The Delafield Affair

oked across the wide, greenish-gray New Mexican plateau stretching far to east and south and west. It was dotted here and there with little groups of grazing

ain in a straight line to the pond across the road

Summer, unless there's more rain than there was last. It's awful to see the poor brutes dropping in their tracks. I'll begin looking for a job in a wetter country if this Summer doesn't bring mo

a horseman, as if he had sprung suddenly from the depths of the earth. Through the heat that wavered over the plain his horse's legs drew out into long, knobby sticks, an

pond trail, just where it crosses

they

gh-will be

His mind still lingered over the calf. "Poor little devil, it ought to have a chance," he was thinking, when

skulking along the draw this afternoon. You and Red Jack'd better go down now and put the cows out of their misery.

they were Delafield's attorneys!" He tore open the envelope with an impatient jerk and the rushing wind almost blew from his fingers t

d in at his house-gate and he hastened forward, a lean, lo

ll bet you are! And you know we've got the best water in Silverside County here. How much better your da

t of your memory and make you forget even your own name!" Her father suddenly turned away and began to hitch the horses. He sent back a covert glance at her as she stood at Conrad's si

on under her chin. Bancroft came back, explaining that they had driven since mid-forenoon from the base of Mangan's Peak, and asking if Conrad did not think they had made pretty good time with their new team of horses. Curtis looked t

made a square of welcome green. Lucy Bancroft exclaimed with delight as they entered the tiny yard, stepping mincingly acr

alk on it. I never saw anything so lovely as this little lawn and this beautiful big green tree, after our long rid

nd pleasure there can be in a few blades of grass. When I come in from a long ride and look at this little c

ll with outside doors looking toward the east and some with additional doors into the corral. A bare adobe yard sloping eastward was bordered by a trickling stream of water along which grew some willows and cottonwoods. Beyond it spread a golden-green field of young alfalfa, and beyond that the greenish-gray plain stretched to the far horizon. Across the front of the house was a narrow wooden porch, and house and porch, walls and sheds, were all a dazzling w

party of Spanish explorers, because they had come unexpectedly upon the pure waters when they were almost dead from thirst. At the housekeeper's suggestion Lucy went into the next room to lie down for a half-hour's rest before they should start for th

de a good sheriff and he ought to have the office again. I shall do all I can to have him renominated and to help e

t. "He can bring out more votes than any other man we can put up. I

e him, anyway. I can't stomach him any lo

u know you can never see any good in a man you dislike, and you to

wasn't. I know he's a friend of yours, but that doesn't prevent him from being the worst scoundrel in the whol

with Dell Baxter financially ever since I located in this part o

he chance and thinks it worth while. He's had his finger in every crooked scheme that's bee

miling calmly, "to accuse a man in that wholesale way when you h

. But why does he keep those Mexican thugs hanging around him if it isn't to use them for things he wouldn't dare do himself? Why, I heard from Santa Fe

gress again. If he gets the nomination and the other side puts up Joh

's a Me

an. He won't be a disgrace to the Territory in Wash

to your bad opinion of a man, is there, Curt, if he once gets into your disf

little influence I may have, and I'll do with both of 'em just what I damn please. And if it came to a sho

he little pile of letters and papers he had just received. On the top lay the Tremper & Tow

ad in it a subtle, persuasive quality. "Dear daddy!" she whispered softly, her heart warm with affection. Then the new, sharp edge in Conrad's tone gripped her attention and sent her eyes flying open. Wide awake o

hen that I almost forget it, unless somebody reminds me. I haven'

t it's no wonder some of 'em lose their names every once in a while and have to pick up 'most anything that comes handy. I'm no exception, though I've

long ago that I forget the details. Skipped, didn't he, with a lot of fu

responded: "Jump nothing! except to get out of reach of his creditors! He's alive yet and making money somewhere, and I mean to find him! I've got a particular in

s they met his companion's excited gaze. Smiling slightly, he replied, "What has he done to

ody else, he gave the man his entire confidence. You remember, of course, how Delafield came to the top as a regular young Napoleon of business, and soon made a reputation as one of the big financiers. When he turned up missing one fine morning, and it was found that the bottom had dropped out of everything, most people believed he had killed himself. But he hadn't, I happen to know, and he's still alive. Well, my father had been so influenced by Delafield-the fellow must have b

ave it until I run him into his hole. Then I'm going to stand him up and call him to his face all he deserves; and give him a gun, so he can have a

er tones had set her nerves to vibrating until her body was a-tremble. At his last sentence Curtis brought his fist down on the table with a crash that almost s

round-up's coming, and I reckon he knows it. For to-day I got a letter from Tremper & Townsend of Boston, who settled up his affairs after his disappearance, enclosing a ch

to Conrad with a quizzical smile, he said: "Well, Curt, doesn't that rather take the edge off your purpose? Why are you still shaking your gory lock

t on the scent and he wants to buy me off-that's all that check means. It's not the loss of the money that sticks in my craw; it's the deviltry he worked years ago. Whenever I

e and filling her lungs and making her forget everything but her own joy in being alive. She rubbed her eyes, smoothed her face, and forced herself to smile at the reflection in the mi

is man is desperate he might try to head you off by the same means. And you couldn't exactly blame him for objecting to being shot in his tracks, or for taking measures to keep

she opened the door. "Come in, dear. Hav

utifully, and I'm ready to start

California in whose cellars it had lain for twenty years, and that it would be a good tonic for Miss Bancroft. The fri

the face she gasped for breath and her slender body swayed in its rushing current. She grasped her wide hat bri

t to dance when I've been out in a wind like this for a minute or two." She took half a dozen dancing steps across the little lawn. "And they are so p

That is a beautiful theory, Miss Bancroft, but I'm afraid it doesn't pan out much in practice. It rather seems to me that most people who come to New Mexico have that sort of thing blo

you may make all the fun you like of my little pet theory, Mr. Conrad.

relief, as he went on eagerly: "I'm glad you're pleased with us and our winds, so that you'll want to stay. I

th him all the time. You see, when my dear mother died five years ago, father put me in a boarding-school, and afterward sent me to Chicago for a year to study music, and there I had that attack of typhoid fever that came so near to killing me. But I'm here with

her shoulder; "you are doing bravely, Lucy. You'll soon

she can rope a steer. If you're going to be such an enthusiastic New Mexican you'll have to learn tricks

twinkling and the dimples dancing in and out of her cheeks. "We'll come out, won

wonder if I said too much about Delafield. That check had wound me up and I sure talked more than I meant to." Long hours of solitude out-of-doors with only a silent plain around him and a silent sky above are likely to make a man so yearn for the sound of a huma

ed and a good friend of mine. No, she didn't hear me-that's sure. How pretty she is when her eyes twinkle and her dimples come and go! I hope that wine will come in time for me to take her a

very same person we're after, though he's been working it from the other end. If I'm right about it, the man we want is now some prominent and respected citi

a skunk!" Conrad exclaimed

emble his satisfaction, so I'm sure it is of value to him. But not even firewater would make him give up anything more. However, I feel pretty sure that he either knows already who Delafield is

this very night and I'll find out who Delafield is from Jenkins, if I have to choke the life out of him to do it. God!" His vengeful desire glowed like a blue