Show R 17 an N T en M 11 I 1 by MAE POSTER FOSTER JAY by W A wilde oo 00 service SYNOPSIS mary daughter of a millionaire has the idea that her personality Is ob cured by tho the tact fact that she Is the child if c the rich david brown and determines ter mines to make her way in lite life unaided she has a million dollars which she ghe insists her father invest in the wildest dream imaginable and about which she must know nothing she Is a graduate engineer As lit brown mary alary 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 tier her job she meets denis crais craig who immediately antagonizes her alighting from the train mary Is left at a way station practically penniless craig coming to her assistance Is also left behind lie he befriends her enabling her to continue her journey arriving at J the project she Is accused by john stark chief engineer of deception in concealing her sex and again meets craig who Is the promoter of the project mary alary Is given a position she cannot make up her mind as to whether craig is an honest visionary or a slicker blicker at the risk of her life she saves aves a valuable instrument and through the incident is drawn closer to craig A feeling much resembling love creeps into her heart concerning him mary alary learns inadvertently that it Is her money which is financing the il ra paradise radIse valley project her father having loaned it to craig the project attracts purchasers of home site and the future looks rosy craig a almost I 1 from their first meeting in love with mary makes his declaration and the girl is not for a moment uncertain of her feelings tor for him they plight their troth CHAPTER X continued 19 a lot just how iong ion whimsically do you think it will be e until you discover im the nicest man there is in every way mary alary made a dash to their littered table gathering up dishes it to be so very long iong 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 and that we name the cabin hope of heaven also we dedicate it dedicate like this deliberately he took her into his arms and kissed tier her A hesitant second and two warm arms closed about hla his neck and mary contributed to the ceremony of dedication CHAPTER XI pink slips now kow came the halcyon days for the paradise valley project follow following ing the land sales convention the tract was opened to purchasers soon the lyv H deliberately he took her into his arms and kissed her 1 er hills ills reverberated with the sound of carpenters hammers as homes were consonant with their environ trient as stipulated in the promoters dreams perfect mannered guests these louses i borscs mary craig said whimsically one me evening as they loitered through the hills on horseback they have come into the wilderness unobtrusively ay and made themselves at home with oat nit disturbing so much ot of the old Is regime e as the mountain quails fa foraging ging grounds in fact quite the lt contrary the old timers here seem to be imposing their ideas of landscaping et ct 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 his attitude now about draperies and furniture mary he queried one day for hope elope of heaven but why ask me just for advice guilelessly it if you were equipping hope of heaven as a weekend week end rendezvous for the crowd how would you furnish it with the things I 1 bought for my own room in foggy gulch when aben I 1 forgot I 1 a bloated plutocrat said mary promptly then id save the storage im paying on them now marvelously ill have them moved out tomorrow and he added it makes a neat arrangement gives me a mort mortgage gage of sorts lie he had a mortgage but it was more a partnership than a mortgage to which he laid claim A sweetly preposterous partnership he ele delighted to confuse mary by assuming I 1 the role of seasoned bene benedict d let shall we have the gang out at our house for a clam bake mary but there was something headily deep and tender back of the teasing in his bis eyes this evening as they turned their horses heads toward headquarters denis summed up their survey with a heartfelt nary mary I 1 I 1 have not demeaned the wilds she saw him again the young man on the mountain with five hundred dollars in his pocket seeing ills his ten million dollar vision youve carried out the dream perfectly denny your tour ideal home place still looks like virgin wilderness every one who comes is so ecstatic over it but denny 1 strangers cant love it as we do who made it it out there against lone mountain tonight I 1 see three million dollar buildings arising but I 1 shall always see more vividly shall not you denny the five hundred mules at one time corralled there you tou are a darling denny when it is all completed what shall you do stay here or move on to new dreams which shall we he be asked lie he held out his hand she put hers into it and so they rode down the till in the gathering 0 shadows drifting just drift drifting 1 hig bu but t denis was very gay ay these days very confident of her very teasing mary saw him infrequently so occupied he was but he be did no not t let her forget him for a moment flowers and candy and books somehow he be included among the million other details claiming his attention he rarely had bad time for the little social affairs among the engineers once when he be scarcely had seen her for a week he came to her drafting table with 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 he bent to trace a meaningless line on the drawing 1 I love you 11 ele eie was gone stopping at other desks but from the doorway in leaving he called hack as if it were a matter of figures and angles you wont forget that point I 1 made miss brown it Is important ill make a note of it mr craig happiness like this came to a 8 girl unshackled by millions mary made a flying trip home during her two weeks vacation and returned undaunted with five dollars between her and destitution what mattered it she had bad her job arid and her man success and prosperity pe pervaded the atmosphere 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 vague insidious uneasiness came creeping into the atmosphere mo 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 n the air there were articles in current magazines and newspapers showing doubt of the outcome of this altruistic experiment peri ment of a young dreamer later there were ugly hints of shortage of I 1 I 1 P C 1 I 1 love you 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 sn in denis craigs eyes and words questionable tio mirth indis in his smile A month or two of this and payment checks were a week late the following month they were two weeks late there were apologies but no explanation handwriting on the wall diagnosed the older eng engineers who had been on development projects before one morning the news spread like a bomb that jim moore haj ha sold his house at a nice little profit sold his house now isow what did that mean moore was a canny young engineer was he taking while the taking was goedl 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 a sers mary brown set her lips in a straight line and flung up her patrician cia nead bead not all the rumors on the twenty five thousand acres could shake her faith in denis craig once she had given it I 1 one evening at a ball by which the rich girl from the train christened the fifty thousand dollar house on her es state mary pleaded fatigue and asked denis to take her home early she had to talk to him the trouble denis you mean with his ineradicable smile behind these most recent allegations that im a crook de TO BE CONTINUED |