Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1919 — Page 2

THE RANCH AT THE WOLVERINE

(Copyright, Little, Brown A Co.)

BILLY LOUISE DISCOVERS THAT HER LOVE FOR WARD IS DARKENED BY SUSPICION THAT HE IS CONNECTED WITH SOME BAD MEN

Synopsis.—Mnrfby and Jnse Mellke, pioneers, have for twenty yearn made a bare living out of their ranch at the Cove on Wolverine* creek in the mountain range country of Idaho. Their neighbors, the MacDonalds, living several, miles away, have a daughter, Billy Louise, now shunt nineteen years old, whom. Marthy has secretly helped to educate. At the time the story, .opens Billy Louise, is spending the afternoon with Marthy. A snowstorm roinra up. and orr her eay home the girl meets an interesting stranger, who is Invited to stay overnight at the MacDonald ranch. Ward Warren and Billy Louise become firm friends. Jnse dies and Marthy buries bls body without aid. Charlie Fox. Marthy's nephew, comes tn tlie Cove. He dlscovers evldence of cattle stealing, and Billy Louise verifies suspicions. ...... -

CHAPTER Vl—Continued. “Tell John to saddle up and go for tne doctor, Phoebe, and don't let mommie know'whatever you do. This isn t. her lumbago at all. I don't know what It is. I wonder if a hot turpentine doth wouldn't be better than this? I've * good mind to try it; her eyes are glassy with fever and her is cold as a fish. You tell John to burry up. He can ride Boxer. Tell him I want him to get a doctor here by tomorrow noon if be has to kill bis horse doing it.” That night took its toll of Billy Louise and left a seared place in her memory. It was a night of snapping fire in the cook stove that hot water might be always ready; of tireless struggle with the pain that came and tortured, retired sullenly from Billy Louise’s stubborn fighting with poultices and turpentine cloths and every homely remedy she had ever heard of, and came again just when she thought she had won the fight. There was no time to give thought to the trouble that had ridden home with her, though its presence was like a black shadow behind her while she worked and went to and fro between bedroom and kitchen and fought that tearing pain. She met the dawn hollow eyed and »o tired she could not worry very much about anything. Her mother slept uneasily to prove that the battle had not gone altogether against the girl who had fought the night through. She had her reward in full measure when the doctor came, in the heat of noon, and after terrible minutes of suspense for Billy Louise while he counted pulse and took tempera tu re a n<l studied symptoms, told her that she had done well and that she and her homely poultices had held back tragedy from that bouse. Billy Louise lay down upon the couch out on the back porch and slept heavily for three hours, while Phoebe and the doctor watched over her mother. She woke with a start. She had been dreaming, and the dream had taken from her cheeks what little color her filgbt vigil had left. She had dreamed that ~~Ward”was"Tn ~dangef,”thatmen were hunting him for what he had done that wrrai The corral seemed the center of a fight between Ward and the men. She dreamed that he came to her and that she must hide him away and .save him. But though she took him to acaye. which was secret enough for her purpose, yet she could not feel that he was safe even there. There was something—some menace. Billy Louise went softly into the bouse, tiptoed to the door of her mother’s room and saw that she lay quiet, with her eyes closed. Beside the window the doctor sat with bls spectacles far down toward the end of his nose, reading a pale green pamphlet that he must have brought in his packet. Phoebe was down by the creek washing clothes in the shade of a willow clump. She went into her own room, still walking on her toes. In her trunk was a blue plush box Of the kind that is given to one at Christmas. It was faded and the clasp was showing at the edges. Sitting ttpon her bed with the box in her lap Billy Louise pawed hastily In the jumble of keepsakes it held; an eagle’s claw which she meant Some time to have mounted for a brooch; three or four arrowheads of the shiny, black stuff which the Indians were said ‘to have brought from Yellowstone park; a knot of green ribbon which she had worn to a St. Patrick's day dance in Boise; rattlesnake rattles of all sixes; several folded clippings—verses that had caught her fancy and had been put away and forgotten; an amber bead she had found once. -She turned the box upside down in her lap and shook ft It must be there—thing she sought, the thing that hah troubled her most in her dream; the thing that was a menace while it exfated It was at the very bottom of the box, caught in a corner. She took It out with .fingers that trembled, crumpled it into a little ball so- that she could not read what it said, straightcneß ft Immediately anth-read Tt reluctantly from the beginning to the egd where the last word was clipped short with hasty scissors. A paragraph cut from a newspaper ft was; yellow and frayed from contact with other objects, telling of things— Billy Louise bit her Hps until they hurt, but she could not keep back the tean that came hot sad stinging while

A tale of the wilcToutdoor life of pioneer days that called forth all the courage and resourcefulness of men and women inured to danger and hardship

she read. She slid the little heap of odds and ends to the middle of the bed, crushed the clipping into her palm and went out stealthily into the immaculate kitchen. As if she were- being spied jipon she went cautiously Mo the stove, lifted a lid and dropped the clipping in where the wood • blazed the brightest. She watrhed it flare and become nothing—not even a pinch of ashm; the clipping was not very large. When it was gone she put the lid back and went ttproptng to the doof. Then she ram. • Phoebe was down by the creek, so Billy Louise went to the stable, through that and on beyond, still running. Farther down was a grassy nook—On beyond the road. She went there and hid behind the willows, where she could cry and no one be the wiser. But she could not cry the ache out of her heart nor the rebellion against the hurt that life had given her. If she could only have burned memory when she burned that clipping! She could still believe and be happy if only she could forget the things it said — — Phoebe called her after a long while bad passed. Billy Louise bathed her face In the cold water of the Wolverine, Used her handkerchief flor a towel and went back to take up the duties life had laid upon her. The doctor s team was hitched to the light buggy he drove, and the doctor was standing in the doorway with his square medicine case in bls hand waiting to give her a few final directions before he left. He was like so many doctors—he seemed-to-be-of raid to tell the whole truth about his patient. He stuck to evasive optimism and then neutralized the reassurances he uttered by emphasizing the necessity of being notified if Mrs. MacDonald showed any symptoms of another attack. Billy Louise ran into her own room, grabbed a can of talcum and did not wait to see whether she applied it evenly to her telltale eyelids, but dabbed at them oc the way to her mother’s room. —“Dwtw says you’re fill right, 'mommie; only you mustn’t go digging post holes or shoveling hay for awhile.” "SJoTT guess not!” Her mother responded unconsciously to the stlmulation of Billy Louise's tone. “I couldn’t dig holes with a teaspoon, I’m that weak and useless. Did he say what it was, Billy Louise?” The sick are always so curious about their illnesses. "Oh, your lumbago got to scrapping with your liver. I forgot the name he gave it, but It’s nothing to worry about” Billy Louise had imagination, remember. “I guess he'd think it was something to worry about if he had it,” her mother retorted fretfully, but reassured nevertheless by the casual manner of Billy Louise. “I believe I eould eat a little mite of toast and drink some tea,” she added tentatively. - “And an egg poached soft if you want ft mom. Phoebe just brought in the eggs.” Billy Louise went out humming unconcernedly under her breath as it> she had not a care beyond the proper toasting of the bread and brewing of the tea. : One need not go to war or voyage to the far corners of the earth to find the stuff heroes-a re made of. CHAPTER Vtl. Each In His Own Trail. SINCE nothing in this world is abso# lutely immutable the human emotions least of all perhaps— Billy Louise did not hold changeless her broken faith in Ward. She saw it broken into fragments before the evi-dence-Of her own eves and the fragments ground to dust beneath the i weight of what she knew of his past—- ! things he had-t<-idtier himself. So she I thought there was no more faith in him, and her heart went empty and aching through the next few days. But, since Billy Louise was human and a woman—not altogether because she was twenty—she stopped after awhile, gathered carefully the dust of her dead faith, and, like God. she began to create. First she fashioned doubts of-her doubt. How did she know'she had not, made a mistake, there at that corral? Other men wore gray hats and rode dark bay horses; other men were slim and tall, and she had only had a glimpse, after all, and the light was deceptive down there in the shadows. When that first doubt was molded and she had breathed into

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

It the breath of life so that It stood sturdily before her she took heart and created reasons, a whole company of them, to tell her why she ought to give Ward the benefit of the doubt. She remembered what Charlie Fox had said about circumstantial evidence. She would not make the mistake he had made. So she spent other days and long, wakeful nights. And siuce it seemed Impossible to bring her faith to life again just as it had been, with the glamor of romance and the sweetness of pity and the strength of her own innocence to make it a beautiful faith indeed/ she used all her Innocence and all her pity and a little of romance and created something even sweeter than her untried faith had been. She had a new element to strengthen it. She knew that she loved Ward. She had Icarued that from the hurt it had given her to lose her faith in him. That was the record of the inner Billy Louise which no one ever saw. The Billy Louise which her little world knew went her way unchanged except In small details that escaped the notice of those nearest her. A look in her eyes for one thing; a hurt, questioning look that was sometimes rebellious as .well; a droop of her mouth also when she was off her guard; a sad, tired little droop that told of the weight of responsibility and worry she was carrying. yFard observed both the minute he saw her on the trail. He had come across country on the chance that she might be riding out that way, and he had come upon her unawares while she and Blue were staring out over the desert from the height they had attained In the hills. c “’Lo, Bill!” he said when he was quite close and held himself ready to meet whatever mood she might present. She turned her head quickly and looked at him. and the hurt look was still in her eyes; the droop still showed at her lips. And Ward knew they had been there before she saw him. “Wha’s molla, Bill?” be asked in the tone that wns calculated to invite an unburdening of her troubles. ”Oh, nothing in particular! Mommie’s been awfully sick, and I’m always worried when I’m away from the ranch for fear she'll have another spell while I'm gone. The doctor said she might have any time. Were you head-

He Was Like So Many Doctors— Afraid to Tell the Truth.

ed for our place? If you are, come on. I was just starting back. 1 don’t dare be away any longer.” If that were a real unburdening Ward was an unreasonable young man, Billy Louise looked at him again, and this time her eyes were clear and friendly. __ Ward was not satisfied, for all the surface seemed smooth enough. He was too sensitive not to feel a differencerand- he was too innocent of any wrongdoing or thinking to guess what was the matter,, Guilt is a good barometer of personal atmosphere, and Ward had none of it. The worst of him she had known for more than a year. He had*told her himself, and she had healed the hurt—almost —of the past by her firm belief in him and by her friendship. Could yqu-expectWariLto-guess-that she had seen her faith in him die a violent death nq longer than two weeks ago? Such a possibility never occurred to him. v For all that he felt there was a difference somewhere. He carried back with him a fit of the which seemed to have attacked him without cause or pretext, since he had not quarreled with Billy Louise And had been warmly welcomed by “mommie.” Poor mommie was looking white and frail, and her temples were too distinctly veined with purple. * Ward told himself that it was no wonder his Wilhemina acted strained and unnatural. He meant to work harder than ever and get his stake so that he could go and make her give him the right to take care of her. He began to figure the coat of com-

muting his homestead right away, so that he would not have to “hold it down” for another three years. Maybe she would not want to bring her mother so far off the main road. In that case he would go dowiv and put that Wolverine place in shape. He had jio squeamishness about living on her ranch instead of his own if she wanted it that way. He meant to be better "hooked up” financially than she was and have more cattle when he put the gold ring on her finger. Then he would do whatever she wanted him to do, and he would not have to crucify his pride doing it. You see, they could not have quarreled, since Ward carried castles*, as well as the blues. In fact, their parting had given Ward an uneven pulse for a mile, for Billy Louise had gone with him as usual as far as the corral when he started home. And when Ward had picked up his reins and turned to put his toe in the stirrup Billy Louise had come close—to his very shoulder. Ward had turned his face toward her, and Billy Louise —Billy Louise had impulsively taken his bead between her two hands, had looked deep into his eyes and then had kissed him wlstfully on the lips. Then she had turned and fled up the path, waving him away up the trail. And, though Ward never guessed that to her that kiss was .a penitent vow of lojalty to their friendship and a slap in the face of the doubt devils that still pursued her weaker moments, it set him planning harder than ever for that stake he must win before he dared urge her further toward matrimony. It’s a wonder that the kiss did not wipe out completely the somber mood that held him. That it did not, but served merely to tangle his thoughts in a most hopeless manner, perhaps proves how greatly the hiner life of Billy Louise had changed her in those two weeks. She changed still more in the next two months, however. There was the strain of her mother s precarious health which kept Billy Louise always on the alert and always trying to hide her fears. She must be quick to detect the first symptoms of a return attack of the illness, and she must not let her mother suspect that there was danger of a return. That much the doctor had made plain to her . Besides that, there was an undercutrent of gossip and rumors of cattle stealing whenever a man stopped at the ranch. It worried Billy Louise in spite of her rebuilt belief in Ward. Doubt would seize her sometimes in spite of herself, and she did see Ward often enough to let his personality fight those doubts. She saw him just once in the next two months and then only for an hour or so. A man rode up one night and stayed with them until morning, after the open handed custom of the range land. Billy Louise did not talk with him very much. He had shifty oyes and a coarse, loose lipped mouth and a thick neck t and, girl-like, she took a violent told her afterward that he was the new stock inspector, and that he was prowling around to see if he could find out anything. Billy Louise worried a good deal after that. Once she rode ,out early with the intention of going to Ward’s claim to warn him. But three miles of saner thought changed her purpose. She dared not leave her mother all day, for one thing, and for another she could scarcely warn Ward without letting him see that she felt he needed warning, and even Billy Louise shrank from what might follow. The stock inspector stopped again on his way back to the railroad. Billy Louise was so anxious that she smothered her dislike and treated him qiicely, which thawed the man to an alarming amiability. She questioned him artfully—trust Billy Louise for that—and she decided that the stock inspector was either a very poor detective or a very good actor. He did not, for instance, mention any corral hidden in a blind canyon awat back in the hills, and Billy Louise did not mention it, either. He had not found any worked brands, he said. And he did not appear to know anything further about Ward than the mere fact of his existence. “There’s a fellow holding down a claim away over on Mill creek,” he had remarked. “I’ll look him up when I come back, though Seabeck says he's all right.” „ . “Ward is aU right,” asserted Billy Louise rather unwisely. “Haven't a doubt of it. I thought maybe he might have seen somethihg might give us a dew.” Perhaps the stock inspector was wiser than she gave him credit for being. He did not at any rate pursue the subject any further until he found an opportunity to talk to Mrs. MacDonald herself. Then he artfully mentioned the fellow on Mill creek, and because she did not know any reason for caution he got all the information he wanted and more, for mommie was in one of her garrulous humors After that the days drifted quietly for a month and grew nippier at each end and lazier in the middle, Which meant that the short summer was over and tnat fall was getting ready to paint the wooded slopes with her gayest colors and that one must prepare tor the siege of winter.

By B. M. BOWER

It was some time tn the latter part of September thst Billy Louise got up In the middle of a frosty night because she heard her mother moaning. That was the beginning. She sent John off before daylight for the doctor, and before the next night she stood with her lips pressed together and watched the doctor count mommie’s pulse and take mommie’s temperature and drew in her breath hardly when she saw how long he studied the thermometer afterward. There was a month or so of going to and fro on her toes and of watching the clock with a mind to medicine giving. There were nights and nights and nights when the cabin window winked like a star fallen into the coulee from dusk to red dawn. Ward rode over once, stayed gll night and went home In a silent rage because he could not do a thing. There was a week of fluctuating hope and a time when the doctor said mommle must go to a hospital—Boise, since she had friends there. And there was a terrible, nerve racking journey to the railroad. And when Ward rode next to the Wolverine ranch there was no Billy Louise to taunt or tempt him. John Pringle and Phoebe told him in brief, stolid sentences of the later developments and gave him a meal and offered him a bed, which he declined. When the suspense became maddening after that he would ride down to the Wolverine for news. And the news was monotonously scant Phoebe could read and write after a fashion, and Billy Louise sent her a letter now and then, saying that mommle was about the same and that she wanted John to do certain things about the ranch. Sne could not leave mommie, she said. Ward gathered that she would not Once when he was at the ranch he wrote a letter to Billy Louise and told her that he would come to Boise if there was anything he could do and begged her to let him know if she needed any money. Beyond that he worked and worked and tried to crowd the lonesomeness out of his days and the hunger from his dreams with complete bone weariness. He did not expect an answer to his letter —at least he told himself that he did not—but one day Phoebe gave him a thin little letter. Billy Louise did not write much. She explained that she could only scribble a line or two while mommle slept. Mommie was about the same. She did not think there was anything Ward could do, and she thanked him for offering to help. There was nothing, she said pathetically, that anybody could do. Even the doctors did not seem able to do much except tell her lies and charge her for them. No; she did not need any money. “Thank you just the same, Ward.” That was about all. It did not sound In the least like Billy Louise. Ward answered the note then and there and called her Wilhemina-mlne, which was an awkward name to write and cost him fl ve minutes of cogitation over the spelling. But he wanted it down on paper where she could see If and remember how it sounded when he said it, even if it did look queer. Farther along he started to call her BID Lob, but rubbed it out and substituted Lady Girl (with capitals). Altogether he did better than he knew, for he made Billy Louise cry when she read it, and he made her say “Dear Ward” under her breath and remember how his hair waved over his left temple and how he looked when that smile hid just behind his lips and his eyes, and he made her forget that she had lost faith in him. She needed to cry, and she needed to remember and also to forget some things, for life was a hard, dull drab in Boise, with nothing tc lighten it save a vicarious hope that did not comfort. Billy Louise was not stupid. Sh« saw through the vagueness of the'doctors, and. besides, she was so hungry for her hills that she felt like beating the doctors with her fists because they did nothing to make her mommie well enough to go home. She grew to hate the nurse and her neutral cheerfulness. That Is how the fall passed for Billy Louise and the early part of the winter. - 2

Billy Louise Is sorely troubled In her suspicions of Ward. He Is puzzled by her apparent coolness, and later offers help.

(TO BE CONTINUED.) ■.

To Remove Smoke Stains.

This suggestion will be beneficial to housewives yho have not the convenience of electricity or the modern gas fixtures. Frequently the .ceiling above an old-fashioned gas jet becomes discolored from smoke and heat. -The discoloration may be removed if a layer of starch and water is applied ture has dried it should be brushed lightly with a brush. No stain <M mark will remain. 7- '

Man Who Saves.

The fellow who has S2OO in the bank is just that much richer than the chap who has to borrow $5 from his neighbor, hut expects some to have g fortune,

THE SETTLEMENT

By JOSEPHINE MURPHY.

(Copyright. McClure Newspaper Syndlcalfcj In lier youtli Janet H —— had known every luxury. Her father had been a wealthy merchant. Many wooers had sought her hand, but only one had made a favorable impression on the girl’s mind. His name was Ralph B . and he earned his bread as a reporter on the staff of a daily newspaper. On stich a person Mr. II was not disposed to bestow his daughter. His success in business had turned his head and he looked forward to Janet marrying one-ef—Mghrer social Tng. Ralph met with only cold glances from Mr. and Mrs H when he encountered them. •» Gradually his visits ceased, and before the’ collapse of Mr. H- -’s InislUess- -the-- young man had gone, no one knew where or whither; -few* cared. —Neither Mr. H— — or his wife long survived Iheir change In fortune. The former had invested all the money he could raise in a new, and ns it turned out, bogus company. Thus Janet was entirely unprovided for. She entered the Mayton hospital, from which she late? graduated as a private nurse. Her first case was with Norman W . an old man of very* comfortable means. Here she remained as his nurse and faithful servant until death called him. His entire property 7 was bequeathed to her at his death. The antiques and curious old statuary of the mansion held a strange eh arm for her. About a week - after Mr. W ’s death site was sitting in the library reading when the sound of an auto brush!ng the curb came to her ears. Laying aside the book, she arose from her chair and started to walk toward the window; but was Interrupted by a knock on the library door.. To her answer the maid announced that a young man wished to see her. Glancing at the card the maid had handed her, Janet recognized the lawyer’s name.— ——-——— “Very well,” said Janet. “Show him in.” “Good evening, Miss II— —. I have rather strange news for you,” he remarked, as he sat down. “Proceed.” said Janet. “Well,” began the lawyer. “it appears in some valuable papers of Mr. W—>— that he did have, ;l married daughter, who, through some family “disagreement. had left her father’s home. The girl has since died, but her only child, now a young man. -still survives,-and he lias put in a claim for his mother's share of the property. I have come to Inform you beforehand. I shall bring this young man do see you - tomorrow ■ and we shall decide what further proceedings shall take place.”— “Certainly!” said Janet. “I shall be very glad to give up_that which belongs to another.” After he left she sighed gently. She wondered if she would now have to face the cold world again. She had, however, managed to save a neat sum; thus she would o not be utterly penniless and after a° short rest she would start out once more. The next morning found the lawyer and Mr. VV- -s grandson on their way to the mansion. As the young man entered his eves opened in wonderment, as did Janet’s, at the an--tlques; etc. . - “Say." he gasped, is something worth while looking for.’’ - .- They had finally reached and had been seated but a few minutes when Janet entered. “Janet! Miss H ! I never thought, never Imagined I should see you!” “And you. Ralph B , are Mr. W— —’s grandson?” “So it seems,” said Ralph. “I am so glad, so glad !” cried Janet. “Did I not mention Miss H ’s name?” the lawyer questioned. “I must, have been unusually stupid.” Ralph did not answer. He still held Janet’s hand, and at length the lawyer so far recovered his wits as to quit the room. When he n'ext saw the two nolnention was nmde-of-Jtmeßs-desire-rto linquish the estate, and the lawyer put forth a tentative query. “Settlement?” “All. yes, we have arrived at a settlement,” Ralph said, with a joyous laugh, - '“since Janet has consented to marry me.”

Writer's Cramp.

Writer’s crajnp does not interfere with other manipulations of the affected hand. A prominent surgeon now totally unable to write uses the affected hand easily to perform all the delicate and varied manipulations 4ncident to abdominal surgery. Complete rest hand, massage and electrical treatment may afford relief, but the trouble is likely to recur. Some victims learn to write with • the left hand, but the disease is prone to extend into the newly trained member. “ The method o* writing from the elbow or shoulder instead of from the knuckle prevents writer’s cramp. As- 4 fected persons can use the typewriting machine perfectly.

Hard to Suit.

Ulla—He found my gloves in h!s pocket and he returned them I»y special delivery. ( i L Stella —That was very thoughtful of him. v . Ella —Thoughtful? It was an insult to rush them back, as It Indicated'that he thought I had only one pair.