TIMES, WILLAMINA, OREGON
smoked acridly. Dragged out, It
flared into flame briefly— a soaked,
dangerous bundle of cotton rags anc
paper. Men stamped out the flame,
looked at each other somberly.
“Somebody,” announced Frank
Emmet, “was txing to burn the
mill.”
“Wind’s wronfk” Hobe said, kick
ing a smoking heap into a pool of
water, “or she’d have went sure.
Looks like if anybody wanted to
burn her they'd have figured on the
wind."
Wills was aware of Lucy Fields'
white face near to his elbow
"It was set,
i’t it?” she said.
“Obvio
;h, even if the
barrel
ere might not
have
age. That
little
or less air-
tight
’ would have
smoldi
But
le want to
set fire" to
town would
be ruined
___ __ destroyed.”
Why,” Daniels cut in, “would
anyone want
----- to
— spoil the pulp?
Something’s wrong somewhere.
Where is Mrs. Morgan?”
“She went to Asheville to see Tom
Pruitt's lawyers. I’d better tele
phone her.”
“I wouldn’t.” Wills said. “The
fire is out. Why worry her? She
has troubles enough already.”
“That’s true. I won’t tell her.
You’d better clean this up, Frank.”
“Let's have a look at it first.”
Wills looked at Daniels. "We can
be true. I’ll talk to Mrs. Morgan—
and you can be sure I won’t let
the mill be destroyed on my ac
count."
"Oh—please don’t talk to Mrs.
Morgan! Please—just go! You can
make some excuse—you had a job,
you can say you are going back to
HOTEL ASSEMBLY
it. You could say you had changed
your mind."
N IN TH A MADISON. MEATTLB
“I’m sorry—I couldn’t leave with
C o m fo rta b le M odern Itoomn
out talking to Mrs. Morgan. I’m
D a lly I I I t
W ee k ly 1« Up
very much indebted to her.”
Coffee Shop
Dining R oe»
“I appealed to you,” she sighed.
“It’s all I can do. But—if you were
convinced—”
D E N T A L * P L A T E R E P A IR
“ You’ve done your part. What
H 001 S K I VICK la Mei! C i m i
ever happens—I’m to blame.”
B r iif e i Mall T a n Plates
“I hope nothing happens. I hope
lei lepeir-CIKDIT BxteaM
I’m wrong." She smiled thinly.
But there was a dubious uneasi
D r . H a r R y S im l e r . ÏÏ&diit
ness in her heart, os Wills went
'IlM
*
A
■ r u l f l A M O O «t
away.
Had
Stanley
Daniels
been
a
— ------- h i i l l l i x
n - N U . der vice
little odd—a trifle curt and watch
CHAPTER IX—Continued
when Marian had gone, "is what
ful? He couldn’t know anything
—11—
you could call a dramatic exit. Very
about this affair—and yet, he alone
carried the keys.
Repeatedly she had called them satisfying—to the actor.”
HOUSEHOLD
Lucy was heavily unhappy as she
Into conferences, during the black
CHAPTER X
walked home alone that night. Life
QUESTIONS
years of the depression, laying the
could be so hopeless, so ghastly
facts before them, speaking their
Branford Wills went to his work at
when you lived in a shabby old
language. She had made sacrifices
house at the end of a shabby street,
to keep the mill in operation when the mill in the morning like a young
Use a clean sheet of wrapping
When you were so achingly in love! puper to roll pies and pastry on.
there was no profit for her, no pos man riding to a crusade. There
sible way to show a profit. If the was about him. as he entered the
It saves a lot of clvuning up Inter.
• • •
CHAPTER XI
mill closed there was no other em gate, a feeling of going into battle.
ployment for them—and yet here No tangible opposition presented it
Apples peeled, cored and baked
Marian Morgan had driven her in pineapple juice muke a new
was suspicion, sabotage and ugly self, no definite hostility. The men
little car up a twisting stretch of and tempting dish.
doubt that rested, till she had proof were not friendly, but they were
• • •
ridge road, without having any very
and certain knowledge, upon every heavily polite and reserved, as he
knew all mountain men to be until
definite idea of where she was go
man in the mill.
Painting the top nnd bottom cel
were won over. Daniels was
ing or why.
lar steps white may save mony
Virgie hated the thought with the they and
indifferent but their work
She drove slowly becuusc she told falls.
frightened hate of the innately kind curt
not coincide and Wills, following
• • •
herself that it was thrifty to spare
and candid woman. She hated look did
the
milling of the product through
tires on a rocky, boulder-edged
Protect the mattress from tear
ing at Jerry and Hobe and the Spain the plant,
the first removal of
track. She searched the hills above ing and from dust by a muslin
boys, with speculation in her eyes. the bark to from
the
warm
brown
rolls
of
and below with her eyes, but not mattress cover, and by placing a
She loathed the feeling that hostile
rolled into storage, saw
even to herself would she admit that mattress pad between the spring
looks might be following her. Every wood-pulp
she looked for anything. She had and the mattress.
man in the mill owed something to the chemist but seldom.
heard her mother telephoning in
But on the snowy morning follow
her—and yet people were funny!
structions that morning, but she had
ing
his
visit
to
the
jail,
Daniels
She went home at night, lost in a emerged from his laboratory, his
kept
her mind sternly on her break
heavy, ruminative gloom.
fast grapefruit and adjured herself
hands in the pockets of a stained
She changed her clothes and went jacket, and came to stand beside
not to listen. What did it matter
down to her big chair that faced Wills who was watching a new couch
where the woods truck went or who
David Morgan’s picture and still had blanket being spread on one of the
went with it?
the print of David Morgan’s head big presses.
She slipped out of the car, dragged
in the leather of the back. David
the cushion out and rummaged for
Daniels spoke without preamble.
looked tired, too, she thought. Da “ You were down at the other end
the pump, set it up on the ground.
vid was out of it all. He was lucky. of the mill yesterday. Wills. Did
With a nail-file from her purse she
Marian sat, moodily, in front of you see anyone fooling around the
pressed down the valve of a front
the fire staring into the blaze.
big vats—the digesters? We lost a
tire, let the air escape until the
"You,” sighed Virgie, sinking into batch of pulp through some funny
tire sagged, loose and flabby, a dis
the cushions with a groan, “are a business or other.”
couraging flummox of limp rubber.
cheerful sight for tired eyes! If
“I don’t know all the men in the
Then she climbed back into the car,
a merry laugh or a song ever sound mill as yet,” Wills said. “And I
wrapped the rug around her knees
ed in this room I suppose I’d drop was out for two or three hours. The
and sat in a small, cold huddle
dead from shock. What were you vats have padlocks, don’t they?”
waiting.
doing over at the jail?”
Instantly, now that the thing was
“That’s it.” Daniels frowned. “It’s
“I went over to bring Tom back. an inside job, evidently—without
done, a hundred accusing and con
He wouldn’t come.”
demning voices clamored in her
even a motive that we can discov
ears. She was being cheap, she was
"Being locked up on a criminal er. You haven’t made any of these
fellows sore, have you?”
doing the sort of shallow trick that
charge, that is kind of odd.”
a girl of Lossie’s class might de
Her face went red and then white
Wills looked puzzled. “How could
“ You were going to arrange bail
vise, she was forgetting that she
as Wills came in.
for him. Lon Hicks said so. But I? I’ve only been watching and lis
was the daughter of Virgie Mor IJ LACK and white yarn—a cro-
tening. And if I made a man sore
Tom wouldn’t come.”
find out perhaps where this stuff gan of the Morgan mills. But draw
chet hook—presto—a life-like
“I suppose you had to take young he'd be more likely to give me a came
from.”
ing out all these self-reproaches was panda cuddle toy. Single crochet
Wills along in case you needed poke in the jaw, wouldn’t he, than
For an instant Wills sensed an the thin, poignant cry that had trem forms the exterior of this cute ani
somebody to carry Tom’s baggage to ruin a run of pulp?”
“It sounds reasonable. It’s a mys edge of hesitation in Daniels’ man bled through her heart and beat in mal; cotton stuffing the interior;
—his other bandana! Did Wills men
His eyes flicked around, then her blood since the night she had buttons do excellent service as
tion that he’s working for me? Not tery—and not so good for me be ner.
were
quickly guarded. But his talked to her mother before the fire. eyes.
that it matters, but now and then cause I carry the keys. Well, much voice as
• • •
was carefully casual when
“I have to know!” she said, plain
we do run off a batch of pulp when obliged.”
Easy directions for this cuddly panda
he
answered,
“Not
much
left—but
tively,
aloud.
"I
know
it
isn’t
true—
At shouted instructions from a
we can get a little co-operation from
are Z9036. lie . He la about 14 Inches tall
but I have to be sure!”
lank man in overalls, Wills went to there may be a clue."
when finished, and will be a nursery fa
the gentlemen I employ.”
Wills
went
back
to
his
work
at
This contradictory patching up of vorite. It takes but little effort to crochet
“Mother, don’t be so prickly! I help smooth the thick blanket into the Jordan machine. It was an hour
him. Send order to:
took Mr. Wills over there because place on the bed of the machine. later that one of the Spain boys her conscience helped her to be
calm,
to
wait,
though
her
feet
tin
But
the
odd
unease
of
being
pressed
Lossie said the people in town were
came to him and said, “Lucy wants gled with cold. A mountain jay
A U N T M ARTHA
saying you had fired Tom and given upon by strange and unfriendly to see you. In the office.”
Bos 1 M W
Kansas City, Mo.
came
and
shrieked
at
her
from
a
forces
persisted.
He
hated
the
feel
Wills Tom’s job. I thought perhaps
Wills crossed the yard to the lit sumac clump. A deer stood for an
Enclose 19 cents for each pattern
ing
of
defensiveness,
of
needing
to
Tom might have heard it. I hope
tle structure that stood so bleakly
desired. Pattern No.......................
you don’t think I took him because justify himself in his own mind. alone. Lucy Fields sat at her little instant, tense and listening under
some gnarled ancient apple-trees
He
liked
this
job,
and
he
had
been
Nam « ............................................ ............
I enjoyed his company?”
desk, and her face went first red beside the ruin of a stone chim
Virgie looked at her daughter lev- swept up into admiration for the in and then white as Wills came in.
Address ................................
ney. Then suddenly he bounded
trepid
spirit
of
Virgie
Morgan.
elly. Her heart gave a little jerk.
“Sit
down,
please,”
she
faltered
a
And now, as the mill clamor beat little, then plunged rapidly. “Mr. away. There was a metallic vibra
Like every other mother she had
postponed stubbornly admitting to around him, he was certain that it Wills, I’m doing a very bold thing— tion through the woods. The truck
herself her child’s maturity; she had was the remoteness, the indifference asking you to come here. But I was starting. She caught the back
put off the inevitable hour of change in her eyes that made this feeling of had to talk to you. There’s—noth fire of a cold engine and the clank
nay affect the Heart
of shovels tossed aboard, and leaned
when some man should desire her being on trial without a friend in ing else to do.”
. 7“
In
rtom trh or ru liet r u ? art 1ft« a
her
elbow
on
the
button
of
her
horn.
\
t
r
i
f
g
e
r
«»n
Uie heart A t tb<» flrat sign of <jiair«aa
child for his own. For days she court. He had to show her. He had
r 2 J ndk . " T <'n J ’* * ’?4 on ,ul1
TablKa to
“I
see.
And
what
was
it
you
The
blare
made
the
jays
and
the
lit
f»*«. No la ia fire but made of the fa s t m t -
had been seeing through Branford to show her that he was something wanted to say to me?” He took the
r
kno^ ‘ for •f,d 1
**»n ir the
dooan t prove lleJI-ana flatter, return
Wills clearly and she had not been other than a lost and rather pathetic chair opposite—the chair that still tle pine sparrows and crossbills
with a whirring and snap bottle to u* a o j ratelra IXJt'H U C Muory Back,
displeased. She liked his straight young man whom a big-hearted el bore the imprints of David Mor scatter
ping of twigs.
forwardness, the trace of iron in derly woman had befriended.
gan’s shoulder-blades.
Then the rusty radiator appeared
Dominion Over Self
A sudden sharp nausea caught
him, the strong and gentle way he
Her throat fluttered. A strained
You can never have a greater
had with women. But there was no him as his mind raced. Young men look came over her small wistful over the rise emitting steam. Joe
had let the engine run hot on the or a less dominion than that over
seeing through Marian. Virgie ad had been befriended by middle-aged face.
grade. He was always doing that, yourself.—Da Vinci.
mitted to herself that her child was women before—if she thought he
“This is such a little town,” she
a dark-eyed enigma to her mother. was that sort, an opportunist, a began. “It’s rather awful to live too impatient to cool it out properly
th’ey reached the top of a long
And in her present state of mind, heel! He gave an involuntary jerk in such a gossipy little place. It when
climb.
“ SPECIAL”
nerve-taut and weary, puzzles were and Bud Spain yelled, “Hey!” But isn’t easy—what
y—what I have to say—to
Two men jumped down when they
irritating.
the yell was lost in other yells, rough make it clear, I mean. About the
HELP
FOR
saw Marian’s car, and came run
“Do you mean to tell me that and sudden and startling.
town. About the mill. It belongs to ning. One was Joe. The other was
you don’t know that that chap is in
Frank Emmet banged the gears the town—to all of us, Mr. Wills.
love with you?” she demanded. of the Jordan machine back, jumped The men who work here have been Branford Wills. Swiftly Marian put
“Have I raised up a daughter with and ran. Wills ran, too, and be here always. Nobody ever came in every scruple out of her mind. She
Due to Chest Colds
no more feminine intuition than a— cause the others were yelling, he from outside till Mr. Daniels came was a woman, using a woman’s
Rub chest and throat with Mild Mus-
devious and often unfair weapons.
ground turtle? Why—Lossie knows yelled, too. Hobe Anderson was last year.”
terole (made especially for children)
She said, “I’m stuck. That miser
more than that! Or am I supposed dragging a flat hose off a reel. An
to quickly relieve distress of bron
“What is it you’re trying to tell able old tire insists on going flat.
chial
and spasmodic croupy coughs.
to be just a nice stupid old mother, other man struggled with a fire ex me?” Wills asked bluntly. “That I’m
And I left the key to the spare in
-—
O f lL D R R NTM
blind as a bat?”
tinguisher.
an outsider? That somehow or oth my other purse. Isn’t mother with
Marian’s eyes darkened and her
The smoke was pouring from a er I am to blame for the trouble in you? I thought she came up here.
face changed queerly. There was a little oil house, built against the the mill?”
There’s a long-distance call for her
little convulsion of her lips that was north wall of the mill. They kicked
“ And so your suggestion is that I —I came up to tell her.”
a tremor of pain, but Virgie was the door in, there were yells and leave town in haste and never come
“She didn’t come with us. She
too spent and too exasperated to see. men running into each other, and back!”
must be at the mill,” Wills said.
“So that,” Marian’s voice crack much coughing and hissing of chem
Beauty and Sadness
Tears ran down her pale face. “I
led like ice, “ is the cute little plot. icals. The smoke grew blacker, then know I sound like a fool to you, “Let’s have a look at that tire.”
Beauty and sadness always go
“It’s
flat,
all
right.”
Joe
gave
the
He’s in love with me so you give turned white and sank to the ground. but Mrs. Morgan has been a moth
together. Nature thought Beauty
him a job in the mill. It’s a Rollo Wills’ eyes were running scalding er to me—tc all of us. We’ve all wheel a kick. “ But there’s still a too rich to go forth upon the earth
little
air
in
it.
Maybe
we
can
pump
book—the nice young man works his water but it was he who kicked the fought and worked and struggled to
without a meet alloy.—George
it up so you can get down to the MacDonald.
way up from sweeping the store and smoldering barrel into the open, gether—always for the mill.”
road.”
the mill owner’s daughter is sup where Hobe Anderson knocked it
“All but the fellow who poured
They pumped up the tire, and
posed to be all of a twitter because over and sent it rolling with a oil on the newspapers and ruined
Joe
studied it, testing the valve.
she gets a kind look. Unfortunately, stream from the hose.
T0\ ^ -
the pulp. He was fighting for him
“Must be a pressure leak,” he
Mother dear, you’ve been reading
“Take it easy!” Wills shouted at self.”
said. “Valve’s all right. Can you
Dorothy Dix or seeing too many Hobe. “Cut that water off. Let’s
OF
“Perhaps he thought he was fight turn around here without getting
movies. Mr. Branford Wills happens have a look at this.”
ing for the mill. Perhaps he thought stuck?”
qu.ick.Cy « J e
not to be in love with me—as any
A dozen hands jerked the charred, that outsiders would be coming in to
"I
think
so—I’ll
try.”
L IQ U ID
observer can see with half an eye. smoking staves of the barrel apart. take it away from us. He might
TABLETS
“ You better do it,” Joe said to
SALVE
Either half. And I happen not to A label, still intact, on its side, in have thought that you were the
N O te D R O M
Wills. “It’s steep off there. She
be in love with him.”
dicated that it had held bisulphide. first.”
C O U C H DROPS
could turn over easy.”
“That,” Virgie mumbled aloud, In the bottom an oily mass still
“It sounds fantastic. But it may
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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