Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1919 — Page 2

THE RANCH AT THE WOLVERINE

(Oopyrlgfct, Little, Brown S'Co.)

CHAPTER XIV. ■—lft - Billy Louis® Gets a Surprise. YTVMGHTKNED, worried, sick at p heart because her crowding doubts and suspicions had suddenly developed Into black certainty Just when übe had thought them dead forever, Billy Louise rode up the narrow, pocky gorge. She had come to have a vague comprehension of the temptation Ward must have felt She had come to accept pityingly the possibility that the canker of old influences bad eaten more deeply than appeared on the surface. She had set herself? . aeanehly beside him as his friend, who would help him win back his selfrespect. She felt sure that he must •offer terribly with that keen, analytical mind of his, when he stopped to rtiinir at aIL He had no warped ethics wherewith to ease his conscience. She knew his ideas of right and wrong were as uncompromising aS her own. and If he stole cattle, he did it with his eyes wide open to the wrong he was doing. And yet—- “ That’s bad enough, but to try and fasten evidence ‘oh someone else!” Billy Louise gritted her teeth over the treachery of it She believed be had done that very thing. How could she help it? She had seen the corral and had seen Ward ride away from it in the dusk of the evening; or she believed she had seen him, which was the same thiug. And she knew what lay behind him. Was his version of the past after aU the correct one? Might not the paragraph she had burned been nothing more than the

truth? —• • Billy Louise fought for him; fought with her stern, youthful Judgment which was so uncompromising. It takes years of close contact with life to give one a sure understanding of human weakness and human endeavor. At the ford, when Blue would have crossed and taken the trail home, Billy Louise reined him impulsively the other way. Until that Instant she had not Intended to seek Ward, but once her Ungers had twitched the reins against Blue’s neck, she did not hesitate; she did not even argue with herself. She Just glanced up at the sun. saw that It was not yet noon —so much may happen in two or three hours i—and sent Blue up the hill at a lope. She did not know what she would «or what she would say when she w Ward. The two mares fed dispiritedly at the lowest corner of the field, their hair rough with exposure to the winter winds and the storms, their ribs showing. With all the hay he had put op. Ward might at least keep his horses In better shape. Billy Louise censored, as she passed them by. Farther along, Billy Louise heard a welcoming nicker and turned her head. Hero came Rattler, thin-flanked and rough-coated, trotting downa shallow gulley to meet Blue. The two horses chummed together whenever Ward was at the Wolverine. Billy Louise pulled up and waited till Rattler reached her. H® and „ Blue rubbed

_-Besesp-antf"BlneTald back his ears and shook his head with teeth bared, in playful pretense of anger. Rattler kicked up Ills heels In disdain at the threat and trotted alongside them. Billy Louise rode with puckered eyebrows. Ward might neglect his stock, but he would never neglect Rattler like this. And he must be at home, ■Lnce here was his horse. Or else ... She struck Blue suddenly with her rein-ends and went clattering up the trail where the snow lay In shaded, crusty patches rimmed with dirt. The trail was untracked save by the loose stock. Where was Ward? What had happened to him? She looked again at Rattler. There was no sign of recent saddle marks along his side, no telltale Imprint of the cinch under his belly Where was Ward? Blind, unreasoning terror filled Billy Louise. She struck Blue again and plnnged Into the Icy creek crossing near the stable. She stopped there Just long enough to see how empty and desolate it was, and how the horses and cattle had hnddled against its sheltering wall out of the biting winds; and how the door was shut and fastened -so that they could not get in. She opened It and looked In. and Shut it again. Then she turned and ran, white-faced, to the cabin. Where was Ward? What had-'hap-pened to Ward? Thief or honest man. treacherous or true —what had happened to him? Billy Louise saw the doorstep banked over with old, crusted snow. Her heart gave a Jump and stopped still. She felt b«r knees shake under her. Her face seemed to pinch together, the flesh dinging dose to the bones. Her whole being seemed to contract with the deadly fear that gripped her. It waa that chill morning when .she had crept out of her cot and gone over to mommie*s bad and had lifted mommle’s that waa hanging down.... cam# to herself ; she was running up the creek, sway from the Running and stumbling over rocks, and getting tripped with her rising ghirt She stopped, as soon as die realised what she was doing; she stopped and stand with her hands grassed bard against each aids of bes «* «;

A tale of the wild outdoor life of pioneer days that called fortK dl theeourage and resourcefulness of men and women inured to danger and hardship

face, forcing herself to calmness again —or at least to sanity. She had to go back. She told herself so, many times. So Billy Louise went back to the cabin, slowly, with shaking legs and a heart that fluttered and stopped, fluttered and Jumped and stopped, and made her stagger as she walked. She reached the doorstep and stood there with her palms pressing hard against her cheeks again. “You’ve got to do It You’ve got to!” she whispered to herself eommandlngly. She never doubted that Ward was inside. She thought she would find him dead—dead and horrible, perhaps. No other solution seemed to fit the circumstances. He was In there, dead. It took courage to open that door, bnt Billy Louise had courage enough to open it, and to step Inside and close the door after her. She did not look at anything in the cabin while she did it, though. She kept her eyelids down so that she only saw the floor directly in front of the door,; Shehad a sense of relief that it looked perfectly natural, though dusty.

“Throw up your hands!” came hoarsely from the bunk. BiHy Louise gasped and pulled her gun, and dropped crouching to the floor. Also she looked up. From her crouching position she looked into Ward’s fever-wild eyes. He was sitting up in the bunk, and he was pointing his big forty-five at her relentlessly. “Get up from there!” he ordered sternly. “Don’t try any game like that on me. Buck Olneyl Get up and go over and sit in that chair. I’ve got a few things to say to you." Billy Louise somehow grasped the truth, up to a certain point. Ward was sick; so sick he didn’t know her. She thought she would better humor him. She got up and went and sat in the chair as he directed. Ward, keeping the gun pointing her way, sneered at her in a way that made the soul of BiHy Louise crlmple. She faced him big-eyed, too amazed at the change in him to feel any fear that he would haym her. He had whiskers two inches long. She wouldn’t have known him except for his hair — and that was terribly tousled; and his eyes, though they were wild and angry. His voice was hoarse, and while he glared at her, he coughed With a hard, croupy resonance. “So you came back, did yuh?” he asked grimly at last. “Well, you didn’t get a chance to plug me in the back. How long did you lay up there on the bluff this time, waiting to catch me when I wasn’t looking? I’ve been wishing I’d left that rope so It would have hung you, you —-I” (Billy Louise listened round-eyed to certain mansized epithets strange to her ears.) “I suppose you and Foxy and that halfbreed have been fixing up some more evidence, huh? You figure that I can’t catch ’em this time and work the brands over, so they’ll stand Yfl’s. and I’ll get railroaded to the pen. : / vL~. -■ •“

"So You Came Back, Did Yuh?”

Well, you’ve overplayed your hand, old-timer. I let you fellows down easy, last time. I don’t reckon Foxy objected much to those few I turned back to him, and. I don’t reckon you did any kicking when you found I’d cut the rope so it wouldn’t hold your rotten carcase You can’t let well enough alone, tbongh. You thought you’d raise me, did you? You thought you’d come back and try another whack at me behind my back.- You knew hanged well I wasn’t the kind of man that would jump the country. Yon knew you’d find me right here, attending to my business like Fve always done. » “But you’ve overplayed your hand. This time I'm going to get yon—and Foxy and the breed along with you. It was a rotten trick, running Y6’s over Sea beck’s brand. If I hadn’t caught you in the act, you’d have planted tbm cattle where all b —l couldn’t have saved me when they were found. If I hadn’t caught yon at it and run MK monograms ovpr the whole cheese, I’d have been up against It for fair. So now you’re going to get what’s coma ' - -v. V

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN 4 RENSSELAER. INP.

ing to yuh. I won’t take any chances on your not trying it again. Fm going to protect myself right. "You throw that gun on the bed.” (BiHy Louise did so,' her eyes still upon Ward’s flushed face.) “Now, get do#k that tablet . ftom the shelf. Here’s a pencil." He drew one from under his Pillow and tossed it toward her. “Now you write the truth about all this rustUng. It’s a bigger thing than shows right In this neighborhood, I know that. And I know, too, that Foxy has been pulling down some on the side. He never paid for all the Stock that’s running around vented and rebranded MK. I’ve got that sized up. Pretty smooth trick, too; a heap better than working brands. He ought lo have been satisfied with that —but a crook never is satisfied, —I—knew he wasn’t the tenderfoot he tried to make out, aud when I saw some of his stock and that gate fixed to ring a bell when it was opened, I knew he was a crook. Bnt be made a big mistake when he threw in with you, you—“I want you to write jdown the truth about that Hardup deal; who was In with you. I know, all right, but I want It down on paper. And I want to know’ how long Foxy’s been in with you, and who’s working the game on the outside. , Get busy; write it all down, nr give you all the time you need; don’t leave out anything. Dates and all, I want the whole graft. Don’t try to get away. I’ve got tills gun loaded to the guards, and you know I’m aching for, an excuse —’’ He stopped and coughed again, hoarsely, racklngly. Then he lay quiet, except for his rasping breath and watched. BiHy Louise, with the tablet on her trembling knees, pretended to write. From under her lashes she watched Ward curiously. She saw his attention waver, saw his eyes wander aimlessly about the room. She sat very still and waited, making scrawly marks that had no meaning at all. She saw Ward’s fingers loosen on the revolver, saw his "head turn wearily on the pillow. He was staring out through the w’indow at the brilliant blue of the sky with the dazzling white clouds drifting Uke bits of cotton to the northward. He had forgotten her. CHAPTER XV. The Hookin’-Cough Man. BILLY LOUISE waited another minute or two, weighing the possibilities. She saw Ward’s fingers drop away from the gun, but they remained close enough for a dangerously quick gripping of it again, if the whim Seized him. Still —surely to goodness, Ward would never get crazy enough to hurt her! Perhaps her feminine assurance of her hold on him, more than her courage, kept her nerves fairly steady. She bit the pencil absentlv. washing him. — 7 Ward turned his head restlessly on the pillow and coughed again. Billy Louise got up quietly, went close to the bed, and laid her hand on his fore--headr-Hts-bestTWarhot, and the veins were swollen and throbbing on his temples. “Brave Buckaroo got a headache?” she queried 'softly, stroking his temples soothingly. “Got the hookin’cough, too. Got every measly thing he can think of. Even got a grouch against the Flower of the Ranch-oh!” Her voice was crooningly soft and sweet as If she were murmuring over a sleepy baby. r Ward closed his eyes, opened them, and looked up into her face. One hand came up uncertainly and caught her fingers closely. “Wilhelminamine!” he said, in his hoarse voice. His eyes cleared to sanity under her touch. Billy Louise drew a small sigh of relief and reached unobtrusively with her free hand for the gun. She slid it down away from his fingers, and when he still paid no attention, she picked It up quite openly and laid it against the footboard. Ward did not say anything. He seemed altogether occupied with the amazing reality of her presence. “You’ve got a terrible cold; and from the looks of things, you’ve had it for about six months,” said Billy Louise. Her eyes went comprehensively about that end of the cabin, with the depleted cracker box, the half-emptied boxes of peaches and tomatoes, and the buckets that were all but empty of water. She was shocked at the pitiful evidence of long helplessness. She did not quite understand. Surely Ward’s cold had not kept him In bed so long. “Well, this Is no time for mirth or laughter,” she said briskly, to hide how close she was to hysteria, “since it looks very much like Jthe morning after.’ First, we’ve got to tackle that fever of yours.” She picked .op a water paU and started for the door. As she passed the foot of-the bunk, she confiscated the two revolvers and took them outside With her. She had no desire, to be mistaken again for Buck Olney. When she came back. Ward’s eyes were wild again, and he storied-up in bed arid glared at her. Billy LouJise laughed at him and told him to He down like a nice buckaroo, and Ward, recalled to himself by her voice,

obeyed. She got the washbasin and a towel and prepared to bathe his head. He wanted a drink. And when she held a cup to his lips and saw how greedily he drank, a little sob broke unexpectedly from her lips. She gritted her teeth after it and forced a laugh. “You’re sure a hard drinker,” she bantered and wet her handkerchief to lay on his brow. “That’s the first decent drink I’ve had for a month.” he told her, dropping back to the pillow, refreshed to the point of clear thinking. “Old Lady Fortune’s still playing football with me, William. I’ve been laid np with a broken leg for about six weeks. And when I got gay aud thought I could handle myself again, I put myself out Of business for a while, and caught this cold before I came to and crawled back into bed. Fm —sure glad you showed up, old girl. I was—getting up against it for fair,”—He coughed. “Looks Uke it.” Billy Louise held herself rigidly back from any emotional expression. She could not afford- to “go 4o pieces” now. She tried to think just what a trained nurse would do, in such a case. Her hospital experience would be of some use here, she told herself. She remembered reading somewhere that no experience Is valueless, If one only applies the knowledge gained.

“First,” she said cheerfully, “the patient must be kept quiet and cheerful. So don’t go jumping up and down on your broken leg, Ward Warren; the nurse forbids It. And smile, if It kills you.”- - _ —- Ward grinned appreciatively. Sick as he was, he realized the gameness of Billy Louise; what he failed to realize was the gameness of himself. "I’m a pretty worthless specimen right now,” he said apologetically. “But I’m yours to command, Bill-the-Gonk. You’re the doctor.” “Nope, I’m the cook, right now. I’ve got a hunch. How would you like a cup. of tea, patient?” “I’d rather have coffee —Doctor William.” "Tea. you mean. I’ll have It ready in ten minutes.” Then she weakened before his imploring eyes. “You really oughtn’t to drink coffee, with that fever, Ward. But, maybe If I don’t make It very strong and put In lots of cream — We’ll take a chance, buckaroo !” “How much sugar, patient?” Billy Louise turned toward him with the tomato can sugar bowl In her hands.- — “None. I want to teste the coffee, this trip.” “Oh. all right! It’s the worst thing you could think of, but that’s the way with a patient. Patients always want what they mustn’t have.” “Sure—get It, too.” Ward spoke between long, satisfying gulps. “How’s your other patient. Wllhelmina? How’s mommle?” “Oh, Ward! She’s dead— -mommie’s dead!” Billy Louise broke down unexpectedly and completely. She went cried as she had not cried since she looked the last time at mommie’s still face, held in that terrifying calm. She cried until Ward’s excited mutterings warned her that she must pull herself together. “You be s-sttll,” she commanded brokenly, fighting for her former safe 'cheerfulness. “I’m all right. Pity yourself, if you’ve got to pity somebody. I—can stand —my trouble. I haven’t got any broken- leg and — hookin’ cough.” She managed a laugh then and took Ward’s hand from her hair and laid It down on the blankets. “Now we won’t talk about things any more. You've got to have something done for that cold on your lungs.” She rose and stood looking down at him with puckered eyebrows. “Mommle would say you ought to have a good sweat,” she decided. “Got any ginger?” “I dhnno. I guess not,” Ward muttered confusedly.

“Well, Til go o«t and find some sage, then, and give you sage tea. That’s another cure-all.” She did not spend all her time picking sage twigs. A bush grew at the corner of the cabin within easy reach. She went first down to the stable and led Blue inside and unsaddled him. Ward was lying quiet when she went in. except that he was waving her handkerchief to and fro by the corners to cool it. Billy Louise took it from him, wet it again with cold water, and scolded him for getting his arms from under the covers. That, she said, was no nice way for a hookln’-cough man to do. r - Ward meekly submitted to being covered to his eyes. Then he wriggled his chin free and demanded that she kiss him. Ward was fairly drtmk with happiness because she was there, in the cabin. “Wan! Warren, you’re a perfectly awful hookln’-cough man! There. Now that’s going jto be the only one—Oh, Ward, it isn’t!” She knelt and curved an arm around his face and kissed him again and yet again. “I do love yon. Ward. I’ve been a weak-kneed, horrid thing, and I’m ashamed to the middle of my bones. You’re my own brave buckaroo always -**• always! You’ve done what no other man would

By B. M. BOWER

do, and you don’t whine about It; and I’ve been weak and —-horrid; and I’ll have to love yqu about a million years before I can quit feeling ashamed.” She kissed • him again with a passidn of remorse for her doubts of him. “Are you through being pals, Wllbelmina?” Ward broke rules and freed an arm, so that he could hold her closer. "No, Trn Just beginning. Just beginning right I’m your pal for keeps. But—” ... “I love you for keeps, lady' mine.” Ward stifled another cough. “When are you going to —marry me?” “Oh, when you get over the hookin’ cough, I s’pose.” Once more Billy Louise, for the good of her patient, forced herself into safe flippancy—that was not flippant at all, but paerely a tender pretense. “Now it’s up to you to show me whether%ou are in any hurry at all to get well,” she said. “Keep your hands under the covers while I make some tea. That fever of yours has got to be stopped immediately—to once.” She went over and busied herself about the stove, never once looking toward the bed, though she must have felt Ward’s eyes worshipping her. She hunted through the cupboards and found a bottle of turpentine; strupy and yellowed with age, but pungent with strength. She found some

She Went Down on Her Knees Beside the Bed and Cried.

lard in a small bucket and melted half a cupful. Then she tore up a woolen undershirt she found hanging on a nail and bore relentlessly down upon him.— j— — “You gotta be greased all over your lungs,” she withji jnatter*'of : facffießs”ffiaF~cost her sontethlng; for Billy Louise’s innate modesty was only just topped by her good sense. Ward submitted without protest while she bared his chest add applied the warm mixture with a smoothly vigorous palm. “That’ll fix the hookin’ cough,” she said, as she spread the warm layers of woolen cloth smoothly from shoulder to shoulder. “How does it feel?” “Great,” he assured her succinctly, and wisely omitted any love making. “Will your game leg let you turn over? Because there’s some dope left, and it ought to go between your shoulders.” “The game leg ought to stand more than that," he told her, turning slowly, “If I hadn’t got this cold tacked onto me, Td have been trying to walk on It by now.” “Better give It time —since you’ve been game enough to lie here all this while and take care of It. I don’t believe I’d have had nerve enough for that, Ward.” She poured turpentine and lard into her palm, reached inside his collar and rubbed It on his shoulders. “Good thing you had plenty oi grub handy. But it must have beer awful!” "It was pretty lonesome,” he admitted laconically, and that was as far as his complainings went. Billy Louise then poured the water off the sage leaves she had been brewing in a tin basin, carefully fished ont a stem or two, and made Ward drink every bitter drop. Then she covered him to the eyes and hardened her heart against his discomfort, whi|l she kept the handkerchief cool on his i head and between times swept the flpQr with a carefully dampened broom and wiped the dust off things and restored the room to its most cheerful atmosphere of livableness. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

Zinc in Tennessee.

Over 52,000.000 pounds of zinc war produced by Tennessee mines In 1916, the largest operators being the American Zinc company, at Mascot, and the Embree Iron company, at EmbreevUla , The production of gold, silver and cop per in 1916 was less than the prodae tion in 1915, bnt the output of leaf and zinc increased..

THE SCHOOLMA’AM

By ETHEL M. FARMER.

Mi~n P».~nnks stood on the threrh'dd — of the little village school vigorously ringing the rusty old bell. Many schoolma’ams had stood on that same threshold ringing that same rusty bell but somehow this one seemed . different from the rest. And somehow the clanging of the bell seemed clearer than ever. * -*■ The ringing of the bell ceased, the long line of children passed Into the building and the schoolhouse door was. closed. It was very evident that the long days in the little school were not ones of drudgery. The teacher, who was little more than a girl herself, was dearly loved by all the children. —As she began the day’s work no one would have surmised that in her heart there was trouble. ■ “It really did seein strange about Ed. It could not be true. Dick was mistaken. He—” „ A suppressed giggle interrupted her wandering thoughts. With great dignity she asked a very modest little girl, who proudly wore two tight braids down her back, the cause of the disturbance. “Excuse me, please,” the girl spoke timidly, “but we had this lesson two days ago.” “Excuse me, too,” was all she said, as she reassigned the lesson. The clock carefully ticked away the minutes and the gradually crept along their daily journey. Then a ruler fell on the floor with a sounding thud! A little red-headed fellow in the front sbat was working very industriously, with his desk covered with papers and opened books, but the telltale ruler lay in the aisle beside him. “Jimmy!” “Er, yes’m, Miss Brooks; did you mean me?” And lie struggled desperately to return her look with innoceney. “Pick it up!” she said slowly, fore- _ ing back a smile. 7 With great surprise he leaned over and picked up the gffending article and placed it thoughtfully iu his desk. All went well for a while after the ruler was safely deposited out of sight until Jimmy suddenly thought of the lovely, big cud of guin he had stuck under his desk. “How good it would taste!” he thought, hut he knew how stern “she” was on chewing in school —he had tried it before. He studied the clock with a sigh, for there were 15 minutes more ! At last he could stand it no longer, and the gum was suddenly and slyly transferred from the desk to his mouth. “How good it was!” And he gave it a few good chews. “Jimmy!” came in low tones from the other side of the room. “Er, yes’m,” he replied, jumping to his feet, “I’ll take—” -—-—- “Put it in the basket and crawl in tinder my desk.- Stay there until the bell rings.”

At.last the closing bell rang and the children filed out of the building, but Miss Brooks did not notice that Jimmy did not appear. With a sigh she sat down at her desk and drew out part of a newspaper clipping which - told of the engagement of Lieut. Edward Smith to a beautiful ■“society belle.” All of the article was not there, but Dick had assured her that it was true and - that Etr'TuuTnot treated her fair. Just then Dick himself entered the room. “Where shall we go this evening?” he asked cheerfully. “Are you sure this is true about Ed?” she asked him again. “How can you doubt it? Forget about him and we will have a good time together.” She shook her head. “I guess I will not go tonight. Somehow I do not believe that ik true about Win.” * Suddenly Jimmy opened his eyes. Who said Ed? Why, Ed was his special friend and was coming home from the army this very day l ———— —- He scrambled out from under the desk, rubbing his eyes. “Why, I’ve been asleep and I promised Ed right after school.” “Ed?” she asked in surprise, after overcoming the shock of the unexpected third party. The boy’s face 'fell. “It was to be a surprise to you,” he stammered. Just then Dick picked up his whip, which he had laid on a chair, and disappeared through the door, for he had suddenly spied a tall soldier hastening up the road with one. arm carried stiffly in.a sling. He had just barely left when the soldier entered. “Ruth!” ' She looked with surprise and joy at she newcomer. „ A few minutes later she passed her worn clipping to Ed slowly. His face clouded as he read, but it Immediately cleared when he realized its significance, and the cause of the strange disappearance of his old rival whom he had just caught a glimpse of down the road. X “This is another Ed Smith, who lives in town,” he assured her. “I know him. Don't worry about me”, No more explanations werg necessary and Miss Brooks’ “problem’’ was settled very satisfactorily. At a signal from Ed, Jimmy scampered from the building, but' he saw what happened later when he gleefully climbed up on the roof and peeked in at the cracked window. \ (Copyright, “1913, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) '