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Show -CA).,,J, U w.N.u. riATuRis -.-tc:i Ttuc BTOKY THUS PA It i Thunder-head Thunder-head Is the only white hone ever foaled on Uie Uou.t liar ranch In Wyomlnj. Me rc.einhles hla reat (ramlilre, a wild laUl.vn called Uie Albino. Ken Mi l.auih-Hn. l.auih-Hn. 11 years old, owns Thunderhead. He hopes his hone will develop Into a racer, he la very fast. Unfortunately, he Is difficult to handle, so plain for enterlni him In the full race meet are uncertain. Kob Mi l.aushlln, Ken's father, goes east wllh horses to an Important auction m I'ennsylvanla. Tills clears out most his stock. Mrs. Nell Mcl.aiiKUlIn, left Une on Uie ranch, feels depressed. Klnanclal worries have worn her down. 1'hen one day she returns from a ride lo hid nob back, and a party tn uruf ress. CHAPTER, XIX "I've already started!" ti!d Nell, 'n her mettle now. "I've written unt Julia, In Doston. She hns a URe circle of friends and acqunlnt-nces. acqunlnt-nces. And two of my school "ends, Adelaide Kinney and Eve-vn Eve-vn Sharp." "You expect them to promote our business for you?" "Not thnt way! Oh. Rob! You're elng simply horrible!" Nell sprang o her feet and stood by the mantel. "I simply want to get the Idea," 'aid Rob Icily. "You wanted to tell t to me, didn't you? Go on tell the est. I'm particularly anxious to mow, now that I realize you have massed on the fact of my failure to our relatives and friends In the ast." Nell was silent for a while, then lrew a long breath and said, "They von't have to promote my busl-less. busl-less. They'll be glad to give me lists of the right people to write to. And they'll let me use their names as reference. And I've made out a letter, setting out the plan, descriptions descrip-tions of this place and everything, and we'd have to have pictures, and all that can be mimeographed and sent to these lists of people. And we have the complete set-up. Prac-Ucally Prac-Ucally no Investment needed. Some guest cabins, yes Gus and Tim and you could build them yourselves. Andl this Is a lovely place, and there's beautiful country to ride In and plenty of horses! And I'm n awfully good cook!" Nell said nothing more. In a moment mo-ment Rob asked. "You say you've made out the letter?" "Yes." Nell picked It up from the table and handed It to him. But Rob put out a protesting hand. "No. I don't want to see It, thank you. And I hope you haven't set your heart on this. Have you?" "Set my heart on It?" said Nell. "Because I don't like to deny you any of your wishes." "I know," said Nell hesitatingly. "You're awfully nice about that. I wanted to thank you for for the sleigh Gus Is making and the monkey mon-key tree. I do hank you ever so much." Rob brushed this aside. "It's nothing noth-ing at all," he said indifferently. "No reason you should not have what you want." Nell was silent. After a while she said, "Rob, you know this Isn't just something I want for the fun of It" "Isn't It? I thought maybe you were lonesome here with me alone." "You know it Isn't that at all. Rob, you aren't even pretending to tell the truth about anything." "Just a damned liar, am I?" That struck Nell as funny and helped her recover her poise. "It's because I told you that thing last summer that the horses would never nev-er succeed and It made you mad at me. And you've never got over being be-ing mad. And I was thinking afterward after-ward that it was awful of me, to have knocked everything so the horses and your work without having hav-ing something else to suggest So I tried to find another plan. That's all." Rob began to knock the ashes out of his pipe. "I hadn't meant to tell you this, Nell, but I'D have to now. Otherwise you won't be able to understand why I say no to your proposition. I am not going to continue con-tinue to raise horses as the main production line of the ranch. They can be a side line. I'm going to raise sheep." "Sheep!" exclaimed Nell. "But that requires an enormous investment! invest-ment! How could we possibly raise the money for that?" "It's already raised. To begin with, although I did not make the twenty thousand dollars from my polo ponies which I might have made with good luck, I did make nearly ten. That cleans me out of horses. With the exception of the young stuff coming up I'll have nothing noth-ing more to selL But I have put every dollar of that, and more too all I could borrow into a band of ewes. I Investigated the sheep market mar-ket thoroughly when I was in Laramie. Lara-mie. I was lucky in my buy I think. I found these up at the Doughty ranch, near the Red Desert. Des-ert. Fifteen hundred Corriedale ewes." "When are they coming on the ranch?" asked Nell. "They're already on," said Rob. "I've got a Mexican as a herder, and we drove them up from Laramie Lara-mie two days ago. We came in the back way." "But what about Bellamy s sheep? They're out on the back range there. I saw them yesterday." "If you saw sheep on this ranch yesterday, you saw our own sheep. Bellamy left with his sheep weeks ago " , Nell wni about to ask "What about the lease you gave Bellamy for an. other year?" hut thought better of It. She did say, "You Just said you hndn't intended telling me tills yet. Why not?" "Bccuuse it may full," said Rob coldly. "It's a gamble, like all stock raising. It looks good now. The markets have been good for several yeiirs. With these sheep I ought to net almost ten thousand In one year. That will make a sizable dent in our debts. And If It continues, In a few years we'll be out from under." For Nell, the reversal of all she had been thinking and believing and planning was so sudden, she felt flattened out. Why! then everything's every-thing's all right! Everything's settled set-tled and arranged! Our future provided pro-vided for and and everything! Presently she found breath to say It aloud, and Rob acquiesced. "Yes, everything's arranged." "And there's nothing to worry about." "Nothing." The words faded into the heavy silence. Nell's eyes flickered to Rob. Everything all right nothing to worry about and yet, between them, this cold distance and strangeness. strange-ness. What made It? Was It impossible impos-sible once the habits of love had been broken to mend them again? Even when the cause of the breach had been corrected? Rob stared at the fire and said slowly, "I would have liked It If II f l "Is this card phony or what?" this experiment could have been worked out first, so that, when I told you, I could have told you of a 'fait accompli' money in the bank, debts paid, notes met, a going concern con-cern not just, as it Is now, one more hope, one more plan, one more good chunk of wishful thinking." think-ing." Nell was leaning back in her armchair arm-chair and made no answer. "But," continued Rob, "since you -have made it so plain that it was not only the horses you doubted, it was me too and any ability I might have to care for you and provide a home for you " he left the sentence unfinished. The clock struck eleven, and Pauly rose from where she had been lying near the fire and staged an elaborate elab-orate stretch, then ran meowing to Nell. Nell lifted her automatically. "That's true, isn't it, Nell?" asked Rob in a sudden direct manner. "What?" "That you have lost confidence in me?" Nell did not answer Immediately. Finally she said, "Rob I didn't think you would succeed with the horses. I told you that. But that's not you personally " "But it was, me, personally," he insisted. "You didn't think I was going to pull us through, did you?" "You never took me into your confidence," said Nell. "You didn't tell me you were going to try a different line. You kept saying it was to be the horses or nothing." "I suppose that's as good a way of answering as any," said Rob slowly. A sudden passionate protest flung Nell to her feet. Pauly hit the floor with a little grunt. "I don't see why confidence means so much to youl I've never stopped loving you not the least bit. Suppose some of the confidence was gone? That would be only human wouldn't really matter between us!" Rob got to his feet and went about blowing the lamps out, and finally answered, "Just that it sort of takes the heart out of a man." It was still possible, thought Nell, as she walked slowly upstairs. When people loved each other as they had, nothing more would be needed than just one look one word her name, Nell. There would be no forgiving or explaining, just a sudden com- ing together and all the discord flung behind them. But Rob stood In a sort of daze In the center of the bedroom, as If he did not feel at home there. One hand held his pipe as he puffed at it, and he stood watching her as she moved about, turning the bed down, closing the window, taking her nlghtclothes from the closet and dropping them on the bed. She went to his chlllonlcr and took out a set of pajamas and handed hand-ed them to him. "Here are some fresh pajamas for you." He took them absent-mindedly. Then, as Nell undid the belt of her skirt and stepped out of It, and peeled off her sweater, he said to her hesitatingly, "I'm awfully tired. I think I'll sleep In the other room. Do you mind?" He looked at his wife. With Just her slip on, she was seated In the low chair, one ankle crossed over the other knee to untie her shoe, her slender and beautiful legs shining In their long silk stockings. stock-ings. Her tawny hair hung loose over the pearl-like skin on her breasts. Her cheeks were exquisitely exquisite-ly flushed. Without raising her head her dark blue eyes slid up underneath her brows and she answered easily, "Not at all. I think It would be a very good Idea. I shall probably sleep better myself." Charley Sargent never missed the three weeks' autumn race meet at Saginaw Falls in Idaho, one of the few major or "recognized" tracks in the Rocky Mountain states; and had the same stables for his horses, and hotel accommodations for himself, him-self, year after year. Taking his horses down the Continental Divide from a high altitude to one several thousand feet lower gave them an advantage, and. he liked the town which lay in the long valley between the Wauchichl and Shinumo ranges and had a season of pleasant autumn weather. Although the distance from Sargent's Sar-gent's ranch to Saginaw Falls was not more than eight hundred miles, he always shipped his horses by rail In charge of his trainer, Perry Gunston, rather than vanning them or taking them in an automobile trailer. This was because the highway high-way made a rather precipitous descent, de-scent, winding down through several sev-eral mountain passes; and on the Divide, the unpredictable storms sometimes made the road dangerous danger-ous or even impassable for trucks. But he himself made the trip by motor. There were always several events scheduled for two-year-olds, in which Sargent tried out his promising promis-ing youngsters, and one race, on the last day of the meet, with a ten-thousand-dollar purse,, which attracted at-tracted an impressive entry. It was in this race that Thunderhead was to make his debut, and long before school closed Ken had familiarized himself with the past performances of all winners of this big event. Thunderhead had only to run the two miles on the Saginaw Falls track as fast as he had run it at home to win. For Ken to hang around his father fa-ther while the letter containing his report card was being opened, or even to allow the depressing event to catch him in the same room, was so unusual that Rob McLaughlin McLaugh-lin felt sure something was fishy. He glanced up at Ken who stood waiting beside his desk with hands driven deep into the pockets of his bluejeans. "Going to take your medicine med-icine and get it over with, are you?" he grinned, then looked at the boy's face again. That wasn't Ken's usu al report-card face the face of one waiting for a death sentence. On the contrary, the sensitive face was now flushed with anticipation, gleams of light played in the depths of his blue eyes and one smile after the other rippled across his lips. "Read it, dad. Read it quick!" he exclaimed, and watched closely as his father took the card and studied it, item by item. Rob simply didn't believe it. He shook his head with bewilderment. "Is this card phony or what? Do you know what's in it, Ken?" "What?" demanded Ken confidently. confi-dently. "Ninety-two in Algebra. Ninety-four Ninety-four in Latin. Ninety-seven in Chemistry, Chem-istry, and one hundred in English." Eng-lish." Rob pointed at the card. "How'd you get this? Was it just one composition?" com-position?" "You had to be excellent all year, and write a perfect composition to end up with." "What subject did you choose?" "I wrote about that time I tried to get the eagle feather you know-down know-down there in the Valley of the Eagles, Ea-gles, and the eagle chased me all the way down the cliff and stuck his claws in my belly and it was only my belt that saved me but of course I fixed it up a little." "How'd you fix it up? Seems to me that was hot stuff without any fixing." Ken waved his hands in a suave and explanatory fashion. "Oh, I put in some romantic dqpe yu know, the sort of things writers writer I had it that I had a picture of my girl In the buckle of my belt, so she sort of saved my life, you sea." (TO BE CONTINUED) |