Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1912 — Page 2

The Daily Republican Krery Pay ltrcept fcnday I HEALEY A. CLARK, Publishers. RENSSELAER, INDIANA.

No Man’s Land A ROMANCE

By Louis Joseph Vance

Illustrations by Ray Walters

Joseph Vance.) t SYNOPSIS. Garrett Coast, & young man of New York City, meets Douglas Blackstock, who Invites him to a card party. He accepts, although he dislikes Blackstock, the reason being that both are in love with Katherine Thaxter, Coast fails to convince her that Blackstock is unworthy of her friendship. At the party Coast meets two named Dundas and Van Tuyl. CHAPTER ll.—(Continued.) Blackstock Interposed hastily “That fourth-beet spade of yours certainly did lead him up to slaughter.” He reached over and took up the, deck at Truax’s elbow, spreading the cards with a dextrous sweep of his strong, blunt fingers. “New game. Cut, you fellows.” "The invitation tempts; but there are some skins too thick . . .’’Van Tuyl pursued. Truax pushed back his chair, nodding cheerfully to Coast. But Tor a heightened tint of color he showed no trace of being aware of Van Tuyl’s insolence. “Cut In, Garrett; It’s your turn. ... Unless,” he added, "you-all want to quit It’s pretty late. I think I’ll drop, for one.” “Drop,” said Van Tuyl sweetly, “and he damned.” “What do you mean by that?” Trusx, on bis feet, turned upon his tormentor with an Imperceptible tremor

1b his voice. Prudence is the better part of bridge,” Van Tuyl explained carefully. “He’s a prudent man who becomes conscious of chilled extremities when ahead of the game.” Crimson with resentment, Truax hesitated, the retort on the tip of his tongue only withheld because of Coast’s appealing and sympathetic look. Then with a lift of his plump shoulders he turned away, nodding to his host, Dundas and Coast. “Good-night,” he said brusquely, and so betrayed the effort his self-control cost him. “You-all can send your checks if I am anything ahead.” “We’ll try not to forget, thanks.” A satiric smile on Van Tuyl’s thin lips winged the Parthian dart. Truax did not reply, but left the room abruptly, Blackstock accompanying him to the door. In his absence Coast cut in as Van Tuyl’s partner and took the chair Truax had just vacated. “Deal?” he inquired. “Yours,” Dundas told him. “And,” Van Tuyl interjected as Coast took up the cards, “let us trust you've more bridge sense than that professional dummy.” He nodded to Indicate the departing Truax. “I carefully told him, early in the evening, that when t doubled I wanted not his highest heart, but the highest card of his weakest suit. Do you think you can remember that?” "Yes,” said Coast shortly, annoyed by the other’s offensive manner. “I sincerely trust so, I didn’t come here to be rooked by everybody, by incompetent partners included.” Coast quietly put down the cards without completing the deal. “Aren’t you spraining something in your attempts to be insolent. Van?” he inquired as Blackstock reappeared. “It happens I’ve been your partner this evening more frequently than anybody else.” “Precisely.” “And you think yourself justified in suggesting that Fve played against you?” -> Van TuyX's dark eyes met -his steady ily in a sardonic stare. “I’m the heaviest, loser here,” he said. “You’ve played like a raw amateur every time you’ve played with me. Interpret that to your liking.” “I shall.” Coast got up, white, to the lips. “It spells good-night to me.” Blackstock struck in with a heavy l note of insincere suavity. “Oh, come now! It’s early yet Van doesn’t know what he’s saying—” It was Van Tuyl’s turn to rise; be accomplished the action with surprising dignity if with a slight unsteadiness. “Since when did I appoint a bounder like you to read my meaning?" he asked crisply. Blackstock hesitated, swaying a little as his temper strained at the leash. “I’ll take that from you in your present condition, Van Tuyl,” he said slowly. In his nervous anxiety to avert the quarrel, little Dundas blundered and . precipitated it “Oh, say now!" hepiped. “We’re an good friends. Don’t let’s us slang one another. Come on. Van Tuyl—let’s bpve a drink and make up.” tkm Van Tttyl’s weathBeered. “All right” he -listens like sense.” e buffet Dundas with

**Why . . . good-night” Blackstock’s mputh smiled, but his speech was mechanical and his eyes, slightly prominent and magnified by thick lenses, met Coast’s with an opaque look singularly suggesting a cast “I’m sorry our party has to break up so early—” “Look here!” Van Tuyl swung round with a glass half-full of raw Scotch In his hand. “Aren’t you going to join us?” “Thank you, no,” said Coast dryly. “No,” said Blackstock. “And,”! he added, “If I were you, Van, I’d chop that drink. It won’t do you a world of good.” “Oh?” Van Tuyl smiled acidly. “Don’t you know I reserve the privilege of acting as my own wet-nurse?” “I advised you as a friend, but I’m willing to push the trespass and tell you something you evidently don’t know, Van Tuyl; drink makes you ugly.” Coast, lingering In anxiety, detected suddenly the gleam of drink-insanity In Van. Tuyl’s eyes. Atermed, he moved to place himself between the men, and in the act received full in the face what had been Intended for Blackstock —the contents of Van Tuyl’s glass. Half-blinded and choking, he stepped back, groping for his handkerchief. The alcohol burned his eyes like liquid fire, and the fumes of it in his throat and nostrils almost strangled him for a moment, preventing his clear understanding of what was taking place. Dimly he heard Van Tuyl raving in his Curiously clear and Incisive accents, heard him stigmatize Blackstock card-sharp and blackguard. More vaguely he heard him name Katherine Thaxter —in what connection he did not know. On the heels of that something barked hideously; Dundas screamed like a rat; Van Tuyl said: Oh, God!” thickly. Dazed with horror, Coast managed to clear his vision. Blackstock had moved to the other side of the room, where he stood at a small table, the drawer of which he

had evidently jerked open the instant before he fired. His feet were well apart and he leaned a little forward, his large head lowered upon its heavy neck. His lips were compressed to the loss of their sensual fullness, his eyes blazed beneath knotted, intent brows. One hand was-clenched by his side; the other held an automatice pistol from whose muzzle a faint vapor lifted in the still hot air. In a corner little Dundas was huddled with a face of parchment, mouth gaping, eyes astare. Both men were watching Van Tuyl. Coast saw the tall, graceful figure 6way like a pendulum gathering momentum. An expression of strained surprise clouded the man’s face. He lurched a step forward and caught himself with a hand on the card-table, and so held steady for pn instant while his blank gaqe, falling, compreth« neat black puncture with tta TgfrioWing «t«in upon the bosom of his shirt “God . .” he said again in a voice of pitiful inquiry. Then he fell, dragging the table over with him. On the sound of that, Blackstock moved for the first time. He a drew himself up, relaxed, and dropped the weapon upon the table beside him. His glance encountered Coast’s, wavered and turned away. He moistened his lips nervously. Coast, with a little cry, dropped to his knees beside Van Tuyl. Already the man’s eyes were glazing, the movements of the hand that tore at Jilt breast were becoming feebly convulsive. While Coast watched he shud-. dered and died. “Well?” Blackstock’s ’ voice boomed in his eats as the man’s hand gripped his shoulder. Coast shook off the grasp and rose. _ , ; v'y -. “You’ve done for salct" wondering kt the steadiness of bis own voice. Blackstock shook his head, blinking

Blackstock Moved for the First Time.

like a man waking from, /evil dreams "Why . . .?’’ he said hußkily. He turned away as if to lose slghl of the figure huddled «t his feet. Dundas In his corner whimpered. Blackstock swung to him with as oath. “Shut up, damn ypu! D’you want—” He clicked his strong- 1 white teeth, jumping as the bell of the house telephone Interrupted. • Then he went heavily to the Instrument in the short hallway that led to the entrance td the apartment. Coast heard him jerk down the receiver. “Well?” he demanded savagely. “Yes. An accident.” "One of my guests. Yes, badly. You’d better call up police headquar ters and tell them to send an ambulance. “And don’t let anybody up here until they come. Understand?” He hung up the receiver with a bang and tramped hack Into the din-ing-room. “That damn* hallboy! . . . They heard the racket in the flat below and called him up. . . . I have made a pretty mess of things! ” He went to the buffet, carefully avoiding the body, and poured himsell q stiff drink, which he swallowed at a gulp. Blackstock strode restlessly bach to the other end of the room and threw himself, p dead weight, into «Ichair, facing the wall. In the silence that followed Coast could hear hi» deep and regular respirations, unhurried, unchecked. After a moment however, he swung round, dug ills elbows into his knees and buried his face in his hands. “Good God!” he said. “Why did 1 do that?”, Dundas coughed nervously and moved toward the door. Blackstock looked up with the face of a thundercloud. “Where are you going?” Dundas stammered an incoherent excuse. “Well, you stop where you are. Get back to that window-seat—and try to keep your miserable teeth still, can’t you? D’you think I’m going to let

you desert me now, after all I've done for you, you ungrateful rat?” Without a protest Dundas sidled fearfully between him and what had been Van Tuyl, and returned to the window-seat. Blackstock’s glowering gaze fell upon Coast. A sour grimace twisted his mouth. “You’r« not a bad fellow, Coast,” h< said —“to stick by me. . . Exerting himself, Coast tried to master his aversion and contempt for the man as well as his blind horror of the crime. “What are you going to do?” “Do?” Blackstock jumped up and began to pace to and fro. “What the, hell can I do but give myself up?” “You mean that?” The question was involuntarily on Coast’s part, wrung from him by surprise, so difficult he found it to credit the man’s sincerity. simply; “it’s too late now to make a get-away. . . . If it hadn’t been for that racket . . . They’d cop me before I could get out of town.” He paused, questioning Coast with his intent stare. “You wouldn’t let me off, would you? You’d tell the police, of course?” “Of course.” Blackstock nodded as If be found the reply anything but surprising. “Of course. He was your friend." “Yours, too. Why did. you do It?" “This damnable temper of mine. He —didn’t you hear?—threatened to tell Kate Thai ter. Blackstuck resumed his walk. “What?” v “Never mind—something to-prevent our marriage:’’ “And you killed him for that??’ Blackstock stopped, staring down at the body. "Yes,” be said, In a subdued voice. - ’ • “If thatte your way, you'd have to marder me also, youltnow, before W could have married Miss Thaxter.” ' (TO BK OOMTmUSQJ

ENGLISHMAN EASY PREY FOR CHAMPION.

Alec Munro, Last Man to Meet Frank Gotch.

Frank Gotch, world’s wrestling champion, defeated Alec Munro at Kansas City the other night. When Dave Porteous, referee, patted the lowan twice On the back to signify that he had won, Gotch came over to the ropes Above the press box and smilingly said to the newspaper men: .. “Boys, I’m done. This was my last appearance on the mat.” At that he jumped over the ropes. Gotch threw his hath robe, which he

TWO SOX OUTFIELDERS SOLD

Felix Choulnard and Bob Messenger, Two CleVer Players, Are Sold to Des Moines Club. f Felix Choulnard and “Bob” Messenger of the White Sox have been sold to the Des Moines club of the Western Jeague. The release of the JtSKH extra outfielders is the first since Manager Jimmy Callahan took charge of the destinies of the south side team. Messenger and Chouinard were kept all of last season because of their exceptional promise they, showed in their spring work. The strength developed by the veteran outfielders, Callahan and Mclntyre, kept the youngsters from getting a chance to

Bob Messenger.

break into the limelight for more than a game or two at a time. The two men are made of big league material and no doubt will be brought hack into the league in another year.

GRINNELL TO TAKE UP RUGBY

lowa College May Substitute English Pastime for American FootballConference fa Sought. ' The relative merits of the Rugby and American systems of football are up for discussion in the state of lowa, with a possible change to the Rngby system. ‘ Grlnnell confers the Indorsement of the Rugby game by the Universities of California and Leland Stanford and its practical results show that It fa highly satisfactory. The Grinnell Athletic association is ■nViwg for a conference with representatives from Morttngslde, Cornell. Coe, Upper lowa, Simpson, Mount Pleasant, Highland Park, Penn and other colleges of the state, to endeavor to Introduce the new game.

Longest Drop Kick on Record. The longest drop kick tor a goal in a football game on record vfas made by Pat O’Dea from the «0-yard line, in the game between Wisconsin and Northwestern, at Evanston, 111., on Thanksgiving day, 1898. Forty Nations St Blfl Gums. Forty nations will be represented hi the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm. including China, Japan, Turkey and Egypt

has worn in every contest since the night of April 3. 1908, when he won the championship of the world from George Hackenschmidf in Chicago, to Jim Asbell, his trained. “Keep this to remember me by,” said Gotch. It was the easiest match Gotch has had for several years. The Englishman displayed but scant knowledge of the game, and Gotch, it seemed to spectators, merely played with the Englishman.

Notes of Sportdom

Running out of the ring seems to have become quite a fad among cer tain wrestlers Of the hefty weight division. * . '■ : ■ We are told that Virginia raised 12,000,000 bushels of peanutß last year. Another successful baseball season is predicted. If Hank O’Day makes good as a bench warmer at Cincinnati he will be set down as one of the seven wonder workers of the age. Percy L. Wendell—©£ Boston was elected captain of the Harvard football eleven for 1912. Wendell has played half-back for two years. _ Will John M. Ward, who always has been a friend of the man in the ranks, “see” the player’s side now that he has become a magnate? Most major league magnates are becoming converts 'to the advanced thought in agriculture—that is, scientific “farming” on a gigantic scale. “No more umpire baiting for me,” said Manager,. Bresnahan of the St. Louis Cardinals. He has learned he can get more in the end by turning the other cheek. Clark Griffith puts Charles Comiskey, owner of the White Sox, first among the greatest ball players of all time. Maybe Griff bad in mind the all around championship. Just for the purpose of keeping Interest in baseball from lagging the managers are beginning to talk about pending their teams away for spring practice. It is very exciting. There is one person who is not bothered by talk of a baseball war, and he is the player. He is sure of a position, anyway, and maybe a boost in salary if worse comes to worse. Bob Hedges of the St. Louis Browns' is not boasting of trailing the Athletics in 1912. Hedges is staying up nights figuring out schemes to emerge from the bottom of the heap. James Gaffney, prominent politician of New York, a brother-in-law of Charles P. Murphy, boss of Tammany hall, Is the new works behind the throne of the Boston National league club. “Kid” McCoy’s “sleep producing" blow does not seem to have left htan. He fought Harry Croxon, an English fighter In Paris, and sent hint, to the mat for the ten count in the third round.

FOUND RIGLER’S WEAK POINT

Manager McGraw Soon Learned How Proud Umpire Was of Hie Teutonlo Blood—Was Soon Chased. Umpire Rigier Is Ms Teutonic blood. He is one erf the best umpires in the business, and had much to do with dispelling the belief that it Was necessary to be Irish to be a successful arbitrator.' No one learned sooner than Manager McGraw how proud Rigier was of his extraction, and no one was quick-er-.to try him oat when he joined the National league staff. Rlgler’s early work was done on the Polo grounds, and it was not all milk and. honey, either. A number of close decisions against the Giants made McGraw peevish. He made objections which Rigier passed by. 1 Finally, when a particularly close one went against the team, McGraw . "You qall yourself Rigier. Why don’t you go-under your real name. I wouldn’t be ashamed of Rlgelbeimer if it was really my name. If you’y a Ge» man;' Tto. a Swede.” McGraw no longer doubts that Rigier is sensitive on this point, for he made a quick trip to the vluh house.

SWEDES MAY TURN SURPRISE

Trainer Hjertberg Says Scandinavian ---- Olympic Athletes Look and Are Much Interested In WoHc. Ernest W. Hjertberg, the trainer, who is in his native country shaping) up the Swedish talent for the fifth) Olympiad, which is to be held in Stockholm from June 29 to July writes to a New York friend that he has strong hopes of Ms pupils winning the laurels. Hjertberg was successful as trainer for the I. A. C., the N. Y. A. C. andi Columbia university. Wheq, he hadi charge of the college boys they won pretty much everything. The Swede was selected last summer by the committee formed In Sweden to arrange for the Olympic games of 1912, and it was a proud day for Hjertberg when he wept home to undertake his patriotic task. It was like coming into his own, a consummation that he had not foreseen when he came to America, because there was here a 1 better field for his athletic iistructioxu than in Scandinavia. The trainer writes as follows: ‘T actually think that the Swedes are going to win the majority of the events. I never saw any men come up so fast, and the pride and patriotism they show in their work, the care they take of themselves and their obedience show how much in earnest they are, "The world will be surprised ifi 1912.”

REAL BILL NYE IN BASEBALL

Tip O’Neill, President of WesternLeague, Tells Humorous Story of Player Who Sought Release. Tip O’Neill,'president of the Western league, says he knows of a real humorist who is a young ball player not yet out of the minor leagues. HP, said this young Bill Nye appeared before the board of arbitration of minor leagues and aired his grievances as follows: “I played In this league in 1910. At the close of the season I discovered they owed me for eleven days' pay. When I went after my hack pay they said they would l®t me know about it the next day. After thinking over it a day they told me they had paid me and they got me to thinking the same. “I played in that league again in 1911. They owed me for nineteen days back pay. When I went to them 1 they Bald they would think it over. They thought’ over it two days this time and then got me to thinking thesame thing. Since then, however, the more I have thought it over the more convinced I have become that they not only owed me for eleven days in 1910, hut for nineteen days In 1911. "Now, your honors, I don’t ask that this hack pay be ordered up. All I do ask is that I be declared a free agent and be released from this 'hypnotic league.’ ”

KILBANE AFTER ABE ATTELL

Plans Being Made for Battle for Featherweight Championship at Los Angeles, Feb. 22. «t v - •• •/*' A fight between Abe Attell and Johnny Kllbane of Cleveland, 0., to decide the featherweight championship, will be staged at Vernon, Cal.,

Abo Attell.

February 22, if plans of Tom Mo* Carey, manager of the Pacific Athletic club, at Vernon, go through.

To Pitch for Five Years.

Jack Coombs says that he will bo willing to quit -after ten years of pitching and go back to his farm in West Kennebnnk, Me., for good. He has about five years more more before him. 1 “A pitcher,” says Coombs, “goes about ten years. I mean by that that his stuff works well about that length of time. After that he may be able to work along for a couple of years through his knowledge of the batters, but he hasn’t the same sort of stuff that he had when he wag in his. prime. Personally, I figure that f am good for about five years longer, haring been with the Athletics fire years. I am not counting the few months from . July, 1906, when I joined the .club after leaving Colby. It may be that my theory is wrong, but thiat’s my Idea about a pitcher's tenure of office.”

Fast Boston Trio.

As a trio, Speaker, Hooper and Daffy Lewis of the Hod Sox beat out any other set of outfielders in the American league in “nailing” base runners. They aggregated 80 assists, while Jackson, Birmingham and Qraney of Cleveland were next with 78.

Abstain Goes to Minors.

Bill Absteln, who has played with several teams in. tbe major leagues, Pis signed with the Memphis team of the Southern association, having lost his berth with. Jersey City.lle will guard first hasp.