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Show It MM W0MAMJ1L illllllllilX PETER B.KYNE 1! THE STORY THIS FAR: Mar; Sutherland, Suth-erland, an eastern girl. It lured to Art-tona Art-tona by the advertisement! of the Wagon Wheel dude ranch operated by Ma and Pa Burdan. She Is met at the ttatinn by Leo Henley, rodeo rider, who telli ber that the Wagon Wheel bai tone out of business. Len takes her to phoenix. Hearing that the Wagon Wheel Is broke, Ham Henley, I.en'i father, purchases the Burdan notes from the bank. While at Phoenix Len enters the rodeo, drawing draw-ing a brone known as Mad Hatter, toughest tough-est hone In the West. Ham bets ten three to one he won't be able to stay on the hnrse. Mary learns that Len loves ber. She wagers one thousand to three thousand that Len will ride Mad Hatter. CHAPTER VIII Ham Henley still did not know where to find the Burdans but he suspected they would visit his son as soon as the doctors would permit It; so he had a man sit in a car in front of the hospital with instructions instruc-tions that if an elderly couple should drive up in a station wagon he was to follow them when they emerged and secure their address. When, at the end of four days the Buidans had not appeared he commenced com-menced to be anxious. In order to file foreclosure suits against them he would have to have them served personally with the summons and complaint In action and undue delay in locating the defendants would make It incumbent upon him to petition pe-tition the court for permission to enter upon the Wagon Wheel ranch to conserve its assets. And, if it could possibly be avoided, he did not wish to enter foreclosure suits; he did not want the Wagon Wheel ranch to be thus advertised as a property upon which a supposedly experienced cowman had failed. While Hamilton Henley's thoughts were thus engaged, Pa Burdan had kept his promise to uncover the latter lat-ter sudden Interest in the Wagon Wheel ranch a task which, It must be confessed, was not remotely complicated. com-plicated. He telephoned the president presi-dent of the State Bank at Prescott to inquire if payment of the delinquent delin-quent Interest on the loans, the delinquent de-linquent taxes on the collateral and a payment of say five per cent on the principal of the loans might operate op-erate to forestall the filing of suits In foreclosure. He was not surprised sur-prised when informed that the bank was no longer interested In that matter because Hamilton L. Henley had purchased both mortgages. So that was how the cat was about to hop! Pa came in to Ma and said proudly: "Well, Ma, I told you I'd ferret out Ham Henley's interest in the Wagon Wheel an I have. He's bought the mortgages!" "You through ferretin'?" Ma demanded. de-manded. "Ain't nothin' more to ferret," Pa protested virtuously. "Very well, then. I'll start. Ham Henley wants an assignment of our state land lease to make sure nobody no-body else slips in ahead o' him an' gets it after the state land commissioner com-missioner cancels our lease for failure fail-ure to pay the rent." "I ain't a-goin' to deny that. Ma." "An' he wants a bill-o'-sale to the cattle an a quit-claim deed to the home ranch so's he won't have to enter suit in foreclosure an' can enter on the property an' take charge right off. He knows we can't protect ourselves nohow so he's gone big-hearted an' offered us as a ftift just about what it'd cost him to enter suit." Now that Len was out of danger 1 and permitted a few visitors for a few minutes daily, Mary wondered If he still harbored his plan for acquiring ac-quiring the Wagon Wheel ranch. She suspected he was sufficiently tenacious tena-cious to cling to the idea; that while unable to attend to the details himself him-self he might engage a lawyer to attend to them for him, for she doubted if he would ask his father to serve him. In order to verify her suspicions, therefore, she asked him about it. He replied, sadly, that he had abandoned the Idea. The Buidans had lied from the Wagon Wheel in panic; when their panic subsided they would, of course, return to pack their few personal belongings, but they would not remain there until legally evicted. Pa had to do something quickly to earn a living for himself and Ma . . . Hence somebody had to take charge of the ranch at once and the bank would, ft course, petition the court for permission per-mission to do so In order to avoid waste and spoilage of their collateral collater-al prior to securing Judgment in foreclosure suits. Consequently, the moment such suits were instituted, competition to secure the Wagon j Wheel at an obvious bargain, would be keen; and, of course, a man flat on his back in a hospital, doomed to remain there not less than two nonthi and facing an additional con-aicsccnce con-aicsccnce period of a month or more, could not compete. Whm she terminated her brief I visit Mnry ncnt t0 the locul bank here 'he had opened an account by dppositinK Ham Henley's check and j "sked a bank official to recommend ! Rood locM attorney. He suggested i &'r. Henry Duller In the Henley j building and to Mr. Henry Buller'i ! office Mary at once repaired. Upon turning to her hold she visited Ma and Pa Burdan. "t m thinking seriously of acquires acquir-es the Wagon Wheel ranch," she kognn. "What price will you accept tor your equity?" Ma's acquired sense of leadership bade her answer: "Ten thousand dollars!" Young as she was Mary realized she was about to be played for a dude, that Ma and Pa were not above employing a modicum of rural cunning. So she decided there should be no temporizing. "For an assignment of your state land lease for fi deed to your home ranch, subject, of course, to the deed of trust held by the bank and for a bill-of-sale of all of your cattle, subject sub-ject to the mortgage on them held by the bank, I will give you twenty-five twenty-five hundred dollars and not a penny more." "Take it." said Ma. "Leave all your papers with me," Mary directed. "I must have a lawyer verify your lease and your right to assign it and approve the title to your real estate. As soon as he has done that I will issue you a check. In the interim let us go to the lawyer's office and sign an option." op-tion." The moment the Burdans were back at the home of the relative with whom they were staying Ma picked up the telephone and called Ham Henley's number. Pa put his hand over the mouthpiece. "Aimin" to gloat a mite on Ham Henley, eh?" I It ts"? til For a plaything she had taken the ranch. he growled, "before the deal is closed final. Ma, you're askin' for it, so as soon as we git the money you take half an' I'll take half an' we'll go our separate ways." Ma trembled and hung up. That afternoon Buller verified the fact that the Burdans had a land lease, that it was still valid and that they had a legal right to assign it. The following morning the title to the real estate was found to be in order and at two o'clock that afternoon after-noon the deal was formally closed whereupon Ma Burdan picked up Henry Buller's telephone and demanded de-manded speech with Hamilton L. Henley. Evidently her request was granted for Mary heard her toss over the line a bit of ancient childhood child-hood doggerel: "Smarty gave a party And nobody came but a big fat darkey." Then she put the receiver back In its cradle and smiled happily. "If Ma hadn't had her gloat over Ham Henley I reckon she'd have busted wide open," Pa opined. "Why is she gloating?" Mary asked. "On account Ham Henley's bought our notes from the bank an' was hellbent on buy in' from us what you've just bought." "Why didn't you tell me Hamilton Henley had bought those notes?" Mary demanded. "You never nsked," Pa replied, In all Innocence, "besides which, if I'd volunteered the Information you might have flggered we was try-in to whipsaw you. You offered a thousand thou-sand more'n Ham Henley so we took it." Mary sighed. It was one thing to high-pressure a bank but she had a very strong suspicion that to high-pressure high-pressure Hamilton L. Henley was quite another pair of boots. How-, How-, ever, the fat was in the fire now and all she could do was to go to the assault. "I think I'll handle Mr. Henley myself," she told Henry Buller, "while you go over to the , state land office, pay that delinquent rental and file with the land com- ; - missioncr that assignment of lease." i ; She picked up the telephone, called , , Hamilton L, Henley's office, and asked for an Interview. j That morning Ham Henley had : ' dropped in for a minute to visit hie son. "Len." he snid, "you've win- tered for several years on the Wngon i Wheel. You sort o' like that prop-1 prop-1 erty, don't you?" "It's beautiful," Len sighed. "I've , always wanted to own It and I would have, too, If I'd gotten ofl Mad Hatter sooner." "I been thinkin' maybe you'd be happier with a spread of your own, son," his father went on. "I'm in position to pick up the Wagon Wheel for a song, an' if I thought you'd accept it I'd buy it an" give It to you an' there wouldn't be no strings to the gift, son. except that I'd like you to put up at my house when you come to town an' keep a room for me at the Wagon Wheel so's I can visit you when I come up to Yavapai county." Len looked up at his father and the latter saw his son's eyes grow moist, saw his one sound arm come up from under the sheets and grope toward him. "I'll be mighty happy to have the gift now that I know your love goes with it," he said with some difficulty. Hum Henley laid his big hard hand across his son's eyes to hide the emotion in his own, for he was not given to being soft and it disturbed dis-turbed him. "Why, son," he said gently, "there ain't nothin' 1 1 wouldn't do for you if I could. I i know I was hard on you when you ! was in your teens . . . I It hurt me because you accepted your mother's leadership instead o' mine I got the false notion you wasn't a Henley . . . When I seen you ride Mad Hatter to a gaspin' finish I knew you'd done somethin' no man o' your mother's clan would have done . . . I'm right sorry for a lot o' things . . ." "You talk too much," his son said. "I don't need a blue-print." "We'll gather them Burdan scrubs an' culls, an' sell 'em for what they'll bring; then I'll stock you up with high-grade cattle. You visit all my ranches an help yourself to the best horses in the caballado an' as soon as you're up an' doin' again I'll buy you a car like mine." "It isn't considered good medical practice pappy to pull the nose of a fellow with a fractured skull-but skull-but keep on if it pleases you" "You keep your tail up," his father fa-ther roared, and fled from the room. Back in his office he said to Jess Hubbell, "Jess, Mrs. Bill Burdan is out to swindle me on that Wagon Wheel deal. I don't know her scarcely, scarce-ly, but Len's fond of her . . . so let her get away with her swindle. When she calls up again you handle her She riles me." "How much?" "She's asking twenty-five hundred. It's a gift so give it to her. I want the Wagon Wheel for my son and I've got to get the Burdans out of my way so I can send a manager out to look after things." "Where can I find the Burdans, Mr. Henley?" "I don't know. But you needn't bother lookin'. She'll be callin' up this afternoon to accept my last offer of-fer .. . Poor devils, they got to have some getaway money." I He gazed upon his general-manager a moment, then laid a hand on the hitter's shoulder. "Jess," he laid, j "I pay this crazy government too much income taxes, so I'm agoin' to reduce the inflammation by in-! crcasin' deductible expenses. Gim-1 me the office payroll ... I aim to whoop salaries, startin" with you." j "I'm glad." said Jess Hubbell, , "that the boy's going to live. I'm glad you're happy and thanks for the raise." "Happy? Jess, I'm happicr'n a coyote in a watermelon patch. Jess, I my boy's always been right fond of , me an' I didn't know it. Can you beat that?" "It ain't up to me to tell you how dumb you've been," Jess Hubbell replied diplomatically. "You know somebody by the name o' Miss Mary Sutherland''" "Yes. What about her?" "She telephoned to ask for an interview in-terview with you nt eleven tomorrow morning. I told her I'd call her back tit her hotel." "I'll see her, Jess." All the remainder of the day he wondered what the object of the interview in-terview miuht be. He felt varuely disturbed about it after Ma Burdan Bur-dan had telephoned him some cryptic cryp-tic nonsense about a party and a big fat darkey and his perturbation had not abated when Mary was ushered ush-ered into his office. "Good niornln', dude," he greeted her. "What's on your mind?" "Good morning, Don Hamilton. On my mind this morning are two four loans you purchased from the Stat Batik of Arizona." "Hum-m-m!" "Do it again. I own the Wjgon Wheel state land lease and the Burdan Bur-dan equity in the Wagon Wheel home ranch and the cattle." He blanched and flushed. His face went out of control and as a mask for concealing his emotions he was aware it was no longer of any use to him and this knowledge, combined with the blow below the belt this dude girl had so calmly and forcibly given him, filled him with anger. He thought rather Incoherently: She's robbing my son. For a play, thing she has taken the ranch he's yearned for years to possess and she's robbing me of the fun of making mak-ing his dream come true. She dislikes dis-likes me and now she has com to gloat over me ... I must not speak too quickly. If I do I'll say too much . . . after all my son Is In love with her and I've Just gotten my son back ; ... I mustn't risk losing him again. (TO BE CONTINUED) I |