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Show rHILL5 DESTINY k life had come to the Circle V, and with one notable exception, Lee Holiister had no part in it. The exception was the dance while the weekend guests were there. He wore the blue serge suit and was one of the few men there not in evening clothes, but he swung Virginia into a foxtrot as easily as if he had been born to it, ajid later danced twice with Peggy Watrous. Peggy specialized specializ-ed in new men. "I'm crazy about your handsome hand-some cowboy, Vee. I'd cut you out if I could. He is part Indian, isn't he?" "Of course not. Lee Is " She hesitated, half angry but suddenly sud-denly brought up against a blank wall. After all, who or what was Lee? A bit of human flotsam that Matt Blair had salvaged and made into a man. "Who's an' Indian? Holiister?" The voice was Stanley's, break- Ceballos." "Very interesting," said Virginia Virgin-ia sweetly. "But not much o it seems to be about the girl. You're holding out on me, Lee." "Nothing to hold." Lee was a little curt about it. Someone else claimed her and she left him, her smile cool and sweet. Lee hesitated, a trifle ruffled ruf-fled by the uncertain wavs of women, and then went out by the door where the girl Josefa had stood. There was no sign of her. Lee leaned comfortably against the side of the house and rolled a cigarette. Voices drifted to him, a man's, low and laughing, a girl's in smothered smo-thered remonstrance, more coquettish coquet-tish than angry. Lee flicked out his match and strode lightly a-round a-round the corner of the house. He thought he saw a flitting shadow, but it vanished and he wall. Hie young man apparently had no other errand than to ask his way, but he lingered, talking to the vulnerable Maria, and left presently with a quick oblique glance at the girl. A day or two later the car passed pas-sed that way again. Once someone some-one was with the agreeable driver, that girl, favored among mortals, with the shining hair and rose-leaf rose-leaf skin, the girl with riches in her hands and Lee Holiister at her feet. Josefa let the car pass with a sulky stare, but next day It came again, and this time Stanley Stan-ley was alone. They were conveniently con-veniently out of sight of the ranch house, and he stopped and invited her for a ride. She went, thrilled with luxuriousness and arrogant speed. After that there were other meetings, boxes of sweets, small gifts which Josefa prudently hid. He was amusing and gay, an ardent ar-dent young man, with a facile tongue for compliment and a taste for kisses. He: teased Josefa, not very delicately, "I'm jealous of that fellow Holiister; Hol-iister; you like him better than you do me. He was coming to the Circle V this morning when I left. He's there a good deal, isn't he? You're no Spanish girl, Josefa, or you'd never let another girl walk off with your mn like that." "How you know I worry my head weeth Lee Holiister? I got plenty fella ten, twenty, hondred Eef I love, I fight for my man fight any woman!" "That's because you're Spanish,' he said persuasively. "But eastern east-ern girls are different. They're cold, Josefa. They'd throw over the best kind of a chap if they caught him making a little harmless harm-less love to another girl. Why I know a case . . ." Amusing for Stanley, and not without the flavor of adventure; dangerous enough for Josefa, storm-swept by jealousy of a girl from another world. If Mrs. Archer was firmly convinced, con-vinced, and Stanley Bradish cynically cyni-cally sure, that Lee Holiister was working to establish himself comfortably com-fortably at the Circle V, either by marrying Virginia or otherwise making himself indispensable to her, certainly his actions did not go far to disprove their suspicions. He seemed to be merely hanging around, with no apparent affairs of his own that demanded attention atten-tion nor any disposition to acquire them. He had established himself in an abandoned miner's cabin just beyond Turkey Gulch, making mak-ing it weather-tight and sufficiently sufficien-tly shipshape for simple needs, and came and went at will. There were no bolts nor bars, and in his absence the curious could inspect as they pleased. Slanty Gano did it. So did Lawler, nursing a grievance and only too anxious to find something to satisfy sat-isfy it. So, quite privately, had Stanley Bradish, critically surveying survey-ing the ground for reasons of his own. None of them found evidences eviden-ces of dark motives or hidden activities, unless, perhaps, the large rough chunk of quartz lying" in full view on a shelf might be so classified. On it was pasted a bit of paper with this simple legend: le-gend: Matt Blair A Man Died October 15, 193.5 Slanty Gano Knew what that sample was. He had watched Lee Holiister swinging a pick to get it. It had come from the spot where Matt Blair's will-o'-the-wisp samples sam-ples had been dug. Slanty stood glowering at it for some minutes before he slid out, cautiously, with no wish to meet a man he both hated and feared. CHAPTER VI Synopsis Lee Holiister, returning unexpectedly unex-pectedly from a trip abroad to the Circle V ranch, his home from childhood, is troubled by signs of neglect. Joey, an old prospector prospec-tor friend of Matt Blair, Lee's foster father and owner of the ranch, tells Lee that Matt has killed himself, probably discouraged discour-aged by hard times. The ranch is going to ruin and Virginia, Matt's daughter, is visiting the Archers, her aunt and uncle, in New York. Her uncle wants her to sell the place to Milton Bradish, old associate asso-ciate of Matt's. Lee persuades Virginia to return to the ranch. Mrs. Archer follows her, accompanied accom-panied by Stanley, son of Milton Bradish. Stanley tliinks he may be able to discredit Lee in Virginia's eyes. "Very." The voice sounded grim. "Never did have any use for them Archers," Joey grumbled. "Two plumb full of foolishness to live. All they think of is money and how many yachts and butlers their friends has. It must have 'most killed 'em when Honey's ma married inta the shirt sleeve set, but I took notice that when Matt was makin' a lot of money they corresponded with him pretty frequent. Can't tell me!" The dark head turned slightly. "They're born grugliners, Joey, if I know the breed. I'd like to see the stubs of Matt's check books for the last six years." Joey nodded thoughtfully. Silence Sil-ence fell between them again. "You're not sore with me for trailing along this way, are you?" ""Don't be silly." Virginia laughed and half shrugged at Stanley came out to where she stood on the veranda in starlight, looking across the shadowy shad-owy valley. "Well, I just wondered. You've been so quiet. Rather withdrawn, you know." He bent a flushed face toward her. "You ran away from me, Vee. Don't you know that I'd followed you anywhere?" His voice had dropped to a whisper. In another second he would be kissing her. Lee this afternoon, Stanley this evening , , . She couldn't stand it. "That's sweet of you, Stan." She moved a little, just out of reach. "But don't let's talk about It tonight, to-night, will you?" For Lee, and for Joey also, the serpent had entered the garden. There were no more long rides, nor quiet evenings by Joey's fire. Virginia rode with Stanley Bradish Brad-ish now; showing him over the range,, taking him deep into the hills by trails that Lee had shown her. On the third day after his arrival ar-rival he and Virginia went down to Saunders and came back with a long, rakish car, smokegrey, with his monogram In scarlet on the doors. After that they were seldom home. At the end of the third week more guests arrived, friends who had stopped off on a coast-to-coast trip, and lights shown and music came from the ranch house until far Into the night. A newer, gayer "How you know I worry my head weeth Lee Holiister?" the money in. Come on, let's be movin'." He yawned and stretched, the sobered man of the two. The watchful face above drew back just In time, as Slanty looked up and around. When the two men went on down the slope the rock shelf was empty. For nearly a week Lee's cabin had been empty. Virginia began to wonder why she had no daily glimpses of a tall figure riding her range as if he owned it, or going calmly past her door to visit old friends in the bunk house. She rode over to see Joey and dropped a diplomatic-question or two, but Joey had not seen Lee for days. Odd that he had not said anything to Joey about his plans. Perhaps he was ill up there in his cabin, and alone. Someone ought to go. She turned Black Lightning's head and touched him into quicker action. The little cabin looked lonely and deserted as she neared it. Inside were 'orderliness and simplicity. sim-plicity. The bunk on the other side of the room was nearly made and a Navajo blanket lay across it. She went around slowly, looking look-ing at this thing and that. Before the shelf where the lump of quartz lay she paused with a startled exclamation. She knew how Lee cherished her father's memlory, but still that was an odd thing to do, to put her father's name and the date of his death on that piece of quartz, like an epitajph or a grim reminder. (TO BE CONTINUED) ing in just in time to save her from a lamb reply. "Oh, yes, there's mixed blood there, Vee. Didn't your father pick him up on one of the reservations? Or was it south of the border?" This time Virginia showed her annoyance. "I don't know, she said coldly. " You'd better ask Lee." The recolection of the intended slur made her kinder to Lee than she had meant to be. She danced three more times with him. Toward To-ward the end of their last dance Virginia turned her head and laughed softly. "Look, Lee! Just outside the door. I'm going to bring her in." His eyes followed hers. Beyond them was an open door, its shaft of light cutting into the outer shadows and, caught in the edge of the light, they saw a gay little figure, with a dark, vivid face, black eyes that burned with excitement, ex-citement, and a scarlet mouth. The slim body swayed slightly to the music, with a rippling animal grace. As Lee looked at her she slid hastily out of sight with an lav pudent lift of her chin. He laughed. "The little devil! She's Josefa Ramirez, and her father is Francisco Fran-cisco Ramirez who used to be a sheep herder and has now risen to the digrfity of his own ranchito. Matt helped him to get it. You can count on Francisco. His father fa-ther was a servant to Don Luis could not be sure. A cigarette made a point of light in the darkness dark-ness about ten feet away. Stanley Bradish strolled toward him. "Hello, Holiister," he said indifferently. in-differently. "That you? I thought I heard voices out here." "Did you?" Lee was noncommittal, noncom-mittal, but his eyes searched the darkness back of the house. "I was probably mistaken. Coming in?" Stanley tossed his lighted cigarette aside and started star-ted on. Lee's eyes were on the half-smoked half-smoked cigarette where it had landed, still glowing. "When you've been in this part of the country a little longer," he said evenly, "you'll use better judgment than that. A fire, like some other things, is easy to start, but not so easy to put out." Stanley's annoyed stare followed follow-ed him as he strode off. "Now what the devil," he mused mus-ed thoughtfully, "did the cow hand mean by that?" The next day Stanley made a trip to Saunders alone and found his way to the office of Gideon Morse, Councelor-at-Law. "I'm Stanley Bradish," he said casually. "I'm staying at the Circle V ranch. That little matter of the other woman suppose you leave it to mie." Gideon blinked, but forebore comment. He had a letter from the elder Bradish, as definite as a letter could be, considering how much of it lay between the lines. "My son is spending a few weeks at the Blair place. He is not yet associated with me in business and is not acquainted ac-quainted with the details of the proposed purchase." It looked like a bad leak somewhere some-where . . . At fifteen Josefa Ramirez was a beauty, with glowing black eyes, a dusky flush under .an olive skin, and a slim, gay, dancing danc-ing body. Young Mexicans arrayed array-ed themselves in holiday best and rode miles out of their way to spend an hour or so at Francisco's Fran-cisco's ranchito and knives had flashed more than once for her favor. Only when Lee Holiister stopped stop-ped at the sheep ranch was there something noticeably different: about her, like the sultry stillness : before a storm. He had known Francisco for years; the entire household exploded into hospitality hospital-ity at his approach and poured its joys and troubles into his ears. Josefa was merely Francisco's Francis-co's pretty kid to him. Josefa pouted and sulked, and consoled herself with the others. Therefore she was flattered, but not particularly surprised when an agreeable young man caught her hands and said teasingly pret-' pret-' ty things to her when she was fleeing discovery on the night of the dance, nor even when a swift prey car, a long fascinating mon- ! ster that was a haughty rich relation re-lation of all the cars Josefa had ever seen, appeared out of shim-a shim-a mering distance a few days later, j It stopped before the straggling 1 adobe buildings where a pretty girl leaned against the plastered If Slanty Gano was curious enough to pry into Lee Hollister's affairs, Lee was equally observant of Slanty's. He did not like Slantv and he did not trust him. He did not care for Lawler, either. Therefore, There-fore, when he caught a glimpse of Slanty and Lawler slipping behind the shelter of a cedar thicket one day, he picketed his horse a safe distance away and followed. Moving Mov-ing lightly, with an eye for betraying betray-ing stones underfoot, Lee swung down to a shelf just above the point where they had disappeared, dropped flat on it and wormed cautiously out to the edge. Voices came to him. He could just see the two men about thirty feet below. Both men were half drunk, Lawler morose, Slanty argumentative and boastful. Lee heard Slanty's taunting voice. "Takin' orders from Lee Holiister Holiis-ter yet? Ye've been keepin' yourself your-self so scarce I thought he must have fired ye." "I ain't takin' anybody's orders. I'm boss around there. I take notice that you keep tolerable scarce yoreself when that hombre is around." "Don't worry about me!" Slanty Slan-ty warned him belligerently. "I'm goin' to be rich some day, you see if I ain't. And I ain't aimin' to work like a dog for it, neither. I'm going to use my brains. I know a man that's goin' to hand me anything I say. I got him, just where I want him. I got " He checked himself abruptly, as if realizing that he was talking ; too much. "I got a big idea," Slanty finished fin-ished craftily. "That's what brings |