Hearts in Jeopardy — Florence Kerigan

Now that lovely young Jennifer Courtney was the owner of the Rancho Montana, she needed an experienced manager to help her. When Larry Kevin happened along, he seemed like the answer to her prayers. She knew he could handle the job. And she hoped he would stay on after she married rodeo star Slim Lattigo.

Jennifer was looking forward to the day when Slim would settle down with her on the Rancho. She was stunned when Slim informed her that he expected her to sell her ranch--and that he had no intention of giving up his rodeo competitions.

Jennifer knew she could never sell the Rancho Montana. And she didn't want to live in constant fear of Slim being injured in a rodeo. Then Slim grew suspicious of her friendship with Larry, and Jennifer knew the time had come to break the engagement. But she also knew she hadn't seen the last of Slim....

After the death of her father last summer, auburn-haired Jennifer Courtney became owner of the Rancho Montana and realized the enormous responsibility of running a good cattle ranch. Only two years out of college, Jennifer kept the books and tended to the general duties, but she needed a capable ranch manager, someone who could take her father's place. Wier the foreman, was an old hand, but both she and Weir agreed that they needed a younger man to fill the job.

When Larry Kevin applied for the job, his first thought was that he had never seen anyone as lovely as Jennifer. He only wished that there were no engagement ring on her left hand and wondered secretly if Slim Lattigo was worthy of Jennifer's love. He had heard vague, unsatisfactory rumors about Slim, but Slim was a popular rodeo star about whom Jennifer seemed truly star-struck.

It was after Slim's big winnings at an out-of-town rodeo that trouble began. Slim returned with the idea that Jennifer should sell the Rancho Montana and move into the Lattigo ranch. Not only was Slim's father's spread very poor and in a run-down condition, but Jennifer could not dream of giving up what her father had struggled so diligently to create. And, too, Jennifer did not want to get married just yet; she felt it was too soon after her father's death. How was she to cope with these problems that had fallen on her, so it seemed, from a previously cloudless blue sky?

Hero: Larry Kevin
Heroine: Jennifer Courtney