The Texan | Page 9

the two gleaming rails vanished into
the distance. "He must be impractical, and human, and--and elemental.
I'd rather be smashed to pieces in the Grand Canyon, than live for ever
on the Erie Canal!"
"Aren't you rather unconventional in your tastes----?"
"If I'm not, I'm a total failure! I hate conventionality! And lines of least
resistance! And practical things! It is the men who are the real sticklers
for convention. The same kind of men that follow the lines of least
resistance and build their railroads along them--because it is practical!
"I don't see why you want to marry me!" she burst out resentfully. "I'm
not conventional, nor practical. And I'm not a line of least resistance!"
"But I love you. I have always loved you, and----"
The girl interrupted him with a quick little laugh, which held no trace
of resentment. "Yes, yes, I know. I believe you do. And I'm glad
because really, Winthrop, you're a dear. There are lots of things about
you I admire. Your teeth, and eyes, and the way you wear your clothes.
If you weren't so terribly conventional, so cut and dried, and matter of
fact, and safe, I might fall really and truly in love with you. But--Oh, I
don't know! Here I am, twenty-three. And I suppose I'm a little fool and
have never grown up. I like to read stories about knights errant, and
burglars, and fair ladies, and pirates, and mysterious dark
oriental-looking men. And I like to go to places where everybody don't

go--only Dad won't let me and---- Why just think!" she exclaimed in
sudden wrath, "I've been in California for three months and I've ridden
over the same trails everybody else has ridden over, and motored over
the same roads and climbed the same mountains, and bathed at the
same beach, and I've met everybody I ever knew in New York, just as I
would have met them in Newport or Palm Beach or in Paris or Venice
or Naples for that matter!"
"But why go off the beaten track where everything is arranged for your
convenience? These people are experienced travellers. They know that
by keeping to the conventional routes-----"
"Winthrop Adams Endicott, if you say that word again I'll shriek! Or
I'll go in from this platform and not speak to you again--ever! You
know very well that there isn't a traveller among them. They're just
tourists--professional goers. They do the same things, and say the same
things, and if they could think, they'd think the same things every place
they go. And I don't want things arranged for my convenience--so
there!"
Winthrop Adams Endicott lighted a cigarette, brushed some white dust
from his sleeve, and smiled.
"If I were a man and loved a girl so very, very much I wouldn't just sit
around and grin. I'd do something!"
"But, my dear Alice, what would you have me do? I'm not a knight
errant, nor a burglar, nor a pirate, nor a dark mysterious oriental--I'm
just a plain ordinary business man and----"
"Well, I'd do something--even if it was something awful like getting
drunk or shooting somebody. Why, if you even had a past you wouldn't
be so hopeless. I could love a man with a past. It would show at least,
that he hadn't followed the line of the least resistance. The world is full
of canals--but there are only a few canyons. Look! I believe we're
stopping! Oh, I hope it's a hold-up! What will you do if it is?" The train
slowed to a standstill and Winthrop Adams Endicott leaned out and
gazed along the line of the coaches.

"There is a little town here. Seems to be some commotion up
ahead--quite a crowd. If I can get this blamed gate open we can go up
and see what the trouble is."
"And if you can't get it open you can climb over and lift me down. I'm
just dying to know what's the matter. And if you dare to say it wouldn't
be conventional I'll--I'll jump!"
CHAPTER II
WOLF RIVER
A uniformed flagman, with his flag and a handful of torpedoes swung
from the platform and started up the track.
"What's the trouble up in front?" asked the girl as Endicott assisted her
to the ground.
"Cloud busted back in the mountains, an' washed out the trussle, an'
Second Seventy-six piled up in the river."
"Oh, a wreck?" she exclaimed. "Will we have time to go up and see it?"
"I'd say it's a wreck," grinned the trainman. "An' you've got all the time
you want. We're a-goin' to pull in on the sidin' an' let the wrecker an'
bridge crew at it. But even with 'em a-workin' from both ends it'll be
tomorrow sometime 'fore they c'n get them box