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Show ' m WW W0MANJ11 1111 lllijl pv PETER B.KYNE. own brush with Breezy's friends, for Mary, anticipating Pedro's visit to Don Leonardo, had asked him not to discuss with the latter her decision deci-sion to make a reality of his half-formed half-formed dream for improving the Wagon Wheel. Pedro, assuming she preferred to invite Don Leonardo out to view the fruits of her money and labor when the job should be done and the grass six inches high, promised prom-ised silence. Meanwhile, Mary had checked the balance in her bank accounts in New York and Phoenix and arrived at the conclusion she had to have more money in hand to do even some of the things she planned to do; also she was at a loss to know which item on her program should be given priority. While she was puzzling over her predicament Sheriff Sher-iff Wade drove down to see her. The sheriff was looking more cheerful than when she had seen him last and the reason for it was forthcoming forth-coming instantly. "Thought I'd run down an' tell you my other two sons has left Arizona," he announced. "I suppose Pedro told you I had 'em in jail an' why." Mary nodded. "It seems that all I have done since arriving in Arizona Is create a disturbance, sheriff." "You didn't create this one. I did. There wasn't the least danger of a lynching but I had Hamilton Henley send in a bunch o' his riders in a truck to mill around the jail THE STORY THUS FAR: Mary Sutherland Suth-erland fs hired to Arizona by the advertisements ad-vertisements of the Wagon Wheel dude ranch, operated by Ma and Pa Burdan. She Is met at the station by Len Henley, whose father. Ham, has purchased the Burdan notes from the bank and feels that the ranch Is now his. Len takes Mary to Phoenix, enters the rodeo and rides Mad Hatter to a finish, winning three thousand dollars for Mary from Len's dad. Mary now buys the equity In Wagon Wheel, and Ham, learning she hasn't got enough money, threatens to foreclose. Mary re-hires Ma and Pa Burdan and takes np on the ranch, where ' the kills the son of Sheriff Wade while Illegally branding a calf. CHAPTER XVI "Of course. The heat is blistering, know, because I've inquired, but It's dry heat, so I can stand it. I have to remain here and learn how to boss the job. But I'll not be a hermit. Did I tell you I hold a flying fly-ing license?" "No and for goodness sake, what has that got to do with it?" 'Tve had two hundred and fifty hours in the air. I'm going to clear a level spot for a landing field and buy a twin engine four-place ship, fio I'll not be tied down here. I can be in Phoenix in an hour, Los Angeles in three hours, San Francisco Fran-cisco in six, New York or Florida in two days." Within half an hour the rain was beating in, sheets against the windows win-dows and Mary listened to something some-thing she had never heard before the steady slap against the earth of water running off her own roof. It made her feel eerie and aloof from everything, a being detached from tier own world; it inculcated in her the thrill of adventures yet to come, f About dark she heard a faint roaring roar-ing that grew rapidly in intensity, inten-sity, so she sent for Pedro to ask him what that sound might be. "It is Satan, laughing with delight, de-light, Dona Maria, as he conducts two funerals. The Santa Maria is In freshet for his purpose." "Two funerals, Pedro?" He related the tale of his adventure adven-ture at Breezy Wade's wake. "Pedro," she declared, "this is terrible." "Terrible, Dona Maria? It is horrible. hor-rible. Almost I wept because I am uch a poor shot. However, I think C' perhaps I frightened those other two so much they will never come back." "But how do you know they were cattle thieves, Pedro?" "It is enough that they were friends and companions of Breezy Wade, that each carried a Flying W Iron on his saddle and murder In his heart if one surprised him as you surprised Breezy, for each carried a high-power rifle with telescopic sights and six-shooters. Men rounding round-ing up their own cattle do not go armed. There is no more Wild West -except in the movies, Dona Maria." "Then I know of a good substitute, substi-tute, Pedro." "The man I killed and the two who escaped," Pedro went on, ""were Californians." "How do you know?" "By their outfits. Their saddles iiave one cincha only. In the southwest south-west we use two. Also, their riatas were three-strand rawhide while we use maguey rope. The California vaquero is a dandy and must have some silver on his saddle and bridle ..- If he can afford it. These three had j it. The man I killed wore brass spurs inlaid with silver so I took these for myself. Also, I found on him a letter addressed to a man in Earp, California, and it may be that he was that person. One day I shall run over to Earp and make inquiry regarding this unfortunate man." "Do you think they have put the Flying W brand on many of my calves left unbranded by Pa Burdan last year?" "Not many, I think, because they have not had much time to work. Any calves they branded will probably proba-bly be down along the river and I will engage a rider to go down there 4 with me and round them up while the brand still shows fresh and unhealed. un-healed. These animals I will drive up here and corral in the horse pasture; pas-ture; we will slaughter them, one by one, for ranch use, so there will be no loss. You will soon have a large Cumber of men to feed." The rain ceased about daylight and by mid-afternoon the Santa Maria was again a waste of sand and white granite wash-boulders, so Pedro rode down to the scene of the two killings and discovered that during dur-ing the night Messrs. Wade and Wall had moved on. So he rode on down the river until he could emerge on the north bank where the growth was normal and possible to penetrate. pene-trate. He found the camp of the visitors; they had had to abandon most of their food supplies; their cooking equipment, blankets and packsaddles, with kyacks, mantas and lash ropes. The following day Pedro returned to the camp with the pack mules and loaded this loot aboard hem, for he was a thrifty man and wasted nothing. In the afternoon he drove Mrs. Maxwell back to Phoenix, remained there over night and returned to the ranch next day. While in Phoenix, ' however, he paid a visit to Len Henley, Hen-ley, who commenced a cautious pumping of the Wagon Wheel manager man-ager but learned nothing of interest beyond the details of Mary's adventure adven-ture with Breezy Wade and Pedro's nix, Margaret paid a visit to Len Henley. She found Mr. Henley vastly vast-ly improved, with everything under perfect control, except his spirits, which were very low. He brightened perceptibly when Margaret entered the room. "Hello, Watchman," he greeted her, "what of the night?" "Whose night?" "You would have to get exact, wouldn't you? I merely employed a ' figure of speech. You're looking well, so I needn't ask how you are. When I saw you last you were head- J ed for the bedside of the afflicted Miss Sutherland. How did you leave that extraordinary young person?" "Well, she'll soon finish hating herself her-self because she had to kill a man iD self-defense." "What is she doing out there?" "Nothing as yet, naturally, but she plans to polish the place up considerably." consid-erably." "Usual dude program, I daresay. My father tells me she bought the Burdan cattle from him, so I suppose sup-pose she's looking forward to the fun of riding with the round-up as advertised by Pa Burdan." "I daresay she can pay for her fancies." "I wonder," he said with amazing naivete, "if she ever thinks of the Henley boy?" "Frequently, I imagine, but without with-out heartbreak. Indeed, young feller fel-ler m' lad, it's my opinion that she's in a fair way of forgetting she ever met you." Margaret had a feeling that if Don Leonardo hadn't been lying in the middle of his bed when she said that he would have fallen out, so visibly did he start. . "So," he murmured, "I broke my pick, did I?" "I think so. She told me how you gave her the rause an hour after it happened and at that time she seemed inclined to accept the situation situ-ation philosophically. She told me she thought your argument had merit, mer-it, but later, I think, she commenced to reconsider and concluded that in a very vital matter you had jumped too quickly to a conclusion and quit too readily. She complained rather plaintively one day that you had summoned the Spirit of the Hassy-ampa Hassy-ampa for his advice and after he gave it and it appeared to be quite satisfactory, you rejected it." "But surely she didn't take that jest seriously. I merely went through that old rigmarole in order to get my foot in the door, as it were." "Len, you didn't do right by your dude. You dazzled her; you made her love you and when she started dreaming such stuff as the dreams of young girls are made of, you awakened her with a vigorous shaking." shak-ing." "But she telephoned me from the hospital the day she was shot. She thought of me then." "True, but as a friend, not a sweetheart. She wanted me and to get me she had to communicate through you because you spoke Spanish. Span-ish. She's had a perfectly horrible experience and she's taken it bravely. brave-ly. That girl just oozes spunk." "You delivered that silly little message of mine?" "I did." "The answer, please." Margaret gave it to him, verbatim, ver-batim, and watched him squirm, mentally. "So she isn't remotely broken-hearted?" he pressed. "I doubt it, but if she is she'll conceal it until she's permanently cured. Were you anticipating renewing re-newing your sentimental interest in the lady, Len?" "It doesn't require renewal. . It isn't dead. It doesn't even sleepeth, because when that girl hit me she crippled me for life. Isn't it the most extraordinary situation, Margaret? Mar-garet? Two people meet and instant ly the current of their lives is quickened quick-ened and diverted into new channels. I confess I'm rather juvenile about her; I lie here all day envisioning her as I first saw her that snappy morning sitting on her steamer trunk on the platform at Sughuaro." "Does your original contention that marriage between you two would be a mistake, still hold?" "Well, perhaps I should have taken tak-en a chance and made the experi: ment, although it would have been pretty horrible if my original theory proved to be correct after all. I don't know and I don't think my father does, either, because ever since she busted Breezy Wade, he doesn't go into the silence when I mention her name. He just shakes his head and murmurs: 'There's a salty one for you. So smart she's spooky. Fight a catawampus and spot him six bites and three clouts.' " "When your father sees the light he never blinks it." "So you think I'm washed up, Margaret." Mar-garet." "I'm certain of it, darling." "Well," he mourned, "I was never much of a hand to come crawling, so the bet will have to go as it lies. When she wrote me, thanking me for the flowers I sent her she addressed ad-dressed me as friend Len and signed herself sincerely, Mary Sutherland. That got me down." About March fifteenth he left the hospital and went to live with his father and here, one day, he was summoned to the telephone. "Hel- ! lo, Don Leonardo." Mary's golden voice greeted him. "How are you cowboy?" (TO BE CONTINUED) "But, how do you know they were cattle thieves, Pedro?" an' yell 'Lynch 'em' after I had my boys locked up. That threw a chill into 'em. Then Hamilton Henley come in an' interviewed 'em. He give 'em their choice sell their Flyin' W iron, lease an' livestock to him, or he leads the mob in stormin' the jail an' stringin' 'em up." "And they accepted that program?" pro-gram?" "You bet after I told 'em I wouldn't kill none o' my friends to save 'em. So Hamilton Henley has a lawyer come over to the jail with his stenographer an' fix up the papers pa-pers an' the deal's closed. Mr. Henley Hen-ley wouldn't pay for the cattle until after the round-up an' his own count. He wouldn't accept my boys' count. So they agreed to that an' he give 'em both five hundred dollars for present expenses an' makes a speech from the second-story winder o' my jail, advisin' the mob to go home on account he's arranged for the boys to sell out to him an' leave Arizona forever. So when the crowd melts we pufthe boys in Ham Henley's Hen-ley's car an' him an' me drop 'em off on the Arizona end o' the bridge across the Rio Colorado at Blythe an' they hike across into California." "So," Mary said, "Ham Henley is a good actor as well as a bad one." "Ain't no favor he won't do for a friend he likes an' respects." "But the Flying W, Pedro Ortiz informs me, is a small outfit about a township and a half of range and perhaps three hundred head of breeding stock. It will only be a nuisance to Ham Henley. He likes a larger canvas." "He aims to sell that little spread to some dude if so be he don't sell it to me, which he'll do in case I'm licked at the general election this fall. An' I expect to be because be-cause o' them no-account sons o' mine." "I imagine I'm the dude he has in mind, Mr. Wade. Well, in a pinch I'll co-operate. Ham Henley is the cattle king of Arizona but I have an ambition to be the cattle queen. I'd be a cattle queen, would I not, with ten thousand head?" "You would, but not on your pres- ' ent range or even with the Flyin' W added." This was her cue to confide in j him her plan for the home ranch and he agreed that it was a feasible ! one, provided she got water in sufficient suf-ficient quantity from the wells she j planned to sink and the cost of j pumping should not be prohibitive. i The day after her return to Phoe- |