Friday, October 10, 1941
SOUTHERN OREGON MINER
H arry
Ó Me C luri
P u ° h
W.N.U.Service
INSTALLMENT ELEVEN—The Story So Far
Laura Macuira. wife ol Mika Maguire.
happy-go-lucky editor and mayor of Cov-
■fton. is mother to four children, not
too well treated by tha depression: Tom.
whose real estate job in tha big city be­
came profitless and who proposed mov­
ing to Covington rather than depend on
the earnings ot Mary Etta, hla wife,
eecretarv to a big shot; Alee. »ho. un­
able to get a job. runs around with a
e
CHAPTER XV—Continued
Nevertheless Kathleen had felt in
a way revenged. And then Ruth had
spoiled everything. She was one of
those saccharine persons whose mis­
sion in life is to shed sweetness
She cooed like a mourning dove at
•very opportunity and was quite
pretty in a soft, fluttery, ash-blonde
way. Her elders said she had a
beautiful nature. But she was apt
to cloy if taken in steady doses. For
that reason Ruth was always avidly
Interested in the appearance of a
new man in town. And somewhere
she heard about Ritchie Graham.
She promptly telephoned Kathleen
and insisted that he be added to
the party.
All things considered Kathleen ar­
rived home practically ready to
throw things. Laura was lying down
with a touch of headache or so she
had given out. But when Kathleen
heard about Tom she surmised that
her mother had gone to bed of a
heavy heart
Privately Kathleen
thought her brother was well rid of
an unpleasant Incubus.
To Kathleen's surprise Shirley was
■Iso going to the swimming party.
They didn't usually run In the same
crowd except at very large affairs
to which the whole town was invited.
But Shirley gave the show away
when Kathleen in all innocence
asked if they couldn’t all four go
together. Away from Ritchie, Kath­
leen was not at all anxious to be
alone with Gene Mays.
"Sorry,” said Shirley evenly, “but
Connie Mays asked us to ride over
with her and Lance Ferguson.”
*1 see,” said Kathleen, staring fix­
edly at the red leather belt she was
fastening about her.
She did see—a lot Of course Con­
nie had engineered the whole thing.
She bad probably refused to go at
all unless Jaird was invited. And
Ruth was one of Connie's yes-men.
But to get Jaird. Shirley bad to be
included.
Only Connie, with her
usual brazen disregard for other
people’s rights, had arranged that
too—to her own taste. Ostensibly
Lance, a weak little baa-baa sheep,
was Connie's date. Actually he was
being taken along for the ride, as
Kathleen knew. And of course so
did Shirley, even if she did not
breathe out fire and brimstone as
Kathleen would have done.
In the end they went off with their
respective swains, Shirley first Both
Kathleen and Laura noticed that
Connie had waited till the last to
collect the second girl. And when
her smart car disappeared, she was
driving as she usually did with one
hand, while she faced the back seat
and carried on an animated and ges-
ticulative conversation with a rath­
er silent Jaird and a totally silent
Shirley.
Hot Shot Mays drove up almost
before his sister's dust had settled.
He was in a terrific hurry to be on
his way. He did not bother to ex­
ercise his famous charm on Laura.
It was not necessary with most
mothers. As a rule they were over­
whelmingly on his side. Laura knew
he would always be like that Un­
necessarily brusque unless forced to
be otherwise. But Kathleen for once
missed the little telltale pucker be­
tween Laura's eyes, Kathleen had
worries of her own.
Gene Mays was a bit overpower­
ing. There was no getting around
that. He had a smooth way about
him when he strove to please. And
he had every intention of pleasing
Kathleen. She baffled him a little.
Other girls struggled to impress him
in a big way. Kathleen reversed
the process. It was a new experi­
ence for Hot Shot Mays to sit in
the uncertain seat. Kathleen even
laughed when he ladled out what he
called “heavy sugar."
"Maybe I'm boring you,” he said
at the end of twenty miles, when
he seemed to have got no farther
fast with his campaign.
"Maybe,” agreed Kathleen and
smiled.
By the time they reached their
destination Gene Mays felt a little
like a dirigible in a high wind, and
Kathleen’s equanimity was some­
what restored. She might not have
made any dent on Ritchie Graham’s
consciousness, but she had Hot Shot
Mays doing acrobatics against his
will. He was a big bluff as a men­
ace to female hearts, or so it seemed
to Kathleen. She had him pawing
the air and she could grin at his
best efforts. She felt perfectly the
mistress of the situation and decid­
edly cocky and pleased with herself.
CHAPTER XVI
The new Porterville Swimming
Pool was ideally situated on the edge
of town in a ravins between two
fern-clad hills. There were sixty
acres of wooded grounds, a huge out­
door lake fed by springs, a number
of rustic dressing huts and the usual
diving boards, floats and soft drink
stands. But tha big dining room,
liks the dancing pavilion, was more
impressive than effective. The food
tasted as the mechanical orchestra­
tion sounded, a bit tinny.
flashy divorcee older than he and on a
bat dates up Lou Knight, the town
drunk's daughter; Shirley, engaged to
Jaird Newsum. also out of work atnea
hia father closed up the factory to atop
losses and whose marriage la thua de­
layed; Kathleen. In whom a stranger,
Ritchie Graham, also a newspaperman.
Is Interested Ma Newsum wants Jaird
to marry Connie Maya, the banker's
e
a
a
"Anyway,” as Ruth brightly ex­
plained while Ritchie was helping
her unload hampers and thermos
jugs, "it's so primitive to eat out
under the trees, don't you think?”
"Absolutely." he agreed.
Kathleen darted him a glance.
Ruthie was going strong in her own
sweet way. But Ritchie appeared to
like his flattery rank. If he was
even aware that she was hanging
■round the outskirts, he concealed
it Shirley was helping Ruth collect
the various eatables in a sheltered
spot. But Connie hjays never put
herself to such inconveniences
“I'll bet you a kiss, Jaird, that I
beat you into the water," she chal­
lenged.
"Say," growled Hot Shot Mays,
"did we come out here to swim or
what? I’m hot as two firecrackers."
“Come on. Hot Shot.” cried Kath­
leen crossly, slinging her bathing
“You sort of make a feller pin
his ears back in that outfit,”
said Hot Shot Mayo.
suit over her shoulder, "how’s for
getting dressed? And don't be all
day about it, Tarzan.”
When she emerged in her brief
one-piece white suit, a scarlet ban­
dana about her head. Hot Shot was
waiting for her at the diving plat­
form, but Jaird and Connie were al­
ready in the water.
"You sort of make a feller pin
his ears back in that outfit," said
Hot Shot Mays as his hard blue
eyes traveled over Kathleen’s lithe
young body. "Listen, Baby, if I was
staging beauty contests you could
be Miss Universe.”
"But you aren’t” Kathleen made
■ beautiful flip-flop in the air for a
perfect landing.
He dived after her, hitting the
water a split second later. But he
failed to overtake her before she
crawled up on the raft between Jaird
and Connie. The latter looked dis­
tinctly annoyed at the intrusion,
which did not afflict Kathleen. She
even enjoyed it and thought she
might stay where she was till Shir­
ley joined them. But Gene Mays
bad other ideas. He dragged Kath­
leen off her perch although she
fought him like a tigress and sent
her to the bottom, clawing and
scratching. He bowled with mirth
when she came up choked and
breathless. He managed to pinch
her thigh, for which she boxed his
ears. But there was no peace from
him except to keep swimming just
out of his reach. And that was a lit­
tle wearying.
"The big stiff," she thought angri­
ly, aware of a catch in her side as
she dodged one of his sideswipes.
Jaird swam in to shore to meet
Shirley while Connie glowered. It
looked as if Ruth was going to get
into the water at last. Ritchie was
already In his suit and lounging on
the end of the pier waiting for her,
a cigarette in his mouth. Kathleen
paused long enough in her hectic
flight from Gene Mays’ caveman
tactics to observe that Ritchie looked
provokingly handsome in his black
jersey. She felt she could bear him
better if just once he showed to a
disadvantage. Hot Shot Mays seized
upon her momentary preoccupation
with another man to push her head
under water until her lungs caught
Are. The catch in her side was more
pronounced when she again took to
flight
She began to feel a little like
a heavy bellows. She tried to edge
up to the raft, but Gene yanked her
off. She made for the ladder which
It Is Not Too Late
daushtcr. Tom and Mary Etta separata
when she refused to give up her Job.
Banker Maya threatens to break Ma­
guire for criticizing his banking meth­
ods. Maguire and Rltchla joyously laugh
at him. Kathleen is critical of their
reckleasnesa.
"Hot Shot" Mays, the
banker's son. Invites her to a swim­
ming party.
Ritchie grins when she accepts.
e
"I'm nil set for this gasoline ra­
tioning." declared Elmer Twitchell
today. "Ain't a bit worried. Got
myself all adjusted Won't notice It
at all."
"How so?" we asked.
■'Preparedness." snapped Elmer.
"Been salting it away or got a
pull with a gasoline bootlegger?”
"Neither.” explained Mr. Twitch­
ell. "I've done nothing beyond the
reach of any other American. Any
auto owner can take the same steps
I have so that the gas shortage
won't bother him in the least."
“Speak. What have you done?"
“Well, I'll tell you." said Elmer.
"It's very simple. First of all. I've
painted every light in the house a
bright red."
"What's the big idea?”
"I want the full atmosphere ot
the open road," he continued. "Then
I've put obstacles all over every
room so there'll be trouble getting
anywhere. I'm hanging a dead-end
sign at the front door and I put a
detour marker on the back door to
complicate matters."
“Yes. but . . "
“Don't interrupt," he snapped.
“I'm putting windshield wipers on
every window in the house, break­
ing them first.
I mean breaking
the windshield wipers, not the win­
dows. I want to be sure none of
'em work. Then I'm setting the
furnace on full tilt and removing the
thermostatic adjustments. I want to
be sure I'm hot.”
• • •
led up to toe diving platform. Only
he was there first, daring her to set
foot on a rung. She was beginning
to wish that he'd go off somewhere
and die for a week or two. Her
pointed face took on a slightly hag­
gard look. She did not beg for quar­
ter. Somehow one didn’t with Gene
Mays. But there was still that catch
in her side, only more of it
A little grimly Kathleen made for
the big buoy at the upper end of
the lake. It was quite a distance,
but ordinarily no swim for her.
Nevertheless, strangely It seemed to
come no nearer however many
strokes she took, and her limbs felt
weighted
Lethargy attacked her
arms. She glanced over her shoul­
der. She was quite far away from
everybody. Even Gene had paused
to filch a pair of water wings from
a small girl who was doing her ut­
most to hang onto them. Kathleen
measured the distance between go­
ing back and struggling on, and de­
cided the buoy was nearer. Even
then it did not occur to her she
might not make it
Again she risked a glance over
her shoulder. Hope clanged a bra­ j
zen bell in her heart. Gena had
draped the water wings about his I
neck and was again swimming after i
her. Kathleen sobbed once. She
knew by the exquisiteness of her re­
We were beginning to get the
lief how nearly she had lost her drift
nerve. She had only to stay afloat
"I’m putting in a big stock of
till Gene reached her. She turned horsemeat, frankfurters and stale
over on her back. But the cramp rolls, a lot of wet peanuts and plenty
in her side doubled her up. She of bananas and soda pop. Enough
went under, gasped and almost
lacked the energy to come up.
"You would run off and make me
wear myself out chasing you!
shouted Gene.
He was only a few feet away, flail­
ing water like a porpoise, and laugh­
ing uproariously. If he ducked her
sgain—Kathleen was suddenly fran­
tic. She tried to call out to tell him
she was exhausted. But the muscles to last all fall and winter," he con­
in her throat locked with panic and tinued. "And I've ordered a four
months' supply of pickles, hard-
fatigue.
i
“All that goes down is bound to boiled eggs and all the other junk
i
come up!” bawled Gene and made people eat in their Sunday after­
noon pleasure trips. Gas or no gas.
a dive for her feet.
He meant to drag her under. With I don't want to take any chance
a terrible bitterness Kathleen real­ on being cut off from all my ac­
ized that he would probably repeat customed pleasures.”
the process with appropriate brays
of laughter until finally she did not
come up at all. And then he would
feel dreadful of course. But she
wouldn't be there to witness his re­
morse. She tried again to call out.
failed, and saw Gene gathering his
huge muscles for the lunge.
"You damned fool, can’t you see
she's In trouble?” cried a sharp
voice.
But Gene didn't see. He leaped.
Only a fist caught him on the jaw
and dropped him back in his tracks.
“Put your hand on my shoulder,”
Ritchie Graham commanded Kath­
leen.
But she was past doing even that
White as death, she slid down into
the water. Down. Down. Down.
She thought listlessly that it was per­
ilously easy to die. Only Ritchie’s
hand closed on her shoulder. He
had dived after her. They rose to
the surface. Keeping one arm about
her waist he towed her to the buoy,
picked her up in his long strong
arms and laid out her full length on
her face like a wet paper dolL
After a while Kathleen's shudder­
ing breaths subsided to something
approaching normal. She sat up diz­
zily. “Thanks,” she said in an un­
steady voice.
“Don’t mention it."
He did not look at her. Appar­
ently he was a little bored at having
dragged her from a watery grave.
Or did he realize that it had been
as bad as that?
She flushed, and sudden tears
burned her eyes. "Maybe you'd bet­
ter throw me back in if that's the
way you feel about it," she said
bitterly.
He turned with one ot those quick
movements that always surprised
her. He was very white. And his
gray eyes blazed at her. "I don't
trifle, Kathleen,” he said in a rough
uneven voice. “I told you once be­
fore I'm no ladies' man. I wouldn't
flirt with you or anyone else."
"I don’t know what you mean.”
"You know exactly what I mean.
Ever since the first time I saw you,
your eyes have dared me to do this
—and this—and this."
His arms were about her. Grip­
ping her in a fierce embrace that
hurt. His lips hurt too. Because
his kisses were more antagonistic
than tender. And they pushed Kath­
leen across the border of everything
she had ever known into a region of
strange pain and a heartbreaking
ecstasy.
"I hate youl” she blazed.
"Do you?”
"YesI”
He made her a little mocking bow.
“Probably we were meant to hats
each other like hell or else—’* his
voica shook—"to love each other
that way."
"I don’t love you,” she cried.
But Ritchie had slid off the float
■nd was swimming to shore.
(TO BE CONTINUED/
luirmotiizing tints or shades are
used for the flower uppliquvs us
un accent.
ooo
ELMER TWITCHELL ON THE
GAS CRISIS
Th» panholder In ZV’MI. IS cants, with
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while a single Hower, leaf and tendril
could lie placed In napkin coiners for a
set nf distinct Individuality. Send your
order to:
AUNT MARTHA
Box IM W
Kansas City, Mo.
Enclos» IS cants for »«ch patient
deaired Pattern No..........................
TENSILS nppliqtteti in the col­
or that is to be accented in
the kitchen—shall we say yellow
or red—would be pretty for this
set of tea towels. livelier still
are these designs when delicate,
U
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If you get simple beauty, and
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11
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"You mean you’re not even count­
Iteataurant, i'aylng good E«|ulp (live
ing on using an auto?” we ex­
terms Beat S3. Mrs. W A. Otilas
waler, Ocean Zuike, Orsgoe.
claimed.
"Exactly," said Elmer. "1'11 have
my house all fixed up with every­
thing I can get through motoring.
I’m even arranging to have grease
put all over the chairs and walls
and I'm putting in a small stove to
.
HIT TIFI
III
burn nothing but rubber. And see
D
r
.
H
arry
S
imli
r
,
this?"
MISKTIIOC ■JsstMOSIIKOM KMITIMO OSI
Elmer held up a phonograph rec­
ord.
Summer Boarder—What a beauti­
“Put it on ibe machine and all
it does is just snarl In different keys. ful view that Is!
Farmer—Maybe. But if you bad
Every little while a voice yells, 'Get
to plow that view, harrow it, culti­
over, ya big bum!’ "
Behind the Blush
a a a
vate it, hoe it. mow it, fence it. and
The
man
that blushes is
pay taxes on it, it wouldn't look so
Mr. Twitchell was well pleased
quite a brute.
pretty.
with himself.
K DENTAL PLATES
"It’s a pretty good idea,**
agreed.
"Good my eye. It’s perfect," con-
eluded Elmer, "Without a pint ol
gasoline to my name I'm all s
to enjoy everything at home that
would enjoy if I went out in It
auto.”
INEXPLICABLE
It seems to me somewhat ironic.
That tender care, massage, and
tonic
Should be required of men who
cherish
A scalp that's adequately hairish.
Whereas
unwanted
hair that’s
strewn
Across the chin and cheeks, though
hewn
And leveled to the skin and
thwarted
When it is barely getting started.
Despite mistreatment, curse, and
scorning
Returns augmented every morning.
—Richard Armour.
• • •
"New automobiles will lose their
decorative touch and frills.”—Head­
line.
We may even have to get along
for two years in succession with the
same radiator ornament.
» • ■
Autumn: When you feel so strange
going around with no broken-bottle
wounds in your feet, no mustard on
your shirt, no sand in your ears and
no plaster across the bridge of your
nose.
• • a
VAGABONDIA
Books and beer upon a table,
A pinch of snuff for those who’re
able;
A pipe of 'baccy for a friend
Whom fortune may see fit to send:
So shall mine house well ordered be
For a friend who finds his friend
in me.
—Gordon R. Higham.
• • •
Elmer Twitchell insists that he
drove up to a fashionable pumping
station Sunday and found a sign
"Reserved” on it.
V
you BET
r
CAMELS ARE
not
«
MILDER.
THEY BURN SLOWER
k ANO THERES
/
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L IN THE SMOKE
•3
28% LESS NICOTINE
« »he 4 other largest-
A A Ml Cl THE CIGARETTE OF
vnlvl LL costlier tobaccos