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Show (IBUDIWOMAMIK llliir iy PETER B.KYNE .ft" -ScJ "My fault, entirely, Mr. Burdan. She was niiscat In this drama. Goodby and good luck to you, and I think you're mighty sweet." When the door closed behind Pa the sheriff said, "Who said the meek shall Inherit the earth?" Mary laughed and that moment she was cured. "Whoever he was, sheriff, he was closely related to the person who said: 'If thine enemy smite thee on the right cheek turn unto him the left. Would you mind doing me a little favor?" He smiled wanly at that. "The man that wouldn't do you a favor, Miss, hud ought to be shot at sun-,rise. sun-,rise. Name it an' consider it done if I can do it." "A big private plane is going to drop in on the local airport in day or two. and disgorge something that thinks it's a man but Isn't. The name is Joseph Alcott Blanding. Jo- seph'i father left him twenty mil- period it seemed they could work without interruption or fear of discovery. dis-covery. Breezy had been killed bout nine o'clock in the morning and at this season of the year daylight day-light arrived about seven o'clock. It seemed reasonable, therefore, to assume as-sume that Breezy Wade had left oamp .then and, in searching the thickets along the river wash, he ; had proceeded slowly and methodi-; cally, hazing all cows and calves he saw out into the open to see whether the calves were branded or not, A search for mavericks Is always low, so Pedro concluded Breezy had not traveled more than two miles from camp a mile an hour would be almost fast His brothers had prob-; ably ridden down the river throt'i ' country that gradually flattened out and would provide wider territory on each bank to. -be ridden and searched. The river valley was narrow nar-row at the spot where Breezy had THE STORY THUS FAR! Mary guib- arland, aa Easterner, Is lurrd to Arlsona ky tb ads of tn Waion H'hrrl dude ranch, operated by Ma and Pa Burdan. i the Is met at the station by Lea Hrnlry, i whose lather, Ham, has purchased the Burdan aotcs from the bank and leeli thai the ranch ts now his. Len takrs Vary to Phoenix, oncers the rodeo there and later rides Mad Hatter to a Bnlih, winning three thousand dollars tor Mary, who had bet his dad Len could ride Mad Hatter. Mary now buys the equity In " Wagon Wheel, and Ham, learnlnp the has not enough money, threatens lore-closure. lore-closure. Mary rehires Ma and Pa Hur-dan Hur-dan and drives to the ranch, where the later kills the son ol Sheriff Wade. CHAPTER XIT '. ' Margaret understood why, of course, and because she was aware that sensible people do not attempt to dam Nature's outlet for the disposal dis-posal of woe, the sat silently until Mary picked herself together and gone to his accounting, and the cattle cat-tle were down along the river now, because there was more grass in that area than on the rocky rolling hills and water was easier of access. Well, at two miles the sound ol Breezy's pistol shots or Dona Ma- j ria's shotgun shots would not have , been heard, so the surviving broth- ! ers, Joel and Rube, would not begin to worry until Breezy failed to re-, lion dollars and from infancy Joseph Jo-seph has been accustomed to having hav-ing his slightest wish granted. Can you imagine the result?" "He probably ain't worth hell-room, hell-room, Miss Sutherland." And the following morning the sheriff's little drama was I staged without a rehearsal. The next day Hank Wade dropped in again to report re-port that he had handcuffed Joe said, with defiant shake of her red-gold head: "Well, somebody spilled the beans and it -can't be helped now. I'll have to grin and bear It." , "People have too many troubles of their own to remember yours very long." "But that poor Sheriff Wadel Margaret, Mar-garet, he's so nice. He visited me and stared for luncheon and we had nrh a Dleasant visit And within appear at their camp that night They would of course expect him at sunset for the range was not one to be ridden in darkness. Conversely, Converse-ly, they could not institute search for him until sun-up and then, knowing know-ing the territory which he had been allotted they would ride up the river, pick up his trail in the wash and follow fol-low it to his body. They must know they would - not - have - -- long search ... He had his plan fully matured by the time he drove in to the Wagon Wheel yard and went at once to his cottage, where Carlotta cooked him a late luncheon; while engaged in eating it the reporter from the Pres-cott Pres-cott Register' drove in and went at once to the dude ho'use. Pedro was lingering over his second sec-ond cup of coffee and a cigarette, perfecting the details of his deadly plan, when there was a knock at his door and Carlotta opened it to reveal the reporter standing in the little veranda. "Pedro," he said, "I Wish you'd lead me down to Breezy Wade's body, I want to photograph it as it lies. - And don't try to fool me, Pedro, 1 know you-speak English. Eng-lish. I heard you speak it, without an accent, to Sheriff Wade." "Yes. I speak English without an accent" Pedro admitted, and went out and closed the door behind him. "And I am Mister Ortiz to you, young fellow, and hot Pedro. I am the manager here and I do not like your familiarity;' you have pried into my employer's private affair and ' the week I killed his son." Margaret Maxwell bad known Hamilton Henley and other cow per-' per-' sons long enough and Intimately enough to have absorbed some of their vocabulary as well as their rough and ready philosophy. Said she: "The young skunk wanted killing, kill-ing, didn't heT He asked for it didn't he? Stop your silly talk before I lose patience with you." There was a knock at the door and Margaret opened it to see who was there. The visitor was Hank Wade. "I didn't tell, I didn't tell," Mary cried at sight of him.: "Oh, Sheriff Wade, I'm heart-broken." "You needn't be, Miss Sutherland. You performed a splendid civic service for Yavapai County. I seen that reporter this mprnin' an' he told me how he got the story. Seems he went down to the Wagon Wheel, v arrivin' there during Pedro's absence, ab-sence, an' Mrs. Burdan told him all about It Old Bill tried to stop her couidn't. she allowed as how nobody was goin' to make her protect pro-tect a sheriff that'd picked a venal Jury venire when his" sdns was tried for rustlin'. Bill Burdan prosecuted . my boys!that time, Miss Sutherland, an' spent a couple o' thousand dol-ars dol-ars only to lose twice an' have the case throwed out of court So his wife didn't see no reason why she should -save me from bein' scandalized scandal-ized some more an' I'm here to tell you, Miss, I been scandalized : olentv." have trespassed on her property to do it." When the man had gone Pedro strode into the kitchen of the dude house and confronted the Burdans. His brown eyes, usually so soft and kindly," were the eyes of a demon now; he stared at the Burdans in silence until they began to cringe. Then he spoke: "Well, who talked to the reporter?" re-porter?" "Ain't no call for me to keep a secret to save that crooked Hank Wade from sorrow," Ma defended. defend-ed. "Only the day before yestiddy her ladyship gives me orders to cook a special luncheon for him, an' when I give her the hint that ain't agree- able to me she repeats the order." - "I didn't tell," Mary cried at sight of him. , Blanding and led him through the streets to the county jail, where he had confined him incommunicado. That morning Joe Blanding had been tried on a charge of disturbing Mary's Ma-ry's peace and on the sheriff's testimony testi-mony the local police magistrate had found him guilty and given him the maximum sentence six months in the county jail but had agreed to suspend the sentence provided Mr. Blanding climbed into his plane within the hour and flew far away from Prescott, Arizona, never to return. re-turn. . Mr. Blanding had agreed to that and the sheriff had seen him off at the local airport. "But Pedro warned her and Pa Burdan and Carlotta, Pedro's wife, to keep this news secret because of the embarrassment that would be imy portion if it became known." "I reckon the lady forgot to protect pro-tect you in her anxiety to smear me. I'm right sorry. Miss. I can stand this but it's hard on you." 'This is the second brickbat I've received this morning from those whose duty it would seem to be to protect me. Poor old Pa! He's the sacrificial goat because now I'll have to dismiss them both from my service. And I do so loathe being cruel to helpless people." . There was another knock at the i door andjagain Margaret opened it "As manager for Dona Maria, I forbade the discussion of this" matter mat-ter with outsiders and I have not been obeyed." " "I ain't in your department," Ma defied him. "True, Senora Burdan, but your husband is, and now, poor felWw,he is fired because of you, who have been disloyal to your salt . You will depant early tomorrow morning and if you will leave me, your. .ad-, df es I "will" secure your check from Dona Maria and mail it to you. I regret this action, for4 in the past we have been good friends, but as manager I may not forgive those whoybetray my employer, nor will I have Dona Maria embarrassed by your presence here, Senora Burdan, when she returns." , "The news was bound to leak out anyhow," Ma complained, but Pedro While driving back to the ranch after delivering Mary at the hospi-taL, hospi-taL, Pedro Ortiz devoted some very earnest thought to the situation that confronted him in his new employment. employ-ment. He was very proud to be a ranch manager, a position he had never hoped to achieve, and he was profoundly grateful to his Dona Maria Ma-ria for having given it to him. And Carlotta was very happy, too; both hadrsjolyedJtorende5sucl.,faulfe. less service that their employer would never consider replacing' them. This service; " in their case, would entail no extra effort, for already al-ready their affections had been engaged en-gaged and already the loyalty that is born of affection had indicated to Pedro that his position as manager automatically made Dona Maria's enemies his and that it was his duty to relieve her of them at whatever and Mary saw Pa Burdan, arrayed ' in his Sunday suit, standing in the entrance and looking as if his feet hurt him. "Miss Sutherland," he said, "I've called to say I couldn't stop her In time. I'm sorry an' shamed an' we've left the Wagon Wheel without giyin' you notice because be-cause I ain't expert . at bitin the hand, that feeds me." And Pa commenced com-menced to sniffle. , "Come in here, Pa Burdan," Mary commanded, "fl want to shake your hand in farewell and tell you I'm ; sorry it happened, too. Perlfaps-fhis-may be a lesson to Ma." "He- took her hand and Mary went on. "Pa, your kindly, friendly, decent person- ' ality should serve you rather well in a small retail business." "I was thinkin' of a fillin' station In combination with a quick order roadside restaurant," poor Pa mumbled. was walking away. 1 That afternoon he cleaned and oiled Breezy Wade's armament and polished both rifle and pistol cartridges. car-tridges. The rifle was an old model and inaccurate at ranges beyond three hundred yards, but it would have to serve his purpose, for he had no rifle or pistol of his own. He was up at six o'clock next morning and had breakfasted and saddled Breezy Wade's horse and strapped the rifle scabbard on the saddle by seven o'clock. He noted with satisfaction that Pa Burdan was loading things In the station wagon, so he bade Pa TarewSuV again exprrsspd. t-.T"- ..found regret Ql parting, horsey' COSt. : . , -..-.. , . He did not knew, of. course, that Sheriff Wade had seen to it that his sons had been made aware several days previous that a dude girl was now the owner of the Wagon WheeL He did not realize the Wade boys had read two weeks before that Pa Burdan's caballado had been attached at-tached and believed, in consequence, that since there would be no horses to ride, on the ranch no rider would be apt to surprise them at work. He did hot know the brothers had acted with speed worthy of an honest effort, ef-fort, and, had descended promptly upon the Wagon Wheel to comb the' range for late calves which had ' been overlooked for branding .by Pa Burdan on his fast round-up. All Pedro knew he suspected . and he suspected very strongly that' if one Wade brother had invarV' the Wagon Wheel range the f two could not be far away f must have packed a couple c with camping equipment and arrived with the doing a thorough job' "I purchased your equity in the Wagon Wheel at a ridiculous price . because you were unable to protect yourself. Pa Burdan. I can afford to pay more and I'd like to, so I think it would be a grand idea for you to devote a couple of months to looking around for a site for your new start in life. When you have ' found it, come out and see me after July first and I'll give you twenty-five twenty-five hundred dollars additional fon your ranch equity. Meanwhile, I'll give you a check for a full month's . salary in lieu of notice of dismissal." As Pa,, much moved," turned to go Hank Wade's hand fell on the defeated de-feated old man's shoulder. "Thanks, Bill," he said. "If , you'd took a quirt to her maybe she'd have kept quiet.". . ' "Not for long. Hank. Seems like she wasn't none too anxious to please Miss Sutherland anyhow, on account Miss Sutherland prefers to eat alone. Never bavin' been a servant Ma don't relish not bein' treated like . nne o' the family. Miss Sutherland.". v |