Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-03-01
eff it's ONLY food and shelter and

II It's O1ly lOOu anu SuellcI anu
clothes for your back, Big Louie, you'll
not have to worry. But I'm not prom
Using either, mind, that there'll be easy
money to blow on white whisky: Were
you expecting any,
That brain which could cope with
but one idea at a time was fertile
ground for seed which such a one as
Harrigan might SOW. Big Louie fail
ed to reply. He sat quiet, deep in
thought, when Stephen O'Mara closed
the door noiselessly behind him.
1t was minutes after Steve had gone
back up the hill before Garry Dever-
eau reached out a hand in the dark
ness and touched, eXperimentally, what
had seemed to be only a shapeless
black blotch at the edge of light,
rod or two from the door And in
stantly at his touch the shadow was
galvanized into life. 1t reared and
plunged and enveloped the slighter
man in a crushing embrace and bore
him over backward. With the muZzle
of a revolver chatting his ear Garry
managed to worry his head high
enough to free his mouth and nostrils
from dirt
Get off me. Get off me, you fat
romancer. yOu," he whispered fiercely.
An explosive gruDt of dismay an
swered him before Fat Joe let him rise.
In a thin and profane tenor he was
hidden to explain his presence there.
81 couldn't sleep" Garry replied, his
voice still peevish, $50 I came out for
a breath of air. I saw him start this
way-saw you following him with that
gun in your hand. | just slipped over,
too, in case there might be doings.
What's the row, Joe?"
Joe took him urgently by the elbow,
turned him about and started him up
the rise.
can old grudge," he deigned an un-
gracious explanation. Its years and
years old. Steve licked him once.
Once when they were boys the folks
that live down next to Allison's dress
ed Steve up like a picture book, the
nearest l can make out, and sent him
to town a-shoppin'. Harrigan, he''-
II know. l remember!" Garry's eager
whisper interrupted. "That is, l didn't
know that Harrigan was one Of the
mob Steve whipped that day. But that
wasn't what l meant. Who was the
the girl Harrigan was talking about
when Steye-when Steve
Joe's fingers frightened little as the
other evinced a tendency to lag.
"Hurry a bit, will you?" he urged
complainingly. 'Show little speed!
I'm supposed to be up there asleep"
And then, gruttly, at was the Allison
girl, of course"
In spite of the hand upon his elbow
Garrett Devereau stopped short in his
tracks.
"Barbarar' he stammered. Barbara
Allison? Joe, was that the girl he
meant tonight when he said he was
going to marry one Of those women
himself?"
Joe peered at him, trying to make
out the expression upon his face.
"Why not?" he wanted to know.
"Why not? Amt he good enough for
her?'
There came a pause; then Garry's
stunned rejoinder.
Good enough!' he repeated sense
lessly. Good enough?" He laughed
half wildly, as though he had sudden
ly hit upon a very funny thought in
deed 'That man in love with a girl
like her-good Lord"'
And Fat Joe, who had failed to I'M
derstand, swore again beneath his
breath because there was no time left
in which to argue the matter. His
face was still very red from his strug-
gle for self restraint and his whole
mental balance SO disturbed that he
forget entirely to conceal the blued re-
volver dangling in one hand when he
re-entered the cabin a moment later.