Books by
BASIL KING
GOING WEST
THE CITY OF COMRADES
ABRAHAM'S BOSOM
THE LIFTED VEIL
THE SIDE OF THE ANGELS
THE LETTER OF THE CONTRACT
THE WAY HOME
THE WILD OLIVE
THE INNER SHRINE
THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT
LET NO MAN PUT ASUNDER
IN THE GARDEN OF CHARITY
THE STEPS OF HONOR
THE HIGH HEART
HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK
Established 1817
GOING WEST
By
Basil King
Author of
"The City of Comrades" "Abraham's Bosom" etc.
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Going West
Copyright, 1919, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
Published June, 1919
GOING WEST
GOING WEST
CHAPTER I
He was not a born fighter, in spite of abig, husky frame through which theurge of physical life was strong. On thecontrary, he was a civilian and a businessman in every nerve of his body. Eightgenerations on American soil had bred a typeessentially industrious, notwithstanding allthe fighting in which the family had beenengaged. His father had fought in theSpanish-American War; his grandfather inthe Civil War; his great-great-grandfatherin the Revolution; farther back, his ancestorsin the Connecticut Valley had beaten off theFrench and Indians for nearly a hundredyears.
All that, however, had been alien to themain purposes of life. It had been incidental,not professional. Its chief influence on Lesterlay in the assumption that, men beingcalled for on the borders of Texas and inMexico, he had no choice but to go. True,he was just beginning, after certain waywardyears, to see success as a broker ahead ofhim; and within the month he had becomeengaged to Molly Dove. But these considerationscould not weigh against the appealof country, nor annul those traditions of dutythat had come to him from the past.
So in the course of time, and with themarch of events, he found himself in theenemy trenches, facing a burly blue-eyedTeuton holding a rifle by the barrel andswinging the butt about his head, while hehimself held a bayonet in his hand. Amidthe wreckage, the carnage, the tumult, hewas desperately trying to recall his instructionsas to how to stick the weapon in.
Before telling what happened then, let usgo back and follow rapidly the stages bywhich Lester found himself in a situationwhich two or three years earlier he wouldhave laughed out of the list of possibilities.
The son of a well-to-do bookseller in agreat Atlantic city, he was an instance of thatreaction against the paternal bent with whichwe are all familiar. His father was a gentle,scholarly man who loved books as books.The Spanish-American campaign had lefthim with one leg slightly shorter than theother, and the air of a retired general. Allhis longings had once focused themselves intothe hope that his son would enter into, andone day inherit, a business built up on yearsof diligence and judgment—only to be disappointed.
Lester had no interest in books. He wasnot only an open-air fellow with a zest forsports, but he had all the inclinations of a