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Show IR WDE W0MAM I'hllHIUX nH PETER B.KYNE " THE STORY SO FAR: Mary Suthfr-Und Suthfr-Und makes arranitmrnts to fat met at Sufhuaro. a Oaf lUUoa In Arizona. She arrive! by train and waits lor the nation na-tion waton from Watan Wheel Ranch to pick ber up. Alter a lone watt, Ln Henley, Hen-ley, ! Com rut Junction, plrks ber np, and drives her to bli trailer house, where he eati breakfast Henley decides that Mary should put up at a hotel In Phoenix from which sht can roam around and secure accommodations at some duds ranch. BIU Burdan, owner ol the Waton Wheel, had cone to Hamilton Henley, Sr., for loan. Alter Burdan left his office Henley purchased via phtne the Burdan notes and collateral from the State Bank of Arlxona. CnAPTF.R III She obeyed, took a few sips and glanced up-stream as a desert raven fluttered into the water and started to drink. "Is that a crow?" she asked. "No, that is a desert raven. Didn't you hear him croak like Poe's raven ra-ven 'Nevermore'?" He assisted her to her feet "Everything is in or-der," or-der," he announced, "and you are acceptable to the Spirit. You drank from the Hassyampa and the Spirit sent his raven to light in the water above you, thus inducing you to gaze up-stream. The legend has it that If you drink and gaze upstream up-stream you will never leave Arizona, Ari-zona, whereas, if you drink and gaze down-stream you will never tell the truth again. Of course, If you turned out to be a pathological liar you'd have to go home or be blacklisted." "I'm so glad I won. What are you doing with that rock in your hand?" "I saw that raven fluttering around, uncertain whether to land up-stream or down. If he had started start-ed down-stream I was going to throw this rock at him and head him upstream." up-stream." "Oh! So you want me to remain in Arizona?" "I love my native state and yearn to see It do well in the matter of immigration." "But I must go home in the spring." "The Spirit of the Hassyampa is a broad-minded little gnome and perfectly willing to permit his chll-drcn chll-drcn to make little trips here and there for business and pleasure, but he does insist that they vote In Arizona. Ari-zona. So, go back to New York if you must, but remember you'll return." re-turn." "Will you be here when I return, Don Leonardo?" "If I'm living I'll meet you at the depot. In fact the moment I saw you at Sughuaro I had a feeling that meeting you might develop into a habit." "You're a dear to say that," and privately she thought: I wonder If I'll ever see him again after I return re-turn home. "Of course not Indeed, if I were to neglect you I should expect Providence Prov-idence to visit some sort of misery upon me." He took her arm and led her back to the truck and she paused at the trailer, climbed up on a wheel and looked in at the two horses. "This chestnut with the silver points is a beauty," she said. "Very well, Pablito shall be your horse when you visit my ranch and I have a fine silver mounted stock saddle that used to belong to my mother. It will fit you. I assume you can ride." "I belong to a hunt club in Virginia Vir-ginia and ride to hounds. Where shall we ride in Arizona?" She saw something in his eyes that sent a tremor through her. "Over the mountains of the moon," j he answered enigmatically, and did I not speak to her again fur ten min-I min-I utcs. When he did he said: "I'm worried about finding hotel accommodations accom-modations for you, Miss Sutherland. During the winter season our best and second best hotels are crowded, and for the next three days guests will be sleeping in the halls on cots. I may have to secure a room for you in sumo respectable private home." She had a mad Impulse to inform him she would be glad to walk the streets all night provided he walked with her. She was almost dizzy with delight and didn't want to be bothered by minor problems. "Whatever "What-ever you do is right, Don Leonardo," she answered. "I'm not a demanding demand-ing woman nor am I a complaining one. When you volunteered to rescue res-cue mc this morning you let your-self your-self In for something. 10 the worry wor-ry is all yours." A motor horn sounded behind them and a long, sleek, expensive convertible con-vertible sedan, with the top down (lid up alongside and held steady with them, while a handsome Iron-Kray Iron-Kray man leaned out and waved at Ion and shouted "Hi. boy!" Lcn Henley waved in return and shouted: shout-ed: "Hi. old settler!" Then the Iron-Smy Iron-Smy man spoke to his chauffeur and the car slid away from Lcn Henley's nondescript caravan. "He was going to stop and have a chat with you." Mary said, "but when he saw me he changed his mind. He seemed terribly glad to see you." "That was my father." he told her. "Old Hamilton Leonard Henley. Seniorin Sen-iorin person, lie's looking grand, Isn't he?" "I hope so." She added, out of an Instinctive and wholly feminine sus- -- picion that Henley, senior, deserved some mild adverse criticism. "He certainly looks far more prosperous than his son. That car cost at least four thousand dollars and I notice he has a uniformed chauffeur." Arrived In Phoenix he pulled up in front of a hotel and. leaving her seated in the car, he disappeared Inside. The clerk reported the hotel one hundred per cent full, but Mr. Henley was not disappointed, for he had anticipated that. He went to a house telephone and called a rcem, announced himself and was instructed instruct-ed to come upstairs immediately to Suite A. A handsome, middle-aged woman met him at her door, took him in her arms and kissed him twice. These osculations he returned with interest and then said very solemnly, solemn-ly, "Aunt Margaret, you have always al-ways professed considerable affection affec-tion for me." "You great gladiator, I love you. You're practically my boy, aren't you? Didn't your mother beg me, when she was dying, to look after you? Of course you've never given me the ghost of an opportunity to look after you, but I've always been standing by, ready to try." "Your patience is about to be rewarded, re-warded, darling. I've found the most wonderful girl in the world, there are only two hotels in this city fit "Oh! So you want me to remain in Arizona." to receive her and there isn't a vacant va-cant room in either." "Where is she?" "Sitting in the cab of my little truck at the entrance, waiting for me to return with tidings of great joy. Margaret Maxwell, you have a golden opportunity to be a heroine." She eyed him humorously. "Start In at the beginning and tell me everything, ev-erything, Lcn. No shooting in the dark for your old Aunt Maggie." So he told her everything, and added. add-ed. "You have a spare chamber in your suite, haven't you?" "You know I have. You've occupied occu-pied it often enough. Now what is this all about?" "May this girl friend of mine occupy oc-cupy it?" "How long?" "Until she can find accommodations accommoda-tions at sonic local dude ranch. You know how women are. They have to shop around a little." "Well, since an emergency exists she may occupy my guest room. I'll lock it off from the remainder of my suite, and telephone the clerk to assign her to it and give her the key." "When my mother picked a friend she picked one," he declared. "Aunt Margaret, you're the lily of the valley." val-ley." "You seem unduly excited about this young lady, Len." "You'll be crazy about her." "Do I have to meet her, darling?" "I knocked on her door Just after the boy brought her up, Len, and when she opened It I asked If everything every-thing was all right in her room and did she need any more towels. She didn't need any more towels but she'd like a maid to help her unpack. un-pack. So I volunteered for that Job, because I maintain one lady can always al-ways recognize another by her wardrobe. And, of course, I got a good lock at her and we chatted some. Evidently she thought I was the housekeeper, because she tipped me a dollar and as if the tip wasn't enough she thanked me and told me I was very kind." "Did you take her dollar?" "Of course. A good laugh is always al-ways worth a dollar. Isn't It? The girl gets by your old Aunt Maggie on probation and on the face of Incomplete In-complete returns I've decided you're not so Juvenile as I thought you were this morning " "Darling, if you were twenty-one I wouldn't even look at ber." "The blarney of you! Well, I telephoned tele-phoned her an Invitation to cocktails cock-tails and told her you'd bring her to my suite." "Did she accept?" he Inquired eagerlyand ea-gerlyand stupidly. "I fear, Len, you have never fed a sardine to a cat It's six o'clock and that girl li sitting by the telephone waiting waiting-waiting." waiting-waiting." "How do you know?" "I know that the girl who wouldn't wait by the telephone for you must be too ill to crawl to it. Come up, you great simpleton and bring that lovely thing with you." "She's all dressed up and so am I," he crowed triumphantly. "You're taking us to a dinner dance at the country club at eight" "But I haven't reserved a table for you and this girl." "Woman, I reserved it in your name this morning. Better dig yourself your-self up a beau." "I have one and he's all dressed up, too." Two minutes later Mary Sutherland Suther-land heard a door open across the hall and men's voices drifted in to her through her open transom. Somebody said: "Hello, Len Henley." Hen-ley." Len Henley replied cheerfully, "Hello, you Wades. I hear you beat that indictment the grand Jury brought in against you for cattle stealing." The man who had greeted him said on a surly note: "We won't discuss dis-cuss that, Henley." "Oh, yes you will," came the brisk reply, "because I have a very sound reason for discussing it. I'm glad 1 bumped into you boys here, because the meeting saves me a call on you at your ranch. I am of the opinion that none of you has sufficient intelligence in-telligence to quit the game and that you'll keep on burning over other people's brands and carting off other oth-er people'a yearlings to a bootleg butcher in your big truck and trailer until somebody gets you squarely between the cross-hairs of a panoramic pan-oramic sight on an army rifle. I hope that Job will not fall to me, although al-though I assure you if it should I'll not flunk it I want to warn you monkeys that I'm going to buy the Wagon Wheel ranch." After having seen Mary safely ensconced en-sconced at the hotel, Len had gone out to the rodeo grounds. Pedro was there with the trailer house parked back of the barns in the infield. Len Henley drew a horse known as Mad Hatter and when he announced an-nounced it fifty men cried, in unison, uni-son, like coyotes, and one contestant, contest-ant, who had been a runner-up for the cowboy championship of the world the year previous, grinned at Len and said: "So you don't make first day money in the bronc rldin' tomorrow, do you. Henley?" "Why?" Len demanded. "Because Mad Hatter'U stack you. He stacked you at Salinas, at Calgary Cal-gary and at Pendleton, just as he's stacked every man that's ever topped him lncludin' me. An' he'll stack you again." "How many times has he unloaded you?" Twice." "Did you learn anything from the experience?" "I learned that the man that can make time on that horse ain't been born and ain't likely to be." "Want to bet I fail to make time on him tomorrow afternoon?" "Would a cat eat liver?" "What odds will you give me?" Two to one." "Big time gambler, aren't you. offering two to one on a horse that has never been ridden." Another man pressed forward. "I'll lay you three to one you don't make time on Mad Hatter, Henley. Seventy-five to twenty-five." "You've made a bet." Lcn raised his voice. "Any other man willing to lay me three to one on Mad Hatter Hat-ter can meet mc in the secretary's office after this rush is over. He'll be the stake holder. There will be no finger bets. Cash on the Barrelhead." Barrel-head." He was overwhelmed with business busi-ness immediately. . . . When he left the rodeo grounds at noon he had made bets which stood to win him three thousand dollars if ho could stay on Mad Hatter, without violating any of the Rodeo Association Associa-tion of America's rules for t winning win-ning ride, until the presiding Judge should fire his pistol. He was regarded re-garded by all who made bets with him as one far from sane, and, of course, the association's publicity man promptly seized upon this news to plant a front page story in the local afternoon paper, together with a picture of Len Henley on Mad Hatter in action and taken at the Pendleton round-up three seconds before Mr. Henley had been sent salting off into space. Wherefore, Hamilton L. Henley, Senior, late that afternoon was mode aware that his son, recently declared de-clared champion cowboy of the world, would be a special attraction on the opening day of the show, in that he had drawn Mad Hatter, undefeated un-defeated champion bucker of the world, who had already gained three decisions over Mr. Henley. Never theless, tht latter was accepting bets, at three to one, that the following fol-lowing afternoon he would rldt Mad Hatter and "make time." (TO BE CONTINUED) |