Honoré Willsie

“ She took a chair opposite him, gamely ordered a cup of the vile coffee and said, “How’s Red Wolf?”
“Fair. He’ll be crawling around in a week. The recuperative power of these Indians is marvelous.”
“And what’s the final answer?”
Lines of pain suddenly appeared in Hugh’s face. “Mrs. Ellis, I don’t want to go into politics. I am a man with a single ambition, whose chosen vocation satisfies that ambition to its depths. I believe that I can save the Old Sioux Tract without going into politics, and I’m going to try. ”

“ Pink turned Fort Sioux upside down for several days in his search for the gray stallion.
Curiously enough to the eastern mind, the episode of the disappearance of the horse served to rouse to active dislike what before had been only resentment about Hugh’s stand on the Thumb Butte dam site. A plainsman even of the second or third generation has a peculiar attitude toward horse flesh. On the average, he is rather hard on horses. ”

“ Evidently, neither you nor Hughie has the slightest conception of the foresight and will-power it requires for a woman to come up from dish-washing to my position!”
“O yes we have!” Hughie spoke grimly. “That’s why we are both determined to shift for ourselves. We don’t want to get under the chariot wheels.” ”

“ He pulled a list of the names of the Public Utilities Commission from his pocket and read it through. “And of course, you know, Governor Eli,” he added, “that your own name is always mentioned as the leader of the gang.”
The older man pulled himself slowly to his feet. He leaned far over his desk, his face white with anger. “Young man,” he said, “you’ve got more courage than you have sense. My advice to you is to go back to Fort Sioux, and to go back quick.”
“And my advice to you,” returned Hugh, steadily, “is to help me save the Old Sioux Tract.”
“You nameless fool!” ”

“ Then at a sudden pricking of memory, he laughed, “Ah, I have you placed now, Stewart. Bookie’s will!” He pressed a button and a secretary appeared. “Anderson, bring me in the clipping containing Bookie Smith’s will. You recall that I made a dinner speech for the Elks about it?”
The secretary nodded, and Governor Eli turned back to Hugh. “The will was exactly like Bookie. He didn’t like to have a fossil-digging nephew, eh?”
“I’m afraid I was a great disappointment to the dear old man,” said Hugh slowly. “I was sorry, but, after all, there are things a man must decide for himself.” ”

“ He suddenly twisted his long brown hands together and added, as if he were alone. “Life, so unimportant and of such staggering moment to each of us.”
Governor Eli scowled. Hugh caught the scowl, and again his gray eyes darkened.
“So you will not help me, Governor Eli?”
The Governor pressed the desk button furiously. To the secretary who appeared immediately he said, “Mr. Stewart has finished this and any other interview with me.”
“Well,” sighed Hugh, “it’s too bad.” And he followed Anderson from the room. ”

“ Jessie has changed and grown. Life has strange ways of forcing us to develop our better selves. I didn’t say anything about the interview except as Jessie was going to suggest that if she’d had the loyalty to you in years gone by that she had now, things might have been different. ”

“ Stewart. I like you so much that I hate to see you break your heart against that gang at Cheyenne. But I believe it’s best that you do so. And when they have finished with you, you send for me to come down to The Lariat to look at your spring line of books. And I’ll come. In the meantime, I’m going to do one thing for you. I’m going to get my brother to hold up the granting of the charter for a month or so. He’s on the Commission. I can’t get more than that out of him, though.”
Hugh looked at Mrs. Ellis keenly. She must have been very beautiful as a girl. ”