Show EEN by hv mae mac foster jay copyright tois by W A wilds wild co service sa SYNOPSIS mary daughter of 0 a million millionaire alro hits has the idea that her personality la is obscured by the fact act that she to IB the child of the rich david brown and doter determines ter mines to make her way in life unaided she has a million dollars which ahe she insist a her father invest in the wildest d dream r e am imaginable magi and about which aich she ahe must know nothing she Is 13 a gra graduate d bat s engineer As at brown mary secures a position as engineer with the paradise valley project a development concern she Is engaged by letter on the train on her way to her job she ehe meets denis craig who immediately antagonizes her alighting from the train mary la Is left at a way Bt allon practically penniless craig coming to her assistance Is also left behind he befriends her enabling her to continue her journey arriving at the th project she Is accused by john stark chief engineer of deception in concealing her sex ex and again meets C cragg aag who Is the promoter of the project mary Is given a position she cannot cahnt make up her mind as to whether cra cragg i g is an honest visionary or a slicker at the risk of her life she sh saves a valuable instrument end and through the incident to Is drawn draw 11 closer to craig A feeling much res resembling bling love creps creeps into her heart con concerning earning him mary is learns arns inadvertently that it Is her money which Is in financing the paradise valley project her father having loaned it to craig the project attracts purchasers of horns home sites and the future looks rosy craig almost from their first meeting in love with mary makes his declaration and the girl Is not tor for a moment uncertain of her feelings for or him they plight their troth CHAPTER X continued 19 a lot just how long whimsically do you think it will be until you discover im the nicest man there Is lu la every way mary made a dash to tn their littered table gathering up dishes it to be so very loag I 1 should say just until he made his little wad so that his pride would stand the shock of a sweetheart in golden shackles money was pouring in to him these days they packed their basket put out their fire looked about the weathered cabin theres one thing more mary alary and that we name the cabin hope of heaven fleaven also we ded dedicate leate it dedicate like this deliberately he took her into his arms and kissed her A hesitant second and two warm arms closed about his neck and mary alary contributed to the ceremony of dedication CHAPTER XI pink slips now came the halcyon days for the paradise valley project following the land sales convention the tract was opened to purchasers sem soon the hills reverberated with the sound of carpenters hammers as homes were bullied consonant with their environment as stipulated in the promoters dreams perfect mannered guests these houses auses mary craig cragg said whimsically one evening as they loit loitered loiters erd through the MIN hills on horseback they have come into the wilderness unobtrusively and made themselves at home without disturbing so BO much of the old family regime as the mountain quails foraging grounds in fact quite the contrary the old timers here seem to be imposing their ideas of landscaping et cetera upon us tenderfeet tender feet mary understood that by old timers he meant the wild wood folk to whom these foothills had belonged time out of mind she liked hla his attitude how about draperies and furniture mary he queried one day for hope of heaven Ue aven but why ask me just for advice guilelessly it if you were equipping nope hope of heaven ns as a weekend week end rendezvous for the crowd how bow would you furnish it with the things I 1 bought for my own room in foggy gulch when I 1 forgot I 1 a bloated plutocrat said eald mary promptly then id save the he storage im paying on them nw 11 marvelously ill have them moved out tomorrow and he added it makes a neat arrangement give me a mortgage of sorts he had a mortgage but it was more a partnership than a i rort r ort gage to which he be laid claim A sweetly preposterous partnership he delighted to confuse mary blary by assuming the role of seasoned benedict shall wo we have the gang out at our house bouse for a clam bake mary alary but there was something beadley hea cilly deep and tender back of the teasing in his eyes this evening as they turned their horses borses heads toward head headquarters denis deals summed up weir survey with a heartfelt maryi mary I 1 have not demeaned the wilds I 1 she saw raw him again the young man on the mountain with five hundred dollars in his pocket seeing his ten million dollar vision youve carried out the tha dream perfectly re atly denny dannyl I 1 your ideal home place still looks like virgin wilderness every one who comes Is so ecstatic over it but dannyl strangers cant love it as we do who made it out there against lone mountain tonight I 1 seo see three million dollar buildings ar arising ising dut but I 1 shall always see more vividly shall not you denny the five hundred mules at one time corralled there you are a darling I 1 denny when it Is all completed what shall hotl you do stay here or move on to new dreams which shall we he asked he held out his bis hand she put hers hero into info it and so they rode down the hill in the gathering shadows drifting just drifting but denis was very gay these days very confident of her very teasing mary blary saw him infrequently so occupied he ha was but he did not let her forget him for a moment flowers and candy and books somehow he included among the million other details claiming his attention ile ie rarely had time for the little social affairs among the engineers once when he scarcely lind bad seen tier her for a week he came to her drafting table with it a brisk 1 I 1 just wanted to remind you miss brown picking up her drawing of a rustic bridge that he lowered his tone as lie he hent to trace a meaningless line on the drawing T R 1 I lovo love you 1 I love you he ele was gone stopping at other desks but from the doorway in leaving he called back as it if it were ametter a matter of figures angures and angles you wont forget that point I 1 made miss brown it Is important ill make a note of lt it mr craig happiness like this came to a girl unshackled by millions mary alary made a flying trip home during her two weeks vacation and returned undaunted with five dollars between her and destitution bilat aliat muttered mattered it she had her job and her man success and prosperity pervaded the aam atm atmosphere os phere settlement of the project went on with unbelievable swiftness upon nearly twenty thousand rolling acres young orchards added swift inches to their stature A few months of these halcyon days and then a virtue insidious uneasiness came creeping into the atmosphere mo ro sphere rumors there were coming from no one knew where the projects momentum was letting up considerably the project was wobbling the project was on its last legs apprehension was in the air there were articles in current magazines and newspapers showing doubt of the outcome of this altruistic experiment peri perl ment of a young dreamer later there were ugly hints of shortage of funds sly inferences that a man of such marked magnetism was just born to take suckers in there were veiled suggestions of misappropriation and most discomfiting of all there was worry back of the assurance in denis craigs eyes and words questionable tion tio fible mirth in his smile A month or two of this and payment checks were a week late the following month they were two weeks latr fate there were apologies but no explanation handwriting on the wall diagnosed the older engineers who had been on development projects before one morning the news spread like a bomb that jim moore had sold hla his house at a nice little profit sold his house now what did that mean moore albore was a canny young engineer was he taking while the taking was good the news was like a bear rumor on wall street instantly there were other sales and efforts at sales until presently there was the quashing of these by denis cragg on the grounds that they were creating a wariness on the part of prospective purchasers mary brown set her lips in a straight line and flung up her patrician head not all the rumors on the twenty five thousand acres could shake her faith in deals crafa once she had bad given it I 1 one evening at a ball by which the rich girl from the train christened the fifty thousand dollor dollar house on her es state mary alary pleaded fatigue and asked dents denis to take her home early she had to talk to him the trouble dents denis you mean dinean with his ineradicable smile behind these most r rei 1 cent allegations that im a crook 1 die de 11 lule TO DH |