The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-06-05

DeiteVe tudC anyone SO bravery O0ckeO
out in silk and plumes and pink roses
could present figure so bewildered,
so disconsolate, so defeated. Literally,
she did not know what to do. She
had met and surmounted many strange
experiences In these last ten days.
But she had been born of generations
Of women to whom men had paid
homage. Perhaps in all her life she
had never encountered the slightest
discourtesy In man, much less this
abysmal boorishness. s.
She looked at him, her face white,
shocked. She looked up, in embarrass-
ment, at the glazing steel sky; she
looked down at the binding red dust,
she looked helplessly in the direction
that Yancey had so blithely taken.
She glanced again at Doc Nisbett,
propped so woodenly against the wall
OF his hateful house. She should, Of
course, have gone straight up to him
and said, do you mean that ten bar
rels are too much? / didn't know.
am new to all this. Whatever you
say"
But she was young, and inexperi-
enced, and full of pride, and terribly
offended. So without another word
she turned and marched down the
dusty street. Her head in its plumed
hat was high. On either cheek burned
scarlet patch. Her eyes, in her eff
fort to keep back the hot tears, were
blazing, liquid, enormous. She saw
nothing.
From Doc Nisbett, Yancey received
laconic information to the effect that
the house had been rented by family
whose aquatic demands were more
modest than Sabra's. Sabra was in
consolable, but Yancey did not once
reproach her for her mistake. 1t was
characteristic of him that he was most
charming and considerable in crises
which might have been expected to
infuriate him. "Never mind, sugar.
Don't take on like that. We4l find
house. And, anyway, we're here.
That's the main thing.
He stretched his mighty arms, shook
himself like great shaggy lion. In
all this welter Of red clay and Indians
and shirt sleeves and tobacco juice
and drought he seemed to find
beauty and an exhilaration that eluded
Sabra quite. But then Sabra, after
those first two days, had ceased to
search for reason for anything. She
met and accepted the most grotesque,
the most fantastic happenings. When
she looked back on the things she had
done and the things she had said In
the first few hours of her Oklahoma
experience 1t was as though she were
tolerantly regarding the naivetes Of
child. Ten barrels of water day
She knew now that water, In this
burning land, was precious thing.
Life here was an anachronism, great
crude joke. It was hard to realize
States, in this year of 1889, was living
conventionally civilized and primly
Victorian existence, in which plumb
ing, gaslight, trees, gardens, books,
laws, millinery, Sunday churchgoing,
were taken for granted, here in this
Oklahoma country life had been SET
back according to the frontier stand
ards of half a century earlier. Lit
orally she was pioneering in wilder
ness surrounded but untouched by
civilization.
Yancey had reverted. Always
even in his staidest Wichita incarna-
tion-a somewhat incredibly romantic
figure, he now was remarkable even
In this town Of fantastic humans gath
cred from every corner Of the bril-
liantly picturesque Southwest. His
towering form, his curling locks, his
massive head, his vibrant voice, his
dashing dress, his ford speech, his
magnetic personality drew attention
wherever he went. On the day follow
ing their arrival Yancey had taken
from his trunk pair Of silver-mounted
ivory-handled six-shooters and belt
and holster studded with silver. She
had never before seen them. His
white sombrero he had banded with a
IdLtlcSudhC ShAA VI SOlu anu SILVER,
with glass eyes, treasure also pro-
duced from the secret trunk, as well
as a pair of gold-mounted spurs which
further enhanced the Texas star
boots. Thus bedecked for his legal
and editorial pursuits he, was by far
the best dressed and most spectacular
male in all the cycloramic Oklahoma
country.
Sabra learned many astounding
things in these first few days, and
among the most terrifying were the
things she learned about the husband
to whom she had been happily married
for more than five years. She learned,
for example, that this Yancey Cravat
was famed as the deadliest shot in all
the deadly shooting Southwest. He
had the gift Of being able to point his
six-shooters without sighting, as one
would point with finger. He was
one of the few who could draw and
fire. two six-shooters at once with
equal speed and accuracy. His hands
would 60 to his hips with lightning