The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ridgway of Montana, by William MacLeod Raine

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Title: Ridgway of Montana
(Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain)

Author: William MacLeod Raine

Posting Date: March 21, 2009 [EBook #2285]
Release Date: August, 2000

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDGWAY OF MONTANA ***

Produced by Mary Starr. HTML version by Al Haines.

RIDGWAY OF MONTANA

(STORY OF TO-DAY, IN WHICH THE HERO IS ALSO THE VILLAIN)

by

WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE

To JEAN

AND THAT KINGDOM

"Where you and I through this world's weather
Work, and give praise and thanks together."

CONTENTS

1. Two Men and a Woman
2. The Freebooter
3. One to One
4. Fort Salvation
5. Enter Simon Harley
6. On the Snow-trail
7. Back from Arcadia
8. The Honorable Thomas B. Pelton
9. An Evening Call
10. Harley Makes a Proposition
11. Virginia Intervenes
12. Aline Makes a Discovery
13. First Blood
14. A Conspiracy
15. Laska Opens a Door
16. An Explosion in the Taurus
17. The Election
18. Further Developments
19. One Million Dollars
20. A Little Lunch at Alphonse's
21. Harley Scores
22. "Not Guilty"--"Guilty"
23. Aline Turns a Corner
24. A Good Samaritan
25. Friendly Enemies
26. Breaks One and Makes Another Engagement

CHAPTER 1. TWO MEN AND A WOMAN

"Mr. Ridgway, ma'am."

The young woman who was giving the last touches to the very effective
picture framed in her long looking-glass nodded almost imperceptibly.

She had come to the parting of the ways, and she knew it, with a shrewd
suspicion as to which she would choose. She had asked for a week to
decide, and her heart-searching had told her nothing new. It was
characteristic of Virginia Balfour that she did not attempt to deceive
herself. If she married Waring Ridgway it would be for what she
considered good and sufficient reasons, but love would not be one of
them. He was going to be a great man, for one thing, and probably a
very rich one, which counted, though it would not be a determining
factor. This she could find onl