1
THE REGISTER-GUARD. EUGENE. OREGON.
A VERSATILE STYLE
SERIAL STORY
'I AM A MURDERER'
BY MORRIS MARKEY
oviawr, isaa,
MM IKVICI. IHO.
t
4 PRELtTDB TO TRAGEDY.
-ft CHAPTER XXI
., 'I'HUS you have been witness.
: good people one ami ell, to the
' accomplishment of my llfe' pur
pose. You have aeen the manner
of It Perhaps you would care to
tk, hear the method of it Perhaps,
too, to understand the reasons for
Its undertaKing.
It follows, then, that you must
T listen yet awhile:
And go to a day not long after
j the ending of the First World
War to a snug cabin in the aoar
' ing forests of the Cascade Moun
tains in the State of Washington.
It was a beautiful cabin, set be-
7 side a rushing river. And there
were five people living in it One
of these was John Frye. Three
others were John Frye's wife, and
hi growing boy, and his infant
daughter. The fifth and last was
Norman Tinker. John Fry and
Norman Tinker were equal part
ners in a lustrous enterprise.
Norman Tinker was the man
Whom you have met in my writ
ing, and seen die therein, under
the name of Wesley Hope Men
wether called Colonel.
John Frye and Norman Tinker
were different sorts of men, al
together. Their partnership had
come about in a manner which
was, at least to John Frye, sur
prising. Frye had come back from the
wars in France to his wife and
i his son and his very new daugh
Z ter, and he had brought with him
certain disabilities of the body
J which would not be helped by the
resumption of his Job in the ana-
) lytlcal laboratories of a Northern
' smelting company. Bis doctors
i told him to look cut of doors for
I health end a long life. People
told blm one man here and an
Z other then that Norman Tinker
was the fellow for him to see.
Tinker was a college man like
himself, they said, but with a
Z crazy passion for prospecting in
new fields gold, silver, platinum,
anything. He had found some
success, here and there, too. At
least he was not working on a
shoestring. He w.a the very man
for John Frye to look up.
m
J CO John Frye did look him up,
and found him in Chicago;
found a keen-eyed, quiet-voiced
man somewhat older than himself,
a man who was cool, and distant
and a little difficult to know. Their
first talk together was not greatly
productive. Norman Tinker said
that he had no new projects at the
moment He might, if he found
one, find it useful to engage as.
sistance. And in the meantime he
would examine John Frye's rec
ord, and attainments, in his own
way, and privately,
Within a month, John Frye was
summoned to another meeting.
Norman Tinker wasted neither
time nor words arriving at the
point:
"I have learned it doesn't mat
ter how of certain lands in the
State of Washington which may
yield valuable deposits. I have
convinced myself that you can be
of help to me. But it is necessary
for me to conduct my examina
tions with the greatest possible
discretion. Again, the reason does
not matter. And so I make you
proposal:
"You and I will go to this coun
try I speak of, and explore its
possibilities. And you will be
written in for one-third of any
thing we may find."
Which was a generous thing to
do, Indeed.
John Frye was Immensely
pleased. He was not a man of
force and he had never been sea
soned to many of the stern reali
ties. Life had accommodated him
to a philosophy of acquiescence,
and to a slight shock of surprise
when any fortune fell his way. If
Norman Tinker had offered him a
decent weekly wage, he would
have been satisfied. How wonder
ful to become a partner!
It would not, perhaps, be exag
geration to say that John Frye
was a weak man. Not morally, of
course, but temperamentally. He
was easily led by stronger men.
But, like all people who are called
weak, he had a perverse alloy of
the thing whloh is known as stub
bornness. And now this stubborn
ness took fire in a condition which
he offered to Norman Tinker.
He was overjoyed at the oppor
tunity. But he would not think
of going on the expedition unless
he could take his family with him.
This was not In Norman Tinker's
book, and he scoffed at the notion.
It was absurd, and furthermore
it was dangerous, he said. 1 John
Frye said, in reply, that hl wife
and - children were absolutely
So the strong man and tha
stubborn man wrestled the mat
ter, and the strong man surren
dered because he, also possessed
of stubbornness though of a dif
ferent weave, was determined that
John Frye was his man.
T REMEMBER that cabin as If a'
A precisely detailed painting of
It were upon the wall before my
eyes at this moment. It was like
paradise. The Douglas firs that
reached their magnificent spires
toward the sky, the swift cold wa
ter, the beasts that came down to
stare at us, the .trout and the
salmon that smelled so fins ,
against the smell of coffee in the
evening.
And I remember as vividly that
night John Frye came in, very
tired, with a sack full of new
samples. They were, he said,
from a rather curious outcropping
in the next valley. He and Nor
man Tinker went to the work
bench which they had built in the
end of the room, and got down
vessels and tools and bottled
chemicals, while at the other end
of the same room Martha Frye
hummed to her baby girl and tha
hissing of the frying pan was loud
in the air.
The next thing, two men were
staring at each other and saying,
Good Lord, man that can t be
true!"
The new and curious outcrop
ping which John Frye had found
was a thing of inestimable worth.
Early next morning the two men
were gone, and they came back
changed altogether from the two
men of yesterday. For they were
rich indeed, and the excitement of
that knowledge was a grave thing
to bear lightly.
Martha Frye Joined eagerly In
their excitement, opening a bot
tle of red wine which she had
saved against an illness and shar
ing the toasts to fortune which
were lifted in loud voices. Even
the boy which boy was I
caught more than a touch of the)
fever and grew red with avarice,
with the sudden, fabulous assur
ance that here were white ponies
hitched to basket carts, and soda
pop beyond all dreaming, and
buckets of candy, and a tolerant
generosity toward the lesser men
of the school back home.
It was a night of hurly-burly.
with the lad trying to understand
when these mysterious creatures,
the grown-ups, urged each other
to be calm urged that there
might yet be a flaw in the great
discovery.
There was no flaw. The next
day's explorations, and the next
necessary to him after nil year day's, fortified every hope,
in the wars. (To Be Con tinned)
I CAUSE FOR VENGEANCE
Z CHAPTER XXJI
iVN tha fifth dav. whan It aeemsd
- j
. likely that tha next procedure
. would be to mow calmly down to
. tha Settlement and begin certain
arrangements with the Land Of
. flee, Norman Tinker had a tugges
Z tlon. He had spent many hours
oS by himself, walking along the
'water upstream, and now he had
this to say:
"I have an idea, John, that we
Z had better find out what lies up
; the river. We're going to have
the problem of bringing machinery
I in and maybe wa can barge up
tha stream. I'd like for you to
take one of the panoes and go as
Z tar as you can, and make tome
J sketch maps you're so much bet-
ter at that sort of thing than I
t am."
J "But I went up there," John
Frye said, "The rapids begin
about two miles above us."
J "They extend only a little way,"
said Norman Tinker, "My point
Is this. See if you can get through
J them and see If there la naviga-
ble water beyond.'"
, Martha Frye said, "But John is
J not much of a hand with the ca-
noe."
J "Tush," said Norman Tinker.
J "Let him take tha boy along. You
can paddle, can't you, sonnyt" And
, he looked at the boy for perhaps
the first time In his life,
k "Sure. I'll help."
Z" John Frye looked at his wife.
"I think U will be all right, my
dear."
J "I think it's Just foolish, and
dangerous, too."
"Nonsense," Norman Tinker
Z laughed. "Get going early to-
morrow, will you, John?"
I "You bet I will."
And so John Frye and his son
got the canoe into the water with
, the dawn, and paddled hard up-
J stream. They atruck into tha
rapids, and tha exertion made
J.John Frye cough furiously. The
. boy tried his best But in a little
2 while John Frye was exhuted,
. and there was blood in his rough-
Ing. The canoe sweDt aimin.it a
2 boulder and began to roll In the
Wild water, over and over again,
' e
TN some fsihion the boy made
- A him 4 U V.... L. l
along the bank, tearing his clothes
and his face and his hands upon
the bushes, and at last staggering
into the little clearing beneath the
Or trees.
"Daddy!" he cried. "My Dad
dy is up there in the water!"
They got his body out. Nor
man Tinker said, "This is ter
rible, terrible, terrible. . . , But
wa must bury him here and not
try to take him down to the Set
tlement." Martha Frye wai too
stunned with anguish to protest
She helped to dig tha grave.
Then, early In tha afternoon,
life and consciousness of life
flowed back into her, and she
walked to the table where Nor
man Tinker waa waiting, with
bowed head, for her to bring his
food. She said:
"You murdered him."
The boy's eyes flew wide, and
Norman Tinker looked up slowly.
"You are upset," he said. "I
decline to be offended because you
don't know what you're saying."
You tried to murder the boy,
too."
"This Is very foolish of you,
Martha."
"I am not afraid of you. You
have murdered him. And I am
going to the Settlement and tell
them so."
She started for the door, with
her daughter in her arms and the
boy walking beside her. The three
of them got to the water's edge,
and even Into the canoe, before
Norman Tinker came rushing
from the bouse.
"Wail!" he cried. "Stop! Waltl'
In that moment the guilt and
the fear were cut deep Into his
face.
"Walt!"
Tha canoe was almost fully
water-borne, the boy giving It one
last above, when Norman Tinker
came up to it He lunged and
caught at the gunwhale, and
stumbled, and fell into the water.
The canoe swirled out Into the
stream. The boy fell, too, not far
rrem Norman Tinker, and wal
lowed for a moment But he got
to his feet and yelled, "I'm com
ing, Mother. I'll be there. Go
aneau. Go. Go.
ATARTHA FRYE plunged the
tha canoe, sending it down
stream. The boy ran Into the
woods.
Norman Tinker hesitated for a
moment- Ha almost started after
tha boy. Then he looked at the
canoe, and looked at another
canoe, pulled up on the sandy lit
tle beach. He rushed toward it,
and fought It into the water, and
swung the paddle fiercely until he .
too was in midstream. The boy
struck away through the woods.
He reached the Settlement
three days later. A few men,
were there, sitting along the Jetty
with their fishing lines in the
water. They told him that a
canoe had coma in one canoe. It
was a long, brown canoe, paddled
by a tired-looking man who had,
of all absurd things, a baby
wrapped in blankets in the bows.
No. No woman at all.
The man had got hold of tha
only automobile 'round about, and
gone off.
Whereupon the boy, from ex
haustion and from hunger and
from fear, fell into delirious cries.
A woman took him in and nursed
him and listened to his muttered
raving.
She almost believed him, and
said to her dubious husband,
"Well, tell me what a tike like
that is doing, wandering around
me mg woods, au by himself?
There must be some reason for it"
The husband shook his head.
If he had learned one lesson in
his life, he told her, it was to
keep hands off other folks' doings.
especially Jf the other folks
seemed to be in trouble.
"I never trouble trouble." he
Intoned gravely, "till trouble
troubles me." But then he said,
"I'll tell Sheriff Raven whenever
I see him next."
But Sheriff Raven did not eet
around 'to the Settlement very
often. The country was as big a
many a state. There was no tel
ephone in the Settlement, and no
automobile save the one that Nor
man Tinker had hired to take him
away. People who had horses
had work of their own to do.
Then the man who owned tha
automobile came back. He came
back very drunk, because he had
come upon unexpected money. Ha
rougnt with two men, and waa
hurt quite badly, so that he did
not feel like driving for a while.
But ho did tell tha boy, when
both he and the boy were some
what recovered, that Norman
Tinker had taken the baby to
Spokane, and had said something
or another about a train down
California way.
his way to tha bank, and ran I tha swift current caught hold of I
The bov atarted cut to walk ta
paddle Into the water and I California.
(To Be Continued)
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OH. ABSOLUTELY!
SAN PEDRO, Calif. Baker
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appeared. No Willie,
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ntwr iiuuii ui irarcning ana
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They looked at the 17-year-old
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