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Show g ' ' " " " "o g . . 3$ Peter 3. Kyne ... g Q WJTD Service. Copyrlfht, by Peter B. Km. Q CHAPTER XIII Continued 17 Babson got out his life Insurance policies and rend their provisions carefully. He knew there whs a clause In them which nullified them Lf the insurcl coiyislUcd uicide, while sane or Insc:, vliliia a con&:n period following the Isr&:,c9 of the policy, l'es, that perin 1 had now passed. He had two hundred thousand dollars' worth of life Insurance In force and his wife was the beneficiary. His creditors could not levy on that. So I he wrote his wife a letter, Instructing her how to Invest the Insurance money afely to yield six per cent, enclosed tills note In an envelope and returned It to the tin box marked "S. B. Personal." Per-sonal." This box he placed In the bank vault where It would be found readily; then he left a note for Mr. Rookby, got In his car and drove away up country . . . Two weeks later Rube Tenney found his body floating beside the headgate at Lake Bahson. A gentle wind was blowing across the lake ard Mr. Bab-ion's, Bab-ion's, body was bumping the headgate pently and persistently, as If he still Insisted It be opened. !,..,. CHAPTER XIV ' t"' ' When Silas Babson failed to come home for dinner the night the Bank of Valley Center closed forever, his wife waited until eight o'clock and then telephoned Henry Rookby. Upon Mr. Rookby Immediately fell a suspicion sus-picion that something tragic Impended. He found Rnhson's tin box unlocked, so he opened It and found Babson's letter to his wife In the envelope with the life Insurance policies. Stinking slightly with apprehension, Mr. Rookby went Into his cage and found there si! envelope addressed to to him. It wa from Babson and read: I "Dear Henry: I can't stand It. If I live my wife and children will be paupers and I'll be the most hated man In this county. I could never beat back and I'm too old to try. And I'm too tired. Look for me In Lake Babson. Bab-son. Good-by and good luck. S. B." So Mr. Rookby telephoned the superintendent super-intendent of state banks at the capitol to send somebody up to take charge of the Bank of Valley Center. Then he pasted a notice on the window, announcing an-nouncing the closing of the bank. The payment of the semi-annual Interest In-terest had been due on July 1. Alasl The funds of the district had been deposited In the Bank of Valley Center, Cen-ter, and all But 30 per cent of them had been lost In the collapse of the bank ; so the district, not knowing what the holders of Its bonds purposed pur-posed doing, defaulted on the Interest payment. On July 2 the trustee for the bondholders bond-holders notified the district thatunless payment of the defaulted Interest was made by August 1 legal action would be taken to foreclose the deed of trust given to secure the bonds. The directors of the district held a meeting. They recalled Nate Tiche-nor's Tiche-nor's threat to buy the bonds from the original purchasers. Was he scheming to delude the farmers of Forlorn Valley Val-ley Into growing more and more alfalfa al-falfa and planting trees, thus enriching enrich-ing his land to a point where his threatened foreclosure would make the disaster all the greater? The secretary was Instructed to write to Tlchenor's attorney and ask him for a frank exposition of Nate Tlchenor's Intentions. Back came a prompt reply to the effect that Tlchenor's Tlche-nor's Intentions were unknown to his attorney ; that Tichenor was In Europe. Eu-rope. A mass meeting was held, but while there was much talk there was no concerted action; since nobody knew I what to do, nothing was done, and on the first day of August the Interest payment wbb still In default. On the second day of August suit was filed by the trustee to foreclose the deed of trust, and Forlorn Valley, realizing that all was over, sat dumbly and patiently pa-tiently awaiting the end. The fnrmers could do nothing else. They had no place to go, so they wal.ted to be dispossessed formally by the sheriff. On December 30 Nate Tichenor and his wife came home. Darby met them with the limousine when they got off the train at Gold Run and noticed that they were accompanied by a nurse who held a two-months' -old baby In her arms. "Hello," said Darby, "1 see I got another boss." "A boy, Darby. We had to have an heir to Eden Valley, you know." "I suppose you've heard the news about Forlorn Valley." "Ye, sir. Seems pretty bitter medicine, medi-cine, but they asked for it, as Rube says, and they got it." "You bet they got it Have any of the farmers In the district moved cut?" "No, I don't think so. Joe Bralnerd snys they haven't any place .o go, so they're hanging on, hoping the new owners will lease the farms back to them, sir." "Well, that might be possible. Stow the bags, Darby, and let's go. We must be out In Edtm Valley for luncheon." , I I Halfway through Forlorn Valley they met one farmer who had decided not to wait to be evicted. He was driving a four-horse team attached to a farm wagon upon which were piled his household goods, and on an old mattress atop the load four children sat. His wife was on the front seat with him and following up the wagon came a fourteen-year-old boy on horseback, horse-back, herding before him some loose work horses, two milch cows and their calves. There was about the sorry cavalcade cav-alcade an atmosphere Incredibly forlorn for-lorn . . . the woman was weeping ; as the Tichenor car slid by, the farmer gazed at Its occupants apathetically and raised his hand In a gesture that was half a greeting, half a farewell. "There's one of them moving out, sir," Darby said over his shoulder. "It's terrible of the bondholders to dispossess them In the middle of w'n-ter," w'n-ter," Lorry declared. "That's the man that kicked my ribs loose from my spine," her husband hus-band reminded her. "Still, now that his kicks are only a memory, I can't say I'm enjoying his pitiable condition condi-tion as much as I thought I was going go-ing to." "He waved to you, Nate. He didn't appear to be hostile." "Oh, he knows me pretty well. I went to school with him. An ignorant chap but not a bad fellow. I wish him luck." Her hand stole across and over his. "1 always knew you couldn't hold a grudge, darling." 'I'm afraid it has to be fed regularly regu-larly in order to thrive, Lorry, and my grudge against the people of Forlorn Valley has been starved for nearly a year. . . . Well, I went through with it, just as I promised them I would just as I promised you I would. I can forgive my own enemies, I think, but forgiving yours is quite a different matter." "I've felt the same about you and your persecutors, Nate. Still, I wish we hadn't met that man and his little family." He stared stolidly ahead. "Would there be any sense in paying our debt of hate lf we couldn't see our enemies ene-mies suffer?" he demanded. "Oh, Nate!" He looked at her and saw her eyes were moist with emotion. "We're still hillbillies, dear. We should have stayed outside several years more. We're not quite civilized yet" "Are you chiding me, Lorry? I can't recall having heard you put In a kind word for these people heretofore." "I know it, Nate. I had my share of conceit, too." The words came tremblingly. trem-blingly. "I thought I could hold a grudge better than you could and I told myself I had to be strong for your sake. I was afraid you'd weaken and I wanted you to triumph In a big way." "Well, I had figured on a very different dif-ferent sort of triumph, sweetheart. I wanted to let the people know that something fine could come out of Eden Valley. But my back is still a little weak ; sometimes it hurts just enough to keep my hate alive just enough to make me think that mercy would be weakness " "Poor dear! So you've been having a rough time, also? I'm glad. I think we ought to fight our fights together and in the open. I think, too, Nate, we ought to be strong for our son's sake. He Is so dear to us, why shouldn't we forget our triumph over our enemies and teach him to love humanity, even if human beings often prove unlovable?" "You're a quitter," he charged. "There are two little cemeteries up In Eden Valley that are sound arguments argu-ments In favor of quitting, Nate. We had our code an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and we lived up to it ; but it seems to me we never derived de-rived any happiness from it. I can't be happy In Eden Valley any more, because every time I'll leave It I'll have to drive through this this desolation deso-lation this place where men have lived and loved and fought and struggled strug-gled and dreamed their futile little dreams and went away In despair. I'll never forget that wherever these dispossessed people may wander they'll always hate you and me." "We can get along without their approval, ap-proval, Lorry." "But can we get along without the approval of Nate Tichenor and Lorry Kershaw, young Robin Tichenor and those that, please God, will come after him?" "Darby I" "Yes, sir." " "Turn the car around and overtake that farmer we Just passed 1" They passed the man and at Tiche-nor's Tiche-nor's command Darby stopped the car and Tichenor got out and walked back to the approaching wagon. The man pulled up, set his brake and waited for Tichenor to speak. "Hello, Dan," said Tichenor. "You're Dan Clanton, aren't you? We went to school together In Valley Center." Cen-ter." Clanton nodded. "Where are you headed, Dan?" "God knows. I don't. The bondholders bond-holders foreclosed on my farm and told me to go." "Tell you what you do, Dan turn around and go back to your farm and stay there until you're evicted. If that happens while there's snow on the ground you just pull out to the old Bar H headquarters in Eden Valley Val-ley and put up there. The old house Is furnished, and you can remain there until spring. You'll be very comfortable. comfort-able. January Is a bad month to be out on the road with your wife and children. Besides, I think I can give you a fair job looking after our golf coarse. Turn around, Dan. You'll have time to get back to the old farm house, get your beds and the cook stove set up and be settled after a. fashion before sunset." "You mean that, Tichenor?" "Of course I do." "After what I done to you " "Tut-tut, Dan. That was a bully fight while It lasted. I would have forgotten It If you hadn't reminded me of it." He smiled at the man and his wife and entered his limousine, which had turned and was now waiting wait-ing alongside Clanton's farm wagon. In silence they drove on toward Valley Center. "Drive around to Joe Brainerd's plant," Nate ordered Darby as they came Into Valley Center. Obeying the imperious summons of the horn, Joe Brainerd came out and welcomed them. Tichenor explained, "Joe, I have a big story for you so big I think it's worth getting out an extra and having it in the post office tonight. This is the thirtieth of December De-cember and the day after tomorrow will be New Year's day. I have a curious desire to give Forlorn Valley a Happy New Year, and I have also a curious desire to write the head for your story, which must be seven columns col-umns wide and in the biggest and blackest type In your shop." "I'll run your head if I like It, Nate." "You'll like It The line is: 'Forlorn 'For-lorn Valley Saved.' " "That's a great head, Nate." "I thought you'd like it." Dryly. "Joe, I made up my mind to' smash Silas Babson and I did, but in order to smash him I had to smash his bank and in order to smash his bank I had to smash Forlorn Valley. "Then something of tremendous importance im-portance happened. My wife presented present-ed me with a son, and I was so grateful grate-ful to her I bought from that New York bnnk all of the lands of the Forlorn For-lorn Valley Irrigation district which had come Into Its possession by foreclosure. fore-closure. I paid that bank Just half what the lands had cost them and I have since deeded the lands to my wife just a little gift for presenting me with a son. Of course I haven't the slightest Idea what Lorry Intends doing with Forlorn Valley, but I wouldn't be surprised If she decides to deed back to those people the farms they have lost, taking a first mortgage to secure her for the amount each Individual In-dividual farm was bonded. That will give her better than a half-million-dollar profit" "And then you'll let the farmers have free water, Nate?" "Joe, you are much too optimistic. I haven't a word to say about that water. Last year I killed the Mountain Moun-tain Valley Power company and deeded deed-ed the dam-site and the lake-site back to the Bar H Land and Cattle company. com-pany. Just abandoned that dream. Then I married Lorry, and we merged the Circle K and the Bar H Into a new corporation known as the Eden Valley Land and Cattle company, with powers, under our charter, to sell water. wa-ter. However, the Circle K was a larger and more valuable ranch than the Bar H and after Lorry had thrown her cattle Into the deal I'll be hanged lf she didn't emerge from it with a controlling Interest In the cap- "Dan, Turn Around and Go Back to Your Farm and Stay There Until You Are Evicted." ital stock. Consequently she controls the water of Eden Valley creek, and she owns most of Forlorn Valley and Lake Babson and a whole smear of canals and laterals, so if she asks my advice In the matter I'll suggest that she hire a good engineer to run her irrigation system, and a bookkeeper to bill the water to the farmers and collect col-lect the money and give the poor devils the water at a nominal price for enough years to enable them to catch up even on the losses they suffered suf-fered when Babson's bank went bust" "Nate, that's fine as far as It goes and provided your wife follows your advice, but this valley can't function without a bank." "I'm supplying that, Joe. The bank building has been ready for months and I have a charter from the superintendent super-intendent of state banks and will open for business In a week or two. I've hired a good man to be cashier and manager and have told him to be a banker, not a pawnbroker. I think I'll take on Babson's old board of directors. di-rectors. They know more about this valley and Its needs than I do, and those that lost their stock In Babson's bank will be permitted to pay for It out of their dividends and the increased in-creased valuation of the stock as the years go by." "Do you know, Lorry, I think we should put in another nine holes of golf and build a nice little ciub house up In Eden Valley and throw It open to the boys and girls of Forlorn Valley. Val-ley. Get their minds on golf and off rural gossip, you know. Buck 'em up and make 'em feel less provincial. After all, Is there any reason why farmer boys and girls shouldn't play golf?" Lorry made a dive for him; her arms went tight around his neck. "Oh, Nate, you fakir I You fraud I You great-hearted schemer " And then she was weeping tears of Joy in his arms. "This Is certainly a whale of a story," Joe Brainerd mumbled, and wiped his eyes on the hem of his villainous vil-lainous old compositor's apron. "Ddn't you think I'd better put a box In the center of the page, In black type, to the effect that Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Tichenor wish Forlorn Valley a happy and prosperous New Year?" Nate nodded. "Come up for dinner New Year's day, Joe. There are a number of things I want to talk over with you sort of stand at my right hand and hold the bridge with me." "Thanks. Happy New Year, folks. Now If you'll excuse me I'll fly at that extra. I want to write the story well and 1 want to get out what P.ab-son P.ab-son used to call a 'rousing' editorial." He proffered an Inky paw to Nate and Lorry In turn. "It's a pretty good old world, after all. Isn't It?" "It is." said Lorry, "if you make It so. Isn't that so, darling?" "It Is," Nate Tichenor replied, with a wink at Joe Brainerd, "even if one ha3 to wing-tip It to make It behave," THE END) |