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About The Times-herald. (Burns, Harney County, Or.) 1896-1929 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 1919)
XL- jfcgjy II BBB 11 IISSSBS1I XBBBBBBBSBBBSSv CHAPTER VIII. Under the Veneer. An hour later limes, blinking from Mm sun, stepped into tii" tent, which hud liri'ii partitions with rough red" wood hoards Into B bed c-lm nilx-r mi the right, a combination dining room nnd "parlor on the left. Her glance iiniiii'diiin'i.v segregated tha tares stalks nf i 1 1 u gsrsnluina in tin- center of the Mexican drawn-work cloth ihnt covered tin' tabla, '.terty, herself, in n fresh pink gingham frock, wag dancing around tin- table to tha tuna f forks nnd spoons, it wda .lust Ilka Gerty to dress ii t Id net setting, even though It vara only a pitiful water-starved boo quct. she pad f tt'ii tried to analyse her sister-in-law's, hold on bar brother i certainly tiit'.v were not happy, Waa It beoauaa aba made him comfortable? Was It th Utile air of formality, or mystery, which she drew around her? Her rooms when Innes was allowed to enter Jhern were always Ilawless ; Oerty took deep pride In her house keeping. Why was It, Innes wondered, that she could never shake off her sus picion of an underlying untidiness? There was always u closed door on Gerty's processes. "May I help?" The sun was still yellowing the room to her. "Hello!" lliirdln looked up from the couch where he was lying. Innes ejapected it of being a frequent re treat. She had found it tumbled once when she ran over early. Il was lion that (lerty made it understood thai sin. liked more formality. Innes waa rare ly in that tent ezcepl for meals now, or during her alternaQag week of house choirs. "1 was afraid I wus lute," said the girl. "Lunch will be ready In a few min utes," announced (It rly Hardin. '"Won't you sit down? There's the new Jour nal. Sam came to clean this morning, and I couldn't get to the lunch until an hour ago." Innes, aettllng herself by the rending table, caught herself observing that It would not have taken ber an hour to get a cold lunch. Still, It would never look so Inviting! If Gerty's domestic machinery waa complicated and pri vate, the results alwuya were ndinlr able. The early tomatoes were pceied as well aa sliced, and were lying on a bed of cracked Ice. The ripe black olives were resting in a lake of Cali fornia olive oil. A bowl of crisp let tuce had been Iced and carefully dried. The bread was cut In precise triangles ; the butter had been shaved Into foreign-looking roses. A pitcher of the valley's fuvorlte beverage, teed tea, etood by Hardin's plate. There was a platter of cold meats. It came home to Innes for the hun dredth time, the surprise of such a meal In that desert. A few years ngo, and what had n meal been? She threw the credit of the little lunch to sulky Tom Hardin lying on the portiere-covered couch, his ugly lower Up out thrust against an unsmiling vision. It was Tom, Tom nnd his brave men, the sturdy engineers, the dauntless sur veyors, the Indians who had dug the canals, those were the ones who hud spread that pretty table, not the buxom little woman darting about in pink gingham. "Is it because I don't like her?" sho mused, her eyes on the pictures In the atyle hook which hnd Just come In that morning. Certainly Oerty did have the patience of u saint with Tom's hu mors. If she would only lose that set look of martyrdom ! It was not for an outsider to Judge between a husband and wife, even If the man were her own brother. She could not put her linger on I he germ of their painful River. cp EDNAH AIKEN scenes: he shrank from the n colla tion of Tom's temper; Ills coarse streak, the Glngg flber, her own mother lulled it. Tom was rough, but she loved him. Why was It she was tore that Oerty did not love her husband 1 Vii there waa the distrust, as Died and as unjust perhaps as the suspicion of Gerty'a little mysteries, Bhe said aloud! "This Is your last day, .My week begins tomorrow," Mrs. i hirillii adjusted a precise niljl- kin before aba spoke. "1 think I Will keep (he reins for u month thl time.' Her words were re flectlve, as though the thought were new. "1 gl my hand In Just as 1 stop. T win be running out for my visit in n few weeks. It will be only I'alr for DM to do it iih long as 1 can. ' Again the girl had a sense of fsul . 1 1 -ty. Whenever Oerty put on that air of childish confidential deliberation, she hunted for the plot. This was not far to seek. Her sister In-law wus passing out the hot season to her. "It's nil reedy." Gerty's glnnce wns winging, birdlike, over the tnblc. Noth- lllg had lieeu forgotten. She gave a j little sigh of elastic satisfaction, liar- i din misinterpreted It "I ought to he able to keep a serv ant for her." It was like til lit to have i forgotten the Lawrence days; he was never free of the sense of obligation to the dainty little woman who was born. I lie felt, for the purple. There was t nothing too good for Oerty. lie felt l her nnapoken disappointments) bar deprivations. "Of course, she ran ha.c no respect for me. I'm h failure." "1'oe-n't this give you an appetite?" demanded Innes heartily. "And I'm to he a lady for three more weeks." The remark was thotiglnless. A bright Hush spread over Gerty's face. She caught un allusion to her origin. Innes snw the blush and remem bered the hoarding house. She could think of nothing to suy. The three relatives sat down to that most uncom fortable travesty, a social meal where sociability Is lacking. Innea said It had been a pleasant morning. Gerty thought It hnd been hot And then there was silence again. Innes began to tell them of her Tuc son visit, when Gerty laid down her fork. "I've meant to ask you a hun dred times. Hid you attend to my commission In Los Ajigelea?" "I forgot to tell you. I raked the town, really I did, Gerty." For there was a cloud on Gerty's pretty brow. "I could have got you the other kind, but you said you did not wont It." "I should think not." The childish chin wns lifted. "Those complicated things are always getting out of order. Resides, if I had an adjustable fonn, everyhody'd be borrowing It" "What nre you talking nbout?" de manded Tom, waking up. "Who'd bor row your whnt, Gert?" "I'leose don't call me Gert, Tom," besought Ills wife plaintively, "A fig ure. I wanted lime:, to try to get one for DM In I.os Angeles." "I did try," began Innea. "Yours Is good enough for anyone. Why should you get another?" He wns openly admiring the ample bust swelling under the pink gliighum. "Don't, Tom." Innes tried to explain the sincerity of her search. She had visited every store "which might he suspected of having u ftRure." She could not bring a smile to her sister's face. "Thero wns none your size. They offered to order one from Chicago. They have to be made to order, If they are special sizes. You are not stock size, did you know that?" "I should think not," cried Oerty, bridling. "My waist Is absurdly small for the size of my hips and shoulders." Innes wondered If It would be safe to agree with her. "When will It be here?" "You'll he disappointed." Innes found herself shimmering. "Hut not for six weeks, I did not know whether to order It or not." "And I In Los Angeles with my sum mer sewing all done I What good will It do me then?" (I'lie pretty eyes looked ready for childish tears. "I know. That Is, I didn't know what to do," apologized Innes Hardin. "I decided to order It us I'd found the place, and was right there, hut I made sure that I could countermand the or der by telegram. Ho I ciin this very afternoon. I knew you would be dis appointed. I was sorry." "Ill need It next winter," admitted Oerty, helping herself to .some of the chilled tomatoes. "I'm sure I'm much obliged to you., I hope it did not put you to much trouble." The words raised the wall of for ma lily again. Innes bent over her plate. "What made you change your plans?" suddenly demanded his wife of Hardin, 'When Sam came in With your bag, lie surprised me so." "My boss kept me." Hardin's face looked coarse, roughened by hU ugly i hi. meat your oiu mend. He served ii sul. poena on me at tin' station." "Oh." cried Oerty. "Surely, he did not do that, Tom!" "Sure he did." Hardin's face Was black with his evil mood. "I'm only an underling, a disgraced underling. He's my boss. He's going to make me re member It." "You mustn't say such things," pout ed his wife. "If It does not hurt yon. If you do not care, think how I must feel" "oh, rot!" exclaimed Hardin, The veneer Wlis nibbed rtOWD to the rough rood. Innes saw the coarseness her mother h d complained of, the Glngg fiber. "I lUppOUC volt thing I Il!;e tO lake orders, in Jump al the simp of the whip?" lie was deliberately boating up his anger Into a froi b. " ill, me, I do. Tinii's n Hardin, through and through, ' in the r . ry 'b - ,i floodi d his n ire's cheeks, 1 1 In i ovi log ll; I III "it. "Yi ii ll II ..'iiirM II Oerty t itb Itllho d Ig the ; leat'S. "I tojd oU how It would lie. a i ivoi ii do it." "Oh, hell : ' cri "1 Turn, i gsjilng lie. ills sister . okeii drearily out tad wire ereen, i. lUwir, Her v ,, was a dusty street. Ilnrdtfl got i.iptng hlu 1 1 sir over the loard Boo "At a to keep .1 inn. rgi -; ', the If . "To ICt ... I .. to uiu- ner " "i oih thai II mini ft ' on'.-' demam i ' larUin. u in the table. ou'll uivi III go unck ,i nave it ay and i vi Itlioul me, ' a. Pll not j make u fool oi myself. A k I tin to ll Be ! I'll see inyscli. Innea rHshed tha was in the t.elgh i boring teat Tom was lashing bliasall into a i inrae fury. .To Ii ' (INuiay, Gerty I tears, i wns killing l.er, tin she el 'he C0Oldn't PI ' couldn'i land it there; ';. the to go to i,os rat Into Isgrnce, mid not Angi lee, where tier frhi.ds would pity In r It was en. Iilng In T. She was not a II r- diti; she ivai sensitive; she could nol Justify vorythliig B llnrdln did as right, d matter what the ei.iis.iiii i eoa, The i, 'iv eyes obscured, she rushed, a stream '' Nlobe, from the room. Tin. i rutbnr and sister avoided each others eyes, Innes rose and Cleared the tSble of the dishes. She made :i loud noise with tha running water in the sinii, racketing the pins to drown the Insistence of Gerty'a sobbing. She kept listening for Tom's step. She wanted to go with him when hi' left; lie must not reach the otllce In the blackness of that mood. She wished he would not betray his feel ings ; yet she knew it wua not he who was to blame. When she heard the screen door slam, she flushed out the back way. "Going?" she called after him. "Walt for me." She dashed Into ber tent for her hat. She had to run to catch up with him. CHAPTER IX. The Rivals. Prom the window of tho sdobe office building of the company, Hardin saw ltlckard Jump from the rear platform of the train as It slowed Into the sta tion. He noticed that the new mana ger carried no bag. "Wonder what he's decided to do about the headgate. He didn't waste much time out there." Hardin was fidgeting in his seat, Ills eyes un the approaching figure. ltlckard passed through the room, nodding to his office force. The door of the Inner office shut behind him. Hardin stared nt the blank surface, lie moved restlessly In Ills swivel chair. Hid the fellow think a big thing like that could hang on while he unpacked his trunks and settled his bureau draw ers? He picked up a pencil, Jabbing at tin- paper Of his report. He covered the sheet with figures three hundred six hundred. Six hundred feet. Whose fault that the intake had widened, doubling Its width, trebling Its problem? Whose but Marshall's, who hud sent down one of his Office clerks to see whnt llnrdln wns doing? Wouldn't any man In his senses know ' bat the way Maitlaiid would distin guish himself would be by discrediting llnrdln, by throwing bonqosta to Mar shall; praising his plan? They all go at It the aaiue sickening way! Olliee clerks, bub I Sure, Miiltlund had ad vised against the completion of the gnte. Said It would cost more In time und money than Hardin's estimates. "Thanks to Miiltlund It did," growled lliirdln, scrawling figures over the page. "By the time .Miiilliiud Mulshed monkeying with Hint toy dam of Ilia the river had widened the break. from three hundred to six hundred feet. Kor thut, they throw mud at me. Oh, It makes me sick." Hardin flung bis broken pencil out of tho window. ltlckard re-entered the room. The question leaped from Hardin. "The headgate are you going on with it?" itlckurd looked curiously at the flushed antagonistic face of the man he had supplanted. The thought crossed his mind that perhaps Hardtr hud taken to drinking. It made his auswer curt. "I don't know." "Vou don't know I" "I huvo no report to make, Mr, liar din, until I see the gule." "And you wenl to the Crossing with out going down to the hciidgiiic?" lliir dln did not try lo conceal his disgust. "I ilul not go to the Crossing." "IHiln't go!" Hardin's iiioiilh was ngapt, Then lie nidi ly swivel, m hi chair. The door slummed .ilnd Kirk aid. Hadn't been to tho Crossing? Then where In Hades did he go? lie halted Miiel.eim who was passing him. "Are yell going to the Crossing to morrow?'' Hardin knew he should be too proud to betray his eagerness, but the words run nway with him. "Not tomorrow. Mr. ltlckard Just told me he might not be able to get off until nest week." Hardin's anger sputtered. "Next "Aro Vou Going On With It?" week, Why does he rush so? Why due n't he go iii xl year? The Colo rado's so gentle. It'd wait for h'ln, I'm lire. Neil veil;! Jfn a put-up Job, Hint's what It Is. (lb. I can see through n fence with a knothole as big as your head, lie doesn't want to finish the headgate, Ha wants to put it going until Us tOO hile to go on with it; I kBOW Mill. He'd risk the whole tllllg, ami all the money the O, I'. bus chucked Into It, Just to start with a clean slate; to get the glory of stop ping the river himself. It turns my Ktoinaeh; It's a plot." The lower Up shot out. Mael.ean's nttcnflon was deferential. He had always liked llnrdln; all the follows did. Hut he was Jumping off wrong this time. He'd brought It ull on himself. "lie said something about a levee for the towns. He's got to Investigate that before he goes lo the front." "A levee? Well, wouldn't that Jar l .von.-" Hardin addressed the stenog rapher iii the transparent shirtwaist. "Hoes he think we're going to have another Hood tola season? Thinks It's j going to reach the hotel and wet his I. .ih." '.- Take the stnrch out of his shirts?" He flung out of his chair. throwing the papers buck Into the i rawer, He stamped out of the office, mad clear through. To this crisis they had sent doWn a dandy, a bookman who w anted to build a levee. Oh, hell I "They'll come crawling after me to j help them after this fellow's burled himself under river mud, come calling fo me as they did after Maltlsnd failed. 'Please, Mr. Hardin, won't you come back and finish your gate"!' I'll see them dead first. No, I'll be fool enough to do It. I can't help myself. I'm a llnrdln. I have to finish what I've be gun." It was not because this was a pet enterprise, the great work of his life, that he must engerly eat humble pie, Inke the buffets, the falls, and come whining back when they whistled to him. He told himself it was because of his debt to the valley, to the ranchers. The colonists were about desperate. Who could blame I hem? The last year's I floods had worked havoc with their crops; this year had been a horror. The district they called No. 0 was a i screaming Irony of ruin. The last de- I bauch of the river hud made great glebes through the ranches, hud SCOUred deep gorges which hud under mined the canals on which the water ; supply for No. 0 depended. The stilts j were idling up against the II. It., dam age suits, and they hold up his gnte, while he gets the curses of the val ley. And" Mr. Itlckurd thinks he'll build a levee! He flung himself on. the couch In the tent. Gerty wua laying a careful doth for sapper, A brave, determined smile was arranged on her lips. Tin1 noon Ntorm hud passed, she hummed u guy little tiino. if there was anything ll.inlin hnted it wns humming. "Vou'H have your dude to dinner all right," her hiishiind. announced. "He's In town." "Yea, I know," rejoined his spouse. "I bad a letter from him yeaterduy. I'l-oin Imperial." Tom aat up glaring. "He wrote to you from Imperial'" ills wife misplaced the accent, she misunderstood Tom's seowl. It wns the old story over ngiiln. Whenever those two men ciime together the old feeing of Jealousy must l,e revived again it was ooplsaaaat, of course, very unpleasant, to luivt ears like that, but it made lift netting, Life had been gelling a little stale lately like u book of obvious, even plot. KIckard'K entrance Into the story gavs a new Intereat, a new twist. She hummed an air from a new opera that had set the world wnlUlng. Hardin's thought did not touch her at the hem. He was at the headgate. Ilia gate. Whnt the deuce hud Hleklud gone to Imperial for? If he wasn't the dnrnedest ass! Impel lull And the k'nte hung up I TOT Hod's sake stop Hint buzzing!" The happy llltle noise wns quanclted. Innes, entering al thin moment, heard the rough older. She looked liuplor Ingly ut her slsterlnluw. "Supper'a on the tuhle," cried (lerty, the fixed, determl I smile still on her lips (To be continued next week.) 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