Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 July 1917 — Page 7

SATURDAY, JULY 14, 1917.

Then I'll Come Back to You

By LARRY EVANS

Author of v 1 "Once to Every Mui” CL9 Copyright, 1915. by the H. K. Fly Company y '

SYNOPSIS Caleb Hunter and his sister Sarah wetIgome to their home Stephen G 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 to rich. The O'Hara boy falls In’ love with her. She la ten. he fourteen. ■me boy and girl are in a parry tc*£ sc to town. The old people watch with coreera the youth's growing attachment for the girl. Caleb la much Impressed with the boy's Ideas on the moving of timber. He predicts a great future for the lad. O'Hara whips Archibald Wickers? - am in a boyhood fight over Barter*. She takes Wickersham’s Bide, and Stephen leaves tor parts unknown, saying. “I’ll come back to you.” Tears later the boy returns as a mu. He la a contractor. Sarah welcomes him. Barbara Is a beautiful woman. traiara suspects there is a plot to proVent his successful completion of a rail* rotd and that Barbara Alltoon's father and Wlckersham are. to it O’Hara meets Garry Deveneau. with Whom Barbara's closest friend is In love. O’Hara starts to reform him. O’Hara meets Barbara Allison on the road. There is a play of words In which both seek to conceal their feeling. ■Wlckersham notices that Barbara and Stephen are together a great deal Miriam Burrell, Barbara's frieijd, sees and understands the black rage that shadows hU face. O’Hara daily becomes more coEvhaeed that some one is trying to stir up trou t ,e among his men. ) « ' . Wlckersham and Allison have a coat France. They agree that Harrigar. ’their tool, has messed things trying to stir u; trouble among the men. O’Hara assures tbs' men that as b-rg as they work for him they need Lave no fear He checks an incipient strike. O’Hara cheers Devereau with the Information that Miriam Burred cares far hah despite his unhappS’ past- \ . O’Hara arranges a meeting' berweer Garry and Miriam. Garry n a ,or.ger is a drunkard. O’Hara has worked wonders With him. ° O’Hara returns to find the reconcii iat ior of Garry and Miriam. Barbara, is present, ■nd her comments puzzle Stephen. - n&ran says -_r.-? »ne regerwanon ui Garry is set r-- things thst. made her life most happy. \ Sarah plans a meeting betweea Stephen and Barbara. Womanlike, afce la comvlnced that, despite her engagement to Wlckersham, Barbara cares far •’Mars. CHAPTER XIXI Setting the Stage. T""| HERE are two interviews which should be mentioned here if for no other reason BBi than merely because they were both so entirely the outcome of Miss Sarah’s Chrtotma®.party. Neither of them was long. The last one which took place between Wickers ham and the girl he was to marry was the briefer of the two. But her prettily serf ous argument that the Ist of May was too early a date for their wedding la view of the work which he had to do and her own state of unpreparedness left him so white of face that she felt guiltily sorry for him for many days to follow—felt guiltier still at the relief she experienced when she had established that reprieve. The other inter view was longer and took place days earlier, but it was no more of a deligh; to Archibald Wickersham. Dexter Allison had returned home al most a week in advance of his daisgh ter, pleading stress of business, but in spite of the demands npon his time and attention he had found it impossible to forget the night of the dinner, when ho had watched his daughter's eyes upon Stephen O’Mara's face. He had been troubled more than little since his Christmas trip io Mar rlson. The night before New Year's Wlckersham was announced at 9. He was thinking of Barbara's mother when he beckoned his guest to a chair, shook his head over his red cheeks and offered a cigar. V, “Devilish cold weather,” he grunted none too graciously, for he had not wanted to be disturbed just then. The yonnger man admitted that it Was. His mind plainly was not upon the weather, but he found difficulty in Introducing a topic of his okn choosing. Outspokenness had never been one of Archie Wickersham’s boldest characteristics, so Allison assisted him now. Allison liked a man to be outspoken. “Well,” he demanded, “let's hear it What’s on your mind?” / There are times when hatred will betray almost any man. Hatred now led Wlckersham to speak not wisely, but with venom. ’ “I want yon to refuse to renew your name on the East Coast notes.” he said. “They are dues on the second.” Few men had ever said *T want you to” to, Dexter Allison and, as be put It. “got away with it to any great extent.” And of all nights this one In particular was the least likely to prove propitious for such an attempt. That was Wickersham's oversight. “So!” said Dexter. “So! Well, now for your reason.” Wlckersham had not learned until after Barbara’s departure that she was spending the holidays in Morrison, for he had himself expected to be away. And it Is only fair to the girl to say that she had honestly forgotten to apprise him of her plan, hi her real ex-

citement at going, but finding ft out for himself had not made the fact any pleasanter to Wlckersham. “It should be clear enough without explanation”—he enunciated each word nicely—“lf you want that road they are building.” Allison glanced up, surprised at the tone employed. “Mining of course I do,” he mused. “And yet—and yet I don’t know!” Fear burned in the tall, thin man's eyes that night—fear that made his hatred for the absent; man who was teaching him fear anything but a pretty thing to watch. ‘'l've tried to buy off their men.” He was holding himself with an effort that made him tremble. “I’ve held up tlieir supplies on every track that we control, but they've had the luck with them. They've made up lost time by working day and night. I've” — “You've set a drunken fool to steal his plans,drawled the other with deadly sarcasm, “like a second rate one night stand villain. Don’t forget to mention that too!” His lounging body shifted a little. “Archie, do you remember what I told you about that woods rat, as you called him once? Did I tell you that he 'Would fight? Well, listen, and listen closely, while I repeat it. for you. He hasn't even warmed to it yet!” Wlckersham went yellow at that, but his lev self control held firm. lie did not break into vituperation this nightHe smiled, though his voice was only a whisper. “Men have dropped out of sight before now in those woods,” he husked. “I’ll win or I’ll see that be lies and rots in one of his own sink holes.” A big yoice is a wonderful weapon at times. Allison’s booming bass made Wlckersham’s threat seem only mean and hollow when the heavy man leaped to his feet and shook a finger under that high bridged nose. “No, you won't!” he snapped. “No, you won’t! And if I didn't know, after hearing you talk, that you haven’t stuff

“It is wonderful—wonderful—wonderful!”

enough in you to be dangerous I’d fix you so you’d be in no condition to bashwhack anybody for the next six months. I’m in a bad mood tonight Drop out of sight, eh? You’ll play this fair—fair .at least as I see it by my standards, and they are better standards than yours. You’ve come dictating to me, ordering me to slip a knife into their backs. Are you that kind of a sneak? Did you think I was? Now. listen again, and listen well, for I mean What I say! “I want that railroad if the man who is building it is too weak to keep me from taking it away from him. But if I don’t get it on such a basis I’ll know that there is a man at the head of it who is big enough to take care of my share of it Have you got that? Very welt And now go back to your melodrama if you want to. Steal his men if he will let you. Fight him every inch of his construction—that is your, job—and I’ll still insist that It is his fault if he is tardy on the Ist of May. But it’s you and O’Mara from now on. Archie. I'll be a spectator now. And. by gad, don't you ever c»:cne, near me again with a request that I—don’t you ever let me bear you threaten that you”— Allison's face was suffused before he. finished, and Wickersham, astounded past utterance; slid from" his chair away from that flourishing band which had become a fist. It was ho scene to take place between a man and bis pnjspective son-in-law. Realizing that, Allison tried to laugh deprecatingly at his temper. »“Go out and get him. Archie,” he invited. “I’ll be watching, don’t doubt that. And I know how much you want to win. It’s a bigger stake than most folks realize!” The same day that more than half of O'Mara’s men went on strike and deserted to the reserve company’s payroll the news reached Allison that a trainload of laborers had been shot In to take their places— very types of laborers which Steve himself had warned Elliott would not last an hour in the event of trouble. For a week Allison wondered that there was no clash ■ between the displaced men who believed that the river was theirs alone and this new corps which Garry Devereau was handling at the lower end of construction, not by physical prowess, as Fat Joe had ruled, but just as surely and all because, as Joe himself put it, he could damn a

man merely by bidding him good morning. -’*• . “Honey crossed north today to have a look at his winter cut,” Joe would observe to his chief at supper at Thirty Mile, and before the night was many hours older Allison, too, in Manhattan, would have learned by wire in less picturesque phraseology that Archie, Wlckersham was missing no chances. “They have’ now finished hauling thpir logs to the river,” Joe told Steve one night after a prolonged scouting trip. “They are turning their attention to their float dams now.” And when that news was relayed to the big man who never ceased to watch he understood why there had been no violence when the rivermeil went on strike. It was the bitterest January that the hill country had known in twenty Jrears, but mile by mile that month the twin lino of steel crept steadily into the north under the urgings of Carry’s smooth voice. The snowfall for February broke all records for half that period, but Steve, with ills handful of men at Thirty Mile, put his piling down. And then it rained—it rained until small brooks ran torrents and the river tumbled white and thunderous its entire length. The snow went off the last of March that spring, and the gorges could not carry away the water. The sun turned summer hot. It burned the higher ridges dry while the valleys still lay hidden in flood. <• It was August temperature the third Sunday in April, when Stephen O’Mara stood ami watched beneath the gljjro of kerosene torches his bridge at Thirty Mile go Into position between dark and dawn. There was no man among them that day who did not show upon his face the strain they had been under. They were few, they were unsbpven and dirty and lean as hungry hounds, but they were the men whom Steve had ■once bidden Hardwick Elliott to tvatch, once they had begun to scent combat. Fat Joe was no longer plump. Steve was worn down to actual thinness. And it would have taken a careful eye to have selected the chief from their ranks that Sunday. The huge timbers had dropped into plaCe like bits of jig sawed puzzle. At 3 in the afternoon, too tired both in body and soul for elation, Steve watched them drive home the last spike and heard their hoarse effort at a cheer. He had turned to start toward his shack, not like a man who knows that the end of, a well nigh 'hopeless task is in sigtitTbut like a beaten man. The Ist of May meant Steve than any clause of the East Coast company's contract could convey. He had not had even one letter since be put her upon her train. Wickersham’s appearance on horseback at the bead of the valley, picking his way around the flooded meadow, halted him in his heavy footed climb. A whistle shrilled far to the south of them, down the completed track. And then, after ten years and more, they were face to face again. “That bridge will have to go down!” Wickersham Vas breathing hard, for all that he had been riding. “I am going through with my drive today!” He had dismounted. Steve smiled at him. “You’re a whole week previous, Wickersham,” he said wearily. “I’ll be signaling for your first load of logs in less than sixty hours.” Archibald Wickersham wished that he could have believed it impossible, for it would have given him courage and lent conviction to bis stand. But he knew just how fast those few remaining miles of open roadbed would be spanned. His eyes Were furtive. There was no body to his voice. “My men are on the banks,” he blustered. “My first head of logs has started down. It’s too late to argue how—too late for your promises that none but fools ever believed.” The sure irrevocability of what he was saying blanched his cheeks. “I cannot wait for a rpiracle to be performed. My timber must come out on this flood.” Stephen O’Mara had whipped him once, but men had interfered. This day chance or destiny or fate—what ever you may choose to call it—saved him from destruction. The lean and weary man who had not been out of hiS clothes for three days and three nights, save for a plunge in the icy river, had taken his first step forward when the whistle screamed a nearer warning. She had told him that she would come to see the finish of his race, but he had long since stopped believing that. And now, when she stood and waved her hand at him from the brass railed observation platform of AIII son’s private car which a switch engine, out of patience with the grade, was shunting across the IoWeF end of the clearing he could only stand ana stare dully, no faith in his eyes. The loud plaid of her father’s garb flashed behind her in the doorway. Hardwick Elliott’s fine face peered over his shoulder. And Wickersham, who had not , seen his fiancee in a month, had started toward them, stiffly erect in his immaculate habit. “You should not be here,” was all Steve said to her. “This is no place for you.” He shook hands with the men, mechanically. Allison quizzical, Elliott concerned. He went back to his bridge. The water had come up a half foot In the last few minutes some one—Fat Joe, perhaps—told him. It was suck ing greedily at the piles. And Iff the north the ominous murmflr had become a rhythmic roar. - Wickersham’s men were driving tha river. They were singing “Harrigan, That’s Me!” 4^ (To be continued.)

Subscribe for The Democrat.

TWICE-A-WEEK DEMOCRAT v

NUMBERS FOR REGISTRANTS

(Continued ffom pagfe six)

966 Woodhull Irvin Spitler 967 John N. Hofton 968 Robert Earnie Smith 969 Max R. Kepner 970 Floyd C. Amsler 971 Clemant Robert Gangloff 972 Carl Weickum 973 Russell Eli Critser 974 William Terpstra . . 97*5 John Kenneth Braddock 976 Warner Hough 977 Sampel Ray Laßue 978 John Putts 979 Chester Joe Sigman 980 , Fred Junior McColly 981 Clarence Vorne Sayers 9§2 Jerry Abram Branson 983 Louis Anthony Miller 984 Sherman Biggs 985 James Thomas Walter 986 George Berry Moelhman 987 George Alfred Donnelly 988 Joseph W. Nagel 989 Lewis Elzer Trussed 990 Paul Edward Donnelly 991 William H. McKinney 992 James Leroy Donnelly 993 Floyd H. Spain 994 Paul Lesh i 995 James. Moore 996 Dana Orlean Rishling 1)97 James Henry Platt 998 Dallas E. Norris 999, Harve Hemphill 1000 Orie N. Chupp 1001 Harry Eger 1002 John Thare Warne 1003 John Lawson Daniels 1004 John Luke Peterson 1005 Arthur Herrman Fletcher 1006 /Edward Booth 1007 Charles Fredrick Baker .1008 Philip Eugene Heuson 1009 John William Critser 1010 Albert Hudson 1011 Vern C. Davisson ,1012. Richard Plunkett 1013 Elmer Dani els 1014 Orval Hamilton Crisler 1015 Fenton Dean Merica 1016 Frank Thomas 1017 Paul Gregory Miller 1018 Harrison Casto 1019 Leo B. Lyons 1020 William E. Marlin 1021 Cecil John Potts 1022 Ross Porter \ 1023 Louis Aloyisus Moosmiller 1024 f Herbert C. Hammond 1025 Tony Apostol \— 1026 John Donnelly 1027 Earl Clouse 1028 Eugene E. Hasty 1029 Don Wright 1030 Ivan J. Carson " . 1031 George F. Moore 1032 John Henry Ramp 1033 Hawley T. Ramey 1034 Clarence Earl Garver 1035 Omar O. Osborne 1036 Orphia Hadelman Gant 1037 Floyd Griggs 1038 Howard Bayard Clark 1039 Daniel Vorhees Day 1040 Elmer Wiseman

FORD THE UNIVERSAL CAR Take Good our Ford car ls an investment _ , u which produces only when it is Care of Your working, jt mU st be kept in acI n vestment tive daily commission to realize the fullest value. To give this performance, the car, like any other piece of fine machinery, requires occasional mechanical attention. Ford owners are comparatively independent of repair shops—but when your Ford does need adjustment take it to an authorized Ford sales and service agency, usually just around the corner. There you will fined skilled Ford mechanics, genuine Ford-made materials, regular established Ford prices. Genuine Ford service is your guarantee of careful, efficient workmanship and satisfaction. You get genuine Ford service at the authorized sales and service agency listed below, or any other of the thousands of Ford agencies . throughout the country. Ford cars—Runabout $345; Touring car $360; Coupelet $505; Town car $595; Sedan $645, all f. o. b. Detroit. W. I. Hoover West Side An Ant Rensselaer Public Square Mj|vlll Indiana •••■•• 0 • .. •

1041 John Wesslie Williams 1042 Vernie Her bit Sanders, 1043 Frank W. Potts 1044 Floyd Meyers 1045 Roy Melvin Burch 1046 Charles Cecil Kiser 1047 Frank F. Hardman 1048 Charles R. Marlin « 1049 Chester L. Downs 1050 Gaylord Parker 1051 Wilson Elwood Harris 1052 Claude Byron-Harris 1053 Clifford Elvin Payne 1054 M. J. Wagner 1055 Carl Heinz 1056 Roseoe'V. Halstead 1057 Jas. M. Warner 1058, Ferdinand George Bachman •1059 Ellis Lowell Thomas 1060 William Henry Platt 1061 Richard E. Shirer 1062 Edgar Hiram Day 1063 Clark Warfel 1064 Clarence W. L. Knouff 1065 Joseph Woolever 1066 Harry L. D. Milner 1067 Lesley Miller 1068 Harve J. Robinson 1069 Emmet M. Laßue. 1070 Lew Robinson 1071 George F, Smith 1072 Henry Tresmer 1073 George Davis 1074 Elwood Henry Guilbransen 1075 Leo Ross Myers 1076 Roy Austin Myers 1077 William Roy Myers 1078 Forest McDade Collins 1079 Charles Nelson 1080 Harry Raymond Stalbaura 1081 Clayton Collins \ »1082 Earl Edward Michaels 1083 George Edward Jones 1089 Arthur Leiby 1085 George Washington Florer 1086- -John Daniel Mott 1087 -George Frank Galbreath 1088 Elmer Walter llunsieker 1089 Roy Elmer Florer , 1090 Ernest Aaron Asher 1091 Chas. A. Mvers 1092 Paul Lewis Frost 1093 Clarence Edward Stalbaum 1094 James Mize . 1095 Grover Mirt Creagmile 1096 Samuel C. Mize 1097 Hugh C. Mize 1098 Olan Curtis Minor 1099 John William Mills 1100 Homer Fishes 1101 Clarence Albert Armstrong 1102 Walter A. Houck 1103 John Shannan DeArmond 1104 Edward Henry Sands 1105 Gilbert Dunn Seegrist 1106 Francis Bernard Fitzgerald 1107 Guy Leon Minor 1108 Ahbra Brown 1109 * Samuel John Cullen 1110 x George Joseph Stalbaum 1111 Alfred Watson Cullen 1112 Willie Alfred Potts 1113 Francis Solomon MeCurtain 1114 Charles P. Potter 1115 Grover Cleveland Brown 1116 John Edward Healey 1117 Charles Nathan Webb 1118 Jacob Sanders Davis 1119 Elijah Cunningham 1120 Clarence Ernest Clemons 1121, Jerry Tullis

'1122 Stephen Stanilas Brusnahan 1123 Harry John Hermanson J 1124 Ernest Garriott 1125 Roscoe Reeder W 1126 Dennis Healey 1127 Fern on August. Schultz / J 1128 Otto John Makus ■ ; . j 1129 Louie Adolph Schultz j 1130 Henry Fred W. J. Krohm t 1131 Elicha Crockett Henry j 1132 Ptiston /.Henry a , . j 1133 Reinhoid Otto Schultz ij 1134 Leo Dt A. Schmitz i 1135 Russell Lesh i 1136 Alfred Eugene Longstreth { 1137 John Edward Murphy , 1138 Leo Enteger J* 1139 Addie Warran . ; 1140 Max Julius Schultz v ; 1141 William Teske 1142 Delos McClanahan 1143 Lonnie Davisson 1044 WinfrW Fremont Hurley 1145 Ross Albert Rowen , • --//-L 1146 Lee W. Bardin f U 47 Sewell Erastus Randolph / 1148 Menno Simeon Chupp 1149 Oman Stephen Bell 1150 Hally Orsal Alter - . 1151 Walter Eoudebush 1152 John Anthony Switzer 1153 Feraot 51. Schultz ~; 1154 Wm. Edward Longstreth 1155 Estel Charley George 1156 John Alexander Tilton"

HEAPING BENEFIT ' . r® From the Experience of Bensselaer v *. People. We are fortunate indeed to be able do. profit by the experience of our neighbors. The public utterances of Bensselaer residents on , the foliowinc subject will interest and benefit many of our reader*. Read this statement. No better proof of merit can be had: Joseph Smith.... retired farmer. Van Rensselaer St.. Rensselaer, says: T have had weak kidneys for My\back has . becomn stiff and.; sore and 1 -have had to get up and down -Very carefully because of\tbe -patn\j My kidneys have often failed to act right and the kidney secretions have been scanty and scalding in passage. I have felt weak and tired. Doan’s Kidney pills hate always, given me great relief.'* \ Price r . * dealers.- Don't simply ask for. a kidney remedy—get Doan's Kidney Pills —the same that Mr. Smith uses* Foster-Mil-* bum Co.. Props., Buffalo, X. Y. —■ Advf. / ■ 5 - \ . Ideal Account FTlea, f 1.50 each.—• The Democrat * fancy stationery department. F Kill All Flies! rs Die' n.» win »n«* \ “ Luts oil / IJLIS JtkV a* wartml. • on t split or «rt!lout mil or InUTf pn uienr. Saanuitewi

PAGE SEVEN