activity and hilarity. Several fires were burning near the huge corral and in them half a dozen irons were getti... Homing Hearts
Jack Kilmeny had not been brought up in the dry sunbaked West for nothing. The winds of the Rockies had entered into his character as well as into his physique. He was a willful man, with a good deal of granite in his make-up. A fighter from his y... Hopalong Keeps His Word
The waters of the Rio Grande slid placidly toward the Gulf, the hot sun branding the sleepy waters with streaks of molten fire. To the north arose from the gray sandy plain the Quitman Mountains, and beyond them lay Bass Ca on. From the latter e... Hopalong Loses A Horse
For a month after their return from the San Miguel, Hopalong and his companions worked with renewed zest, and told and retold the other members of the outfit of their unusual experiences near the Mexican border. Word had come up to them that Martin ... Hopalong Nurses A Grouch
After the excitement incident to the affair at Powers' shack had died down and the Bar-20 outfit worked over its range in the old, placid way, there began to be heard low mutterings, and an air of peevish discontent began to be manifested in various... Hopalong's Decision
Shortly after noon, Hopalong, who had ridden with his head bowed low in meditation, looked up and slapped his thigh. Then he looked at Red and grinned. "Look ahere, Red," he began, "there ain't no rustlers with their headquarters on this God-f... Hostage
The revolution of Todos Santos had to all appearances been effected as peacefully as the gentle Liberator of Quinquinambo could have wished. Two pronunciamientos, rudely printed and posted in the Plaza, and saluted by the fickle garrison of one hu... Houck Takes A Ride
Tolliver rubbed a hand uncertainly over a bristly chin. "Why, what are they doin' that for, Jake?" "Are you the Tolliver girl's father?" asked Larson. "Yes, sir." "Then we got bad news for you. She's sick." "Sick?" the trapper's lips tre... How Happiness Returned To The Lazy A
When Lite rapped with his knuckles on the door of the room where she was waiting, Jean stood with her hands pressed tightly over her face, every muscle rigid with the restraint she was putting upon herself. For Lite this three-day interval had been ... How Tom Connor Went Boring For Oil
One thing was plain at any rate: we could do nothing towards finding the source of the underground stream until the snow cleared off the mountain, and that was likely to be later than usual this year, for the fall had been exceedingly heavy in the... How Trouble Came To The Lazy A
Without going into a deep, psychological discussion of the elements in men's souls that breed events, we may say with truth that the Lazy A ranch was as other ranches in the smooth tenor of its life until one day in June, when the finger of fate wro... Hughie's Emancipation
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...