Desert Gold Read Online Free PDF

piercing eyes, the tall, slender, loosely jointed bodies, the quiet, easy, reckless air that seemed to be a part of the men—these things would plainly have stamped them as cowboys without the buckled sombreros, the colored scarfs, the high-topped, high-heeled boots with great silver-roweled spurs. Gale did not fail to note, also, that these cowboys wore guns, and this fact was rather a shock to his idea of the modern West. It caused him to give some credence to the rumors of fighting along the border, and he felt a thrill.
    He satisfied his hunger in a restaurant adjoining, and as he stepped back into the saloon a man wearing a military cape jostled him. Apologies from both were instant. Gale was moving on when the other stopped short as if startled, and, leaning forward, exclaimed:
    â€œDick Gale?”
    â€œYou’ve got me,” replied Gale, in surprise. “But I don’t know you.”
    He could not see the stranger’s face, because it was wholly shaded by a wide-brimmed hat pulled well down.
    â€œBy Jove! It’s Dick! If this isn’t great! Don’t you know me?”
    â€œI’ve heard your voice somewhere,” replied Gale. “Maybe I’ll recognize you if you come out from under that bonnet.”
    For answer the man, suddenly manifesting thought of himself, hurriedly drew Gale into the restaurant, where he thrust back his hat to disclose a handsome, sunburned face.
    â€œGeorge Thorne! So help me—”
    â€œâ€™S-s-ssh. You needn’t yell,” interrupted the other, as he met Gale’s outstretched hand. There was a close, hard, straining grip. “I must not be recognized here. There are reasons. I’ll explain in a minute. Say, but it’s fine to see you! Five years, Dick, five years since I saw you run down University Field and spread-eagle the whole Wisconsin football team.”
    â€œDon’t recollect that,” replied Dick, laughing. “George, I’ll bet you I’m gladder to see you than you are to see me. It seems so long. You went into the army, didn’t you?”
    â€œI did. I’m here now with the Ninth Cavalry. But—never mind me. What’re you doing way down here? Say, I just noticed your togs. Dick, you can’t be going in for mining or ranching, not in this God-forsaken desert?”
    â€œOn the square, George, I don’t know anymore why I’m here than—than you know.”
    â€œWell, that beats me!” ejaculated Thorne, sitting back in his chair, amaze and concern in his expression. “What the devil’s wrong? Your old man’s got too much money for you ever to be up against it. Dick, you couldn’t have gone to the bad?”
    A tide of emotion surged over Gale. How good it was to meet a friend—someone to whom to talk! He had never appreciated his loneliness until that moment.
    â€œGeorge, how I ever drifted down here I don’t know. I didn’t exactly quarrel with the governor. But—damn it, Dad hurt me—shamed me, and I dug out for the West. It was this way. After leaving college I tried to please him by tackling one thing after another that he set me to do. On the square, I had no head for business. I made a mess of everything. The governor got sore. He kept ramming the harpoon into me till I just couldn’t stand it. What little ability I possessed deserted me when I got my back up, and there you are. Dad and I had a rather uncomfortable half hour. When I quit—when I told him straight out that I was going West to fare for myself, why, it wouldn’t have been so tough if he hadn’t laughed at me. He called me a rich man’s son—an idle, easygoing, spineless swell. He said I didn’t even have character enough to be out-and-out bad. He said I didn’t have sense enough to marry one of the nice girls in my sister’s crowd. He said I couldn’t earn a dollar—that I’d starve out West, and couldn’t