Show m I DUDE r rk y k J J v PETER DETER B. B KYNE z WN U I cc c c THE STORY THUS FAR Mary Sutherland I erland an Eastern girl Is lured to Arizona Artona Art Ari zona ona by the advertisements of the Wagon 1 Wheel dudo dado ranch operated by Ma Ia and P Pa Burdan She Is met at the station rodeo rider who tells her hert t bY 1 7 Len Henley that t the Wagon Wheel has gone out of business business- While at Phoenix Len enters the do rodeo drawing a bronc known as 1 Mad Mac Hatter Mary learns teams that Len loves Joves her bee and that his father disapproves the ti match She wagers one thousand to three thousand that Len will ride Mad Hatter BaUer He Ho succeeds but Is injured Mary Iary buys the Burdan Durdan equity in Wagon Wheel outbidding Ham Henley Ham Dam feeling leeling the ranch is his offers otTers It to his 01 son Jon CHAPTER X Y XA A long silence Then U And of course Mary there is your family to consider 1 I I I 1 have a feeling the champion cowboy of the world would not strike their fancy as hard as he struck mine She came me back to the bedside bedside bedside bed bed- side took his hand and held it I III suppose you and your father have seen enough exhibits A in blue overalls overalls over over- alls ans cowboy boots and big hats to support his thesis fl He nodded lugubriously I I Len do you really and truly U lo love e me L So much I think I shall never r- r get over wanting you What I feel I d for you is something I have never felt for any woman woman and and I have had hadi i 1 iny my my little romances and dreamed a a few silly dreams that faded long before I got back to the inspiration J a for them But you were different I have never before met met met-a a girl like you your Youre You're the first specimen of your world that I have ever known known- its it's the grand passion I suppose It Itis Ii b is said to come once to every man He looked up at her and she saw misery in his eyes Your going will leave a scar he whispered Ii j I You think I ought to go Don Leonardo I iF It would be safer to retreat Mine is a small world yours a large one you have many opportunities I to forget love isn't enough for forc forfa i c ka fa a happy life my dear one You i would would have to have congenial sur- sur and congenial friends I I 1 I 1 wouldn't be enough for you Ill not put you up against such sucha II a grim grin decision she promised j 1 Two minutes later his father J I Ij walked into the room Passed your dude girl friend down in the lower hall he announced She didn't see me She was You two been on the gloves son We will not be seeing each other again sir 10 Maybe that's just as well Len Mind tellin the old man what the ruckus was about There was no ruckus Were We're both civilized It was a mistake mistake we we both bothI recognized it and it-and and faced it Id I'd been I Ip p thinking about what you said and decided you were right so when she came in here about five minutes I ago I let her have it There was wasI I sparring I had to get it off my Ir If chest IJ j I That took guts his father mur- mur At your age I lacked em Dont bother buying the Wagon Wheel for me father his son went wenton i on wearily I had a day dream about it once once and and the dream faded I I wouldn't be too happy there now so forget it He reached out outa a hand groping for his fathers f When I get well you might give me me a job pappy I know you better better better bet bet- ter than I used to All HAll right well we'll forget the Wagon Wagons s 1 Wheel his father said happy because because beI be be- I cause there existed now no reason why they should ever mention it again Apparently she hadn't told J I him and she wouldn't now I HI I reckon maybe you'd like to tobe I Ibe be alone just now he said and went out I In the privacy of her room Mary distilled her cargo of woe in tears 1 which did not last long for hers was a resilient nature and she had hade hada e Fa a normal healthy contempt for women who wept unless their honest emotions have been sacrificed And there was a question before her now F she she had to find an answer to it 1 if she returned to New York it ill would be to a home deserted save IF for their butler and his wife the a cook and and there would be Joe Blanding Blanding Blan- Blan ding Ming ready to pounce on her She had fled to Arizona to escape Joe Blanding and his constant pleading with her to marry him She despised despised de- de Joe Blanding although her hert t mother had done all nIl in her power to i forward a marriage between them He was the typical rich mans man's son son son- idle selfish prodigal where his own comfort was concerned but parsimonious parsimonious otherwise a play-boy play who not knowing how to live drank to conceal his boredom How she shei i shrank from seeing Joe Blanding Blending t again and again and of course she wouldn't be back in town a week before he f S would uld know it and come whining around I The man was impervious to rebuffs a dozen times she had refused t to o marry him but still he persisted apparently in the belief that he would i eventually wear f l down her resistance And he was s such uch a whimpering whimpering- whimpering weakling weak weakling ling about it He had no compunction about descending to the unutterable vulgarity garity ganty of tears in his efforts to impress ims im- im s press ess her with the depth of his lovene love 3 He ne seemed to think the profundity of his passion was a rare and holy thing with which no sane woman could fail to be impressed why not spend spend the next three M J months on the Wagon Wheel she thought She had a feeling that solitude solitude solitude soli soli- tude might be good for her in her present mood The she knew planned to return to the ranch in a day or two to gather up a few personal belongings and they had no plans for the future It might be possible to engage them to live at the Wagon Wheel with her Ma could cook and keep house for her herand herand herand and Pa could furnish protection She would buy a cheap horse and ride around the country look it over and wonder how shed she'd like to live in it Margaret Maxwell might like to tomake tomake tomake make her a visit there She telephoned the and outlined her proposition Both regarding regarding re re- garding her as the new and presumably presumably presumably pre pre- active owner of the ranch had bad been hugging the hope she would engage them for they found it heart-breaking heart to separate themselves themselves themselves them them- selves from a spot grown immeasurably immeasurably immeasurably dear to them Cook Ma shrilled Miss Sutherland Sutherland Sutherland erland I dont don't lay down my skillet to nobody Im I'm one o o 0 these here time old-time home cookin bodies an Im I'm here lere to tell you the big mistake we made in our dude business was me not doin the cookin But we got the III I j I 9 I II 1 JA fir r ii Y Len n do you really and truly love me notion dudes on a real cow outfit wanted life the way the cowboys lived it so we had em cat eat with the help an a up round-up cook prepared the grub and served it You give us seventy-five seventy a month an one o 0 them dude cottages to live in an Ill I'll cook and Pall putter Lets go out tomorrow Mary suggested Have you room for my two trunks a suit-case suit and a bag bagin in your station wagon Certainly have Ma replied happily happily happily hap hap- but we got to lay in some grub before we start The commissary commissary commissary com com- was low when we left When the Burdan station wagon crossed the bridge over the Hassy- Hassy ampa River Mary cast a swift glance down on the sand bar where she had knelt to learn the wishes of the Spirit That had been a delightful delightful de de- de- de little fiction then but today today today to to- day she wasn't so certain for she was sensible of more than a visitors visitor's visitors visitor's vis i- i tors tor's interest in Arizona They stopped at Congress Junction which she knew would be her postoffice address and Ma went in for the mail then they rolled on west to following a narrow gravelly gravelly gravelly grav grav- elly road through the desert They crossed a dry wash at the bottom of ofa a canyon and climbed out of the wash to a mesa A coyote loped across the road in front of them and the red-crested red Gambrels Gambrel's quail appeared in small flocks in the open And here for the first time Mary saw cattle wearing the Wagon Wheel brand which wasn't really a wagon wheel but a circle equally divided into eight parts They came to a crest presently and Ma stopped and pointed There she is Miss Sutherland Theres There's your Wagon Wheel head head- quarters Ma threw the distant scene a kiss Honey she said with deep feeling I certainly never expected to get back to you again In a valley a few hundred feet below them a cluster of buildings stood surrounded by trees Stretching Stretching Stretching Stretch Stretch- ing southwest from these buildings a white strewn boulder-strewn wash about a hundred yards wide wound away out of sight This wash was the Santa Maria River although in summer summer summer sum sum- mer it shrank to a mere trickle and anda a few pools among the boulders Far beyond a topped flat mountain probably probably probably ably six or seven thousand feet high towered against the cerulean sky West and north low hills stretched away into infinity they were gray close at hand and a deepening blue as they receded A silence lay upon the land and Mary thought she had l' l j L L. L i lf i never beheld a scene of greater solitude solitude soli soli- tude and loneliness Aint it beautiful Ma asked huskily The Wagon Wheel Mary thought was beautiful in the sense that a snarling tiger is beautiful it had hada a a Duality she found sinister under the harsh noon light all around her was the armed desert growth with little open spaces between She didn't see anything a cow should find edible yet to her amazement the cattle they passed looked sleek love it Ma assured herIt herIt her It may take time but you'll love it At first maybe it'll frighten you but pretty soon it'll begin to get under your skin Its It's just that Arizona's Arizona's Arizona's Ari Ari- zonas zona's different an sort o 0 shocks I an easterner when he meets her in ina I a state o 0 nature like a gal caught in the bathtub Ma let in the clutch Come to think of it I got a settin hen due to hatch today or tomorrow Glory Glorybe be Ill I'll be home in time She rolled down the grade sounding sounding sounding sound sound- ing the siren pulled into the ranch yard and shrieked Whoop e I She climbed out and hurried into the house of which she was still at heart the mistress You got five bedrooms in this ranch-house ranch to choose from Miss Mary she announced announced announced an an- an dont don't go into the patio until I scout it first There was a rattlesnake his love song there the mornin I left We Ve used to I have a she cat here that kept the I place free o 0 rattlers shed rattlers shed she'd jump around em an an tease em to strike at her an miss an when they go got I tired an slowed up shed she'd sneak on em from the rear an ketch em by bythe bythe bythe the back o 0 the neck an then her heran heran her heran an her kittens et the brute But she got old an slowed up herself an anone anone anone one day she didn't jump fast enough an the snake got her Now well we'll be bemore bemore bemore more or less snake-ridden snake around headquarters until Pa can break ina in ina a new she She's is the best because because because be be- cause a she's always out to protect her young an rustle em up some grub Mary left her setting about the preparation of luncheon in a nice large kitchen modern in every re re- re- re Beyond the kitchen was a butlers butler's pantry that accommodated a small bar The dining room was beyond that and opened on a large living room that stretched across the front of the building The living room in turn gave to a gun and trophy room The building was in the form of a U with the open end facing southeast and five bedrooms bedrooms bedrooms bed bed- rooms with baths formed the other side of it with French windows opening on a large patio A halfhearted halfhearted halfhearted half half- hearted effort had been made once to plant a garden here but evidently evidently evidently evi evi- dently Pa had gotten tired or dis dis- dis- dis gusted There was a fountain in inthe inthe inthe the center surmounted by a very good bronze of a bronco buster on ona ona ona a bucking horse and a scarlet flycatcher flycatcher flycatcher fly fly- catcher sat on the busters buster's arm Mary liked the furniture It was all unstained oak and made custom and the mattresses were excellent the bedding of the best The floors were laid with Navajo rugs and the light fixtures were of hammered bronze She saw the Wagon Wheel had its own little independent lighting lighting lighting light light- ing plant There was a huge fireplace fireplace fireplace fire fire- place in the living room and a smaller small small- er one in the gun room and each bedroom lithographs of paintings by Frederick Remington and Charles Russell adorned the walls on each side of the living room fireplace there were in built-in containing containing containing con con- reprint editions of western novels A cheap piano that could be played manually or mechanically mechanical mechanical- ly gave an nn air of elegance and there was a combination radio and phonograph To Marys Mary's amazement the house furnishings proclaimed comfort and good taste Every room had doors that could be opened on both sides and Mary was to learn that this was to provide a cooling draft during the hot summer This main ranch-house ranch was of adobe brick with a wide colonnade around the outside of it the roof was of red tile and Virginia creeper and Cape jasmine ran up the pillars pillars pillars pil pil- lars of the colonnade and crept over the roof of it The floor of this colonnade was of large square red tiles and there were benches set at intervals Surrounding the main house but at some little distance from it were four small guest cottages cottages cottages cot cot- also of adobe and furnished for housekeeping in the event a dude preferred his own cooking and greater privacy A neglected lawn of Dutch clover surrounded all the living quarters west of them was the bunkhouse helps help's mess hall and kitchen the blacksmith shop garage garage garage ga ga- ga- ga rage a large barn and a corral in which about twenty nondescript horses some mules and two Guernsey Guernsey Guernsey Guern Guern- sey cows stood listlessly Large pecan trees gave a promise of shade in the summer and there was a grove of grapefruit trees some avocados and an open patch of ground that evidently would be a vegetable garden in the spring There was a wooden tower with a small tank on it over a well from which the wa water ter was lifted by a small windmill A friendly shepherd shepherd shepherd shep shep- herd dog and two cats followed the new owner on her tour of inspection of the grounds TO BE CONTINUED i tI iI 4 u. u i |