Part 13 (1/2)
”How are we to get back froet abruptly of Landy
”I'll take you over and bring you back,” interposed Adine Lough ”I want to hear that ewise, and you on the other end of the line”
Davy laughed with the others ”Well, the parade starts pro Show open at one, let's git goin',” said the littlea circus announcer
Adine went to the house for her hat Potterthe gas and oil Then a flushed girl, aNestor of other days drove away on a mission that pleased them all
12
The State Bank of Adot had been an important institution in an unied its chartered rights to perform many services in the little co the World War it added to its surplus and paid fair dividends to scattered owners of limited shares Its service was appreciated by hoan
Logan, with limited capital and an alert mind, operated a petty loan business He traded for what-have-you In the early twenties, he exchanged his chips and whetstones for single shares of bank stock
Arriving at a favorable status, he persuaded the bank directors to enlarge the capital to absorb his petty loan business In 1924, he quit the ”street” to accept a cushi+oned chair in the rear room of the bank His experience would add caution and prudence
For, just now, the cattle business was slipping; prices were falling below the cost of production Hoot, as usual, their benefactor and dickered for rains at other n trade sank to a ne Her thousands of nant waters while the false prophets of Ma stock lorious peak and final crash
The banks of A--waited to dole out to a frenzied public all available cash and close the doors too late for solvency But not so with the Bank of Adot Aaron Logan got his order for receivershi+p before his public went frantic and while cash was yet available Under court order he was proceeding to thaw out the frozen items of assets, and planned to open the institution to those ould liress in these endeavors until he bumped into the stone wall of the Barrow loan Really, it wasn't a giant su circles, but in the present instance it represented the difference between opening a bank or keeping it closed
Aaron Logan had given the ht He had canvassed every available prospect In all the coive a thin dime for a property with a defiant oldster thereon, ould certainly kill or be killed if possession was to be gained And a killing was bad advertise a bank
But in the very hour he planned to execute this last resort, a rank outsider, an unknown and uncanvassed source, a little runt of a man with more confidence and assurance than his size would warrant, was offering to take over the ranch and assuarded it as a slender chance--could not believe that one so small could have earned so much--but he would take the chance He headed his car up Willow Street to stop at the bank's rear door He waved Adine to a favorable parking space
”I will call Mr Lie, my lawyer, to draw up a contract,” he said as the party of five were seated in the back room
”Well, that's hardly necessary,” said Davy ”If you jot down a memo that you will make a deed to David Lannarck to the Bar-O ranch upon payment, on or before October 18th, 1932, of four thousand dollars in cash and a probable expenditure of two hundred dollars in getting possession, and sign it, I will also sign it and it will be an agreeet on the phone to see if I can contact Ralph Gaynor None of you folks really know et acquainted Here's thedistance call,” he added ”Tell the operator that it's OK”
Aaron Logan didn't like being told what to do, especially by a little cocksurerid of a bad problem He complied with Davy's request
”This is David Lannarck at phone fifty I want to talk to Ralph Gaynor, at phone BA two hundred in the Dollar Savings Bank in Springfield Yes, that's the state I should have said so, for it's a grand old coht here for an hour”
In the lull of waiting, Aaron Logan wondered--wondered how one so small hoped to depose one so fierce and stubborn He would find out
”Do you think you can get Hulls and Maizie out of there by Thanksgiving?” he inquired politely
”It doesn't really et acquainted with 'em; make friends with 'eet off?” exclaimed the astonished receiver ”I've seen 'em They're impossible”
”Maybe you didn't see 'eet quietly
”I've never seen either of them, but I've had several descriptions from others and this Maizie shows possibilities”
”Possibilities for what?” snorted Logan ”That woain her ends She wouldn't listen to a governor granting her a reprieve And anyhohat are her possibilities?”
”I understand, frouid, glamorous If she's all that, I can place her” Davy's reply was slow and indifferent Now he brightened up to add: ”Say, when I get on the phone, shall I tell him to send me a draft on a Denver bank or shall I tell him to shi+p the cold cash by express, or wire it to Cheyenne by Western Union?”