Classic Audiobook Collection - The Girl From Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs ~ Full Audiobook [mystery]

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Chapter 1 The two horses picked their way carefully downward over the loose shale of the steep hillside. The Big Bay Stallion in the lead sidled mincingly, tossing his head nervously, and flicking the flannel shirt of his rider with foam. Behind the man on the stallion, a girl rode a clean-limbed bay of a lighter color, whose method of descent, while less showy, was safer, for he came more slowly, and in the very bad places he braced his fort. feet forward and slid down, sometimes almost sitting upon the ground. At the base of the hill there was a narrow level strip, with an eight-foot wash, with steep banks barred the way to the opposite side of the canyon, which rose gently to the hills beyond.

Starting point is 00:00:44 At the foot of the descent, the man reined in and waited until the girl was safely down. Then he wheeled his mount and trotted toward the wash. Twenty feet from it he gave the animal its head and a word. The horse broke into a gallop, took off at the edge of the wash, and cleared it so effortlessly, as almost to give the impression of flying. Behind the man came the girl, but her horse came at the wash with a rush, not the slow, steady gallop of the stallion,

Starting point is 00:01:09 and at the very brink he stopped to gather himself. The dry bank caved beneath his front feet and into the watch he went headfirst. The man turned and spurred back. The girl looked up from her saddle, making a wry face. No damage? he asked, an expression of concern upon his face. No damage, the girl replied. Senator is clumsy enough at jumping,

Starting point is 00:01:29 but no matter what happens he always lights on his feet. Ride down a bit, said the man. There's an easy way out just below. She moved off in the direction he indicated, her horse picking his way among the loose boulders and the wash bottom. Mother says he's part cat, she remarked. I wish he can jump like the Apache. The man stroked the glossy neck of his own mount.

Starting point is 00:01:49 He never will, he said. He's afraid. The Apache is absolutely fearless. He'd go anywhere I'd ride him. He's been mired with me twice, but he never refuses to a wet spot, and that's a test, I say, of a horse's courage. They had reached a place where the bank was broken down, and the girl's horse scrambled from the wash.

Starting point is 00:02:07 Maybe he's like his rider, suggested the girl, looking at the Apache. Brave, but reckless. It was worse than reckless, said the man. It was asinine. I shouldn't have led you over the jump when I know how badly Senator jumps. And you wouldn't have, Custer, she hesitated.

Starting point is 00:02:23 If... If I hadn't been drinking, he finished for her. I know what you're going to say, Grace, and I think you're wrong. I never drink enough to show it. No one ever saw me that way. Not so that it was noticeable. It is always noticeable to me and to your mother, she corrected him gently. We always know it, Custer. It shows in little things like what you did just now. Oh, it isn't anything. I know, dear. But we who love you wish you didn't do it quite so often. It's funny, he said, but I never cared for it until it became a risky thing to get it.

Starting point is 00:02:55 Oh, well, what's the use? I'll quit it if you say it. It hasn't any hold on me." Involuntarily he squared his shoulders, an unconscious tribute to the strength of his weakness. Together, their stirrups touching, they rode slowly down the canyon trail toward the ranch. Often they rode thus, in the restful silence that is the birthright of comradeship. Neither spoke until after they reigned in their sweating horses beneath the cool shade of the spreading Sycamore that guards the junction of El Camino Largo and the main trail that winds up, Sycamore Canyon. It was the first day of early spring. The rains were over.

Starting point is 00:03:30 The California hills were green and purple and gold. The new leaves lay softly fresh on the gaunt boughs of yesterday. A blue jay scolded from the clump of sumac across the trail. The girl pointed up into the cloudless sky, where several great birds circled majestically, rising and falling upon motionless wings. The vultures are back, she said. I'm always glad to see them come again.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Yes, said the man. They are bully scavengers. and we don't have to pay him wages. The girl smiled up at him. I'm afraid my thoughts were more poetic than practical, she said. I was only thinking the sky looked less lonely now that they have come. Why suggest their diet? I know what you mean, he said.

Starting point is 00:04:10 I like them too. Blind as they are, they are really wonderful birds, and sort of mysterious. Did you ever stop to think that you never see a very young one or a dead one? Where do they die? Where do they grow to maturity? I wonder what they found up there. Let's ride up. Martin said he saw a new calf up beyond Jackknife Canyon yesterday.

Starting point is 00:04:30 That would be just about under where they're circling now. They guided their horses around a large, flat slab of rock that some camper had contrived into a table beneath the Sycamore and started across the trail toward the opposite side of the canyon. They were in the middle of the trail when the man drew in and listened. Someone's coming, he said. Let's wait and see who it is. I haven't sent anyone back into the hills today. I have an idea, remarked, girl, that there is more going to.

Starting point is 00:04:55 on up there. She nodded towards the mountains stretching to the south of them than you know about. How is that? he asked. So often recently we have heard horsemen passing the ranch late at night. If they weren't going to stop at your place, those who rode up the trail must have been headed into the high hills, but I'm sure that those whom we heard coming down weren't come from the Rancho Delgado. No, he said, not late at night, or not often, at any rate. The footsteps of a cantering horse drew rapidly closer, and presently the animal and its rider came into view around a turn in the trail. It's only Alan, said the girl.

Starting point is 00:05:30 The newcomer reigned in at sight of the man and the girl. He was evidently surprised, and the girl thought he seemed ill at ease. Just giving Baldi a workout, he explained. He ain't been out for three or four days, and you told me to work him out if I had time. Custer Pennington nodded. See any stock back there? No. How's the Apache today?

Starting point is 00:05:50 Forging as bad as usual? Pennington shook his head negatively. That fellow shot him yesterday just the way I want him shot. I wish you'd take a good look at his shoe, Slick, so you can see that he's always shot the same way. His eyes have been traveling over Slick's mount, whose heaving sides were covered with lather. Bald is pretty soft, Slick. I wouldn't work him too hard all at once. Get him up to it gradually.

Starting point is 00:06:13 He turned and rode off with the girl at his side. Slick Allen looked after them for a moment, and then moved his horse off at a slow walk toward the ranch. He was a lean, sinewy man of a little. medium height. He might have been a cavalry man once. He sat his horse, even in a walk, like one who had sweated and bled under a drill sergeant in the days of his youth. How do you like him? the girl asked to Pennington. He's a good horseman, and good horsemen are getting rare these days, replied Pennington. But I don't know that I'd choose him for a playmate. Don't you like him? I'm afraid I don't. His eyes give me the creeps. They're like a

Starting point is 00:06:47 fishes. To tell the truth, Grace, I don't like him, said Custer. He's one of those rare birds, a good horseman who doesn't love horses. I imagine he won't last long on the Rancho Del Ganano, but we've got to give him a fair shake. He's only been with us a few weeks. They were picking their way toward the summit of a steep hogback. The man, who led, was seeking carefully for the safest footing, shamed out of his recent recklessness by the thought of how close the girl had come to a serious accident through his thoughtlessness. They rode along the hogback until they could look down into a tiny basin where a small bunch of cattle was grazing, and then, turning and dipping over the edge, they dropped slowly toward the animals.

Starting point is 00:07:26 Near the bottom of the slope they came upon a white-faced bull standing beneath the spreading shade of a live oak. He turned his woolly face toward them, his red-rimmed eyes observing them dispassionately for a moment. Then he turned away again and resumed his cud, disdaining further notice of him. That's the king of Ganado, isn't it? asked the girl. Looks like him, doesn't it? But he isn't. He's the king's likely his son, and unless I'm mistaken, he's going to give you a little bit of a old fellow a mighty tough time of it this fall,

Starting point is 00:07:54 if the old boys want to hang out in the Grand Championship. We've never shown him yet. It's an idea of fathers. He's always wanted to spring a new champion at the great show and surprise the world. He's kept this fellow hidden away ever since he gave the first indication that he was going to be a fine bull. At least a hundred breeders have visited the herd in the past year,

Starting point is 00:08:12 and not one of them has seen him. Father says he's the greatest bull that ever lived and that his first show was going to be the international. I just know he'll win, exclaimed the girl. Why, look at him. Isn't he a beauty? Got it back like a billiard table, commented custard proudly. They rode down among the heifers. They were a dozen beauties, three-year-olds.

Starting point is 00:08:34 Hidden to one side behind a small bush, the man's quick eyes discerned a little bundle of red and white. There it is, Grace, he called, and the two rode toward it. One of the heifers looked fearfully toward them, then at the bush, and finally walked toward it, glowing plaintively. We're not going to hurt it, little girl, the man assured her. As they came closer, they arose a thing of long, wobbly legs, big joints, and great dark eyes,

Starting point is 00:08:59 a spotless coat of red and white shining with health and life. The cunning thing, cried the girl. How I'd like to squeeze it. I'd just love him, Custer. She had slipped from her saddle, and dropping her reins on the ground, was approaching the calf. Look out for the cow, cried the man, as he dismounted and moved forward to the girl's side, with his arm through the Apache's reins. She hasn't been up much, and she may be a little while.

Starting point is 00:09:21 The calf stood its ground for a moment, and then, with Taylor wrecked, cavorted madly for its mother, behind whom it took refuge. I just love him, I just love them, repeated the girl. You say the same thing about the Colts, and the little pigs, the man reminded her. I love them all, she cried, shaking her head, her eyes twinkling. You love them because they're little and helpless, just like babies, he said. Oh, Grace, how you'd love a baby. The girl flushed prettily. Quite suddenly he sees her in the arms.

Starting point is 00:09:51 and crushed her to him, smothering her with a long kiss. Breathless, she wriggled partially away, but he still held her in his arms. Why won't you, Grace, he begged. He'll never be anyone else for me or for you. Father and Mother and Eva love you almost as much as I do, and on your side your mother and Guy have always seemed to take it as a matter of course that we'd marry. It isn't the drinking, is it, dear? No, it's not that, Custer.

Starting point is 00:10:17 Of course I'll marry you. Someday. But not yet. Why, I haven't lived yet, Custer. I want to live. I want to do something outside of the home-drum life that I have always led, and the humdrum life I shall live as a wife and mother. I want to live a little, Custer, and then I'll be ready to settle down.

Starting point is 00:10:34 You all tell me that I am beautiful, and down, a way down in the depth of my soul, I feel that I have talent. If I have, I ought to use the gifts God has given me. She was speaking very seriously, and the man listened patiently and with respect, for he realized that she was revealing for the first time a secret. yearning that she must have long held locked in her bosom. Just what do you want to do, dear? he asked gently. Hi. Oh, it seems silly when I try to put into words, but in dreams is very beautiful and very

Starting point is 00:11:02 real. The stage, he asked. It is just like you to understand. Her smile rewarded him. Will you help me? I know mother will object. You want me to help you to take all the happiness out of my life, he asked. It would only be for a little while, just a few years. Then it would come back to you after have made good. You would never come back, Grace, unless you failed, he said. If you succeeded, you would never be contented in any other life or atmosphere. If you came back a failure, you couldn't help but carry a little bitterness always in your heart.

Starting point is 00:11:34 It would never be the same, dear, carefree heart that went away so gaily. Here you have a real part to play in a real drama, not make-believe upon a narrow stage with painted drops. He flung out a hand in a broad gesture. Look at the setting that God has painted here for us to play our parts in. the parts that he has chosen for us. Your mother played upon the same stage and mine. Do you think them failures?

Starting point is 00:11:56 And both were beautiful girls, as beautiful as you. Oh, but you don't understand after all, Custer, she cried. I thought you did. I do understand that for your sake, I must do my best to persuade you that you have his full life before you here upon the stage. I am fighting first for your happiness, grace, and then for mine. If I fail, then I shall do all I can to help you realize you're inmate. If you cannot stay because you are convinced that it would be happier here, and I did not want you to stay.

Starting point is 00:12:25 Kiss me, she demanded suddenly. I'm only thinking of it anyway, so let's not worry until there is something to worry about. End of Chapter 1. Chapter 2 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This lib of us recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. The man bent his lips to hers again, and her arms stole around his neck. the calf in the meantime perhaps disgusted by such absurdities had scampered off to try his brand-new legs again with the result that he ran into a low bush turned a somersault and landed on his back

Starting point is 00:13:02 the mother still doubtful the intentions of the newcomers to whose malevolent presence she may have attributed the accident voiced a perturbed low whereupon there broke from the vicinity of the live oak a deep note not like the rumbling of distant thunder The man looked up. I think we'll be going, he said. The emperor has issued an ultimatum. Or a bull, perhaps, Grace suggested, as they walked quickly toward her horse. Awful, he commented, as he assisted her into the saddle. Then he swung to his own. The emperor moved majestically toward them, his nose close to the ground.

Starting point is 00:13:34 Occasionally he stopped, pawing the earth, and throwing dust upon his broad back. Doesn't he look wicked, cried the girl? Just look at those eyes. He's just an old bluffer, replied the man. however i'd rather have you in the saddle for you can't always be sure just what they'll do we must call his bluff though it will never do to run from him might give him bad habits he rode toward the advancing animal breaking into a canter as he drew near the bull and striking his booted leg with a quart hi there y' yelled reprobate beat it he cried the bull stood his ground with lowered head and rumbling threats until the horseman was almost upon him then he turned quickly aside as the rider went past that's better remarked custer as the girl joined him you're not a bit afraid of him are you custer you not afraid of anything oh i wouldn't say that he demurred i learned a long time ago that most encounters consist principally of bluff maybe i've just grown to be a good bluffer anyhow i'm a better bluffer than the emperor if the rascal had only known it he could have run me ragged as they rode upon the side of the basin the man's eyes moved constantly from point to point now noted the condition of the pasture grasses or again searching the more distant hills presently they alighted upon a thin wavering line of brown which zigzagged down the opposite side of the basin from a clump of heavy brush that partially hid a small ravine and crossed the meadow ahead of them

Starting point is 00:14:55 there's a new trail grace and don't belong there let's go and take a look at it they rode ahead until they reached the trail at a point where it crossed the bottom of the basin and started up the side they had been ascending the man leaned above his horse's shoulders and examined the trampled turf horses he said i thought so and it's been used a lot this winter you can see him even now where the animals slipped and floundered after the heavy rains but you don't run horses in the pasture do you asked the girl no we haven't run anything in it since last summer this is the only bunch in it and they were just turned in about a week ago anyway the horses that made this trail were mostly shot now what in the world does anyone go on up there for his eyes wandered to the heavy brush into which the trail disappeared upon the opposite rim of the basin i'll have to follow that up to-morrow it's too late to do it to-day we could follow it the other way toward the ranch she suggested they followed the trail wound up the hillside and crossed the hogback and heavy brush which, in many places, have been cut away to allow the easier passage of the horsemen. Do you see, asked Custer, as they drew rain at the summit of the ridge, that although the trail crosses here in plain sight of the ranch house, the brush would absolutely conceal a horseman from the view of anyone at the house?

Starting point is 00:16:11 It must run right down into Jackknife Canyon. Funny none of us have noticed it, for scarcely a week that trail isn't ridden by some of us. As they descended into the canyon, they discovered why that end of the new trail had not been noticed. It ran deep and well-marked through the heavy brush of a gully to a place where the brush commenced to thin, and there it branched into a dozen dim trails that joined and blended with the old, well-worn cattle paths of the hillside. Somebody's mighty foxy observed the man, but I don't see what it's all about. The days of cattle runners and bandits are over. Just imagine, exclaimed the girl, a real mystery in our lazy old hills.

Starting point is 00:16:47 The man rode in silence and in thought. A herd of purebred herefords, whose value would have and ransom half the crown heads remaining in Europe, grazed into several passages that ran far back into those hills, and back there somewhere that trail led, but for what purpose? No good purpose, he was sure, or had not been so cleverly hidden. As they came to the trail which they called the Camino Cordo, where it commenced at the gate leading from the old goat corral, the man jerked his thumb toward the west along it. They must have come and go this way, he said. Perhaps they're the ones mother and I have heard passing at night, suggested the girl.

Starting point is 00:17:21 If they are, they come right through your property, below the house, not this way. He opened the gate from the saddle, and they passed through, crossing the baronco, and stopping for a moment to look at the pigs and talk to the herdsman. Then they rode on toward the ranch house, a half mile farther down the widening canyon. It stood upon the summit of a low hill, the declining sun transforming its plastered walls, its couplas, and sturdy arches of its arcades into the semblance of a moorish castle. At the foot of the hill, they dismounted at the saddle horse stable, tied their horses, and ascended the long flight of rough concrete steps toward the house.

Starting point is 00:17:57 As they rounded the wild sumac bush at the summit, they were espied by those sitting in the patio, around three sides of which the house was built. Oh, here they are now, exclaimed Mrs. Pennington. We were so afraid that Grace would ride right on home, Custer. We had just persuaded Mrs. Evans to stay for dinner. Guy is coming, too. Mother, you here too, cried the girl.

Starting point is 00:18:17 how nice and cool it is here. It would save a lot of trouble if we brought our things, mother. We were hoping that at least one of you will. Very soon, said Colonel Pennington, who had risen and now put an arm affectionately about the girl's shoulders. That's what I've been telling her again this afternoon, said Custer. But instead, she wants to, the girl turned toward him with a little frown and a shake of her head. You better run down and tell Alan that we won't use the horses until after dinner, she said.

Starting point is 00:18:43 He grimaced good-naturedly and turned away. I'll have him take Senator home, he said. said, I can drive you and your mother down in the car when you leave. As he descended the steps that wound among the umbrella trees, taking on their new foliage, he saw Alan examining the Apache's shoes. As he neared them, the horse pulled away from the man, his suddenly lowered hoof striking Alan's instep. With an oath, the fellow stepped back and swung a vicious kick to the animal's belly. Almost simultaneously a hand fell heavily upon his shoulder. He was jerked roughly back, rolled about, and sent spinning a dozen feet away,

Starting point is 00:19:15 where he stumbled and fell. As he scrambled to his feet, white with rage, he saw the younger Pennington before him. Go to the office and get your time, ordered Pennington. I'll get you first, you son of up. A hard fist connected suddenly with his chin, put a painful period to his sentence before it was completed, and stopped his mad rush. I'd be more careful of my conversation, Alan, if I were you, said Pennington quietly. Just because you've been drinking is no excuse for that. Now go on up to the office as I told you to.

Starting point is 00:19:43 He had caught the odor of whiskey as he jerked the man past him. You go in a can-me for drinking? You demanded Alan. You know what I'm canning you for. You're not at the one thing they don't do in Ganado. You ought to get what you gave the Apache, and you better beat it before I lose my temper and give it to you. The man rose slowly to his feet.

Starting point is 00:20:04 In his mind, he was revolving his chances of successfully renewing his attack. But presently, his judgment got the better of his desire and his rage. He moved off slowly up the hill toward the... a house. A few yards, and he turned. I ain't going to forget this, you. You, be careful, Pennington admonished. Nor you ain't going to forget it, neither, you fox-trotten, dude. Alan turned again to the ascent of the steps. Pennington walked to the Apache and stroked his muzzle. Old boy, he groaned. They don't anybody kick you and get away with it, does there.

Starting point is 00:20:37 Halfway up, Alan stopped and turned again. You think you're the whole cheese, you Pennington's, don't you, he called back. With all your money and your fine friends, fine friends, yeah, I can put one of them where he belongs any time I want, the darn bootleger. That's what he is. You wait, you'll see. Ah, beat it, said Pennington wearily. Mounting the Apache, he led Grace's horse along the foot of the hill towards a smaller

Starting point is 00:21:02 ranch house of their neighbor, some half mile away. Humming a little tune, he unsettled Senator, turned him into his corral, saw that there was water in the trough, and emptied a measure of oats into his manger. for the horse had cooled off since the afternoon ride. As neither of the Evans' ranch hands appeared, he found a piece of rag and wiped off the senator's bit, turning the saddle blankets wet side up to dry, and then, leaving the stable,

Starting point is 00:21:25 crossed the yard to mount the Apache. A young man in riding clothes appeared simultaneously from the interior of the bungalow, which stood a hundred feet away. Crossing the wide porch, he called to Pennington. Hello there, Penn. What are you doing, he demanded. Just brought Senator in,

Starting point is 00:21:40 graces up at the house. You're coming up there too, guy. Sure, but come in here a second. I got something to show you. Pennington crossed the yard and entered the house behind Grace's brother, who conducted him to this bedroom. Here, young Evans unlocked the closet, and after rummaging behind some clothing,

Starting point is 00:21:57 emerged with a bottle, the shape and dimensions of which were once as familiar in the land of the free as the benign countenance of Lydia E. Pinkham. It's a genuine stuff Penn, too, he declared. Pennington smiled. Thanks, old fella, but I've quit, he said. said, quit, exclaimed Evans. Yep.

Starting point is 00:22:15 But think of it, man, aged eight years in the wood, and bottled in bond before July 1, 1919. The real thing, and as cheap as moonshine, only six beans a quart. Can you believe it? I cannot admit, Pennyton. Your conversation listens phony. But it's the truth. You may have quit, but one little sniffer of this won't hurt you. Here's this bottle already open, just try it, and he proffered the bottle on a glass to the other.

Starting point is 00:22:41 Well, it's pretty hard to resist anything that sounds as good as it does, remarked Penitenton. I guess one won't hurt me, Annie. He poured himself a drink and took it. Wonderful, he ejaculated. Here, said Evans, diving into the closet once more. I got you a bottle, too, and we can get more. Pendenton took the bottle and examined it. Almost caressingly.

Starting point is 00:23:00 Eight years in the wood, he murmured. I've got to take it, Guy. Must have something to hand down to posterity. He drew a bill full from his pocket and counted out six dollars. Thanks, said Guy. They'll never regret it. End of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Starting point is 00:23:25 This Liverpool box recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Danoia, Somerset, New Jersey. As the two young men climbed the hill to the big house, a few minutes later, they found the Elder Pennington standing at the edge of the driveway as circled the hilltop, looking out toward the wide canyon at the distant mountains. In the nearer foreground lay the stable and corrals of the saddle horses. the henhouse with his two long alfalfa runways, and the small dairy barn accommodating the little herd of Guernsey's that supplied milk, cream, and butter for the ranch. A quarter of a mile beyond, among the trees, was the red-roofed cabin where the unmarried ranch hands ate and slept, near the main corrals with their barns, outhouses, and sheds.

Starting point is 00:24:06 In a hilly pasture further up to canyon, the black and iron gray of Percheron brood mares contrasted with the greening hillsides of spring. Still farther away, the white and red of the lordly figure of the emperor stood out boldly upon the summit of the ridge behind Jackknife Canyon. The two young men joined the older, and Custer put an arm affectionately around his father's shoulders. You never tire of it, said the young man. I've been looking at it for the past 22 years, my son, replied the elder Pennington, and each year has become more wonderful to see. It never changes, yet is never twice alike. See the purple sage, a way off over there, and the lighter side.

Starting point is 00:24:43 spaces of the wild buckwheat, and here they are among the scrub oak the beautiful pale green of the manzanita, scintillant jewels in the diadem of the hills, and the faint haze of the mountains that seemed to throw them just a little out of focus to make them the perfect background for the beautiful hills which the supreme artist is placing on his canvas today. An hour from now he will paint another masterpiece, and tonight another, and forever others, with never two alike, nor ever one that mortal man can duplicate. And all for us, boy, all for us, if we have the hearts and the souls to see it. How you love it, said the boy.

Starting point is 00:25:19 Yes, and your mother loves it, and it is our great happiness that you and Eva love it too. The boy made no reply. He did love it, but his was the heart of youth, and it yearned for change and for adventure from what lay beyond the circling hills in the broad, untroubled valley that spread its level fields below the castle on the hill. The girls are dressing for a swim, said the older man, after a moment of silence, aren't you boys going in the girls included his wife and mrs. Evans as well as grace for the colonel insisted that youth was purely a physical and mental attribute independent of time if one could feel and act in accord with the spirit of youth

Starting point is 00:25:56 one could not be old are you going in asked the son yes I was waiting for you too I think I'll be excused sir said guy the water is too cold yet I tried it yesterday nearly froze to death I'll come and watch the two penitents moved off toward the house to get into swimming things while young Evans wandered down the water gardens. As he stood there, ardently content in the quiet beauty of the spot, Alan came down the steps, his check in his hand. At sight of the boy, he halted behind him, an unpleasant expression upon his face. Evans, suddenly whether he was not alone, turned and recognized a man. Oh, hello, Alan, he said. Young Pendenton just canned me, said Alan, with no other return of Evans' greeting.

Starting point is 00:26:40 I'm sorry, said Evans. You may be so. Gawyer, growled Alan, continuing on his way toward the cabin to get his blankets and clothes. For a moment, Guy stared after the man, a puzzled expression knitting his brows. Then he slowly flushed, glanced quickly about to see if anyone had overheard the brief conversation between Slick Allen and himself. A few minutes later, he entered the enclosure west of the house, where the swimming pool lay. Mrs. Pennington and her guests were already in the pool, swimming vigorously to keep warm, and a moment later, the colonel and Custer ran from the house and dived in simultaneously. Though there was 26 years difference in their ages, he was not evidenced by any lesser vitality

Starting point is 00:27:16 or agility on the part of the older man. Colonel Custer Pennington had been born in Virginia 50 years before. Graduated from the Virginia Military Institute at West Point, he had taken a commission in the cavalry branch of the service. Campaaining in Cuba, he had been shot through one lung, and shortly after the close of the war, and was retired for disability with a rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1900, he had come to California on the advice of his physician in the forebornment. hope that he might prolong his sufferings a few years more.

Starting point is 00:27:45 For 200 years, the Pennington's had bred fine men, women, and horses upon the same soil in the state, whose very existence was inextricably interwoven with their own. But Pennington leave Virginia? Horrors! Perish the thought! But Colonel Custer Pennington had to leave it or die. With a young wife and two-year-old boy, he couldn't afford to die. Deep in his heart, he meant to recover his health in distant California, and then returned to the land of his love. but his physician had told a mutual friend, who was also Pennington's attorney, that poor old cuss would almost undoubtedly be dead inside of a year.

Starting point is 00:28:17 And so Pennington had come west with Mrs. Pennington and Little Custer Jr. and have found the Ranch of Doganada run down, untenanted, and for sale. A month of loafing had left him almost ready to die of stagnation without any assistance from his poor lungs, and when in the course of a drive to another ranch he had happened to see the place and had learned that it was for sale, the germ had been sown. He judged from the soil and the water that Ganado was not well suited to raise the type of horse that he knew best, and that he and his father and his grandfather's before them had bred in Virginia, but he saw other possibilities. Moreover, he loved the hills and the canyons from the first, and so he had purchased a ranch, more to have something that would temporarily occupy his mine until his period of exile was ended by a return to his native state,

Starting point is 00:29:00 or by death than with any idea that it would prove a permanent home. The old Spanish-American house had been remodeled and rebuilt, In four years he found the Hereford's, Berkshires, and Percherons might win a place in a man's heart almost equal to that which a thoroughbred occupies. Then a little daughter had come, and the final seal that stamps a man's house as his home was placed upon the castle on the hill. His lung head healed. He could not tell by any sign he gave that it was not as good as ever, and still he stayed on

Starting point is 00:29:29 in the land of sunshine, which he had grown to love without realizing its hold upon him. Gradually he had forgotten to say, when we go back home, and when we were to be able to When at last letter came from a younger brother, saying that he wished to buy the old place in Virginia if the Custer Pennington's did not expect to return to it, the colonel was compelled to face the issue squarely. They had held a little family council, the colonel and Julia, his wife, with seven-year-old Custer and little one-year-old Eva. Eva, sitting in her mother's lap, agreed with everyone. Custer Jr. burst into tears at the very suggestion of leaving dear old Granado. Now what do you think about it, Julia? asked the colonel. I love Virginia, dear, she had replied, but I think I love California even.

Starting point is 00:30:07 more, and I say it without this loyalty to my own state. It's a different kind of love. I know what you mean, said her husband. Virginia is a mother to us. California, a sweetheart. And so, they stayed upon the Rancho del Ganado. End of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Starting point is 00:30:31 This liberal-vox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. Work and play were inextricably entangled upon Ganato, the play being of a nature that fitted them better for their work. While the work, always in the open and usually from the saddle, they enjoyed fully as much as the play. While the tired businessman of the city was expending a day's vitality and nervous energy in an effort to escape from the turmoil of the mad rush hour and find a strap from which it'd angle homeward amid the toxic effluvia of the melting pot, Colonel Pennington plunged and

Starting point is 00:31:02 swam in the cold, invigoring waters of his pool, after a day of labor, fully as constructive and profitable as theirs. One more dive, he called, balancing upon the end of the springboard, and then I'm going out. Eva ought to be here by the time we're dressed, hadn't she? I'm almost famished. I hadn't heard the train whistle yet, though it must be due, replied Mrs. Pennington. You and boy make so much noise swimming

Starting point is 00:31:25 that we'll miss Gabriel's trump if we happen to be in the pool at the time. The colonel, Custer, and Grace Evans dives dived simultaneously, and coming up together, raced for the shallow end where Mrs. Evans and her hostess were preparing to leave the pool. The girl, reaching the handrail first,

Starting point is 00:31:41 arose laughing and triumphant. My foot slipped as I dived, cried the younger Pangenton, wiping the water from his eyes, or I'd have caught you. No alibis, boy, laughed the colonel. Grace beat you fair and swear. Race you back for a dollar, Grace, challenged the young man. You're on, she cried.

Starting point is 00:31:59 One, two, three, go! They were off. The colonel, who had preceded them leisurely into the deep water, swam close to his son as the ladder was passing, a yard in the lead. simultaneously the young man's progress ceased. With a commensual like yell, he turned upon his father, and the two men grappled and went down.

Starting point is 00:32:17 When they came up, spluttering and laughing, the girl was climbing out of the pool. You win, Grace, shouted the colonel. It's a frame-up, cried Custer. He'd grab you by the ankle. Well, who had a better right? demanded the girl. He's a referee. He's a fine mess for a referee,

Starting point is 00:32:34 grumbled Custer good-naturedly. Run along, get your dollar, and pay up like a gentleman, admonished the father. what do you get out of it what do you pay him grace they were still bantering as they entered the house and sought their several rooms to dress guy evans strolled from the walled garden of the swimming pool to the open arch that broke the long progola beneath which the driveway ran along the north side of the house here he had an unobstructed view of the broad valley stretching away to the mountains in a distance down the centre of the valley a toy train moved noiselessly as he watched it he saw a puff of white rise from the tiny engine it rose and melted in the evening air before the thin clear sound of the whistle reached his ears the train crawled behind the green of trees disappeared he knew that it had stopped at the station and that a slender girlish figure was alighting with a smile for the porter and a gay word for the conductor who had carried her back and forth for years upon her occasional visit to the city a hundred miles away. Now the chauffeur was taking her bag and carrying it to the roadster

Starting point is 00:33:32 that she would drive home along the wide, straight boulevard that crossed the valley, utterly ruining a number of perfectly good speed laws. Two minutes elapsed, and the train crawled out from behind the trees and continued its way up the valley, a little black caterpillar with spots of yellow twinkling along its sides. As twilight deepened, the lights from ranch houses and villages sprinkled the floor of the valley. Like jewels scattered from a careless hand, they fell singly and in little clusters, and then the stars, serenely superior, came forth to assure the glory of a perfect California night.

Starting point is 00:34:07 The headlights of a motor car turned in at the driveway. Guy went to the east porch and looked in at the living room door, where some of the family had already collected. Eva's coming, he announced. She had been gone since the day before, but she might have been returning from a long trip abroad, if everyone's eagerness to greet her was any criterion. Unlike city dwellers, these people had never learned to conceal the lovelier emotions of their hearts behind a mask of assumed indifference. Perhaps the fact that they were not forever crowded his shoulder to shoulder with strangers permitted them an enjoyable naturalness which the dweller in the wholesome district of humanity can never know.

Starting point is 00:34:40 For what a man may reveal of his heart among his friends, he hides from the unsympathetic eyes by others, though it may be noblest of his possessions. With a rush, the car topped the hill, swung up the driveway, and stopped the corner of the house. The door flew open and then the girl leapt from the driver's seat. Hello, everyone, she cried. Snatching a kiss from her brother as she passed him, she fairly leapt upon her mother, hugging, kissing, laughing, dancing, and talking all at once.

Starting point is 00:35:07 Aspying her father, she relinquished a disheveled and laughing mother and dived for him. Most adorable pops, she cried as he caught her in his arms. Are you glad to have your little nuisance back? I'll bet you're not. Do you love me? You won't when you know how much I've spent. But, oh, Popsie, I had such a good time. That's all there was to it.

Starting point is 00:35:27 And, oh, Momsie, who, who, who do you suppose I met? Oh, you'll never guess. Never, never. Home did you meet? asked our mother. Yes, little one, home did you meet? inquired her brother. And he's perfectly gorgeous, continued the girl, as if there was no interruption. And I danced with him.

Starting point is 00:35:45 Oh, such divine dancing. Oh, Guy Evans. Why, how do you do? I never saw you. The young man nodded gloomily. How are you, Eva, he said. Mrs. Evans is here too, dear, her mother reminded her. The girl curtsied before her mother's guest, and then threw her arms about the older woman's neck.

Starting point is 00:36:04 Oh, Aunt May, she cried. I am so excited, but you should have seen him. And, Momsie, I got the cutest riding hat. They were moving toward the living room door, which Guy was holding open. Guy, I got you the splendidiferous Christmas present. Help, cried a brother, collapsing to a porch chair. don't you know that i have a weak heart do your christmas shopping early do it in april oh lord can you beat it he demanded to the others can you beat it i think it was mighty nice of eva to remember me at all said guy thawing perceptibly what is it asked custer i bet you got him a pipe "'How ever in the world did you guess?' demanded Eva.

Starting point is 00:36:41 Custer rocked from side to side in his chair, laughing. "'What are you laughing at?' "'Idiot,' cried the girl. "'How did you guess I got him a pipe?' "'Because he never smokes anything but cigarettes.' "'You're horrid!' He pulled her down to his lap and kissed her. "'Dear little one,' he cried, taking her head between his hands, he shook it.

Starting point is 00:37:00 "'He hear him rattle.' "'But I love a pipe,' stated Guy emphatically. "'The trouble is, I never really had a nice one before.' there exclaimed the girl triumphantly and you know sherlock holmes always smoked a pipe her brother knitted his brows i don't quite connect he announced well if you need a diagram isn't guy an author she demanded not so that anyone would notice it yet demurred evans well you're going to be said the girl proudly the light is commencing to dawn announced her brother sherlock holmes the famous author who wrote conan doyle a black expression overspread the girl's face to be presently expunged by a slow smile You are perfectly horrid, she cried. I'm going in to dab her up a bit for dinner. Don't wait.

Starting point is 00:37:43 She danced through the living room and out into the patio toward her own rooms. Rattle, rattle, little brain, rattle, rattle, rattle around again, her brother called after her. Can you beat her? he added to the others. She can't even be approximated, laughed the colonel. In all the world, there's only one of her. And she's ours, bless her, said the brother. The colonel is glancing over the headlines of an afternoon paper that Eva had brought from the city. What's new? asked Custer.

Starting point is 00:38:09 Same old rot replied to his father. Murders, divorces, kidnappers, bootleggers, and they haven't even the originality to make them interesting by evolving new methods. Oh, hold on. This isn't so bad. $200,000 worth of stolen whiskey landed on coast, he read. Prohibition enforcement agents,

Starting point is 00:38:27 together with special agents from the Treasury Department, are working on a unique theory that may reveal the whereabouts of the fortune and bonded whiskey stolen from the government warehouse in New York a year ago. All that was known until recently was that the whiskey was removed from the warehouse in trucks in broad daylight, encompassing one of the boldest robberies ever committed in New York. Now, from a source which they refused to divulge,

Starting point is 00:38:48 the government slews have received information, which leads them to believe that the liquid loot was loaded aboard a sailing vessel, and after a long trip around the horn, is lying somewhere off the coast of Southern California. That it is being lighter to shore in launches and transports to some hiding place in the mountains is one theory upon which the government is working. The whiskey is 11 years old, was bottled in bond three years ago, just before the 18th Amendment

Starting point is 00:39:11 became a harrowing reality. It will go hard with the traffickers in this particular parcel of what goods that they are apprehended. Since the theft was directly from a government-bonded warehouse and all the government officials concerned in the search are anxious to make an example of the guilty parties.

Starting point is 00:39:25 Eleven years old, sighed the colonel, it makes my mouth water. I've been subsisting on homemade grape wine for over a year. Think of it. A Pennington. Why, my ancestors must be writhing in their Virginia graves. On the contrary, they're probably laughing in their sleeves. They died before January 1st, 1919, interposed custer.

Starting point is 00:39:45 Eleven years old, eight years in the wood. He mused aloud, shooting a quick glance in the direction of Guy Evans, who suddenly became deeply interested in the novel lying on a table beside his chair, notwithstanding the fact that he had read it six months before and hadn't liked it. And it would go hard with the traffickers, too, continued young Pennington. well i should hope it would they'll probably hang him the vile miscreants guy had risen and walked to the doorway opening upon the patio i wonder what is keeping eva he remarked getting hungry asked mrs pennington well i guess we all are suppose we don't wait any longer eva won't mind if i wait much longer observed the colonel someone will have to carry me into the dining-room as they crossed the library toward the dining-room the two young men walked behind their elders is your appetite still good inquired custer Shut up, retorted Evans, you give me a pain.

Starting point is 00:40:37 They finished their suit before Eva joined them, and after the men were receded, they took up the conversation where it had been interrupted. As usual, if not always brilliant, it was at least diversified, for it included many subjects from grand opera to the budding of English walnuts on the native wild stock, and from the latest novel to the most practical method of earmarking pigs.

Starting point is 00:40:56 Paintings, poems, plays, pictures, people, horses, and homebrew. Each came in for a share of the discussion, argument and raillery that ran around the table. During a brief moment when she was not engaged in conversation, Guy sees the opportunity to whisper to Eva, who sat next to him. Who was that bird you met in L.A., he asked. Which one? Which one?

Starting point is 00:41:18 How many did you meet? Oodles of them. I mean the one you were ranting about. Which one was that ranting about? I don't remember. You're enough to draft anybody to drink, Eva Pennington, cried the young man, disgustedly. Radiant man, she cooed. What's the dapper-lible idea in that talented brain?

Starting point is 00:41:35 Jealous? I want to know who he is, demanded guy. Who, who is? You know perfectly well, home, I mean. The poor fish you were raving about before dinner. You said you danced with him. Who is he? That's what I want to know.

Starting point is 00:41:49 I don't like the way you talk to me, but if you must know, he was the most dazzling thing you ever saw. He, I never saw him, and I don't want to. I don't care how dazzling he is. I only want to know his name. Well, why didn't you say so in the same? first place. His name's Wilson Crum. Her tone was as of one who says, Behold, Alexander the Great.

Starting point is 00:42:09 Wilson Crum? Who's he? Do you mean to sit here and tell me that you don't know who Wilson Crum is, Guy Evans? She demanded. Never heard of him, he insisted. Never heard of Wilson Crum, the famous actor-director? Such ignorance. Did you ever hear of him before this trip to L.A.? inquired her brother from across the table? I never heard you mention him before. Well, maybe I didn't admit to the girl. but his most dazzling dancer you ever saw, and such eyes. Maybe he'll come out to the ranch and bring his company.

Starting point is 00:42:38 He said they were often looking for just such locations. And I suppose you invited him, demanded Custer accusingly. And why not? I had to be polite, didn't I? You know perfectly well that Father has never permitted such a thing, insisted her brother, looking toward the Colonel for support. He didn't ask Father. He asked me, returned the girl.

Starting point is 00:42:57 You see, said the Colonel, how simply Ava solves every little problem? But you know, Popsie, how perfectly. he's superb it would be to have them make some picture right here on our very own ranch, where we can watch them all day long. Yes, growled Custer, watch them wrecked the furniture and demolish the lawns. Why, one bird of a director ran a troop of cavalry over one of the finest lawns in Hollywood. Then they'll go up in the hills and chase the cattle over the top into the ocean. I've heard all about them.

Starting point is 00:43:24 I'd never allow one of them out of place. Maybe they're not all inconsiderate and careless, suggested Mrs. Pennington. You remember there was a company took a few seasons. scenes at my place a year or so ago, and objected Mrs. Evans. They were very nice indeed. They were very wonderful, said Grace Evans. I hope the Colonel lets them come. It will be piles of fun. You can't tell anything about them, volunteered Guy. I understand they pick up all sorts of riffraff for extra people. I, W-Ws, and all sorts of people like that. I'd be afraid. He shook his head dubiously. The trouble with you two is, asserted Ava, that you're afraid

Starting point is 00:43:59 to let us girls see any nice-looking actors from the city. That's what's the matter, with you yes they're jealous agreed mrs pennington laughing well said custer if they're all leading men they're leading ladies and for what i've seen of them the leading ladies are better-looking than the leading men by all means now that i consider the matter let them come invite them at once for a month wire them silly cried his sister he may not come here at all he just mentioned it casually and all this tempest in the teapot for nothing said the colonel wilson crumb was forthwith drop from the conversation and forgotten by all, even by impressionable little Ava. As the young people gathered around Mrs. Pennington at the piano in the living room, Mrs. Evans and Colonel Pennington sat apart, carrying on a desultory conversation while they listened to the scene. We have a new neighbor remarked Mrs. Evans on the ten-acre orchard adjoining us to the west. Yes, Mrs. Burke. She has moved in, hasn't she? inquired the colonel.

Starting point is 00:44:56 Yesterday. She is a widow from the east, has a daughter in Los Angeles, I believe. She came to see me about a month ago, said the colonel, to ask my advice about the purchase of the property. She seemed rather refined, quiet little body. I must tell Julia, she will want to call on her. I insisted on her taking dinner with us last night, said Mrs. Evans. She seemed very frail and was all worn out. Unpacking and settling is trying enough for a robust person, and she seemed so delicate that I really don't see how she stood at all. Then the conversation drifted to other topics, until the party at the piano broke up, and Ava came dancing over to her father.

Starting point is 00:45:30 gorgeous popsy she cried seizing him by an arm just one dance before bedtime if you love me just one colonel pennington rose from his chair laughing i know you're one dancey little fraud five fox trots three one steps and a waltz with his arms about each other they started for the ballroom really a big playroom which had joined the garage behind them laughing and talking came to two older women the two sons and grace evans they would dance for an hour and then go to bed, for they rose early and were in the saddle before sunrise, living their happy, carefree life far from the strife and squalor of the big cities, and yet with more of the comforts and luxuries than most city dwellers ever achieve. End of Chapter 4. Chapter 5 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Lepervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 00:46:27 According by Joe Donolia, Somerset, New Jersey. The bungalow at 1421 Vista del Pazzo was of the new school of Hollywood architecture, which appears to be a hysterical effort to combine Queen Anne, Italian, Swiss chalet, Moorish, Mission, and Martian. Its plaster walls were over yellowish rose, the outside woodwork being done in light blue, while the windows were shaded with striped awnings of olive and pink. On one side of the entrance rose a green pergola, the ambitious atrocity that marks the meeting place of landscape gardening and architecture, and that outrages them both. Culture has found a virus for the cast iron dog, deer, and rabbits that ramped in immobility upon a lawns of yesterday year, but the green pergola is an incurable disease.

Starting point is 00:47:13 Connecting with the front of the house, a plaster wall continued across the narrow lot to the property line at one side and from there back to the alley, partially enclosing a patio, which is Hollywood for backyard. An arched gateway opened into the patio from the front. The gate was over rough redwood boards, and near the top there were three auger holes. arranged in the form of a triangle. This was art. Upon the yellow rose plaster above the arch, a design of three monkeys was stenciled in purple. This also was art. As you wait in a three-foot-square vestibule,

Starting point is 00:47:46 you notice that the floor is paved with red brick set in black mortar, and that the Oregon pine door, with its mahogany stain, would have been beautiful in its severe simplicity, but for the little square of plate glass set in the upper right-hand corner, demonstrating conclusively the daring originality

Starting point is 00:48:00 of the artist architect. Presently, your ring is answered, and the door is opened by a Japanese schoolboy of 35 in a white coat. You are ushered directly into a living room, whereupon you forget all about architects and art, for the room is really beautiful, even though a trifle heavy on an oriental way, with its Chinese rugs, dark hangings, and ponderous overstuffed furniture. The Japanese schoolboy, who knows you, closes the door behind you and then tiptoes silently from the room. Across from you, on a divan, a woman is lying, her face. face buried among pillows.

Starting point is 00:48:33 When you cough, she raises her face towards you, and you see that it is very beautiful, even though the eyes are a bit wide and staring, and the expression somewhat haggard. You see a mass of black hair surrounding a face of perfect contour. Even the plucked-in pencil brows, the rough cheeks, the carmine lips cannot hide a certain dignity and sweetness. At sight of you, she rises, a bit unsteadily, and smiling with her lips, extends a slender hand in greeting. The fingers of the hand tremble and are stained with nicotine.

Starting point is 00:49:02 Her eyes do not smile. Ever. The same as usual, she asks in a weary voice. Your throat is very dry. You swallow before you assure her eagerly, almost feverishly, that her surmise is correct. She leaves the room. Probably you have not noticed that she is wild-eyed and haggard, or that her fingers are stained and trembling, for you too are wild-eyed and haggard, and you are trembling worse than she.

Starting point is 00:49:28 Presently she returns, and her left hand is a small glass file containing many little tablets. As she crosses to you, she extends her right hand with the palm up. It is a slender, delicate hand, yet there is a look of strength to it, for all its whiteness. You lay a bill in it and she hands you the file. That is all. You leave and she closes the Orgon Pine door quietly behind you. As she turns about toward the Devon again, she hesitates. Her eyes wander to a closed door at one side of the room.

Starting point is 00:49:58 She takes a half step towards it and then draws back, her shoulders against the door. Her fingers are clenched tightly, the nails sinking into the soft flesh of her palms, but still her eyes are upon the closed door. They are staring and wild like those of a beast at bay. She is trembling from head to foot. For a minute she stands there, fighting her grim battle, alone and without help. Then, as with the last mighty effort, she drags her eyes from the closed door and glances towards the on. With unsteady step, she returns to it and throws herself down among the pillows.

Starting point is 00:50:30 Her shoulders move to dry sobs. She clutches the pillows frantically in her strong fingers. She rolls from side to side, as people do who are suffering physical torture. But at last, she relaxes and lies quiet. A clock ticks monotonously from the mantle. Its sound fills the whole room, growing with fiendish intensity to a horrid din that pounds upon taunt, raw nerves. She covers her ears with her palms to shut it down, but it bores incessantly through. She clutches her thick hair with both hands. Her fingers are entangled in it.

Starting point is 00:51:03 For a long minute she lies thus, prone, and then her slippered feet commenced to fly up and down and she kicks her toes in rapid succession into the unresisting Devon. Suddenly she leaps for her feet and rushes towards the mantle. Damn you! she screams and ceasing the clock, dashes into pieces upon a tiled hearth. Then her eyes, leap to the closed door, and now, without any hesitation, almost defiantly, she crosses the room, opens the door, and disappears within the bathroom beyond. Five minutes later, the door opens again, and the woman comes back into the living room.

Starting point is 00:51:37 She is humming a gay little tune. Stopping at a table, she takes a cigarette from a curved wooden box and lights it, then crosses to the baby grand piano in one corner, and commences to play. Her voice, rich and melodious, rises in a sweet old solace. of love and youth and happiness. Something has mended her shattered nerves. Upon the hearth lies the shattered clock. It can never be mended.

Starting point is 00:52:01 If you should return now and look at her, you would see that she's even more beautiful than you had at first suspected. She's put her hair in order once more and has arranged her dress. You see now that her figure is as perfect as her face, and when she crossed to the piano, you cannot but note the easy grace of her carriage.

Starting point is 00:52:18 Her name, her professional name, is Gaza del Lour. you may have seen her in small parts on the screen and may have wondered why someone did not star her of recent months you have seen her less and less often and you have been sorry for you had learned to admire the sweetness and purity that were reflected in her every expression and mannerism you liked her too because she was as beautiful as she was good for you knew that she was good just by looking at her in the pictures but above all you liked her for her acting for it was unusually natural and unaffected and something told you that here was a born actress who would some day be famous Two years ago she came to Hollywood from a little town in the Middle West, that is, two years before you looked in upon her at the bungalow of the Vista Del Paza. She was fired by high purpose then. Her child's heart, burning with lofty ambition, had set its desire upon a noble goal.

Starting point is 00:53:09 The broken bodies of a thousand other children dotted the road to the same goal, but she did not see them, or seeing, did not understand. Stronger, perhaps, than her desire for fame was an unselfish ambition that centered upon the mother whom she had left behind. To that mother, the girl's success would mean greater comfort and happiness that she had known since the worthless husband had deserted her shortly after the baby came. The baby was now known as Gaza Delors. There had been usual rounds of the studios, the usual disappointments, followed by more or less

Starting point is 00:53:41 regular work as an extra girl. During this period she had learned many things, of some of which she had never thought as having any possible bearing upon her chances for success. For example, a director had asked her to go with him to Vernon one evening for dinner and dancing, and she had refused for several reasons. One being her certainty that her mother would disapprove, and another fact that the director was a married man. The following day the girl who had accompanied him was cast for a part which had been

Starting point is 00:54:08 promised to Gaza, and for which Gaza was peculiarly suited. As she was leaving the lot that day, greatly disappointed, the assistant director had stopped her. Too bad, kid, he said, I'm mighty sorry, for I always always was leaving the lot that day, greatly disappointed, the assistant director had stopped her. kid, he said, I'm mighty sorry, for I always like you. If I can ever help you, I sure will. The kindly words brought the tears to her eyes. Here, at least, was one good man, but he was not much in a position to help her. You're very kind, she said, but I'm afraid there's nothing you can do. Don't be too sure of that, he answered. I've got enough in that big stiff so he's got to do about as I say. The trouble with you is you ain't enough of a good fellow. You got to be a good

Starting point is 00:54:44 fellow to get in on the pictures. Just step out with me some night, and I'll promise you, you'll get a job. The suddenly widening cherished eyes meant nothing to the shallow mind of the cowl little shrimp, whose brain pan would doubtless have burst under the pressure of a single noble thought. As she turned quickly and walked away, he laughed aloud. She had not gone back to that studio. In the months that followed she had had many similar experiences, until she had become hardened enough to feel the sense of shame and insult less strongly than ever.

Starting point is 00:55:14 first. She could talk back to them now and tell them what she thought of them, but she found that she got fewer and fewer engagements. There was always enough to feed and clothe her, and to pay for a little room she rented. But there seemed to be no future, and that had been all that she cared about. She would not have minded hard work. She had expected that, nor did she fear disappointments in a slow, tedious road. But though she was a young girl, she was not without character, and she had a good head on those trim shoulders of hers. She was unsophisticated, yet mature, too, for her years, for she had always helped her mother to plan the conservation of their meager resources.

Starting point is 00:55:52 Many times she had wanted to go back to her mother, but she had stayed on because she still had hopes and because she shrank from the fact of defeat, admitted. How often she cried herself to sleep in those lonely nights, after days of bitter disillusionment. The great ambition that had been her joy was now her sorrow. The vain little conceit that she had woven about to screen name was but a pathetic memory. She had never told her mother that she had taken the name of Gaza DeLure, for she had dreamed of the time when it would leap into national prominence overnight in some wonderful picture, and her mother, unknowing, would see the film and recognize her.

Starting point is 00:56:27 How often she had pictured the scene in her little theatre at home, her sudden recognition by her mother and their friends, the surprise, the incredulity, and then the pride and happiness in her mother's face. How they would whisper! And after the show they would gather round her mother, all excitedly talking at the same time. And then she had met Wilson Crumb. She had had a small part in a picture in which he played lead, and which he also directed.

Starting point is 00:56:51 He had been very kind to her, very courteous. She had thought him handsome, notwithstanding a certain weakness in his face. But what it attracted to her most was the uniform courtesy of his attitude toward all the women of the company. Here at last, she thought, she had found a real gentleman

Starting point is 00:57:06 whom she could trust implicitly, and once again her ambition lifted its drooping head. She thought of what another girl had once told her, an older girl, who had been in pictures for several years. They're not all bad, dear, her friend had said. They are good and bad in the picture game, just as there are in any sort of business. It's been your rotten luck to run up against a lot of the bad ones. The first picture finished.

Starting point is 00:57:32 Crum had cast her for a more important part in another, and she had made good in both. Before the second picture was completed, the company that employed Crum offered her a five-year contract. It was only for $50 a week, but it included. included the clause which automatically increased the salary to 100-week, $250, and then $500 in the event that they started her. She knew that it was to Crumb that she owed the contract. Crum had seemed to that. Very gradually then, so gradually and insidiously that the girl could never recall just

Starting point is 00:58:01 when it had started, Crum commenced to make love to her. At first it took only the form of minor attentions, little courtesies and thoughtful acts, but after a while he spoke of love. gentle and very tenderly as any man might have done. She had never thought of loving him or any other man, so she was puzzled at first, but she was not offended. He had given her no cause for offense. When he had first broached the subject, she had asked him not to speak of it,

Starting point is 00:58:28 and she did not think that she loved him, and he had said that he would wait. But the seed was planted in her mind, and it came to occupy much of her thoughts. She realized that she owed to him what little success that she had achieved. She had an assured income that was sufficient for her simple wants, while permitting her to send something home to her mother every week, and it was all due to the kindness of Wilson Crum. He was a successful director. He was more than a fair actor.

Starting point is 00:58:54 He was good-looking. He was kind. He was a gentleman. And he loved her. What more could any girl ask? She thought to matter out very carefully, finally deciding that though she did not exactly love Wilson Crum, she probably would learn to love him,

Starting point is 00:59:08 and that if he loved her, It was in a way her duty to make him happy, when he had done so much for her happiness. She made up her mind, therefore, to marry him whenever he asked her. But Crum did not ask her to marry him. He continued to make love to her, but the matter of marriage never seemed to enter the conversation. Once, when they were on location, she had had a hard day, ending by getting thoroughly soaked into sudden rain. He had followed her to a room, the little mountain inn, where they were stopping. You're cold and wet and tired, he said.

Starting point is 00:59:39 I want to give you something that will brace you up. He entered the room and closed the door behind him. Then he took out from his pocket a small piece of paper folded into a package, about an inch and three-quarters long, by half an inch wide, with one end tucked ingeniously inside the fold to form a fastening. Opening it, he revealed a white powder, the minute crystals of which glistened beneath the light from the electric bulbs. It looks just like snow, she said.

Starting point is 01:00:04 Sure, he replied with a faint smile. It is snow. look I'll show you how to take it he divided the powder into halves took one in the palm of his hand and stuffed it into his nostrils there he exclaimed that's the way it will make you feel like a new woman but what is it she asked

Starting point is 01:00:22 wouldn't it hurt me it'll make you feel bully try it so she tried it and it made her feel bully she was no longer tired but deliciously exhilarated whenever you want any let me know he said as he was leaving the room I usually have some handy. But I'd like to know what it is, she insisted. Aspirin, he replied.

Starting point is 01:00:43 It makes you feel that way when you stuff it up your nose. After he left, she recovered a little piece of paper from the wastebasket where he had thrown it. Her curiosity aroused. She found it a rather soiled bit of writing paper with a C written lead pencil upon it. C, she mused. Why aspirin with a C? She thought she would question Wilson about it.

Starting point is 01:01:04 The next day she felt out of sorts and tired, and at noon she asked him for if he had any aspirin with him. He had, and again she felt fine and full of life. That evening she wanted some more, and Crum gave it to her. The next day she wanted it off in her, and by the time they returned to Hollywood from location, she was taking it five or six times a day. It was then that Crum asked her to come live with him

Starting point is 01:01:24 at his Vista del Pazzo bungalow, but he did not mention marriage. He was standing with a little paper over his white powder in his hand, separating half of it for her, and she was waiting impatiently for it. Well, he asked Well what? Are you coming over to live with me? he demanded.

Starting point is 01:01:42 Without being married, she asked. She was surprised that the idea no longer seemed horrible. Her eyes and her mind were on the little white powder that the man held in his hand. Crum laughed. Quit your kidding, he said. You know perfectly well I can't marry you yet. I have a wife in San Francisco. She did not know it perfectly well.

Starting point is 01:02:00 She did not know it at all. Yet it did not seem to matter so very much. A month ago she would have caressed a rattle as willingly as she would have permitted a married man to make love to her. But now she could listen to a plea from one who wished her to come and live with him without experiencing any numbing sense of outraged decency. Of course, she had no intention of doing what he asked, but really the matter was of negligible import. The thing in which she was most concerned was the little white powder.

Starting point is 01:02:27 She held out her hand for it, but he drew it away. Answer me first, he said, are you to be sensible or not? You mean that you won't give it to me if I won't come? She asked. That's precisely what I mean, he replied. What do you think I am anyway? Do you know what this little bundle of C stands me? Two-fifty, and you've been snuffing about three of them a day.

Starting point is 01:02:47 What kind of sucker do you think I am? Her eyes, still upon the white powder, narrowed. I'll come, she whispered. Give it to me. She went to the bungalow with him that day, and she learned where he kept the little white powders hidden in the bathroom. After dinner she put on her hat and her fur and took up her vanity case while Crum was busy in another room. Then opening the front door, she called.

Starting point is 01:03:11 Goodbye. Crum rushed into the living room. Where are you going, he demanded. Home, she replied. No, you're not, he cried. You promised to stay here. I promised to come, she corrected him. I never promised to stay, and I never shall until you are divorced and we are married.

Starting point is 01:03:28 You'll come back, he sneered, when you want another shot of snow. Oh, I don't know, she replied. I guess I can buy aspirin at any drugstore as well as you. Crum laughed aloud. You little fool, you, he cried derisively. Aspirin? Why, it's cocaine you're snuffing, and you're snuffing about three grains of it a day. For an instant, a look of horror filled her widening eyes.

Starting point is 01:03:53 You beast, she cried. You unspeakable beast! Slam in the door behind her, she almost ran down the narrow walk and disappeared in the shadows of the palm trees. that bordered the ill-lighted street. The man did not follow her. He only stood there laughing, for he knew that she would come back. Craftily, he had emmashed her, and had taken months and never had quarry been more wary or difficult to trap.

Starting point is 01:04:15 A single false step earlier in the game would have frightened her away forever, but he had made no false step. He was very proud of himself, was Wilson Crumb, for he was convinced that he had done a very clever bit of work. Rubbing his hands together, he walked toward the bathroom. He would take a shot of snow, but when he opened the receptacle he found empty. The little devil he ejaculated. Practically, he rummaged through the medicine cabinet, but in vain.

Starting point is 01:04:40 Then he hastened into the living room, seized his hat, and bolted for the street. Almost immediately he realized a futility of search. He did not know where the girl lived. She had never told him. He did not know it, but she had never told anyone. The studio had a post office box number to which she could address communications to Gaza Delors. The mother addressed the girl by her own name at the house, where she had room since coming to Hollywood. The woman who rented her the room did not know her screen name.

Starting point is 01:05:07 All she knew about her was that she seemed a quiet, refined girl who paid her room rent promptly in advance every week, and was always home at night, except when on location. Chrome returned to the bungalow, searched the bathroom twice more, and went to bed. For hours he lay awake, tossing restlessly. The little devil he muttered over and over, fifty dollars with a cocaine. The little devil. The next day, Gaza was at the studio, ready for work, when Crum put in his belated appearance.

Starting point is 01:05:37 He was nervous and irritable, almost immediately he called her aside to demand it in the counting. But when they were face to face, and she told him that she was through with him, he realized that her hold upon him was stronger than he had supposed. He could not give her up. He was ready to promise anything, and he would demand nothing in return,

Starting point is 01:05:54 only that she would be with him as much as possible. Her nights should be her own. She can go home then. And so the arrangement was coming. consummated, and Gaza Delors spent the days which she was not working at the bungalow of the Vista de Paso. Crum saw that she was cast for small parts that required but little of her time at the studio, yet raised no question at the office as to her salary of $50 a week. Twice the girl asked why he did not star her, and both times she told her that he would, for a price.

Starting point is 01:06:20 But the price was one that she would not pay. After a time, the drugs which she now used habitually deadened her ambition, so that she no longer cared. She still managed to send a little money home, but not so much as formerly. As the months passed, Crum's relations with the source of the supply of their narcotic became so familiar that he could obtain considerable quantities at a reduced rate, and the plan of peddling the drug occurred to him. Gaga was induced to do her share, and so it came about that the better-class hypes of Hollywood found it both safe and easy to obtain their supplies from the bungalow of the Vista del Pazzo. Cocaine, heroin, and morphine passed continually through the girl's hands, and she came to know many of the addicts, though she seldom had further intercourse with them that was necessary to the transaction of the business that brought them to the bungalow.

Starting point is 01:07:07 For one, a woman, she learned how to use morphine, dissolving the white powder in the bowl of a spoon by passing a lighted match beneath it, and then drawing the liquid through a tiny piece of cotton into a hypodermic syringe and injected it beneath the skin. Once she had experienced the sensation of well-being and induced, she fell an easy victim to this more potent drug. One evening, Crum brought home with him a stranger whom he had known in San Francisco, a man who he introduced as Alan. From that evening, the fortunes of Gaza del Laura improved.

Starting point is 01:07:38 Alan had just returned from the Orient as a member of the crew of a freighter, and he had succeeded in smuggling in a considerable quantity of opium. In his efforts to dispose of it, he had made the acquaintance of others in the same line of business and had joined forces with them. His partners could command a more or less steady supply of morphine and cocaine from Mexico, while Alan undertook to keep up their stock of opium and to arrange a market for their drugs in Los Angeles. If Crumb could handle it all, Alan agreed to furnish morphine at $50 an ounce,

Starting point is 01:08:07 Gaza to do the actual pedaling. The girl agreed on one condition that half the profits should be hers. After that, she'd been able to send home more money than ever before, at the same time to have all the morphine she wanted at a low price. She began to put money in the bank, made a first payment on a small orchard about a hundred miles Los Angeles, and sent for her mother. The day before you called on her in the Art Bungalow at 1421 Vista del Pazzo,

Starting point is 01:08:33 she had put her mother on a train bound for her new home, with the promise that the daughter would visit her as soon as we finished the picture. It had required all the girls remaining willpower to hide her shame from those eager mother eyes. But she managed to do it, it had left her almost a wreck by the time the train pulled out of the station. To crumb, she had said nothing about her mother. This was a part of her life that was too sacred to be revealed to the man whom she now loathed, even as she loathed the filthy habit he had tricked her into.

Starting point is 01:09:00 But she could no more give up to one than the other. There had been a time when she had fought against the dominations of these twin curses that had been visited upon her, but that time was over. She knew now that she would never give up morphine, that she could not if she had wanted to, and that she did not want to. The little bindles of cocaine, morphine, and heroin that she wrapped so deftly with those slender fingers and marked C, M, or H, according to their contents, were parts of her life now. The sallow, trembling creatures who came for them, or to whom she sometimes delivered them, and who paid her $2.5. of a bundle were also parts of her life.

Starting point is 01:09:39 Crumb, too, was a part of her life. She hated the bindles. She hated the sallow, trembling people. She hated crumb. but still she clung to them, for how else would she get the drug without which she could not live? End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Libravox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 01:10:06 Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. It was May. The rainy season was definitely over. A few April showers had concluded it. The Ganano Hills showed their most brilliant greens. The March pigs were almost ready to wean. White-faced calves in black colts and gray colts surveyed this beautiful world through soft, dark eyes

Starting point is 01:10:25 and were filled with the joy of living as they ran beside their gentle mothers. A stallion neighed from the stable corral and from the ridge behind Jackknife Canyon, the Emperor of Gannado answered him. A girl and a man sat in a soft grass beneath the shade of a live oak upon the edge of a low bluff in the pasture

Starting point is 01:10:41 where the brood mares grazed with their colts. Their horses were tied to another tree nearby. The girl held a bunch of yellow violets in her hand, and gazed dreamily down the broad canyon toward the valley. The man sat a little behind her and gazed at the girl. For a long time, neither spoke. You cannot be persuaded to give it up, Grace, he asked at last. She shook her head.

Starting point is 01:11:04 I should never be happy until I have tried it, she replied. Of course, he said, I know how you feel about it. I feel the same way. I want to get away, away from the deadly stagnation and the sameness of this life. But I'm going to try to stick it out for my father's sake, and I wish that you love me enough to stick it out for mine. I believe that together we can get enough happiness out of life here to make up for what we are denied of real living, such as only the big city can offer.

Starting point is 01:11:28 Then, when father is gone, we can go and live in the city, in any city that we wanted to live in, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, London, Paris, anywhere. It isn't that I don't love you enough, Custer, said the girl. I love you too much to want you to marry just a little farmer girl. When I come to you, I want you to be proud of me. don't talk about the time when your father will have gone it seems wicked he would not want you to stay if he knew how you felt about it you do not know he replied ever since i was a little boy he was counted on this on my staying on working with him he wants us all to be together always when eva marries he will build her a home on ganado you've already helped with the plan for hours you know it is his dream but you cannot know how much it means to him it would not kill him if his dream was spoiled but it would take so much happiness out of his life that cannot bring myself to do it it is not a matter of money but of sentiment and love if ganado were wiped off the face of the earth to-morrow we would still have all the money we would need but we would never be happy again for his whole life is bound up in the ranch and the dream that he has built around it

Starting point is 01:12:34 it is peculiar too that such a man as he should be so ruled by sentiment you know how practical he is and sometimes hard yet i have seen the tears come to his eyes when he spoke of his love for granado i know she said and they were silent again for a time you're a good son custer she said presently i wouldn't have you any different i am not so good a daughter mother does not want me to go and is going to make her very unhappy and yet i am going the man who loves me does not want me to go it is going to make him very unhappy and yet I am going. It seems very selfish, but oh, Custer, I cannot help but feel that I am right. It seems to admit I have a duty to perform, that this is the only way I can perform it. Perhaps I am not only silly, but sometimes I feel that I am called by a higher power to give myself for a little time to the world, that the world may be happier, and, I hope, a little better. You know, I've always felt that the stage was one of the greatest powers for good in the world,

Starting point is 01:13:32 and I believe that someday the screen will be an even great thing. greater power for good. It is with conviction that I may help toward this end that I am so eager to go. You will be very glad and very happy when I come back, that I did not listen to your arguments. I hope you are right, Grace, Custer Pennington said. On a rustic seat beneath the new leaves of an umbrella tree, a girl and a boy sat beside the upper lily pond

Starting point is 01:13:56 on the south side of the hill just below the ranch. The girl held a spray of Japanese quince blossoms in her hand and gazed dreamily at the water splashing lazily over the rocks and the bond. The boy sat beside her and gazed at the girl. For a long time, neither spoke. Won't you please say yes? Whispered the boy presently. How perfectly terribly silly you are, she replied.

Starting point is 01:14:18 I'm not silly, he said. I am 20, and you are almost 18. It's time we were marrying and settling down. On what, she demanded? Well, we won't need much at first. We can live at home with mother, he explained, until I sell a few stories. How perfectly gorgeuristic, she cried. Don't make fun of me.

Starting point is 01:14:36 You wouldn't if you love me, he pouted. I do love you, silly, but whatever in the world put the dapper little idea into your head that I want to be supported by my mother-in-law. Mother-in-law protested to the boy. You have to be ashamed to speak disrespectfully of my mother. You quaint child, exclaimed the girl, laughing gaily. Just as if I would speak disrespectfully of Aunt May

Starting point is 01:14:56 when I love her so splendidifferously, isn't she going to be my mother-in-law? The boy's gloom vanished magically. There, he cried, we're engaged. You've said it yourself. You've proposed and I accept you. Yes, sure, she's going to be your mother-in-law. Eva flushed. I never said anything of the kind. How perfectly idiotical. But you did say it. You proposed to me. I'm going to announce the engagement. Mrs. May Evans announces the engagement of her son, Guy Thackeray to Miss Ava Pennington.

Starting point is 01:15:26 Funeral notice later snapped the girl, glaring him. Oh, come now. You needn't get mad at me. I was only fooling. But wouldn't it be great, Ev? we could always be together then and i could write and you could could wash dishes she suggested the light died from his eyes and he dropped them sadly to the ground i'm sorry i'm poor he said i didn't think you cared about that though she laid a brown hand gently over his you know i don't care she said i'm a catty old thing i just love it if we had a little place all our very own just a teeny weeny bungalow i'd help you with your work and keep hens and have a little garden with onions and radishes and everything and we wouldn't have to buy anything from the grocery store and a bank account and one sow when we drove into the city people would say there goes guy thackeray evans the famous author but i wonder where his wife got that hat oh ev he cried laughing you never can be serious more than two seconds can you why should i be she inquired and anyway i was it really would be elegantiferous if we had a little place on our own but my husband has got to be able to support me guy he'd lose his self-respect if he didn't and then if he lost his how can i respect him you've got to have respect on both sides or you can't have love and happiness his face grew stern with determination i'll get the money he said but he did not look at her But now that Grace is going away, Mother will be all alone if I leave too.

Starting point is 01:16:51 Couldn't we live with her for a while? Papa and Mama have always said that it was the worst thing a young married couple could do, she replied. We could live near her and see her every day, but I don't think we can all live together. Really, though, do you think Grace is going? It seems just too awful. I'm afraid she is, he replied sadly. Mother has all broken up about it, but she tries not to let Grace know. I can't understand it, said the girl.

Starting point is 01:17:14 It seems to me a selfish thing to do, and yet grace has always been so sweet and generous. No matter how much I want it to go, I don't believe I can bring myself to do it, knowing how terribly it would hurt Papa. Just think, Guy, it is the first break, except for the short time we were away at school, since we have been born. We've all lived here always, it seems, your family and mine, like one big family. But after grace goes, it will be the beginning of the end. It will never be the same again.

Starting point is 01:17:41 There was a note of seriousness and sadness in her voice that sounded not at all. like Eva Pennington. The boy shook his head. It is too bad, he said, but Grace is so sure she is right, so positive that she has a great future before her, that we will all be so proud of her that sometimes I am convinced myself. I hope she is right, said the girl, and then, with a return to her joyous self, I wouldn't be spiffy if she really does become famous? I can see just how puffed up we all shall be when we read the reviews of her pictures. Like this. Miss Grace Evans, the famous star, has quite outdone her past successes in the least. latest picture, in which she is ably supported by such well-known actors such as Thomas Mien,

Starting point is 01:18:19 Wallace Reed, Gloria Swanson, and Mary Pickford. Why slight Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin, suggested guy? The girl rose. Come on, she said. Let's have a look at the pools. It isn't a perfect day unless I've seen fish in every pool. Do you remember how we used to watch and watch and watch for the fish in the lower pools and run as fast as we could to be the first up to the house to tell if we saw them, and how many?

Starting point is 01:18:43 And do you remember the little turtles and how well? wild they got, he put in. Sometimes we wouldn't see them for weeks, and then we get just a glimpse so that we knew that they were still there. Then, after a while, we never saw them again, and how he used to wonder and speculate as what had become of them. And do you remember the big water snake we found in the upper pool, and how Cuss used to lie and wait for him with his little 22? Cuss was always the hunter, how he used to judge after him up and down those steep hills there in the cow pasture, while he hunted ground squirrels, and how mad he'd get if we made any noise. "'Geeze, Ev, those were the good old days.'

Starting point is 01:19:17 "'And how he used to fight. "'What a nuisance, cuss thought me. "'But he always asked me to go along, just the same. "'He's a wonderful brother, guy.' "'He's a wonderful man, Ev,' replied the boy. "'You don't have to know how wonderful he is. "'He's always thinking of someone else. "'Right now I bet he's eating his heart out

Starting point is 01:19:34 "'because Grace is going away, and he can't go, "'just because he's thinking more of someone else's happiness than his own.' "'What do you mean?' she asked. "'He wants to go to the city. He wants to get into some business there, but he won't go, because he knows your father wants him here. Do you really think that? I know it, he said. They walked on in silence along the winding pathways among the flower-bordered pools to stop at last beside the lower one.

Starting point is 01:19:59 This had originally been a shallow, wading pool for the children when they were small, but it was now given over to water hyacinth and brilliant fantails. There, said the girl presently, I have seen fish in each pool. And you can go to bed with the clear conscience tonight, he laughed. To the west of the lower pool there was no trees to obstruct their view of the hills that rolled down from the mountains to form the western wall of the canyon in which the ranch buildings and cultivated fields lay. As the two stood there hand in hand, the boy's eyes wandered lovingly over the soft, undulating lines of these lower hills, with their park-like beauty of a greensward dotted with wild walnut trees. As he looked, he saw, for a brief moment, the figure of a man on horseback passing over the hollow of a saddle before disappearing upon the southern side. Small though the distant figure was, invisible but for a moment, the boy recognized the military

Starting point is 01:20:46 carriage of the rider. He glanced quickly at the girl to note if she had seen, but it was evident she had not. Well, Ev, he said, I guess I'll be toddling. So early, she demanded? You see, I've got to get busy if I'm going to get the price of that teeny-weeney bungalow, he explained. Now that we're engaged, you might kiss me goodbye, eh? We're not engaged, and I'll not kiss you goodbye or good anything else. I don't believe in people kissing until they're married.

Starting point is 01:21:12 Then why are you always reaving about the wonderful kisses Antonio Marino or Milton Sills or some other poor prune gives the heroin at the end of the last reel? he demanded. Oh, that's different, she explained. Anyway, they're just going to get married. When we are just going to get married, I'll let you kiss me. Once a week. Maybe. Thanks, he cried. A moment later, he swung into the saddle, with a wave of his hand, cantered off up the canyon.

Starting point is 01:21:38 Now what? said the girl to herself, is he going up there for her? He can't make any money back there. in the hills. He ought to be heading straight for home and his typewriter. End of Chapter 6. Chapter 7 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Libravox recordings in the public domain. Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. Across the rustic bridge, and once behind the sycamores that lower end of the cow pasture, Guy Evans led his horse out into a rapid gallop. A few minutes later, he overtook a horseman who

Starting point is 01:22:11 was moving at a slow walk further up the canyon. At the sound of the pounding hoofbeats behind him, the latter turned in his saddle, reined about and stopped. The boy rode up, and drew in his blowing mount beside the other. Hello, Alan, he said. The man nodded. What's eaten you, he inquired. I've been thinking over that proposition of yours, explained Evans. Yes?

Starting point is 01:22:33 Yes, I've been thinking maybe I might swing it. But are you sure it's safe? How do I know you won't double-cross me? You don't know, replied the other. All you know is that I've got enough on you to send you to San Quentin. You wouldn't get nothing worse if you handled the rest of it. and you can stand to clean up between 12 and 15,000 bucks on the deal. You needn't worry me about double-crossing you.

Starting point is 01:22:52 What go would I do me? I ain't got nothing against you, kid. If you don't double-cross me, I won't double-cross you. But look out for that cracker-fed dude your sister's going to hitch to. If he ever butts in on this, I'll croak him and send you to San Quentin if I swing for it. Do you get me? Evans nodded. I'll go in on it, he said, because I need the money.

Starting point is 01:23:12 But don't you bother Custer Pennington. Get that straight. I'll go to San Quentin, and I'd swing myself before I'd stand for that. Another thing, and then we'll drop that line of chatter. You couldn't send me to San Quentin or anywhere else. I bought a few bottles hooch from you, and there isn't any judge or jury going to send to San Quentin for that. You don't know what you'd done, said Alan, with a grin.

Starting point is 01:23:32 There's a thousand cases of bonded whiskey hid back there in the hills, and you engineered the whole deal at this end. Maybe you didn't have nothing to do with stealing it from the government-bonded warehouse in New York, but you must have known all about it. and it was you that hired me and the other three to smuggled off the ship and into the hills. Evans was staring at the man and wide-eyed incredulity. How do you get that way? he asked derisively. There's four of us to swear to it, said Alan, and how many you got to swear you didn't do it?

Starting point is 01:24:01 Why, it's a rotten frame-up, exclaimed Evans. Sure, it's a frame-up, agreed Alan, but we won't use it if you behave yourself properly. Evans looked at the man for a long minute, disliking contempt unconcealed upon his face. I guess, he said presently, that I don't need any $12,000 that bad, Alan. We'll call this thing off as far as I'm concerned. I'm through. Right now. Goodbye.

Starting point is 01:24:24 He wheeled his horse to ride away. Hold on there, young feller, said Alan. Not so quick. You might think you're through, but you're not. We need you, and anyway, you know too damn much for your health. You're going through with this. We got some other junk up there that there's more profit in than what there is in booze, and it's easier to handle.

Starting point is 01:24:42 We know where to get rid of it, but the booze. we can't handle as easy as you can. And so, you're going to handle it. Who says I am? I do, return Alan, with an ugly snarl. You'll handle it, or I'll do just what I said I'd do, and I'll do it pronto. How'd you like your mother and that Pennington girl to hear all I'd have to say?

Starting point is 01:25:00 The boy sat with scowling, thoughtful brows for a long minute. From beneath the live oak, on the summit of a low bluff, a man discovered them. He'd been sitting there talking with a girl. Suddenly, he looked up. Why, there's Guy, he said. Who's that with? Why, that's that fella, Alan.

Starting point is 01:25:16 What's he doing up here? He rose to his feet. You stay here a minute, Grace. I'm going down to see what that fellow wants. I can't understand, Guy. He untied the Apache and mounted, while below, just beyond the pasture fence, the boy turned sullenly towards Alan.

Starting point is 01:25:31 I'll go through with you this once, he said. You'll bring it down in burrows that night? The other nodded affirmatively. Where do you want it? he asked. Bring it to the west side of the old hay barn, the one that stands in our west line. When will you come? Today's Tuesday, we'll bring the first lot Friday night about 12 o'clock,

Starting point is 01:25:50 and after that every Friday at the same time. You'd be ready to settle every Friday for what you've sold during the week, Sabby? Yes, replied Evans. That's all then, and he turned the road back toward the Rancho. Alan was continuing on his way toward the hills when his attention was again attracted by the sound of hoofbeats. Looking to his left, he saw a horseman approaching from inside the pasture. He recognized both horse and rider at once,

Starting point is 01:26:13 but kept sullenly on his way. Pennington rose up on the opposite side of the fence along which ran the trail that Alan followed. What are you doing here, Alan? he asked in a not unkindly tone. Mine in my own business, like you better, retorted the ex-stableness. You have no business back here in Ganados had Pennington. You'll have to get off the property. The hell I will exclaimed Alan. At the same time he made a quick movement with his right hand, but Pennington made it quicker.

Starting point is 01:26:39 That kind of stuff don't go here, Alan, said the younger man, covering the other with a 45. Now turn around and get off the place, and don't come on it again. I don't want any trouble with you. Without a word, Alan rained his horse about and rode down the canyon, but there was murder in his heart. Pendleton watched him until he was out of the revolver range, and then turn and rode back to Grace Evans. End of Chapter 7. Chapter 8 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burrows. This is the book of us in the public domain.

Starting point is 01:27:13 Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. Beneath the cool shadows of the north porch, the master of Ganato, booted and spurred, rested after a long ride in the hot sun, sipping a long, cool glass of peach brandy and orange juice, and talking with his wife. A broad barley field lay below them, stretching to the state highway half a mile down the north. The yellowing heads of the grain stood motionless between the blazing sun. Inside the myriad kernels, the milk was changing into dough. It would not be long now, barring fogs, before the gorgeous pageant of prosperity, will be falling in serried columns into the maw of the binder. We're going to have a boldly crop of barley this year, Julia,

Starting point is 01:27:51 remarked the colonel, fishing a small piece of ice from his glass. You know, I'm beginning to believe that this is better than a mint jolip. Heaven's cuspur, whisper it, admonished his wife. Just suppose the shades of some of your ancestors or mine should overhear such sacrilege. The colonel chuckled. Is it old age, or has this sunny lamb made me effeminent, he queried. I'm quite a far cry from the old-fashioned mint jolip to this homemade wine and orange juice. You can't call it brandy.

Starting point is 01:28:17 It hasn't enough of what the boys call a kick to be entitled to that honor. But I'd like it. Yes, sir, that's bully barley. There isn't any better in the foothills. The oats looked good, too, said Mrs. Benghamton. I haven't noticed the slightest sign of rust. That's the result of the boys' trip to Texas last summer, said the colonel proudly. Went down there himself and selected all the seed.

Starting point is 01:28:37 Didn't take anybody's word for it. Genuine Texas rust-proof oats was what he went for, and what he got. I don't know what I'd do without him, Julia. It's wonderful to see one's dream come true. I've been dreaming for years at a time when my boy and I would work together and make Ganano even more wonderful than it ever was before. And now my dream's a reality. It's great, I tell you, it's great.

Starting point is 01:28:58 Is there another glass of this Ganano elixir in that picture, Julia? They were silent then for a few minutes. The colonel, sipping his elixir, and Mrs. Pennington, with her book faced down upon her lap, gazing out across the barley in the broad valley into distant hills, into the future, perhaps, or back into the past. It had been an ideal life that they had led here, a life of love and sunshine and happiness. There had been nothing to vex her soul as she reveled in the delight of her babies, watching them grow into sturdy children, and then develop into clean young manhood and womanhood.

Starting point is 01:29:29 But growing with the passing ears had been the dread of that day when the first break would come, as come she knew it must. She knew the dream that her husband had built, and that with it he had purposely blinded his eyes and dulled his ears to the truth which the mother heart would have been glad to deny, but could not. someday one of the children would go away, then the other. It was only right, and just that it should be so, for as they too had built their own home and their own lives and their little family circle,

Starting point is 01:29:54 so the children must do even as they. It was going to be hard on them both, much harder on the father, because of that dream that had become an obsession. Mrs. Pennington feared that it might break his spirit, for it would leave him nothing to plan for and hope for as he had planned and hoped for this during the 22 years that they had spent upon Ganado.

Starting point is 01:30:11 Now that Grace was going to the city, how can they hope to keep the boy content upon the ranch? She knew he loved the old place, but he was entitled to see the world and to make his own place in it, not merely decide, spilessly, into the niche that another had prepared for him. I am worried about the boy, she said presently. How? In what way, he asked. He'll be very blue and lonely after Grace goes, she said. Don't talk to me about it, cried the Colonel, banging his glass down upon a table and rising to his feet. It makes me mad just to think of it.

Starting point is 01:30:42 I can't understand how Grace can want to leave this beautiful world and live in a damn city. She's crazy. What's her mother thinking about to let her go? You must remember, dear, said his wife soothingly, that everyone is not so much in love with the country as you, and that these young people have their own careers to carve out in the way they think best. It would not be right to try to force them to live the way we like to live.

Starting point is 01:31:04 Damned foolishness, that's what it is, he blustered. An actress? What does she know about acting? she is beautiful cultured and intelligent there's no reason why she should not succeed and make a great name for herself why shouldn't she be ambitious dear we should encourage her now that she is determined to go it would help her for she loves us all she loves you as a daughter might for you have been like a father to her ever since mr evans died oh pshaw julia the colonel exclaimed i love grace you know i do i suppose it's because i love her that i feel so about this maybe i'm jealous of the city to think that it has weaned her away from us but i'm jealous of the city to think that it has weaned her away from us I don't mean all I say sometimes, but really I am broken up to thought of her going. It seems to me that it may just be the beginning of the end for the beautiful life that we have all led here for so many years. Have you ever thought this someday your own children may want to go? she asked.

Starting point is 01:31:54 I won't think about it, he exploded. I hope you won't have to, she said, but it's going to be pretty hard on the boy after Grace goes. Do you think he'll want to go? The colonel asked. His voice sounded suddenly strange and pleading, and there was a suggestion of pain and fear in his eyes that she had never seen there before in all the years that she had known him. Do you think he'll want to go? He repeated in a voice that no longer sounded like his own.

Starting point is 01:32:16 Stranger things have happened, she replied, forcing a smile. Then a young man wanting to go into the world and win his spurs. Let's not talk about it, Julia, the colonel said presently. You are right, but I don't want to think about it. When it comes, it will be time enough to meet it. If my boy wants to go, he shall go. And he shall never know how deeply his father is hurt. There they are now, said Mrs. Benetton.

Starting point is 01:32:38 I hear them in the patio. Children, she called. Here we are on the north porch. They came through the house together, brother and sister, their arms about each other. Cuss says I'm too young to get married, exclaimed the girl. Married, ejaculated the colonel. You and Guy talking of getting married? What are you going to live on, child?

Starting point is 01:32:58 On that hill back there, she jerked her thumb in the direction that was broadly south by west. That will give them two things to live on, suggested the boy, grinning. What do you mean, two things, demanded the girl. The hill and father, her brother replied dougently. She pursued him and he ran behind his mother's chair, but at last she caught him and, seizing his collar, pretended to chastise him until he picked up her bodily from the floor and kissed her. Pity the poor goof she ensnared, pleaded Custer, addressing his parents.

Starting point is 01:33:27 He will have three avenues of escape, being beaten to death, starve to death, or talk to death. Eva clapped a hand over his mouth. Now listen to me, she cried. Guy and I are going to build a teeny-weeney bungalow on that hill, all by ourselves, with a white tile splashboard in the kitchen, and one of those broomcloths that turn into an ironing board, and a very low, overhanging roof, almost flat, and a shower, and a great big living room where we can take the rugs up and dance,

Starting point is 01:33:54 and a spiffy little garden in the backyard, and chickens and Chinese rugs, and he's going to have a study all to himself, where he writes his stories, and, at last, she had to stop and join the laughter. I think you were all mean, she added, You always laugh at me. With you, little jabberer, corrected the Colonel, for you were made to be laughed with and kissed. Then kiss me, she exclaimed, and sprang into his lap at the imminent risk of delusioning them both with elixir.

Starting point is 01:34:19 A risk which the Colonel, through a lone experience of this little daughter of his, was able to minimize by holding the glass at arm's length as she died for him. And when are you going to be married, he asked. Oh, not for ages and ages, she cried. But are you and Guy engaged? Of course not. Then why in the world all this talk about getting married, he inquired. His eyes winkled. Well, can't I talk, she demanded.

Starting point is 01:34:42 Talk. I'll say she can exclaimed her brother. End of Chapter 8. Chapter 9 of the girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This lib of our box recordings in the public domain. Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. Two weeks later, Grace Evans left for Hollywood in fame. She would permit no one to accompany her, saying that she wanted to feel that from the moment she left home,

Starting point is 01:35:10 she had made her own way, unassisted, toward her goal. Hers was a selfish egotism that is often to be found in otherwise generous natures. She had never learned the sweetness and beauty of sharing, of sharing her ambitions, her successes, and her failures, too, with those who loved her. If she won to fame, the glory would be hers, nor did it once occur to her that she might have shared that pride and pleasure with others by accepting their help and advice. If she failed, they would not have even the sad sweetness of sharing her disappointment.

Starting point is 01:35:40 Over two homes there hovered that evening a pall of gloom that no effort seemed able to dispel. In the ranch house on Ganado, they made a brave effort at cheerfulness on Custer Pennington's account. They did not dance that evening, as was their custom, nor could they find pleasure in the printed page when they tried to read. Bridge proved equally impossible. Finally, Custer rose, announcing that he was going to bed. Kissing them all good night, as had been the custom since childhood, he went to his room, and tears came to the mother's eyes as she noticed the dream. grew up in the broad shoulders as he walked from the room. The girl came then and knelt beside her, taking older woman's hand in hers and caressing it.

Starting point is 01:36:18 I feel so sorry for cuss, she said. I believe that none of us realize how hard he was taking this. He told me yesterday that it was going to be just the same as if Grace was dead, for he knew she would never be satisfied here again, whether she succeeded or failed. I think he has definitely given up all hope with their being married. Oh, no, dear. I'm sure he is wrong, said her mother. The engagement was not been broken. In fact, Grace told me only a few days ago that she hoped her success would come quickly so that she and Custer might be married the sooner.

Starting point is 01:36:48 The dear girl wants us to be proud of her and her daughter. My God, ejaceted the colonel, throwing his book down and rising to paste the floor. Proud of her? Weren't we already proud of her? Or being an actress make her any dearer to us? Of all the damn full ideas. Custer, Custer, you mustn't swear so before Eva, reproved Mrs. Pennington.

Starting point is 01:37:09 Swear, he demanded. Who the hell is swearing? A merry peal of laughter broke from the girl, nor could her mother refrain from smiling. It isn't swearing when Popsie says it, cried the girl. My gracious, I've heard it all my life, and you always say the same thing to him, as if I've never heard a single little cuss word.

Starting point is 01:37:26 Anyway, I'm going to bed now, Popsie, so that you won't contaminate me. According to Momsie's theory, she should curse like a pirate by this time, after 25 years of it. She kissed them, leaving them alone in the little family sitting room. I hope the boy won't take it too hard, said the colonel, after a silence. I'm afraid he's been drinking a little too much lately, said the mother.

Starting point is 01:37:46 I only hope his loneliness for grace won't encourage it. I hadn't noticed it, said the colonel. He never shows it much, she replied. An outsider would not know that he'd been drinking at all when I can see that he has added a little more than he should. Don't worry about that, dear, said the colonel. A Pennington never drinks more than a gentleman should. His father and his grandsires, on both sides, always drank, but there's never been a drunkard in either family.

Starting point is 01:38:10 I wouldn't give two cents for him if he couldn't take a man's drink like a man, but he'll never go too far. My boy couldn't. The pride and affection of the words brought a tears to the mother's eyes. She wondered if there had ever been a father and son like these before, each with such implicit confidence in the honor, the integrity, and the manly strength of the other. His boy couldn't go wrong. Custer Pennington entered his room, lighted the reading lamp beside a deep, wide-armed chair,

Starting point is 01:38:36 selected a book from Iraq, and settled himself comfortably for an hour of pleasure and inspiration. But he did not open the book. Instead, he stared blindly at the opposite wall. Directly in front of him hung a watercolor of the Apache, done by Eva and given to him the previous Christmas. A framed enlargement of the photograph of a prize Hereford bull, a pair of rusty Spanish spurs, and a frame of ribbons won by the Apache at various horse shows. Custer saw none of these, but only a gloomy vista of dreary years stretching through the dead monotony of endless ranch days that were all alike. Years that he must travel alone.

Starting point is 01:39:12 She would never come back, and why should she? In the city, in that new life, she would meet men of the world, men of broader culture than his, men of wealth, and she would be sought after. They would have more to offer her than he, and sooner or later she would realize it. He could not expect to hold her. Custer laid aside his book. What's the use he asked himself? Rising, he went to the closet and brought out a bottle. He had not intended drinking.

Starting point is 01:39:40 On the contrary, he had determined very definitely not to drink that night. But again, he asked himself the old question which, under certain circumstances of life and certain conditions of seeming hopelessness, appears answerable. What is the use? It is a foolish question, a meaningless question, a dangerous question. What is the use of what? Of combating fate? Of declining to do the thing we ought to do?

Starting point is 01:40:03 Of doing the thing we should do? Is it not even a satisfactory means of self-justification, but amid the ruins of his dreams it was sufficient excuse for Custer Pennington's surrender to the cravings of an appetite which was daily becoming stronger? The next morning he did not ride before breakfast with the other members of the family, nor, in fact, did he breakfast until long after they. On the evening of the day of Grace's departure, Mrs. Evans retired Earl, complaining of a headache. Guy Evans sought to interest himself in various magazines,

Starting point is 01:40:33 but he was restless and too ill at ease to remain long absorbed. At frequent intervals, he consulted his watch. As the evening wore on, he made numerous trips to his room, where he had recourse to a bottle like the one which Custer Pendleton was similarly engaged. It was Friday, the second Friday since Guy had entered into an agreement with Alan, and as midnight approached, his nervousness increased. Young Evans, while scarcely to be classed as a strong character, was more impulsive than weak. nor was he in any sense of the word vicious. While he knew that he was breaking the law,

Starting point is 01:41:03 he would have entirely shocked at the mere suggestion that his acts placed upon him the brand of criminality. Like many another, he considered the Volstead Act the work of an organized and meddlesome minority rather than the real will of the people. There was, in his opinion, no immorality in circumventing the Eighteenth Amendment

Starting point is 01:41:19 whenever and wherever possible. The only flying the oint was the fact that the liquor in which he was at present trafficking had been stolen, But he attempted to square this with his conscience by the oft-reiterated thought that he did not know it to be stolen goods. They couldn't prove that he knew it. However, the fly remained. He must have been one of those extremely obnoxious, buzzy flies, if one might judge by the boy's increasing nervousness.

Starting point is 01:41:43 Time and again during that long evening, he mentally reiterated his determination that once this venture was concluded, he would never embark upon another of a similar nature. The several thousand dollars which it would net him would make it possible for him to marry Eva and settled down to a serious and uninterrupted effort at writing, the one vocation for which he believed himself best fitted by inclination and preparation. But never again, he shared himself repeatedly, would he allow himself to be cajoled or threatened into such an agreement. He disliked and feared Alan, whom he now knew to be a totally unscrupulous man,

Starting point is 01:42:14 and his introduction, the preceding Friday, to the Confederates, who had brought down the first consignment of whiskey from the mountains, had left him fairly frozen with apprehension as he considered the type of ruffrians, which whom he was associated. During the intervening week, he had been unable to constrain his mind upon his storywriting even to the extent of a single word of new material. He had worried and brooded, and he had drunk more than usual. As he sat waiting for the arrival of the second consignment, he pictured a little cavalcade winding downward along hidden trails through the chaparral of dark mountain ravines. His nervousness increased as he realized a risk of discovery sometime during the six months that it would take to move the contraband to the edge of the valley in this way, 36 cases at a time, packed out on six boroughs.

Starting point is 01:42:55 he had little fear of the failure of this plan for hiding the liquor in the old hay barn and moving it out the following day for three years they have been stored in one end of the barn some fifty tons of melly lotus they have been sowned as a cover crop by a former foreman and allowed to grow to such proportions as to render the ploughing of it under a practical impossibility as hay it was in little or no demand but there was a possibility of a hay shortage that year it was against this possibility that evans had it bailed and stored away in the barn where it had laid ever since awaiting an offer that would at least cover the cost of growing harvesting and bailing a hard day's work had so rearranged the bales as to form a hidden chamber in the centre of the pile ingress to which could be readily be had by removing a couple of bales near the floor a little after eleven o'clock guy left the house and made his way to the barn where he paced nervously to and fro in the dark interior He hoped that the men would come early and get the thing over, for it was this part of the operation that seemed most fraught with danger. The disposal of liquor was affected by daylight, and the very boldness and simplicity of the scheme seemed to assure its safety. A large motor truck, such trucks are constantly seen upon the roads of Southern California,

Starting point is 01:44:01 loaded with farm and orchard products, and bound cityward, drove up to the hay barn in the morning after the receipt of the contraband. It backed into the interior, and half an hour later it emerged with a small load of bailed melly lotus. That there were 36 cases of bonded whiskey concealed by the innocent-looking bales of Mellar Lotus, Mr. Volstead himself cannot have guessed. But such was the case. Where it went to after he left his hands Guy Evans did not know or want to know. The man who bought it from him owned and drove the truck.

Starting point is 01:44:30 He paid Evans $6 a quart in currency and drove away, taking, besides the load on the floor of the truck, a much heavier burden from the mind of the young man. The whiskey was in Guy's possession for less than 12 hours a week, but during those 12 hours he earned a commission of a dollar a bottle that Alan allowed him. For his great fear was that sooner or later someone would discover and follow the six burrows as they came down to the barn. There were often campers in the hills. During the deer season, if they did not have it all removed by that time, they would be almost certain of discovery,

Starting point is 01:44:59 since every courageous ribbon-counter clerk in Los Angeles hide valiantly to the mountains with a high-powered rifle to track the ferocious deer to its lair. At a quarter past twelve, Evans heard the sounds of which he had been so expectantly waiting. He opened the small door and ended the hay barn, through which there filed in silence six burdened burrows, led by one swarthy Mexican, and followed by another. Quietly, the men unpacked the burrows and stored the 36 cases in the chamber beneath the hay. Inside the same chamber, by the light of the flash lamp, Evans counted out to one of them

Starting point is 01:45:30 the proceeds from the sale of the previous week. The whole transaction consumed less than half an hour and was carried on with the exchange of less than a dozen words. As silently as they come, the men departed, with their burrows, the darkness toward the hills, and young Evans made his way to his room and to bed. End of Chapter 9. Chapter 10 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This lib of rock's recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 01:46:01 Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. As the weeks passed, the routine of ranch life weighed more and more heavily on Coaster Pennington. The dull monotony of it took the zest from the things that he had formerly regarded as pleasures of existence. The buoyant Apache no longer had power to thrill. The long rides were obnoxious duties to be performed. The hills had lost their beauty.

Starting point is 01:46:23 Custer attributed his despondency to an unkind face that had thwarted his ambitions. He thought he hated Ganano, and he thought too, he honestly thought, that freedom to battle for success in the heart of some great city would bring happiness and content. For all that, he performed his duties and bore himself as cheerfully as ever, before the other members of his family, though his mother and sisters saw that when he thought he was alone and unobserved, he often sat with dripping shoulders, staring at the ground, in an attitude of dejection in which their love could scarce misinterpret. The frequent letters that came from Grace during her first days in Hollywood

Starting point is 01:46:56 had breathed the spirit of hopefulness and enthusiasm that might have proved contagious, but for the fact that he saw in her success a longer and probably a permanent separation. If she should be speedily discouraged, she might return to the foothills and put the idea of a career forever from her mind. But if she received even the slightest encouragement, Custer was confident that nothing could wean her from her ambition. He was the more sure of this because in his own mind, he could picture no inducement sufficiently powerful

Starting point is 01:47:24 to attract anyone to return to the humdrum existence of the ranch. Better be a failure in the midst of life, he put it to himself, than a success in the unpeopled spaces on its outer edge. In some weeks brought fewer letters, and there was less of enthusiasm, though hope was still unquenched. She had not yet met the right people, Grace said, and there was a general depression in the entire patient industry. Universal had a new manager, and there was no guessing what his policy would be.

Starting point is 01:47:51 Goldman had laid off half their force. Robertson Cole had shut down. She was sure, though, that things would brighten up later, and that she would have her chance. Would they please tell her how sedent her was, and give him her love and kiss the Apache for her? There was just a note, perhaps, of homesickness in some of her letters, and gradually they became fewer and shorter. The little gatherings of the neighbors at Ganado continued. Other young people of the valley in the foothills came and danced or swam or played tennis. Their elders came, too, equally enjoying the hospitality of the Penningtons,

Starting point is 01:48:26 and among these was the new owner of the little orchard beyond the Evans Ranch. The Penningtons had found Mrs. Burke a quiet woman of refined tastes, and the possessor of a quiet humor that made her always a welcome addition to the family circle. That she had known more of sorrow than of happiness was evidenced in many ways, but that she had risen above the petty selfishness of grief was strikingly apparent in her thoughtfulness for others, her quick sympathy, and the kindliness of her humor. Whatever ill's fate had brought her, they had not left her sour.

Starting point is 01:48:55 As she came oftener and came to know the Pennington's better, she depended more and more of the colonel for advice and matters pertaining to her orchard and her finances. Of personal matters, she never spoke. They knew that she had a daughter living in Los Angeles, but of the girl they knew nothing, for deep in the heart of Mrs. George Burke, who had been born Charity Cooper,

Starting point is 01:49:15 was a stream of Puritanism that could not look with ought but horror upon the stage and his naughty little sister, the screen. Though in her letters to that loved daughter, there was no suggestion of the pain that the fond heart held because of the career the girl had chosen. Charity Cooper's youth had been so surrounded by restrictions that at 18 she was as unsophisticated as a child of 12. As a result, she had easily succumbed to the replenishments

Starting point is 01:49:40 of the unscrupulous young Irish adventurer, who had thought that her fine family connections indicated wealth. When he learned the contrary, shortly after their marriage, he promptly deserted her, nor had she seen or heard of him since. Of him she never spoke, and of course the Pennington's never questioned her. At 39, Mrs. George Burke still retained much of the frail

Starting point is 01:49:59 and delicate beauty that had been hers in girlhood. The effort of moving from her old home and settling in the new, followed by the responsibilities of the unfamiliar and highly technical activities of orange culture, had drawn heavily upon her always inadequate vitality. As the Penningtons became better acquainted with her, they began to feel real concern as to her physical condition, as this condition was not lessened by the knowledge

Starting point is 01:50:23 that she had been given in the matter of serious thought, as was evidenced by her request that the colonel would permit her to name him as executor of her estate in a will that she was making. While Life Upon Ganado took its peaceful way, outwardly unruffled, the girl whose image was in the hearts of them, drove valiantly in the face of recurring disappointment toward the high gall upon which her eyes were set. If she could only have a chance! How often that half-prayer, half-cry of anguish was in the silent

Starting point is 01:50:49 voicing of her thoughts! If she could only have a chance! In the weeks of tramping from studio to studio, she had learned much. For one thing, she had come to know the ruthlessness of a certain type of man that must and will someday be driven from the industry. That is, in fact, even now being driven out, though slowly, by the stress of public opinion, by the example of the men of finer character who are gradually making a higher code of ethics for the studios. She had learned even more from the scores of chance acquaintances who, through repeating meetings in the outer offices of casting directors, have become almost friends. Indeed, when she found herself facing the actuality of one of the more repulsive phases

Starting point is 01:51:27 of studio procedure, it appeared more than the guise of habitudes through the many references to it that she had heard from the lips of her more experienced fellows. She was interviewing for the dozenth time the casting director of the KKS studio, who had come to know her by sight, and perhaps to feel a little compassion for her, though there are those who will tell you that casting directors, having no hearts, can never experience so human in emotion as compassion.

Starting point is 01:51:52 I'm sorry, Miss Evans, he said, but I haven't a thing for you today. As she turned away, he raised his hand. Wait, he said. Mr. Crum is casting his new picture himself. He's out on the lot now. Go out and see him. He might be able to do.

Starting point is 01:52:06 use you? The girl thanked him and made her away from the office building in search of crumb. She stepped over light cables and picked her way across stages that were litded with heterogeneous jumble of countless interior sets. She dodged the assistance of a frantic technical director who was attempted to transform an African waterhole into a Roman bath at an hour and 45 minutes. She bumped against a heavy shipping crate, threw the iron bar and end of which a savage lioness growled and struck at her.

Starting point is 01:52:32 Finally, she discovered a single individual who seemed to have nothing to do, and and who might therefore be approached with the query as to where Mr. Crumb might be found. This resplendant idler directed her to an Algerian street set behind the stages, and as he spoke she recognized him as the leading male star of the organization, the highest-salary person on the lot. A few minutes later she found the man she saw him. She had never seen Wilson Crum before, and her first impression was a pleasant one, for he was courteous and affable.

Starting point is 01:53:01 She told him that she had been to the casting director, and that he had said that Mr. Crum might be able to use him. her. As she spoke, the man watched her intently. His eyes ran quickly over her figure without suggestion of offense. What experience have you had, he asked. Just a few times as an extra she replied. He shook his head. I'm afraid I can't use you, he said. Unless, he hesitated. Unless you would care to work in the semi-nude, which would necessitate making a test in the nude. He waited for her reply. Grace Evans gulped. She could feel a scarlet flush mounting rapidly until it's a few her entire face. She could not understand why it was necessary to try her out in any less

Starting point is 01:53:41 garmature than would pass the censors, but then that is something which no one can understand. Here, possibly, was her opportunity. She had read in the papers that Wilson Crum was preparing to make the greatest picture of his career. She thought of her constant prayer for a chance. Here was a chance, and yet she hesitated. The brutal, useless condition he had imposed outraged every instinct of decency and refinement inherit in her, just as it had outraged the same characteristics in countless other girls, just as it is doing in other studios in all parts of the country every day. Is that absolutely essential, she asked?

Starting point is 01:54:17 Quite so, he replied. Still, she hesitated. Her chance! If she let it pass, she went as well peck up and return home. What a little thing to do, after all, when one really considered it. It was purely professional. There would be nothing personal in it, and she could only succeed in overcoming her self-consciousness. But could she do it?

Starting point is 01:54:37 Again, she thought of home. A hundred times of late she had wished that she was back there, but she did not want to go back a failure. It was that which decided her. Very well, she said. But there will not be many there, will there? Only a cameraman and myself, he replied. If it is convenient, I can arrange it immediately. Two hours later, Grace Evans left the KKS lot.

Starting point is 01:54:59 She was starting to work on the month. at $50 a week for the full period of the picture. Wilson Crumb had told her that she had a wonderful future and that she was fortunate to have fallen in with the director who could make a great star of her. As she went, she left behind all her self-respect and part of her natural modesty. Wilson Crumb, watching her go,

Starting point is 01:55:18 rubbed the ball of his right thumb to and fro across the back of his left hand, and smiled. The Apache danced along the wagon trail that led back into the hills. He tugged it a bit and tossed his head impatiently, flecking his rider's shirt with the foam he lifted his feet high and twisted and wriggled that anil he wanted to be off and he wondered what had come over his old pal that there was no more swift gay gallops and that washes were crossed sedately by way of their gravelly bottoms instead of being taken with a flying leap presently he cocked an eye ahead as if in search of something a moment later he left suddenly sidewise snorting an apparent terror you old fool said pennington affectionately the horse had shied at a large white boulder lying beside the wagon trail.

Starting point is 01:56:05 For nearly three years he had shied it religiously every time he had passed it. Long before they reached it, he always looked ahead to see if it was still there, and he would have been terribly disappointed had him been missing. The man always knew that the horse was going to shy. He would have been disappointed that the Apache

Starting point is 01:56:19 had not played this little game of make-believe. To carry the game to its conclusion, the rider should gather him and force him snorting and trembling right up to the boulder, talking to him coaxingly, and stroking his arched neck. But at the same time, not neglecting to press the spurs against his glossy sides if he hesitated.

Starting point is 01:56:37 The Apache loved it. He loved the power that was his as exemplified by the quick, wide leap aside, and he loved the power of the man to force his nose to the boulder, the power that gave him such confidence in his rider that he would go wherever he was asked to go. But today, he was disappointed. His pal did not force him to the boulder. Instead, Custer Pennington merely reined him into the trail again, beyond it, and rode on up Jackknife Canyon.

Starting point is 01:57:01 Custer was looking over the pasture. It was late July. The hills were no longer green, except where its sides and summits were clothed with chaparral. The lower hills were browning beneath the hot summer sun, but they were still beautiful, dotted as they were with walnut and live oak. As Pennington rode, he recalled the last time he had ridden through Jackknife with Grace. She'd been gone two months now, it seemed as many years.

Starting point is 01:57:27 She no longer wrote often, and when she did write, her letters were short and unsatisfying. He recalled all the incidents at that last ride, and they reminded him again of a new-made trail they had discovered, and it was off-repeated intention of following it to see where it led. He had never had the time. He did not have the time today. The heifers but their calves were still in his pasture.

Starting point is 01:57:48 He'd counted them, examined the condition of the feed, and rode back to the house. It was Friday. From the hills beyond jackknife, a man had watched through binoculars his every move. Three other men had been waiting below the wall, watcher along the new-made trail. It was well for Pennington that he had not chosen that day to investigate.

Starting point is 01:58:06 After I turned back toward the ranch, the man with the binoculars descended to the others. It was young Pennington, he said. The speaker was Alan. I was thinking that it would be a full trick to kill him, unless we have to. I have a better scheme. Listen, if he ever learns anything that he shouldn't know, this is what you're to do if I am away. Very carefully, in a great detail, he elaborated his plan. Do you understand, he asked?

Starting point is 01:58:31 They did, and they grinned. The following night, after the Pennington's had dined, a ranch hand came up from Mrs. Burke to tell them that their new neighbor was quite ill, and that the woman who did her housework wanted Mrs. Pennington to come down at once, as she was worried about her mistress. We will be right down, said Colonel Pennington. They found Mrs. Burke breathing with difficulty, and the colonel immediately telephoned for a local doctor. After the physician had examined her, he came to them in the living room.

Starting point is 01:58:56 You had better send for Jones of Los Angeles, he said. It is her heart. I could do nothing. I doubt if he can, but he is a specialist. And, he added, if she has any near relatives, I think I should notify them at once. The housekeeper had joined them and was wiping tears from her face with her apron. She's a daughter in Los Angeles, said the colonel, but we do not know her address. She wrote her today, just before this spell, said the housekeeper.

Starting point is 01:59:23 The letter hasn't been mill yet. Here it is. She picked it up from the center table and handed it to the colonel. Miss Shannon Burke, 1580 Pinoizo Circle, Hollywood, he read. I will take the responsibility of wiring both Miss Burke and Dr. Jones. Can you get a good nurse locally? The doctor could, and so it was arranged.

Starting point is 01:59:43 End of Chapter 10. Chapter 11 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Libavox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey. gaza delor was sitting at the piano when crumb arrived to the bungalow at fourteen twenty one vista del paso at a little after six in the evening of the last saturday in july the smoke from a half-burned cigarette lying on the ebony case was rising in a thin indolent column above the masses of her black hair Her fingers idled through a dreamy waltz. Crumb gave her a surly nod as he closed the door behind him. He was tired and crossed after a hard day at the studio.

Starting point is 02:00:27 The girl, knowing that he would be all right presently, merely returned his nod and continued playing. He went immediately to his room, and a moment later she heard him enter the bathroom through another doorway. Half an hour later, he emerged, shaved, spruce, and smiling. A tiny powder had affected the transformation, just as she had known it would. He came and leaned across the piano, close to her. She was very beautiful.

Starting point is 02:00:51 It seemed to demand that she grew more beautiful and more desirable each day. The fact that she had been unattainable had fed the fires of his desire, transferring infatuation into its near-thinked love as a man of his type can ever feel. Well, little girl, he cried dearly, I have good news for you. She smiled a crooked little smile and shook her head. The only good news I can think of would be that the government has established a comfortable home for superannuated hopheads where they would be furnished without cost with all the snow they could use. The effects of her last shot were wearing off. He laughed good-naturedly.

Starting point is 02:01:24 Really, he insisted, on the level. I've got the best news you've heard in moons. Well, she asked weirdly. Old Battle Ax has got her divorce, he announced, referring less affectionately to his wife. Well, said the girl, that's good news. For her, if it's true. Crum frowned. It's good news for you. he said, it means that I can marry you now." The girl leaned back on the piano bench and laughed aloud. It was not a pleasant laugh. She laughed until the tears rolled down her cheeks.

Starting point is 02:01:55 What is there funny about that? growled the man. It would mean a lot to you. Respectability for one, and success for another. The day you become Mrs. Wilson Crum, I'll star you in the greatest picture that was ever made. Respectability, she sneered. Your name would make me respectable, would it? It would be the insult added to all of you. added to all the injury you have done me.

Starting point is 02:02:15 And as for starring, poof, she snapped her fingers. I have but one ambition, thanks to you, you dirty hound, and that is snow. She leaned toward him, her two clenched fists almost shaking in his face.

Starting point is 02:02:27 Give me all the snow I need, she cried, and the rest of them may have their fame and their laurels. He thought he saw his chance then, turning away with a shrug. He walked through the fireplace

Starting point is 02:02:37 and lighted the cigarette. Oh, very well, he said. If you feel the way about it, all right, but He turned suddenly upon her. You'll have to get out of here and stay out. Do you understand? From this day on, you could only enter this house as Mrs. Wilson Crumb,

Starting point is 02:02:51 and you can rustle your own dope if you don't come back. Understand? She looked at him through narrowed lids. She reminded him of a tigress about the spring, and he backed away. Listen to me, she commanded in a slow, level tones. In the first place, you're lying to me about your wife getting her divorce. I'd have guessed as much if I hadn't known, for Hophead can't tell the truth. but i do know you got a letter from your attorney to-day telling you that your wife still insists not only that she will never divorce you but that she will never allow you a divorce you mean to say that you opened up one of my letters he demanded angrily

Starting point is 02:03:26 sure i opened it i opened them all i steam him open what do you expect she almost screamed from the thing you have made of me do you expect honor and self-respect or any other virtue in a hype you get out of here he cried you get out now this minute she rose from the bench and came and stood quite close to him you'll see that i get all the snow i want if i go she asked he laughed nastily you don't ever get another bindle he cried wait she admonished i wasn't through with what i was starting to say a minute ago you've been hitting it long enough wilson to know what one of our kind will do to get it you know either you or i will sacrifice soul and body if there's no other way we would lie or steal or murder do you get that wilson murder There's just one thing that I won't do, but that one thing is not murder, Wilson. Listen, she lifted her face close to his and looked him straight in the eyes. If you ever try to take it away from me, or keep it from me, Wilson, I shall kill you. Her tone was cold and unemotional, and because of that, perhaps, the threat seemed very real. The man paled.

Starting point is 02:04:34 Oh, come, he cried. What's the use of our scrapping? I was only kidding anyway. Run along and take a shot. It'll make you feel better. Yes, she said, I need me. one, but don't get it into your head that I was kidding. I wasn't.

Starting point is 02:04:47 I'd just as like kill you as not. The only trouble is that killing's too damn good for you, Wilson. She walked toward the bathroom door. Oh, by the way, she said, pausing. Alan called up this afternoon. He's in town and will be up after dinner. He wants his money. She entered the bathroom and closed the door.

Starting point is 02:05:06 Crum lighted another cigarette and threw himself into an easy chair, where he sat scowling on a temple dog on a Chinese rug. The Japanese schoolboy opened a door and announced dinner, and a moment later Gaza joined Crumb in the little dining room. They both smoked throughout the meal, which they scarcely tasted. The girl was vivacious and apparently happy. She seemed to have forgotten the recent scene in the living room. She asked questions about the new picture. We're going to commence shooting Monday, he told her.

Starting point is 02:05:32 Momentarily, he waxed almost enthusiastic. I'm going to have trouble with that booob author, though, he said. If they kick him off the lot and give me a little more money, I'd make him the greatest picture ever screened. Then he relapsed into brooding silence. What's the matter, she asked, worrying about Alan? Not exactly, he said. I'll stall him off again.

Starting point is 02:05:53 He isn't going to be easy to stall this time, she observed, if I gather the correct idea from his line of talk over the phone today. I can't see what you've done with all the coin, Wilson. You got yours, didn't you? Sure, I got mine, she answered, and it's nothing to me what you'd do with Alan's share, but I'm here to tell you that you've pulled a bonar if you've double-crossed him. I'm not much of a character reader, as proved by my erstwhile belief that you were a high-minded gentleman, but it strikes me the various boob could see that that man Alan is a bad actor.

Starting point is 02:06:20 You better look out for him. I ain't afraid of him, blustered Crum. No, of course you're not, she agreed sarcastically. You're a regular little lion-hearted Reginald Wilson. That's what you are. The doorbell rang. There he is now, said the girl. Crumb paled.

Starting point is 02:06:38 What makes you think he's a bad man, he asked. look at his face look at his eyes she admonished hard he's got a face like a brickback they rose from the table and entered the living room as the japanese opened the front door the caller was slick allan crumb rushed forward and greeted him effusively hello old man he cried i'm mighty glad to see you mr lor told me you had phoned can't tell you how delighted i am allan nodded to the girl tossed his cap upon a bench near the door and crossed the center of the room won't you sit down mr allen she suggested i ain't got much time he said lowering himself into a chair i came up here crumb to get some money his cold fishy eyes looked straight into crumbs i come to get all the money there is coming to me it's a trifle over ten thousand dollars as i figure it yes said crumb that's about it i don't want no stallin this time either concluded allan stalling exclaimed crumb in a hurt tone who's been stalling you have oh my dear man cried crumb deprecatingly you know that it matters with this kind one must be circumspect there were reasons in the past why it would have been unsafe to transfer so large an amount to you it might easily have been traced i was being watched a fellow even shadowed me to the teller's window of my bank one day you see how it is neither of us can take chances that's all right too said allan but i've been taking chances right along and i ain't been taking them for my health i've been taking them for the coin and i want that coin i want it pronto You could most certainly have it, said Crum.

Starting point is 02:08:12 All right, replied Alan, extending a palm. Fork it over. My dear fellow, you don't think I have it here, do you? demanded Crum. You don't think I keep such an amount as that in my home, I hope. Where is it? In the bank, of course. Give me a check. You must be crazy.

Starting point is 02:08:29 Suppose either of us was suspected. That check would link us up fine. It would be as bad for you as for me. Nothing doing. I'll get the cash when the bank opens on me. Monday. That's the very best I can do. If you'd written and let me know you were coming, I could have had it for you. Alan eyed him for a long minute. Very well, he said at last. I'll wait till noon Monday. Crom breathed in an inward sigh of profound relief. If you're at

Starting point is 02:08:55 the bank Monday morning and half past ten, you'll get the money, he said. How's the other stuff going? Sorry I couldn't handle that, but it's too bulky. The hooch? It's going fine, replied Alan. Got a young high blood at the edge of the valley handling it, filled by the name Evans. He moves 36 cases a week. The kids got a good head on him, worked the whole scheme out himself. Sells the whole batch every week for cash to a guy with a big truck. They cover it with hay, and this guy hauls it right into the city in broad daylight, unloads it in the warehouse he's rented, slips each case into a carton label somebody or other as soap, and delivers it at a case at a time to a bunch of drug stores. The sick guy used to be a drug salesman,

Starting point is 02:09:32 and he's personally acquainted with every grafter in his business. As he talked, Alan had been studying the girl's face. She had noticed it before, but she was used to having men stare at her, and thought little of it. Finally, he addressed her. Do you know, Miss DeLore, he said, there's something might be familiar about your face. I noticed it the first time I came here, and I've been studying over it since. Seems like I know you somewhere else, or someone you look a lot like, but I can't quite get it straight in my head. I can't make out where it was, or when.

Starting point is 02:10:02 or if it was you or someone else. I'll get it someday, though. I don't know, she replied. I'm sure I never saw you before you came here at Mr. Crum the first time. Well, I don't know either, replied Alan, scratching his head. But it's mighty funny. He rose. I'll be going, he said.

Starting point is 02:10:19 See a Monday at the bank. 10.30, Sharp, Crum. Sure, 10.30 sharp, replied, Crum rising. Oh, say, Alan, will you do me a favor? I promised the fellow I'd bring him in a bindle of M tonight. And if you'll hand it to him, it'll save me a trip. It's right on your way to the car line. You'll find him in the alley back of the Hollywood drugstore,

Starting point is 02:10:38 just west of Cahanga on the south side of Hollywood Boulevard. Sure, glad to accommodate, said Alan. But how will I know him? He'll be standing there, and you walk up and ask him the time. If he tells you and asks if you can change a five, you'll know he's the guy all right. Then you hand him these two ones at a 50-cent piece, and he hands you a $5 bill.

Starting point is 02:10:57 That's all there is to it. Inside the two ones, I'll wrap a bindle of them. You can give me the five Monday morning when I see you. Slipped me the junk, said Alan. The girl had risen and was putting on her coat and lamp. Where are you going? Home so early, asked Crom. Yes, she replied. I'm tired, and I want to write a letter. I thought you live here, said Alan.

Starting point is 02:11:18 I'm here nearly all day, but I go home nights, replied the girl. Slick Allen looked puzzled as he left the bungalow. Going my way, he asked the girl, as they reached the sidewalk. No, she replied. go in the opposite direction. Good night. Good night, said Alan, and turned toward Hollywood Boulevard. Inside a bungalow, Chrome was signaling central for a connection. Give me the police station on Cahanga, near Hollywood, he said. I haven't time to look up to the number. Quick, it's important. There was a moment's silence, and then,

Starting point is 02:11:50 Hello? What is this? Listen, if you want to get a hop head with the goods on him, right in the act of pedaling, send a dick to the back of the Hollywood drugstore, and have a wait until the guy comes up and asks him what time it is. Then have a dick tell him and say, Can you change a five? That's the cue for the guy to slip him a bindle of morphine rolled up in a couple of one-dollar bills. If you don't send a dummy, he'll know what to do next, and you better get him in a hurry.

Starting point is 02:12:13 What? No. Oh, just a friend. Just a friend. Wilson Crumb hung up the receiver. There was a grin on his face, and he turned away from the instrument. It's too bad, Alan, but I'm afraid you won't be at the bank at half past ten on Monday morning, he said. End of Chapter 11.

Starting point is 02:12:37 Chapter 12 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Roy's. boroughs. This liberal rock's recording is in the public domain. Recorded by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. As Gaza delor entered the house in which she roomed, her landlady came hastily from the living room. Is that you, Miss Perk? She asked. Here's a telegram that came for you just a few minutes ago. I do hope it's not bad news. The girl took the yellow envelope and tore it open. She read the message through very quickly, and then again slowly. Her brows puckered into a little frown, as if she could not quite understand the meaning of the words she read.

Starting point is 02:13:09 Your mother ill, the telegram said. Possibly not serious. Doctor thinks best you come. We'll meet you morning train. It was signed. Custer Pennington. I do hope it's not bad news, repeated the landlady. My mother is ill.

Starting point is 02:13:22 They have sent for me, said the girl. I wonder if you'll be good enough to call up the SP and ask the first train I can get that stops at Ganado, while I run upstairs and pack my bag. You poor little deer, exclaimed the landlady. I'm so sorry. I'll call right away. Then I'll come up and help you.

Starting point is 02:13:38 A few minutes later she came up. up to say that the first train left at nine o'clock in the morning. She offered to help pack, but the girl said there was nothing that she could not do herself. I must go out first for a few minutes, Gaza told her. Then I'll come back and finish packing the few things that it will be necessary to take. When a layal lady had left, the girl stood staring dully at the black traveling bag that she had brought from the closet and placed on her bed. But she did not see the bag or the few pieces of lingerie that she had taken from her dresser drawers.

Starting point is 02:14:05 She saw only the sweet face of her mother, and the dear smile that I always shone there to soothe each childish trouble, the smile that had lighted the girl's dark days, even after she had left home. For a long time, she stood there thinking, trying to realize what it would mean to her if the worst she'd come. It could make no difference, she realized, except that it might perhaps save her mother from a still greater sorrow. It was the girl who was dead, though her mother did not guess it.

Starting point is 02:14:28 She had been dead for many months. This hollow, shaking husk was not Shannon Burke. It was not the thing that her mother had loved. It was almost a sacrilege to take it up there into the clean country, and flaunting it in the face of so sacred a thing as Mother Love. The girl stepped quickly to a writing desk, and, drawing a key from her vanity case, unlocked it. She took from it a case containing a hypodermic syringe and a few small files.

Starting point is 02:14:52 Then she crossed the hall to the bathroom. When she came back, she looked rested and less nervous. She returned the things to the desk, locked it, and ran downstairs. I'll be back in a few minutes, she called to the landlady. I shall have to arrange a few things tonight with a friend. She went directly to the Vista del Pazzo bungalow. Chrome was surprised, not a little startled as he heard her key in the door. He had a sudden vision of Alan returning, and he went white.

Starting point is 02:15:17 But when he saw who it was, he was no less surprised, for the girl had never before returned after leaving for the night. My gracious, he exclaimed, look who's here. She did not return his smile. I found a telegram at home, she said, that necessitates my going away for a few days. I came over to tell you, and I had a little snow to last me until I come back. He looked at her through narrow, suspicious lids. You're going to quit me, he cried accusingly.

Starting point is 02:15:41 That's why you went out with Alan. You can't get away with it. I'll never let you go. Do you hear me? I'll never let you go. Don't be a fool, Wilson, she replied. My mother is ill and I've been sent for. Your mother?

Starting point is 02:15:53 You never told me you had a mother. But I have, but I don't care to talk about her to you. She needs me, and I am going. He was still suspicious. Are you telling me the truth? Will you come back? You know I'll come back, she said. I shall have to, she added with a weary sigh.

Starting point is 02:16:09 Yes, you'll have to. You can't get along without it. You'll come back all right. I'll see to that. What do you mean, she asked. How much snow you got home, he demanded. You know I keep scarcely any there. I forgot my case today, left it at my desk, so I have a little there.

Starting point is 02:16:25 A couple of shots, maybe. Very well, he said. I'll give you enough to last a week. Then you'll have to come home. You say you'll give me enough to last a week? The girl repeated questioningly. I'll take what I want. It's as much mine as yours.

Starting point is 02:16:38 But you don't get any more than I'm going to give you. I won't have you gone more than a week. I can't live without you, don't you understand? I believe you have a wooden heart or none at all. Oh, she said yawning. You can get some other poor fool to peddle it for you if I don't come back. But I'm coming, never fear. You're as bad as the snow.

Starting point is 02:16:56 I hate you both, but I can't live without either of you. I don't feel like quarreling, Wilson. Give me this stuff. Enough to last a week, for I'll be home before that. He went to the bathroom and made a little package. up for her. Here, he said, returning to the living room, that ought to last you a week. She took it and slipped it into her case. Well, goodbye, she said, turning toward the door.

Starting point is 02:17:18 Aren't you going to kiss me goodbye, he asked. Have I ever kissed you since I learned you had a wife? she asked. No, he admitted, but you might kiss me goodbye now, when you're going away for a whole week. Nothing doing, Wilson, she said with a negative shake of her head. I'd as life kiss Gil a monster. He made a wry face. You're sure, candid, he said. She shrugged her shoulders in a gesture of indifference and moved toward the door.

Starting point is 02:17:44 I can't make you out, Gaza, he said. I used to think you loved me, and the Lord knows I certainly love you. You're the only woman I ever really loved. A year ago, I believe you would have married me, but now you won't even let me kiss you. Sometimes I think there is someone else. If I thought you loved another man, I'd... I'd... No, you wouldn't.

Starting point is 02:18:02 You're going to say that you'd kill me, but you wouldn't. You haven't the nerve of a rabbit. You needn't worry. There isn't any other man, and there never will be. After knowing you, I could never respect any man, much less love one of them. You're all like, rotten. Let me tell you something. I never did love you.

Starting point is 02:18:20 I like you at first before I knew the hideous thing that you had done to me. I would have married you, and I would have made you a good wife, too. You know that. I wish I could believe that you do love me. I know of nothing, Wilson, that would give me more pleasure than to know that you love me madly. but of course you're not capable of loving anything madly except yourself. I do love you, Gaza, he said seriously. I love you so that I would rather die than live without you.

Starting point is 02:18:45 She caught her head on one side and eyed him quizzically. I hope you do, she told him, for if it's the truth, I can repay you some measure of the suffering you have caused me. I can be around where you can never get a chance to forget me, or to forget the fact that you want me, but you can never have me. You'll see me every day, and every day you will suffer vain or from the happiness that might have been yours if you had been a decent, honorable man.

Starting point is 02:19:07 But you are not decent. You are not honorable. You're not even a man. He tried to laugh derisively, but she saw the slow red creep to his face and knew that she had scored. I hope it'll feel better when you come back from your mother, as he said. You haven't been very good company lately. Oh, by the way, where did you say you were going? I didn't say, she replied.

Starting point is 02:19:28 Won't you give me your address, he demanded. No. But suppose something happens. Suppose I want to get a word to you, Crum insisted. You'll have to wait until I get back, she told him. I don't see why you can't tell me where you're going, he grumbled. Because there was a part of my life that you and your sort have never entered, she replied. I would his life taking a physical leper to my mother as a moral one.

Starting point is 02:19:49 I cannot even discuss her with you without a feeling that I have besmirched her. On her face was an expression of unspeakable disgust as she passed her to the doorway of the bungalow and closed the door behind her. Wilson Crum simulated a shudder. I sure was a damn fool, he mused. Gaza would have made the greatest emotional actress discreet as ever known, if I'd given her a chance. I guessed her wrong and played her wrong. She's not like any woman I ever saw before.

Starting point is 02:20:15 I should have made her a great success and won her gratitude. That's the way I ought to have played her. Oh, well, what's the difference? She'll come back. He rose and went to the bathroom, snuffed half a grand of cocaine, and then collected all the narcotics hidden there and every vestige of contributory evidence of their use by the inmates of the bungalow.

Starting point is 02:20:34 Dragging a small table into the bathroom closet, he mounted and opened a trap leading into the airspace between the ceiling and the roof. Into this he clambered, carrying the drugs with him. They were wrapped in a long, thin package to which a light, strong cord was attached. With this cord, he lowered the package into the space between the sheathing and the inner wall,

Starting point is 02:20:51 fastening the end of the cord to a nail driven into one of the studs at arm's length below the wall plate. There, he thought, as he clambered back into the closet, It'll take some dick to uncover that junk. Hidden between plaster and sheathing of this little bungalow was a fortune in narcotics. Only a small fraction of their stock and the two pouters kept in the bathroom. And Crom had now removed that, in case Alan should guess that he had been betrayed by his confederate, and directed the police to the bungalow, or the police themselves should trace his call

Starting point is 02:21:18 and make an investigation of their own account. He realized he was taking a great risk, but the strategy of him has saved him from the deadly menace of Alan's vengeance, at least for the present. The fact that there must ultimately be an accounting with the man he put out of his mind. It would be time enough to meet that contingency when it rose. As a matter of fact, the police came to the bungalow that very evening, but through no clue obtained from Alan, who, while he had suspicions that were tantamount to conviction, chose to await the time when he might wreak his revenge in his own way. The death sergeant had traced the call to crumb, and after the arrest had been made, a couple

Starting point is 02:21:50 of detective sergeants called upon him. They were quiet, pleasant-spoken men, with an ingratiating way they might have deceived the possessor of a less suspicious brain than Crum's. The lieutenant sent us over to thank you for that tip, said the spokesman. We got him all right, with a junk on him. Not for nothing was Wilson Crum a talented actor. None there was who could have better registered polite and uninterested in comprehension. I'm afraid, he said that I don't quite get you.

Starting point is 02:22:16 What tip? What are you talking about? You called up the station, Mr. Crum. We had central trace to call. There's no use. Crum interrupted him with a gesture. He didn't want the officer to go so far as it might embarrass him. him to retract.

Starting point is 02:22:28 Ah, he exclaimed, a light of understanding illuminating his face. I believe I have it. What was the message? I think I can't explain. We think you can too, agreed to the sergeant, seeing you phone the message. No, but I didn't, said Crumb, although I guess it might have come from over my phone all right. I'll tell you what I know about it. A car drove up a little while ago after dinner, and a man came to the door.

Starting point is 02:22:50 He was a stranger. He asked if I had a phone if he could use it. He said he wanted to phone an important and confidential message to his wife. he emphasized the confidential and there was nothing for me to do but go to the other room until he was through he was only a minute or two talking and then he called me he wanted to pay for the use of the phone i didn't hear what he said over the phone but i guess that explains the matter i'll be careful next time as strangers want to use my phone i would said the sergeant jarley would you know him if you saw him again i sure would said crumb they rose to go nice little place you have here remarked one of them looking around yes said crumb it is very comfortable wouldn't you like to look it over no replied the officer not now maybe some other time crumb grimed after he had closed the door behind them i wonder he mused if that was a threat or a prophecy a week later slick allen was sentenced to a year in county jail for having morphine in his possession end of chapter twelve chapter thirteen of the girl from hollywood by edgar rice burrows this lib ofox recording is in the public domain recording by joe de noya somerset new jersey As Shannon Burke alighted from the Southern Pacific train at Ganado, the following morning,

Starting point is 02:24:06 a large middle-aged man and riding clothes approached her. Is this Miss Burke, he asked? I'm Colonel Pennington. She noted that his face was grave, and it frightened her. Tell me about my mother, she said. How is she? He put an arm about the girl's shoulders. Come, he said.

Starting point is 02:24:23 Mrs. Pennington is waiting over at the car. Her question was answered. Numb with dread and suffering, she crossed the station platform with him, the kindly, protecting arm still about her. Beside a closed car, a woman was standing. As they approached, she came forward, put her arms about the girl, and kissed her. Seated in the tennow between the colonel and Mrs. Pennington, the girl sought to steady herself. She had taken no morphine since the night before, for she had wanted to come to her mother

Starting point is 02:24:49 clean, as she would have expressed it. She realized now it was a mistake, for she had the sensation of shattered nerves on the verge of collapse. Mastering all her resources, she fought for self-control with an effort that was almost physically noticeable. Tell me about it, she said at length in a low voice. It was very sudden, said the colonel. It was a heart attack.

Starting point is 02:25:08 Everything that possibly could be done in so short a time was done. Nothing would have changed the outcome, however. We had Dr. Jones of Los Angeles down. He motored down and arrived here about half an hour before the end. He told us that he could have done nothing. They were silent for a while as the fast car rolled over the smooth road toward the hills ahead. Presently it slowed down, turned in between the orange trees, and stopped before a tiny bungalow 100 yards from the highway.

Starting point is 02:25:33 We thought you would want to come here, first of all, dear, said Mrs. Pennington. Afterward, we're going to take you home with us. They accompanied her to the tiny living room, where they introduced her to the housekeeper and to the nurse, who had remained at Colonel Pennington's request. Then they opened the door of a sunny bedroom, and, closing it after her, she entered, left her alone with her dead. Beyond the thin panels, they could hear her sobbing,

Starting point is 02:25:55 but when she emerged 15 minutes later, though her eyes were red, she was not crying. They thought then that she had marvelous self-control. But could they have known the hideous battle she was fighting against grief and the insistent craving for morphine, and the raw, taunt nerves that would give her no peace, and the shattered will that begged only to be allowed to sleep? Could they have known all this, they would have realized they were witnessing a miracle? They led her back to the car where she sat with wide eyes staring straight ahead.

Starting point is 02:26:22 She wanted to scream, to tear her clothing, to do anything but sit there quiet and rigid. The short drive to Conado seemed to the half-mad girl to occupy hours. She saw nothing, not even the quiet, restful ranch house as the car swung up the hill and stopped at the north entrance. In her mind's eye was nothing with the face of her dead mother in the little black case in their traveling bag. The colonel helped her from the car and a sweet-faced young girl came and put her arms around her

Starting point is 02:26:47 and kissed her, as Mrs. Pennington had done at the station. In a dazed sort of way she hadn't understood that they were telling her the girl's name, that she was a daughter of the Pennington's. The girl accompanied to visit her to the rooms she was to occupy. Shannon wished to be alone. She wanted to give it a black case in her traveling bag. Why didn't the girl go away? She wanted to take her by the shoulders and throw her out of the room,

Starting point is 02:27:11 yet outwardly she was calm and self-possessed. Very carefully, she turned toward the girl. It required a supreme effort not to tremble and to keep her voice from rising to a scream. Please, she said, I should like to be alone. I understand, said the girl, and left the room, closing the door behind her. Shannon crept stealthily to the door and turned the key in the lock. Then she wheeled and almost fell upon the traveling bag in her eagerness to get the small black case within it.

Starting point is 02:27:38 She was trembling from head to foot. Her eyes were wide and staring, and she mumbled to herself as she prepared the white powder and drew the liquid into the syringe. Momentarily, however, she gathered herself together. For a few seconds she stood looking at the glass and metal instrument in her fingers. Beyond it, she saw her mother's face. I don't want to do it, she sobbed. I don't want to do it, Mother. Her lowered the quiver, and tears came.

Starting point is 02:28:03 My God, I can't help it. Almost viciously, she plunged the needle beneath her skin. I didn't want to do it today, of all days, with you lying over there all alone, dead. She threw herself across the bed and broke into uncontrolled sobbing, but her nerves were relaxed, and the expression of her grief was normal. Finally, she sobbed herself to sleep,

Starting point is 02:28:23 for she had not slept at all the night before. It was afternoon she awoke, and again she felt the craving for a narcotic. This time she did not fight it. She had lost a battle. Why renew it? She bathed and dressed and took another shop before leaving her rooms, a guest suite on the second floor. She descended the stairs, which opened directly into the patio, and almost ran against the tall, broadshoulded young men and flannel shirt and riding breeches with boots and spurs. He stepped quickly back.

Starting point is 02:28:52 Miss Burke, I believe, he inquired. I am Custer Pennington. Oh, it was you who hired me, she said. No, that was my father. I'm afraid I did not thank him at all for his kindness. I must have seemed very ungrateful. Oh, no indeed, Miss Burke, he said, with a quick smile of sympathy. We all understand, perfectly.

Starting point is 02:29:12 You have suffered a severe, nervous shock? We just want to help you all we can, and we are sarned there so little we can do. I think you have done a great deal already for a stranger. Not a stranger exactly, he hastened to assure her. We were also fond of your friend of your friend. mother that we feel that her daughter can scarcely be considered a stranger. She was a very lovable woman, Miss Burke, a very fine woman.

Starting point is 02:29:34 Shannon felt tears in her eyes and turned them away quickly. Very gently, he touched her arm. Mother heard you moving about in your rooms, and she's gone over to the kitchen to make some tea for you. If you will come with me, I'll show you to the breakfast room. She'll have it ready in a jiffy. She followed him through the living room in the library of the dining room, beyond which a small breakfast room looked out toward the peaceful hills.

Starting point is 02:29:56 young pennington opened a door leading from the dining-room to the butler's pantry and called to his mother miss burke is down he said the girl turned immediately from the breakfast-room and entered to butler's pantry can't i help mrs peniton i don't want you to go to any trouble for me you have all been so good already mrs pennington laughed bless your heart dear it's no trouble the water is boiling and hannah has made some toast they were just waiting to ask you if you prefer green tea or black green if you please said shannon coming into the kitchen custer had followed her and was leaning against the doorframe this is hannah miss burke said mrs beddington i'm so glad to know you hannah said the girl i hope you don't think me a terrible nuisance hannah's a brick interposed the young man you can must around her kitchen all you want and she never gets mad i'm sure she doesn't agree shannon but people who are late to meals are a nuisance and i promise that i shan't be again i fell asleep you may change your mind about being late to meals when you learn the hour we breakfast laughed Custer. No, I shall be on time. You shall stay in bed just as late as you please, said Mrs. Peniton. You mustn't think of getting up when we do.

Starting point is 02:31:02 You need all the rest you can get. They seemed to take it for granted that Shannon was going to stay with him, instead of going to the little bungalow which had been her mother's, the truest type of hospitality, because requiring no oral acceptance, it suggested no obligation. But I can't oppose you so much, she said. After dinner, I must go down to... To...

Starting point is 02:31:22 mrs pennington did not permit her to finish no dear she said quietly but definitely you were to stay here with us until you return to the city colonel pennington has arranged with the nurse to remain with your mother's housekeeper until after the funeral please let us have our way it would be so much easier for you and it will let us feel that we have been able to do something for you shannon could not have refused if she had wished to but she did not wish to in the quiet ranch house surrounding by these strong kindly people she found a restfulness and a feeling of security that she had not believed she was ever to experience again. She had these thoughts when, under the influence of morphine, her nerves were quieted and her brain clear. After the effects had worn off, she became restless and irritable. She thought of crumb, then, under the bungalow in the vista del Paso, with his purple monkey stenciled over the patio gate.

Starting point is 02:32:11 She wanted to be back where she could be free to do as she pleased, free to sink again into the most degrading and abject slavery slavery that human vices ever devised. On the first night, after she had gone to her rooms, the Pennington's gathered in a little family living room, discussed her, as people were wanted to discuss a stranger beneath the roof. Isn't she radiant, demanded Eva. She's the most beautifulest creature I ever saw.

Starting point is 02:32:34 She looks much as her mother must have looked at the same age, commented to the colonel. There's a marked family resemblance. She is beautiful, agreed Mrs. Pennington, but I venture to say that she's looking at her worst right now. She doesn't appear at all well to me. Her complexion is very sallow, and sometimes there's as strange as expression in her eyes, almost wild. The nervous shock of her mother's death must have been very severe, but she bears up wonderfully at that,

Starting point is 02:32:59 and she is so sweet and appreciative. I sized her up over there in the kitchen today, said Custer. She's the real article. I can always tell by the way people treat a servant whether they are real people or only counterfeit. She was as sweet and natural to Hannah as she is to mother. I noticed that, said his mother. It is one of the hallmarks of good breeding, but we could scarcely expect anything else of

Starting point is 02:33:19 Mrs. Burke's daughter. I know she must be a fine character. In the room above them, Sharon Burke, with trembling hands and staring eyes, was inserting a slender needle beneath her skin above her hip. In the movies, one does not disfigure one's arms or legs. End of Chapter 13. Chapter 14 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This is the public domain, according to Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey.

Starting point is 02:33:51 The day of the funeral had come and gone. It had been a very hard one for Shannon. She had determined that on this day, at least, she would not touch the little hypodermic syringe. She owed that much respect to the memory of her mother, and she had fought. God, how she had fought! With screaming nerves that would not be quiet, with trembling muscles, or the brain that held but a single thought. Morphine.

Starting point is 02:34:11 Morphine. Morphine. She tried to shut the idea from her mind. She tried to concentrate her thoughts upon the real anguish of her heart. She tried to keep before her a vision of her mother. But her hideous, resistless vice crowded all else. from her brain, and the result was that on the way back from the cemetery, she collapsed into screaming, incoherent hysteria. They carried her to her room. Custer Pennington carried her, his father and mother following.

Starting point is 02:34:37 When the men had left, Mrs. Pennington and Ava undressed her and comforted her and put her to bed, but she still screamed and sobbed, frightful, racking sobs, without tears. She was trying to tell them to go away, how she hated them, to only go away and leave her. But she could not voice the words she sought to scream at them. and so they stayed and ministered to her as best they could. After a while she lost consciousness, and they thought that she was asleep and left her. Perhaps she did sleep,

Starting point is 02:35:05 for later, when she opened her eyes, she lay very quiet and felt rested and almost normal. She knew, though, that she was not entirely awake, that when full wakefulness came, the terror would return, unless she quickly had recourse to the little needle. In that brief moment of restfulness, she thought quickly and clearly,

Starting point is 02:35:22 and very fully on what had just happened. she had never had such an experience before. Perhaps she had never fully realized a frightful hole the drug had upon her. She had known that she could not stop, or at least she had said that she knew, but whether she had any conception of the pitiful state which enforced abstinence would reduce her as to be doubted.

Starting point is 02:35:40 Now she knew, and she was terribly frightened. I must cut it down, she said to herself. I must have been hitting it a little too strong. When I get home, I'll let up gradually until I can manage with three or four shots a day. When she came down to dinner that night, they were all surprised to see her, for they thought she was still asleep, particularly were they surprised to see no indications of her recent breakdown.

Starting point is 02:36:02 How could they know that she had just taken enough morphine to have killed any one of them? She seemed normal and composed, and she tried to infuse a little gagity into her conversation, for she realized that her grief was not theirs. She knew that their kind hearts shared something of her sorrow, but it was selfish to impose her own sadness upon them. She had been thinking very seriously, had she had she had imposed. The attack of hysteria had jarred her loose, temporarily at least, from the selfish rut that her habit and her hateful life with crumb had worn her. She recalled every emotionally ordeal through which she had passed, even to the thoughts of hate that she had held for those two sweet women at the table with her.

Starting point is 02:36:37 How could she have hated them? She hated herself for the thought. She compared herself with them, and a dull flush mounted to her cheek. She was not fit to remain under the same roof with them, and here she was sitting at her table, a respected guest. What if they should learn of the thing she was? The thought terrified her, and yet she talked on, oftentimes giggly, joining with them in the laughter that was part of every meal. She really saw them that night, as they were.

Starting point is 02:37:03 It was the first time that her grief and her selfish vice had permitted her to study them. It was her first understanding glimpse of a family life that was as beautiful as her own life was ugly. As she compared herself with the women, she compared crumb with these two men. They might have vices. They were strong men, and her own life. a few strong men are without vices she knew, but she was sure that they were the vices of strong men, which, by comparison with those of William Crumb, would become virtues.

Starting point is 02:37:29 What a pitiful creature Crum seemed beside these two, with his insignificant mentality and his petty egotism. Suddenly it came to her, almost as a shock, that she had to leave this beautiful place and go back to the sordid life that she shared with Crum. Her spirit revolted, but she knew that it must be. She did not belong here. vice must ever bar her from such men and women as these. The memory of them would haunt her always, making her punishment the more poignant to the day of her death. That evening, she and Colonel Pennington discussed her plans for the future.

Starting point is 02:38:02 She had asked him about disposing of the orchard, how she should proceed, and what she might ask for it. I should advise you to hold it, he said. He's going to increase in value tremendously in the next few years. You can easily get someone to work it for you on shares. If you don't want to live on it, Custer and I will be glad to keep an eye on it, see that as properly cared for. But why don't you stay here? You can really make a very excellent living from it.

Starting point is 02:38:25 Besides, Miss Burke, here in the country, you can really live. You city people don't know what life is. There, said Eva, Popsie had started. If he had his way, we'd all have to move to the city to escape the maddening crowd. He'd move the maddening crowd into the country. It may be that Shannon doesn't care for the country, suggested Mrs. Pennington. There are such foolish people, she added, laughing. Oh, I would love the country, exclaimed Channing.

Starting point is 02:38:49 him. Then why not you stay, urged the Colonel. I had never thought of it, she said, hesitatingly. It was indeed a new idea. Of course it was an absolute impossibility, but it was a very pleasant thing to contemplate. Possibly Miss Burke has ties in the city that she could not care to break, suggested Custer, noting her hesitation. Ties in the city? Shackles of iron, rather, she thought bitterly. But oh, it was such a nice thought. To live here, to see these people daily, perhaps be one of them, to be like them? Oh, that would be heaven. Yes, she said, I have ties in the city.

Starting point is 02:39:24 I could not remain here. I am afraid, much such I should like to. I, I think I better sell. Rubbish exclaimed the colonel. You'll not sell. You're going to stay here with us until you were thoroughly rested, and then you won't want to sell. I wish that I might, she said, but...

Starting point is 02:39:41 But nothing interrupted the colonel. You are not well, and I shouldn't permit you to leave until those cheeks are the color of evas. he spoke to her as he might have spoken to one of his children she had never known a father and it was the first time that any man had talked to her in just that way it brought the tears to her eyes tears of happiness for every woman wants to feel that she belongs to some man a father a brother or husband who loves her well enough to order her about for her own good I shall have to think it over, she said. It means so much to me to have you all want me to stay. Please don't think I don't want to. But there are so many things to consider.

Starting point is 02:40:16 I want to stay so very, very much. All right, said the colonel, it's decided. You stay. Now run off to bed, for you're going to ride with us in the morning. That means you'll have to be up at half past five. But I can't ride, she said. I don't know how. I have nothing to wear.

Starting point is 02:40:33 Evil will fit you out. And as for not knowing how to ride, You can't learn any younger. Why, I've taught half the children in the foothills to ride a horse, and a lot of grown-ups. What I can't teach you, Cousin' Ava can. You're going to start in tomorrow, my little girl, and learn how to live. Nobody who has simply survived the counterfeit life of the city knows anything about living. You wait, we'll show you.

Starting point is 02:40:56 She smiled up into his face. I suppose I shall have to mind you, she said. I imagine everyone does. Seated in an easy chair in her bedroom, she stared at the opposite, wall. The craving that she was seldom without was growing in intensity, for she had been without morphine since before dinner. She got up, unlocked her bag, and took up the little black case. She opened it and counted the powder's remaining. She had used half her supply. She could stay but three or four days longer at the outside, and the colonel wanted her to stay until her cheeks

Starting point is 02:41:26 were like Eva's. She rose and looked in the mirror. How sallowed she was. Something, she did not know what, had kept her from using ruse she had. During the first days of her grief she had not even thought of it, and then, after that evening at dinner, she knew that she could not use it here. It was a make-believe, a sham which didn't harmonize with these people or the life they led, a clean, real life in which any form of insincerity had no place. She knew that they were broad people, both cultured and travel, but she could not understand why it was that she felt that the harmless vanity of Rouge might be distasteful to them.

Starting point is 02:42:02 Indeed, she guessed that it would not. It was something fine in herself, long as well. suppressed, seeking expression. It was the same thing, perhaps, that had caused her to refuse a cigarette that Custer had offered her after dinner. The act indicated they were accustomed to having women smoke there, as women nearly everywhere smoked today. But she had refused, and she was glad she had, for she noticed that neither Mrs. Pennington

Starting point is 02:42:24 nor Eva smoked. Such women didn't have to smoke to be attractive to men. She had smoked in her room several times, for that habit, too, had a strong hold on her. But she had worked assiduously to remove the telltale stain. from her fingers. I wonder, she mused, looking at the black case, if I can get through the night without you. It would give me a few more hours here if I could, a few more hours of life before I go back to that.

Starting point is 02:42:48 Until midnight, she fought her battle, a losing battle, tossing and turning in her bed, but she'd her best before she gave up and defeat. No, not quite defeat. Let us call it compromise, for the dose she took was only half as much as she ordinarily allowed herself. The three-hour fight and the half-dose meant a partial victory. For a gain for her, she estimated, an additional six hours. At a quarter before six, she was awakened by a knock on the door.

Starting point is 02:43:13 It was already light, and she awoke with mingled surprise that she had slept so well, in vague forebodings of the next hour or so, for she was uncustomed to horses, and a little afraid of them. Who is it, she asked, and the knock was repeated. Eva, I have brought your riding things. Shannon rose and opened the door. She was going to take the things from the girl, but the letter bounced into the room, fresh and laughing. come on she cried i'll help you just pile your hair up anyhow it doesn't matter this hat'll cover it i think these breeches will fit you we're just about the same size and i don't know about the boots they may be a little large i didn't bring any spurs popple won't anyone wear spurs until they ride fairly well you'll have to win your spurs you see it's a beautiful morning just spiffy run in and wash up a bit i'll arrange everything and you'll be intimate in the jiffy she seized chinting around the waist and danced off toward the bathroom don't be long she admonished and she returned to the

Starting point is 02:44:06 dressing room from which she had laid down a barrage of conversation before the bathroom. Shannon washed quickly. She was excited at the prospect of the ride. That in the laughing, talking girl in the adjoining room gave her no time to think. Her mind was fully occupied and her nerves were stimulated. For the moment she forgot about morphine. And then it was too late. For Ava had her by the hand and she was being led, almost at a run down the stairs, through the patio,

Starting point is 02:44:30 and out over the edge of the hill down toward the stable. At first, the full-follaged umbrella trees through which the walk was, wound, concealed the stable in the crowds at the foot of the hill, but presently they broke upon her view, and she saw the horses saddled and wading, and the other members of the family. The colonel and Mrs. Pennington were already amounted. Custer and a stableman held two horses, while the fifth was tied to a ring in the stable wall. It was a pretty picture, the pulling horses with arched necks eager to be away, the happy, laughing people in their picturesque and unconventional riding close, the new day upon the nearer hills, the haze upon the farther mountains.

Starting point is 02:45:08 Fine, cried the colonel, as you saw it coming. Really never thought you'd do it. I'll wage you this is the earliest you've been up in many a day. Barbarous hour, that's what you're saying. Why, when my cousin was on here from New York, he was really shocked, said it wasn't decent. Come along, we're late this morning. You'll ride Baldi. Custry'll help you up. She stepped in a mounting block as the young man led the dancing baldy close beside it. Ever ridden much, he asked? Never in my life.

Starting point is 02:45:37 Take the reins in your left hand, so. Like this. Left hand ring coming in under your little finger, the other between your first and second fingers, and the bite out between the first and thumb. There, that's it. Face your horse. Put your left hand on the horn and you're right on the cantle.

Starting point is 02:45:53 This is the cantle back here. That's your ticket. Now put your left foot in the stirrup and stand erect. No, don't lean forward over the saddle. good, swing your right leg, knee bent, over the candle, at the same time lifting your right hand. When you come down, ease yourself into the saddle by closing on the horse with your knees. That takes the jar off both of you. Ride with a light rain.

Starting point is 02:46:15 If you wanted to slow down or stop, pull him in, don't jerk. He was holding Baldi close to the bit as he helped her and explained. He saw that her right foot found the stirrup, that she had the reins properly gathered, and then he released the animal. Immediately, Baldy began to curve it, raising both four feet simultaneously, and as they were coming down, raising his hind feet together, so that all four were off the ground at once. Shannon was terrified. Why had they put her on a bucking horse? They knew she couldn't ride.

Starting point is 02:46:43 It was cruel. But she sat there with tight-pressed lips and uttered no sound. She recalled every word that Custer had said to her, and she did not jerk, with some almost irresistible power urged her to. She just pulled, and as she pulled, she glanced around to see if they were rushing to her rescue. You. Great was her surprise when she discovered that no one was paying much attention to her, or to the mad actions of her terrifying mount. Suddenly it dawned upon her that she had neither fallen off, nor come near falling off.

Starting point is 02:47:11 She had not even lost as thorough. As a matter of fact, the motion was not even uncomfortable. It was enjoyable, and she was in about as much danger of being thrown as she would have been from a rocking chair as violently self-agitated. She laughed then, and the instant all fear left her. She saw Ava mouth from the ground and noted that the stableman was not even permitted to hold her rest of horse, much less to assist her in any other way.

Starting point is 02:47:34 Custer swung to the saddle with an ease of a long habititude. The colonel reigned to her side. We'll let them go ahead, he said, and I'll give you your first lesson. Then I'll turn you over to Custer. He and Ava can put on the finishing touches. He wants to see that you're started right, called the younger man, laughing. Popsie just wants to add another feather to his cap, said Ava. someday he'll point with pride and say,

Starting point is 02:47:56 Look at her ride. I gave her her first lesson. Here comes Mrs. Evans and Guy. As Mrs. Pennington spoke, they saw two horses rounding the foot of the hill at a brisk canter, their riders waving a cheery, long-distance greeting. That first morning ride of the Pennington's and their friends was an event in the life of Shannon Burke

Starting point is 02:48:14 that assumed the proportions of an adventure. The novelty, the thrill, the excitement filled her every moment. The dancing horse beneath her seemed to impart to her a full measure of its buoyant life. The gay laughter of her companions, the easy fellowship of young and old, the generous sympathy that made her one of them, gave her but another glimpse of the possibilities for happiness

Starting point is 02:48:34 that requires no artificial stimulus. She loved the hills. She loved the little trail winding through the leafy tunnel of the cool baronco. She loved the thrill of the shelving hillside, where the trail clung precariously in his ascent towards some low summit. She tingled with a new life and a new joy

Starting point is 02:48:51 as they broke into a gallop along a glass. Ridge. Custer and the lead reined in, raising his hand in signal for them all to stop. Look, Miss Burke, he said, pointing toward the near hillside, there's a coyote. Thought maybe you'd never seen one on its native heath. Shoot it, shoot it, cried Eva. You poor boob, why don't you shoot it? Bald is gun-shy, he explained. Oh, said Eva. Yes, of course. I forgot. One of the things you do best, returned Custer loftily. I was just going to say that you were not a boob at all. But now, I'm just going to say that you were not a boo at all. But now,

Starting point is 02:49:23 I won't. Shannon watched the gray, wolfish animal turn and trot off dejectedly until it disappeared among the brush, but she was not thinking of the coyote. She was considering the thoughtfulness of a man who could remember to forego a fair shot at a wild animal because one of the horses in his party was gun-shy and was ridden by a woman unaccustomed to riding. She wondered that this was an index to young Penitaine's character, so different from the men she had known.

Starting point is 02:49:49 It bespoke a general attitude toward women with which she was unfamiliar, a protective instinct that was chiefly noticeable in the average city man by its absence. Interspersed with snatches of conversation and intervening silences were occasional admonitions directed at her by the colonel, instructing her to keep her feet parallel to horses' sides, not to lean forward, keep her elbows down and her left forearm horizontal. I never knew there was so much to riding, she exclaimed laughingly. I thought you just got on a horse on a road. That was all there was to it. That is all there is to it to most of the people you see riding rented horses around Los Angeles,

Starting point is 02:50:21 Colonel Pennington told her. It is all there can ever be to the great majority of the people anywhere. Horsemanship is inherited in some. By others, it can never be acquired. It is an art. Like dancing, suggested Eva. In thinking, said Custer. Lots of people can go through the motions of riding or dancing or thinking,

Starting point is 02:50:40 without ever achieving any one of them. I can't even go through the motions of riding, said Shannon, ruefully. What do you need is practice, said the colonel. I can tell a born rider in half an hour, even if he's never been on a horse before in his life. You're one. I'm afraid you're making fun of me. The saddle keeps coming up and hitting me,

Starting point is 02:50:58 and I never see any of you move from yours. Guy Evans was riding close to her. No, he's not making fun of you, he whispered, leaning closer to Shannon. The colonel has paid you one of the greatest compliments in his power to bestow. He always judges people first by their morals and then by their horsemanship. But if they are good horsemen, he can make generous allowance for minor lapses in their morals. They both laughed. He's a dear, isn't he? said the girl.

Starting point is 02:51:23 He and Custer are the finest men I ever knew, replied the boy eagerly. That ride ended in a rushing gallop along a quarter mile of straight road leading to the stables, where they dismounted, flushed, breathless, and laughing. As they walked up to winding concrete walk toward the house, Shannon Burke was tired, lame, and happy. She had adventured into a new world and found it good. Come into my room and wash, said Eva, as they entered the patio. We're late for breakfast now, and we all like to sit down together.

Starting point is 02:51:50 For just an instant, and for the first time that morning, Shannon thought of the hypodermic needle in its black case upstairs. She hesitated and then resolutely turned into Ava's room. End of Chapter 14. Chapter 15 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Libravax recording is in the public domain. Recorded by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey. During the hour following breakfast that morning, while Shannon was alone in her rooms, the craving returned. The thought of it turned her sick when she felt the coming.

Starting point is 02:52:24 She had been occupying herself, making her bed and tidying the room, as she had done each morning since her arrival. But when that was done, her thoughts were referred to habit to the desire that had so fatally mastered her. While she was riding, she had had no opportunity to think of anything but the thrill of the new adventure. At breakfast, she had been very hungry, for the first time in many months, and this new appetite for food, and the gay conversation of the breakfast table had given her nerves no chance to assert their craving. Now that she was alone and unoccupied, the terrible thing clutched to her again. Once again she fought the fight that she had fought so many times of late. The fight she knew she was ordained to lose before she started fighting. She longed to win it so earnestly that her defeat was the more pitiable.

Starting point is 02:53:07 She was eager to prolong the newfound happiness to the uttermost limit, though she knew that it must end when her supply of morphine was gone. She was determined to gain a few hours each day in order that she might add at least another happy day to her life. Again she took but half her ordinary allowance, but with what anguished humiliation she performed the hated and repulsive act. Always had she loathed the habit, but never had it seemed nearly so disgusting as when performed amid these cleanly and beautiful surroundings under the same roof with such people as the Pennington's. The crypt into her mind thought that had found its way there more than once during the past two years, the thought of self-destruction.

Starting point is 02:53:45 She put it away from her, but in the depth of her soul she knew that never before had taken so strong a hold upon her. Her mother, her only tie, was gone, and no one would care. She had looked into heaven and found that it was not for her. She had no future except to return to the hideous existence of the Hollywood bungalow and her lonely boarding house into the hated grum. It was then that Ava Pennington called her. I'm going to walk up to the Berkshires, she said. Come along with me.

Starting point is 02:54:12 The Berkshires, exclaimed Shannon, I thought they were in New England. She was descending the stairs towards Ava, who stood at the foot, holding open the door that led into the patio. She welcomed the interruption that had broken in upon her morbid thoughts. The sight of the winsome figure smiling up at her dispelled them as the light of the sun sweeps away of myasmic vapors. In New England, repeated Eva. Her brows puckered, and then suddenly she broke into a merry laugh.

Starting point is 02:54:37 I meant pigs, not hills. Shannon laughed too. How many times she had laughed that day, and it was yet far from noon? Closes was the memory of her mother's death. She could laugh here with no consciousness of irreverence. Perhaps with the conviction that she was best serving the ideals that had been dear to that mother by giving and accepting happiness when opportunity offered it. I'm only sorry it's not the hills, she said, for that would mean walking, walking, walking, walking. Doing something in the open, away from people who live in cities and who could find no pleasures outside four walls.

Starting point is 02:55:10 Shannon's manner was tense. Her voice has suddenly become serious. The younger girl looked up with her with an expression of a mild surprise. "'My gracious!' cried Eva. you're getting almost as bad as Popsie, and you've only been here half a week, but how radiant if you really love it? I do love it, dear,

Starting point is 02:55:27 though I didn't mean to be quite so tragic, but the thought that I should have to go away and never enjoy it again is tragic. I hope you won't have to go, said Ava simply, slipping an arm about the other's waist. We all hope that you won't have to. They walked down the hill, past the saddle horse barn,

Starting point is 02:55:44 and along the gravel road that led to the upper end of the ranch. The summer sun beat hotly upon them, making each old sycamore and oak and walnut a delightful oasis of a refreshing shade. In the field that they left, two mowers were clicking merrily through lush alfalfa. At their right, beyond the pasture fence, gentle Guernseys lay in the shade of a widespread sycamore, a part of the pastoral allegory of content that was the Ranch of Duganato. And overall, there was the blue California sky and the glorious sun. Isn't it wonderful, Breithed Shannon, half to herself?

Starting point is 02:56:16 It makes one feel that there cannot be a care or sorrow in all the other. world. They soon reached the pens in the houses where the sleek black Berkshire is dozed in every shaded spot. Then they wandered further up the canyon, into the pastures with a great brood sow sprawled beneath the sycamores, or walled in a concrete pool shaded by overhanging boughs. They have a stooped now then to stroke a long, deep aside. How clean they are, exclaimed Shannon. I thought pigs were dirty. They are when they're kept in dirty places, the same as people. They don't smell badly. Even the pens didn't see.

Starting point is 02:56:49 smell of pig. All I noticed was a heavy, sweet odor. What was it? Something they feed them? Ava laughed. It was the pigs themselves. The more you know pigs, the better you love them. They're radiant creatures. You dear, you love everything, don't you? Pretty nearly everything, except prunes and washing dishes. They swung up through the orange grove, and along the upper road back toward the house. It was noon and lunchtime when they arrived. Shannon was hot and tired and dusty, and delighted that she opened the door at the foot of the stairs that led up to her rooms above. There, she paused. The old gripping desire had seized her.

Starting point is 02:57:26 She had not once felt it since she had passed through that door more than two hours before. For a moment, she hesitated. And then, fearfully, she turned towards Eva. May I clean up in your room, she asked? There was a strange note of appeal in Shannon's voice that the other girl did not understand. Why, certainly, she said. But is there anything to matter? You are not ill.

Starting point is 02:57:47 just a little tired there i should have never walked you so far i'm so sorry i want to be tired i want to do it again this afternoon all afternoon i don't want to stop until i'm ready to drop then seeing the surprise in eva's expression she added you see i shall be here such a short time that i want to crowd every single moment full of pleasant memories shannon thought that she had never eaten so much before as she had that morning on breakfast but at luncheon she more than duplicated her past performance there was cold chicken delicious road island and reds raised on the ranch. There was a salad of homegrown tomatoes, firm, deep-red beauties, the lettuce from the garden, Hannah's bread, with butter fresh from the churn, and tall, cool pitchers filled

Starting point is 02:58:31 with rich Guernsey milk. And then a piece of Hannah's famous apple pie, with cream so thick it would scarce pour. My, Shannon exclaimed at last, I've seen the pigs, and I have become one. And I see something dear, said Mrs. Pennington, smiling. What? Some color in your cheeks.

Starting point is 02:58:49 Not really, she cried, delighted. Yes, really. And it's mighty becoming offered to Colonel. Nothing like a brown skin and rosy cheeks for beauty. That's the way God meant girls to be, or he wouldn't have given him delicate skins and hung the sun up there to beautify them. Here, he's gone to a lot of trouble

Starting point is 02:59:04 to fit up the whole world as a beauty parlor. And what the women do? They go and find some stuffy little shop poked away where the sun never reaches it, and pay some other woman, who knows nothing about art, to paint a mean imitation of a complexion on their poor skins. They wouldn't think of hanging our chrome. in their living room, but they wear one on their faces, when the greatest artist of them all is

Starting point is 02:59:23 ready and willing to paint a masterpiece there for nothing. What a dapper little thought, exclaimed Eva. Popsie should have been a poet. Or an ad writer for a cosmetic manufacturer, suggested Custer. Oh, by the way, not changing the subject or anything, but did you hear about Slick Allen? No, they had not. Shannon pricked up her ears, metaphorically. What did these people know of Slick Allen?

Starting point is 02:59:46 He's just been sent up in L.A. for having narcotics in his business. possession. Got a year in the county jail. I guess he was a bad one, commented to the colonel, but he never struck me as being a drug addict. Nor me, but I guess you can't always tell them, said Custer. It must be a terrible habit to Mrs. Pennington. It's about as low as anyone can sing, said Custer. I hear that there's been a great increase in it since Prohibition, remarked the Colonel. Personally, I'd have more respect for a whiskey drunkard than for a drug addict, or perhaps I should better say that I feel less disrespect. A police official told me not long ago, at a dinner in town, that if drug-taking continues

Starting point is 03:00:23 to increase as it has recently, it will constitute a national menace by comparison with which the whiskey evil will seem paltry. Shannon Burke was glad when they rose from the table, putting an end to the conversation. She had plumbed the uttermost depths of humiliation. She had felt itself go hot and cold in shame and fear. At first, her one thought had been to get away, to find some excuse for leaving the Pennington's at once. If they knew the truth, what would they think of her?

Starting point is 03:00:46 not because of her habit alone, but because she had imposed upon her hospitality in the guise of decency, knowing that she was unclean and practicing her horror advice beneath their very roof, associating with their daughter and bringing them all in contact

Starting point is 03:01:00 with her moral leprosy. She had hastened to her room to pack. She knew there was an evening train for the city, and while she packed, she could be framing some plausible excuse for leaving thus abruptly. Custer Pennington called to her. Miss Burke.

Starting point is 03:01:14 She turned, her hand upon the knob of the door, to the upstairs suite. I'm going to ride over the back ranch this afternoon. Ava showed you the Berkshires this morning. Now I want to show you the Hereford's. I told the stableman to saddle Baldi for you. Will half an hour be too soon? He was standing in the north arcade of the patio,

Starting point is 03:01:32 a few yards from her, waiting for her reply. How fine and straight and clean he was. If fate had been less unkind, she might have been worthy of the friendship of such a man as he. Worthy? Was she unworthy, then? She had been just as fine and clean as Custer Pennington

Starting point is 03:01:48 until a beast had tricked her into shame. She had not knowingly embraced the vice. It had already claimed her before she knew what it was. Must she then forego all hope of happiness because of a wrong of which she herself was innocent? She wanted to go with Custer. Another day would make no difference, for the Pennington's would never know.

Starting point is 03:02:07 How could they? By what chance might they ever connect Shannon Burke with Gaza Delure? She knew well that her screen days were over, and there was no slightest likelihood that any of these people would be introduced into the bungalow of the Vista del Pazzo. Who could begrudge her just this little afternoon of happiness before she went back to Crumb? Don't tell me you don't want to come, cried Custer. I won't take no for an answer. Oh, but I do want to come, ever so much. I'll be down in the minute. Why wait half an hour?

Starting point is 03:02:37 She was in her room no more than five minutes, and during that time she sought bravely to efface all thought with a little black case, but with diabolic pertinacity, it constantly obtrue. itself, and with it came the gnawing hunger of nerves, starving for an archaic. I won't, she cried, stamping her foot. I won't. I won't. If only she can get away from the room before she succumbed to the mounting temptation. She was sure that she can fight it off for the rest of the afternoon. She had gained that much, at least, but she must keep occupied, constantly occupied, where she could not have access to it, or see the black case in which she kept the morphine.

Starting point is 03:03:13 She triumphed by running away from it. She almost hurled herself down the stage, and into the patio. Custer Pennington was not there. She must find him before the cravings dragged her back to the rooms above. Already she can feel her will weakening. It was the old, old story that she knew so well. What's the use, the voice that a tempter asked. Just the little one will make you feel so much better.

Starting point is 03:03:35 What's the use? She turned toward the door again. She had her hand upon the knob, and then she swung back and called him, Mr. Pennington. If he did not hear, she knew that she would go up into her room. was defeated. Coming, he answered from beyond the arched entrance to the patio, and then he stepped into view.

Starting point is 03:03:53 She almost ran to him. Was I very long, she asked? Did I keep you waiting? Why, you've scarcely been gone any time at all, he replied. Let's hurry, she said breathlessly. I don't want to miss any of it. He wondered why she should be so much excited at the prospect of a ride into the hills, but it pleased him that she was, and it flattered him a little, too.

Starting point is 03:04:14 He began to be a little enthusiastic over the trip, which he had planned. only as part of the generous policy of the family to keep Shannon occupied, so she might not brew too sorrowfully over her loss. And Shannon was pleased because of her victory. She was too honest at heart to attempt to deceive herself into thinking that it was any great triumph, but even to have been strong enough to have run away from the enemy was something. She did not hope that it augured any permanent victory for the future, for she did not believe that such a thing was possible.

Starting point is 03:04:42 She knew the scarce three and a hundred slaves of morphine definitely cast off their bonds this side of the grave, and she had gone too far to be one of the three. If she can keep going forever as she had that day, she might do it. But that, of course, was impossible. There must be hours when she would be alone with nothing to do but think, think, think, and what would she think about? Always the same things, the little white powder and the piece and the rest it would give her. Custer watched her as she mounted, holding Baldi beside the block for her, and again he

Starting point is 03:05:14 was pleased to know that she did not neglect the single detail of the instructions he had given her. some girl this the young man soliloquized mentally he knew she must be at least a little lame and sore after the morning ride but though he watched her face he saw no sign of it registered there game he was going to like her stir up to stir up a road slowly up the lane toward the canyon road her form was perfect she seemed to recall everything his father had told her and she said easily with no stiffness don't you want to ride faster she asked you needn't poke along on my account It's too hot, he replied, but the real reason was that he knew she was probably suffering, even at a walk. For a long time they rode in silence, the girl taking in every beauty of meadow, ravine, and hill, that she might store them all away for the days when they would be only memories. The sun beat down upon them fiercely, for it was an early August day, and there was no relieving breeze,

Starting point is 03:06:09 but she enjoyed it. It was all so different from any day in her past, and so much happier than anything in the last two years, or anything she could expect in the future. Custer Pennington, never a talkative man, was always glad of a companionship that could endure long silences. Grace had been like that with him. They can go together for hours with scarce a dozen words exchange, and yet both could talk well when they had anything to say. It was the knowledge that conversation was not essential to perfect understanding and comradeship that had rendered their intimacy delightful. The riders had entered the hills and were winding up Jackknife Canyon before either spoke.

Starting point is 03:06:44 If you tire, he said, or if it gets too hot, we'll turn back. please don't hesitate to tell me. It's heavenly, she said. Possibly a few degrees too hot for heaven, he suggested. But it's always cool under the live oaks. Anytime you want to rest, we'll stop for a bit. Which are the live oaks, she asked? He pointed to one.

Starting point is 03:07:04 Why are they called live oaks? They're evergreen. I suppose that's the reason. Here's a big old fellow. Shall we stop? And get off? If you wish. Do you think I can get on again?

Starting point is 03:07:16 "'Pennington laughed. "'I'll get you up all right. "'Still feel a little lame?' "'Who said I was lame?' she demanded. "'I know you must be, but you're mighty game.' "'I was when I started, but not anymore. "'I seem to have limbered up. "'Let's try it.

Starting point is 03:07:32 "'I want to see if I can get off from the ground, as Eva does. "'What are you smiling at? "'That's the second time in the last few seconds.' "'Was I smiling? "'I didn't know it. "'I didn't mean to.' "'What did I do? "'You didn't do anything.

Starting point is 03:07:45 "'It was something you said. You won't mind, will you, as long as you are learning to ride a horse, if I teach you the correct terminology at the same time? Why, of course not. What did I say? Was it very awful? Oh, no, but it always amuses me when I hear it. It's about getting on and off.

Starting point is 03:08:00 You get on or off a streetcar, but you mount or dismount if you're riding a horse. But I don't, chiefly in laughing, falling on and off would suit my method better. No, you mount very nicely. Now watch, and I'll show you how to dismount. Put your left hand on the horn, throw your right leg over the cantle, immediately grasping the cantle with your right hand.

Starting point is 03:08:20 Stand erect in the left stirrup, legs straight, and heels together. You see, I am facing right across the horse. Now support the weight of your body with your arms like this. Remove the left foot from the stirrup and drop to the ground, alighting evenly on both feet. That's the correct form and a good plan to follow when you're learning to ride. Afterward, one gets to swing off almost any old way. I thought one always dismounted, she suggested. from a horse.

Starting point is 03:08:45 Her eyes twinkled. He laughed. I'll have to be careful, won't I? You scored that time. Now watch me, she said. Splendid, he exclaimed, as she dropped lightly to the ground. They led their horses beneath the spreading tree and sat down on their backs to the huge bowl.

Starting point is 03:09:02 How cool it is here, remarked the girl. I can feel a breeze, though I hadn't noticed one before. There always is a breeze beneath the oaks. I think they make their own. I read somewhere that an oak evaporates about 180 gallons of water every day. That ought to make a considerable change of temperature beneath the tree on a hot day like this, and in that way it must start a circulation of air around it. How interesting! How much there is to know in the world, and how little of it most of us know.

Starting point is 03:09:27 A tree is a tree, a flower is a flower, and the hills are hills. That much knowledge of them satisfied nearly all of us. The how and the why of them we never consider. But I should like to know more. We should know all about things that are so beautiful, don't you think so? Yes, he said. In ranching, we do learn a lot that city people don't need to know. About how things grow, and what some plants take out of the soil, and what others put into it. It's part of our business to know these things, not only that we may judge the food value of certain crops, but also to keep our soil in condition to grow good crops every year.

Starting point is 03:10:00 He told her how the tree beneath which they sat drew water and various salts from the soil, and how the leaves extracted carbon dioxide from the air, taking in through myriads of minute mouths on the underside of the leaves. and have the leaves manufacture's starch and the sap carried it to the every growing part of the tree from deepest root to the tip of the loftiest twig the girl listened absorbed as she listened she watched a man's face earnest and intelligent and mentally she could not but compare him and his conversation with the men she had known in the city and their conversation They had talked to her as if she was a mental cipher, incapable of understanding or appreciating anything worthwhile. Small talk, that subverter of the ancient art of conversation. In a brief hour, Custer Pennington had taught her things that would help to make the world a little more interesting and a little more beautiful, but she could never look upon a tree again as just a tree.

Starting point is 03:10:51 It would be for her a living, breathing, almost a sentient creature. She tried to recall what she had learned from two years' association with Wilson Crum, and the only thing that she could think of was that Cromit taught her is snuff cocaine. After a while they started on again, and the girl surprised the man by mounting easily from the ground. She was very much pleased with her achievement, laughing happily at his word of approval. They rode on until they found the Hereford's. They counted them as they searched through the large pasture that ran back into the hills, and when the full number had been accounted for, they turned toward home.

Starting point is 03:11:23 As he told her about the trees, Custer told her also about the beautiful white-faced cattle, and their origin in the English county whose name they bear, and of their unequaled value as beef animals. He pointed out various prize winners as they passed them. There you are, smiling again, she said, accusingly as they followed the trail homeward. What have I done now? You haven't done anything but be very patient all afternoon.

Starting point is 03:11:46 I was smiling at the idea of how thrilling the afternoon must have been for a city girl, accustomed, I suppose, to the constant round of pleasure and excitement. I have never known a happier afternoon, she said. I wonder if you really mean that. Honestly. I am glad, he said, for sometimes I get terribly tired of it here, and I think it always does me good to have an outsider enthused a little. It brings me a realization of things we have here that city people can't have.

Starting point is 03:12:11 It makes me a little more contented. You couldn't be discontented, why there are just thousands and thousands of people in the city who would give everything to change places with you. We don't all live in the city because we want to. You are fortunate that you don't have to. Do you think so? I know it.

Starting point is 03:12:27 But it seems such a narrow life here. I ought to be doing a man's work among men, where it will count. You are doing a man's work here and living a man's life. And what you do here does count. Suppose you were making stoves or selling automobiles or bonds in the city. Would any such work count for more than all this? The wonderful swine and cattle and horses that you were raising? Your father has built a great business, and you were helping him make it greater.

Starting point is 03:12:53 Could you do anything in the city of which you could be half so proud? No, but in the city you can be half so proud? No. you might find a thousand things to do, of which you might be terribly ashamed. If I were a man, I'd like your chance. You're not consistent. You have the same chance, but you tell us that you're going back to the city. You have your grove here and a home and a good living.

Starting point is 03:13:11 You want to return to the city you invade against. I do not want to, she declared. I hope you don't then, Custer said simply. They reached the house in time for a swim before dinner. But after dinner, when they started for the ballroom to dance, Shannon threw up her hands and surrendered. I give up, she cried laughingly. I tried to be gained to the finish, and I want ever so much so much so much less dance

Starting point is 03:13:36 after I got there. Well, I doubt whether I'll be able to get upstairs without crawling. You poor child, exclaim, Mrs. Spenning, then, we've nearly killed you. I know. We were also used to long rides and walking and swimming and dancing that we don't realize how they tire unaccustomed muscles. You go right to bed, my dear, and don't think of getting up for breakfast. Oh, but I want to get up and ride if I may.

Starting point is 03:13:57 and if Ava will wake me. She's got the real stuff in her, commented the Colonel, after Shannon had bid them good night and gone to her rooms. I'll say she has, said Gustard. She's a peach of a girl. She's simply divine, added Eva.

Starting point is 03:14:11 In her room, Shannon could barely get into bed before she was asleep. End of Chapter 15. Chapter 16 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This lib ofox recording is in the public domain. Recorded by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey. It was 4 o'clock to 5 o'clock,

Starting point is 03:14:31 following morning before she awoke. The craving awoke with her. It seized her mercilessly. Yet even as she gave into it, she had the satisfaction of knowing that she had gone without the little white powders longer this time than since she had first started to use them. She took but a third of her normal dose.

Starting point is 03:14:48 When Eva knocked at half-past five, Shannon rose and dressed in frantic haste that she might escape a return of the desire. She did not escape it entirely, but she was able to resist it until she was dressed and out of reach of the little black case. That day she went with Custer and Ava and Guy to the country club, returning only in time for a swim before dinner.

Starting point is 03:15:08 And again, she fought off the craving while she was dressing for dinner. After dinner they danced, and once more she was so physically tired when she reached her rooms that she could think of nothing but sleep. The day of Golfa kept her fully occupied in the hot sun, and in such good company her mind had been pleasantly occupied too, so that she had not been troubled by her old enemy. Again it was early morning before she was forced to fight the implacable foe. She fought valiantly this time, but she lost. And so it went, day after day, she dragged out her dwindling supply and prolonged the happy hours of her all-too-brief respite

Starting point is 03:15:40 from the degradation of the life of which she knew she must soon return. Each day it was harder to think of going back, of leaving these people whom she had come to love as she loved their lives and their surroundings and taking her place again in this slifling, degrading atmosphere of the Vista del Pazza bungalow. They were so good to her,

Starting point is 03:15:57 and taking her so wholly into their family life that she felt as one of them. They shared everything with her. There was not a day she did not ride with Custer out among the brown hills. She knew that she was going to miss these rides, that she was going to miss the man, too. He had treated her as a man would like other men to treat his sister, with a respect and deference that she had never met within the city of angels.

Starting point is 03:16:19 Three weeks had passed. She had drawn out the weak supply that crumb had doled out to her to this length. There was even enough for another week, to such small quantities had she reduced the doses, and to such lengths had she increased. the intervals between them. She had gone two whole days without it, but she did not think once that she would give it up

Starting point is 03:16:36 entirely, for when the craving came in full force, she was powerless to withstand it. And she knew that she would always be so. Without realizing it, she was building up a reserve force of health that was to be her strongest ally in the battle to come. The salableness had left her. Her cheeks were tanned and ruddy. Her eyes sparkled

Starting point is 03:16:54 with the old fire and were no longer wild and staring. She could ride and walk and swim and dance with the best of them. She found interest in the work of her orchard, where she went almost daily to talk with the caretaker, to question him and to learn all as she could of citrus culture. She even learned to drive the light tractor and steer it in and out about the trees without barking them.

Starting point is 03:17:14 Every day that she was there, she went to the sunny bedroom in the bungalow, the bedroom that had been her mother's, and knelt beside the bed, and poured forth her heart and blind faith that her mother hurt. She did not grieve, for she held the sublime faith in the hereafter, which many profess and few possess,

Starting point is 03:17:30 the faith which taught her that her mother was happier than she had ever been before. Her sorrow had been in her own loss, and this she fought down as selfishness. She realized that her greatest anguish lay in vain regrets, and such thoughts she sought to stifle, knowing their uselessness. Sometimes she prayed there,

Starting point is 03:17:47 prayed for strength to cast off her bonds and her servitude. Ineffectual prayers she knew them to be, for the only power that could free her had lain within herself, and that power the drug had undermined and permanently weakened. Her will had degenerated to impotent wishes. And at a time had come when she must definitely set a date for her departure.

Starting point is 03:18:05 She had determined to retain the orchard, not alone because she had seen that it would prove profitable, but because it would always constitute a link between her and the people whom she had come to love. No matter what the future held, she could always feel that a part of her remained here, where she would that all of her might be, but she knew that she must go, and she determined to tell them on the following day that she would return to the city within the week. it was going to be hard to announce her decision for she was not blind to the fact that they have grown fond of her and that her presence meant much to eva who since grace's departure had greatly missed the companionship of a girl near her own age mrs pennington and the colonel had been a mother and a father to her and custer a big brother and a most charming companion she passed that night without recourse to the white powders but she must be frugal of them if they were to last through the week the next morning she rode to the penitons and the evans's as usual she passed that night she had been aftor the week she rode to the penitons and the evans's as usual she was She would tell them at breakfast.

Starting point is 03:18:59 When she came to the table, she found a pair of silver spurs beside her plate, and when she looked about in an astonishment, they were all smiling. For me, she cried? From the Pennington, said the colonel. You've won them, my dear. You ride like a trooper already. The girl choked, and the tears came to her eyes. They are all so lovely to me, she said, walking around the table to the colonel,

Starting point is 03:19:20 she put her arms around his neck, and standing on tiptoe, kissed his cheek. How can I ever thank you? You don't have to, child. The spurs are nothing. They are everything to me. They are a badge of honor that I don't deserve. But you do deserve them. You wouldn't have got them if you hadn't.

Starting point is 03:19:38 We might have given you something else, a vanity case or a book perhaps, but no one gets spurs from the Pennington's who does not belong. After that, she simply couldn't tell them that she was going away. She would wait until tomorrow, but she laid her plans without reference

Starting point is 03:19:51 to the hands of fate. That afternoon, immediately after luncheon, they were all seated on the patio, lazily discussing the chief topic of thought. The heat. It's one of those sultry days that are really unusual in Southern California. The heat was absolutely oppressive, and even beneath the canvas canopy that shaded the patio, there was little relief.

Starting point is 03:20:12 I don't know why we sit here, said Custer. It's cooler in the house. This is the hottest place on the ranch a day like this. Wouldn't it be nice under one of those oaks of the canyon? Suggested Shannon? They looked at her and smiled. "'Phew! It's too hot even to think of getting there!' "'That, from a Pennington, she cried in mock astonishment and reproach.

Starting point is 03:20:31 "'You meet to say that you'd ride up there through this heat?' he demanded. "'Of course I would. I haven't christened any new spurs yet.' "'I'm game, then, if you are,' Custer announced. She jumped to her feet. "'Come on, then. Who else is going?' Shannon looked around at them questioningly. Mrs. Pennington shook her head, smiling. "'Not I. Before breakfast is enough for me in the summertime.'

Starting point is 03:20:52 "'I have to dictate some letters,' said the car. Colonel. And I suppose Little Eva has to stay at home and powder her nose, suggested Custer, grinning at her sister. Little Eva's going to drive over to Conado with Guy Thackeray Evans, the famous author, said the girl. He expects an express package. His story's coming back again. Horrid, stupid old editors. They don't know a real story when they see one. I'm in it. Guy put me in. You all ought to read it. Oh, it's simply radiant. I'm Hortense, tall and willowy and very dignified. Eva made it grimace.

Starting point is 03:21:23 Yes, that's you unmistakably, said Custer, tall and willyly and very dignify. Guy's some hot baby at character delineation. Ev ignored the interruption. I spoon when the villain enters my room and carries me off. Then the hero, he's Bruce Billingham, tall and slender with curly hair. Is he very dignified too? And then the hero pursues and rescue me just as the villain is going to hurl me off a cliff. Oh, it's gourdistic.

Starting point is 03:21:51 It must be, commented, Custer. You're horrid, said Eva. You ought to have been an editor. Tall and slender with curly hair, jibed Custer. Or was it tall and curly with slender hair? Come on, Shannon. I see where we are the only real sports in the family. Hot sports is what you're going to be, I have a called after them.

Starting point is 03:22:10 The only real sports in the family. In the family. The world's thrilled her. They had taken her in, and they made her a part of their life. It was wonderful. Oh, God, if it can only last forever. It was very hot. The dust rose from the shuffling feet of their horses.

Starting point is 03:22:25 Even the Apache shuffled today. His head was low, and he did not dance. The dust settled on sweating neck and flank, and filled the eyes of the riders. Lovely day for a ride, commented Custer. Think how nice it will be under the oaks, she reminded him. I'm trying to. Suddenly he raised his head as his wandering eyes sighted a slender column of smoke

Starting point is 03:22:45 rising from behind the ridge beyond Jackknife Canyon. He reigned in the Apache. Fire, he said to the girl. wait here, I'll notify the boys and then we'll ride on the head and have a look at it. It may not amount to anything. He rolled about and was off at a run, the heat and the dust forgotten. She watched him go, erecting the saddle, swinging easily with every motion of his mount, a part of the horse. In less than five minutes, he was back.

Starting point is 03:23:11 Come on, he cried. She swung Baldi in beside the Apache, and they were off. The loose stones clattered with the iron hose. The dust rose far behind them now, and they had forgotten the heat. A short cut crossed the narrow wash that meant a jump. Grab the horn, he cried her. Give him his head. She went over, almost stirrup to stirrup, and he smiled broadly,

Starting point is 03:23:32 for she had not grabbed the horn. She had taken the jump like a veteran. She thrilled with the excitement of the pace. The horses flattened out. Their backs seemed to vibrate in a constant plane. It was like flying. The hot wind blew in her face and choked her, but she laughed and wanted to shout aloud and swing a hat.

Starting point is 03:23:49 More slowly they climbed the side of jen. jackknife, and just beyond the ridge they saw the flames leaping in a narrow ravine below them. Fortunately, there was no wind, no more than what the fire itself was making, but it was burning fiercely in thick brush. There isn't a thing to do, he told her, till the boys come with the teams and plows and shovels. It's in a mean place, too steep to plow, and heavy brush. But we've got to stop it. Presently the boys, a wagonful of them, came with four horses, two walking plows, shovels, a barrel of water, and burlap sacks.

Starting point is 03:24:19 They were all of ages from 18 to 70. Some of them have been 20 years on the ranch and have fought many a fire. They did not have to be told what to bring and what to do with what they brought. The wagon had to be left in Jackknife Canyon. The horses dragged the plows to the ridge, and the men carried the shovels and wet burlaps and buckets of water from the barrel. Custer dismounted and turning the Apache over to an old man to hold. Plow down the east side of the ravine,

Starting point is 03:24:46 trucked all the way around the south side of the fire and then back again. he directed the two men with one of the teams. I'll take the other with Jake and we'll try to cut her off across the top here. You can't do it, Cuss, said one of the older men. It's too steep. We've got to try, said Pennington. Otherwise, we'll have to go back so far

Starting point is 03:25:01 that we'd get away from us on the east side before we have made a circle. Jake, you choked the plow handles. I'll drive. Jake was a short, stock, right-headed boy of twenty with shoulders like a bull. He grinned good-naturedly. I'll choke the tar out of him, he said.

Starting point is 03:25:17 The rest of you shone. shovel and beat like hell ordered Custer. Shannon watched him as he took the reins and started the team forward, slowly, quietly. There was no yelling. They were horsemen, these men of Gannado. The great perch runs moved ponderously forward. The plow point bit deep into the earth, and the huge beast walked on as if dragging an empty wagon. When the girl saw where Custer was guiding them, she held her breath.

Starting point is 03:25:40 No, she might be mistaken. He would turn them up toward the ridge. He could not be think of trying to drive them across the steep, shelving side of the ravine? but he was they slipped and caught themselves directly below then the burning brush had become a fiery furnace if ever they failed to catch themselves nothing could save them from that hell of heat jake clinging to the plough handles stumbled and slid but the plough steadied him and the furrow saved his footing a dozen times in as many yards custer driving walked just below the plough how he kept the team going was a miracle to the girl the steep sides of the ravine seemed almost perpendicular in places with footing fit only for a goat How those heavy horses clung there was beyond her. Only implicit confidence in these men of Ganato, who had handled them from the time they were folled,

Starting point is 03:26:25 and great courage, could account for it. What splendid animals they were, the crackling of burning brush, the roaring of the flames, the almost unbearable heat that swept up to them from below, must have been terrifying. And yet only by occasional nervous side glances and unprickled ears did they acknowledge their instinctive fear of fire.

Starting point is 03:26:44 At first they had seemed to Shannon a mad thing to attempt, but as she watched and realized what Custard sought to accomplish, she understood the wisdom of it. If he could check the flames here with a couple of furrows, he might gain time to stop its eastward progress to the broad pastures filled with the tinder-dry grasses and brush of late August. Already some of the men were working with shovels

Starting point is 03:27:04 just above the furrow that the plow was running, clearing away the brush and throwing it back. Shannon watched these men, and there was not a shirker among them. They worked between the fierce heat of the sun and the fierce heat of the fire, each one of them, as if he owned the ramp. It was fine proof of loyalty, and she saw an indication of the reason for it in Custer's act when he turned the Apache over to the oldest man in order that the veteran might not be called upon to do work beyond his strength, while Young Pennington himself undertook a dangerous and difficult part in the battle. The sight thrilled her, and beside this picture she saw Wilson Crumb directing a western scene, sending mounted men over a steep cliff, while he sat in safety beside the camera, hurling taunts and insults at the poor devils who risked their lords for five dollars a day. He had killed one horse that time and sent two men to the hospital badly injured,

Starting point is 03:27:49 and the next day he had bragged about it. Now they were across the ravine and moving along the east side on safer footing. Shannon realized the tension that had been upon her nerves when a reaction followed the lessening of the strain. She felt limp and fagged. The smoke hid them from her occasionally, and it rose and cloud-like puffs. Then there would be a break in it,

Starting point is 03:28:10 and she would see the black coats of the perchrons and the figures of the sweating men. They rounded well down the east side of the ravine And then turned back again For the other team with easier going Would soon be up on that side to join its furrow with theirs They were running the second furrow just above the first And this time the work seemed safer For the horses had the first furrow below them

Starting point is 03:28:30 Should they slip A ridge of loose earth that would give them footing They were more than halfway back when it happened The off horse must have stepped upon a loose stone So suddenly did he lurch to the left striking the shoulder of his mate just as the ladder had planted his left forefoot. A ton of weight hurled against the shoulder of the near horse, threw him downward against the furrow. He tried to catch himself on his right foot, crossed his forelegs, stumbled over the ridge of newly turned earth,

Starting point is 03:28:54 and rolled down the hill, dragging his mate and the plow after him, toward the burning brush below. Jake at the plow handles and custer on the lines tried to check the horse's fall, both were jerked from their hands, and the two perch runs rolled over and over into the burning brush. A groan of dismay went up from the men. It was with difficulty that Shannon stifle to scream, but then her heart stood still, she saw Custer Pendleton lip deliberately down the hillside, drawing the long, heavy, trail-cutting knife

Starting point is 03:29:20 that he always wore on a belt with his gun. The horses were struggling and floundering to gain their feet. One of them was screaming with pain. The girl wanted to cover her eyes with her palms to show up the heart-rendering sight, but she could not take them from the figure of the man. She saw that the upper horse was so entangled with the hardness and the plow that he could not rise,

Starting point is 03:29:38 that he was holding the other down. Then she saw the man leap into the midst of the struggle, A struggling, terrifying massive horse flesh, seeking to cut the beast loose from the tangled traces of the plow. It seemed impossible that he could escape the flying hose or to tongue the flames that licked upward as if it hung her greed to seize this new prey. As Shannon washed, a great light awoke within her, suddenly revealing the unsuspected existence of a wondrous thing that had come into her life, a thing which a moment later dragged

Starting point is 03:30:03 her from her saddle and sent her stumbling down the hill into the burning ravine to the side of Custer Pennington. He had cut one horse free, seizing its head stall, dragging it to its feet, and then starting it scrambling up the hill. As he was returning to the other, the animal struggled up, crazed with terror and pain, and bolted after its mate. Penitin was directly in its path on the steep hillside. He tried to leap aside, but the horse struck him with his shoulder, hurling him to the ground,

Starting point is 03:30:28 and before he could stop his fall he was on the edge of the burning brush, stunned and helpless. Every man of them who saw the incident leapt down the hillside to save him from the flames. But quick as they were, Shannon Burke was first to his. side, vainly endeavoring to drag him to safety. An instant later, strong hands seized both Custer and Shannon and helped them up the steep acclivity, for Pettitin had already regained consciousness, and it was not necessary to carry him. Custer was badly burned, but his first thought was for the girl, and is next, when he found she was uninjured, for the horses.

Starting point is 03:30:59 They had run only a short distance and were standing on the ridge above jackknife, where one of the men had caught them. One was burned about the neck and shoulder, the other had a bad cut above the hawk, where he had struck a plow point in his struggles. Take them in and care for these wounds, Jake, said Pennington after examining them. You go along, he told another of the men, and bring out Dick and Dave. I don't like to risk them in this work, but none of the cults are steady enough for this. Then he turned to Shannon.

Starting point is 03:31:26 Why did you go down into that, he asked. You shouldn't have done it, with all the men here? I couldn't help, but she said. I thought you were going to be killed. Custer looked at her searchingly for a moment. It was a very brave thing to do, he said, and a very fervent. foolish thing. You might have been badly burned. Never mind that, she said. You had been badly burned. And you must go to the horses at once.

Starting point is 03:31:48 Do you think you can ride? He laughed. I'm all right, he said. I've got to stay here and fight this fire. You're not going to do anything of the kind. She turned and called to the man who held Pennington's horse. Please bring the Apache over here, she said. These men can fight the fire without you, she told Custer. You're going right back with me. You've never seen anyone badly burned, and you don't know how necessary it is to take care of the burns at once. He was not accustomed to being ordered about, and then amused him. Grace would never have thought of questioning his judgment in this, or any other matter.

Starting point is 03:32:19 But this girl's attitude implied that she considered the judgment faulty and his decisions of no consequence. She evidently had the courage of her convictions, for she caught up on her own horse and rode over to the men who had resumed their work, to tell them the Nacuster was too badly burned to remain with them. I told him he must go back to the house and have his burns dressed, but he doesn't want to. Maybe he would pay more attention to you if you told him. Sure, we'll tell him, cried one of them. Here comes Colonel Pennington now. We'll make him go if it's necessary.

Starting point is 03:32:48 Colonel Pennington reigned in a dripping horse beside his son, and Shannon wrote over to them. Custer was telling him about the accident to the team. Burned, was he? exclaimed the colonel. Why, damn it, man, you're burned. It's nothing, replied the younger man. It is something, Colonel, cried Shannon. Please make him go back to the house.

Starting point is 03:33:05 He won't pay any attention to me, and he ought to be cared for right away. you should have a doctor just as quickly as we can get one can you ride snap the colonel at custer of course i can ride and get out of here and take care of yourself will you go with him shannon have them called dr his rough manner did not conceal the father's concern or his deep love for his boy that it could be as gentle as a woman was evidence when he dismounted in the way that he helped custer to his saddle take care of him my dear he said to shannon i'll stay here and help the boys ask mrs pennington to send the car out with some iced water or lemonade for the them. Take care of yourself, boy, he called after them as they rode away. As the horses moved slowly along the dusty trail, Shannon, riding a pace behind the man, watched his profile for signs of pain, that she knew he must be suffering. Once, when he winced, she almost gave a little cry, as if it had been she who was tortured. They were riding very close, and she laid her hand gently upon his right arm in sympathy.

Starting point is 03:34:01 I am so sorry, she said, I know it must pain you terribly. He turned to her with a smile on his face, now white and drawn. it does hurt a little now and you did it to save those two dumb brutes i think it was magnificent guster he looked at her in mild surprise what was there magnificent about it it was my duty my father has always taught me that the ownership of animals entails certain moral obligations which no honorable man can ignore that it isn't sufficient merely to own them and feed them and house them but to serve and protect them even if it entailed sacrifice to do so i don't believe he meant that you should give your life for them she said no of course not but i'm not giving my life you might have i really didn't think there would be any danger to me he said i guess i didn't think about anything i saw those two beautiful animals who have been working there for me so bravely helpless at the end of that fire and i couldn't have helped doing what i did under any circumstances you don't know shannon how we penitence love our horses it's been bred in the bone for generations perhaps it's silly but we don't think so not that do i it's fine by the time they reached the house she could see that the man was suffering excruciating pain the stableman had gone to help the firefighters as had every able-bodied man on the ranch so that she had to help custer from the apache after tying the two horses at the stable she put an arm around him and insist on him of the long flight of steps to the house there mrs pennington and hannah came at her call and took him to his room while she ran to the office to telephone the doctor when she returned they had custer undressed and in bed they were giving such first aid as they gave to his own own and in bed they were giving such first aid as they gave to his own

Starting point is 03:35:41 could. She stood in the doorway for a moment, watching him, as he fought to hide the agony he was enduring. He rolled his head slowly from side to side as his mother and Hannah worked over him, but he stifled even a faint moan, though Shannon knew that his tortured body must be goading him and screams. He opened his eyes and saw her, and tried to smile. Mrs. Pennington turned, then, and discovered her. Please let me do something, Mrs. Pennington, if there's anything I can do. I guess we can't do much until the doctor comes. If we only had something to quiet the pain until then. If they only had something to quiet the pain, the horror of it, she had something

Starting point is 03:36:17 that would quiet the pain, but it would a frightful cost to her must she divulge it. They would know, then, the sordid story of her vice. There could be no other explanation of her having such an outfit in her possession, how they would loathe her. To see disgust in the eyes of these friends, whose good opinion was her one cherished longing, seemed to punishment too great to bear. And then there was the realization of that new force that had entered her life with the knowledge that she loved Custer Pennington. It was a hopeless love, she knew, but she might at least have had the happiness of knowing

Starting point is 03:36:47 that he respected her. Was she to be spared nothing? Was her sin to deprive her of even the respect of the man whom she loved? She saw him lying there, saw the muscles of his jaws tensing as he bowed to conceal his pain, and then she turned and ran up the stairway to her rooms. She did not hesitate again, but went directly to her bag, unlocked it, and took out the little black case.

Starting point is 03:37:09 Carefully she dissolved a little of the white powder, a fraction of which she could have taken without danger of serious results, but enough to allay his suffering until the doctor came. She knew that this was at the end, that she might not remain under that roof another night. She drew the liquid through the needle into the glass barrel of the syringe, wrapped it in her handkerchief, and descended the stairs. She felt as if she moved in a dream.

Starting point is 03:37:31 She felt that she was not Shannon Burke at all, but another whom Shannon Burke watched with pitying eyes, for it did not seem possible that she could enter that room and before his eyes and Mrs. Pennington's and Hannah's revealed the things she came. carried in her handkerchief. Ah, the pity of it. To realize her first love, and in the same hour,

Starting point is 03:37:47 to slay the respect of its subjects with her own hand, if she entered the room with a brave step, fearlessly. Had he not risked his life for the two dumb brutes he loved? Could she be less courageous? Perhaps, though, she was braver, for she knowingly surrendered what was dearer to her than life. Mrs. Pennington turned toward her as she entered. He has fainted, she said, my poor boy.

Starting point is 03:38:09 Tear stood in his mother's eyes. He is not suffering then? asked Shannon, trembling. Not now. For his sake. I hope he won't recover consciousness until after the doctor comes. Shannon Burke staggered and would have fallen had she not grasped the frame of the door. It was not long before the doctor came, and then she went back up the stairs to her rooms, still trembling. She took the filled type of the syringe from her handkerchief and looked at it, then she carried it into the bathroom. You can never tempt me again, she said. aloud as she emptied its contents into the lavatory.

Starting point is 03:38:42 Oh dear God, I love him. End of Chapter 16. Chapter 17 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This lib ofox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. That night, Shannon insisted upon taking her turn at Custer's bedside, and she was so determined that they could not refuse her. He was still suffering, but not so acutely.

Starting point is 03:39:12 The doctor had left morphine, with explicit directions for his bedside. administration should be required. The burns, while numerous, and reaching from his left ankle to his cheek, are superficial, and, though painful, not necessarily dangerous. He had slept but little, and when he was awake, he wanted to talk. He told her about Grace. It was his first confidence, a sweetly sad one, for he was a reticent man concerning those things that were nearest his heart and consequently the most sacred to him.

Starting point is 03:39:40 He had not heard from Grace for some time, and her mother had but one letter, a letter that had not sounded like Grace at all. They were anxious about her. I wish she would come home, he said wistfully. You would like her, Shannon. We could have such bully times together. I think I would be content here if Grace were back. But without her, it seems very different and very lonely.

Starting point is 03:40:00 You know, we have always been together, all of us, since we were children. Grace, Eva, Guy, and I. And now that you are here, it would be all the better, for you are just like us. You seem like us, at least. As if you had always lived here, too. It's nice to have you say that, but I haven't always been here, and really, you know I don't belong. But you do belong. And I'm going away again pretty soon.

Starting point is 03:40:25 I must go back to the city. Please don't go back, he begged. You don't really have to, do you? I had intended telling you all this morning, but after the spurs, I couldn't. Do you really have to go? Custer insisted? I don't have to, but I think I ought to. Do you want me to stay, honestly?

Starting point is 03:40:43 "'Honest Injun,' he said, smiling. "'Maybe I will.' He reached over with his right hand and took hers. "'Oh, will you?' he exclaimed. "'You don't know how much we want you. All of us.' It was precisely what he might have done or said to Eva in boyish affection and comradeship. "'I'm going to stay,' she announced. "'I've made up my mind.

Starting point is 03:41:04 "'As soon as you are well, I'm going to move down to my own place and really learn to work for it. "'I'd love it. "'And I'll come down to help you with what little I know about oranges.' Father will, too. We don't know much. Citrus growing is a little out of our line, though we have a small orchard here, but we'll give you the best we've got.

Starting point is 03:41:21 And it'll be fine for Eva. She loves you. She cried the other day, the last time you mentioned in earnest that you might not stay. She's a dear. She is all of that, he said. We've always had our fights. I suppose all brothers and sisters do.

Starting point is 03:41:35 And we kid one another a lot. But there never was a sister like Ava. Just let anyone else say anything against me. They'd have a fight on their hands right there if he ever was around. And sunshine. The old place seems like a morgue every time she goes away.

Starting point is 03:41:48 She worships you, Custer. She's a brick. He could have voiced no higher praise. He asked about the fire, and especially about the horses. He was delighted when she told him that a man had just come down to say the fire was practically out,

Starting point is 03:42:01 and the colonel was coming in shortly, and that the veterinary had been there and found the team not seriously injured. I think that fire was incendiary, he said. But now that Slick Allen is in jail, I don't know who would have said it. Who is slick Alan? She asked, and why should he want to set fire at Tiganado?

Starting point is 03:42:18 He told her, and she was silent for a while, thinking about Alan and the last time she had seen him. She wondered what he would do when he got out of jail. She would hate to be in Wilson Crum's boots then, for she guessed that Alan was a hard character. While she was thinking of Alan, Custer mentioned Guy Evans. Instantly there came to her mind, for the first time since that last evening at the Vista del Pazzo Bungalow, Crum's conversation with Alan and the latter's account of the disposition

Starting point is 03:42:42 of the stolen whiskey. His very words returned to her. Got a young high blood at the edge of the valley handling it, a fellow by the name of Evans. She had not connected Alan or that conversation

Starting point is 03:42:54 or the Evans he had mentioned with these people, but now she knew it was Guy Evans who was disposing of the stolen liquor. She wanted that Alan would return to this part of the country after he was released from jail. If he did and saw her,

Starting point is 03:43:06 he would be sure to recognize her, for he must have had to have features impressed upon his memory by the fact that she so resembled someone he had known. If he recognized her, would he expose her? She did not doubt that he would. The chances were that he would attempt to blackmail her, but, worst of all, he might tell Crumb where she was. That was the thing she dreaded most, seeing Wilson Crum again or having him discover her

Starting point is 03:43:28 whereabouts, for she knew that he would leave no stone unturned and hesitate to stoop to no dishonorable act to get her back again. She shuddered when she thought of him, a man whose love, even, was dishonorable and dishonoring thing. Then she turned her eyes to the face of the van, lying there on the bed beside which she sat. He would never love her, but her love for him had already ennobled her. If the people of her old life did not discover her hiding place, she could remain here on her little grove, near Ganada, and see Custer often, nearly every day.

Starting point is 03:43:59 He would not guess her love, no one would guess it, but she should be happy just to be near him. Even if Grace returned, it would make no difference. even if Grace and Custer were married. Shanna knew that he was not for her. No honorable man was for her after what she had been, but there was no moral law to be transgressed by her secret love for him. She felt no jealousy for Grace. He belonged to Grace, and even had she thought she might win him,

Starting point is 03:44:23 she would not have attempted it, for she had always held in contempt by those who infringed selfishly upon settled affections. It would be hard for her, of course, when Grace returned, but she was determined to like her, even to love her. She would be untrue to this new love that had transfigured her should she fail to love what he loved. Custer moved restlessly. Again he was giving evidence of suffering.

Starting point is 03:44:46 She laid the cool palm upon his forehead and stroked him. He opened his eyes and smiled up at her. It's bully of you to sit with me, said, but you ought to be in bed. You've had a pretty hard day, and you're not as used to it as we are. I am not tired, she said, and I should like to stay, if you would like to have me. He took her hand from his forehead and kissed it. Of course, I'd like to have you here, Shannon. You're just like a sister.

Starting point is 03:45:10 It's funny, isn't it, that we should all feel that way about you, and we've only known you for a few weeks? Must have been because of the way you fitted in. You belonged right from the start. You were just like us. She turned her head away suddenly, casting her eyes upon the floor and biting her lip to keep back the tears. What's the matter, he asked.

Starting point is 03:45:29 I am not like you, Custer, but I have tried hard to be. Why aren't you like us? He demanded. I... Why. I couldn't ride a horse, she explained lately. Don't make me laugh, please. My face is burnt.

Starting point is 03:45:43 He pleaded in mock irony. Do you think that's all we know, or think of, or possess, our horsemanship? We have hearts and minds, such as they are, and souls, I hope. It was of these things I was thinking. I was thinking, too, that we Pennington's demand a higher standard in women than is customary nowadays. We're a little old-fashioned, I guess. We want the blood of our horses and the minds of our women pure.

Starting point is 03:46:05 Here's a case and point, I can tell you, because you don't know the girl and never will. She was the daughter of a friend of Cousin William, our New York cousin. She was spending the winter in Pasadena, and we had her out here on Cousin Williams' account. She was a pippin of a looker, and I supposed to was all right morally,

Starting point is 03:46:21 but she didn't have a clean mind. I discovered it about the first time I talked to her alone, and then Ava asked me a question about something that she couldn't have known about at all except through this girl. I didn't know what to do. She was a girl, and so I couldn't talk about her to anyone, not even my father or mother, but I didn't want her around Ava.

Starting point is 03:46:39 I wonder if I was just a narrow prig, and if, after all, there was nothing that anyone need take exception to in the girl. I got to analyzing the thing, and I came to the conclusion that I would be ashamed of Mother and Ava if they had talked or thought along such lines. Consequently, it wasn't right to expose Ava to that influence. That was what I decided, and I don't just think I was right. I know it was. And what did you do, Shannon asked in a very small voice? I did what under any other circumstance would have been unpardonable. I went to the girl and asked her to make some excuse that would terminate her visit.

Starting point is 03:47:11 It was a very hard thing to do, but I would do more than that. I would sacrifice my most cherished friendship for Eva. And the girl, did you tell her why you asked her to go? I didn't want to, but she insisted, and I told her. Did she understand? She did not. They were silent for some time. Do you think I did wrong? he asked.

Starting point is 03:47:33 No, there is a mental virtue as well as physical. This is as much your duty to protect your sister's mind as to protect her body. I knew you'd think as I do about it, but let me tell you it was an awful jolt of the cherished Pennington hospitality. I hope I never have to do it again. I hope you never do. He commenced to show increasing signs of suffering presently, and then he asked for morphine. I don't want to take it unless I have to, he explained. No, she said, do not take it unless you have to.

Starting point is 03:48:02 She prepared and administered it, but she felt no desire for it herself. Then Ava came to relieve her, and she bade them good night and went up to bed. She woke about 4 o'clock in the morning, and immediately thought of the little black case, but she only smiled, turned over, and went back to sleep again. End of Chapter 17. Chapter 18 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey.

Starting point is 03:48:33 It was several weeks before Custer could ride again, and in the meantime, Shannon had gone down to her own place to live. She came up every day on Baldi, who had been alone to her until Custer could be able to select a horse for her. She insisted that she would own nothing but a Morgan, that she wanted one of the Apache's brothers. You'll have to wait then until I can break one for you, Custer told her. There are a couple of four-year-olds that are saddle broke and broadwise in a way, but I wouldn't want you to ride either of them until they had the finishing touches. I want to write them enough to learn their faults if they have had to be. have any. In the meantime, you just keep baldy down there and use him. How's ranching? You look as

Starting point is 03:49:09 if it agreed with you. Nobody'd know you for the same girl. You look like an Indian and how your cheeks have filled out. The girl smiled happily. I never knew before what it was to live, she said. I've never been sickly, but on the other hand, I never felt health before, to know it was a tangible, enjoyable possession that one experienced and was conscious of every moment. People filled themselves with medicines or drugs or liquors to induce temporarily a poor imitation to what they might enjoy constantly if they only would. A man who thinks that a drink is the only thing

Starting point is 03:49:38 that can make one feel like shouting and waving one's hat should throw a leg over one of your morgans before breakfast, one of these cool September mornings and give him his head and let him go. Oh boy, she cried. There's intoxication for you. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes dancing. She was a picture of life and health and happiness,

Starting point is 03:49:55 and Custer's eyes were sparkling too. Gee, he exclaimed, you're a regular Pennington. I wish I were of the girl thought to herself. You honor me was what she said aloud. Custer laughed. That sounded rotten, didn't it? But you know what I meant.

Starting point is 03:50:10 It's nice to have people whom we like, like the same things we do. It doesn't necessarily mean that we think our likes are the best in the world. I didn't mean to be egotistical. Ava had just entered the patio. Listen to him, the radiant child, she exclaimed. Do you know, Shannon, the dear little brother just hates himself? She walked over and perched on his knee and kissed him. Yes, said Cudgeon.

Starting point is 03:50:30 brother hates himself. He spends hours powdering his nose. Mother found a lipstick and an eyebrow pencil, or whatever you call it, in his dressing table recently. When he goes to LA, he has his eyebrows plucked. Ava jumped from his knee and stamped your foot. I never had my eyebrows plucked, she cried. They're naturally this way. Why the excitement, little one? Did I say you did have them plucked? Well, you tried to make Shannon think so. I got the lipstick and the other things, so if we have any amateur theatricals this winter, I'll have them. Do you know, I think I'll go on the stage or the screen. Wouldn't it be splicious, though?

Starting point is 03:51:04 Miss Ava Pennington is starring in the new and popular success based on a story by Guy Thackeray Evans, the eminent author. Eminent? He isn't even eminent, said Custer. Oh, Ava, cried Shannon, genuine concern in her tone. Surely you wouldn't think of the screen, would you? You're not serious. Oh, yes, said Custer. She's serious. Serious is her middle name. Tomorrow she will want to be a painter, and day after tomorrow are the world's most celebrated harpist.

Starting point is 03:51:30 Ava is nothing, if not serious. While her tenacity of purpose is absolutely inspiring. Why, once for one whole day, she wanted to do the same thing. Ava was laughing with her brother and Shannon. If she were just like everyone else, you wouldn't love your little sister anymore, she said, running her fingers through his hair. Honestly, ever since I met Wilson Crum, I have thought I should like to be a movie star. Wilson Crum, explained Shannon. What do you know Wilson Crum?

Starting point is 03:51:58 Oh, I've met him, said Ava airily. Don't you envy me? What do you know about him, Shannon? asked Custer. Your tone indicated that you may have heard something about him that wasn't complimentary. No, I don't know him. It's only what I've heard. I don't think you'd like him. Shannon almost shuddered to the thought of this dear child ever so much as knowing Wilson Crum.

Starting point is 03:52:18 Oh, Ava, she cried impulsively. You mustn't even think of going into pictures. I lived in Los Angeles long enough to learn that the life is oftentimes a hard one, filled with disappointment, disillusionment, and regrets. principally regrets. And Grace is there now, said Kuster in a low voice, a worried look in his eyes. Can't you persuade her to return? He shook his head.

Starting point is 03:52:39 It wouldn't be fair, he said. She's trying to succeed, and we ought to encourage her. It's probably hard enough for her at best, without all of us suggesting antagonism to her ambition, by constantly urging her to abandon it, so we try to keep our letters cheerful. Have you been to see her since she left? No, I know you haven't. If I were you, I'd run down to L.A., It might mean a lot to her, Custer.

Starting point is 03:53:00 It might mean more than you can guess. The girl spoke from a full measure of bitter experience. She realized what it might have meant to her had there been some man like this to come and see her when she had needed a strong arm of a clean love to drag her from the verge of the mire. She would have gone away with such a man, gone back home, and thanked God for the opportunity. If Grace loved Custer and was encountering the malign forces that had arisen from their own corruption to clawed shannon skirts, she would come back with him. On the other hand, should conditions be what they ought to be? And what they are in some studios, Custer would return with a report that would lift the load from the hearts of all of them,

Starting point is 03:53:36 while it left Grace encouraged and inspired by the active support of those most dear to her. What it would mean to Shannon, in either event, the girl did not consider. Her soul was above jealousy. She was prompted only by a desire to save another from the anguish she had endured, and to bring happiness to the man she loved. You really think I ought to go, Custer asked. You know, she has insisted that none of us. should come. She said she wanted to do it all on her own without any help. Grace is not only very

Starting point is 03:54:03 ambitious, but very proud. I'm afraid she might not like it. I wouldn't care what she liked, said Chanon. Either you or guys should run down there and see her. You're the two men most vitally interested in her. No girl should be left alone in Hollywood without someone to whom they can look for for the right sort of guidance and, and protection. I believe I'll do it, said Guster. I can't get away right now, but I run down there before I go on to Chicago with a show her. for the International. It was shortly after this that Custer began to ride again, and Shannon usually rode with him.

Starting point is 03:54:36 Unconsciously he had come to depend upon our companionship more and more. He had been drinking less on account of it, for I had broken a habit which he had been forming since Grace's departure, that of carrying a flask with him on his lonely rides through the hills. As a small boy, he had been Custer's duty, as well as his pleasure, to ride fence. He had continued to custom long after he might have been assigned to an employee, not only because it meant long, pleasant hours in the saddle of grace, but also to get firsthand knowledge of the condition of the pastures and the herds,

Starting point is 03:55:02 as well as of the fences. During his enforced idleness, while recovering from his burns, the duty had devolved not to Jake. On the first day that Custer took up to work again, Jake had called his attention to a matter that had long-minute subject of discussion and conjecture on the part of the employees. Something funny going on back in them hills, said Jake. I've seen fresh signs every week of horses and burrows coming and going.

Starting point is 03:55:25 Sometimes they trail through El Camino Largo, and again through Corto. And they've even been down the old goat corral once, plumbed through the ranch and out the west gate. But what I can't tell for sure is whether they come in and go out or go out and come in.

Starting point is 03:55:39 Whoever does it is Foxy, the two trails never cross, and they must be made within a few hours of each other, for I'm not injured enough to tell which is freshest. The ones come into Ganato or the ones going out.

Starting point is 03:55:50 And then they must it up by dragging brush, so it's hard to tell how many they'd be of them. It's got me. They head for Jackknife, don't they? Asked Custer. Sometimes, and sometimes they go straight up Sycamore and again they head in or out of a half dozen different little Broncos coming down from the east.

Starting point is 03:56:06 But sooner or later I lose them. Can't never follow them in no place in particular. Looks like as if they split up. Maybe it's only greasers from the valley coming up after firewood at night. Maybe, said Jake, but that don't sound reasonable. I know it doesn't, but I can't figure out what else it can be. I found a trail up above Jack.

Starting point is 03:56:25 night last spring, and maybe that had something to do with it. I'm sure got to follow that up. The trouble has been that it doesn't lead where the stock ever goes, and I haven't had time to look into it. Do you think they come up here regularly? We've got it doped out that it's always Friday nights. I see the track Saturday mornings, and some of our boys said they heard them coming along around midnight a couple of times. What gates did they go out by?

Starting point is 03:56:48 They use all four of them at different times. Hmm. Padlock all the gates tomorrow. This is Thursday. Then we'll see what happens. They did see, and for on the following Saturday, when Custer Road Fence, he found it cut close by one of the padlock gates, the gate that opened into the mouth of Horse Camp Canyon. Shannon was with him, and she was much excited at this evidence of mystery so close to home.

Starting point is 03:57:10 What in the world do you suppose they could be doing, she asked. I don't know, but it's something they shouldn't be doing, or they wouldn't go to so much pains to cover their tracks. They evidently passed in and out at this point, but they've brushed out their tracks on both sides, so that we can't tell which way they went last. Look here. On both sides of the fence, the trail splits. It's hard to say which was made first, or where they passed through the fence.

Starting point is 03:57:31 One track must have been on top of the other, but they've brushed it out. He had dismounted and was on his knees, examining the spore beyond the fence. I believe, he said presently, that the fresher trail is the one going toward the hills, although the other one is heavier. Here's a rabbit track that lies on top of the track of the horse's hoof pointed toward the valley. And over here a few yards, the same rabbit track is obliterated by the tracks of horses and burrows coming up from the valley. The rabbit must have come across here after they went down,

Starting point is 03:57:59 stepping on top of their tracks, and when they came up again and they crossed on top of his. That's pretty plain, isn't it? Yes, but the tracks going down are much plainer than those going up. Wouldn't that indicate that they're fresher? That's what I thought until I saw this evidence introduced by Brer Rabbit, and it's conclusive, too. Let's look along here a little further.

Starting point is 03:58:18 I have an idea that I have an idea. One of Ava's dapper little ideas, perhaps? He bent close above first one trail and then another, following them down toward the valley. Shannon walked beside him, leading Baldi. Sometimes as they knelt above the evidence imprinted in the dusty soil, their shoulders touched. The contact thrilled the girl with sweet delight, and the fact that it left him cold did not sadden her. She knew that he was not for her. It was enough that she might be near him and love him.

Starting point is 03:58:46 She did not want him to love her. That would have been the final tragedy of her life. For the most part, the trail was obliterated by brush. which seemed to have been dragged behind the last horse. But here and there was the imprint of a hoof of a horse, or, again, of a burrow, so the story that Custer pieced out was reasonably clear, as far as it went. I think I've got a line on it, he said presently.

Starting point is 03:59:06 Two men rode along here on horses. One horse was shot, the other was not. One rider went ahead, the other brought up the rear, and between them were several burrows. Going down, the burrows carried heavy loads. Coming back, they carried nothing. How do you know all that? she asked rather incredulously. I don't know it, but it seems the most logical deduction from these tracks.

Starting point is 03:59:26 It is easy to tell the horse tracks from those of the burrows, and to tell that there were at least two horses, because it is plain that a shot horse and an unshot horse passed along here. That one horse, the one with shoes, went first as evident from the fact that you always see the imprints of burrow hoofs, or the hosts of an unshot horse, are both superimposed on his. That the other horse brought up the rear is equally plain from the fact that no other tracks lie on top of it. But if you will look close and compare several of these horse tracks,

Starting point is 03:59:52 you'll notice that there is little or no difference in the appearance of these leading in the valley and those leading out. But you can see that the burrow tracks leading down and more deeply imprinted than those leading up. To me, that means that those burrows carried heavy loads down and came back light. How does it sound?

Starting point is 04:00:06 It's wonderful, she exclaimed. It is all that I can do to see that anything has been along here. It's not wonderful, he replied. An experienced tracker would tell you how many horses there were, how many burrows, how many hours had elapsed since they came down from the hills, and how many since they returned, and the names of the grandmothers of both writers.

Starting point is 04:00:24 Shannon laughed. I'm glad you're not an experienced tracker then, she said. For now, I can believe what you have told me, and I still think it is very wonderful and very delightful, too, to be able to read stories, true stories, and the trampled dust where men and animals have passed. There's nothing very remarkable about it. Just look at the Apache's hoof prints, for instance.

Starting point is 04:00:42 See how the hind differs from the fore? Custer pointed to them as he spoke, calling attention to the fact that the Apache's hind shoes were squared off at the toe. And now compare them with Baldies, he said. See how different the two hoof prints are? Once you know them, you can never confuse one with the other. But the part of the story that would interest me most, I can't read. Who they are, what they were packing out of the hills on these burrows,

Starting point is 04:01:03 where they came from, and where they went. Let's follow down and see where they went in the valley. The trail must pass right by the Evans' Haybarn. The Evans' Hay barn, a great light illuminated Channing's memory. Alan had said that last night at the bungalow that the contraband whiskey was hauled away out of truck, that it was concealed beneath hay, and that a young man named Evans handled it. What was she to do? She did not reveal this knowledge to Custer, because she could not explain how she came into possession of it. Nor for the same reason, because she warned Guy Evans,

Starting point is 04:01:33 had she thought that necessary, which she was sure it was not, since Custer would not expose him. She concluded that all she can do was to let events take their own course. She followed Custer as he traced to partially obliterate tracks through a field of Barley Stubble, A hundred yards west of the hay barn, the trail entered on the Macadam Road at right angles, and there it disappeared. There was no telling whether the little caravan had turned east or west, for it left no spoor upon the hard surface of the paved roads. Well, Watson, said Custer turning to her with a grin.

Starting point is 04:02:02 What do you make of this? Nothing. Nothing? Watson, I am surprised. Not that do I. He turned his horse back toward the cut fence. There's no use looking any further in this direction. I don't know if it seemed worthwhile following the trail back into the hill.

Starting point is 04:02:16 for the chances are that they will have it well covered. What I'll do is lay for them next Friday night. Maybe they're not up to any mischief, but it looks suspicious, and if they are, I'm going to catch them here with the goods, then follow them up into the hills, where about all I'd accomplished would probably be to warn them that they were being watched. I'm sorry now I had these gates locked, for we'll have put them on their guard.

Starting point is 04:02:36 We'll just fix up this fence, and then we'll ride about and take all the locks off. On the way home, an hour later, he asked Shannon not to say anything about their discovery or his plan to watch for the mysterious pack train the following front. It would only excite the folks needlessy, he explained. The chances are that there will be some simple explanation when I meet up with these people. As I told Jake, they may be greasers who work all the week and come up here at night for firewood.

Starting point is 04:02:58 Still, more likely, it's people who don't know that they can get permission to gather dead wood for the asking and think they are stealing it. Putting themselves to a lot of trouble for nothing, I'd say. You'll not wait for them alone, she asked, for she knew what he did not. But there were probably unscrupulous rascals who would not hesitate to commit any crime if they thought themselves in danger of discovery. Why not, he asked. I don't want to ask them what they are doing on Ganato,

Starting point is 04:03:22 and why they cut our fence. Please don't, she begged. You don't know who they are or what they've been doing. They might be very desperate men for all we know. All right, he agreed. I'll take Jake with me. Why don't you get Guy to go along, too, she suggested, for she knew that he would be safer if Guy knew of his intention,

Starting point is 04:03:39 since there would be little likelihood of his meeting the men. No, he replied. Guy would have to have a big campfire, an easy chair, and a package of cigarettes who's going to sit up that laid out in the hills. Jake's the best for that sort of work. Guy isn't a bit like you, is he? she asked. He's lived right here and led the same sort of life, yet it doesn't seem to be a part of it as you are.

Starting point is 04:03:59 Guy's a dreamer, and it likes to be comfortable all the time, laughed Custer. They're all that way a little. Mr. Evans was, so father says. Eda while we were all kids. Mrs. Evans likes to take it easy too, and even Grace wasn't much on roughing it, though she could stand more than the others. None of them seemed to take it

Starting point is 04:04:15 way you do. I never saw anyone else but a Pennington such a glutton for the saddle and the outdoors as you are. I don't like him any less for it, he hastened to add. It's just the way people are, I guess. The taste for such things is inherited. The Evans' up to this generation all came from the city, the Pennington's, all from the country. Father thinks that horsemen, if not the descendants of a distinct race, at least spring from some common ancestors who inhabit great plains and were the original stock raisers of the human race. He thinks they mingle with the hill and the mountain people, who also become horsemen through them, but that the forest tribes and the maritime races

Starting point is 04:04:48 were separate and distinct. It was the last who built the cities, which the horsemen came in from the plains in Concord. But perhaps God would like the adventure of it, she insisted. It might give him material for a story. I'm going to ask him. Please don't. The less said about it the better,

Starting point is 04:05:05 for if it's talked about, it may get to the men I want to catch. War travels fast in the country, just as we don't know who these men are or what they're doing, now that do we know with someone that may be on friendly terms with our employees, or the Evans' or yours. The girl made no reply. You won't mention it to him, please, Custer insisted. Not if you don't wish it, she said.

Starting point is 04:05:26 They were summoned for a time, each absorbed in his or her own thoughts. The girl was seeking to formulate some plan that would prevent a meeting between Custer and Allen's Confederates, who she was sure with the owners of the mysterious pack train, while the man indulged in futile conjectures as to their identity and the purpose of their nocturnal expeditions. That trail above Jackknife Canyon is the key to the whole business, he declared presently. I'll just lay low until after Friday night, so as not to arouse their suspicions, and then, no matter what I found out, I'll ride that trail to its finish, if it takes me clear to the ocean.

Starting point is 04:05:56 They had reached the fork in the road, one branch of which led down to Shannon's bungalow, the other to the Conado's saddle horse stables. I'll fight you're coming up to lunch, said, Custer, as Shannon rained her horse into the west road. Not today, she said. I'll come to dinner, if I may, though. We'll miss you when you're not there, he said. how nice now i'll surely come and this afternoon will you ride with me again i'm going to be very busy this afternoon she replied her face dropped and then almost immediately he laughed i haven't realized how much of your time i've been demanding why you ride with me every day and now you want an afternoon off i start moping i'm afraid you've spoiled me but you mustn't let me be a nuisance i ride with you because i like to she replied i should miss our rights terribly if anything should occur to prevent them Let's hope nothing will prevent them.

Starting point is 04:06:44 I'm afraid I'll be lost without you now, Shannon. You can never know what it is meant to me to have you here. I was sort of going a pot after Grace left, blue and discouraged and discontented, and I was drinking too much. I don't mind telling you because I know you'll understand. You seem to understand everything. Having you to ride with and talk to pulled me together.

Starting point is 04:07:02 I owe you a lot, so don't let me impose on your friendship and your patience. Anytime you want an afternoon off, he concluded, laughing. Don't be afraid to ask for it. I'll see that you get it with full pay. I don't want any afternoons off because I enjoy the rides as much as you, and they have meant even more to me. I intend to see that nothing prevents them if I can. She was touched and pleased with Custer's sudden burst of confidence, and thankful for whatever had betrayed him into one of those rare revelations of his heart. She wanted to be necessary to him, in the sweet, unemotional way of friendship, so that they might be together without embarrassment or constraint.

Starting point is 04:07:36 They had been standing at the fork, talking, and now, as she started Baldi again in the direction of her own place, Custer reigned the Apache to accompany her. You didn't come down with me, she said. It's nearly lunchtime now, and would only make you late. But I want to. No, she shook her head. You go right home. Please.

Starting point is 04:07:54 This is my afternoon off, she reminded him, and I'd really rather you wouldn't. All right. I'll drive down in the car early, and we'll have a swim before dinner. Not too early. I'll telephone you when I'm ready. Goodbye. He waved his hat as she cantered off, and then sat the Apache for a month. watching her. How well she rode. What grace and ease in every motion of that supple body.

Starting point is 04:08:17 He shook his head. Some girl, Shannon, he mused aloud as he wheeled the Apache and rode toward the stables. End of Chapter 18. Chapter 19 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This live-provoked's recordings in the public domain. Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. Shannon Burke did not ride to her home after she left Custer. She turned toward the west of the road above the Evans Place, continued on to the mouth of Horse Camp Canyon, and entered the hills. For two miles, she followed the canyon trail to El Camino Largo, and there, turning to the left, she followed this other trail east to Sycamore Canyon. Whatever her mission, it was evident that she did not wish known to others. Had she not wished to conceal it, she might have ridden

Starting point is 04:09:04 directly up Sycamore Canyon from Ganato, with the saving of several miles. Crossing Sycamore, she climbed to low hills, skirting its eastern side. There was no trail. trail here, and the brush was thick and oftentimes so dense that she was forced to make numerous detours to find a way upward. But at last she rode out upon the western rim of the basin and meadow below Jackknife. Thence she picked her way down to more level ground, and, putting spurs to Baldi, galloped east, her eyes constantly scanning the ground just ahead of her. Presently she found what she sawed, a trail running north and south across the basin. She turned Baldy into it and headed him south towards the mountains. She was nervous and inwardly terrified.

Starting point is 04:09:43 and a dozen times she would have turned back as she knocked an urge down by a power, infinitely more potent than self-interest. Personally, she had all to lose by the venture and not to gain. The element of physical danger she knew to be far from inconsiderable, while it appalled her to contemplate the after-effects, in the not-in-conceivable contingency of the discovery of her act by the Penningtons. Yet she urged Baldy steadily onward, though she felt her flesh creep as the trail entered a narrow bronco at the southern extremity of the meadow,

Starting point is 04:10:10 and wound upward through Deschamperell, which shut off a range of vision in all directions for more than a few feet. At the upper end of the Bronco, the trail turned back and ascended the steep hillside, running diagonally upward through heavy brush, without which, she realized, the trail would have appeared an almost impossible one, since it clung to a nearly perpendicular cliff. The brush led the suggestion of safety that was more apparent than real, but at the same time it hid the sheer descent below.

Starting point is 04:10:37 Baldi, digging his toes into the loose earth, scrambled upward, stepping over gnarled roots and an occasional boulder, and finding, almost miraculously, the least precarious footing. There were times when the girl shut her eyes tightly and sat with tense muscles, her knees pressing the horses' sides until her muscles ached. At last, the Doe Morgan topped the summit of the hogback, and Shannon drew a deep breath of relief, which was alloyed, however, by the realization that in returning she must ride down this fearful trail, which now, as if by magic, disappeared.

Starting point is 04:11:07 The hogback was water-washed and gravels, and as hard-baked beneath the summer sun as McCatum wrote. To Shannon's unaccustomed eyes, it gave no clue as to the direction of the trail. She rode up and down in both directions until finally she discovered what appeared to be a trail leading downward into another baroncoe upon the opposite side of the rich. The descent seemed less terrifying than that which she had just negotiated, and as it was the only indication of a trail that she could find, she determined to investigate it. Baldi, descending carefully, suddenly paused and with up-picked ears, admitted a shrill neigh. so sudden and so startling was the sound that shannon's heart all but stood still gripped by the cold fingers of terror and then from below came in answering nay she had found what she sought but the fear that rode her all but sent her panic-stricken in retreat it was only the fact that she could not turn baldy upon that narrow trail that gave her sufficient pause to gain mastery over the chaos of her nerves and drive them again to the fold of reason it required a supreme effort of will to urge her horse onward again down into that mysterious ravine where she knew there might lurk for her

Starting point is 04:12:09 a thing more terrible than death. That she did it bespoke the greatness of the love that inspired her courage. The ravine below her was both shallower and wider than that upon the opposite side of the ridge, so that it presented the appearance of a tiny basin. From her vantage point, she looked out across the tops of spreading oaks to the brush-covered hillside that bounded the basin down the south. But what lay below, what the greenery of the trees concealed from her sight, she could only surmise. She knew that the penitents kept no horses here, so she guessed that the animal that had answered

Starting point is 04:12:39 Baldi's nay belonged to the men she sought. Slowly she rode downward, but what would her reception be? If her conclusions as to the identity of the men camp below were correct, she could imagine them shooting first and investigating later. The idea was not a pleasant one, but nothing could deter her now. After what seemed a long time, she rode out among splendid old oaks, in view of the soil tent and a picket line where three horses and a half-dozen burrows were tethered. Nowhere was there sign of the actual presence of men,

Starting point is 04:13:09 that she had an uncanny feeling that they were there. and that for some place of concealment they were watching her. She sat quietly upon her horse for a moment, waiting. Then, no one appearing, she called out. Hello there. I want to speak with you. Her voice sounded strange and uncanny in her ears. For what seemed like a long time, there was no other sound than the gentle moving leaves about her, the birds, and the heavy breathing of baldy.

Starting point is 04:13:35 Then from the brush behind her came to another voice. It came from the direction of the trail down which she had ridden. She realized she must have passed up within a few feet of the man who now spoke. What do you want? I've come to warn you. You're being watched. You mean you are not alone?

Starting point is 04:13:51 There are others with you? And tell them to go away if we have our rifles. We have done nothing. We're tending our bees. They're just below the ridge above our camp. There is no one with me. I do not mean that others are watching you now, but that others know that you come down out of the hills

Starting point is 04:14:04 with something each Friday night. They want to find out what it is you bring. There was a rustling in the brush behind her. and she turned to see a man emerge carrying a rifle ready in his hands. He was a Mexican, swarthy and ill-favored, his face pitted by smallpox. Almost immediately two other men stepped from the brush and had other points about the camp. The three walked where Shannon sat upon her mount. All were armed, and all were Mexicans.

Starting point is 04:14:30 What do you know about what we bring out of the hills? Should we not bring our honey out, as the pock-marked one? I know what you bring out, she said. I'm not going to expose you. I'm here to warn you. Why? I know Alan. Immediately their attitudes changed.

Starting point is 04:14:45 You have seen Alan? You bring a message from him? I have not seen him. I have bring no message from him. But for reasons of my own, I have come to warn you not to bring it down another load next Friday night. End of Chapter 19. Chapter 20 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This lib of box recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 04:15:09 Recording by Joe Donoya, Somerset, New Jersey. The pock-marked Mexican stepped close to Shannon and took hold of her bridal reins. you think he said in broken english we are a damn fool if you do not come from allan you come from no good to us you tell us damn quick or you never go back to tell where you find us and bring policemen here his tone was ugly and his manner threatening there was no harm at telling these men the truth though it was doubtful whether they would believe her she realized that she was in a predicament from which it might not be easy to extricate herself she had told them that she was alone and if they suspected her motives they might easily do away with her She knew how lightly the criminal Mexican esteems life, especially the life of a hated gringo. I have come to warn you because a friend of mine is going to watch you next Friday night. He does not know who you are or what you bring out into the hills. I do, and so I know that rather than be caught, you might kill him.

Starting point is 04:16:02 I do not want him killed. That is all. How do you know what we bring out of the hills? Alan told me. Alan told you? I do not believe you. Do you know where Alan is? He's in jail in Los Angeles.

Starting point is 04:16:15 I heard him telling a man in Los Angeles. last July. Who is this friend of yours that is going to watch for us? Mr. Pennington. You have told him about us? I have told you that he knows nothing about you. All he knows is that someone comes down with burrows from the hills, that they cut his fence last Friday night. He wants to catch you and find out what you were doing. Why have you not told him? She hesitated. That can make no difference, she said presently. Makes a difference to us. I told you to tell the truth, or the Mexican raised his rifle that she might guess the rest. I did not have a difference. I did not want to have to explain how I knew about you. I did not want Mr. Pennington to know that I knew such

Starting point is 04:16:52 men as Alan. How did you know Alan? That has nothing to do with it at all. I have more news that you can take steps to avoid discovery and capture. I shall tell no one else about you. Now let me go. She gathered Baldy and tried to rain him about, but the man clunked at her bridle. Not so much of a hurry, signorita. Unless I know how Alan told you so much, I cannot believe that I told you anything. The police have many ways of learning things. Sometimes they use wisdom. women. If you are a friend to Alan, all right. If you are not, you know too damn much to be very good for your health. You'd better tell me all the truth or you shall not ride away from here, ever. Very well, she said. I met Alan in the house in Hollywood where he sold his snow,

Starting point is 04:17:33 and I heard him telling the man there how you dispose of the whiskey that was stolen in New York, brought here to the coast and the ship, and hidden in the mountains. What is the name of the man in whose house you met Alan? Crumb. The man raised his heavy brows. How long since you've been there in the house in Hollywood? Not since the last of July. I left the house the same time Alan did. You didn't know how Alan he'd get in jail, the Mexican asked.

Starting point is 04:17:58 The girl saw that a new suspicion have been aroused in the man, and she judged that the safer plan was to be perfectly frank. I do not know, for I have neither seen Crum nor Alan since. When I read in the paper that he had been arrested that night, I guess that Crum had done it. I heard Crum asked him to deliver some snow to a man in Hollywood. I know that Crum is a bad man. that he was trying to steal your share of the money from Alan.

Starting point is 04:18:19 The man thought in silence for several minutes, the lines of his heavy face evidencing the travail with which some new idea was being born. Presently he looked up, the light of cunning gleaming in his evil eyes. You go now, he said. I know you. Alan telling me about you a long time ago. You crumb's woman, and your name is Gaza.

Starting point is 04:18:38 You will not tell anything about us to your rich friends to Pennington's. You bet you won't. The Mexican laughed loudly, winging at his companions. Shannon could feel the burning flush that suffused her face. She closed her eyes in what was almost physical pain, so terrible did the humiliation torture her pride, and then the nausea of disgust. The man had dropped her reins,

Starting point is 04:18:57 and she will bawled you about. You will not come Friday night, she asked, wishing some assurance that her sacrifice had not been entirely unveiling. Mr. Pennington would not find us Friday night, and so he will not be shot. She rode away then, but there was a vague suspicion lurking in her mind

Starting point is 04:19:13 that there had been a double meeting in the man's final words. Cluster Pennington, occupied in the office for a couple of hours after lunch, had just come out of the house and was standing on the brow of the hill looking out over the ranch toward the mountains. His gaze, wandering idly at first, was suddenly riveted upon a tiny speck moving downward from the mouth of the distant ravine, a moving speck which he recognized, even at that distance, to be a horseman, where no horsemen should have been. For a moment he watched it, and then, returning to the house, he brought out a pair of binoculars. Now the speck had disappeared, but he knew that it was way down in the bottom of the basin,

Starting point is 04:19:48 hidden by the ridge above Jackknife Canyon, and he waited for the time when it would reappear on the crest. For five, ten, fifteen minutes he watched the spot where the rider should come to view once more. Then he saw a movement in the brush and leveled his glasses upon the spot, following the half-seen figure until it emerged into a space clear the chaparral. Now they were clearly revealed by the powerful lenses, the horse and its rider, Baldi, and Shannon. Penningham dropped his glasses at his side, a puzzled expression on his face, and he tried to find some explanation of the facts that Bennoxius had revealed. From time to time he caught glimpses of her again as she rode down the canyon.

Starting point is 04:20:23 But when, after a considerable time, she did not merge upon the road leading to the house, he guessed that she had crossed over at El Camino Cordo. Why she should do this, he could not even conjecture. It was entirely out of her way, and a hilly trail, while the other was a wagon road leading almost directly from Sycamore to her house. presently he walked around the house to the north side of the hill, where he had a view of the valley spreading to the east and west and the north. Toward the west he could see the road that ran above the Evans' house,

Starting point is 04:20:50 all the way to Horse Camp Canyon. He did not know why he stood there watching for Shannon. It was none of his affair where she rode or when. It seemed strange, though, that she would have ridden alone into those hills after having refused to ride with him. It surprised him and troubled him, too, for it was the first suggestion that Shannon could commit even the most trivial acts of underhandedness. After a while, he saw her emerge from Horse Camp Canyon and follow the road to her own place.

Starting point is 04:21:14 Custer ran his fingers through his hair in perplexity. He was troubled, not only because Shannon had ridden without him, after telling him that he could not ride that afternoon, but also because of the direction in which she had ridden, the trail of which he had told her that he thought it led to the solution of the mystery of the nocturnal traffic. He had told her that he would not ride it before Saturday, for fear of arousing the suspicion of the men he wished to surprise in whatever activity they might be engaged upon.

Starting point is 04:21:37 and within a few hours she had ridden deliberately up into the mountains on that very trail. The more Custer considered the matter, the more perplexity became. At last he gave it up in sheer disgust. Doubtless, Shannon would tell him all about it when he called for her later in the afternoon. He tried to forget it, but the whole thing would not be forgotten. Several times he realized, was surprised, that he was hurt because she had ridden without him. He tried to argue that he was not hurt, that it made no difference to him, that she had a perfect right to ride with or without him as she saw fit,

Starting point is 04:22:09 and that he did not care a straw one way or the other. No, it was not that that was troubling him. It was something else. He didn't know what it was, but a drink would straighten it out. So he took a drink. He realized that it was the first he had in a week, and almost decided not to take it. But he changed his mind.

Starting point is 04:22:24 After that, he took several more without bothering his conscience to any appreciable extent. When his conscience showed signs of life, he reasoninged it back with innocuous desistude by the unanswerable argument, what's the use? By the time he left to call for Shannon, he was miserably happy and happily miserable, yet he showed no outward sign that he'd been drinking,

Starting point is 04:22:43 unless it was that he swung the roadster around the curves of the driveway leading down the hill a bit more rapidly than usual. Shannon was ready and waiting for him. She came out to the car with a smile, a smile that hit a sad and frightened heart, and he greeted her with another that equally belied his inward feelings.

Starting point is 04:22:59 As they rode up to the castle on the hill, he gave her every opportunity to mention and explain her ride. principally by long silences though never by any outward indication that he thought that she ought to explain if she did not care to have him know about it she would never know from him what he already knew but the canker of suspicion was already gnawing at his heart and he was realizing perhaps for the first time how very desirable this new friendship had grown to be again and again he insisted to himself that what she had done made no difference that she must have had some excellent reason perhaps she had just wanted to be alone he often had experienced a similar longing even when grace had been there he had occasionally wanted to ride off into the hills with nothing but his own thoughts for company yet argue as he would the fact remained that it had made a difference and that he was considering shannon now in a new light just what the change meant he probably could not have satisfactorily explained had he tried but he did not try he knew that there was a difference in that his heart ached than it should not ache It made him angry with himself, with the result that he went to his room and had another drink. Shannon, too, felt a difference. She thought that it was her own guilty conscious,

Starting point is 04:24:01 though why she should feel guilty for having risked so much for his sake she did not know. Instinctively, she was honest, and so to deceive one whom she loved, even for a good purpose, troubled her. Something else troubled her, too. She knew that custard had been drinking again, and she recalled what he had said to her that morning, of the help she had been to him in getting away from this habit. She knew too well herself what it meant to fight for freedom from a settled vice. She had been glad to have been instrumental in aiding him. She had had to fight her own battle alone.

Starting point is 04:24:31 She had not wanted to face a similar ordeal. She wondered why he had been drinking that afternoon. Could it have been that she had not been able to ride with him, and thus left alone he had reverted to the old habit? The girl reproached herself, even though she felt, after her interview with the Mexicans, she had undoubtedly saved Custer's life. The Evans's mother and son were also at the Pennington's for dinner that night. shinnon had noticed that it was with decreasing frequency that grace's name was mentioned of late she knew the reason letters had become fewer and fewer from the absent girl she had practically ceased writing to custer her letters to mrs evans were no longer read to the penningtons

Starting point is 04:25:06 though they crept into them a new and unpleasant tone that was as foreign as possible to the girl who had gone away months before they showed a certain carelessness and lack of consideration that had pained them all they always asked after the absent girl but her present life in her career would no longer discussed, since the subject brought nothing but sorrow to them all. That she had been disimpoenaed and disillusioned seemed probable, since she had obtained only a few minor parts in mediocre pictures, and now she no longer mentioned her ambition and scarcely ever wrote of her work. At dinner that night, Ava was unusually quiet until the colonel, noticing it, asked if she was ill. There, she cried, you all make life miserable for me because I talk too much, and then when

Starting point is 04:25:45 I give you a rest, you ask if I am ill. What shall I do? If I talk, I pain you. If I fail to talk, I pain you. If you must know, I am too thrilled to talk just now. I'm going to be married. All alone, inquired, Kuster? A sickly purplish hue, threatening crimson complications,

Starting point is 04:26:03 crept from behind guy's collar and enveloped his entire head. He reached for his water goblet and ran the handle of his fork up his sleeve. The ensuing disentanglement added nothing to his equanimity, though it all but overturned the goblet. Custer was eyeing him with a seraphic expression that boded ill. What's the matter, guy? Measels? he asked with a beautific smile.

Starting point is 04:26:23 Guy grinned sheepishly and was about to venture explanation when Eva interrupted her. The others at the table were watching the two with amused smiles. You see, Momsy, said Eva, addressing her mother. Guy has sold a story.

Starting point is 04:26:35 He got $1,000 for it. A thousand. Oh, not a thousand, expostulated Guy. Well, it was nearly a thousand. If it had been $300 more, it would have been. And so now that our future is assured, we're going to get married. I hadn't intended to mention it

Starting point is 04:26:48 until Guy had talked with Popsie, but this will very much be nicer and easier for Guy. Guy looked up appealingly at the Colonel. You see, sir, I was summing to key you. I mean, I was... You see what is going to mean to have another author in the family, said Custer. He's going to talk away above our heads. We won't know what he's talking about half the time.

Starting point is 04:27:08 I don't know. Do you, Guy? For pity's sake, Custer, leave the boy alone, laughed Mrs. Pennington. You're enough to rattle a stone image. And now, Guy, you know you don't have to feel embarrassed. we have all grown accustomed to the idea that you and Eva would marry, so it is no surprise. It makes us very happy. Thank you, Mrs. Pennington, said the boy. It wasn't that it was hard to tell you.

Starting point is 04:27:28 It was the way Eva wanted me to do it, like a book. I was supposed to comment as to colonel for her hand in a very formal manner, and it made me feel foolish, the more I thought of it. And I've been thinking about it all day. So, you see, when Ava blurted it out, I thought of my silly speech, and I, It wasn't a silly speech, interrupted Ava. It was simple metagoristic. You thought so yourself. when you made Bruce Bellingham ask Hortense's father for her.

Starting point is 04:27:52 Mr. Leclair, he said, squaring his manly shoulders, it is with emotions of deepest solemnity and a full realization of my unworthiness that I approached you upon this beautiful day in May. Oh, for heaven's sake, Eva, please, beg Guy. They were all laughing now, including Eva and Guy. The tears were rolling down Custer's cheeks. That editor was guilty of grand larceny when he offered you 700 berries for the story. Why? The gem alone is worth a thousand.

Starting point is 04:28:16 Adieu, Mark Twain. Farewell, Bill, nigh. You've got them all nailed to the post, Guy Thackeray. The Colonel wiped his eyes. I gather, he said, that you two children wish to get married? Do I surmise correctly? Oh, Popsie, you're just wonderful, exclaimed Ava. Yes, how did you guess it, father? asked Custer.

Starting point is 04:28:35 Marvelous deductive faculties and the old gentleman. I'll say. That will be about all from you, Custer, admonished the Colonel. Any time that I let a chance like this slip, returned young Pennington, do you think I have forgotten how these two imps pestered the life out of Grace and me a few short years ago? Nay, nay. I don't blame Custer a bit, said Mrs. Evans.

Starting point is 04:28:54 Guy and Ava certainly did make life miserable for him and Grace. That part of it is all right. It is Guy's affair in Ava's. But did you hear him refer to me as old gentleman? They all laughed. But you are a gentleman, insisted Custer. The colonel, his eyeswinkling, turned to Mrs. Evans. Times have changed May since we were children.

Starting point is 04:29:13 Imagine speaking thus to our fathers. I'm glad they have changed, Custer. it's terrible to see children afraid of their parents. It has driven so many of them away from their home. No danger of that here, said the colonel. It's more lucky to be the other way around, suggested Mrs. Pennington. In the future, we may hear our parents leaving home because of the exacting tyranny of their children. My children shall be brought up properly, announced Ava, with proper respect for their elders.

Starting point is 04:29:37 Guided by the shiny example of their mother, said Custer. And their uncle cutie, she retorted. Come now, interrupted the colonel. Let's hear something about your plans. When are you going to be married? Yes, offered Custer. Now that the $700 has assured their future, there's no reason why they shouldn't be married at once

Starting point is 04:29:53 and take a suite at the ambassador. I understand they're as low as $3,500 a month. Oh, I have more than the $700, said Guy. I've been saving up for a long time. We'll have plenty to start with. Shannon noticed that he flushed just a little as he made the statement, and that she alone knew why he flushed. It was too bad that Custer's little sister

Starting point is 04:30:11 should start her married life on money of that sort. Shannon felt that at heart, Guy, Guy, I was a good boy. that he must have been led into this traffic originally without any adequate realization of its criminality. Her own misfortune had made her generously ready to seek excuses for wrongdoing in others, but she dreaded to think what it was going to mean to Eva and the other Penitins, if ever the truth came known. From her knowledge of the sort of man with whom Guy was involved, she was inclined to believe that the menace of exposure or blackmail would hang over him for many years,

Starting point is 04:30:39 even if the former did not materialize in the near future, for she was confident that if his confederates were discovered by the authorities, they would immediately involve him. and would try to put the full burden of responsibility upon his shoulders. I don't want the financial end of matrimony to worry either of you, the colonel was saying, Guy has chosen a profession in which he may require years of effort to produce substantial returns. All I shall ask of my husband's daughter is that he shall honestly apply himself to his work. If you do your best, Guy, you will succeed, and in the meantime, I'll take care of the finances.

Starting point is 04:31:08 But we don't want it that way, said Eva. We don't want to live on charity. Do you think that what I give my little girl would be given in the spirit of charity? the Colonel asked. Oh, Popsie, I know you wouldn't feel that it was, but can't you see how Guy would feel? I want him to be independent. I'd rather get along with a little and feel that he had earned it all. It may take a long time, Eva, said Custer,

Starting point is 04:31:29 and in the meantime, the best part of your lives would be spent in worrying and scramping. I know how you feel, but there's a way around it that has the backing of established business methods. Let father finance Guy's writing ability, just as inventive genius is sometimes financed. When Guy succeeds, he could pay back with interest. What a dapper little thought, exclaimed the girl. That would fix everything, wouldn't it? You radiant man.

Starting point is 04:31:50 End of Chapter 20. Chapter 21 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Libofox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. On the following Monday, a pock-marked Mexican appeared at the county jail in Los Angeles during visiting hours, and asked to be permitted to see Slick Allen. The two stood in a corner and conversed in whispers. Alan's face wore an ugly scow when his visitor told him of the young Pennington's interference with their plans.

Starting point is 04:32:23 It's getting too hot for us around there, said Alan. We got to move. How much junkie got left? About 60 cases of booze. We got rid of nearly 300 cases on the coastside without sending him through Evans. There isn't much of the other junk left. A couple pounds altogether at the outside. We've got to lose the last of the boo, said Alan.

Starting point is 04:32:42 But we'll get our money's worth out of it. Now you listen, and you listen carefully, Bartolo. He proceeded very carefully and explicitly to explain the details of a plan, which brought a grin of sinister amusement to the face of the Mexican. It was not an entirely new plan, but rather an elaboration and improvement of the one that Alan had conceived sometime before in the event of a contingency similar to that which had now arisen. And what about the girl, asked Bartolo.

Starting point is 04:33:05 She should pay well to keep the Pennington's from knowing. Leave her to me, replied Alan. I shall not be in jail forever. During the ensuing days of that late September week, when Shannon and Custer rode together, there was a certain constraint in their relations that was new and depressing. The girl was apprehensive of the outcome of his adventure

Starting point is 04:33:25 on the rapidly approaching Friday, while he could not rid himself of the haunting memory of her solitary and clandestine ride over the mysterious trail which led into the mountains. It troubled him that she should have kept a thing a secret, and it troubled him that he should care. What difference could it make to him where Shannon Burke wrote? He asked himself that question a hundred times,

Starting point is 04:33:45 but though he always answered that it can make no difference, he knew perfectly well that it had made a difference. He often found himself studying her face, as if he could find there an answer to his question or a refutation of the suspicion of trickery and deceit, which had arisen in his mind and would not doubt. What a beautiful face it was, not despite its irregular features,

Starting point is 04:34:06 but because of them, and because of the character and individuality they imparted to her appearance. Custer could not look upon that face and doubt her. Several times she caught him in the act of scrutinizing her thus, and she wondered at it, for in the past he had never appeared to be consciously studying her. She was aware, too, that he was troubled about something. She wished that she might ask him, that she might invite his confidence, for she knew the pain of unshared sorrows.

Starting point is 04:34:31 But he gave her no opening, so they rode together, often in silence. And though your stirrups touched many a time, yet constantly they rode further and further apart, just because Chance had brought Custer Pennington from the office that Saturday afternoon to look out over the southern hills at the moment when Shannon had ridden down the trail into the meadow above Jackknife Canyon. At last Friday came, neither had reverted since the previous Saturday, to the subject that was uppermost in the mind of each, but now Shannon could not refrain from seeking once more to deter Custer

Starting point is 04:35:00 from his project. She had not been able to forget the sinister smile of the mess, kin, or to rid her mind of the intuitive conviction that the man's final statement had concealed the hidden threat. They were parting at the fork of the road, she had hesitant to I was anticipated until the last moment. You still intend to try to catch those men tonight, she asked. Yes, why. I hope you would give it up. I'm afraid something may happen.

Starting point is 04:35:24 I... Oh, please don't go, Custer, she wished that she might add, for my sake. He laughed shortly. I guess there won't be any trouble. If there is, I can take care of myself. She saw that it was useless to insist further. Let me know if everything else are right, she asked. light the light in the big cupola in the house when you get back.

Starting point is 04:35:44 I can see it from my bedroom window, and then I shall know that nothing has happened. I shall be watching for it. All right, Gustav promised, and they parted. He wondered why she should be so perturred about his plans for the night. There was something peculiar about that, something that he couldn't understand or explain, except in accordance with a single hypothesis. A hypothesis which he scorned to consider,

Starting point is 04:36:06 yet which rode his thoughts like the variable little old man of the sea. Had he known the truth, it would all have been quite understandable, but how was he to know that Shannon Burke loved him? When he reached the house, the ranch bookkeeper came to tell him that the Los Angeles operator had been trying to get him all afternoon. Somebody in L.A. wants to talk to you on an important business, said the bookkeeper. You're going to call back the minute you get here. Five minutes later, he had his connection.

Starting point is 04:36:32 An unfamiliar voice asked if he were the younger Mr. Pernigan. I am, he replied. Someone cut your fence last Friday. You like to know who he is? What about it? Who are you? Never mind who I am. I was with them.

Starting point is 04:36:47 They double-crossed me. You want to catch him? I want to know who they are and why they cut up my fence. And why to devil they're up back there in the hills. You listen to me. You sobby Jackknife Canyon? Yes. Tonight they bring down the load just before dark.

Starting point is 04:37:03 They do that every Friday and hide the burrows until very late. Then they come down into the valley while everyone is asleep. Tonight they hide him in jackknife. They tie him there and go away. About ten o'clock they come back. You be there at nine o'clock and you catch them when they come back. Sabby? How many of them are there?

Starting point is 04:37:22 Only two. You don't have to be afraid. They don't pack no guns. You take gun and you catch them all alone. But how do I know that you're not stringing me? You listen. They double-crossed me. I get even.

Starting point is 04:37:34 You don't want to catch them. I don't care. That's all. Goodbye. Custer turned away from the phone, running his fingers through his hair in a charismatic gesture, signifying perplexity. What should he do? The message sounded rather fishy, he thought, but it would do no harm to have a look in the Jackknife Canyon around 9 o'clock. If he was being tricked, the worst he could fear was that they had taken this method of luring him the jackknife while they brought the loaded burrows down from the hills by some other route. If they had done that, it was very clever of them,

Starting point is 04:38:02 but it would not be fooled the second time. Custer Pennington didn't care to be laughed at, and so if he was going to be hoaxed that night, he had no intention of having a witness to his idiocy. For that reason, he did not take Jake with him, but rode alone up Sycamore when all the inmates of the castle of the hill thought him in bed and asleep. It was a clear night. Objects were plainly discernible at short distances, and when he passed the horse pasture, he saw the dim bulks of the brooding mares a hundred yards away. A coyote voiced its uncanny cry from a near hill.

Starting point is 04:38:33 an owl hooded dismally from a distance, but these sounds, rather than depressing him, had the opposite effect, for they were of the voices of the knights that he had known and loved since childhood. When he turned into jackknife, he reigned the Apache in and sat for a moment listening. From farther up the canyon out of sight

Starting point is 04:38:51 there came the shadow of his sound. That would be the tethered burrows, he thought, if the whole thing was not a trick, but he was certain that he heard the sound of something moving there. He rode on again, but he took the precaution of loosening his gun in its holster, There was, of course, the bare possibility of a sinister motive behind the message he had received. As he thought of it now, it occurred to him that his informant was perhaps a trifle too insistent

Starting point is 04:39:12 in ensuring that it was safe to come up there alone. Well, the man had put it over cleverly, if that had been his intent. Now Custer saw a dark mass beneath the Sycamore. He rode directly toward it, and another moment he saw that it represented half a dozen laden burrows, tethered to a tree. He moved the Apache close in to examine them. There was no sign of men about. He examined the packs, leaning over and feeling one.

Starting point is 04:39:37 What they contained, he could not guess, but it was not firewood. They evidently consisted of six wooden boxes to each burrow, three on a side. He reigned the Apache in behind the burrows in the darkness of the tree's shade, and there he waited for the coming of the men. He did not like the look of things at all. What could those boxes contain? There was no legitimate traffic through or out of these hills that can explain the weekly trip of this little pack train, and if the men in charge of it were employed in any illegitimate traffic,

Starting point is 04:40:05 they would not be surrendering to a lone man as meekly as his informant had suggested. The days of smuggling through the hills from the ocean was over, or at least Custard had thought it was over. But this thing commenced looked like a recrudescence of the old-time commerce. As he sat there waiting, he had ample time to think. He speculated upon the identity and the purpose of the mysterious informant who had called him up from Los Angeles. He speculated again upon the contents of the packs.

Starting point is 04:40:28 He recalled the whiskey that Guy had sold him from time. time to time and wondered if the packs might not contain liquor. He had gathered from Guy that his supply came from Los Angeles, and he had never given the matter a second thought. But now he recalled the fact, and concluded that if this was whiskey, he was not from the same source as guys. All the time he kept thinking of Shannon and her mysterious excursion into the hills. He recalled her anxiety to prevent him from coming here tonight, and he tried to find reasonable explanations for it. Of course, it was the obvious explanation that did not occur to him, but several did occur that he tried to put from his mind. Then from the mouth of Jackknife he heard the sound of horses hoves. The

Starting point is 04:41:06 Apache pricked up its ears and Custer leaned forward and laid a hand upon his nostrils. Quiet boy he admonished in a low whisper. The sounds approached slowly, halting occasionally. Presently two horsemen rode directly past him on the far side of the canyon. They rode at a brisk trot. Apparently they did not see the pack train or, if they saw it, they paid no attention to him. They disappeared in the darkness and the sound of their horses' hooves ceased. Pennington knew that they had halted. Who could they be?

Starting point is 04:41:35 Certainly not the drivers of the pack train, else they would have stopped with the burrows. He listened intently. Presently he heard horses walking slowly toward him from up the canyon. The two who had passed were coming back, stealthily. I sure have got myself into a pretty trap, he soliloquized a moment later,

Starting point is 04:41:52 when he heard the movements of the mountain men in the canyon below him. He drew his gun and sat waiting. He was not long enough. He had to wait. A voice coming from the short distance down the canyon addressed him. Right out into the open and hold up your hands, it said. We got you surrounded and covered. If you make a break, we'll bore you.

Starting point is 04:42:09 Come on now, step lively, and keep your hands up. It was the voice of an American. Who in thunder are you, demanded Pennington. I am a United States Marshal, was the quick reply. Pennington laughed. There was something convincing the very tone of the man's voice, possibly because Custer had been expecting to meet Mexicans. Here was a hoax indeed, but evidently as much on the newcomers as on himself.

Starting point is 04:42:33 They had expected to find a lawbreaker. They would doubtless be angry when they had discovered that they had been duped. Custer Road stole the alpham beneath the tree. Hold up your hands, Mr. Pennington, snapped to Marshal. Custer Pennington was nonplussed. They knew who he was, and yet they demanded that he should hold up his hands like a common criminal. Hold on there, he cried. What's the joke? If you know who I am, what do you want me to hold up my hands for?

Starting point is 04:42:56 How do I know you're a marshal? you don't know it but i know that you're armed and that you're in a mighty bad hole i don't know what you might do and i ain't taking no chances so stick em up and do it quick if anybody's going to get bored around here it'll be you and not none of my men You're a damned fools, said Pennington succinctly, but he held up his hands before his shoulders, as he had been directed. Five men rode from the shadows and surrounded him. One of them dismounted and disarmed him. He lowered his hands and looked about at them. Would you mind, he said, showing me your authority for this, and telling me what in the hell it's all about?

Starting point is 04:43:32 One of the men threw back his coat revealing a silver shield. That's my authority, he said. That and the goods we got on you. What goods? Well, we expected to get him when we examine these. packs. Look here, said Custer, you're all wrong. I had nothing to do with that pack train or what it's packing.

Starting point is 04:43:49 I came up here to catch the fellows we've been bringing it down through Ganado every Friday night and who cut our fence last week. I don't know any more about what's in those packs than you do, evidently not as much. That's all right, Mr. Pennington. You'll probably get a chance to tell all that to a jury. We've been laying for you since last spring. We didn't know it was you until one of your gangs squealed, but we knew that this stuff was somewhere in the hills above LA, and we aimed to get it and you soon as the next to the

Starting point is 04:44:13 or later. Me? Well, not you particularly, but whoever was bootlegging it. To tell you the truth, I'm plumb surprised to find who it is. I fought all along with some gang of cheap greasers, but it don't make no difference who it is to your Uncle Sam. You said someone told you it was I? asked Custer. Sure, how else will we know it?

Starting point is 04:44:33 It don't pay to double-cross your pals, Mr. Pennington. What are you going to do with me, he asked. We're going to take you back to L.A. and get you held by the federal grand jury. Tonight? We're going to take you back tonight. Can I stop at the house first? No. We've got a warrant to search the place,

Starting point is 04:44:50 and we're going to leave a couple of my men here to do it the first thing in the morning. I got an idea you ain't the only one around here that knows something about this business. As they talked, one of the deputies had taken a case from the pack and opened it. Look here, he called. It's it, all right. It's what, asked Custer. Oh, Peruna, of course, replied the deputy facetiously. What did you think it was?

Starting point is 04:45:12 I hope you never thought it none of that hooch stolen from a government-boarded warehouse in New York. The others laughed at his joke. It's too bad, said the Marshall, not at all unkindly, for a decent young folk like you to get mixed up in a nasty business like this. I agree with you, said Pennington. His mind traveled like lightning, flashing a picture of Shannon Burke righty out of the hills and across the meadows above Jackknife Canyon, of her inquiry that very afternoon as to whether he was coming up here tonight.

Starting point is 04:45:39 Had she really wished to dissuade him, or has she only desired to make sure of his intentions. The light would not shine from the big Coppola tonight. What message would the darkness carry to Shannon Burke? End of Chapter 21. Chapter 22 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burrows. This lib of our recording is in the public domain, according by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey.

Starting point is 04:46:05 They took custard down to the village of Ganano, where they had left their cars and obtained horses. Here they left the animals, including the Apache, with instructions that he should be returned to the Rancho Del Ganado in the morning. The inhabitants of the village, almost to a man, had grown up in neighborly friendship with the Pennington's. When he, from whom the officers had obtained their mouths, discovered the identity of the prisoner, his surprise was exceeded only by his anger. If I'd known who you was after, he said, you'd never got no horses from me. I'd have hamstrung

Starting point is 04:46:33 him at first. I'd not cuss Pennington since he was knee-high to a grasshopper, and whatever you took him for, he never done it. Wait till the colonel hears of this. You won't have no more job than a jack-rabbit. The marshal turned threateningly toward the speaker. Shut up, he advised. If Colonel Pennington hears of this before morning, you wish to God you as a jackrabbit and can get out of the country in two jibbs.

Starting point is 04:46:54 Now you get what I'm telling you? You're to keep your trap closed until morning. Hear me? I ain't deaf, but sometimes I'm a little mite dumb. The last he added in a low side to Pennington, accompanying it with a wink and aloud, I'm mighty sorry, cuss, mighty sorry. If I'd only know when it was you.

Starting point is 04:47:11 By gosh, I'll never get over this. furnishing horses to help arrest a friend and a Pennington. Don't worry about that for a minute, Jim. I haven't done anything. It's just a big mistake. The officers and their prisoner were in the car ready to start. The marshal pointed a finger at Jim. Don't forget what I told you about keeping your mouth shut until morning, he had munged.

Starting point is 04:47:31 They drove off towards Los Angeles. Jim watched them for a moment as the red taillight diminished in the distance. Then he turned into the office of his feed barn and took a telephone receiver from its hook. Give me Ganado number one, he said to the sleeping night. head operator. It was five minutes before continuous ringing brought the colonel to the extension telephone in his bedroom. He seemed unable to comprehend the meaning of what Jim was trying to tell him, so sure was he

Starting point is 04:47:54 that Custer was in bed and asleep in a nearby room. But at last he was half convinced, for he had known Jim for many years, and well knew his stability and his friendship. If it was anybody but you, Jim, I'd say you were a damn liar, he commented in characteristic manner. But what in hell did they take my boy for? They wouldn't say, just as I told him. I don't know what he'd done, but I know he never done it.

Starting point is 04:48:18 You're right, Jim. My boy couldn't be a crooked thing. It's just like you, Colonel. I know there ain't a crooked hair in Cus Pennington's head. Is there anything I can do, Colonel? You just let me know. You'll bring the Apache up in the morning. Thank you again, Jim, and goodbye.

Starting point is 04:48:33 He hung up the receiver. While he dressed hastily, he explained to his wife the purport of the message he had just received. What are you going to do, Cudder? She asked. Going to Los Angeles, Julia, unless that Marshall's driving a racing car, I'll be waiting for him when he gets there. Shortly before breakfast, the following morning, two officers, armed with a warning, searched the castle on the hill.

Starting point is 04:48:54 In Custer Pendington's closet, they found something which seemed to fill in with a latin, two full bottles of whiskey and an empty bottle, each bearing a label identical with those of the bottles they found in the cases boroughed the burrows. With this evidence, an elian-pack train, they started off toward the village. Captain Burke had put in an almost sleepless night. For hours she had lain watching the black silhouette of the big couple of against the clear sky, waiting for the light which would announce that Custer had returned home in safety. But no light had shown to relieve her anxiety.

Starting point is 04:49:23 She had strained her ears through the long hours of the night for the sound of shooting from the hills. But only the howling of coyotes and the hooting of owls had disturbed the long sounds. She sought to assure herself that all was well, that Custer had returned and forgotten a switch on the couple of light, that he had not forgotten, but that the bull was. was burned down. She manufactured probable and improbable explanations by the score. But always a disturbing premonition of evil dispersed the cohorts of hope.

Starting point is 04:49:51 She was up early in the morning in the saddle at the first streak of dawn, riding directly to the stables of the Rancho Donatano. The stableman was here, saddling the horses while he fed. No one has come down yet, she asked. The Apache's gone, he replied. I don't understand it. He hasn't been in the box all night. I was just thinking of going up to the house to see a

Starting point is 04:50:10 Custer was there. Don't seem likely he'll be riding all night, does it? No, she said. Her heart was in her mouth. She could scarce, so he speak. I'll ride up for you, she managed to say. Wheeling Baldi, she put him up the steep hill to the house. The iron gate that closed the patio arch at night was still down,

Starting point is 04:50:28 so she rode around to the north side of the house and coo-hooed to attract the attention of someone within. Mrs. Pennington, followed by Ava, came to the door. Both were fully dressed. When they saw who it was, they came out and told Shannon what had happened. he was not injured then the sudden sense of relief left her weak and for a moment she did not consider the other danger that confronted him he was safe that was all she cared about just then later she had commenced to realize the gravity of his situation and the innocent part that she had taken in involving him in the toils of the scheme which her interference must have suggested to those actually responsible for the traffic and stolen liquor the guilt of which that had now cleverly shifted to the shoulders of an innocent man intuitively she guessed slick the allan's part in the unhappy contratant of the previous night for she knew of the threats that he had made against Custer Pernington,

Starting point is 04:51:13 and of his complicity in the criminal operations of the bootleggers. How much she knew. More than any other, she knew all the details of the whole tragic affair. She alone could untangle the knotted web, and yet she dared not until there was no other way. She dared not let them guess that she knew more of the matter than they. She could not admit such knowledge without revealing the source of it and exposing herself to the merited contempt of those people

Starting point is 04:51:36 whose high-regarded become her obsession, whose friendship was her sole happy. and the love that she had conceived for one of them in the secret altar at which she worshipped in the last ex-remeny if there was no alternative she would sacrifice everything for him to that her love committed her but she would wait until there was no other way she had suffered so grievously through no fault of her own that she clung with desperation to the brief happiness which had come into her life and which was now threatened once again because of no wrongdoing on her part fate had been consistently unkind to her. Was it fair that she should suffer away for the wickedness of another? She had at least the right to hope and wait. But there was something that she could do. When she turned Baldi down the hill from the Pennington's,

Starting point is 04:52:21 she took the road home that led past the Evans' ranch, and, turning in, dismounted and tied Baldi at the fence. Her knock was answered by Mrs. Evans. "'Is Guy here?' asked Shannon. Hearing her voice, Guy came from his room, drawing on his coat. You're getting as bad as the Pennington's, he said, laughing. They have no respect for Christian hours.

Starting point is 04:52:41 Something has happened, she said, that I thought you should know about. Custer was arrested last night by government officers and taking to Los Angeles. He was out on the Apache at the time. No one seems to know where he was arrested, or why, but the supposition is that they found him in the hills, for the man who runs the feed barn in the village, Jim told the colonel that the officers got horses from him and rode up towards the ranch, and that it was a couple hours later that they brought Custer back on the Apache.

Starting point is 04:53:06 The stableman just told me that the Apache had not been in his stall all night, and I know. Custer told me not to tell, but it makes no difference now, that he was going up into the hills last night to try to catch the men who have been bringing down loads of burrows every Friday night for a long time, and who cut his fence last Friday. She looked straight into Guy's eyes as she spoke, but he dropped his as a flushed man in his cheeks. I thought, she continued, that Guy might want to go to Los Angeles and see if he could help Custer in any way. The colonel went last night. I'll go now, said Guy.

Starting point is 04:53:36 I guess I can't help him. His voice was suddenly weary, for he turned away with an air of dejection, which assured Shannon that he intended to do with the only honorable thing that he could do, assume the guilt that he'd be thrown upon Custer's shoulders, no matter what the consequences to himself. She had had little doubt that Guy would do this, for she realized his affection for Custer, as well as the impulsive generosity of his nature,

Starting point is 04:53:57 which, however marred by the weakness, was still fine by instinct. Half an hour later, after a hasty breakfast, young Evans started to Los Angeles, while his mother and Shannon, standing on the porch of the bungalow, waved their goodbyes as his roaster swung through the gate into the country road. Mrs. Evans had only a vague idea as to what her son could do to assist Custer Pennington out of his difficulty, but Shannon Burke knew that Pennington's fate lay in the hands of Guy Evans, unless she chose to tell what she knew.

Starting point is 04:54:26 Colonel Pennington had overtaken the marshal's car before the latter reached Los Angeles, but after a brief parlay on the road, he had discovered that he could do nothing to alter the officer's determination to place Custer in the county jail, pending his preliminary hearing before a United States commissioner. Neither the colonel's plea that his son should be allowed to accompany him in the hotel for the night, nor his assurance that he should be personally responsible for the young man's appearance before the commissioner on the following morning, availed to move the obdurate marshal from his stand, nor would he permit the colonel to talk with a prisoner. That was the last straw.

Starting point is 04:54:57 Colonel Pennington had managed to dissemble outward indications of his rising ire, but now an amused smile lighted his son's face as he realized that his father was upon the verge of an explosion. He caught the older man's eye and shook his head. It'll only make it worse, he cautioned. The colonel directed a parting glare at the Marshall, muttered something about homeopathic intellects, and turned back to his roadster. End of Chapter 22. Chapter 23 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Starting point is 04:55:29 This libri-vox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. During the long ride to Los Angeles, and later in his cell in the county jail, Custer Pennington had devoted many hours to seeking explanation of the motives underlying the plan to involve him in a crime, of which he had no knowledge, nor even a suspicion of the identity of his instigators. To his knowledge, he had no enemies whose hostility was sufficiently active to lead them to do him so great or wrong. He had had no trouble with anyone recently, other than his altercation with Slick Allen several months before. It was obvious that he had been deliberately sacrificed for some ulterior purpose. What that purpose was, he can only surmise.

Starting point is 04:56:09 The most logical explanation he finally decided was that those actually responsible, realizing that discovery was imminent, had sought to divert a suspicion from themselves by fastening it upon another. That they had selected him as the victim might easily be explained on the ground that his embarrassing interest in their movements had already centered their attention upon him, while it also offered the opportunity for luring him into the trap without arousing his suspicions. It was, then, just a combination of circumstances that had led him into his present predicament, but there still remained unanswered one question that affected his peace of mind more considerably than all the others combined.

Starting point is 04:56:45 Who had divulged to the thieves his plans for the previous night? Concurrently with that question there rose before his mind's eye a picture of Shannon Burke and Baldi as they topped the summon above jackknife from the trail that led across the basin meadow back into the hills. He knew not where. I can't believe it was she, he told himself for the hundredth time. She could not have done it. I won't believe it. She could explain it all if I can ask her. But I can't ask her.

Starting point is 04:57:10 There's a great deal that I cannot understand, and the most inexplicable thing is that she could possibly have at any connection whatever with this affair. When his father came with an attorney in the morning, the son made no mention of Shannon Burke's ride into the hills, or of her anxiety when they parted in the afternoon, to learn if he was going to carry out his plan for Friday night. Did anyone know of your intention to watch for these men, asked the attorney?

Starting point is 04:57:33 No one, he replied, but they might have become suspicious from the fact that the week before had all the gates padlocked on Friday. They had to cut the fence that night to get through. They probably figured it was going to get too hot for them, and then on the following Friday, I would take some other steps to discover them. Then they made sure of it by sending me that message from Los Angeles.

Starting point is 04:57:52 Gee, but I bit like the sucker. It is unfortunate, remarked the attorney, that you had not discussed your plan with someone before you undertook to carry them out on Friday night. If we could thus definitely establish your motive for going alone into the hills, into the very spot where you would discover with the pack train, I think it would go much further towards convincing the court that you were there without any criminal intent than your own unsupported testimony to that effect.

Starting point is 04:58:14 But haven't you his word for it? demanded the colonel. I am not the court, replied the attorney, smiling. Well, if the court isn't a damn fool, it'll know he wouldn't have padlocked the gates the week before to keep himself out, stated the colonel conclusively. The government might easily assume that he did that purposely to divert suspicion from himself. At least, it is no proof of innocence. Colonel Pennington snorted. The best thing to do now, said the attorney, is to see if we can get an immediate hearing and arrange for bail in case he is held to the grand jury.

Starting point is 04:58:45 I'll go with you, said the colonel. They had been gone about a short time when Guy Evans was admitted to the Custer's cell. The latter looked up and smiled when he saw who the visitor was. It was bully of you to come, he said. Bringing condolences or looking for material, old thing. Don't joke, cuss, exclaimed Evans. It's too rotten to joke about, and it's all. my fault. Your fault? I am the guilty one. I've come down and give myself up.

Starting point is 04:59:10 Guilty? Give yourself up? What are you talking about? God, cuss, I hate to tell you. It didn't seem such an awful thing to do until this happened. Everyone's buying booze, or selling booze, or making booze. Everyone's breaking the damned old Eighteenth Amendment, and it's got so it don't seem like committing a crime or anything like that. You know, cuss, that I wouldn't do anything criminal, and oh God, what a lot of Ava think. Guy covered his face with his hands and choked back a sob. Just what the devil are you talking about? inquired Pennington. Do you mean to tell me that you've been mixed up in? Well, what do you know about that? A sudden light had dawn upon Custer's

Starting point is 04:59:49 understanding. That who's you been getting me, that I joked you about. It was really the stuff that was stolen from a bonded warehouse in New York. It wasn't any joke at all. You can see for yourself how much of a joke it was, replied Evans. I'll admit, returned Custer ruefully. that it does require considerable of a sense of humor to see it in this joint. What do you suppose they'll do to me? asked Guy. Do you suppose they'll send me to the penitentiary? Tell me the whole thing from the beginning. Who got you into it and just what you've done?

Starting point is 05:00:19 Don't omit a thing no matter how much it incriminates you. I don't need to tell you, old man, that I'm for you, no matter what you've done. I know that cuss, but I'm afraid no one can help me. I'm in for it. I knew it was stolen from the start. I've been selling it since last May, 7,7,700. hundred and seventy-six quarts of it, and I made a dollar in every quart. It was what I was going to start housekeeping on.

Starting point is 05:00:41 Poor little Eva. Again, Asab half-choked him. It was slick Allen that started me. First he sold me some, then he got me to sell you a bottle and bring in the money. Then he had me, or at least he made me think so, and he insisted on my handling it for them out in the valley. It wasn't hard to persuade me, for it looked safe, and it didn't seem like such a rotten thing to do, and I wanted the money the worst way.

Starting point is 05:01:03 I know they're all bum excuses. I shan't make any excuses. I'll take my medicine. But it's when I think of Eva that it hurts. It's only Eva that counts. Yes, said Pennington, laying his hand affectionately on the other's shoulder. It is only Eva who counts, and because of Ava, and because you and I love her so much, you cannot go to the penitentiary.

Starting point is 05:01:23 What do you mean? Cannot go. Have you told anyone else will you have just told me? No. Don't. Go back home and keep your mouth shut, said Guster. You mean that you will take a chance of going up for what I did? Nothing doing. Do you suppose I'd let you, Cuss?

Starting point is 05:01:40 The best friend I've gotten the world? Go to the pen for me, for something I did? It's not for you, Guy. I wouldn't go to the pen for you or any other man. But I go to the pen for Ava, and so would you. I know it, but I can't let you do it. I'm not rotten, cuss. You and I don't count.

Starting point is 05:01:57 To see her unhappy and humiliated would be worse for me than spending a few years in the penitentiary. I'm innocent. No matter if I'm convicted, I know I'm innocent, and Aval will know it, and so will all the rest of Gannado. But, Guy, they've got too much on you if they ever suspect you, and the fact that you voluntarily admitted your guilt would convince Eve my little sister. If you were sent up and might ruin her life, it would ruin it.

Starting point is 05:02:21 Things could never be the same for her again. But if I was sentenced for a few years, it would only be the separation from a brother whom she knew to be innocent, and at whom she still had undiminished confidence. She wouldn't be humiliated, her life wouldn't be ruined. when I came back, everything would be just as it was before. If you go, things will not be the same when you come back. They can never be the same again. You cannot go.

Starting point is 05:02:43 I cannot let you go and be punished for what I did, while I remain free. You've got to. It's the easiest way. We've all got to be punished for what you did. Those who love us are always punished for our sins. But let me tell you that I don't think you are going to escape punishment if I go up for this. You're going to suffer more than I. You're going to suffer more than you would if you went up yourself.

Starting point is 05:03:02 But it can't be helped. The question is, are you man enough to do this for Ava? It is your sacrifice more than mine. Evan swallowed hard and tried to speak. It was a moment before he succeeded. My God, Cuss, I'd rather go myself. I know you would. I can never have any self-respect again.

Starting point is 05:03:22 I can never look a decent man in the face. Every time I see Ava or your mother or the colonel, I'll think. You dirty, Kerr. You let their boy go to the pen for something you did. Oh, Cuss, please don't have. asked me to do it. There must be some other way. And—and Cus, think of grace. We've been forgetting grace. What'll it mean to grace if you are set up? It won't mean anything to grace, and you know it. None of us mean much to grace anymore. Guy looked out of the little barred window, and tears

Starting point is 05:03:49 came to his eyes. I guess you're right, he said. You're going to do a guy? For Eva? Yes. Pennington bred it up as if a great load had been lifted from his shoulders. Good, he cried. Chances are that I'll not be sent up, for they've got nothing on me. They can't have. But if I am, you've got to take my place with the folks. You've had your lesson. I know you'll never pull another full stunt like this again. And quit drinking, Guy.

Starting point is 05:04:14 I haven't much excuse for preaching, but you're the sort that can't do it. Leave it alone. Goodbye now. I'd rather you were not here when Father comes back. You might weaken. Evans took the other's hands. I envy you cuss. On the level I do.

Starting point is 05:04:29 I know it, but don't feel too bad about it. It's one of those things that's done and it can't be undone. Roosevelt would have called what you've got to do, grasping the nettle. Gasp it like a man. Evans walked slowly from the jail, entered his car, and drove away. Of the two hearts, his was the heavier. Of the two burdens, his the more difficult to bear. Custer Pennington, appearing before United States commissioned that afternoon for his preliminary hearing,

Starting point is 05:04:55 was held to the federal grand jury and admitted to bail. The evidence brought by the deputies who had searched the Pennington home, taking in connection with the circumstances surrounding his arrest seemed to leave the commissioner no alternative. Even the colonel had to admit that to himself, though he would never have admitted to another. The case would probably come up for the grand jury on the following Wednesday. The colonel wanted to employ detectives at once

Starting point is 05:05:17 to ferret out those actually responsible for the theft and bootlegging of the stolen whiskey. But Custer managed to persuade him not to do so, on the ground that it would be a waste of time and money since the government was already engaged upon a similar pursuit. Don't worry, father, he said. they haven't a shred of evidence that I stole the whiskey, or that I have ever sold any.

Starting point is 05:05:35 They found me with it, that is all. I can't be hanged for that. Let them do the worrying. I want to get home in time to eat one of Hannah's dinners. I'll say they don't set much of a table in the sheriff's boarding house. Where'd you get them three bottles they found in your room? I bought them. I asked where, not how.

Starting point is 05:05:53 I might get someone else mixed up on this if I were to answer that question. I can't do it. No, said the colonel. You can't. When you buy whiskey nowadays, you're usually. usually compounding a felony. It's certainly a rotten condition to obtain in the land of the free, but we've got to protect your accomplices. I shall not ask you again, but they'll ask you in court, my boy. All look good it'll do them. I suppose so, but I'd hate to see my boy

Starting point is 05:06:16 sent at a penitentiary. You'd hate to be in the court and hear him divulge the name of a man who had trusted him sufficiently to sell him whiskey. I'd rather see you go to the penitentiary, the colonel said. That night, at dinner, Custerm made light of the charge against him, yet at the same time he prepared them for what might happen, for the proceedings before the commissioner had impressed him the gravity of this case, as had also the talk he had had had with his attorney afterwards. No matter what happens, he said to them all, I shall know that you know that I am not guilty. My boy's word is all I need, replied his mother. Ava came and put her arms around him.

Starting point is 05:06:50 They wouldn't send you to jail, would they? she demanded. It would break my heart. Not if you knew I was innocent. No, not then, I suppose. But it would be awful. If he were guilty, it would kill me. I'd never want to live if my brother was convicted of a crime and was guilty of it. I'd kill myself first. Her brother drew her face down and kissed her tenderly. That would be foolish, dear, he said.

Starting point is 05:07:14 No matter what one of us does, such an act would make it all the worst, for those who are left. I can't help, but she said. It isn't just because I had the honor of the Pennington's preached to me all my life. It's because it's in me, the Pennington honor. It's a part of me, just that it's a part of you, and mother and father. It is part of the price we have to pay for being penitents. I have always been proud of it, Custer, even if I'm only a silly girl. I'm proud of it, too, and I haven't jeopardized it.

Starting point is 05:07:41 But even if I had, you mustn't think about killing yourself on my account or on anyone else's. Well, I know you're not guilty, so I don't have to. Good. Let's talk about something pleasant. Why didn't you see Gracie while you were in Los Angeles? I tried to. I called up a boarding place from the lawyer's office. I understand the woman who answered the phone to say that she was.

Starting point is 05:08:00 would call her, but she came back in a couple of minutes and said that Grace was out on location. Did you leave your name? I told the woman who I was when she answered the phone. I'm sorry you didn't see her, said Mrs. Penitin. I often think that Mrs. Evans, or guide, should run down to Los Angeles occasionally and see Grace. That's what Shannon says, said Custer. I'll try to see her next week before I come home. Shannon was up nearly all afternoon waiting to hear if we received any word from you.

Starting point is 05:08:27 When you telephone that you have been held to the federal grant jury, she would scarcely believe it. She said there must be some mistake. Did she say anything else? She asked whether Guy got there before you were held, and I told her that you said Guy visited you in the jail. She seemed so worried about the affair, just as if she were one of the family. She is such a dear girl.

Starting point is 05:08:46 I think I'd grow to love her more and more every day. Yes, said Custer noncommittally. She asked me one rather peculiar question, Ava went on. What was that? She asked if I was sure that it was you who had been held to the Grand Jerry. That was odd, wasn't it? She's so sure of your innocence. Just as sure as we are, said Ava.

Starting point is 05:09:06 Well, that's very nice of her, remarked Custer. End of Chapter 23. Chapter 24 of the girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Perrault. This Libravox recording is in the public domain, recorded by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey. The next morning he saw Shannon, who came to ride with them, the Pennington's, as had been her custom.

Starting point is 05:09:31 She looked tired as if she had spent a sleepless night. She had. She had spent two sleepless nights, and she had had to fight the old fight all over again. It had been very hard, even though she had won, for it had shown her that the battle was not over. She had thought that she had conquered the craving, but that had been when she had no troubles or unhappiness to worry her mind and nerves. The last two days had been days of suffering for her, and the two sleepless nights had induced a nervous condition that begged for a quieting influence of the little white powder. Custer noticed immediately that something was amiss. The roses were gone from her cheeks, leaving a suggestion of the old pallor.

Starting point is 05:10:06 And though she smiled and greeted him happily, he thought that he detected an expression of wistfulness and the pain in her face when she was not conscious that others were observing her. There was a strange suggestion of change in their relations, which Custer did not attempt to analyze. It was as if he had been gone a long time, and, returning, had found Shannon changed through the natural processes of time and separation. She was not the same girl. She could never be the same again, nor could their relations ever be the same. The careless freedom of their association, which had resembled that of a brother and his sister, more than any other relationship between a man and the woman, had gone forever.

Starting point is 05:10:40 What had replaced it, Custer did not know. Sometimes he thought that it was a suspicion of Shannon that clunked to his mind in spite of himself, but again and again he assured himself that he held no suspicion of her. He wished, though, that she would explain that wish to him was inexplicable. He had the faith to believe that she could explain it satisfactorily, but would she do so? She'd had the opportunity before this thing had occurred and had not taken advantage of it. He would give her another opportunity that day, and he prayed that she would avail herself of it. Why he should care so much he did not try to reason.

Starting point is 05:11:13 He did not even realize how much he did care. Presently, he turned toward her. I'm going to ride over to the East Paster after breakfast, he said, and waited. Is that an invitation? He smiled and nodded. But not if it isn't perfectly convenient, he added. I'd love to come with you. You know I always do.

Starting point is 05:11:33 Fine. And you'll breakfast with us? Not today. I have a couple letters to write that I want to get off right away. But I'll be up between 8.30 and 9. Is that too late? I'll ride down after breakfast and wait for you, if I won't be in the way.

Starting point is 05:11:47 Of course you won't. It will take me only a few minutes to write the letters. How are you going to mail them? This is Sunday. Mr. Powers is going to drive to Los Angeles today. He'll mail them in the city. Who looks after things when missed them? Mr. Powers are away.

Starting point is 05:12:01 Who looks after things? Why? I do. The chickens in the sow, and baldie, you take care of them all? Certainly, and I have more than that now. How's that?

Starting point is 05:12:11 Nine little pigs. They came yesterday. They're perfect beauties. The man laughed. What are you laughing about? She demanded. The idea of you taking care of chickens and pigs and a horse. I don't see anything funny about it,

Starting point is 05:12:23 and it's a lot of fun. Did you think I was too stupid? I was just thinking that it changed two months. have made. What would you have done if you've been left alone two months ago, with a hundred hens, a horse, and ten pigs to care for? The question then would have been what the hens, the horse, and the pigs would have done. But now I know pretty well what to do. The two letters I have to write are about the little pigs. I don't know much about them, so I'm writing to Berkeley and Washington for the latest Bolton's. Why don't you ask us? Gracious, but I do. I am forever

Starting point is 05:12:54 asking the colonel questions, and the boys at the hoghouse must hate to see me coming. I spent hours in the office reading Lovejoy and Colton, but I want something for ready reference. I have an idea that I can raise lots more hogs than I intended by fencing the orchard and growing alfalfa between the rows or pasture. There's something solid and substantial about hogs that suggest the bank balance, even in the years when the orange crop may be short or a failure, or the market poor. You've got the right idea, said Custer.

Starting point is 05:13:20 There isn't a rancher or an orchardist, big or little in the valley, who couldn't make more money year in and year out if he'd keep a few broods' house. What's Cuss doing? asked Ava, who had reined back beside them. Preaching hog-raising again? That's his idea of a dapper little way to entertain a girl? Hogs, herfords, and horses? Wouldn't he make a hit in society? Regular little T-pointer, I'd say.

Starting point is 05:13:44 I knew you were about to say something, remarked her brother. You've been quiet for all of five minutes. I've been thinking, said Ava. I've been thinking how lonely it will be when you have to go away to jail. Why, they can't send me to jail. I haven't done anything he tried to reassure her. I'm so afraid, Cuss. The tears came to her eyes.

Starting point is 05:14:01 I lay awake for hours last night thinking about it. Oh, cuss, I just couldn't stand it if they sent you to jail. Do you think the men who did it would let you go for something they did? Would anyone be so wicked? I never hated anyone in my life, but I could hate them if they don't come forward to save you. I could hate them. Hate them, hate them. Oh, cuss, I believe that I could kill the man who would do such a thing to my brother.

Starting point is 05:14:24 Come, dear, don't worry about it. The chances are that they'll free me. Even if they don't, you mustn't feel quite so bitterly against the men who are responsible. There may be reasons that you know nothing of that would keep them silent. Let's not talk about it. All we could do now is wait and see what the grand jury is going to do. In the meantime, I don't intend to worry. Shannon Burke, her heart heavy with shame and sorrow, listened as might a condemned man to the reading of his death sentence.

Starting point is 05:14:49 She felt almost the degradation that might have been hers had she deliberately planned to ensnared Custer Pendleton into the toils that had been laid for him. She determined that she would go before the grand jury and tell all she knew. Then she would go away. She would not have to see the contempt and hatred they must surely feel for her after she had recited the cold facts that she must lay before the jury, unmitigated by any of those extenuating truce that must lie forever hidden in the secret recesses of her soul. They would know only that she might have warned Custer and did not, that she might have cleared them at the preliminary hearing and did not.

Starting point is 05:15:20 The fact that she had come to rescue at the 11th hour would not excuse her in their minds of the guilt of having permitted the Pennington honor to be placed in jeopardy needlessly, nor could it explain her knowledge of the crime, or those associations of her past life that had made it possible for her to have gained such knowledge. No, she could never face them again after the following Wednesday, but until then she would cling to the brief days of happiness that remained to her before the final catastrophe of her life, for it was thus that she thought of it. The moment and the act that would forever terminate her intercourse with the Pennington's

Starting point is 05:15:50 that would turn the respect of the man she loved to loathing. She counted the hours before the end. There would be two more morning rides, tomorrow and Tuesday. They would ask her for dinner, or to lunch, or to breakfast several times in the ensuing three days, and there would be rides with custard. She would take all the happy memories that she could into the bleak and sunless future. Their ride that morning was over a loved and familiar trail that led across El Camino Cordo over low hills into Horse Camp Canyon, and up Horse Camp to Coyote Springs.

Starting point is 05:16:21 Then over El Camino Largo to Sycamore Canyon, and then over El Camino Largo to Sycamore Canyon, and down beneath the old, old sycamores to the ranch. She felt that she knew each bush and tree in Boulder, for they held for her the quiet restfulness of the familiar faces of old friends. She should miss them, but she would carry them in her memory forever. When they came to the fork in the road, she would not let Custer ride home with her. At 8.30, then, he called to her,

Starting point is 05:16:45 and she urged Baldy into a canter and left them with a gay wave of the hand that gave no token of the heavy sorrow in her heart. As was her custom, she ate breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Powers at the little tenant cottage a couple of hundred yards in the rear of her own bungalow, a practice which gave her an opportunity to discuss each day's work in advance with her foreman, and at the same time to add to her store of information concerning matters of ranching and citrus culture. Her knowledge of these things had broadened rapidly, and was a constant source of surprise

Starting point is 05:17:13 to Powers, who took great pride in bragging about it to his friends, for Shannon had one as great a hold upon the hearts of these two as she had upon all those who were fortunate enough to know her well. After breakfast, as she was returning to her bungalow to write her letters, she saw a Mexican boy on a bicycle turn in at her gate. They met in front of the bungalow. Are you Miss Burke? he asked. Bartolo says for you to come to his camp in the mountains this morning, sure. He went on, having received an affirmative reply. Who's Bartolo?

Starting point is 05:17:41 He says, you know. He went to his camp a week ago yesterday. Tell him, I do not know him and will not go. He says to tell you that he only wants to talk to you about your friend who is in trouble. The girl thought for a moment. Possibly here was a way out of her dilemma. If she could force Bartolo by threats of exposure, he might discover a way to clear Custer Pennington without incriminating himself.

Starting point is 05:18:03 She turned to the boy. Tell him I will come. I do not see him again. He's up in the camp now. He told me this yesterday. He also told me to tell you that he'd be watching for you. And if you did not come alone, you would not find him. Very well, she said, and turned into the bungalow.

Starting point is 05:18:20 She wrote her letters, but she was not the woman. thinking about them. Then she took them over to powers to take to the city for her. After that, she went to the telephone and called the ranch of Del Granato, asking for Custer when she got the connection. I'm terribly disappointed, she said, when he came to the telephone. I find I simply cannot ride this morning, but if I'll put it off until afternoon. Why, certainly. Come up to the lunch and we'll ride afterwards, he told her. You won't go then until afternoon, she asked. I'll ride over to the East Pastor this morning, and we'll just take a ride to any old place that you want to go in this afternoon.

Starting point is 05:18:50 All right, she replied. She had hoped that he would not ride that morning. There was a chance that he might see her, even though the East Pasture was miles from the trail she would ride, for there were high places on both trails, where a horseman would be visible for several miles. This nude at lunch then, he said. End of Chapter 24.

Starting point is 05:19:14 Chapter 25 of the girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Liverpool Fox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey. Half an hour later, Custer Pennington swung into the saddle and headed the Apache up Sycamore Canyon. The trail to the east pasture led through Jackknife. As he passed a spot where he had been arrested on the previous Friday night, the man made a wry phase, more at the recollection of the ease with which he had been duped than because of the fact of his arrest. Being free of any sense of guilt, he can view with a certain lightness of spirit that was almost levity,

Starting point is 05:19:46 the mere physical aspects of possible duress. The reality of his service to Eva could not but ten, and to compensate for any sorrow he must feel, because of the suffering his conviction and imprisonment might bring to his family, so much greater must be their sorrow, should Ava be permitted to learn the truth. When Chanon had broken their engagement for the morning, he had felt disappointed, entirely out of proportion to its cause, a thing which he had realized himself, but had been unable to analyze. Now, in anticipation of seeing her at noon and riding with her after lunch, he experienced a rise in spirits that was equally unaccountable. He liked her very much, and she was excellent company.

Starting point is 05:20:22 which, of course, would account for the pleasure he derived from being with her. Today, too, he hoped for an explanation of a ride into the mountains the week before, so that there would no longer any shadow on his friendship for her. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that this afternoon she would explain the whole matter quite satisfactorily, and presently he found himself whistling, as if there were no such places as jails or penitentiaries in the whole wide and beautiful world. Just then he reached the summit of the trail leading out of Jackknife Canyon toward the east pasture, as was his want the Apache stopped to breathe after the hard climb and as seems to be the habit of all horses in like circumstances he turned around and faced in the opposite direction from that in which the rider had been going below and to coaster's right the ranch buildings lay dotted about in the dust like children's toys upon a gray rug

Starting point is 05:21:08 beyond was the castle on the hill shining in the sun and further still the soft carpeted valley in grays and browns and greens then the young man's glance wandered to the left and out over the basin meadow and and instantly the joy died out of his heart and the happiness from his eyes. Straight along the mysterious trail loped a horse and rider toward the mountains, and even at that distance he recognized them as baldy and Shannon. The force of the shock was almost equivalent to an unexpected blow in the face. What could it mean? He recalled her questions. She had deliberately sought to learn his plans, as she had the other day,

Starting point is 05:21:43 and then, as before, she had hastened off to some mysterious rendezvous in the hills. Suddenly a hot wave of anger surged through him. Quiet and self-controlled as he usually was, there were times when the Pennington temper seized and dominated him so completely that he himself was appalled by the axe it precipitated. Under its spell, a Pennington might commit murder. Now Custer did what was almost as foreign to his nature. He cursed the girl who rode on,

Starting point is 05:22:06 unconscious of his burning eyes upon her, toward the mountains. He cursed her aloud, searching his memory for appropriate epithets and anathemas to hurl after her. This was the end. he was through with her forever. What did he know of her? What did any of them know about her? She had never mentioned her life or associations in the city. He recalled that now.

Starting point is 05:22:25 She had known no one whom they knew, and they had taken her in and treated her as a daughter of the house, without knowing anything of her. And this was their reward. She was doubtless a hireling of the gang that had stolen the whiskey and disposed of it through Guy. They had sent her here to spy on Guy and to watch the Pennington's. It was she who had set up the trap in which he had been caught,

Starting point is 05:22:43 not the safe guy, but to throw the suspicion of guilt upon him. on Custer. But for what reason? There was no reason except that he had been selected from the first to be the scapegoat when the government officers were too hot upon the trail. She had watched him carefully. God, but she had been cunning and he, credulous.

Starting point is 05:23:00 There had been scarce a day when they had not been with him. She had ridden in the hills with him, and she kept him from following the mysterious trail, so he reasoned in his rage, though as a matter of fact she had done nothing of the sort. But anger and hate are blind, and Custer Pennington was angry and filled with hate. unreasoning rage consumed him they believed that he never had hated before as he hated this girl now so far to the other extreme had the shock of her duplicity driven his regard for her he would see her just once more and he would tell her what he thought of her so that there might be no chance that she would ever again enter the home of the penningtons he must see to that before he went away that eva might not be exposed to the influence of such a despicable character but he could not see her to-day he could not trust himself to see her for even his anger he remembered that she was a woman and that when he saw her he must treat her as a woman.

Starting point is 05:23:48 If she had been within reach when he had first discovered her, a moment since, he could have struck her, choked her. With the realization, the senseless fury of his anger left him. He turned the Apache away and headed him again toward the east pasture. But deep within his heart was a cold anger that was quite as terrible, though in a different way. Shannon Burke rode up the trail toward the camp of the smugglers, all unconscious that there looked down upon her from a high ridge behind eyes filled with hate and loathing, the eyes of the man she loved.

Starting point is 05:24:16 She put Baldi up a steep trail that it so filled her with terror when she first scaled it, and down upon the other side into the grove of oaks that hid in the camp. But now there was no camp there, only the debris that always marks a stopping place of men. As she reached the foot of the trail, she saw Bartolo standing beneath a great oak, awaiting her. His pony stood with trailing reins behind the tree. A rifle butt protruded from a boot on the right side of the saddle. He came forward as she guided Baldi toward the tree. Buenos diea, signerita, he greeted her.

Starting point is 05:24:46 twisting his pockmarked face into the semblance of a smile. What do you want of me, Shannon demanded? I need money, he said. You get money from Evans. He got all the money from the hooch we take down two weeks ago. We never get no chance to get it from him. I'll get you nothing. You get money now, and whenever I want it, said the Mexican.

Starting point is 05:25:06 Or I tell about crumb. You crumb's woman. I tell how you peddle dope. I know. You do what I tell you, and you go to the pen, Sabby? Now listen to me, said the girl. I didn't come up here to take orders from you. I came to give you orders.

Starting point is 05:25:21 What? exclaimed the Mexican. And then he laughed aloud. You'll give me orders? That is damn funny. Yes, it is funny. You will enjoy it immensely when I tell you what you are to do. Hurry then. I have no time to waste.

Starting point is 05:25:34 He was still laughing. You're going to find some way to clear Mr. Pennington of the charge against him. I don't care what the way is, so long as it does not incriminate any other innocent person. if you could do it without getting yourself in trouble well and good i do not care but you must see that there is evidence given before the grand jury next wednesday that will prove mr panicked's innocence is that all inquired bartolo grinning broadly that is all and if i don't do it eh then i shall go before the grand jury and tell them about you and allan about the opium and the morphine and the cocaine how you smuggle the stolen booze from the ship off the coast up into the mountains you think you would do that he asked but how about me wouldn't i be telling you be telling you to be taken to the most of the mountains you think you would do that he asked but how about me wouldn't i be telling me wouldn't i be telling you to be telling everything I know about you? Alan will testify, too, and they would make Crumb come and tell how you live with him.

Starting point is 05:26:20 Oh, no, I guess you don't tell the Grand Jerry nothing. I shall tell them everything. Do you think I care about myself? I'll tell them all that Alan or Crum could tell. And listen, Bartolo, I can tell them something more. There used to be five men in your gang. There were three when I came up last week, and Alan is in jail. But where's the other?

Starting point is 05:26:40 The man's face went black with anger, and perhaps with fear, too. What you know about that, he demanded sharply. Alan told Crumb the first time he came to the Hollywood bungalow that he was having trouble among his gang, that you were a hard lot to handle, and that already one named Bartolo killed one named Gratio. How would you like me to tell that to the Grand Jerry? You'd never tell that to no one, growled the Mexican. You'd know too damn much for your health. It stepped suddenly forward and seized her wrist.

Starting point is 05:27:08 She struck at him and at the same time put the spurs to Baldy, in her fear and excitement more severely than she had intended. The high-spirited animal, unused to such treatment, leapt forward past the Mexican, who, clinging to the girl's wrist, dragged her from the saddle. Baldi turned, and feeling himself free, ran for the trail that led toward home. You know too damn much, repeated Bortolo. You better off up here alongside Grasiel. The girl had risen to her feet and stood facing him.

Starting point is 05:27:34 There was no fear in her eyes. She was very beautiful, and her beauty was not lost upon the Mexican. You mean that you would kill me to keep me from telling the truth about you, she asked? Why not? Should I die instead? If you had kept your mouth shut, you would have been all right. But now? He shrugged suggestively.

Starting point is 05:27:51 You better off up here beside Gratiel. They'll get you and hang you for it, she said. Who will know? The boy who brought me the message from you. He will not tell. He my son. I wrote a note and left it on my desk before I came up here, telling everything, for fear of something of this sort, she said.

Starting point is 05:28:08 You lie, he accused correctly. But for fear you did, I go down and go down and and burn your house tonight, after I get through with you. The ground pretty hard after the hot weather. It took me a long time to dig a hole beside Gratial. The girl was at her wits end now. Her pitiful little lie had not availed. She began to realize that nothing would avail.

Starting point is 05:28:27 She had made the noose, stuck her head into it, and sprung the trap. It was too late to alter the consequences. The man had the physique of a bull. She could not hope to escape him by any recourse to any power other than her wits. And in the first effort along the line she had failed miserably and put him on his guard. her case appeared hopeless she thought of pleading with him but realized the futility of it the fact that she did not do so indicated her courage which had not permitted her to lose her head she saw it was either his life or hers as he saw the matter and that was going to be hers was obvious the man stood facing her holding her by the wrist his eyes appraising her boldly you damn good-looking he said and pulled the girl toward him before i kill you i he threw an arm about her roughly and leaning far over her as she pulled away He sought to reach her lips with his.

Starting point is 05:29:15 End of Chapter 25. Chapter 26 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recorded by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey. The Apache had taken but a few steps on the trail toward the East Paster, when Custer rained him in suddenly, and will them about. I'll settle this thing now, he muttered. I'll catch her with them. I'll find out who the others are.

Starting point is 05:29:42 By God, I've got her now, and I've got them. He spurred the Apache into a lope along the steep. in dangerous declivity leading downward into the basin. The horse was surprised. Never before had he been allowed to go downhill faster than a walk, his sound forelegs, attesting the careful horsemanship of his rider. Where the trail wound around bushes, he took perilous jumps on the steep hillside, for his speed was too great to permit him to take the short turns.

Starting point is 05:30:06 He cleared them, and somehow he stuck to the trail beyond. His iron shoes struck fire and half-embedbed boulders. A rattler crossed the trail ahead, coiled, buzzing its warning. The hillside was steep. There was no footing above or below the snake. The Apache could not have stopped in time to save himself from those poisonous fangs. A coward horse would have wheeled and gone over the cliff, but the Morgan is no coward. The rider saw the danger at the instant the horse did.

Starting point is 05:30:31 The animal felt the spurs touch him lightly. He heard a word of encouragement from the man he trusted. As the snake struck, he rose, gathering his four feet close to his belly and cleared the danger spot far out of reach of the needle-like fangs. The trail beyond was narrow, rocky, and shelving. The thing could not have happened in a worse place. The Apache lit, stumbled, slipped. His off hind foot went over the edge.

Starting point is 05:30:53 He lunged forward upon his knees. Only the cool horsemanship of his rider saved them both. A pound of weight thrown in the wrong direction would have toppled the horse to the bottom of the rocky gorge. A heavy hand upon the bit would have accomplished the same result. Pendleton set easily on the balanced seat that gave the horse the best chance to regain his footing. His touch upon the bit was only sufficient to impart confidence to his mount, giving the animal's head free play, as nature intended.

Starting point is 05:31:16 as he scrabbled back to the trail again. At last they reached the safer footing of the basin, and were often a straight line for the ravine, into which led the mysterious trail. Apache knew that there was need for haste, an inclination of his master's body, a closing of his knees against his barrel, the slight raising of the bridle hand,

Starting point is 05:31:33 had told him this more surely than loud cries of the punishment of steel rowels. He flattened out and flew. The cold raged at Grip Pennington broke no delay. He was glad, though, that he was unarmed, for he knew that when he came face to face with the men, with whom Shannon Burk had conspired against him, he might again cease to be the master of his anger.

Starting point is 05:31:53 They reached the foot of the eclivity terminating at the sum of the ridge beyond which lay the camp of the bootleggers. Again, the man urged his mount to the necessity of speed. The powerful beast leapt upward along the steep trail, digging his toes deep into the sun-baked soil. Every muscle in his body strained to the limit of its powers. At the summit, they met baldy, head and tail erect, snorting, and riderless.

Starting point is 05:32:15 The appearance of the horse and his evident fright bespoke something amiss. Custer had seen him just as he had emerged from the upper end of the dim trail leading down the opposite side of the hopback. He turned the Apache into it and headed him down toward the Oaks. Below, Shannon was waging a futile fight against the Burley Bartolo. She struck at his face and attempted to push him from her, but he had only laughed his crooked laugh and pushed her slowly toward the trampled dust of the abandoned camp. Before I kill you, he repeated again and again, as if it was some huge joke. He heard the sound of the Apache's hopes upon the trail above, but he thought out at the loose horse of the girl.

Starting point is 05:32:51 Custer was almost at the bottom of the trail when the Mexican glanced up and saw him. With a curse, he hurled Shannon aside and leapt toward his pony. At the same instant the girl saw the Apache and his rider, and in the next, she saw Bartolo seize his rifle and attempt to draw it from his boot. Leaping to her feet, she sprang toward the Mexican,

Starting point is 05:33:08 who was cursing frightfully because the rifle had stuck and he could not readily extricate it from the boot. As she reached him, he succeeded in jerking the weapon free, swinging about, he threw away, to his shoulder and fired at Pennington, just as Shannon threw herself upon him, clutching at his arms and dragged him the muzzle of the weapon downward. He struck at her face and tried to wrench the rifle from her grasp, but she cloned to it with all the desperation that the danger confronting the man she loved engendered.

Starting point is 05:33:33 Custer had thrown himself from the saddle and was running toward them. Bartolo saw that he could not regain the rifle in time to use it. He struck the girl a terrible blow in the face that sent her to the ground. Then he turned and vaulted into his saddle, and was away across the bottom and up the trail at the opposite side before Penitton can reach him. and dragging him from his pony. Custer turned to the girl lying motionless upon the ground.

Starting point is 05:33:53 He knelt and raised her in his arms. She had fainted, and her face was very white. He looked down into it, the face of the girl he hated. He felt his arms about her, he felt her body against his, and suddenly a look of horror filled his eyes. He laid her back upon the ground and stood up. He was trembling violently.

Starting point is 05:34:11 As he had held her in his arms, there was swept over him in almost irresistible desire to crush her to him, to cover her eyes and cheeks with kisses, to smother her lips with them, the girl he hated. A great light had broken upon his mental horizon, a light of understanding that left all his world

Starting point is 05:34:26 in the dark shadow of despair. He loved Shannon Burke. Again he knelt beside her, and very gently he lifted her in his arms and they could support her across one shoulder. Then he whistled to the Apache, who was nibbling the bitter leaves of the live oak. When the horse came to him,

Starting point is 05:34:41 he looped to Brile Rains about his arm and started on foot up the trail down which he had just written, carrying Shannon across his shoulder. At the summit of the ridge he found Baldi, grazing upon the sparse, burned grasses of late September. It was then that Shannon Burke opened her eyes. At first, confused by the rush of returning recollections, she thought that it was a Mexican who was carrying her. But an instant later she recognized the whip cord riding breeches in the familiar boots and spurs of the son of Ganado. Then she stirred upon his shoulder.

Starting point is 05:35:11 I am all right now, she said. You may put me down. I can walk. He lowered her to the ground, but he still supported her as they stood facing each other. You came just in time, she said. He was going to kill me. I'm glad I came, was all that he said. She noticed how tired and pinched Custer's face looked,

Starting point is 05:35:29 as if he had risen from a sick bed after a long period of suffering. He looked older, very much older, and oh, so sad. It wrung her heart, but she did not question him. She was still waiting for him to question her, for she knew that he must wonder why she had come here, and what the meaning of the encounter he had. had witnessed, but he did not ask her anything, beyond inquiring whether she thought she was strong enough to sit in her saddle if he helped her mount.

Starting point is 05:35:52 I shall be all right now, she assured him. He caught Baldi and assisted her into the saddle. Then he mounted the Apache and led the way along the trail toward home. They were halfway across the basin meadow before either spoke. It was Shannon who broke the silence. You must have wondered what I was doing up there, she said, with a backward nod of her head. That would not be strange, would it? I will tell you.

Starting point is 05:36:15 No, he said. It was bad enough that you went there today and the Saturday before I was arrested. Anything more that you can tell me would only make it worse. Do you remember that girl I told you about, the friend of cousin William, who visited us? Yes. I followed you up here today to tell you the same thing I told her. I understand, she said. You do not understand, he snapped almost angrily.

Starting point is 05:36:37 You understand nothing. I only said that I followed to tell you that. I have not told you, have I? Well, I don't intend to tell you. but my shame that I don't is enough without you telling me any more to add to it. There could be no honorable excuse for you having come here that other time, or this time either. There's no reason in the world why a woman should have any dealings with criminals or any knowledge that would make dealings with them possible.

Starting point is 05:36:59 That is the reason I don't want you to tell me more. Oh, Shannon, his voice broke. I don't want to hear anything bad about you. Please. She had been upon the verge of just anger until then. Even now she did not understand, only that he wanted to believe in her. her, however much he doubted her, and that their friendship had meant more to him than she had imagined. But I must tell you, Custer, she insisted.

Starting point is 05:37:21 Now that you have learned this much, I can see that your suspicions wronged me more than I deserve. I came here the Saturday before you were arrested to warn them you're going to watch for them the following Friday. Though I did not know the men, I knew what sort they were, and that they would kill you the moment they found that they were discovered. It was only to save your life that I came that other time, and this time I came to try to force them to go before the Grand Jury and clear you with a charge against you.

Starting point is 05:37:42 But when I threatened the man and he found that I knew about him, he said that he would kill me. You did not know I was going to be arrested that night? Oh, Custer, how could you believe that of me? exclaimed Shannon. I didn't want to believe it. I came into all this information about the work of this gang by accidentally overhearing a conversation in Hollywood months ago. I know the names of the principals. I know Guy's connection with them. Today I was trying to keep guy's name out, too, if that were possible. But he is guilty and you are not.

Starting point is 05:38:12 I cannot understand how he can come back from Los Angeles without telling the truth and removing the suspicion from you. I would not let him, said Pennington. You would not let him? You'd go to the penitentiary for the crime of another? Not for him, but for Ava. Guy and I thrashed it all out. He wanted to give himself up. He almost demanded I should let him.

Starting point is 05:38:32 But it can't be done. Eva must never know. But Custer, you can't go. It wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't be right. I won't let you go. I know enough to clear. you and I shall go before the grand jury on Wednesday and tell all I know."

Starting point is 05:38:45 No, he said. You must not. It would involve Guy. I won't mention Guy. But you will mention others and they will mention Guy. Don't doubt that for a minute. He turned suddenly toward her. Promise me, Shannon, that you will not go, that you will not mention what you know to a living soul.

Starting point is 05:39:02 I'd rather go to the pen for 20 years and say Ava's life ruined. You don't know her. She's gay and happy and frivolous on the outside, but deep within her is a soul of wondrous sensitiveness and be which is fortified and guarded by her pride and her honor. Strike down one of these, and you will have given her soul a wound from which it will never recover. She can understand neither meanness nor depravity in men and women. Should she ever learn that Guy has been connected with this gang, and that the money upon which they were to start their married life was the fruits of his criminality,

Starting point is 05:39:30 it would break her heart. I know that Guy isn't criminally inclined, and that this will be a lesson that will keep him straight as long as he lives. But she wouldn't look at it that way. Now do you see why you must not tell what you know? Perhaps you are right, but it seems to me that she would not suffer any more if Guy went than if her brother went. She loves you very much. But she will know that I am innocent.

Starting point is 05:39:52 If Guy went, she would know that he is guilty. Shannon had no answer to this, and they were silent for a while. You will help me to keep this from Eva, he asked? Yes. She was thinking of the futility of her sacrifice, and wondering what explanation he was putting upon her knowledge of the activities of the criminals. He had said that there could be no reason in the world why a woman should have any dealings with such men, or any knowledge that would make dealings with them possible.

Starting point is 05:40:19 What would he think of her if he knew the truth? The man's mind was the chaos of conflicting thoughts, the sudden realization of a love that was as impossible as it was unwelcome, recollection of his vows to grace, which were his binding upon his honor as the marriage vows themselves would have been. Doubts us to the character and antecedents of this girl, who rode to his side today, and whose place in his life has suddenly assumed an importance beyond that of any. other.

Starting point is 05:40:43 Then he turned a little, his eyes resting upon a profile, and he found it hard to doubt her. Shannon felt his eyes upon her, and looked up. You have been so good to me, Custer, all of you. You can never know how I have valued the friendship of the Pennington's, or what it was meant to me, or how I have striven to deserve it. I would have done anything to repay a heart, at least, of what it has done for me. That was what I was going to do.

Starting point is 05:41:07 That is why I wanted to go before the grand jury, no matter what to cost to me. But I failed, and perhaps I have only made it worse. I do not even know that you believe me. I believe you, Shannon, he said. There is much that I do not understand, but I believe that what you did was done in our interests. There's nothing more that any of us can do now, but keep still about what we know. For the moment, one of those actually responsible is threatened with exposure, guy's name will be divulged.

Starting point is 05:41:33 You may rest assured of that. They would be only too glad to shift the responsibility to his shoulders. But you will make some effort to defend yourself? I shall simply plead not guilty and tell the truth about why I was up there when the officers arrested me. You will make no other defense? What other defense can I make that would not risk incriminating guy? Custer asked her. She shook her head.

Starting point is 05:41:54 It seemed quite hopeless. End of Chapter 26. Chapter 27 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This lib of box recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Denoia, Somerset, New Jersey. Federal officers searching the hills found the can. beyond Jackknife Canyon. They collected a number of empty bottles bearing labels

Starting point is 05:42:19 identical with those of the bottles in the cases carried by the boroughs, and those found in Custer Pennington's room. That was all they discovered, except that the camp was located on the Pennington property. The district attorney, realizing the post-the-of-evidence calculated to convict the prisoner on any serious charge, was inclined to drop the prosecution.

Starting point is 05:42:36 But the prohibition enforcement agents, backed by a band of women, most of whom had never performed a woman's first duty to the state and society, and therefore had ample time to meddle in the affairs far beyond the scope of their intellects, seized upon the prominence of the Pennington name to gain notoriety for themselves,

Starting point is 05:42:51 on the score that a conviction of a member of a prominent family would have an excellent moral effect upon the community at large. Just how they arrived at this conclusion it is difficult to discern. Similarly, one might argue that if it could be proved that the Pope was a pickpocket, it would be tremendously effective in regenerating the morals of the world.

Starting point is 05:43:10 Be that as a May, the works of the righteous were not without fruit, for on the 12th of October, Custer Pennington was found guilty and sentenced to six months in a county jail for having several hundred dollars worth of stolen whiskey in his possession. He was neither surprised nor disheartened. His only concern was for the sensibilities of his family, and these, represented that the trial in the person of his father seemed far from overwhelmed, for the colonel was unalterably convinced of his son's innocence. Ava, who had remained at home with her mother, was more deeply affected than the others, though through a sense

Starting point is 05:43:41 of injustice rather than of shame. Shannon, depressed by an unwarranted sense of responsibility for the wrong that Custer had suffered and chagrin that force of circumstances should have prevented her from saving the penitents from a stain upon their escutcheon, found it increasingly difficult to continue her intimacy with these loved friends. Carrying in her heart the knowledge and the proof of his innocence, she regarded herself as a traitor among them, and in consequence held herself more and more aloof from their society, first upon one pretext and then upon another. I had a loss to account for her change toward them,

Starting point is 05:44:13 Ava, in a moment of depression, attributed it to the disgrace of Custer's imprisonment. She's ashamed to associate with the family of a... A jailbird, she cried. I don't believe anything of the kind, replied the colonel. Sheena's got too much sense, and she's too loyal. That's all damn poppycock. I'm sure she couldn't feel that way, said Mrs. Pennington. She has been just as positive in her assertions of Custer's innocence as any of us.

Starting point is 05:44:37 You might as well think the same about God. said the colonel. He scarcely had been up here since Custer's arrest. He's been very busy on a new story. Anyway, I asked him about that very thing and offered to break the engagement if he felt our disgrace too keenly to want to marry into the family. The colonel drew her down to his knee. You silly little girl, he said. Do you suppose that has made any difference in the affection that Guy or any other of our real friends feel for us? Not in the slightest.

Starting point is 05:45:03 Even if Cuss were guilty, they would not change. Those who did, we would be better off not to know. I am rather jealous of the pennyton honor myself, but I have never felt that this affair is any reflection upon it, and you need not. But I can't help it, Popsie. My brother, my dear brother, in jail with a lot of thieves and murderers and horrible people like that. It is just too awful.

Starting point is 05:45:25 I lie awake at night thinking about it. I am ashamed to go to the village, for fear someone will point at me and say, there grows the girl whose brother is in jail. You are taking it much too hard, dear, said her mother. would think that our boy was really guilty. Oh, if he really were, I should kill myself. The only person, other than the officious reformers, to derive any happiness from Young Pendleton's fate, was Slick Alan.

Starting point is 05:45:50 He occupied a cell not far from Custer's, and there were occasions when they were thrown together. Several times, Alan saw fit to fling jibes at his former employer, much to the amusement of his fellows. They were usually indirect. One day, as Custer was passing, Alan remarked in a loud tone. There's a lot more of these damn fox-trapin dudes that put on airs,

Starting point is 05:46:11 but ain't nothing but common thieves. Pennington turned and face him. You remember what you got the last time you tried calling me names, Alan? Well, don't think for a minute, and just because we're in jail, I won't hand you the same thing again someday, if you get too funny. The trouble with you, Alan, is that you are a laboring under the misapprehension, that you were a humorist. You're not, and if I were you,

Starting point is 05:46:31 I wouldn't make faces at the only man in this jail who knows about you, and Bartolo, and... Gratial. Don't forget Gratial. Alan paled, and his eyes closed to two very narrow slits. He had made no more observations concerning Pennington, but he devoted much thought to him, trying to arrive at some reasonable explanation of the man's silence,

Starting point is 05:46:50 when it was evident that he must have sufficient knowledge of the guilt of others to clear himself of the charge upon which he had been convicted. To Alan's hatred of Custer was now added to real fear, for he had been present when Bartolo killed Gratial. The only two witnesses have been Mexicans, and Alan had no doubt that if Bartolo were accused, the three of them were swear that the American committed the murder. One of the first things to do when he was released from jail

Starting point is 05:47:12 was to do away with Bartolo. Bartolo was disposed of, the other witnesses would join with Alan to lay the guilt upon the departed. Such pleasant thoughts occupied the time and mind of slick Alan, as did also his plans for paying one Wilson crumb a little debt he felt due his one-time friend. Nor was crumb free from apprehension for the time

Starting point is 05:47:30 that would see Alan's jail sentence fulfilled. He well knew the nature of the man, and is a typical of drug addicts to disregard the effect of their acts further than the immediate serving of their own interests, and the director had encompassed Alan's arrest merely to meet the emergency of the moment. Later, as time gave him the opportunity to consider what must inevitably follow Alan's release, he began to take thought as to means whereby he might escape the just deserts of his treachery. He knew enough of Allen's activities to send the man to a federal prison for a long term, but these matters he could not divulge without

Starting point is 05:48:00 equally incriminating himself. There was, however, one little item of Alan's past, which might be used against him without signal danger to Crum, and that was the murder of Gratial. It would not be necessary for Crum to appear in the matter at all. An anonymous letter to the police would suffice to direct suspicion of the crime toward Allen, and to ensure for Crum, if not permanent immunity, at least a period of reprieve. With the natural predilection of the week, for avoiding or delay in the consummation of their intentions, Crum postponed the writing of this letter of accusation.

Starting point is 05:48:29 There was no cause for hurry, he argued, since Alan's time would not expire until the 6th of the following August. Chrome led a lonely life had led a departure of Gaza. His infatuation for the girl had as closely approximated love as a creature of his type could reach. He had come to depend upon her

Starting point is 05:48:44 and to look forward to find her at the Vista del Paso bungalow on his return from the studio. Since her departure, his evenings have been unbearable, and with the passing weeks, he developed a hatred for the place that constantly reminded him of his loss.

Starting point is 05:48:56 He had been so confident that she would have to return to him after she had consumed the small quantity of morphine he had allotted her that only after the weeks had run into months, did he realize that she had probably gone out of his life forever. How she had accomplished it, he could not understand, unless she had found means of obtaining the narcotic elsewhere.

Starting point is 05:49:12 Not knowing where she had gone, he had no means of searching for her. In his own mind, however, he was convinced that she must have returned to Los Angeles. Judging others by himself, he can conceive of no existence that would be supportable beyond the limits of the large city, where the means for gratification of his vice might be obtained. That Gaza Delors had successfully thrown off the fetters into which he had tricked her, never for a moment entered his calculations. Finally, however, it was borne in upon him that there was little likelihood of her returning,

Starting point is 05:49:39 and so depressing had become the familiar and suggested furnishing of the Vista d'Alpasa bungalow that he at last gave it up, stored his furniture, and took a room at a local hotel. He took with him, carefully concealed in the trunk, his supply of narcotics, which he did not find it so easy to dispose of since the departure of his accomplice. During the first picture in which Grace Evans had worked with him,

Starting point is 05:50:00 Crumb had become more and more impressed with her beauty and a subtle charm of her confinement, which appealed to him by contrast with the extraordinary surroundings and personalities of the KKS studio. There was a quiet restfulness about her which soothe her diseased nerves, and after Gaza's desertion, he found himself more and more seeking her society. As was his accustomed policy, his attentions were at first so slight and increased by such barely perceptible degrees, that, taking in connection with his uniform courtesy, that gave the girl no warning of his ultimate purposes.

Starting point is 05:50:30 The matter of the test had shocked and disgusted her for the moment, but the thing having been done, and no harm coming from it, she began to consider even that with less revulsion than formerly. The purpose of it she had never been able to fathom, but if Crome had intended it to place him insidiously upon the plain of greater intimacy with the girl, he had succeeded, that the effect was subjective rendered it nonetheless effective. Added to these factors in the budding intimacy between the director and the extra girl was the factor which is almost most potent in similar associations,

Starting point is 05:50:58 the fear that the girl holds of offending a potent ally, and the hope of propitiating a power in which lies the potentiality of success upon the screen. Lunches at Franks, dinners at the ship, dances at the country club, led by easy gradations to more protractic parties at the Sunset Inn and the Green Mill. The purposes of Crum's shrewdly conceived and carefully executed plan were twofold. Primarily, he sought a companionship to replace that of which Gaza Delors had robbed him. Secondarily, he needed a new tool to assist him to dispose of the disposal. of the considerable store of narcotics that he had succeeded in tricking Alan and his accomplices into delivering to him,

Starting point is 05:51:35 with the understanding that he would divide the profits of the sales with them, which, however, Crum had no intention of doing if he could possibly avoid it. In much the same manner that he had tricked Gaza to lure, he tricked Grace Evans into use of cocaine, and after that, the rest was easy. Renting another and less pretentious bungalow on the Circle Terrace, he installed the girl there and transferred the trunk of narcotics to her care, retaining his room at the hotel for himself. grace's fall was more easily accomplished than in the case of gaza and was more complete for the former had neither the courage nor the strength of character that had enabled the other to withstand the more degrading advances of her tempter

Starting point is 05:52:13 to assume that the girl made no effort to oppose his importunings would be both unfair and unjust for both heredity and training had empowered her with the love of honour and a horror of the soaredness of vice but the gradual undermining of her will by the subtle and rows of narcotics rendered her powerless to withstand the final assault upon the civil civil citadel of her scruples. One evening, toward the middle of October, they were dining together at the winter club. Crome had bought an evening paper on the street and was glancing through it as they sat waiting for their dinner to be served. Presently, he looked up at the girl seated opposite him. Didn't you come from a little jerkwater place up the line called Ganado, he asked? She nodded affirmatively.

Starting point is 05:52:51 Why? Here's a guy from there being sent up for bootlegging, followed by the name of Pennington. She half closed her eyes as if in pain. I know, she said. It has been in the newspapers for the last couple of weeks. Did you know him? Yes, he's been out to see me since his arrest, and he called up once. Did you see him?

Starting point is 05:53:12 No, I would be ashamed to see any decent person. Decent, snorted Crum. You don't call a damn bootlegger decent, do you? I don't believe he ever did it, said the girl. I have known him all my life and his family. I'm certain he couldn't have done it. A sudden light came into Crum's eye. By God, he exclaimed, bringing his fist down upon the table.

Starting point is 05:53:33 What is the matter, Grace inquired? Well, wouldn't that get you, he exclaimed. I never connected you at all. What do you mean? This fellow Pennington may not be guilty, but I know who is. How do you know? I don't understand you. Why do you look at me that way?

Starting point is 05:53:49 Well, if that isn't the best ever exclaimed the man, and here you have been handing me a long line of talk about the decent family you came from, and now it would kill them if they knew you sniffed a little coke now and then. But wouldn't that get you? You certainly are a fine one to preach. I don't understand you, said the girl. What is this to do with me? I'm not related to Mr. Pennington,

Starting point is 05:54:08 and it would be no difference if I were, for I know he never did anything of the sort. The idea of a Pennington bootlegging. Why, they have more money than they need, and always have had. It isn't Pennington who ought to be in jail, he said. It's your brother. She looked at him in surprise, and then she left.

Starting point is 05:54:25 You must have been hitting up strong today, Wilson, she said. Oh no, I haven't, but it's funny, I never thought of it before. Alan told me a long while ago that a fellow by the name of Evans was handling the hooch for him. He said he got a job for the Pennington's as stableman in order to be near the camp where they had the stuff cashed in the hills. He described Evans as a young blood, and so I guess there isn't any doubt about it. You have a brother. I've heard you speak of him. I don't believe you, she said.

Starting point is 05:54:52 It don't make any difference whether you believe me or not. I could put your brother in the pen and they've only got Pennington in the county jail. all i can get on him according to this article was having stolen goods in his possession but your brother was in the whole proposition it was hidden in his hay barn he delivered it to a fellow who came up there every week ostensibly to get hay and your brother collected the money Gosh, they'd send him up for sure if I ever tipped him off to what I know. And thus was fashioned the power he used to force her to his will. A week later, the bungalow on Circle Tennis was engaged, and Grace Evans took up the work of peddling narcotics, which Shannon Burke had laid down a few months before.

Starting point is 05:55:28 With this difference, Gaza Delors had shared in the profits of the traffic, while Grace Evans got nothing more than her living, and what drugs she craved for her personal use. Her life, her surroundings, every environment of this new and terrible world into which her ambition had introduced her, tended rapidly to ravish her beauty. She faded with a rapidity that was surprising even a crumb, surprising and annoying.

Starting point is 05:55:50 He had wanted for her to keep her beauty, but now she was losing it. But still he must keep her, because of her value in his nefarious commerce. As weeks and months went by, he no longer took pleasure in her society, and was seldom at the bungalow, save when he came to demand in accounting and to collect the proceeds of her sales. Her pleas and reproaches had no other effect upon him than to arouse his own. anger. One day, when she clunked at him, begging him not to desert her, he pushed her roughly from him so that she fell, and in falling, she struck the edge of the table and hurt herself. This happened in April. On the following day, Custer Pennington, his terms in the

Starting point is 05:56:25 county jail expired, was liberated. End of Chapter 27. Chapter 28 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This liverbox recording is in the public domain. according by Joe Donoia, Somerset, New Jersey Custer's long hours of loneliness had often been occupied with plans against the day of his liberation. That Grace had not seen him or communicated with him since his arrest and conviction

Starting point is 05:56:53 had been a source of wonder and hurt to him. He recalled many times the circumstances at a telephone call with a growing belief that Grace had been there, but had refused to talk with him. Nevertheless, he was determined to see her before he returned to Ganado. He had asked particularly that none of his family should come to Los Angeles on the day of his release, but that the roadster should be sent

Starting point is 05:57:13 up on the preceding day and left in the garage for him. He lost no time after quitting the jail and getting his machine and driving out to Hollywood to the house where Grace had boarded. The woman who answered his ring told him that Grace no longer lived there. At first she was loath to give many information as to the girl's whereabouts, but after some persuasion, she gave him a number on Circle Terrace, and in that direction, Pennyton turned his car. As he left his car before the bungalow and approached the building, he could see into the interior through the screen door, for it was a warm day in April and the inner door was open. As he mounted a few steps leading to the porch, he saw a woman cross the living room, into which the door opened.

Starting point is 05:57:51 She moved hurriedly, disappearing through a doorway opposite and closing the door after her. Though he had but a brief glimpse of her in a darkened interior, he knew that it was grace, so familiar were every line of her figure and every movement of her carriage. It was several minutes after Custer rang before a Japanese appeared at the doorway. It was the same Japanese schoolboy who served as General Factorum at the Vista del Pazzo bungalow. He opened the screen door a few inches and looked inquiringly at the caller. I wish to see Miss Evans, said Custer. He took a card case from his pocket and handed the card to this servant, who looked blankly at the card and then at the collar,

Starting point is 05:58:26 finally shaking his head stupidly and closing the door. No here, he said. Nobody home. Pettington recalled once more the effect. the fare of the telephone. He knew that he had just seen Grace inside the bungalow. He had come to talk with her, and he intended to do so. He laid his hand on the handle of the door and jerked it open. The Jap, evidently lacking in discretion, endeavored to prevent him from entering. First, the guardian clawed at the door in the effort to close it, and then, very foolishly, he intended to push-pending him out on the porch. The results were disastrous to the Jap. Crossed in the living

Starting point is 05:58:58 room, Custer wrapped on the door through which he had seen Grace go, calling her by name. Receiving the In reply, he flung the door open, facing him was the girl he was engaged to marry. With her back against the dresser, Grace stood at the opposite end of the room. Her disheveled hair fell about her face, which was overspread with a sickly pallor. Her wild, staring eyes were fixed upon him. Her mouth, dripping at the corners, tremulously depicted a combination of terror and anger. Grace, he exclaimed. She still stood staring at him for a moment before she spoke.

Starting point is 05:59:30 What do you mean, she demanded at last, by breaking into my bedroom. Get out. I don't want to see you. I don't want you here. He crossed the room and put a handle on her shoulder. My God, Grace, he cried. What is the matter? What has happened to you?

Starting point is 05:59:44 Nothing has happened, she mumbled. There's nothing that matter with me. I suppose you want me to go back with the rest of the rube's. I'm through with the damn country. And country jakes, too, she added. You mean that you don't want me here, Grace? That you don't love me, he asked. Love you?

Starting point is 05:59:59 She broke into a disagreeable laugh. Why, you poor Rube? I never want to see you again. He stood looking at her for a moment longer. Many turned slowly and walked out of the bungalow and down to his car. When he had gone, the girl threw herself face down upon the bed and burst into uncontrollable sobs. For the moment, she had risen triumphant above the clutches of her sworded vice. For that brief moment she had played her part to save the man she loved from greater torture and humiliation in the future.

Starting point is 06:00:25 At what a price, only she could ever know. Custer found them waiting for him on the east porch as he drove up to the ranch house. the new freedom and a long drive over the beautiful highway through the clear April sunshine, with the green hills at his left and the lovely valleys spread out upon his right hand, to some extent alleviated the depression that had followed the shock of his interview with Grace. And when he alighted from the car, he seemed quite his normal self again. Ava was first to reach him. She fairly threw herself upon her brother, laughing and crying in a hysteria of happiness.

Starting point is 06:00:55 His mother was smiling through her tears, while the Colonel blew his nose violently, remarking that it was a hell of time of year to have a damn cold. Custer joked a little about his imprisonment, but he soon saw that the mere mention of it had the most depressing effects upon Eva, so he did not revert to the subject again in her presence. He confined himself to plying with them a hundred questions about happenings on the ranch during his long absence, the condition of the stock, and the crop outlook for the season. As he considered the effect his undeserved jail sentence had produced upon the sensibilities of his sister, he was doubly repaid for the long months of confinement that he had suffered in order to save her from the still greater blow of having the man she was to marry. justly convicted of a far more serious crime. He saw no reason now why she should ever learn the truth. The temporary disgrace of his incarceration would soon be forgotten

Starting point is 06:01:41 in the everyday run of work and pleasure that constituted the life of Ganato, and the specter of her hurt pride would no longer haunt her. Custer was surprised that Guy and Mrs. Evans had not been of the party that welcomed his return. When he mentioned this, they had had him had beenckon themselves for a while, that their neighbors were coming up after dinner. and it was not until dinner that he asked after Shannon. We have seen very little of her since you left, explained his mother. She returned Baldi soon after that, and bought the senator from Mrs. Evans.

Starting point is 06:02:12 I don't know what is the matter with the child, said the colonel. She's as sweetest ever when we do see her, and she always asks after you and tells us that she believes in your innocence. She rides a great deal at night, but seldom, if ever, into daytime. I don't think it is safe for a woman to ride alone in the hills at night, and I've told her so. But she says that she is not afraid, and she loves to. the hills as well by night as by day. Ava has missed her company very much, said Mrs. Penington. I was afraid that we might have done something to offend her, but none of us can think

Starting point is 06:02:40 what it could have been. I thought she was ashamed of us, said Ava. Nonsense, exclaimed the Colonel. Of course that's nonsense, said Custer. She knows as well as the rest of you that I was innocent. He was thinking how much more Shirley Shannon knew his innocence than any of them. During dinner, Ava regained her old-time spirit. more than once the tears came to Mrs. Pennington's eyes as she realized that once more their little family was united,

Starting point is 06:03:04 and that the pall of sorrow that had waited so heavily upon them for the past six months had at last lifted, revealing again the sunshine of the daughter's heart, which had never been the same since their boy had gone away. Oh, cuss! exclaimed Eva, the most scrumptious thing is going to happen, and I'm so glad you're going to be here, too. It's going to be perfectly gorgeousistic. There's be a whole regiment of them, and they're going to be camped right up the mouth of a jackknife. I can scarcely wait until they come. Can you? I think I might manage, said her brother, at least until you tell me what you're talking about.

Starting point is 06:03:35 Pictures, exclaimed Eva. Isn't it simple, metacorduristic? And they may be here a whole month. What in the world is a child talking about? asked Custer, appealing to his mother. Your father, Mrs. Pennington started to explain. Oh, don't tell him, cried Eva. I want to tell him myself. You've been explaining for several minutes, said Custer, but you haven't said anything yet. Well, I'll start at the beginning then.

Starting point is 06:03:56 They're going to have Indians and Cowboys and... That sounds more like to finish, suggested Custer. Don't interrupt me. They're going to take a picture on Gannado. Custer turned towards his father with a look of surprise. You didn't blame Papa, said Eva. It was all my fault. Or rather, I should say, our good fortune is all due to me.

Starting point is 06:04:16 You see, Papa wasn't going to let them come at first, but the cutest man came up to see him. A nice, short, fat little man, and he rubbed his hands together and said, Veld Colonel? Well, Papa told him that he had never allowed any picture companies on the place, but I happened to be there, and that was all that saved us, for I teased and teased and teased until finally Papa said that they can come, provided they didn't take any pictures up around the house. They didn't want to do that, for they're making a Western picture,

Starting point is 06:04:41 and they said the scenery at the back of the ranch is just what they want. They're coming up in a few days, and it's going to be perfectly radiant, and maybe I'll get to be in the pictures. If I thought so, said Custer, I put a can of nitroglycerine onto the whole works the moment they drove on the property. He was thinking to what the pictures had done for Grace Evans. I am surprised that you permitted it, father, he said, turning to the colonel. I'm not a surprise myself admitted the older Pennington.

Starting point is 06:05:04 But what was I to do with that suave little location manager rubbing his hands and oiling me on one side? And this little rascal here pestering the life out of me and the other. I simply had to give in. I don't imagine any harm will come from it. They've promised to be very careful of all the property, and whenever any of our stock is used, it will be handled by our own men. I suppose they're going to pay you handsomely for it, suggested Custer. The colonel smiled.

Starting point is 06:05:27 Well, that wasn't exactly mentioned, he said, but I have a recollection that the location manager said something about presenting us with a fine set of stills of the ranch. Generous of them, said Custer. They'll camp all over the shop, use our water, burn our firewood, and trample up our pasture, and in return they'll give us a set of photographs. Their liberality is truly marvelous. Well, to tell you the truth, said the colonel, after I found how anxious Ava was, I wouldn't have dared mention payment, for fear they might refuse to come, and this young lady's life might be ruined in consequence.

Starting point is 06:05:56 What outfit is it, as the son? It's a company from KKS, directed by a man by the name of Crum. Wilson Crum, the famous actor-director, added Ava. How perfectly radiant! I danced with him in Los Angeles a year ago. Well, that's the fellow, is it? said Custer. I have a hazy recollection that you were mad about him for some 15 minutes after you reached home. But I have never heard you mention him since.

Starting point is 06:06:18 Well, to tell you the truth, said Ava, I had forgotten all about him until that perfectly gorgeous little loquacious manager mentioned him. Location manager corrected her father. He was both. Yes, he was, said the colonel. I rather hope he comes back. I haven't enjoyed anyone so much since the days of Weber and Fields. It was after 8 o'clock when the Evans has arrived. Mrs. Evans was genuinely affected at seeing Custer again, but she was as fond of him as if he had been her own son.

Starting point is 06:06:45 In Guy, Custer discovered a great change. The boy he had left had become suddenly a man, quiet and reserved, with a shadow of sadness in his expression. His lesson had been a hard one, Custer knew, and the price that he had to pay for it had left its indelible mark upon his sensitive character. Guy's happiness in having Custer back again was overshadowed to some extent by the shame that he must always feel when he looked into the face of the man who shouldered his guilt and taken the punishment which should have been his.

Starting point is 06:07:11 The true purpose of Pennington's sacrifice could never alter Young Evans's realization of the fact that the part he had been forced to take, having that of a coward and a traitor and a cat. The first greeting's over, Mrs. Evans asked Custer if he had seen grace before he left Los Angeles. I saw her, he said, and she is not at all well. I think Guy should go up there immediately and try to bring her back. I meant to speak to him about it this evening. She is not seriously ill, exclaimed Mrs. Evans.

Starting point is 06:07:37 I cannot say, replied Custer. I doubt if she is seriously ill in the physical sense, but she is not well. I could see that. She has changed a great deal. I think you should lose no time, Guy, he added, turning to Grace's brother, been going to Los Angeles and getting her. She's been gone almost a year, and it's time she knew whether her dreams are to come true or not.

Starting point is 06:07:55 From what I saw of her, I doubt if they ever materialized. I will go tomorrow, said Young Evans. End of Chapter 28. Chapter 29 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This limberbox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey. The six months that had just passed have been months of indecision and sadness for Shannon Burke. constantly moved by conviction that she should leave the vicinity of Ganado and the Penningtons,

Starting point is 06:08:26 she was held there by a force that she had not the power to overcome. Never before since she had left her mother's home in the Middle West as she experienced the peace and contentment and happiness that her little orchard on the highway imparted to her life. The friendship of the Penningtons had meant more to her than anything that had thitherto entered her life, and to be near them, even if she saw them but seldom, constituted the constant bulwark against the assaults of her old enemy, which still occasionally assailed ramparts of her will. After the departure of Custard, she had conscientiously observed what she considered to be his wishes,

Starting point is 06:08:57 as expressed in his reference comparing her with the girlfriend of Cousin William, whom he had practically ordered out of the house. She had as far as possible avoided Ava's society, and no contemplation of the cause of this avoidance filled her with humiliation, and with a sense of injustice of all that it implied, she nevertheless felt it a duty to the man she loved to respect his every wish, however indirectly suggested. That she might put herself in Ava's way as seldom as possible, Shannon had formed the habit of riding at those hours at which the Pennington's were not accustomed to rhyme. The habit of solitude grew upon her, and she loved the loneliness of the hills. They never oppressed her. She never feared them.

Starting point is 06:09:33 They drew her to them and sooth her as a mother might have done. There she forgot her sorrows, and hope was stimulated to new life. Especially when the old craving seized her did she long for the hills, and it was because of this that she first wrote at night, on a night of brilliant moonlight that imparted to familiar scenes the weird beauties of a strange world. The experience was unique. It assumed the proportions of an adventure, and it lured her to other similar excursions. Even the senator felt the spell of enchantment.

Starting point is 06:10:01 He stepped daintily with up-picked ears and arched neck, peering nervously into depths of each shadowy bush. He leapt suddenly aside at the movement of a leaf, or halted, trembling and snorting, at the moon-baved outlines of some jutting rock that he had passed a hundred times, unmoved by day. The moonlight rise led Shannon to others on moonless nights, so that she was all over. often in the saddle, when the valley slept. She invariably followed the same trail on these occasions, with the result that both she and the senator knew every foot of it so well

Starting point is 06:10:29 that they had traversed beneath the blackness of heavy clouds, or when low fogs obliterated all but the nearest objects. Never, in the hills, could her mind dwell upon depressing thoughts. Only cheerful reflections were her companions on these hours of solitude. She thought of the love that had come into her life, of the beauty of it, and of all that it had done to make her life more worth living. of the Penningtons and an example of red-blooded cleanliness that they set,

Starting point is 06:10:53 decency without prudery, of her little orchard and saving problems that had brought to occupy her mind and hands, of her horse and her horsemanship, two never-failing sources of companionship and pleasure, which the Pennington's had taught her to love and enjoy. On the morning after Custer's return, Guy started early for Los Angeles while Custer, Shannon not having joined them on their morning ride,

Starting point is 06:11:13 resaddled the Apache after breakfast and rode down to her bungalow. He both longed to see her and dreaded the meeting, for, regardless of Grace's attitude and of the repulsed she had given him, his honor bound him to her. Loyalty to the girl had been engendered by long years of association, during which friendship had grown into love by so gradual a process that it seemed to each of them that there had never been a time when they had not loved. Such attachments formed in the heart of youth, hollowed by time, and fortified by the pride

Starting point is 06:11:41 and honor of inherited chivalry, became a part of the characters of their possessors, and as difficult to uproot as those other habits of thought and action, which do differentiate one individual from another. Custer had realized in that brief interview of the day before that Grace was not herself. What was the cause of her change he could not guess, since he was entirely unacquainted with the symptoms or narcotics? Even had a suspicion of truth entered his mind, he would have discarded it with his vile slander upon the girl, as he had rejected the involuntary suggestion that she might

Starting point is 06:12:10 have been drinking. His position was distressing for a man to whom Honor was a fetish, since he knew that he still loved Grace, while at the same time realizing a still greater love, for Shannon. She saw him coming and came down the driveway to meet him, her face radiant with the joy of his return, and with that expression of love, that is always patented to all but the object of its concern. Oh, Custer, she cried, I'm so glad that you were home again. It has seemed years and years, rather than months to all of us. I'm glad to be home, Shannon. I have missed you too. I have missed you all, everything. The hills, the valley, every horse and cow and little pig, the clean air, the smell of the flowers and sage.

Starting point is 06:12:48 all that is Gannado. You like it better than the city? I shall never long for the city again, he said. Cities are wonderful, of course, with their great buildings, their parks and boulevards, their fine residences, their lawns and gardens, the things that men have accomplished there fill a fellow with admiration.

Starting point is 06:13:06 But how pitiful they really are compared with the magnificence that is ours. He turned and pointed toward the mountains. Just think of those hills, Shannon, and the infinite, unthinkable power that uplifted such mighty monuments. Think of the countless ages that they have endured, and then compare them with the puny efforts of man.

Starting point is 06:13:23 Compare the range of vision of the city dweller with ours. He could see across the street into the top of some tall building, which may look imposing, but place it beside one of our hills and see what becomes of it. Place it in a ravine in the high sierras, and you would have difficulty in fighting it. You cannot even think of it in connection with the mountain fifteen or twenty thousand feet in height. And yet the city man patronizes as country people, deploring the necessity that compels us to pursue our circumscribed existence.

Starting point is 06:13:48 "'Pity him,' laughed Shannon. "'He is as narrow as his streets. "'His ideals can reach no higher than the pall of smoke that hangs over the roofs of his buildings. "'I am so glad, Custard, that you've given up the idea of leaving the country for the city.' "'I never really intended to,' he replied. "'I couldn't have left, on father's account. "'But now I can remain on my own as well as his, and with a greater degree of contentment. "'You see that my recent experience was a blessing in disguise.

Starting point is 06:14:13 "'I am glad if some good came out of it, but it was a wicked injustice, "'and there were others as innocent as you who saw you. suffered fully as much, Eva especially. I know, he said. She has been very lonely since I left, with Grace away too. They tell me that you have constantly avoided them. Why? I cannot understand it.

Starting point is 06:14:30 He had dismounted and tied the Apache, and they were walking toward the porch. She stopped and turned to look at Custer squarely in the eyes. How could I have done otherwise, she asked. I do not understand, he replied. She could not hold her eyes to his, as she explained, but looked down. her expression changing from happiness to one of shame and sadness. You forget that girl, the friend of cousin William, she asked. Oh, Shannon, he cried, laying a hand impulsively upon her arm.

Starting point is 06:14:58 I told you that I wouldn't say that to you. I didn't want you to stay away. I have implicit confidence in you. No, she contradicted him. In your heart you thought it, and perhaps you were right. No, he insisted, please don't stay away. Promise me that you will not. You have hurt them all, and they are all so fond of you.

Starting point is 06:15:16 i am sorry custer i would not hurt them i love them all but i thought i was doing the thing that you wished there was so much that you did not understand and you can never understand and you were away where you could know what was going on so it seemed disloyal to do the thing i thought you would rather i didn't do it's all over now he said let's start over again forgetting all that has happened in the last six months and a half again his hand lay upon her arm he was seized with an almost uncontrollable desire to crush her to him two things deterred him his loyalty to the great thing was seized upon her arm he was seized with an almost uncontrollable desire to crush her to him two things deterred him his loyalty to the great and the belief this love would be unwelcome to Shannon. End of Chapter 29. Chapter 30 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Liverpool Fox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Danoia, Somerset, New Jersey. Guy Evan swept over the broad, smooth highway at a rate

Starting point is 06:16:10 that would have won him ten days in jail at Santa Ana had his course led him through that village. The impression that Custer's words had implanted in his mind was that Grace was ill. Her penitent had not gone into the details of this unhappy interview with the girl. choosing to leave to her brother realization of her changed condition, which would have been incredible to him, even from the lips of so trusted a friend as Custer.

Starting point is 06:16:30 And so it was that when he approached the bungalow on Circle Terrace and saw a coop standing at the curb, he guessed at what it pretended, for though there were doubtless hundreds of similar cars in the city, there was that about this one which suggested the profession of its owner. As Guy hurried up to walk to the front door, he was as positive that he would find Grace ill and a doctor in attendance, as if someone had already told him so.

Starting point is 06:16:50 There was no response to his ring, and as the inner door was open, he entered. A door on the opposite side of the living room was ajar. As Guy approached it, a man appeared in the doorway, and beyond him the visitor can see Grace lying, very white and still upon a bed. Who are you? This woman's husband? demanded the man in curt tones. I am her brother. What is the matter?

Starting point is 06:17:10 Is she very ill? Did you know of her condition? I heard last night that she was not well, and I hurried up here. I live in the country. Who are you? What has happened? She is not My God, she is not

Starting point is 06:17:23 Not yet Perhaps we can save her I am a doctor I was called by a Japanese Who said that he was a servant here He must have left after he called me For I have not seen him Her condition is serious

Starting point is 06:17:34 And requires an immediate operation An operation of such a nature That I must learn the name of her own physician And have him present Where is her husband? Husband My sister is not Guy seats speaking and went suddenly white

Starting point is 06:17:47 My god doctor You don't mean that she that my sister? Oh no, not that. He sees the other's arm beseechingly. The doctor laid his hand upon the younger man's shoulder. She had a fall last night before last, and an immediate operation is imperative.

Starting point is 06:18:02 Her condition is such that we cannot even take the risk of moving her to a hospital. I have my instruments in my car, but I should have help. Who is her doctor? I do not know. I'll get someone. I have given her something to quiet her. The doctor stepped to the telephone and gave a number. Evans entered the room where his sister lay.

Starting point is 06:18:19 She was moving about restlessly and moaning, though it was evident that she was still unconscious. Changed. Guy wondered that he had not known her at all, now that he was closer to her. Her face was pinched and drawn. Her beauty was gone, every vestige of it. She looked old and tired and haggard, and there were terrible lines upon her face that stilled her brother's heart and brought tears to his eyes. He heard the doctor summoning an assistant and directing him to bring ether.

Starting point is 06:18:47 Then he heard him go out of the house by the front door, to get his instruments doubtless. The brother knelt by the girl's bed. Grace, he whispered and threw an arm about her. Her lids fluttered, and she opened her eyes. Guy! She recognized him. She was conscious.

Starting point is 06:19:03 Who did this, he demanded. What is his name? She shook her head. What's the use, she asked? It is done. Tell me. You would kill him and be punished. It would only make it worse for you and mother.

Starting point is 06:19:18 Let it die with me. You are not going to die. Tell me, who is it? Do you love him? I hate him. How are you injured? He threw me against a table. Her voice was growing weaker.

Starting point is 06:19:33 Choking back tears of grief and anger, the young man rose and stood beside her. Grace, I command you to tell me. His voice was low, but it was vibrant with power and authority. The girl tried to speak. Her lips moved, but she uttered no sound. Guy thought that she was dying and taking her. secret to the grave. Her eyes moved to something beyond the foot of the bed,

Starting point is 06:19:54 and back again to whatever she had been looking at, as if she thought to direct his attention to something in that part of the room. He followed the direction of her gaze. There was a dressing table there, and on it a phonograph of a man in a silver frame. Guy stepped to the table and picked up the picture. This is he? His eyes demanded an answer. Her lips moved soundlessly, and weakly she nodded in affirmative.

Starting point is 06:20:16 What is his name? She was too weak to answer him. She gasped, and her breath came flutteringly. The brother threw himself upon his knees beside the bed and took her in his arms. His tears mingled with his kisses on her cheek. The doctor came then and drew him away. She is dead, said the boy, turning away and covering his face with his hands. No, said the doctor after a brief examination.

Starting point is 06:20:39 She is not dead. Get into the kitchen and get some water to boiling. I'll be getting things ready in here. Another doctor will be here in a few minutes. Glad of something to do just to help, Guy hastened to the little kitchen. He found a kettle and a large pan and put water in then to boil. A moment later, the doctor came in. He had removed his coat and vest and rolled up his sleeves.

Starting point is 06:21:00 He placed his instruments in the pan of water on the stove, and then he went to the sink and washed his hands. While he scrubbed, he talked. He was an efficient-looking business-like person, and he inspired Guy with confidence and hope. She has a fighting chance, he said. I've seen worse cases pull through. She's had a bad time, though.

Starting point is 06:21:17 She must have been lying there from pretty close to 24 hours without any attention. I found her fully dressed on her bed. Fully dressed except for what clothes she'd torn off in her pain. If someone had called a doctor yesterday at this time, it might have been all right. It may even be all right now. We'll do the best we can. The bell rang. That's the doctor.

Starting point is 06:21:36 Let him in, please. Guy went to the door and admitted the second physician, who removed his coat and vest and went directly to the kitchen. The first doctor was entering the room. Grace lay. He turned and spoke to his colleague, greeting him, and he disappeared within the adjoining room. The second doctor busied himself about the sink, sterilizing his hands. Guy laided another burner and put on another vessel with water in it. A moment later, the first doctor returned to the kitchen. It will not be necessary to operate, doctor,

Starting point is 06:22:03 he said. We were too late. His tone and manner was still very business-like and efficient, but there was an expression of compassion in his eyes as he crossed the room and put his arm about guy's shoulders. Come into the other room, my boy. I want to talk to you, he said. Guy, dry-eyed, and walking almost as one in a trance, accompanied him to the little living room. You have had a hard blow, said the doctor. What I'm going to tell you may make it harder. But if she had been my sister, I should have wanted to know about it. She is better off. The chances are that she didn't want to live. She certainly made no fight for life,

Starting point is 06:22:37 not since I was called. Why should she want to die? Guy asked Dully. We would have forgiven. her. No one would ever have known about it but me. There was something else. She was a drug addict. That was probably the reason why she didn't want to live. The morphine I had given her to quiet her would have killed three ordinary men. And so Guy Evans came to know the terrible fate that had robbed his sister of her dreams, of her ambition, and finally of her life. He placed the full responsibility upon the man whose picture had stood in the silver frame upon the girl's dressing table. As he knelt beside the dead girl, he swore to search until he had learned the

Starting point is 06:23:12 identity of that man, and found him, and forced from him the only expiation that could satisfy the honor of a brother. End of Chapter 30. Chapter 31 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This librivate recording is in the public domain. Recorded by Joe Danoia, Somerset, New Jersey. The death of grace had, of course, its naturally depressing effect upon the circle of relatives and friends, Eganano.

Starting point is 06:23:42 But her absence of more than a year, the infrequency of her letters, and the fact that they had already come to feel that she was lost to them, mitigated to some degree the keenness of their grief, and lessened its outward manifestations. Her pitiful end could not seriously interrupt the tenor of their lives, which had long since grown over the wound of her departure, as a tree's growth rolls over the herd of a severed limb, leaving only the scar as a reminder of its loss. Miss Evans, Guy, and Custard suffered more than the others. Mrs. Evans, because of the natural instinct of motherhood, and Custer from a sense of loss that

Starting point is 06:24:13 seemed to have uprooted and torn away a part of his being, even though he realized that his love for Grace had been of a different sort from his hopeless passion for Shannon Burke. It was Guy who suffered most, for hugging to his breast was the annoying secret of the truth of his sister's life and death. He had told them that Grace had died of pneumonia, and they had not gone behind his assertion to search the records for the truth. Locked in his desk was a silver frame, and the picture of the man whose identity he had been unable to discover. The bungalow had been leased in Grace's name. The Japanese servant had disappeared, and Guy had been unable to obtain any trace of him.

Starting point is 06:24:47 The dead girl hadn't had no friends in the neighborhood, and there was no one who could tell him anything that might lead to the discovery of the man he sought. He did not, however, give up the search. He went off into Hollywood, where he haunted public places and the entrances to studios, in the hope that someday he would find the man he sought. But as the passing months brought no success, and the duties of his ranch and his literary work demanded more and more of his time, he was gradually compelled to push the furtherance of his vengeance into the background, though without any lessening of his determination to compass it eventually.

Starting point is 06:25:17 To Custer, the direct effect of Grace's death was to revive the habit of drinking more than was good for him, a habit from which he had drifted away during the past year. That it had ever been a habit he would, of course, have been a last to admit. He was one of those men who could drink or leave it alone. The world is full of them, and so were the cemeteries. Custer avoided Shannon when he can do so without seeming unfriendly. Quite unreasonably, he felt. felt that his love for Shannon was an indication of disloyalty to grace. The latter's dismissal of him he had never taken as a serious avowal of his heart. He realized that the woman who had spoken so bitterly had not been the girl he had loved,

Starting point is 06:25:53 and whose avowals of love he had listened to. Nor had she been the girl upon whose sad, tired face he had looked for the last time in the darkened living room of the Evans' home. For then, death had softened the hard lines of dissipation, revealing again, in chast and melancholy, the soul that sin had disguised, but not destroyed. Shannon recognized the change in Custer. She attributed to his grief and to his increased drinking, which she had sensed almost immediately,

Starting point is 06:26:19 as love does sense the slightest change in its object, however little apparent to another. She did not realize that she was purposely avoiding her. She was more than ever with Eva now, for Guy, having settled down to the serious occupations of a man's estate, no longer had so much leisure time to devote to play. She still occasionally rode at night, for the daytime rides with Custer were less frequent now.

Starting point is 06:26:40 Much of his time was occupied closer in around the ranch, with the conditioning of the show herds for the coming fall, an activity which gave him a plausible excuse for going his rides with Shannon. The previous year they had been compelled to cancel their entries because of Custer's imprisonment, since the colonel would not make the circuit of the shows himself, and did not care to trust the herds to anyone but his son. Now the Morgans, the Herfords, and the Berkshires that were to uphold the fame of Ganada over the center of arduous and painstakingly fitting and grooming, as the time approached when the finishing touches were to be put upon glossy coats and polished horn and hoof.

Starting point is 06:27:15 May, June, and July had come and gone. It was August again. Guy's feudal visits to Los Angeles were now infrequent. The life of Ganado had again assumed the cheerfulness of the past. The heat of summer had brought the swimming pool into renewed demand, and the cool evenings saved the ballroom from desertion. The youth of the foothills and valley, reinforced by weekend visitors from the city, filled the old house with the laughter and happiness. Shannon was always of these parties, for they would not let her remain away. It was upon the occasion of one of them, early in August, that Eva announced the date of her wedding to Guy. The second of September, she told them, it comes on a Saturday.

Starting point is 06:27:54 We're going to motor to... Hold on, caution, Guy. That's a secret. And when we come back, we're to start building on Hill 13. That's a cow pastor, said Custer. Well, it won't be one anymore. You must find another cowpaster. Certainly, little one, replied her brother.

Starting point is 06:28:10 We'll bring the cows up here in the ballroom. With 5,000 acres to pick from, I suppose you can't find a cow pasture anywhere but on the best bungalow site in Southern California. You, radiant, brother. You wouldn't have your little sister living in the hog pasture now, would you? Heavens! No, those nine children you aspire to would annoy the brood sows. You're hideous. Put on a fox trot, someone, cried Guy.

Starting point is 06:28:32 Dance with your sister cuss, and you'll let her build bungalows all over Ganado. No one can refuse her anything when they dance with her. I'll say they can, agreed Custer. Was that how she lured you to your undoing guy? What a dapper little idea, exclaimed Ava. Guy danced that dance with Mrs. Pennington, and the colonel took out Shannon. As they moved over the smooth floor with the easy dignity that good dancers can impart to the fox trout, the girl's eyes were often on the brother and sister dancing and laughing together.

Starting point is 06:28:58 How wonderful they are, she said. Who? inquired the colonel. Custer and Ava. There's such a wonderful relationship between brother and sister, the way it ought to be, but very seldom is. Well, I don't know that it's unique, replied the colonel. Guy and Grace were that way, and so were my father's children. Possibly it's because we were all raised in the country, where children are more dependent upon their sisters and brothers for companionship than children of the city.

Starting point is 06:29:23 We all get better acquainted in the country, and we have to learn to find the best that is in each of us, for we having the choice of companions here that a city, with its thousands, affords. I don't know, said Shannon. Perhaps that is it. But anyway, it is lovely, really lovely, for they are almost like two lovers. At first when I heard them teasing each other, I used to think there might be some bitterness in their thrusts. But when I came to know you all better,

Starting point is 06:29:48 I realized that your affection was so perfect that there could never be any misunderstanding among you. That attitude is not peculiar to the Pennington's, replied the colonel. I know, for instance, of one who's so perfectly harmonized with their lives, the ideals that in less than a year she became practically one of them. He was smiling down into Shannon's upturned face. I know, you mean me, she said. said, it is awfully nice of you, and it makes me very proud to hear you say so, for I've

Starting point is 06:30:13 really tried to be like you. If I have succeeded at the least bit, I am so happy. I don't know that you have succeeded in being like us, he laughed, but you have certainly succeeded in being liked by us. Why, do you know, Shannon, I believe Mrs. Penning and I discuss you and plan for you fully as much as we do the children. It is almost as if you were our other daughter. The tears came to her eyes. I am so happy, she said again. It was later in the evening, after a dance, that she and Custer walked out of the driveway along the north side of the ballroom, and stood looking out over the moon enchanted valley, a vista of loveliness glimpsed between masses of feathery foliage and an opening through the trees in the hillside just below them.

Starting point is 06:30:53 They looked out across the acacias and cedars of the lower hill, toward the lights of the little village twinkling between two dome-like hills at the upper end of the valley. It was an unusually warm evening, almost too warm to dance. I think we'll get a little of the ocean breeze, said Custor. if we're on the other side of the hill. Let's walk over to the water gardens. There's usually a breeze there, but the building cuts us off from it here.

Starting point is 06:31:17 Side by side, in silence, they walked around the front of the building and along the south drive to the steps leading down through the water gardens to the stables. The steps were narrow, and Custer went ahead, which is always the custom of men in countries where they are rattlesnakes.

Starting point is 06:31:30 As Shannon stepped from the cement steps to the gravel walk above the first pool, her foot came down upon a round stone, turning her ankle and throwing her against Custer. For support, she grasped his arm. Upon such insignificant trifles made the fate of lives depend. It might have been a lizard, a toad, or a mouse, or even a rattlesnake that precipitated the moment which, for countless eons, creation had been preparing.

Starting point is 06:31:54 But it was none of these. It was just a little round pebble, and it threw Shannon Burke against Custer Pennington, causing her to seize his arm. He felt the contact of those fingers and the warmth of her body, and her cheek near his shoulder. He threw an arm about her to support her. Almost instantly she had regained her footing. Laughingly, she drew away.

Starting point is 06:32:12 I stepped on a stone, she said in explanation, but I didn't hurt my ankle. But still, he kept his armor on her. At first, she didn't understand, and supposing that he still thought her unable to stand alone, she again explained that she was unhurt. He stood looking down into her face, which was turned up to his. The moon, almost full, revealed her features as clearly as sunlight. How beautiful they were, and how close. She had not yet fully realized the significance of his attitude when he suddenly threw his other arm around her and crushed her to him.

Starting point is 06:32:45 And then, before she could prevent, he had bent his lips to hers and kissed her full upon the mouth. With a startled cry she pushed him away. Custer, she said, what have you done? This is not like you. I do not understand. She was really terrified, terrified at the thought that he might have kissed her without love. Terrified that he might have kissed her with love. She did not know which would be the greater catastrophe.

Starting point is 06:33:08 I couldn't help it, Shannon, he said. Blame the pebble. Blame the moonlight. Blame me. It won't make any difference. I couldn't help it. That is all there is to it. I fought against it for months.

Starting point is 06:33:21 I knew you didn't love me. But oh, Shannon, I love you. I had to tell you. He loved her. He had loved her for months. Oh, the horror of it. Her little dream of happiness was shattered. No longer could they go on as they had.

Starting point is 06:33:36 They would always be this between them. The knowledge of his love, and he would learn of her love for him, for she could not lie to him if he asked her. Then she would either have to explain or to go away, to explain those hideous months with crumb. Custer would not believe the truth. No man would believe the truth, that she'd come through them undefiled.

Starting point is 06:33:55 She herself would not believe it of another woman, and she was too sophisticated to hope that the man who loved her would believe it of her. He had not let her go. They still stood there, his arms about her. Please don't be angry, Shannon, he begged. You may not want my love, but there's no disgrace in it. Maybe I shouldn't have kissed you, but I couldn't help it. I'm glad I did.

Starting point is 06:34:17 I have that to remember as long as I live. Please don't be angry. Angry? She wished to God that he would crush her to him again and kiss her. Kiss her. Kiss her like that now and forever. Why shouldn't he? Why shouldn't she let him?

Starting point is 06:34:31 What has she done to deserve eternal punishment? There were countless wives less virtuous than she. Ah, if she could have but the happiness of his love. She closed her eyes and turned away her head, and for just an instant she dreamed her beautiful dream. Why not? Why not? Why not?

Starting point is 06:34:49 There could be no better wife than she, for there could be no greater love than hers. He noticed that she no longer drew away. There had been no look of anger in her eyes, only startled questioning, and her face was still so near. Again his arms closed about her, and again his lips found hers. This time she did not deny him. She was only human, only a woman, and her love, growing steadily in power for many months, has suddenly burst forth in a consuming fire beneath his burning kisses.

Starting point is 06:35:19 He felt her lips move in a fluttering sob beneath his, and then her dear arms stole up around his neck and pressed him closer in complete surrender. Shannon, you love me? Ah, dear boy, always. He drew her to the lower end of the pool, where a rustic seat stood half-concealed by the foliage, of a dripping umbrella tree. There they sat and asked each other the same questions that lovers have asked since prehistoric man

Starting point is 06:35:43 first invented speech, and that lovers will continue to ask so long as speech exists upon earth. Very important questions. By far the most important questions in the world. They did not know how long they sat there. To them it seemed but a moment when they heard voices calling their names from above.

Starting point is 06:36:00 Shannon, Custer, where are you? It was Ava calling. I suppose we'll have to go, he said. just one more kiss she took a dozen and then they rose and walked through the steps to the south drive shall i tell them he asked not yet please she was not sure that it would last such happiness was too sweet to endure ava spied them where in the world have you two been she demanded we've been hunting all over for you and shouting until i'm hoarse we've been right down there by the upper pool trying to cool off replied custer it's too beastly hot to dance you never thought so before said eva suspiciously do you know i believe you two have been off spooning how perfectly gorgoristic how perfectly nothing replied custer old people like shannon to me don't spoon that's for you kids eva came closer shannon you better go and straighten your hair before anyone sees you she laughed and pinched the other's arm i'd love it she whispered in shannon's ear if it were true you'll tell me won't you if it ever comes true dear shannon returned the whisper usually be the first to know about it.

Starting point is 06:37:08 Scrumptious. But say, I've got the divinest news. What do you think? Popsie has known it all day and never mentioned it. Forgot all about it, he said, until just before he and mother trotted off to bed. Did you ever hear of anything so outrageous? And now half the folks have gone home, and I can't tell him.

Starting point is 06:37:23 Oh, it's too spiffy for words. I've been longing and longing for it for months and months and months. Now it's going to happen. It's really going to happen. Actually going to happen on Monday. For heaven's sake, little one, unwind and get to the end of your harrowing story. What's going to happen? Why, the KKS Company is coming on Monday, and Wilson Crum is coming with them?

Starting point is 06:37:43 Shannon staggered, almost as from the force of a physical blow. Wilson Crum coming? Coming to Gennado? Short indeed had been her sweet happiness. What's the matter, Shannon? asked Custer solicitously. The girl steadied herself quickly. Oh, it's nothing, she said with a nervous laugh. I just felt a little dizzy for a moment.

Starting point is 06:38:03 You'd better go in the house and lie down, he suggested. No, I think I'll go home if he'll drive me down, Custer. You know, ten o'clock is pretty late for us. It's Saturday night, said Ava. But I don't want to miss my ride in the morning. You're all going, aren't you? I am, said Custer. He noticed that she was very quiet as they drove down to her place,

Starting point is 06:38:22 and when they parted, she clung to him as if she would not bear to let him go. It was very wonderful, the miracle of his great love. As he drove back home, he could not think of anything else. He was not egotistical, and it seemed strange that from all the men she must have known Shannon had kept her love from him. With Grace it had been different. Their love had grown up with them from childhood. It seemed no more remarkable that Grace should love him

Starting point is 06:38:44 than Ava should love him, or that he should love grace. But Shannon had come to him out of a strange world, a world full of men, where, with her beauty and her charm, she must have been an object of admiration to many. Yet she had brought her heart to him intact, for she had told him that she had never loved another. And she had told him the truth. End of Chapter 31.

Starting point is 06:39:13 Chapter 32 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. According by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey. After Custer left her, Shannon entered the bungalow and sat for a long time before a table on which stood a framed photograph of her mother. Never before she felt the need of loving counsel so sorely as now. In almost any other emergency, she could have gone to Mrs. Pennington, but in this, she dared not. She knew the pride of the Pennington's. She realized the high altar upon which they placed the purity of their

Starting point is 06:39:43 women in the sacred temple of their love, and she knew that none but the pure might enter. In her heart of hearts, she knew that she had the right to stand there besides his mother or his sister, but the pity of it was that she could never prove that right, for who would believe her? Men had been hanged upon circumstantial evidence less damning than that which might be arrayed against her purity. No, if ever they should learn of her association with Wilson Crumb, they would cast her out of their lives as they would put a leper out of their home. Not even Custer's love could survive such a blow to his honor and his pride. She did not think the less of him because of that, for she was wise enough in the ways of the world

Starting point is 06:40:20 to know that pride and virtue are oftentimes uncompromising, even to narrowness. Her only hope, therefore, lay in avoiding discovery by Wilson Crumb during his stay at Ganano. Her love and the weakness that had induced permitted her to accept the happiness for which an unkind fate had hitherto debarred her, and to which even now her honor told her she had no right. She wished that Custer had not loved her, and that she might have continued to live the life that she learned to love, where she might be near him and might constantly see him

Starting point is 06:40:48 the happy consociation of friendship. But with his arms about her and his kisses on her lips, she had not had the strength to deny him, or to dissimulate the great love which had ordered her very existence for many months. In the brief moments of bliss that had followed the avowal of his love, she had permitted herself to drift without thought of the future. But now that the sudden knowledge of the future, the approaching arrival of Crumb had startled her into recollection of the past and consideration

Starting point is 06:41:12 of its bearing upon the future, she realized only too poignantly that demands of honor require that sooner or later she herself must tell Custer the whole sordid story of those hideous months in Hollywood. There was no other way. She could not mate with the man unless she could match her honor with his. There was no alternative other than to go away forever. It was midnight before she arose and went to her room. She went deliberately to a drawer where she had kept locked, and, finding the key, she was

Starting point is 06:41:38 She opened it. From it, she took the little black case, and turning back the cover, she revealed the files, the needles, and the tiny syringe that had played so sinister a part in her past. What she was doing tonight she had done so often in the past year that I was almost assumed the proportions of a right. It had been her want to parade her tempters before her, that she might have the satisfaction of deriding them, and proving the strength of the new will that her love for Custer Pennington had been so potent a factor in developing.

Starting point is 06:42:04 Tonight, she went a little further. She took a bit of cotton, and, placing it in the bowl of the spoon, she dissolved some of the white powder with the aid of a lighted match held beneath the spoon. Then she drew the liquid into the syringe. Her nerves were overwrought and unstrung from the stress of the conflicting emotions that had endured that evening, and the risk she took was greater than she guessed. And yet, as she looked at the syringe and realized that its contents held surcease of sorrow, that it held quiet and rest and peace, she felt only repugnous toward it. Not even remotely did she consider the possibility of resorting again to the false happiness of morphine. She knew now that she was freer from his temptations than one who had never used it, but

Starting point is 06:42:43 she felt that after tonight, with the avowal of Pennington's love still in her ears, she must no longer keep in her possession a thing so diametrically opposed to the cleanliness of his life and his character. For months she had retained it as part of his system that she had conceived for ridding herself of its power. Without it, she might never have known whether she could withstand the temptations of its presence. But now she had finished with it. She needed it no longer. With almost fanatical savagery, she destroyed it, crushing the glass files and the syringe beneath her heel,

Starting point is 06:43:11 and tearing a little case to shreds. Then, gathering up the fragments, she carried them to the fireplace in the living room, and burned them. On the following day, the horses and several loads of properties from the KKS Studio arrived at Ganano, and the men who accompanied them pitched their camp well up in Jackknife Canyon. Eva was very much excited and spent much of her time on horseback, watching their preparations. She tried to get Shannon to accompany her, but the latter found various excuses to remain away, being fearful that even though Crum had not yet arrived, there might be other employees of the studio who would recognize her.

Starting point is 06:43:46 Crum and the rest of the company came in in the afternoon, although they had not been expected until the following day. Eva, who had made Custer ride up again with her in the afternoon, recalled to the acting director the occasion upon which she had met him, and they had danced together some year and a half before. As soon as he met her, Crumb was struck by her beauty, youth, and freshness. He saw on her a possible means of relieving the tedium of several weeks in forced absence from Hollywood, though in the Big Brother, he realized a possible obstacle, unless he were

Starting point is 06:44:14 able to carry on his proposed gallantries clandestinely. In the course of conversation, he took occasion to remark that Ava ought to photograph well. I'll let them take a hundred feet of you, he said. Someday when you're up here while you're working, we might discover an unsung pickford up here among the hills. She will remain unsung then, said Custer curtly. My sister has no desire to go into pictures.

Starting point is 06:44:35 How do you know I haven't? asked Eva. After Grace, he asked significantly. She turned to Chrome. I'm afraid I wouldn't make much of an actress, she said. But it would be perfectly radiant to see myself in pictures, just once. Good, he replied. We'll get you all right some day that you're up here. I promised your brother that I wouldn't try to persuade you into pictures.

Starting point is 06:44:56 I hope not, said Custer. As he and Ava wrote back toward the house, He turned to the girl. I don't like that fellow crumb, he said. Why? She asked. It's hard to say. He just robs me the wrong way.

Starting point is 06:45:08 But I bet almost anything that he's a cat. Or I think he's perfectly divine, said Ava with her usual enthusiasm. Custer grunted. The trouble with you announced Ava is that you're jealous of him because he's an actor. That's just like you men. Custer laughed. Maybe you're right, he said, but I don't like him, and I hope you'll never go up there alone. Well, I'm going to see them take pictures.

Starting point is 06:45:29 replied the girl, so I can't get anyone to go with me. I'm going alone. I don't like the way he looked at you, Eva. You're perfectly silly. He didn't look at me any differently than any other man does. I don't know about that. I haven't the same keen desire to punch the head of every man I see looking at you as I had in this case. Oh, you're prejudiced. I bet anything is just perfectly lovely. Next morning, finding no one with a leisure or inclination to ride with her, Eva rode up again to the camp. They had already commenced shooting. Although Crum was busy, he courteously took the time to explain the scene on which they were working, and many of the technical details of picture-making.

Starting point is 06:46:07 He had a man hold her horse while she came and squinted through the finder. In fact, he spent so much time with her that he materially delayed the work of the morning. At the same time, the infatuation that had given its birth on the preceding day grew to greater proportions in its diseased mind. He asked her to stay and lunch with them. When she insisted that she must return home, he begged her to come again in the afternoon. Although she would have been glad to do so, for she found the work that they were doing novel and interesting, she declined his invitation,

Starting point is 06:46:34 as she already had made arrangements for the afternoon. He followed her to her horse, and walked beside her down the road a short distance from the others. If he can't come down this afternoon, he said, possibly you can come up this evening. We're going to take some night pictures. I hadn't intended inviting anyone because the work is going to be rather difficult and dangerous,

Starting point is 06:46:52 but an audience might distract the attention of the actors. If you think you can get away alone, I should be very glad to have you come up for a few minutes about nine o'clock. We shall be working in the same place. Don't forget, he repeated as she started to write away, that for this particular scene I really ought not to have any audience at all. But if you come, please don't tell anyone else about it. I'll come, she said.

Starting point is 06:47:13 It's awfully good of you to ask me, and I won't tell a soul. Crum smiled as he turned back to his waiting company. Brought up in the atmosphere that has surrounded her since birth, unacquainted with any but honorable men, and believing as she did that all of her, men are the chivalrous protectors of all women. Ava did not suspect the guile that lay behind the director's courteous manner, and fair words. She looked upon the coming, nocturnal visit to the scene of their work as nothing more than

Starting point is 06:47:38 a harmless adventure. Nor was there, from her experience, any cause for apprehension, since the company comprised some forty or fifty men and women who, like anyone else, would protect her from any harm that lay in their power to avert. Her conscience did not trouble her in the least, although she regretted that she did not share her good fortune with the other members of her family, and deplored the necessity of leaving the house surreptitiously, like a thief in the night. Such things did not appeal to Pennington standards, but Ava satisfied these qualms by

Starting point is 06:48:05 promising herself that she would tell them all about it at breakfast the next morning. After lunch that day, Custer went to his room and, throwing himself on his bed with a book, with the intention of reading for half an hour, fell asleep. Shortly afterward, Shannon Burke, feeling that there would be no danger of meeting any of the KKS people at the Pendington House, rode up on the senator to keep her appointment with Ava. As she tied her horse upon the north side of the house, Wilson Crumb stopped his car opposite the patio at the South Drive. He had come up to see Cardle Pennington for the purpose of arranging

Starting point is 06:48:34 for the use of a number of Ganado Hereford's in the scene the following day. Not finding Ava in the family's sitting room, Shannon passed through the house and out into the patio, just as Wilson Crumb mounted the two steps to the arcade. Before either realized the presence of the other, they were face-to-face, scarce a yard apart. Shannon went deathly white as she recognized a man beneath his makeup,

Starting point is 06:48:54 while Crumb stood speechless for a moment. My God, Gaza, you! He presently managed to exclaim. What are you doing here? Thank God I have found you at last. Don't, she begged. Please don't speak to me. I am living a decent life here.

Starting point is 06:49:09 He laughed in a disagreeable manner. Decent, he scoffed. Where are you getting the snow? Who's putting up for it? I don't use it anymore, she said. The hell you don't. You can't put that over on me. Some of the guy is furnishing it.

Starting point is 06:49:23 I know you. You can't get a little. long two hours without it. I'm not going to stand for this. There isn't any guy going to steal my girl. Hush Wilson, she cautioned. For God's sake, keep still. Someone might hear you. I don't give a damn who hears me. I'm here to tell the world that no one is going to take my girl away from me. I found you and you're going back with me. Do you understand? She came very close to him, her eyes blazing wrathfully. I'm not going back with you, Wilson Crumb, she said. If you tell, or if you ever threaten me again in any way, I'll kill you. I managed to escape. I managed to

Starting point is 06:49:54 you and I found happiness at last, and no one shall take it away from me. What about my happiness? You lived with me two years. I love you, and, by God, I'm going to have you, if I have to. A door slammed behind them, and they both turned to see Custer Pendleton standing in the arcade outside his door, looking at them. I beg your pardon, he said, his voice chilling. Did I interrupt? This man is looking for someone, Custer, said Cian, and turned to reenter the house. confronted by a man, Crum's provado had vanished. Intuitively, he guessed that he had been looking at the man who had stolen Gaza from him. But he was a very big young man with broad shoulders and muscles that his flannel shirt and riding breeches did not conceal.

Starting point is 06:50:35 Crum decided that he was going to have trouble with this man. It would be safer to commence hostilities at a time when the other was not looking. Yes, he said, I was looking for your father, Mr. Pennington. Father is not here. He has driven over to the village. What do you want? I wanted to see if I'm going to be going to be a man. arrange for the use of some of your here for its tomorrow morning.

Starting point is 06:50:54 Penitin was leaving the way toward Crum's car. You can find out about that, he said, or anything else you may wish to know, from the assistant foreman, whom you'll usually find up at the other end, around the cabin. If he isn't in doubt about anything, he will consult with us personally, so that will not be necessary, Mr. Crum, for you to go to the trouble of coming to this house again. Custer's voice was level and low. It carried no suggestion of anger, yet there was that about it which convinced Crum that he was fortunate in not having been kicked off the hill, physically.

Starting point is 06:51:21 physically, rather than verbally, for kicked off he had been, and advised to stay off into the bargain. He wondered how much Pennington had overheard of his conversation with Gaza. Shannon Burke, crouching in a big chair in a sitting room, was wondering the same thing. As a matter of fact, Custer had overheard practically all the conversation. The noise of Crumb's car had awakened him, but almost immediately he had fallen into a doze, through which the spoken words impinged upon his consciousness without any actual, immediate realization of their meaning of the identity of this spirit.

Starting point is 06:51:51 speakers. The moment that he had become fully awake and found that he was listening to a conversation not intended for his ears, he had risen and gone into the patio. When finally he came to the sitting room where Shannon was, he made no mention of the occurrence except to say that the visitor had wanted to see his father. It did not seem possible to Shannon that he could have failed to overhear at least a part of their conversation, for they were standing not more than a couple yards from the opened window of the bedroom, and there was no other sound breaking the stillness of the August noon. She was sure that he had heard, yet his manner indicated that he had not. She waited a moment to see if he was the first to approach to the subject, but he did not.

Starting point is 06:52:27 She determined to tell him then and there all that she had to tell, freeing her soul and her conscience of their burden, whatever the cost may be. She rose and came to where he was standing, and, placing a hand upon his arm, looked up into his eyes. Custer, she said, I have something to tell you. I ought to have told you before, but I have been afraid. Since last night there's no alternative but to tell you. You do not have to tell me anything you do not want to tell me, he said.

Starting point is 06:52:54 My confidence in you is implicit. I cannot both love and distrust at the same time. I must tell you, she said. I only hope. Where in the world have you been, Shannon? cried Ava, breaking suddenly into the sitting room. I've been a way down to your place looking for you. I thought you were going to play golf with me this afternoon. That's what I came up for, said Shannon, turning toward her.

Starting point is 06:53:15 Well, come on then. We'll have to hurry if we're going to play 18. holes this afternoon. Custer Pennington went to his room again after the girls had driven off in the direction of the country club. He wondered what had been that Shannon wished to tell him. Round and round in his mind rang the words of Wilson Crum. You live with me two years.

Starting point is 06:53:32 You live with me two years. You live with me two years. She had been going to explain that, he was sure, but she did not have to explain it. The girl he loved could have done no wrong. He trusted her. He was sure of her. But what place had that soft face? had in her life. It was

Starting point is 06:53:49 unthinkable that she had ever known him, much less than they had been upon intimate terms. Custer went to his closet and rummaged around for a bottle. It had been more than two weeks since he had taken a drink. The return to his old intimacy was Shannon, and the frequency with which he now saw her had again weaned him from his habit.

Starting point is 06:54:05 But today he felt the need of a drink, of a big drink, stiff and neat. He swallowed the raw liquor as if it had been so much water. He wished now that he had punched Crum's head when he had the chance. The He had spoken to Shannon as if she was some common woman in the streets, Shannon Burke. Custer's Shannon. Feeling no reaction to the first drink, he took another.

Starting point is 06:54:28 I'd like to get my fingers on his throat, he thought. Before I choked the life out of him, I'd drag up here and make him kiss the ground at her feet. But no, he could not do that. Others would see it, and there would have to be explanations. And how could he explain it without casting reflections on Shannon? For hours he sat there in his room, nursing his anger, his jealousy and his grief, and all the time he drank and drank again.

Starting point is 06:54:52 He went to his closet, got his belt and holster, and from his dressing drawer took a big, ugly-looking 45, a colt's automatic. For a moment he stood holding it in his hand, looking at it. Almost caressingly, he handled it, and he slipped it into the holster at his hip, put on his hat, and started for the door. End of Chapter 32.

Starting point is 06:55:17 Chapter 33 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This Liverpool Box recording is in the public domain. recording by Joe Danoia, Somerset, New Jersey. Custer's Gate showed no indication of the amount that he had drunk. He was a pennington in Virginia, and he can carry his liquor like a gentleman. Even though he was aflame with the heat of vengeance, his movements were slow and deliberate. At the door he paused, and, turning, retraced his steps to the table where stood the bottle in the glass.

Starting point is 06:55:43 The bottle was empty. He went to the closet and got another. Again he drank, and as he stood there by the table, he commenced the plan again. There must be some reason for the thing he contemplated. There must be some reason so logical that the discovery of his act would in no way reflect upon Shannon Burke, or draw her name into the publicity which must ensue. It required time to think out a feasible plan, and time gave opportunity for additional drinks. The Colonel and Mrs. Pennington were away somewhere down in the valley.

Starting point is 06:56:11 Ava and Shannon were the first to return. In passing alone the arcade by Custer's open window, Ava saw him lying on his bed. She called to him, but he did not answer. Shannon was at her side. What in the world do you suppose is the matter with Custer? asked Eva. They saw that he was fully dressed.

Starting point is 06:56:27 His hat had fallen forward over his eyes. The two girls entered the room when they could not arouse him by calling him from the outside. The two bottles and the glass upon a table told her own story. What they cannot tell, Shannon guessed. He had overheard the conversation between Wilson Crum and herself. Eva removed the bottles and the glass to the closet. Poor Cuss, she said. I never saw him like this before.

Starting point is 06:56:48 I wonder what could have happened. what did we better do pulled down the shades by his bed said shannon and this she did herself without waiting for eva no one can see him from the patio now but it will be just as well to leave him alone i think eva who will probably be all right after he wakes up they went out of the room closing the door after them and a little later shannon mounted the senator and rode away toward home her thoughts were bitter wherever crumb went he brought misery whatever he touched he defiled she wished that he was dead god how she wished it she could have killed him with her own hands for the grief that she had brought to custer pennington she did not care so much about herself she was used to suffering because of wilson crumb but that he should bring his foulness into the purity of gannado was unthinkable her brief happiness was over no indeed was there nothing more in life for her she was not easily moved to tears but that night she was still sobbing when she fell asleep when the colonel and mrs pennington arrived at the ranch house just before dinner eva told him that custer was not feeling well and then he was laying down to sleep and had asked not to be disturbed. They did not go to his room at all, and at about half-past eight, they retired for the night. Ava was very much excited.

Starting point is 06:57:59 She had never before experienced the thrill of such an adventure as she was about to embark upon. As the time approached, she became more and more perturbed. The realization grew upon her that what she was now doing might seem highly objectionable to her family. But as her innocent heart held no suggestion of evil, she considered that her only wrong was the infraction of those unwritten laws of well-regulated homes, which forbid their daughters going out alone at night. She would tell about it in the morning and wheedle her father into forgiveness.

Starting point is 06:58:25 Quickly she changed into riding clothes, leaving her room, she noiselessly passed the living room and the east winged to the kitchen, and from there to the basement, from which a tunnel led beneath the driveway and opened up on the hillside above the upper pool of the water gardens. To get her horse and saddle him required but a few moments,

Starting point is 06:58:41 for the moon was full, and the night almost like day. Her heart was beaning with excitement as she rode up to canyon toward the big Sycamore had stood at the junction of Sycamore Canyon and El Camino Largo, where Crome had told her the night scenes would be taken. She walked her horse past the bunkhouse, lest some of the men might hear her, and when she was through the east gate,

Starting point is 06:59:01 beyond the old goat corral, she broke into a canter. As she passed the mouth of Jackknife, she glanced up the canyon toward the site of the KKS camp, but she could not see the lights, as the camp was fairly well hidden from the main canyon by trees. As she approached Elkina Largo, she saw that all was darkness. There was no sign of the artificial lights she imagined they would use for shooting night scenes, nor was there anything to indicate the presence of the actors.

Starting point is 06:59:26 She continued on, however, until presently she saw the outlines of a car beneath the Big Sycamore. A man stepped out and hailed her. Is that you Miss Pennington, he asked? Yes, she said. Aren't you going to take the pictures tonight? She rode up quite close to him. It was crumb. I'm just waiting for the others.

Starting point is 06:59:44 won't you dismount as she swung from the saddle he led her horse to his car and tied him to the spare tire in the rear then he returned to the girl as they talked he had droughtly turned the subject of their conversation toward the possibilities for fame and fortune which lay in pictures for a beautiful and talented girl long practice had made wilson crumb an adept in these evil arts ordinarily he worked very slowly considering that weeks or even months were not ill-spent if they led toward the consummation of his desires but in this instance he realized he must work quickly He must take the girl by storm, or not at all. So unsophisticated was Ava, and so innocent, that she did not realize that his conversation would have been palpable to one more worldly wise. And because she did not repulse him, Crum thought that she was not averse to his advances. It was not until he seized her and tried to kiss her that she awoke to a realization of her danger, and of the position in which her silly quadrility had placed her.

Starting point is 07:00:37 She carried a quart in her hand, and she was a Pennington. What matter that she was but a slender girl? the honor and the courage of a peniton were hers. How dare you, she cried attempting to jerk away. When he would have persisted, she raised the heavy quirt and struck him across the face. My father shall hear of this, and so shall the man I am to marry, Mr. Evans. Go slow, he growled angrily. Be careful what you tell.

Starting point is 07:01:00 Remember that you came here alone at night to meet a man you have known only a day. How will you square that with your assertions of virtue, huh? And as for Evans, yes, one of your men told me today that you and he were going to be married. As for him, the less you drag him into this, the better it will be for Evans, and you too. She was walking toward her horse. She will suddenly toward him. Had I been armed, I would have killed you, she said. Any Pennington will kill you for what you have attempted.

Starting point is 07:01:27 My father or my brother will kill you if you were here tomorrow. I shall tell them what you have done. You had better leave tonight. I'm advising you for their sakes, not for yours. He followed her then, and when she mounted, he seized her reins. Not so damn fast, young lady. I've got something to say about this. You'll keep your mouth shut

Starting point is 07:01:43 or I'll send Evans to the pen where he belongs. Get out of my way, she commanded, and put her spurs to her mount. The horse leaped forward, but Crum clung to the reins, checking him. Then she struck Crum again, but he managed to seize the quirt and hold it. Now listen to me, he said.

Starting point is 07:01:59 If you tell what happened here tonight, I'll tell what I know about Evans, and he'll go to the pan as sure as you're a silly little fool. You know nothing about Mr. Evans. You don't even know him. Listen, I'll tell you what I know. I know that Evans let your brother, who was innocent, go to the pen for the thing that Evans was guilty of.

Starting point is 07:02:16 The girl shrank back. You lie, she cried. No, I don't lie either. I'm telling you the truth, and I can bring plenty of witnesses to prove what I say. It was young Evans who handled all that stolen booze and sold it to some guy from L.A. It was young Evans who got the money. He was getting rich on it till your brother butted in and craved his game. And then it was Evans who kept still and let an innocent man do time for him.

Starting point is 07:02:38 That's the kind of fellow you're going to marry. If you want the whole world to know about it, you just tell your father or your brother anything about me. He saw the girl sink down into her saddle. Her head and shoulders drooping like some lovely flower in the path of fire, and he knew he had won. Then he let her go.

Starting point is 07:02:56 It was half past nine o'clock when Colonel Pennington was aroused by someone knocking on the north door of his bedroom, the door that opened out to the north porch. Who is it, he asked. It was a stable man. Miss Eva's horse is out, sir, he the man said. I heard a horse passed the bunkhouse by half an hour ago. I dressed and came up here to the stables to see if it was one of ours.

Starting point is 07:03:14 Something seemed to tell me it was, and I found her horse out. I thought I'd better tell you about it, sir. You can't tell, sir, with all them picture people up in the canyon, what might be going on. We'll be lucky if we have any horses or tacked left if they're here long. Miss Ava's in bed, said the colonel, but we'll have to look at this at once. Custer's sick tonight, so he can't go with us. But if you will saddle up my horse and one for yourself, I'll dress and be right down. It can't be the motion picture people.

Starting point is 07:03:39 They're not horse thieves. While the stableman returned to saddle the horses, the colonel dressed. So sure was he that Ava was in bed that he did not even stop to look up into a room. As he left the house, he was buckling on a gun, a thing that he seldom carried, for even in the peaceful days that have settled upon Southern California, a horse thief is still a horse thief. As he was descending the steps to the stable, he saw someone coming up. In the moonlight there was no difficulty in recognizing the figure of his daughter. Ava, he exclaimed, where have you been?

Starting point is 07:04:08 What are you doing out at this time of night, alone? She did not answer, but threw herself in his arms, sobbing. What is it? What has happened, child? Tell me. Her sobs choked her and she could not speak. Putting his arm around her, father led her up the steps to her room. There he sat down and held her, and tried to comfort her, while he endeavored to extract a coherent statement from her. Little by little, word by word, she managed at last to tell him.

Starting point is 07:04:35 You mustn't cry, dear, he said. You did a foolish thing going up there alone, but you did nothing wrong. And as for that fellow told you about Guy, I don't believe it. But it's the truth, she sobbed. I know it is the truth now. Little things that I didn't think of before came back to me, and in the light of what the terrible man told me, I know that it's true.

Starting point is 07:04:54 We always knew that Custer was innocent. Think what a change came over, Guy, from the moment that Custer was arrested. He has been a different man ever since. And the money, the money that we were to be married on. I never stopped to try to reason it out. He had thousands of dollars. He told me not to tell anybody how much we had.

Starting point is 07:05:09 and that was where it came from. It couldn't have come from anything else. Oh, Popsie, it is awful, and I loved him so. To think that he, that Guy Evans, of all men, would have let my brother go to jail for something he did. Again, her sobs stifled her. Crying will do you no good, the colonel said. Go to bed now, and tomorrow we will talk it over.

Starting point is 07:05:30 Good night, little girl. Remember, we'll all stick to Guy, no matter what he has done. He kissed her then and left her, but he did not return to his room. Instead he went down to the stables, and settled his horse, for the stable man, when Ava came in with the missing animal, had put it in its box and returned to the bunkhouse. The colonel rode immediately to the sleeping camp in Jeff Neff Canyon. His calls went unanswered for a time, but presently a sleepy man stuck his head through the flap of a ten.

Starting point is 07:05:54 What do you want? he asked. I'm looking for Mr. Crum. Where is he? I don't know. He went away in his car early in the evening and hasn't come back. What's the matter anyway? You're the second fellow that's been looking for him. Oh, you're Colonel Pennington, aren't you? I didn't recognize you. Why, someone was here a little while ago looking for him,

Starting point is 07:06:12 a young fellow on horseback. I think it must have been your son. Anything I can do for you? Yes, said the colonel. In case I don't see Mr. Crumb, you can tell him, or whoever's in charge, that you're to break camp in the morning

Starting point is 07:06:23 and be off my property by ten o'clock. He wheeled his horse and rode down Jackknife Canyon towards Sycamore. Well, what the hell? ejaculated the sleepy man to himself and withdrew again into his tent. End of Chapter 33. Chapter 34 of The Grove from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Starting point is 07:06:46 This lib of us recording is in the public domain, according by Joe Danoia, Somerset, New Jersey. Shannon Burke, after a restless night, rose early in the morning to ride. She always found that the quiet and piece of the hills acted as a tonic on jangling nerves, and dispelled, at least for the moment, any cloud of unhappiness that might be hovering over her.

Starting point is 07:07:05 The first person to see her that morning was the flunky from KKS. Camp, who was rustling wood for the Cook's morning fire. So interested was he and her rather remarkable occupation, that he stood watching her from behind a bush until she was out of sight. As long as he saw her, she rode slowly, dragging at her side a leafy bow, which he moved to and fro as of sweeping the ground. She constantly looked back, as if to note the effect of her work, and once or twice he saw her go over short stretches of the road a second time, brushing vigorously. It was quite light by that time, and it was almost five o'clock, and the sun

Starting point is 07:07:35 was just rising as she dismounted at the Ganano stables, and hurried up the steps toward the house. The iron gate at the patio entrance had not yet been raised, to, who was the sun was she went around to the north side of the house and knocked on the Colonel's bedroom door. He came from his dressing room to answer her knock, for he was fully dressed and evidently on the point of leaving for this morning ride. The expression of her face denoted that something was wrong, even before she spoke. Colonel, she cried, Wilson Crum has been killed. I rode early this morning as I came up to Sycamore over El Camino Largo.

Starting point is 07:08:05 I saw his body lying under a big tree there. They were both thinking the same thought, which neither dared voice. Where was Custer? Did you notify the camp, he asked? No, I came directly here. You are sure that it is crumb and that he is dead, he asked? I am sure that it is crumb. He was lying on his back, and though I didn't dismount,

Starting point is 07:08:24 I'm quite positive that he was dead. Mrs. Pennington had joined them, herself dressed for writing. How terrible, she exclaimed. Terrible, nothing exclaimed the colonel. I'm damn glad he's dead. Shannon looked at him in astonishment, but Mrs. Pennington understood, for the colonel had told her all that Ava had told him.

Starting point is 07:08:41 He was a bad man, said Shannon. The world would be better off without him. You knew him? Colonel Pennington asked in surprise. I knew him in Hollywood, she replied. She knew now that they must all know sooner or later, for she could not see how she could be kept out of the investigation and the trial that must follow. In her heart, she feared that Custer had killed Crumb.

Starting point is 07:09:02 The fact that he was drunk so heavily that afternoon indicated not only that he had overheard, but that what he had heard had affected him profoundly. Profoundly enough to have suggested the killing of the man whom he believed to have wronged the woman he loved. The first thing to do, I suppose, said the colonel, is to notify the sheriff. He left the room and went to the telephone. While he was away, Mrs. Pennington and Shannon discussed the tragedy,

Starting point is 07:09:23 and the older woman confided to the other the experiences that Ava had had with Crumb the previous night. The beast, muttered Shannon. Death was too good for him. Presently the colonel returned to them. I think I'll go and see if the children are going to ride with us, he said. There's no reason why we shouldn't ride as usual. He went to Ava's door and looked in. Apparently she was still fast asleep.

Starting point is 07:09:44 Her hair was down and a curls lay in soft confusion upon the pillow. Very gently he closed the door again, glad that she could sleep. When he entered his son's room, he found Custer lying fully clothed upon his bed, his belt about his waist, and his gun in his hip. His suspicions were crystallized into belief. But why had Custer killed Crum? He couldn't have known of the man's affront to Ava, for she had seen no member of the family but her father, and in him alone had she confided. He crossed to the bed and shook Custer by the shoulder. The younger man opened his eyes and sat up on the edge of the bed.

Starting point is 07:10:15 He looked first at his father, and then at himself, at his boots and spurs and breeches and the gun about his waist. What time is it, he asked. Five o'clock. I must have fallen asleep. I wish it was dinner time. I'm hungry. Dinner time, it's only a matter of a couple hours to breakfast.

Starting point is 07:10:32 It's five o'clock in the morning. Custer rose to his feet and surprised. I must have loaded on more than I knew, he said, with a wry smile. What do you mean? asked his father. I had a blue streak yesterday afternoon, and I took a few drinks. And here I have slept all the way through to the next morning. You haven't been out of your room since yesterday afternoon? asked the colonel.

Starting point is 07:10:52 No, of course not. I thought it was still yesterday afternoon until you told me that it was the next morning, said Custer. The colonel ran his fingers through his hair. I'm glad, he said. Custer didn't know why his father was glad. Writing, he asked? Yes. I'll be with you in a jiffy.

Starting point is 07:11:08 I want to wash up a lot. of it. He met them at the stables a few minutes later. The effect of the liquor had entirely disappeared. He seemed his normal self again, and not all at the man who had the blood of a new murder on his soul. He was glad to see Shannon, and squeezed her hand as he passed her horse to get on his own. In a few moments since his father had awakened him, he had reviewed the happenings of the previous day, and his loyalty to the girl he loved had determined him that he had nothing to grieve about. Whatever had been between her and crumb, she would explain. Only the fact that Eva had interrupted her had kept him from knowing the whole truth

Starting point is 07:11:38 the previous day. They were mounted, and it started out, when the Colonel reigned to Custer's side. Shannon just made a gruesome find up in Sycamore, he said, and paused. If he had intended to surprise Custer into any indication of guilty knowledge, he failed. Grusome fine, repeated the younger man. What was it? Wilson Crom has been murdered. Shannon found his body. The devil ejaculated Custer. Who do you suppose could have done it? Then, quite suddenly, his heart came to his mouth, as he realized that there was only one present

Starting point is 07:12:08 there who had caused to kill Wilson Crumb. He did not dare to look at Shannon for a long time. They had gone only a hundred yards when Custer pulled up to the Apache and dismounted. I thought so, he said, looking at the horses off for a forefoot. He pulled that shoe again. He must have done it in the corral, for it was on when I put him in last night. You folks go ahead. I'll go back and saddle Baldi.

Starting point is 07:12:29 The stableman was still there and helped him. That was a new shoe, Custer said. Look about the corral in the box and see if you can find it. You can tack it back on. Then he swung to Baldi's back and cantered off the others. A deputy sheriff came from the village of Ganado before they returned from their ride and went up to the canyon to take charge of Crum's body and investigate the scene of the crime. Ava was still in bed when they were called to breakfast.

Starting point is 07:12:53 They insisted upon Shannon's remaining, and the four were passing along the arcade past Ava's room. I think I'll go in and awaken her, said Mrs. Benithin. She doesn't like to sleep so late. The others passed into the living room and were walking toward the dining room when they were startled by a scream. Custer, Custer, Mrs. Pennington called to her husband. All three turned and hastened back to Ava's room, where they found Mrs. Pennington half lying across the bed, her body confulsed with sobs.

Starting point is 07:13:18 The colonel was the first to reach her, followed by Custer and Shannon. The bed closely half thrown back where Mrs. Pennington had turned them. The white sheet was stained with blood, and in Ava's hand was clutched a revolver that Custer had given her the previous Christmas. My little girl, my little girl, cried the weeping mother. Why did you do it?

Starting point is 07:13:35 The Colonel knelt and put his arms about his wife. He could not speak. Custer Pennington stood like a man turned a stone. The shock seemed to have bereft him of the power to understand what had happened. Finally he turned dumbly towards Shannon. The tears are running down her cheeks. Gently she touched his sleeve. My poor boy, she said.

Starting point is 07:13:54 The words broke the spell that had held him. He walked to the opposite side of the bed and bent close to the still, white face of the sister he had worshipped. Dear little sister, how could you, when we used to be. love you so, he said. Gently, the colonel drew his wife away, and, kneeling, placed his ear close above Ava's heart. There were no outward indications of life, but presently he lifted his head, an expression of hope relieving that of grim despair, which had settled upon his countenance on the first realization of the tragedy.

Starting point is 07:14:24 She's not dead, he said. Get Baldwin. Get him at once. He was addressing Custer, then telephone Carruthers in Los Angeles to get down here as soon as God will let him. Custer hurried from the room to carry out his father's instructions. It was later, while they were waiting for the arrival of the doctor, that the colonel told Custer of Ava's experience with Crumb the previous night. She wanted to kill

Starting point is 07:14:44 herself because of what he told her about Guy, he said. There was no other reason. Then the doctor came, and they all stood intense expectancy, and mingled dread and hope while he made his examination. Carefully and deliberately, the old doctor worked, outwardly as common, unaffected as if he were treating a minor injury to his stranger. Yet his heart was as heavy as theirs, for he had brought Eva into the world and had known and loved her all her briefed life. At last he straightened up to find their questioning eyes upon him. She still lives, he said, but there was no hope in his voice. I have sent for Carruthers, said the colonel.

Starting point is 07:15:18 He's on his way now. He told Custer that he'll be here in less than three hours. I arranged to have a couple of nurses sent out too, said Custer. Dr. Baldwin made no reply. There's no hope, asked the colonel. There's always hope while there is life, replied to doctor. but you must not raise yours too high. They understood him, and realized that there was very little hope.

Starting point is 07:15:40 Can you keep her alive until Corruthers arrives? asked the colonel. I need not tell you that I shall do my best, was the reply. Guy had come with his mother. He seemed absolutely stunned by the catastrophe that had overwhelmed him. There was a wildness in his demeanor that frightened them all. It was necessary to watch him carefully for fear that he might attempt to destroy himself when he realized at last Ava was likely to die. He insisted that they should tell him all the circumstances.

Starting point is 07:16:04 that had led up to the pitiful tragedy. For a time they sought to conceal a part of the truth from him, but at last so great was his insistence, they were compelled to reveal all that they knew. Of a nervous and excitable temperament, and endowed by nature of the character of extreme sensitiveness and comparatively little strength, the shock of the knowledge that it was his own acts

Starting point is 07:16:23 that led Ava to self-destruction proved too much for guys' overwrought nerves and brain. So violent did he become that Colonel Pennington and Custard together could scarce restrain him, and it became necessary to send for two of the ranch employees. When the deputy sheriff came to question them about the murder of Crumb, it was evident that Guy's mind was so greatly affected that he did not understand what was taking place around him. He had sunk into a morose silence broken at intervals by fits of raving.

Starting point is 07:16:48 Later in the day, at Dr. Baldwin's suggestion, he was removed to a sanatorium outside of Los Angeles. Guy's mental collapse and the necessity for constantly restraining him had resulted in taking Custer's mind from his own grief, at least for the moment. But when he was not thus occupied, He sat staring straight ahead of him in dumb despair. It was 11 o'clock when the best surgeon at Los Angeles can furnish arrived,

Starting point is 07:17:09 bringing a nurse with him, and Ava was still breathing when he came. Dr. Baldwin was there, and together the three worked for an hour, while the Pennington's and Shannon waited almost hopelessly in the living room, Mrs. Evans, having accompanied guide to Los Angeles. Finally, after what seemed years, the door of the living room opened and Dr. Carruthers entered. They scanned his faces he entered, but saw nothing there to lighten the burden of their apprehension. the Colonel and Custer rose. Well, as to former, his voice scarcely audible.

Starting point is 07:17:38 The operation was successful. I found the bullet and removed in. She will live then, cried Mrs. Panyton, coming quickly toward him. He took her hands very gently in his. My dear madam, he said, it would be cruel with me to hold out useless hope. She hasn't more than one chance in a hundred. It is a miracle that she was still alive when you found her. Only a splendid constitution, resulting for the life that she had led,

Starting point is 07:18:00 could possibly account for it. The mother turned away with a low moan. There's nothing more you can do, asked the Colonel. I have done all that I can, replied Carruthers. She will not last long? Maybe a matter of hours or only minutes, he replied. She's an excellent hand, however. No one could do more for her than Dr. Baldwin.

Starting point is 07:18:21 The two nurses whom Custer had arranged for had arrived, when Dr. Carruthers departed, he took his own nurse with him. It was afternoon when deputies from the sheriffs and coroner's offices arrived from Los Angeles, together with detectives from the district attorney's office. Crum's body still lay where it had fallen, guarded by a constable from the village of Ganano, who was surrounded by members of his company, villagers, and nearby ranchers, for word of the murder had spread rapidly in a district in that seemingly mysterious way in which news travels in rural communities. Among the crowd was slick Allen, who had returned to the valley after his release from the county jail.

Starting point is 07:18:54 A partially successful effort had been made to keep the crowd from trampling the ground in the immediate vicinity of the body, but beyond a limited area, whatever possible clues the murderer might have left in the shape of footprints had been entirely obliterated long before the officers arrived from Los Angeles. When the body was finally lifted from its resting place and placed in the ambulance that had been brought from Los Angeles,

Starting point is 07:19:13 one of the detectives picked up a horseshoe that had lain underneath the body. From its appearance, it was evident that it had been upon the horse's hoof very recently and had been torn off by force. As the detective examined the shoe, several of the crowd pressed forward to look at it. Among them was Alan.

Starting point is 07:19:28 That's off young Pennington's horse, he said. How do you know that, inquired a detective? I used to work for them, took care of their saddle horses. This young Pennington's horse forges. They had the shoe special to keep him from pulling the off-for shoe. I could tell one of his shoes in a million. If they haven't walked all over his tracks, I could tell whether the horse had been up here or not. He stooped and examined the ground close to where the body had lain.

Starting point is 07:19:52 There, he said, pointing, there's an imprint of one of his hind feet. See how the toe of that shoe was squared off that was made by the edge of the end. Apache all right. The detective was interested. He studied the hoof print carefully and searched for others, but this was the only one he could find. Looks like someone had been sweeping this place with a broom, he remarked. Very much of anything shows. A pimply-faced young man spoke up. There was someone sweeping the ground this morning, he said, about five o'clock in the morning, I seen a girl dragging a branch of a tree after her and sweeping along the road behind her. Did you know her? asked the detective. No, I'd never seen her before.

Starting point is 07:20:26 Would you know her if you saw her again? Sure I'd know her. She was a pippin. I'd know her horse, too. End of Chapter 34. Chapter 35 of the girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This lip-of-house recording is in the public domain. According by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey.

Starting point is 07:20:50 Eva was still breathing faintly as the sun dropped behind the western hills. Shannon had not left the house all day. She felt that Custer needed her, that they all needed her, however little she can do to mitigate the grief. There was at least a sense of sharing their burden, and her fine sensibilities told her that this service of love was quite as essential as the more practical help that she would have been glad to offer had been within her power. She was standing in the patio with Custer at sunset, within call of Eva's room, as they had all been during the entire day, when a car drove up along the South Drive and stopped at the patio entrance. Three of the four men in it alighted and advanced toward them. You are Custer Pennington, one of them asked?

Starting point is 07:21:27 Pennington nodded. And you are Miss Burke, Miss Shannon Burke? I am. I'm a deputy sheriff. I have a warrant here for your arrest. Arrest, exclaimed Custer. For what? He read the warrant to them.

Starting point is 07:21:40 They charged them with a murder of Wilson Crone. I'm sorry, Mr. Penitton, said the deputy sheriff, but I've been given these warrants and there's nothing for me to do but serve them. You have to take us away now? Can't you wait until... My sister is dying in there. Couldn't it be arranged that I could stay here under arrest as long as she's lives? The deputy shook his head.

Starting point is 07:22:00 It would be all right with me, he said, but I have no authority to let you stay. I'll telephone in, though, and see what I can do. Where is the telephone? Pennington told him. You two stay here with my men, said the deputy sheriff, while I telephone. He was gone about fifteen minutes. When he returned, he shook his head. Nothing doing, he said. I have to bring you both in right away. May I go to her room and see her again before I leave? asked Custer.

Starting point is 07:22:26 Yes, said the deputy, but when Custer turned toward his sister's room, the officer accompanied him. Dr. Baldwin and one of the nurses were in the room. Young Pennington came and stood beside the bed, looking down on the white face and the tumbled curls upon the pillow. He could not perceive the slightest indication of life, yet they told him that Ava still lived. He knelt and kissed her and then turned away. He tried to say goodbye to her, but his voice broke, and he turned and left the room hurriedly. Colonel and Mrs. Pennington were in the patio, with Shannon and the officers. The colonel and his wife had just learned of this new blow, and both of them were stunned.

Starting point is 07:23:01 The colonel seemed to have aged a generation in a single day. He was a tired, hopeless old man. The heart of his boy and that of Shannon Burke went out to him, and to the suffering mother, from whom their son was to be taken at this moment in their lives when they needed him most. In their compassion for the older Pennington's, they almost forgot the seriousness of their own situation. At their arraignment next morning, the preliminary hearing was set for the following Friday. Early in the morning, Custer had received word from Ganano that Ava still lived, and that Dr. Baldwin now believe they might have some slight hope for her recovery.

Starting point is 07:23:34 At Ganato, despair and anxiety had told heavily upon the Pennington's. The colonel felt that he should be in Los Angeles, to assist in the defense of his son, and yet he knew that his place was with his wife, whose need of him was even greater. Nor would his heart permit him to leave the daughter whom he worship, so long as even a faint spark of life remained in that beloved frame. Mrs. Evans returned from Los Angeles the following day. She was almost prostrated by this last of a series of tragedies ordered, and it seemed by some malignant fate for the wrecking of her happiness.

Starting point is 07:24:03 She told him the guy appeared to be hopelessly insane. He did not know his mother, nor did he give the slightest indication of any recollection of his past life, or of the events that had overthrown his reason. At 10 o'clock on Wednesday night, Dr. Baldwin came into the living room, where the colonel and his wife were sitting with Mrs. Evans, for two days none of them had been in bed they were tired and haggard but not more so than the old doctor who remained constantly on duty from the moment when he was summoned never had man worked with more indefatigable zeal than he to rest a young life from the path of the grim reaper there were deep lines beneath his eyes and his face was pale and drawn as he entered the room and stood before them but for the first time in many hours there was a smile upon his lips i believe he said that we're going to save her The others were too much affected to speak.

Starting point is 07:24:51 So long had hope been denied that now they dared not even think of hope. She regained consciousness a few moments ago. She looked up at me and smiled. Then she fell asleep. She's breathing quite naturally now. She must not be disturbed, though. I think it will be well if you all retired. Mrs. Pennington, you certainly must get some sleep.

Starting point is 07:25:10 And you too, Mrs. Evans, where I cannot be responsible for the results. I have left word for the night-earst to call me immediately, if necessary. and if you will all go to your rooms I will lie on this over here in the living room. I feel at last that it will be safe from me to leave her in the hands of the nurse, and a little sleep won't hurt me. The colonel took his old friend by the hand. Baldwin, he said.

Starting point is 07:25:30 It is useless to try to thank you. I couldn't, even if there are words to do it with. You don't have to, Pennington. I think I love her as much as you do. There isn't anyone who knows her who doesn't love her, and who wouldn't have done as much as I. Now get off to bed, all of you, and I think we'll find something to be very happy about by morning.

Starting point is 07:25:49 If there's any change for the worse, I'll let you know immediately. In the county jail in Los Angeles, Custer Pendleton and Shannon Burke, awaiting trial on charges of a capital crime, were filled with increasing happiness as the daily reports from Ganano brought word of Ava's steady improvement. Until at last, she was entirely out of danger. The tedious preliminaries of selecting a jury were finally concluded. As witness after witness was called, Penitin came to realize for the first time what a web of circumstantial evidence that the state had fabricated about him. Even from servants whom we knew to be loyal and friendly, the most damaging evidence was elicited. His mother's second maid testified that she had seen him fully dressed in his room late in the evening before the murder, when she had come in, as was her custom, with a pitcher of iced water, not knowing that the young man was there.

Starting point is 07:26:33 She had seen him lying upon the bed with his gun and his holster hanging from the belt about its waist. She also testified that the following morning, when she had come in to make the bed, she had discovered that had not been slept in. The stable men testified that the Apache had been out the night of the murder. He had rubbed the animal off early in the evening when the defendant had come in from riding. At that time, the two had examined the horse's shoes, the animal having just been reshot. He said that on the morning after the murder, there were saddle's sweat marks upon the patchy's back, and that the off-for-shoe was missing.

Starting point is 07:27:03 One of the KKS employees testified that a young man, whom we partially identified as Custer, had ridden into their camp about nine o'clock on the night of the murder, and had inquired concerning the whereabouts of Crumb. He said that the young man seemed excited, and upon being told that Crum was away, he had ridden off rapidly towards Sycamore Canyon. Added to all this were the damaging evidence of the detective who had found the Apaches off-for-shoe under Crum's body, and the positive identification of the shoe by Allen. The one thing that was lacking, a motive for the crime, was supplied by Allen and the Pennington's houseman. The latter testified that among his other duties was the care

Starting point is 07:27:38 of the hot water heater in the basement of the Pennington home. Upon the evening of Saturday, August 5th, he had forgotten to shut off the burner, as was his custom. He returned about nine o'clock to do so. When he left the house by the passageway leading from the basement beneath the South Drive and the opening of the hillside just above the water gardens, he had seen a man standing by the upper pool, with his arms about a woman whom he was kissing. It was a bright moonlight night, and the houseman had recognized the two as Custer Pennington and Miss Burke. Being embarrassed by having thus accidentally come upon them, he had moved the way quietly in the opposite direction, among the shadows of the trees, and had returned to the bunkhouse. The connecting link between this

Starting point is 07:28:15 evidence and the motive for the crime was elicited from Allen in half an hour of of direct examination, which constituted the most harrowing ordeal that Shannon Burke had ever endured, for it lay bare before the world and before the man she loved, the sordid history of her life with Wilson Crum. It portrayed her as a drug addict and a wanton. But, more terribly still, it established a motive for the murder of Crumb by Custer Pennington. Owing to the fact that he had laid in a drunken stupor during the night of the crime, that

Starting point is 07:28:42 no one had seen him from the time when the maid entered his room to bring his ice water until his father had found him fully clothed upon his bed at five o'clock the following morning, young Pennington was unable to account for his actions, or to state his whereabouts at the time when the murder was committed. He realized what the effect of the evidence must be upon the minds of the jurors when he himself was unable to assert positively, even to himself, that he had not left his room that night. Nor was he very anxious to refute the charge against him,

Starting point is 07:29:08 since in his heart he believed that Shannon Burke had killed Crum. He did not even take the stand in his own defense. The evidence against Shannon was less convincing. A motive had been established in Crum's knowledge of her past life and the maligned influence that he had upon it. The testimony of the Camp Flunky who had seen her oblitering what evidence the trail might have given in the former hoofprince constituted practically the only direct evidence that was brought against her.

Starting point is 07:29:30 It seemed to Custer that the gravest charge that could be justly brought against her was that of an accessory after the fact, provided the jury was convinced of his guilt. Many witnesses testified giving evidence concerning apparent irrelevant subjects. It was brought out, however, that Crumb died from the effects of a wound inflicted by a 45-caliber pistol, that Custer Pendleton possessed such a weapon, that at the time of his arrest it had been found in his holster, with his cartridge belt thrown carelessly upon its bed. When Shannon Burke took the stand, all eyes were riveted upon her.

Starting point is 07:30:00 They were attracted not only by her youth and beauty, but also by the morbid interest which the frequenters of courtrooms would naturally feel in the disclosure of a life she had led in the Hollywood. Even to the most sophisticated, it appeared incredible that this refined, girl, whose soft, well-modulated voice and quiet manner carried a conviction of innate modesty could be the woman whom Slick Allen's testimony had revealed in such a role of vice and degradation. Alan's eyes were fastened upon her with the same intent and searching expression that had marked

Starting point is 07:30:26 his attitude upon the occasion of his last visit to the Vista del Paso bungalow, as if he were trying to recall the identity of some half-forgotten face. Though Shannon gave her evidence in a simple, straightforward manner, it was manifest that she was undergoing an intense, nervous strain. The story that she told, coming as he did out of the clear sky, unguessed either by the prosecution or by the defense, proved a veritable bombshell to them both. It came after it had appeared that the last link had been forged in the chain

Starting point is 07:30:53 that fixed the guilt upon Custer Branton. She had asked, then, to be permitted to take the stand and tell her story in her own way. I did not see Mr. Crome, she said, from the time I left Hollywood on the 30th of July last year, until the afternoon before he was killed. Nor had I communicated with him during that time. What Mr. Allen told you about my having been a drug addict was true,

Starting point is 07:31:15 but he did not tell you that Crumb made me what I was, or that after I came to Gannado to live, I overcame the habit. I did not live with Crum as his wife. He used me to pedal narcotics for him. I was afraid of him and did not want to go back to him. When I left, I did not even let him know where I was going. The afternoon before he was killed, I met him accidentally in the patio of Colonel Pennington's home.

Starting point is 07:31:35 The Pennington's had no knowledge of my association with Crum. I knew that they wouldn't have tolerated me had they known what I had been. Crumb demanded that I should return to him and threatened to expose me if I refused. I knew that he was going to be up in the canyon that night. I rode up there and shot him. The next morning I went back and attempted to

Starting point is 07:31:51 obliterate the tracks of my horse, for I learned from Custer Pennington that is sometimes easy to recognize individual peculiarities in the tracks of a shot horse. That is all, except that Mr. Pennington had no knowledge of what I did and no part of it. Momentarily, her statement seemed to overthrow

Starting point is 07:32:07 the state's case against Penitenton, but that the district attorney was not convinced of its truth was indicated by his cross-examination of her and other witnesses, and later, by column of a new witness. They could not shake her testimony, but on the other hand, she was unable to prove that she had ever possessed a 45-cali-a-pistol, or to account for what she had done with it after the crime. During the course of her cross-examination, many apparently unimportant and relevant facts were adduced, among them the name of the Middle Western town in which she had been born. This trivial bit of testimony was the only point that seemed to make any impression on Alan. Anyone watching him at the moment would have seen a sudden expression of incredulity

Starting point is 07:32:42 and consternation overspread his face, the hard lines of which slowly gave place to what might in another have suggested as semblance of grief. For several minutes he sat staring intently at Shannon. Then he crossed the side of her attorney and whispered a few words in a lawyer's ear. Receiving an assent to whatever his suggestion might have been, he left the courtroom. On the following day, the defense introduced a new witness in the person of a Japanese, who had been a house servant in the bungalow of the Visa del Paso. His testimony substantiated Chanenberg's statement that she and Krumm had not lived together as men and wife.

Starting point is 07:33:14 Then Allen was recalled to the stand. He told that the last evening that he had spent at Krum's bungalow, and of the fact that Miss Burke, who was then known to him as Gasa Delors, had left the house at the same time he did. He testified that Krum had asked her why she was going home so early, that she had replied that she wanted to write a letter, that he, Alan, had remarked, I thought you lived here,

Starting point is 07:33:33 to which he replied, I'm here all day, but I go home nights. The witness added that his conversation took place in Crum's presence, and that the director did not in any way deny the truth of the girl's assertion. Why Alan should have suddenly espoused her case

Starting point is 07:33:47 was a mystery to Shannon, only to be accounted for, upon the presumption, that if he could lessen the value of that part of her testimony which had indicated the possible motive for the crime, he might thereby strengthen the case

Starting point is 07:33:56 against Pennington, toward whom he still fed enmity, and whom he had long ago threatened to get. The district attorney, in his final argument, drew a convincing picture of the crime from the moment when Custer Peniton settled his horse at the stables at Ganado. He followed him up to the canyon to the camp in Jackknife,

Starting point is 07:34:12 where he had inquired concerning Crumb, and then down a Sycamore again, where, at the mouth of Jackknife, the lights of Crum's car would have been visible up the larger canyon. He demonstrated clearly that a man familiar with the hills, and searching for someone whom sentiments of jealousy and revenge were prompting him to destroy,

Starting point is 07:34:28 would naturally invest in the war. this automobile light that it was shining, where no automobile should be. That the prisoner had ridden out with the intention of killing Crumb was apparent from the fact that he had carried a pistol in a country where, under ordinary circumstances, there was no necessity for carrying a weapon for self-defense. He vividly portrayed the very instant of the commission of the crime, how Penning leaned from his saddle and shot Crumb through the heart, the sudden leap of the murderer's horse as he was startled by the report of the pistol, or possibly by the fallen body of a murdered man, and how, in so jumping, he had forged and torn off the shoe that had been found, beneath Crum's body. And, he said, this woman knew that he was going to kill Wilson Crum. She knew it, and she made no effort to prevent it. On the contrary, as soon it was light enough, she rode directly to the spot where Crum's

Starting point is 07:35:10 body lay, and, as has been conclusively demonstrated by the unimpeachable testimony of an eyewitness, she deliberately sought to expunge all traces of her lover's guilt. He derided Shannon's confession, which he terms an 11th hour effort to save a guilty man from the gallows. If she killed Wilson Crum, what did she kill him with? He picked up the bullet that had been extracted from Crumb's body. Where is the pistol from which this bullet came? Here it is, gentlemen.

Starting point is 07:35:35 He picked up the weapon that had been taken from Custer's room. Compare this bullet with those that were taken from the clip in the handle of this automatic. They are identical. This pistol did not belong to Shannon Burke. It was never in her possession. No pistol of this character was ever in her possession. Had she had one, she could have told where she obtained it, and whether it had been sold to her or to another.

Starting point is 07:35:54 And the records of the seller would show whether or not she spoke to truth. Failing to tell us where she procured their weapon, she could at least lead us to a spot where she had disposed of it. She can do neither, and the reason why she cannot is because she never owned a 45-caliber pistol. She never had one in her possession, and therefore she could not have killed Krumm with one. When at length the case went to the jury, Custer Penning's convictions seemed to foregone conclusion, while the fate of Shannon Burke was yet in the lapse of the gods. The testimony that Alan and the Japanese servant had given in substantiation of Shannon's own statement that her relations with Wilson Crum had only been those of an accomplice and the disposal of narcotics,

Starting point is 07:36:29 removed from the consideration the principal motive that she might have had for killing Crum. And so there was no great surprise when, several hours later, the jury returned a verdict in accordance with the public opinion of Los Angeles, where, owing to the fact that murder juries are not isolated, such cases are tried largely by the newspapers and the public. They found Custer Pennington Jr., guilty of murder in the first degree, and Shannon Burke, not guilty. Chapter 35.

Starting point is 07:37:00 Chapter 36 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burrows. This Lib of us recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe Dinoa, Somerset, New Jersey. On the day when Custer was to be sentenced, Colonel Pennington and Shannon Burke were present in the courtroom. Mrs. Pennington had remained at home with Ava, who was slowly convalescing. Shannon reached the courtroom before the colonel. When he arrived, he sat down beside her and placed his hand on hers.

Starting point is 07:37:24 Whatever happens, he said, we shall still believe in him, no matter what the evidence and I do not deny that the jury brought in a just verdict in accordance with it. I know that he is innocent. He told me yesterday that he was innocent, and my boy would not lie to me. He thought that you killed Crum, Shannon. He overheard the conversation between you and Crum and the patio that day, and he knew that you had good reason to kill a man. He knows now, as we all know, that you did not.

Starting point is 07:37:50 Probably it must always remain a mystery. He would not tell me he was innocent until after you had been proven so. He loves you very much, my girl. After all that he heard here in court? After what I have been? I thought none of you would ever want to see me again. The colonel pressed her hand. Whatever happens, he said, you're going back home with me.

Starting point is 07:38:09 You tried to give you a life for my son. If this were not enough, the fact that he loves you and that we love you is enough. Two tears crept down Shannon's cheeks, the first visible sign of emotion that she had manifested during all the long weeks of the ordeal that she had been through. Nothing had so deeply affected her as the magnanimity of the proud old penny whose pride and honor, while she had always admired him, she had regarded as an indication of a certain puritanical narrowness that could not forgive the transgression of a woman.

Starting point is 07:38:38 When the judge announced the sentence, and they realized that Custer Pennington was to pay the death penalty, although it had been almost a foregone conclusion, the shock left them numb and cold. Neither the condemned man nor his father gave any outward indication of the effect of the blow. They were Pennington's, and the Pennington pride permitted them to show no weakness before the eyes of strangers. nor yet was there any provado in their demeanor. The younger penitent did not look at his father or Shannon as he was led away toward his cell between two bailiffs. As Shannon Burke walked from the courtroom with the colonel,

Starting point is 07:39:09 she could think of nothing but the fact that in two months the man she loved was to be hanged. She tried to formulate plans for his release, wild, quixotic plans, but she could not concentrate her mind upon anything but the bewildered thought that in two months they would hang him by the neck until he was dead. She knew that he was innocent, Who then had committed the crime? Who had murdered Wilson Crum? Outside the Hall of Justice she was caused it by Alan,

Starting point is 07:39:33 whom she attempted to pass without noticing. The Colonel turned angrily on the man. He was in the mood to commit murder himself, but Alan forestalled any outbreak on the old man's part by a specific gesture of his hands and a quick appeal to Shannon. Just a moment, please, he said. I know you think I had a lot to do with Pennington's conviction.

Starting point is 07:39:50 I want to help you now. I can't tell you why. I don't believe he was guilty. I changed my mind recently. If I can see you alone, Miss Burke, I can tell you something that might give you a line to the guilty party. Under no conceivable circumstances can you see Miss Burke alone snapped the colonel. I'm not going to hurt her, said Alan. Just let her talk to me here alone on the sidewalk, where no one can overhear.

Starting point is 07:40:14 Yes, said the girl, who could see no opportunity pass, which held the slightest ray of hope for Custer. The colonel walked away, but turned and kept his eyes on the man when he was out of earshot. Alan spoke hardly to the girl for ten or fifteen minutes, and then turned and left her. When she returned to the colonel, the latter did not question her. When she did not offer to confide in him, he knew that she must have good reason for her reticence, since he realized that her sole interest lay in aiding Custer. For the next two months, the colonel divided his time between Donato and San Francisco, that he might be near San Quentin, where Custer was held pending the day of execution.

Starting point is 07:40:48 Mrs. Pennington, broken in health by a succession of blows that she had sustained, was sorely in need of his companionship and help. Ava was rapidly regaining her strength and some measure of her spirit. she had begun to realize how useless and foolish her attempts at self-destruction had been and to see that the braver and noble course would have been to give guy the benefit of her moral support in his time of need the colonel who had wormed from custer the full story of his conviction upon the liquor charge was able to convince her that guy had not played a dishonorable part and that of the two he had suffered more than custer her father did not condone or excuse guy's wrongdoing but he tried to make her understand that it was no indication of a criminal inclination but rather the thoughtless act of an undeveloped boy during the two months they saw little or nothing of shannon she remained in los angeles and when she made the long trip to stiquet to see custer or when they chanced to see her it could not but note how thin and drawn she was becoming the roses had left her cheeks and there were deep lines beneath her eyes in which they were constantly an expression of haunting fear As the day of the execution drew nearer, the gloom that had hovered over Gannado for months settled like a dense pall upon them. On the day before the execution, the colonel left for San Francisco to say goodbye to his son for the last time.

Starting point is 07:41:59 Custer had insisted that his mother and Ava must not come, and they acceded to his wish. On the afternoon when the colonel arrived at San Quentin, he was permitted to see his son for the last time. The two conversed in low tones, Custer asking questions about his mother and sister and about the little everyday activities of the ranch. neither of them referred to the event of the following morning. Has Shannon been here today, the colonel asked? Custer shook his head. I haven't seen her this week, he said. I suppose she dreaded coming.

Starting point is 07:42:27 I don't blame her. I should like to have seen her once more, though. Presently, they stood in silence for several moments. You'd better go, Dad, said the boy. Go back to Mother and Ava. Don't take it too hard. It wasn't so bad after all. I have led a bully life.

Starting point is 07:42:42 I have never forgotten once that I am a penitent. I shall not forget it tomorrow. The father could not speak. They clasped hands once. The older man turned away and the guards led Custer back to the death cell for the last time. End of Chapter 36. Chapter 37 of the girl from Hollywood by Eckeryce Burroughs. This Libravox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 07:43:09 Recorded by Joe Denoia, Somerset, New Jersey. It was morning when the colonel reached the ranch. He found his wife and Ava sitting in Custer's room. They knew the hour, and they were waiting there to be as near him as they could. They were weeping quietly. In the kitchen across the patio, they can hear Hannah sobbing. They sat there for a long time in silence. Suddenly they heard a door slam in the patio, in the sound of someone running.

Starting point is 07:43:32 Colonel Pennington, Colonel Pennington, a voice cried. The colonel stepped to the door of Custer's room. It was the bookkeeper calling him. What is it? he asked. Here I am. The governor has granted a stay of execution. There is new evidence. Miss Burke is on her way here now.

Starting point is 07:43:47 She has found the man who killed Crumb. What more he said the colonel did not hear, for he had turned back into the room, and, collapsing on his son's bed, had broken into tears. He, who had gone through these long weeks, like a man of iron. It was nearly noon before Shannon arrived. She had been driven from Los Angeles by an attache of the district attorney's office. The Pennington's had been standing on the east porch, watching the road with binoculars, so anxious were they for confirmation of their hopes.

Starting point is 07:44:14 She was out of the car before it had stopped and was running toward them. The man who had accompanied her followed and joined the. on the porch. Shannon threw her arms around Mrs. Penning's neck. He is safe, she cried. Another has confessed, and has satisfied the district attorney of his guilt. Who was it, they asked. Shannon turned towards Ava. It is going to be another blow to you all, she said, but wait until I'm through and you will understand that it would not have been otherwise. It was Guy who killed Wilson Crum. Guy, why should he have done it? That was it. That was why suspicion never directed toward

Starting point is 07:44:48 him, only he knew the facts that prompted him to commit the deed. It was Alan who suggested to me the possibility that it might have been Guy. I spent nearly two months at the sanatorium with this gentleman from the district determines office, in an effort to awaken Guy's sleeping intellect to a realization of the past and of the present necessity for recalling it. He had been improving steadily, but it was only yesterday that memory returned to him. We worked on the theory that if he could be made to realize that Eva lived, the cause of his mental sickness could be removed.

Starting point is 07:45:14 We tried everything. We'd almost given up hope when, almost like a mirror. miracle, his memory returned, while he was looking at a Kodak picture of Ava that I had shown him. The rest was easy, especially after he knew that she had recovered. Instead of the necessity for confession resulting in further shock, it seemed to inspirate him. His one thought was of Custer, his one hope that he would have been in time to save him. Why did he kill Crum? asked Ava. Because Crum killed Grace.

Starting point is 07:45:40 He told me the whole story yesterday. Very carefully, Shannon related all that Guy had told of Crum's relations with his sister, up to the moment of Grace's death. I am glad he killed him, said Eva. I would have no respect for him if he hadn't done it. Guy told me that the evening before he killed Crum, he had been looking over a motion picture magazine and he had seen a picture of Crum

Starting point is 07:46:01 which tallied with the photograph he had taken from Grace's dressing table, a portrait of the man who, as she told him, was responsible for her trouble. Guy had never been able to learn his man's identity, but the picture in the magazine, with his name below it, was a reproduction of the same photograph. There was no question as to the man's identity.

Starting point is 07:46:19 The scarf pin and a lock of hair falling in a peculiar way over the forehead marked the pictures as identical. Though Guy had never seen Crum, he knew from conversations that he had heard here that it was Wilson Crum who was directing the picture that was to be taking on Ganada. He immediately got his pistol, sailed his horse, and rode up to the camp in search of Crum. It was he whom one of the witnesses mistook for Custer. He then did what the district attorney attributed to Custer. He rode to the mouth of Jackknife and saw the lights of Crum's car up near El Camino Largo. While he was in Jackknife, Ava must have ridden down Sycamore with her meeting with Crumb,

Starting point is 07:46:52 passing Jackknife before Guy rode back into Sycamore. He rode up to where Crum was attempting to crank his engine. Evidently, the starter had failed to work, for Crum was standing in front of the car, and the glare of the headlights attempting to crank it. Guy accosted him, charged him with the murder of Grace, and shot him. He then started for home by way of El Camino Largo. Half mile up the trail he dismounted and hit his pistol and belt in a hollow tree. Then he rode home.

Starting point is 07:47:16 he told me that while he never for an instant regretted his act, he did not sleep all that night, and was in a highly nervous condition when the shock of Ava's supposed death unbalanced his mind. Otherwise, he would gladly have assumed the guilt of Crum's death at the time when Custer and I were exhausted. After he had obtained Guy's confession, Alan gave us further information intending to prove Custer's innocence.

Starting point is 07:47:36 He said he could not give it before without incriminating himself, and as he had no love for Custer, he did not intend to hang for a crime he had not committed. He knew that he would surely hang if he confessed the part he had been played and formulating the evidence against Custer. Crumb had been the means of sending Alan to the county jail after robbing him of several thousand dollars. The day before Crum was killed, Alan's sentence expired.

Starting point is 07:47:58 The first thing he did was to search for Crum with the intention of killing the man. He learned at the studio where Crum was and he followed him immediately. He was hanging around the camp out of sight, waiting for Crum when he heard a shot that killed him. His investigation led him to Crum's body. He was instantly overcome by the fear, induced by his guilty conscience, that the crime would be laid at his door. In casting about for some plan by which he might divert suspicion from himself, he discovered an opportunity to turn against a man whom he hated.

Starting point is 07:48:25 The fact that he had been a stable man at Ganato, and was familiar with the customs of the ranch, made it an easy thing for him to do to ride to the stables, settle the Apache, and ride on with the sycamore to Crumb's body. Here, he deliberately pulled the off-for shoe from the horse and hid it under Crum's body. Then he rode back to the stable, unsettled the Apache, and made his way to the village. The district attorney said that we need have no fear, but the custer will be exonerated and freed.

Starting point is 07:48:50 And Ava, she turned to the girl with a happy smile, I have it very confidentially that there is a small likelihood that any jury in Southern California will convict guy if he bases his defense upon a plea of insanity. Ava smiled bravely and said, One thing I don't understand, Shannon, is what you were doing brushing the road with a bow from a tree on the morning after the killing of Crumb if you weren't trying to obliterate someone's tracks. That's just what I was trying to do, said Shannon. Ever since Custer taught me something about tracking,

Starting point is 07:49:18 it has held a certain fascination for me so that I often try to interpret the tracks I see along the trails of the hills. It was because of this, I suppose, that I immediately recognized the Apache's tracks around the body of Crum. I immediately jumped into the conclusion that Custer had killed him, and I did what I could to remove this evidence. As it turned out, my efforts did more harm than good, until Alan's explanation cleared up the matter.

Starting point is 07:49:39 And why, asked the colonel, did Alan undergo this sudden change of heart. Shannon turned toward him, her face slightly flushed, though she looked him straight in the eyes as she spoke. It is a hard thing for me to tell you, she said. Alan is a bad man, a very bad man, yet in the worst of man there was a spark of good. Alan told me this morning, in the district attorney's office,

Starting point is 07:49:59 what it was that it kindled to life the spark of good in him. He is my father. End of Chapter 37. End of the girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

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