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Show the little valley in which the ranch headquarters stood. It stretched about half a mile wide, between the river and the northern hills and about three miles long, toward the southwest and, in general, following the course of the Santa Maria toward to-ward which it sloped almost imperceptibly. imper-ceptibly. "So this is the home ranch," she said disgustedly. "Well, Pedro, I wouldn't give a dime an acre for it, although I will admit it raises a bigger and better crop of worthless shrubs than one will find out on the desert. And the State Bank of Arizona loaned ten thousand dollars dol-lars on it. Had the board of directors direc-tors been recruited in an insane asylum?" He smiled his kindly, gentle smile. "You do not understand, Dona Maria. Ma-ria. This is rich land, otherwise there would not be such a splendid growth on it! Any kind of growth on poor land is scrubby but this growth, although worthless, is magnificently mag-nificently worthless. If cleared this would make good dry farming land, although one can secure water at from fifty to sixty feet and a generous gen-erous and constant flow. Pumped with a gasoline engine it would irrigate irri-gate many valuable crops." He led her to a lane about forty feet wide that stretched through the jungle and lost itself over the horizon, hori-zon, and they rode down it. "At a time when Senor Burdan had some THE STORY THUS FAR: Mary Sutherland, Suth-erland, an Eastern girl, Is lured to Arizona Ari-zona by the advertisements of the Wagon Wheel dude ranch, operated by Ma and iPa Burdan. She Is met at the station by i.en Henley. While at Phoenix Len enters the rodeo, drawing the bronc Mad Hatter. Hat-ter. Mary learnj that Len loves her and that his father, Ham, disapproves. She wagers one thousand to three thousand that Len will ride the horse. He does, but Is Injured. Mary now buys the Burdan Bur-dan equity In Wagon Wheel, outbidding Ham. Ham, feeling the ranch Is his, offers It to bis son. Learning that Mary does not have the money to pay for the notes be owns, he threatens immediate foreclosure. CHAPTER XI Presently Ma jangled a cow bell to Mary knew luncheon was ready. Pa was ready too, as likewise a dark man with handle-bar mustaches mus-taches whom Pa introduced, without with-out naming him, as the deputy sheriff sher-iff guarding everything the injured dude spinster had attached under the judgment rendered her against the Burdans. The democracy of the southwest was apparent, for the deputy dep-uty sheriff had been invited to eat with the new owner and her employees. em-ployees. Mary decided to change that custom promptly. Luncheon had just been finished . when the dog commenced to bark and into the ranch yard rolled Pedro Pe-dro with Len Henley's pick-up truck and Len's two horses in the trailer attached. Behind came the old sedan se-dan and the trailer house with a pretty brunette young woman driving driv-ing and beside her on the seat, two small boys about five years old who appeared to be twins. The Burdans gave Pedro unstinted welcome and Pedro was plainly surprised sur-prised at seeing Mary present He It would prove a great forage crop, for it can be cut for hay or grazed." "Indeed. Who told Don Leonardo all this?" "He learned it at the University of Arizona. He had this soil tested there, for Don Leonardo is not one to leap before he looks and he looked into the future and saw himself him-self the owner of nearly two thousand thou-sand acres of pasturage that would support three thousand cows and their increase. He would have built up a herd of pure-bred Herefords to sell to other cattlemen for breeding stock at prices double or triple what they would bring for beef. With this home ranch developed and under fence he would have abandoned the open range. There would be no round-ups, he would have a short pay-roll and there would be no chance for thieves to run his cattle off in trucks! Poor Don Leonardo! If he were a cry-baby he would weep when he reflects on what he lost that he might triumph over Mad Hatter. I warned him not to stay too long on that brute, but he would not listen to me. He over-estimated his strength, and now" Pedro spread his hands despairingly. So this was what she had deprived de-prived him of when she made that foolish bet with his father. To win that bet for her he had taken a risk that had cost him the dearest wish of his life! Mary could have wept. And then came the thought: If he had the home ranch he wouldn't need the open state range, so he would be safe from clashes with cattle thieves! And I bought the state range lease to save him from that! Tumble Tom is a brother of minel "Of course," Pedro went on, as they rode along, "Don Leonardo would not have given up the state lease until he had the home ranch his two sons, Victoriano and Juan, and Pa Burdan said: "Meet the new owner o' the Wagon Wheel, Pedro. This is Miss Mary Sutherland. Suther-land. Friend o' Len's," he added parenthetically. Pedro bowed low and almost swept the ground with his sombrero, som-brero, but he did not indicate that he and Mary had met before. His wife said to him in Spanish, "How is this, my Pedro? We have been sent out here by Don Hamilton (she pronounced it Hamil-tone) and now we are informed this lady is the owner." "I am embarrassed," said Pedro. "You need not be, Pedro," Mary assured him. "Until yesterday Don in shape and well stocked, and to earn the money to do this he would have had to run cattle on the open range. It would have been many years before' his dream came true, but what of that? One must work and one must fight to be happy, and is life not like a tunnel? One travels far in the darkness and then comes the light at the other end and it grows brighter and brighter until one emerges into the sunshine." "And out there in the sunshine is a cemetery," she said bitterly. "Pedro, "Pe-dro, I think I shall be happier if I, too, do some working and fighting. Fortunately, I shall not have to live my life in a tunnel; I have the power to make my entrance and my exit swiftly like a train." f A At Hamilton telt so assured the ranch would be his, following some trifling legal formalities, that he anticipated anticipat-ed his right to send you out here to represent his interests. But since then the situation has changed and it is now my pleasure to welcome you to the Wagon Wheel. Mrs. Burdan, Bur-dan, you will please assign the Ortiz Or-tiz family to one of the dude cottages cot-tages and then prepare luncheon for them." "We thank you, Dona Maria," said Pedro. "I was pretty tired camping camp-ing out on the deserted rodeo grounds, so I came in to see Don Hamiltone to ask what I should do with the property of Don Leonardo. 'I am about to buy the Wagon Wheel ranch,' he told me. 'Take the property prop-erty of my son out there and bring your family with you and look after things for me.' " ' "You and your family and Don Leonardo's property are welcome here, Pedro, until i other arrangements arrange-ments can be made for you. Don Leonardo would not be happy if he thought a stranger was in charge of his horses. The cattle on the Wagon Wheel belong to Don Hamilton, so if he desires you to do something for him in connection with them you must remain to do so. Enter your house." So Pedro and his family entered their house and carried in with them an assortment of groceries, while Mary continued her inspection of the ranch headquarters and after luncheon Ma Burdan. drafted Car-lotta Car-lotta for a brisk sweeping and dusting dust-ing campaign in what she called the Dude House. At Mary's direction she set a small table before the fireplace in the living room and that night Mary ate dinner in the isolation her position as boss of the rancho demanded. Carlotta very prettily asked permission to serve her in the' capacity of waitress and maid, in which, prior to her marriage, mar-riage, she had had some experience, experi-ence, and Mary promptly engaged her on salary. She had already unpacked un-packed Mary's trunks; she could launder fine garments and was an expert needlewoman and Mary felt a little recession of the suspicion that she was a hardy pioneer when, upon retiring, she found a fire in the small open fireplace in her room, her bed turned down and her nightgown, night-gown, robe and slippers laid out. The following morning Pedro saddled sad-dled Len's horses and invited her to ride with him over the home ranch. She accepted nor did she consider it worth while to inform him that she was but a bird of passage on the Wagon Wheel and not remotely interested in acquiring it for an investment, in-vestment, that her presence here was the result of impulse. The home ranch, she discovered, consisted consist-ed of three sections contiguous to each other, a practically level mesa rising perhaps a hundred feet above He pulled up his horse and looked at her eagerly. His brown hand swept the landscape. "You mean you will take up the dream of Don Leonardo?" Leonar-do?" She nodded. "I live a very useless use-less life, Pedro. I do nothing to justify jus-tify my existence . . . The thought has just come to me that it might be fun to make millions of blades of grass grow where none have grown before; that there may be some quiet satisfaction in doing my bit toward feeding the world." "Dona Maria," said Pedro with deep feeling, "you are a different dude lady! At the moment I am employed em-ployed by Don Hamilton Henley but I would it might be my fortune to help you with this dream. I am only a poor man but I am not stupid. I have been to high school in this country and I am not a peon. My father was a hacendado. He was killed in the Madero revolution; Don Hamilton found me at Agua Prieta with the soldiers; there was a big fight there and I was sent across the line. I was just a poor little fellow and so frightened . . . well, I am an American citizen now." When they returned to" headquarters headquar-ters Mary borrowed the station wagon wag-on and asked Pedro to drive her in to Congress Junction, where she telephoned to Sheriff Hank Wade at Prescott, the county seat "This is Miss Mary Sutherland speaking. Sheriff Wade," she announced, and spelled out her name for him. "I have just purchased the Wagon Wheel ranch and find on it one of your deputies guarding a couple of milch cows, some rather obsolescent ranch equipment and some cow ponies that ought to be retired on pension. This livestock is being held on my property and fed on my hay for I took that over with the real estate and improvements. Also the water those animals drink is mine and it isn't attached and can't be And I don't want that livestock or that rusty old equipment cluttering up my ranch after today." She heard the sheriff laugh softly "What? Would you begrudge a ter a bite to eat an' a drink o' cold water?" "I would," Mary laughed back. "You're a dude, I take it?" "Yes, that's what they ' call me out here. When she returned to the ranch she said to Ma Burdan, "Mrs Bur dan Sheriff Wade will be lunching with me tomorrow, so please have an extra special luncheon." Ma whistled. "That ain't goin' Iry?53?' MiSS Suterland. Sheriff Wade's three sons was pros ecuted by Pa here a little while back for stealin' our cattle pI caught 'em cold in the act got I , lrP ?n em an' a"ested 'em but they beat the case twice, so i got throwed out o' court." TO BE CONTINUED) "Well, Pedro, I wouldn't give a dime an acre for it." ready money he had a tractor with a blader on it what we call a bulldozer bull-dozer come in here and brech this lane," Pedro explained. "This growth is all shallow rooted and the blader thrust it to one side. Four trips up and down the length of the home ranch and the job was done. Then Senor Burdan had a well-driller come in with his rig and drill half a dozen fifty-foot wells to prove the existence of the water at that high level." "Then what happened?" "The money he planned to spend to clear this land was then invested in a gold mine. It is still there. But he did clear one hundred and sixty acres along the river. Forty acres he farmed for hay, forty acres he sowed to grass for horse pasture and forty acres he planted to pecan trees and grapefruit On this cleared land which he thus gave value, the bank made the loan, but took in the uncleared land for additional security. securi-ty. Then a bad frost killed the grapefruit trees which was all right because Senor Burdan knew nothing noth-ing about grapefruit culture anyhowand any-howand it developed he had planted plant-ed the wrong kind of pecans. There has never been a crop worth harvesting." har-vesting." Mary laughed inwardly. Poor Pa, born to futility. Pedro went on! "This mesa land is very rich in volcanic vol-canic ash; it is alluvial, the result of erosion from the hills, and it is not deep enough for alfalfa but any crop that grows in Arizona will grow abundantly here. Don Leonardo always al-ways knew that one day the Burdans Bur-dans would lose the Wagon Wheel and U was his hope that when that happened he would have enough cap--ital to buy it and work it out of debt. Alas, when the opportunity arose he was in a hospital, unable to take advantage of it." Mary had a feeling that Pedro was trying to interest her in Len's dream, so, because it had been Len's dream' she became interested. "What would Don Leonardo have planted here," she asked, "if fate had willed that he should own this ranch?" "Rhodes grass, Dona Maria, imported im-ported from Rhodesia in South Africa. Af-rica. It grows tall and luxuriantly it has a tolerance for alkali as high as three per cent, it is a perennial very nutritious, does well on poor land and is very drouth resistant. Of course, on rich land, with irrigation |