 Chapter one of The Girl From Hollywood. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Joe DeNoya, Somerset, New Jersey. The Girl From Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Chapter one. 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 brazed his four 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. At the foot of the descent, the man reigned 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, broken to 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, and at the very brink he stopped to gather himself. The dry bank caved beneath his front feet and into the wash he went, head-first. 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. The senator is clumsy enough at jumping, 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 in the wash-bottom. Mother says he's parked cat, she remarked. I wish he could jump like the Apache. The man stroked the glossy neck of his own mount. 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 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. 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. If... If I hadn't been drinking, you finished for her. I know what you're gonna 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 give it. Oh, well. What's the use? I'll quit it if you say so. 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 rained in their sweating horses beneath the cool shade of the spreading sycamore that guards the junction of El Camino Lago and the main trail that winds up, Sycamore Canyon. It was the first day of early spring. The rains were over, 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 logistically, rising and falling upon motionless wings. The vultures are back, she said. I'm always glad to see them come again. Yes, said the man. They are bully scavengers, and we don't have to pay them 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. 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 write up. Martin said he saw a new calf up beyond Jackknife Canyon yesterday. 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 to cross 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 to the hills today. I have an idea, remarked girl, that there is more going 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 those whom we heard coming down weren't coming from the rancho del ganado. 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. 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 given Baldy 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? 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 shoes, Slick, so you can see that he's always shot the same way. His eyes had been traveling over Slick's mount, whose heaving sides were covered with lather. Baldy's pretty soft, Slick. I wouldn't work him too hard all at once. Get him up to it gradually. He turned and rode off at the girl at his side. Slick Alan 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 medium height. He might have been a cavalryman once. He sat his horse even in a walk, like one who had sweated in blood under a drill sergeant in the days of his youth. How do you like him? the girl asked of Pennington. He's a good horseman, and good horsemen are getting rare these days, replied Pennington. But I don't know that I 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 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 ranch at Del Granado, 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. 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 Granado, isn't it? asked the girl. Looks like him, doesn't it? But he isn't. He's the king's likeliest son, and unless I'm mistaken, he's going to give the old fellow a mighty tough time of it this fall, 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, and not one of them has seen him. Fathers says he's the greatest bull that ever lived, and that his first show is going to be the International. I just know he'll win, excluding the girl. If I 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. 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, unplanably. We're not going to hurt it, little girl, the man assured her. As they came closer, there arose a thing of long, wobbly legs, big joints, and great dark eyes, 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 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 bit up much, and she may be a little wild. The calf stood its ground for a moment, and then, with tail erect, cavorted madly for its mother, behind whom it took refuge. I just love him, I just love him, repeated the girl. You say the same thing about the colts, and the little pigs the man reminded her. I love him all, she cried, shaking her head, her eyes twinkling. You love him 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 seized her in the arms 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. You'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. 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-dream life that I've always led and the home-dream life that I should live as a wife and mother. I want to live a little, Custer, and then I'll be ready to settle down. 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 that 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. I, oh, it seems silly when I try to put into words, but in dreams is very beautiful and very 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, and then it would come back to you after I 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. 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 Bartzen. The parts that he has chosen for us. Your mother played upon the same stage and mine. Do you think them failures? 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 your ambition. If you cannot stay because you are convinced that you will be happier here, and I did not want you to stay. Kiss me, she demanded suddenly. I am 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 live broadcast recording is in the public domain. Recording by Joe DeNoya, 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. The mother still doubtful of 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. He was pulling 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 brooded leg with a quart. Hi there, you old 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're not afraid of anything. Oh, I wouldn't say that, he demeared. 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, where again, searching them were 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 hit a small ravine and crossed the meadow ahead of them. There's a new trail, Grace, and don't belong there. Let's go and take a look at it. We rode right 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 animal 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 is anyone going 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 tomorrow. It's too late to do it today. We could follow it the other way toward the ranch, she suggested. They followed the trail wound up the hillside and crossed the hogback in heavy brush, which, in many places, had been cut away to allow the easier passage of the horsemen. Do you see, asked Custer, as they drew rain at the sum 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? It must run right down into Jackknife Canyon. Funny, none of us have noticed it. For the scarcely a week that trail isn't ridden by some of us. As they descended into the canyon, they discovered why the end of the new trail had not been noticed. The trail had commenced to thin, and there had 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. The man wrote in silence and had thought, a herd of purebred hearfords whose value would have in ransom half the crown heads remaining in Europe, grazed in the several pastures 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. However, 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 herdsmen. 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 cupolas, 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 flood of rough concrete steps toward the house. As they rounded the wild sumac bush at the summit, they were aspired 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. Grace can cool it as 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. He grimaced good-naturedly and turned away. I haven't taken Senator home, he 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, two feet away, 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 a... 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. I'll get you first as I told you to. He had caught the odor of whiskey as he jerked the man past him. You going to can me for drinking? You demanded Alan? You know what I'm canning you for. You know that 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. In his mind he was revolving his chances of successfully renewing his attack, but presently his judgment got the better of his rage. He moved off slowly up the hill toward the 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 scent 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. 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 could put one of them where he belongs anytime I want the darn bootlegger. That's what he is you wait you'll see I'll beat it said Pennington weirdly. Mounting the Apache he led Grace's horse along the foot of the hill towards a smaller 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 major 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 turn the saddle blankets wet side up to dry and then leaving the stable 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 pen what are you doing he demanded just brought senator in Grace is up the house you're coming up there too guy sure we'll 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 emerged with a bottle the shape and dimensions of which were once as familiar in the land of the free as the benign accountants of Lydia E. Pinkham it's a genuine stuff pen too he declared Pennington smiled thanks old fellow but I've quit he said quit exclaimed Evans yep 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 it Pennington listens phony but it's the truth you may have quit but one little sniff from this won't hurt you here's this bottle already open just try it and he proffered the bottle in a glass to the other well it's pretty hard to resist anything that sounds as good as it does remark Pennington I guess one won't hurt me any 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 Pennington took the bottle and examined it almost caressing me eight years in the wood he murmured I've got to take a 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 S. Burroughs this little box recording is in the public domain recording by Joe DeNoya 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 that circled the hilltop looking out toward the wide canyon at the distant mountains in the near foreground lay the stable and corrals of the saddle horses the hen house 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 in a hilly pasture further up the canyon the black and iron gray of Percheron brood mayors contrasted with the green 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 he never tired of it said the young men 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 spaces of the wild buckwheat and here they are among the scrub oak the beautiful pale green of the manzanita scintilline jewels in the diet 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 of Custer 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 too 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 yes and your mother loves it and it is our great happiness that you 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 for what lay beyond the circling hills and 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 attribute independent of time if one could feel and act in accord with the spirit of youth one could not be old are you going in as the son yes I was waiting for you to 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 early 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 and unpleasant expression upon his face Evans suddenly whether he was not alone turned and recognized a man oh hello Alan he said young penitent just can be said Alan with no other return of Evans greeting I'm sorry said Evans you may be sorry or growd Alan continuing on his way toward the cabinet his blankets and clothes for a moment guy stared after the man a puzzled expression knitting his brows then he slowly flushed glance quickly about to see if anyone had overheard the brief conversation between slick Alan and himself a few minutes later he entered the enclosure west of the house with a 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 cluster ran from the house and dived in simultaneously though there was 26 years difference in their ages it was not evidenced by any lesser vitality 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 campaigning in Cuba he had been shot through one lung and shortly after the close of the war he 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 foregone hope that he might prolong his career for 200 years the Penningtons 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 the 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 return to the land of his love but his physician had told a mutual friend the Pennington's attorney that poor old cuss would almost undoubtedly be dead inside of a year and so Pennington had come west with Mrs. Pennington and little Custer Jr. and had found the range of Don Donato 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 in the water that Donato was not well suited to raise the type of horse that he knew best and that he and his father and his grandfathers 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 the ranch more to have something that would temporarily occupy his mind until his period of exile was ended by a return to his native state 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 Herefords 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 had healed he could not tell by any sign he gave that it was not as good as ever and still he stayed on in the land of sunshine which he had grown into love without realizing it's hold upon him gradually he had forgotten to say when we go back home and when that 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 a little one-year-old Eva Eva sitting in her mother's lap agreed with everyone Custer Junior burst into tears the very suggestion of leaving dear old Granado and what do you think about it Julia I love Virginia dear she had replied but I think I'll love California even more and I say it without disloyalty 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 This is the Bavoc's recordings in the public domain recording by Joe Dinoya Somerset New Jersey Work and play were inextricably entangled upon Ganado 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 to entangle homeward amid the toxic the fluvia of the melting pot Colonel Pennington plunged and swam in the cold, invigorating 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 that we'll miss Gabriel's trump if we happen to be in the pool at the time The Colonel, Custer, and Grace Evans dived simultaneously and coming up together raced for the shallow end with Mrs. Evans and her hostess were preparing to leave the pool The girl reaching the handrail first arose laughing and triumphant My foot slipped as I dived cried the younger Pennington webbing the water from his eyes for I'd have caught you No alibis, boy, laughed the Colonel Grace beat you fair and square raced you back for a dollar, Grace challenged the young man you're on, she cried three go they were off the Colonel who had proceeded 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 commensurate yell he turned upon his father and the two men grappled and went down when they came up spluttering and laughing the girl was climbing out of the pool you and Grace shouted the Colonel it's a frame up cried Custer he grabbed you by the ankle well, who had a better right than the girl, he's referee he's a fine mess for a referee grumbled Custer good naturedly run along and 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 saw their several rooms to dress Guy Evans stole from the walled garden of the swimming pool to the open arch that broke the long pergola 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 center 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 he had stopped at the station and that a slender girlish figure was alighting with a smile for the porter on her occasional visits to the city a hundred miles away now the chauffeur was taking her bag and carrying it to the roadster 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 sinkly and in little clusters and then the stars, serenely superior came forth to assure the glory of a perfect California night the headlights of a motor car turned into the driveway the 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 lovely emotions of their hearts behind a mask of assumed indifference perhaps the fact that they were not forever crowded the shoulder with strangers permitted them an enjoyable naturalness which the dweller in the wholesome district of humanity can never know for what a man may reveal of his heart among his friends he hides from the unsympathetic eyes of others though it may be noblest of his possessions with a rush the car topped the hill swung up the driveway and stopped at 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 in she fairly leapt upon her mother hugging, kissing, laughing dancing and talking all at once aspiring her father she relinquished a disheveled and laughing mother and died 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 I don't want you to know how much I've spent but oh popsy I had such a good time that's all there was to it and oh momsy 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 oh such divine dancing how do you do I never saw you the young man nodded glumly how are you Eva he said Mrs. Evans is here too dear her mother reminded her the girl curtsied before her mother's guests and threw her arms about the older woman's neck oh Aunt May she cried I'm so excited but you should have seen him and momsy I got the cutest riding hat they were moving toward the living room door which guy was holding open guy I got you the splendiferous Christmas present help cried her brother collapsing through 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 however in the world did you guess demanded Eva 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 here I'm rattled 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'd admit not so that anyone would notice it yet to murder 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 dapper up a bit for dinner don't wait she danced through the living room and out into the patio toward her own rooms rattle rattle little brain rattle rattle round again her brother called after her can you beat her he added to the others she can't even be approximated to laugh the colonel in all the world there's only one of her and she's ours bless her said the brother the colonel was glancing over the headlines of an afternoon paper that Eva had brought from the city what's new asked Custer same old grot replied 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 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 refuse to divulge 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 is being lighter to shore and launches and transports to some hiding place in the mountains is one theory by which the government is working the whiskey's 11 years old was bottled in bond three years ago just before the 18th amendment became a harrowing reality it will go hard with the traffickers in this particular parcel of what goods they are apprehended since the theft was directly from a government bonded warehouse and other government officials concerned in the search are anxious to make an example of the guilty parties 11 years old side the colonel it makes my mouth water I've been subsisting on homemade grape wine for over a year think of it Pennington why my ancestors must be writhing in their Virginia graves on the contrary they are probably laughing in their sleeves they died before January 1st 1919 in their post custer 11 years old 8 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 the table beside his chair notwithstanding the fact that he had read it 6 months before and hadn't liked it and it will go hard with the traffickers too continued young Pennington well I should hope it would they'll probably hang him in the vile miscreants Guy had risen and walked to the doorway opening upon the patio I wonder what is keeping Ava he remarked getting hungry asked Mrs. Pennington well I guess we all are suppose we don't wait any longer Ava won't mind if I wait much longer observe the colonel someone will have to carry me into the dining room as they crossed the library toward the dining room behind their elders is your appetite still good? shut up you give me a pain they finished their soup before Ava joined them and after the men were receded they took up the conversation where it had been interrupted as usual 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 paintings pictures people horses and homebrew each came in for a share of the discussion argument and railery that ran around the table during a brief moment when she was not engaged in the conversation Guy seized the opportunity to whisper to Ava who sat next to him who was that bird you met in LA? he asked which one? which one? how many did you meet? oodles of them I mean the one you were ranting about which one was I ranting about? I don't remember you're enough to trap anybody to drink Eva Pennington cried the young man disgustingly radiant man she could what's the dapper little idea in that talented brain? jealous? I want to know who he is demanded Guy who who is? you know perfectly well who I mean the poor fish you were raving about before dinner you said you'd dance with him who is he? that's what I want to know 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 and I don't care how dazzling he is I only want to know his name well why didn't you say so in the first place? his name is Wilson Crumb her tone was as of one who says behold Alexander the Great Wilson Crumb? who's he? do you mean to sit here and tell me that you don't know who Wilson Crumb is Guy Evans? she demanded never heard of him he insisted never heard of Wilson Crumb the famous actor-director such ignorance did you ever hear of him before this trip to LA inquired her brother from across the table I never heard you mention him before well maybe I didn't admit 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 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 the father has never permitted such a thing insisted her brother looking toward the colonel for support he didn't ask father he asked me return the girl you see said the colonel how simply Ava solves every little problem but you know Popsie how perfectly 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 Groud Custer watch them wreck the furniture and demolish the lawns why one part 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 I'd never allow one of them out of place maybe they're not all inconsiderate and careless suggesting Mrs. Pennington you remember there was a company took a few scenes at my place a year or so ago interjecting 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 I understand they pick up all sorts of riffraff for extra people IWWs and all sorts of people like that I'd be afraid he shook his head dubiously the trouble with you two is asserted Eva that you're afraid 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, why are 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 Chrome was forthwith dropped from the conversation and forgotten by all even by impressionable little Eva as the young people gathered around Mrs. Pennington at the piano in the living room and Mrs. Pennington sat apart carrying on at the sultry conversation while they listened to the same we have a new neighbor remarked Mrs. Evans on the tentacle orchard adjoining us to the west yes Mrs. Burke she has moved in hasn't she inquired the colonel 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 to ask my advice about the purchase of the property she seemed rather refined quiet little body she would 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 was 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 Eva came dancing over to her father Gord just popsy she cried and 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 foxtrot's, three one steps and a waltz with his arms about each other they started for the ballroom really a big playroom which adjoined the garage behind them laughing and talking came the 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 that most city dwellers ever achieve End of chapter 4 Chapter 5 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs This is the bravox recording is in the public domain recording by Joe Dinoia, Somerset, New Jersey The bungalow at 1421 Vista del Paso 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 light blue while the windows were shaded with striped onings 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 the lawns of yesteryear but the green pergola is an incurable disease 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 you notice the floor is paved with red brick set in black mortar and that the Oregon pine door with a mahogany stain would have been beautiful in its severe simplicity but for the little square of a plate glass set in the upper right hand corner demonstrating conclusively the daring originality of the artist architect 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 where upon 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 a cross from you on a divan a woman is lying face buried among pillows 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 is somewhat haggard you see a massive black hair surrounding a face of perfect contour even the plucked and penciled 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 her fingers of the hand tremble and are stained with nicotine 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 share 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 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 organ pine door quietly behind you as she turns about toward the divan again and she hesitates her eyes wander to a closed door at one side of the room 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 passes towards the divan with unsteady step she returns to it and throws herself down among the pillows 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 takes monotonously from the mantle its sound fills the whole room growing the fetish intensity to a horrid din that pounds upon taunt her 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 for a long minute she lies thus prone and then her slippered feet commence to fly up and down she kicks her toes in rapid succession into the unresisting divan suddenly she leaps for her feet and rushes towards the mantle damn you she screams and sees in the clock dashes it to 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 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 song of love and youth and happiness something has mended her shattered nerves upon the hearth lies the shattered clock it can never be mended if you should return now and look at her you would see that she is even more beautiful than you had at first suspected she has 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 crosses the piano you cannot but note the easy grace of her carriage her name her professional name is Gaza DeLore you may have seen her in small parts on the screen and may have wondered why someone did not start 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 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 someday 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 Pasa she was fired by a high purpose then her child's heart burning with lofty ambition had set its desire upon a noble goal 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 than she had known since the worthless husband had deserted her shortly after the baby came the baby was now known as Gaza DeLore there had been usual rounds of the studios the usual disappointments all by more or less 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 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 in the Gaza and for which Gaza was peculiarly suited 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 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 fellow to get in on the pictures just step out with me some night and I promise you you'll get a job the suddenly widening cherished eyes meant nothing to the shallow mind of the cattle 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 at 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 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 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 admitting 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 the screen name was but a pathetic memory she had never told her mother that she had taken the name of Gaza Delor 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 how often she had pictured the scene in her little theater 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 around her mother all excitedly talking at the same time and then she had met Wilson Crumb she had a small part in a picture in which he played lead and which he also directed he had been very kind to her very courteous she had thought him handsome she had a certain weakness in his face but what attracted 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 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 its not any sort of business its been your rotten luck to run up against a lot of the bad ones the first picture finished Crumb 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 Crumb offered her a 5 year contract it was only for $50 a week but it included the clause which automatically increased the salary to $100 a week $250 and then $500 in the event that they started her she knew that it was to Crumb that she owed the contract Crumb had seen to that very gradually then so gradually and insidiously that the girl could never recall just when it had started Crumb 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 very 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 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 he 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 Crumb he was a successful director he was more than a fair actor he was good looking he was kind he was a gentleman and he loved her what more could any girl ask she thought the matter out very carefully finally deciding that though she did not exactly love Wilson Crumb she probably would learn to love him and then 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 but Crumb 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 a hard day ending by getting thoroughly soaked in the sudden rain he had followed her to a room the little mountain in where they were stopping your cold and wet and tired he said 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 and folded it 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 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 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 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 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 you had thrown it her curiosity aroused she founded a rather soiled bit of writing paper with a C written in lead pencil upon it C she mused why aspirin with a C she thought she would question Wilson about it the next day she felt out of sorts and tired and at noon she asked him 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 crumb 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 crumb asked her to come live with him at his vista del paso bungalow but he did not mention marriage he was standing with a little paper of his white powder in his hand separating half of it for her and she was waiting impatiently for it well he asked what are you coming over to live with me he demanded 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 crumb 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 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 rattlesnake and 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 she held out her hand for it but he drew it away answered 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 sea stands me 250 and you missed nothing about three of them a day 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 Crumb was busy in another room then opening the front door she called goodbye Crumb 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 you'll come back he sneered and wanted another shot of snow oh I don't know she replied I guess I can buy aspirin at any drug store as well as you Crumb 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 you beast she cried you unspeakable beast slamming the door behind her ran down the narrow walk and disappeared in the shadows of the palm trees that bordered the ill-liked street the man did not follow her he only stood there laughing for he knew that she would come back craftily he had enmeshed her for the taking months and never had quarreled been more wary or difficult to trap 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 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 frantically he rummaged through the medicine cabinet but in vain 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 would address communications to Gaza DeLore the mother addressed the girl by her own name at the house where she had rooms since coming to Hollywood the one who rented her the room did not know her screen name all she knew about her was that she seemed a quiet, refined girl who had paid her room rent promptly in advance every week and was always home at night except when on location Crumb 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 Crumb put in his belated appearance he was nervous and irritable almost immediately he called her aside and demanded an accounting 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 only that she would be with him as much as possible her nights should be her own she could go home then and so the arrangement was consummated and Gaza Zalor spent the days when she was not working at the bungalow of the Vista del Paso Crumb saw that she was cast for small parts that required but little of her time at the studio he had raised no question at the office as to her salary of fifty dollars a week twice the girl asked why he did not star her and both times he told her that he would for a price 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 month passed Crumb'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 the supplies from the bungalow of the Vista del Paso cocaine heroin and morphine passed continually through the girls 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 for one a woman she learned how to use morphine dissolving the white powder in the bowl of the spoon by passing a lighted match beneath it pouring the liquid through a tiny piece of cotton into a hypodermic syringe and injected it beneath the skin once she had experienced a sensation of well-being and induced she fell an easy victim to this more potent drug one evening Crumb 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 Gazeta Laura improved Alan had just returned from the Orient as a member of the crew of freighter and he had succeeded in smuggling the property of opium in his efforts to dispose of it he had made the acquaintance of others in the same land 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 Gaza to do the actual peddling the girl agreed on one condition 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 of about 100 miles from Los Angeles and sent for her mother the day before you called on her in the art bungalow at 1421 Vista del Paso 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 though 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 but she could no more give up the 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 nod if she had wanted to and that she did not want to the little bendels 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 two dollars and a half of a bundle were also parts of her life chrome too was a part of her life she hated the bendels she hated the sallow trembling people she hated chrome 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 Libervox recording is in the public domain recorded by Joe DeNoya SummerSend New Jersey it was May and it was definitely over a few April showers had concluded it the Ganado Hills showed their most brilliant greens and March pigs were almost ready to wean white-faced calves and black cults and grey cults surveyed this beautiful world through soft, dark eyes and were filled with the joy of living as they rammed beside their gentle mothers a stallion nade from the stable corral and from the ridge behind Jack Knife Canyon the emperor of Ganado 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 where the brood mayors graze with their cults 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 I should never be happy until I have tried it 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 then when father is gone we can go and live in the city in any city that we want it to live in 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 did not know he replied ever since I was a little boy he was counting on this on my staying on and working with him he wants us all to be together always when Eva marries he will build her a home on Ganado you have 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 I 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 tomorrow we 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 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 Ganado 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 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 me that 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 have always felt that the stage was one of the greatest powers for good in the world and I believe that someday the screen will be an even 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 an upper lily pond 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 in the pond 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 I am 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 gorgeristic she cried don't make fun of me you wouldn't if you loved 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 mother-in-law mother-in-law protested the boy you have to be ashamed to speak disrespectfully of my mother you quaint childishly in the girl laughing gaily just as if I would speak disrespectfully of Aunt May when I love her so splendiferously 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 what you did say you proposed to me I'm going to announce the engagement Mrs. May Evans announces the engagement of her son Guy Thackeray to Miss Eva Pennington funeral notice later snapped the girl glaring at him oh come now you needn't get mad at me I was only fooling 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 pens 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 could 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 would be all alone if I leave too couldn't we live with her for a while Papa and Mama have always said that it was the worst thing a young man 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 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 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 joy herself 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 for pictures like this Miss Grace Evans the famous star has quite outdone her past successes in the latest picture in which she is ably supported by such well known actors such as Thomas Mann, Wallace Reed Gloria Swanson and Mary Pickford why Slype Douglass 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 have seen fish in every pool do you remember how we used to 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 and do you remember the little turtles and how wild they got you 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 we used to wonder and speculate is what had become of them and you remember the big water snake we found in the upper pool and how Cus used to lie and wait for him Cus was always the hunter how he used to trudge 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 geez Ev, those were the good old days and how he used to fight more than nuisance Cus 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 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 shallow waiting 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 conscious tonight he left 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 boys eyes wandered lovingly over the soft undulating lines of these lower hills with their park-like beauty of green swore dotted with wild walnut trees as he looked he saw for a brief moment the figure of a man on a horseback passing over the hollow of a saddle before disappearing upon the southern side small that a distant figure was and visible but for a moment the boy recognized the military carriage of the rider he glanced quickly at the girl to know what she had seen but it was evident she had not well if he said I guess I'll be totally so early she demanded you see I've got to get busy if I'm going to get the price of that teeny weeny bungalow he explained now that we're engaged you might kiss me goodbye 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 then why are you always raving about the wonderful kisses Antonio Moreno or Milton Sills or some other poor prune gives the heroine 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 off the canyon now what said the girl to herself is he going up there for he can't make any money back there in the hills he ought to be heading straight for home in his typewriter end of chapter 6 chapter 7 of the girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Perot's this liberal fox recording is in the public domain recording by Joe DeNoya Somerset New Jersey across the rustic bridge and once behind the sycamores at the 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 was moving at a slow walk further up the canyon at the sound of the pounding hoof beats behind him the latter turned in the saddle rained 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 eating you he inquired I've been thinking over the proposition of yours explained Evans yes 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 didn't worry me about double crossing you what go to 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 you ever bust in on this I'll croak him and send you to San Quentin if I swing for it you get me Evans nodded I'll go in on it he said because I need the money 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 me to San Quentin for that you don't know what you done said Allen with a grin it'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 smuggle it off the ship and into the hills Evans was staring at the man and why died in credulity how do you get that way he asked derisively there's four of us to swear to it said Allen and how many you got to swear you didn't do it why it's a rotten frame up exclaimed Evans sure it's a frame up agreed Allen 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 Allen we'll call this thing off as far as I'm concerned I'm through right now goodbye he wheeled his horse to ride away hold on there young feller said Allen 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 is more profit in than what there is in booze and it's easier to handle we know where to get rid of it and so you're going to handle it who says I am I do return Allen with an ugly snarl you'll handle it or I'll do just what I said I do and I'll do it pronto how'd you let your mother in that Pennington girl to hear all I have to say 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 fellow Allen 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 pastor fence the boy turned sullenly towards Allen I'll go through with it this once he said you'll bring it down in burrows at night the other not of the firm doubly where do you want it he asked we're going 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 and after that every Friday at the same time you be ready to settle every Friday for what you've sold during the week savvy yes replied Evans that's all then and he turned the road back toward the rancho Allen was continuing on his way toward the hills when his attention was again attracted by the sound of hoof beats looking to his left he saw a horseman approaching from inside the pasture he recognized both horse and rider at once but kept sullenly on his way Pennington rose up on the opposite side of the fence along which ran the trail that Allen followed what are you doing here Allen he asked in a not unkindly tone minding my own business like you better retorted the extil you have no business back here in Ganados had Pennington you'll have to get off the property the hell I will exclaimed Allen at the same time you made a quick move with his right hand but Pennington made it quicker that kind of stuff don't go here Allen 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 Allen reigned his horse about and rode down the canyon but there was murder in his heart Pennington watched him until he was out of the revolver range and then turned and rode back to gray sevens end of chapter 7 chapter 8 of The Girl from Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs this is one of our recordings in the public domain recording by Joe DeNoya Somerset, New Jersey beneath the cool shadows of the north porch the master of Ganado 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 grains that 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 gonna have a boldly crop of barley this year Julia 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 julep Heaven's cusper whisper it and monitor 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 land made me effeminate, he queried I'm quite a far cry from the old fashioned mint julep to this homemade wine and orange juice you can't call it brandy it hasn't enough of what the boys call kick to be entitled to that honor but I like it yes sir, that's bully barley there isn't any better in the foothills the oats look good too, said mrs. Banglin 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 of the seed 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 gonado even more wonderful than it ever was before and now my dream is a reality it's great, I tell you, it's great is there another glass of this gonado elixir in that pitcher, Julia? they were silent then for a few minutes the colonel sipping his elixir and mrs. Pennington, with her book face down upon her lap gazing out across the barley and 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 but growing with the passing years 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 some day 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 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 will leave him nothing to plan for and hope for as he had planned and hoped for this during 22 years that they had spent upon ganado 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 decides spinelessly into the niche that another had prepared for him I'm worried about the boy she said recently how in what way he asked will 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 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 but the country has 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 damned foolishness that's what it is he plastered and actress what does she know about acting she's 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've been like a father to her ever since mr. evans died oh pushaw julia the colonel exclaimed I love grace you know I do I suppose it's because I loved her that I feel so about this maybe I'm jealous of the city to think that it has weenied her away from us I don't mean all I say sometimes but really I am broken up the 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 some day your own children may want to go she asked I won't think about it he exploded I hope you won't have to she said but it's gonna 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 the voice that no longer sounded like his own stranger things have happened she replied forcing his while then a young man wanted 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. Pennington I hear them in the patio children she called here we are on the north porch they came through the house together and sister their arms about each other Cuss says I'm too young to get married he's clean the girl married ejaculated the colonel you and guy talking of getting married what are you going to live on child on that hill back there she jerked her thumb in a direction that was broadly south by west that will give them two things to live on suggest the boy grinning what do you mean two things to end at the girl the hill and father her brother replied dodgingly 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 pretty the poor goof she and snares pleaded custer addressing his parents he will have three avenues of escape being beaten to death starved to death or talked to death Ava clapped a hand over his mouth now listen to me she cried guy and I are going to build a teeny weeny bungalow on that hill all by ourselves with a white tile splash board in the kitchen and one of those broom plazas 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 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 in 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 to his lap at the imminent risk of delusion then both with elixir a risk which the colonel through long 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 on the world all this talk about getting married he inquired his eyes twinkled well can't I talk she demanded talk I'll say she can explain to brother end of chapter 8 chapter 9 of the girl from Hollywood but a girl rice burrows this live box recordings in the public domain recording by Joe De Noia Sarma said 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 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 over two homes they're hovered that evening a pall of gloom but no effort seemed able to dispel in the ranch house on ganado they made a brave effort at cheerfulness on custer pannington'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 customer since childhood and tears came to the mother's eyes as she noticed a droop in the broad shoulders as he walked from the room the girl came then and knelt beside her taking the older woman's hand in hers and caressing it I feel so sorry for custer she said I believe that none of us realize how hard he is taking this he told me yesterday that 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 her 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 the dear girl wants us to be proud of her and her daughter my god ejected the carnal 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 dear to us of all the damn full ideas custer you mustn't swear so before Eva reproved mrs. penitent swear he demanded who the hell is swearing a merry peel of laughter broke from the girl nor could her mother refrain from smiling it isn't swearing when popsy 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 anyway I'm going to bed now popsy so that you won't contaminate me according to mom's theory I'm going to dress 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 carnal after a silence I'm afraid he's been drinking a little too much lately said the mother I only hope his loneliness for grace won't encourage it I hadn't noticed it said the carnal 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 had a little more than he should don't worry about that dear said the carnal a penitent 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 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 the 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 a reading lamp beside the deep wide arm chair 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 watercolour of the Apache done by Eva and given to him the previous Christmas a framed enlargement of the photograph of a prize here for a bowl a 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 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 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 in certain conditions of seeming hopelessness appears answerable what is the use there's 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 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 long after they on the evening of the day of Grace's departure Mrs. Evans retired early complaining of a headache Guy Evans sought to interest himself in various magazines 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 at the one which Custer Pennington was similarly engaged it was Friday the second Friday since Guy had entered into an agreement with Alan and 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 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 18th amendment whenever and wherever possible the only fly in the Oymian was the fact that the liquor in which he was at present trafficking had been stolen but he attempted to square this with his conscious by the oft reiterated thought that he did not know to be stolen goods they couldn't prove that he knew it however the fly remained it must have been one of those extremely obnoxious buzzy flies if one might judge by the boy's increasing nervousness 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 settle 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 what he allowed himself to be controlled or threatened into such an agreement he disliked and feared Alan whom he now knew to be a totally unscrupulous man and his introduction the proceeding 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 ruffians which whom he was associated during the intervening week he had been unable to constrain his mind upon his story writing even to the extent of a single word of new material he had worried and brooded he had drunk more than usual he sat waiting for the arrival of the second consignment he pictured a little cavalcade winding downward along hidden trails through the chaperone of the dark mountain ravines his nervousness increased as he realized the 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 burrows 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 in some 50 tons of mellilotus they have been sown as a cover crop by a former foreman and allowed to grow to such proportions as to render the plowing of it under a practical impossibility as hey 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 bails as to form a hidden chamber in the center of the pile ingress to which could be readily be had by removing a couple of bails near the floor a little after 11 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 the liquor was affected by daylight and the very boldness and simplicity of the scheme seemed to ensure its safety a large motor truck such trucks are constantly seen upon the roads of southern California 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 the small load of bailed mellilotas that there were 36 cases of bonded whiskey concealed by the innocent looking bails of mellilotas Mr. Volstead himself could not 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 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 Allen 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 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 12 Evans heard the sounds of which he had been so expectantly waiting he opened the small door at the end of the hay barn through which there filed in silence six burdened burrows led by one Swarthiam 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 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 into the darkness toward the hills and young Evans made his way to his room and to bed End of Chapter 9