BAD END VALLEY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13240, 16 January 1941, Page 3

BAD END VALLEY

o W. B. BVNNERMAN

, was flic first time they had met C ; nce ‘ his debacle in old Nelson's nlace. and he was on guard for her reproaches. '“You don't look jest exactly happy Danny.” she said as she seated herself by his side, smiling. “I ain’t got much to he happy ahont.” he answered shortly, still without looking at her. “Guess nobody has in this \allej, .he agreed soberly. “But there ain’t “o call to look jest as blue as all that." He turned to her fiercely. “Ain’t there! I suppose I oughta be goin’ around thinkin what a fine feller I am? Well, I ain’t. There ain’t no need for you or anybody else to tell me what I am I’m a coward! There ain’t a bit of me down to the marrow that ain t yellow!” She put a hand soothingly on his arm. “Don’t say that, Danny. I know different. The way you went for King when he was treatin’ me—well you know. . . It was swell, Danny! I was real proud of yuh—honest,- I was.” He did not respond to her sympathy. “Yuh hadn’t much reason to he. Guess I started in all right—guess yuh might’ve had real reason to be proud—if I’d just had the guts to finish off what I’d started. . . . But I did’nt. I got scared yellow of him, like I’ve always been, an’ I let him beat me up an’ fling me out like I was a rat he’d stood on!” “That ain’t true!” she protested. “Yuh couldn’t help it that ,he beat yuh up. He was oo strong for yuh. that’s all. But yuh did go for him an’ try, Danny—it was grand. An’ yuh did it for me —that was wonderful.”

‘‘l meant to do something for you —but I didn’t,” he said dispiritedly. “You tried —an’ took a heatin’ for it. I tell yuh I was proud.

But,' Danny, I was scared, too —for your sake. Please don’t ever interfere with King again. It was horrible to see him hit you. I thought ho was goin’ to kill yuh, an’ I guess he will next time. What he did to me don’t matter. I can manage him all right. I can get him into a good mood, so as he won’t ”

“Stop!” Danny broke in wildly. “I can’t stand you talkin’ about it any longer. . . . There’s something I gotta tell yuh. Ruth.” He turned his tortured eyes to her, and she waited expectantly. “Well?”

“Yuh got it wrong about me havin’ a real try at beatin’ him,”- he said slowly, tearing out each word as if it hurt him to speak it. ‘‘lt wasn’t that way. I was scared when I went for him at the start, an’ after that I "'as so scared I could hardly move. 1 lot him beat me around, an’ somehow I couldn’t go back at him—l tell >uh, I couldn’t. Ruth. Something was always stoppin’ me. I just hadn’t the sand to make a fight of it, that’s all.”

paused, then summoned the to finish his confession. He did so almost in a whisper:

An’ then—when he’d landed me on the floor—l could’ve eot U P hut I didn’t. Sooner than get up an’ face him again—I lay ! ! ere an ’ shammed dead—an’ let him kick me. . >»

His \oice trailed away in despair. ] e could not face her any longer. I m, eJtS went t 0 the ground again, nere was a little silence. Then sne said quietly:

ou 16 takin' it too hard, Danny, am t forgettin’ the way yuh came , an told King to leave me be — either." dkln,t ° Ught tu ,or «* «•

ki,.J toil yuh I la >’ there an’ let him than get up an , he utmost shouted at her vuhV tin , dOU,t think it>s right' for said th I y ° UrSelf a she folks OUSltfull y* “I reckon most inside them™ *° mewhere or other who ran • 1 mean lik © women g Pt ? ICk U P a rattlesnake, but &, Wh6n they a mouse. Kin-' S ]n ' U 15 Wlth Jou, Danny. h 8 ’ s ru n *!. tbat mouse to y«h. An’ that v „h Ul f S 80 long B round here he alwawf V/ S6t in your head that Cve f since 1 e ’ s Hied yuh still Z°" were a kid, an’ yur take a mlw When he?s arou,u d. It’ll over that 1 lot °f Sand to ect-yuh “MoVe°q k hIS head listle «sly. He ,® Ti thaU Pve g ot. . ” ,a ughed bitterly.

“Even now I’m keepin’ out of the

road ’cos King’s with gran’dad. I saw him coinin’ an’ ran for it like a cottontail with a ,44 bullet chasin’ it.”

“YTih got it fixed in your head that yuh ain’t no good,” she said, with a hint of impatience. “Yuh won’t show much sand as long as yuh think yuh ain’t got any. I’m goin’ now, Danny. . . .” “Maybe yuh should. Maybe yuh think I ain’t fit to talk to. Well, I guess you’re-about right at tha!”

She ignored the harshness of his speech. “So-long, Danny,” she said quiet ly, getting to her feet. “Don’t forget what I told yuh—try an’ think yuh got all the sand in the world

When he looked up, she was gone. Under his breath, he cursed —not only for his cowardice, but also because that same cowardice had driven him to turning on the only being, in the valley or beyond it, whom he cared for. An hour passed, and he sat there, torturing himself with his thoughts. A.t the end of that time, he stood up stiffly, and made his way through the thicket.

Coming to the Seatons’ shack, he stole to the window and peeped cautiously in to see if Garrick w r as still there. With relief, he saw that his grandfather was alone, sitting staring into the Are. Like a hunted thing, he crept indoors. CHAPTER VI THE SECRET OF THE SHACK. Old Seth raised his head and peered at the figure of his grandson, as the latter entered the firelit shack. “Well, son? Been layin’ low till the big chief’s safe outa the way?” The old man showed a devilish intuition in divining Danny’s thoughts, and took an evil delight in showing his power to do so. Now, as on many Other occasions, his thrust got the boy on the raw, lacerating his wounded self-esteem. Danny composed his face not to show Seth he had triumphed. Sul lenly, he came and crouched in the chair opposite his grandfather’s, looking into the blaze as the old man had been doing. Now Seth's eyes—so abnormally keen and glittering in his death’s head face—were intent on Danny. “You’re plumb scared of King, ain’t yuh, son?” he observed shrewd-

Danny did not answer. Seth went on slowly: ‘‘There ain’t no call to be. He’s plenty big, an’ strong as a bull—but he ain’t dangerous. Not what I call dangerous. He ain’t got enough brains. Take it from me, son. When yuh come across a feller as stupid as King Garrick, don’t be scared of him, no matter how big his muscles are. If you’re smart, he’ll never get the better of yuh.” Danny glanced at Seth in surprise. As a rule the old man spent his time in olpenly idespising his .grandson, telling him how badly he compared with his father, and what a poor specimen .he was in general. Now the waspish old sinner was being almost sympathetic, and the sudden change from his customery manner left Danny amazed.

“I’ll tell yuh something,” said Seth confidentially. “I never thought much of Garrick. I’ve made him do as I want them eighteen years past, ain’t I? There’s been times when he's threatened to do all sorts of things to me. if I didn’t tell him where my money was, an’ I’ve jest laughed at him. But now I’m’ gettin’ jest a mite scared of him. an’ that’s the truth. He’s half, silly in the head with driukin’ so much, an’ I got a hunch that he might do something bad to me—maybe even kill me. It was the way he looked at me, when he left here to-day. Maybe I’m so old I’m gettin’ soft, but that’s the hunch I got . . .” He gave Danny a cunning look. “Are yuh listenin’ to what I’m sayin’, son?”

“Yuh’d better, ’cos I’m gonna tell yuh something worth hearin.’ I told yuh I got a hunch I might die pretty soon. Well, D ain’t scared ; to die. But I’ve lived them last tweny years on the strength of a secret I got, an’ I want that secret to be told afore I hand: in my checks. Nobody—not even you——knows rightly whether I actually got a pile of dollars hidden away—that’s right, ain’t it?” “That’s right." “Well, now you're gonna know . .” Danny took a deep breath, and his

body went tense. •' “Yuh treated' me pretty well, Danny. Yuh ain’t but a poor thing, without half the guts of your dad — but yuh been a pretty good kid. Here’s the truth —I got some money all right—not so much as some folks think, maybe—but plenty. Right now, son, I could lay my hand on two-hundred-thousand dollars . . .” There was a short pause. Seth was grinning wolfishly at the impression he had made. Danny did not speak. “That’s a lot of money, ain’t it? Enough to let you get outa Bad End Valley an’ live anywhere yuh wanteC —you an’ that gal of Nelson’s as well . .

Danny started at this proof of the old man’s insight, but.made no comment. Seth laughed mockingly. “Well, I tell yuh straight I don’t care if yuh get the money, or if it lies where it is till Judgment Day. But” —and his mouth compressed malignantly—“l’ll be damned if I’m gonna risk the chance of King Garrick gettin’ his hands on it. An’ I’m gonna make sure he don’t. I'm gonna tell yuh where it’s hidden, so you can get it when I’m gone an’ take it somewhere outa this valley where CarrickTl never see it!” “You—you’re gonna tell me where it is!” Danny repeated dazedly. (To be continued)