The Key West Citizen

SYNOPSIS: Just as Ted Gaynor is desperately about to set a forest fire to get a job, Kay Crandon stops him, likes his looks, gives him a place at the Lazy Nine. Josh Hastings, owner of the Flying Six, tries to buy the Lazy Nine and court Kay after her ranch house and barn burn. She hits him and is determined to keep her ranch and rebuild. Ted directs the outfit to cut its own timber and rebuild without pay. Hastings tries to tie up the only available timber land, but Ted wins the race for an option, then whips a Hastings puncher for molesting Kay. Tom Runyon, fire patrol, calls at the ranch.

Chapter 18

Strange News For Kay

MARSHALLING her wits to meet the coming interview, Kay walked the short distance from the bunk house to the cabin in silence.

She felt that she would give anything to be rid of Tom Runyon, and have a chance to rest. But some instinct warned her that it would be foolish to let him go away with the suspicion that she could see he still harbored against Ted.

Tired as she was, she would have to change his line of thought, or he might make trouble.

"Shall we sit out here?" Kay sank down on the top step, and leaned back against the post that held the rail of the tiny porch in place.

"Sure."

Kay couldn't quite read the look in Tom Runyon's dark eyes as he gazed at her. Her thoughts suddenly flew to those luminous black eyes of Ted's, so different from the ones bent on her now.

Ted's eyes had a light that seemed to come from within, while Tom's were just black and round and staring, but no whit less intent.

"You make some picture there, do you know it?"

Kay smiled a faint response to his admiration. "I don't feel much like a picture," she admitted. "I'm terribly tired."

"I'll bet you are." He put one foot on the lower step and leaned toward her, his elbow resting on his knee. "I'm not going to keep you, but I just want to get one or two things straightened out in my mind. Just how long have you known this Ted Gaynor?"

"Goodness! I never can remember dates! It seems as though I'd known him for ages! But then, I feel as though I'd known you quite a long time, and we only met yesterday." Kay glanced up at him from under her dark lashes with deliberate coquetry.

"I certainly feel that way about you!" Tom Runyon gave a flattered laugh, adding, "Say, what is it about you that keeps a fellow looking at you, and forgetting what he wants to say?"

Kay laughed. "Why say anything?" she asked demurely. "It's too lovely here in the twilight to be asking questions. I know what I would like to have you tell me, though!" she added as an afterthought.

"What?" He was all eager attention.

"Tell me about your work as fire patrol. You did it before you came here?"

"Sure I did." He cleared his throat with a pleased air of superiority. "That's why the Protective association sent for me to come up here and see if I couldn't get to the bottom of these mystery fires. I've been handling a situation a whole lot like this in Wyoming, and believe me, I ran that firebug to earth!"

"Tell me about it!" Kay fixed him with her eyes full of flattering inquiry.

"Well, it was this way." Tom Runyon settled back, and Kay was just breathing a sigh of relief at getting him side-tracked, when he leaned forward once more, and broke in abruptly on his narrative.

"So He Didn't Tell You!"

BEFORE I get going on that, I want to ask about this Gaynor guy." He looked keenly at Kay.

Did he tell you about the fight he had today?

Kay looked at him with startled eyes. How could Tom Runyon possibly have found out about the fight on the mesa?

"Fight?" she echoed faintly.

"So he didn't tell you!" Tom exclaimed. "I had a hunch he wouldn't!"

Kay gazed at him with bewildered amazement. What was he driving at? If Tom Runyon knew about the fight at all, he must know that she had been there and had seen the whole thing! But there was no possible way for him to know. He had come to the ranch from the opposite direction, so he couldn't have run across Scrap Johnson and have heard it from him!

"I don't understand what you're talking about," Kay said finally.

"Are you sure he was in a fight?"

"Sure as shooting." Tom Runyon assured her. "The guy that came out to relieve me saw the whole thing."

"But he couldn't have!" Kay burst out. Then she hastily tried to cover up her break. "I mean, he must be mixing Ted up with someone else."

"Not on your life he wasn't." Tom declared positively. "He was right there in Kelly's joint when it happened."

"Kelly's joint!" Kay echoed in a relieved tone. "Oh that wasn't Ted! He was waiting for me outside the bank. I remember now he did say something about having seen a fracas of some kind at Kelly's."

"Seen it!" Tom scoffed. "I say he saw it! He was the one who started it!"

"But how—why—" Kay bit her lip and broke off short. The last thing she wanted to do was to discuss Ted, and she still felt sure Tom Runyon was mistaken.

"That's just what I mean," Tom leaned forward and shook his finger impressively at her. "There's a lot you don't know about that Gaynor guy." Tom Runyon was so positive, Kay felt it would be better to sift this rumor to the bottom.

"He was fighting with a fellow named Scrap Johnson, about some girl," Tom answered. "I reckon that's why he wasn't so keen about mentioning it to you!"

His tone had a malicious edge, but Kay hardly caught his words. Her mind was flashing back to the events of the morning. It might have been possible, while she had been in the bank, for this to have happened. She had been so preoccupied with her own troubles when she came out that she had not noticed Ted particularly.

She suddenly remembered something Ted had said when he had announced on the mesa that he meant to fight Scrap Johnson. He had said he was going to give him a "second" lesson! Kay had noticed this remark at the time, with a wondering conjecture, but in the fast moving events afterwards, she had forgotten it.

"Yeah, the two of 'em had it out, hot and heavy." Tom's voice was recounting the story as he had heard it. "Everybody thought this Scrap fellow was going to lick the stuffing out of him, but Gaynor got him down by a trick twist. Then he threatened he'd kill him if he ever heard him mention his girl's name again."

A Black Haired Filly

TOM paused to let this piece of information sink in, his eyes never leaving Kay's face.

Feeling his gaze on her, Kay steeled herself to hide her surprise and confusion. Pride came to her aid, and helped her conceal the hurt feeling that Ted's lack of confidence gave her.

"There was no reason why he should have mentioned it if he didn't want to," she observed lightly. "Perhaps as long as he won out, he might have thought it would have seemed like boasting."

"He probably won't mind boasting about it to the black haired beauty he was fighting for!" Tom chuckled as he scanned Kay's expression for her reaction to this remark.

"How do you know she was black haired?" The involuntary question burst out before Kay could stop it.

"Because Scrap Johnson had said something about a black haired filly!" Tom Runyon went on, deliberately giving a garbled account of the information he had received, his eyes narrowing as he observed the flush that spread over Kay's cheek. "That's what started the fight!"

"Well, he evidently had his reasons for not mentioning it." Kay tried to speak lightly and indifferently, but something seemed to give way inside her. She felt she couldn't possibly go on with this conversation. She simply had to be alone.

She abruptly stood up, and held out her hand.

"I'm afraid I'll have to say good-night." With the greatest effort of will, Kay kept her voice from trembling. "I've had a strenuous day, and I guess I haven't entirely got over the shock of yesterday."

"Poor little girl!" Tom Runyon's voice was a trifle over-sympathetic as he took her hand in both his, and bent his face close to her. "You go and get a good sleep, and any time you need any help, you call on Tom Runyon! Just you forget about this investigating business—leave that all to me."

"Thanks." Kay smiled faintly at him as she drew her hand away. "I hope you'll come over any time you feel like it."

"Trust me!" Tom Runyon boomed heartily. "You're going to be seeing a whole lot of me, young lady, and don't you forget it!"

Feeling a weak dizziness gradually overcoming her, Kay turned without further ceremony and bolted into her cabin.

Tom Runyon strode off to the bunk house with a half smile of satisfaction.

(Copyright, 1937, Marie de Nervaud)

Scrap Johnson "resigns" and makes a fool of his boss, tomorrow.
Scrap Johnson "resigns" and makes a fool of his boss, tomorrow.