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Show PT- JACKSOH GREGORY FTOET SO PJE: in Lm id; i C u C-vi7". Vt-! ' i "I iiir :st ji ?i ciJ w-Za t Oui E.i-77 2 Cu. re to t.w:i-T7 fcrrf tie .naii t w jr. via, i-i O-ji I iijmt"f fctj li-tt-i I ; r i t '-Lr-. i " t ri-Jii' i One i r ti.: vli - i i 17 O.L- x iwr"-ei An-1 A m J ' r Til riiti-:il-5 ry. lie ii?2-ri ;cr"-e-!i -. esc::tiie w. "E tf it-:tt. ' I ' I CHAPTER XIV j text n-,rrig. He tl'ppi T--" i 5 e 57 j ' ' " j - ; Tie ciiarces -ere tiat tie aiard-red cabin -sriere -j:ev hai been la rJgit, ad could be vien ar.d ii vrartd. TTen, the Irrt thing was treafa-st. Ee hair't gotten bejord the stage ci taccn-slicir-g vrhen Jenifer Ed-vards Ed-vards came in, "spick and span" In a tei? biue dress. She gave bim a m".ile that bad vrarrr.ed ir.a-y a heart in ber car, and presented him a bright cod along vrlth ber "Gcod rr.cming, Cole Cocvl" and then added add-ed cheerilj, "men are good for some things, the Lord kno-jrs vrhat mostly, although cf course they come in bandy at rescuing yelping dames in distress, but Til be earned il I'D have any man tinkering vrith my etove. Scat until breakfast is ready." Ee had brought ample armfuls of wood from the woodpile, breakfast was ready, piping hot and fragrant with the aroma of coffee floating far and wide, when little Ann Lee put in her appearance. They sat at the kitchen table with its bright red oilcloth. Aunt Jenifer remarked in an off-hand sort of way, "1 miss our other boarder, Mr. Ranee Waldron. What news of him, llr. Cody?" "I won't answer," Cody told her, looking stern, "as long as you stick to that business of Mistering me. That'8 flab" "I apologize, Bill Cole Cody," she told him. "What I meant to ask. Cole, is whether you by any chance happen to know anything of the whereabouts of Mr. Eance Waldron?" Wal-dron?" "Gone," said Cole Cody. "I'm not surprised that he's gone," said Aunt Jenifer, "but I'll be mighty surprised if he doesn't show up again. He is dead set on getting this ranch and all that goes with it, and I've a notion that'll be a pile of cash money." After breakfast Cody brought Cal Roundtree up to the house, and the four of them discussed the situation brought about by the departure of Waldron, with enough bedding for two, and the inference that Waldron and Tom Gough, whom they all Judged a killer, were sticking together. to-gether. "I was wrong and you was right last night, Cody. We'd ought to have hung the two of them right then and there. Later, you're going go-ing to see, there'll be hell a-pop-ping, if the ladies will excuse the swear words," said Cal reflectively. "You were the one who wanted to hang them, sooner or later," Cody reminded him. "Even yet I think we were right in keeping hands off until we could dig up some sort of evidence." "Maybe so," agreed Cal somewhat some-what morosely. Then he brightened. "That greaser friend of yours, Por-flrio, Por-flrio, is like a bloodhound; he's got his teeth, so to speak, in the idea that it's quite a job for a man to make a hat disappear in a hurry; to make it vanish off the face of the earth for good and all He says a hat's hard to burn in a great big hurry; maybe a piece of the brim will burn and the fire will go out You can throw it away, into a patch of brush, but If a man's got eyes like Porfirio says his eyes are when he's praying in his heart to avenge friend like that old like Early Bill was he can see every horse track and every boot track, and a black hat hidden in the bushes. And he says If you dig a hole and bury a hat, no matter how you scatter leaves over the place, eyes like Por-flrio's Por-flrio's are going to notice something funny about it. And even if you stuff a hat under a rock, there'll be some little something to show that the rock was moved. And Porflrio Is going to find that hat or spend the rest of his life hunting it." Later on that same forenoon, Doc Joe and the Judge drove out to the ranch in the Judge's top buggy. Arrived at the ranch house they fade a brave noise of pounding at the front door; without waiting for anyone to answer, they opened It and came with a sort of martial 'tride into the living room where the tonferonea was still in session; as tarl7. hi?." ; iz-e .-ii vhe j:'r's t-.-m Lie a sharp r- 'e myself: I'll maie a tig c:fee p:. "Yes, A: Jenny," sid Ann Lee The Juige and Co? J:e, having spohen their few wc-ris about being scrry to zi: the ladies to so mu;b trouhle, fcmed, together to Cole She crumpled the check and threw It at him. Cody and CaL In a lowered voice the Judge spoke. "Gents," he said solemnly, "yesterday "yes-terday we won a couple of bets from the dead and gone old reprobate that folks called Early Bill. We had a drink or two, as perhaps you may have guessed without being told, to the aforementioned old hound. We have done more; we have, outside in my top buggy, a full jug. It is merely my suggestion that, while those two lovely ladies are preparing prepar-ing us a very proper morning drink, we steal a march on them and step out to where the jug is." "It's a great little idea, Judge," said Cole Cody, and you would have thought that he meant it "First, though, we want to tell you something some-thing and ask your advice. Ranee Waldron sneaked out last night " "Who cares about Ranee Waldron or anyone like him? The thing is " "And," said Cody sharply, "last night he took a hand-ax and tried to break down the door to the rooms where your two lovely ladies had locked themselves in." "What!" After that there was no further mention, just as there was no thought of the jug in the buggy. The two old porchsitters had to be told in detail all that had happened: hap-pened: Of Tom Gough's hiding in the house both of them knew Tom Gough of his departure attended by Waldron, of all the rest of it And Aunt Jenifer's voice called from the dining room: "Hot coffee! Come and get it!" They all had coffee together, Aunt Jenifer, gentle but firm and pleasantly pleas-antly vivacious, seeing to it that both the old boys had three cups, and then they adjourned to the patio. There were outdoor hickory chairs there, and the old green benches, and the patio was warm and fragrant fra-grant with roses, where honeysuckle trailed from one arbor and a Mission Mis-sion grapevine from another, and where humming birds thrummed. One looked out along the hill slope and saw Early Bill's three tall pines, and a monster white oak, lower down, where the woodpeckers with their constant "Ickety-ickety-ick-ety" were already busy using their small bright red heads for hammers and their bills for drills in the hard wood. The small part of the world encompassed within the King Cole Valley was steeped in peace and yellow sunshine, and only harmonious harmoni-ous sounds drifted through it on a soft dry breeze. j mine. tt. ycu?Y;u' kit: -a- -; to riri: nW a'cj til: iz- me? is :: a g:?' yiu-" word was spoken 0 of : re she re-t re-t .: 0 : , crinring her c rreoiotis "iO'C J:-0 " she said, and was for the moment like a prerry lirie girl-child. girl-child. very trustful, innocent and irresistible, ir-resistible, "won't ycu keep this for i me? And w:n't yen see that I ; am cot cheated cut cf my rights? Y'cu know that Vr. Early Bill Cole wanted me to have everything that was his, don't you? You w-Hl protect me, won't you. Dec Joe?" j 1.11S3 Ann Lee." he said sternly, ; "1 do know that old Early Bill want- j ed you to have everything that he I has willed to you here. I witnessed j his signature; I talked alone with ; him a spell; he gave you the ranch j and a lot of other truck, and by the j jumping jimminy you're going to have it!" The Judge spoke to Cole Cody, the while returning Doc Jce's glare. "There is one other matter which we merely touched on yesterday," said the Judge, "that we might as j well nail down right now. No mat- j ter which way the cat jumped you 1 two young folks, no matter what ' happens to these two wills, have a lot of cash money in the bank, and it's in my bank, and it's deposited there subject to your orders." He reached into his pocket and drew out a small check book and tossed it into Ccle Cody's hands. Those listening to him, all but Doc Joe, watched and waited for the other check book. It appeared there wasn't any. So In the end Doc Joe explained. "Miss Ann Lee," he said, and sounded apologetic, "this whole setup set-up is a mess. The money is there In the bank, if the Judge hasn't stole it Fifty thousand, maybe, maybe a hundred thousand or a whale of a lot more. Fact is, I'm no banker and the Judge here claims to be, and for some fool reason, Early Bill trusted him. But here's the joker, like there is in every brand new deck: The account is in the joint names of you and this here Cody. In short if either of you wants to draw a cent or a thousand dollars or anything, you both got to sign the same check! That was so ordered or-dered by the late Mr. William Cole, known by some as Early Bill, by others as Old King Cole himself. You two have just simply got to get together." Of course Cole Cody and Ann Lee had to look at each other then, and of course that taunting, gleeful grin of Cody's came flashing back and little Ann flushed up and bit her lip. "I am going to draw out a thousand thou-sand dollars today! A whole thousand! thou-sand! Oh, Aunt Jenny, think of the things we are going to do! We can spend a thousand dollars every day, if we want to! Mr. Cody, I haven't the slightest doubt, will be wanting some money! So he will sign with me; that's clear enough." "Why, now!" exclaimed Cody, and sounded friendly and hearty. "It's an idea! As a matter of fact I could do with a little money myself. Here; I'll write the check right now, and we'll give it to the Judge to cash and split two ways for us. Where's pen and ink?" "I'll show you," said Aunt Jenifer, and Cody followed her into the house. They were not long gone. Cody had written and signed the check; he handed it with the pen and ink bottle to Ann for her signature sig-nature below his. She started to sign, then stiffened her small figure, and her hps were compressed and her eyes blazing. He had written in the amount: Twenty Dollars. "I said a thousand!" she said. "Shucks," said the good humored Bill Cole Cody. "Twenty bucks is a lot of money. You take ten, I take ten and there you are." She crumpled the check and threw it at him. "When sometime you want to draw out some money, Mr. Cody," she told him, "say a considerable amount for some emergency, maybe may-be Why, just come to me for my signature, won't you?" Right there the patio conferenct broke up. (TO BE COXTIXIEDJ |