Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1929-04-25

each week she had been on the round
up. The fifth was from Judge Cotton,
her fathers old friend, to whose
hands all his affairs had been en-
trusted. After scanning this she read
again the other four. Very s0on now,
In the course Of a few months at the
outside, she and the writer would
meet away from his native environ
ment and in the midst Of her own. Al.
ways before this had been reversed
and her association with Carlos
Deane had held a background Of his
own setting-a setting In startling
contrast to her log house nesting In
desert Of sage. The Deane house
was wonderful old-fashioned man.
sion set in grove Of century-0ld
elms and oaks. She knew his life and
now he would see her in her natural
surroundings.
In hazy sort Of way she felt that
some day she woald listen to the plea
that. in some fashion or other, was
woven into every letter; but not till
the Three Bar was booming and no
longer required her supervision.
Everything else In the world was Sec
ondary to her love for her fathers
brand and the anxiety Of the past two
years Of its decline eclipsed all other
issues.
Her reflections were interrupted by
Harris voice just outside her teepee.
ASLEEP, Billie?" he asked softly.
"No," she said. What is itT
"I've thrown your saddle on Pa.
poose," he said. Lets have look
around"
She assented and they rode of up
the left-hand slope of the valley. A
mile or so from the wagon Harris dis
mounted on high point.
Lets have a medicine chat" he of.
fered. "I've got considerable on my
mind"
She leaned against q rock and he
sat cross-legged on the ground, facing
her and twisting cigarette as an
aid to thought. Her head was tilted
back against the rock, her eyes half
closed.
They say folks get disappointed
in love and go right on living" he OBJ
served. Il wonder now. I've heard
that men run mostly to form and at
one time or another let It out to some
little lady that there's no other in the
world. That's my own state right
about now. Are you always going to
keep on disliking me?"
81 don't dislike you," she said. She
was still convinced of his fathers
trickery toward her own; but Cal
Harris quiet efficiency and his devo.
ton to Three Bar interests had con-
vinced her, against her will, that he
had taken no part in 1t. "But II you
brought me out here to 60 into thar
I'm going back"
Il didn't" he denied. But l drift.
ed into it sort of by accident. Nc
matter what topic l happen to be con
versing on I'm always thinking how
much I'd rather be telling you about
that. Whenever I make some simple
little assertion about things In gen.
eral, what I'm really thinking is some
thing like this, Billie, right this min
ute I'm loving you more than I did
two minutes back You might keep
that in mind
Listen" tapping his knee with 9
forefnger to emphasize his point. "Cal
Warren always wanted to put the
Three Bar flats under cultivation
He's probably told you that hun
dred times. This will always be range
country. 1t will only support Ger
tain number Of cows. If the Three
Bar had section In hay to winter
feed your stuff you could run double
what you do now on the same range
It's the same with every other small
concern. There's only few spots
suitable for home-ranch sites ant
every one Of those has a brand run
ming out Of it housekeeping those
sites down in SHADES range. If al
those outfits put in hay it wouldnr
cut up the range any more than 1t Il
now-except down SHADES way. Every
outfit in the country could run twice
as many head as they do now-excep
Slade. He couldn't. The minute farm
ing starts there'll be squatters filing
on every quarter where they can gel
water to put it in crop. There's TWEEN
ty places Slade would have to cover
by filing to hold his range where the
others would only have to file on ONT
to control the amount Of range they're
using now"
Continued Next Week.