Lost Pueblo (1992) Read Online Free PDF

all the young people today. It may be that they are too advanced for us of the older generation to understand. It might be that something wonderful will come of such a paradox. But I can't see it, and my problem is to check Janey's mad career... Ha!--Ha!"
    "If I may presume to advise you, Mr. Endicott, you are undertaking a perfectly impossible task," said Randolph.
    "No! Why, Phil, I am sometimes damn fool enough to believe Janey might do all I ask just because she loves me. I know she does. But I always put things to her in a way that makes her furious. So I've quit it... This is my last card--my trump."
    "This?" asked Randolph, with curiosity.
    "This trip, and the plan I've decided upon. Here it is! I'm going to marry Janey to you."
    There was an absolute blank silence. Janey felt what a shock this must have been to Randolph. It was no less a shock to her.
    "Now--now I know what's the matter," said Randolph, finally, in a queer voice.
    "What?"
    "You really are out of your mind!"
    "Well, that may be," returned Endicott, with good humor. "But I'll stand by my guns. I've sense enough to understand that you will at first indignantly refuse such a proposition. Won't you?"
    "I certainly do," replied Randolph, bluntly.
    "Randolph, no young man who knew and loved Janey could refuse for any other reason than he thought it preposterous... That she didn't care two straws for him?"
    "Exactly. In my case one straw."
    "The only weakness in my proposition is the hope, the dream, that Janey might love you someday. You must remember I know her as I knew her mother. Janey, too, is capable of the most extraordinary things."
    "It surely would be that for her to--to--Oh, Endicott, the idea is ridiculous," returned Randolph, beginning in bitterness and ending in anger.
    "Hear me out. If you don't I'll think you, too, are just like the rest of this generation... I base my hopes on this. Janey likes you--respects you. She makes all manner of fun of you, but underneath it there's something deep. At least it's deep enough to keep her from adding your scalp to her belt... You'll forgive me, Phil, for saying that any fancy-free girl would learn to care for you--under favorable circumstances."
    "What are they?" queried the archaeologist.
    "Never mind details. But I mean the things that make a man. I'll swear I don't believe Janey has ever met a real man... Well, to go on. I save my conscience in this case by believing she could care for you. And my plan is simply to give Janey a terrific jar--and then nature, with such a favorable start, will do the rest."
    "Believe me, it would have to be a terrific jar, all right," said Randolph, with another of his resonant laughs.
    "Believe me, it is. And it's simply this. Be as nice as pie to Janey. Then at an opportune time just throw her on a horse and pack her off to one of your ruins in the desert. Kidnap her! Keep her out there a little while--scare her half to death--let her know what it is to be uncomfortable, hungry, helpless. Then fetch her back. She'd have to marry you. I would insist upon it... Then we'd all be happy."
    "Mr. Endicott, the only sane remark you've made is that epithet you applied to yourself a few moments ago."
    "It is a most wonderful opportunity. You are ambitious. This would make you."
    "No."
    "I will make you a most substantial settlement. You will be independent for life. You can follow up your archaeological work for the love of it. You--"
    "No!"
    "Now, Phil, I can apply that epithet to you. May I ask why you refuse?"
    "You--I--Oh, hell!... Endicott, it's because I really love Janey. I couldn't think of myself in such a case. If I did I'd--I'd be as weak as water... Why, Janey would hate me."
    "Don't be so sure of that," replied Endicott, sagely. "You can't ever tell about a woman. It's a gamble, of course. But you have the odds. Be a good sport, Phil. Even if you lose you'll have gained an experience that You'll remember a lifetime."
    "Mr. Endicott, you're taking advantage of human