Page:J Allan Dunn--The Girl of Ghost Mountain.djvu/34

16 for watered stock held by the promoters of companies that cared not whether the land advanced or perished, so long as they could wring out the last drop of usury.

Jackson, coming back from a last look at the horses, interrupted his dreaming.

"'Bout time to roll in, I reckon," he said. "One thing I meant to ask you. I heard you say to Hollister, 'you've seen my shootin'.' Hollister was just itchin' to shoot. He was all set for it, an' he was afraid. When did he see yore shootin'? I ain't seen much of it. Are you a crackajack with the gun?"

"I'll tell you. Red. Before I came out here I was a lawyer, in New York. Not a very good one, nor a very bad one. And there are a lot of good ones there. I had some money, not much. I've had an idea lately that my being sick had something to do with my lack of success. I was short of the great essential to getting by in New York—'pep.' When my trouble developed I lost what I had. I didn't care much whether school kept or not. They suggested Arizona and I wanted New York. I didn't know what it was out here and I thought I couldn't get along without the rush and the lights and the things that seem to make life worth living in New York. I figured I wasn't going to last long and I might as well crowd through to the finish.

"I had a hemorrhage and it frightened me. Scared me into buying my ticket West. I had heard some one talk about Metzal and one place seemed to me as good as another, as long as I wasn't cooped up with a lot of T.Bs.