Austin Hall

“ Most any man can be talked into good humor if you just know how. I’d like the chance of subduing a real horse thief, bare-handed.”
Certainly she was subduing Billy. The cowboy was ready to give up his homestead; but he wanted, first, to get at the motive of Holman. Surely the big man must have known that Billy would return at the expiration of his leave of absence. Low as he held him he did not think that the cattle king would stoop so low as to deceive this girl. Perhaps—the thought startled—perhaps he had been able to so manipulate the land office that the land had been thrown open to entry. ”

“ When they were gone Billy turned to Arthur Ross.
“Go up and tell Jennie to come down and start her dream on a real piece of land. Tell her I want her to pardon me for switching papers on her while she was looking at her pies. And thank her for that piece of pie.”
And when Arthur Ross was gone he took a stub pencil from his pocket and wrote upon the side of the pump house:
Where there’s more of singing and less of sighing,
Where there’s more of giving, and less of buying,
Where a man makes friends without half trying,
That’s where the West begins. ”

“ The Mexicans and Sweeny did not come back. When a man of Magee’s social standing flourishes a gun lingering ceases to be a healthy pastime. He could see their dim forms, mere dots, disappearing toward the ranch house. The sun was going down, so he led his pony to the stack, picked out a cove between two piles of alfalfa and stabled him securely by pitching a mass of hay about the opening. Then he climbed the stack and waited for the moon.
For Billy was not quite as mad as he seemed ”

“ I thought you were a real cowboy!”
“Best cowboy ever was,” grinned Billy. “Do you test them all with apple pies? Better not let it be known. I know about a million cow-punchers who’d be standing in line.”
“I’ll just bet that you could eat a whole pie,” she teased.
“I’m not going to call you,” returned the man. “We’ll split the pot. Cut one in half and we’ll go evens. There now—I’ll take this one and start over in this corner.”
“All right,” she answered. “You start over there—where the West begins!”
There’s a time that comes to every man when he meets a girl on an even footing. ”

“ Billy had business with Holman. He spoke to his pinto:
“Pinhead,” said Billy Magee, “we have lost our homestead. We ain’t clever enough to deceive a lady. But we ain’t babes yet, either. You an’ me is goin’ to raise tarnation with Mr. Holman.”
Then he struck out across the country, straight down the section line toward the irrigated belt that was the patented domain of the Holman Land and Water Company. There was a road that ran through the desert parallel to the belt of green. When Billy came to this road he stopped. A black object was coming toward him—a man on horseback. ”

“ When they were out of danger they stood up on their feet and disappeared toward the ranch house.
Billy straightened and took a good look. If his simple plan was working it ought to be coming to fruition. Sure enough he made out a dot approaching in the distance, a fast-moving dot that could be nothing other than a machine. The car came straight to the gate that Billy had entered the previous afternoon and drew up at the pump house. Billy climbed down from the stack. A man stepped from the automobile. ”

“ Yes, that’s it. That piece of paper is the homestead entry of Jennie Ross—section twenty, southeast quarter, range twenty-six, Mount Diablo meridian, which happens to be this identical and specified piece of alfalfa. This is government land, Mr. Holman, even if you did happen to have it covered up. It was open for entry and belonged to any one who would properly file on it and live up to the conditions specified by the government. Arthur Ross discovered it on the books at the land office and Jennie Ross filed on it. Not only that; but they secured a surveyor to direct them to the land. ”

“ I want to pay taxes and be a real citizen.”
“You won’t relinquish?”
“Not to-day—nor to-morrow.”
The big man thought a bit; and frowned; then to relieve his feelings he pulled a black cigar from his pocket and lighted it. ”