Page 165

"The queer thing was that as soon as she saw him she wanted him. He
was her son. She went to Henry one night, and said she had perjured her
soul, and that she wanted him back. She wasn't in love with Thorwald.
I think she'd always cared for Clark. She went away finally, however,
after promising Henry she would keep Clark's secret. But I have a
suspicion that later on she acknowledged the truth to the boy.
"What he wanted, of course, was a share of the Clark estate. Of course
he hadn't a chance in law, but he saw a chance to blackmail young Jud
Clark and he tried it. Not personally, for he hadn't any real courage,
but by mail. Clark's attorneys wrote back saying they would jail him if
he tried it again, and he went back to Dry River and after Henry again.
"That was in the spring of 1911. Henry was uneasy, for Clifton was not
like himself. He had spells of brooding, and he took to making long
trips on his horse into the mountains, and coming in with the animal run
to death. Henry thought, too, that he was seeing the Thorwald woman,
the mother. Thorwald had died, and she was living with the son on their
ranch and trying to sell it. He thought Hines was trying to have her
make a confession which would give him a hold on Jud Clark.
"Henry was not well, and in the early fall he knew he hadn't long to
live. He wrote out the story and left it in his desk for me to read
after he had gone, and as he added to it from time to time, when I got
it it was almost up to date.
"Judson came back to the Clark ranch in September, bringing along an
actress named Beverly Carlysle, and her husband, Howard Lucas. There was
considerable talk, because it was known Jud had been infatuated with
the woman. But no one saw much of the party, outside of the ranch. The
Carlysle woman seemed to be a lady, but the story was that both men were
drinking a good bit, especially Jud.
"Henry wrote that Hines had been in the East for some months at that
time, and that he had not heard from him. But he felt that it was only a
truce, and that he would turn up again, hell bent for trouble. He made
a will and left the money to me, with instructions to turn it over
to Hines. It is still in the bank, and amounts to about thirty-five
thousand dollars. It is not mine, and I will not touch it. But I have
never located Clifton Hines.