Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1913 — The Women’s Candidate [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Women’s Candidate

By BYRON WILLIAMS

Oopyrisbt 11)12. Western Newspaper Union SYNOPSIS. 41 In a spirit of fun Mayor Bedlght, a summer visitor, is chased through the woods by ten laughing girls, one of whom he catches and kisses. The girls form themselves into a court and sentence him to do the bidding of one of their number each day for ten days. A legislative measure opposing woman suffrage, which dropped from the mayor’s pocket, is used to compel him to obey the mandates of the, girls. His first day of service is with May Andrews, who takes him fishing. They are threatened by the sheriff with arrest. Miss Vining sees what she considers a clandestine meeting between one of the girls and the mayor. The next day he goes driving with Mabel Arney. They meet with an accident, are arrested and locked up, but escape. The mayor returns to the hotel, finds the sheriff . waiting for him, and takes refuge in the room of Bess Winters. He plans to get possession of the incriminating bill. With • Harriet Brooks the mayor goes to investigate an Indian mound. They are cdught in a thunder storm. Returning late, he has rather a stormy interview with “Judge” Vining, who seeks to find out who returned to the hotel with him. Thursday was Mayor Bedight’s day of attendance upon Margaret Farnsworth. She decoys him into a cabin in the woods, and he is made a prisoner by the game warden. He is later released by one of the girls. CHAPTER X. Instead of leaving the vicinity of the cabin after being liberated, Bedight closed the door and replaced the bar. Drifting back into the bushes, he waited. An hour passed and then came voices and rustling in the wood. Soon the game warden and two deputies hove into view. The ■warden’s face was flushed with ~ex“lenraffeitt as he strode along in advance of his men. Approaching the door, he called out: "Will ye surrender peaceable and come out o’ there, er shall I come in an’ git ye?” From within there emanated no answering voice. Out in the bushes, twenty feet away, Bedlght waited, tensely. “Come on out; the door’s unlocked,” shouted the warden. Still no answer. “Gol darn ye; I’ll show ye. Come on in. fellers,” bawled the officer, throwing open the door and dashing Into the cabin, followed by his deputies. With an agile spring, Bedlght left the clump of bushes and dashed for the door. The warden saw him coming and sprang to meet him—but too late! Slamming the door shut, the mayor shot the bar home. He could hear the strenuous objections of the prisoners as he hurried away, making a detour to a farmer’s house, where he hoped to secure something to eat A ruddy-cheeked farmer’s wife fed him bountifully and protested at the unnecessary size of the coin he gave her for his dinner and a basket of provisions, with which he set out for the cabin. Reaching the wood-chopper’s hut, in which two hours previous he had been a prisoner, he rapped on the .door. “Whoever’s there,” cried an excited ■voice within, “let us out!". "Break the glass in the window,” directed the mayor, his face illumined with smiles, “and -eat out of my hand!” A gaowl of mingled disappointment and relief preceded the shattering of the glass. Bedlght held his basket on his left arm and began passing provisions through the aperture. “Good grub, this, boys,” he chuckled. "I serve excellent meals at both my boarding bouses. I’ll bring you tobacco tomorrow night. Just you make yourselves comfortable. How would you like a deck of cards?” It was dark when Bedight reached Squirrel Inn and slipped unobserved to his room. When Jackie Vining came down at •lx next morning to take a constitutional before breakfast the mayor sat In an easy chair on the veranda, smoking his favorite pipe. "Will you kindly tell Miss Mason Shat I am waiting her commands?" m asked easily, with no trace of resentment In his voice. “I was going to liberate you this (morning," she said, simply, trying to Ihlde her surprise. • “Oh, 1 got out last night, thank you. I’m particular about my own bed. Never could sleep well In a strange bunk,” laughing. After breakfast Alice Mason, the girl appointed by the court to defend ■ Bedight on the occasion of his trial, called him aside. * As your attorney, 1 am led to offer you your freedom today. I want to go to Lakeville for some cold cream, and if you will ride to the Four Corners with me. I will let you escape to your own devices. It is not always that an attorney can vouch for his as' rt-.

client, but I am willing to take a chance on you,” confidently. "And besides, these girls have°been badgering the life out of you. Itffe time somebody took pity,” laughing. ' I ■ The mayor- put his lips close to the girl’s rosy ear. “Honest,” he said, “hope to die. I’ve never had so much fun in all my life —but that bill business is dangerous, and I’d like to get through with the ord eq} honorably. I can use today, and as a small expression of my gratitude, I’ll send you the jolliest big box of candy in Chicago as I pass through.” "Thank you," she said, her eyes dancing. "I’ll leave the selection to you.” An hour later Bedight, astride a good horse, was galloping toward Bordeau, a railroad crossing ten miles t<y the north. Arriving at the station he sent a telegram, ate a typical meal at a typical country hotel, and started back. He reached the cross roads at dusk and let his tired mount plod leisurely homeward. Saturday morning broke clear and tense after a sweltering night. The sun was copper colored and the leaves upon the crest, where they were wont to bow and curtsey to the zephyr’s breath, hung listless in the shimmering heat. At breakfast, none looked refreshed and Mine Host complained of drought. Paulirie, the cook, whose eggs were alwayts soft-boiled to a creamy elasticity and whose toast was ever golden brown and delicious, fretted the formed into blue-black globules surrounded by leathery gelatine, while the latter was burned and desiccated to a hard-tack condition decidedly disappointing to her usually delighted followers. The thermometer, to all intents and purposes, was so basely ambitious as to seemingly have no other desire than to climb higher and higher in its relentless rise. , “Come on, Mr. Bedight,” exclaimed Molly McConnell, “row me over to Waxelbaum’s Point. I want to sketch La Veck’s cabin, the remaining relic of what was once the oldest trading post in the state. It is tumbledown and ramshackle and will make a fine study. I was by there a week ago on a calm day and the reflection in the placid water, was almost as realistic as the old log-pile itself. A photograph taken when I saw the cabin would puzzle the beholder to tell which was the cabin and which the reflection. Today promises to be still and bids fair to afford me an opportunity to get just the right atmosphere. I'll be ready in ten minutes.” She; came down to thedjaek__.h.er.. black eyes dancing in anticipation. Bedight packed her outfit in the prow of the boat along with the lunch basket, held the boat firmly against the dock as she put her dainty foot upon the stern seat, and dipped gracefully into position, a magazine under her arm and a camera slung across her shoulder. -i; v

As the mayor took the oars he looked at her —bareheaded, her lustrous black locks defying the sun, her full tempting lips shapipg a perfect cupld’s bow, a saucy little dimple on each side of a well-rounded cheek, and teeth as white as milk-coral through which the laughter trilled and rippled like a singing spring across its minty way. Surely a man might well be sentenced for life to such a woman’s whim, while but a day’s service were as an hour In Naples after a hard passage! Molly McConnell had one of those daring, unconventional temperaments that bespoke a womah of full blood and spirit, a being of beauty and grace and voluptuous constancy. To THE man she would be all in all, reining queen of his hjeart, laughing at affinities, scorning jealousies, holding him secure with her mental and physical charms. The lakeowas calm and through Its mirrored depths long strands of weed and marsh grass could be seen streaming upward In the shallow places. Not even a ripple stirred the surJhce and the sun reflected from the sheening

waters, glowed heatedly upon the faces of the two in the boat —the girl with hair /ike the night and eyes of liquid velvet, the man with a sentence to serve In the Garden of Eden with a pippin ah the forbidden fruit. . The mayor rested on his oars and mopped his sweating bro#. The girl’s eyes danced: “And rtow,” she babbled, "you are In a position to appreciate the arduous life of due galley slave. Row on, my man!" I , “O, that this were the river of Life!” /countered Bedlght. matching the woman’s frippery. ' One of the Obligations imposed upon iyou by the ‘Judge,’" solemnly.

"was not to propose marriage or play the role of Lothario. I trust your intentions toward me are like the Christmas snow—simply another layer of white purity!” "3^.« ,• “Pray do not tempt me, Eve,” he said; “a boat is fully as perilous for loving as a flat for matrimony." Her merry laughter rippled out across the water from a throat as* shapely As an artist’s model. Her neck, browned from the life at Squirrel Inn, was full and, moulded free of hollow dips. "O, you old Adam!” she giggled, “don’t you know , that the price of apples has gone up—away up—since our mothers quit sewing carpet-rags and spinning flax. It takes a man with a head these days to keep my lady gratified." "Apples, say the physicians; are necessary to the human system. And I may point also to a higher authority who has said it is not good for man to dwell alone! As for the price, was there ever an Adam whd thought of this?’.’ * “Not until the baby needed shoes!” agreed the woman, letting her hand ripple the water over the rail. “Many an Adam has asked his Eve to fly with him and after the flight couldn't buy a curry of chicken wings in a Boston restaurtint!” The mayor smiled. "Marriage as it is practiced,” he commented, “is a bigger gamble than the board of trade—and twice as interesting/’ The boat glided Onward across the sleeping waters, leaving a V-shaped ripple in its wake. Traversing the lake, Bedlght pulled through a narrow neck tha£ connected Goose Lake with

the main body, of Sylvan. The view was enchanting—pine, cedar and hemlock, birch and maple varied the shores and green bushes trailed their drooping tendrils in the cool waters. La Veck’s cabin came into view, sit uated upon a knoll beside the lake, a picturesque pile of the lumber-jack days. About its tumbled sides the wild ampelopsls scrambled, and rag-weed flourished in the clearing. The mayor drew the skiff upon the shore, carried the girl’s easel, box and camp chair to a spot designated and stood by for on ders. “Can you make coffee?” asked Miss McConnell, as she. got out the canvas and prepared to begin the sketch. “In these days of the new woman," he said, banteringly, “man has come to recognize in a kindlier light the ladylike art of cooking. Fair enchantress, I can make coffee fit for the gods, but woman’s dainty hand must pour, else It loses its flavor.” “Very well,” she said, “now run away and forget me until the coffee is boiling in the pot.” Bedight turned to the forest’s fringe and began gathering firewood. When he called, she came promptly. “Man,” she said, “has caused many a divorce by not coming to dinner when he is called. Nothing so net ties a woman as to wait meals. Knowing this, I make haste.” (TO BE CONTINUED.)

Cleo Summers.

“I’ll Bring You Tobacco Tomorrow Night.”