| Show OUT LA UV W 0 by 9 I 1 I 1 sv WV VIM service tc ID PETER ra ajr E R IM eky N E by peter B CHAPTER X continued 14 1 I did sweetheart shoot for you it if I 1 good clean shooting he mumbled but too teo low did you get babson 1 I tried and they let me but I 1 smashed henry Hook bya fool head bead dearest tie he organized the ruckus at Bab babions sons bidding but if he be lives after the two rape I 1 gave him with the barrel hell think twice before tackling another such lob job nate tichenor chenor Tl smiled a terrible smile we backfired back fired on the little cuss we love ue he placed an oily finger on her adorable nose and pressed it gently upward do youre a mans woman im going over to the curb now and sit down before I 1 fall down it if anybody takes me from behind shoot him and shoot high and lor for the middle tills this time im all out of patience look after old rube rube kube needed looking after indeed ne ile was unconscious and a three inch slit silt oo on the top of his bald head told the story also lie had bad received his share of punches and kicks before lorry kershaws Ker shaws bullets had dropped his assailants on top of him the two doctors carried him over to the little grassy strip that ran parallel with the sidewalk and laid him out thereon then turned to look after dorrys victims As they sat up joe brainerd photographed them when that was done he wrote the names of the fallen on a fragment of copy paper and in his mind began arranging the lead for this his biggest news story get a truck out of that garage joe doc donaldson ordered and well haul our trade over onto tile the grass under the shade trees in the plaza ive used worse dressing stations every mothers son of them got it through the foreleg and some of the said legs are busted 1 I only wins wing tipped them says she the little vixen youve got to grant her the great gift of charity doe doc and tremendous forbearance rats she was savin saving them for the ban hangman man aello tier her hired man Is beginning to take an interest in things mr tenness Ten little round baleful eyes had indeed commenced to flicker lorry bent over him ami add raised his burly head to her shoulder how about you old timer she crooned shot all to pieces but not totally fatally sir mr tenney murmured slowly where was wa you boss when the sho shoot otIn ln started I 1 figg figuered ered you to guard my rear 1 I guarded it never fear rube I 1 did all the shooting I 1 mr air tenney murmured sorry spoke out 0 my turn I 1 reckon ill be up in a minute ill make a hand band yet yell A small boy came running down the boulevard as if pursued by a demon theres some tellers fellers over to the office of the register smash smas liln ln things up he screeched lorry dropped tube tenney as it if his big body was scorching her and ran for the office ot of the register a block away As she came panting to tile the front door she saw a dozen men inside with axes they had smashed the editorial desk and the counter in the business office pled the type for the next isue issue of the register upset the fonts of type and smashed them and were busy wrecking the linotype when the girls voice reached them above the clang of axes on metal put lem em cupl up they whirled facing her and before the menace of her gun their hands went skyward thus she held them until brainerd arrived with his camera came ra mug em brother brainerd Brai brainerd neld she commanded steady bos not a move out of anybody ill put a bullet through the hand of the man that spoils this picture this Is a time exposure I 1 believe because the inside light so good joe brainerd took three photographs of the lie vandals in his wrecked print op sh shop and turned to the girl where do we go from here lie he demanded humorously to bill rooneys Roo neya all right men come out one at a time in single file and wend your way to the lockup they wended bended it bill rooney was in his little jail ollice lice off thinking things over and gazing dolorously at a hole in a forty dollar hat when uben men began filing silently in on him this he exclaimed dorrys gun covered him from the doorway take itske ills his gun sir brainerd take ills keys too no nonsense mr rooney or dance to my music again brainerd secured the deputy sheriffs I 1 gun and keys unlocked the two cells and closed them again as tile the wreckers of the register oled filed disconsolately consola tely in then lorry ordered sir ir rooney to go 9 0 home to his family atud joe brainerd locked the jail the remainder rema luder of tills this party Is yours mr brainerd lorry then announced noun ced leed ive lot got my boys boy to look after now thanks a lot miss Ner dershaw shaw not nt at all no trouble to show goods she retorted merrily if I 1 were you id see that old idiot anson towle and swear out warrants enough for or these twelve lunatics to keep them in jail till III christmas id scare towle it I 1 were you threaten him with a mysterious fate so hell make their ball the limit babson will ball them out ot of course 1 I suppose so but hell not like it the action will tie him to his gang CHAPTER XI the succeeding week nate Tl chenor spent in a hospital at gold run whither doctor donaldson had ordered him for observation as to possible internal injuries when at last nate came to the circlet ranch again lorry saw that outwardly at least he appeared to be b normal doc thought my backbone had been tramped out of alignment he announced noun ced as lie kissed tier her but it was only a couple of ribs sprung loose from my spine doc warned me not to move around but I 1 stay away outlaw that I 1 am I 1 neglect you for another week 1 I ready to be a clinging vine im accustomed to mar mans s work and if youre worth having sir mr nor youre worth fighting tor for I 1 enjoyed it im almost afraid to marry yoi now he teased yo ud be a tough wife to handle in a family row have you been arrested yet no dear joe brainerd appears to have smoothed over the aftermath of 0 that ruckus ile he traded with babson babson loaned him tile the new plant tit it the forlorn valley citizen and then k but I 1 am curious to know how you accumulated all the money you appear to have I 1 had a talk with the alie men we jailed babson levied an assessment to paa pa tor for the damages to Brain brainards erds plant and joe absented himself at the preliminary hearing of the case so anson towle waited five minutes for joe and ills his counsel to appear and then turned the men loose for lack of evidence the men I 1 winged are all going to got well although be on crutches tor for a month or two I 1 think they are glad to let the matter drop weve all had enough undesirable advertising throughout the state As for undesirable advertising you and 1 I had any of it were li heroes eroes oh do tell me nate ive been afraid to read tile papers when a mob sacks a newspaper plant the entire fourth estate rogarda the act as a direct blow at the freedom of the press and instantly the light fight Is no longer a private one the gold cold run nugget has burned forlorn valley to a crisp and so have all the other county newspapers the forlorn have been called thugs murderers bad citizens rioters bullies and cowards I 1 am advertised its as a peaceable well meaning citizen and a distinguished ex soldier of whom the county Is proud I 1 sau sought to do forlorn valley a signal service and was mobbed and brutally beaten anil and bruised in return all of the papers have cried out upon the senseless brutality of visiting upon a blameless young man the sins of h his 9 forebears and they have done as much tor for you to in fact t made a heroine of you you are commended for your great charity in wing tipping my assailants instead of killing them you have a nickname youre wing alpi orry kershaw Kers liaw now she turned to him suddenly but I 1 am curious to know how you accumulated all the money you appear to have for you do look like cash basli money nate well the fact that I 1 have a few dollars imply that im a financier lie he protested the liens hens leys had great veneration for cash but im only halt half II ensley ey my father was a paleontologist lie ie came up into these hills one summer to hunt for fossils nothing would do but bill be must be our guest and have a horse to ride into the hills and a man to protect him from the kershaws Ker shaws my mother was twenty tour four years old at the time and already beginning to be regarded as a fossil so go father added her to his collection and stayed on in eden valley and wrote some books nobody ever read and resolutely refused to learn the cow business he did manage to put a little bit or of culture and uplift into the Hen I 1 made up my mind to stay out of eden valley and forget arget cows as a first aid to making a million dollars when my mother and aunts died I 1 was the sole heir to the bar U land and cattle company and the corporation was in excellent shape there was about two hundred thousand dollars in the bank and no debts there were twelve thousand head bead of cattle and the ranch was unencumbered I 1 decided to sell the cattle and lease the ranch rube tenney who was in command of the ranch classed the cattle so I 1 knew what I 1 had and what they were worth I 1 wrote my attorney to see your father and try to make a trade it seemed the fair thing to do to let him have first chance hed always wanted all of eden valley so he bought all the cattle and leased the bar 11 ranch for thirty thousand dollars a year tor for five years with an option to buy bay the ranch nt at any time prior to the expiration of the lease and on very easy terms tile the result was that early in 1920 1020 I 1 found myself footloose foot loose and with about a million dollars cash in bank now while I 1 was in france I 1 secured a commission my captain and I 1 got along splendidly together I 1 got to know this man and to trust him and admire him in civil life hed been general manager of a large new york stock brokerage house lie he had about fitly fifty thousand dollars and lie he wanted to buy a seat on the new york stock exchange and go into business for himself but lie he have enough money to buy the seat and finance ills his operations 1 I told him id finance him one hundred thousand dollars in ill cash against his fifty thousand in cash hla his experience and ability and we should be equal partners we made money from the day we opened our doors and you say youre not a financier the athe lust for money has never overwhelmed me I 1 find too I 1 that bit I 1 love eden valley im going to close out my interests in new york and return here in the fall 1 I shall be very lonely ihlae you are away nate and that reminds me that ive sent down to san francisco for a ring and here it Is if its too big w well have a tuck taken in and it if its too small or you prefer some other stone ill change it and he slipped on her finger a square emerald worth at least a hundred steers it was the first piece of jewelry she had ever owned and her hot tears of emotion baptized it her warm UPS lips caressed it in a silent pro promise ise he knew would never be broken suppose we get married in a hurry and make the new york trip a honeymoon he be said she shook her head impossible until dads estate has been settled sett leL I 1 cant leave here now I 1 have to work tills this outfit out of debt because I 1 cant afford a trousseau until I 1 do however dear you run on to new york complete your business there and when you return well make those two mergers you spoke of im too busy now ive got a lot of those early calves still to brand and ill have to brand about a thousand late calves in the fall I 1 dont want to leave any worries behind me when we w e go on our honeymoon and well spend our summers in eden valley and our winters outside lie he suggested she leaned against agal list him a little wearily and held him tight but did not answer a a 0 a 0 0 somebody once remarked that nothing can be of surpassing interest tor for a period greater than nine cine days for forty eight hours following the unexpectedly painful and highly dramatic denouement of his plan to sway public opinion against nate kate tichenor chenor Tl and lorry kershaw silas babson suffered sulT ered acutely not because he be was sorry for what lie he had done but because tile the effect had been so wholly unexpected and pregnant of disaster to him after having arranged to prevent the expose of the whole affair in court with probable penitentiary sentences for a couple ol of dozen hitherto respectable but mercurial citizens he began to view life with a less jaundiced eye and when at the expiration of the proverbial nine days he felt morally certain that that eden valley gang as he now referred to nate lorry and rube tenney was going to cling to its ancient tradition and have nothing whatsoever to do with legal reprisals all of his old jauntiness and optimism returned ue ile waited two weeks longer and when at the expiration of that period henry Ito look looking ilig faintly reminiscent of a potato sprout put forth in a cellar returned to his labors babson left the business of the bank in mr Rook bya bys hands and proceeded to motor forth among the forlorn and argue them into signing the petition to the county board of supervisors tor for permission to organize the forlorn valley irrigation district having had a surveyor delimit de limit the areas susceptible to surface irrigation he knew the identity of every farmer whose signature was necessary for his bis purpose so a weeks time sufficed to acquire the number of SI signatures natures legally necessary and at the next regular meeting of the board of supervisors of which babson was a member he presented the petition in person and addressed his colleagues at some length and with unusual eloquence on the desirability of favorable action by the board the chairman of the board rapped with his gavel the pros appear to have their innings he announced smilingly ruly are there any cons to be heard beard irom from A man rose in the rear of the hall ball walked up to the railing jn front of the dais upon which the board sat and bowed first to the board and then to the audience mr chairman gentlemen ti ernen my name Is john W gagan a member of the san francisco law firm of brooks gagan and brooks and I 1 appear as the legal representative of the three riparian owners along eden valley creek to wit estate of ranceford Kan ceford kershaw deceased the bar U land and cattle company and the mountain valley power company the last two companies as Is generally known being owned in their entirety by mr nathan tichenor chenor Tl on behalf of my clients I 1 desire formally to protest to this honorable board against the formation of the forlorn valley irrigation district and will state my reasons briefly gagan immediately pro preceded ceded to do so painting to his auditors precisely tb the picture that nate tichenor chenor Tl had painted to him challenging lon morton to gainsay one single leg legal al statement gagan spoke simply earnestly arraying ills his facts in logical sequence when he had finished ills his address gagan bowed to the board and started to leave the chamber there was silence until he was halt half way down the aisle then hen a storm of 0 hisses and b bous bas broke around him gagan looked back ck as he reached the door and saw that silas babson was on ills bis feet his hand band raised for silence so youre going to refute my statement eh gagan called back well before I 1 depart ill give you and your deluded followers some gome very good advice free the man who acts as ills own attorney has a fool for a client TO BE BB CONTINUED |
