The Syracuse and Lake Wawasee Journal, Volume 14, Number 6, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 2 June 1921 — Page 3

AtAIE OF TKE FULTWOODiS 1 -nI ■ I A AbAVID AHDEESONM ' ‘lk/'''" COPYRIGHT BY THE SOBBS-MERRI LL COMPANY

• SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER I.—Never having known his father, and living with his mother on a houseboat On the Wabash river, "The Pearlhunter"—the only name he has—learns from her a part of the story of her sad life. The recital is' interrupted by a fearful fit of coughing and he hurries ashore to seek a root that affords rebel'. Returning with the root, he meets a young girl whom Im mentally christens the "Wild Rose.” Sb» eludes him before he can make her acquaintance. CHAPTER II.—A vacant cabin on the shore has attracted the attention of, the , ailing woman, and they tnove into it. ! Their first meal Is interrupted by a stranger who resents their presence. The youth drives the man from their home. His presence has strangely affected the mother. That night the youth finds within a mussel the 1 irgest pearl that has been found on the river, the "Blue Moon.” Returning exultant to the cabin, he discovers his mother dead, she having sue- , cumbed while endeavoring to leave a message revealing the secret of his parentage. ’ CHAPTER ill.—At the village of Fallen Rpck, to which he takes the gem for safe keeping, the "Pearlhunter" meets the stranger who had disturbed his mother in their cabin, and insults him. Ihey part as bitter enemies. CHAPTER IV. — In the village the "Pearlhunter” sees the girl who had attracted his attention in the woods. She ds annoyed by the stranger, arid the j "Pearlhunter” rescues her from his un- I welcome attentions. He accompanies her to her home. CHAPTER V.—At the house he’ meets ’ the father of his "Wild Rose,” Jcnown to the locality as the “Wild Man,” mentally j irresponsible as the result of a wound received from a man wearing a red mask, a notorious desperado. The youth declares his intention of devoting the money he is to get for the pearl to pacing for a surgical operation which will restore the old man's reason. I ’ It was far past noon when the white gkiff drew tip to the wharf. A crowd, (mostly river men. was there to meet it —and more coming. It seemed everybody in Buckeye knew what was going on. In front of the Mud Hen the little Jew paused, rolled his furry tongue, and jerked his hand toward the door. The Pearlhunter shook his, head. I “Walt till we get back from the bank.” The Jew stabbed the air with his ex- I pressive hands. q i “Himmel! It’s on me I” Bnf the Pearlhunter was far too wise to fall for that trick. “Thanks,” he said. “But business first.” He strode on toward the bank. The Jew trotted along beside him. The crowd followed. The old banker invited them back into his private office and shut the ■ door. It was the first time the Pearl- I hunter had ever been farther in a bank i than the lobby, and only once in his ! life that far. The solid and subgtan- ( tlal luxury of the placlrwrt>&_tr revelation to him, even a matter of intense curiosity. But the cumulative effect of it was to give him courage, to make ( him feel he was somebody. ’ It seemed to the Pearlhufiter that the banker was gone a long time when he went to bring the pearl from the safe. When he finally re-entered the ! private office the owner of the pearl saw why. He had hunted up somewhere about the bank a small box, a tiny jewel case, covered with green_ plush, and was carrying the pearl in it—a little thing, but very graceful and gracious, the act went to the heart of the Pearlhunter and immensely Increased his confidence and selfrespe<rU. which was probably the very thing the wise old banker hoped it would do. Louie Solomon knew fresh water pearls. Probably there was no greater expert living. His first glance at the Blue Moon, when the lid of the tiny plush case was raised, betrayed him. Forgetful of the level eyes watching his slightest move, studying his every expression, he pounced upon the glorious jewel and caressed ithvith his hands, devoured it with his protruding eyes—the crafty trader lost for the moment in the expert; the Jew in the man. But it was only for the moment. The enthusiast vanished; in his placs the hard-faced trader. He straightened; set the box, with the lid still up, on the table that occupied the center of the office floor, and looked around at the others. “So-o—!” he said, with a slither of his hand toward pearl—a gesture only Louie Solomon could make. _ “Undt dot iss it for which d’e pearl fishers should go crazy.” But even Louie Solomon couldn’t quite put over his accustomed bluff In the face of such a gem. It drew his eyes back in spite of him. Taking a lens from his pocket, he stooped over it again. 1 “You no see dot flaw?” he said, after a short inspection. The Pearlhunter took the lens and looked with quick, studied care. Sometimes the most, perfect pearl will develop a flaw in ripening. “No,” he answered, handing back the lens. “Neither do you.” It was a straight thrust. The buyer flushed and studied his man. Who w’as this Pearlhunter, anyhow? “Veil, how much you want it?” “I told you.” The Jew ridiculed the idea with his hands. ’ “I t’ought you make me some foolishness. You dond’t can meant it?” . k “You’ve got a good chance to find

The Jew stooped again over the i pearl, rolled it about upon the plus.h 1 cushion Inside the tiny jewel case, took a small pair of calipers from bis vest pocket and measured it, not only to determine Its size but its roundness as well. The old banker looked across ' the table and winked at the Pearlhunter —a very distinct and unmlstak- , able wink. A dry grin puckered the young niton’s eyes. It's not every pearl : fisher that gets winked nt by a banker, i ! Solomon looked up after a while and growled: “I gift' you free t’ousan’.’’ . ‘ Tl.e banker started. But the Pearlhunter said: “If it ain’t worth more than that. 1 i might as* well go down to Mud Haul j and fish for bullheads.” Louie Solomon swore—a stiff little run of what the Flatwoods calls “keen ’ cussin’.” His -eyes stuck out; he 1 stormed back and forth across the j floor a time or two. muttering to him- ; self in Yiddish, a language in which | he doubtless swore more comfortably. It was the “squirrel” whisky. Louie knew better, too?* But the tempest was soon over. He ’ stopped at the corner of the table, his face smoothed serene as a garden— | and like a garden, the better lor the 1 : atorm. I ■■■■■ 1 ■ A -- ,|W ~ /I,\ V ! “Veil, How Much You Want It?" j “Louie, 1 many times say to mlne- ■ self. Louie, you got it too much big hearted to be a pearl buyer yet. 100 much soft-hearted you got it. Hardhearted a pearl buyer should be. \on gift - too high, undt you sell too low. i Misses Solomon, she die in d’e poorhouse yet, haindt it? 1 gift - you four t’ousan’.” The Pearlhunter glanced across the ! table at the banker. “I reckon you might as well put it back in the safe,” he said. “He knows my price, and he don’t seem to want to do business,” •s. The banker picked up the little plush case, snapped the lid down, and started for the door. Taking the pearl from the room was like putting the light out. The Jew’s face was a study. He drew his sleeve across his brow. “Bring it back.” he cried. “Himmel! Y’ou pearl fishers iss all crazy. I gift . it de five t’ousan’.” CHAPTER VII. •— The, Face in the Draft. The hauler brought back the plush

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case and set It down Ln the table. The ■ Jew took out his check book and be- > gun to write. r~—' i The Pearlhunter never could re- > member the thoughts that came over him at that high moment of Ids life, i For all he could recall, there were no I clear thoughts at all.—just a loosening of the throat; a relaxing of the • muscles, as if he had dropped a load under which he had been Straining. ; He didn’t know it. but the old banker | was watching him. The old. embar- * Hissing question—what name to write in the check —brought him hack out of the fiaze. He noticed that the Jew’s hand trembled as he wrote. was an odd trifle to notice, but >t was the fine thing he could afterward clearly recall. The check, made out to “Pearthunter,” was in his fingers! Five thousand dollars —in words, and big plain, figures! It was the first check hi* had ever owned —the first one he had ever seen. He was si ill reading it. puzzling over It. when She hunker grasped his hand. The banker shaking hands with him! This was h : s day! “May 1 have the money on this?” “Why. my dear hoy.” the hanker answered. laughing, and slapping him on the shoulder., “there isn't that much cash in the bank.” That was a new one on the Pearl- . hunter. He had supposed a bank had ( in its vaults unlimited loads of money, i I “What will I do?” “Yon can draw part of It. and de- ? ; posit the rest to your credit.” All of which was a foreign language j I to the Penrlhnnter. “I didn’t want to use any of the | ! money.” he finally managed to say. “I , ' don't expect to spend a cent of it for j 1 —you know —small matters. I expect I I to leave it right here till 1 can spend i it for something—well—big. I just | wanted to show it to a—friend,” “You might show your—friend the check.” The banker stole a glance at Solomon gloating openly over the gem; now that the deal was closed. “No.” he continued, “there’s a better”— I safer, he was about to say. but didn’t —“way than that. Why not deposit 1 the check and take out a draft?” “Draft? What’s that?” The old banker reached his fingers up through his hair and studied the man before him. Sitting down at his desk, he wrote rapidly for a moment. “This is a draft.” he said, handing over the. slip he had been writing on I and taking the check in exchange. “It I is as good as gold anywhere, at any bank, any time. Show it to your friend, and I suggest that you after- I ward bring it back to the bank and : deposit it. I will then give you a t check book and show you how to use I It.” The Pearlhunter read the paper over with curious interest, put it in the big. formidable envelope the banker gave him for the purpose, and butI toned it away in an inside pocket of Ids blouse. The little Jew had by this time put the Blue Moon back in the plush case, put the case in his vest pocket, and ! pinned up the pocket. “Himmel!” he grunted, turning ■ away from the table. “You pearl fish- ’ ! ers Iss all crazy. I’d gift' it to you a J’ousan’ more.” “1 got my price.” | “Undt dot’s more as anybody got it i yet from Louie Solomon.” ♦ He»chuckled all the way to the door. A small crowd waited outside. Nobody knows how news leaks out in a small town. Not a man but knew how much the pearl had brought. One of the crowd, a lanky, one-eyed fisherman, sidled up to the Pearliiunter. j “Y’u got it, didn’t y’u?” The Pearlhunter was too slow, and i the little Jew answered for him. “Course he got It. What chance a pore devil pearl buyer got mit d’e whole town against ’Im!” That statement, or one like It, was what the crowd had been waiting for. The tension was over. The finding and selling of the famous gem, the most valuable pearl ever “h’isted” along the Wabash, was now history—Flatwoods history. The one-eyed fisherman chucked his hat up in the air and yelled—a lusty cheer, in which the crowd joined. One would have thought that each man there had sold a Blue Moon—or found one. The Pearl him iqr felt a good deal ii" BUTT & XANDERS ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW ’ Settlement of Estates and Opinions o Titles, Our Specialties. Fire and Other Insurance. Phone’7 SYRACUSE, IN

LAKE WAWASEE AND SYRACUSE JOURNAL

the cfowiT st*eme<T to feel —‘a loosening of the tension. For ffiut matter, the . fat little buyer seemed to feel some- : ! thing of the same relief. Caught up in ’ the crowd, both buyer apd seller were 1 swept across the road and into the ex- ! pectant door of the Mud Hen. The Pearlhunter hml just twenty-five i 'i doliers and twenty-seven cents in his mcket. He had counted it that mora- ? while wa’ting for l ouie Solomon to j cornr. It was rhe last cent after pay‘mg his mother's funeral expenses. He threw a pocket-worn tyvehty-dollar bill on the bar and motioned to the crowd. “Make it good whisky.” he said. “No goes this round.'’ He couldn’t have made a better speech, for the occasion. The crowd cheered. The little -lew said some- — ? — ! i ML fe_J ■ Jf'Mc LiWrPwww, WjSswq A 1 xi “Make It Good V/bisky,” He Said. - thing, but it coukfn’t 1 e heard. The bartender set out a? long row of glasses. The river* men grew suddenly quiet with the gurgle of the filling. Each man picked up a glass and stood waiting until every other man was servial. The Crowd was too occupied <Jo mnice it. but the Pearlhunter’s knees were fairly shaking under him ; his face set and pale. He - was about i to do the hardest thing he had ever ■ tackled in his life, even harder than I mentioning money to (he Wild Rose. He picked up his glass; set it down—pushed it back. “Water for mine!” To a man, the crowd whirled, and stared. Louie Solomon swore. “Vot iss!” he said. “Y’ou make it foolishness?” “No,” was the slow answer. “I’m i off this for keeps.” “H—1!” growled the one-eyed fisher- | man. “Since’t when did y’u quit?" : “Yesterday—about sundown.” I He raised his glass and clinked with ’ Louie Solomon —the aristocratic bouri bon against the Flatwoods spring—and | drank the celebration of his great day j in a glass of water. The others were I too busy just then, or cared too little, to press the point, or take the trouble to wonder just what and what all he meant by “yesterday—about sundown.” Louie Solomon set his glass down with a bang. “Himmel! Dot don’dt shtruck boti tom yet. It vas all soaked up in mine i throat a-ready. Fill ’em up ag’in, all ! hands roundt. Undt dis one iss on Louie. “Where iss mine friendt vot trim from me twenty-t’ree dollar?” Louie asked, feeling his vest pocket, as he had done probably a score of times since crossing the street.

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“Oh, he went up the Yellow branch I this afternoon to look at some timber options.” the bartender answered. “Tell ’im mebbe he come by d’e camp t’nlght undt gift' me chance to git it i back my twenty-t’ree dollar.” , “I’ll tell him when he comes in.” I The bartender wiped off the bar. The Pearlhunter was already out on the sidewalk, where the Jew soon joined him, and they walked together down to the white skiff. The three rowers were still in their places, glum as their employer was voluble. It was well toward evening when tlfey pulled up to the landing at which the houseboat lay. Louie gave careful directions where to build the fire, and followed the Pearlhunter up through the underbrush beyond the strip of open shore, and to the cabin, tapping, every few steps, the pocket where the pearl lay. He went straight to the spring. "You should eat supper mit me. haindt It?” he said, the dripping gviird poised in his hand. “Suri*. But I’m not much on that — friend —of yours. I think I’ll leave before he comes.” The Pearlhunter had for some time been debating with himself whether or not t<> wum» Solomon of the dangerous character of the man that was coming. Tiie one consideration that kept him from speaking was the fact that he had no proof—certain knowledge, but no proof. He decided not to speak —yet. “You no like him?” The Jew laughed easily, hung the gourd back on the stick and stood looking out over the landscape spreading away under the genial sunshine. "Vot you do now?” The question caught the Pearlhunter unawares. He. too, was gazing out ever the landscape, but absorbed in things of which the placid little Jew had not the remotest inkling. “1 hardly know.” he answered slow1 !y, as if feeling for each word. t “Thought maybe I’d go to school.” ; | "School The Jew ridiculed the i word with his hands. “I know a-ready ! men could be professors, limit dey got j not'ing. 1 go by school not more as ( i two weeks for mine life, undt look at ' ’ me.” | The Pearlhunter did look at him— > ; hard-faced, red-nosed, yellowish teeth. ! a pottv protuberance swung to the ; ' t i front of his waistline. It looked like ! ; two weeks wasted. “Why you don’t buy timber? You can shoot it dis water-tall into a flume limit run a mill yet.” | The Pearlhunter matle no answer. The little Jew talked on. I “You can buy It d’e Flatwoods aready yet, if you handle right your \ money.” He walked back around the ' end of the cabin.t The Pearlhunter followed. “Veil, you come ’long ven you get ready, hain’dt it?” He went on down the slope, through !he bushes toward his skiff; the l*earlhunter turned in at the cabin door. , Alone at last, he did the very thipg that nine men out of ten would have done; took the draft out of his pocket ; and fingered it over —the concrete and tangible evidence of a great day won. He had seen it born at midnight; had seen It drive in through the gates of dawn —and how it was forever his. He spelled out the magic words: Five thousand, a wavy line, no hundredths, dollars. He said each bold figure over > to himself. Slowly a face grew alive among the words and figures; a face framed in yellow hair; eyes that laughed. They had laughed for him. he had made them laugh. The draft ——7 - K you Deed some come W/4-

I wouiu make them laugn again. And ! tomorrow she should send fur that surgeon. The sound of groaning came in at the cabin door from the bushes down (he hill. The face was gone fromJhe draft. He thrust it back in his pocket and stepped out into the yard. His first thought was that the little Jew. none too sure-footed among the rocks, had stumbled and hurt himself. The groan came again. He sprang Into the bushes. The Jew had hurt himself. A look so wild and terrible the Pearlhunter had never seen upon the face of a man. He had fallen upon his back, with one arm cramped mder him. The other arm was free, but he seemed unable to rise. With his free hand he was clawing desperately at his bosom, rfnd the fingers of the hand were mussed with blood. The Pearlhunter liap<*(l down the hill and bent over him. It was then he saw what the bloody hand was clawing at —the handle of a knifft, hilt deep in his breast. The Pearlhimter raised him. and tin* other hand came free. It clutched a I.it of cloth of naming red—a red mask. The Jew opened his eyes, recognized the man bearing him up. “Dot timber buyer.” he gasped put of his flooded chest. ‘He choke fne— 1 ® /A rQ i j ! “He Choke Me—l Tear Off de Mask—" tear off d e mask—he shtick me.” The stricken Jew dropped the mask am) beat the pocket of his vest. “Himmel! D’e pearl.' D'e Blue Moon!” His eyes grew vacant ; flared up again. "Mine Gott! Rachel! Rachel!” His mouth quivered open so wide that his beard rumpled upon his breast, and the blood welled out over his chin. His eyes bulged; the smeared fingers ceased clawing at the knife; he gasped twice; and dropped back —dead. The Pearlhunter picked up the bit of scarlet cloth that had fallen from the dead man’s hand. It is surprising how fast a man can think when he has to. The mystery of the arm thrust in at the cabin door across the moonlight cleared. The finding of a red mask be side tiie body would identify the mur deter to any man in the Wabrish conn try; the finding of another, upon a search of the cabin, would he deemed sufficient proof that the tenant of the cabin was the murderer. ,

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But why had the bandit planned to lay the theft "‘of tjie jewel on him? It was not his way. He took his toll at the pistol's point and galloped away. Why hud he changetl his methods now? He had laid his plans well, though they hadn't worked out quite as he expected. The killing of Louie Solomon had been an accident, forced on him by the fact that the little Jew, in his struggles, had chanced to claw the mask off and had recognized him. Otherwise he would merely choked him into unconsciousness, taken the pearl and left the mask behind to-com-plete the tangle he was weaving around another man. He had probably Intended taking the pearl some time that night,. leaving his mask behind, and afterward, when the hue and cry was raised, suggest a search of the cabin. His chance had come sooner than he hud expected. Os course, he could not havf foreseen that the man he wished to fix the crime upon would be the first to find the body. It was' not lost on the Pearlhunter flmtthe had undoubtedly crowded th« murderer close, els? why had he left the knife? But why all these elaborate plans against him? Was it som? ancient grudge he bore his blood? l»id he wish somebody to die in his place to deceive an outraged world into thinking the Red Mask was settled for ■ good and all, and so give him a chance to start over again? Was it because he was not yet ready to leave the Flatwoods? It was - probably for all these reasons. But with the last, there flnshkul across the young man’s mind that scene at the fence. It stung him ' like a lash. , . Even though the evidence secreted in ■ the cabin was now in ashes, by that dead body was the most dangerous 1 place in tile world tori him just then. I Hardly five seconds had passed'since i the last gasp of Louie Solomon, so fast j does a man think under such a stress. | when the Pearlhunter; threw the mask I down by the body and turned to sieul back up the hill. “Up with ’em I” He whirled: stared; slowly raised his hands. It’s one thing to face qdd«; quite another to face certain death. Behind the three black muzzles poking out through the bushes’ glowered the truculent, bearded faces of Li.nle Solomon’s three rower.< (T’O BE CONTINUED) Jotirna! want "<l< are investti 'iilb that pav iiivi<k*ri<ls>. Don’t take chances with the lighting' on your ear. Play safe by using NATIONAL MAZDA AUTOMOBILE LAMPS. C. R. HOLLETT . 1 j ' i