Black Mask (Vol. 22, No. 2 — Mary 1939)

P. S. I’m enclosing a copy of a letter I have written to Mary. The guy at the roadside restaurant is sending it on a bakery truck to San Bernardino to be mailed so Mary won’t get wise by the postmark that I’m at Happy Valley Junction. She might hear about the nudist camp here and begin to get ideas. If Mary writes to you, for the love of mike back up what I’ve written to her.

Dearest darling wife:

I’m in a jam, but don’t worry. You know that rancher I was supposed to pick up the mortgage from? Well, I stopped at his place and had to wait a couple of hours for him to get home from San Bernardino. He’d gone into town for supplies.

Then when he did come and I got the mortgage, my car wouldn’t start. I worked on it the rest of the day trying to find out the trouble because there isn’t a mechanic for miles.

It got dark and I still couldn’t locate the trouble, so the rancher, a guy by the name of Gray, invited me to stay all night. I did just that. And the next morning I found out someone had lifted the bonds I was carrying to Frisco.

It’s all very funny business because I just found out that the ignition wires had been cut on the car. There’s three guys working here on the ranch and one of them looks like an ex-con. I’m just biding my time and waiting for one of them to make a move, then I’ll make a pinch.

Now, don’t worry about it. The rancher is in the know and is going to help me, but if something doesn’t break today or tomorrow, I’ll call in the sheriff from San Bernardino and we’ll work the guys over with a rubber hose. I’d call the sheriff now, but then it would hit the newspapers and old man Youngblood might not like the way I’ve handled his money.

I’ve wired Jim and he says I’m doing the right thing, because Youngblood might have me arrested for the theft, saying I just figured to go south with ’em. If I was in jail, I’d have a fat chance of getting the bonds back.

Love and kisses,

Les.

P. S. Don’t worry. I just saw the guy who looks like an ex-con acting very mysterious. He just went down behind the barn. Maybe he has the bonds ditched there.