Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1919 — Page 2

The Ranch at the Wolverine

(OopytlgM, Little, Brown * Oo.)

WARD EVENS UP OLD SCORES WITH OLNEY IN A MANNER THE LATTER IS NOT LIKELY SOON TO FORGET

, Synopsis.—Marthy and Jnse Meilke, pioneers, have for twenty years 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 about nineteen years old, Whofn Marthy has secretly helped to educate. At the time the story opens Billy Louise is spending the afternoon with Marthy. A snowstorm comes up, and on her way home the girl meets an interesting stranger, who -invited evernight at the MacDonald ranch. Ward Warren and Billy Louise become firm friends. Jase dies and Marthy buries his body withoiKald. t*at, Mnrthy’s nephew, comes to the Cove. He discovers evidence of cattle stealing, and Billy Louise verifies suspicions. Billy Louise discovers what she thinks Is evidence of Ward's connection with the theftfl. Her troubles are Increased by the serious illness of her mother. Ward discovers a hidden corral In which are three mep, one of whom he believes to be Buck Olney. When they leave he finds in the corral stock on which the brands have been changed to his own mark In an attempt to brand him as a cattle "rustler." He obliterates the brands. Later he discovers Olnewhiding behind a rock with gun trained oh his cabin and takes him prlsofigr.

CHAPTER IX—Continued. —7— Buck got up awkwardly and went ■tumbling down the steep slept with his hands trembling in the air upon either side of his head. From their eervous quivering it was evident that ids memory was good and that it was working upon the subject which "Ward had suggested to him. He did not give Ward the weakest imitation of an excuse to shoot. And so the two of them* came presently down upon the level «nd passed around the cabin to the door with no more than ten feet of apace between them, so inexorably had ■Ward crowded close upon the other’s Mumbling progress. "Hold on a minuter Buct stopped as stilt as though he had gone against a rock wall. Ward came closer, and Buck flinched away from the feel of the rifle muzale between his shoulder blades. Ward reached out a cautious hand and pulled the six shooter from its holster at Buck's right hip. __ “Got a knife? You always used to go heeled with one. Speak up and don’t lie about it.*’ "Inside my coat,” grunted Buck, and Ward’s lip curled while he reached around the man's bulky body and found the knife in its leather sheath. Evidently Buck was still remembering with disquieting exactness what reasons Ward might have for wanting to kill him. “Take down your left hand and open the dodr.” Buck did so and put his hand up again without being told. "Now go in and stand with your face to the wall.” With the rifle muzzle Ward indicated which wall. He noticed how Buck’s fingers groped and trembled against the wall, Just under the eaves, and his lip curled again in the expression which Billy Louise so hated to -see. Ward had chosen the spot where he could reach easily a small coil ofrope. He kept the rifle pressing Buck’s shoulders until lie had shifted the knife into cue band, leaned and laid its blade - "Feel that? I’ll jab It clear through you if you give me a chance. Drop your hands down behind you." He ■pent a busy minute with the rope before he pushed Buck Olney roughly toward a chair.

Buck sat down, and Ward did a little more rope work. “Say. Ward, you’re making a big mistake!? you—” “Shut up'” snapped Ward. “Can’t you see I’m standing all I dan stand Just with the sight of you? Don’t pile it on too thick by letting me bear you talk. I beard you once too often as it is.’’ Bude Olney caught his breath and sat very still His eyes followed Ward as the eyes of a caged animal follow Its keeper. Ward tried to ignore his presence completely while he lighted a fixe and fried bacon and made coffee, but the hard set of his Jaw and the cold intentness of his eyes proved bow conscious he was of Buck’s presence. He tried to eat just to show how calm he was, but the bread and bacon choked him. He could feel every nerve in his bods quiver with the hatred be felt for theman and the bitterness which the sight of him called up out' of the past Ha drank four cups of coffee, black and sweetened at random, which steadied him a little. That he did not offer Buck food or drink showed bow intense was his hatred. As a rule, your true range man is hospitable even to his enemies. ... ■.■ - He rose and tospected the ropes to make sure that they were proof against twisting, straining muscles and took an extra turn or two with the loose end just to make doubly sure of the man’s helplessness. "Where did you leave your horse?” he asked him curtly when he was through. Buck told him. his eyes searching Ward’s face for mercy or at, least for some ciew to hi# fate and dulling with dimppot n tment because he could read nothing there but loathing. Without speaking again .Ward went mrt and closed the door firmly behind ‘Msg. He felt relieved to be away from

A Story of Love and Adventure on Idaho’s Plains

By B. M. BOWER

Burk's presence. As he climbed the bluff and mentally relived the last hour he wondered how he had kept from shooting Buck as soon as he saw him. Still, that would have defeated his main purpose, which was to make Buck suffer. He was afraid he could not make Buck suffer as Buck had mrade him suffer, because there were obstacles in the path of a perfect retriI bution. i Ward was not cruel by nature—at least he was not more cruel than the rest of us—but as he went after Rattler and Buck's horse it pleased him to know that Buck Olney was tied hand and foot in his cabin and that he was sick with dread of what the future held for him. Ward was gone an hour. He did not hurry; there was no need. Buck could not get away, and a little suspense would do him good. Buck’s face was pasty when Ward ; opened the door. His eyes were a bit glassy. And from the congested appearance of his hands Ward judged that he had tested to the full his helplessness in his bonds. Ward looked at him a minute and got out the makings of a smoke. His mood had changed in his absence. He no longer wanted

"If I Turn You Loose, Buck, What Will You, Do?”

absolute silence between them; Instead he showed symptoms of wanting to talk. “If I turn you loose, Buck, what will you do?” he asked at last in a curious tone. “If you— Ward, I’ll prove I’m a friend to yuh in spite of the idea you’ve got that I ain’t I never done nothing— ** : . « “No, of course not” Ward’s lip curled. “That was my mistake, maybe. You always used to say you were my friend when —’’ "And that's the God’s truth. Ward!” Buck’s face was becoming flushed with his eagerness. “1 done everything I could for you. Ward, biit the way the cards laid I couldn’t —” “Get me hanged. I know; you sure tried hard enough!” Ward puffed hard at his cigarette, and the lips that held it trembled a little. Otherwise be seemed perfectly cool and calm. “Say, Ward, them lawyers lied to you.” “Oh, cut it out, Buck. I’ve seen you wriggle through a snake hole before* I believe you’re my friend just the way you’ve always been.” * "That’s right, Ward, and I can prove it" Ward snorted. “You proved it, old timer, when you laid up there behind a rock with your sights on this shack, ready to get me when I came out I sabe now how it happened Jim McGuire was found face down in the spring behind his shack with a ballet hole in his back that time. Ton were his friend too!" “Ward, I—* * , “Shut up! I Justwanted to see if you’d changed any to the last seven

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER. INiJ.

years. You haven’t, unless it’s for the worse. You’ve got to the end of ‘ the trail, old timer. When you went laying for me you fixed yourself a-plenty. Do you want to know what I'm going to do to you?" “Ward, you wouldn’t dare shoot me! With the record you’ve -got you wouldn’t stand—” "Who gave it to me, huh? Oh, I heap sabe; you’ve left word with your partners that you were coming up here to arrest me single handed. They will give the alarm if you don’t show up, and I'll go on the dodge and get caught, and —” Ward threw away his cigarette and took a step toward his captive,a step so ominous that Buck squirmed in his bonds. “Well, you can rest easy on one point. I’m not going to shoot you.” Ward stood still and watched the light of hope flare in the eyes of his enemy. “I'm going to wash the dishes and take a shave, and then I’m going to take you out somewhere and bang you.” “My God, Ward! You —you—” "I told you seven sears ago,* 1 went on Wart steadily, “that I’d "Bee you hung before I was through with you. Remember? By rights you ought to hang by the heels over a slow fire. You’re about as low a specimen of humanity as I ever saw or heard of. You know what you did for me. Buck. And you know what I told you would happen. Well, it’s going to come off according to the program. ~ “I did think of running you in and giving you a taste of hell yourself. But, as usual, you’ve gone and tangled up a couple of fellows that never did me any particular harm and I don’t want to hand them anything if I can help it. So I’ll just string you upafter awhile, when I get around to it—and lehve a note saying who you are and that you’re the head push in this rustling business and that you helped si>end the money that Hardup~l)ank lost awhile back and that you’re one of the gazabos—” “You can’t prove It! You —” “I don't have to prove it. The authorities will do all that when they get I the tip I’ll give them. And you, being hung up on a limb somewhere, can’t very well give your partners the double cross. *So they’ll have a fighting chance to make their getaway. “Now, I’m through talking to you. What 1 say goes. You can talk if you want to, Buck, but I’m going to carve a steak out of you every time you open your mouth.” He pulled Buck’s own knife out of its sheath and laid It convenient to his hand, and he looked as if he would do any cruel thing he threatened.

CHAPTER X. “So Long, Buck!” WARD relighted the fire, which had gone out long ago, and set the dishpan on the stove with water to heat. He remade his bunk, spreading on the army blanket which be took from the saddle on Rattler. He swept the floor as neatly as any woman could have done it and laid two wolf skins down in their places where they did duty as rugs. He washed and wiped his few dishes, keeping Buck’s knife always within reach and sending an inquiring glance toward Buck whenever that unhappy man made the slightest movement, though, truth to tell. Buck did not make many. He brought two pails of water-and set them on the bench inside, and in the meantime he had cooked a mess of prunes and set them In a bowl on the window sill beside his bunk, where the air was coolest He stropped his razor painstakingly and shaved himself in leisurely fashion and sent an occasional glance toward his prisoner from the looking glass, which made Buck swallow hard at his Adam’s apple. And Buck during all this time never once opened his lips, except to lick his tongue across them, and never once took his eyes off Ward. ••I’ve sure put the fear of the Lord Into you, haven’t I, Buck?” Ward observed maliciously, wiping a blob of hairy lather upon a page torn from an old mail-order catalogue. “I was kind a hoping you had more nerve. I wanted to get a whack at you just to prove I’m not joshing." Buck swallowed again, but he made no reply. Ward washed his face in a basin of steaming water, got a can of talcum out of the dish .cupboard and took the soap shine off his cheeks and chin. He combed his hair before the little mirror, trying, unavailingly to take the wave out of it with water and leaving <ft more crinkly over his temples than it had been in the first place, and retied thefour-in-band UnderHießOrt collar of his shirt ’ “I wish you’d talk, Buck,” he said, turning toward the other. He looked very boyish and almost handsome, except for the expression of his eyes, which gave Buck the shivers, and the set of bis lips, which was cruet “I’ve read how the Chinks hand out what they call the death-of-a-thousand-cuts. I was thinking I’d like to try it out on you. But—oh, well, this is Friday. It may as well go as a hanging.” He made a poor job of his calm Irony, but Buck was hot in the mental condition to be critical. The main facto were sufficiently

ominous to offset Ward’s attempt at facetiousness. Indeed, the very weakness of the attempt whs in itself ominous. Wart might try to be coldly malevolent, but the light 'that burned in his eyes and the rage that tightened his lips gave the lie to his forced composure. ' .. .- ■ ■ / ■ He went oat and led up the horses to the door. He came back and started to untie Buck Olney’s feet, then be thought him of the statement he had promised to write. He got a magazine and tore out the frontispiece—which, oddly enough, was a somber picture of Death hovering with outstretched wings over a battlefield—and wrote several lines in pencil on the back of it, where the paper was smooth and white. "How*a3tbat?” he asked, holding up the paper*#) that Buck could read what he had written. “I ain’t in the mood to sit down and write a whole book, so I had to boll down yotir pedigree. But that will do the business all right, don’t you think?” Buck read with staring eyes, looked into Ward's face and opened his lips for protest or pleading. Then he followed Ward’s glance to the knife on snap. Ward laughed grimly, picked up the knife and ran his thumb lightly over the edge to test its keenness. “Put a fresh edge on it for me, huh?” he commented. “WeU, we may as well get started, I reckon. I’m getting almighty sick of seeing you around.” He loosened the rope that bound Buck to the chair and stood scowling down at him, drawing, in a corner of his lip and biting it thoughtfully. Then he took his revolver and held it in his left hand, while with his right he undid the rope which bound Buck’s hands. “Stick your hands out in front of you,” he commanded. “You’ll have to ride a ways. There Isn’t any gallows tree in walking distance.” “For God’s sake, Ward!” Buck’s voice was hoarse. The plea came out

of its own accord. He held his hands before him, however, and he made no attempt to get out of the chair. He knew Ward could shoot all right with his left hand, you see. He had watched him practice on tin cans long ago when the two were friends. “You know what I told you,” Ward reminded him grimly and took up the knife with a deadly air that made the other suck in his breath. “Hold still! I’m liable to cut your throat if I make a misllck.” Really, it was the way he did it that made it terrible. The thing itself was nothing. He merely drew the back of the blade down alongside Buck’s ear and permitted the point to scratch through the skin barely enough to let out a thin trickle of blood. A pin would have hurt worse. But Buck groaned and believed he had lost an ear. He breathed in gasps, but did not say a word. “Go ahead. Talk all you want to, Buck,” Ward invited, and wiped the knife blade on Buck’s shoulder before he returned the weapon to its sheath in his inside coat pocket. Brick flinched from the touch and set his teeth. Ward tied his hands before him and told him to get up and go out to his horse. Buck obeyed with abject submissiveness, and Ward’s lip curled again as he walked behind him to the door. He had not the slightest twinge of pity for the man. He was gloatingly glad that he could make him suffer, and he inwardly cursed his own humanity for being so merciful. He o"ght to have cut Buck’s ear off slick and clean instead of making a bluff at it, he told himself disgustedly. Buck deserved it and more. He hdlped Buck into the saddle, took the short rope in his hands and hobbled Buck’s feet under the horse, grasped the bridle reins and mounted Rattler. Without a wort he set off up the rough trail toward Hardup, leading Buck’s horse behind him.

“Before you go, Buck, I want to tell you that you needn’t jolly yourself into thinking your death will be avenged. |lt won’t. You noticed what I wrote, and there isn’t a scrap of my writing anywhere in the country to catch me up—” Ward’s thoughts went to Billy Louise, who had some very good samples, and he stopped suddenly. He was trying not to think of Billy Louise today. “Also when somebody happens to ride this way and sees you I won't be anywhere around.” “This is the tree,” he added, stopping under a cottonwood that flung a big branch out over the narrow cow trail they were traveling. “The chances are friend Floyd will be ambling around this way in a day or two,” he said hearteningly. “He can tend to the last sad rites and take charge of your horse. He’s liable to be sore when he reads your pedigree, but I don’t reckon that will make a great deal of difference. You’ll get buried, all right, Buck.” Ward dismounted with a most businesslike manner and untied Buck Olney’s rope from the saddle. “I can’t spare mine,” he explained laconically. He had some trouble in fashioning a hangman’s noose.- He bad not had much practice, he remarked to Buck after the first attempt “How do you>do it, Buck? You know more about these things than I do,” be taunted ‘‘You’ve helped hang lots of poor devils that win be glad to meet yuh with, the devil today.” Buck Olney moistened hi# dry Ups. Ward glanced at bis face and looked quickly away, . Staring, abject terror Is not nice to look upon, even though the man is your worst enemy and Is suffering justly for his sins. Ward’s fingers fumbled the rope as though his determination were weakening. Then he remembered some things, hunched his shoulders, impatient of the merciful impulse, and began the knot agato.

An old prospector had shown him once bow it was done. “Of course a plain slipknot would do the business all right,” he said. “But I’ll try and give you the genuine thing, same as you gave the other fellows." “Ward, for God’s sake, let me go!” Ward started. He did not know that a man’s voice could change so much in So short a time. He never would have recognized the tones as coming from Buck Olney’s loose, complacedt lips. “Ward, I’ll never—l’ll leave the conn-try-H’R go to South America or Australia or—’* “You’ll go to a hotter climate. Buck,” Ward cut in Inexorably. “You’ve got your ticket.” “I’ll own up to everything. I’ll tell you where some of the money’s cached we got in that Hardup deal. Ward. There’s enough to put you on Easy street. . I’ll tell you who helped—•” “You’d better not,” advised Ward iurshly, “or I’ll make hanging a relief to you. I know pretty well right now all you could tell. And if I wanted to send your pardners up I wouldn’t need your help. It’a partly to give them a chance that I’m sending you out this way myself. I don’t call this murder, Buck. I’m saving the state a lot of time and trouble, that’s all, and your pardners the black eye they’d get for throwing in with you. I heap sabe who was the head push. You got them in to take whatever dropped, so you could get off slick and clean, just as you’ve done before, you—you —” Buck Olney got it then hot from the fires of Ward’s wrath. A man does not brood over treachery and wrong and a blackened future for years without storing up a good many things that he means to say to the friend who has played him false. Ward had been a happy go lucky young fellow who had faith in men and in himself and in his future. He had lived through black, hopeless days and weeks and months because of this man who tried now to buy mercy with the faith of his partners.

In the saddle Buck sat all hunched together as if Ward had lashed him with rawhide instead of with stinging words. The muscles of his face twitched spasmodically. His eyes were growing bloodshot. Ward spilled two papers of tobacco before he got a cigarette rolled and lighted. He wondered a little at the physical reaction from his outburst, but he wondered more at Buck Olney sitting alive and unhurt on the horse before him, a Seabeck horse which Ward had seen Floyd Carson riding once or twice. He wondered what Floyd would do if he saw Buck now and the use to which the horse was being put. Ward finished the cigarette, rolled another and smoked that also before, he could put his hand out before him and hold it reasonably steady. When he felt fairly sure of himself again he lifted his hat to wipe off the sweat of his anger, gave a big sigh and returned to the tying of the hangman’s noose. When he finally had it fixed the way he wanted it he went close and flung the noose over Buck Olney’s head. He could not trust himself to speak just, then. He cast an inquiring glance upward, took Buck’s horse by the bridle sand led him forward a few steps so that-Buck was directly under the overhanging limb. Then, with the coll of Buck’s rope in his hand, he turned back and squirmed up the tree trunk until he had reached the limb. He crawled out until he was over Buck’s bullet punctured hat crown, sliced off what rope he did not need and flung it to the "ground. He saw Buck wince as the rope went past him. The pinto horse shied out of position. - '/ . “Take the reins and bring him back here,” Ward called shortly, and gave a twitch of the rope as a hint Mechanically Buck obeyed. He did hot know that the rope Was not yet tied to the limb. Ward tied the rope securely, leaving enough slack to keep Buck from choking prematurely. He fussed a minute longer, with bls lip curled Into a grin of sardonic humor. Then he crawled back to the trunk of the tree and slid down carefully so that he would not frighten the pinto. „ He went up and took the hobble off Buck Olney’s feet, felt in the seam of his coat lapel and pulled out four pins, with which he fastened Buck’s “pedigree” between Buck’s shrinking shoulderblades. Then he stood off and surveyed his work critically before he went over to Rattler, who stood dozing in the sunshine.

Fortune aims another blow at Ward, but his Iron nerve enables him to survive terrible ordeal. The story of Ward's new misfortune is told ,tn the next in* stallment.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

Shoes Worn In Early Days.

High-heeled boots were worn by ladies for three parts of the eighteenth century. They raised their fair wearers some inches, rendering walking difficult and running Impossible. But these fashions were confined to the rich. The poor wore of wood, reeds and untanned leather. The Highlander made brogans our of untanned deer hide, and the southern nations wore cloth ' sandals and slippers, It was not until the year 1800 that an Englishman Invented “rights and leftspreviously both shoes were shaped exactly alike. So far as wo can discover, the. aboriginal tribes of America never went barefooted. They always made and wore moccasins, ths easiest shoe ever invented.

A Good Theory.

“Why Is that old captain persistent ly hugging the shore?” “I suppose he thinks he ought * esabrarathe opportunity.”

SAVED APIA FROM GERMANS

interesting Now to Recall Commander Leary's Defiance of Overbearing Teuton Captain. Personal who have said the United States had no case against Germany prior to the sinking of the Lusitania and events dating from 1914 perhaps are unacquainted with the trouble over the Samoan Islands which occurred in the eighties. Attempts by Prince Bismarck, then German chancellor, to dominate the islands, had been frustrated and a German consul had been withdrawn after he had caused a crisis by raising a German flag over Apia, one of the principal cities. Another consul. Herr Becker, acting on his government’s instructions, again precipitated trouble by deposing the Samoan king and setting up a ruler favorabld to German interest. The climax came when the German corvette Adler prepared to shell Apia, the natives of which had become hostile to the Germans. Commander Richard Leary of the United States gunboat Adams had been in the vicinity of the Is! a nds trouble. Ah’ account of what happened is a tribute to the courage of the American navy. It follows: “At the appointed hour, the Adler steamed out with the German ensign flying at her peak. The Adams followed closely at her heeds. Soon the Adler slowed down and swung into position, so as to bring her broadside guns to bear on the helpless village. The Adams dashed in between the Adier and the shore, where she, too. swung about, her guns at port and pointed directly at the Germans. Presently, Commander Leary in full uniform and accompanied by his staff, boarded the Adler. His colloquy with the German captain was short and sharp: ’lf you fire,’ he said, ‘you must fire through the ship which I have the honor to I shall not be answerable for the consequences!’ So saying, he took his leave. “Captain Fritze could scarcely believe his ears. Such audacity had never yet confronted him. He knew that the first shot would be answered by an American broadside, and this would be the signal for a war between his country and the American republic. He faltered, and then, his heart swelling with humiliation, he steamed suddenly away.”—Detroit News.

Carry Your Phone With You.

“By tlie time the peace treaty is signed we shall he talking across the Atlantic by wireless,” says Godfrey Isaacs, managing director of the Marconi WI reless Telegraph com pa*h y. “One day in the not far distant future,” he adds, “I think we shall walk about with wireless telephones attached to our bodies and we shall be able, standing, say in Piccadilly circus, to call up a friend who is flying somewhere. Or we may. have an invitntion by wireless telephony from a friend flying in France to join him at dinner in the evening. It will not be very long before one will be able to sit at one’s desk in London and speak to New York practically Instantaneously. In my view it will be as easy to speak to Sydney or Melbourne or to New Zealand.”

Music as Health Aid.

Doctor Saleeby, the British eugenics advocate, suggests that the new ministry of health should have a special department to deal with recreation. The department should take London choirs and choral societies singing, in which all could engage. In his view this department would keep the young persons off the streets and out of the saloons'.' A scheme for a confederation of London choirs and choral societies with the idea of directing the masses in the celebration of national rejoicings instead of the senseless mafficking that was in evidence on armistice night is being considered by several musicians.

Welcome News.

Mayor Woodman was speaking about the results that have accrued from the merging of the ttV’o telephone systems. “It’s a wonderful improvement," he remarked. “and 1 laugh when I think of the old days. > It reminds me of the man who was called out of bed at three o’clock In the morning to answer a phone call. “ ‘Hello, hello,’ he yelled, all wrought up. “ ‘There is nobody on the line now/ said central sweetly. 7 ‘Glad you woke me up and told me about it,’ retorted the man, ‘lt’s the first time I ever knew this line to be Idle.’ ”—Los Angeles Times.

Egg Production.

The average production of eggs by hens of all kinds and ages In the Unit-, ed States is 85. Unselected White Leghorns, however, produce an average of 130 eggs for the first year, 120 for the second, 110 for the third. 85 for the fourth, and fall off about" ten a year up to the eighth. These figures ment station. If the first year production be low the second will he high ami. vice versa, the total production for three years being about the same.\

Kipling’s Fame.

The vogue of Kipling today Is not what it once was. Fewer find Tellowship with those descendants of Bardolph. Nym and PiAol. the Soldiers Three. His rough-hewn verse was largely topical and ephemeral. , His latter-day songs detracted from hia fame. His stpries have come and gone and, aw(ijt the Judgment of time.—» Louisville Courier-Journal.