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About Lincoln County leader. (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987 | View Entire Issue (May 26, 1905)
fwiffiLY'S WOODS) i By tl. W. TAYLOR CHAPTER XII. (Continued.) The wind increasing almost momenta rily, (teemed to le blowing the rniu away, for It was not now descending in the white strips and ribbons of water that hail swept the woods clean nil day. Still tliere were intervals in which little spurts nf rain dashed in their faces, now com ing with the harder wind from the cool northwest. The level meadow that lay between the Iteddcn residence and the edge of the village looked white and liquid as if It were a little lake, or an arm of back wuter from the Wabash. Across it, and far down Into its seem ing depths glimmered the bright yellow reflections of a few steady lights blazing out of open doors and uncurtained win dows, and showing where other watchers held lonely and anxious vigils on account of those dear to theui, and who were in pain and peril. Following as well as she could in the exact steps of her guide, Lizzy managed to keep out of the deeper w;ater and mud, and skirting the grassy side nf the Inne got out upon the watery, canal-like opening of Overcoat road. The wind was roaring and tossing the great limbs of the oaks about in a way that recalled to Lizzy's recollection the first onslaught of that dreadful cyclone whose path through the tall f.irest she ruuM distinctly set- by the little bturiitdit that began to be reflected faintly through the thinning margins of . the smaller clouds, into which the, wind was break ing up the great solid, vapor-loaded cloud of the day. At the very uttermost end ol this hurricane path there gleamed a faint red glow against the sky. "Looks lack hit mout bo some house nburnnn. Hut I don't know whutfur house hit could be. They haint nobody nlivun up thar 'at I knows uv," Mrs. ICedilen said, in a low voice, almost swept away by the wind. They were nt the exact spot where the Overcoat road merged and lost its identity in the "main street" around the "square." "Hello! Is that you, Miss Rolden?" some voice called out from an unseen locality near them. "Yes; who is ut V" "A hnnttin Clumlmrse, air ynh T" eon timied the voice, without discovering the head nud chest that emitted it. "No; I came up to find Coonrod. I gut awneasy 'bout 'im astnyun so long." "Well, now, you're ashnutun!" said the voice, beginning to materialize in the shadowy dark figure that Mrs. Itedden recognized nt once an the young Doc. "He's gone a trip 'at I wouldn't go fur n purty! He's gone up awnto the Big Kattlesnakc, clur up to the Backbone Kidge, nt the fur eend uh your lan', Lizzy. They's a lot a' railroad fellers rt.mped up thar, 1111 they've ben duun a little shootun' uv one another. Un Coon rod he went along with the shurf to 'rest a lot n v um Mason, un s'more uv urn, fur intent to kill." . CHAPTER XIII. "How fur is ut. Doc?" asked Mrs. Iteddcn in a voice that showed she was thinking strongly. "You haint a go-un to try to go thar to-night, air you? 1 wouldn't ef I was you! They may be a good big furse fore they git through with it. Tliam railroad fellers has gut thur weapuus with um. Un they've ben a usen uv um purty lively lack. Doc said they was five ur six uv um shot some purty bad. liut I've gut to hurry on. Little Jim Dikescs youngest boy is sick; un " But without stopping to hear about the perils of little Jim Dikeses youngest boy, Mrs. Iteddcn had turned about. and be gan walking slowly and uncertainly back along the Overcoat road, with Lizzy fol lowing her, and also deep in thought. If these men had been shooting each other, perhaps Mr. Mason, ami even I'rof. Huntley, might be among the wounded; the dangerously wounded. And If so, she would only be doing a Ho'osier girl's duty, to go and nurse and care for the man who hud certainly saved her life. "I'm a great mind to walk thnt away, Lizzy! We needn't go any furder'n we vawiit to, you know. We kin come back whenuver we've a mine to. Un we mout meet Coonrod, some'rs awn the road, mebby. Think you could walk ut?" Mrs. Iteddcn said, a little hesitatingly, but gathering assurance at the sound of her voice and the plausibility of her state' ment, as she went on. "Oh. yes. I think I would like to go nil the way if we could. If there are men hurt, they will need women there to help prepare for the surgeons. Men can't lieat water and tear bnndages and get soap, and towels and all those things that are needed where people are hurt Yon remember how it was last fnll when the threshing engine blew up," Lizzy mud. (piite cheerfully ami animatedly. Mrs. Redden remembered so much about that incident that it started her upon a stream of general retniniscencrs that, branching out as it did into wind ing bayous of neighborhood accidents, promised to last forever. Happily Lizzy was so constituted that she was not compelled to follow the thread of Mrs. Hedileti's episodes. On the contrary, she lost them presently in a sort of exhilarating enjoyment of the night, and the high wind, and the roaring breakers of foliage tossing and swaying about with a sort of wavelike crash that reminded her of the distant but distinct ly audible sound of the sea, where she had heard it once a long time ago. Is this human love of the night for a time of roving about and looking at all manner of sights and hearkening to all manner of sounds, to be taken to mean that man is a night prowler out of that animal instinct that survives the long past progression beyond the four feet armed with claws, and the elongated pu pil aud erectile ears? Not nt all. It only means that night, being the time of rest, is best suited to amusement and relaxation. And there fore people avail themselves of their only opportunity. The two women having satisfied their consciences upon the question of the right of going upon such an expedition, drew themselves more closely Into the shelter of their ample shawls and so, like cowled devotees of these Druid temples of the primeval woods, went hurrying on in the growing wind and the declining rain. So long as they could follow the broad and generally unfenced course of the Overcoat road there was little or no diffi culty in picking their way In reasonaole security from little stumpB of black-jacks that had been cut down in some emer gency of transferring the roadbed a few rods to this side or to that, to avoid a newly formed mud hole, or a fallen tree, or some other of the numerous obstacles thnt beset new roads in a new country. Nor did the long, arching black rasp berry vines and blackberry stems, with sharp and tenacious thorns, luy hold up on the woolen fibers of the shawls,. aud insist upon a tariff levied upon the spot, and only to be measured by the points of contact. But when, after awhile, Mrs. Redden, coining upon a plain wagon road .that cume Into the highway of Overcoat road out of an unpromising shadow of the great forest, turned unhesitatingly into it and to the northward, all the circum stances seemed to be .suddenly changed for the worse. It was no longer possible to see one yard of the suddenly narrowed road, and uiey were compelled to concentrate all their senses of alertness in their feet that now cautiously, but quickly and un hesitatingly, felt the way. lAzzy here implicitly followed her affile and fearless leader, dodging with her nwia tins way aud that, throwing her left arm up here and her riffht firm un there, in anticipation of some imaginary slender and drooping branch. .turning one of the many short and almost semi-circular curves in this un trammeled woods-road, they came sud denly within the' broad glare of a light which they had Been for brief moments, and at irregular intervals during the lat ter portion of their long and rapid walk. ine light appearing to come out of a small round rent in the very curtain of the night Itself, moved and oscillated across their path, while a low hum of voices could be distinctly heard only a little way from them. lhe two women continued to advance slowly and wonderlngly, hearing the hum or voices interrupted by a short laugh, and then totally suppressed by a per emptory ejnculution in a voice that one ol the adventurous Hoosier women was familiar with. "Coonrod! Is thnt you? Coonrod Redden!" said Mrs. Redden, raising her voice so as to be distinctly heard above the wind, and all its woodland reso nances. , One man stepped out of the black shadow and came forward. Lizty had ample time to observe him narrowly, and to see him perfectly. For the strong cone of yellow light, wavering a little from side to side, ceutered upon them, and in cluded him within its glow. From the first step that he took for ward out of the darkness, Lizzy Wlckly, w ith a sudden leap of her heart, recog nized him. It was Mr. Mason,' certain ly.' But what a change in him! And to what was due the change? His ordinary dark, plain and unpreten tious dress had become totally supplant ed. He wore a high, black, rimless cap such as men of tha't day sometimes wore in the later autumn. A short, black, gum-enameled cloak was fastened about his shoulders and thrown slightly back from the" close-fitting and broad-belted blouse. Long leather boots covered his legs above the knees, giving him a jaunty, dnshing, cavalier air so totally new and strange and foreign to him, as she had heretofore known him, that she was Im movable from sheer astonishment and growing wonder. The metallic gleara of wenpons in the l.iond leather belt, and the glistening bar rel of one of those wonderful, new, many' shotted carbines protruding from under the cloak and lying easily across his right forearm, brought her back to look more closely at his face as he came rapidly lorward. Then she saw that his long and some' what faded brown hair had disappeared, nnd a rather close cropped coat of black hair enme down to his temples under the cap; and she remembered like a flash what Coonrod Redden had said nbout it. Y'es, he hnd worn a wig! Beyond a doubt he hnd worn a wig! He had played a part! He hnd been a cunning and a skilled dissimulator. His bold, jaunty manner, his changed dress, his easy aud assured smile, and above all, the youthfulness of his always fresh, ruddy face, now fra-med in th? close black hair and the brigandish cap w ere in their totality as well as in their particularity, irrefragible proof of the fact thnt he was a skilled dissimulator! Along with this sudden conclusion, ar rived at within three ample seconds of time, covering perhaps, ten thousand evo lutions of thought, memory and com' pnrison, there was a sharply defined re currence of that sense of loss that she had felt when she had looked at this man and perceived some alteration in him while he had driven past her on yester day in the streets of Sandtown. He is about to speak. And she feels that she must not lose his smallest word; his least gesture; his most fleeting glnnce. tor upon these depend something. Some thing of greatly supreme moment to her. hue feels and knows. CHAPTER XIV. "Mr. Redden, I am sorry to say, is not now here, Mrs. Redden," he said, taking olT his cap and bowing in a very formal nnd elaborate manner, "ne came up this nfternoon upon important business, but has gone on further much further than our camp. I can assure you, though, thnt he is safe and well. Miss Lizzy, has your hurricane experience made you admire storms to such a degree that you take the numerous risks of accident from falling limbs and trees without hesita tion, on a cloudy day and iuclemeut night?" While a slight sarcastic smile linger ed about his lips, there was a puckering of the brows nnd a glitter In his dark eyes, made darker by the blnck border of hair and enp, and also a certain harsh ness in the tones of his voice that com bined to mnke her feel that she was put upon the defensive, aud under censure and reproof. "I do not know thnt I thought of the danger," Lizzy nuswered, blushing a lit tle. "I suppose thnt after so recent an experience " "Von ought to have thought of it," he suggested. "No doubt! No doubt. Even by experience we mortals learn but. slow ly, and after many lessons. Mrs. Red den, you will not think of going on far ther in search of your husband? Can't you take my word thnt he is well and tafe?" He Flood close to Llzr.y even touch ing her with the folds of his gum-enameled rain cloak, while he faced Mrs. Red den. 'I mout a tuck your word fur ut, Mr. Mason, ef ut ud aben three-four weeks ago," said the determined and plain- spoken old Hoosier woman, defiantly. "But you haint ns much thought uv, nur your word haint as good as hit wair then. I coitie up hy-ur after my man, un I want 'im before I go back." There was a moment's pause, In which Mr. Mason seemed to be Upon the border line between anger and surprised amuser nient. "I am sorry to have lost the good opinion of yourself nnd so many of the kind-hearted people of Sandtown, he said earnestly, and with a return toward something like what might be termed his Sandtown manner. "I must beg you both to believe that I have not willfully injured anybody in what I have done. I have had your interests in view, as well as " "Yes, hit looks lack ut, don't ut," broke in the determined and independent old woman. "Hit looks lack hit was to our Intrust to git the Farmers' Bank into sich a tight plaint ut It had to bust up, un bust up every farmer en Redden township un all 'long the Wabash. And you come down h-yur un bid in all ar moggijis fur little ur nuthun." The amount of scorn thrown into her vigorous sentences by her staccatos of emphasis was surprising to contemplate. Under this invective Mr. Msson kept his gaze steadily and searchingly upon Lizzy Wickly's face, while his face remained turned townrd the angry visage of the blunt and fearless old Hoosier woman. 'I certainly have had no hand in the misfortunes of the Farmers' Bank," he said quickly, and keeping his eyes fixed upon "Lizzy's in thnt searching, question ing look thnt plainly asked her what she thought of these charges. "And so far as the mortgage sales are concerned, I had only thought of doing a favor to one of the mortgagors by compelling the mortgagee to pay something like the full value of the property. But if there are many sufferers I shall make an effort " "Many! They's about uvverybody at I know. Un most uv um lose thur farms, too. Un thur fambly will suffer, I reck on. Billy Biler .tole Coonrod " "Congressman Biler is the attorney for the railroad that is closing up the Farm ers' Bank, Mrs. Redden. You know that fact, so you can put a proper estimate upon every bit of information that comes through him," Mr. Mason said, looking hard at Lizzy for symptoms of some ef fect of his words, and seeing those symp toms very evidently. "Billy Biler! Billy Biler ud no more do sich a theng thun he'd put his head en the fire!" said Mrs. Redden indignant ly. "We've knowed him too long fur that. But I reckon, Lizzy, we mout as well go back. I've kine uh gat over my awneasy spell 'bout Coonrod. He's nllways tuck k-yur uv hisseff. But I felt mighty awnensy mighty awneasy." Lizzy, signifying thnt she was quire ready to set out on the return walk, Mr. Mason, resuming in a great measure the jaunty nir with which he hnd met them, volunteered to escort them, and offered his arras to both ladies. "No, thanky," said Mrs. Redden, much mollified. "I kin walk alone yit. You mout help Lizzy thar. She's purty well tard out, I reckon. Un young g-yurls needs a sight more animu un keppun nlong, un ole weeinun does. I'll lend out, un you two kin follow, mebby. Acting instnntly upon her own suggeS' Hon, Mrs. Redden "led out" with the long swinging stride peculinr to the old' time Hoosier dames, who walked every where when the "bosses" were nt work, nnd before "ridun-ungs" became plenti ful. (To be continued.) A Modified Appreciation. "Do you plnce any reliance on the weather predictions?" "Yes," answered Farmer Corntossel. "I alius give 'em credit fer one thing. The weather mentioned is always pro duced sooner or later, although th dates aren't always strictly accurate." Washington Stur. '(fO o&x will The tainted blood of ancestors lays upon the shoulders of Innocent off spring lupoid suffering by ;transmitting to them, through the blood, that blighting disease, Scrofula; for in nearly every instance the disease can be traced to some family blood trouble, or blood-kin marriage which is contrary to the laws of nature. Swelling, ulcerating glands of the neck, catarrh weak eyes, sores, abscesses, , , , ' skin eruptions, white swell- Sc,u.la, appeared on the head of my little ing, hip disease and other Era?chlld i : months old, and spread deformities with a wasting Pdly over her body. The disease next attacked uciormiues, wiia a wasting e M and ve feared she would lose her sieht Df the natural strength and It was then that we decided to try S.S. & That vitality, are some of the ways medicine at once made a speedy and complete this miserable disease man- cure. She is now a young lady, and has never lfests itself. The poison had a sign of the disease to return, transmitted through the. 59 S. sth St., Salina. Kan. Mas. R. Bttmrrv blood pollutes and weakens that health nutritive mmlitiea filla tha ;.-..i -- - i- - v.uiauuu iui Btruiuious matter ana tuDercular deposits, often resulting in consumption. A disease which has been in the taiaily blood for generations, perhaps, or at least since the birth of the suf . 6"-- ""ojiuuc mc general aeaitn im proves, the symptoms all pass away, there is a sure return to health, the dis ease IS Cured nermanenrliT nrVii1 e j t--i. . . . . end any advice wished, furnished by IMS SWIFT In Light Distress. A new term was heard the other day. An old lady and her two daugh ters came Into a millinery store. Ths young women wore mourning hata. lne old woman said to the clerks: I want a mourning hat. for I am In mourning. But my datter here," indi cating, "Is a widder of two years' standing, and she id in light distress. Olve hr a hat with bluo feathers on It." Chicago News. Grateful Change. Clara Did you have Dleasant at the springs this summer? Dora Xo. It was hot, dreadfully so. "Really uncomfortable, was it?" "Awfully. Why. the weath er irn a warm that when a man with a cool mill ion proposed te me I accepted him at ones." Equal to T.enpYear. Slowboy was wearing a gaudy tie for which he -had recently given up 48 cents in real money. "What kind of a tie do you admire most?" he asked of his fair compan ion in the parlor scene. "Why, er tee! hee! the marriage tie," she giggled. And th riurt rinv Klnn-tinv tinntatl up a minister and contracted with him to make one. CUBAN MINISTER TO THE IL S. Recommends Pe-ru-na. Senor Quesada, Cuban Minister to the United States. Senor Quesada, Cuban Minister to the United States, is an orator born. In an article in The Outlook for July, 1899, by George Kennan, who heard Quesada speak at the Esteban Theatre, Matanzas, Cuba, he said: "I have seen many audiences under the spell of eloquent speech and in the grip of strong emotional exitement, but I have rarely witnessed such a scene as at the close of Qnesada's eulogy upon the dead patriot, Marti." In a letter to The Peruna Medicine company, written from Washington, D. C, Senor Quesada says: "Peruna I can recommend as a very good medicine. It is an excellent strengthening tonic, and it is also an ef-' ficacious cure for the almost universal complaint of catarrh."-- Gonzalo De Quesada. Congressman J. il. Bankhead, of Ala bama, one of the most influential mem bers of the Houes ot Representatives, in a letter written from Washington, D. C, gives his endorsement to the great catarrh remedy, Peruna, in the following words: "Your Peruna is one of the best medi cines I ever tried, and no family should be without your remarkable remedy. As a tonic and catarrh cure I know of nothing better." J. H. Bankhead. There ii but a single medciine which Tt7 A A Disease j iLtJm. We Inherit - sustaining fluid and in place of its :i t.Tt (. . - fer, requires constitutional Treatment. S. S. S. is the remedy best fitted for this. It cleanses the blood of all scrofulous and tuberculous poisons makes it rich and pure and under the tonic effects our physicianB, without charge. SPECIFIC CO., ATLANTA. CAm Benefits of Proper Breathing. The bablt of slow, measured, deep breathing that covers the entire lung surface is of more value and import ance than you will ever believe until you have tried it, and when you have established the bablt of breathing in this manner you will say some remark able things in its favor. It will reach all points of your physical system. All the benefits that occur fioiu a healthy condition of the blood will In a greater or less degree be yours, for the manner and completeness with which the In spired air comes in contact with the blood lu the lungs are of the utmost importance to every vital process. Christian Work and Evangelist Antiseptic Telephones. The French telephone service has just accorded to the public one of those little amenities of civilization which might, with obvious advantage, be ex tended throughout the world. In every public office there will henceforward be hung with a white linen handker chief, treated with a chemical solution, vjth which every person can cleanse and disinfect the plate or tube before using it. If he will only do so also af ter breathing into it himself for sev eral minutes, so much the better. These handkerchiefs are renewed daily. is a radical specific for catarrh. Il is Peruna, which has stood a half century test and cured thousands of cases. If you do not derive prompt and sat isfactory results from the use of Peru na, write at once to Dr. Hartman, giy ing a full statement of your case, and he will be pleased to give you hia val uable advice gratis. Address Dr. Hartman, President of The Hartman Sanitarium, Columbus, 0. All correspondence held strictly coni-dential.