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Show 111 DUDE WOMAMH, illllllllSl nH PETER B.KYNE Prescott he probably telephoned them they'd have to move in nd take charge without waiting for judgment on foreclosure suits. The curt would grant them that privilege privi-lege on the proper representation, but the bank asked him to see you and get a quit-claim deed to the home ranch and a bill-of-sale to the cattle, to gave legal expense and wastage and permit them to take over immediately. Did my father say, In consideration of your doing this, that the bank would not take a deficiency judgment against you?" , "J didn't give him time to speak THE STORY SO FAR: Mary Slither-land Slither-land arrives at Suibuaro, C itaUba In Arizona, and waits for tot station waion from Wagon Wheel Ranch to pick her ap. After a lonf wait Len Henley comes along In a truck and drives her to a) phoenix hotel, where his Aunt Margaret Mar-garet gives her the guest room unUl she Is able to find accommodations at soma duds ranch. Len's father, Hamilton Henley, Hen-ley, has acquired the Wagon Wheel by buying np tbe notes and collateral of BIU liurdan from the Bute Bank of Art-Sons Art-Sons after Burdan has come to him for a loan, which Henley refused. Len Henley Hen-ley meets the Wades, who have beat the Indictment the Jury brought against them lor catUe stealing. "The man earns his money' riding bucking horses and spends it on orchids," or-chids," she addressed a mythical . third presence. . "Easy come, easy go. Don Leonardo, for a bloodthirsty blood-thirsty wretch you're terribly nice and thoughtful. Thank you." i She went to her dressing table and pinned the corsage on; while she was doing this she said: "I read a piece about you this evening eve-ning in the local paper." "I wish you hadn't." She nodded. She could understand why that was so, and she felt sorry for both the Henleys. He stood in the doorway and thought: How lovely love-ly she is, how cool and poised. She's too exquisite to be other than a lady and too intelligent to pretend to be a greater lady than she is. 1 She's the dude of all the world! "I hope you realize," she said, "that if I visit the Wagon Wheel ranch after you acquire it you'll have to provide a chaperon." "I am about to introduce you to a chaperon to end ail chaperons. I call her my Aunt Margaret, but that's just a hold-over from boyhood's boy-hood's happy hours. She was my mother's bride's-maid. Widow-woman, as we say out here," Mrs. Maxwell opened the door to Len's ring and said "Hello, Len. Come In, Miss Sutherland. You're as welcome as the Henley boy and he has the run of the premises." Mary was startled and confused for a moment, but her sense of humor hu-mor bridged the situation. She held out her hand and commanded, "Gimme.!'' and Margaret Maxwell solemnly lajd a silver dollar in the open palm. "I am a very curious woman, Miss Sutherland. I had to his piece," Ma declared proudly. "As soon as I realized he wanted something I made up my mind he wasn't goin' to get it." "He was only acting for the bank. I hear the bank will not make a cattle cat-tle loan he doesn't approve, I'm going go-ing to see him tomorrow evening and when I do I'll try to make a better deal for you. Meantime, keep away from him. Leave this to me." "You're the darlin'est boy," said Ma. "Ain't he, Pa? Oh, Len, why ain't you good friends with your father fa-ther so's he'd buy the Wagon Wheel for you? You'd let Pa come back an' work for you then, wouldn't you, honey? An' I could keep house for you an look after you an' you wouldn't need to pay us much, because be-cause we wouldn't need much." "Are you going to divorce Pa?' he inquired wickedly. "I reckon not, Len. Seems like I got to put up with him." When Mary opened her door In response to Len's knock she saw standing before her, not the cowboy who had picked her up at Sughuaro that morning, but a gentleman of CHAPTER IV i At four o'clock, while Ham Henley was still in his office, his son telephoned tele-phoned and Jess Hubbell answered and Identified himself. "Mr. Hub-bell," Hub-bell," said Len, "there's a story in ' this afternoon's Republican, and I want you to tell my father I didn't lnsp'.re It and that I'm sorry as I can be, because I know he loathes such publicity as much as I do." "He read it, Len." "What did he say?" "He said enough. ..Still he was Interested. In-terested. You got any more money ' to bet on yourself versus Mad Hatter? Hat-ter? Your father sort of fancies the' horse." "How much?" "Your bankroll is the limit." "I'll not risk my all, but I'll take my father on for a thousand, if he'll give me three to one." "No more?" "Not another dim. And I wouldn't take the thousand except-to oblige my affectionate father. Make a three-thousand-dollar check out to the secretary of the rodeo association. associa-tion. My check will be there, too." "No, no, not that, Len, you impulsive im-pulsive devil! We'd only have bigger big-ger and better story on the front page of the morning paper. Wait until I confer with your father." In half a minute he came back on the line. "Your father says you're ' an unnatural son but he still thinks you're a gentleman and will pay your bets without the aid of a stakeholder. stake-holder. He hopes you have an equally equal-ly good opinion of him." "I'll admit everything except that he's an unnatural father. The worst I'll say about him is that he's a ' -r peculiar " man and I " don't understand under-stand him. Tell him we have a bet and that I'll be in to collect it from him personally. If he thinks" "Wait a . minute, Len. Your father's fa-ther's shouting something for me to tell you . . . He wants to know, Len, If you know where old Bill Burdan and his wife are. He presumes you wintered on the Wagon Wheel as , usual so you should know." " "They're In town, but where I flon't know. I have an Idea they're staying with a distant relative. However, How-ever, the old man arranged this morning to meet me at five-thirty, to I'll get his address then. Things have happened to the old folks and they've left the Wagon Wheel." There was a hiatus in the conversation. conver-sation. Then: "Your father -says i he'll be obliged to you if you'll ask Burdan to call at this office at ten ' o'clock tomorrow morning." see promptly whether or . no you measured up to your advance notices. no-tices. Thank God, you do." '"You're sly but likeable," Mary replied and in the good humor thus engendered they entered. "A votive offering for you, Aunt Margaret," said Len and handed her the box he was carrying. He stepped across the room, his hapd outstretched to an oldish man who rose as they entered. en-tered. "Hello, pappy," he cried heartily, jerked his father to him and ran his other hand through Hamilton Henley's hair. "You've turned roan since I saw you last." "An' you've thickened up alot, son." Ham Henley turned toward Mary and bowed. "I think I saw you ridin' down the road with my son this mornin', miss." "Miss Mary Sutherland, pappy. Miss Mary, this is my old man." Ham Henley gave her a mild handshake, looked her over swiftly but with an intensity that tojd her he had missed nothing and then shifted his gaze to his son. "Margaret "Mar-garet didn't tell me you were going to drop in," he said. "You needn't explain. She didn't tell me either, old-timer.- What a lot of delight we'd miss If women weren't so fond of surprise parties." "I reckon they Invented Santa Claus, son." "Orchids," Mrs.' Maxwell cried, delighted. "Len, you're a dear. I haven't had an orchid since you were here a year ago. I should like "Gimme!" the world, quite at ease in dinner clothes, overcoat and white silk muffler. muf-fler. "Why, Doctor Jekyll," she exclaimed, ex-claimed, ''where did you leave Mr. Hyde?" ' - " He did a littje Jig step. - "Behold! This morning I was a chrysalis in my cocoon. Tonight I am a butterfly. butter-fly. M don't cheer for your simile,, however. Dr. Jekyll used to dry-gulch dry-gulch people, didn't he?" "Sound travels at the rate of at least a mile a second . . , How far is it from the corridor where you stood a moment ago, over the tran-. som and into my room?" "It appears I talked out of my turn," he replied without embarrassment. embar-rassment. 1 ' "Did yoii really mean what you said to those men, or were you just trying to frighten them?" "I wasn't bluffing and I don't think to assure you that such extravagance extrava-gance is sinful, only I don't think it is ' when I'm on the reqgiving end. Len, your father tells me you are retiring from the rodeo circuit when the Phoenix rodeo closes." ""Jess Hubbell gave me that message,,!.. mes-sage,,!.. Ham. Henley.said anxiously. "I hope he got it straight." "He did. sir.", Mary helped serve the cocktails and Len passed a plate of hors-d'oeuvres. hors-d'oeuvres. "Don Leonardo's a pig," she declared. "He wouldn't wait for you two. He insisted on having one drink with me." "I had to test your liquor, Aunt Margaret," he defended, "to make certain you weren't feeding us fighting fight-ing whisky." He clinked his glass against his father's. "How, Hamilton, Hamil-ton, old sport." This time tomorrow night you'll be three thousand dollars dol-lars poorer and I'll be six thousand dollars richer. And that Will consti- "Ask him if he's coming but to the rodeo tomorrow afternoon to see three thousand dollars hop from his pocket into mine." ' Another conversational relay. "He says he wouldn't miss it for consid- erable." . ... At half-pa'St five Ma Burdan drove .up in the station wagon and sitting . beside her., looking quite happy for -one in his desperate financial situation, situa-tion, was Pa Burdan. "YJ, yi-yi," he yipped. "Anybody home?" . "Come In and bring Ma," Len shouted. When they entered Len ' .1 kissed Ma and said, "'Ain't love grand. Ma? It conquers all. Pa, while I think of it, my father would like to see you at his office, about ten o'clock tomorrow morning." ' "I spoke to . .biro twenty., minutes, ago, Len. He seen Ma an' me driv-ln' driv-ln' past his office an' flagged us." "Well, he didn't git far with us." Ma declared belligerently. "Guess they were particularly impressed. They aren't sufficiently intelligent." "This morning you decided you were too poor to buy the Wagon Wheel ranch. What have you been doing since I saw you last? Playing the market or shooting craps?" :"Neither. I have merely yielded to my ruling impulse and that is to take a chance. I have often reflected reflect-ed on the pleasure to be derived from having a bank beg a favor of me and as I came up in the elevator eleva-tor I realized how it could be done. I was inspired and I accuse you of having peen the source of the inspiration." inspi-ration." "Tell me," she urged. "I can finance the sort of deal I have in mind. I know I can. And as soon as I do I shall reopen the dude department of the Wagon Wheel ranch, install a competent cook and housekeeper and solicit your trade as a non-paying guest." "I hope you can." Be had two boxes under his' arm and he gave her one. "There were only four orchids In town and I bought them. Here are your two. That green frippery dress, by the-way, the-way, goes very well with your hair, and I'm so glad you haven't green eyes. Your eyes have been bothering bother-ing me all day. I got the fool notion no-tion they were green,-- Instead j they're hazel." tute an accomplishment It needs a good man to nick you that deeply-" "I can enjoy losing that bet my son. An' there's other ways not so hard o' pryin' money out o' me .. if you need it." , "Have you made a bet with Don Leonardo, Mrr Henley, that he will not conquer that horse, Mad Hat-1 ter?" Mary asked. "I have, young lady, and how Come you call him Don Leonardo?'' Mary flushed a little. "I heard his man, Pedro, call him that and it seemed to me the form of address fitted him. Anyhow, I have a habit of coining pet names for people I like and I like your son because he's terribly nice and amusing." "Yes, I reckon he is pretty nice, young lady. In fact I never knew him nicer than he is today. His decision de-cision to quit the rodeo nonsense certainly makes me. happy." "I wish I could believe I have contributed to this reorganization of your son's social consciousness, Mr. Henley, but I fear his decision to engage in some less dangerous and more dignified method of making a livelihood is the result of his spiritual spiritu-al growth a sort of mile-stone In his evolution. ' Cheers for you, Don Leonardo, Leo-nardo, and success to you in the eow business." . . . TO BE CONTINUED) what he wanted? Why, I never was more insulted in my life. He wanted us to give him a quit-claim deed to - the home ranch an' assign the state land leases to him an' in return he'd give us five hundred dollars. . Pa was for grabbin' it but I says 'Nothin doin',' and threw in the gears an' left him standin' there." "We'd ought to have took it" Pa mourned. "We're goin' to lose everything ev-erything anyhow. It'd been like pick-In' pick-In' five hundred dollars out o' the . gutter." : "You ol' hoot owl," Ma said mildly. mild-ly. "That's Just what Ham Henley . hoped you.'d think. How'd" he treat you when you was in to see him about askin' him to help us? Why, be scolded, you somethin' scandalous. He hurt your feejin's an' them as hurts your feelih's. Pa, has got me to reckon with," ( ' "Don't know as. I blame him. Ma. ' I didn't expect he'd help me; I expect ex-pect I didn't have no right to ask him to Jielp me." "Nevertheless, Pa, I think Ma act-ed act-ed with discretion in according his offer her finest brand of contumely, even if she didn't know it Father must have called at the Wagon Wheel early this morning, because he passed me on the way in to Phoenix. Phoe-nix. He discovered you and Ma had abandoned the ranch. $o inasmuch as he is a director of the State Bank at |