Mason of Bar X Ranch

“I don’t suppose I have the right to know, but is it one of the Gaylor boys you love?”

“No.”

“Well, is it anybody I know?”

“Yes, and he’s an awful thickhead, but – I – I-love – him just the same.”

He turned away in irritation.

“Well, I should think a girl of your intellect would pick out a man with brains, anyway,” he said wrathfully.

“I – I – have, but – at times, he’s such a fool.”

He turned slowly and looked at her in exasperation. The girl’s head had sunk forward, and he heard her sobbing softly.

“Josephine!”

Quickly he bent over her and raised her face to his as he gathered her in his arms. Her eyes were shining through her tears like beautiful stars, and he saw a light in them that thrilled him. He kissed away the tears as she lay quiet and passive in his arms.

“Josephine, you love me?” he whispered in wondering delight.

“Silly boy,” she managed to gasp, “I have loved you from the first time we met. Now, unhand me, you villain. Here come Ethel and Bud and they will see us.”

“I don’t care,” he said recklessly, holding her fast. “Anyway, they are going into the house.”

“You received a message from your father about noon time?” she asked dreamily.

“Yes.”

“I’ll be very much pleased to meet him. I wonder if he will like me?”

“The idea! Of course he will. How can he possibly help liking you?”

“Well Sir Jack, just because you like me, that’s no sign everybody else will,” she said demurely.

“Why, you’ll be winding Dad around your little finger in less than thirty minutes after he gets here, and I’ll bet my life on it.”

“Say,” he added, “do you know that Ethel is crazy about this part of the country and doesn’t want to go back home with Dad?”

“Don’t you know the reason?”

“Reason,” he echoed.

“It’s Bud,” she said simply.

“Bud,” he cried in bewilderment. “Do you mean to tell me that Ethel is in love with Bud Anderson?”

“Yes, but I don’t see any harm in that, Bud is a fine fellow.”

“I know,” he said thoughtfully. “Lord, but it will be a shock to Dad. Josephine, I just happened to think of something. Why did you draw the picture of that butterfly on the envelope Rick sent through to me?”

“I wrote that letter right after Roy’s airplane appeared to us, and I was going to draw a picture of the airplane, but Ricker stood over me and I didn’t dare to. He even wanted to know what the butterfly meant, and I told him that it was a sign between us so you would know the letter was written by me. You see I was trying to let you know that we had seen Roy’s airplane, and I knew you were expecting him out here. We gave up hope of Roy finding you as we thought he was lost in the mountains.”

“He was lost in the mountains, but he found us all right, and later I will tell you all about it,” he said, looking fondly at her. “I was sure that butterfly meant something, but couldn’t figure it out. You little beauty, when Dad comes I am going to take you to New York and we will get married there. Would you be willing to leave your home here, and live with me in New York?”

Roy was returning in his airplane, and right over them he began making loops and hair raising nose dives, finally going into a tail spin.

Josephine watched him breathlessly until Mason repeated his question.

“I would like very much to live in New York, if I thought I could get along with your father,” she answered naively. “Sir Jack, I want you to make me a promise. Please don’t go up in that airplane again. If Roy wants to risk his neck, I’m sure I don’t want you to risk yours.”

“All right,” he laughed, “I promise, so you see we will get along famously.”

Josephine smiled contentedly.

“And another thing,” she said, eyeing him seriously. “I will want to have my saddle horse, Fleet, and my dog, Rover, with me if I live in New York. I never could leave them here and be happy.”

“I will have them shipped along with us when we go,” he declared, “and I am going to buy you a nice white chummy roadster car when we get home and you can drive it all by yourself.”

“That won’t be any fun unless you go with me,” she pouted.

“Oh, I will be with you so much that you will be glad to get rid of me once in a while.”

She voiced a quick protest.

“Let’s go into the house and tell the people,” he cried boyishly.

They went in and Mason directly looked up Josephine’s father and received his hearty consent to giving his daughter’s hand in marriage, but when he told him he intended to take her to New York to live, the old man almost broke down.

In the meantime, Ethel informed her mother and Josephine that she was engaged to marry Bud Anderson. The two girls planned on a double wedding in New York, after which Bud was to take his bride back to Nevada.

A week later Mason’s father arrived, and the first thing his son did was to take him with his mother and sister into a room, where he told him all about the events leading up to Ricker’s death, and a general account of all the counterfeiter’s plots and the final round-up of the outlaw gang. He saved the fact about his own and Ethel’s coming marriage until the last, and then he waited patiently for the explosion he knew would follow. At this latest news, his father looked blankly first at his wife, then at son and daughter.

“Huh,” he snorted, after he had recovered from his surprise. “Things must move pretty rapidly in this part of the country. Wait until I see Tom Walters and have a talk with him. Then I will give you my opinion on the subject.”

The banker stalked into the ranch owner’s office and the two held a consultation behind closed doors.

Josephine was working in the kitchen, but she had heard the banker voice his sentiment. Mason joined her and saw a troubled look in her eyes.

“My, such a bear,” she said gravely, “how will I ever get along with him?”

“That is just Dad’s way,” he replied earnestly. “Dad was brought up in the old school, and never does things by halves. Don’t worry, sweetheart, I have enough money in my own right, left me by an aunt of mine. I shall marry you in spite of him, but you will have Dad eating out of your hand after he sees you.”

Josephine could hear her father and the banker chuckling over old times like two schoolboys, and her face brightened as she listened.

“Dad is all right and you will soon get used to his bluff ways,” Mason insisted, leading her into the parlor.

Soon, the two men came out of the office, and Mason immediately presented Josephine to his father.