Chapter 24
ANOTHER STORY BEGINS
This chapter is very much like a preface: it is not absolutely necessary, although many persons will read it and a few will be glad that it was written.
The story itself is ended. To go on would be to begin another story; to tell of the building up of the Quirt outfit, with Lone and Lone's savings playing a very important part, and with Brit a semi-invalided, retired stockman who smoked his pipe and told the young couple what they should do and how they should do it.
Frank he mourned for and seldom mentioned. The Sawtooth, under the management of a greatly chastened young Bob Warfield, was slowly winning its way back to the respect of its neighbors.
For certain personal reasons there was no real neighborliness between the Quirt and the Sawtooth. There could not be, so long as Brit's memory remained clear, and Bob was every day reminded of the crimes his father had paid a man to commit. Moreover, Southerners are jealous of their women,--it is their especial prerogative. And Lone suspected that, given the opportunity, Bob Warfield would have fallen in love with Lorraine. Indeed, he suspected that any man in the country would have done that. Al Woodruff had, and he was noted for his indifference to women and his implacable hardness toward men.
But you are not to accuse Lone of being a jealous husband. He was not, and I am merely pointing out the fact that he might have been, had he been given any cause.
Oh, by the way, Swan "proved up" as soon as possible on his homestead and sold out to the Quirt. Lone managed to buy the Thurman ranch also, and the TJ up-and-down is on its feet again as a cattle ranch. Sorry and Jim will ride for the Quirt, I suppose, as long as they can crawl into a saddle, but there are younger men now to ride the Skyline Meadow range.
Some one asked about Yellowjacket, having, I suppose, a sneaking regard for his infirmities. He hasn't been peeled yet--or he hadn't, the last I heard of him. Lone and Lorraine told me they were trying to save him for the "Little Feller" to practise on when he is able to sit up without a cushion behind his back, and to hold something besides a rubber rattle. And--oh, do you know how Lone is teaching the Little Feller to sit up on the floor? He took a horse collar and scrubbed it until he nearly wore out the leather. Then he brought it to the cabin, put it on the floor and set the Little Feller inside it.
They sent me a snap-shot of the event, but it is not very good. The film was under-exposed, and nothing was to be seen of the Little Feller except a hazy spot which I judged was a hand, holding a black object I guessed was the ridgy, rubber rattle with the whistle gone out of the end,--down the Little Feller's throat, they are afraid. And there was his smile, and a glimpse of his eyes.
Aren't you envious as sin, and glad they're so happy?
THE END
NOVELS BY B.M. BOWER
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=THE RANCH AT THE WOLVERINE=
A ringing tale full of exhilarating cowboy atmosphere, abundantly and absorbingly illustrating the outstanding feature of that alluring ranch life that is fast vanishing.--_Chicago Tribune_.
=JEAN OF THE LAZY A=
A spirited novel of ranch life in which the fascinating heroine poses for film pictures that she may make money necessary to prove her father innocent of a crime for which he has been convicted.
It possesses all the popular ingredients--a quick-action plot, color and picturesqueness aplenty, and an unflagging interest--to be found in Bower's earlier successes.--_Philadelphia Public Ledger_.
=THE PHANTOM HERD=
Another western tale in which the Happy Family become real "movie" actors.
There has been so much truck written in the last few years about motion pictures, that it is a positive relief to find a book by an author who knows exactly what to talk about in an entertaining manner with a knowledge of actual conditions as they exist.--_Boston Post_.
=THE HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX=
A Flying U story in which the Happy Family get mixed up in a robbery faked for film purposes.
Altogether a rattling story, that is better in conception and expression than the conventional thriller on account of its touches of real humanity in characterization.--_Philadelphia Public Ledger_.
=RIM O' THE WORLD=
An engrossing tale of a ranch-feud between "gun-fighters" in Idaho.
=THE LOOKOUT MAN=
A tale of action, excitement and love, full of the charm of the great outdoors, in which the story of the life at a Forest Reserve Station on top of a California mountain is vividly portrayed.
The signature of B.M. Bower is a valuable trade-mark. It stands for fiction filled with the spirit of ranch life in the northwest.--_Boston Herald_.
=CABIN FEVER=
How Bud Moore and his wife, Marie, fared through their attack of "cabin fever" is the theme of this B.M. Bower story.
The author has put some real sentiment into a story that gives a rapidly filmed "movie" of Western life.--_Philadelphia Public Ledger_.
=STARR, OF THE DESERT=
A story of mystery, love and adventure, which has a Mexican revolt as its main theme.
The tale is well written, with the fine art of artlessness, and of unflagging interest; a book worth the reading which it is sure to get from every one who begins it.--_New York Tribune_.
=THE FLYING U'S LAST STAND=
What happened when a company of school teachers and farmers encamped on the grounds of the Flying U Ranch.
The Northwestern cattle country has never had a better chronicler in fiction of its deeds and its people than B.M. Bower.--_New York Times_.
=GOOD INDIAN=
A story named for its half-breed hero, who dominates this stirring Western romance.
There is excitement and action on every page.... A somewhat unusual love story runs through the book.--_Boston Transcript_.
=THE UPHILL CLIMB=
How a cowboy fought the hardest of all battles--a fight against himself.
Bower knows the West of the cowboys, as do few writers to-day.... The word pictures of Western life are realistic, and strongly suffused with local color.--_Philadelphia North American_.
=LONESOME LAND=
A story of modern Montana, giving a wholly different phase of life among the ranches.
Montana described as it really is, is the "lonesome land" of this new Bower story. A prairie fire and the death of the worthless husband are especially well handled.--_A. L. A. Booklist_.
=SKYRIDER=
A cowboy who becomes an aviator is the hero of this new story of Western ranch life.
An engrossing ranch story with a new note of interest woven into its breezy texture.--_Philadelphia Public Ledger_.
=THE THUNDER BIRD=
Further aeronautic adventures of "Skyrider" Johnnie Jewel.
"A good story with numberless thrills and a humorous quality throughout its pages."--_New York Sun_.
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LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers, Boston, Mass.