About thirty minutes later they arr. ved at the stocked and found that there was an auct. on going on
Xt had forgotten that they have an auction everv
Wednesday night,” Lonny said, as he slipped on his acket " It’ s getting cold a bit early this year, Don,” he said, as they made their way through a crowd 0f people around the big double doors going into the
bis sale barn. _,,,,
The stockyard auction was about the same as they are all over the country. Cowboy-looking characters were all over the place... sitting on wooden plank bleachers and standing in the hall where they sell horses. Smoke filled the air as there was a g00d crowd in attendance. Lonny and Don looked around and sized up the situation, trying to find out if they would run any Walking Horses through the sale. " Lonny,” said Don, " there’ s my buddy who works
M ]* r
" What do you mean... you can’ t find my broodmares?" boomed the voice over the phone as Lonny held the receiver about a foot from his ear. Lonny took off his hat and scratched his head, trying to explain to Mr. Thompkins that some man had bought the property where they had been pastured, and he claimed that he never saw any broodmares. After about twenty minutes of explaining, Lonny assured Mr. Thompkins that he wTas trying to find out what had happened and that he had a lawyer looking into the problem. " All 1 can tell you, Mr. Barnes, is that you better come up with my mares or two thousand dollars. Those mares would be hard to replace.. With that, he hung up!
" What are we going to do, Lonny?” asked Helen, as her husband hung up the receiver and turned to Don Hill, w ' ho was sitting on the divan across the room. " Don," he said, " let’ s do a little detective work of our own.” Lighting a cigarette, Lonny dialed his lawyer’ s office. Getting no answer, he hung up and started toward the door. " Com’ on, Don,’’ he said. " Let’ s take a ride before it gets too dark.” Don got up and put his arm around Helen’ s shoulder, saying, " Don’ t worry, now... we’ ll find those mares somewhere.”
As they drove down the road, Lonny briefed Don on what had happened. He gave him a complete rundown on the old Waldow place and how he had kept mares there for three years without any trouble. Their first stop was at Lonny’ s lawyer’ s house where they learned that Mr. Waldow had died about a month before and that a Mr. Pete Olsen had acquired the property due to an old family debt Mr. Olsen, they assumed, was the man that Lonny had met at the old barn. " Our next stop,” Lonny said, " is the stockyard over in Blanton County. I have a feeling that they just might know something.” Don added that he knew the owners of the stockyard pretty well and thought they would cooperate. On the way over the both pondered the question of HOW a man who was a stranger to the horse business would dispose of two good broodmares. by Charles Barry Sanderson
here... let’ s ask him.” They caught up with the man just as he started over a gate to get the next horse. " Bill... Bill!” Don called. " Are you boys running any Walking Horses through tonight?” The man laughed and said, " Why, sure, fellows... want to buy a potential World Champion for two hundred bucks?” Lonny smiled and said, " We might like to buy some broodmares if they’ ve got papers.” Bill said, " Let me get this next horse out and maybe we can do some business.” He put a halter on the horse and handed the lead line to a colored boy who was handling stock, saying, " Here... lead this colt through for me. Tell Tom I’ ll be right back.”
Lonny and Don followed him through a maze of old barns and hallways until they arrived at some stalls out back. " I’ ve got two broodmares out here that are supposed to be Walking stock. No papers, but the man said that he thought they might have been registered at one time or another.” Lonny looked at Don with a questioning eye as the man led a finelooking sorrel mare out into the light. " How do you like the looks of this one, Lonny?” Lonny laughed and said, " Well, now... I like her pretty good. Especially since one of my customers owns her and she’ s bred to my stud. Where did you get her?”
Bill stepped back and said, " Wait a minute here, fellows. You trying to tell me this mare didn’ t belong to the man who sold her to me?” Don spoke up, saying, " That’ s about the size of it. Two of them were stolen about a month ago and we just now found it out.” The man protested, " I paid two hundred apiece for them, and thought I was getting a pretty good deal.” He added, " How can you prove they are the mares you’ re looking for?” Lonny reached into his hip pocket and pulled out two sets of papers. " Here.. • look these over.” The man looked at the papers and said, " Hell, fellows, there are a hundred mares that could fit that description. I got to have some proof.”
With a borrowed trailer, they loaded up the two broodmares and started home. As they discussed the episode, Lonny stated that he would find a way
16 Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse