Under Handicap | Page 5

the smile which he knew to be irresistible.
The girl turned from gazing out the window, and her eyes met his, very
clear and very much amused.
"Very warm," she smiled back at him. Even then he had a faint fear that
she was not so much smiling as laughing. "The surprising thing is how
well things keep, is it not?"
"Ah--yes," he murmured, not entirely confident, and still dropping into
a chair at her side. "You mean--"
"How fresh some things keep!"
Roger Hapgood's pink little face went violently red.
"I say!" he began. "I didn't mean any offense. I thought--"
"Oh, that's all right," she laughed, gaily. "No offense whatever. Will

you please open that window for me?"
His face became normally pink again as he hastened to throw up the
window in front of her. His eyelid fluttered downward as he met the
regard of a couple of men facing them. Then he came back to her side.
"Thank you," she smiled sweetly up at him. And she held out her hand.
He didn't know what she wanted to do that for, but had a confused idea
that in the free and easy spirit of the West she was going to shake hands.
The next thing which he realized clearly was that she had dropped a
shining ten-cent piece into his palm.
"Oh, look here," he stammered, only to be interrupted by her voice, a
gurgle of suppressed mirth in it.
"I'm sorry that that's all I have in change! And now, if you will hand me
that magazine--I want to read!"
Roger Hapgood fumbled with the dime and dropped it. He swept up the
magazine from a near-by chair and held it out to her. As he did so he
caught a glimpse of the faces of the two men at whom he had winked
so knowingly, heard one of them break into loud, hearty laughter.
Dropping the magazine to her lap, the lavender young man, with what
dignity he could command, marched back to the smoking-car.
A few minutes later Greek Conniston, returning to the smoking-car,
found his friend pinching his smooth cheek thoughtfully and frowning
out the window. He dropped into his chair, deep in thought. In the brief
interval he had taken his resolution, plunging, as was his careless
nature, after the first impulse. The girl had interested him; he did not
yet realize how much. She came aboard the train without bag or
baggage. Certainly she could not be going far. And he--it didn't matter
in the least where he went. All that he had to do was to keep out of his
father's way until the old man cooled down, and then to wire for money.
His ticket read to San Francisco, but he had no desire to go there rather
than to any other place. And he told himself that he had a sort of
curiosity about this bleak, monotonous desert land.

An hour later the train ran into another little clutter of buildings and
drew up, puffing, at the station. Conniston's eyes were alert, fixed upon
the passageway from the observation-car rather than on the view from
his window. Mail-bags were tossed on and off, a few packages handled
by the Wells Fargo man, and the train pulled out. Conniston leaned
back with a sigh.
"Roger," he said, at last, "I've got a proposition to make."
"Well?"
"Let's drop off at one of these dinky towns and see what it's like. I've a
notion we might find something new."
"That's a real joke, I suppose?"
"Not at all," maintained Conniston. "I'm going to do it. Are you with
me?"
Hapgood sat bolt upright.
"Are you crazy, man!" he cried, sharply.
Conniston shrugged. "Why not? You've never seen anything but city
life and the summer-resort sort of thing any more than I have. It would
be a lark."
"Excuse me! I guess I'm something of a fool for having chased clean
across the continent, but I'm not the kind of fool that's going to pick a
place like this sand-pile to drop off in!"
"All right, old man. Nobody's asking you to if you feel that way."
Hapgood waited as long as he could for Conniston to go on, and when
there came no further information he asked, incredulously:
"You don't mean that, do you, Greek? You don't intend to stop off all
alone out here in this rotten wilderness?"

"Yes, I do. If you won't stop with me."
"But how about me? What am I to do? Here I am--busted! What do you
think I'm going to do?"
"You can go on to San Francisco if you like. You can have half of what
I've got left--or you can drop off with me."
Hapgood argued and exploded and sulked by turns. In