Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 2, Number 44, DeMotte, Jasper County, 16 March 1933 — EVENTS LEADING UP TO THIS INSTALLMENT [ARTICLE]

EVENTS LEADING UP TO THIS INSTALLMENT

“Tom” Belknap, big timber operator, ordered by his physicians to take complete rest, plans a three months’ trip abroad. Promises of advancement he has made to his son John are broken, and the young’ man is indignant. Paul Gorbel, Belknap’s partner, is a bone of contention. Father and son part without an understanding. At Shoestring, his train delayed by a wreck, John is ordered to leave at once. He refuses. After a fist fight, his attackers realize it is a case of mistaken identity. John learns his father is believed to be out to wreck the Richards lumber company. Bewildered and unbelieving, he seeks employment with that company. At the office he finds Gorbel bullying a young girl, and throws him out. Gorbel does not recognize him. The girl is Ellen Richards, owner of the company. A letter he carries gives John's name as John Steele, the Belknap being dropped inadvertently, and John, knowing the feeling against his father, allows Ellen to believe that is his name. Ellen engages John as her superintendent. A series of underhand tricks designed to handicap operations of the Richards company culminates in the deliberate wrecking of a locomotive drawing a snow plow. John, admiring Ellen’s bravery under the conditions, begins to have a sentimental attachment for the girl, which is returned.