Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1917 — Page 7

SYNOPSIS Caleb Hunter and his sister Sarah welcome to their home Stephen O’Mara, a 'homeless and friendless boy, starting from 'the wilderness to see the city. Stephen O’Mara catches a glimpse of Barbara Allison. The girl is rich. The O'Mara boy falls in love with her. She Je ten, he fourteen. Tne boy and girl are in a party uia.t €o town. The old people watch with concern the youth’s growing attachment for Che girl. Caleb Is much Impressed with the boy’s ideas on the moving of timber. He predicts a great future for the lad. •O'Mara whips Archibald Wickersham in U boyhood fight over Barbara. She takes Wickersham’s side, and Stephen leaves' Jor parts unknown, saying, "I’ll come back to you.’’ Years later the boy returns as a man. He is a contractor. Sarah welcomes him. Barbara Is a beautiful woman. O'Mara suspects there is a plot to prevent his successful completion of a railroad and that Barbara Allison’s father and Wickersham are In it. O’Mara meets Garry Devereau, with Whom Barbara’s closest friend is in love. O’Mara starts to reform him. O’Mara meets Barbara Allison on the Toad. There is a play of Words in which both seek to conceal their feeling. Wickersham notices that Barbara and Stephen are together a great deal. Miriam Burrell, Barbara’s friend, sees and Understands the black rage that shadows his face. O’Mara daily becomes more, convinced that some one is trying to stir up trouble among his men. Wickersham and Allison have a conference. They agree that Harrigan, their tool, has messed things trying to stir up trouble among the men. O’Mara assures the men that as long as they work for him they need have no fear. He checks an Incipient strike. O’Mara cheers Devereau with the information that Miriam Burrell cares for him •despite his unhappy post.

CHAPTER XIV. Law and Lumber. SAIN fell the following fortnight in a steady downpour that did not cease, even for an hour. Ragged, smokelike clouds hung over the valley at Thirty Mile, dragged so low by their own weight that they ,not only hid the uppey peaks, but shrouded the lower ridges as well. They drove by in interminable files of gray, making sluiceways of every cut and drenching continually the men of the construction gang, who, in spite of the chill of that downfall, still sweated at their labor. But both Steve and Fat Joe, for all that they caught each day a deeper note in the hoarse complaints of those same men—a note no less ominous than was that newer, hoarser one of ths swollen river—nevertheless were duly thankful that the leaden sky had at least a tinsel lining. It might have snowed. A month earlier it had been Steve's plan to span that mile or so of swamp and bridge the river before the cold weather set in. Nor was his altered order of campaign due in any'way to the storm which had raised the river and made of the alder dotted stretch of flat bog meadow an oozing, quaking morac 5. It no longer represented merely a positive not too alluring problem in engineering—that strip of swamp and open water. It had taken on a newer, strategic importance. And the change in Steve’s plans, so far as the work at Thirty Mlle was concerned, was as much due to the news which Fat Joe brought home with him one night toward the end of the next week as it was the result of the Interview which he had held with Hardwick El llott himself.

joe had been a whole day absent on the north end of the line. Alone he had been over every foot of that all but completed stretch which ended at the border of swampland, there at headquarters, troubling himself not at all over the unevenness of the roadbed, satisfied entirely with the surety he gained with every inspected mile that a trainload of logs or a dozen trainloads would stay on the rails when the rails were laid and the day ■came to set wheels rolling. But the further report he brought back with him was far less reassuring. “I wonder,” Joe mused aloud that night—“l wonder, now, why any man who knows anything about handlin’ timber should go to work botherin’ himself with skidways leadin’ down to the river when he knows, as well as Harrigan should know, that it ain’t cornin’ out that way? It don’t seem good sense nor logic to me, unless”— He stopped there and left his own opinion unfinished. Since the evening Harrigan had stepped out of the main bunk house and disappeared, black rage in his face and a promise to return upon his lips, that lumberman’s red Head had been conspicuous only because it was absent from the landscape. So far Harrigan had failed to reappear, and Fat Joe’s method of apprising his chief, of his return to the Reserve company’s payroll was distinctly characteristic. But Steve’s reception of the news was little more than listless. He seemed to change the subject entirely; “I don’t see why it wouldn’t be just

Then I'll Come Back to you

By Larry Evans

UTH O R OF ONCE TO EVERY MAN"

as easy or easier.” Steve replied, "to cross here on pilings practically the whole distance as it would be to fill and bridge too. And. If we were to look at it in that light, then why wouldn’t it be still easier to drive those piles, say, next February or March, while the swamp is still crusted over and hard? It would afford us some sort of footing to work on then other than black ooze and lilypads. Wouldn’t it seem so to you?” / “We'd still have that track north of here to lay,” Fat Joe advised, “when we wor% from the south with steel* “Surely.” Steve admitted. “Of course. But wouldn't that be a better bet than to stand to see our embankment and bridge”— He broke off there, just as Joe had hesitated a moment before. The undercurrent of meaning for which the latter’s ears were waiting came to the surface, however, when Steve began again. “Suppose, Joe,” he pursued lazily— j “suppose you had contracted with a ' railroad—an infant road too, young even to be named —to move for you more timber than either of us will ever own, contracted in apparent good faith, when all along in your heart you ‘ were certain that the railroad itself would never be able to fulfill its half . Of the bargain. Granting such a state of affairs, Joe, what do you suppose you would do?” “Maybe I d hire me a red headed river dog,” came Joe's answer, pat. “Maybe I'd hire me a bully boy boss of white water to build me some skidways to the nearest flood water, so's I could teach the infant railroad you mention that business was business, contract or no contract.” “Of course you would” Steve agreed Instantly, and be might have been com plimentmg a first primer favorite so pleased was his tone. “Of course you would. I'm afraid that was too easy for you. wasn’t it, Joe? But now sup pose you were bent on proving to everybody, and particularly to those who had fathered it, what an unfortunate weakling this immature, unnamed child of constructive silence really was. In that event how do you figure you'd conduct yourself?” Joe smiled oddly, a little balefuHyIt was magic quick, that change in his expression, as swift as was the thought behind it “I'd have my logs all cut and ready to haul as an excuse, wouldn’t I?” he inquired, with Simulated anxiety. “Could I tell folks, through the news I<apers. for instance, that I wasn’t strong for letting my timber lie for the grubs to lunch on if I had to square myself?’’ v “Quite naturally.” tfuril then Steve's face had kept its preternatural gravity. He grinned ever so faintly now. “Very naturally you'd want to save your winter cut” “Then I'd like to have ’em build a bridge somewheres along the river I aimed to drive—a bridge and a nice dirt embankment, all dressed up with rails and ties and things on top. I’m allowed to suppose I've got an awful long standin’ score, ain't I, along with all this timber? Well, that's what I'd like to have ’em do. then. And when I opened her up a few miles up river and she began to rear, when that first head of water hit the bridge and the sticks begun to grind. I suppose I’d take up my position on the bank where I could watch real well. I'd light me a long, black cigar and murmur sort of languid and sympathetic, “There goes your railroad, gents” “Such a move in itself would be outside the letter of the contract,” Steve expostulated. ny, they wouldn’t dare do anything. They wouldn”t dare to begin driving the river before your time was up. much less do damage to your completed work. What excuse—what legal excuse—could they give, even though they were morally certain that you were bound to fail?” Very slowly, almost pityingly, Joe turned toward him. “Legal” he droned. “Moral?” And then he laughed his clear tenor outburst which barely escaped being a giggle. “Dear child, judiciously speaking. law and lumber and morals and mill feet don’t mix. They don’t mix at all in this section of the country. If they wanted to bother their heads with an alibi they could say it was top of flood and they weren’t eager to be hung up just because a brass buttoned conductor promised ’em a through express in the morning. They could say— But what good would, explanations do us, huh, if they sent a half million logs sky hootin’ into our bridge? It wouldn't save our construction, would It?” He wheeled back to Steve, his manner brisk. “Do we leave that stretch open?” he asked. “Is that the way you have it figured?” - “I'm afraid we’d better,” Steve said. That was as close as they came to anything resembling a discussion of the change which was growing more and more noticeable in the bearing of the men at Thirty Mlle. As far as ail

outward evidence was concerned, SteVe seemed to ignore it utterly, to retreat oftener and oftener behind his habit of silence which even Fat Joe, after several unsuccessful garrulous attempts, gave over trying to penetrate. It was not the hunger of his own heart; it was neither intolerance of restraint nor mental rebellion against the duties which were holding him so close upriver that had caused the chief ’ engineer of the East Coast work to withdraw so completely within himself, although many times each day his eyes did wander toward the south and Morrison. During that bleak period Steve’s thoughts were often of Barbara, but they were not somber thoughts. The very hardness of his life schooling had taught him ''too well how little of wisdom there is in fretting against the day of action when that day eapnot be hurried nd>- controlled. Steadfastly he refused to let himself brood. If he could not go to her he would not, nevertheless, allow himself to dwell upon that impossibility. Instead his spirit ranged ahead to a hopeful, more or less indefinite and not too distant date when his absence might not seem to threaten too great a cost to those whose matters lay in his trust Steve had had little chance for conversation in those days with Garry, now an employee of the company as an assistant to Fat Joe, except for a word or two over a hastily snatched breakfast or perhaps at supper at night, and at night he was usually too tired to talk. But the other’s growing restlessness had not escaped his notice. For awhile Garry had seemed to accept his continuance there at camp as a matter of course, and for that very reason neither Fat Joe nor Steve had dignified the thought of his possible departure by so much as a single spoken word. Garry’s own actions first began to indicate how incessantly he was debating that question within his own brain. And one night toward the end of the week he finally reached the point of voicing a decision which was old in anticipation to Steve and Joe. They were on the point of going to bed. Garry had risen and then paused. He hesitated and crooked his arms and yawned a trifle too carelessly that evening. “Well, this finishes another day,” he remarked, nor did he realize how soulful were the words. “And I cleaned up the last of the stockroom today, Joe. A swift but accurate workman, eh? I’ll leave behind a record unblemished by oversight or sloth. And now —now it’s about time, I suppose, I was going back to town.” " , It was otit, nor could the yawn conceal his eagerness. His back was turned, but Steve knew what light was in his eyes. Steve’s carelessness was a far neater thing than Garry’s had been. “What’s your hurry?” he inquired easily. “Why rush away? And if you think your industry has betrayed you into Idleness you’re reasoning poorly tonight. Want another, job?” Bantering indifference was the keynote of that reply. Mutually they had adopted it from the very first. It smacked of the freemasonry which always marked Steve’s conversations with Fat Joe were they earnest or frivolous beneath the surface. It is always recognizable in the speech of friends such as they, differentiated from actual In difference by an intimacy of inference between the-lines which makes such discourse almost foreign to uninitiated

“Let it stand, Joe," he directed.

ears. But Garry’S answer was not Ifi kind. Steve was caught so far off his guard by the question which came flinging back at him that he was glad Garry had not turned. “What else is there I could do?”, No man save one who was very, very tired could have spoken in such a tone; no man except one who has tried himself in the highest of courts—his own' 1 opinion of himself —could have put such a degree of contempt into so simple a query. “Why—why”— Steve faltered, and then he took .command of his own wits again. “There’s work enough, don’t doubt that,” he exclaimed, and laughed a little. “Joe< here will be another week or ten days finishing with the fill up yonder. He’ll do well if he manages it by then and that, too, with every available hand we have. I don’t want to rob him of a single man if I can help it, but I’ve got to go ahead with the line to the south.. To put it concretely. I’m in need of a rodman. Do you think you'd care to oblige?” Again the hint of banter persisted, but Garry’s jaw was tight when he faced suddenly around. “I will”’ he flashed back hoarsely. “I will if it’s a man’s job. But I’m done with filling a dinky pad with rows of figures all day long. ( I’m finished wltfi this dry tallying of cans of beans and soap and yards of rope. Doyon understand? What work would I have to do?” ~ Out of the corners of his eyes Steve

sawconsternation overspread Fat Joe’s face. Ills own was only amused. “You’ll have to swing an ax,” he enumerated slowly, "and you’ll have to lug a rod and tripod. You’ll wade through bog and fight your way through underbrush. And then, for variety, swing an ax some more. If you’ve never learned yet what it is to be really tired, Garry; if you’ve never known what it is to go to bed wishing morning would never come, you'll find out what that’s like too.” As soon as it was spoken Steve recognized the slip. Watching Garry’s eyes widen, he knew that Garry had caught it also. For a moment a torrent of words trembled on the latter’s lips, and then he swallowed and nodded shortly. The vague dreariness of his acceptance was fully as electrical as the threatened outburst might have been. “I’ll try It,” Garry sald very simply. “I’ll have a try at It tomorrow.” And he pivoted on his heel and passed out. •" Some minutes after he had gone Fat Joe, still a little dazed, rose softly and unostentatiously, crossed to a shelf shoulder high on the wall and reached to remove a quart bottle of brandy which Steve, returning home soaked through and through, had brought out and left standing there. But Steve checked him in the very middle of that act.

“Let it stand, Joe,” he directed. “Leave it where It Is.” As slowly as he had reached for it Joe started to put the bottle back. The very ' briefness of that order should have been warning enough, but Joe foundft Impossible to keep to himself his disapproval. “All right,” he acquiesced, “only I can’t help remindin’ you just the same that when a horse Is runnin’ his heart out it’s kind of superfluous to lay on the whip." And then the whole accumulation of those days of silent perplexity, of Indecision and fruitless mental forays spilled over upon Fat Joe’s entirely innocent head. Steve shot around and leveled a peremptory finger. “Whip—be hanged!” he barked, “Put that bottle back!” Joe’s fingers came away as though the glass had blistered them. “Land's sakes!” he exclaimed, and in a voice that was chastened and meek when he had caught his breath, “Please, and it’s back!” Chronic ilj temper could hardly have persisted in the face of that reply, and Steve’s had been but a mood. His first chuckle was in itself a plea for pardon. He suppletnented it aloud. “I’m sorry, Joe—l’m worried. I’ve got a jbb on my hands that bothers me. It appears to be simple enough until I get to planning how to tackle it, and then I can't make any headway at all. But there Isn’t anything to be gained in hiding that stuff; that’s one of the things I need to know. It’s better where it is.” Joe waved a hand In bland dismissal .of the apology. “My mistake,” he averred, “though your harsh words have hurt me sore. I don’t quite savvy it yet, but It’s your affair, not mine.. You’re dealln’ and bankin’ the chips.. And *hpfore now I’ve seen lots of well meanin’ bystanders get all mussed up from tryln’ to horn into another man’s pastime. I’d ought to have knowed better.” (To be continued.)

Men Drilling for National Preparedness

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Farms for Sale! 10-ROOM HOUSE —Modern, on three lots, three blocks from court house. 7-ROOM HOUSE—WeII, cistern, city water, electric lights, bath; two blocks from court house. Will trade either or both for farm. SIO,OOO in mortgage notes of different denominations to trade for land. ONION LAND—As good as the best, at low price. 30 ACRES —All in cultivation, on pike, near station and school and lies along dredge ditch. All clay subsoil. No buildings. Price $65. Terms to suit. 35 ACRES —All black prairie land, in cultivation, at head of dredge ditch which gives good outlet. It lies on pike, R. F. D. and telephone. There is station, tworoom school and new church at corner of farm. There .is a twostory six-room house, outbuildings, good well and fruit. Price $75. Terms SSOO down, remainder easy. 40 ACRES—On public road, 30 acres prairie and 10 acres woodland, no buildings. Owner of this 40 acres has a mortgage note of $1,065. He will trade either or both for improved farm and assume. Price of 40 acres $45; Has school fund loan on 40 acres of SBOO. 100 ACRES—BO acres cultivated, 20 timber. Seven-room house, outbuildings, well and fruit; three miles from two towns and mile from pike. Price $47.50. Terms SBOO down. Owner would take a clear property as first payment. 120 ACRES —This tract of land lies on main road and half' mile from Pike. .100 acres is level and good soil. 20 acres is rolling and sandy. It is mostly timber land and is fenced and used for pasture. Price $35. Terms SSOO doWn. There is a long term loan on this land for $2,000 at 6 per cent. Owner will trade his equity for property or western land.

Colds Weaken B ■ w They are e yen more dangerous than winter colds, for they hang on so long that they become chronic catarrh. Heat and dust aggravate them, cause the infected surface to J spread, and fill the body with systemic catarrh. Neglect costs health and energy. PERUNA EXPELS CATARRH It does more —it builds up the weakened system, regulates the digestion, removes the inflammation, overcomes the poisons of catarrh, and invigorates all over. Forty-four years of success proves its great value, of which thousands gladly testify., ? Accent the verdict of two generations yourself. Don't be swayed by prejudice, when your health is at stake. Take Peruna and get well. Liquid or tablet form, whichever is the more convenient. The Peruna Company, Columbus, Ohio

80 ACRES —Cultivated, at head of dredge ditch, on pike, % mile from station. Five-room house, good barn, chicken house, Cellar and two wells. Price SBS. Loah $2,000. Will trade equity for good property. IGO ACRES —This is a good farm in good neighborhood. There is a good eight-room house with cellar, large barn, both new and painted; also a number of outbuildings; lots of all. kinds of fruit. This farm has good outlet for drainage and lies u mile from station, school, church and pike. 140 acres in cultivation and 20 acres pasture and timber. It is nearly all black land. Price SBS. Terms $2,000 down and long time on remainder. Owner will take clear property as first payment not to exceed $5,000. 75 ACRES—A beautiful home and fine location. This farm lies on Jackson highway five miles from this city. It Is all cultivated, tiled and has nice set of buildings, well and fruit. Price $135. Terms $2,000 down. 100 ACRES—This farm Is on Jackson highway, is well tiled and all good corn land, except a sow acres in timber and pasture. Has splendid barn and three-rooin house and good well. This farm is six miles from this city. Price SBS. Terms $1,500 down. take clear property. GEORGE F. MEYERS, Rensselaer, Indiana.

* FARM FOR SALE This farm, located 4 miles northwest of Rensselaer, Indiana, consisting of 131 acres, all tillable, well tiled, entirely fenced and cross-fenced- £ -with four-foof woven wire and cedar posts; land fertile and productive, cattle having been fed on the land for several years. Greater portion or soil is black sandy loam, except about 8 to 10

Office Supplies and Stationery In addition to The Democrat’s facilities for furnishing any and all kinds of job and commercial printing, we carry in stock in our office supply and stationery de= partment practically everything used in that line. When you need anything in the office supply or stationery line The Democrat can furnish it. Herewith we present a partial list of the articles furnished and carried in stock:

Warranty Dqeds Quit Claim Deeds Real Estate Mortgages (short form) Real Estate Mortgages (long formX; Chattel Mortgages Releases of Mortgage Mortgage Notes Assignments of Mortgage Grain Rent Farm Leases Cash Rent Farm Leases City Property Leases Contracts for Sale of Real Estate* Affidavits for Sheep Killed School Transfer Certificates Receipt Books Fairbanks Scale Receipt Books Road Tax Receipt Books Township Poor Order Books Typewriter Ribbons Typewriter Papers, legal and other sizes Lead Pencils Carbon Papers Ideal Account Files Fillers for Ideal Account Files Library Paste Loose-leaf Ledgers

Jasper Rensselaer, Indiana

acres, which is especially adapted tor truck raising or onions. Farm is on one of the main traveled stone roads, and is only a few minutes run to Rensselaer, the. county seat of Jasper county, and a splendid city of about 2,800 inhabitants. Improvements are largely, new and substantial, consisting of fair house, good horse barn, good well and windmill, engine house, shop, cattle barn, nearly new, 40x60; 14 0-ton cement silo, feed room, feed cook house and bin, 2 new corn cribs, 3 agricultural implement sheds, chicken house, 2 large galvanized water tanks and one cement water tank, milk house with running water, and nearly new 4ton stock scales and rack. In addition to the above, have one of the best feed lots in the country, account the soil being sandy, and on this account never gets muddy; also a fine young orchard, just beginning to bear. Will also include with the farm, or sell separate, one International Mogul 8-16 kerosene tractor, bought new in 1916. This engine pulls 3 14-inch plow’s, 2 7-foot discs and 3-section harrow, ensilage cutter, 2 binders. In fact, does all the heavy work about the farm much cheaper than it can be done with horses. Engine is guaranteed to be in good first-class condition, and with proper care will give years of service. I am offering this splendid farm for sale on account I wish to locate in the, West the coming year, and for the person that wants a good hdme close to schools, - churches and a first-class town, this farm cannot be beat. Good school within less than a quarter mile from the dwelling house. For prices, terms and any other information call on Or address the owner, CHAS. H. PORTER, Rensselaer, Indiana, Lock Box 192. j 9

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