The Pulaskian., 1920-12-23

but at present his main interest cen- tered on the fun he expected to ex- tract from the preliminaries. He had already decided on a gen. eral course of action; he would ap- proach those whom he considered worthy, in a strictly diplomatic way, judiciously limiting at the possibility of Old Dad Calkins' girl being an heir ess and suggesting the advantage of her being sought in early marriage. 1t was merely an idea he proposed to advance to be implanted in their minds, that she should not be allowed to es- cape from the community with all that money, nor snapped up by some mer- cenary, stranger.
 During the next half hour Shelby managed to interview at least a half dozen whom he considered eligible bachelors or lonely widowers, artfully selecting those known to be of some what sportive disposition, to whom such a proposition as he had to offer might naturally appeal. A few of these treated the suggestion profanely; others were rather evasive, but the majority thus Automatically approach ed evinced sufficient interest to yield much encouragement His wares had been brought to good market and Old Dads girl, rendered particularly at traetiye by "dotH running up into the thousands, would find plenty of eager suitors. Now that the rumor of her eligibility was being privately circulated from mouth to mouth, any unnecessary delay would only render the affair more complicated.
 He would report at once the sue cess of his mission and urge his CO., conspirators to immediate action. It would sure be a fine sight to see these fellows lined up while that girl looked them over. deliberately making a choice Suddenly his gaze rested on a young man, dejectedly hanging over the end of the bar, arguing with bartender, who only shook his head impassively. Shelby moved along un- til he ranged up beside the fellow.
 "What's your name?"
 "Joe Macklin."
 "They call you Kid don't they, round here?"
 "sure; mostly. What are'yer drivin' at, anyhow?"
 "Why, this. I got ranch over on the Cottonwood, an come in here to pick up a cow-hand. I got a half breed, but I need another. That's where I stand"
 "What1l it pay?
 'Forty dollars. You got horse?
 'Wen, the critter looks like one; turned out in Powell's corral, but l ain't got no money to pay fer his feed. Yerll have ter blow me some coin."
 "All right; here's ten and I'll pay l Powell for the horse keep. You show up here sober at ten tomorrow, or else 1 I'll leave you here; that's straight"
 He strode away across the big crowded room and opened a door at the further end. Stepping across the threshold he closed the door behind him and faced Mccarthy and the ex- preacher from Buffalo Gap, both of whom glanced up expectantly. Shelby leaned back against the wall and con- templated the two, chewing on the butt of a cigar.
 'WeI," he said bluntly, "the cards are stacked. gents; now, all you got to do is to play your hands"
 "What do you mean? The boys are for it?"
 "Hungry and snapping. l talked to quite bunch. The one thing I'm afraid of is that some galoot may take notion to hunt the girl up before we can get things into shape. That's why I hurried in here. We got to pull the affair tonight
 The preacher spread his hands, way ing the suggestion aside.
 "No, no; that really wouldn't be decent, so soon after the funeral. The poor girl must be given opportunity to mourn in peace"
 "Shucks! It will give her something else to think about. Anyhow, that whole bunch will be after her by morning. What do you say, MacT'
 q don't see no objections. The sooner it's cleaned up the better and there won't be no hard feelin's among the boys if we don't give 'em any time to mill around"
 You aim to run the bunch in on her with no notice?'
 "No; that's up to the preacher. He invented this game and has got to take care of that end of it. l don't know nothin' bout females and don't aim to learn. We'll leave the girl to this gent from Buffalo Gap. Let him mosey right over and talk 1t out with her straight He can put it sorter religious-like. Say we give him an hour an then shoot the bunch over tp the shack; that ought to be long enough for him to get the girl into the right frame of mind, if she's ever
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