The Ely miner., 1933-05-26
CHAPTER IX-Continued


pie" he declared. "Chilli peppers dry
ing on every roof and ample corn for
the tortillas; tiny garden for onions
and lettuce and beans, labor exchanged
for bright calico and overalls and
gingham at cost at the ranch commits
sary; no debts, no rents, no lawsuits,
freedom from a puritanical code OF
morals. Sometimes l could wish l.
too, were a peon BOll-weevi and the
price of beef bothers them not, nor
taxes nor notes at the bank"
"NOr sheep" Roberta supplemented.
speaking of which" he continued,
"we will ride out and visit the woollies
after luncheon, if you care for ride"
Crooked Bill was wondering why his
niece was such poor correspondent,
when Harms, the butler, entered with
the mail.
Crooked Bill pounced upon it. Two
envelOps, one slim and the other fat,
bore the return address of the Rancho
Vale Verde. so Crooked Bill opened
the slim one and read:
MY uedT MT. LdludIu.
81 wired you for permission to pay
my court to your very lovely niece,
Miss Roberta Antrim. In granting the
desired permission, for which l am
deeply grateful, you saw fit to give
me some wholly unnecessary and
rather silly advice on how to be sue
cessful in love.
my dear Mr.. Latham, you know
nothing of your charming niece's dis
position. The finest way in the world
for me to kill my feeble prospects
would be for me to wrangle guitar
under her window and sing 'Sobre las
Olas.' And anyhow, what's your in
terest in me that causes you to be so
free with your foolish advice? sus-
pect you would like to get me In
Dutch.
81 think she likes me, but she doesn't
know whether I'm crazy about her or
not, even when l swear am. /
figure that the best way to get her
winging is to keep her guessing, but
quien sabeI If you have any other
suggestions for helping along the game
of your old friend Patricio Jesus Hig-
uenes' son, let them fly.
sincerely yours
81. M. HIGUENES." :"
Crooked Bill read and reread this
remarkable document and with huge
sigh laid 1t aside. "Pve overplayed
my hand" he murmured, and took up
Roberta's letter, which ran as follows:
"Dear Uncle Bill:
81 am ashamed of myself for having
neglected you so, but the fact is have
been having such wonderful time
at Don Jaime's ranch q call him jim
N.Y. that l haven't had time to write.
'Uncle Bill, he's marvellous. Every
body thinks so and says sO-conse-
quently it must be true. He is very
bold. he sings and plays divinely, he is
a sort Of feudal baron and he works
hard all day with his men. He has
thousands of acres Of cotton, thou
sands more of alfalfa, thousands more
of cattle range, and all the cattle In
the world.
81 haven't thought of Glenn Hackett
more than twice since coming here and
then only to compare him, to his dis
advantage, to this amazing Jimmy. If
he'd only make love to me like rea-
sonable man should / think I'd fall
for him-hard.
II enclose number of photos The
one of Jimmy is excellent. Write soon.
"Your loving
BOBBY"
With the calmness of despair Crooked
Bill scrutinized the photographs. The
one of Don Jaime showed him on a
gray horse with day-old calf draped
across his lap.
"Caramba - murmured Crooked Bill.
"This fellow is no fat, oily, perfumed,
lazy Mexican with a mustache. The
boy has sized Roberta up right-not
the width of a gnat's wing out of line
and he'll win in walk, as sure as
death and taxes, unless l do some
thing and do it muy pronto. l don't
want Roberta to marry into a mixed
breed like the Higueneses.
swell, Roberta says if he'd only
make love to her like a reasonable
man she'd fall for him hard. That
means she's still safe Bill
Latham, you've got to get that girl
back home in hurry. Those Internal
sheep and my foolish scheming sent
her to Texas, and In order to get her
home those sheep must be disposed
of-in a hurry. God help me. I'll
have to buy them myself-and if that
Higuenes bandit ever gets on to the
identity of the purchaser, he'll induce
her to soak me so hard, when I'm un-
able to defend myself, that I'll never
have the heart to eat a mutton chop
again. Glenn, my boy, fighting your
fight is going to be mighty expensive,
but as an adjunct to the family
guess you're worth it." he telephoned
to his office in New York, instructing
1t to secure him transportation and
q drawing room to Los Algodones.
Texas, and the following day was en-
route to consummate the crookedest
piece of business he had ever contem-
plated-that of swindling himselfl
In due course he arrived in Los
Algodones and put up at the Mansion
house. Neither the town nor the hotel
had changed a particle in the twenty
five years that had passed since he
had seen 1t last.
Nobody knew him, nor did any of
the faces of the loungers In the chairs
tipped back against the front of the
hotel awaken in Crooked Bill the
faintest flicker of recognition. AT the
general store he purchased pair of
oyeralls, canvas coat and a gray