University of California Berkeley Gift of ROBERT EASTON Max Brandt Masterpiece Eden This Superb 110-pieee Set. with ini- tial in 2 places in wreath with 6-color decorations on every piece and Bold covered handles, consists ot: 12 Dinner Plates. 9 inches It' Breakfast Plates, 7 inches VI Cups 12 Saucers 12 Soap Plates. 7X inches 12 Cereal Dishes. 6 inches 12 Fruit Dishes, 6X inches 12 Individual Bread and Batter Plates, 6X ioefaes 1 Platter, 1SK inches 1 Platter, 11 X Inches 1 Celery Dish, 8 X inches 1 Sauce Boat Tray, 7X inches I Batter Plate, 6 inches 1 Vegetable Dish. 10M inches. with lid (2 pieces) Important! Hartman guarantees that every piece in this set ia absolutely first quality- no seconds. This is a standard or "open" pat- tern Replacement pieces may be had of us for three years. Each piece wrapped in tissue paper. Excellent packing to pi event break- age. Shipped without delay. Order No. 324DMA13. Bargain price. $32.15. Pay $1 now, $3 monthly. "0.* D.pt, 4133 Copyright. 192Z, by Hwtman'a.Chic.iro ChlCBO,lll. H ARTM AN Brings 110-PieceGold Decorated Martha Washington Dinner Set Send only $1 and we ship the full Bet HO pieces. Use it 30 days. Then if not satisfied, return them and we refund your SI and pay transportation charges both ways. If you keep them, take nearly m year to pay on easy terms. Your Initial in 2 Places on EveryPiece-5-ColorFloral Decorations and Gold Wonderful artistic effect is given by the wreath and rich design surround- ing the initial. Your initial appears in 2 places on every piece. All Handles Covered with field Every handle is covered with poli shed gold. Shipping weight about 90 Ibs, 1 Deep Bowl, 8V inches lOval Baker, 9 inches 1 Small Deep Bowl, 6 inches 1 Gravy Boat, 7.H inches 1 Creamer 1 SuRar Bowl with cover(2 pieces) ,368-Page Book Free FREE Bargain Catalog /|| A pTH/H-aj FURNITURE & / nMlf I lYIMMcARPET CO. /DEPT. 4133 CHICAGO, ILL. I enclose $1.60. Send 110-piece Golden Martha A it back and you willrefandmy$1.00and pay trans- portation charges both ways. If I keep it I will pay $3.00per month until ful' price, B2.8B.1S paid, kitchen ware, gas/ fi t | erema i Dg w j t b you until final payment is made. in furniture, rugs, stoves, silverware, / washing machines. / , kitchen ware, gas engines and cream / separators, etc. ' all on oar easy / Name terms SO days' FREEtrial. Pott card or letter I bringsitFREE. / "LetHartman/ ' 'i 7 Street Address. Feather /**, state. YoUf State your Occupation Color. (Any One Letter). ARGOSY-ALLSTORY ADVERTISING SECTION. This Letter Saved Me Half on a New Typewriter Chicago, Nov. 2, 1921. Dear Henry: I hear that you are down in New York to open a branch office for your firm. You'll be buying a lot of things for the office, not the least important of which will be typewriters. And that's what I want to talk to you about typewriters. I want to give you the benefit of an experience I had some time ago, and thereby, I hope, save you some real money. About a year ago I decided to buy a typewriter for home use. My first thought was to purchase one of the makes we were using in the office, which had been put in before I became buyer for the house. But when it came to digging up a hundred dollars for the machine I just couldn't. Somehow or other it looked like too much money to me. Then I thought about picking up a second-hand machine, but the price was about as high, and I had no assurance of service. I was undecided as to what to do, when one evening at home I ran across an Oliver Typewriter ad in a magazine. I remembered then having read the advertising before and being impressed with the story. 'Why pay $100 for Any Typewriter" "When You Can Buy a New Oliver for $49.50?" read the ad then it went on to explain how The Oliver Typewriter Company had cut the price by selling direct and eliminating costly selling methods. It was clear to me as an ex- perienced buyer how they could well afford to lop off $50.50 of the $100 by their new eco- nomical selling plan. The ad brought out the fact, too, that I could pay $49.50 cash, or $55 in easy installments $3 after trial and then $4 per month. But the thing that decided me was their free trial offer. Without my sending or depositing a penny, they would ship'me an Oliver for five days free trial. I could use the typewriter for five days just as if it were my own, and if I wasn't satisfied, all I had to do was to ship it back at the Oliver Company's expense. Well, I mailed in the coupon and got an Oliver for free trial. To make a short story shorter. I was more than pleased with the Oliver. I fully agreed with The Oliver Typewriter Company that if any typewriter was worth $100 it was this splendid Oliver. FREE TRIAL Well, later when we found it necessary to re- place some of the typewriters at the office, you may be sure I put in. Olivers, saving the com- pany a nice $50.50 on each. At first the girls were reluctant about changing machines, but after a week or two with the Oliver, they wouldn't have any other. Naturally now we are all Oliver enthusiasts that's why I write this letter to you. You just give the Oliver a trial and you'll be more than willing to buy me a good dinner when I arrive in New York next month. Yours, J. B. That is the letter that saved me $50.50 on each of my typewriters. I not only equipped the office with the Oli- ver, but, like my friend, I also bought one for home use. Yes, I am more than willing to buy my friend a good dinner for his valuable advice. Now $49.50 Any reader may order an Oli- ver direct from this ad by mail- ing the coupon. No money in advance. No deposit. No obli- gation to buy. Return or keep the Oliver as you decide after five days free trial. If you decide to keep the typewriter, you can pay cash or you may take over a year to pay at the easy rate of $4 a month. Mail the coupon today NOW. Canadian Price, $79 ave Typewriter 374 Oliver Typewriter Bldg. Chicago, III. $50^ r - mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmif THE OLIVER TYPEWRITER COMPANY, 374 Oliver Typewriter Bldgr., Chicago. 111. DShip me a new Oliver No. 9 Typewriter for five days' free inspection. If I keep it I will pav $55 as follows: $3 at the end of trial period and then at the rate of $4 per month. The title to re- main in you until fully paid for. If I make cash settlement at end of trial period I am to deduct ten per cent and remit to you $49.50. If I decide not to keep it. I will ship it back at your expense at the end of five days. My shipping point is DDo not send a machine until I order it. Mali me your book "The High Cost of Typewriters The Reason and the Remedy," your de luxe cata- log and further information. A Finer Typewriter at a Fair Price Over 900,000 Sold Name Street Address City State.. Occupation or Business In answering this advertisement it it desirable that you mention ARGO SY- ALLSTORY E .E K. L "Y VOL. CXLH CONTENTS FOR APRIL 15, 1922 NUMBER 1 The entire contents of this magazine are protected by copyright, and must not be reprinted without the publishers' permission. FIVE CONTINUED STORIES The Garden of Eden Max Brand 1 A Six-Part Story Part One ^ The Lady in Blue { Augusta Groner and I . 34 A Five-Part Story - Part Two I GraCC Isabel Colbron I The Tiger Trail Edison Marshall .... 61 A Four-Part Story Part Three South of Fifty-Three Jack Bechdolt 98 A Six-Part Story Part Four The Flying Fool Rex Parson 1 22 A Five-Part Story Part Five ONE NOVELETTE The Gilded Caravan ....... Robert Terry Shannon . . 77 FIVE SHORT STORIES The Gloom on Second Base .... Charles Divine 26 Thirty Cents More Emily Callaway .... 52 The Contract with Conceptione . . . Howard Rockey . . . . 114 A Hundred Thousand in Gold . . . Lyon Mearson 144 Common Folks Gordon Stiles 152 JIMMY MILLION was a bug-hunter from Arkansas, seeking the destructive cotton boll weevil in Algiers, when he audaciously looked upon the unveiled face of a Moorish girl. That isn't done over there, and from that moment the hero of EAST IS EAST BY T. S. STRIBLING which starts Next Week, had very little time for his beloved bugs. Romance called and Adventure beckoned, dragging Jimmy over the Sahara in pursuit of a girl who always did the unexpected. Don't miss this charming romance. THE FRANK A. MUNSEY COMPANY, 280 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, and TEMPLE HOUSE, TEMPLE AVENUE, E. C., LONDON FRANK A. MONSKY, President RICHABD H. TUBEBIKQTON, Secretary CHSISTOPHKB H. POPE. Treasurer Single copies, 1O cents. By the year, S4.OO In United States. Its dependencies, Mexico and Cuba ; $6.00 to Canada, and $7.OO to Foreign Countries. Remittances should be made by cheek, express money order or postal money order. Currency should not be sent unless registered PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE FRANK A. MUNSEY COMPANY. COPYRIGHT, 1922 Entered as second class matter July 15, 1920, at the Post-Office at New York, under the Act of March 8, 1879 COPTBI3HTSD IN GREAT BRITAIN ARGOSY- ALLSTORY VOL. CXLII SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1022 NUMBER J P^rtl d ran Author of "The Untamed," "Tnilin'," "The Seventh Man," "Black Jack," etc. CHAPTER I, LUKIN WILL NOT BEND THE KNEE. BY careful tailoring the broad shoul- ders of Ben Connor were made to appear fashionably slender, and he disguised the depth of his chest by a stoop whose model slouched along Broadway :newhere between sunset and dawn. He wore, moreover, the first or second pair of spats that had ever stepped off the train at Lukin Junction, a glowing Scotch tweed, and a Panama hat of the color and weave of fine old linen. There was a skeleton at this Feast of Fashion, however, for only ht gloves could make the stubby fingers and broad palms of Connor presentable. At ninety-five in the shade gloves were out of the question, so he held a pair of yellow chamois in one hand and in the other an amber-headed cane. This was the end of the little spur-line, and while the train backed off down the track, staggering across the switch, Ben Connor looked after -it. leaning upon his cane just forcibly 1 A enough to feel the flection of the wood. This was one of his attitudes of elegance, and when the train was out of sight, and only the puffs of white vapor rolled around the shoulder of the hill, he turned to look the town over, having already given Lukin Junction ample time to look over Ben Con- nor. The little crowd was not through with its survey, but the eye of the imposing stranger abashed it. He had one of those long somber faces which Scotchmen call " dour." The complexion was sallow, heavy pouches of sleeplessness lay beneath his eyes, and there were ridges beside the corners of his mouth which came from an habitual compression of the lips. Looked at in profile he seemed to be smiling broad- ly so that the gravity of the full face was always surprising. It was this that made the townsfolk look down. After a moment, they glanced back at him hastily. Some- where about the corners of his lips or his eyes there was a glint of interest, a touch of amusement they could not tell which, ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. but from that moment they were willing to forget the clothes and look at the man. While Ben Connor was still enjoying the situation, a rotund fellow bore down on him. " You're Mr. Connor, ain't you? You wired for a room in the hotel? Come on, then. My rig is over here. These your grips?'* He picked up the suit case and the soft leather traveling bag, and led the way to a buckboard at which stood two downheaded ponies. " Can't we walk?" suggested Ben Con- nor, looking up and down the street at the dozen sprawling frame houses; but the fat man stared at him with calm pity. He was so fat and so good-natured that even Ben Connor did not impress him greatly. " Maybe you think this is Lukin?" he asked. When the other raised his heavy black eyebrows he explained: " This ain't noth- ing but Lukin Junction. Lukin is clear round the hill. Climb in, Mr. Connor." Connor laid one hand on the back of the seat, and with surge of his strong shoulders leaped easily into his place; the fat man noted this with a roll of his little eyes, and then took his own place, the old wagon careening toward him as he mounted the step. He sat with his right foot dangling over the side of the buckboard, and a plump shoulder turned fairly upon his pas- senger so that w ? hen he spoke he had to throw his head and jerk out the words; but this was apparently his time-honored posi- tion in the wagon, and he did not care to vary it for the sake of conversation. A flap of the loose reins set the horses jog- trotting out of Lukin Junction down a gulch which aimed at the side of an enor- mous mountain, naked, with no sign of a village or even a single shack among its rocks. Other peaks crowded close on the right and left, with a loftier range behind, running up to scattered summits white with snow r and blue with distance. The shadows of the late afternoon were thick as fog in the gulch, and all the lower moun- tains were already dim so that the snow- peaks in the distance seemed as detached, and high as clouds. Ben Connor sat with his cane between his knees and his hands draped over its amber head and watched those shining places until the fat man heaved his head over his shoulder. " Most like somebody told you about Townsend 's Hotel?" His passenger moved his attention from the mountain to his companion. He w r as so leisurely about it that it seemed he had not heard. "Ye?," he said, "I was told of the place." " Who?" said the other expectantly. u A friend of mine." The fat man grunted and worked his head around so far that a great wrinkle rolled up his neck close to his ear. He looked into the eye of the stranger. " Me being Jack Townsend, I'm sort of interested to know things like that; the ones that like my place and them that don't." Connor nodded, but since he showed no inclination to name his friend, Jack Towns- end swung on a new tack to come to the windward of this uncommunicative guest. Lukin was a fairly inquisitive town, and the hotel proprietor usually contributed his due portion and more to the gossips. " Some comes for one reason and some for another," went on Townsend, " which generally it's to hunt and fish. That ain't funny come to think of it, because outside of liars nobody ever hooked finer trout than w r hat comes out of the Big Sandy. Some of 'em comes for the mining they was a strike over to South Point last week and some for the cows, but mostly it's the fishing and the hunting." He paused, but having waited in vain he said directly: " I can show you the best holes in the Big Sandy." There was another of those little waits with which, it seemed, the stranger met every remark; not a thoughtful pause, but rather as though he wondered if it were worth while to make any answer. " I've come here for the silence," he said. " Silence," repeated Townsend, nodding in the manner of one who does not under- stand. Then he flipped the roan with the butt of his lines and squinted down the gulch, for he felt there might be a double meaning in THE GARDEN OF EDEN. the last remark. Filled with the gloomy conviction that he was bringing a silent man to his hotel, he gloomily surveyed the mountain sides. There was nothing about them to cheer him The trees were lost in shadows and all the slopes seemed quite barren of life. He vented a little burst of anger by yanking at the rein of the off horse, a dirty gray. " Giddap, Kitty, damn your eyes!" The mare jumped, struck a stone with a fore foot, and stumbled heavily. Towns- end straightened her out again with an ex- pert hand and cursed. L Of all the no-good bosses I ever see," he said, inviting the stranger to share in his just wrath, " this Kitty is the outbeat- ingest, no good rascal. Git on, fool." He clapped the reins along her back, and puffed his disgust. " And yet she has points. Now, I ask you, did you ever see a truer Steeldust? Look at that high croup and that straight rump. Look at them hips, I say, and a chest to match 'em. But they ain't any heart in her. Take a hoss through and through/' he went on oracularly, " they're pretty much like men, mostly, and if a man ain't got the heart inside, it don't make no difference how big around the chest he measures." . Ben Connor had leaned forward, study- ing the mare. " Your horse would be all right in her place/' he said. " Of course, she won't do up here in the mountains." Like any true Westerner of the moun- tain-desert, Jack Townsend would far rather have been discovered with his hand in the pocket of another man than be ob- served registering surprise. He looked carefully ahead until his face was straight again. Then he turned. Where d'you make out her place to be?" he asked carelessly. " Down below," said the other without hesitation, and he waved his arm. " Down in soft, sandy irrigation country she'd be a fine animal/' Jack Townsend blinked. " You know her?" he asked. The other shook his head. ''Well, damn my soul!" breathed the hotel proprietor. " This beats me. Maybe you read a hoss's mind, partner?" Connor shrugged his shoulders, but Townsend no longer took offense at the taciturnity of his companion; he spoke now in a lower confiding voice which indicated an admission of equality. " You're right. They said she was good, and she was good! I seen her run; I sad- dled her up and rode her thirty miles through sand that would of broke the heart of anything but a Steeldust, and she come through without battin' an eye. But when I got her up here she didn't do no good. But " he reverted suddenly to his original surprise ' how'd you know her? Recog- nize the brand, maybe?" " By her trot," said the other, and he looked across the hills. They had turned an angle of the gulch, and on a shelf of level ground, dishing out from the side of the mountain, stretched the town. " Isn't it rather odd," said Connor, ' for people to build a town over here when they could have it on the railroad?" " Maybe it looks queer to some," nodded Townsend. He closed his lips firmly, determined to imitate the terseness of his guest; but when he observed with a side-glance that Connor would not press the inquiry, talk suddenly overflowed. Indeed, Townsend was a run- ning well of good nature, continually wash- ing all bad temper over the brim. " I'll show you how it was," he went on. " You see that shoulder of the mountain away off up there? If the light was clearer you'd be able to make out some old shacks up there, half standin' up and half fallin' down. That's where Lukin used to be. "Well, the railroad come along and says: ' We're goin' to run a spur into the valley, here. You move dotvn and build your town at the end of the track and we'll give you a hand bringing up new timber for the houses.' That's the way with railroads; they want to dictate; they're too used to handlin' folks back East that'll let capital walk right over their backs." Here Townsend sent a glance at Connor to see if he stirred under the spur, but there was no sign of irritation. 4 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ;f Out here we're different; nobody can't the restaurant, the drug store, the former step in here and run us unless he's asked, saloon now transformed into an ice-cream See? We said, you build the railroad half parlor, and other public places, way and well come the other half, but we It was dark, but the night winds had won't come clear down into the valley." not yet commenced, and Lukin sweltered " Why?" asked Connor. " Isn't Lukin with a heat more unbearable than full Junction a good place for a village?" moon. ' Fine. None better. But it's the It was nothing to Ben Connor, however, principle of the thing, you see? Them rail- for he was fresh from the choking summer road magnates says to us: ' Come all the nights of Manhattan, and in Lukin, no way.' ' Go to the devil,' says we. And so matter how hot it became, the eye could we come half-way to the new railroad and always find a cool prospect. It had been built our town; it'd be a pile more agree- unpleasant enough when the light was able to have Lukin over where the railroad burning, for the room was done in a hot, ends look at the way I have to drive back orange-colored paper, but when he blew and forth for my trade? But just the same, out the lamp and sat down before the win- \ve showed that railroad that it couldn't dow he forgot the room and let his glance talk us down.'' go out among the mountains. A young He struck his horses savagely with the moon drifted across the corner of his win- lines; they sprang from the jog-trot into a dow, a sickle of light with a dim, phos- canter, and the buckboard went bumping phorescent line around the rest of the cir- down the main street of Lukin. cle. It was bright enough to throw the peaks into strong relief, and dull enough to let the stars live. CHAPTER II. His upward vision had as a rule been limited by the higher stories of some sky- CONNOR HEARS A CALL. \ . , . , J scraper, and now his eye wandered with a BEN CONNOR sat in his room over- pleasant sense of freedom over the snow -looking the crossing of the streets. It summits where he could imagine a cold was by no means the ramshackle hud- wind blowing through reach after reach of die of lean-to's that he had expected, for the blue-gray sky. It pleased and troubled Lukin was built to withstand a siege of Ben Connor very much as one is pleased January snows and storm-winds which and troubled by the first study of a foreign were scooped by the mountains into a fun- language, with new prospects opening, nel that focused straight on the village, strange turns of thought, and great un- Besides, Lukin was no accidental, cross- known names like stars. But after a time roads town, but the bank, store, and Ben Connor relaxed. The first cool puff amusement center of a big country. The moved across his forehead and carried him timber was being swept from the Black halfway to a dreamless sleep. Mountain; there were fairly prosperous Here a chorus of mirth burst up at him mines in the vicinity; and cattlemen were from the street, men's voices pitched high ranging their cows over the plateaus more and wild, the almost hysterical laughter of and more during the spring and summer, people who are much alone. In Manhat- Therefore, Lukin boasted two parallel main tan only drunken men laughed like this, streets, and a cross street, looking forward Among the mountains it did not irritate to the day when it should be incorporated Ben Connor; in tune with the rest, it was and have a mayor of its own. At present full of freedom. He looked down to the it had a moving-picture house and a dance street, and seeing half a dozen bearded fel- hall where a hundred and fifty couples lows frolic in the shaft of light from a win- could take the floor at once; above all, it dow, he decided that people kept their had Jack Townsend's hotel. This was a youth longer in Lukin. stout, timber building of two stories, the All things seemed in order to Connor, lower portion of which was occupied by this night. He rolled his sleeves higher to THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 5 let all the air that stirred get at his bulky wins title in eighth round. Lucky punch forearms, and then lighted a cigar. It was dethrones lightweight champion." Ben a dark, oily Havana it had cost him a Connor swallowed hard and found that his great deal in money and nerves to acquire throat was dry. He was afraid of himself that habit and he breathed the scent afraid that he would go back. He was deep while he waited for the steady wind recalled from his ugly musing by the odor which Jack Townsend had promised, of the cigar, which had burned out and There was just enough noise to give the was filling the room with a rank smell; he silence that waiting quality which cannot tossed the crumbled remnants through the be described; below him voices murmured, window, crushed his hat upon his head, and lifted now and then, rhythmically, and went down, collarless, coatless, to get Ben Connor thought the sounds strangely on the street in the sound of men's voices, musical, and he began to brim with the If he had been in Manhattan he would same good nature which puffed the cheeks have called up a pal; they would have of Jack Townsend. There was a substan- planned an evening together; but in Lu- tial basis for that content in the broiled kin- trout which he had had for dinner. It was At the door below he glared up and while his thoughts drifted back to those down the street. There was nothing to see browned fish that the first wind struck him. but a light buggy which rolled noiselessly Dust with an acrid scent whirled up from through the dust. A dog detached itself the street then a steady stream of air from behind the vehicle and came to bark swept his face and arms. furiously at his feet. The kicking muscles It was almost as if another personality in Connor's leg began to twitch, but a voice had stepped into the room. The sounds shouted and the mongrel trotted away, from the street fell away, and there was growling a challenge over its shoulder. The the rustling of cloth somewhere, the cool silence fell once more. He turned and lifting of hair from his forehead, and an strode back to the desk of the hotel, behind odd sense of motion as if the wind were which Jack Townsend sat tilted back in his blowing through him. But something else chair reading a newspaper, came with the breeze, and though he noted " What's doing in this town of yours to- it at first with only a subconscious discon- night?" he asked. tent, it beat gradually into his mind, a light The proprietor moistened a fat thumb to ticking, very rapid, and faint, and sound- turn the page and looked over his glasses at ing in an irregular rhythm. He wanted to Connor. straighten out that rhythm and make the " Appears to me there ain't much stir- flutter of tapping regular. Then it began rin' about," he said. " Except for the to take on a meaning; it framed words. movies down the street. You see, every - " Philip Lord, jailed for embezzlement.'' body's there." "Hell!" burst out Ben Connor. "The "Movies," muttered Connor under his telegraph!' 1 breath, and looked savagely around him. He started up from his chair, feeling be- What his eyes fell- on was a picture of an trayed, for that light, irregular tapping was old, old man on the wall, and the rusted the voice of the world from which he had stove which stood in the center of the room fled. A hard, cool mind worked behind the with a pipe zigzagging uncertainly toward gray eyes of Ben Connor, but as he fin- the ceiling. Everything was out of order, gered the cigar his brain was fumbling at broken down like himself, a large idea. Forty-Second and Broadway " Looks to me like you're kind of off was calling him back. your feet," said Jack Townsend, and he When he looked out the window, now, laid down his paper and looked wistfully the mountains were flat shapes against a at his guest. He made up his mind. " If flat sky, with no more meaning than a you're kind of dry for a drink," he said, picture. " I might rustle you a flask of red-eye The sounder was chattering: " Kid Lane ' Whisky?" echoed Connor, and mois- ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. tened his lips. Then he shook his head. " Not that." He went back to the door with steps so long and heavy that Jack Townsend rose from his chair, and spreading his hands on the desk, peered after the muscular figure. " That gent is a bad hombre," pro- nounced Jack to himself. He sat down again with a sigh, and added: " Maybe." At the door Connor was snarling: " Quiet? Sure; like a grave!" The wind freshened, fell away, and the light, swift ticking sounded again more clearly. It mingled with the alkali scent of the dust Manhattan and the desert to- gether. He felt a sense of persecuted vir- tue. But one of his maxims was: " If any- thing bothers you, go and find out about it." Ben Connor largely used maxims and epigrams; he met crises by remembering what some one else had said. The ticking of the sounder was making him homesick and dangerously nervous, so he went to find the telegrapher and see the sounder which brought the voice of the world into Lukin. A few steps carried him to a screen door through which he looked upon a long, nar- row office. In a corner, an electric fan swung back and forth through a hurried arc and flut- tered papers here and there. Its whining almost drowned the ticking of the sounder, and Ben Connor wondered with dull irri- tation how a tapping which was hardly au- dible at the door of the office could carry to his room in the hotel. He opened the door and entered. CHAPTER III. CONNOR TALKS SHOP. IT was a room not more than eight feet wide, very long, with the floor, walls, and ceiling of the same narrow, un- painted pine boards; the flooring was worn ragged and the ceiling warped into waves. Across the room a wide plank with a trap- door at one end served as a counter, and now it was littered with yellow telegraph blanks,, and others, crumpled up, were scat- tered about Connor's feet. No sooner had the screen door squeaked behind him and shut him fairly into the place than the staccato rattling of the sounder multiplied, and seemed to chatter from the wall be- hind him. It left an echoing in the ear of Ben Connor which formed into the words of his resolution, " I've made my stake and I'm going to beat it. I'm going to get away where I can forget the worries. To- day I beat 'em. To-morrow the worries will beat me." That was why he was in Lukin to for- get. And here the world had sneaked up on him and whispered in his ear. Was it fair? It w r as a woman who " jerked lightning " for Lukin. With that small finger on the key she took the pulse of the world. " Belmont returns chattered the sounder. Connor instinctively covered his ears. Then, feeling that he was acting like a silly child, he lowered his hands. Another idea had come to him that this was fate luck his luck. Why not take another chance? He wavered a moment, fighting the temptation and gloomily studying the back of the operator. The cheapness of her white cotton dress fairly shouted at him. Also her hair straggled somewhat about the nape of her neck. All this irritated Connor absurdly. " Fifth race," said the sounder: " Lady Beck, first; Conqueror, second- Certainly this was fate tempting tune. Connor snatched a telegraph blank and scribbled a message to Harry Slocum, his betting commissioner during this unhappy vacation. " Send dope on Murray handicaps time trials of Trickster and Caledonian. Ho- tel Townsend." This done, having tapped sharply on the counter to call the operator's attention, he dropped his elbows on the plank and scowled downward in profound reverie. They were pouring out of Belmont Park, now, many a grim face and many a joyous face. Money had come easy and gone easy. Ah, the reckless bonhomie of that crowd, living for to-day only, because " to- THE GARDEN OF EDEN. morrow the ponies may have it!" A good day for the bookies if that old cripple, Lady Beck, had found her running legs. What a trimming they must have given the wise ones! At this point another hand came into the circle of his vision and turned 'the telegram about. A pencil flicked across the words, checking them swiftly. Connor was fasci- nated by that hand, it was so cool, so slen- der and deft. He glanced up to her face and saw a resolute chin, a smiling mouth which was truly lovely, and direct eyes as dark as his own. She carried her head buoyantly, in a way that made Connor think, with a tingle, of some clean-blooded filly at the post. The girl made his change, and shoving it across, she bent her head toward the sounder. The characters came through too swiftly for even Ben Connor's sharp ear, but the girl, listening, smiled slowly. " Something about soft pine?" queried Connor. She brightened at this unexpected meet- ing-point. Her eyes widened as she stud- ied him and listened to the message at the same time, and she accomplished this dou- ble purpose with such calm that Connor felt a trifle abashed. Then the shadow of listening vanished, and she concentrated on Connor. " Soft pine is up," she nodded. " I knew it would climb as soon as old Lucas bought in." " Speculator in Lukin, is he?" "No. California. The one whose yacht burned at Honolulu last year. Sold pine like wild lire two months ago; down goes the price. Then he bought a little while ago, and- now the pine skyrockets. He can buy a new yacht with what he makes, I suppose!" The shade of listening darkened her eyes again. "Listen!" She raised a hushing forefinger that seemed tremulous in rhythm with the ticking. Wide brims are in again," exclaimed the operator, " and wide hats are awful on me; isn't that the luck?" She went back to her key with the mes- sage in her harrd. and Connor, dropping his elbows on the counter, watched her send it. wirh swift almost imperceptible flections of her wrist. Then she sat again with her hands fold- ed in her lap, listening, Connor turned his head and glanced through the door; by squinting he could look over the roof just across the street and see the shadowy mountains beyond; then he looked back again and watched the girl listening to the voice of the outer world. The shock of the contrast soothed. He began to forget about Ben Connor and think of her. The girl turned in her chair and directly faced him, and he saw that she moved her whole body just as she moved her hand, swiftly, but without a jerk; she considered him gravely. "Lonely?" she inquired. "Or wor- ried?" She spoke with such a commonplace in- tonation that one might have thought it her business to attend to loneliness and wor- ries. "As a matter of fact," answered Ben Connor, instinctively dodging the direct query, u I've been wondering how they hap- pened to stick a number-one artist on this wire. " I'm not kidding," he explained hastily, You see, I used to jerk lightning my- self." For the first time she really smiled, and he discovered what a rare thing a smile may be. Up to that point he had thought she lacked something, just as the white dress lacked a touch of color. " Oh," she nodded. " Been off the wire long?" Ben Connor grinned. It began with his lips; last of all the dull gray eyes lighted. " Ever since a hot day in July at Aque- duct. The Lorrimer Handicap on the 1 1 th of July, to be exact. I tossed up my job the next day." " I see," she said, becoming aware of him again. " You played Tip-Top Sec- ond." The deuce! Were you at Aqueduct that day?" 11 1 was here on the wire." He re- strained himself with an effort, for a series of questions was Connor's idea of a dull conversation. He merely rubbed his 8 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. knuckles against his chin and looked at her legs that never pulled a wagon, and backs wistfully. that couldn't weight. Just toys; speed " He nipped King Charles and Miss machines; all heart and fire and springy Lazy at the wire and squeezed home by a muscles. It made my pulse jump to the nose paid a fat price, I remember," went fever point to watch them light-foot it on the girl. " I suppose you had some- along the rail with the groom in front on a thing down on him?' 1 clod of a horse. I felt that I'd lived the " Did a friend of yours play that race?" way that horse walked downheaded, and " Oh, no; but I was new to the wire, I decided to change." then, and I used to cut in and listen to He stopped short and locked his stubby everything that came by." fingers together, frowning at her so that " I know. It's like having some one the lines beside his mouth deepened, whisper secrets in your ear, at first, isn't " I seem to be telling you the story of it? But you remember the Lorrimer, eh? my life," he said. Then he saw that she That was a race!" was studying him, not with idle curiosity, The sounder stopped chattering, and by but rather as one turns the pages of an ab- an alternation in her eyes he knew that up sorbing book, never knowing what the next to that moment she had been giving two- moment wilf reveal or where the characters thirds of her attention to the voice of the will be taken. wire and the other fraction to him; but " You want to talk; I want to hear you,' 1 now she centered upon him, and he want- she said gravely. " Go ahead. Besides- ed to talk. As if, mysteriously, he could I don't chatter afterward. They paraded share some of the burden of his unrest with past the grand stand, then what?" the girl. Most of all he wished to talk Ben Connor sighed, because this office had lifted him back to " I watched four races. The wise guys the old days of " lightning jerking," when with me were betting ten bucks on every he worked for a weekly pay-check. The race and losing on red-hot tips; and every same nervous eagerness which had been his time I picked out the horse that looked in that time was now in this girl, and he good to me, that horse ran in the money, responded to it like a call of blood to blood. Then they came out for the Lorrimer. " A couple of wise ones took me out to One of my friends was betting on King Aqueduct that day: I had all that was Charles and the other on Miss Lazy. Both coming to me for a month in my pocket, of them couldn't win, and the chance was and I kept saying to myself: ' They think that neither of them would. So I looked I'll fall for this game and drop my wad; over the line as it went by the stand. King here's where I fool 'em!' Charles was a little chestnut, one of those He chuckled as he remembered. long fellows that stretch like rubber when ; ' Go on," said the girl. " You make me they commence running; Miss Lazy was a feel as if / were about to make a clean- gangling bay. Yes, they were both good up!" horses, but I looked over the rest, and " Really interested?" pretty soon I saw a rangy chestnut with a She fixed an eager glance on him, as white foreleg and a midget of a. boy up in though she were judging how far she might the saddle. ' No. 7 Tip-Top Second,' let herself go. Suddenly she leaned closer said the wise guy on my right when I asked to Connor. him; ' a lame one.' Come to look at him " Interested? I've been taking the world again, he was doing a catch step with his off the wire for six years and you've been front feet, but I had an idea that when he where things happen." got going he'd forget all about that catch " That's the way I felt at Aqueduct and run like the wind. Understand?" when I saw the ponies parade past the "Just a hunch," said the girl. "Yes!" grand stand the first time," he nodded. She stepped closer to the counter and " They came dancing on the bitt, and even leaned across it. Her eyes were bright. I could see that they weren't made for use: Connor knew that she was seeing that pic- THE GARDEN" OF EDEN. ture of the hot day, the* crowd of straw hats stirring wildly, the murmur and cry- that went up as the string of racers jogged past. " They went to the post," said Connor, " and I got down my bet a hundred dol- lars, my whole wad on Tip-Top Second. The bookie looked just once at me, and I'll never forget how his eyebrows went to- gether. I went back to my seat." " You were shaking all over, I guess," suggested the girl, and her hands were quivering. u I was not," said Ben Connor, " I was cold through and through, and never moved my eyes off Tip-Top Second. His jockey had a green jacket with two stripes through it, and the green was easy to watch. I saw the crowd go off, and I saw Tip-Top left flat-footed at the post." The girl drew a breath. Connor smiled at her. The hot evening had flushed his face, but now a small spot of white ap- peared in either cheek, and his dull eyes had grown expressionless. She knew what he meant when he said that he was cold when hesaw the string go to the post. " It it must have made you sick! " said the girl. " Not a bit. I knew the green jacket was going to finish ahead of the rest as well as I knew that my name was Ben Connor. I said he was left at the post. Well, it wasn't exactly that, but when the bunch came streaking out of the shoot, he was half a dozen lengths behind. It was a mile and an eighth race. They went down the back stretch, eight horses all bunched to- gether, and the green jacket drifting that half dozen lengths to the rear. The wise guys turned and grinned at me; then they forgot all about me and began to yell for King Charles and Miss Lazy. " The bunch were going around the turn and the two favorites were fighting it out together. But I had an eye for the green jacket, and halfway around the turn I saw him move up." The girl sighed. " No," Connor continues, " he hadn't won the race yet. And he never should have won it at all, but King Charles was earning a hundred and thirty-eight pounds, and Miss Lazy a hundred and thirty-three, while Tip-Top Second came in as a fly-weight eighty-seven pounds! No horse in the world could give that much to him when he was right, but who guessed that then? " They swung around the turn and hit the stretch. Tip-Top took the curve like a cart horse. Then the bunch straightened out, with King Charles and Miss Lazy fighting each other in front and the rest streaking out behind like the tail of a flag. They did that first mile in 1.38, but they broke their hearts doing it, with that weight up. " They had an eighth to go one little measly furlong, with Tip-Top in the ruck, and the crowd screaming for King Charles and Miss Lazy; but just exactly at the mile post the leaders flattened, I didn't know it, but the man in front of me dropped his glasses and his head. ' Blown! ' he said, and that was all. It seemed to me- that the two in front were running as strongly as ever, but Tip-Top was running better. He came streaking, with the boy flattening out along his neck and the whip going up and down. But I didn't stir. I couldn't; my blood was turned to ice water. " Tip-Top walked by the ruck and got his nose on the hip of King Charles. Some- f body was yelling behind me in a squeaky voice: ' There is something" wrong! There's something wrong!' There was, too, and it was the eighty-seven pounds that a fool handicapper had put on Tip- Top. At the sixteenth Miss Lazy threw up her head like a swimmer going down and dropped back, and Tip-Top was on the King's shoulder. Fifty yards to the finish; twenty-five then the King staggered as if he'd been hit between the ears, and Tip- Top jumped out to win by a neck. " There was one big breath of silence in the grand stand then a groan. I turned my head and saw the two wise guys look- ing at me with sick grins. Afterward I collected two thousand bucks from a sicker looking bookie." He paused and smiled at the girl. " That was the nth of July. First real day of my life." 10 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, She gathered her mind out of that scene. " You stepped out of a telegraph office, with your finger on the key all day, every day, and you jumped into two thousand dollars?" After she had stopped speaking her thoughts went on, written in her eyes. "You'd like to try it, eh?" said Ben Connor. " Haven't you had years of happiness put of it?" He looked at her with a grimace. " Happiness?" he echoed. " Happi- ness?" She stepped back so that she put his deeply-marked face in a better light. " You're a queer one for a winner." " Sure, the turf is crowded with queer ones like me." " Winners, all of 'em?" His eye had been gradually brightening while he talked to her. He felt that the girl rang true, as men ring true, yet there was nothing masculine about her. " You've heard racing called, the sport of kings? That's because only kings can afford to follow the ponies. Kings and Wall Street. But a fellow 7 can't squeeze in without capital. I've made a go of it for a while; pretty soon we all go smash. Sooner or later I'll do what everybody else does put up my cash on a sure thing and see my money go up in smoke." " TherT why don't you pull out with what you have?" " Why does the earth keep running around the sun? Because there's a pull. Once you've followed the ponies you'll keep on following 'em. No hope for it. Oh, I've seen the boys come up one after another, make their killings, hit a streak of bad luck, plunge, and then watch their sure-things throw up its tail in the stretch and fade into the ruck." He was growing excited as he talked; he was beginning to realize that he must make his break from the turf now or never. And he spoke more to himself than to the girl. " We all hang on. We play the game till it breaks us and still we stay with it. Here I am, two thousand miles away from the tracks and sending for dope to make a play! Can you beat that? Well, so- long." He turned away gloomily. " Good night, Mr. Connor." He turned sharply. " WTiere'd you get that name?" he asked with a trace of suspicion. " Off the teelgram." He nodded, but said: " I've an idea I've been chattering too much." " My name is Ruth Manning," answered the girl. "' I don't think you've said too much." He kept his eyes steadily on her while he shook hands. " I'm glad I know some one in Lukin," said Connor. " Good night, again." CHAPTER IV. CONNOR SEES A HORSE. WHEN Connor wakened the next morning, after his first impression of blinding light, he closed his eyes and waited for the sense of unhappy doom which usually comes to men of tense nerves and active life after sleep; but, with slow and pleasant wonder, he realized that the old numbness of brain and fever of pulse was gone. Then he looked up and lazily watched the shadow of the vine at his win- dow move across the ceiling, a dim-bor- dered shadow continually changing as the wind gathered the leaves in solid masses and shook them out again. He pored upon this for a time, and next he watched a spider spinning a web in the corner; she worked in a draft which repeatedly lift- ed her from her place before she had fas- tened her thread, and dropped her a foot or more into space. Connor sat up to ad- mire the artisan's skill and courage. Com- pared to men and insects, the spider really worked over an abyss two hundred feet deep, suspended by a silken thread. Con- nor slipped out of bed and stood beneath the growing web while the main cross threads were being fastened. He had been there for some time when, turning away to rub the ache out of the back of his neck, he again met the contrast between the man of this morning and the man of other days. Tilt GARDEN OF EDKX. 11 This time it was his image in the mir- ror, meeting him as he turned. That deep wrinkle in the middle of the forehead was half erased. The lips were neither com- pressed nor loose and shaking, and the eye \vas calm it rested him to meet that glance in the mirror. A mood of idle content always brings one to the window: Connor looked out on the street. A horseman hopped past like a day shadow, the hoofbeats muffled by thick sand, and the wind, moving at an exactly equal pace, carried a mist of dust just behind the horse's tail. Otherwise there was neither life nor color in the street of weather-beaten, low buildings, and the eye of Connor went beyond the roofs and began to climb the mountains. Here was a bald bright cliff, there a drift of trees, and again a surface of raw clay from which the upper soil had recently slipped; but these were not stopping points they were rather the steps which led the glance to a sky of pale and transparent blue, and Connor felt a great desire to have that sky over him in place of a ceiling. He splashed through a hasty bath, dressed, and ran down the stairs, hum- ming. Jack Townsend stood on a box in the corner of the room, probing at a spider web in the corner. "Too late for breakfast?'* asked Con- nor. The fat shoulders of the proprietor quivered, but he did not turn. " Too late," he snapped. ' llreakfast over at nine. No favorites up here." Connor waited for the wave of irritation to rise in him, but to his own surprise he found himself saying: " All right; you can't throw a good horse off his feed by cutting out one meal." Jack Townsend faced his guest, rubbing his many-folded chin. " Don't take long for this mountain air to brace up a gent, does it?" he asked rather pointedly. " I'll tell you what," said Connor. " It isn't the air so much; it's the people that do a fellow good." " Well," admitted the proprietor mod- estly, " they may be something in that. Kind of heartier out here, ain't they? More than in the city, I guess. I'll tell you what," he added. u I'll go out and speak to the missus about a snack for you. It's late, but we like to be obligin'." Pie climbed carefully down from the box and started away. " That girl again," thought Connor, and snapped his fingers. His spirits continued to rise, if that were possible, during the. breakfast of ham and eggs, and coffee of a taste so metallic that only a copious use of cream made it drinkable. Jack Town- send, recovering to the full his customary good nature, joined his guest in a huge piece of toast with a layer of ham on it simply to keep a stranger from eating alone, he said and while he ate he talked about the race. Connor had noticed that the lobby was almost empty. " They're over lookin' at the hosses," said Townsend, " and gettin' their bets down." Connor laid down knife and fork, and resumed them hastily, but thereafter his interest in his food was entirely perfunc- tory. From the corner of his eye a gleam kept steadily upon the face of Townsend, who continued: " Speaking personal, Mr. Connor, I'd like to have you look over them hosses your- self." Connor, on the verge of speech, checked himself with a quick effort. " Because," continued Townsend, " if I had your advice I might get down a little stake on one of 'em. You see?" Ben Connor paused with a morsel of ham halfway toward his lips. " Who told you I know anything about horses?" he asked. " You told me yourself," grinned the pro- prietor, " and I'd like to figure how you knew the mare come from the Bailor Valley." " From which?" " From the Bailor Valley. You even named the irrigation and sand and all that. But you'd seen her brand before, I s'pose?" " Hoofs like hers never came out of these mountains," smiled Ben Connor. " See the way she throws them and how flat the)' are. Well, that's true," nodded Jack Town- 12 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, send. " It seems simple, now you say what it was, but it had me beat up to now. That is the way with most things. Take a fine hand with a rope. He daubs it on a cow so dead easy any fool thinks he can do the same. No, ^Vlr. Connor, I'd still like to have you come out and take a look at them hosses. Besides " he lowered his voice " you might pick up a bit of loose change yourself. They's a plenty rolling round to-day." Connor laughed, but there was excite- ment behind his mirth. " The fact is, Townsend," he said, " I'm not interested in racing now. I'm up here for the air." " Sure sure," said the hotel man. " I know all that. Well, if you're dead set it ain't hardly Christian to lure you into bet- ting on a hoss race, I suppose." He munched at his sandwich in savage silence, while Connor looked out the window and began to whistle. " They race very often up here?" he asked carelessly. '' Once in a while." " A pleasant sport," sighed Connor. " Ain't it, now?" argued Townsend. " But these gents around here take it so serious that it don't last long." " That so?" " Yep. They bet every last dollar they can rake up, and about the second or third race in the year the money's all pooled in two or three pockets. Then the rest go gunnin' for trouble, and most generally find a plenty. Any six races that's got up around here is good for three shooting scrapes, and each shooting's equal to one corpse and half a dozen put away for re- pairs." He touched his forehead, marked with a white line. " I used to be consider- able," he said. " H-m," murmured Connor, grown ab- sentminded again. " Yes, sir," went on the other. "I've seen the boys come in from the mines with enough dust to choke a mule, and slap it all down on the hoss. I've seen twenty thou- sand cold bucks lost and won on a dinky little pinto that wasn't worth twenty dol- lars hardly. That's how crazy they get." Connor wiped his forehead. " Where do they race?" he asked. " Right down Washington Avenue. That is the main street, y' see. Gives 'em about half a mile of runnin'." A 'cigarette appeared with magic speed between the fingers of Connor, and he be- gan to smoke, with deep inhalations, ex- pelling his breath so strongly that the mist shot almost to the ceiling before it flattened into a leisurely spreading cloud. Town- send, fascinated, seemed to have forgotten all about the horse race, but there was in Connor a suggestion of new interest, a cer- tain businesslike coldness. " Suppose we step over and give the ponies a glance?" he queried. " That's the talk!" exclaimed Townsend. " And I'll take any tip you have! " This made Connor look at his host nar- rowly, but, dismissing a suspicion from his mind, he shrugged his shoulders, and they went out together. The conclave of riders and the betting public had gathered at the farther end of the street, and it included the majority of Lukin. Only the center of the street was left religiously clear, and in this space, half a dozen men led horses up and down with ostentatious indifference, stopping often to look after cinches which they had already tested many times. As Connor came up he saw a group of boys place their wagers with a stakeholder knives, watches, nick- els and dimes. That was a fair token of the spirit of the crowd. Wherever Connor looked he saw hands raised, brandishing greenbacks, and for every raised hand there were half a dozen clamorous voices. " Quite a bit of sporting blood in Lukin, eh?" suggested Townsend. " Sure," sighed Connor. He looked at the brandished money. " A field of wheat," he murmured, " waiting for the reaper. That's me." He turned to see his companion pull out a fat wallet. " Which one?" gasped Townsend. " We ain't got hardly any time." Connor observed him with a smile that tucked up the corners of his mouth. " Wait a while, friend. Plenty of time to get stung where the ponies are concerned. We'll look them over." THE GARDEN OF EDEN. Townsend began to chatter in his ear: " It's between Charlie Haig's roan and Cliff Jones's Lightning You see that bay? Man, he can surely get across the ground. But the roan ain't so bad. Oh, no!" " Sure they are." The gambler frowned. " I was about to say that there was only one horse in the race, but " He shook his head despair- ingly as he looked over the riders. He was hunting automatically for the fleshless face and angular body of a jockey; among them all Charlie Haig came the closest to this light ideal. He was a sun-dried fel- low, but even Charlie must have weighed well over a hundred and forty pounds; the others made no pretensions toward small poundage, and Cliff Jones must have scaled two hundred. " Which was the one hoss in your eyes?" asked the hotel man eagerly. " The gray. But with that weight up the little fellow will be anchored." He pointed to a gray gelding which nosed confidently at the back hip pockets of his master. " Less than fifteen hands," continued Connor, " and a hundred and eighty pounds to break his back. It isn't a race; it's murder to enter a horse handicapped like that." " The gray?" repeated Jack Townsend, and he glanced from the corner of his eyes at his companion, as though he suspected mocker}-. ' I never seen the gray before," he went on. " Look sort of underfed, eh?" Connor apparently did not hear. He had raised his head and Wfe nostrils trem- bled, so that Townsend did not know whether the queer fellow was about to break into laughter or a trade. " Yet," muttered Connor, " he might carry it. God, what a horse! " He still looked at the gelding, and Town- send rubbed his eyes and stared to make sure that he had not overlooked some pos- sibilities in the gelding. But he saw again only a lean-ribbed pony with a long neck and a high croup. The horse wheeled, stepping as clumsily as a gangling year- ling. Townsend's amazement changed to suspicion and then to indifference. " Well," he said, smiling covertly, " are you going to bet on that?" Connor made no answer. He stepped up to the owner of the gray, a swarthy man whose Indian blood told in the discolored whites of his eyes. His half sleepy, half sullen expression cleared when die white man shook hands and introduced himself as a lover of fast horseflesh. He even congratulated the Indian on owning so fine a specimen, at which ap- parently subtle mockery Townsend, in the rear, set his teeth to keep from smiling; and the half-breed $lso frowned, to see if there were any hidden insult. But Con- nor had stepped back and was looking at the forelegs of the gelding. " There's bone for you," he said ex- ultantly. " More than eight inches, eh that Cannon?" " Huh," grunted the owner, " I dunno." But his last shred of suspicion disap- peared as Connor, working his fingers along the shoulder muscles of the animal, smiled with pleasure and admiration. " My name's Bert Sims," said the half- breed, " and I'm glad to know you. Most of the boys in Lukin think my hoss ain't got a chance in this race." " I think they're right," answered Con- nor without hesitation. The eyes of the half-breed flashed. " I think you're putting fifty pounds too much weight on him," explained Connor. " Yeh?" " Can't another man ride your horse?" " Anybody can ride him." "Then let that fellow yonder that youngster have the mount. I'll back the gray to the bottom of my pocket if you do." " I wouldn't feel hardly natural seeing another man on him," said the Indian. " If he's rode I'll do the riding. I've done it for fifteen years." " What?" " Fifteen years." " Is that horse fifteen years old?" asked Connor, prepared to smile. " He is eighteen," answered Bert Sims quietly. The gambler cast a quick glance at Sims and a longer one at the gray. He parted 14 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, the lips of the horse, and then cursed softly. " You're right," said Connor. " He is eighteen." He was frowning in deadly earnestness now. " Accident, I suppose?" The Indian merely stared at him. " Is the horse a strain of blood or an accident? What's his breed?" " He's an Eden gray." " Are there more like him?" " The valley's full of 'em, they say," answered Bert Sims. " What valley?" snapped the gambler. " I ain't been in it. If I was I wouldn't talk." " Why not?" In reply Sims rolled the yello\v-stained whites of his eyes slowly toward his inter- locutor. He did not turn his head, but a smile gradually began on his lips and spread to a sinister hint at mirth. It put a grim end to the conversation, and Connor turned reluctantly to Townsend. The latter was clamoring. " They're getting ready for the start. Are you betting on that runt of a gray?" CHAPTER V. CONNOR LOSES A BET. CONNOR shook his head almost sadly. " A horse that stands not a hair more than fourteen-three, eighteen years old, with a hundred and eighty pounds up No, I'm not a fool." " Which is it the' roan or the bay?" gasped Townsend. " Which d'you say? I'll tell you about the valley after the race. Which hoss, Mr. Connor?"" Thus appealed to, the gambler straight- ened and clasped his hands behind his back. He looked coldly at the horses. " How old is that brown yonder the one the boy is just mounting?" " Three, But what's he got to do with the race?" " He's a shade too young, or he'd win it. That's what he has to do "with it. Back Haig's horse, then. The roan is the best bet." "Have you had a good look at Light- nin'?" " He won't last in this going with that weight up." " You're right," panted Townsend. " And I'm going to risk a hundred on him. Hey, Joe, how d'you bet on Charlie Haig?" " Two to one." " Take you for a hundred. Joe, meet Mr. Connor." " A hundred it is, Jack. Can I do any- thing for you, Mr. Connor?" " I'll go a hundred on the roan, sir." " Have I done it right?" asked Townsend fiercely, a little later. I wonder do you know?" " Ask that after the race is over," smiled Connor. " After all, you have only one horse to be afraid of." " Sure; Lightnin' but he's enough." "Not Lightning, I tell 'you. The gray is the only other horse to be afraid of, though the brown stallion might do if he has enough seasoning." For a moment panic brightened the eyes of Townsend, and then he shook the fear away. " I've done it now," he said huskily, " and they's no use talking. Let's get down to the finish." The crowd was streaming away from the start, and headed toward the finish half a mile down the street beyond the farther end of Lukin. Most of this distance Town- send kept his companion close to a run; then he suddenly appealed for a slower pace. " It's my heart," he explained. " Nothin' else bothers it? but during a hoss race it sure stands on end. I get to thinkin' of what my wife will say if I lose; and that always plumb upsets me." He was, in fact, spotted white and pur- ple when they joined the mob which packed both sides of the street at the finish posts; already the choice positions were taken'. " We won't get a look," groaned Town- send. But Connor chuckled: " You tie on to me and we'll get to the front in a squeeze." And he ejected himself into the mob. How it was done Townsend could never under- stand. They oozed through the thickest THE GARDEN' OF EDEN. 15 of the crowd, and when roughly pressed men God, you do know bosses! Who'd of ahead of them turned around, ready to thought that skinny fellow had it in him?" fight, Connor was always looking back, ap- " He'll die," said Connor calmly, parently forced along by the pressure from The bay and the brown went back into the rear. He seemed, indeed, to be stnig- the pack together, even as Connor spoke, gling to keep his footing, but in a few min- though the riders were flogging hard, and utes Townsend found himself in the front now the roan drew to the front. It was rank. He mopped his brow and smiled up plain to see that he had the foot of the into the cool face of Connor, but there was rest, for he came away from the crowd with no time for comments. Eight horses fretted every leap. in a ragged line far down the street, and "Look! Look! Look!" moaned Town- as they frisked here and there the brims of send. " Two for one! Look! " He choked the sombreros of the riders flapped up and with pleasure and gripped Connor's ami in down; only the Eden gray stood with down- both his hands in token of gratitude, ward head, dreaming. Xow the race bore swiftly down the fin- " Xo heart," said Townsend, '' in that ish, the horses looming bigger; their eyes gray boss. Look at him!" could be seen, and their straining nostrils " Plenty of head, though." replied Con- now, and the desperate face of each rider, nor; " here they go!" trying to lift his horse into a great burst. His voice was lost in a yell that went up " He's got it," sobbed Townsend, hysteri- wailing, shook into a roar, and then died cal. " Nothin' can catch him now." off, as though a gust of wind had cut the But his companion, in place of answer, sounds away. A murmur df voices fol- stiffened and pointed. His voice was a lowed, and then an almost womanish yell, tone of horror, almost, as he said: " I knew, for Lightning, the favorite, was out in front, by God, I knew- all the time and wouldn't and his rider leaned in the saddle with arm believe my eyes" suspended and a quirt which never fell. For far from the left, rounding the pack, The rest were a close group where whips came a streak of gray. It caught the brown worked ceaselessly, except that in the rear horse and passed him in two leaps; it shot of all the rest the little gray horse ran by the laboring bay; and only the roan of xwithout urge, smoothly, as if his rider had Charlie Haig remained in front. That rider, given up all hope of winning and merely al- confident of victory, had slipped his quirt lowed his horse to canter through. over his wrist and was hand-riding his horse " D'you see?" screamed Townsend. " Is when a brief, deep yell of dismay from the that what you know about bosses, Mr. crowd made him jerk a glance over his Connor? Look at Cliff Jones's Lightning! shoulder. He cut the quirt into the flank What do you ' of the roan, but it was too late. Five He cut his upbraidings short, for Con- lengths from the finish the little gray shoved nor's was a grisly face, white about the his nose in front; and from that point, set- mouth and with gathered brows, as though, tling toward the earth, as he stretched into with intense effort, he strove to throw the a longer and longer stride, every jump in- influence of his will into that mass of horse- creased his margin. The nose of the roan flesh. The hotel-keeper turned in time to was hardly on the rump of the gelding at see Lightning, already buckling under the the finish, strain, throw up his head. A bedlam roar came from the crowd. The heavy burdens, the deep, soft going, Townsend was cursing and beating time and the fact that none of the horses were to his oaths with a fat fist. Townsend really trained to sprint, made the half-mile found so many companion losers that his course a very real test, and now the big feelings were readily salved, and he turned leader perceptibly weakened. Out of the to Connor, smiling wryly. pack shot a slender brown bod)-, and came " We can't win every day," he declared, to the girth to the neck of the bay. "but I'll tell you this, partner: of all the ' The stall ion! "shouted Townsend. "By men I ever seen, you get the medal for 16 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, juclgin' a boss. You can pick my string any day." , Eighteen years old," Connor was say- ing in the monotonous tone of one hypno- tized. " Hey, there," protested Townsend, per- ceiving that he was on the verge of being ignored. " A hundred and eighty pounds," sighed the big man. Townsend saw for the first time that a stop-watch was in the hand of his com- panion, and now, as Connor began to pace off the distance, the hotel proprietor tagged behind, curious. Twenty steps from the starting point the larger man stopped ab- ruptly, shook his head, and then went on. When he came to the start he paused again, and Townsend found him staring with dull eyes at the face of the watch. " What 'd they make it in?" asked the little man. The other did not hear. " They ran from this line?" he queried in a husky voice. " Sure. Line between them posts." " Fifty-nine seconds!" he kept repeating. "Fifty-nine seconds! Fifty-nine!" " What about the fifty-nine seconds?" asked Townsend, and receiving no answer he murmured to himself: " The heat has got to his head." Connor asked quietly: " Know anything about these gray horses and where they came from?" " Sure. As much as anybody. Come from yonder in the mountains. A negro raises 'em." " Negro?" "Yep, a deaf mute. Ain't ever been heard to say a word." " And he raises horses like that?" " Sure." " And nobody's been up there to try to buy 'em?" " Too far to go, you see? Long ride and a hard trail. Besides, they's plenty of good hoss-flesh right around Lukin, here." " Of course," nodded Connor genially. " Of course there is." " Besides, them grays is too small. Per- sonallv, I don't hanker after a runt of a tf I boss. I look like a fool on one of 'em." The voice of Connor was full of hearty agreement. "So do I. Yes, they're small, if they're all like that one. Too small. Much too small." He looked narrowly at Townsend from the corner of his eyes to make sure that the hotel proprietor suspected nothing. " This negro sells some, now and then?'' " Yep. He conies down once in a while and sells a hoss to the first gent he meets and then walks back to the garden. Always geldings that he sells, I understand. Stand up under work pretty well, those little hosses. Harry Macklin has got one. Harry lives at Fort Andrew. There's a funny yarn out about how Harry : " What price does the negro ask?" "Thinking of getting one of 'em?" " Me? Of course not! What do I want with a runt of a horse like that? But I was wondering what they pay around here for little horses." " I dunno." " What's that story you were going to tell me about Harry Macklin?'' " You see, it was this way " And he poured forth the stale anecdote while they strolled back to the hotel. Con- nor smiled and nodded at appropriate places, but his absent eyes were seeing, once more, the low-running form of the little gray gelding coming away from the rest of the pack. w CHAPTER VI. CONNOR TALKS LUCK. HEX he arrived at the hotel Ben Connor found the following tele- gram awaiting him: Lady Fay in with ninety-eight Trickster did mile and furlong in one fifty-four with one hundred "twenty Caledonian stale mile in one thirty-nine Billy Jones looks good track fast. HARRY SLOCX*M. That message blotted all other thoughts from the mind of Connor. From his travel- ing bag he brought out a portfolio full of wrinkled papers and pamphlets crowded with lists of names and figures; there fol- 1 A THE GARDEN OF EDEX. 17 lowed a time of close work. Page after page of calculations scribbled with a soft pencil and in a large, sprawling hand, were torn from a pad, fluttered through the air and lay where they fell. When the hour was ended he pushed away the pamphlets of ' dope " and picked up his notes. After that he sat in deep thought and drove puff after puff of cigarette-smoke at the ceiling. As his brown study progressed he began crumpling the slips in his moist fingers until only two remained. These he balanced on his finger-tips as though their weight might speak to his finely attuned nerves. At length, one hand closed slowly over the paper it" held and crushed it to a ball. He flicked this away with his thumb and rose. On the remaining paper was written " Trickster." Connor had made his choice. That done, his expression softened as men relax after a day of mental strain and he loitered down the stairs and into the street. Passing through the lobby he heard the voice of Jack Townsend raised obviously to attract his attention. " There he goes now. And nothing but ihe weight kept him from bettin' on the gray." Connor heard sounds, not words, for his mind was already far away in a club house, waiting for the " ponies " to file past. On the way to the telegraph office he saw neither street nor building nor face, until he had written on one of the- yellow blanks, " A thousand on Trickster," and addressed it to Harry Slocum. Not until he shoved the telegram across the counter did he see Ruth Manning. She was half-turned from the key, but her head was canted toward the chattering sounder with a blank, inward look. " Do you hear?'' she cried happily. " Bjornsen is back!" ""Who?" asked Connor. " Sveynrod Bjornsen. Lost three men out of eight, but he got within a hundred and fifty miles of the pole. Found new land, too." "Lucky devil, eh?" But the girl frowned at him. Lucky, nothing! Bjornsen is a fighter; he lost his father and his older brother up 2 A fchere three years ago and then he went back to make up for their deaths. Luck?'' Connor, wondering, nodded. u Slipped my mind, that story of Bjornsen. Any other news?" She made a little gesture, palms up, as though she gathered something from the air. " News? The old wire has been pouring it at me all morning. Henry Levateur went up thirty-two thousand feet yesterday and the Admiral Barr was launched." Connor kept fairly abreast of the times, but now he was at sea. " That's the new liner, isn't it?" " Thirty thousand tons of liner at that. She took the water like a duck. Well, that's the stuff for Uncle Sam to give them; a few more like the Admiral Barr and we'll have the old colors in every port that calls itself a town. Europe will have to wake up." She counted the telegram with a sweep of her pencil and flipped the change to Connor out of the coin-box. The rattle of the sounder meant new things to Connor; the edges of the world crowded close, for when the noise stopped, in the thick silence he watched her features relax and the light go out of her eyes. It enabled him to glance into her life in Lukin, with only the chatter- ing wire for a companion. A moment be- fore she had been radiant now she was a tired girl with purple shadows beneath her eyes making them look ghostly large. " Oh, Bobby," she called. A tall youth came out of ah inner room. " Take the key, please; I'm going out for lunch.'' " Come^to the hotel with me," suggested Connor. " Lunch at Townsend's?" She laughed with a touch of excitement. " That's a treat." Already she gained color and her eyes brightened. She was like a motor, Connor decided, nothing in itself, but responding to every electric current. " This lunch is on me, by the way," she added. ' Why is that?" " Because I like to pay on my winning days. I cashed in on the Indian's horse this morning." In Connor's own parlance it brought him up standing. 18 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. " You bet on it? You know horse-flesh, deal of money to her; and she flushed as then. I like the little fellow, but the weight she answered: stopped me." "I got down a bet with Jud Alison; it He smiled at her with a new friendliness, was only five dollars, but I had odds of ten " Don't pin any flowers on me," she an- to one. Fifty dollars looks pretty big to swered. " Oh, I know enough about horses me," she added, and he liked her frankness, to look at their hocks and see how they "But does everybody know about these stand; and I don't suppose I'd buy in on grays?" a pony that points the toe of a fore-foot " Not so many. They only come from but I'm no judge. I bet on the gray be- one outfit, you see. Dad knew horses, and cause I know the blood." he told me an Eden Gray was worth any She had stopped at the door of the hotel man's money. Poor dad!" and she did not see the change in Connor V Connor watched her eyes turn dark and face as they entered. dull, but he tossed sympathy aside and " Queer thing about horses," she con- stepped forward in the business, tinued. " They show their strain, though " I've been interested since I saw that the finest man that ever stepped might have little streak of gray shoot over the finish. a son that's a quitter. Not that way with Eighteen years old. Did you know that? horses. Why, any scrubby pinto that has a " Really? Well, dad said an Eden Gray drop of Eden Gray blood in him will run was good to twenty-five." till his heart breaks. You can bet on that." " What else did he say?" Lunch at Townsend's, Connor saw, must " He didn't know a great deal about be the fashionable thing in Lukin. The them, after all, but he said that now and " masses " of those who came to town for then a deaf and dumb negro comes. He's the day ate at the lunch-counters in the old a regular giant and he has the face of a saloons while the select went to the hotel, beast. Whenever he meets a man he gets Mrs. Townsend, billowing about the room off the horse and puts a paper into the hand in a dress of blue with white polka-dots, of the other. On the paper it says: " Fifty when she was not making hurried trips into dollars in gold coin! Always that." the kitchen, cast one glance of approval It was like a fairy tale to Connor, at Ben Connor and another of surprise at " Jude Harper of Collinsville met him the girl. Other glances followed, for the once. He had only ten dollars in gold, but room was fairly well filled, and a whisper he had three hundred in paper. He offered went trailing about them, before and be- the whole three hundred and ten to the hind. negro, but the negro only shook his head." It was easy to see that Ruth Manning " How often does he come out of the was being accused of " scraping " ac- valley?" quaintance with the stranger, but she bore " Once a year once in two years no- up beautifully, and Connor gauging her body knows how often. Of course it with an accurate eye, admired and wondered doesn't take him long to find a man who'll where she had learned. Yet when they buy a horse like one of the grays for fifty found a table and he drew out a chair for dollars. The minute the horse is sold he her, he could tell from the manner in which turns around and starts walking back, she lowered herself into it that she was not Pete Ricks tried to follow him. He turned used to being seated. That observation back on Pete, jumped on him from behind gave him a feeling of power over her. a rock, and jerked him off his horse. Then " You liked the gray, too?" she was say- he got him by the hair and bent his head ing, as he took his place. back. Pete says he expected to have his " I lost a hundred betting against him," neck broken he was like a child in the said the gambler quietly. " I hope you arms of that giant. But it seemed that the made a killing." negro was only telling him in deaf-and- He saw by the slight widening of her dumb talk that he mustn't follow. After eyes that a hundred dollars was a . good he'd frightened the life out of Pete the big THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 19 black went away again, and Pete came home as fast as his horse could carry him." Connor swallowed. " Where do they get the name Eden Gray?" " I don't know. Dad said that three things were true about every gray. It's al- ways a gelding; it's always one price, and it always has a flaw. I looked the one over that ran to-day and couldn't see anything wrong, though." - Cow-hocked," said Connor, breathing hard. "Goon!" " Dad made up his mind that the reason they didn't sell more horses was because the owner only sold to weed out his stock." " Wait." said Connor, tapping on the table to make his point. " Do I gather that the only Eden Grays that are sold are the poorest of the lot?" " That was dad's idea." " Go on," said Connor. Vou're excited?" But he answered quickly: " Well, one of those grays beat me out of a hundred dol- lars. I can't help being interested." He detached his watch-charm from its catch and began to finger it carelessly; it was the head of an ape carved in ivory yellowed with age. The girl watched, fascinated, but she made no mention of it, for the jaw of the gambler was set in a hard line, and she felt, subconsciously, a widening distance be- tween them. " Does the deaf negro own the horses? " he was asking. I suppose so." " This sounds like a regular catechism, doesn't ii: " I don't mind. Come to think of it, everything about the grays is queer. Well. I've never seen this negro, but do you know what I think? That he lives off there in the mountains by himself because he's a sort of religious fanatic." Religion? Crazy, maybe." laybe." "What's his religion ?"- il I don't know," said the girl coldly. \fter you jerk lightning for a while you aren't interested much in religion." He nodded, not quite sure of her posi- tion, but now her face darkened and she went on, gathering interest in the subject. " Oh, I've heard 'em rave about the God that made the earth and the stars and all that stuff; the mountains, too. I've heard 'em die asking for mercy and praising God. That's the way dad went. It was drink that got him. But I'm for facts only. Far as I can see, when people come up against a thing they can't understand they just close their eyes and say, God! And when they're due to die, sometimes they're afraid and they say, God because they think they're going out like a snuffed lantern and never will be lighted again." The gambler sat with his chin buried in his palm, and from beneath a heavy frown he studied the girl. " I don't hold malice more than the next one," said the girl, but I saw daddie; and I've been sick of religion ever since. Be- sides, how do you explain the rotten things that happen in the world? Look at yester- day! The King of the Sea goes down with all on board. Were they all crooks? Were they all ready to die? They can tell me about God, but I say, ' Give me the proofs! ' She looked at Connor defiantly. " There's just one thing I believe in," she said, " that's luck!" He did not stir, but still studied her, and she flushed under the scrutiny. " Not that I've had enough luck to make me fond of it. I've been stuck up here on the edge of the world all my life. And how I've wanted to get away! How I've wanted it! I've begged for a chance to cut out the work. If it doesn't make callouses on a girl's hands it will make them on her heart. I've been waiting all my life for a chance, and the chance has never come." Something flared in her. " Sometimes I think," she whispered, " that I can't stand it! That I'd do any- w thing! Anything just to get away." She stopped, and as her passion ebbed she was afraid she had said too much. " Shake," he said, stretching his hand across the table, ''I'm with you. Luck! That's all there is running things! " His fingers closed hard over hers and she winced, for he had forgotten to remove the 20 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ivory image from his hand, and the ape- head cut into her flesh. CHAPTER VII. THE TRAIL TO EDEN. THAT evening Ruth sent a boy over to the hotel with a telegram for Con- nor. It announced that Trickster, at six to one, came home a winner in the Mur- ray. But Conner had time for only a grunt and a nod; he was too busy composing a letter to Harry Slocum, which read as fol- lows: DEAR HARRY: I'm about to put my head in the lion's mouth; and in case you don't hear from me again, say within three months, this is to ask you to look for my bones. I'm starting out to nail a thousand-to-one shot. Working a hunch for the biggest clean-up v/e ever made. I'm going into the motmtains to find a deaf mute negro who raises the finest horses I've ever seen. Do you get that? No white man has gone into that valley; at least, no- one has come out talking. But I'm going to bring something with me. If I don't come out it '11 be because I've been knocked on the head in- side the valley. I'm not telling any one around here where I'm bound, but I've made inquiries, and this is what I gather: No one is interested in the negro's valley simply because it's so far away. The negro doesn't bother them and they won't bother him. That's the main reason for letting him alone. The other reasons are that he's suspected of being a bad actor. But the distance is the chief thing that fences people away. The straight cut is bad going. The better way around is a slow journey. It leads west out of Lukin and down into the valley of the Girard River; then along the Girard to its headwaters. Then through the mountains again to the only en- trance to the valley. I'm telling you all this so that you'll know what you may have , ahead of you. If I'm mum ior three months come straight for Lukin; go to a telegraph operator named Ruth Manning, and tell her that you've come to get track of me. She'll give you the names of the best dozen men in Lukin, and you start for the valley with the posse. Around Lukin they have a sort of foggy fear of the valley bad medicine, they call it. I have a hard game ahead of me and I'm going to stack the cards. I've got to get into the Garden by a trick and get out again the same wav. I start this afternoon. I've got a horse and a pack mule, and I'm going to try my hand at camping out. If I come back it will be on something that will carry both the pack and me, I think, and it won't take long to make the trip. Our days of being rich for ten days and poor for thirty will be over. Hold yourself ready; sharp at the end of ninety days, come West if I'm still silent. As ever, BEX. Before the mail took that letter East- ward, Ben Connor received his final advice from Jack Townsend. It was under the hotel man's supervision that he selected his outfit of soft felt hat, flannel shirts, heavy socks, and Napatan boots; Towns- end, too, went with him to pick out the pack mule and all the elements of the pack, from salt to canned tomatoes. As for the horse, Townsend merely stood by to admire while Ben Connor went through a dozen possibilities and picked a solidly built chestnut with legs enough for speed in a pinch, and a flexible fetlock joints that promised an easy gait. "You won't have no trouble," said Townsend, as Connor sat the saddle, work- ing the stirrups back and forth and frown- ing at the creaking new leather. " Wher- ever you go you'll find gents ready to give you a hand on your way." " Why's that? Don't I look like an old hand at this game?" " Not with that complexion; it talks city a mile off. If you'd tell me where you're bound for " " But I'm not bound anywhere," an- swered Connor. "I'm out to follow my nose." " With that gun you ought to get some game." Connor laid his hand on the butt of the rifle which was slung in a case iinder his leg. He had little experience with a gun, but he said nothing. " All trim," continued Townsend, step- ping back to look. " Not a flaw in the mule; no sign of ringbone or spavin', and when a mule ain't got them, he's got noth- in' wrong. Don't treat him too well. When you feet like pattin' him, cuss him instead. It's mule nature to like a beatin' once in a while; they spoil without it. like THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 21 kids. He'll hang back for two days, but filled his canteens and struck into the last the third day he'll walk all over your hoss; stage of his journey, never was a hoss that could walk with a Luck gave him cool weather, with high mule on a long trip. Well, Mr. Connor, I moving clouds, which curtained the sun guess you're all fixed, but I'd like to send during the middle of the day, but even then a boy along to see you get started right." it was hard work. He had not the vestige " Don't worry," smiled Connor. " I've of a trail to follow; the mountain sides written down all your suggestions." were bare jock. A scattering of shrubs " Here's what you want to tie on to spe- and dwarfed trees found rooting in crev- cial," said the fat man. " Don't move your ices, but on the whole Connor was journey- camp on Fridays or the thirteenth; if you ing through a sea of stone, and sometimes, come nigh a town and a black cat crosses when the sun glinted on smooth surface, your trail, you camp right here and don't the reflection blinded him. By noon the move on to that town till the next morn- chestnut was hobbling, and before night- ing. And wait a minute if you start out fall even the mule showed signs of distress, and find you've left something in camp, And though Connor traveled now by corn- make a cross in the trail before you go pass, he was haunted by a continual fear back." that he might have mistaken his way, or He frowned to collect his thoughts. that the directions he had picked up at 11 Well, if you don't do none of them Lukin might be entirely wrong. Evening three things, you can't come out far wrong, was already coming over the mountains Slong, and good luck, Mr. Connor." \vhen he rounded a slope of black rock and Connor waved his hand, touched the found below him a picture that tallied in chestnut with his heel and the horse broke every detail with all he had heard of the into a trot, while the rope, coming taut, first valley. stretched the neck of the mule and then The first look was like a glance into a tugged him into a dragging amble. In this deep well of stone with a flash of water in manner Connor went out of Lukin. He the bottom; afterward he sat on a bowlder smiled to himself, as he thought confidently and arranged the details of that big vista, of the far different fashion in which he Nothing led up to the Garden from any di- would return. rection; it was a freak of nature. Some The first day gave Connor a raw nose, a convulsion of the earth, w r hen these moun- sunburned neck and wrists, and his supper tains were first rising, perhaps, had split was charred bacon and tasteless coffee; but the rocks, or as the surface strata rolled up, the next morning he came out of the choppy they parted over the central lift and left mountains and went down a long, easy slope this ragged fissure. Through the valley into the valley of the Girard. There was ran a river, but water could never have cut always water here, and fine grass for the those saw-tooth cliffs; and Connor noted horse and mule, with a cool wind off the this strange thing: that the valley came to snows coming down the ravine. By the abrupt ends both north and south. By the third day he was broken into the routine slant sunlight, and at that distance for he of his work and knew the most vulnerable judged the place to be some ten or fifteen spot on the ribs of the mule, and had a pet miles in length it seemed as if the cliff name for the chestnut. Thereafter the camp- fronts to the north and south were as solid ing trip was pleasant enough. It took him and lofty as a portion of the sides; yet this longer than he had expected, for he would could mot be unless the river actually dis- not press the horse as the pitch of the ra- appeared under the face of the wall. Still, vine grew steeper ; later he saw his wisdom he could not make out details from the dis- in keeping the chestnut fresh for the final tance, only the main outline of the place, burst, for when he reached the head-spring the sheen of growing things, whether trees of the Girard, he faced a confusion of diffi- or grass, and the glitter of the river which cult, naked mountains. He was daunted swelled toward the center of the valley into but determined, and the next morning he a lake. He could discover only one natu- 22 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ral entrance; in the nearest cliff wall ap- peared a deep, narrow cleft, which ran to the very floor of the valley, and the only approach was through a difficult ravine. The sore-footed chestnut had caught the flash of green, and now he pricked his ears and whinnied as if he saw home. Connor started down the rocks toward the en- trance, leading the horse, while the mule trailed wearily behind. As he turned, the wind blew to him out of the valley a faint rhythmical chiming. When he paused to listen the sound disappeared. He dipped out of the brighter level into a premature night below; evening was gathering quickly, and with each step Con- nor felt the misty darkness closing above his head. He was stumbling over the bowl- ders, downheaded, hardly able to see the ground at his feet, yet when he reached the bottom of the little ravine which ran to- ward the entrance, he looked up to a red sky, and the higher mountains rolled off in waves of light. Distances were magnified; he seemed to look from the bottom of the world to the top of it; he turned, a little dizzy, and between the edges of the cleft that rose straight as Doric pillars, he saw a fire burning at the entrance to the Gar- den of Eden. The sunset was above them, but the fire sent a long ray through the night of the lower valley. Connor pointed it out to his horse, and the little cavalcade went slowly forward. CHAPTER VIII. JACOB AND EPHRAIM. WITH every step that he took into the darkness the feeling of awe deepened upon Connor, until he went frowning toward the fire as though it were an eye that watched his coming. He was quite close when the chestnut threw up its head w-ith a snort and stopped, lis- tening; Connor listened as well, and he heard a music of men's voices singing to- gether, faint with distance; the sound trav- eled so far that he caught the pulse of the rhythm and the fiber of the voices rather than the tune itself, yet the awe which had been growing in Connor gathered suddenly in his throat. He had to close his hands hard to keep from being afraid. As though the chestnut felt the strange- ness also, he neighed suddenly; the rock walls of the ravine caught up the sound and trumpeted it back. Connor, recover- ing from the shock, buried his fingers in the nostrils of the horse and choked the sound away; but the echo still went faintly before them and behind. The alarm had been given. The fire winked once and went out. Connor was left without a light to guide him; he looked up and saw that the sunset flush had fallen away to a dead gray. He looked ahead to where the fire had been. Just then the horse jerked his nose away and gasped in a new breath. Even that slight sound flurried Connor, for it might guide the unknown danger to him. Connor remembered that after all he was not a bandit stealing upon a peaceful town; he composed his mind and his nerves with an effort, and was about to step forward again when he saw 7 in the night just before him a deeper shade among the shadows. Peering, he discovered the dim outlines of a man. Ben Connor was not a coward, but he was daunted by this apparition. His first impulse was to flee; his second was to leap at the other's throat. It spoke much for his steadiness in a crisis that he did neither, but called instead: " Who's there?" Metal gritted on metal, and a shaft of light poured into Connor's face so unex- pectedly that he shrank. The chestnut roared, and turning to control the horse, Connor saw his eyes and the eyes of the mule shining like phosphorus. When he had quieted the gelding he saw that it was a hooded lantern which had been uncov- ered. Not a ray fell on the bearer of the light. " I saw a light down here," said Connor, after he had tried in vain to make out the features of the other. " It looked like a fire, and I started for it; I've lost my bear- ing in these mountains." Without answering, the bearer of the lantern kept the shaft staring into Connor's face for another moment; then it was as suddenly hooded and welcome darkness THE GARDEN OP EDEX. 23 covered the gambler. With a gesture he felt should be his, but he determined to which he barely could make out, the silent appear at ease. man waved him forward down the ravine. 1V Your best way," continued Ephraim, It angered Connor, this mummery of " is toward that largest mountain. You speechlessness, but with his anger was an see where its top is still lighted in the odd feeling of helplessness as though the west, while the rest of the range is black." other had a loaded gun at his head. The persistent good grammer irritated The man walked behind him as they Connor, and examining the withered fea- went forward, and presently the fire shone tures of the two old men more closely, he out at them from the entrance to the val- saw that they were negroes in color alone, ley; thus Connor saw the blanket which '' Jacob can take you up from the ravine had screened the fire removed, and caught and show you the beginning of the way. a glimpse of a second form. But do not pass beyond the sight of the Even the zenith was dark now, and it fire, Jacob." was double night in the ravine. With the " Good advice," nodded Connor, forcing chestnut stumbling behind him, Connor himself to smile, %i if it weren't that my entered the circle of the fire and was horse is too sore-footed to carry me. Even stopped by the raised hand of the second the mule can hardly walk you see." man. He waved his hand and the chestnut Why are you here?" said the guard. threw up its head and took one or two halt- . The voice was thin, but the articulation ing steps to the side, thick and soft, and as the questioner " In the meantime, I suppose you've no stepped into the full glow of the fire, Con- objection if I sit down here for a moment nor saw a negro whose head was covered or two?" by white curls. He was very old; it Ephraim, bowing as though he ushered seemed as though time had faded his black the other into an apartment of state, waved pigment, and now his skin, a dark bronze, to a smooth-topped bowlder comfortably was puckered at the corners of his mouth, near the fire. about his eyes, and in the center of his " I wish to serve you," he went on, " in forehead, seeming to have dried in wrin- anything I can do without leaving the val- kles like parchment. While he talked his ley. We have a tank just inside the gate, expression never varied from the weary and Jacob will fill your canteen and water frown; yet" years had ,not bowed him, for the horse and mule as well." he stood straight as a youth, and though " Kind of you," said Connor. i- Ciga- his neck was dried away until it was no rette?" thicker than a strong man's forearm, he The proffered smoke brought a wringling kept his head high and looked at Connor, of amazed delight into the face of Ephraim The man who had gone out to stop Con- and his withered hand stretched tentative- nor now answered for him, and turning to ly forth. Jacob forestalled him with a cry the voice the gambler saw that this fellow and snatched the cigarette from the open was a negro likewise; as erect as the one palm of Connor. He held it in both his by the fire, but hardly less ancient. cupped hands. " He is lost in the mountains, and he saw '' Tobacco again' " He turned'to Eph- the fire at the gate, Ephraim." raim. ".I have not forgotten Ephraim considered Connor wistfully. Ephraim had folded his arms with dig- ' This way is closed," he said; ki you nity, and now he turned a reproving glance cannot pass through the gate." upon his companion. The gambler looked up; a wall of rock " Is it permitted?" he asked coldly, on either side rose so high that the fire- The joy went out of the face of Jacob, light failed to carry all the distance, and " What harm?" the darkness arched solidly above him. - ; Is it permitted?'' insisted Ephraim. The calm of the negroes, their good Eng- " He will not ask," argued Jacob dubi- lish, stripped him of an advantage which ously. ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. " He knows without asking." ' At this, very slowly and unwillingly, Jacob put the cigarette back into the hand of Ben Connor. A dozen curious questions came into the mind of the gambler, but he decided wisely to change the subject. " The boss gives you orders not to leave, eh?" he went on. " Not a step outside the gate? What's the idea?" " This thing was true in the time of the old masters. Only Joseph can leave the .valley," Ephraim answered. " And you don't know why no one is al- lowed inside the valley?" " I have never asked," said Ephraim. Connor smoked fiercely, peering into the fire. :{ Well," he said at length, " you see my troubles? I can't get into the valley to rest up. I have to turn around and try to cross those mountains." " Yes," nodded Ephraim. " But the horse and mule will never make it over the rocks. I'll have to leave them behind or stay and starve with them." " That is true." " Rather than do that," said Connor, fencing for an opening, "I'd leave the poor devils here to live in the valley." " That can not be. No animals are al- lowed to enter." '' What? You'd allow this pair to die at the gate of the valley?" " No; I should lead them first into the mountain?.'' " This is incredible! But I tell you, this horse is my friend I can't desert him!" He fumbled in his coat pocket and then stretched out his hand toward the chest- nut; the horse hobbled a few steps nearer and nosed the palm of it expectantly. "So!" muttered Ephraim, and shaded his eyes with his hand to look. He settled back and said in a different voice: " The horse loves you; it is sad." " I put the matter squarely up to you," said Connor. " You see how I stand. Give me your advice!" The negro protested. " No, no! I can- not advise you. I know nothing of what goes on out yonder. Nevertheless " He broke off, for Connor was lighting another cigarette from the butt of the first one, and Ephraim paused to watch, nodding with a sort of vicarious pleasure as he saw Connor inhale deeply and then blow out a thin drift of smoke. " You were about to say something else when I lighted this." " Yes, I was about to say that I could not advise you, but I can send to Joseph. He is near us now." " By all means send to Joseph." "' Jacob," ordered the keeper of the gate. " go to Joseph and tell him what has hap- pened." The other nodded, and then whistled a long note that drifted up the ravine. After- ward there was no answer, but Jacob re- mained facing expectantly toward the inside of the valley and presently Connor heard a sound that made his heart leap, the rhyth- mic hoof-beats of a galloping horse; and even in the darkness the long interval be- tween impacts told him something of the animal's gait. Then into the circle of the firelight broke a gray horse with his tail high, his mane fluttering. He brought his gallop to a mincing trot and came straight toward Jacob, but a yard from the negro he stopped and leaped catlike to one side; with head tossed high he stared at Connor. Cold sweat stood on the forehead of the gambler, for it was like something he had seen, something he remembered; all his dreams of what a horse should be, come true. Ephraim was saying sternly : " In my household the colts are taught better manners, Jacob." And Jacob answered, greatly perturbed: "There is a wild spirit in all the sons of Harith." " It is Cassim, is it not?" asked Ephraim. " Peace, fool! " said Jacob to the stallion, and the horse came and stood behind him, still watching the stranger over the shoulder of his master. " Years dim your eyes, Ephraim," he continued. " This is not Cassim and he is not the height of Cassim by an inch. No, it is Abra, the son of Hira, who was the , daughter of Harith." He smiled complacently upon Ephraim, nodding his ancient head, and Ephraim frowned. THE GARDEN OF EDEX. 2.", ; - It is true that my eyes are noi as young as yours, Jacob; but the horses of my household are taught to stand when they are spoken to and not dance like foolish children/- This last reproof was called forth by the continual weaving back and forth of the stallion as he looked at Connor, first from one side of Jacob and then from the other. The old negro now turned with a raised hand. "Stand! "he ordered. The stallion jerked up his head and be- came rigid. - A sharp temper makes a horse with- out heart," said the oracular Ephraim. Jacob scowled, and rolling his eyes an- grily, searched for a reply; but he found none. Ephraim clasped one knee tightly in both hands, and weaving his head a little from side to side, delighted in his triumph. " And the hand which is raised," went on the tormentor, " should always fall." He was apparently quoting from an au- thority against which there was no appeal; now he concluded: ;t Threats are for children, and yearlings; but a grown horse is above them." " The spirit of Harith has returned in Abra," said Jacob gloomily. From that month of April when he was foaled he has been a trial and a burden; yes, if even a cloud Wows over the moon he comes to my window and calls me. There was never such a horse since Harith. However, he shall make amends. Abra!" The stallion stepped nearer and halted, alert. " Go to him, fool. Go to the stranger and give him your head. Quick!" The gray horse turned, hesitated, and then came straight to Connor, very slowly ; there he bowed his head and dropped his muzzle on the knee of the white man, but all the while his eyes flared at the strange face in terror. Jacob turned a proud smile upon Ephraim, and the latter nodded. " It is a good colt," he admitted. ; ' His heart is right, and in time he may grow to some worth." Once more Connor fumbled in his pocket. (To be continued " Steady," he said, looking squarely into the great, bright eyes. " Steady, boy." He put his hand under the nose of the stallion. " It's a new smell, but little different." Abra snorted softly, but though he shook he dared not move. The gambler, with a side glance, saw the two negroes watching intently. " Ah," said Connor, " you have pulled against a headstall here, eh?" He touched an old scar on the cheek of the horse, and Abra closed his eyes, but opened them again when he discovered that no harm was done to him by the tips of those gentle fingers. " You may let him have his head again," said Connor. " He will not leave me now until he is ordered." " So?" exclaimed Jacob. ; ' We shall see! Enough, Abra!" The gray tossed up his head at that word, but after he had taken one step he returned and touched the back of the white man's hand, snuffed at his shoulder and at at his hat and then stood with pricking ears. A soft exclamation came in unison from the two negroes. " I have never seen it before," muttered Jacob. " To see it, one would say he was a son of Julanda." " It is my teaching and not the blood of Julanda that gives my horses manners," corrected Ephraim. " However, if I might look in the hand of the stranger " There is nothing in it," answered Con- nor, smiling, and he held out both empty palms. " All horses are like this with me." " Is it true?" they murmured together. " Yes; I don't know why. But you were going to bring Joseph." " Ah," said Ephraim, shaking his head. " I had almost forgotten. Hurry, Jacob; but if you will take my advice in the mat- ter you will teach your colts fewer tricks and more sound sense." The other grunted, and putting his hand on the withers of Abra, he leaped to the back with the lightness of a strong youth. A motion of his hand sent the gray into a gallop that shot them through the gate into darkness. NEXT WEEK.) Cf/wvni <&&&&-> *i cfr ET*\ uCirles Divine JERRY leaped toward the ball. It was a tantalizing grounder, rolling so slowly that it looked as if it could never be gathered in before the batter reached first Two men were out, and the runner on third was halfway to the plate with a tally that would count mightily against us unless Jerry made a grand-stand play. The crowd held its breath and watched. Jerry ran with his head lunging forward. Bending over, with his bare right hand he scooped up the ball on the run and shot it across to Cuddy at first base with an un- derhand swing. "Ow-w-wt!" cried the umpire, jerking his arm upward. The crowd breathed again. There were many yells of delight that must have done Gill Gillespie's heart good, for we were in sixth place in the league standing, and our manager had been looking in vain for im- provement in our play. "Nice work, Jerry!" the fans called to the rangy second baseman as we came to the bench for our half of the seventh. Handclapping rippled over the grand stand in tribute to Jerry Potter, but he touched the brim of his cap reluctantly and frowned. At once Gillespie let out a cry of protest. " What's the matter? You get a good hand for a snappy piece of fielding, and yet you look as if you'd lost your meal ticket. Can't you smile once in a while?" " If the ball had been hit harder I could have waited for it," returned Jerry. "There you go!" exploded Gillespie. " Always complaining, always pessimistic." Suddenly his face grew redder and anger glinted in his eyes; he shook an admonish- ing finger at Jerry's solemn face. " I won't stand for it much longer. You may be hit- ting over two-eighty, but your dismal moods get my goat. I won't have a gloom on second base. It has a bad influence on the rest of the players." Jerry stared at him soberly. " It's bet- ter than a Pollyanna, isn't it? That stuff makes one sick at the stomach." " I don't know what you mean, but I'll tell you one thing that's final if you keep on like this, with never a cheerful word, you'll be looking for another berth." Gillespie turned away abruptly and. be- gan talking to Kingsley, the principal stock- holder and treasurer. Some of the players sitting on the bench chuckled over Jerry's new title, " the gloom on second base," but others of us were worried about it. Jerry was such a decent, easy-going fellow at heart that every one of us would have hated to see him let out, and yet we knew that when Gill spoke as he had done it boded ill for Jerry's continuance with the THE BOSS OF CAMP K. 213 The latter responded nobly. Some night work was necessary, but when the track- layers arrived the way was clear for them. The contract was completed on time. The men were paid off, with a small bonus for their good work, and presently Paul and Ethel were left alone in the camp with only a few workers, Xixey Reed among them, to assist in moving the outfit. " Now we can investigate the mine," said Ethel. What shall we do? Send for an expert?" " I've already done that," said Paul. " A man from the smelter at Great Falls should arrive this very day." When the expert came he spent an hour or two looking over the ground, then made a verbal report. " I doubt if you'll make a fortune out of that seam," he said. " It is thin and the ore doesn't grade very high, and I'm prac- tically certain that it will peter out in a few months. But since it's right on the railroad, it's worth working. It ought to be good for ten thousand dollars." " That's more than I expected," said Paul. " Of course we'll go ahead and work it," said Ethel after the expert had left. " We?" said Paul. (The Ethel blushed. " I promised you a share in it, you know." " And I said I would accept it on one condition only." There was an awkward silence, which Ethel broke presently. " What is your condition?" " You! " said Paul. " I'll accept a share only on condition that you marry me." " Marry you?" exclaimed Ethel. " Why, you never even said that you liked me, much less anything else." " I guess that's right," Paul admitted. " I wanted to often enough, but I didn't have the courage. And you didn't make it easy. I never saw such a businesslike girl." Ethel smiled. " Well, I haven't any business on my hands now, have I? And won't have until we get our mine in operation." Paul took hold of both her hands. " We?" he repeated. " Did I hear you use the word ' we * after I told you what my partnership condition was?" Ethel just looked at him and smiled. And Paul knew then that, along with a success in his new job, he had won some- thing vastly more precious the love of the girl he had adored from the moment he first set eyes on her. end.) APRIL CAME A PRIL came to me ^^ With eyes that were wet, A dream and a vision I could not forget. April came to me, And, oh, she was fair With the mists of the mountains Like pearls in her hair. April came to me One rainy day; Long, long I held her, And, lo, she was May. Edgar Daniel Kramer. PartH Meoc Breouf Anther of The Untamed," " Trailin'," " The Seventh Man," " Black Jack," etc. WHAT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED BEN CONNOR, race track gambler, comes to Lukin to forget his fast life and relax from his feverish activities, but no sooner does he put up at the local hotel when he learns of a deaf- mute negro who raises the finest horses possible. Ruth Manning, telegraph operator, gives him the details. The eccentric negro lives in a valley, and no white man has ever visited the place. Impulsively, Connor starts out on the journey. On the outskirts of the valley Connor makes the acquaintance of two uncanny negroes whose religion is horse raising. CHAPTER IX. THE APE'S HEAD. ently, and his voice faltered. " He flowed. He poured himself through the air." He swept a hand across his forehead and with great effort calmed the muscles of his face. " Are there more horses like that in the THAT faint and rhythmic chiming which Connor had heard from the mountain when he first saw the val- ley now came again through the gate, more valley?" clearly. There was something familiar The old negro hesitated, for there was about the sound yet Connor could not such a glittering hunger in the eyes of this place it. white man that it abashed him. Vanity, " Did you mark?" said Ephraim, shaking however, brushed scruple away, his head. " Did you see the colt shy at the " More like Abra in the valley? So! " white rock as he ran? In my household He seemed to hunt for superlatives with that could never happen; and yet Jacob which to overwhelm his questioner, does well enough, for the blood of Harith is " The worst in my household is Tabari, as stubborn as old oak and wild as a wolf, the daughter of Xuman, and she was foaled But your gift, sir " and here he turned lame in the left foreleg. But if ten like with much respect toward Connor " is a Abra were placed in one corral and Tabari great one. I have never seen Harith's sons in the other, a wise man would give the come to a man as Abra came to you." ten and take the one and render thanks He was surprised to see the stranger star- that such good fortune had come his way.' ing toward the gate as if he watched a ghost. 'Is it possible?' exclaimed Connor in " He did not gallop," said Connor pres- that same, small, choked voice. This story began in the Argosy-Allstory Weekly for April 15. 214 THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 215 " I speak calmly," said the grave negro, but when he ended Joseph answered not He added with some hesitation: " But if I a word. Connor remembered now what he must tell the whole truth, I shall admit had heard of the deaf mute who alone went that my household is not like the house- back and forth from the Garden of Eden, hold of the blood of Rustir. Just as she and his heart fell. It was talking to a face was the queen of horses, so those of her of stone. blood are above other horses as the master In the meantime Joseph continued to is above me. Yet, if ten like Tabari were examine the stranger. From head to foot placed in one corral and the stallion Glani the little, bright eyes moved, leisurely, and were placed in another, I suppose that a Connor grew hot as he endured it. When wise man would give the ten for the one." the survey was completed to his own satis- He added with a sigh: " But I should faction, Joseph went first to the mule and not have such wisdom." next to the horse, lifting their feet one by Connor smiled. one, then running his hands over their legs. " And at that rate it would require a After this he turned to Jacob and his great hundred like Abra to buy Glani?" he asked, black fingers glided through the characters " A thousand," said the old man instant- of the language of the mute, bunching, knot- ly, " and then the full price would not ting, darting out in a fluid swiftness, be paid. I have already asked the master " Joseph says," translated Ephraim, to cross him with Hira. He will answer " that your horse is lame, but that he can me soon; one touch of Glani's blood will climb the hills if you go on foot; the mule lift the strain in my household. My colts is not lame at all, but is pretending, because are good mettle but the fire, the soul of he is tired." Glani! " An oath rose up in the throat of Connor, He bowed his head. but he checked it against his teeth and " Ah, they are coming,^ Jacob and smiled at Joseph. The big negro hissed Joseph." through his teeth and his mare sprang to his His keen ear heard a sound which was side. She was not more than fourteen two, not audible to Connor for several moments; and slenderly made compared with Abra, then two gray horses swept into the circle of yet she had borne the great bulk of Joseph the firelight, and from the mare which led with ease before, and now she was appar- Abra by several yards, a stalwart negro dis- ently ready to carry him again. He dropped mounted. his hand upon her withers, and facing Con- An intermixture of white blood must have nor, swept his arm out in a broad gesture been the refining influence in Jacob and of dismissal. Vaguely the white man no- Ephraim, for only their color told their ticed this, but his real interest centered on race; but Joseph was the true Ethiopian the form of the mare. He was seeing her with narrow forehead, bulging over the eyes, not with that unwieldy bulk crushing her a flattened nose, and great, shapeless mouth, back, but with a flyweight jockey mounted Only physically he seemed formidable, his on a racing pad riding her past the grand shoulders ponderous and his hands hanging stand. He was hearing the odds which the far down his thigh. The gambler beheld bookies off ered ; he was watching those odds him with greater confidence. drop by leaps and bounds as he hammered " If you are Joseph," he said, u I suppose away at them, betting in lumps of hundreds Jacob had already told you about me. My and five hundreds, staking his fortune on name is Connor. I've been hunting up the his first " sure thing." Even as she stood Girard River, struck across the mountains passive, tossing her nose, he knew her speed, yonder, and here I've brought up with a and it took his breath. Abra himself would lame mule and a lamer horse. The point is walk away from ordinary company, but this that I want to rest up in your valley until gray mare slowly Connor looked back to my animals can go on. Is is possible?" the face of Joseph and saw that the negro While he spoke the negro watched him was waiting to see his command obeyed, with eyes which squinted in their intensitv. For the first time he noted the cartridge 216 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. belt strung across the fellow's gaunt middle paused with astonishment. The mask of lean as the loins of an ape and the holster the mute which he had hitherto kept on in which pulled the weight of a forty-five, his face now fell from it. In case of doubt, here was a cogent reason " Let me see," the black giant was saying, to hurry a loiterer. To persuade that ugly and held out his hand for the ivory image, face of ebony would never have been easy, The pulse of Connor doubled its beat- but to persuade him through an interpreter but with his fingers still closed he said: made the affair impossible. Struggling for " The ivory head is an old companion of a loophole of escape, he absentmindedly un- mine and had brought me a great deal of snapped from his watch chain the little luck." ivory talisman, the ape head, and com- The torchlight changed in the eyes of menced to finger it. It had been his con- Joseph as the sun glints and glimmers on stant companion for years and in a measure watered silk. he connected his luck with it. " I would not hurt it," he said, and made " My friend," said Connor to Ephraim, a gingerly motion to show- how light and " you see my position? But if I can't do deft his fingers could be. better is there any objection to my using " Very well," said Connor, " but I rarely this fire of yours for cooking? The fire, let it out of my hand." at least, is outside the valley." He stepped closer to the firelight and ex- Even this question Ephraim apparently posed the little carving again. It was a did not feel qualified to answer. He turned curious bit of work, with every detail nicely first to the gigantic negro and conversed executed; pin point emeralds were inset for with him at some length; his own fluent sig- eyes, the lips grinned back from tiny fangs nals were answered by single movements on of gold, and the swelling neck suggested the the part of Joseph, and Connor recognized powerful ape body of the model. In the the signs of dissent. firelight the teeth and eyes flashed. " I have told him everything," said the The ugly face of Joseph grinned in sym- ancient negro, turning again to Connor and pathy; with his yellow teeth and his shifting shaking his head in sympathy. " And how eyes he might have served as a model for Abra came to you, but though the horse the little carving. Ephraim and Jacob also trusted you, Joseph does not wish you to had drawn close, and the white man saw- stay. I am sorry." in the three black faces one expression: they Connor looked through the gate into the had become children before a master, and darkness of the Garden of Eden; at the en- when Connor placed the trinket in the great trance to his promised land he was to be paw of Joseph the other two flashed at him turned back. In his despair he opened his glances of envy. As for the big negro, he palm and looked down absently at the little was transformed ; he had been swept a thou- grinning ape head of ivory. Even while he sand generations back toward an animal was deep in thought he felt the silence which prototype. settled over the three negroes, and when he " Speak truth," he said suddenly. " Why looked up he saw the glittering eyes of Jo- do you wish to enter the Garden?" seph fixed upon the trinket. That instant " I've already told you, I think," said new hope came to Connor; he closed his Connor. " It's to rest up until the horse hand over the ape head, and turning to and mule are well again." Ephraim he said: The glance of the huge negro, which had " Very well. If there's nothing else for hitherto wandered from the trinket to the me to do, I'll take the chance of getting face of the white man, now steadied bright- through the mountains with my lame nags." ly upon the latter. As he spoke he threw the reins over the " There must be another reason." neck of the chestnut; but before he could Connor felt himself pressed to the wall, put his foot in the stirrup the big negro was " Look at the thing you have in your beside him and touched his shoulder. hand, Joseph. You are asking yourself: "Wait!" said Joseph, and the gambler 'What is it? Who made it? See how the THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 217 firelight glitters on it perhaps there is life in it!'" " Ah! " sighed the three in one breath. " Perhaps there is power in it. I have used it well and it has brought me a great deal of good luck. But you would like to know all those things, Joseph. Now look at the gate to the Garden!" He waved to the lofty and dark cleft be- fore them. " It is like a face to me. People live behind it. Who are they? Who is the mas- ter? What does he do? What is his power? That is another reason why I wish to go in; and why should you fear me? I am alone; I am unarmed." It seemed that Joseph learned more from Connor's expression than from his words. " The law is the will of David." The Garden became to Connor as the for- bidden room to Bluebeard's wife; it tempt- ed him as a high cliff tempts the climber toward a fall. He mustered a calm air and voice. " That is a matter I can arrange with your master. He may have laws to keep out thieves, but certainly he has nothing against honest men." Joseph shrugged his big shoulders, but Ephraim answered: " The will of David never changes. I am no longer young, but since I have been old enough to remember, I have never seen a man either come into the valley or leave it except Joseph." The solemnity of the old negro staggered Connor. He felt his resolution to enter at any cost waver, and then Abra, the young stallion, came to his side and looked in his face. It was the decisive touch. The life which the devotee would risk for his God, or the patriot for his country, the gambler was willing to venture for the sake of a " sure thing." " Let us exchange gifts," said Connor; " I give you the ivory head. It may bring you good luck. You give me the right to enter the valley and I accept any good or evil that comes to me." The huge fingers of Joseph curled softly over the image. "Beware of the law!" cried Ephraim. - And the hand of the master!" The giant shrank, but he looked at Ephraim with sullen defiance. " Come," he said to Connor. " This is on vour own head." CHAPTER X. THE ENTRANCE TO EDEN. ' T is a long ride to the house of David," ; said Jacob. " Your horse is footsore; take Abra." But Ephraim broke in: " If you care for speed and wise feet beneath you, Tabari herself is there." He whistled as Jacob had done before, but with another grace-note at the end. " Those of my household answer when they are called," continued the old man proudly. "Listen!" A soft whinny out of the darkness, and Tabari galloped into the firelight, and stopped at the side of her master motion- less. 11 Choose," said Ephraim. He smiled at Jacob, who in return was darkly silent. The mare tugged at the heartstrings of Connor, but he answered, slipping carefully into the formal language which apparently was approved most in the valley. " She is worthy of a king, but Abra was offered to me first. But will he carry a saddle?" " He will carry anything but a whip," said Jacob, casting a glance of triumph at Ephraim." "You will see!" He was al- ready busy at the knot under the flap of Connor's saddle, and presently he slipped the saddle from the back of the chestnut. " Come!" he called. Abra came, but he came like a fighter into the ring, dancing, ready for trouble. "Fool!" shouted Jacob, stamping. " Fool, and grandson of a fool, stand!" The ears of Abra flicked back along his neck and he trembled as the saddle was swung over him. Under its impact he crouched and shuddered, but the outbreak of bucking for which Connor waited did not come. The jerk on the cinch brought a snort from him, but that was all. " We may not put iron in his mouth." 218 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. said Jacob, as Connor came up with the trees rushing past him against the sky, and bridle, " but a touch on this will turn him for the first time he knew the speed of that or stop him, as you wish." gallop. In his exultation he threw up his As he spoke he picked up a small rope, hand, and his shout rang before him and which he knotted around the neck of Abra behind. That taught him a lesson he would close to the ears, and handed the end to never forget when he sat the saddle on an Connor. Eden Gray; for Abra lurched into a run "Look!" he said to the horse, pointing with a suddenness that swayed Connor to Connor. " This is your master to-night, against the can tie again. Bear him as you would bear me, Abra, He steadied himself quickly and called without leaping or stumbling, smoothly, as to Abra; the first word cut down that son of Khalissa should do. And hark," he racing gait to the long, free stride, but the added in the ear of the young stallion; " if brief rush had taken the breath of the rider, the mare of Joseph outruns you, you are no and now he looked about him. horse of my household, but a mongrel, a He had been in California years before, bloodless knave." and now he recognized the peculiar, clean Joseph was already trotting through the perfume of the trees which line the road; gate and growing dim beyond, so Connor they were the eucalyptus, and they fenced put his foot in the stirrup and swung into the way with a gigantic hedge several rows the saddle. He landed as upon springs, all deep. It was a winding road that they the lithe body of the stallion giving under followed, dipping over a rolling ground and the shock; and Connor felt a quivering swinging leisurely from side to side to avoid power beneath him like the vibration of a high places, so that the vista of the trees racing motor. Abra's eyes glinted as he was continually in motion, twisting back threw his head high to take stock of the and forth; or when he looked straight up new master. he saw the slender tree-points brushing past " Go," commanded Jacob; " and remem- the stars. So he galloped into a long, straight ber your speed, for the honor of him who stretch with a pale gleam of water beyond trained you!" it; and between he saw Joseph. The last words were whipped away from It was strange that in spite of the speed the ear of Connor and trailed into a mur- of Abra Joseph's mare had not been over- mur behind him, for without a preliminary taken; for no matter what quality the step Abra sprang from a stand into a full mare might have, she carried in the gigantic gallop. That forward lurch swayed Con- negro an impost of some two hundred and nor far back; he lost touch with his fifty pounds. A suspicion of discourtesy on stirrups, but, clinging desperately with his his part must have come to Joseph, for now knees, he was presently able to right him- he brought his horse back to a canter that self. There was hard gravel beneath them, allowed Connor to come close, so close in- but the gait was as soft as if Abra ran in deed that he saw Joseph laughing in a deep sand without labor; there was no more horrible soundless way and beckoning him wrench and shock than the ghost of a man on, very much as though he challenged riding a ghost of a horse. Abra. Surely the fellow must know that A column of black shot by on either no horse could concede such weight to hand; Connor was through the gate to the Abra, but Connor waved his arm to signify Garden of Eden and rushing down the slope that he accepted the challenge, and called beyond. He knew this dimly, but chiefly on Abra. he was aware only of the whipping of the There followed the breathless lunge for- wind. Something Ephraim had said came ward, the sinking of the body as the stride into his memory: " If there were ten like lengthened, the whir of wind against his Abra in one corral, and one like Tabari in face; Connor sat the saddle erect, smiling, another, as wise man But, no doubt, and waited for Joseph to come back to Ephraim had jested. him. For, glancing up, he saw the tops of tall But Joseph did not come, and as the THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 219 mare reached the river and her hoofs rang erate pace. One hand was clutched at his on the bridge Connor saw with unspeakable throat, for it seemed to him that his heart wonder that he had actually lost ground, was beating there. Before him raced a Once more he called on Abra, and as they vision of Ben Connor, king of the race- struck the bridge in turn the young stallion tracks of the world, with horses no handi- was fully extended, while Connor swung capper could measure. forward in the saddle to throw more weight on the withers and take the strain from the long black muscles. Leaning close to CHAPTER XI. the neck of Abra, with the mane whipping his face, he squinted down the road at Joseph, and growled with savage satisfac- A SECOND thought made him lean a tion as he saw the mare drift back to him. /-\ little, listening closely, and then he If he could reach her with a sprint she discovered that after this terrific was beaten, for she bore the extra burden, trial Abra was breathing deep and free. Once more he called on Abra, and heard a Connor sat straight again and smiled. They slight grunt as the stallion gave the last must be close to the lake he had seen from burst of his strength; the hoofs of the two the mountain, for among the trees to his roared on the hard road, and Joseph came left was a faint gleam of water. A mo- back hand over hand. Connor, laughing ment later this glimmer went out, and the exultantly, squinted into the wind. hoofbeats of Abra were muffled on turf. " Good boy!" he muttered. " Good old They had left the road and headed for a Abra! If he had Saivator under him we'd scattering of lights. Joseph had drawn the get him at this rate. We're on his hip mare back to a hand-gallop, and Abra fol- Now!" lowed the example; at this rocking gait He was indeed in touch with the flying they swept through the grove between two mare, and, looking through the dimness, long, low buildings, always climbing, and he marveled at her long, free swing, the came suddenly upon a larger house. On level drive of the croup, and he saw with three sides Connor looked down upon wa- astonishment her pricking ears! Not as ter; the building was behind him. Not a if she were racing, but merely galloping, light showed in it, but he made out the He flattened himself along the neck of Abra low, single story, the sense of weight, and and called on him again, slapped his shoul- crude arches of the Mission style. Through der with the flat of his hand, flicked him an opening in the center of the fagade he along the flank with the butt of the rope: looked into darkness which he knew must but the mare held him invincibly: he could be the patio. not gain the breadth of a hair, and by the Following the example of Joseph, he dis- pounding of Abra's forefeet he knew that mounted, and while the big negro, with his the stallion was running himself out. At waddling, difficult walk, disappeared into that moment, to crown his bewilderment, the court, Connor stepped back and looked Joseph turned, and saw that the negro was over Abra. Starlight was enough to see laughing again in that soundless way. Only him by, for he glimmered with running for a moment; then he turned, and, lean- sweat even in the semidarkness, but it was ing over the withers of his mount, the mare plain from his high head and inquisitive lengthened, it seemed to Connor, and moved muzzle that he was neither winded nor away. down-hearted. He followed Connor like a Her hips went past him, then her tail, dog when the gambler went in turn to the flying out straight behind, a streak of mare. She turned about nervously to watch silver; and last of all, there was the hiss the newcomer. Not until Abra had touched of derision from Joseph whistling back to noses with her and perhaps spoken to her him. the dumb horse-talk would she allow Con- Connor threw himself back into the sad- nor to come close, and even then he could die and brought the stallion down to a mod- not see her as clearly as the stallion. By 220 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. running his fingertips over her he discov- ered the reason only on the flanks and across the breast was she wet with perspi- ration, and barely moist on the thighs and belly. The race had winded her no more than a six-furlong canter. He was still marveling at this discovery when Joseph appeared under the arch car- rying a lantern and beckoned him in, lead- ing the way to a large patio, surrounded by a continuous arcade. In the center a foun- tain was alternately silver and shadow in the swinging lantern light. The floor of the patio was close-shaven turf. Joseph hung the lantern on the inside of one of the arches and turned to Connor, apparently to invite him to take one of the chairs under the arcade. Instead, he raised his hand to impose silence. Connor heard, from some distance, a harsh sound of breathing of inconceivable strength. For though it was plainly not close to them, he could mark each intake and expulsion of breath. And the noise created for him the picture of a monster. " Let us go to the master," said Joseph, and turned straight across the patio in the direction of that sonorous breathing. Connor followed, by no means at ease. From the withered negroes to huge Joseph had been a long step. How far would be the reach between Joseph himself and the omnipotent master? He passed in the track of Joseph toward the rear of the patio. Presently the big negro halted, removed his hat, and faced a door beneath the arcade. It was only a momentary interruption. He went on again at once, replacing his hat, but the thrill of apprehension was still tingling in the blood of the gambler. Now they went under the arcade, through an open door, and issued in the rear of the house, Connor's imaginary " monster " dissolved. For they stood in front of a blacksmith shop, the side toward them being entirely open so that Connor could see the whole of the interior. Two sooty lanterns hung from the rafters, the light tangling among wreaths of smoke above and showing below a man whose back was turned toward them as he worked a great snoring bellows with one hand. That bellows was the source of the mys- terious breathing. Connor chuckled; all mysteries dissolved as this had done the moment one confronted them. He left off chuckling to admire the ease with which the blacksmith handled the bellows. A massive angle of iron was buried in the forge, the white flames spurting around it as the bellows blew, casting the smith into high relief at every pulse of the fire. Some- times it ran on the great muscles of the arm that kept the bellows in play; some- times it ran a dazzling outline around his entire body, showing the leather apron and the black hair which flooded down about his shoulders. " Who" began Connor. " Hush," cautioned Joseph in a whisper. ' David speaks when he chooses not sooner." Here the smith laid hold on the iron with long pincers, and, raising it from the coals, at once the shop burst with white light as David placed the iron on the anvil and caught up a short-handled sledge. He whirled it and brought it down with a clangor. The sparks spurted into the night, dropping to the ground and turning red at the very feet of Connor. Slowly David turned the iron, the steady shower of blows bending it, changing it, molding it under the eye of the gambler. This was that clangor which had floated through the clear mountain air to him when he first gazed down on the valley; this was the bell-like murmur which had washed down to him through the gates of the valley. At least it was easy to understand why the negroes feared him. A full fourteen pounds was in the head of that sledge, Con- nor guessed, yet David whirled it with a light and deft precision. Only the shud- dering of the anvil told the weight of those blows. Meantime, with every leap of the spark-showers the gambler studied the face of the master. They were features of strength rather than beauty from the frown- ing forehead to the craggy jaw. A sort of fierce happiness lived in that face now, the thought of the craftsman and the joy of the laborer in his strength. As the white heat passed from the iron and it no longer flowed into a shape so THE GARDEN' OF EDEN. 221 readily under the hammer of the smith, a looked about. The arcade was lightened change came in him. Connor knew noth- by a flagging of crystalline white stone, and ing of ironcraft, but he guessed shrewdly the ceiling was inlaid with the same mate- that another man would have softened the rial. But the arches and the wall of the metal with fire again at this point. Instead, building were of common dobe, massive, David chose to soften it with strength, but roughly built. The steady patter of blows increased to a Beyond the fountain nodded like a ghost thundering rain as the iron turned a dark in the patio, and now and then, when the and darker red. lantern was swayed by the wind, the pool The rhythm of the worker grew swifter, glinted and was black again. The silence did not break, and Connor watched with a was beginning to make him feel more than keen eye of appreciation. Just as a great ever like an unwelcome guest when another thoroughbred makes its supreme effort in old negro came, and Connor noted with the stretch by a lengthening and slight growing wonder the third of these black quickening of stride, but never a dropping ancients. Each of them must have been in into the choppy pace of unskilled labor at youth a fine specimen of manhood. Even speed, so the* man at the anvil was now in white-headed age they retained some of rocking steadily back and forth from heel that noble countenance which remains to to toe, the knees unflexing a little as he those who have once been strong. This struck and stiffening as he swung up the fellow bore a tray upon his arm, and in the hammer. The greater effort was told only free hand carried a large yellow cloth of a by the greater ring of the hammer face on coarse weave. the hardening iron by that and by the He placed on the table a wooden shudder of the arm of the smith as the trencher with a great loaf of white bread, a fourteen pounds went clanging home to the cone of clear honey, and an earthen pitcher stroke. of milk. Next he put a wooden bowl on a And now the iron was quite dark the chair beside Connor, and when the latter smith stood with the ponderous sledge obediently extended his hand, the old negro poised above his head and turned the bar poured warm water over them and dried swiftly, with study, to see that the angle them with a napkin, was exactly what he wished. The hammer There was a ceremony about this that did not descend again on the iron; the fitted perfectly with the surroundings, and smith was content, and plunging the big Connor became thoughtful. He was to angle iron into the tempering tub, his burly tempt the master with the wealth of the shoulders were obscured for a moment by a world, but what could he give the man to rising cloud of steam. replace this Homeric comfort? He stepped out of this and came directly In the midst of these reflections soft to them. Now the lantern was behind him, steps approached him, and he saw the he was silhouetted in black, a mighty figure, brown-faced David coming in a shapeless He was panting from his labor, and the blouse and trousers of rough cloth, with heavy sound of his breathing disturbed the moccasins on his feet. Rising to meet his gambler. He had expected to find a wise host, he was surprised to find that David and simple old man in David. Instead, he had no advantage in height and a small one was face to face with a Hercules. in breadth of shoulder in the blacksmith His attention was directed entirely to shop; he had seemed a giant. The brown Joseph. man stopped beside the table. He seemed " I come from my work unclean," he to be around thirty, but because of the un- said. " Joseph, take the stranger within wrinkled forehead Connor decided that he and wait.'' was probably five years older. Joseph led back into the patio to a plain " I am David," he said, without offering wooden table beside which Connor, at the his hand. gesture of invitation, sat down. Here " I," said the gambler, " am Benjamin." Joseph left him hurriedly, and the gambler There was a flash that might have been 222 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. either pleasure or suspicion in the face of " You will see," said David, " both its David. size and weight." -" Joseph has told me what has passed And Connor knew; it was an exchange between you," he said. for the ivory head. He laid the nugget " I hope he's broken no law by letting carelessly back upon the table, thankful me come in." that the gift had been offered with such " My will is the law; in disregarding me suspicious bluntness. he has broken a law." " It is a fine specimen," he repeated, He made a sign above his shoulder that " but I am not collecting." brought Joseph hurrying out of the gloom, There was a heavy cloud on the face of his keen little eyes fastened upon the face David as he took up the nugget and passed of the master with intolerable anxiety, it into the hand of the waiting servant; but There was another sign from David, and his glance was for Joseph, not Connor, the negro, without a glance at Connor, The negro burst into speech for the first snatched the ivory head out of his pocket, time, and the words tumbled out. thrust it upon the table, and stood back, ' I do not want it. I shall not keep it. watching the brown man with fascination. See, David; I give it up to him!" He made " You see," went on David, " that he re- a gesture with both hands as though he turns to you the price which you paid would push away the ape-head forever, him. Therefore you have no longer a right The master looked earnestly at Connor. to remain in the Garden of Eden." " You hear?" Connor flushed. " If this were a price," The latter shrugged his shoulders, say- he answered, clinging as closely as he ing: " I've never taken back a gift, and I could to language as simple and direct as can't begin now." that of David, " it could be returned to Connor's heart was beating rapidly, from me. But it is not a price. It is a gift, and the excitement of the strange interview and gifts cannot be returned." the sense of his narrow escape from banish- He held out the ape-head, and when ment. Because he had made the gift to Joseph could see nothing save the face of Joseph he had an inalienable right, it David, he pushed the trinket back toward seemed, to expect some return from the negro. Joseph's master even permission to stay " Then," said the brown man, " the fault in the valley, if he insisted, which was small before is now grown large." There was another of those uncomforta- He looked calmly upon Joseph, and the ble pauses, with the master looking sternly giant quailed. By the table hung a gong into the night. on which the master tapped; one of the ' Zacharias," he said, ancient servants appeared instantly. The servant stepped beside him. " Go to my room," said David, " and ' Bring the whip and the cup." bring me the largest nugget from the chest." The eyes of Zacharias rolled once toward The old man disappeared, and while they Joseph and then he was gone, running; he waited for his return the little bright eyes returned almost instantly with a seven foot of Joseph went to and fro on the face of blacksnake, oiled until it glistened. He put the master; but David was staring into the it in the hand of David, but only when darkness of the patio. The servant brought Joseph stepped back, shuddering, and then a nugget of gold, as large as the doubled turned and kneeled before David, the sig- fist of a child, and the master rolled it nificance of that whip came home to Con- across the table to Connor. nor, sickening him. The whites of Joseph's A tenseness about his mouth told the eyes rolled at him and Connor stepped be- gambler that much was staked on this ac- tween the negro and the whip, ceptance. He turned the nugget in his " Do you mean this?" he gasped. Do hand, noting the discoloration of the ore you mean to say that you are going to flog from which it had been taken. that poor fellow because he took a gift " It is a fine specimen," he said. from me?" THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 223 - From you it was a gift," answered the master, perfectly calm, " but to him it was a price. And to me it is a great trouble." u God!" murmured Connor. " Do you call on him?" asked the brown man severely. " He is only here in so far as I am the agent of his justice. Yet I trust it is not more His will than it is the will of David. Also, the heart of Joseph is stubborn and must be humbled. Tears are the sign of contrition, and the whip shall not cease to fall until Joseph weeps." His glance pushed Connor back; the gambler saw the lash whirled, and he turned his back sharply before it fell. Even so, the impact of the la^h on flesh cut into Connor, for he had only to take back the gift to end the flogging. He set his teeth. Could he give up his only hold on David and the Eden Grays? By the whiz- zing of the lash he knew that it was laid on with the full strength of that muscular arm. Now a horrible murmur from the throat of Joseph forced him to turn against his will. The face of David was filled, not with anger, but with cruel disdain; under his flying lash the welts leaped up on the back of Joseph, but the negro, with his eyes shut and his head strained far back, en- dured. Only through his teeth, each time he drew breath, came that stifled moan, and he shuddered at each impact of the whip. Now his eyes opened, and through the mist of pain a brutal hatred glimmered at Con- nor. That flare of rage seemed to sap the last of his strength, for now his face con- vulsed, tears flooded down, and his head dropped. Instantly the hand of David paused. Something had snapped in Connor at the same time that the head of Joseph fell, and while he wiped the wet from his face he only vaguely saw Joseph hurry down the corridor, with Zacharias carrying the whip behind. But the master? There was neither cruelty nor anger in his face as he turned to the table and filled with milk the wooden cup which Zacharias had brought. " This is my prayer," he said quietly, " that in the justice of David there may never be the poison of David's wrath." He drained the cup, broke a morsel of bread from the loaf and ate it. Next he filled the second cup and handed it to the gambler. " Drink." Automatically Connor obeyed. " Eat." In turn he tasted the bread. " And now," said the master, in the deep, calm voice, " you have drunk with David in his house, and he has broken bread with you. Hereafter may there be peace and good will between us. You have given a free gift to one of my people, and he who gives clothes to David's people keeps David from the shame of nakedness; and he who puts bread in the mouths of David's serv- ants feeds David himself. Stay with me, therefore, Benjamin, until you find in the Garden the thing you desire, then take it and go your way. But until that time, what is David's is Benjamin's; your will be my will, and my way be your way." He paused. "And now Benjamin, you are Aveary?" " Very tired." " Follow me." It seemed well to Connor to remove him- self from the eye of the master as soon as possible. Not that the host showed signs of anger, but just as one looks at a clear sky and forebodes hard weather because of misty horizons, so the gambler guessed the frown behind David's eyes. He was glad to turn into the door which was opened for him. But even though he guessed the danger, Connor could not refrain from tempting Providence with a speech of double meaning. " You are very kind," he said. " Good night, David." " May God keep you until the morning, Benjamin." CHAPTER XII. HANEEMAR. FROM the house of David Joseph skulked down the terraces until he came to the two long buildings and entered the smaller of these. He crossed a patio, smaller than the court of David's house; but there, too, was the fountain in 224 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. the center and the cool flooring of turf, tesque lifted his head. It at once fell far Across this, and running under the dimly back, the neck muscles apparently unable lighted arcade, Joseph reached a door to support its weight. He looked more at which he tore open, slammed behind him the ceiling than at Joseph. His speech was again, and with his great head fallen upon a writhing of the lips about the black hollow his chest, stared at a little withered negro of the mouth and the voice a hollow mur- who sat on a stool opposite the door. It mur. \vas rather a low bench of wood than a " This," he said, " is the face of a great stool; for it stood not more than six inches suhman. It is the face of the great suh- above the level of the floor. His shoes off, man, Haneemar. It was many years ago and his bare feet tucked under his legs, he that I knew him. It was a time so long ago sat tailorwise and peered up at the giant, that I do not know how to tell you. It was The sudden opening of the door had set his before your birth and the birth of your loose blouse fluttering about the old man's father. It was when I lived naked in a skeleton body. The sleeves fell back from green country where the air is thick and bony forearms with puckered skin. He sweet and the sun burns. There I knew was less a man than a receptacle of time. Haneemar. He is a strong suhman. You His temples sank in like the temples of a see, his eyes are green; that is because he very old horse; his toothless mouth was has the strength of the great snake that crushed together by the pressure of the ties its tail around a branch and hangs long bony jaw, below which the skin hung down with its head as high as the breast of in a flap. Compared with the polished a man. Those snakes kill an antelope and ebony of Joseph, his black skin was cov- eat it at a mouthful. Their eyes are green ered with a thick dusting of gray. But the and so are the eyes of Haneemar. And you fire still glimmered in the hollows of his see that Haneemar has golden teeth. That eyes. A cheerful spirit lived in the grass- is because he has eaten wisdom. He knows hopper body. He was knitting with a pair the meat of all things like a nut he can of slender needles, never looking at his crack between his teeth. Hs is as strong Avork, nor during the interview with Joseph as the snake which eats monkeys, and he is did he once slacken his pace. The needles as wise as the monkeys that run from the clicked with such swift precision that the snake and throw sticks from the tops of the work grew perceptibly, flowing slowly un- trees. That is Haneemar. der the hands of the negro. " There is no luck for the man who ear- Meanwhile this death's head looked at ries the face of Haneemar with him. That the giant so steadily that Joseph seemed to is why David used the whip. He knew regret his unceremonious entrance. He Haneemar. Also, in the other days I re- stood back against the door, fumbling its member that when a child was sick in the knob for a moment, but then his rage mas- village they tied a goat in the forest and tered him once more, and he burst into the Haneemar came and ate the goat. If he ate tale of Connor's coming and the ivory head, the goat like a lion and left tooth marks on He brought his story to an end by deposit- the bones then the child got well and lived, ing the trinket before the ancient man and If he ate the goat like a panther and left then stood back, his face still working, and the guts the child died. But if the goat waited with every show of confident curi- was not eaten for one day then Haneemar osity. came and ate the child instead. I remem- As for the antique, his knitting needles ber this. There will be no luck for you continued to fly, but to view the little carv- while you carry Haneemar." ing more closely he cranned his skinny neck. The big negro had heard this speech with At that moment, with his fallen features, his eyes that grew rounder and rounder. Now fleshless nose, his wide, deformed mouth, he he caught up the little image and raised was a grinning mummy head. He remained his arm to throw it through the window, gloating over the little image so long that But the old man hissed, and Joseph turned Joseph stirred uneasily; but finally the gro- with a shudder. 4 A THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 225 You cannot throw Haneemar away," said the other. " Only when some one takes him freely will you be rid of him." " It is true," answered Joseph. " I re- member the white man would not take him back." " Then," said the old sage, " if the white man will not take him back, bad luck has come into the Garden, for only the white man would carry Haneemar out again. But do not give Haneemar to one of our friends, for then he will stay with us all. If you dig a deep hole and bury him in it, Hanee- mar may not be able to get out." Joseph was beginning to swell with wrath. " The white man has put a curse on me," he said. " Abraham, what shall I do to him? Teach me a curse to put on him! " "Hush!" answered Abraham. "Those who pray to evil spirits are the slaves of the powers they pray to." " Then I shall take this Benjamin in my hands!" He made a gesture as though he were snapping a stick of dry wood. " You are the greater fool. Is not this Benjamin, this stranger, a guest of the master?" " I shall steal him away by night in such a manner that he shall not make even the noise of a mouse when the cat breaks its back. I shall steal him away and David will never know." The loose eyelids of the old man puck- ered and his glance became a ray of light. " The curse already works; Haneemar' already is in your mind, Joseph. David will not know? Child, there is nothing that he does not know. He uses us. We are his tools. My mind is to him as my hand is to me. He comes inside my eyes; he knows what I think. And if old Abraham is noth- ing before David, what is Joseph? Hush! Let not a whisper go out ! Do not even dare to think it. You have felt the whip of David, but you have not felt his hand when he is in anger. A wounded mountain lion is not so terrible as the rage of David; he would be to you as an ax at the root of a sapling. These things have happened be- fore. I remember. Did not Boram once anger John? And was not Boram as great as Joseph? And did not John take Boram 5 A in his hands and conquer him and break him? Yes, and David is a greater body and a stronger hand than John. Also, his anger is as free as the running of an un- taught colt. Remember, my son!" Joseph stretched out his enormous arms and his voice was a broken wail. " Oh, Abraham, Abraham, what shall I do?" " Wait," said the old man quietly. " For waiting makes the spirit strong. Look at Abraham! His body has been dead these twenty years, but still his spirit lives." " But the curse of Haneemar, Abraham?" " Haneemar is patient. Let Joseph be patient also." CHAPTER XIII. THE MIRACLE. CONNOR wakened in the gray hour of the morning, but beyond the window the world was much brighter than his room. The pale terraces went down to scat- tered trees, and beyond the trees was the water of the lake. Farther still the moun- tains rolled up into a brighter morning. A horse neighed out of the dawn; the sound came ringing to Connor, and he was sud- denly eager to be outside. In the patio the fountain was still play- ing. As for the house, he found it far less imposing than it had been when lantern light picked out details here and there. The walls and the clumsy arches were the disagreeable color of dried mud and all un- der the arcade was dismal shadow. But the lawn was already a faintly shining green, and the fountain went up above the ground shadow in a column of light. He passed on. The outside wall had that squat, crumbling appearance which every one knows who has been in Mexico and through an avenue of trees he saw the two buildings between which he had ridden the night before. From the longer a negro was leading one of the gray horses. This, then, was the stable; the building opposite it was a duplicate on a smaller scale of the house of David, and must be the servants' quar- ters. Connor went on toward a hilltop which 226 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. alone topped the site of the master's house; tunity to see David and remain unseen. He the crest was naked of trees, and over the realized that the evening before it had been tops of the surrounding ones Connor found difficult to look directly into David's face, that he commanded a complete view of the He had carried away little more than im- valley. The day before, looking from the pressions; of strength, dignity, a surface far-off mountaintop, it had seemed to be a calm and strong passions under it; but now straight line very nearly, from the north he was able to see the face. It was full of to the south; now he saw that from the cen- contradiction; a profile irregular and deeply ter both ends swung westward. The val- cut, but the full face had a touch of no- ley might be twelve miles long, and two or bility that made it almost handsome, three wide, fenced by an unbroken wall of As he watched, Connor thought he de- cliffs. Over the northern barrier poured a tected a growing excitement in David his white line of water, which ran on through head was raised, his smile had deepened. ' the valley in a river that widened above Perhaps he came here to rejoice in his pos- David's house into a spacious lake three or sessions; but a moment later Connor real- four miles long. The river began again ized that this could not be the case, for from the end of the lake and continued the gaze of the other must be fixed as high straight to the base of the southern cliffs, as the mountain peaks. Roads followed the swing of the river closely At that instant came the revelation; there on each side, and the stream was bridged was a stiffening of the whole body of David; at each end of the lake. His angle of his breast filled and he swayed forward and vision was so small that both extremities raised almost on tiptoe. Connor, by sym- of the valley seemed a solid forest, but in pathy, grew tense and then the miracle the central portion he made out broad happened. Over the face of David fell a meadow lands and plowed fields checkering sudden radiance. His hair, dull black the the groves. The house, as he had guessed moment before, now glistened with light, the evening before, stood into the lake on and the swarthy skin became a shining a slender peninsula. And due west a narrow bronze; his lips parted as though he drank slit of light told of the gate into the Garden, in strength and happiness out of that mirac- It gave him a curiously confused emotion, as ulous light, of a prisoner and spy in one. The hard-headed Connor was staggered. He had walked back almost to the edge Back on his mind rushed a score of details, of the clearing when David, from the other the background of this picture. He remem- side, went up to the crest of the hill. Con- bered the almost superhuman strength of nor was already among the trees and he Joseph; he saw again the old negroes with- watched unobserved. The master of the ering with many years, but still bright-eyed, Garden, at the top of the hill, paused and straight and agile. Perhaps they, too, knew turned toward Connor. The gambler how to stand here and drink in a mysterious flushed; he was about to step out and hail light which filled their outworn bodies with his host when a second thought assured him youth of the spirit, at least. And David? that he could not have been noticed behind Was not this the reason that he scorned the that screen of shrubbery and trunks; more- world? Here was his treasure past reckon- over the glance of David Eden passed high ing, this fountain of youth. Here was the above him. It might have been the cry explanation, too, of that intolerable bright- of a hawk that made him turn so sharply; ness of his eye. The gambler bowed his but through several minutes he remained head. without moving either hand or head, and as When he looked up again his soul had though he were waiting. Even in the dis- traveled higher and lower in one instant tance Connor marked the smile of happy than it had ever moved before; he was expectation. If it had been another place staring like a child. Above all, he wanted and another man Connor would have to see the face of David again, to examine thought it a lover waiting for his mistress, that mysterious change, but the master was But, above all, he was glad of the oppor- already walking down the hill and had al- THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 227 most reached the circle of the trees on the opposite side of the slope. But now Con- nor noted a difference everywhere surround- ing him. The air was warmer; the wind seemed to have changed its fiber; and then he saw that the treetops opposite him were shaking and glistening in a glory of light. Connor went limp and leaned against a tree, laughing weakly, silently. " Hell," he said at length, recovering him- self. " It was only the sunrise! And me I thought" He began to laugh again, aloud, and the sound was caught up by the hillside and thrown back at him in a sharp echo. Con- nor went thoughtfully back to the house. In the patio he found the table near the fountain laid with a cloth, the wood scrubbed white, and on it the heavy earth- enware. David Eden came in with the calm, the same eye, difficult to meet. In- deed, then and thereafter when he was with David, he found himself continually looking away, and resorting to little man- euvers to divert the glance of his host. " Good morrow," said David. " I have kept you waiting?" asked Con- nor. The master paused to make sure that he had understood the speech, then replied: " If I had been hungry I should have eaten." There was no rebuff in that quiet state- ment', but it opened another door to Con- nor's understanding. " Take this chair," said David, moving it from the end of the table to the side. " Sitting here you can look through the gate of the patio and down to the lake. It is not pleasant to have four walls about one; but that is a thing which Isaac cannot understand." The gambler nodded, and to show that he could be as unceremonious as his host, sat down without further words. He im- mediately felt awkward, for David re- mained standing. He broke a morsel from the loaf of bread, which was yet the only food on the table, and turned to the East with a solemn face. " Out of His hands from whom I take this food," said the master " into His hands I give myself." He sat down in turn, and Isaac came in- stantly with the breakfast. It was an as- tonishing menu to one accustomed to toast and coffee for the morning meal. On a great wooden platter which occupied half the surface of the table, Isaac put down two chickens, roasted brown. A horn- handled hunting knife, razor sharp, was the only implement at each place, and fingers must serve as forks. To David that was a small impediment. Under the deft edge of his knife the breast of one chicken divided rapidly; he ate the white slices like bread. Indeed, the example was easy to follow; the mountain air had given him a vigorous appetite, and when Connor next looked up it was at the sound of glass tinkling. He saw Isaac holding toward the master a buck- et of water in which a bottle was immersed almost to the cork; David tried the tem- perature of the water with his fingers with a critical air, and then nodded to Isaac, who instantly drew the cork. A moment later red wine was trickling into Connor's cup. He viewed it with grateful astonish- ment, but David, poising his cup, looked across at his guest with a puzzled air. " In the old days," he said gravely, " when my masters drank they spoke to one another in a kindly fashion. It is now five years since a man has sat at my table, and I am moved to say this to you, Benjamin: it is pleasant to speak to another not as a master who must be obeyed, but as an equal who may be answered, and this is my wish, that if I have doubts of Benjamin, and unfriendly thoughts, they may disap- pear with the wine we drink." " Thank you," said Connor, and a thrill went through him as he met the eye of David. " That wish is my wish also and long life to you, David." There was a glint of pleasure in the face of David, and they drank together. " By Heaven," cried Connor, putting down the cup, " it is Medoc! It is Chateau Lafite, upon my life!" He tasted it again. " And the vintage of '96! Is that true?" David shook his head. " I have never heard of Medoc or Cha- teau Lafite." " At least," said Connor, raising his cup ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. and breathing the delicate bouquet, " this wine is Bordeaux you imported from France? The grapes which made this never grew outside of the Gironde!" But David smiled. " In the north of the Garden," he said, " there are some low rolling hills, Benja- min; and there the grapes grow from which we make this wine." Connor tasted the claret again. His re- spect for David had suddenly mounted; the hermit seemed nearer to him. " You grew these grapes in your valley?" he repeated softly. " This very bottle we are drinking," said David, warming to the talk. " I remember when the grapes of this vintage were picked; I was a boy, then." " I believe it," answered Connor solemn- ly, and he raised the cup with a reverent hand, so that the sun filtered into the red and filled the liquid with dancing points of light. " It is a full twenty years old." " It is twenty-five years old, said David calmly, " and this is the best vintage in ten years." He sighed. " It is now in its per- fect prime and next year it will not be the same. You shall help me finish the stock, Benjamin." " You need not urge me," smiled Connor. : He shook his head again. " But that is one wine I could have vowed I knew Medoc. At least, I can tell you the soil it grows in." The brows of the host raised; he began to listen intently. "It is a mixture of gravel, quartz and sand, continued Connor. "True!" exclaimed David, and looked at his guest with new eyes. " And two feet underneath there is a stone for subsoil which is a sort of sand or fine gravel cemented together." David struck his hands together, frankly delighted. " This is marvelous," he said, " I would say you have seen the hills." " I paid a price for what I know," said Connor rather gloomily. " But north of Bordeaux in France there is a strip of land called the Medoc the finest wine soil in the world, and there I learned what claret may be there I tasted Chateau Lafite and Chateau Datour. They are both grown in the commune of Pauillac." " France?" echoed David, with the misty eyes of one who speaks of a lost world. " Ah, you have traveled?" " Wherever fine horses race," said Con- nor, and turned back to the chicken. " Think," said David suddenly, " for five years I have lived in silence. There have been voices about me, but never mind; and now you here, and already you have taken me at a step half-way around the world. " Ah, Benjamin, it is possible for an emptiness to be in a manlike hunger, you understand, and yet different and nothing but a human voice can fill the space." " Have you no wish to leave your valley for a little while and see the world?" said Connor, carelessly. He watched gloomily, while an expres- sion of strong distaste grew on the face of David. He was still frowning when he an- swered : " We will not speak of it again." He jerked his head up and cleared away his frown with an effort. " To speak with one man in the Gar- den that is one thing," he went on, " but to hear the voices of two jabbering and gibbering together grinning like mindless creatures throwing their hands out to help their words, as poor Joseph does bah, it is like drinking new wine; it makes one's head swim and the stomach stick." " Five times?" said Connor. " You have traveled a good deal, then?" " Too much," sighed David. " And each time I returned from Parkin Crossing I have cared less for what lies outside the valley." " Parkin Crossing?" " I have been told that there are five hundred people in the city," said David, pronouncing the number slowly. " But when I was there I was never able to count more than fifty, I believe." Connor found it necessary to cough. " And each time you have left the valley you have gone no farther than Parkin Crossing?" he asked mildly, his spirits rising. " And is not that far enough?" replied THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 229 the master, frowning. "It is a ride be- tween dawn and dark." " What is that in miles?" " A hundred and thirty miles," said David, " or thereabout." Connor closed his eyes twice and then: " You rode that distance between dawn and dark?" " Yes.' 1 " Over these mountains most of the way?" he continued gently. " About half the distance," answered David. " And how long " queried Connor hoarsely " how long before your horse was able to make the trip back after you had ridden a hundred and thirty miles in twelve hours?" " The next day," said David, " I always return." " In the same time?" " In the same time," said David. To doubt that simple voice was impos- sible. But Connor knew horses, and his credence was strained to the breaking point. " I should like very much," he said, " to see a horse that had covered two hundred and sixty miles within forty-eight hours." " Thirty-six," corrected David. Connor swallowed. " Thirty-six," he murmured faintly. " I shall send for him," said the master, and struck the little gong which stood on one side of the table. Isaac came hurrying with that light step which made Connor forget his age. " Bring Glani," said David. Isaac hurried across the patio, and David continued talking to his guest. " Glani is not friendly; but you can see him from a distance." " And yet," said Connor, " the other horses in the Garden seem as friendly as pet dogs. Is Glani naturally vicious?" " His is of other blood," replied David. " He is the blood of the great mare Rustir, and all in her line are meant for one man only. He is more proud than all the rest." He leaned back in his chair and his face, naturally stern, grew tender. " Since he was foaled no hand has touched him except mine; no other has ridden him, groomed him, fed him." " I'll be glad to see him," said Connor quietly. " For I have never yet found a horse which would not come to my hand." As he spoke, he looked straight into the eyes of David, with an effort, and at the same time took from the pocket of his coat a little bulbous root which was always with him. A Viennese who came from a life half spent in the Orient had given him a small box of those herbs as a priceless present. For the secret was that when the root was rubbed over the hands it left a faint odor on the skin, like freshly cut ap- ples; and to a horse that perfume was ir- resistible. They seemed to find in it a pic- ture of sweet clover, blossoming, and clean oats finely headed; yet to the nostrils of a man the scent was barely perceptible. Under cover of the table the gambler rubbed his hands swiftly with the little root and dropped it back into his pocket. That was the secret of the power over Abra which had astonished the two old negroes at the gate. A hundred times, in stable and paddock, Connor had gone up to the most intractable race horses and looked them over at close hand, at his leisure. The master seemed in nowise disturbed by the last remark of Connor. " That is true of old Abraham, also," he said. " There was never a cold foaled in the valley which Abraham had not been able to call away from its mother; he can read the souls of them all with a touch of his withered hands. Yes, I have seen that twenty times. But with Glani it is differ- ent. He is as proud as a man; he is fierce as a wolf; and Abraham himself cannot touch the neck of my horse. Look!" CHAPTER XIV. THE CONQUEST. UNDER the arch of the entrance Con- nor saw a gray stallion, naked of halter or rope, with his head raised. From the shadow 7 he came shining into the sunlight; the wind raised his mane and tail in ripples of silver. Ben Connor rose slow- ly from his chair. Horses were religion to him; he felt now that he had stepped into the inner shrine. 230 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. When he was able to speak he turned slowly toward David. " Sir," he said hoarsely, " that is the greatest horse ever bred." It was far more than a word of praise; it was a confession of faith which sur- rounded the moment and the stallion with solemnity, and David flushed like a proud boy. " There he stands," he said. "Now make him come to your hand." It recalled Connor to his senses, that challenge, and feeling that his mind had been snatched away from him for a mo- ment, almost that he had been betrayed, he looked at David with a pale face. " He is too far away," he said. " Bring him closer." There was one of those pauses which often come before crises, and Connor knew that by the outcome of this test he would be judged either a man or a cheap boaster. " I shall do this thing," said the master of the Garden of Eden. If you bring Glani to your hand I shall give him to you to ride while you stay in the valley. Listen! No other man had so much as laid a hand on the withers of Glani, but if you can make him come to you of his own free will" " No," said Connor calmly. " I shall make him come because my will is stronger than his." " Impossible!" burst out David. He controlled himself and looked at Con- nor with an almost wistful defiance. " I hold to this," he said. " If you can bring Glani to your hand, he is yours while you stay in the Garden for my part, I shall find another mount." Connor slipped his right hand into his pocket and crushed the little root against the palm. " Come hither, Glani," commanded the master. The stallion came up behind David's chair, looking fearlessly at the stranger. " Now," said David with scorn. " This is your time." " I accept it," replied Connor. He drew his hand from his pocket, and leaning over the table, he looked straight into the eye of the stallion. But in reality, it was only to bring that right hand closer; the wind was stirring behind him, and he knew that it wafted the scent of the myste- rious root straight to Glani. " That is impossible," said David, fol- lowing the glance of Connor with a frown. " A horse has no reasoning brain. Silence cannot make him come to you." " However," said Connor carelessly, " I shall not speak." The master set his teeth over unuttered words, and glancing up to reassure himself, his face altered swiftly, and whispered: " Now, you four dead masters, bear wit- ness to this marvel! Glani feels the in- fluence!" For the head of Glani had raised as he scented the wind. Then he circled the table and came straight toward Connor. Within a pace, the scent of strange hu- manity must have drowned the perfume of the root; he sprang away, catlike and snorted his suspicion. David heaved a great sigh of relief. "You fail!" he cried, and snatching up a bottle of wine, he poured out a cup. " Brave Glani! I drink this in your honor! " Every muscle in David's strong body was quivering, as though he were throwing all the effort of his will on the side of the stal- lion. " You think I have failed? asked Connor softly. " Admit it," said David. His flush was gone and he was paler than Connor now; he seemed to desire with all his might that the test should end; there was a fiber of entreaty in his voice. " Admit it, Benjamin, as I admit your strange power." " I have hardly begun. Give me quiet." David flung himself into his chair, his at- tention jerking from Glani to Connor and back. It was at this critical moment that a faint breeze puffed across the patio, car- rying the imperceptible fragrance of the root straight to Glani. Connor watched the stallion prick his eyes, and he blessed the quaint old Viennese with all his heart. The first approach of Glani had been in the nature of a feint, but now that he was sure, he went with all the directness of un- spoiled courage straight to the stranger. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 231 He lowered the beautiful head and thrust out his nose until it touched the hand of Connor. The gambler saw David shudder. " You have conquered," he said, forcing out the words. " Take Glani; to me he is now a small thing. He is yours while you stay in the Garden. Afterward I shall give him to one of my servants." Connor stood up, and though at his ris- ing Glani started back, he came to Connor again, following that elusive scent. To David it seemed the last struggle of the horse before completely submitting to the rule of a new master. He rose in turn, trembling with shame and anger, while Connor stood still, for about this stranger drifted a perfume of broad green fields with flowering tufts of grass, the heads well- seeded and sweet. And when a hand touched his withers, the stallion merely turned his head and nuzzled the shoulder of Connor inquisitively. With his hand on the back of the horse, the gambler realized for the first time Glani 's full stature. He stood at least fifteen-three, though his perfect proportions made him seem smaller at a distance. No doubt he was a giant among the Eden Grays, Connor thought to himself. The gallop on Abra the night before had been a great moment, but a ride on Glani was a prospect that took his breath. He paused. Perhaps it was the influence of a forgotten Puritan ancestor, casting a shade on every hope of happiness. With his weight poised for the leap to the back of the stallion, Connor looked at David. The master was in a silent agony, and the hand of Connor fell away from the horse. He was afraid. " I can't do it," he said frankly. " Jump on his back," urged David bit- terly. " He is more to you than a yearling to the hands of Abraham." Connor realized now how far he had gone; he set about retracing the wrong steps. " It may appear that way, but I can't trust myself on his back. You under- stand?" He stepped back with a gesture that sent Glani bounding away. " You see," went on Connor, " I never could really understand him." The master seized with eagerness upon this gratifying suggestion. "It is true," he said, " that you are a little afraid of Glani. That is why none of the rest can handle him." He stopped in the midst of his self- congratulation and directed at Connor one of those glances which the gambler could never learn to meet. " Also," said David, " you make me happy. If you had sat on his back I should have felt your weight on my own shoulders and spirit." He laid a hand on Connor's shoulder, but the gambler had won and lost too often with an impenetrable face to quail now. He even managed to smile. " Hearken," said David. " My masters taught me many things, and everything they taught me must be true, for they were only voices of a mind out of another world. Yet, in spite of them," he went on kindly, " I begin to feel a kinship with you, Ben- jamin. Come, we will walk and talk to- gether in the cool of the morning. Glani ! " The gray had wandered off to nibble at the turf; he whirled and came like a thrown lance. "Glani," said David, "is usually the only living thing that walks with me in the morning; but now, my friend, we are three." CHAPTER XV. THE WARNING. IN the mid-afternoon of that day Connor rested in his room, and David rested in the lake, floating with only his nose and lips out of water. Toward the center of the lake even the surface held the chill of the snows, but David floated in the warm shallows and looked up to the sky through a film of water. The tiny ripples became immense air waves that rushed from moun- tain to mountain, dashed the clouds up and down, and then left the heavens placid and windless. He grew weary of this placidity, and as he turned upon one side he heard a pro- longed hiss from the shore. David rolled with the speed of a water moccasin and 232 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. headed in with his arm flashing in a pow- erful stroke that presently brought him to the edge of the beach. He rose in front of old Abraham. A painter should have seen them together the time-dried body of the old negro and the exuberant youth of the master. He looked on the servant with a stern kind- ness. " What are you doing here without a covering for your head while the sun is hot? Did they let you come of their own accord, Abraham?" " I slipped away," chuckled Abraham. " Isaac was in the patio, but I went by him like a hawk-shadow. Then I ran among the trees. Hat? Well, no more have you a hat, David." The master frowned, but his displeasure passed quickly and he led the way to the lowest terrace. They sat on the soft thick grass, with their feet in the hot sand of the beach, and as the wind stirred the tree above them a mottling of shadow moved across them. " You have come to speak privately with me," said David. " What is it?" But Abraham embraced his skinny knees and smiled at the lake, his jaw falling. " It's not what it was," he said, and wagged his head. " It's a sad lake com- pared to what it was." David controlled his impatience. " Tell me how it is changed." " The color," said the old man. " Why, once, with a gallon of that blue you could have painted the whole sky." He shaded his face to look up, but so doing his glance ventured through the branches and close to the white-hot circle of the sun. His head dropped and he leaned on one arm. " Look at the green of the grass," sug- gested David. " It will rest your eyes." " Do you think my eyes are weak? No, I dropped my head to think how the world has fallen off in the last fifty years. It was all different in the days of John. But that was before you came to the valley." "The sky was not the same?" queried the master. " And men, also," said Abraham instant- ly. " Ho, yes! John was a man; you will not see his like in these days." David flushed, but he held back his first answer. " Perhaps." " There is no ' perhaps.' " Abraham spoke with a decision that brought his jaw close up under his nose. " He is my master," insisted Abraham, and, smiling suddenly, he whispered: " Mah ol' Marse Johnnie Cracken!" " What's that?" called David. Abraham stared at him with unseeing eyes. A mist of years drifted between them, and now the old man came slowly out of the past and found himself seated on the lawn in a lonely valley with great, naked mountains piled around it. " What did you say?" repeated David. Abraham hastily changed the subject. " In those days if a stranger came to the Garden of Eden he did not stay. Aye, and in those days Abraham could have taken the strongest by the neck and pitched him through the gates. I remember when the men came over the mountains long be- fore you were born. Ten men at the gate, I remember, and they had guns. But when my master told them to go away they looked at him and they looked at each other, but after a while they went away." Abraham rocked in an ecstasy. " No man could face my master. I re- member how he sat on his horse that day." " It was Rustir?" asked David eagerly. " She was the queen of horses," replied the old negro indirectly, " and he was the king of men; there are no more men like my master, and there are no more horses like Rustir." There was a pause, then David spoke. " John was a good man and a strong man," he said, looking down at his own brown hands. " And Rustir was a fine mare, but it is foolish to call her the best." " There was never a horse like Rustir," said the old man monotonously. " Bah! What of Glani?" " Yes, that is a good colt." " A good colt! Come, Abraham! Have you ever opened your dim eyes and really looked at him? Name one fault." " I have said Glani is a good colt," re- peated Abraham, worried. " Come, come! You have said Rustir was better." THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 233 " Glani is a good colt, but too heavy in the forehand. Far too heavy there." The restraint of David snapped. "It is false! Ephraim, Jacob, they all say that Glani is the greatest." " They change like the masters," grum- bled Abraham. " The servants change. They flatter and the master believes. But my master has an eye he looked through a man like an eagle through mist. When I stood before my master my soul was naked; a wind blew through me. But I say John was one man; and there are no other horses like his mare Rustir. My master is silent; other men have words as heavy as their hands." " Peace, Abraham, peace. You shame me. The Lord was far from me, and I spoke in anger, and I retract it." " A word is a bullet that strikes men down, David. Let the wind blow on your face when your heart is hot." " I confess my sin," said David, but his jaw was set. " Confess your sins in silence." " It is true." He looked at Abraham as if he would be rid of him. " You are angry to-day, Abraham." " The law of the Garden has been broken." " By whom?" " David has unbarred the gate." " Yes, to one man." " It is enough." " Peace, Abraham. You are old and look awry. This one man is no danger. I could break him in my hands so!" " A strong man may be hopeless against words," said the oracular old man. " With a word he may set you on fire." " Do you think me a tinder and dry grass? Set me on fire with a word?" " An old man who looks awry had done it with a word. And see again!" There was a silence filled only by the sound of David's breathing and the slow curling of the ripples on the beach. " You try me sorely, Abraham." " Good steel will bend, but not break." " Say no more of this man. He is harm- less." " Is that a command, David?" " No but at least be brief." " Then I say to you, David, that he has brought evil into the valley." The master burst into sudden laughter that carried away his anger. " He brought no evil, Abraham. He brought only the clothes on his back." " The serpent brought into the first Gar- den only his skin and his forked tongue." " There was a devil in that serpent." " Aye, and what of Benjamin?" " Tell me your proofs, and let them be good ones, Abraham." " I am old," said the negro sadly, " but I am not afraid." " I wait." " Benjamin brought an evil image with him. It is the face of a great suhman, and he tempted Joseph with it, and Joseph fell." " The trinket of carved bone?" asked David. "The face of a devil! Who was un- happy among us until Benjamin came? But with his charm he bought Joseph, and now Joseph walks alone and thinks unholy thoughts, and when he is spoken to he looks up first with a snake's eye before he an- swers. Is not this the work of Benjamin?" " What would you have me do? Joseph has already paid for his fault with the pain of the w r hip." " Cast out the stranger, David." David mused. At last he spoke. " Look at me, Abraham!" The other raised his head and peered into the face of David, but presently his glance wavered and turned away. "See," said David. "After Matthew died there was no one in the Garden who could meet my glance. But Benjamin is a mind, and he meets my eye and I feel his thoughts before he speaks them. He is pleasant to me, Abraham." " The voice of the serpent was pleasant to Eve," said the negro. The nostrils of David quivered. " What is it that you call the trinket?" " A great suhman. My people feared and worshiped him in the old days. A strong devil!" " An idol! " said David. " What! Abra- ham, do you still worship sticks and stones? 234 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Have you been taught no more than that? Do you put a mind in the handiwork of a man?" The head of Abraham fell. " I am weak before you, David," he said. " I have no power to speak except the words of my master, which I remember. Now I feel you rise against me, and I am dust under your feet. Think of Abraham, then, as a voice in the wind, but hear that voice. I know, but I know not why I know, or how I know, there is evil in the valley, David. Cast it out!" " I have broken bread and drunk milk with Benjamin. How can I drive him out of the valley?" " Let him stay in the valley if you can keep him out of your mind. He is in your thoughts. He is with you like a shadow." "He is not stronger than I," said the master. " Evil is stronger than the greatest." "It is cowardly to shrink from him be- fore I know him." " Have no fear of him but of yourself. A wise man trembleth at his own strength." " Tell me, Abraham does the seed of (To be continued Rustir know men? Do they know good and evil?" " Yes, for Rustir knew my master." " And has Glani ever bowed his head for any man saving for me?" " He is a stubborn colt. Aye, he trou-> bled me!" " But I tell you, Abraham, he came to the hand of Benjamin!" The old negro blinked at the master. " Then there was something in that hand," he said at last. " There was nothing," said David in tri- umph. " I saw the bare palm." " It is strange." " You are wrong. Admit it." " I must think, David." " Yes," said the master kindly. " Here is my hand. Rise, and come with me to your house." They went slowly, slowly up the terrace, Abraham clinging to the arm of the master. " Also," said David, " he has come for only a little time. He will soon be gone. Speak no more of Benjamin." " I have already spoken almost enough," said Abraham. " You will not forget." NEXT WEEK.) George M.A. IN the chief hut of a deserted native vil- of closely figured sheets of paper. He lage on the banks of, perhaps, the wild- went over these again and again, unable to est of earth's navigable rivers, a man convince himself of the results he got from sat on a pine box behind a larger one, upon the figures, which as a table he had spread a number Occasionally he lifted his face and BEASTS. 397 " Then I shall turn into that hut Silwane, moment I saw that Imonga's hand was and the two of you shall stay there together covered with blood fresh blood flowing until such time as you see fit to obey me. blood. It came to me that the rough tongue No food shall be given to you or to S51- of Silwane had reopened the wound on wane. You both shall go hungry unless you Imonga's hand. feed upon Silwane or, perchance, Silwane I would have called aloud, but something, feeds on you." and it was not fear, bade me hold my As for the rest this is how my memory tongue, of it runs: Again Silwane began to lick the hand, Through the opening in the door of the purring as he did so. Again the white man shed I watched. Imonga sat in a chair, and stirred in his sleep, and this time he pulled in his right hand was a bottle from which his hand away from Silwane. he drank constantly. His other hand his Then, Inkosi, the tawny one, rose to his wounded one, the one he hurt when he hit feet; from his mighty throat sounded the me so mightily hung over the side of his evil snarl of an angry lion, chair. Imonga opened his eyes at the sound, Silwane reclined beside him, and as I and turning his head, looked wonderingly watched, I saw Imonga toy with the mane at Silwane the evil, snarling Silwane of the lion: saw him scratch the big beast then down at his bloody hand, between the ears with his wounded hand. In that moment Imonga knew what fear And Silwane purred a harsh, rasping purr was; knew that the time had come when under his master's caress. he must meet the vengeance of the great After a little while Imonga fell into a ones. In that moment the realization must deep sleep. It was the heavy, deathlike have come to him, with the suddenness of sleep of drunkenness. a flash of lightning, that Silwane, having Even now I can see the man; his face tasted blood the blood of a man knew covered with a black, bristly beard which that he was a lion. mingled with the hair on his mighty chest. Just that moment was given Imonga that His mouth was wide open, showing the fang- he might fully sense the doom in store for like, yellow teeth. Even in sleep he was a him the spirits are always just and then menace. Silwane leaped. Then, as I watched, I saw Silwane licking the hand of Imonga licking it as a dog " That is all, Inkosi," concluded Tamba, will lick the hand of his master. rising slowly to his feet. The beast of the Imonga shuddered as though troubled by jungle delivered us from the hold of a a dream, and a loud moan came from his greater beast in the guise of man. lips. His hand twitched slightly, and Sil- " Now, have I your leave to go, Inkosi?" wane ceased for a moment his licking to Johnson nodded absently. His mind was look up into his master's face. At that too full of the wonder of things for words. rr tr rr tr THE 150TH NOVEL, ORIGINALLY PRINTED SERIALLY IN THIS MAGA- ZINE. TO BE PUBLISHED IN BOOK FORM IS NIGHT DRUMS BY ACHMED ABDULLAH Author of " The Blue-Eyed Manchu," etc. (All-Story Weekly as " Master of the Hour," December 22, 1917, to January 19, 1918.) Published in book form by the James A. McCann Company, New York. Price SI.QO net. Anther of "The Untamed," "Trailin'," "The Seventh Man," "Black Jack," etc. CHAPTER XVI. CONNOR TURNS POET. A "THOUGH David was smiling when he left Abraham, he was serious when he turned from the door of the old man. He went to Connor's room, it was empty. He summoned Zacharias. ' Benjamin," he went on, " said to me, * My friend, that is a noble mare.' " ' She is a good filly,' said I. " ' With a hundred and ten up,' said Ben- jamin, ' she would make a fast track talk.' " "What? "said David. " I do not know the meaning of his The men beyond the mountains are words," said the old servant, " but I have weak," said David, " and when I left him a little time since Benjamin was sighing and sleepy. But now he is not in his room. Where is he, Zacharias?" " Shakra came into the patio and neighed," answered the negro, " and at that Benjamin came out, rubbing his eyes. ' My told them as he said them." " He is full of strange terms," murmured David. " Continue." " He went first to one side of Shakra and then to the other. He put his hand into his coat and seemed to think. Presently he stretched out his hand and called her. She friend,' said he to me, and his voice was came to him slowly.' smooth not like those voices ' " Peace, Zacharias," said David. " Leave this talk of his voice and tell me where he is gone. Away from the house," said the old negro sullenly. The master knitted his brows. " You old men," he said, " are like ' Wonderful!" " That was my thought," nodded Zacha- rias. " Why do you stop?" cried David. " Because I am talking around and around, like a running yearling," said Zacharias ironically. " However, he stood back at length and combed the forelock yearlings who feel the sap running in their of Shakra with his fingers. : Tell me, legs in the spring. You talk as they run around and around. Continue." Zacharias sulked as if he were on the verge of not speaking at all. But presently his eye lighted with his story. Zacharias,' he said, ' if this is not the sister of Glani?' " " He guessed so much? It is strange!" " Then he looked in her mouth and said that she was four years old." This story began in the Argosy- Allstory Weekly for April 15. 398 THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 399 " He is wise in horses, indeed." " When he turned away Shakra followed him; he went to his room and came out again, carrying the saddle with which he rode Abra. He put this on her back and a rope around her neck. ' Will the master be angry if I ride her?' he asked. " I told him that she was first ridden only three months before to-day, and that she must not be ridden more than fifty miles now in a day. " He looked a long time at me, then said he would not ride farther than that. Then he went galloping down the road to the south." "Good!" said the master, and sent a long whistle from the patio; it was pitched as shrill and small as the scream of a hawk when the hawk itself cannot be seen in the sky. The negro ran into the house, and when he came out again bringing a pad Glani was already in the patio. David took the pad and cinched it on the back of the stallion. " And when Shakra began to gallop," said the negro, '' Benjamin cried out." " What did he say?" " Nothing." " Zacharias, men do not cry out without speaking/' kk Nevertheless," said Zacharias, " it was like the cry of a wolf when they hunt along the cliffs in winter and see the young horses and the cattle hi the Garden below them. It was a cry, and there was no spoken word in it." The master bit his lip. " Abraham has been talking folly to you," he said; and, springing on the back of the stallion, he raced out of the patio and on to the south road with his long, black hair whipping straight out behind his head. At length the southern wall rose slowly over the trees, and a deep murmur which had begun about them as soon as they left the house, light as the humming of bees, increasing as they went down the valley, now became a great rushing noise. It was like a great wind in sound; one expected the push of a gale, coming out from the trees, but there was only the river which ran straight at the cliff, split solid rock, and shot out of sunlight into a black cav- ern. Beside this gaping mouth of rock stood Connor with Shakra beside him. Twice the master called, but Connor could not hear. The tumbling river would have drowned a valley of musketry. Only when David touched his shoulder did Connor turn a gloomy face. They took their horses across the bridge which passed over the river a little distance from the cliff, and rode down the farther side of the valley until the roar sank behind them. A few barriers of trees reduced it to the humming which on wind- less days was picked up by echoes and reached the house of David with a solemn murmur. " I thought you would rest," said David, when they were come to a place of quiet, and the horses cantered lightly over the road with that peculiar stride, at once soft and reaching, which Connor was beginning to see as the chief characteristic of the Eden Gray. " I have rested more in two minutes on the back of Shakra than I could rest in two hours on my bed." It was like disarming a father by praise of his son. " She has a gentle gait," smiled David. "I tell vou, man, she's a knockout!" " A knockout?" The gambler added hastily: " Next to Glani the best horse I have seen." " You are right. Next to Glani the best in the valley." " In the world," said Connor, and then gave a cry of wonder. They had come through an avenue of the eucalyptus trees, and now they reached an open meadow, beyond which aspens trem- bled and flashed silver under a shock from the wind. Half the meadow was black, half green; for one of the old negroes was plowing. He turned a rich furrow behind him, and the blackbirds followed in chat- tering swarms in their hunt for worms. The plow team was a span of slender-limbed Eden Grays. They walked lightly with plow, shaking their heads at the blackbirds, and sometimes they touched noses in that cheery, dumb conversation of horses. The 400 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. plow turned down the field with the sod curling swiftly behind. The blackbirds followed. There were soldier-wings among them making flashes of red, and all the swarm scolded. " David," said Connor when he could speak, " you might as well harness light- ning to your plow. Why in the name of God, man, don't you get mules for this work?" The master looked to the ground, for he was angered. " It is not against His will that I work them at the plow," he answered. %> He has not warned me against it." "Who hasn't?" " Our Father whose name you spoke. Look! They are not unhappy, Jurith and Rajima, of the blood of Aliriz." He whistled, whereat the off mare tossed her head and whinnied. " By Heaven, she knows you at this dis- tance!" gasped Connor. " Which is only to say that she is not a fool. Did I not sit with her three days and three nights when she was first foaled? That was twenty-five years ago; I was a child then." Connor, staring after the high, proud head of Jurith, sighed. The horses started on at a walk which was the least excellent gait in the Eden Grays. Their high croups and comparatively low withers, their long hindlegs and the shorter forelegs, gave them a waddling motion with the hind quarters apparently huddling the forehand along. Indeed, they seemed designed in every particular for the gallop alone. But Glani AY as an exception. Just as in size he ap- peared a freak among the others, so in his gaits all things were perfectly proportioned. Connor, with a deep, quiet delight, watched the big stallion stepping freely. Shakra had to break into a soft trot now and then to catch up. " Let us walk," said David. " The run is for when a man feels with the hawk in the sky; the gallop is for idle pleasure; the trot is an ugly gait, for distance only; but a walk is the gait when two men speak together. In this manner Matthew and I went up and down the valley roads. Alas, it is five years since I have walked my horse! Is it not, Glani, my king? And now, Benjamin, tell me your trouble." " There is no trouble," said Connor. But David smiled, saying: " We are brothers in Glani, Benjamin. To us alone he has given his head. Therefore speak freely." ' Look back," said Connor, feeling that the crisis had come and that he must now put his fortune to the touch. David turned on the stallion. " WTiat do you see?" " I see old Elijah. He drives the two mares, and the furrow follows them the blackbirds also." " Do you see nothing else?" " I see the green meadow and the sky with a cloud in it; I see the river yonder and the aspens flash as the wind strikes them." " And do you hear nothing?" " I hear the falling of the Jordan and the cry of the birds. Also, Elijah has just spoken to Rajima. Ah, she is lazy for a daughter of Aliriz!" " Do you wish to know what I see and hear, David?" " If it is your pleasure, brother." " I see a blue sky like this, with the wind and the clouds in it and all that stuff " "All of what?" " And I see also," continued Connor, re- solving to watch his tongue, "' thousands of people, acres of men and women." David was breathless with interest. He had a way of opening his eyes and his mind like a child. "We are among them; they jostle us; we can scarcely breathe. There is a green lawn below us; we cannot see the greea, it is so thickly covered with men. They have pulled out their wallets and they have money in their hands." " What is it?" muttered David. " For my thoughts swim in those waves of faces." " I see," went on Connor, " a great oval road fenced on each side, with colored posts at intervals. I see horses in a line, dancing up and down, turning about " "Ah, horses!" " Kicking at each other." " So? Are there such bad manners among them?" 5 A THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 401 " But what each man is trembling for, and what each man has risked his money upon, is this question: Which of all those is the fastest horse? Think! The horses which fret in that line are the finest money can buy. Their blood lines are longer than the blood lines of kings. They are all fine muscles and hair-trigger nerves. They are poised for the start. And now " "Benjamin, is there such love of horses over the mountains? Listen! Fifty thou- sand men and women breathe with those racers." " I know." There was a glint in the eyes of David. " When two horses match their speed ' " Some men have wagered all their money. They have borrowed, they have stolen, to get what they bet. But there are two men only who bet on one of the horses. You, David, and I!" " Ha? But money is hard to come by." " We ask them the odds," continued Con- nor. " For one dollar we shall take a hun- dred if our horse wins odds of a hundred to one ! And we wager. We wager the value of all we have. We wager the value of the Garden of Eden itself! " " It is madness, Benjamin ! " " Look closer! See them at the post. There's the Admiral. There's Fidgety that tall chestnut. There's Glorious Polly the little bay. The greatest stake horses in the country. The race of the year. But the horse we bet on, David, is a horse which none of the rest in that crowd knows. It is a horse whose pedigree is not published. It is a small horse, not more than fourteen-three. It stands per- fectly still in the midst of that crowd of nervous racers. On its back is an old negro. " But can the horse win? And who is the negro?" " On the other horses are boys who have starved until they are wisps with only hands for the reins of a horse and knees to keep on his back. They have stirrups so short that they seem to be floating above the racers. But on the back of the horse on which AVC are betting there is only an old, old negro, sitting heavily." " His name!. His name!" David cried. 6 A 4 Elijah! And the horse is Jurith!" H Xo, no! Withdraw the bets! She is old." " They are off! The gray mare is not trained for the start. She is left standing far behind." "Ah!" David groaned. " Fifty thousand people laughing & the old gray mare left at the post!" " I see it! I hear it!" "She's too short ki front; too high be- hind. She's a joke horse. And see the pic- ture horses! Down the back stretch! The fifty thousand have forgotten the gray, even to laugh at her. The pack drives into the home stretch. There's a straight road to the fini'sh. They straighten out. They get their feet. They're off for the wire!" The voice of Connor had risen to a shrill cry. " But look! Look! There's a streak of gray coming around the turn. It's the mare! It's old Jurith!" "Jurith!" "No awkwardness now! She spreads herself out and the posts disappear beside her. She stretches down low and the rest come back to her. Fine horses; they run well. But Jurith is a racing machine. She's on the hip of the pack! Look at the old negro all the thousand were laughing at. He sits easily in the saddle. He has no whip. His reins are loose. And then he uses the posts ahead of him. He leans over and speaks one word in the ear of the gray mare. " By the Lord, she was walking before; she was cantering! Now she runs! Now she runs! And the fifty thousand are dumb, white. A solid wall of faces covered with whitewash! D'you see? They're sick! And then all at once they know they're seeing a miracle. They have been standing up ever since the horses entered the home- stretch. Now they climb on one another's shoulders. They forget all about thou- sands the hundred of thousands of dollars which they are going to lose. They only know that they are seeing a great horse. And they love that new, great horse. They scream as they see her come. Women break into tears as the old negro shoots past the grandstand. Men shriek and hug each other. They dance. 402 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. " The gray streaks shoots on. She is past the others. She is rushing for the finish wire as no horse ever ran before. She is away. One length, two lengths, six lengths of daylight show between her and the rest. She gallops past the finish posts with Elijah looking back at the others! " She has won! You have won, David. I have won. We are rich. Happy. The world's before us. David, do you see?" " Is it possible? But no, Benjamin, not Jurith. Some other, perhaps. Shakra Glani " " No, we would take Jurith twenty-five years old ! " Connor's last words trailed off into hys- terical laughter. CHAPTER XVII. THE TEMPTING. DAVID was still flushed with the ex- citement of the tale, and he was per- plexed and troubled when Connor's strange, high laughter brought to an abrupt end the picture they had both lived in. The gambler saw the frown on David's brow, and with an effort he made himself suddenly grave, though he was still pale and shaking. " David, this is the reason Jurith can win. Somewhere in the past there was a freak gray horse. There are other kinds of freaks; oranges had seeds in 'em; all at once up pops a tree that has seedless fruit. People plant shoots from it. There you have the naval orange, all out of one tree. It's the same way with that gray horse. It was a freak; had a high croup and muscles as stretchy as India-rubber, and strong like the difference between the muscles of a mule and the muscles of most horses. That's what that first horse was. He was bred and the get came into this valley. They kept improving and the result is Glani! The Eden Gray, David, is the finest horse in the world because it's a different and a better horse!" The master paused for some time, and Connor knew he was deep in thought. Finally he spoke: " But if we know the speed of the Eden Grays, why should we go out into the world and take the money of other men because they do not know how fast our horses run?" Connor made sure the master was serious and nerved himself for the second effort. " What do you wish, David?" " In what measure, Benjamin?" " The sky's the limit! I say, what do you wish? The last wish that was in your head." "Shakra stumbled a little while ago; I wished for a smother road." " David, with the money we win on the tracks we'll tear up these roads, cut trenches, fill 'em with solid blocks of rock, lay 'em over with asphalt, make 'em as smooth as glass! What else?" " You jest, Benjamin. That is a labor for a thousand men." :< I say, it's nothing to what we'll do. What else do you want? Turn your mind loose open up your eyes and see some- thing that's hard to get." ' Every wish is a regret, and why should I fail of gratitude to God by making my wishes? Yet, I have been weak, I confess. I have sometimes loathed the crumbling walls of my house. I have wished for a tall chamber on the floor a covering which makes no sound colors about me crystal vases for my flowers music when I come " Stop there! You see that big white cliff? I'll have that stone cut in chunks as big as you and your horse put together. I'll have 'em piled on a foundation as strong as the bottom of those hills. You see the way those mountain-tops walk into the sky? That's how the stairways will step up to the front of your house and put you out on a big terrace with columns scooting up fifty feet, and when you walk across the terrace a couple of great big doors weighing about a ton apiece will drift open and make a whisper when you mosey in. And when you get inside you'll start looking up and up, but you'll get dizzy be- fore your eyes hit the ceiling; and up there you'll see a lighting stunt that looks like a million icicles with the sun behind 'em." He paused an instant for breath and saw David smiling in a hazy pleasure. "I follow you," he' said softly. "Go THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 403 on!" And his hand stretched out as though to open a door. " What I've told you about is only a be- ginning. Turn yourself loose; dream, and III turn your dream into stone and color, and fill up your windows with green and gold and red glass till you'll think a rain- bow has got all tangled up there! I'll give you musie that'll make you forget to think, and when you think I'll give you a room so big that you'll have silence with an echo to it." * All this for my horses?" Send one of the grays just one, and let me place the wagers. You don't even have to risk your own money. I've made a slough of it betting on things that weren't lead pipe cinches like this. I made on Fid- gety Midget at fifty to one. I made on Gosham at eight to one. Nobody told me how to bet on 'em. I know a horse that's all! You stay in the Garden; I take one of the grays; I bring her back in six months with more coin than she can pack, and we split it fifty-fifty. You furnish the horse. I furnish the jack. Is it a go?" A bird stopped above them, whistled and dipped away over the tree-tops. David turned his head to follow the trailing song, and Connor realized with a sick heart that he had failed to sweep his man off his feet. " Would you have me take charity?" asked David at length. It seemed to Connor that there was a smile behind this. He himself burst into a roar of laughter. -ure, it sounds like charity. They 11 be making you a gift right enough. There isn't a horse on the turf that has a chance with one of the grays! But they'll bet their money like fools." Would it not be a sin, then?" " What sin?" asked Connor roughly. " Don't they grab the coin of other peo- ple? Does the bookie ask you how much coin you have and if you can afford to lose it? No, he's out to get all that he can grab. And we'll go out and do some grabbing in turn. Oh, they'll squeal when we turn the screw, but they'll kick through with the jack. No fear, Davie!" " Whatever sins may be theirs, Benja- min, those sins need not be mine." Connor was dumb. " Because they are foolish," said David, " should I take advantage of their folly? A new man comes into the valley. He sees Jurith, and notices that she runs well in spite of her years. He says to me: 1 ; This mare will run faster than your stal- lion. I have money and this ring upon my finger which I will risk against one dollar of your money; if the mare beats Glani I take your dollar. If Glani beats the mare, you take my purse and my ring; I have no other wealth. It will ruin me, but I am willing to be ruined if Jurith is not faster than Glani. " Suppose such foolish man were to come to me, Benjamin, would I not say to him: ' No, my friend. For I understand better than you, both Jurith and Glani!' Tell me therefore, Benjamin, that you have tempted me toward a sin, unknowing." It made Connor think of the stubborness of a woman, or of a priest. It was a quiet assurance which could only be paralleled from a basis of religion or instinct. He knew the danger of pressing too hard upon this instinct or blind faith. He swallowed an oath, and answered, remembering dim lessons out of his childhood: " Tell me, David, my brother, is there no fire to burn fools? Is there no rod for the shoulders of the proud? Should not such men be taught?" k> And I say to you, Benjamin," said the master of the Garden: " what wrong have these fools done to me with their folly?" Connor felt that he was being swept beyond his depth. The other went on, changing his voice to gentleness: " No, no! I have even a kindness for men with such blind faith in their horses. When Jacob comes to me and says pri- vately in my ear: 'David, look at Hira. Is she not far nobler and wiser than Eph- raim's horse, Numan?' When he says this to me, do I shake my head and frown and say: ' Risk the clothes on your back and the food you eat to prove what you say.' No, assuredly I do neither of these things, but I put my hand on his shoulder and I say: 'He who has faith shall do great things; and a tender master makes a strong cold.' In this manner I speak to him, 404 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. knowing that truth is good, but the whole " No, but because of your horses the truth is sometimes a fire that purifies, per- world will ask what sort of a man you are. haps, but it also destroy es. So Jacob goes People will follow your example. They'll smiling on his way and gives kind words build a hundred Gardens of Eden. Every and fine oats to Hira." one of those valleys will be full of the Connor turned the flank of this argu- memories of David and the men who went ment. before him. Then, David, you'll never l^These men are blind. You say that die!" your horses can run a mile in such and It was the highest flight to which Con- such a time, and they shrug their shoulders nor's eloquence ever attained. The results and answer that they have heard such were alarming. David spoke, without fac- chatter before from trainers and stable ing his companion, thoughtfully, boys. But you put your horse on a race " Benjamin, I have been warned. By track and prove what you say, and they sin the gate to the Garden was opened, and pay for knowledge. Once they see the perhaps sin has entered in you. For why truth they come to value your horses. You did the first men withdraw to this valley, open a stud and your breed is crossed with led by John, save to live apart, perfect theirs. The blood of Rustir, passing lives? And you, Benjamin, wish to undo through the blood of Glani, goes among the all that they accomplished." best horses of the world. A hundred years " Only the horses," said the gambler, from, now there will be no good horse in the " Who spoke of taking you out of the world, of which men do not ask: ' Is the Garden?" blood of Glani in him? Is he of the line of Still David would not look at him. the Eden Grays?' Consider that, David!" " God grant me His light," said the mas- He found the master of the Garden ter sadly. " You have stirred and troubled frowning. He pressed home the point with me. If the horses go, my mind goes with renewed vigor. them. Benjamin, you have tempted me. " If you live in this valley, David, what Yet another thing is in my mind. When will men know of you?" Matthew came to die he took me beside " Have you come to take me out of the him and said: Garden of Eden?" " ' David, it is not well that you should " I have come to make your influence lead a lonely life. Man is made to live, and pass over the mountains while you stay not to die. Take to yourself a woman, when here. A hundred years from now who will I am gone, wed her, and have children, so know David of the Garden of Eden? Of that the spirit of John and Matthew and the men who used to live here, who re- Luke and Paul shall not die. And do this mains? Not one! Where do they live now? in your youth, before five years have passed Inside your head, inside your head, David, you by.' and no other place!" " So spoke Matthew, and this is the fifth " They live with God," said David year. And perhaps the Lord works in you hoarsely. to draw me out, that I may find this wo- " But here on earth they don't live at man. Or perhaps it is only a spirit of evil all except in your mind. And when you that speaks in you. How shall I judge? die, they die with you. But if you let me For my mind whirls!" do what I say, a thousand years from to- As if to flee from his thoughts, the mas- day, people will be saying: ' There was a ter of the Garden called on Glani, and the man named David, and he had these gray stallion broke into a full gallop. Shakra horses, which were the finest in the world, followed at a pace that took the breath of and he gave their blood to the world.' Connor, but instantly she began to fall They'll pick up every detail of your life, behind; before they had reached the lake and they'll trace back the horses Glani was out of sight across the bridge. " Do I live for the sake of a horse?" Full of alarm full of hope also Con- cried David, in a voice unnaturally high. nor reached the house. In the patio he THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 405 found Zacharias standing with folded arms before a door. " I must find David at .once/' he told the negro. " Where has he gone?" " Up,'' said the servant, and pointed sol- emnly above him. "Nonsense!" He added impatiently: " Where shall I find him, Zacharias?" But again the negro waved to the blue sky. " His body is in this room, but his mind is with Him above the world." There was something in this that made Connor uneasy as he had never been be- fore. " You may go into any room save the Room of Silence," continued Zacharias, " but into this room only David and the four before him have been. This is the holy place." CHAPTER XVIII. VICTORY. GLANI waited in the patio for the re- appearance of the master, and as Connor paced with short, nervous steps on the grass at every turn he caught the flash of the sun on the stallion. Above his selfish greed he had one honest desire: he would have paid with blood to see the great horse face the barrier. That, how- ever was beyond the reach of his ambi- tion, and therefore the beauty of Glani was always a hopeless torment. The quiet in the patio oddly increased his excitement. It was one of those bright, still days when the wind stirs only in soft breaths, bringing a sense of the open sky. Sometimes the breeze picked up a handful of drops from the fountain and showered it with a cool rustling on the grass. Some- times it flared the tail of Glani; sometimes the shadow of the great eucalyptus which stood west of the house quivered on the turf. Connor found himself looking minutely at trivial things, and in the meantime Da- vid Eden in his room was deciding the fate of the American turf. Even Glani seemed to know, for his glance never stirred from the door through which the master had disappeared. What a horse the big fellow was! He thought of the stallion in the paddock at the track. He heard the thou- sands swarm and the murmur which comes deep out of a man's throat when he sees a great horse. The palms of Connor were wet with sweat. He kept rubbing them dry on the hips of his trousers. Rehearsing his talk with David, he saw a thousand flaws, and a thousand openings which he had missed. Then all thought stopped; David had come out into the patio. He came straight to Connor, smiling, and he said: " The words were a temptation, but the mind that conceived them was not the mind of a tempter." Ineffable assurance and good will shone in his face, and Connor cursed him si- lently. " I, leaving the valley, might be lost in the torrent. And neither the world nor I should profit. But if I stay here, at least one soul is saved to God." " Your own?" muttered Connor. But he managed to smile above his rage. " And after you," he concluded, " what of the horses, David?" " My sons shall have them." " And if you have no sons?" " Before my death I shall kill all of the horses. They are not meant for other men than the sons of David." The gambler drew off his hat and raised his face to the sky, asking mutely if Heaven would permit this crime. " Yet," said David, " I forgive you/' " You forgive me?" echoed Connor through his teeth. " Yes, for the fire of the temptation has burned out. Let us forget the world be- yond the mountains." " What is your proof that you are right in staying here?" " The voice of God." " You have spoken to Him, perhaps?" The irony passed harmless by the raised head of David. " I have spoken to Him," he asserted calmly. ' I see," nodded the gambler. " You keep Him in that room, no doubt?" 406 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. " It is true. His spirit is in the Room of " I've got a lot to do," he explained. Silence." " I only stopped over to rest my nags, in "You've seen His face?" the first place. Then this other idea came A numbness fell on the mind of Connor along, but since the voice has rapped it as he saw his hopes destroyed by the demon there's nothing for me to do but to get on of bigotry. my way again." " Only His voice has come to me," said " It is a long trip?" David. " Long enough." " It speaks to you?" " The Garden of Eden is a lonely " Yes." place." Connor stared in actual alarm, for this " You'll have the voice to cheer you up." was insanity. ' The voice is an awful thing. There is " The four," said David, " spoke to Him no companionship in it. This thought always in that room. He is there. And comes to me. Leave the mule and the when Matthew died he gave me this as- horse. Take Shakra. She will carry you surance that while the walls of this house swiftly and safely over the mountains and stood together God would not desert me bring you back again. And I shall be or fail to come to me in that room until happy to know that she is with you while I love another thing more than I love you are away. Then go, brother, if you God." must, and return in haste." " And how, David, do you hear the It was the opening of the gates of heaven voice? For while you were there I was in to Connor at the very moment when he had the path, close by, and yet I heard no surrendered the last hope. He heard David whisper of a sound from the room." call the servants, heard an order to bring " I shall tell you. When I entered the Shakra saddled at once. The canteen was Room of Silence just now your words had being filled for the journey. Into the in- set me on fire. My mind was hot with credulous mind of the gambler the truth desire of power over other men. I forgot filtered by degrees, as candlelight probes a the palace you built for me with your prom- room full of treasure, flashing ever and ises. And then I knew that it had been anon into new corners filled with undiscov- a temptation to sin from which the voice ered riches, was freeing me. Shakra was his to ride over the moun- " Could a human voice have spoken more tains. And why stop there? There was clearly than that voice spoke to my heart? no mark on her, and his brand would make Anxiously I called before my eyes the image her his. She would be safe in an Eastern of Benjamin to ask for His judgment, but racing stable before they even dreamed of your face remained an unclouded vision pursuit. And when her victories on the and was not dimmed by the will of the Lord track had built his fortune he could return as He dims creatures of evil in the Room of her, and raise a breed of peerless horses. Silence. Thereby I knew that you are in- A theft? Yes, but so was the stealing of deed my brother." the fire from heaven for the use of man- The brain of Connor groped slowly in the kind. rear of these words. He was too stunned He would have been glad to leave the by disappointment to think clearly, but Garden of Eden at once, but that was not vaguely he made out that David had dis- in David's scheme of things. To him a missed the argument and was now asking departure into the world beyond the moun- him to come for a walk by the lake. tains was as a voyage into an uncharted " The lake's well enough," he answered, sea. His dignity kept him from asking " but it occurs to me that I've got to get on questions, but it was obvious that he was with my journey." painfully anxious to learn the necessity of " You must leave me?" Connor's going. There was such real anxiety in his voice That night in the patio he held forth at that Connor softened a little. length of the things they would do to- THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 407 gether when the gambler returned. " The Garden is a book," he explained. '' And I must teach you to turn the pages and read in them." There was little sleep for Connor that night. He lay awake, turning over the pos- sibilities of a last minute failure, and when he finally dropped into a deep, aching slumber it was to be awakened almost at once by the voice of David calling in the pat'w. He wakened and found it was the pink of the dawn. " Shakra waits at the gate of the patio, Start early, Benjamin, and thereby you will return soon." It brought Connor to his feet with a leap. As if he required urging! Through the hasty breakfast he could not retain his joyous laughter until he saw David grow- , i ,- i T- t i if mg thoughtful. But that breakfast was over, and David's kind solicitations, at length. Shakra was brought to him; his feet were settled into the stirrups, and the dream changed to a sense of the glorious reality. She was his Shakra! " A journey of happiness for your sake and a speed for mine, Benjamin.'' Connor looked down for the last time into the face of the master of the Garden, half wild and half calm the face of a savage with the mind of a man behind it. "' If he should take my trail ! " he thought with horror. , . ' Good-by!" he called aloud, and in a burst of joy and sudden compunction, " God bless you, David!" " He has blessed me already, for He has ( -^~A given to me a friend. A touch of the rope for no Eden Gray would endure a bit whirled Shakra and sent her down the terraces like the wind. The avenue of the eucalyptus trees poured behind them, and out of this, with aston- ishing suddenness, they reached the gate. The fire already burned, for the night was hardly past, and Joseph squatted like a great ape, with the thin smoke blowing across his face unheeded. He was grin- ning with savage hatred and the thick lips were muttering. Connor knew what profound curse was being called down upon his head, but he had only a careless glance for Joseph. His eye up yonder where the full morning shone on the mountains, his mind was out in the world, at the race track, seeing in prospect beautiful Shakra fleeing away from the finest of the thoroughbreds. And he saw the face of Ruth, as her eyes would light at the sight of Shakra. He could have burst into song. Indeed, all the destiny of the two races, white and black, was in that picture, Con- nor looking forward, high-headed, and the negro crouched with the smoke drifting in his face. The gambler threw up his arm with a low shout, and Shakra burst into full gallop down the ravine. CHAPTER XIX. VFIVFT TOUCH i-tiiij v JbL* vn 1 i UU v*ri, HEN Ruth Manning read the note through for the first time she raised her glance to the bearer. The boy was so sun-blackened that the paler skin of the eyelids made his eyes seem supreme- ly large. He was now poised accurately on one foot, rubbing his calloused heel up and down his skin, while he drank in the particulars of the telegraph office. He could hardly be a party to a deception. She looked over the note again, and read: DEAR Miss MANNING: I am a couple of miles out of Lukin. in a pkce to whic p h thg bearer of this not ; wiu bring yoiL j am sure y OU will come, for I am in trouble, out of which you can very easily help me. It is a matter which I cannot con- nde to ar >y other person in Lukin. I am ^patiently expecting you. BEN CONNOR. She crumpled the note in her hand thoughtfully, but, on the verge of dropping it in the waste basket, she smoothed it again, and for the third time went over the contents. Then she rose abruptly and confided her place to the lad who idled at the counter. " The wire's dead," she told him. < Be- sides, I'll be back in an hour or so." And she rode off a moment later with the boy. He had a blanket-pad without stir- rups, and he kept prodding the sliding el- bows of the horse with his bare toes while 408 . ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. he chattered at Ruth, for the drum of the quip. With the familiarity of years, she sounder had fascinated him and he wanted knew, they lost both their sullenness and it explained. She listened to him with a their starched politeness. They became smile of inattention, for she was thinking kindly, gentle men with infinite patience, busily of Connor. Those thoughts made infinite devotion to their " womenfolk." her look down to the dust that puffed up Homelier girls in Lukin had an easier time from the feet of the horses and became a with them. But in the presence of Ruth light mist behind them; then, raising her Manning, who was a more or less celebrated head, she saw the blue ravines of the farther beauty, they were a hopeless lot. In short, mountains and the sun haze about the she had all her life been in an amphibious crests. Connor had always been to her as position, of the mountain desert and yet not the ship is to a traveler; the glamour of of the mountain desert. On the one hand strange places was about him. she despised the " slick dudes " who now Presently they left the trail, and passing and again drifted into Lukin with marvel- about a hillside, came to an old shack whose ous neckties and curiously patterned unpainted wood had blackened with time. clothes; on the other hand, something in " There he is," said the boy, and waving her revolted at the thought of becoming one his hand to her, turned his pony on the back of the '' womenfolk." trail at a gallop. As a matter of fact there are two things Connor called to her from the shack and which every young girl should have. The came to meet her, but she had dismounted first is the presence of a mother, which is before he could reach th"e stirrup. He kept the oldest of truisms; the second is the her hand in his for a moment as he greeted friendship of at least one man of nearly her her. It surprised him to find how glad he own age. Ruth had neither. That is the was to see her. He told her so frankly. crying hurt of Western life. The men are " After the mountains and all that," he too busy to bother with women until the said cheerfully, " it's like meeting an old need for a wife and a home and children, chum again to see you. How have things and all the physical destiny of a man, over- been going?" whelms them. When they reach this point This direct friendliness in a young man there is no selection. The first girl they was something new to the girl. The youths meet they make love to. who came in to the dances at Lukin were And most of this Ruth understood. She an embarrassed lot who kept a sulky dis- wanted to make some of those lumbering, tance, as though they made it a matter of fearless, strong-handed, gentle-souled men pride to show that they were able to resist her friends. But she dared not make the the attraction of a pretty girl. But if she approaches. The first kind word or the gave them the least encouragement, the mer- first winning smile brought forth a volley est shadow of a friendly smile, they were at of tremendous compliments, close on the once all eagerness. They would flock heels of which followed the heavy artillery around her, sending savage glances at one of a proposal of marriage. Xo wonder that another, and simpering foolishly at her. she was rejoiced beyond words to meet this They had stock conversation of politeness: frank friendliness in Ben Connor. And they forced out prodigious compliments to what a joy to be able to speak back freely, an accompaniment of much writhing. Social without putting a guard over eyes and conversation was a torture to them, and the voice! girl knew it. " Things have gone on just the same Not that she despised them. She under- but I've missed you a lot!" stood perfectly well that most of them were " That's good to hear." fine fellows and strong men. But their tal- " You see," she explained, " I've been liv- en ts had been cultivated in roping two-year- ing in Lukin with just half a mind the olds and bulldogging yearlings. They could rest of it has been living off the wire. And encounter the rush of a mad bull far more you're about the only interesting thing easily than they could withstand a verbal that'? come to me except in the Morse." THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 409 And what a happiness to see that there looked at him with a misty content. The was no stiffening of his glance as he tried mountains had already done him good. The to read some profound meaning into her sharp sun had flushed him a little and tinted words! He accepted them as they were, his cheeks and strong chin with tan. He with a good-natured laughter that warmed looked more manly, somehow, and stronger her heart. in himself. Of course he had flattered her, " Sit down over here," he went on, spread- but the feeling that she had actually helped ing a blanket over a chairlike arrangement him so much by merely listening on that of two bowlders. " You look tired out." other night wakened in her a new self- She accepted with a smile, and letting her reverence. She was too prone to look on head go back against the upper edge of the life as a career of manlike endeavor; it blanket she closed her eyes for a moment was pleasant to know that a woman could and permitted her mind to drift into utter accomplish something even more important relaxation. by simply sitting still and listening. He " I am tired," she whispered. It was in- was watching her gravely now, even though expressibly pleasant to lie there with the she permitted herself the luxury of smiling sense of being guarded by this man. " They at him. never guess how tired I get never never! All at once she cried softly: " Thank I feel I feel as if I were living under Heaven that you're not a fool, Ben Con- the whip all the time." nor!" " Steady up, partner." He had picked up " What do you mean by that?" that word in the mountains, and he liked it. " I don't think I can tell you." She add- " Steady, partner. Everybody has to let ed hastily: " I'm not trying to be myste- yourself go and tell me what's wrong. I rious." may not be able to fix anything, but it He waved the need of an apology away, always helps to let off steam." " Tell you what. Never knew a girlie yet She heard him sit down beside her, and that was worth her salt who could be un- for an instant, though her eyes were still derstood all the time, or who even under- closed, she stiffened a little, fearful that he stood herself." would touch her hand, attempt a caress. She closed her eyes again to ponder this, Any other man in Lukin would have be- lazily. She could not arrive at a conclu- come familiar long ago. But Connor did sion, but she did not care. Missing links not attempt to approach her. in this conversation were not vitally im- ' Turn and turn about," he was saying portant. smoothly. When I went into your tele- " Take it easy, Ruth; we'll talk later graph office the other night my nerves were on," he said after a time, in a knot. Tell you straight I never knew She did not look at him as she answered: I had real nerves before. I went in ready " Tell me why?" to curse like a drunk. When I saw you, There was a sort of childlike confiding in it straightened me out. By the Lord, it all this that troubled Ben Connor. He was like a cool wind in my face. You were had seen her with a mind as direct and an so steady, Ruth; straight eyes; and it ironed enthusiasm as strong as that of a man. This out the wrinkles to hear your voice. I relaxing and softening alarmed him, because blurted out a lot of stuff. But when I it showed him another side of her, a new remembered it later on I wasn't ashamed, and vital side. She was very lovely with I knew you'd understand. Besides, I knew the shadows of the sombrero brim cutting that what I'd said would stop with you. across the softness of her lips and setting Just about one girl in a million who can aglow the clear olive tan of her chin and keep her mouth shut and each one of 'em throat. Her hand lay palm upward beside is worth her weight in gold. You did me her, very small, very delicate in the making, several thousand dollars' worth of good that But what a power was in that hand! He night. That's honest!" realized with a thrill of not unmixed pleas- She allowed her eyes to open, slowly, and ure that if the girl set herself to the task 410 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. she could mold him like wax with the ges- hard to look at. First thing you know you tures of that hand. If into the softness of get to squinting to make out whether that's her voice she allowed a single note of a cactus on the side of that mountain or a warmth to creep, what would happen in hundred-foot pine tree. Might be either. Ben Connor? He felt within himself a Can't tell the distande in this air. Well, chord ready to vibrate in answer. you begin t#etftrint. *]3ifi,%'s how the people Now he caught himself leaning a little around here get that long-distance look be- closer to study the purple stain of weariness hind their eyes and the long-distance wrin- in her eyelids. Even exhaustion was attrac- kles around the corners of their eyes. All tive in her. It showed something new, and the men have those wrinkles. But the wo- newly appealing. Weariness gave merely a men have them, too, after a while. You'll new edge to her beauty. What if her eyes, get them after a while, Ruth. Wrinkles opening slowly now, were to look upon him around the eyes and wrinkles in the mind not with the gentleness of friendship, but to match, eh?" with something more the little shade of Her eyes opened at last, slowly, slowly, difference in a girl's wide eyes that admits She smiled at him plaintively. a man to her secrets and traps him in so- " Don't I know, Ben? It's a man's coun- doing. try. It isn't made for woman." Ben Connor drew himself up with a shake " Ah, there you've hit the nail on the of the shoulders. He felt that he must head. Exactly! A man's country. Do you keep careful guard from now on. What a know what it does to the women?" power she was. What a power! If she set " Tell me." herself to the task who could deal with her? " Makes 'em like the men. Hardens their What man could keep from her? Then the hands after a while. Roughens their voices, picture of David jumped into his mind out Takes time, but that's what comes after a of nothingness. And on the heels of that while. Understand?" picture the inspiration always come a sud- " Oh, don't I understand!" den uplifting of the heart, surety, intoxi- And he knew how the fear had haunted eating insight. He wanted to jump to his her, then, for the first time, feet and shout until the great ravine be- " What does this dry, hot wind do to you neath them echoed. W T ith an effort he re- in the mountains? What does it do to mained quiet. But he was thinking rapid- your skin? Takes the velvet off, after a ly rapidly. He had intended to use her while; makes it dry and hard. Lord, girl, merely to arrange for shipping Shakra away I'd hate to see the change it's going to from Lukin Junction. For he dared not make in you!" linger about the town where expert horse All at once she sat up, wide awake. thieves might see the mare. But now some- " What are you trying to do to me, Ben thing new, something more came to him. Connor?" The girl was a power? Why not use her? " I'm trying to wake you up." What he said was: "Do you know why " I am awake. But what can I do?" you close your eyes?" " You think you're awake, but you're Still without looking up she answered: not. Tell you what a girl needs, a stage " Why?" just like an actor. Think they can put " All of these mountains you see?" She on a play with these mountains for a set- did not see, so he went on to describe them, ting? Never in the world. Make the ac- " There's that big peak opposite us. Looks tors look too small. Make everything they a hundred yards away, but it's two miles, say sound too thin. Come down in big jags and walks up into " Same way with a girl. She needs a set- the sky Lord knows how many thousand ting. A room, a rug, a picture, a comfor- feet. And behind it the other ranges step- table chair, and a dress that goes with it. ping off into the horizon with purple in the Shuts out the rest of the world and gives gorges and mist at the tops. Fine picture, her a chance to make a man focus on her eh? But hard to look at, Ruth. Mighty see her behind the footlights. See?" THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 411 " Yes," she whispered. " Do you know what I've been doing while I watched you just now?" " Tell me." He was fighting for a great purpose now, and a quality of easiest emotion crept into his voice. " Around your throat I've been running an edging of yellow old lace. Under your hand that was lying there I put a deep blue velvet; I had your shoulders as white as snow, with a flash to 'em like snow when you turned in the light; I had you proud as a queen, Ruth, with a blur of violets at your breast. I took out the tired look in your tace. Instead, I put in happiness." He stopped and drew a long breath. " You're pretty now, but you could be beautiful. Lord, what a flame of a beauty you could be, girl! " Instead of flushing and smiling under the praise, he saw tears well into her eyes and her mouth grow tremulous. She winked the tears away. " What are you trying to do, Ben? Make even-thing still harder for me? Don't you see I'm helpless helpless?" And instead of rising to a wail her voice sank away at the end in despair. " Oh, you're trapped well enough," he said. " I'm going to bust the trap! I'm going to give you your setting. I'm going to make you what you ought to be beau- tiful!" She smiled as at any unreal fairy tale. " How?" " I can show you better than I can tell you! Come here!" He rose, and she was on her feet in a flash. He led the way to the door of the shack, and as the shadows fell inside, Shakra tossed up her head. The girl's bewildered joy was as great as if the horse were a present to her. " Oh, you beauty, you beauty," she cried. " Watch yourself," he warned. " She's as wild as a mountain lion.'' " But she knows a friend!" Shakra sniffed the outstretched hand, and then with a shake of her head accepted the stranger and looked over Ruth's shoul- der at Connor as though for an explanation. Connor himself was smiling and excited; he drew her back and forgot to release her hand, so that they stood like two happy children together. He spoke very softly and rapidly, as though he feared to em- barrass the mare. " Look at the head first then the bone in the foreleg, then the length above her back see how she stands! See how she stands! And those black hoofs, hard as iron, I tell you put the four of 'em in my double hands, almost ever see such a nick? But she's no six furlong flash! That chest, eh? Run your finger-tips down that shoul- der!" She turned with tears of pleasure in her eyes. " Ben Connor, you've been in the valley of the grays!" " I have. And do you know what it means to us?" " To us?" " I said it. I mean it. You're going to share." .. T iy A * " Look at that mare again!" She obeyed. " Say something, Ruth!" " I can't say what I feel!" " Then try to understand this: you're looking at the fastest horse that ever stepped into a race track. You understand ? I'm not speaking in comparisons. I'm talk- ing the cold dopeT Here's a pony that could have given Salvator twenty pounds, run him sick in six furlongs, and walked away to the finish by herself. Here's a mare that could pick up a hundred and fifty pounds and beat the finest horse that ever faced a barrier with a flyweight jockey in the saddle. You're looking at history, girl! Look again! You're looking at a cold mil- lion dollars. You're looking at the blood that's going to change the history of the turf. That's what Shakra means!" She was trembling with his excitement. " I see. It's the sure thing you were talking about. The horse that can't be beat that makes the betting safe?" But Connor grew gloomy at once. " What do you mean by sure thing? If I could ever get her safely away from the post in a stake race, yes; sure as anything on earth. But suppose the train is wrecked? Suppose she puts a foot in a hole? Suppose at the post some rotten, cheap-selling plater kicks her and lays her up!" 412 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. He passed a trembling hand along the " I'm talking shop. I'm talking business, neck of Shakra. Will you play partners with me?" " God, suppose!" " To the very end." "But you only brought one; nothing else " The big negro doesn't own the grays in worth while in the valley?" that valley they call the Garden of Eden. " Nothing else? I tell you, the place They're owfl^d by a white man. They call is full of 'em! And there's a stallion as him David Eden. And David Eden has much finer than Shakra as she's finer than never been out in the world. It's part of his that broken-down, low-headed, ewe-necked, creed not to. It's part of his creed, how- straight-shouldered, roach-backed skate you ever, to go out just once, find a woman for have out yonder!" his wife, and bring her back with him. Is " Mr. Connor, that's the best little pony that clear?" in Lukin! But I know compared with " I- this oh, to see her run, just once!" " You're to go up there. That old gray She sighed, and as her glance fell Connor gelding we saw in Lukin the day of the noted her pallor and her weariness. She race. I'll finance you to the sky. Ride it looked up again, and the great eyes filled to the gates of the Garden of Eden. Tell her face with loveliness. Color, too, came the guards that you've got to have another into her cheeks and into her parted lips. horse because the one you own is old. Insist "You beauty!" she murmured. "You on seeing David. Smile at 'em; win 'em perfect, perfect beauty!" over. Make them let you see David. And Shakra was nervous under the fluttering the minute you see him, he's ours! You hands, but in spite of her uneasiness she understand? I don't mean marriage. One seemed to enjoy the light-falling touches un- smile will knock him stiff. Then play him. til the finger-tips trailed across her fore- Get him to follow you out of the valley, head; then she tossed her head high, and Tell him you have to go back home. He'll the girl stood beneath, laughing, delighted, follow you. Once we have him outside you Connor found himself smiling in sympathy, can keep him from going back and you can The two made a harmonious picture. As make him bring out his horses, too. Easy? harmonious, say, as the strength of Glani It's a sure thing! W T e don't rob him, you and the strength of David Eden. His face see? We simply use his horses. I race grew tense with it when he drew the girl them and play them. I split the winnings away. with you and David. Millions, I tell you; " Would you like to have a horse like millions. Don't answer. Gimme a chance that half a' dozen like it?" to talk!" The first leap of hope was followed by a There was a rickety old box leaning wan smile at this cruel mockery. against the wall; he made her sit on it, and He went on with brutal tenseness, jabbing dropping upon one knee, he poured out plan, the points at her with his raised finger. reason, hopes, ambitions in fierce confusion. " And everything else you've ever want- It ended logically enough. David was under ed: swell clothes? Manhattan? A limou- what he considered a divine order to marry, sine as big as a house with a. vase of flowers and he would be clay in the hands of the in it and everything? A butler behind your first girl who met him. She would be a chair and a maid in your dressing room? fool indeed if she were not able to lead him A picture in the papers every time you turn out of the valley. around in your Newport cottage? You " Think it over for one minute before want 'em?" you answer," concluded Connor, and then " Do I want heaven?" rose and folded his arms. He controlled " How much will you pay?" his very breathing for fear of breaking in He urged it on her, towering over her as on the dream which he saw forming in her he drew close. eyes. " What's it worth? Is it worth a fight?" Then she shook herself clear of the temp- " It's worth everything." tation. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 413 " Ben, it's crooked! I'm to lie to him He was purposely making the task diffi- live a lie until we have what we want!" cult and he saw that she was excited. His " God A'mighty, girl! Don't you see own work with Ruth Manning was as difn- that we'd be doing the poor fathead a good cult as hers would be with David. The turn by getting him out of his hermitage fickle color left her all at once and he found and letting him live in the world? A lie? her looking wistfully at him. Call it that if you want. Aren't there such She returned neither answer, argument, things as white lies? If there are, this is nor comment. In vain he detailed each step one of 'em or I'm not Ben Connor/' of her way into the Garden and how she His voice softened. " Why, Ruth, you could pass the gate. Sometimes he was not know damned well that I wouldn't put the even sure that she heard him, as she lis- thing up to you if I didn't figure that in tened to the silent voice which spoke against the end it would be the best thing in -the him. He had gathered all his energy for a world for you? I'm giving you your last outburst, he was training his tongue for chance. To save Dave Eden from being a a convincing storm of eloquence, when fossil. To earn your own freedom. To Shakra, as though she wearied of all this get everything you've longed for. Think!" human chatter, pushed in between them her " I'm trying to think but I only keep beautiful head and went slowly toward Ruth feeling, inside, ' It's wrong! It's wrong! It's with pricking ears, inquisitive, searching for wrong!' I'm not a moralizer, but tell me those light, caressing touches, about David Eden!" The voice of Connor became an insidious Connor saw his opening. whisper. " Think of a horse that's four years old " Look at her, Ruth. Look at her. She's and never had a bit in his teeth. That's begging you to come. You can have her. David Eden. The minute you see him She'll be a present to you. Quick! What's you'll want to tame him. But you'll have the answer!" to go easy. Keep gloves on. He's as proud A strange answer! She threw her arms as a sulky kid. Kind of a chap you can't around the shoulder of the beautiful gray, force a step, but you could coax him over buried her face in the mane, and burst a cliff. Why. he'd be thread for you to into tears. wind around your little finger if you worked For a moment Connor watched her, dis- him right. But it wouldn't be easy. If he mayed, but presently, as one satisfied, he had a single suspicion he'd smash every- withdrew to the open air and mopped his thing in a minute, and he's strong enough forehead. It had been hard work, but it to tear down a house. Put the temper of had paid. He looked over the distant blue a panther in the size of a bear and you waves of mountains with the eye of get a small idea of David Eden." possession. (To be continued NEXT WEEK.) tr u rr rr AT THE FANCY FAIR I MET her at a Fancy Fail- Behind a counter selling, And what she wouldn't do or dare There really is no telling. Dear, artless creature, even now Methinks your modest face I see When asked for change, you said, " Oh, how Can you say * change ' to one like me?" La Touche Hancock. fames OF course there ain't supposed to be A pretty good share of the men folks in no such thing as luck. The wise Panther Peak didn't lavish a wealth of galoots claim that layin' what hap- love and affection on Mr. Applegrass, but I pens to luck is just as foolish as expectin' reckon Blister Burns and me had less use good fellowship from a disrobin' rattler, for this hombre than the rest of the burg Honest toil and square shootin' is the only packed in a bunch. things which brings you good fortune in Blister and the party settin' down these this sterlin' world, they merrily squawk, lines was partners in the same oil well and Well, mebbe. But I been roamin' the girl. After several months' hard tryin' we ranges long enough to come to some con- clusions and determinations of my own. And when I sees hombres which don't even know what is the wrong side of a hoss scoffin' regularly while a lotta better boys go minus the old grub you can't tell me watched one another like a pair of trigger there ain't no luck. I can prove different, fighters attemptin' to get the drop. Not Right pronto and particular comes to that we wasn't good friends in business mind this dude festive and frolickin' par- hours. But Rose Mclntyre was one of them ents decided to call Oswald Applegrass. girls who is so lurin' to the eyes that a Nobody named nothin' like that oughta be hombre has to be mighty hard cooked to lucky, but if the noble and quick-shootin' resist 'em. The minute you laid lamps on State of Montana ever sheltered a more her you began to get a cravin' for a home fortunate buzzard than Oswald I'll make and fireside. Blister and I felt the same you a present of the soprano- singin' saddle- way about it. horn. Naturally a young woman so good look- Oswald was a clerk in Panther Peak's in' as Rose was bound to attract a lotta one and only shoe store. I ain't got noth- ambitious and admirin' galoots. However, had struck dog-gone little oil and seemed; to be deadlocked with the lady. She liked Blister as well as me, and me as well as Blister and didn't get too excited over either of us. Mebbe it was because we in' against shoe clerks on the whole. I realizes and appreciates that most people can't go around barefoot. Somebody has to sell 'em shoes. But I draws the line at Oswalds. Blister and I teamed up to discourage the opposition and narrow the field down to where we could battle it out ourselves. We got away with it until Jerry Nobson im- ported a shoe clerk and give Oswald Apple- 414 Part IV Mc>c Breovcf Author ol "The Untamed," "TraUin 1 ," "The Seventh Man," "Black Jack," etc. T 1 CHAPTER XX. THE FALSE PROPHET. IHE evil at heart, when they wish to take, seem to give," said Abra- ham, mouthing the words with his withered lips, and he came to one of his prophetic pauses. The master of the Garden permitted it to the privileged old negro, who added now: " Benjamin is evil at heart." " He did not ask for the horse," said David, who was plainly arguing against his own conviction. " Yet he knew." The ancient face of Ab- raham puckered. " Po' white trash!" he muttered. Now and then one of these quaint phrases would break through his ac- quired diction, and they always bore home to David a sense of that great world beyond the mountains. Matthew had often de- scribed that world, but one of Abraham's odd expressions carried him in a breath in- to cities filled with men. as I would miss a human face. But Ben- jamin will return with her. He did not ask for the horse." " He knew you would offer." "He will not return?" "Never!" " Then I shall go to find him." " It is forbidden." Abraham sat down, cross-legged, and watched with impish self-content while David strode back and forth in the patio. A far-off neighing brought him to a halt, and he raised his hand for silence. The neighing was repeated, more clearly, and David laughed for joy. " A horse coming from the pasture to the paddock," said Abraham, shifting uneasily. The day was old and the patio was filled with a clear, soft light, preceding evening. ' It is Shakra! Shakra, Abraham!" The negro rose. " A yearling. It is too high for the voice of a grown mare." " The distance makes it shrill. Abra- " His absence is cheaply bought at the ham, Abraham, cannot I find her voice price of one mare," continued the negro soothingly. among ten all neighing at once?" " Then beware of Benjamin, for he has ;- One mare of Rustir's blood! What is returned to take not one but all." the sin for which the Lord would punish But David smiled at the skinny hand me with the loss of Shakra? And I miss her which was raised in warning. This story began in the Argosy-Allstory Weekly for April 15. 573 574 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. " Say no more," he said solemnly. " I am already to blame for hearkening to words against my brother Benjamin." " You yourself had said that he tempted you." Because David could find no ready re- tort he grew angry. " Also, think of this. Your eyes and your ears are grown dull, Abraham, and perhaps your mind is misted also." He had gone to the entrance into the patio and paused there to wait with a lifted head. Abraham followed and attempted to speak again, but the last cruel speech had crushed him. He went out on the terrace, and looking back saw that David had not a glance for him; so Abraham went feebly on. " I have become as a false prophet," he murmured, " and I am no more regarded." His life had long been in its evening, and now, at a step, the darkness of old age fell about him. From the margin of the lake he looked up and saw Connor ride to the 'patio. David, at the entrance, clasped the hand of his guest while he was still on the horse and helped him to the ground. " This," he said solemnly, " is a joyful day in my house." " What's the big news?" inquired the gambler, and added: "Why so happy?" " Is it not the day of your return? Isaac! Zacharias!" They came running as he clapped his hands. " Set out the oldest wine, and there is a haunch of the deer that was killed at the gate. Go! And now, Benjamin, did Sha- kra carry you well and swiftly?" " Better than I was ever carried before." "Then she deserves well of me. Come hither, Shakra, and stand behind me. Truly, Benjamin, my brother, my thoughts have ridden ten times across the mountains and back, wishing for your return!" Connor was sufficiently keen to know that a main reason for the warmth of his reception wate that he had been doubted while he was away, and while they supped in the patio he was even able to guess who had raised the suspicion against him. Word was brought that Abraham lay in his bed seriously ill, but David Eden showed no trace of sympathy. " Which is the greater crime?" he asked Benjamin a little later. " To poison the food a man eats or the thoughts in his mind?" " Surely," said the crafty gambler, " the mind is of more importance than the stom- ach." Luckily David bore the main burden of conversation that evening, for the brain of Connor was surcharged with impatient waiting. His great plan, he shrewdly guessed, would give him everything or else ruin him in the Garden of Eden, and the suspense was like an eating pain. Luckily the crisis came on the very next day. Jacob galloped into the patio, and flung himself from the back of Abra. David and Connor rose from their chairs under the arcade where they had been watching Joseph setting great stones in place around the border of the fountain pool. The master of the Garden went for- ward in some anger at this unceremonious interruption. But Jacob came as one whose news is so important that it overrides all need of conventional approach. " A woman," he panted. " A woman at the gate of the Garden!" " Why are you here?" said David sternly. " A woman " " Man, woman, child, or beast, the law is the same. They shall not enter the Gar- den of Eden. Why are you here?" u And she rides the gray gelding, the son of Yoruba!" At that moment the white trembling lips of Connor might have told the master much, but he was too angered to take heed of his guest. " That which has once left the Garden is no longer part of it. For us, the gray geld- ing does not exist. Why are you here?" " Because she would not leave the gate. She says that she will see you." " She is a fool. And because she was so confident, you were weak enough to believe her?" " I told her that you would not come; that you could not come!" " You have told her that it is impossible THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 575 for me to speak with her?" said David, while Connor gradually regained control of himself and summoning his strength for the crisis. " I told her all that, but she said never- theless she would see you." " For what reason?" " Because she has money with which to buy another horse like her gelding, which is old." " Go back and tell her that there is no money price on the heads of my horses. Go! When Ephraim is at the gate there are no such journey ings to me." 11 Ephraim is here," said Jacob stoutly, " and he spoke much with her. Neverthe- less she said that you would see her." " For what reason?" " She said: ' Because.' : " Because of what?" " That word was her only answer: ' Be- cause ' " This is strange," murmured David, turning to Connor. " Is that one word a reason? " Go back again," commanded David grimly. " Go back and tell this woman that I shall not come, and that if she comes again she will be driven away by force. And take heed, Jacob, that you do not come to me again on such an errand. The law is fixed. It is as immovable as the rocks in the mountains. You know all this. Be careful hereafter that you remember. Be gone!" The ruin of his plan in its very, inception threatened Ben Connor. If he could once bring David to see the girl he trusted in her beauty and her cleverness to effect the rest. But how lead him to the gate? Moreover, he was angered and his frown boded no good for Jacob. The old negro was turning away, and the gambler hunted his mind desperately for an expedient. Persuasion would never budge this stub- born fellow so used to command. There remained the opposite of persuasion. He determined on an indirect appeal to the pride of the master. " You are wise, David," he said solemn- ly. " You are very wise. These creatures are dangerous, and men of sense shun them. Tell your servants to drive her away with blows <5f a stick so that she will never re- turn." " No, Jacob," said the master, and the negro returned to hear the command. " Not with sticks. But with words, for flesh of women is tender. This is hard counsel, Benjamin!" He regarded the gambler with great sur- prise. " Their flesh may be tender, but their spirits are strong," said Connor. Th2 open- ing he had made was small. At least he had the interest. Of David, and through that entering wedge he determined to drive with all his might. " And dangerous," he added gravely. "Dangerous?" said the master. He raised his head. " Dangerous?" As if a jackal had dared to howl in the hearing of the lion. " Ah, David, if you saw her you would understand why I warn you!" " It would be curious. In what wise does her danger strike?" " That I cannot say. They have a thou- sand ways." The master turned irresolutely toward Jacob. " You could not send her away with words?" " David, for one of my words she has ten that flow with pleasant sound like water from a spring, and with little meaning, ex- cept that she will not go." "You are a fool!" " So I felt when I listened to her." " There is an old saying, David, my brother," said Connor, " that there is more danger in one pleasant woman than in ten angry men. Drive her from the gate with stones!" " I fear that you hate women, Benja- min." " They were the source of evil." " For which penance was done." " The penance followed the sin." " God, who made the mountains, the river and this garden and man, He made woman also. She cannot be all evil. I shall go." kt Then, remember that I have warned you. God, who made man and woman, made fire also." 576 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. " And is not fire a blessing?" He smiled at his triumph and this con- test of words. " You shall go with me, Benjamin." "I? Never!" " In what is the danger?" " If you find none, there is none. For my part I have nothing to do with women." But David was already whistling to Glani. " One woman can be no more terrible than one man," he declared to Benjamin. " And I have made Joseph, who is great of body, bend like a blade of grass in the wind." " Farewell," said Connor, his voice trem- bling with joy. " Farewell, and God keep you!" " Farewell, Benjamin, my brother, and have no fear." Connor followed him with his eyes, half- triumphant, half-fearful. What would hap- pen at the gate? He would have given much to see even from a distance the duel between the master and the woman. At the gate of the patio David turned and waved his hand. " I shall conquer!" And then he was gone. Connor stared down at the grass with a cynical smile until he felt another gaze upon him, and he became aware of the little beast eyes of Joseph glittering. The giant had paused in his work with the stones. "What are you thinking of, Joseph?" asked the gambler. The negro made an indescribable gesture of hate and fear. " Of the whip! " he said. " I also opened the gate of the Garden. On whose back will the whip fall this time?" CHAPTER XXI. THE HOMECOMING. NEAR the end of the eucalyptus avenue, and close to the gate, David dis- mounted and made Jacob do likewise. " We may come on them by surprise and listen," he said. " A soft step has won great causes." They went forward cautiously, inter- changing sharp glances as though they were stalking some dangerous beast, and so they came within earshot of the gate and shel- tered from view of it by the edge of the cliff. David paused and cautioned his com- panion with a mutely raised hand. " He lived through the winter," Ephraim was saying. " I took him into my room and cherished him by the warmth of my fire and with rubbing, so that when spring came, and gentler weather, he was still alive a great leggy colt with a backbone that almost lifted through the skin. Only high, bright eyes comforted me and told me that my work was a good work." David and Jacob interchanged nods of wonder, for Ephraim was telling to this wo- man the dearest secret of his life. It was how he had saved the weakling colt, Jumis, and raised him to a beautiful, strong stallion, only to have him die sud- denly in the height of his promise. Certain- ly Ephraim was nearly won over by the woman; it threw David on guard. " Go back to Abra," he whispered. " Ride on to the gate and tell her boldly to be gone. I shall wait here, and in time of need I shall help you. Make haste. Ephraim grows like wet clay under her fin- gers. Ah, how wise is Benjamin!" Jacob obeyed. He stole away and pres- ently shot past at the full gallop of Abra. The stallion came to a sliding halt, and Jacob spoke from his back, which was a grave discourtesy in the Garden of Eden. " The master will not see you," he said. " The sun is still high. Return by the way you have come; you get no more from the Garden than its water and its air. He does not sell horses." For the first time she spoke, and at the sound of her voice David Eden stepped out from the rock; he remembered himself in time and shrank back to shelter. " He sold this horse." " It was the will of the men before David that these things should be done, but the Lord knows the mind of David and that his heart bleeds for every gelding that leaves the Garden. See what you have done to him! The marks of the whip and the spur are on his sides. Woe to you if David should see them!" 6 A THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 577 She cried out at that in such a way that David almost felt she had been struck. It was the work of a drunken half- breed, and not mine." " Then God have mercy on that man, for if the master should see him, David would have no mercy. I warn you: David is one with a fierce eye and a strong hand. Be gone before he comes and sees the scars on the gray horse." Then he is coming?" She is quick," thought David, as an embarrassed pause ensued. ' Truly, Ben- jamin was right, and there is danger in these creatures." " He has many horses," the girl went on, " and I have only this one. Besides, I would pay well for another." - What price?" " He should not have asked, " muttered David. u Everything that I have," she was an- swering, and the low thrill of her voice went through and through the master of the Garden. <; I could buy other horses with this. money, but not another like my gray. He is more than a horse. He is a compan- ion to me. He understands me when I talk, and I understand him. You see how he stands with his head down? He is not tired, but hungry. When he neighs in a certain way from the corral I know that he is lonely. You see that he comes to me now? That is because he knows I am talk- ing about him, for we are friends. But he is old and he will die, and what shall I do then? It will be like a death in my house!" Another pause followed. " You love the horse," said the voice of Kphraim, and it was plain that Jacob was beyond power of speech. \nd I shall pay for another. Hold out your hand." " I cannot take it." Nevertheless, it seemed that he obeyed, for presently the girl continued: " After my father died I sold the house. It was pretty well blanketed with a mortgage, but I cleared out this hundred from the wreck. 1 went to work and saved what I could. Ten dollars every month, for twenty months you can count for yourself makes two 7 A hundred, and here's the two hundred more in your hand. Three hundred altogeth Do you think it's enough?" '* If there were ten times as much," said Jacob, '' it would not be enough. There take your money. It is not enough. There is no money price on the heads of the mas- ter's horses." But a new light had fallen upon David. Women, as he had heard of them, were idle creatures who lived upon that which men gained with sweaty toil, but this girl, it seemed, was something more. She was strong enough to earn her bread, and some- thing more. Money values were not clear to David Eden, but three hundred dollars sounded a very considerable sum. He de- termined to risk exposure by glancing around the rock. If she could work like a man no doubt she was made like a man and not like those useless and decorative creatures of whom Matthew had often spoken to him. with all their graces and voices. Cautiously he peered and he saw her standing beside the old, broken gray horse. Even old Ephraim seemed a stahvart figure in comparison. At first he was bewildered, and then he almost laughed aloud. Was it on account of this that Benjamin had warned him, this fragile girl? He stepped boldly from be- hind the rock. " There is no more to say," quoth Jacob. " But I tell you, he himself will come." " You are right," said David. At that her eyes turned on him, and David was stopped in the midst of a stride until she shrank back against the horse. Then he went on, stepping softly, his hand extended in that sign of peace which is as old as mankind. tay in peace," said David, " and have no fear. It is I, David." He hardly knew his own voice, it was so gentle. A twilight dimness seemed to have fallen upon Jacob and Ephraim, and he was only aware of the girl. Her fear seemed to be half gone already, and she even came a hopeful step toward him. " I knew from the first that you would come," she said, " and let me buy one horse you have so many." 578 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, " We will talk of that later." " Peace, Abra!" commanded the master. " David," broke in the grave voice of " Oh, unmannerly colt! It would be other Ephraim, " remember your own law!" than this if the wise Shakra were beneath He looked at the girl instead of the your saddle." negro as he answered: " Who am I to make " No, I am content with Abra. Let laws? God begins where David leaves off." Shakra be for your servant." And he added: " What is your name?" '* Not servant, but friend a friend whom " Ruth." Glani chose for me. Consider how fickle " Come, Ruth," said David, " we will go our judgments are and how little things home together." persuade us. Abraham is rich in words, but She advanced as one in doubt until the his face is ugly, and I prefer the smooth shadow of the cliff fell over her. Then voice of Zacharias, though he is less wise, she looked back from the throat of the I have grieved for this and yet it is hard gate and saw Ephraim and Jacob facing to change. But a horse is wiser than a her as though they understood there was fickle-minded man, and when Glani went no purpose in guarding against what might to the hand of Benjamin without my order, approach the valley from without now that I knew that I had found a friend." the chief enemy was within. David, in the She knew the secret behind that story, pause, was directing Jacob to place the and now she looked at David with pity, girl's saddle on the back of Abra. " In my house you will meet Benjamin," " For it is not fitting," he explained, the master was saying thoughtfully, evi- " that you should enter my garden save on dently encountering a grave problem. " I one of my horses. And look, here is Glani." have said that little things make the judg- The stallion came at the sound of his ments of men! If a young horse shies name. She had heard of the great horse once, though he may become a true traveler from Connor, but the reality was far more and a wise head, yet his rider remembers than the words. the first jump and i\ever uneasy in the " And this, Glani, is Ruth." saddle." She touched the velvet nose which was She nodded, wondering what lay behind stretched inquisitively toward her, and then the explanation. looked up and found that David was smil- " Or if a snake crosses the road before a ing. A moment later they were riding horse, at that place the horse trembles side by side down the avenue of the eucalyp- when he passes again." tus trees, and through the tall tree-trunks "Y new vistas opened rapidly about her. Every She found it strangely pleasant to follow stride of Abra seemed to carry her another the simple processes of his mind, step into the life of David. " It is so with Benjamin. At some time " I should have called Shakra for you," a woman crosses his way like a snake, and said David, watching her with concern, because of her he has come to hate all " but she is ridden by another who has the women. And when I started for the gate, right to the best in the Garden." even now, he warned me against you." " Even Glani?" The clever mind of the gambler opened to " Even Glani, save that he fears to ride her and she smiled at the trick, my horse, and therefore he has Shakra. I " Yes, it is a thing for laughter," said am sorry, for I wish to see you together. David happily. " I came with a mind She is like you beautiful, delicate, and armed for trouble and I find you, whom I swift." could break between my hands." She urged Abra into a shortened gallop He turned, casting out his arms, with a touch of her heel, so that the busi- " What harm have I received from you?" ness of managing him gave her a chance They had reached the head of the bridge, to cover her confusion. She could have and even as David turned a changing gust smiled away a compliment, but the simplici- carried to them a chorus of men's voices, ty of David meant something more. David drew rein. THE GARDEN OF EDEX. 579 There is a death/' he said, " in my household." CHAPTER XXII, ELIJAH. THE singing took on body and form as the pitch rose. " There is a deam," repeated David. " Abraham is dead, the oldest and the wisest of my servants. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Glory to His name!" Ruth was touched to the heart. ' I am sony," she said simply. " Let us rejoice, rather, for Abraham is happy. His soul is reborn in a young body. Do you not hear them singing? Let us ride on." He kept his head high and a stereotyped smile on his lips as the horses sprang into a gallop that breath-taking gallop which made the spirit of the girl leap; but she saw his breast raise once or twice with a sigh. It was the stoicism of an Indian, she felt, and like an Indian's was the bronze- brown skin and the long hair blowing in the wind. The lake was beside them now, and dense forest beyond opening into pleas- ant meadows. She was being carried back into a primitive time of which the type was the man beside her. Riding without a saddle his body gave to the swing of the gallop, and she was more conscious than ever of physical strength. But now the hoofs beat softly on the lawn terraces, and in a moment they had stopped before the house where the death had been. She knew at once. The empty arch into the patio of the servants' house was eloquent, in some manner, of the life that had departed. Before it was the group, of singers, all standing quiet, as though their own music had silenced them, or per- haps preparing to sing again. Connor had described the old negro, but she was not prepared for these straight, withered bodies, these bony, masklike faces, and the white heads. All in an instant they seemed to see her, and a flash of pleasure went from face to face. They stirred, they came toward her with glad murmurs, all except one, the old- est of them all, who remained aloof with his arms folded. But the others pressed close around her, talking excitedly to one another, as though she could not under- stand what they said. And she would never forget one who took her hand in both of his. The touch of his fingers was cold and as dry as parchment. ".Honey, child, God bless your pretty face." Was this the formal talk of which Connor had warned her? A growl from David drove them back from her like leaves be- fore a wind. He had slipped from his horse, and now walked forward. " It is Abraham?" he asked. ' He is dead and glorious," answered the chorus, and the girl trembled to hear those time-dried relics of humanity speak so cheerily of death. The master was silent for a moment, then: " Did he leave no message for me?" In place of answering the group shifted and opened a passage to the one in the rear, who stood with folded arms. " Elijah, you were with him?" "I heard his last words." "And what dying message for David?" " Death sealed his lips while he had still much to say. To the end he was a man ol many words. But first he returned thanks to our Father who breathed life into the clay." " That was a proper thought, and I see that the words were the words of Abraham." " He gave thanks for a life of quiet ease and wise masters and he forgave the Lord the length of years he was kept in this world." " In that," said David gravely, %i I seem to hear his voice speaking. Continue." " He commanded us to sing pleasantly when he was gone." >v I heard the singing on the lake road, It is well." " Also, he bade us keep the first master in our minds, for John, he said, was the beginning." At this the face of David clouded a little, " Continue. What word for David?" Something that Connor had said about the pride and sulkiness of a child came back to Ruth. 580 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. Elijah, after hesitation, went on: " He declared that Glani is too heavy in the fore- head." " Yes, that is Abraham/' said the mas- ter, smiling tenderly. " He would argue even on the death bed." " But a cross with Tabari would remedy that defect." " Perhaps. What more?" " He blessed you and bade you remem- ber, and rejoice that he was gone to his wife and child." "Ah? "'cried David softly. His glance, wandering absently, rested on the girl for a moment, and then came back to Elijah. " His mind went back to that? What fur- ther for my ear?" " I remember nothing more, David." " Speak!" commanded the master. The eyes of Elijah roved as though for help. " Toward the end his voice grew faint and his mind seemed to wander." " Far rather tremble, Elijah, if you keep back the words he spoke, however sharp they may be. My hand is not light. Re- member, and speak." The fear of Elijah changed to a gloomy pride, and now he not only raised his head, but he even made a step forward and stood in dignity. " Death took Abraham by the throat, and yet he continued to speak. ' Tell David that four masters cherished Abraham, but David cast him out like a dog and broke his heart, and therefore he dies. Although I bless him, God will hereafter judge him! ' A shudder went through the entire group, and Ruth herself was uneasy. " Keep your own thoughts and the words of Abraham well divided," said David sel- emnly. " I know his mind and its work- ing. Continue, but be warned." " I am warned, David, but my brother Abraham is dead and my heart weeps for him!" " God will hereafter judge me," said David harshly. " And what was the fur- ther judgment of Abraham, the old man?" " Even this: ' David has opened the Gar- den to one and therefore it will be opened to all. The law is broken. The first sin is the hard sin and the others follow easily. It is swift to run downhill. He has brought in one, and another will soon follow.' " " Elijah," thundered David, " you have wrested his words to fit the thing you see." " May the dead hand of Abraham strike me down if these were not his words/' " Had he become a prophet?" muttered David. " No, it was the maundering of an old man." _ " God s'peafcs on the lips of the dying, David." " You have said enough." "Wait!" " You are rash, Elijah." She could not see the face of David, but the terror and frenzied devotion of Elijah served her as a mirror to see the wrath of the master of the Garden. " David has opened the gate of the Gar- den. The world sweeps in and shall carry away the life of Eden like a flood. All that four masters have done the fifth shall undo." The strength of his ecstasy slid from Elijah and he dropped upon his knees with his head weighted toward the earth. The other negroes were frozen in their places. One who had opened his lips to speak, per- haps to intercede for the rash Elijah, re- mained with his lips parted, a staring mask of fear. In them Ruth saw the rage of David Eden, and she was sickened by what she saw. She had half pitied the simplicity of this man, this gull of the clever Connor. Now she loathed him as a savage barbarian. Even these old men were hardly safe from his furies of temper. " Arise," said the master at length, and she could feel his battle to control his voice. " You are forgiven, Elijah, because of your courage yet, beware! As for that old man whose words you repeated, I shall consider him." He turned on his heel, and Ruth saw that his face was iron. CHAPTER XXIII. THE TOP OF THE WORLD. FROM the gate of the patio Connor, watching all that time in a nightmare of suspense, saw, first of all, the single figure of David come around the trees, David alone and walking. But before that THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 581 shock passed he saw Glani at the heels of the master, and then, farther bade, Ruth! She had passed the gate and two-thirds of the battle was fought and won. Yet all was not well, as he plainly saw. With long, ift steps David came over the terrace, and finally paused as if his thoughts had stopped him. He turned as Glani passed, and the girl came up to him; his extended ami halted Abra and he stood looking up to the girl and speaking. Only the faint murmur of his voice came unintelligibly to Connor, but he recognized danger in it as clearly as in the hum of bees. Sud- denly the girl, answering, put out her hands as if in gesture of surrender. Another pause it was only a matter of a second or so, but it was a space for life m death with Connor. In that interval he knew that his scheme was made or mined. What had the _;irl said? Perhaps that mighty extended arm holding back Abra had frightened her, and with the wind blowing his long black hair aside, David of Eden was a figure wild enough to alarm her. Perhaps m fear of her life she had exposed the whole plan. If so, it meant broken bones for Connor. But now David turned again, and this time he was talking by the side of Abra as they came up the hill. He talked with many gestures, and the girl was laughing down to him. " God bless her!" muttered Connor im- pulsive!; he's a true-blue one!" He remembered his part in the nick of time as they came closer, and David helped the girl down from the saddle and brought her forward. The gambler drew himself up and made his face grave with disap- proval. Now or never he must prove to David that there was no shadow of a con- nection between him and the girl. Yet he was by no means easy. There was some- thing forced and stereotyped in the smile of the girl that told him she had been through a crucial test and was still near the breaking point. David presented them to one another tin- easily. He' was even a little embarrassed under the accusing eye of Connor. '' I make y known, Ruth," he said, " to my brother Benjamin. He is that man of whom I told you," ''I am happy/' said the girl, "to 'be known to him." "That much I cannot say/' replied the gambler. He turned upon David with outstretched arm. " Ah, David, I have warned you: " " As Abraham warned me against you, Benjamin. And dying men speak truth." The counter-attack was so shrewd, so unexpected, that the gambler, for the mo- ment, was thrown completely off his guard. He could only murmur: "You are the judge for yourself, David.' "I am. Da not think that the power is in me. But God loves the Garden and His voice is never far from me. Neither are the spirits of the four who lived here before me and made this place. When there is danger they warn me. When I am in error the voice of God corrects me. And just as I heard the voice against the wo- man, Ruth, and heed it not." He seemed to have gathered conviction for himself, much needed conviction, as he spoke. He turned now tow r ard the girl. " Be not wroth with Benjamin; and bear him no malice." " I bear him none in the world," she an- swered truthfully, and held out her hand. But Connor was still in his rok. He folded his arms and pointedly disregarded the advance. " Woman, let there be peace and few words between us. My will is the will of David." "There speaks my brother!" cried the master of the valley. " And yet/ 1 muttered Connor, " why is she here?" " She came to buy a horse." li But they are not sold." " That is true. Yet she has traveled far and she is in great need of food and drink. Could I turn her away hungry^ Benjamin?" " She could have been fed at the gate. She could surely have rested there." It was easy to see that David was hard- pressed. His eye roved eagerly to Ruth. Then a triumphant explanation sparkled in his eye. " It is the horse she rides, a gelding from my Garden. His lot in the world has been 582 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. hard. He is scarred with the spur and the whip. I have determined to take him back, at a price. But who can arrange matters of buying and selling all in a mo- ment? It is a matter for much talk. There- fore she is here." " I am answered/' said Connor, and turn- ing to Ruth he winked broadly. " It is well," said David, " and I foresee happy days. In the meantime there is a duty before me. Abraham must be laid in his grave and I leave Ruth to your keeping, Benjamin. Bear with her tenderly for my sake." He stepped to the girl. " You are not afraid?" " I am not afraid," she answered. " My thoughts shall be near you. Fare- well." He had hardly reached the gate of the patio when Joseph, going out after finish- ing his labor at 'the fountain, passed be- tween the gambler and the girl. Connor stopped him with a sign. "The whip hasn't fallen, you see," he said maliciously to the negro. " There is still much time," replied Jo- seph. " And before the end it will fall. Perhaps on you. Or on that!" He indicated the girl with his pointing finger; his glance turned savagely from one to the other, and then he went slowly out of the patio and they were alone. She came to Connor at once and even touched his arm in her excitement. " What did he mean?" " That's the one I told you about. The one David beat up with the whip. He'd give his eye teeth to get back at me, and he has an idea that there's going to be hell to pay because another person has come into the valley. Bunk! I can handle a hundred of these boobs, black and white. But what happened down the hill?" " When he stopped me? Did you see that?" " My heart stopped the same minute. What was it?" " He had just heard the last words of Abraham. When he stopped me on the hill his face was terrible. Like a wolf! " " I know that look in him! How did you buck up under it?" " I didn't. I felt my blood turn to water and I wanted to run." " But you stuck it out I saw! Did he say anything?" " He said: ' Dying men do not lie.' And I have been twice warned. Woman, why are you here?" " And you?" gasped Connor. " What did you say?" " Nothing. My head spun. I looked up the terrace. I wanted to see you, but you weren't in sight. I felt terribly alone and absolutely helpless. If I'd had a gun I would have reached for it." "Thank God you didn't!" " But you don't know what his face was like! I expected him to tear me off the horse and smash me with his hands. All at once I wanted to tell him everything beg him not to hurt me." Connor groaned. " I knew it! I knew that was in your head!" " But I didn't." " Good girl." " He said: ' Why are you here? What harm have you come to work in the Gar- den?' " " And you alone with him! " gasped Con- nor. " That was what did it. I was so help- less that it made me bold. Can you im- agine smiling at a time like that?" "Were you able to?" " I don't know how. It took every ounce of strength in me. But I made my- self smile straight into his face. Then I put out my hands to him all at once. " ' How could I harm you?' I asked him. " And then you should have seen his face change and the anger break up like a cloud. I knew I was safe, then, but I was still dizzy just as if I'd looked over a cliff you know?" " And yet you rode up the hill after that laughing down to him! Ruth, you're the gamest sport and the best pal in the world. The finest little act I ever saw on the stage or off. It was Big Time stuff. My hat's off, but where 'd you get the nerve? " I was frightened almost to death. Too much frightened for it to sfcow. When I saw you, some of my strength came back. But what do you think of him?" THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 583 lies simply a savage. What clo I think of an Indian?" Xo more than that?' 1 "Ben, can you pet a tiger after you've seen his claws?" He looked at her with anxiety. " You're not going to break down later on feeling as if he's dynamite about to explode all the time?" I'm going to play the game through," she said with a sort of fierce happiness. " I've felt like a sneak thief about this. But now it's different. He's more of a wolf than a man. Ben, I saw murder in his face, I swear! And if it isn't wrong to tame wild beasts it isn't wrong to tame him. I'm going to play the game, lead him as far as I can until we get the horses and then it '11 be easy enough to make up by being good the rest of my life." " Ruth girl you've covered the whole ground. And when you have the coin '' He broke off with laughter that was filled with drunken excitement. ' But what did you think of my game?" She did not hear him, and standing with her hands clasped lightly behind her she looked beyond the roof of the house and over the tops of the western mountains, with the sun-haze about them. ' I feel as if I were on the top of the world." she said at last. " And I wouldn't have one thing changed. We're playing for big stakes, but we're taking a chance that makes the game worth while. What we win we'll earn because he's a devil. Isn't it what you'd call a fair bet?" " The squarest in the world," said Con- nor stoutly. CHAPTER XXIV. THE FLOWER OF DAVID. THEY had no means of knowing when David would return and the ominous shadow of Joseph, lingering near the patio, determined Connor on a walk out of any possible earshot. They went down to the lake with the singing of the negroes on the other side of the hill growing dim as they descended. The cool of the day was beginning, and they walked close to the edge of the water with the brown tree- trunks on one side and the green images floating beyond. Peace lay over Eden val- ley and the bright river that ran through it, but Ben Connor had no mind to dwell on unessentials. He had found in the girl an ally of un- expected strength. He expected only a difficult tool filled with scruples, drawing back, imperiling his plans with her hesita- tion. Instead, she was on fire with the plan. He though well to fan that fire and keep it steadily blazing. " It's better for David; better for i than it is for us. Look at the poor sirnp! He's in prison here and doesn't know it. He thinks he's happy, but he's simply kid- ding himself. Nothing but a gang of black-faces around him. In six months I'll have him chatting with millionaires." ' Let a barber do a day's work on him first." " Xo. It's just the long-haired nuts like that who get by with the high-step- pers. He has a lingo about flowers and trees that'll knock their eye out. I know the gang. Always on edge for something different music that sounds like a riot in a junk shop and poetry that reads like a drunken printing-press. Well. David ought to be different enough to suit 'em. I'll boost him, though: v The Man that Brought Out the Eden Grays!' He'll be headline stuff!" He laughed so heartily that he did not notice the quick glance ot criticism which the girl cast at him. "I'm not taking anything from him, really," went ,on Connor. " I'm simply sneaking around behind him so's I can pour his pockets full of the coin. That's all there is to it. Outside of the looks, tell me if there's anything crooked you can see?" '' I don't think there is," she murmured. 1 almost hope that there isn't!" She was so dubious about it that Connor was alarmed. He was fond of Ruth Man- ning, but she was just " different " enough to baffle him. Usually he divided mankind into three or four categories for the sake of fast thinking. There were the " boobs ", the " regular guys ", the " high steppers " a 584 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. and the " nuts ''. Sometimes he came per- ilously close to including Ruth in the last class with David Eden. And if he did not do so, it was mainly because she had given such an exhibition of cool courage only a few moments before. He had fin- ished his peroration, now, with a feeling of actual virtue, but the shadow on her face made him change his tactics and his talk. He confined himself, thereafter, strictly to the future. First he outlined his plans for raising the cash for the big " killing ". He told of the men to whom he could go for backing. There were " hard guys " who would take a chance. " Wise ones " who would back his judgment. " Fall guys " who would follow him blindly. For ten percent he would get all the cash he could place. Then it remained to try out the grays in secret, and in public let them go through the paces, ridden under wraps and heavily weighed. He described the means of placing the big money before the great race. And as he talked his figures mounted from tens to hundreds to thousands, until he was speaking in millions. In all of this profit she and David and Connor would share dollar for dollar. At the first corner of the shore they turned she had arrived at a snug apartment in New York. She would have a house-keeper-companion, some friendly woman whom adverse circum- stances had placed in the servant class. There would be a cosy living room and a paneled dining room. In the entrance hall of the apartment house, imitation of en- crusted marble, no doubt. But as they came opposite a little wood- ed island in the lake she had added a maid to the housekeeper. Also, there was now a guest room. Some one from Lukin would be in that room; some one from Lukin would go through the place with her, mar- veling at her good fortune. And clothes! They made all the differ- ence. Dressed as she would be dressed, when she came into a room that queer, cold gleam of envy would be in the eyes of the women and the man would sit straighter! Yet when they reached the place wheje the shore line turned north and west her imagination, spurred by Connor's talk, was stumbling along dizzy heights. Her apart- ment occupied a whole floor. Her butler was a miracle of dignity and her chef a genius in the kitchen. On the great table the silver and glass were things of frosted light. Her chauffeur drove a monster auto- mobile with a great purring engine that whipped her about the city with the color blown into her cheeks. In her box at the opera she was allowing the deep, soft luxury of the fur collar to slide down from her throat, while along the boxes, in the gal- leries, there was a ripple of light as the thousand glassses turned upon her. Then she found that Connor was smiling at her. She flushed, but snapped her fingers. " This thing is going through," she de- clared. " You won't weaken?" " I'm as cold as steel. Let's go back. He'll probably be in the house by this time." Time had slipped past her unnoticed, and the lake was violet and gold with the sunset as they turned away; under the trees along the terraces the . brilliant wild flowers were dimmed by a blue shadow. " But I never saw wild flowers like those," she said to Connor. " Nobody else ever did. But old Mat- thew, whoever he was, grew 'em and kept crossing 'em until he got those big fellows with all the colors of the rainbow." "Hurry! We're late!" " Xo, David's probably on top of that hill, now; always goes up there to watch the sun rise and the sun set. Can you beat that?" He chuckled, but a shade had darkened the face of the girl for a moment. Then she lifted her head resolutely. "I'm not going to try to understand him. The minute you understand a thing you stop being afraid of it; and as soon as I stop being afraid of David Eden I might begin to like him which is what I don't want." " What's that?" cried Connor, breaking in on her last words. When Ruth began to think aloud he always stopped listening; it was a maxim of his to never listen when a woman became serious. " It's that negro with the ape-face." THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 585 "Joseph!" exclaimed Connor heavily, dope, eh?" chuckled Connor. "You trail " Whipping did him no good. He'll need me to find out what I inteno^ to do? Why killing one of these days." don't you go to David and warn him?" But she had already reverted to another " Have I forgotten the whip?'' asked thing. Joseph, his nostrils trembling with anger. " Do you think he worships the sun?" " But the good Haneemar now gives me " I don't think. Try to figure out a fel- power and in the end he will betray you low like that and you get to be just as into my hands. That is why I follow you. much of a nut'as he is. Go on toward the Wherever you go I follow; I am even able house and I'll follow you in a minute. I to know what you think! But hearken to want to talk to big Joe." me, Benjamin. Take back the head of He turned aside into the trees briskly, Haneemar and the bad luck that lives in it. and the moment he was out of sight of the Take it back, and I shall no longer follow girl he called softly: "Joseph!" you. I shall forget the whip. I shall be He repeated the call after a trifling wait ready to do you a service." before he saw the big negro coming uncon- He extended the little piece of ivory cernedly through the trees toward him. eagerly, but Connor drew back. His su- Joseph came close before he stopped very perstitions were under the surface of his close, as a man will do when he wishes to mind, but, still, they were there, and the make another aware of his size, and from fear which Joseph showed was contagious, this point of vantage, he looked over Con- - " Why don't you throw it away if you're nor from head to foot with a glance of afraid of it, Joseph?" lingering and insolent criticism. The " You know as I know," returned Jo- gambler was somewhat amused and a little seph, glowering, " that it cannot be thrown alarmed by that attitude. away. It must be given and freely ac- " Now, Joseph," he said, " tell me cepted, as I oh fool accepted it from frankly why you're dodging me about the you." valley. Waiting for a chance to throw There was such a profound conviction in stones?" this that Connor was affected in spite of His smile remained without a reflection himself. That little trinket had been the on the stolid face of the servant. entering wedge through which he had " Benjamin," answered the deep, solemn worked his way into the Garden and started voice, " I know all ! " on the road to fortune. He would rather It made Connor peer into those broad, have cut off his hand, now, than take it animal features as into a dim light. Then back. a moment of reflection assured him that " Find some one else to take it," he sug- Joseph could not have learned the secret, gested cheerily. "'I don't want the thing." " Haneemar, whom you know," con- " Then all that Abraham told me is tinued Joseph, "has told me about you." true!" muttered Joseph, closing his hand " And where," asked Connor, completely over the trinket. " But. I shall follow you, at sea, " did you learn of Haneemar?" Benjamin. When you think you are alone " From Abraham. And I know that this you shall find me by turning your head, is the head of Haneemar.'' Every day by sunrise and ever)' day by the He brought out in his palm the little dark I beg Haneemar to put his curse on watch-charm of carved ivory. you. I have done you no wrong, and you " Of course," nodded Connor, feeling his have had me shamed." way. " And what is it that you know from " And now you're going to have me be- Haneemar?" witched, eh?" asked Connor. That you are evil, Benjamin, and that " You shall see." you have come here for evil. You entered The gambler drew back another pace by a trick; and you will stay here for evil and through the shadows he saw the be- purposes until the end." ginning of a smile of animal-cunning on the " You follow around to pick up a little face of Joseph. 586 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, " The devil take you and Haneemar to- murmur of bees working this mine of gether," he growled. " Remember this, pollen. From above, the great flowers Joseph. I've had you whipped once. The hung down against the dull red o'f the sun- next time I'll have you flayed alive." set sky; and from below the distant tree- Instead of answering, Joseph merely tops on the terrace pointed up with glim- grinned more openly, and the gambler, to mers of the lake between. There was only forget the ape-face, wheeled and hurried the reflected light of the evening, now, but out from the trees. The touch of night- the cup like blossoms were filled to the mare dread did not leave him until he re- brim with a glow of their own. joined Ruth on the -higher terrace. She looked away. They found the patio glowing with light, A dapple deer-skin covered the bed like the table near the fountain, and three chairs the shadow T under a tree in mid-day, and around it. David came out of the shadow the yellow of the flowers was repeated of the arcade to meet them, and he was dimly on the floor by a great, tawny hide as uneasy as a boy who has a surprise for of a mountain-lion. She took up some of grown-ups. He had not even time for a the purple flowers, and letting the velvet greeting. petals trail over her finger tips, she turned " You have not seen your room?" he to David with a smile. But what Connor said to Ruth. " I have made it ready for saw, and saw with a thrill of alarm, was you. Come!" that her eyes were filling with tears. He led the way half a pace in front, "'See!" said David gloomily. "I have glancing back at them as though to reprove done this to make you happy, and now you their slowness, until he reached a door at are sad!" which he turned and faced her, laughing " Because it is so beautiful ' with excitement. She could hardly believe " Yes," said David slowly. " I think I that this man with his childish gayety was understand." the same whose fury had terrified the ne- But Connor took one of the flowers from groes that same afternoon. her hand. She cried out, but too late to ;; Close your eye.s close them fast. You keep him from ripping the blossom to will not look until I say?" pieces, and now he held up a single petal, She obeyed, setting her teeth to keep long, graceful!, red-purple at the broader from smiling. end and deep yellow at the narrow. Now come forward step high for the -' Think of that a million times bigger," doorway. So! You are in. Now wait said Connor, " and made out of velvet, now open your eyes and look!" That'd be a design for a cloak, eh? Cost She obeyed again and saw first David about a thousand bucks to imitate this landing back with an anxious smile and petal, but it'd be worth it to see you in it, the gesture of one who reveals, but is not eh?" quite sure of its effect. Then she heard a She looked to David with a smile of apol- soft, startled exclamation from Connor be- ogy for Connor, but her hand accepted the hind her. Last of all she saw the room. petal, and her second smile was for Connor It was as if the walls had been broken himself, down and a garden let inside it gave an effect of open air, sunlight and wind. Pur- ple flowers like warm shadows baked the CHAPTER XXV. farther corners, and out of them rose a THE WJND op DAVID great vine draping the window. It had been torn bodily from the earth, and now T Y /HEN they went out into the patio the roots were packed with damp moss, ^^ again, David had lost a large part yellow-green. It bore in clusters and single of his bouyancy of spirits, as flowers and abundant bloom, each blossom though in some subtle manner Connor had as large as the mallow, and a dark gold so overcast the triumph of the room; he left rich that Ruth well-nigh listened for the them with word that the evening meal THE GARDEN OF EDEX. 587 would soon be ready and hurried off calling orders to Zacharias. Why did you do it?" she asked Connor as soon as they were alone. " Because it made me mad to see a star- gazer like that turning your head." " But didn't you think the room was beautiful?" " Sure. Like a riot in a florist's shop. But don't let this David take you off guard with his rooms full of flowers and full of silence." Silence?" " Haven't I told you about his Room of Silence? That's one of his queer dodges. That room; you see? When anything both- ers him he goes over and sits down in there, because do you know what he thinks sits with him?" "Well?" "God!" She was between a smile and a gasp. " Yep, that's David," grinned Connor. " Just plain nut." " What's inside?" "I don't know. Maybe flowers." " Let's find out." He caught her arm quickly. " Not in a thousand years! " He changed color at the thought and glanced guiltily around. " That would be the smash of everything. Why, he turned over the whole Garden of Eden to me. I can go anywhere, but not a step inside that room. It's his Holy Ground, you see! Maybe it's where he keeps his jack. And I've a hunch that he has a slough of it tucked away somewhere." She raised her hand as an idea came to her half way through this speech. " Listen ! I have an idea that the clew to all of David's mystery is in that room!" " Drop that idea, Ruth," he ordered gruffly. " You've seen David on one ram- page, but it's nothing to what would hap- pen if you so much as peeked into that place. When the negroes pass that door they take off their hats watch 'em the next time you have a chance. You won't make a slip about that room?" \o." But she added: " I'd give my soul for one look!" Dinner that night under the stars with the whispering of the fountain beside them was a ceremony which Connor never for- got. The moon rose late and in the mean- time the sky was heavy and dark with sheeted patchwork of clouds, with the stars showing here and there. The wind blew in gusts. A wave began with a whisper on the hill, came with a light rushing acrosss the patio, and then diminished quickly among the trees down the terraces. JRough, iron-framed lanterns gave the light and showed the arcade stepping away on either side and growing dim toward the entrance. That uncertain illumination made the crude pillars seem to have only the irregularity of vast antiquity, stable masses of stone. Where the circle of lantern-light overlapped rose the fountain, a pale spray forever dis- solving in the upper shadow. Connor him- self was more or less used to these things, but he became newly aware of them as the girl sent quick, eager glances here and there. She had placed a single one of the great yellow blossoms in her hair and it changed her shrewdly. It brought out the delicate coloring of her skin, and to the darkness of her eyes it lent a tint of violet. Plainly she enjoyed the scene with its newness. David, of course, was the spice to every- thing, and his capitulation was complete; he kept the girl always on an uneasy bal- ance between happiness and laughter. And Connor trembled for fear the mirth would show through. But each change of her ex- pression appeared to delight David more than the last. Under his deft knife the choicest white meat came away from the breast of a chicken and he heaped it at once on the plate of Ruth. Then he dropped his chin upon his great brown fist and watched with silent delight while she ate. It embar- rassed her; but her flush had a tinge of pleasure in it, as Connor very well knew. "Look!" said David, speaking softly as though Ruth would not hear him. " How pleasant it is, to be three together. When we were two, one talked and the other grew weary was it not so? But now we are complete. One speaks, one listens, and the other judges. I have been alone. The Garden of Eden has been to me a prison, at many times. And now there is nothing 588 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, wanting. And why? There were many "Plain nut!" said Connor, framing the men before. We were not lacking in num- words with silent lips. bers. Yet there was an emptiness, and now But though her eyes rested on him, ap- comes one small creature, as delicate as a parently she did not see his face. She colt of three months, this being of smiles looked back at Connor with a wistful little and curious glances, this, small voice, this half-smile. woman and at once the gap is filled. Is it At once David cast out both his hands not strange?" toward hers. He cast himself back in his chair, as "Ah, you are strange, new, delightful!" though he wished to throw her into per- He stopped abruptly. Then: '-'Does it spective with her surroundings, and all the make you happy- to hear me say these time he was staring as though she were an things?" image, a picture, and not a thing of flesh " Why do you ask me that?" she said and blood. Connor himself was on the curiously. verge of a smile, but when he saw the face " Because it fills me with unspeakable of Ruth Manning his mirth disappeared in happiness to say them. If I am silent and a chill of terror. She was struggling and only think then I am not so pleased. struggling in vain against a rising tide of When I see Glani standing on the hill-top laughter, laughter in the face of David I feel his speed in the slope of his muscles, Eden and his sensitive pride. the flaunt of his tail, the pride of his head; It came, it broke through all bonds, and but when I gallop him, and the wind of his now it was bubbling from her lips. As one galloping strikes my face ha, that is a who awaits the falling of a blow, Connor joy! So it is speaking with you. When I glanced furtively at the host, and again he see you I say within: i She is beautiful!' was startled. But when I speak it aloud your lips tremble There was not a shade of evil temper in a little toward a smile, your eyes darken the face of David. He leaned forward, in- with pleasure, and then my heart rises into deed, with a surge of the great shoulders, my throat and I wish to speak again and but it was as one who listens to an entranc- again and again to find new things to say, ing music. And when she ceased, abrupt- to say old things in new words. So that I ly, he sighed. may watch the changes in your face. Do " Speak to me," he commanded. you understand? But now you blush. Is She murmured a faint reply. that a sign of anger?" " Again," said David, half closing his " It is a sign that no other men have eyes. And Connor nodded a frantic en- ever talked to me in this manner." couragement to her. " Then other men are fools. What I " But what shall I say?" say is true. I feel it ring in me, that it is " For the meaning of what you say," the truth. Benjamin, my brother, is it not said David, " I have no care, but only for so? Ha!" the sound. Have you heard dripping in a She was raising the wine-cup; he checked well, a sound like water filling a bottle and her with his eager, extended hand, never reaching the top? It keeps you lis- " See, Benjamin, how this mysterious tening for an hour, perhaps, always a soft thing is done, this raising of the hand. We sound, but always rising toward a climax? raise the cup to drink. An ugly thing let Or a drowsy day when the wind hardly it be done and forgotten. But when she moves and the whistling of a bird comes lifts the cup it is a thing to be remembered ; now and then out of the trees, cool and how her fingers curve and the weight of contented? Or you pass a meadow of flow- the cup presses into them, and how her ers in the warm sun and hear the ground wrist droops." murmur of the bees, and you think at once. She lowered the cup hastily and put her of the wax films of the honeycomb, and hand before her face, the clear golden honey? All those things " I see," said Connor dryly. I heard and saw when you spoke," J% Pah!." cried the master of the Garden. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 589 " You do not see. But you, Ruth, are you angry? Are you shamed?" He drew down her hands, frowning with intense anxiety. Her face* was crimson. " No," she said faintly. " He says that he sees, but he does not see," went on David. " He is blind, this Benjamin of mine. I show him my noblest grove of the eucalyptus trees, each tree as tall as a hill, as proud as a king, as beauti- ful as a thought that springs up from the earth. I show him these glorious trees. What does he say? ' You could build a whole town out of that wood!' Bah! Is that seeing? No, he is blind! Such a man would give you hard work to do. But I say to you, Ruth, that to be beautiful is to be wise, and industrious, and good. Surely you are to me like the rising of the sun my heart leaps up! And you are like the coming of the night making the \vorld beau- tiful and mysterious. For behind your eyes and behind your words, out of the sound of your voice and your glances, I guess at new things, strange things, hidden things. Treasures which cannot be held in the hands. Should you grow as old as Elijah, withered, meager as a grasshopper, the treasures would still be there. I, who have seen them, can never forget them!" Once more she covered her eyes with her hand, and David started up from his chair. " What have I done?" he asked faintly of Connor. He hurried around the table to her. " Look up! How have I harmed you? 1 ' " I am only tired," she said. "I am a fool! I should have known. Come!" said David. He drew her from the chair and led her across the lawn, supporting her. At her door: " May sleep be to you like the sound of running water," murmured David. And when the door was closed he went hastily back to Connor. CHAPTER XXVI. POLITICS. have I done? W 11 ^ have * done?" he kept moaning. " She is in pain. I have hurt her." " Sit down," said Connor, deeply amusedj It had been a curious revelation to him, this open talk of a man who was falling in love. He remembered the way he had pro- posed to a girl, once: " Say, Betty, don't you think you and me would hit it off pretty well, speaking permanently?" This flaunting language was wholly ludi- crous to Connor. It was book-stuff. David had obeyed him with childlike do- cility, and sat now like a pupil about to be corrected by the master. " That point is this," explained Connor gravely. " You have the wrong idea. As far as I can make out, you like Ruth?" " It is a weak word. Bah! It is not enough." " But it's enough to tell her. You see, men outside of the Garden don't talk to a girl the way you do, and it embarrasses her to have you talk about her all the time." " Is it true?" murmured the penitent David, " Then what should I have said? 1 ' " Well er you might have said that the flower went pretty well in her hair, and let it go at that." " But it was more, more, more! Benja- min, my brother, these hands of mine picked that very flower. And I see that it has pleased her. She had taken it up and placed it in her hair. It changes her. My flower brings her close to me. It means that we have found a thing which pleases us both. Just as you and I, Benjamin, are drawn together by the love of one horse. So that flower in her hair is a great sign. I dwell upon it. It is like a golden moon rising in a black night. It lights my way to her. Words rush up from my heart, but cannot express what I mean!" "Let it go! Let it go!" said Connor hastily, brushing his way through this out- flow of verbiage, like a man bothered with gnats. " I gather what you mean. But the point is that about nine-tenths of what you think you'd better not say. If you want to talk well, talk about yourself. That's what I most generally do with a girl. They like to hear a man say what he's done." "Myself!" said David heavily. "Talk of a dead stump when there is a great tree beside it? Well, I see that I have much to learn." 590 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. "' You certainly have," said Connor with much meaning. ''I'd hate to turn you loose in Manhattan." " In what?" " Never mind. But here's another thing. You know that she'll have to leave pretty soon?" The meaning slowly filtered into David's mind. " Benjamin," he said slowly, ' ; you are wise in many ways, with horses and with women, it seems. But that is a fool's talk. r * Let me hear no more of it. Leave me? Why should she leave me?" Triumph warmed the heart of Connor. " Because a girl can't ramble off into the mountains and put up in a valley where there are nothing but men. It isn't done." " Why not?" " Isn't good form." "I fail to understand." " My dear fellow, she'd be compromised for life if it were known that she had lived here with us.'' David shook his head blankly. " In one word," said Connor, striving to make his point, rf she'd be pointed out by other women and by men. They'd never have anything to do with her. They'd say things that would make her ashamed, hurt her, you know.'' Understanding and wrath gathered in David's face. " To such a man to such a dog of a man I would talk with my hands!" " I think you would," nodded Connor, not a little impressed. " But you might not be around to hear the talk." " But women surely live with men. There are wives " "Ah! Man and wife all very well!" u Then it is simple. I marry her and then I keep her here forever." " Perhaps. But will she marry you?" " Why not?" " Well, does she love you?" " True." He stood up. " I'll ask her." " For Heaven's sake, no! Sit down! You mustn't rush at a woman like this the first day you know her. Give her time. Let me tell you when!" " Benjamin, my dear brother, you are wise and I am a fool!" " You'll do in time. Let me coach you, that's all, and you'll come on famously. I can tell you this: that I think she likes you very well already." " Your words are like a shower of light, a fragrant wind. Benjamin, I am hot with happiness! When may I speak to her?" " I don't know. She may have guessed something out of what you said to-night." He swallowed a smile. " You might speak to her about this marriage to-morrow." " It will be hard; but I shall wait." "'And then you'll have to go out of the Garden with her to get married." "Out of the Garden? Never! Why should we?" " Why. you'll need a minister, you know, to marry you." " True. Than I shall send for one." " But he might not want to make this long journey for the sake of one marriage ceremony." " There are ways, perhaps, of persuading him to come/' said David, making a grim gesture. No force or you ruin everything." " I shall be ruled by you, brother. It seems I have little knowledge." " Go easy always and you'll come out all right. Give her plenty of time. A woman always needs a lot of time to make up her mind, and even then she's generally wrong." "What do you mean by that?" " No matter. She'll probably want to go back to her home for a while." " Leave me?" " Not necessarily. But you, when a man gets engaged, it's sometimes a couple of years between the time a woman promises to marry him and the day of the ceremony." " Do they wait so long, and live apart?" " A thousand miles, maybe." ''.Then you men beyond the mountains are made of iron!" " Do you have to be away from her? Why not go along with her when she goes home?" " Surely, Benjamin, you know that a law forbids it!" " You make your own laws in important things like this." " It cannot be." And so the matter rested when Connor FOR BETTER OR FAR WORSE, 591 left his host and went to bed. He had been that single half-day. The ability to rise to careful not to press the point. So unbeliev- a great situation was something which he ably much ground had been covered in the admired above all things in man or woman, first few hours that he was dizzy with sue- It was his own peculiar power to judge a cess. It seemed ages since that Ruth had man or a horse in a glance, and dare to come running to him in the patio in terror venture a fortune on chance. Indeed, it of her life. From that moment how much was hardly a wonder that David Eden or had been done! . any other man should have fallen in love Closing his eyes as he lay on his bed, he with her in that one half-day. She was went back over each incident to see if a changed beyond recognition from the pale false step had been made. As far as he girl who sat at the telegraph key in Lukin could see, there had not been a single un- and listened to the babble of the world, sound measure undertaken. The first Xow she was out in that w r orld, acting on stroke had been the masterpiece. Out of a the stage and proving herself worthy of a danger which had threatened instant de- role. struction of their plan she had won com- He rehearsed her acts. And finally he plete victory by her facing of David, and found himself flushing hotly at the memory when she put her hand in his as a sign of of her mingled pleasure and shame and em- weakness, Connor could see that she had barrassment as David of Eden had poured made David her slave. out his amazing flow of compliments. Vs the scene came back vividly before At this point Connor sat up suddenly his eyes he could not resist an impulse to and violently in his bed. murmur aloud to the dark: ' ; Brave girl!" ' c Stead}', Ben!'' he cautioned himself,! She had grown upon him marvelously in " \Yatch your step! 1 ' (To be continued NEXT WEEK.) NO doubt marriage is a grand and glori- ous institution. But there's times when well, right now, for example. If I had my way about it, I'd tell the world that a certain Miss Dorothy Kent sure was one girl in a thousand! Owing, however, to circumstances over which I have little or no control, I well, anyway, she w T as two girls in a thousand, the other, of course, as you may of guessed, being no less than my beautiful and accomplished wife. And now. having got round that little difficulty in a manner which ought to give the diplomatic squad in Washington some trouble in laughing off why, maybe you'd like to hear how come that highly flatter- ing opinion of mine with respect to the lovely and likewise clever Miss Kent. 592 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, Well, the beginning was no doubt when W T alter McKettrick by name, who tapped a a husky young gent with a genial smile wicked typewriter in the sport department and a tin ear, and who does his stuff under of one of our leading dailies. Well, prob- the nom de plume of Jack Casey, gets him- ably Walter won't ever burn up the old self elected president of the heavyweight planet. But you got to hand it to him for box-fighters of Dry Country, Tis of Thee one thing, anyway: he sure is right up and by the overwhelming majority of one thou- coming all the time. sand two hundred and forty-four hearty What you might call a self-sufficient kind socks over the opposing candidate, who, of guy, Walter is, and never at a loss for an after caroming off a hospital, fades out of idea, if you know what I mean. Why, Wal- the picture in the general direction of that ter would no more hesitate about telling bourn from which, as the poet says, no Mr. Will Hays, for example, how to stage champ returneth. 'They never come back, a Presidential campaign than he would Now if, in turn, Mr. Casey had only of about telling Mr. George M. Cohan all had the politeness or something to in due about how to put on a musical show. And time permit somebody to pop him on the I wouldn't be surprised if Will and George chin, followed by Mr. Casey touring the might learn something to their advantage, twilight circuit for an engagement of ten at that. seconds, why no doubt it would of personal- I might say, however, that I've got some ly saved me the pleasure of passing through personal reasons for thinking that some of what the French or some of the other Allies Walter's stuff ain't no good. No, sir; not calls one very bad quarter of an hour so good! though, as a matter of fact, it didn't last Anyway, I met up with Walter; and, hav- that long. ing settled several matters of international But nothing like that. Instead, at the importance and which had Parliament, the end of something like several years, Mr. Senate, Congress, and W. J. Bryan hanging Casey was still clinging to his much-prized on the ropes, Walter finally gets round to title like what's-his-name, Horatius, the the topic of how the heavyweight division great bridge champion, once holds thirteen still seems to be drifting in what Mr. Mc- trumps or something. And a situation had Kettrick calls the well-known doldrums, come up which was a good deal like the one "Doldrums is right," I says. *' What- \vhen the great \Vhite Hope hunt was on, ever they are. Say, I only wish I had one and which, as you very likely remember, re- of them handy little household articles such suited in the reluctant Mr. Jeffries coming as who's this, Aladdin, had." out of his retirement, and the unconscious " How do you mean?" asks Walter. Mr. Jeffries going back to it. " Why," I says, " after applying the nec- In a word, Mr. Casey having knocked essary amount of friction, I'd wish me some all comers, as they're known to the trade, bird that could hand Mr. Jack Casey one for the conventional row of shanties why, very proper pasting!" that's all there was, there wasn't any more. " Well," says W 7 alter, " if you want to There was nobody left in sight that had a get a man capable of defeating the cham- Chinaman's chance with the title-holder. pion, why don't you get one?" And I probably don't have to say that "Just like that, eh?" I comes back, this was a state of affairs which was highly " Say, why don't I get a million bucks or unsatisfactory to all concerned including something? How d'ye mean, get one?" Mr. Casey, who was forced to struggle along " What do people generally do when they as best he could on the measly two thousand want something they haven't got?" counters 'dollars per week, or thereabouts, which he W 7 alter. 'dragged down for working, so to say, an ' Why," I says, " just now the simple hour or so a day on the vaudeville circuits, but efficient blackjack seems to be mostly the movie lots, and the like. in favor in our best criminal circles. You So that was the way things was when see one day I met up with a friend of mine, Looked like my stuff didn't go so big 7 A MR. BARKER AND PROMOTION. 749 Why, you sent for me, Mr. Spooner, so I" " I sent for you? Why, I never even knew that you were on this earth before. Don't take that to heart now. Ours is a pretty big organization, and of course I can't know everybody. When and how did I send for you, as you say?" " This afternoon, sir. I found a note on my desk saying that you wanted to see me, so I came." ' " A note? I see; and your name is Bar- ker? I see, I see. It was quite a mistake, but not an unfortunate one, not in the least, I can assure you." He paused thoughtfully, and Mr. Barker, everything a dismal gray about him, hope and every- thing else crushed, w r aited for a chance to escape. " How long have you been with us, Mr. Barker?" the boss asked in kindly tones. " Two years, sir two years to-day," Barker replied mechanically. " Ah, good! Now, Mr. Barker " brisk- ly " I don't think we can use you any longer in the filing department; that does not just seem to be your sphere; not cut out for that kind of work, don't you know?" He paused again, while the wretched Bar- ker choked down a big lump of misery that was rising in his throat. Fired! How could he face Lucy? What was life now? His professional pride was mortally injured. " No, sir that is certainly not the place for you. It's all right for old man Meers, but not for you. Now, Mr. Barker, I am going to see that you 'are transferred. Yes, transferred to our salesrooms. I like your make-up, and as you have been here two years and don't seem to be the dullest man in the place, I feel sure that and, if it's agreeable to you, you may begin your duties there next Monday morning.", In a golden haze Barker remembered a handshake and heard the boss ring for the messenger, muttering something about Miss Sparker. He had come up the corridor to the boss's office on air; but he went back 'on wings. The salesrooms! A salesman! That meant thirty-five dollars a week, because not a man down there got less than that! He was very happy, but he was not too deaf to overhear the following" bit of conversation uttered in very young feminine voices. " Say, Mame, you want to watch your- self! Handle that there Miss Sparker with gloves. The boss's been a widower for a year now is kind of stuck on her, and sends for her to see him for dictation quite often. He ain't had no regular secretary for quite a time, but it looks as if she's goin' to git the job for keeps. So be careful, kid, and remember her name ain't Mr. Barker, and that she sits over here, and not in there see?" tr u u u NO MAN'S' LAND "VY/HERE the vacuum cleaners mutter Ominous and awful sound And impedimenta clutter All the place, each room around Brooms and dusters, pails of water, Mops of every size and length, Weapons making fearful slaughter Of the housewife's nerves and strength Knowing well the circumstances And the skirmish vain for " eats," Tis a brave man who advances, But a wiser who retreats! Muzie V. Coruthers. Author 1 "The Untamed," "TrailinV "The Sevtnth Man," "Black Jack," etc. CHAPTER XXVII. THE WOOING. ' But I have not felt hunger." He' added in a voice of wonder: "Lis- ten!" BEN CONNOR awoke the next morn- Ruth Manning was singing in her room, ing with the sun streaming across the and Connor turned away to hide his frown, room and sprang out of bed at once, For he was not by any means sure whether worried. For about dawn noises as a rule the girl san'g from the joy she found in this began around the house and the singing of great adventure or because of David Eden, the old negroes farther down the hill. The He was still further troubled when . she Garden of Eden awakened at sunrise, and came out to the breakfast table in the this silence even when the sun was high patio. He had expected that she would be alarmed the gambler. He dressed hastily, more or less confused by the presence of and opening his door, he saw David walking David after his queer talk of the night be- slowly up and down the patio. At the sight fore, but sleep seemed to have wiped every- of Connor he raised a warning finger. thing from her memory. Her first nod, to " Let us keep a guard upon our voices," be sure, was for the gambler, but her smile he murmured, coming to Connor. " I have was for David of Eden. Connor fell into ordered my servants to move softly and to a reverie which was hardly broken through keep from the house if they may." the meal by the deep voice of David or the " What's happened?" laughter of Ruth. Their gayety was a " She sleeps, Benjamin." He turned to- barrier, and he was, subtly, left on the out- ward her door with a smile that the gambler never forgot. " Let her waken rested." Connor looked at the sky. " I've come too late for breakfast, even?" A glance of mild rebuke was turned upon him. " Surely, Benjamin, we who are strong will not eat before her who is weak?" side. David had proposed to the girl a ride through the Garden, and when he went for the horses the gambler decided to make sure of her position. He was too much disturbed to be diplomatic. He went straight to the point. " I'm sorry this is such a mess for you; but if you can buck up for a while it won't " Are you going to starve yourself be- take long to finish the job." cause she's sleepy?" She looked at him without understanding, This story began in the Argosy-Allstory Weekly for April 15. 750. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 751 which was what he least wanted in the world. So he went on: "As a matter of fact, the worst of the job hasn't come. You can do what you want with him right now. But afterward when you get him out of the valley the hard thing will be to hold him." " You're angry with poor David. What's he done now?" Angry with him? Of course not! I'm a little disgusted, that's all." " Tell me why in words of one syllable, Ben." " You're too fine a sort to have under- stood. And I can't very well explain." She allowed herself to be puzzled for a moment and then laughed. " Please don't be mysterious. Tell me frankly.'' " Very well. I think you can make David go out of the valley wiien we go. But once we have him back ifi a town the trouble will begin. You understand why he's so fond of you, Ruth?" " Let's not talk about it." " Sorry to make you'blush. But you see, it isn't because you're so pretty, Ruth, but simply because you're a woman. The first he's ever seen." All her high coloring departed at once; a pale, sick face looked at Connor. " Don't say it," murmured the girl. " I thought last night just for a moment but I couldn't let myself think of it for an instant." " I understand," said Connor gently. " You took all that highfaluting poetry stuff to be the same thing. But, say, Ruth, I've heard a young buck talk to a young squaw before he married her- Just about the same line of junk, eh? What makes me sick is that when we get him out in a town he'll lose his head entirely when he sees a room full of girls. We'll simply have to plant a contract on him and then let him go!" " Do you think it's only that?" she said again, faintly. " I leave it to you. Use your reason, and figure it out for yourself. I don't mean that you're in any danger. You know you're not as long as I'm around! " She thanked him with a wan smile. " But how can I let him come near me - now?" " It's a mess. I'm sorry about it. But once the deal goes through I'll make this up to you if it takes me the rest of my life. You believe me?" " I know you're true blue, Ben! And I trust you." He was a little disturbed to find that his pulse was decidedly quickened by that sim- ple speech. " Besides, I want to thank you for let- ting me know this. I understand every- thing about him now! " In her heart of hearts she was hating David with all her might. For all night long, in her dreams, she had been seeing again the gestures of those strong brown hands, and the flash of his eyes, and hearing the deep tremor of his voice. The newness of this primitive man and his ways and words had been an intoxicant to her; be- cause of his very difference she was a little afraid, and now 7 the warning of Connor chimed in accurately with a premonition of her own. That adulation poured at the feet of Ruth Manning had been a beautiful and marvelous thing; but flung down simply in honor of her sex it became almost an insult. The memory made her shudder. The ideal lover whom she had prefigured in some of her waking dreams had always spoken with ardor a holy ardor. From this passion of the body she recoiled. Something of all this Connor read in her face and in her thoughtful silence, and he was profoundly contented. He had at once neutralized all of David's eloquence and fortified his own position. It was both a blow driven home and a counter. Not that he would admit a love for the girl; he had merely progressed as far as jealousy. He told himself that his only interest was in keeping her from an emotion which, once developed, might throw her entirely on the side of David and ruin their joint plans. He had refused to accompany the master of the Garden and the girl on their ride through the valley because, as he told him- self, he " couldn't stand seeing another grown man make such an ass of himself " as David did when he was talking with the girl. 752 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, He contented himself now with watching well that she was allowed to live and her face when David came back to the breed." patio, followed by Glani and the neat-step- " Allowed to live?" murmured Ruth ping little mare, Tabari. The forced smile Manning. with which she met the big man was a " To keep the line of the gray horse personal triumph to the gambler. perfect," said David, " they must be ' If you can win her under that handi- watched with a jealous eye, and those which cap, David," he said softly to himself, u you are weak must not live. The mares are deserve her, and everything else you can killed and the stallions gelded and sold." get." " And can you judge the little colts?" David helped her into the saddle on Her voice was too low for David to catch Tabari, and himself sprang onto the pad a sense of pain and anger in it. upon Glani 's back. They went out side by " It must be done. It is a duty. To- side, day is the sixth month of Timeh, the daugh- It was a cool day for that season, and ter of Juri. You shall witness the judging, the moment the north wind struck them Elijah is the master." David shouted softly and sent Glani at a His face hardened at the name of Elijah, rushing gallop straight into the teeth of the and the girl caught her breath. But be- wind. Tabari followed at a pace which fore she could speak they broke out of a Ruth, expert horsewoman though she was, grove and came in view of a wide meadow had never dreamed of. For the first time across which four yoked cattle drew a har- she had that impression of which Ben Con- row, smoothing the plow furrows to an even, nor had spoken to her of the horse pouring black surface. itself over the road without strain and with- It carried the girl far back ; it was like out jar of smashing hoofs. opening an ancient book of still more an- Ruth let Tabari extend herself, until cient tales; the musty smell completes the the mare was racing with ears flat against illusion. The cattle plodding slowly on, her neck. She had even an impression that seeming to rest at every step, filled in the Glani, burdened by the great weight of picture of which the primitive David Eden David, was being left behind, but when she was the central figure, glanced to the side she saw that the master " Yokes," she cried. " I've never seen half a length back, was keeping a strong them before!" pull on the stallion, and Glani went smooth- " For some work we use the horses, but ly, easily, with enormous strides, and fret- the jerking of the harrow ruins their shoul- ting at the restraint. ders. Besides, we may need the cattle for She gained two things from that glance, a new journey." The first was a sense of impatience because "A journey? With those? 1 ' the stallion kept up so easily; in the sec- ' That was how the four came into the ond place, the same wind which drove the Garden. And I am enjoined to have the long hair of David straight back blew all strong wagons always ready and the ox suspicious thoughts out of her mind. She teams always complete in case it becomes drew Tabari back to a hand gallop and necessary to leave this valley and go else- then.tp a walk with her eyes dimmed by where. Of course, lhat may never be." the wind of the ride and the blood tingling in her cheeks. " It was like having wings," she cried CHAPTER XXVIII. happily as David let the stallion come up DAVID spEAKS op JWELS AND SETTINGS . abreast. " Tabari is sturdy, but she lacks speed, 1 ' T IE brought Glani to a halt. They had said the dispassionate master. " When she left the sight of the meadow, though was a foal of six months and was brought they could still hear the snorting of to me for judgment, I thought twice, be- the oxen at their labor, a distant sound. cause her legs were short. However, it is Here, on one side of the road, the forest 7 A THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 753 tumbled back from a swale~of ground across the golden wild flowers, and the blue sky which a tiny stream leaped and flashed behind his head. Brother to Ben Connor? with crooked speed, and the ground seemed " And how did he warn you?" she asked, littered with bright gold, so closely were " That I must not talk to you of yourself, the yellow wild flowers packed. because, he said, it shames you. Is that " Two days ago,'' said David, ; ' they true?" were only buds. See them now!" "I suppose it is," she murmured. Yet He slipped from his horse and, stooping, she was a little indignant because Connor rose again in a moment with his hands full had presumed to interfere. She knew he of the yellow blossoms. could only have done it to save her from " They have a fragrance that makes embarrassment, but she rebelled at the them seem far away." he said. "See!" thought of Connor as her conversational He tossed the flowers at her; the wind guardian. caught them and spangled her hair and her Put a guard over David of Eden, and clothes with them, and she breathed a rare what would he be? Just like a score of perfume. David fell to clapping his hands callow youths whom she had known, scat- and laughing like a child at the picture she tering foolish commonplaces, trying to made. She had never liked him so well make their dull eyes tell her flattering things as she did at this moment. She had never which they had not brains enough to put pitied him as she did now; she was not into words, wise enough to shrink from that emotion. '" I am sorry," said David, sighing. '' It '' It was made for you this place." is hard to stand here and see you, and not And before she could move to defend talk of what I see. When the sun rises herself he had raised her strongly, light- the birds sing in the trees; when I see you ly from the saddle, and placed her on the words come up to my teeth." knoll in the thickest of the flowers. He He made a grimace. " Well, I'll shut stood back to view his work, nodding his them in. Have I been very wrong in my satisfaction, and she, looking up at him, talk to you?" felt the old sense of helplessness sweep over " " Think you haven't talked to many wo- her. Every now and then David Eden men," said Ruth. " And most men do overwhelmed her like an inescapable des- not talk as you do." tiny; there was something foredoomed "Most men are fools," answered the about the valley and about him. egoist. " \Vhat I say to you is the truth, I knew you would look like this," he but if the truth offends you I shall talk of was saying. " How do men make a jewel other things." seem more beautiful? They set it in gold! He threw himself on the ground sullenly. And so with you, Ruth. Your hair against " Of what shall I talk?" the gold is darker and richer and more " Of nothing, perhaps. Listen!" like piles and coils of shadow. Your face For the great quiet of the valley was against the gold is the transparent white, falling on her, and the distances over which with a bloom in it. Your hands are half her eyes reached filled her with the de- lost in the softness of that gold. And to lightful sense of silence. There were deep think that is a picture you can never see! blue mountains piled against the paler sky; But I forget." down the slope and through the trees the His face grew dark. river was untarnished, solid, silver; in the ' Here I have stumbled again, and yet boughs behind her the wind whispered and I started with strong vows and resolves, then stopped to listen likewise. There was My brother Benjamin warned me!" a faint ache in her heart at the thought It shocked her for a reason she could that she had not known such things all her not analyze to hear the big man call Con- life. She knew then what gave the face of nor his brother. Connor, the gambler, the David of Eden its solemnity. She leaned schemer! And here was David Eden with a little toward him. >; Now tell me about the green of the trees behind, his feet in yourself. What you have done." 8 A 754 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. " Of anything but that." middle of his belly; it had a great blunt ' Why not?" square end.- Once I angered him. I crept " No more than I \vant you to tell me to him when he slept I was a small boy about yourself and what you have done, then and I trimmed the beard down to a What you feel, what you think from time point. to time, I wish to know; I am very happy " When Luke wakened he felt the beard to know. I fit in those bits of you to the and sat for a long time looking at me. I picture I have made." was so afraid that I grew numb, I remem- Once more the egoist was talking! ber. Then he went to the Room of Silence. " But to have you tell me of what you When he came out his anger was gone, but have clone that is not pleasant. I do not he punished me. He took me to the lake wish to know that you have talked and caught me by the heels and swung me to other men and smiled on them. I do around -his head. When he loosened his not wish to know of a single happy day you fingers I shot into the air like a light stone, spent before you came to the Garden of The water flashed under me, and when I Eden. But I shall tell you of the four struck the surface seemed solid. I thought men who are my masters if you wish." it was death, for my senses went out, but " Tell me of them if you will." Luke waded in and dragged me back to the " Very well. John was the beginning, shore. However, his beard remained He died before I came. Of the others Mat- pointed till he died." thew was my chief friend. He was very old He chuckled at the memory, and thin. His wrist was smaller than yours, " Paul reproved Luke for what he had almost. His hair was a white mist. In the done. Paul was a big man, also, but he evening there seemed to be a pale moon- was short, and his bigness lay in his shine around his face. breadth. He had no hair, and he stood " He was very small and old so old that under Luke nodding so that the sun flashed sometimes I thought he would dry up or back a,nd forth on his bald head. He told dissolve and disappear. Toward the last, Luke that I might have been killed, before God called him, Matthew grew weak, " ' Better teach him sober manners now/ and his voice was faint, yet it was never said Luke, ' than be a jester to knock at sharp or shaken. Also, until the very end the gate of God.' his eyes were young, for his heart was " This Paul was wonderfully silent. He young. was born unhappy and nothing could make " That was Matthew. He was like you. him smile. He used to wander through the He liked the silence. ' Listen/ he would valley alone in the middle of winter, half say. ' The great stillness is the voice ; God dead with cold and eating nothing. In is speaking.' Then he would raise one thin those times, even Luke was not strong finger and we caught our breath and lis- enough to make him come home to us. tened. " I know that for ten days at one time " Do you see him?" he had gone without speech. For that rea- " I see him, and I wish that I had known son he loved to have Joseph with him, be- him." cause Joseph understood signs. " Of the others, Luke was taller than I. " But when silence left him, Paul was He had yellow hair as long and as coarse great in speech. Luke spoke in a loud as the mane of a yellow horse. When he voice ancl Matthew beautifully, but Paul rode around the lake we could hear him was terrible. He would fall on his >.iees in coming for a great distance by his singing, an agony and pray to God for salvation for for his voice was as strong as the neigh of us and for himself. While he kneeled he Glani. I have only to close my eyes, and seemed to grow in size. He filled the room. I can hear that singing of Luke from beside And his words were like whips. They the lake. Ah, he was a huge man! The made me think of all my sins. That is how horses sweated under him. I remember Paul, kneeling, with his long " His beard was long; it came to the arms thrown over his head. THE GARDEN OF EDEX. 755 " Matthew died in the evening just as the moon rose. He was sitting beside me. He put his hand in mine. After a while I felt that the hand was cold, and when I looked at Matthew his head had fallen. li Paul died in a drift of snow. We al- ways knew that he had been on his knees praying when the storms struck him and he would not rise until he had finished the prayer. " Luke bowed his head one day at the table and died without a sound in spite of all his strength. " All these men have not really died out of the valley. They are here, like mists; they are faces of thin air. Sometimes when I sit alone at my table, I can almost see a .-pirit-hand like that of Matthew rise with a shadow-glass of wine. - But shall I tell you a strange thing? Since you came into the valley, these mist- images of my dead masters grow faint and thinner than ever." " You will remember me, also, when I have gone?'' " Do not speak of it! But yes, if you should go, every spring, when these yellow flowers blossom, you would return to me and sit as you are sitting now. However you are young, yet there are ways. After Matthew died, for a long time I kept fresh flowers in his room and kept his memory fresh with them. But," he repeated, " you are young. Do not talk of death!" \ot of death, but of leaving the Gar- den." He stared gravely at him, and flushed. " You are tormenting me as I used to torment my masters when I was a boy. But it is wrong to anger me. Besides, I shall not let you go." Xot let me go?" " Am I a fool?" he asked hotly. u Why should I let you go?" " You could not keep me." It brought him to his feet with a start. " What will free you?" " Your own honor, David.'' His head fell. It is true. Yes, it is true. But let us ride on. I no longer am pleased with this place. It is tarnished; there are unhappy thoughts here!" " What a child he is!" thought the girl, as she climbed into the saddle again. " A selfish, terrible, wonderful child!" It seemed, after that, that the purpose of David was to show the beauties of the Garden to her until she could not brook the thought of leaving. He told her what grew in each meadow and what could be reaped from it. He told her what fish were caught in the river and the lake. He talked of the trees. He swung down from Glani, holding with hand and heel, and picked strange flowers and showed them to her. " What a place for a house!" she said, when, near the north wall, they passed a hill that overlooked the entire length of the valley. " I shall build you a house there," said David eagerly. " I shall build it of strong rock. Would that make you happy? Very tall, with great rooms." An impish desire to mock him came to her. " Do you know what I'm used to? It's a boarding house where I live in a little back bedroom, and they call us to meals with a bell." The humor of this situation entirely failed to appeal to him. ' I also," he said, " have a bell. And it shall be used to call you to dinner, if you wish." He was so grave that she did not dare to laugh. But for some reason that mo- ment of bantering brought the big fellow much closer to her than he had been be- fore. And when she saw him so docile to her wishes, for all his strength and his mastery, the only thing that kept her from opening her heart to him, and despising the game which she and Connor were playing with him, was the warning of the gambler. " I've heard a young buck talk to a young squaw before he married her. The same line of junk!" Connor must be right. He came from the great city. But before that ride was over she was repeating that warning very much as Odys- seus used the flower of Hermes against the arts of Circe. For the Garden of Eden, as they came back to the house after the cir- 756 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. cuit, seemed to her very much like a little kingdom, and the monarch thereof was in- viting her in dumb-show to be the queen of the realm. CHAPTER XXIX. THE OLD DAYS. A the house they were met by one of the negroes who had been wait- ing for David to receive from the master definite orders concerning some woodchopping. For the trees of the gar- Men were like children to David of Eden, and he allowed only the ones he himself de- signated to be cut for timber or fuel. He left the girl with manifest reluctance. " For when I leave you of what do you think, and what do you do? I am like the blind." She felt that this speech was peculiar in character. Who but David of Eden could have been jealous of the very thoughts of another? And smiling at this, she went into the patio where Ben Connor was still lounging. Few things had ever been more gratifying to the gambler than the sight of the girl's complacent smile, for he knew that she was judging David. " WTiat happened?" he asked. " Nothing worth repeating. But I think you're wrong, Ben. He isn't a barbarian. He's just a child." " That's another word for the same thing. Ever see anything more brutal than a child? The reddest Indian that ever stepped is a saint compared with a ten- year-old boy." " Perhaps. He acts like ten years. When I mention leaving the valley he flies into a tantrum; he has taken me so much for granted that he has even picked out the site for my house." " As if you'd ever stay in a place like this! " He covered his touch of anxiety with loud laughter. " I don't know," she was saying thought- fully a moment later. " I like it a lot." " Anything seems pretty good after Lukin. But when your auto is buzzing down Broadway " She interrupted him with a quick little laugh of excitement. " But do you really think I can make him leave the valley?" " Of course I'm sure." " He says there's a law against it." " I tell you, Ruth, you're his law now; not whatever piffle is in that Room of Silence." She looked earnestly at the closed door. Her silence had always bothered the gam- bler, and this one particularly annoyed him. " Let's hear your thoughts?" he asked uneasily. " It's just an idea of mine that inside that room we can find out everything we want to know about David Eden." " What do we want to know?" growled Connor. ' I know everything that's neces- sary. He's a nut with a gang of the best horses that ever stepped. I'm talking horse, not David Eden. If I have to make the fool rich it isn't because I want to." She returned no direct answer, but after a moment: " I wish I knew." "What?" She became profoundly serious. " The point is this: he may be something more than a boy or a savage. And if he is something more, he's the finest man I've ever laid eyes on. That's why I want to get inside that room. That's why I want to learn the secret if there is a secret the things he believes in, how he happens to be what he is and how- Connor had endured her rising warmth of expression as long as he could. Now he exploded. " You dp me one favor," he cried ex- citedly, more moved than she had ever seen him before. " Let me do your thinking for you when it comes to other men. You take my word about this David Eden. Bah! When I have you fixed up in little old Man- hattan you'll forget about him and his mys- tery inside a week. Will you lay off on the thinking?" She nodded absently. In reality she was struck by the first similarity she had ever noticed between David of Eden and Connor the gambler: within ten minutes they had both expressed remarkable concern as to what might be her innermost thoughts. THE GARDEN OF EDEX. 757 She began to feel that Connor himself might have elements of the boy in his make up the cruel boy which he protested was in David Eden. She had many reasons for liking Connor. For something he had offered her an escape from her old imprisoned life. Again he had flattered her in the most insinuating manner by his complete trust. She knew that there was not one woman in ten thou- sand to whom he would have confided his great plan, and not one in a million whose ability to execute his scheme he would have trusted. More than this, before her trip to the Garden he had given her a large sum of money for the purchase of the half-breed's gelding; and Ruth Manning had learned to appreciate money. He had not asked for any receipt His attitude had been such that she had not even been able to mention that subject. Yet much as she liked Connor there were many things about him which jarred on her. There was a hardness, always work- ing to the surface like rocks on a hard soil. Worst of all, sometimes she felt a de- gree of uncleanliness about his mind and its working. She would not have recoiled from these things had he been nearer her own age; but in a man well over thirty she felt that these were fixed characteristics. He was in all respects the antipode of David of Eclen. It was easier to be near Connor, but not so exciting. David wore her out, but he also was marvelously stimu- lating. The dynamic difference was that Connor sometimes inspired her with aver- sion, and David made her afraid. She was roused out of her brooding by the voice of the gambler saying: " When a woman begins to think a man begins to swear." She managed to smile, but these cheap little pat quotations which she had found amusing rnough at first now began to grate on her through repetition. Just as Connor tagged and labeled his idea'with this aph- orisms, so she felt that Connor himself was tagged by them. She found him consider- ing her with some anxiety. You haven't begun to cloubt me, Ruth?" he asked her. And he put out his hand with a note of appeal. It was a new role for him and she at once disliked it. She shook the hand heartily. " That's a foolish thing to say," she as- sured him. " But why does that old negro keep sneaking around us?'' It was Zacharias. who for some time had been prowling around the patio trying to find something to do which would justify his presence. " Do you think David Eden keeps him here as a spy on us? 1 ' This was too much for even Connor's sus- picious mind, and he chuckled. " All these black faces want to hang around and have a look at you that's the point," he answered. li Speak to him and you'll see him come running." It needed not even speech; she smiled and nodded at Zacharias, and he came to her at once with a grin of pleasure wrinkling his ancient face. She invited him to sit down. " I never see you resting," she said. " David dislikes an idler," said Zacharias, who acknowledged her invitation by drop- ping his withered hands on the back of the chair, but made no move to sit down. " But after all these years you have worked for him, I should think he would give you a little house of your own, and nothing to do except take care of your- self." He listened to her happily, but it was evident from his pause that he had not gathered the meaning of her words. " You come from the South?" he asked at length. " My father came from Tennessee." There was an electric change in the face of the negro. "Oh, Lawd, oh, Lawd!" he murmured, his voice changing and thickening a little toward the soft darky accent. " That's music to old Zacharias!" <: Do you come from Tennessee, Zach- arias?" Again there was a pause as the thoughts of Zacharias fled back t6 the old days. " Everything in between is all shadowy like evening, but what I remember most is the little houses on both sides of the road with the gardens behind them, and the 758 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. pickaninnies rolling in the dust and shout- ing and their mammies coming to the doors to watch them." " How long ago was that?" she asked, deeply touched. He grew troubled. " Many and many a year ago oh, many a long, weary year, for Zacharias! " " And you still think of the old days?" " When the bees come droning in the middle of the day, sometimes I think of the darkies singing in the fields. But I've never thought so much about it as I have since you came to the Garden of Eden. I was the stable boy for the master's daughter. That old Sammy horse used to shine like fire when Zacharias brought him out all saddled for young miss. She was like you just so like that the heart of old Zach- arias jumped when he saw you the first time. Miss Deborah would walk around that Sammy horse and keep frowning and frowning, and then she'd take her crop and rub back the hair the wrong way but never a bit of dust came up! " He struck his hands lightly together and his misty-bright eyes were plainly looking through sixty years as though they were a day. " Then she'd smile at Zacharias while I was standing at the head of that Sammy horse with my hat in my hand. Up she'd climb and shake down the long riding skirt, and perk up one side of her little black hat, and settle into her jacket. " ' Sammy likes you, Zach,' she'd say, ' and so do I ! ' " And then off she'd go down the road with the little white puffs jumping up be- hind her and turning into mist, and laugh- ing and laughing just because she was happy!" He lapsed into the old talk completely for a moment. " Oh, Zach, he ain't goin' ter see her no mo'. She's done gone down dat road an' she ain't never come back no mo'. All the windin's of dat road, dey all keep, goin' away an' away an' she ain't never gwine come back singing on Sammy hawse through the evenin'!" " But why did you leave her?" asked Ruth tenderly. Zacharias slowly drew his eyes away from the mists of the past and became aware of the girl's face once more. When he spoke again the dialect was gone. " Because my soul was burning in sin. It was burning and burning!" " But you'd like to go back. The young missee might have a daughter just as young as I am. Wouldn't you like to go back?" The head of Zacharias fell and he knitted his fingers. " Coming to the Garden of Eden was like coming into heaven. There's no way of getting out again without breaking the law. The Garden is just like heaven!" Connor spoke for the first time. "Or hell: "he exclaimed. It caused Ruth Manning to cry out at him softly ; Zacharias was mute. " Why did you say that?" said the girl, growing angry. " Because I hate to see a bad bargain," said the gambler. " And it looks to me as if our friend here paid pretty high for any- thing he gets out of the Garden." He turned sharply on the negro. " How long have you been working here?" "Sixty years. Long years!" " And what have you out of it? What clothes?" " Enough to wear." " What food?" " Enough to eat." " A house of your own?" " Xo." " Land of your own?" " Xo." " Sixty years and not a penny saved! That's what I call a sharp bargain! What else have you gained?" " A good bright hope of heaven." " But are you sure, Zacharias? Are you sure? Isn't it possible that .all these five white masters of yours may have been mis- taken?" Zacharias could only stare in his horror. Finally he turned away and went silently across the patio. " Ben," cried the girl softly, " why did you do it? Aside from torturing the poor man, what if this comes to David's ear?" THE GARDEN OF ED EX 759 Connor snapped his finger. His manner was that of one who knows that he has taken a foolish risk and wishes to brazen the matter out. - It'll never come to the ear of David: \Yhy? Because he'd wring the neck of the old chap if he even guessed that he'd been talking about leaving the valley. And in the meantime I cut away the ground be- neath David's feet. He has not standing room, pretty soon. Nothing left to him, by Jove, but his own conceit, and he has tons of that! Well, let him use it and get fat on it:" She wondered why Connor had come to actually hate the master of the Garden. Surely David of Eden had never harmed the gambler. She remembered something that she had heard long before: that the hatred always lies on the side of the in- jurer and not of the injured. They heard David's voice, at this point, approaching, and in another moment a small cavalcade entered the patio. CHAPTER XXX. JUDGMENT. FIRST, a white flash beneath the shad- ow of the arched way, came a colt at full run, stopping short with four sprawling, braced feet at the sight of the strangers. It was not fear so much as sur- prise, for now it pricked its ears and ad- vanced a dainty step or two. Ruth cried out with delight at the fawn-like beauty of the delicate creature. The Eden Gray was almost white in the little colt, and with its four dark stockings it seemed, when it ran, to be stepping on thin air. That impres- sion was helped by the comparatively great length of the legs. Next came the mother, walking, as though she was quite confident that no harm could come to her colt in this home of all good things, but with her fine head held high and her eyes luminous with con- cern, a little anxious because the youngster had been out of sight for a moment. And behind them strode David with Elijah at his side. Ruth could never have recognized the old negro as the statuesque figure which had confronted David on the previous day. He was now bowing and scraping like some withered old man, striving to make a good impression on a creditor to whom a great sum was owing. She remembered then what David had told her earlier in the day about the judging of Timeh, the daughter of Juri. This, then, was the crisis, and here was Elijah striving to conciliate the grim judge. The old man kept up a running fire of talk while David walked slowly around the colt. Ruth wondered whv the * master of the Garden did not cry out with pleasure at sight of the beautiful creature* Connor had drawn her back a little. "You see that six months' mare?" he said softly, with a tremor in his voice. " I'd pay ten thousand flat for her the way- she stands. Ten thousand more if it were asked:" " But David doesn't seem very pleased." " Bah! He's bursting with pleasure. But he won't let on because he doesn't want to flatter old Elijah." " If he doesn't pass the colt do you know what happens?" " What?" "They kill it!" " I'd a lot rather see them kill a man: " snarled Connor. "But they won't touch that colt!'' " I don't know. Look at poor Elijah:" David, stopping in his circular walk, now stood with his arms folded, gazing intently at Timeh. Elijah was a picture of concern. The whites of his eyes flashed as his glances rolled swiftly from the colt to the master. Once or twice he tried to speak, but seemed too nervous to give voice. At length: "A true daughter of Juri, O David. And was there ever a more honest mare than Juri? The same head, mark you, deep from the eye to the angle of the jaw. And under the head come hither, Time*.'" Timeh flaunted her heels at the sun and then came with short, mincing steps. At six months," boasted Elijah, ' she knows my voice as well as her mother. Stay, Juri. 1 " The inquisitive mare had followed Ti- meh, but now, reassured, she dropped her 760 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. head and began cropping the turf of the patio. Still, from the play of her ears, it was evident that Timeh was not out of the mother's thoughts for an instant. "Look you, David!" said Elijah. He raised the head of Timeh by putting his head beneath her chin. " I can put my whole hand between the angles of her jaw! And see how her ears flick back and forth, like the twitching ears of a cat! Ha, is not that a sign?" He allowed the head to fall again, but he caught it under his arms and faced David in this manner, throwing out his hand in appeal. Still David spoke not a word. With a gesture he made Elijah move to one side. Then he stepped to Timeh. She was uneasy at his coming, but under the . first touch of his hand Timeh became as still as rock and looked at her mother in a scared and helpless fashion. It seemed that Juri understood a great crisis was at hand; for now she advanced resolutely and with her dainty muzzle she followed with sniffs the hand of David as it moved over the little colt. He seemed to be seeing with his fingertips alone, kneading under the skin in search of vital information. Along the muscles those dexterous fingers ran, and down about the heavy bones of the joints, where they lingered long, seeming to read a story in every crevice. Never once did he speak, but Ruth felt that she could read words in the brighten- ing, calm, and sudden shadows across his face. Elijah accompanied the examination with a running-fire of comment. " There is quality in those hoofs, for you! None of your gray -blue stuff like the hoofs of Tabari, say, but black as night and dense as rock. Aye, David, you may well let your hand linger down that neck. She will step freely, this Timeh of mine, and stride as far as a mountain-lion can leap! Withers high enough. That gives a place for the ligaments to take hold. A good long back, but not too long to carry a weight. She will not be one of your gaunt-bellied horses, either; she will have wind and a bottom for running. She will gallop on the third day of the journey as freely as on the first. And she will carry her tail well out, always, with that big, strong dock." He paused a moment, for David was moving his hands over the hindlegs and lingering long at the hocks. And the face of Elijah grew convulsed with anxiety. " Is there anything wrong with those legs?" murmured Ruth to Connor. " Not a thing that I see. Maybe the stifles are too straight. I think they might angle out a bit more. But that's nothing serious. Besides, it may be the way Timeh is standing. What's the matter?" She was clinging to his arm, white-faced. " If that colt has to die I I'll want to kill -David Eden!'' "Hush, Ruth! And don't let him see your face!" David moved back from Timeh and again folded his arms. " The body of the horse is one thing," ran on Elijah uneasily, " and the spirit is another. Have you not told us, David, that a curious colt makes a wise horse? That is Timeh! Where will you guess that I found her when I went to bring her to you even now? She had climbed up the face of the cliff, far up a crevice where a man would not dare to go. I dared not even cry out to her for fear she would fall if she turned her head. To have climbed so high was almost impossible, but how would she come down when there was no room for her to turn? " I was dizzy and sick with grief. But Timeh saw me, and down she came, with- out turning. She lifted her hoofs and put them down as a cat lifts and puts down wet paws. And in a moment she was safe on the meadow and frisking around me. Juri had been so worried that she made Timeh stop running and nosed her all over to make sure that she was unhurt by that climb. But tell me: will not a colt that risks its life to climb for a tuft of grass, run till its heart breaks for the master in later years?" For the first time David spoke. " Is she so wise a colt?" he said. " Wise?" cried Elijah, his eye shining with joy at the opening which he had made. " I talk to her as I talk to a man. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 761 She is as full of tricks as a dog. Look, now!" He leaned over and pretended to pick at the grass, whereat Timeh stole up behind him and drew out a handkerchief from his hip pocket. Off she raced and came back in a flashing circle to face Elijah with the cloth fluttering in her teeth. " So!" cried Elijah, taking the handker- chief again and looking eagerly at the master of the Garden. " Was there ever a colt like my Timeh?" " The back legs," said David slowly. Elijah had been preparing himself to speak again, with a smile. He was ar-. rested in the midst of a gesture and his face altered like a man at the banquet at the news of a death. " The hind legs, David," he echoed hol- lowly. " But what of them? They are a small part of the whole! And they are not wrong. They are not very wrong, oh my master!" " The hocks are sprung in and turned a little." " A very little. Only the eye of David could see it and know that it is wrong!" " A small flaw makes the stone break. At a rotten knothole the great tree snaps in the storm. And a small sin may under- mine a good man. The hind legs are wrong, Elijah." " To be sure. In a colt. Many things seem wrong in a colt, but in the grown horse they disappear!" " This fault will not disappear. It is the set of the joint and that can never be changed. It can only grow worse." Elijah, staring straight ahead, was searching his brain, but that brain was numbed by the calamity which had be- fallen him. He could only stroke the lovely head of the little colt and pray for help. " Yesterday," he said at length in a trem- bling voice, " Elijah, as a fool, spoke words which angered his master. Back on my head I call them now. David, do not judge Timeh with a wrathful heart. " Let the sins of Elijah fall on the head of Elijah, but let Timeh go unpunished for my faults." ' You grow old, Elijah, and you forget. The judgment of David is never colored by his own likes and dislikes, his own wishes and prejudice. He sees the right, and therefore his judgments are true." " Aye, David, but truth is not merciful, and blessed above all things is mercy. When you see Timeh, think of Elijah. How he has watched over the colt, and loved it, and played with it, and taught it, by the hours, the proper manners for a colt and a mare of the Garden of Eden.'" " That is true. It is a well-mannered colt." The negro caught at a new straw of hope. " Also, in the field, if two colts race home for water and Timeh is one, she reaches the water first always. She comes to me like a child. In the morning she slips out of the paddock, and coming to my window, she puts in her head and calls me with a whinny as soft as the voice of a man. Then I arise and go out to her and to Juri." Ruth was weeping openly, her hand closed hard on the arm of Connor; and she felt the muscles along that arm con- tract. She almost loved the gambler for his rage at the inexorable David. " Consider Juri, also," said Elijah. " Seven times I numbered them on my fingers and remembered seven times when the horses were brought before you in the morning, you have called to Juri and mounted her for the morning ride that was before Glani was raised to his full strength. And always the master has said: " l Stout-hearted Juri! She pours out her strength for her rider as a generous host pours out his wine!' " David frowned, but plainly he was touched. "Juri!" he called, and when the noble mare came to him, he laid his hand on her mane. " Who has spoken of Juri? Surely I am not judging her this day. It was Matthew who judged her when she was a foal of six months." "And it was Matthew," added Elijah hastily, " who loved her above all horses!" "Ah!" muttered David, deeply moved. " Consider the heart of Juri," went on Elijah, timidly following this new thread of argument. " When the mares neigh and 762 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. the colts come running, there will be none to gallop to her side. When she goes out in the morning there will be no daughter to gallop around and around her, tossing her head and her heels. And when she comes home at night there will be no tired foal leaning against her side for weariness." u Peace, Elijah! You speak against the law.' 3 In spite of himself, the glance of Elijah turned slowly and sullenly until it rested upon Ruth Manning. David followed the direction of that look and he understood. There stood the living evidence that he had broken the law of the Garden at least once. He flushed darkly. " The colt's gone," said Connor in a savagely-controlled murmur to the girl. " That devil has made up his mind. His pride is up now!" Elijah, too, seemed to realize that he had thrown away his last chance. He could only stretch out his hands with the tears streaming down his black, wrinkled face and repeat in his broken voice: " Mercy, David, mercy for Timeh and Juri and Elijah!" But the face of David was iron. " Look at Juri," he commanded. " She is flawless, strong, sound of hoof and heart and limb. And that is because her sire and her mother before her were well seen to. No narrow forehead has ever been allowed to come into the breed of the Eden Grays. I have heard Paul condemn a colt because the very ears were too long and flabby and the carriage of the horse dull. The weak and the faulty have been gelded and sent from the Garden or else killed. And there- fore Juri to-day is stout and noble, and (To be concluded Glani has a spirit of fire. It is not easy to do. But if I find a sin in my own nature, do I not tear it out at a price of pain? And shall I spare a colt when I do not spare myself? A law is a law and a fault is a fault. Timeh must die!" The extended arms of Elijah fell. Con- nor felt Ruth surge forward from beside him, but he checked her strongly. " No use! " he said. " You could change a very devil more easily than you can change David now! He's too proud to change his mind." "Oh," sobbed the girl softly, "I hate him! I hate him!" " Let Timeh live until the morning," said David in the same calm voice. " Let Juri be spared this night of grief and un- easiness. If it is done in the morning she will be less anxious until the dark comes, and by that time the edge of her sorrow shall be dulled." " Whose hand," asked Elijah faintly " whose hand must strike the blow?" " Yesterday," said David, " you spoke to me a great deal of the laws of the Garden and their breaking. Do you not know that law which says that he from whose house- hold the faulty mare foal has come must destroy it? You know that law. Then let it not be said that Elijah, who so loves the law, has shirked his lawful burden!" At this final blow poor Elijah lifted his face. " Lord God! " he said, " give me strength. It is more than I can bear!" "Go!" commanded the master of the Garden. The negro turned slowly away. As if to show the way, Timeh galloped before him. NEXT WEEK.) Watch for announcement of EDGAR FRANKLIN'S NEXT SERIAL It's the swiftest moving story he ever wrote and will start some time next, month. BOXED BOODLE. 921 who was boarding there tinder an assumed name. About that same time Susan and her mother would go to the beach for their morning stroll. Once more the \vay \vould be clear. So it happened. When Dick saw Miss \Vestwick turn toward the car line, and Susan and Mrs. Ware go toward the beach, he got out his spade, went downstairs, and out through the kitchen door. On one side of the tree the sand had not been disturbed since the last rain. On the other side it showed marks of Miss West- wick's searching and Richard Q.'s fall. There Dick began digging. Perhaps fifteen inches beneath the sur- face the spade struck a wooden box. It was about eighteen inches long, six by six. Dick flung the spade aside, grabbed the box, and hastened into the house. He was in the front hall when it dawned on him that it wouldn't do to have Susan and her mother return unexpectedly and find the spade and the signs of digging. Promptly he slipped the box beneath the hall seat and hastened out to the back yard. He was patting down the last shovelful of sand when he heard footsteps on the walk. " Mr. Mandeville! What on earth are you doing?" Dick swung around. It was Susan and her mother! " Say! " gasped Richard Q. " What did you call me?" Susan made a gesture of annoyance. " I didn't intend to give it away," she smiled; " but I've known you all the time. I saw your picture in the papers about thirty days ago. And now, sir," she went on with mock gravity, " what does this mean? You an ex-convict coming here under an as- sumed name, and surreptitiously digging holes in our back yard." "I'll tell you, Miss Ware, of course," Dick managed to reply. ' Been wanting to tell you all the time. I'll do better. I'll give you half of it. Come on!" He led the way to the front hall, and reached beneath the hall seat. The box was gone! " What's the matter with you?" demand- ed Susan. " Did you dig up a box? If you did, I'll thank you to put it back. I buried that box there myself. It contains my poor little dead canary." Richard Q. sat down. " And if any one has taken that box from where you put it, it was Miss West. I saw her hurrying down the street with a pack- age under her arm." " You did?" Dick jumped up. " Aha! She came back after something, saw me hide the box, waited until I had gone to the back yard again, then stole the box and skipped. She thinks she's got a mil- lion dollars and it's only " "Say!" cried Susan, looking around at her mother as though for protection, " are you and Miss West crazy?" Suddenly Dick broke off laughing. He grabbed his spade. " Come on!" he cried. " Back to the trenches!" He hastened out to the back yard again and began tearing up the sand on the opposite side of the tree. He was not long uncovering a box. This one was the size of a full-grown suit case. He carried it into the kitchen, laid it on the table, and broke it open. Mrs. Ware and Susan were too stunned for speech almost. The box was packed with bills of large denomination, all tied in neat bundles. The doorbell jangled sharply. Mrs. Ware answered, and returned with two men, one of whom Dick recognized as Abner West- wick. Old Westwick looked at the box of greenbacks, and nearly fainted. Then he introduced his companion: " Mr. Levers, of the Secret Service." The officer fixed a suspicious eye on Richard Q. Then he spied Juan Garcia 's million. " Aha! " he cried. " At last I've got it! " " So you knew about it, too!" exclaimed Dick, stepping between Levers and the old Mexican's million. " Well, you're too late. I was in the garden this morning planting onions and I found it." " I don't think you want it," grinned Levers. " That's all counterfeit. Wait a minute! " the Secret Service operative went on, raising a hand for silence. " You see, we've been on the trail of this for months. It was made in the East. W T e got the whole mob except one. He skipped to Mexico with this stuff, and died. A Mex- 922 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. ican brought it here, then vanished. When he died night before last, in jail, we located him. At the same time we located the car- man who recalled the Mexican with the suit case. A canvas of the beach district indicated that the man probably leased a house from Mr. Westwick. I found Mr. Westwick reading the newspaper account that came out on Garcia's death; but Mr. Westwick couldn't recall the matter until I told him the money was all counterfeit, a trifling detail we had purposely omitted in the news story. Then he suddenly re- called everything. So, we're at the end of the chase. I'll take this ' queer ' and " " Take it! " laughed Richard Q. " This has been a queer proposition right from the get-away." VII. LATER that evening, Susan, sitting on the front porch, gazing pensively at the precise spot where Richard Q. Mandeville, alias Georgie Richards, had passed from view down the street, heard a strange call. It came from somewhere about the fence of dahlias. She stepped quickly to the edge of the porch and looked, and her ob- streperous little heart nearly knocked her off the porch. There, by the fence, was Richard Q. With both hands he had parted the dahlias so he. could look between them at Susan. And the dahlias in all their, glory were no brighter than Richard Q.'s face. " Look!" Dick pointed to the sign that swung in the breeze: " Select Board and Rooms." " I'm one of the select now, Miss Ware. Say, going to the beach this evening?" " Well, perhaps." Susan was biting her pretty lips shamefully. " But why are you staying? That treasure " "You said it!" Dick broke in. "You see, Miss Westwick got the dead canary, the Secret Service man got that ' queer ' million, while I I'm going to stick around until I get the treasure. Know what I mean?" Part VI Author Of "The Untamed," "Trailin 1 ," "The Sevintb Man," "Black Jack." etc. CHAPTER XXXI. THE TRIUMPH. "Are you a man?" she asked him, through her set teeth. " Are you going to let that beautiful little thing die?" DAVID watched them go, and while " I'd rather see the cold-hearted fool die his back was turned a fierce, soft in place of Timeh. But what can we do? dialogue passed between Ruth Man- Nothing. Just smile in his face." ning and Ben Connor. " I hate him!" she exclaimed. This story began in the Argosy-Allstory Weekly for April 15. THE GARDEN OF EDEX. 92 "If you hate him, then use him. Will you?" " If I can make him follow me, tease him to come, make him think I love him, I'll do it. I'd do anything to torture him." " I told you he was a savage." " You were right, Ben. A fiend not a man! Oh, thank Heavens that I see through him." Anger gave her color and banished her tears. And when David turned he found what seemed a picture of pleasure. It was infinitely grateful to him. If he had searched and studied for the words he could not have found anything to embitter her more than his first speech. " And what do you think of the justice of David?" he asked, coming to them. She could not speak; luckily Connor stepped in and filled the gap of awkward silence. u A very fine thing to have done, Brother David," he said. " Do you know what I thought of when I heard you talk?" " Of what?" said David, composing his face to receive the compliment. At that Ruth turned suddenly away, for she dared not trust her eyes, and the hatred which burned in them. " I thought of the old story of Abraham and Isaac. You were offering up something as dear to you as a child, almost, to the law of the Garden of Eden." " It is true," said David complacently. " But when the flesh is diseased it must be bunied away." He called" to Ruth: "And you, Ruth?" This childish seeking after compliments made her smile, and naturally he misjudged the smile. " I think with Benjamin," she* said softly. " Yet my ways in the Garden must seem strange to you," went on David, expand- ing in the warmth of his own sense of vir- tue. " But you will grow accustomed to them. I know." The opening was patent. She was be- ginning to nod her acquiescence when Con- nor, in alarm, tapped on the table, once and again in swift telegraphy: " No! No!" The faint smile went out on her face. " No," she said to David. The master of the Garden turned a glance of impatience and suspicion upcn the gambler, but Connor carefully made his face a blank. He continued to drum idly on the edge of the table, and the idle drumming was spelling to the girl's quick ear: "Out!" " You cannot stay?" murmured David. She drank in his stunned expression. It was like music to her. " Would you," she said, " be happy away from the Garden, and the horses and your servants? No more am I happy away from my home." " You are not happy with us?" muttered David. " You are not happy?" " Could you be away from the Garden?" " But that is different. The Garden was made by four wise men." " By five wise men," said the girl. " For you are the fifth." He was so blind that he did not perceive the irony. " And therefore," he said, " the Garden is all that the heart should desire. John and Matthew and Luke and Paul made it to fill that purpose." " But how do you know they succeeded? You have not seen the world beyond the mountains." " It is full of deceit, hard hearts, cruelty, and cunning." "It is full of my dear friends, David!" She thought of the colt and the mare and Elijah ; and it became suddenly easy to lure and deceive this implacable judge of others. She touched the arm of the master lightly with her finger tips and smiled. " Come with me, and see my world!" " The law which the four made for me I must not leave!" " Was it wrong to let me enter?" " You have made me happy," he argued slowly. " You have made me happier than I was before. And surely I could not have been made happy by that which is wrong. No, it was right to bring you into the val- ley. The moment I looked at you I knew that it was right." " Then, will it be wrong to go out with me? ,You need not stay! But see what lies beyond the mountains before you judge it!" 924 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. He shook his head. " Are you afraid? It will not harm you." He flushed at that. And then began to walk up and down across the patio. She saw Connor white with anxiety, but about Connor and his affairs she had little con- cern at this moment. She felt only a cruel pleasure in her control over this man, half savage and half child. Now he stopped abruptly before her. " If the world, after I see it, still dis- pleases me, when I return, will you come with me, Ruth? Will you come back to the Garden of Eden?" ' In the distance Ben Connor was gestur- ing desperately to make her say yes. But she could not resist a pause a pause in which torment showed on the face of David. And then, deliberately, she made her eyes soften made her lips smile. "Yes, David, I will come back!" He leaned a little toward her, then straightened with a shudder and crossed the patio to the Room of Silence. Behind that door he disappeared, and left Connor and the girl alone. The gambler threw down his arms as if abandoning a burden. " Why in the name of God did you let him leave you?" he groaned. " Why? Why? Why?" " He's going to come," asserted Ruth. " Never in a thousand years. The fool will talk to his dummy god in yonder and come out with one of his iced looks and talk about ' judgment ' ! Bah ! " " He'll come." " What makes you think so?" " Because I know." " You should have waited - - to-morrow you could have done it, maybe, but to-day is too soon." " Listen to me, Ben. I know him. I know his childish, greedy mind. He wants me just as much as he wants his own way. It's partly because I'm new to him, being a woman. It's chiefly because I'm the first thing he's ever met that won't do what he wants. He's going to try to stay with me until he bends me." She flushed with an- gry excitement. " It's playing with fire. Ruth. I know you're clever, but " You don't know how clever, but I'm beginning to guess what I can do. I've lost all feeling about that cruel barbarian, Ben. That poor little harmless, pretty colt oh, I want to make David Eden burn for that! And I can do it. I'm going to wind him around my finger. I've thought of ways while I stood looking at him just now. I know how I can smile at him, and use my eyes, and woo him on, and pretend to be just about to yield and come back with him then grow cold the next minute and give him his work to do over again. I'm going to make him crawl on his knees in the dust. I'm going to make a fool of him before people. I'm going to make him sign over his horses to us to keep them out of his vicious power. And .1 can do it I hate him so that I know I can make him really love me. Oh, I know he doesn't really love me now. I know you're right about him. He simply wants me as he'd want another horse. I'll change him. I'll break him. When he's broken I'm going to laugh in his face and tell him to remember Timeh!" "Ruth!" gasped Connor. He looked guiltily around, and when he was sure no one was within reach of her voice, he glanced back with admiration. " By the Lord, Ruth, who'd ever have guessed at all this fire in you? Why, you're a wonder. And I think you can do it. If you can only get him out of the infernal Garden. That's the sticking point! We make or break in the next ten minutes!" But he had hardly finished speaking be- fore David of Eden came out of the Room of Silence, and with the first glance at his face they knew that the victory was theirs. David of Eden would come with them into the world! " I have heard the Voice," he said, " and it is just and proper for me to go. In the morning, Ruth, we shall start!" CHAPTER XXXII. THE LAST DAY. NIGHT came as a blessing to Ruth, for the scenes of the early day had ex- hausted her. At the very moment when David succumbed to her domination, THE GARDEN OF EDEN. GO- 7^-_> her own strength began to fail. As for Connor, it was another story. The great dream which had come to him in far away Lukin, when he watched the little gray gelding win the horse race, was now verg- ing toward a reality. The concrete accom- plishment was at hand. Once in the world it was easy to see that David would be- come clay, molded by the touch of clever Ruth Manning, and then it would be sim- ply a matter of collecting the hiillions as they rolled in. But Ruth was tired. Only one thing sus- tained her, and that was the burning eager- ness to humble this proud and selfish David of Eden. When she thought how many times she had been on the verge of open admiration and sympathy with the man, she trembled and grew cold. But through the fate of poor little Timeh, she thanked Heaven that her eyes had be n opened. She went to her room shortly after din- ner, and she slept heavily until the first grayness of the morning. Once awake, in spite of the early hour, she could not sleep again, so she dressed and went into the pati. Connor was already there, pacing restlessly. He had been up all night, he- told her, turning over possibilities. " It seems as though everything has worked out too much according to sched- ule," he said. " There'll be a break. Some- thing will happen and smash everything!" " Nothing will happen," she assured him calmly. He took her hand in his hot fingers. " Partner " he began, and then stopped as though he feared to let himself go on. " Where is he?" she asked. " On his mountain, waiting for the sun, I guess. He told the black-faces a while ago that he was leaving to-day. Great ex- citement. They're all chattering about it down in the servants' house." " Is no one here?" " Not a soul, I guess." " Then we're going into that Room of Silence!" " Take that chance now? Never in the \vorld! Why, Ruth, if he saw us in there, or guessed we'd been there, he'd probably murder us both. You know how gentle he is when he gets well started?" " But how will he know? No one is here, and David won't be back from the mountain for a long time if he waits for the sun." " Just stop thinking about it, Ruth." " I'll never stop as long as I live, unless I see it. I've dreamed steadily about that room all night." " Go alone, then, and I'll stay here." She went resolutely across the patio, and Connor, following with an exclamation, caught her arm roughly at the door. "You aren't serious?" " Deadly serious!" The glitter of her dark eyes convinced him more than words. " Then we'll go together. But make it short!" They swept the patio with conscience- stricken glances, and then opened the door. As they did so, the ugly face of Joseph ap- peared at the entrance to the patio, looked and hastily was withdrawn. " This is like a woman," muttered Con- nor, as they closed the door with guilty- softness behind them. " Risk her life for a secret that isn't worth a tinker's damn!" For the room was almost empty, and what was in it was the simplest of the sim- ple. There was a roughly made table in the center. Five chairs stood about it. On the table was a book, and the seven articles made up the entire furnishings. Connor was surprised to see tears in the eyes of Ruth. "Don't you see?" she murmured in re- ply to his exclamation. " The four chairs for the four dead men when David sits down in his own place?" " Well, what of that?" " What's in the book?" " Are you going to wait to see that?" " Open the door a little, Ben, and then we can hear if any one comes near." He obeyed and came back, grumbling. ' We can hear every one except David. That step of his wouldn't break eggs." He found the girl already poring over the first page of the old book, on which there was writing in a delicate hand. She read aloud: " The story of the Gar- den of Eden, who made it and why it was made. Told without error by Matthew." 926 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. "Hot stuff!" chuckled Connor. u We got a little time before the sun comes up. But it's getting red in the east. Let's hear some more." There was nothing imposing about the book. It was a ledger with half-leather binding such as storekeepers use for ac- counts. Time had yellowed the edges of the paper and the ink was dulled. She read: "In the beginning there was a man whose name was John." " Sounds like the start of the Bible," grinned Connor. " Shoot ahead and let's get at the real dope." "Hush!" Without raising her eyes, she brushed aside the hand of Connor which had fallen on the side of the ledger. Her own took its place, ready to turn the page. " In the beginning there was a man whose name was John. The Lord looked upon John and saw his sins. He struck John therefor. First He took two daugh- ters from John, but still the man was blind and did not read the writing of his Maker. And God struck down the eldest son of John, and John sorrowed, but did not un- derstand. Thereat, all in a day, the Lord took from John his wife and his lands and his goods, which w r ere many and rich. " Then John looked about him, and lo! he was alone. "In the streets his friends forgot him and saw not his passing. The sound of his own footfall was lonely in his house, and he was left alone with his sins. " So he knew that it was the hand of God which struck him, and he heard a voice which said in the night to him: ' O John, ye who have been too much with the world must leave it and go into the wilderness.' " Then the heart of John smote him and he prayed God to send him not out alone, and God relented and told him to go forth and take with him three simple men. " So John on the next morning called to his negro, a slave who was all that remain- ed in his hands. " ' Abraham,' he said, ' you who were a slave are free.' " Then he went into the road and walked all the day until his feet bled. He rested by the side of the road and one came who kneeled before him and washed his feet, and John saw that it was Abraham. And Abraham said: ' I was bom into your ser- vice and I can only die out of it.' ' They went on together until they came to three robbers fighting with one strong man, and John helped this man and drove away the robbers. ' Then the tall man began to laugh. ' They would have robbed me because I was once rich,' he said, ' but another thief had already plundered me, and they have gotten only broken heads for their indus- try.' Then John was sorry for the fortune that was stolen. ' Not I,' said the tall man, ' but I am sorry for the brother I lost with the money.' Then he told them how r his own brother had cheated him. ' But/ he said, ' there is only one way to beat the devil, and that is to laugh at him.' " Now John saw this was a good man, so he opened his heait to Luke, which was the name of him who had been robbed. Then Luke fell in with the two and went on with them. " They came to a city filled with plague so that the dead were buried by the dying and the dog howled over his master in the street; the son fled from the father and the mother left her child. They found one man who tended the sick out of charity and the labor was too great for even his broad shoulders. He had a broad, ugly face, but in his eye was a clear fire. " ' Brother, what is your name?' said John, and the man answered that he was called Paul, and begged them for the sweet mercy of Christ to aid him in his labors. " But John said: ' Rise, Paul, and follow me.' " And Paul said: ' How can I follow the living when the dying call to me?' "But John said: 'Nevertheless, leave them, for these are carrion, but your soul in which is life eternal is worth all these and far more.' " Then Paul felt the power of John and followed him and took, also, his gray horses which were unlike others, and of his serv- ants those who would follow him for love, and in wagons he put much wealth. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 927 ;i So they all rode en as a mighty caravan forth and found a male child and brought until they came, at the side of the road, to Jiim to the valley and the Uvo said: ' Where a youth lying in the meadow with his hands was the child found and what is its name?' behind his head whistling, and a bird hov- And Matthew said: ' It was found in the ering above him repeated the same note, place to which God led me and its name They spoke to him and he told them that hereafter shall be David.' he was an outcast because he would not " So peace was on the valley, and David labor. grew tall and strong. Then Luke died, and " The world is too pleasant to work in.' Paul died in a drift of snow and Matthew he said, and whistled again, and the bird grew very old and wrote these words for above him made answer. the eye of David." " Then John said: ' Here is a soul worth The smooth running, finely made letters all of ours. Rise, brother, and come with come to an end, the narrative was taken up us.' in fresher ink and in a bold, heavy hand of " So Matthew rose and followed him, large characters. and he was the third and last man to join " One day Matthew called for David John, who was the beginning. and said: ' My hands are cold, whereby I " Then they came to a valley set about know I am about to die. As I lay last with walls and with a pleasant river run- night with death for a bedfellow thoughts ning through it, and here they entered and came to me, which are these: We have called it the Garden of Eden because in it been brother and father and son to one men should be pure of heart once more, another. But do not grieve that I am And they built their houses with labor and gone. I inherit a place of peace, but you lived in quiet and the horses multiplied and shall come to torment unless you find a the Garden blossomed under their hands." woman in the world and bring her here to Here Ruth marked her place with her bear children to you and be your wife.' finger while she wiped her eyes. " Then David groaned in his heart and " Do you mean to say this babble is get- he said: ' How shall I know her when I ting you?" growled Ben Connor. find her?' " Please! " she whispered. " Don't you " And Matthew said: ' By her simplicity.' see that it's beautiful?" " And David said: ' There may be many And she returned to the book. who are simple.' "And Matthew said: 'I have never known such a woman. But when you see CHAPTER XXXIII. her your heart will rise up and claim her. THE ROOM OF SILENCE. Therefore, within five years, before you are grown too old, go out and find this " f "T~ l HE l N John sickened and said: woman and wed her.' 1 ' Bring me into the room of si- " And on that day Matthew died, and a lence.' So they brought him to the great anguish came to David. The days place where they sat each day to converse passed heavily. And for five years he has with God in the holy stillness and hear His waited." voice. There was another interval of blank " Then John said: ' I am about to de- paper, and then the pen had been taken up part from among you, and before my going anew, hurriedly, and driven with such force I put this command on you that you find and haste that it tore the paper-surface, in the world a mate infant too young to "The woman is here!" know its father or mother, or without fa- Her fingers stiffened about the edges of ther and mother living. Rear that child to the book. Raising her head, she looked out manhood in the valley, for even as I depart through the little window and saw the tree so will you all do, and the Garden of Eden tops down the hillside brightening against will be left tenantless.' the red of the dawn. But Connor could ' So when John was dead Matthew went not see her face. He only noted the place 928 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. .>_ at which she had stopped, and now he be- pressed her hands against her face. He gan to laugh. heard her murmuring: " What have I " Can you beat that? That poor dub!" done? God forgive me!" She turned to him, slowly, a face so full Connor grew angry. It was no time for of mute anguish that the gambler stopped trifling. his laughter to gape at her. Was she tak- He touched her arm: "Come on out ing this seriously? Was this the Blue- of this, Ruth. If you're going to get re- beard's chamber which was to ruin all his ligion, try it later." work? At that she flung away and faced him, Not that he perceived what was going on and what he saw was a revelation of angry in her mind, but her expression made him scorn. aware, 'all at once, of the morning-quiet. " Don't touch me," she stammered at Far down the valley a Jhorse neighed and fliim. " You cheat! Is that the barbarian a bird swooping past the window cast in on you were telling me about? Is that the them one thrilling phrase of music. And cruel, selfish fool you tried to make me Connor saw the girl change under his very think was David of Eden?" eye. She was looking straight at him with- His own weapons were turning against out seeing his face and into whatever dis- him, but he retained his self-control, tance her glance went he felt that he could " I won't listen to you, Ruth. It's this not follow her. Here at the very threshold \hush-stuff that's got you. It's this infernal of success the old ledger was proving a room. It makes you feel that the fathead more dangerous enemy than David him- 'has actually got the dope from God." self. Connor fumbled for words, the Open " How do you know that God hasn't Sesame which would let in the common come to him here? At least, he's had the sense of the everyday world upon the girl, courage and the faith to believe it. What But the very fear of that crisis kept him faith have we? I know your heaven, Ben dumb. He glanced from the pale hand on Connor. It's paved with dollar bills. And the ledger to her face, and it seemed to him mine, too. We've come sneaking in here that beauty had fallen upon her out of the like cowardly thieves. Oh, I hate myself, I book. loathe myself. I've stolen his heart, and " The woman is here! God has sent what have I to give him in exchange? I'm her!" not even worthy to love him! Barbarian? At that she cried out faintly, her voice He's so far greater and finer than we are trembling with self-scorn: " God has sent 'that we Aren't worthy to look in his face!" me me!" " By the Lord!" groaned Connor. " Are " The heart of David stood up and beat you double-crossing me?" in his throat when he saw her," went on " Could I do anything better? Who the rough, strong writing. " She passed the tempted me like a devil and brought me gate. Every step she took was into the here? Who taught me to play the misera- soul of David. As I went beside her the ble game with David? You, you, you!" trees grew taller and the sky was more blue. Perspiration was streaming down the " She has passed the gate. She is here, white face of Connor. She is mine! " Try to give me a chance and listen one " What am I that she should be mine? minute, Ruth. But for God's sake don't God has sent her to show me that my fly off the handle and smash everything strength is clumsy. I have no words to when we're next door to winning. Maybe fit her. When I look into her eyes I see I've done wrong. I $lon't see how. I've her soul; my vision leaps from star to tried to give this David a chance to be star, a great distance, and I am filled with happy 'the way any other man would want humility. O Father in Heaven, having led to be happy. Now you turn on me because her to my hand, teach me to give her hap- he's written some high-flying chatter in a piness, to pouriher spirit full of content." book!" She closed the book reverently and " Because I ' thought he was a selfish 8 A THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 929 sham, and now I see that he's real. He's humbled himself to me to me! I'm not worthy to touch his feet! And you " Maybe I'm rotten. I don't say I'm all I should be, but half of what I've done has been for you. The minute I saw you at that key in Lukin I knew I wanted you. I've gone on wanting you ever since. It's the first time in my life but 1 love you, Ruth. Give me one more chance. Put this thing through and I'll turn over the rest of my life to fixing you up so's you'll be .happy." She watched him for a moment incredu- lously; then she broke into 'hysterical laughter. " If you loved me could you have made me do what I've done? Love? You? But I know what real love is. It's written into that book. I've heard him talk. I'm full of his voice, of his face. ' It's the only fine thing about me. For the rest, we'-re shams, both of us cheats crooked small, sneaking cheats!" She stopped with a cry of alarm; the door behind her stood open and in the en- trance was David of Eden. In the back" ground was the ugly, grinning face of Jo- seph. This was his revenge. Connor made one desperate effort to smile, but the effort failed wretchedly, Neither of them could look at David; they could only steal glances at one another and see their guilt. " David, my brother " began the gam- bler heavily. But the voice of the master broke in: " Oh Abraham, Abraham, would to God that I had listened!" He stood to one side, and made a sweep- ing gesture. " Come out, and bring the woman." They shrank past him and stood blinking in the light of the newly risen sun. Joseph was hugging himself with the cold and his mute delight. The master closed the door and faced them again. " Even in the Room of Silence! " he said slowly. " Was it not enough to bring sin into the Garden? But you have carried it even into the holy place!" Connor found his tongue. The fallen head of Ruth told him that there was no 9 A help to be looked for from her, and the crisis forced him into a certain boisterous glibness of speech. " Sin, Brother David? What sin? To fe be sure, Ruth was too curious. She went into the Room of Silence, but as soon as I knew she was there I went to fetch her, when " He had even cast out one arm in a ges- ture of easy persuasion, and now it was caught at the wrist hi a grip that burned through the flesh to the bones. Another hand clutched his coat at the throat. He was lifted and flung back against the wall by a strength like that of a madman, or a wild animal. One convulsive effort showed him his helplessness, and he cried out more in horror than fear. Another cry answered him, and Ruth strove to press in between, tearing futilely at the arms of David. A moment later Connor was miraculous- ly freed. He found David a long pace away and Ruth before him, her arms flung out to give him shelter while she faced the master of the garden. " He is saved," said David, " and you are free. Your love has ransomed him. What price has he paid to win you so that you will even risk death for him?" "Oh, David," sobbed the girl, "don't you see I only came between you to keep you from murder? Because he isn't worth it!" But the master of the Garden was laugh-* ing in a way that made Connor look about for a weapon and shrink because he found none; only the greedy eyes of Joseph, close by. David had come again close to the girl; he even took both her hands in one of his and slipped his arm about her. To Connor his self-control now seemed more terrible than that one outbreak of murder- ing passion. " Still lies?" said David. " Still lies to me? Beautiful Ruth never more beauti- ful than now, even when you lied to me with your eyes and your smiles and your promises! The man is nothing. He came like a snake to me, and his life is no more worth than the life of a snake. Let him live, let him die; it is no matter. But you, Ruth! I am not even angered. I see you already from a great distance, a beautiful, evil thing that has been so close to me. 930 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. For you have been closer to me than you are now that my arm is around you, touch- . ing you for the last time, holding your warmth and your tender body, keeping both ytmr hands, which are smaller and softer than the hands of a child. But mighty hands, nevertheless. ''They have held the heart of David, and they have almost thrown his soul into eternal hellfire. Yet you have been closer to me than you are now. You have been in my heart of hearts. And I take you from it sadly with regret, for the sin of loving you has been sweet." She had been sobbing softly all this time, but now she mastered herself long enough to draw back a little, taking his hands with a desperate eagerness, as though they gave her a hold upon his mind. " Give me one minute to speak out what I have to say. Will you give me one half minute, David?" His glance rose past her, higher, until it was fixed on the east, and as he stood there with his head far back Connor guessed for the first time at the struggle which was going on within him. The girl pressed closer to him, drawing his hands down as though she would make him stoop to her. "Look at me, David!" " I see your face clearly." " Still, look at me for the one last time." "I dare not, Ruth!" " But will you believe me?" " I shall try. But I am glad to hear your voice, for the last time." " I've come to you like a cheat, David, and I've tried to win you in order to steal the horses away, but I've stayed long enough to see the truth. " If everything in the valley were of- fered me the horses and the men and everything outside of the valley, without you, I'd throw them away. I don't want them. Oh, if prayers could make you be- lieve, you'd believe me now; because I'm praying to you, David. " You love me, David. I can feel you trembling, and I love you more than I ever dreamed it was possible to love. Let me come back to you. I don't want the world or anything that's in it. I only want you, David I only want you! Will you be- lieve me?" And Connor saw David of Eden sway with the violence of his struggle. But he murmured at length, as one in wonder: " How you are rooted in me, Ruth! How you are wound into my life, so that it is like tearing out my heart to part from you. But the God of the Garden and John and Matthew has given me strength." He stepped back from her. " You are free to go, but if you return the doom against you is death like that of any wild beast that steals down the cliffs to kill in my fields. Begone, and let me see your face no more. Joseph, take them to the gate." And he turned his back with a slowness which made his resolution the more unmis- takable. CHAPTER XXIV. CONNOR MAKES A LAST STAND. IT was, unquestionably, a tempting of Providence, but Connor was almost past caring. ' Far off he heard the neighing of an Eden Gray; Ruth, with her bowed head and face covered in her hands, was before him, sobbing; and all that he had come so near to winning and yet had lost rushed upon the mind of the gambler. He hardly cared now whether he lived or died. He called to the master of the Garden, and David whirled on him with a livid face. Connor walked into the reach of the lion. " I've made my play," he said through his teeth, " and I don't holler because I've lost the big stakes. Now I'm going to give you something to show that I'm not a piker some free advice. Dave!" " O man of many lies," said David. " Peace! For when I hear you there is a great will come on me to take you by the throat and hear your life go out with a rattle." " A minute ago," said Connor coolly enough, " I was scared, and I admit it, but I'm past that stage. I've lost too much to care, and now you're going to hear me out to the last damned word!" THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 931 " God of Paul and Matthew," said Da- vid, his voice broken with rage. " let temp- tation be far from me! " 11 You can take it standing or sitting," >aid Connor, " and be damned to you!'' The blind fury sent David a long step nearer, but he checked himself even as one hand rose toward Connor. " It is the will of God that you live to be punished hereafter." Xo matter about the future. I'm chat- tering in the present. I'm going to come clean, not because I'm afraid of you, but because I'm going to clear up the girl. The old black-face, Abe, had the cold dope, well enough. I cf.me to crook you out of a horse, Dave, my boy, and I did it. But after I'd got away with the goods I tried to play hog, and I came back for the rest of the horses." He paused; but David showed no emo- tion. You take the punishment very well," admitted Connor. " There's a touch of sporting blood in you, but the trouble is that the good in you has never had a fair chance to come to the top. I came back, and I brought Ruth with me. 'I'll tell you about her. She's meant to be an honest-to-God woman the kind that keeps men clean she's meant for the big-time stuff. And where did I find her? In a jay town punching a telegraph key, It was all wrong. " She was made to spend a hundred thousand a year. Everything that money buys means a lot to her. I saw that right away. I liked her. I did more than like her; I loved her. That makes you flinch under the whip, does it? I don't say I'm worthy of her, but I'm as near to her as you are. " I admit I played a rotten part. I went to this girl, all starved the way she was for the velvet touch. I laid my propo- sition before her. She was to come up here and bamboozle you. She was to knock your eye out and get you clear of the valley with the horses. Then I was going to run those horses on the tracks and make a barrel of coin for all of us. You'd think she'd take on a scheme like that right away; but she didn't. She fought to keep from going crooked until I showed her it was as much to your advan- tage as it was to ours. Then she decided to come, and she came. I worked my stall and she worked hers, and she got into the valley. " But this voice of yours in the Room of Silence why didn't it put you wise to my game? Well, David, I'll tell you why. The voice is the bunk. It's your own thoughts. It's your own hunches. The god you've been worshiping up here is yourself, and in the end you're going to pay hell for doing it. Well, here's the girl in the Garden, and everything going smooth. We have you, and she's about to take you out and show you how to be happy in the world. But then she has to go into your secret room. That's the woman of it. You blame her? Why, you infernal blockhead, you've been making love to her like God Almighty speaking out of a cloud of fire! How could she hear your line of chatter without want- ing to find out the secrets that made you the nut you are? u Well, we went in, and we found out. We found out what? Enough to make the girl see that you're ' noble,' as she calls it. Enough to make me see that you're a simp. You've been chasing bubbles all your life. You're all wrong from the first. " Those first four birds who started the Garden, who were they? There was John, a rich fellow who'd hit the high spots, had his life messed up, and was ready to quit. He'd lived enough. Then there was Luke, a gent who'd been double-crossed and was sore at the world on general principles. " Paul would have been a full-sized saint in the old days. He was never meant to live the way other men have to live. And finally there's a guy who lies in the grass and whistles to a bird Matthew. A poet and all poets are nuts. " Well, all those fellows were tired of the world fed up with it. Boil them down, and they come to this: they thought more about the welfare of their souls than they did about the world. Was that square? It wasn't! They left the mothers and fa- thers, the brothers and sisters, the friends, everything that had brought them into the 932 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. world and raised 'em. They go off to take care of themselves. " That wasn't bad enough for 'em they had to go out and pluck you and bring you up with the same rotten hunches. Davie, my boy, d'you think a man is made to live by himself? " You haven't got fed up with the world; you're no retired high liver; you haven't had a chance to get double-crossed more than once; you're not a crazy poet; and you're a hell of a long ways from being a martyr. " I'll tell you what you are. You're a certain number of pounds of husky muscle and bone going to waste up here in the mountains. You've been alone so much that you've got to thinking that your own hunches come from God, and that 'd spoil any man. "Live alone? Bah! You've had more concentrated since Ruth came into this val- ley than you've ever had before or you'll ever have again. " Right now you're breaking your heart to take her in your arms and tell her to stop crying, but your pride won't let you. " You tried to make yourself a mystery with your room of silence and all that bunk. But no woman can stand a mystery. They all got to read their husband's letters. You try to bluff her with a lot of fancy words and partly scare her. It's fear that sent the four men up here in the first place fear of the world. " And they've lived by fear. They scared a lot of poor black-faces into coming with them for the sake of their souls, they said. And they kept them here the same way. And they've kept you here by telling you that you'd be damned if you went over the mountains. " And you still keep the negroes here the same way. Do you think they stay because they love you? Give them a chance and see if they won't pack up and beat it for their old homes. " Now, show me that you're a man and not a fatheaded bluff. Be a man and ad- mit that what you call the Voice is just your pride. Be a man and take that girl in your arms and tell her you love her. I've made a mess of things; I've ruined her life, and I want to see you give her a chance to be happy. " Because she's not the kind to love more than one man if she lives to be a thousand. Now, David Eden, step out and give yourself a chance!" It had been a gallant last stand on the part of Connor. But he was beaten before he finished, and he knew it. " Are you done?" said David. " I'm through, fast enough. It's up to you!" " Joseph* take the man and his woman out of the Garden of Eden." The last thing that Connor ever saw of David Eden was his back as he closed the door of the Room of Silence upon himself. The gambler went to Ruth. She was dry- eyed by this time, and there was a peculiar blankness in her expression that went to his heart. Secretly he had hoped that his harangue to David would also be a harangue to the girl and make her see through the master of the Garden; but that hope disappeared at once. He stayed a little behind her when they were conducted out of the patio by the grinning Joseph. He helped her gently to her horse, the old gray gelding, and when he was in place on his own horse, with the mule pack behind him, they started for the gate. She had not spoken since they started. At the gate she moved as if to turn and look back, but controlled the impulse and bowed her head once more. Joseph came beside the gambler and stretched out his great palm. In the center of it was the little ivory ape's head which had bought Connor his entrance into the valley and had won the hatred of the big negro, and had, eventually, ruined all his plans. " It was given freely," grinned Joseph, " and it is freelv returned." " Very well." Connor took it and hurled it out of sight along the bowlders beyond the gate. The last thing that he saw of the Garden of Eden and its men was that broad, apelike grin of Joseph, and then he hurried his horse to overtake Ruth, whose gelding had been plodding steadily along the ravine. THE GARDEN OF EDEX. 933 He attempted for the first time to speak to her. " Only a quitter tries to make up for the harm he's done by apologizing. But I've got to tell you the one thing in my life I most regret. It isn't tricking David of Eden, but it's doing what I've done to you. Will you believe me when I say that I'd give a lot to undo what I've done?" She only raised her hand to check him and ventured a faint smile of reassurance. It was the smile that hurt Qonnor to the quick. They left the ravine. They toiled slow- ly up the difficult trail, and even when they had reached such an altitude that the floor of the valley of the Garden was un- rolling behind them the girl never once moved to look back. -So," thought Connor, " she'll go through the rest of her life with her head down, watching the ground in front of her. And this is my work." He was not a sentimentalist, but a lump was forming in his throat when, at the very crest of the mountain, the girl turned sud- denly in her saddle and stopped the gray. " Only makes it worse to stay here," muttered Connor. " Come on, Ruth." But she seemed not to hear him, and there was something in her smile that kept him from speaking again. CHAPTER XXXV. THE NEGROES SIXG. THE Room of Silence had become to David Eden a chamber of horror. The four chairs around him, which had hitherto seemed filled with the ghosts of the four first masters of the Garden, were now empty to his imagination. In this place where he had so often found unfailing con- solation, unfailing counsel, he was now bur-, dened by the squat, heavy walls, and the low ceiling. It was like a prison to him. For all his certainty was gone. " You've made yourself your God," the gambler had said. " Fear made the Garden of Eden, fear keeps the men in it. Do you think the negroes stay for love of you?" Benjamin had proved a sinner, no doubt, but there had been a ring of conviction in his words that remained in the mind of David. How could he tell that the man was not right? Certainly, now that he had once doubted the wisdom of that silent Voice, the mystery was gone. The room was empty; the holiness had departed from the Garden of Eden with the departing of Ruth. He found himself avoiding the thought of her, for whenever her image rose before him it was torture. He dared not even inquire into the de- pression which weighed down his spirits, for he knew that the loss of the girl was the secret of it all. One thing at least was certain: the strong, calming voice which he had so often heard in the Room of Silence, no longer dwelt there, and with that in mind he rose and went into the patio. In a corner, screened by a climbing vine, hung a large bell which had only been rung four times in the history of the Garden of Eden, and each time it was for the death of the master. David tore the green away and struck the bell. The brazen voice crowded the patio and pealed far away, and presently the negroes came. They came in wild-eyed haste, and when they saw David alive before them they stared at him as if at a ghost. " As it was in the beginning," said David when the circle had been formed and hushed, >c death follows sin. Sin has come into the Garden of Eden and the voice of God has died out of it. Therefore the thing for which you have lived here so long is gone. If for love of David, you wish to stay, remain; but if your hearts go back to your old homes, return to them. The wagons and the oxen are yours. All the furnishing of the houses are yours. There is also a large store of money in my chest which Elijah shall divide justly among you. And on your journey Elijah shall lead you, if you go forth, for he is a just man and fit to lead others. Do not answer now, but return to your house and speak to one an- other. Afterward, send one man. If you stay in the Garden he shall tell me. If you depart I shall bid you farewell through him. Begone!" 934 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, They went out soft-footed, as though the master of the Garden had turned into an animal liable to spring on them from be- hind. He smiled as he watched them. What children they were, in spite of their age? Without his orders, how could they be directed? He began to pace up and down the patio, after a time, rather impatiently. No doubt the foolish old men were holding forth at great length. They were appointing the spokesman, and they were framing the speech which he would make to David tell- ing of their devotion to him, whether the spirit was gone or remained. They would remain; and Benjamin's prophecy had been that of a spiteful fool. Yet even if they stayed, how empty the valley would be how hollow of all pleasure! It was at this point in his thoughts that he heard a sound of singing down the hill- side from the house of the servants first a single, thin, trembling voice to which others were added until the song was heartened and grew full and strong. It was a song which David had never heard before. It rang and swung with a peculiarly happy rltythm, growing shriller as the old men seemed to gather their enthusiasm. The words, sung in a thick dialect, were stranger to David than the tune, but as nearly as ihe could make out the song ran as follows: " Oh, Jo, come back from the cold and the stars For the cows they has come to the pasture bars, And the little game chicken's beginning to crow: Come back to us, Jo ; come back to us, Jo ! " He was walkin' in the gyarden in the cool o' the day When He seen my pickaninny in the clover blossoms play. " He was walkin' in the gyarden an' the dew was on His feet When He seen my pickaninny so little an' sweet. " They was flowers in the gyarden, roses, an' such, But the roses an' the pansies, they didn't count for much. " An' He left the clover blossoms fo' the bees the next day An' the roses an' the pansies. but He took Jo away. "Oh, darkies rock yo' cradles, an' darkies sing yo' song. For He walked in the gyarden an' He took Jo along. "Oh, Jo, come back from the cold and the stars For the cows they has 'come to the pasture bars. And the little game chicken has started to crow: Come back to us, Jo; come back to us, Jo!" aft He knew their voices and he knew their songs, but never had David heard his ser- vants sing as they sang this song. Their hymns Were strong and pleasant to the ear, but in this old tune there was a melody and a lilt that brought a lump in his throat. And there was a heart to their singing, so that he almost saw them swaying their shoulders to the melody. It was the writing on the wall for David. Out of that song he built a picture of their old lives, the hot sunshine, the dust, and all the things which Matthew had told him of the slaves and their ways before the time of the making of the Garden. He waited, then, either for their messen- ger or for another song; but he neither saw the one nor heard the other for a consider- able time. An angry pride sustained him in the meantime, in the face of a life alone in the Garden. Far off, he heard the neigh of the grays in the meadow near the gate, and then the clarion clear answer of Glani near the house. He was grateful for that sound. All men, it seemed, were traitors to him. Let them go. He would remain contented with the Eden grays. They would come and go with him like human companions. Better the noble head of Glani near him than the treacherous cun- ning of Benjamin! He accepted his fate, then, not with calm resignation, but with fierce anger against Connor, who had brought this ruin on him, and against the negroes who were preparing to desert him. He could hear plainly the creaking of the great wains as the oxen were yoked to them and they were dragged ,into posi- tion to receive the burdens o c the property they were to take with them into die outer- world. And, in the meantime, he paced through the patio in one of those silent passions which eat at the heart of a man. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 935 He was not aware of the entrance of Elijah. When he saw the old negro, Elijah had fallen on his knees near the entrance to the patio, and every line of his time-dried body expressed the terror of the bearer of bad tidings. David looked at him for a moment in silent rage. " Do you think, Elijah," he said at last, that I shall be so grieved to know that you and the others will leave me and the Garden of Eden? No, no! For I shall be happier alone. Therefore, speak and be done!" Timeh " began the old man faintly. " You have done that last duty, then, Elijah? Timeh is no longer alive?" " The day is still new, David. Twice I went to Timeh, but each time when I was about to lead her away, the neighing of Juri troubled me and my heart failed." "But the third time you remembered my order?" " But the third time there was no third time. When the bell sounded we gathered. Kven the watchers by the gates Jacob and Isaac came and the gate was left unguard- ed Timeh was in the pasture near the gate with Juri and " " They are gone! They have passed through the gate! Call Zacharias and Jo- seph. Let them mount and follow and bring Juri back with the foal!" " Oh, David, my master " What is it now, Elijah, old stammerer? Of all my servants none has cost me so much pain; to none shall I say farewell with so little regret. What is it now? Why do you not rise and call them as I bid you? Do you think you are free before you pass the gates?" David, there are no horses to follow Juri!" "What!" - The God of John and Paul give me strength to tell and give you strength to hear me in patience! When you had spok- en, and the servants went back to speak of the strange things you had said, some of them spoke of the old days before they heard the call and followed to the Garden, and then a song was raised beginning with Zacharias " "Zacharias!" echoed David, softly and fiercely. " Him whom I have favored above the others!" "But while the others sang, I heard a neighing near the gate and I remembered your order and your judgment of Timeh, and I went sorrowfully to fulfill your will. But near the gate I saw the meadow empty of the horses, and while I stood wondering, I heard a chorus of neighing beyond the gate. There was a great answer just be- hind me, and I turned and saw Glani rac- ing at full speed. I called to him, but he did not hear and went on, straight through the pillars of the gate, and disappeared in the ravine beyond. Then I ran to the gate and looked out, but the horses were gone from sight they have left the Garden they are free " " And happy! " said David in a terrible voice. " They, too, have only been held by fear and never by love. Let them go. Let all go which is kept here by fear. Why should I care? I am enough by myself. When all is gone and I am alone the Voice shall return and be my companion. It is well. Let every living thing depart. David is enough unto himself. Go, Elijah! And yet pause before you go!" He went into his. room and came out bearing the heavy chest of money, which he carried to the gate. " Go to your brothers and bid them come for the money. It will make them rich enough in the world beyond the mountains, but to me there is need of no money. Silence and peace is my wish. Go, and let me hear their voices no more, let me not see one face. Ingrates, fools, and traitors! Let them find their old places; I have no regret. Begone!" And Elijah, as one under the shadow of a .raised whip, skulked from the patio and was gone. CHAPTER XXXVI. HUMILITY. THE last quiet began for David. He had heard the sounds of departure. He had heard the rumble of the ox- wains begin and go slowly toward the gate with never the sound of a human voice, 936 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. and he pictured, with a grim satisfaction, remembered what had happened and made the downcast faces and the frightened, himself relax. guilty glances, as his servants fled, conscious There was a great dread before him. that they were betraying their master. It Finally he realized that it was the coming filled him with a sort of sulky content which of the night, and he went into the Room was more painful than sorrow. But before of Silence for the last time to find consola- the sound of the wagons died out the wind tion. The book of Matthew had always blew back from the gate of the Garden a been a means of bringing the consolation thin, joyous chorus of singing voices. They and counsel of the Voice, but when he were leaving him with songs! opened the book he could only think of the He was incredulous for a time. He felt, girl, as she must have leaned above it. How first, a great regret that he had let them had she read? With a smile of mockery go. Then, in an overwhelming wave of or with tears? He closed the book; but righteousness, he determined to dismiss them still she was with him. It seemed that when from his mind. They were gone; but worse he turned in the chair he must find her still, the horses were gone, and the valley waiting behind him and he found himself around him was empty! He remembered growing tense with expectation, his heart the dying prophecy of Abraham, now, as beating rapidly. the stern Elijah had repeated it. He had Out of the Room of Silence he fled as if let the world into the Garden, and the tide a curse lived in it, and without following of the world's life, receding,' would take any conscious direction, he went to the all the life of the Garden away beyond the room of Ruth, mountains among other men. The fragrance had left the wild flowers, The feeling that Connor had been right and the great golden blossoms at the win- beset him: that the four first masters had dow hung thin and limp, the bell lips hang- been wrong, and that they had raised David ing close together, the color faded to a in error. Yet his pride still upheld him. dim yellow. The green things must be That day he went resolutely about the taken away before they molded. He raised routine. He was not hungry, but when the his hand to tear down the transplanted time came he went into the big kitchen and vine, but his fingers fell away from it. To prepared food. It was a place of much remove it was to destroy the last trace of noise. The great copper kettles chimed and her. She had seen these flowers; on ac- murmured whenever he touched them, and count of them she had smiled at him with they spoke to him of the servants who were tears of happiness in her eyes. The skin gone. Half of his bitterness had already of the mountain lion on the floor was still left him and he could remember those days rumpled where her foot had fallen, and he in his childhood when Abraham had told could see the indistinct, outline where the him tales, and Zacharias had taught him heel of her shoe had pressed, how to ride at the price of many a tumble He avoided that place when he stepped from the lofty back of the gentle old mare, back, and turning, he saw her bed. The Yet he set the food on the table in the patio dappled deerskin lay crumpled back where and ate it with steady resolution. Then her hand had tossed it as she rose that he returned to the big kitchen and cleansed morning, and in the blankets was the dis- the dishes. tinct outline of her body. He knew where It was the late afternoon, now, the time her body had pressed, and there was the when the sunlight becomes yellow and loses hollow made by her head in the pillow, its heat, and the heavy blue shadow sloped Something snapped in the heart of David, across the patio. A quiet time. Now and The sustaining pride which had kept his again he found that he was tense with wait- head high all day slipped from him like ing for sounds in the wind of the servants the strength of the runner when he crosses returning for the night from the fields, and the mark. David fell upon his knees and the shrill whinny of the colts coming back buried his face where her head had lain, from the pastures to the paddocks. But he and his arms curved as though around her THE GARDEN" OF EDEN. 937 body. Connor had been right. He had made himself his god, and this was the pun- ishment. The mildness of a new humility came to him in the agony of his grief. He found that he could pray, not the proud prayers of the old days when David talked as an equal to the voice, but that most an- cient prayer of sinners: " O Lord, I believe. Help Thou mine unbelief!" And the moment the whisper had passed his lips there was a blessed relief from pain. There was a sound at the window, and turn- ing to it, he saw the head and the arched neck of Glani against the red of the sunset Glani looking at him with pricked ears. He went to the stallion, incredulous, with steps as short as a child which is afraid, and at his coming Glani whinnied softly. At that the last of David's pride fell from" him. He cast his arms around the neck of the stallion and wept with deep sobs that tore his throat, and under the grip of his arms he felt the stallion trembling. He was calmer, at length, and he climbed through the window and stood beside Glani under the brilliant sunset sky. And the others, O Glani," he said. " Have they returned likewise? Timeh shall live. I, who have judged others so often, have been myself judged and found wanting. Timeh shall live. What am I that I should speak of the life or the death of so much as the last bird in the trees? But have they all returned, all my horses?" He whistled that call which every gray knew as a rallying sound, a call that would bring them at a dead gallop with answer- ing neighs. But when the thin sound of the whistle died out there was no reply. Only Glani had moved away and was look- ing back to David as if he bid the master follow. " Is it so, Glani?" said the master. " They have not come back, but you have returned to lead me to them? The woman, the man, the servants, and the horses. But we shall leave the valley, walking together. Let the horses go, and the man and the woman and the servants; but we shall go forth together and find the world beyond the mountains." (The And with his hand tangled in the mane of the stallion, he walked down the road, away from the hill, the house, the lake. He would not look back, for the house on the hill seemed to him a tomb, the monument of the four dead men who had made this little kingdom. By the time he reached the gate the Gar- den of Eden was awash with the shadows of the evening, but the higher mountain- tops before him were still rosy with the sunset. He paused at the gate and looked out on them, and when he turned to Glani again, he saw a figure crouched against the base of the rock wall. It was Ruth, weep- ing, her head fallen into her hands with weariness. Above her stood Glani, his head turned to the master in almost human in- quiry. The deep cry of David wakened her. The gentle hands of David raised her to her feet. " You have not come to drive me away again?" " To drive you from the Garden? Look back. It is black. It is full of death, and the world and our life is before us. I have been a king in the Garden. It is better to be a man among men. All the Garden was mine. Now my hands are empty. I bring you nothing, Ruth. Is it enough? Ah, my dear, you are weeping! " " With happiness. My heart is breaking with happiness, David." He tipped up her face and held it be- tween his hands. Whatever he saw in the darkness that was gathering it was enough to make him sigh. Then he raised her to the back of Glani, and the stallion, which had never borne a weight except that of David, stood like a stone. So David went up the valley holding the hand of Ruth and looking up to her with laughter in his eyes, and she, with one hand pressed against her breast, laughed back to him, and the great stallion went with his head turned to watch them. " How wonderful are the ways of God ! " said David. " Through a thief he has taught me wisdom; through a horse he has taught me faith; and you, oh, my love, are the key with which he has unlocked my heart! " And they began to climb the mountain, end.) that told them both of the ship's doom. It behooved him to take it. In his heart of hearts he did not question the skipper's per- fect right to call him all the names that did jM^-^r 2 ^ Georde M. A. Cain ff -3 CAPTAIN WAIN'S bloodshot eyes did not mean to punish the mate. He had gave one glance at the thick haze to s to do something. So he swore, eastward and another at the dimly And he inwardly approved of the way seen palm tops of Wa'yau Island. He Crowther took it, with eyes not faltering, turned then on Mr. Crowther, the mate, yet not defiant, with an occasional nod that with a bombardment of seamanlike pro- somehow accepted punishment and awaited fanity that blasted like a typhoon. more as voluntary penance for acknowl- And Mr. Crowther took it straight, rising edged guilt. in its tone and its fierceness, like the wind Then Crowther's eye wavered an instant to the right, toward the head of the stair- way from the deck, behind the skipper's shoulder. And " They were your orders, sir sou'west not belong to him. In fact, he was inward- by south till you came up. I had 'em from ly glad to have the " old man " take it out you myself. I gave 'em to Mr. Hupper, as in swearing. Captain Wain's justice was you said." so tempered with mercy that, if he so far The flimsiness of the excuse rightly raised forgot himself as to curse a subordinate, he Captain Wain's fury. He had said he repented eventually and refrained from in- would be back on the bridge within an fiicting other penalties. And Crowther hour of the beginning of the afternoon knew he deserved other penalties. watch. They had let him sleep; there was In his own way Captain Wain was al- no reason why he shouldn't have slept, ready figuring the matteV out as Crowtiher Crowther had his own master's license, and 'did. The windward coast of Wa'yau should have known enough to shift the Island is as mean a spot in a blow -as the course. Pacific Ocean owns. They were facing The actual facts Wain could guess as death. It was no time for swearing. well as Crowther knew them. Crowther Morally, Captain Wain would have felt had been enjoying the afternoon watch so more justified in shooting Crowther. But well he had not wished to give it up, so the law would not let him do that; and well that he had forgotten or neglected to something else was hindering him from niake his own shift in the course, doing the things the law would allow. He The name of the cause of the joy sprang 938 I I I I d i \ ) ) . *THESE are the ties * for boys, for young men and for men of later years the ties to make you look jour neatest for a 'very modest neckvjear cost. Those Whose Ties Must Give Gootf Wear and yet look well over the entire period, we know of no better investment than Cheney Tubulars. they're neat they tie easily they have no lining to become displaced they never lose their shape they look like new after pressing. Made by CHENEY BROTHERS, NEW YORK Makers of Cheney Silh \ Insist that Your Dealer SAow Them lo You <, ~*c~^"a^^ ~~*era* tf)fe offer too goob to be true? Is it possible that we are offering a value too great to be credible ? Do people shy at the thought of getting too much for their money P WE recently mailed several thousand cir- culars to booklovers. We described and pictured these thirty volumes of the Little Leather Library honestly, sincerely, ac- curately. But we received relatively few orders. Then we mailed several more thousand cir- culars to booklovers, this time enclosing a sample cover of one of the volumes illustrated below. Orders came in by the hundred! The reason, we believe, is that most people can not believe we can really offer so great a value unless they see a sample! In this advertisement, naturally, it is im- possible for us to show you a sample volume. The best we can do is to describe and picture the books in the limited space on this page and to hope you will believe what we say, instead of thinking this offer is " too good to be true." What This Offer Is Here then is our offer. The illustration below shows thirty of the world's greatest masterpieces of literature. These include the finest works of such im- mortal authors as Shake- speare, Kipling, Stevenson, Emerson, Poe, Coleridge, Burns, Omar Khayyam. Macaulay, Lincoln, Wash- ington, Oscar Wilde, Gil- bert, Longfellow, Drum- mond, Conan Doyle, Ed- ward Everett Hale, Thor- eau, Tennyson, Browning, and others. These are books which no one cares to con- fess he has not read. ful limp material, tinted in antique .copper and green, and so handsomely embossed that even experts often mistake it for hand-tooled leather. And, though the entire set contains over 3,000 pages, the price is only $2.98 (plus postage). How is this made possible? Simply by printing in editions of almost one million at a time. We know, from our daily mail, that many thousands of people still cannot believe we can sell 30 such volumes for $2.98 (plus postage). We do not know how to combat this skepti- cism. All we can say is: send for these 30 vol- umes; if you are not satisfied, return them at any time within a month and you will not be out one periny. Send No Money No description, to these books. Each of these volumes is complete. The paper is a high-grade white wove an- tique; the type is clear and easy to read; the binding not leather but a beauti- FREE! Four volumes of Kipling. If you will order at once instead of waiting To those of as who have been forced to lead drab, work- aday lives, Kipling opens up a new world the vivid, colorful world of the East. These four volumes include bis best work. Among them are the following: The Vampire and Other Verses ; The Man Who Was ; The Phantom Rickshaw ; A Conference of the Cowers ; The Recrudescence of Imray ; At the End of the Passage ; The Mutiny of the Mavericks: My Own True Ghost Story. no illustration, can do justice They are an unprecedented value at this price. You must see them, and we are anxious to have you do so not at your risk, but at ours. We will send you the entire set on trial with the 4 volumes of Kipling free. When the package arrives, pay the postman $2.98 plus the postage. Then examine the books and the set of Kip- ling. Your money will be returned at any time within thirty days, for any reason or for NO reason, If you request it. As to \>ur responsibility, we r >fr you to the Industrial Bank of New York or to any magazine or newspaper In the United States. LITTLE LEATHER LIBRARY CORP'N, Dept. 6511, 354 Fourth Avenue, New York. Little Leather Library Corporation Dept. 6511 354 Fourth Ave. New York City Please send me on ap- proval the SO volumes of the De Luxe edition of the Little Leather Library (and the four volumes of Kipling free.) I will pay the postman 12.98 plus the postage upon deliv- ery. It is understood, however, that this Is not to be considered a purchase. If the books do not in every way come up to expectations. Ire- serve the right to return them any time within thirty days, and you agree to return my money. It Is under- stood that $2.98 plus the postage Is positively the only payment to be made on this set. Name .............. . ......................... Address ...................................... City State The Roycrofters have made a special set of Hand Hammered Copper Book >:nds to fit ibis set. Regular $2.00 value ; our Dii only 98c. If desired place X In this square I I TKK MUNBEY PRESS, SEW YOKK