Thursday, February 15, 1940
6F &ESTINY
CHAPTER VO N
Synopsis
Lee Hollister, returning un
expectedly from a trip abroad
to the Circle V ranch, his home
from childhood, is troubled by
signs of neglect. Joey, an old
prospector friend of Matt Blair,
Lee's foster father and owner
of the ranch, tells Lee that
Matt has killed himself, prob
ably discouraged by hard times.
The ranch is going to ruin and
Virginia, Matt's daughter, is
visiting the Archers, her aunt
and uncle in New York. But
uncle wants her to sell the
place to Milton Bradish, old
associate of -Matt's. Lee per
suades Virginia to return to the
ranch. Mrs,, Archer follows
her, accompanied by Stanley,
son of Milton Bradish. Stanley
thinks he may be able to dis
credit Lee in Virginia's eyes,
and encourages Josefa Ramirez
in her liking for Lee.
She would leave a note saying
that she wanted to see him about
—oh, about the time for driving
the cattle into the valley range.
She wrote swiftly and looked
about for a place to put it and
stopped short.
Her eye had been caught by a
bright bit of color lying on the
floor behind the half opened
door. She went, over and picked
it up, and her nose wrinkled fas
tidiously as the odor of cheap
perfume came to her. It was a
woman's scarfe, defiantly gay and
frankly soiled. It had evidently
been hung on the back of the
door, in full and flaunting view
when the door was closed, but
discreetly hidden when it stood
open.
So that was all that his kisses
meant. Prom her —to this!
The impulsive note lay on the
table where she had left it. Vir
ginia tore it up slowly, bit by bit,
and went out into clear fresh air
again clutching the fragments in
her hand.
When she had gone Josefa, who
had come here day after day to
watch for a vanished Lee, crept
out from her hiding place behind
a rock and shook a passionate fist
after the vanishing figure.
"Ah, you touch it like it was
poison, you drop it like the snake,
because it belong to me! I feex
you! I theenk you come thees
way wance more, you proud one,
and never again, no more."
Joey was still up and smoking
a lonely pipe in the doorway of
his cabin when a familiar
whistled call came to him. A few
moments later Lee swung off his
horse in front of him.
"Hell, Joey, I have some news
for you."
"Well, it's time yo're back, ye
unresponsible young nuisance!"
All Joey's anxious loneliness
showed in those scolding words.
A strong brown hand came down
on his shoulder in an affectionate
grip.
"You're a good scout, Joey.
Don't you get any notion that I'd
sneak off without you. We're
partners, and we're going to stick
together. I've found out some
thing. The company that bought
in the Rancho Ceballos is merely
a holding company for Milt Bra
dish.' He bought it under cover
of another name and he's holding
it that way, probably until he
gets the Circle V. Now you see
why Matt's grazing privileges on
the Rancho Ceballos were with
drawn."
"Milt Bradish owin' the Ran-
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cho Ceballos!" Joey commented
wonderingly. 'Jit's enough to
make old Don Luis set up in his
grave."
"Do you suppose Bradish real
ly did cheat him, Joey?" Lee
asked?"
"Well, not accordin' to law,
Lee. All Bradish did was to sell
him his part of the Bonanza
they was two separate claims, ye
know—and Don Luis didn't have
no better judgment than to buy
it offhand. Matt fell in with
Bradish when Bradish was down
on his luck, an' Matt took him
in an' divided- his grubstake with
him. They drifted down here
and staked claims out there in
the gulch. They was separate
claims, side by side, but they
agreed to help each other work
'em, the first man to strike pay
rock was to share even with the
other."
"They shore worked. They
gophered inta that hill for about
two months, with nary sign of
color an' both of 'em plumb dis
gusted an' ready to quit. An'
then Matt druv his pick into
somethin' soft an' yelled for
Bradish to come.
"Well, ye know what happen
ed. It looked like a vein of pret
ty near virgin gold, but it was
only a pocket, although they
worked like crazy men for weeks,
huptin' for the other end of a
faulted lode. But the pocket as
sayed high, an' they divided fifty
thousand between 'em. By that
time the news had leaked out an'
the gulch was full of men diggin'
an' blastin' an' sweatin' for gold,
but nobody ever found anything
else that was wuth minin'.
"I reckon Bradish was the fust
man to wake up. He was smart.
He sold out his claim to Don Luis,
who was all excited over the rush
an' thought this was his big
chance to wipe out the old mort
gages and bring the Rancho Ce
ballos back to what it used to be.
So he clapped on another mort
gage an' had a grand time with
the money. He dug an' blasted
an' tunneled an' cross-tunneled,
bustin' clean through inta Matt's
claim a couple o' times, until one
day a blast that went off too
soon caught him there, an' when
they pulled him out they found
he'd never walk again. By that
time he knowed that there wasn't
any gold on that claim. They say
he never mentioned Bratiish's
name aagin, but for the rest of
his life he set there in the rollin'
chair Matt give him, in the patio
of that crumblin' old house an'
sometimes at the busted gate,
with the gun across his knees.
Waitin', folks said, for Bradish to
come back.
"But Bradish never come. Matt
was prosperous then, an' he got
Don Luis to sell back Bradish's
claim to him. He said it bottled
up his land, or some such foolish
ness."
Lee was leaning back against
the cabin, meditative and quiet.
He had purposely started the flow
of Joey's reminiscence and had
listened. Slanty Gano had boast
ed drunkenly that a certain big
man would give him anything he
wanted, because Slanty had
something on him. Bradish, a
man who could command the best
service that money would buy,
had put this quarrelsome loafer
in charge of a ranch that he had
acquired in the name of a hold
ing company.
Where had Slanty met this
man of financial importance, and
when? What did he know or
think he knew about Milton
Bradish? ... If it was Milton
Bradish.
He moved a few steps out and
stood again, quiet and contempla
tive.
Joey looked up suddenly. There
was a curious stillness about Lee.
It was a waiting stillness, with a
hint of tensing muscles and
senses sharply alert.
"Put 'em up!"
Lee shot forward like a releas
ed spring. There was a scram
bling crash in the darkness back
of the cabin, a thud and a smoth
ered curse, the sound of grunts
and writhing bodies.
"Oh, no, I wouldn't, Lawler!"
A knife described a darkly
gleaming arc through the air.
Joey dodged it as he hurried anx
iously back to see Lee kneeling on
something dark and struggling.
"What's the matter, Lee? Did
he knife ye? I'll—"
"No, Joey, just tried to . . . I'll
take that gun, Lawler. I know
you'd hate to lose your head. Now
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be nice, or I'll shut off your wind
again . . . Listen!" '
Prom some distance away there
came another scrambling sound,
as if a stealthily moving body had
missed its footing and slid for
several feet.
"So Slanty got away and left
you to face the music?" Lee in
quired pleasantly. "That sounds
like him." He paused for a rem
iniscent grin. "There's a lot of
manzanita on that slope," he
added thoughtfully. "Pretty
thorny scrub, Lawler. I shouldn't
wonder if he'll have some nice
long scratches to identify him to
morrow—only we don't need to
. . . Get up, you polecat."
Lawler swayed groggily to his
feet. "I wasn't doin' nothin'," he
muttered sullenly.
"I've watched your double
game, Lawler, taking your wages
from a woman and using your job
in twenty different ways to make
her so discouraged with the place
that she will be glad to sell. But
you're through. You're leaving
tonight."
"Say, ye think yo're the big
boss around here, don't ye?"
Lawler blustered, stung to a fresh
rage. "You ain't nobody around
here at all, and everybody knows
it but you."
"Counting on that, Lawler?"
The voice was dangerously gentle.
"Maybe I haven't a technical
right to fire you, but I can run
you off this place like a scared
jackrabbit, and I'm doing it now.
Move!"
Lawler gulped and glowered.
His knife was gone, his gun was
gone. Sullenly, he withdrew.
Hoofbeats were approaching, a
cheerful voice hailed.
"Hey, Joey, everything all
right?"
Joey answered the hail, and a
moment later Curly clattered up
to them.
"Just saw Slanty Gano ridin'
away to an all-fired hurry," he
volunteered, "and I wondered if
he'd been up to any devilment
here. Didn't I see somebody
breakin for cover?"
"Lawler," Lee answered for
Joey, who confirmed it with a
vigorous nod. Joey was still
glowing with the joy of Lee's
fight. "The two of them were
hanging around in the dark with
their ears open. Slanty didn't
stay to be sociable. Lawler did.
By the way, Curly, he's leaving
the Circle V tonight. How about
having one of the boys see him
to his train?"
Curly loosed a joyous whoop.
"Shore, Lee, I'll do *t. Take him
or chase him, whichever you say.
Much obliged for handin' me the
job."
The next morning Virginia
heard from Curly that Lawler had
abruptly left her employment
during the night.
"But why did he leave so sud
denly? Did anything happen?"
"We-e-e-11—" Curly hesitated.
"I reckon mebbe he did have a
kind of disagreement."
"With whom?"
"Well now, he didn't say."
"Thank you, Curly." She had
mercy on him, but two bright
spots burned in her cheeks. "And
I'd like you to take his place,
please."
"Why—l. reckon I'd be pleased
to." Curly ducked his head in
embarrassed thanks. "I'll shore
do all I can for you, Miss Vir
ginia," he added earnestly. "I'll
get on the job right now."
He was off, grinning and hap
py, but glad to escape. Another
step was approaching, and Vir
ginia did not need to be told that
this was Lee.
There was a quick warming of
Lee's eyes as he saw her, but her
own flashed angrily.
"So you have taken the liberty
of discharging my manager—or
terrorizing him out of my em
ploy!"
The warmth vanished.
"If you want to put it that
way," he said briefly. "Lawler
was dishonest and deliberately
worked against your interests,
and he was drunk half the time.
If you had been on the job your
self you'd have known it."
"I am glad that you at least
recognize that it is my job, and
not yours," she replied coldly. "I
have appreciated your good in
tentions, but I don't care for your
methods. Do I make myself
clear?"
"Absolutely." He smiled wry
ly. "But perhaps—"
"You have takpn my affairs out
of my hands." She swept on
without heeding him, and he
checked himself with unusual pa
tience. "You've belittled and
humiliated me before my own
men and my friends. I hate
you!"
Her voice choked a little. The
warm look came back to his eyes
as he looked down at her stand
ing by Matt's old desk, so small
and lovely, so bitterly angry at
him.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
"Not about Lawler. That had to
come. But we always seem to hit
things off the wrong way. I
came up to tell you about it, but
I don't believe you want to hear
it now. Goodbye—Virginia."
He went out without further
ado. Virginia sat there for some
minutes longer, flushed and
stormy. She was still angry, but
there was a hurt in it.
How could he, and why had
she said what she did?
The most exasperating thing of
all was her enormous relief that
Lawler had gone.
(Continued Next Week)
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The Town of Jonesville as a municipality and as a community, wishes to extend its
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Z. Bent Martin, Mayor W. F. Mcßride, Clerk
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