“Heck,” he said, “this station wagon runs back and forth all the time. That’s what it’s for, the convenience of guests. In the morning when I’m out riding with the guests, one of the other employees takes it in. But in the afternoon I make four and five trips a day at times. Come on, get in.”
I climbed in the front seat of the station wagon beside him.
“Imagine a guy like that coming to a guest ranch,” Kramer said, as he started the car. “You’d think he’d go to a sanitarium.”
“Of course,” I said, “he won a two-weeks stay here as a result of some contest or other.”
“We get them every once in a while,” Kramer said. “Guys that come here because they won a contest. It’s some baking powder company, I think, that has a series of prizes for people who can write the best fifty-word article on why this baking powder is the best. I’ve never run onto the ads, myself, but we’ve had several people here who filled out the entrance blanks and won this particular prize. I understand some of the prizes include a trip to Honolulu.”
“Well,” I said, reassuringly, “two weeks here will do this fellow a lot of good.”
“There’s one thing certain,” Kramer said, “he won’t be riding any horses. I won’t have to listen to him telling me about how he rode when he was a boy and how he once had a spirited horse that was a little more than the ordinary person could handle, then bribe me to get a little better horse the next ride. I get so fed up with that stuff. Everyone of them gets as good a horse as he can ride.
“If I’d let those guys ride the kind of horses they would select for themselves, we’d have dudes digging postholes with their heads all over the trails. Oh, well, I guess we all have our problems.”
I grinned at him reassuringly.
“How did you like that horse you had this morning?” he asked.
“Fine,” I said.
“You got along with him all right,” Kramer said. “Some fellows have too heavy a hand and the horse resents them. He starts fighting the bit and the reins and then he begins to fight the rider, so they hold him in even more, and that’s bad.”
“Pile them off?” I asked.
“Heavens no, nothing like that. We won’t let a horse on the ranch that bucks off a rider, but the horse gets restive and nervous and comes back soaking wet with sweat. The rider has been fighting the horse and he’s all sweaty and hasn’t had a good time.
“You’d be surprised how animals understand these things. These horses know that they make their living by taking dudes out over trails and while they sometimes resent a rider, for the most part they have a very definite sense of responsibility. We’ve never had one yet that would spill a dude on the trail.”
“Must be quite a responsibility, getting horses of that sort and keeping them in training, and properly exercised,” I said.
Kramer grinned. “Say, how did we get to talking about my troubles? Why don’t we talk about yours?”
“I don’t have any,” I told him.
We rode into the airport, just getting acquainted and talking around in circles. Kramer didn’t loosen up on anything except generalities. The minute I’d mention the name of some particular; guest, Kramer would dry up like a clam, then change the subject. I got the idea that it was a matter of policy never to discuss one guest with another guest.
We got to the airport and I called Bertha Cool from a telephone booth.
“Donald,” she said, “how are you coming?”
“Everything okay so far,” I said, “except the job is going to blow up.”
“What do you mean?”
I said, “This guy, Bruno, is either really injured or he’s too clever to fall for anything as crude as the trap that’s been set for him.”
“You mean you can’t cut the mustard?” Bertha asked accusingly.
“It isn’t a question of whether I can cut the mustard,” I said, “it’s a question of whether there’s any mustard there to be cut. The guy probably really has had a whiplash injury. I’m going to call Breckinridge, but I thought I’d give you a ring first and let you know what’s in the wind.”
“My God,” Bertha said, “he can’t back out on the deal now. You’re there for three weeks with all expenses paid and we’re collecting sixty dollars a day straight through.”
“I’m not going to hold him to it,” I said. “I think when he hears my report, he’ll want to change his tactics and recall me.”
“Recall you!” Bertha screamed into the telephone. “Why that so-and-so can’t back out on a bargain like that.”
“Let’s not let him feel we’re that hungry for business,” I said. “We have other things we can do.”
“You let me call him,” Bertha said. “I’ll talk with him.”
“No,” I told her, “I’ve got to make a report personally. I’m just letting you know. I’ll be in touch with you.”
I hung up while she was still arguing, and put through a call to Breckinridge. I was in luck. As soon as I gave my name to his secretary, he came on the phone at once.
“Hello, Lam,” he said, “you’re out there in Tucson?”
“That’s right.”
“How’s the dude ranch?”
“Fine.”
“Getting along with Dolores all right?”
“Splendid!”
“That’s good,” he said, and then after a moment, “What seems to be on your mind?”
I said, “This fellow Bruno isn’t going to be a push-over.”
“No? How come?”
I said, “The fellow isn’t sailing under any false colors. He arrived by plane this afternoon and told everyone he was there at the ranch because he’d won a contest, that he’d been seriously injured in an automobile accident, that he had a whiplash injury and he was going to have to keep very, very quiet.
“He’s walking around with a cane, and his hand on the arm of the wrangler who handles the horses.”
“The hell he is!” Breckinridge exclaimed.
“That’s right.”
Breckinridge thought that over, then gave a low whistle. “All right, Donald,” he said, “come on back.”
“Just like that?” I asked.
“Just like that,” he said. “We’re going to pay the guy off.”
“I’m just reporting progress,” I said. “After all, he may still be faking. It may be we can catch him off first base.”
“I don’t think we’d better try it,” Breckinridge said. “I’m glad you called me, Donald. We’d better payoff. If he’s on the up-and-up, those whiplash injuries can really run into money. Just grab a plane and come home.”
I said, “Don’t be in quite such a hurry. Give me another day on the job. I want to size this situation up. I’m just reporting progress because I thought you’d like to know.”
“Splendid, Lam,” he said. “That’s splendid. I’m glad you did. Now don’t get me wrong, Lam, this isn’t going to make any difference as far as you’re concerned. We’ll adjust, with the agency, all right, on a basis of three weeks’ work, but I just don’t believe in taking chances with a genuine whiplash injury, not if we can get any decent kind of settlement.”
“You can hold off for a day, all right?” I asked.
“Well,” he said, paused for a moment, then added, “yes, we can, hold off for a day all right.”
I said “I had a chance to ride into town, so I thought I’d give you a ring and let you know what’s cooking.”
“Lam,” he said “I’m available all the time. I make it a rule to be be where I can be reached whenever anything important comes up. You just give your name to my secretary and she’ll see that a call goes through to me. Now, you call me tomorrow and let me know, will you?”
“Okay.”
“Be sure to call.”