Walkerton Independent, Volume 62, Number 1, Walkerton, St. Joseph County, 28 May 1936 — Page 2

FLAME IN THE FOREST By HAROLD TITUS Copyright by Harold Titus. Illustrations by IfWHI Myei*S WNU Service.

CHAPTER Xl—Continued —l2— Shielding his palms with a torn page he lifted from its resting place a worn and shining crowbar. “What’s the Idea . . .” Ezra began. “What’d you see there?” Young demanded triumphantly. “Look at the end, Ezra!” The old man peered closely. ‘v.’ he muttered. “Dirt stickin’ to it.” “And what kind of dirt? Don’t you get it? It’s the same color and kind as that under the floor, there! Scrape a little of it off in a clean paper. . . . There! That’s right. . . . He used this bar to bust up that hard clay and make a hole for the box and he used it to pry up those floor-boards. . . . Here. . . . Give me one! . . . See? The mark on the board fits exactly!” "But I don't see yet why—” Young gave an excited laugh. “Good Lud, Ezra! This old bar’s as smooth and bright as if it’d been polished 1 Finger prints will be all over it Inside the cover of that box, big as life and twice as natural, is a man's thumb print and Tod West stood in there for ten minutes fooling with a bright tin cup!” A light of understanding dawned in Ezra’s old eyes. “Spread out that newspaper,” Young said. “Lay It on the ground. . . . So. . . . Now we’ll roll up this bar so the prints won’t get rubbed away and . . . What the devil!” He had put the bar down and started to lift away the paper which had shielded his hands. It stuck, peeled off slowly and he held it up to the level rays of a sun setting behind the timber. Young sniffed the smear on the paper, frowning; touched it tentatively with his tongue and gave a grunt “Honey! . . . What’s honey doing on that bar, Ezra? And something sticky on the box, too.” They peered at one another. “And Tod West,” he said slowly, “all swollen up. Notice that?” “I did. What you make of that?” Kerry puzzled, stared blankly at the ground and scratched a temple. "Nothing yet” he muttered. “Nothing. . . . But we've got a mess of stuff to make something of.” Carefully they gathered up their evidence: the box, the bar, the floor boards and, lastly, also carefully wrapped in paper, the tin cup. with which Tod West had busied his trembling hands. CHAPTER XII They drove slowly back toward Nan’s headquarters, talking intently. To save Holt Stuart the Ignominy of arrest, to tie together the evidence they had accumulated, to weave a net around Tod West and to discover the remainoer of the money that rightfully oelonged to Nan were their major objectives. In the car which preceded them had been intent talk, as welt West had had little enough to say at the cabin but once on the homeward way, with new fears, fresh doubts, even greater misgivings stirring within him, he had talked. Talked Into Bridger’s ear, playing on the man's vanity, his jealousy of his authority, his regard for his political fences. . . . And after those first minutes at Downer’s, with their confusion and excitement and triumph, Tod West, drawing Bridger aside, talked further. What had transpired in Mel Knight’s store between Young and Bluejay had come to his ears and he passed it on to Bridger and made deductions and, in a fever of relief, let his suggestions run into demands. . . . As they rounded the bend and came into view of the Downer buildings, Ezra leaned suddenly forward. “What goes on here?" he asked, staring at the group clustered before headISSaI; u’ i £ ST®?4 ft®/ * Cool Steel Encircled Kerry's Wrists. quarters. “That’s Nat’s car. ... Do you s’pose . . .” Kerry speeded up and when he drew I close to the cluster of men about the | sheriff’s car it gave way and there, I white of face, his hands manacled be- ; fore him, they saw Holt Stuart! Bridger pushed his way toward | Young as he opened the door of Ezra’s car. The sheriff bore himself with a new importance. “Well, I guess you’ll have to admit I was lookin’ a little further ahead u you were. Young ’” lie cried, waving a Sheet of paper truculently. “I guess, mebby, the sheriff’s office can still be depended on to follow its best Judgment for the people of this county!” “Yeah? Just what do you mean?” Kerry asked, evenly. “Mean? I mean I was right all along! This lad Stuart is the man we

want, Young, and I wasn't a second too soon, either. I guess mebby there's • be'n things goin’ on about this case i that nobody but you 'nd him understood! I’ll count Ezra out because he’s . . . he’s an old man. “I don’t s’pose you knew he was । packed up, ready to haul, did you?” “Holt, you mean?” “Yes, Holt!” Tod West was edging up behind Bridger, frowning, nudging the sheriff. “Yes. Holt Stuart! Pack sack 'nd suit cases all strapped up. ’Nd I come on him writin’ this . . . writin’ it to Nan Downer, who's be’n away today. Listen to this!” He read: “‘Dear Nan: It looks as if I’d stayed on here too long, now, and, by staying, risked all kinds of disaster. * “He’d got just that far when I busted in on him. Now, you got any cock-'nd-bull story to explain that?” “Why should I have an explanation 7’ “I wondered !"—edging closer with an expression of craft which Kerry, In that moment of confused thought, did not detect —“I wondered. Young, after I heard you done your best to drive the state's chief witness out of the country this —” “Here! What the devil!” Young grunted as he began to struggle. Butch, the deputy, had him from behind. Bridger had grasped one wrist In both his hands; Tod West stepped in to secure him, to help hold him despite his first amazed struggles. “What comes off?” Kerry demanded. “What’s the big idea, Bridger?” The sheriff was reaching for handcuffs. .A leer came about his mouth. “I've got Stuart as a suspect In a murder case," he said loudly, " ’nd I’m takin’ you. Young, for interferin’ with a witness in that very self-same case!” Cool steel encircled Kerry’s wrists; the ratchets clicked. “Why, this is the damnedest, most far fetched outrage— ’’ “You tell all that to the judge!” snapped Bridger. “Here, you boys, get back, now I Stand away. Butch ’nd me, we got to get these two into a cell. . . . Stand back, boys!” He whirled to Kerry. “You got th’ guts to deny that you drove Frank Bluejay out of town this afternoon? Have you even got th’ brass to explain that?" Young was breathing hard. Confusion and dismay lay heavily upon him. He looked from Bridger to Tod West and his lip curled. The man, with his swollen face, was glaring at him, triumphant for the moment, because his agile mind had turned events off that course which, had it been followed, might have overwhelmed him. “Yes, try to explain that, if you can I” West growled. Kerry squared his shoulders. “Perhaps I can, Tod West,” he said lowly. "Perhaps I can! Tomorrow’s another day, remember.” And handcuffed, with Bridger jerking him toward the open touring car in which he was to ride, a prisoner, in to the county seat, he laughed bitterly, defiantly. . . . Old Ezra, nervous fingers twisting strands of beard, came close as Stuart was helped into the back seat, and Young ordered in beside the driver. “Hold everything, Ezra!” Kerry said. “You sleep on that stuff! Understand? Guard it with your life. If necessary. See me in the morning and . . . and take care of Nan His voice dropped on this last and he averted his eyes from the doctor's face. Tip, still sitting on the seat of Ezra’s car, watched with stiff ears as this other automobile moved away. The crowd, after that departure, began to buzz loudly. Doctor Adams carefully gathered the pieces of material evidence they had found and carried them into Nan's office. The dog whined a little, staring at the way his master had taken. Slowly, almost tentatively at first, he took the road; stopped once and sniffed the air. Then, at a rolling lope, he disappeared beyond the sawmill, headed for Shoestring. The ride into town was one long succession of unsuccessful attempts on the part of Bridger to make one or the other of his prisoners talk. “Just where were you all day Thursday, Holt?” he asked in a patent attempt at ingratiation. “Go to blazes!” “Now, that ain’t no way. Mebby it’ll be best for you to tell me. I could do a lot of good if —” “Oh, shut up!” Bridger shrugged and smiled to himself. Car tools, loose on the floorboards at Kerry’s feet, clanked and rattled as they took the bumps. “Now, Young, you'd ought to come clean for Holt's sake, about why you run this ’breed—” “Tell him to go to hell, Holt,” Kerry chuckled. Again and again as they progressed through the dusk, Nat made his inadept attempts to worm information from the two. After a time whenever he opened his lips, the two chanted in solemn measure: “Go to hell!” “Well then,” Bridger Anally snapped, “if there’s any goin' to hell to be i done by this gang I'll leave It to anybody with eyes to see who's on the road!” They swung through town, around to the rear of the jail and entered by I a side door. Butch and Bridger took their possessions from the prisoners and ushered 1 them into the bull-pen. “Pick out your own beds,” the sher- : “You'll have the place to yourselves, likely. And 1 hope you like it, both of i It was not long before excited cltlI zens commenced to arrive. They clomped up the front steps and through • the corridor nnd cost self-conscious I glances Into the dimly lit apartment

behind the bars; went into the sheriff’s office and congratulated him boisterously and came out more boldly and hung against the steel door of the bull-pen and peered through. But Kerry on a bunk in a cell, and Stuart on another, kept out of sight and made no response to the advances. Bridger was in fine spirits. His talk rose high and higher. He became almost hysterical in this, his moment of largest triumph. At late evening the stream of callers had petered out. Butch had been called out to a country dance where bad whisky had caused trouble and when no one appeared for a quarter of an hour, Bridger stalked down the corridor and called through an open doorway: “I'll be over at the pool hall, Ma! If anybody calls, or you hear anything, just ring me. Them boys'll be all right. . . .” They'd be all right! As soon as the sound of his footsteps had died away Young was out of his cell, across the bull-pen and sitting on the edge of Holt's cot where the boy lay, face in his arms. “Buck up, son!” he whispered, a hand on the lad’s shoulder. “It looks like a kind of a mess, but we’ll clear It up!” A shudder traveled the lithe frame beneath bls touch. "What happened?” And when the other made no move: “Won’t you tell me?” Slowly Stuart rolled over, and the faint light from above showed his face white and drawn. “Damned if I know!” he muttered. “I'd packed up this afternoon. I was on my way. I didn't want to leave without some word for Nan. I'd just started to write a note when In busted Bridger, grabbed it off the desk and “That’s all; except that I lost my head and tried to take ’em all on." “Then you were actually hauling?” “Yes," —bitterly. “Why?” No answer. Stuart continued to stare at the latticed bars above him. "What was the big Idea, Holt? You don’t mean ... It can’t be,” — tensely—“that this yarn Bluejay told “Certainly not!" Stuart sat up quickly and drew both hands across his eyes. “Hell, nol What this Is all about, I can't tell you. I got enough from Bridger's boasting to see what they’re driving at. And I was off alone all day Thursday and I was leaving and I did start a note to Nan with a couple of sentences that, maybe, will make it look a little tough in the beginning. But I didn't kill Cash and I didn’t bury Anything at Townline and I wasn't there Thursday ! Somebody’s trying to frame me but It's . . . That's a detail, now." Young drew a long and mystified breath. “Detail! Maybe. But . . Good Lord, chum, they've got enough stuff to hold you here until we can blow up their case. Why, It’s worse looking than I’d figured It could be. . . .’’ He scratched his temple briskly. “Damn It all, they’ve—- “ Where were you, for Instance, all day Thursday, the day Bluejay apparently's ready to swear he saw you at the cabin?” “All over hell’s half acre.” “Alone?” “Alone." “Doing wjiat?” “Walking.” “Walking! . . Why, Stuart, aren’t you . . .’’ He shook his bead hopelessly. “And then you get ready to pull out and write to Nan that you’ve been risking all kinds of disaster —” “And didn’t I?" —savagely. “Didn’t I stay here and eat my heart out and know all along that it was no use? That I’m too young and not big enough for a girl like that, anyhow? And then you—” Young’s head was in a whirl. “But, good Lord, son, didn’t she . . . didn’^ Ezra , . . Why, last Wednesday night Ezra told me what she said to him after West had been there and you'd mixed It with him! She said to Ezra that she couldn’t let anything happen to you ; and she cried because a mess like that had happened just when she . . just when .. . Well, as Ezra told it to me, just when she'd fallen in love with you 1" “With me!” The boy's exclamation gave Kerry a curious feeling; Holt’s look, wide, amazed, shocked, furthered his confusion. “With me!” he repeated and laughed bitterly. “Young, are you blind? Is old Ezra crazy? . . . Yes, he was there; he came Into the office just after she’d told me that . . .” He closed his eyes and his body shuddered again. "She took me into the office away from the others after West left. She told me that her heart would be broken if anything happened to me because of my loyalty to her. I .. I lost my head again and begged her to let me love her. Then she told me that such a thing was impossible; she didn’t say more. I put it to her. ‘Do you love Kerry Young?’ I asked her and she . . . 1 she just nodded. . . . That . . . that’s all there is to tell you, Young.” Ho turned away. “I guess, Kerry, you’re as blind as I thought you were. All along, ever since I first saw you and Nan together. I'd been afraid of it. I . . . I’d loved her a long time, you see.” Strength drained from Kerry's body. One knee shook spasmodically. His throat swelled and a chill like that induced by fog enveloped him. “You mean . . . she said I . . . Holt, . I and you’re telling me this!" • I The other turned away sullenly as । if in collapse. He leaned on one els bow, looking away from his fellow prisoner.

“All right,” he muttered when Young moved toward him impetuously. “It’s all right. I was jealous of you at first but .. . It’s got to be all right! You're her kind. 1 . . . I’m over . . . everything, now. I . . . I’d just like to be alone for a minute, please.” That is how it happened that Young stood alone at a rear window of the jail, hanging weakly to the bars, head pressed against the cold steel, eyes closed, with a sweet agony surging through and through his veins. . . . So his lieart had found a home . . . unoccupied! So this was the way love had come to him! So Nan Downer had been so sure of it that she would tell another . . . Little things that had been said between them; looks Nan had given him; j ip “ife ;■ II O II sc. 11l W^U^Zzz^ Z / , “I'm Too Young and Not Big Enough for a Girl Like That.” gestures . . . All these details now, In memory, returned with their full significance. She did not love Holt Stuart. She loved him, Kerry Young! Ami she was out there, now, distressed, awaiting him, and here he was, jailed, bel(>less to help her, with Tod West In the saddle. Ami If West could keep him out of the way and hot-headed, impulsive Holt Stuart out of the way . . . He straightened. Nan Downer, tonight and tomorrow and until ho was at liberty, was virtually at West’s mercy. Old Ezra was her only counsel, her only protector. ... An ague shook him. Tod West, with his swollen face • . . Young stood back from the window, then, one eye half closed. A hornet sting, had not somebody said, somewhere, some time? The casual word, making no impression nt the time, came back now. looming into tremendous importance. . . . Hornet? Or a bee? And honey?” He cocked Ids head to listen. No sound from Stuart. He wet his dry lips to speak and checked himself. . . . From beyond the circle of light thrown by the incandescent above the jail s side door, he saw movement A vague, tawny blotch moving toward him, and then a light, light snuffling. It was Tip, tall threshing, coming faster now, coming toward the sheriff's car standing there where it had been left; putting his paws on the running board, sniffing at the front seat cushion, staring about and panting from ids long run. “Tip!” he called lowly. “Oh, Tip!” The dog whirled. Young spoke the name again. The retriever threshed his tai) and, running to the wall, placed ■ his front feet against it, stretching to his full height. “Drop, boy!” whispered Kerry cau- ! tlously. “Drop! Good dog!” Hastily, he ran along the cells until he reached Stuart's. “Listen, chum!” he whispered, grasping the other's arm as he lay on his | side. “What you've said . . . Well, maybe you can imagine how I feel. I don’t know what to think or to say, except this: you’re . . . you're something better than pure gold. You’re all man, son!” He swallowed. “And after this Is over maybe the feeling of ... of the worst embarrass- I ment I've ever known'll wear off and I can talk. “But tonight we’ve things to think about. A lot of ’em; and we’ll have to think damned awful fast!” He paused to listen. No sound came : from the front part of the building. “I’ve been working for two weeks on this tiling. It’s a dead certainty that Tod West killed Cash. ... No! Don’t | you talk! Time for that later! (TO BE CONTINUED) Garden of Eden The Britannica says that many j speculations have been made as to i the site of the garden, thought to be an oasis In a barren land, the verses i in Genesis suggesting a site north j of Babylon; to define the site from ' the details given is impossible while I any attempt to locate a mythological garden is bound to be attended by । considerable difficulty. Funk and j Wagnalla’ “A Standard Bible Die- : tionary” says the location has been i the subject of many speculations, some of which have nothing but their grotesqueness to give them in- i terest. Palestine, Syria, Armenia, Mon- | golia, Kashmir, Merv, Australia, Meso1 potamia and even the North pole have , all been suggested as the site. Os these Lower Mesopotamia and Armenia | alone deserve consideration. The j writer adds that there Is no spot on [ > earth from which one vast river j branches into four channels that en- ■ • circle such tracts of land as are named In the first chapters of Genesis.

Pretty Persian Kitten That’s Easy to Embroider in Cross Stitch for Pillow

Pattern 1148 How would you like to find this cute Persian kitten curled up in your favorite chair, or in a pretty frame above your bed? Embroider a pillow or picture with her soft likeness, as you can do so easily in cross stitch, and make her adoption complete. Use woo], silk or cotton (loss, though angora yarn makes the most realistic likeness. You'll love doing this FARM WIVES OF TODAY HAVE MUCH MORE FREEDOM With old-fashioned drudgery banisht I from her kitchen by modern equipment, ami more than half her cooking hours lopped off by new facilities, today's farm wife is turning her attention toward greater cultural attainments and more recreation. In all parts of the country, modern rural women are finding more time lor educational pursuits, chib life, reading, and numerous other activities that come with increased leisure time. Classes, both private and public, are attracting large bombers of these women who desire to acquire various arts and higher learning. In many places, the latest books and magazines, and literature of all types, are brought to rural communities in libraries on wheels, affording these areas the opportunities enjoyed by persons living near city libraries. Much of this freedom from the farm kitchen is due to the development of tlie gasoline pressure stove which offers the rural resident all the advantages of the best city gas stoves. Where it formerly required hours of hard work for a farm woman to kindle a poky coal or wood fire nnd prepare a simple meal, she now takes only a few minutes to prepare any dish she likes. She lias instant and intense beat nt the strike of a match, nnd n simple turn of a valve gives her any cooking beat she desires. Progressive rural women everywhere are enjoying hours of freedom Iheir mothers scarcely dreamed of. nnd they are using those hours to attain richer, fuller lives for their own joy and the benefit of their families.

I** ?Si THE SHOP SHOWS A PROFIT I - I

Hour W how can we pay ONG RENT, MR. BRADY I'M W -EVERY WOMAN IN IT I'M® TOWN OWES US 2ANT® MONEY-INCLUDINGjUfi J la YOUR WIFE / ORE A ' aw-he!s SORE BECAUSE S / > YOU CAN’T MAKE < < MIS WIFE LOOK ? I fL LIKE A MOVIE X I CxUEEN £ J j Spa H ¥ MAR.Y-MRS. BRADY If OH, WHO CARES ? W H. I RESENTED YOUR ।IF YOU HAD AAY ■BH REMARK! SHE FEELS j HEADACHES/YOU B KI 4 YOU INSULTED HER, * WOULDN’T ALWAYS)^ ■M AND NOW PROBABLY J BE WORRYING SHE WONT ABOUT MBi help us/ TO j u mp c n < YOU ? TELL HER 5 W SHE'S NOT SO ) % SWEET , J 1 1 <%*" ? I - liW/W r 3o pays lAterJF—OH, I'M so WISI THANK You FOR ® GLAD/ -AND AAY ■■ SENDING YOUR FRIENDS ALL SAY FRIENDS TO US, You HAVE BEEN ■ MRS, BRADY,,,WE f R£ f SUCH A DEAR, H MAKING MONEY J MARY' SINCE SHE SWITCHED T& p pcstum / , -a. b SlpM-rF®

needlework in your spare time, and find the crosses an easy G to the inch. Pattern 1148 comes to you with a transfer pattern of a kitten ll 1 ,! by 13% inches; material requirements; illustrations of all stitches needed; color chart and key. Send 15 cents in coins or stamps (coins preferred) to The Sewing Cir?le. Needlecraft Dept., 82 Eighth Ive., New York, N. Y. Ask Us Another Teacher—What tense is, “1 am ! beautiful?” Class (in unison) —Past tense. Just Cautious “Then you won’t have a garden wedding?” "No; 111 take no chances of having my wedding called on account of rain.” Qualified “Is tills your ball in the garden , sonny?" asked the gardener. The small boy looked worried. "Are there any windows broken?” "No.” “Ah, then It Is my ball!” A Boomerang An American and an Irishman ! were walking together one day when they passed a gallows. “And where would you be, Mike.” said the man from the States, “it tae gallows over there had their due?” “Walking alone,” said Mike quietly. Properly Placed Wife—Who is that? Husband —Er — hardly anybody, dear. WHO-O? 5 A "Keeping your mouth shut is an easy way to get a reputation for 1 owi-like wisdom.” 1 “Can t be so all-fired easy, either. “ Very few people seem to accomplish it.” It'« Minin’ 1 Kastus—Ezias, what business Is • you-all In now? • Ezias—lze In de minin’ business. Rastus—You don't say so! What - kind ob minin’? . Ezias—Kalso.

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Small Kindnesses LET the weakest, let the humblest remember, that in his daily course he can. if he will, shed around him almost a heaven. Kindly words, sympathizing attentions, watchfulness against bounding men's sensitiveness—these cost very’ little, but they are priceless in their value. Are they not almost the staple of our daily happiness? From hour to hour, from moment to moment, we are supported, blest, by small kindnesses. The actions of faith and mercy I are sure to repay the merciful.— Magoon. © © Que^lmr I To prevent cheese becoming stringy 1 when making Welsh rabbit, do not use a high temperature when melting. Have only just enough heat to melt cheese. • ♦ ♦ To prevent halibut falling to pieces while boiling, wrap in cheesecloth and simmer in boiling water. About 30 minutes’ time is required to boil two and a half or three pounds of ‘halibut. • • • Always make it your business to keep your larder supplied with about a dozen cans of soups, meats and fruits. When an unexpected guest I arrives for lunch, you will then be able to serve a good meal. A saucerful of quicklime placed in a damp closet or cupboard, will absorb al! dampness. • • • A teaspoonful of mixed pickle spices tied to a small bag and added to the water In which fish, ham or tongue is boiled, will add a very pleasing flavor. • * • When sandpapering surfaces that are to be painted, the work is made much easier if sandpaper is folded over a small block of wood. ♦ • • To keep bath enamel in good condition, always put in a little cold water first Exceedingly hot water is likely to make it crack and peel off. • * • When any portion of a velvet gown i is crushed from pressure, hold the ’ part over a basin of hot water, the ; wrong side next to the water. The . pile will soon be restored. - • * * Never leave fish, unless salted, soaking in water. Too long soaking removes tiie flavor and makes the fish 3 flabby. • • • Do not allow bread to rise too high f before putting Into the oven if you wish to have a fine grained bread. © Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.