OCR Text |
Show . . It The Desert Moon Mystery II I by KAY CLEAVER STRAHAN HI lr IouWmS7 Dorn Do., tea. . t WNU Servlc. SYNOPSIS Sum Stanley, wealthy owner of . r the Desert Moon ranch, Informs tils " housekeeper, Mary MnRln. ' who tells the story, that nla former for-mer wife's twin daughters, Dan-telle Dan-telle and Gabrlelle. are coming to the ranch to live, their mother being dend and their father. Daniel Canneslano, who had been the cause of Sam's divorcing divorc-ing his wife. In the penitentiary Sam has adopted o boy. John. now grown to manhood, and a girl, Martha, twenty-one. physically physi-cally healthy but weak-minded Mrs. Ollle RIcUer, Martha's nurso," lives with them. Hubert i Hand, a wanderer, and Chndwlck Caufleld, John's wartime buddy, are 'he other members of the household i CHAPTER II Continued 2 Until after he came, 1 bad not realized real-ized bow little real laughing an; of 1 C8 had done. We bad been happy enough, and content ; but we bad never been mucb amused. Lie amiued , ca. Lie made us laugh. Lie took the mechanical player off the old grand piano, and played It as we had never before beard U played. He spoke pieces and sang funny songs until we field our sides with laughing, tie was , a ventriloquist, and a mimic besides. He could Imitate nil of our voices to a T. Martha adored him. lie played with her by the hour. He mode two dolls, M'ke and Pat for her. and he ' would let thero sit on her knees while lie made them talk fot her. At the ena of November, when he began to talk about leaving, Sam offered blm a hundred and afty a month to stay oa. He said, t'ke Hubert Hu-bert Hand had said. "What for?" "For living." Sam said. Chad laughed and shook his bead. "Double It. then." Sam urged "1 wouldn't have you leave the plai , find Martha, for three hundred a tuontb; so why shouldn't I pay It to bave you stay?" , ('had never would take any regular tnoney from Sam. But hp stayed on. He called himself the "Perpetual Guest P G." for short, but some of the others said It stood for "Pollyanna Cusu" and called him "Polly" to twit blm. Pollyanna may not be lltera- ture, 1 don't know ; but a person of that nature Is most uncommonly pleas ant to have around the house. The girls got here on Friday, the eighth of May Sam and I rode down to lattall in the sedan to meet them. . nnd John took the small truck down to bring up their baggage. I don't know what there La about riding In a train that turns folks bought? and supercilious; Lut there Is . something that does. A person who . would be right hearty and human on Ms own two feet, slis In a car win dow aud looks out al the platform . people us If they were something be wanted to be careful not to step on. By the time I had passed fifty or more windows, and had reached where the girls were standing, I was so healed up 1 couldn't (lnd a word to ' say but. "Pleased to meet you." which was not the truth. One of them smiled real sweet, and said. "Mary I Opon my soul you haven't changed at all In sixteen years," and made as If to kiss me; whl-b 1 did at once. The other one gave me a Jerky nod. and stood there watching the train pull out, until Sam. who hud been poking along behind me, managed to catch up "Uncle Sam," she exclaimed, laugh tng and standing on tiptoe, and put ' ting her hands on his shoulders. .and tipping her pointed chin up to him. "you dear, to have us I 1 had alwnys remejihered that you were the biggest big-gest man In the world, and now I see that I was right about IL" Sam didn't kiss her, as she had ex pec ted him to. He patted her hands took them down off his shoulders and beld them a minute before he dropped them and reached tc shake hand? with the twin who had kissed me. "Well, now," he said, "this Is sure great. Little girls all grown up to Indies, and coming tc see their old uncle." (He had bitten on ihm uncle bait, though he was no more their oncle than I was,) "Which of you lg which, . now? Let's get you sorted out, so I can call you by name, I Vused to get you all mixed up. when you were little tykes couldn't tell one from the other." "You won't have that trouble any more," said the one who bad nodded at me "1 am Gabrlelle, and that 'prim little puss Is Danielle, People never get confused about us any ,-' longer." The population of Kattall had come 'running to the depot, of course, when the train stopped; and. ot last, swaggering swag-gering bis way among mules, females. 1 Indians, cowpuncbers, and dogs,, here came John. "La-la 1" exclaimed ciabrleile. when she caught sight of blm. "Who is . this picturesque mail thing coming toward us?" John . did look pretty fine, wearing hs new corduroy suit, and his shining new leather puttees, and his new stx-teen-dollar sombrero. De bad even gone so far as to button up the collar of his brown flannel shirt, "lie." Sam answered, beaming with pride, "Is my boy, John." "How thrilling 1" chirped Gabrlelle. "It Is like living In a cinema, isn't It, Danny?" And off she went, sort of skipping along the tracks, to meet him. When they met, John gave her about the same attention that a pas senger gives the ticket chopper at the gate. In a city depot, when he sees the train he Is trying to catch moving slowly out through the yards. He pulled oIT his hat with bow. but he passed her. walking very fast. I thought that he as so flustered that he did not know what he was doing. He knew He was beared straight for Danny. He had been In the freight houae since long before the train came In. sizing up from a safe distance the girls' arrival. Then he had sneaked out the hack way, up past the stailou bouse, and around it and hack again, to give the appearance of having Just thai minute got Into Rat-tail. Rat-tail. "John." i said, when he reached Danny and me, and stopped short, like be nod just been lassoed from the rear, "iLIs If Danielle Cannezlano." John dropped his hat In the alkali dust, his new hat, ond reached out and took both of Danny's hands in his. Falling on his knees In front of her would not have bpen much showier. "I" he produced, "I I heard you laugh." To me, it barely made sense; but she seemed to Ond it interesting and important "Ueally?" she said, and sort of trilled It full of meaning, Rattall's population was beginning to close In around us. i pulled at John's sleeve; but I declare, If a freight hadn't come along, forcing those two to get off the tracks, they might have been standing I here yet. gazing Into each other's eye 1 was halfway home, riding beside Danny In the sedan, when Gabrlelle's laughing out again, at some remark of Sam's, made me remember that she had been the only one who had done any laughing when we bad met, Danny Dan-ny had only smiled. So. if that laugh was what had put John clear off his head, he had picked the wrong twin. CHAPTER III The Secret The first minute I heard that the Cannezlano girls were costing to the Desert Moon. I questioned my self as to what reason any Cannezlano ever had for coming to the ranch, or for writing to the ranch. The answer was, to gel money. tried to think that they would stay a few months, long enough to put themselves In Sam's good graces, ask him for a tidy sum, and leave. But they had not been on the place two days before I knew that there-was something far less simple, something, probably, treacherous and slnlsler at the root of this visit of theirs to the Desert Moon, : Ou the eenlng of their arrival the girls had unpacked their trunks in their bedrooms The next morning Sang Funny Songs Until Wc Held Our Sides With Laughing. the boys carried their trunks to the attic Going through the upper hall, later that same morning, I saw one of the empt drawers that had fitted Into their new-fangled trunks, lying beside the door to the attic stairway. 1 hate clutter. I picked It up and carried 't upstairs. I went In all good faith: but I wear rubber-so.a shoes around the bouse, and the sfutrs are thickly carpeted; so the girls, who were up there, did not hear me com Ing, Jusi before I gol to the turn In the stairs, I heard one of them say: "I am sure that there Is no use In searching tLu house. In the first place, he never could have gotten it Into the house without being seen." "You are too sure of everything, when you are unsure of anything." the other girl answered, nnd I thought, since the voice was louder and, somehow, some-how, richer, that It was Gaby's. "Stop being sure, and try being., sensible. We must find It We bavt very little time. How do you know whether he could have brought u Into the house or not? There is a back stairway." Fool that 1 was, 1 kept right on going go-ing up the stairs. It took me a while to develop the poll-prying, eaves dropping, sneaking, and generally despicable character that I did de; vc-lop later. 1 "Did you girls lose something?" 1 asked. Danny Jumped, from being itartled, but Gaby never turned a hair. 'Only a trinket of Dan's," she said. "Possibly she never packed It at all." I gave them the trunk drawer and came back downstairs, wracking my brain with questions. Who was the "he" who had, or who had not, gotten something Into the house? The something that they must find, and had very little time in which to find And. land's allva, what was the something? I resolved to say nothing, but u watch those two girls, like a hawk, from then on. I did so. But It was three weeks before I heard anything more at all. though I saw a great deal. It was during these three weeks that Danny and John announced their engagement My own opinion Is that they got themselves engaged the first five minutes they were alone together; but that they had gumption enough to wait for ten days before telling It Sam gave them his blessing. That Is to say. he said that any agreement they wanted to make was all right with him. It Danny was sure she would he satisfied to live on the Desert Moon, and If they would waif a year to be married. They agreed to this, the year of waiting, reluctantly. The only people who were downright .pleased with Sam's decision were Gaby and myself. I, for certain reasons of my own. Gaby, because she was choosing to consider herself also In love with John. She made no bones about her feelings. feel-ings. I did not do as John did, nnd set all of hrr open advances toward him down to slster-ln lawly affection. Still, I didn't believe that she really thought bhe was In love with John, until I hid In the clothes closet that evening and heard Danny and her talking together. Gaby's jctions, that evening, townrd John had been so downright disgusting, disgust-ing, sitting on the arm of his chair, and trying to coax him out of the house to see the mountains by moonlight, moon-light, and hanging herself around his neck when t'ey danced together, nnd so on. that I had a . notion Danny might have a little conversation ready for her when she could get her alone. I had waited about ten minutes when 1 heard the door of Gaby's room open. 1 was so tickled I all but squealed, when I heard that Danny had come In with her. Instead of go ing on down the hull it- her own room Evidently they had begun I heir con versa! Ion in the hall, for Gaby's first words were, "Jealous, rny dear Dan?' "1 don't know. But It Is silly for you to act as you do. John is In love with me. Why should you try to tako hlrn awa from me. when you don't want blm yourself?" "Are you sure oi ihut?" "Yes. I am. His good looks fas-clnaie fas-clnaie you. and so does -its unsophlstl-cation. unsophlstl-cation. You'd like the fortune he Is to Inherit. But you would never be satisfied satis-fied to marry him and live right here for the -emaln'ler of your life." "No. I would not I d marry hjm, If he didn't have a penny It Is you who are always" thinking about hi? fortune but I wouldn't allow him to bury himself, and his beauty, and charm in this Godforsaken country. I'd get him out into the world, and nave him take his place there, With his ability and energy, and with me to help him. what a place It might be I For you to have him Is wasre. Waste, You don't know anything about love. You'll never learn. I I tell you I can't hear It It isn't fair" She begun to cry. hollow sounding Bobs, that seemed to catch In her throat and wrench free from it "I am sorry, Gaby. 1 love John He means to me peace, and .ecurlty. and decent living the things I want most for my life. Why should 1 risk It all?" "Coward I Coward I Peace and security 1 He means life to me. All of it; full and complete. Love, and passion, and adventure and attain inent, for him and for me. too. Do' you think I'll stand by. and allow you to have him. to bury his wonder In your peace, and smothpr his possibilities possibili-ties with your security and decent living?" "1 think," Danny nnswered. "thnt you will have to. John and 1 love each other; and we are going to kt-ep each other. You, nor anyone, can change that." ' "Suppose 1 should tell John why we came here?" "You won't do that You can't harm me without harming yourself. But, If you threaten that, Just once more, I will go straight to John and tell him the truth" "You promised "I haven't broken my promise. I sha'n't if you don't. But you must know that I haven't any Interest left In the thing." "What about . your desire for revenge?" re-venge?" "Thnt desire was yours, not mine. I never considered that side of It at all." : ' ."Coward I Quitter! Stool-pigeon" ; "That Isn't fair, Gaby. I'll help if 1 can. I have been helping, haven't I? 1 won't hinder In any wny. But the. time Is short now. Remember that" "Danny" There was a new tone in Gaby's voice, sweet likef and appealing. ap-pealing. I did not trust it for a minute; min-ute; but I think Danny did. for she answered, gently, "Yes, dear?" "Forgive me. Let's be twlnny again. Friends?" I could hear the treachery In that as plainly as I could hear the words. I think Danny did not henr It for she answered, "I do want to be friend- Gaby. I do, truly. Only please, dear, won't you leave my man alone?" "And you'll help me. And you won't tell him anything?" "Of course 1 won't tell, Gaby. It Is really your secret, now; not mine. And I'll help you all I can." ' Revenge. Out of all that crazy conversation the one word kept pestering pester-ing me like a leaking faucet Did people revenge other people, or have revenge on them, or what? I looked It up In the dictionary. "Millclous Injuring In-juring In return for an Injury or offense of-fense received." I got ' a piec of pr.per and wrote It down. "The Cannezlano girls want to Injure, maliciously, some one on the Desert Moon ranch. In return for an Injury or an offense received." I crossed out "The Cannezlano girls," and wrote, "Gabrlelle Cannezlano," since Danny had said that she had never considered that side of It at all. ' It did not help any. It did not make sense. Since Sam nnd 1 were the only people peo-ple on the ranch they had known before be-fore they came here this time, it seemed as If they had come to Injure, maliciously, one of us. I had never done either of them o mite of harm In my life. Sam had never done anything any-thing but good for them. Of course, Sam uad not been very gentle with their father. But. as I took pains to discover, neither of them had any kind feelings for their father. Both of them laid their mother's death at Cannezlano's door. They thought that his cruelty and his neglect had killed her. It was senseless to suppose that they were harboring a grudge against Sam for anything that he had ever done to Cannezlano. The Desert Moon was like a three-ring three-ring circus during the months of May and June. There were the girls, everlastingly ever-lastingly searching for something: leaving the house shortly after the men left it, each morning; returning, tired out. Just In time 'or dinner; ofT again for the afternoon, and coming home Just In time to pretty up for supper. sup-per. After a while, I began to lose Interest In that; and. being a woman, I allowed my attention to become distracted dis-tracted by the center ring where all the love interest was going on. Most of my attention 1 gave to the clown In the ring. to Chad. I cannot explain It now or ever; but Chad, from the very first, was head over heels in love with Gaby. He had no more chance of winning her. penniless, funny, kind little fellow th.it be was. than nn amateur has of riding nn outlaw pony. She never gave him two looks. He. couldn't even make her laugh with his lokes and his songs, as he could the rest of us. But he followed her about, and waited on her. lie brought her pony up to the house. Instead of allow lug one of. the outfit to do it He brought her desert flowers, which she tossed away to wither. And Martha was half mad with Jealousy. Right at first I think thnt some of the others thought thnt Martha's Jealousy was something of a Joke. 1 never did think so. Before long we all began to feel thnt it was more than a little serious. Sam talked to Chad, and to Gaby about It Chad did the best he could, after that, to be as attentive to Martha as be had been before; but If be so mucb as opened a door for Gaby, Martha would go Into temper fits, and 6ulklng spells. As for Gaby, Sam's talk with her made things worse. She had never noticed Chad at all, so she had not noticed that Martha was jealous of blm. She welcomed the news as another an-other tool she could use to tease and torment the poor girl. All along she had delighted in teasing and tormenting torment-ing Martha, though she had not dared do It when Sam was present. One of Gaby'a pleasant little ways was to refer to Martha as an Idiot, right before her face. "La-la I" Gaby exclaimed one evening, eve-ning, when Martha was wandering about "The Idiot gets on my nervea. Cun't you inuke her keep still, Mrs. Ricker?" "She isn't harming anyone," I said, since Mrs. Ricker, as usual, said nothing. noth-ing. "You leave her alone, and stop talking like that Miss." "I'm not harming anyone, now," Martha piped up. "But some day 1 might I'd like to t won't though," There Were the Girls, Everlastingly Searching for Something. she walked over close to Gaby, "11 you'll give me the gold monkey. I'll be good then, for always." It was a brucelet charm of Gaby's, a gold monkey, about the size of a large almond, with jade eyes. The minute Martha bad seen It she had begun tc beg for It Gaby would not give II to her; would, not so much as allow her to wenr'It for n few hours at a time. As usual, this evening, she refused re-fused to let Martha touch It "Yes, and you'll be sorry' Martha threatened. Just as she had hated Gaby from Cli3 start, Martha bad loved Danny; but she could not tell them apart. It seemed Incredible that even Martha could be confused about the two girls; because, If ever girls were cpposltes. those girls were. Their faces, Just their faces, did look alike. They both had large brown eyes, straight noses, small mouths, pointed chins, and com- plexlons the color of real light caramel cara-mel frosting. Danny's cheeks showed a faint pink, coming and going. Gaby painted her cheekbones, clear back to her ears, with deep orange-pink color. They both had wavy, dark brown hair, cut just the same In the nack, real close fitting and down to a point But Gaby brushed her hair straight back from her forehead, and put varnish stuff on It till If was as sleek and shining shin-ing as patent leather. Gaby's clothes were all loud colored, or seemed to j be black turned gaudy when she put It on nnd they were all Insecure np-1 pea ring, too defiant of paper patterns I to be quite moral. Danny's clothes were as neat and quiet as a pigeon's. Since Hubert Hand was too selfish I ever to love anything that his nose i wasn't attached to. his carryings on with Gaby should he classed, I think, not In the center ring, but as the mnln j attraction of the third ring. And he almost old enough to be her father, with white coming into his hair at his temples I To this day I have never understood under-stood those two, during those months. Gaby was In love with John. Hubert , Hand was In love with Hubert Hand. Yet they hugged and kissed, and i seemed to think that calling It "necking" "neck-ing" made It respectable. It wasn't a flirtation, with them. It was more like a flght, where each of them was fighting for something they did not want A perfectly footless, none too wholesome performance (TO DE CONTINUED) |