Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1914 — Oodles, the Avenger [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Oodles, the Avenger

He Was Half Witted, but Faithful

By M. J. PHILLIPS

"The New York attorney, he goes tomorrow,” said Frederic. the fat French landlord of Pete Cheue. His wife, a thin little woman, with a sharp voice and a heart of gold, blazed into sudden anger. 'He stayed too long, and he goes too soon!” she cried. Frederic took his pipe from his mouth and turned ponderously. lou mean—what?” he questioned. "T mean that our Tberese"— Frederic gazed uncomprehendingly, and she made a gesture of impatience at his stupidity. ”Tchk! Can't you see? She likes him too well,” Her husband's mouth sagged open. He held the pipe in his pudgy hand. His black beard rippled over his breast. His eyebrows vvere raised in amazement and something of dismay. He looked like a wondrousiy carved statue, for he sat very still. But one’s mouth cannot stay open indefinitely. Frederic's closed reluctantly. He peered Into his pipe and drew forth his buckskin tobacco pouch. “Chut!” he commented. Mme. Leeoeur ceased her agitated rocking. “ ‘Chut!’ ” she snapped. “ ‘Chut!’ And our only child is breaking her heart. Look for yourself. They are coming.” She inclined her head sideways. Her husband turned in his stout chair, all together, like a piece of machinery, and looked up the one street of the backwoods Michigan town. It was a pretty sight that Frederic saw’—one that appealed to the quick sentimental perceptions of his race. A man and a girl were coming toward the hotel on the veranda of which they sat. The man was of the city, apd his neat, fashionable clothing was in striking contrast to the Mackinaw garb of the few woodsmen who

ounged in doorways. He was talking .eagerly to the girl, who kept pace with him, and his keen young face was alight with the visions of one who is both dreamer and doer. The girl was a glorious creature, whose roundness was not plumpness and whose slenderness was not thinness. Her luxurious brown hair was uncovered. She walked in Indian moccasins with the springy ease of a frontiersman. , Her big, dark eyes were turned on young Amidon with flattering attention. In their depths was an unconscious and pitiful revelation of her heart. They paused a moment by the rude steps. “We are going down to the falls,” said the lawyer. “I want to explain to Miss Therese what our company means to do here. Why, M. Lecoeur, the country above is a natural reservoir. A dam will furnish power to light every town within a hundred miles of here and run tlie mills besides." He turned to Therese as he finished as one turns to a friend who comprehends. But there was nothing in his look or his manner but impersonal enthusiasm; no hint that he was conscious of her sex or of her loveliness, “Your company is rich, M. Amidon?” quelled the landlord. A smile came to the lawyer's boyish face. “They have barrels of it.” he replied. Mme. Lecoeur turned to her husband when the young people had gone on. “You see. you see?" she demanded. “She cannot get enough of looking at him. And he—his head is full of danu and electric lights and mills. Tchkmen!” “My daughter,” she continued, “is worthy of any man in the land. She has graduated from the Grayling high school. She can bake and sweep and sew. She is as merry as a robin. She

can walk from here to Tahqfiema in four hours, and it is twenty miles. “She has taste, too, Frederic—a taste she did not inherit'from.''the Lecoeurs. Faith, no. “She has the high heeled, small shoes and a gown no bigger around than your trousers leg— great, fat—oaf! She has even been three times to Bay City. She Is as innocent and unspoiled as a babe. Why does he not see?’’ She had spoken rapidly in French. Her husband removed his pipe in order to shake his head slowly. “I will tell you why he does not see,’’ she said, switching to English to answer her own question. “He has had no time but to bargain and plair and buy the land. “If he could stay here for two weeks more, with his mind free of business, he could not help loving her. But he will go without seeing or speaking, and it will kill her.” She sighed -wistfully. “If he would but fall sick. She is a splendid nurse.” They turned guiltily at a sound behind in the doorway, but at sight of the queer face looking down at them Mme. Lecoeur spoke relievedly. “Oh, Oodles! It is you!” Oodles Napper was one of “God’s innocents,” a silent young half wit who roamed the wilderness, flitting here and there as the errant fancy took him. The door of every settler from the straits to Saginaw bay was open to him. No one dreamed of charging him for food and lodging. But he paid in his own way nevertheless. He was a mighty hunter. He always carried a rifle, and his aim was of the deadliest. Birds and squirrels and deer in season he brought to the homes of his friends. Now the wide, thin, upturned mouth was doleful; the small blue eves were dull. “You heard. Oodles?” Mme. Lecoeur and all of Pere Cbeue knew that he loved Therese, as the dog loves his mistress, with a dumb love that asks nothing but the privilege to serve. The half wit nodded.

“Yes,” he murmured. “Sorry—sorry.” He looted to the north after jTberese and Amidon. “Where to, Oodles?” Frederic had noted that he carried rifle and pack. “Tahquema—south.” Without another word or look he turned toward the blue hills. Soon be disappeared in the scrub at the end of the street. When the village had been shut off by tag alders and bushes Oodles’ long strides shortened. Unconsciously he came to a standstill. He stood for several minutes in an indecision that was painful. His lips moved sound lessly. Evidently it was a time of intense mental agitation; for the sweat burst out on his forehead, and his hands clinched until the knuckles showed white through the brown skin, and the tendons in his wrists drew like cords. At last a resolution was reached. Heading west, he began to run swift ly, but with great caution. He slipped through the brush like a wild thing. His face took on a new expression—queer and terrible. As be ran'be bore to the north in a half circle. Presently he came out on a little knoll, threw himself flat in the long grass and peered between the trunks of a clump of jack pines. Yes, there they stood on the bank of the river, near the rapids. The lawyer, his face alight, was pointing as he explained the plans of his company to Therese.

The girl was looking up at her companion. Even at that distance the half wit read the unconscious pathos of her attitude. With swift fierceness he drew the rifle to his shoulder, sighted carefully and fired. Amidon paused in the midst of his sentence, blank amazement on his face. Then he tottered and fell. Therese’s scream echoed high above the bur of the rapids. The half wit ran away, more like a wild thing than ever. ***♦♦♦♦ Therese and her lover, who was also her husband, stood on the porch of the Lecoeur house in the gloaming. Her dark eyes were pools of brooding happiness. The man, mimicking a shy schoolboy, edged over and took her hand. She laughed and leaned against him. Its good to be here,” he said. “Do you know what day it is?” He looked down at her, eyes round with recollection. “By Jove!” he cried. “It's just a year—a year ago today.” She nodded. They were silent a moment, and then he went on: “If it hadn't been for that I'd never have discovered how much I cared. 1 was going away without a word to vou Think of that! “But you hadn't finished binding me up before I was crazy about you, and the longer you nursed me the more 1 loved you.” His arm went round her. She nestled against him and sighed contentedly. “The chap who did it was a marksman,” he continued. “There I was, gesticulating like Mark Antdny, and along comes a bullet and breaks my arm-snip-like that. 1 wonder who it was? “I’d like to know so I could thank him. The fellow did me a good turn.” She shuddered a little. "I was frightened—at first. But it did come out al! right, didn't it?" “It certainly did,” returned Amidon. And now let's talk of something more serious. Kiss me," he said severely. A chuckle came from the doorway behind, and they turned guiltily, like children. “Oh,” said Therese, relieved, “it’s only Oodles!’’

THEN HE TOTTERED AND FELT,