Page:Top-Notch Magazine, May 1 1915 (IA tn 1915 05 01).pdf/10

 swivel chair. The next moment he was on his feet, his face beaming. "Hello, Lois!" he cried. "Say, come in and sit down, can't you?"

A young woman had walked in behind the counter; a very pretty young woman she was, too, but her fair face wore rather a serious expression at that moment.

"I can only stop a second, Joe," she answered, "so I'll not come in and sit down. I want to ask you if"

"You're not going away?" broke in Summerfield, noting a satchel in the girl's hand.

"Oh, no!" she said, and smiled. "I was just taking this to- the store for father. Do you know any one named Lewis Ruthven?"

"Do I?" said the express agent, coming out of his private quarters. "Well, I should say so! He's from the East, Lois, and a mighty fine chap. He's out on a ranch near here J—Barton's ranch, the one Hoover has charge of. Why? Are you acquainted with him?"

"No," she returned, "I never saw Mr. Ruthven. But I have a letter—it came only a little while ago—from my friend, Gwendolyn Arnold, of Albany, New York. She knows Mr. Ruthven, and she writes that she has asked him to call and see father and me."

"Your father must know him, Lois. Ruthven is in town quite often, and all the ranch trading is done at The Emporium."

"Then I'll ask father about him," she said, as she went through the gate at the end of the counter. "Going to work to-night, Joe?"

"I think so."

"Will I bother you if I drop in for a little while?"

"Will you bother me?" he scoffed. "Well, I should say not! But why the hurry?"

"I must be going on," she said, with some constraint. "If Mr. Ruthven calls, I wish you could come with him, Joe."

"Maybe I can fix it, Lois; we'll see." And he walked with her to the door and watched her fondly as she moved off down the street. "Regular princess, that's what she is," he said to himself, as he returned to his work. "Never was another girl like her, and never will be. Wonder if it costs any more to keep an establishment of your own than to go on barely existing at a boarding house. I—well, it takes two to make a bargain. Wish this Gwendolyn Arnold had kept still about Ruthven. If a girl had to make a choice between him and me" He did not finish that line of thought, but broke off with a frown.

Half an hour later, he began looking over the packages by the stove. When he picked up the package for Thomas Barton, he remembered Ruthven and gave the package some attention.

"Al must have taken this in," he said to himself. "He's got it marked for six pounds, and I'll eat my hat if he hasn't made a mistake." He weighed the parcel in his hands. "Sure he has!" he declared, and took it over to the package scales. It tipped the beam at just eight pounds. "One on Al," he said, grinning. "It won't go out until to-morrow, and I'll just put it in the storeroom and have some fun with that little runt."

Two hours later, Reeves came in to load the stuff for No. 8, eastbound. Summerfield immediately went for him. "You've got an education, Al?" Summerfield inquired.

"So-so," said the driver, a bit surprised. "I can figger rings all around you, although I ain't so cocky about it."

"See things straight, do you? Haven't got the blind staggers, or anything like that

"Not so'st you can notice it, you big windjammer! What's pestering your mind, huh? That's something I'll be hanged if I can see through. You must have taken a funny powder."