We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
The Aryan
245
him to let no harm come to her friends in the valley. Steve grasped the girl in his arms, and bitter words tumbled from his lips. But Mary did not tremble. Instead
''Coward !" she cried, and, reaching under his arm, plucked out his gun.
He dropped back from her, his hands by his sides.
''Shoot!" he said bitterly. "I deserve it."
What she said to him in response, Steve has no clear remembrance. It seemed to him she was driving home the word "Aryan" with emphatic repetition.
Within the next hour came the miracle— the resurrection of the soul of Steve Denton. He heard screams and laughter, and, looking out, saw the nesters of the valley being herded up the trail.
Suddenly he turned to the girl, a strange light flaming in his eyes. "You call me an Aryan, and I'll show you that you're right !" he exclaimed, and, grasping the revolver from her, sprang out to the defense of his race.
There was a fight. Two or three of the outlaws had the hardihood to dispute his authority. Steve could easily have killed them, for he had a wellearned reputation as a marksman. But for some reason4 he contented himself with "winging them" — rendering their shooting arms useless.
There followed a parley, at the end
of which the mine was formally transferred from Steve Denton to Mexican Pete, his second in command, with the understanding that the homesteaders were to be given food and shelter as long as they wished.
And Steve joined the homesteaders. Steve declares this is the most astounding event in his life story. Many years have gone since then, but the memory of his setting out down the trail, hand in hand with Mary Jane Garth, is still vivid. He doesn't try to analyze his feelings or explain why he, the owner of a wealthy mine, should have given it away because a girl insisted that he was an Aryan despite his dark record. He is content simply to dwell on the eternally amazing fact that the girl became his wife and that she still puts her whole trust and confidence in. him.
Mary was a pretty forceful little person, as Steve admits, and she made the reclamation of Trixie her first enterprise. This accomplished, she was the prime mover in an agitation that brought law into Devil's Hole and made it a city of progress and morals instead of a den of vice.
There are two Steve Dentons now ; one of them a chubby, sober-eyed youngster who will some day understand why his father is so persistent in making the boy proud of the fact that he is an Aryan.
THE LAWYER WHO LOST HIMSELF
H
E struck his brow ; he staggered backImpassioned was this barrister.
He heard a cry ; his soul grew black. "Hey, there, it's joy you register !'
E. L.