of cash, and
friends like Mrs. Gillis would gladly come to the rescue if quick
funds are needed. Frankly, you are a long way from Trouble River and
you should not worry about crossing it until you reach the brink.

"And that's that," said the little man, brushing his hands as if the
matter were fully settled. "Now tell me about this Bar-O thing. Is
this the same affair that Mister Potter spoke of? What's the grazing
master got to do, in folding up a ranch? Why would your grandfather
get all het up if he heard about it? Where is this Bar-O property?
Maybe in this tragic drama, there is a comedy part that I could play."

"There's no comedy in this local drama," said Adine, resuming her
challenging attitude. "And you brush the tragedies into the
wastebasket like mere dross. A while ago, you were assigning me to big
jobs in the congested areas while you were to idle around in the wide
open spaces. Just now, I would put you back in some city as a public
relations officer, a Mister Fixit, to diagnose and cure personal and
community ills. You would fix 'em or discard 'em instantly.

"But, badinage aside, I know very little of the Bar-O entanglements
and complications. It's an old story. Grandaddy knows all about it but
he doesn't talk. There are few facts and many rumors. For three
generations it's been a sort of a gnaw-bone, to be dug up and chewed
on when there's nothing else. It's a musty old tradition, a sort of a
remnant of the old days, that present day newsmongers use as a
yardstick for comparisons. If a modern domestic complication breaks
out, the current gossip outmatches it by the entanglements in the
Barrow family. If it's murder, robbery, or arson, some of the Barrows
did worse and got away with it.

"Just now, some current chapters are being written. Mister Logan, the
receiver of the bank of Adot, has foreclosed a mortgage on the real
estate and seeks possession. Mister Finch, the grazing master, always
lenient and forebearing, is seeking to recover past due payments. This
may be the final chapter. Grim facts are taking the place of hearsay."

"Well, just where is this land of romantic tragedy and domestic
infelicity?" questioned Davy. "How come that the movie people haven't
taken it over to fit their verbiage: thrilling, stupendous, smashing,
wondrous, and so forth?"

"Well, if the movie people have as much trouble getting on the
property as the sheriff and Mister Finch are having, they wouldn't get
a very