Gold Hill news., November 21, 1940, Image 6

The Gold Hill News, Gold Hill. Oregon
F T ] Hawk-‘ Wind
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BY HELEN TOPPING MILLER
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T h u r s d a y . N o v . 2 1 . 1940
1
THE STORY
CHAPTER II
ticular anxiety as to appearances. night he rode the rusty old truck
No artist had ever etched the up the mountain road to Morgan's
When Virgie Korean, widow, and owner
Meanwhile in her kitchen Virgie
steaming ugliness of the plant, dome house, where he shaved helpless Da­
of the Morgan paper m ill In the Carolina
and stack, snatching cable and roar­ vid, cut his toe-nails, trimmed the Morgan held a hot-water bottle over
mountain district, turns down a marriage
proposal from Wallace Withers, he leaves
ing chute. There was no chilled, white dry locks of hair, rubbed his the sink, filled it gingerly, ducking
her house In a rage. Virgie turns him down
her head as the kettle steamed.
modern
music of »teel and glass, weary, wasting back.
because she believes he is more interested
Lossie spooned coffee into « per­
In the meantime Tom's land on
no men in white, no ranked battery
in possession of her m ill than In obtaining
a wife. After he has gone. Branford Wills, a of shining stacks and retorts.
But Little Fork and Hazel Fork became colator. Her brassy waves were
young stranger, who has been lost on the
there was good pulp. Through the one of a hundred tracts lost in a cushioned in a heavy net.
mountain-side for three days, flnds his way
to the Morgan home. Taken in. he is fed and defeating lag of the depression, since fog of indefinite involvement: owned
“Think it’s pneumonia?" she
warmed and allowed to remain overnight
asked, taking the kettle from her
David's death, Virgie’s market had and not owned.
Tom waited, worried, dubious, mistress* hand.
held. When a finishing mill got an
“ A chill doesn't have to be pneu­
order for extra quality paper they and unhappy. Then David Morgan
CHAPTER I—Continued
wired for Morgan pulp to mill it died. And after that there was no monia,” Virgie said, "but his voice
“Not even when they’re on the from. There had been half-time chance of selling Morgan pulp sounds funny and I heard him
opposite side of the feud?” Wills work, half-week lay-offs, but always stock enough to finance a suit to coughing a lot in the night. That
the pay-roll ready on the fifth and foreclose and clear title, even if bed was damp probably. Nobody
asked, whimsically.
has slept up there in a time. He
“Well, I don’t dignify any argu­ the twentieth, whether Virgie's Tom had known how to begin it.
Tom locked the old safe on his should have had a fire—worn out
ment I get into with the title of feud," rusty old leather handbag had a
said Virgie. "Though the Govern­ nickel of spending money in it or beautiful yellow papers, with the gilt the way he was.”
"If this house just had a furnace
seals upon them, pulled his belt
ment is hen-fussy—sticking its bill not.
Tom Pruitt knew how it had run tighter, hunched his shoulders, and in it—”
into every little mess that the rain
"Now, don’t go harping on that,
set to work to help Virgie Morgan
would cover up charitably in a cou­ on. And Virgie Morgan knew.
Tom Pruitt had been David Mor­ save the mill.
Lossie Wilson,” Virgie snapped.
ple of days! But I’m like this—if
It was still partly his and the "Carry up some coal before the
I ’ve got a spoo.Jul of meal, I’ll gan's friend. Once Tom Pruitt’s tim­
share it. You get some rest tonight. ber land had covered three coun­ stacks were still scrawling their doctor comes."
Lossie picked up the coal bucket,
It’s a wonder you aren’t half dead. ties. Little rivers that he owned bleared autograph of hopefulness
stepped into the back hall to re­
You must be as tough as a bal­ had shuttled with trout; coves and upon the Carolina sky.
Afterwards Virgie Morgan looked move her hairnet and dab some
sam knot. Tomorrow I’ll put chains ridges to which he held title had
on a car and send you wherever you sheltered pronged buck and snuffling back on those three years, trying to grayish-lavender powder on her
bear, and the frantic industry of separate phases, distinguish definite nose. The young man coughing in
want to go.”
“You’re very generous.” He stood beavers slowed mountain creeks epochs of despair, as a person who the bed upstairs had romantic dark
up, wavering a little and grinning that began and ended on Tom’s do­ has emerged alive from an inun­ eyes and a mouth cut wide for
dation or a frightful wreck tries to laughter.
sadly at his weakness. She saw his main.
Then had come the incredible hys­ recall incidents of that catastrophe,
But all these devoted pains were
well-knit, lean young body, the un­
decide what came first and what wasted after all. Branford Wills was
conscious grace of youth, with silken teria of '25.
asleep.
Red-hot coins of color
Men, their blood carbonated by a
muscles and leaping blood—youth,
burned in his cheeks, his hair was
that knows exactly where it is go­ virus bred of the madnesses of Flor­
disordered and dry looking, his
ing and has not learned yet the ida, came prowling into the moun­
hands twitched, thrusting out of the
grudging welcome of the world. “I tains, a wild, acquisitive light in
blue sleeves of a pair of David Mor­
was fortunate,” he went on, “in hav­ their eyes. They bought land, op­
gan’s old pajamas.
tioned it, leased and contracted for
ing tumbled on your door-step.”
“He’s sure enough got some­
“You can pay me back some time. it.
Men came—gray men with the air
thing,” Lossie decided, as she laid
I'm merely circulating some propa­
coal softly on the fire.
ganda to the effect that there are of affairs, who spoke slowly and lit­
Virgie came up presently, tucked
one or two decent pulp people in tle. Men to inspire confidence. They
the hot-water bottle under the young
the world. You can carry that word wanted to buy Tom Pruitt’s land.
stranger’s feet, looked at him with
Tom thought things out slowly. He
back to Washington.”
troubled eyes.
“I’ll do it gladly. I’ll add some was a meditative, heavy, slow-mov­
“He's sick, all right,” she said.
personal indorsements. In fact, I ing man. His great body was slow,
“And I feel responsible. Putting him
but terrible with strength.
think I’ll launch a campaign—”
in this cold tomb of a room—after
Tom sold his land finally. There
He stopped. A tinny horn blared.
two nights out on that mountain."
The dogs set up an excited yelping was considerable pressure before
“Well, you took him in,’’ Lossie
outside and a car door smacked they got him up to the point, two
comforted her in a whisper. “A lot
shut. Then the front door crashed concerns bidding for it, and when he
of people would have set the dog on
open, letting in a blast of wind, a at last gave in, there was a tre­
a trampy looking thing like him."
swish of icy rain, and a girl in a mendous down payment made —
"I can let his people know—and
more money than Tom Pruitt had
green rubber coat and beret.
we can take good care of him, any­
A slim, small girl, with reddish- ever seen in his life. Too much mon­
way,” Virgie said.
chestnut hair tumbled damply on ey. Not a check—Tom was suspi­
Something appealing about this
her collar, with a small, tanned face cious of checks—but cash in green
dark young head on the pillow. She
sheafs, with heavy paper bands
and very big brown eyes.
had wanted three sons of her ow n-
“Oh—” she stopped, surprised, around it. Fifty thousand dollars.
three beys, tall, dark, and auda­
And more in five, seven, and ten
seeing him.
cious. And Heaven had given her
“Shut the door,” directed Virgie years, according to the contract.
only Marian who was small and slim
Tom was dazed. The sum total of
calmly. “This is my daughter, Mari­
and peppery—but audacious enough,
an Morgan. This is Mr. Branford his former possession diminished in
goodness knew!
Wills—from Washington. He’s stay­ his mind, became subordinate to the
Wills stirred as the hot bottle
ing with us tonight. He’s been lost.” cash. He forgot the great stand of
Morgan argued, “ I can't put fifty
warmed him, lifted his head, looked
“Oh—I—” Wills was confused. A virgin poplar up the Hazel Fork,
thousand dollars in this old
startled.
slow, unhappy red crept over his forgot the mellow bottom land with
safe, Tom.”
orchards on it, where his mother’s
“Oh, sorry—I’m getting up right
haggard face.
“We’ve met before,” announced turkeys had fed. All he thought after. But only one thing stood out away.” He licked his dry lips.
about was this money. Enough mon­ clear—Tom Pruitt’s unvarying loy­ “Someone should have called me—”
Marian, coolly.
“ You’re not getting up just yet,”
“Good gracious,” her mother ex­ ey to last as long as he lived, if alty, his quiet and unfailing support.
he spent it. But he would not spend
Virgie interposed. “You’ve got a
claimed.
There was ice on every branch temperature.”
“He”—Marian’s pansy-warm eyes it. He would hold onto it. It numbed
“That's odd.” He groped confused­
and dead leaf, every blade of grass
had turned flat and unfriendly, her and thrilled and frightened him.
He took it to David Morgan, his and jointed weed, when Tom came ly with his long, facile hands. " I’m
small red mouth hardened—“he
friend. “You keep it for me,” he through the gate of the mill in that never sick. I’ll be all right in an
doesn’t like pulp people!”
raw November dawn. The wind, was hour or two. I was pretty tired—
“So I’ve heard,” said Virgie, un­ begged. “ Put it some place.”
“I’ll put it in the bank for you,” still frigid with little promise of a and wet, too.”
perturbed, thinking how like her fa­
“Lie down,” ordered Virgie, terse­
thaw. Smoke was snatched from
ther Marian was. Shrewd and small David, the cautious, said.
But Tom Pruitt had little faith in the stack, torn to pieces, strung ly, “ and don’t talk too much. I’ll
and implacable, like David Morgan,
hanging in his gold frame above the banks. They got robbed every now along the ground in rags. The steel let your outfit know where you are.
mantel fire. “But we’ve declared a and then. You read in the paper padlock, with which for twenty But for the present you stay here.”
“ Please, Mrs. Morgan—I can’t be
truce on that. It’s too darned cold where a bank had busted and some years the plank door of the office
tonight to keep up any kind of a fellow gone off to South America building had been locked, was like a nuisance to you—” He broke off
with all the money belonging to oth­ something dipped in melted glass. with a racking cough and pain
fight.”
But Marian was scarcely listen­ er people.
Tom beat it against the door frame, snatched at him. He looked per­
“No, you keep it, Dave,” Tom twisted the key, pushed the door in­ plexed and in anguish. He wiped
ing. She was looking at Branford
begged. “Then if I want it I can ward on a musty cuddy smelling his lips with a corner of the sheet.
Wills with hostile eyes.
get it back again. If a banker gets of mildewed paper and raw chemi­ "I—guess—I am sick!” he muttered,
“So you got lost?”
lying back again.
“So it appears. Your mother was it he’ll lend it to some of these real cals.
Virgie shifted the counterpane,
charitable enough to take me in and estate fellers over to Asheville, and
The stove was still faintly warm
then when the concern goes bust and Tom raked out the ashes into a straightened the shades, poked the
feed me.”
“Nothing much happens to moth­ my money will be sunk in one of bucket and kindled a new fire, fan­ fire, went downstairs again. In the
er. He thinks”—Marian turned to them subdivisions with fancy gates ning it encouragingly with his hat. breakfast-room Marian was sugar­
her mother, her voice crackling a and red-white-and-blue flags stuck
Then with two buckets he plodded ing her fruit. Her hair was brushed
little—“that all pulp people should in the ground. And I don’t want toward the engine room, head dowp, flat, the sleeves of her orange pa­
be burned at the stake—slowly—he none of them.”
big hat flapping. He had carefully jamas flapped, she looked reproach­
Morgan argued. “I can’t put fifty drained both trucks at sunset last ful.
told me so. At the dance the other
thousand dollars in this old safe, night; hot water would make them
night.”
“Lossie says that hobo is sick,”
“That’s unfair,” declared young Tom.”
start quicker. He took care of all she said. “Have we got him on our
“You put it somewheres, Dave. the equipment, he liked to do it. hands?”
Mr. Wills. “I didn’t know you, I
was spouting to hear my own voice. Put it in something so I’ll know No alcohol in radiators. That made
Virgie sat down, poured her cof­
you’ve got it. Anywhere’s is all the cars heat on the mountain fee, fingered the toast, raised her
I apologize.”
“ Don’t bother. It doesn’t matter right—just so I know you got it.”
grades. And today things had to voice. “Lossie! I can’t eat this cold
to me in the least.” Marian pulled
“I can sell you a share of the be entirely right because Virgie stuff. Make some hot. Yes, he’s
off the damp beret, shook rain from mill,” Morgan said abruptly. Morgan was going up to look over sick—it looks like pneumonia. And
it. “The road is dreadful, Mother— “Would you want that? I can use her reforestation project.
he’s no hobo. I’ve telephoned for
you’ll need chains in the morning. your money to buy that spruce up
Tom’s old watch, hitched to a the doctor and you’ll have to stay
I’ll go up, I think. Did Lossie make Cheota and to put in a new drier. braided strip of snakeskin, showed here till he comes. I’ve got to get
a fire in my room?”
And you’ll own part of the mill.”
seven o’clock when he went back to down to the mill.”
“Andrew did.”
Old and taciturn as he was, Tom the office. Steam was hissing from
“But I don't know a thing about
“Please,” interposed young Mr. Pruitt trembled, with sudden exalta­ the boiler-room cocks, two oilers pneumonia!”
Wills, anxiously, “don’t go away tion. To own even a fragment of a were getting their equipment out of
"You aren’t expected to know.
without letting me explain—I’ll eat thing as splendid to his eyes as the the tool shed. In thirty minutes the That’s what we have the doctor for.
any amount of crow—I’ll even pick Morgan mill—to touch a brick of it whistle would bellow. In twenty-five You see that Lossie keeps the fire
the bones if you wish—”
or a pet-cock from an acid tank and minutes Virgie’s old coupe should up. I’ll send Ada Clark out if I
Marian’s head went up. She think, “Mine!” He wanted nothing enter the mill gate. Tom took an can get hold of her.”
pushed back her damp, fruit-tinted more from life.
“Oh, my heavens, Mother! She
old rag and dabbed dust from Vir­
hair with a palm, regarded him
He surrendered the sheaf of lush gie’s desk. There was a votive air snuffles and her nose is always red,
aloofly.
green bills to David Morgan.
about what he did, but this devotion and she thinks that she’s going to be
“I see no reason to discuss it,
Tom was glad of his heartening was not for Virgie Morgan, the kidnaped or something every time
thank you. This is mother's house. part of Morgan’s work. The fifth woman. To Tom, Virgie was part she sticks her silly head outside.”
She is free to entertain whomever and the seventh year saw the pay­ of David, part of the mill. She was
"Well, you don’t have to look at
she likes in it. Good night.”
ments on his land defaulted. The the mill.
her. She can take care of this boy
She walked past them, her head title was almost inextricably tan­
Then the telephone rang. Tom till he’s well enough to be moved
held rigidly. Virgie Morgan’s mouth gled in a snarl of holding compa­ shouted into it.
somewhere—home, if he has any
drew in at one comer.
“Hello!”
home.”
nies, stock companies, second and
“Don’t worry about her, son,” she third mortgages, judgments, and
"Hello, Tom.” It was Virgie’s
“I wouldn’t call him a boy. He’s
advised. “She’ll be all over it in suits.
voice. “I won’t be going up to the over twenty-five, if he’s a minute!”
the morning. She’s a loyal little
“ Foreclose,” David Morgan told hill with the boys today. Send them
“Well, I’m over fifty and that en­
trick—and all the Morgans are fight­ Tom, just before David lay down at out as soon as they are ready.”
titles me to call most any man a
ers. What did you say to her at night to wake in the morning with
“Hey!” Tom whooped his argu­ boy!” .
that dance?”
a crooked, drooling mouth, a help­ ments, always dubious of the effi­
Virgie went out through the kitch­
He shook his head ruefully. "I less arm and leg, and a fogged ciency of the instrument. “Hey— en, collecting a hot kettle on the
can’t even remember!” he admitted. brain that would never clear again. this ice ain’t going to last. It’ll be way. Every year winter came to
But Tom, lost in the frantic trou­ gone by nine o’clock. I’ll put chains the mountains with a wretched,
The mill of the Morgan Pulp Com­ ble of helping Virgie to keep the on. You needn’t worry.”
freezing storm like this. Her little
pany had never been an imposing mill running while David lay help­
“I’m not worried, Tom.” Virgie’s car would be hard to start.
structure.
less in the white house on the moun­ voice came evenly. “Not about any­
She drove slowly down the Icy
David Morgan had built it early in tain, had no time to think of himself thing down there. Ice wouldn’t scare road, gripping the steering-wheel,
the century, and David Morgan had or his problems.
me. The trouble’s up here, at the hating the treacherous going. Her
inherited from a Highland root of his
Stocks had crashed, orders were house. Something’s come up. I hat felt insecure on her head. Her
family a preponderant caution, a few, men were frightened, restive, can’t leave right away.”
gray hair was thick and strong and
carefulness that erected slowly, with alert for bad news from any quar­
Tom hung up, griinting, went out these cocky little hats had no crowns
due regard for foundations and a ter. Tom held his peace and kept to drain the radiator of the second anyway.
keen «ye out for credit, but no par­ pulp wood coming into the mill. At truck.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
It's so cut that it can't slip from
your shoulders.
Just leave off the bib part of the
coverall, and you have the high-
cut, saucy little tie-uround. Bu
tiste, ginghain, linen, percule and
seersucker are pretty apron ma­
terials.
’Tag
“
&
A
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T W O of the most useful aprons
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One is the all-protective type that
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Wise Course
The wise course is to profit from
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frain forevermore from jealousy,
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C. A writer of detective, gangster
and wild-west stories maintains a
unique cemetery on his ranch
near Oceanside, Calif. It contains
the "graves,” with appropriate
tombstones, of the scores of char­
acters whom he has killed in his
novels.
■qU*«
«*<»«•
frC
Irò *
t«d"
S««"”
»o* ,iw
to« »o»'
O * » *
O «
<L The Chinese tell fortunes by the
lines in the feet, impose and col­
lect taxes 10 years in advance,
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s=K2s==
Finds Opportunity
<t Still standing in a high pass of
No great man ever complains of
the Peruvian Andes is a monu­ lack of opportunity.—Emerson.
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site peaks, between which, many A D L E R IK A gives me proper action,
centuries ago, a primitive tribe is pleasant and easy. Used A D L E R ­
hung a gigantic net and tried to I K A past 10 years for spells of con-
catch the sun.—Collier’s.
stipatron.” (A . W .-V t.) A D L E R IK A
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H a u n ts o f H appiness
A T Y O U R DRUG STORE
The haunts of happiness are va­
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A secret is seldom safe in more
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■ ■
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ARE A N
■ K IC I I I C k I T I A I
I N l L U t N I IAL
PERSON
The merchant who advertises must treat
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Aa a matter of cold fact you are. You
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benefit by good service, by courteous treat-
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