The Syracuse Journal, Volume 27, Number 10, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 28 June 1934 — Page 3

, THURSDAY, JUNE 2s, 1534

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CHAPTER IV erase The assistant general manager of the Rancho Valle Verde walked, with a jingling of spurs, into the cool, vineenclosed veranda where' Don Jahne lay at ease tn his chaise longue, while a nurse, almost old enough to be his mother, sat in an adjacent chair knitting. “Well, how's our boas, Mrs. GanbyF Ken Hobart queried. "His wounds have all healed by first Intention." the nurse answered". “1 should say he'll be up and around again in a month. Probably lame for a month or two thereafter. At any rate he loses me nexthveek.” “Why don't you remain here s do Don Jaime in tha eye for another , month’s salary and take a nice, quiet | vacation?” Hobart suggested. “I'd like to. but It be taking money under false pretenses. I like this ranch. It's no peaceful here," Mrs. Ganby said. “Every night I hear a coyote chorus from those buttes yonder.' It's thrilling. I dare say, Don Jaime, you find it rather dull here —such a young man as yourself." “I do not,” Don Jaime replied, almost curtly. “It li the home of my ancestors and I love it” “Don Jaime'resembles the Chinese. He worships his ancestors." Ken Hohart Informed her. “But he’s never lonely here. Too ranch to do.” “Why doesn't ho get married? Certainly he can afford a wife. Mr. Hobart." the good lady queried. “I only look after his cows and his lands, Mrs. Ganby." After the fashion of the men of wide horizons Ken Hobart was averse to discussing personalities. ‘ Tve brought the thail. Don Jaime," he added. “Thank you. Ken." “Don’t try to sort It,” Hobart urged. “The letter you're looking for lies on top. Tve slit all the envelopes for you." a Don Jaime redd his mail. Presently he looked up and there was a glint of deviltry In his black eyes. “Don Prudenclo Alviso writes me that he has been engaged by Miss Antrim as attorney for the estate: that Miss Antrim has given the Federal Trust company a check tn payment of the notes It held against the estate and that the bank has resigned as coexeyutor. Old Pnitlyr tells me that with his appointment he received • retainer of a thousand dollars and Instructions to secure a good man to count those sheep. Such generosity overwhelms him. As a sheep-counter he suggests you, old ICather-face, and 1 second the nomination. Ari honest count of those sheep to most desirable. Ken." "I could wish the job on some other honest man. Don Jaime." “Pah! We compliment you, man." “I’ll have to have help." “Ton will—a court order." Don Jaime lifted some very expensive stationery to his aristocratic nose and smelled It hungrily. “Attar of roses." he murmured. “I dare say that's as close as Til ever get to Miss Roberta Antrim. The lady says she's going to leave everything In her lawyer’s hands, with Instructions to consult with me. and whatever we two decide to do will meet with her approval She says she dreads coming down here in summer and she has accepted no many engagements of a social nature, that she just cannot contemplate abandoning her plans.” “Who to Roberta Antrim?" the nurse Inquired. “The niece and sole heir of the man Antrim I killed after he’d busted me. Mrs. Ganby. She doesn’t know Tm the bright boy that bumped old Tom off. I wrote her a chap named Jim Higgins had done It” Ken Hobart chuckled. “That’s his gringo alias, Mrs Ganby. The first Higuenes to be heard of in Spain was called Jam.es Michael Higgins. But the Spaniards gave It a Spanish twist. With the passage of time James Michael Higgins, the big Mick, developed into Jaime Miguel Higuenes. When did that happen. Don Jaime?" “When the first J. M. married a redheaded Spanish woman who insisted on spelling the name as It was pronounced. My ancestor was a goodnatured man; having taken on Spain and the Spaniards, he did not object Anything for the sake of family peace. So the tribe of Higuenes was born. The family migrated to Mexico early tn the Nineteenth century, and my greatgrandfather married the daughter of an Irishman who owned this rancho. That brought the Celtic strain up ra little. My grandfather added to it by marrying a girl who was half Irish, and when he looked at his offspring he was glad he'd done It He noticed the crons had Increased the height, breadth, general appearance, industry and tamper of the Higuenes tribe. We \ looked much more like Black Irish than Mexicans now, and were probably, a little more than half Celt. But we had Spanish customs and a SpanMh outlook on life and Spanish was our mother tongue. Also we had no reason to bo other than proud of our Spanish blood, so we never mixed It with Indian. When wo moved to Texas my grandfather fought under the Stars and Bara He cent my father to the Virginia Military Institute and father married a Carrol of Virginia and begot me." “Ton have never been married?” the nurse asked.

“Aren’t you going to be?" “I fear not. The loneliness here—the coyote chorus on the buttes —all militate, against it, Mrs. Ganhy.” “The right girl,” said Mrs. Ganby, “wouldn't mind it In the least. Go forth and search for her. Doo Jaime." “Impossible.” the master of Valle Verde replied lazily. “I have sheep on my hands.” “If I can credit the gossip I heard in Lus Algodones, you killed the own-

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“Impossible,* ths Master of Valls Verds Replied Laxily. “I Have Sheep on My Hands."

er of those sheep trying to get rid of them." | Don Jaime nodded, I “Well, why don't yoa get rid of them, tlien?” “The foreman, 818 Dingle, Is still living and in charge of those sheep. | He's a bad man and a better shot than old Antrim. Besides, If 1 get those sheep off my rang* dow. where will they go? Wiiy, to somebody else’s range, of course, and then there’d be trouble and we might lose Bill Dingle.” "So you’re putting op with those sheep on your range merely because thia Antrim girl is her uncle’s heir." “That’s the proposition.” “Why. Is she a friend of yours?" “No. I’ve never met her. But then no Higuenes has ever quarreled with a lady.” “I fall to see how you are going to escape a quarrel with her, Don Jaime. You killed her uncle.” Don Jaime winced. “Perhaps she will believe that I had no/alternative; that, not until after I had killed him, I did I know he was her nncle. In fact. I didn’t know I had killed anybody until Ken rode down the draw and informed me of my luck." •Well, the fact that you are being •o excessively nice to her since may mitigate the affair, although one can never predict the attitude a woman will take. A woman to usually guided by her heart, not her head, Don Jaime.* Don Jaime appraised the old nurse with kindly Interest. T take It, Mrs. Ganby, that you. are old enough to be guided by your head. , You told me are a widow. Have you any children r “One—a boy of fifteen. He has been quite crippled since his twelfth birthday. . Infantile paralysis.” Don Jaime considered thia. “Suppose you had a comfortable home where you could bo with your boy always—no necessity to hustle hither and yon nursing people? I should have a hostess here. For some time I have felt that Flavio's wife Is too—well, elemental, for the job. This hacienda should know a gentle worn an's management—at nurse’s wages. There are always some' puppies around here, and the boy could play with them. He could raise rabbits- and pigeons. I dare say. and If he can sit a horse Til stake him to a pretty little Sonora pony and a Mexican youth to look after him. I suppose you could carry on with his schooling—you know. It does get lonesome here sometimes.” "Oh. Don Jaime! You mean it!" He nodded. Td like to be able to invite nice' people to visit me. Mrs. Ganby. 1 should like to hart my friends from the surrounding country come to dinner oftener, but Tm never satisfied with the appearance of my board, the menu or the service. I have no time to train maids and housekeepers—and If I did I wouldn't know how.” “Yea. a man to very helpless. I should be glad to come, Don Jaime.* “You are very kind. Ken. you run up to El Paso and get ths boy. Mrs. Ganby will arrange that.detail with you. Now clear out and let me sleep." Mrs. Ganby, with tears of happiness In her middle-aged eyes, followed the assistant general manager Into the ranch office. "How long have you known Don JalmeF she asked Hobart. “A long time. Went to the state university with him. My father and I had a, cow outfit down in the Big Bend country but we went broke during the post-war deflation period. Don Jaime and I enlisted for the World war—and spent two years guarding ths border. At that wo dodged more lead than some of those who went to France. After the bank closed In on ths Hobarts I joined ths rangers; now Tve left them to work for Don Jaime." “He to congenitally magnificent.”

Ken Hobart laughed. “Always remembers he's muv caballero. Mrs. Ganby. He does things with a flourish. It Isn’t pose. His people have ! always done It. His father died when :he was twenty. He’s twenty-eight : now. His mother died giving him ' birth, ao you see he’s man-raised." 1 “Why do you suppose he engaged j me, Mr. Hobart? Do you th'nk he sus- ! pected he was doing a very wonderi ful thing for my bey and me?" I “Yes, I think so. Jimmy can see through a ladder. But he engaged you, principally, 1 think, because he wants the Casa Higuenes to be running in civilized fashion in case his luck holds and he should have the honor of entertaining Miss Roberta Antrim and her duenna.”, 4 "She’ll not have a duenna." “Oh, yes, she will You’ll supply that lack. Don Jaime Is very tactfuland formal.” “Why is he so Interested In the niece of this vicious old man he had to kill?” “Because Don Jaime Miguel Higuenes is a romantic Mick, that's why. He saw a fuß-page rotogravure plej ture of her tn the Suburban Gentle--1 man. and picked her for the mother of 1 his children." “Oh. dear, he’s quite hopeless! She | may photograph beautifully even with red hair, freckles and green eyes, but she may also be mean and selfish and irritating; she may be without manners." “In that event," said Ken Hobart, “she just won’t be the mother of his children. Don Jaime doesn’t want the Higuenes tribe to vanish from the earth, but he would prefer to have them vanislf rather than breed something Ignoble. Where will I find this boy of yours?" he demanded, to change the conversation. Tm starting for El J's so now." Mrs. Ganby wrote a note to the people with .whom she boarded her crippled son and returned to her patient. “What a charming man your Mr. Hohart is, Don Jaime!” she began. “He’ll do in a pinch”—laconically. “He Is very devoted to your interests.” Don Jfllme did not answer. His glance was out through the arched gateway, from which the road ran straight ..down the valley. A mile away a dust-cloud was gathering on that road. “Somebody is coming In a hurry,” he murmured. “When they hurry it’s always had news.” A solitary horseman galloped up to the gate, threw himself off and hurried up the steps. ‘‘Well, my friend?” Don Jaime queried in S;*anish. “What evil message do you bring and from whom?” “Thirty riders crossed the Rio Grande at daylight, senor. They are rounding up several hundred of the senor's' cattle. It is a raid.” "My thanks are my friend. They will not get far. Who sent you here?” “The American customs agent at v . Los Algodones. Don Jaime. He bids you send your riders to head -them off before they recross the river with your cattle.” “Return and tell him I have but forty men available. The others are attending a baile at the Rancho Verdugo. Forty men will he sufficient. I think. Return to the customs agent with my gratitude for his timely warning and tell him my men will start In ten minutes, perhaps less.” The man touched his hat, flung himself on his horse and galloped away. Don Jaime lighted a cigar and smoked contentedly, while Mrs. Ganby watebed him with alert curiosity. Presently Ken Hobart, arrayed in his “town” clothes, came to announce his impending departure, “Delay It until tomorrow, Ken,” his employer ordered casually. “I have , a job for you." And he recounted the tale brought by his recent visitor. “Take forty men and ride for the river. If this man’s tale is the truth you will have work there. I think, however, he lies. Have Caraveo arm the other men available and Instruct him to have them remain tn the bams with their horses until I send him word that he is not going to be needed." » "A plant, eh?” “I’ve been expecting reprisal, Ken. I told this messenger I had but forty men available but would send them Immediately. Go with them. Then we shall see that which we shall see. I smell sheep." Hobart departed to fulfill his orders, and Don Jaime stretched himself for his siesta. Suddenly be opened his eyes and ■ turned to Mrs. Ganby. “Please tell Flavio to assist me to enter my house.” he said. ’There to more dust to the south. We shall have visitors—about ten. I When the Indian came Don Jaime spoke to him tn Spanish. The old peon picked Don Jaime up tn his strong arms, carried him inside and told him on a sofa. Then he departed casually. “Yqg' will oblige me by locking and bplting that door, Mrs. Ganby," Don Jwme requested gently. Presently came the sound of hurrying feet on the veranda, and through the Iron-barred tiny window that gave on the veranda Mrs. Ganby saw men standing about There came a smart rap on the dor. “Who’s there?" Don Jaime challenged In a ringing voice. “Qulen esF “Open the door." trough voice commanded. “We want you and we’re going to have you.” “Ah. so It is my friend Bill Dingle. I have been expecting you. William, over since yon so thoughtfully sent one of your men with a false cry of raiders from below the Border. I sent forty men. Your lookout In the hills saw them ride out and when they bad passed you decided to come to my hacienda, deserted save for the women and children, and kill me In some unpleasant manner. Is It not so?" There was do answer to this and Don Jaime’s mocking laugh floated through the window. “Now, Dingle, my poor fellow, consider the situation. A hundred armed men surround this poor house of mine. Go you. Friend Dingle, to the patio entrance and look.”

THB mACUSB XTORKAL

* murmuring rose among the recent arrivals and one of them ran to the entrance of the patio. A volley of good old Anglo-Saxon curses echoed through the old-fashioned garden, then the man came running back to join his fellows. “Is seeing believing, Senor Dingier Don Jaime called pleasantly. / “You win, Higuenes." - "One by one you will go to the entrance and give up your arms to my riding boss. It would be madness to resist. You shall not be killed and presently you shall all return to your sheeps—l mean sheep. Forward! March!“ A moment’s hesitation, more lowvoiced colloquy, a curse or two, and the retreat to the entrance commenced. A few minutes later Enrico Caraveo, a little pockmarked Mexican, thrust a smiling, sardonic face up to the grilled window. “I have the honor to inform Don Jaime that his visitors await his pleasure” » « “Confine them in the barn under guard. Feed them." “Si, senor,” murmured the riding boss, and departed: chuckling. Mrs. Ganby. white-faced, speechless with terror, watched Don Jaime blowing rings. Presently he looked across at her, his eyes filled with musing, his white teeth showing in a gentle little smile. “It’s a great world. Isn’t It. Mrs. ■ Ganhy?” he murmured. “Please call | Flavio. I would return to the veranda." The nurse stood by his chaise longue after Flavio had deposited him qjice more therein. “Don Jaime Higuenes." she demanded. “after that exhibition of ingratitude on the part of those sheep men. i are you still going to permit them to trespass on your range?" Don Jaime raised a deprecating hand. “An Higuenes.” he assured her. I “does not quarrel with a woman." Mrs. Ganby's eyes blazed. “Now. at least.” she declared. T know why Cervantes wrote Don Quixote. Only a Spaniard could have conceived such a character and only a Spaniard could—could—could—” “Senora.” Don Jaime protested, “my name-Is Jimmy Higgins." Roberta Antrim’s limousine rolled up the graveled driveway to the wide portals of Hillcrest, and Harms, the butler, came down the steps and opened the door. “Mr. Latham cafne home an hour ago, miss.” he confided. "Something must have happened in the city today. miss. He’s worried—walking up and down the drawing room and talking to himself. I’m a bit worried about the master, miss.” "Thank you. Harms. You're very kind.” A foreboding of disaster brought Roberta flying into the living room. Crooked Bill sat huddled in a reading chair, his face in his hands, his attitude reminiscent of profound despair. “Uncle Bill! What's happened?" Crooked Bill’s old hands merely clasped his features tighter. He wagged his head and moaned. “I’m through. My brokers sold me out this afternoon. Oh, Bobby. Bobby, what a massacre! I stayed as long as I dared, but when the last jump, came I realized that only a crazy man would continue In this crazy market I declined to invest another dollar — for the reason that I didn't have it I told my brokers I’d gone the limit and to sell me out. I’m all washed up.” “Must we leave Hillcrest?” Roberta queried in a strangled voice. “We must," Crooked Bill replied heroically. “I have enough to pay off the servants and maintain us in respectability at some modest hotel until we can look around and see what the future holds for us. but after that—" “After that I'll take care of you, dear Uncle Blit" Roberta’s voice was tender, the touch of her lovely cheek to Crooked Bill’s wrinkled jowls was very soothing to that wretched wreck of a financier. “Sheep are up and so to wool. Uncle Bill Don Prudenclo Alviso writes me that Uncle Tom’s sheep are worth at least two hundred thousand as they stand, and he has overhundred thousand pounds of wool in transit to a wool house to Boston. And good wool to quoted to today’s paper at thirty cents a pound. Uncle Tom has a ranch of sorts also. Don Prudenclo doesn't think much of It snd says it to not of ready sale, but we can live there and carry on In the sheep business—" "You have no conception of what you are proposing to me." Crooked Bill groaned. "Sheep are terrible.” “Well, you've always taken care of me, haven’t you, darling-? What a poor sport I’d be to desert you when you’re down and out No. no, dear. Well battle along together to the last sheep." Unde BUI Latham sighed abd gazed drearily out the window. Ts you’d only fixed it up to marry Glenn Hackett—" Ts we didn’t have these she«p and the wool Td marry him and risk learning to love him, just to J eep you from worrying about me,” Roberta assured him heroically. “But of course, thanks to that odious Jim Higgins. I find rayself In rather an Independent- position. We will seD off all the sheep and wool and live comfortably and economically on the income from that until —•“

“Hackett to coming for dinner,* he Interrupted. “Be nice to him. He’s my attorney, of course, and I’ll have to tell nlm what's happened to me. Promise me, Bobby, that If he renevts his suit you'll accord him kindly and respectful consideration.” In her great distress at the catastrophe which had overtaken her guardian Roberta was in a mood to promise anything—and did. Crooked Bill appeared to rally immediately. Roberta waa dressing whoi Mie heard Glenn Hackett's car rolling up the driveway. She looked out her window and called, “Hello, old Sttck-te-the-mud! How are yon?" He favored her with a not very erattinytastic wave of We hand (TOM CONTTNITED.) TRY A JOURNAL WANT AD

| FARM PICTURE IN U.S. SEEN " CHICAGO, 111. —The American farm situation today contained a number of unusual circumstances. The agricultural status at a-glance Farm commodity production decreased by sustained drought. Feed limited and more expensive, with much of 290,000,000 bushels of corn sealed in cribs under loans of 45 cents a bushel unavailable. Corn now about 11 cents higher than a year ago and worth that much more than the price at which loans were made, permitting farmers in parts of Illinois and lowa to sell cash grain profitably. Wheat 25 Cents Higher. Government permitting partial payments of loans for release of corn in feeding. Wheat at a price high enough that importation of cheap Argentina grain despite 42 cents duty is technically possible, although not probable. Wheat is about 25 cents higher than a year ago. Hog prices about $1.26 lower than a year ago. Cost to packer is actually greater because of $2.25 processing tax a hundredweight, distributed indirectly back to producers. Cattle about $1.60 higher than a year ago. Thousands of cattle and hogs being sent to market in poorly fed condition, swelling supply and unsteadying market. Buying 15,000 Hogs Daily. Government buying 15,000 hogs a day for relief and. beginning purchase of 1,200,000 head of droughtemaciated cattle. Rail rates cut for movement of live stock from distressed areas, but executive embargoes against shipment of cattle into Minnesota and North Dakota for feeding in effect. Cotton price more than $2 higher | than a year ago. Production of wheat, cotton, corn : and hogs retarded through operation of tjje agricultural adjustment act. Estimated wheat production of 638- • 000,000 bushels despite drought, plus 250,000,000 bushels carryover, giving supply which is approximately 66,000,000 bushels less than the five year average. Great Grain Stocks Stored. Edward A. O’Neal, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, asserted the immense carryover ' of wheat and corn reserves and other grains is important in forming a true picture of the domestic food situation. Tt must be realized,” he said, “that great stocks of grain are stor- I ed in this nation, so that a food shortage, despite drought and loss, is exceedingly remote.” Meanwhile, he said, rising prices of farm commodities is encouraging to farmers who hold their grain or have been able to retain some equity in storage supplies and to those whose crops will not be destroyed totally. He termed recent price gains, especially in grains, “most helpful” to all producers. Wheat Importation Unlikely O’Neal said it is extremely unlikely importation of Argentina wheat or any other wheat would be allowed or necessary. Hogs, he said, are bringing better prices to the producers than a year ago. The intense drought, 'unofficial estimates indicated, has brought about an all-time record deterioration in

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wheat. A probable winter wheat harvest of at least 40,000,000 bushels under government estimates of a month ago is predicted by grain statisticians in Chicago. 'One said the great wheat surplus would be eliminated. Another, B. W. Snow, asserted it was possible that at the end of the next crop year the United States would possess wheat stocks below the margin of national safety. — q CULLING SHOULD CONDUCTED ON YEAR-ROUND BASIS LAFAYETTE, Ind.—Culling, as Cracticed .by the better 4 poultry reeders, is no longer confined to one single handling in late summer, according to Stephen M. Walford, Purdue University Extension Poultry man, who points out that there is no time of the year when all the characteristics of a good breeding bird can be observed at once. Walford refers to a close study of the inheritance of egg production, conducted at the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station, which showed that five factors make for | high records, and that each is sepI arately inherited. He declares that all five can be identified by an obI servant poultry raiser, and undesir- ; able birds discarded as possible ; breeders, by observing the follow- [ ing points: >« 1. Early Maturity. Cull out the last 10 to 20 percent of each brood of pullets to come into egg production. 2. Absence of Winter Pause. Do not use as breeders those pullets , which go out of production during the winter months. In the event of j disease outbreaks, or radical changes in management, however, this detail must be overlooked. 3. Absence of Broodiness. Mark the pullets that go broody, and discard them on their third broody spell. As the flock improves in this respect, two, one, and finally no broody periods should be tolerated. 4. Persistency. As the flock goes out of production and into a molt in the summer the “earliest quitters” should be discarded. 5. Intensity of Production. Since bleaching of the yellow color in the beak, shanks and skin of yellow skin varieties is most intense in the birds that lay the greatest number us eggs per month, save as breeders the birds which show the most bleaching. Since the male birds contribute

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equally with the females in transmitting these characteristics, only males should be used whose dams are equal to or better than the breeding flock females in these qualities. “To round out such a breeding program,” Walford says, “all breeding birds should be free froin Standard defects, and show reasonable adherence to breed characteristics; all hatching eggs should be carefully selected for size, shape, Snd shell color and texture; all chicks should be culled before putting them in for the brooder house; and all broilers and pullets which fail to feather at broiler age should be marked so that they will never be used as breeders.” 0 Now since Victorian styles are com ing back again, wonder how long it will be before the young folks take up chewing tobacco? — —0 When the sage of old said “*Tis ah ill wind that blows nobody good” he didn’t know anything about saxophone players. }

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