Tine Maim of Afcaltaaaa.
It win th testimony of th UU
limn Oliver Cvirwood that thr wm
nor fact thsn (lotion In this novel;
that the heroine. Marie Antoinette
Tonteur, and her fierce olil father lived
nd loved ai deeorlbed In the story;
that Catherine Uulsln and her valiant
on were flesh and blood of their day;
(hat Tlaoga. Sh'i.dss, Sllvc Heels and
several other of the more Important
character were not creature of fan
cy; that "The Plalna of Abraham." like
Mi other tale. 'The Black Hunter,"
to which It la closely related, I larae
ly a romance of life It was lived
nd not as It might have been lived.
Th author alio asserted that th
Fathering of th material had been
th moat thrilling adventure of hi
llf; th traveling foot by foot ovr
th hallowed ground, the reading of
letter written by hand dead a hun
dred and fifty year or more, th
dreaming over yellow manuscript
written by priest and martyr and,
lastly, the unveiling of loves and hates
nd tragedies and happiness of th al
most forgotten period embracing th
very birth of both th American and
Canadian peoples, and weighted with
happenings that shook the foremost
nations of th earth and largely mad
them what they are today.
The tory passes through romances,
adventures and other stirring phase
of llf In th Champlaln and Richelieu
regions and reaches Its finals on the
Plains of Abraham at Quebec In that
historic struggle which curbed the sm
bitlons of the French, established th
ascendency of th English snd drew
th first crude boundaries of th fu
ture United State and Canada.
CHAPTER I
On t sunny afternoon In May,
a dog, boy, a man. and a woman had
crossed the oak opens of Tonteur's
Mil and were trailing toward the
deeper wilderness of the French
frontier westward of the Richelieu
and Lake Champlaln the dog first,
the boy following, the man next, and
the woman last
It was a reversal of proper form,
Tonteur bad prowled as he watched
them go. A fool's way of facing a
savage-Infested country that had no
end. The man should have marched
at the head of his precious column
with his long gun ready and bis quest
ing eyes alert; the woman next, to
watch and guard with him; Uien the
boy and the dog, If such nuisances
were to be tolerated In travel of this
kind, with evening coming on.
Tonteur was the one-legged warrior
aelgneur from whose gristmill down
In the valley the four were going
borne.
. His eyes had followed the woman
with a subdued and appraising hunger
In them. Henri Bulaln was a strange
man, be had thought He might be a
little crazy, might even be a fooL But
be was also a very lucky husband to
possess a woman with the sweet face
and form and the divinely chaste
heart of Catherine, his wife.
Jeems was a fortunate boy to bare
her for a mother.
Even the dog was a scoundrel for
luck. An Indian dog at that A
sneaking, good-for-nothing dog. A
wreck of a dog without a soul, to be
fed by her, petted by her, smiled at
by her as be had seen her smile.
Tonteur was first of the long string
of berolc fighting barons settled by
France along the Itlclielleu to hold
the English and their red barbarians
back. He was Doorkeeper to the
waterway that led straight to the
heart of New France, If the English
came with their scalping fiends, the
llohawks and the Senecas, they would
have to pass over him first of all. No
general could be given greater distinc
tion than that Honor. Wealth. A
wide domain over which he was king.
And yet
He envied nenrl Bulaln.
It was mldafternoon. Maytime shad
ows were growing longer toward the
east It was the hour when birds
were singing softly. Morning had
beard their defiance, a glorious and
fearless challenge of feathered min
strelsy to all the spirits of darkness;
but with late afternoon, sunset, eve
ning, these same slim throated song
sters found a note of gratitude and
of prayer In their chastened voices.
Flowers crushed underfoot In the
open spaces they carpeted the earth
with white and pink and blue. Flow
ers and birds and peace a world
filled with a declining sun a smiling
heaven of blue over the treetops
and with them a dog, a boy, a man,
and a woman advancing westward.
Three of these, even the dog, Ton
teur envied.
This dog bud a name which fitted
him, Tonteur had thought For be
was a wreck of a dog even more a
wreck than the splendid seigneur him
self, with his stub of a shot-off leg
and a breast that bore Bvvord murks
which would have killed an ordinary
man. The dog, first of all, was a
homely dog, so hopelessly homely that
one could not help loving him at sight.
Ills hair was bristly and unkempt UIs
paws huge. His tall was half gone,
which left him only a stub to wag.
He walked with a limp, a heavy,
never-fulling limp that seemed to
shake his long body from end to end,
fT his left fore paw like Tonteur's
foot was missing. A crooked, cheery,
Inartistic, lovable dog to whom the
womnn In a moment's vlslonlng of
the fitness of things had given the
name of Odds-and-Ends,
So Tonteur was half right In think
ing of him as a wreck of a dog, but In
one other thing he was wrong. The
dog did have a soul a soul that be
longed to the boy, his master. That
soul had a great scar seured upon It
by hunger and abuse In an Indian
camp where Heurl Bulaln had found
him four years before, and from
-which, out of pity for a dying crea-
By James Oliver CunvoooV
$ by DoubWay roran Co., I no.
WNU Service.
ture, he had taken him home to Jeems.
It was a scar cut deep by clubs and
kicks, a wound that had never healed
and that made the dog what he was
a tin-loss and suspicious hunter of
scents and sounds in the woods.
Of the four who were filing west
ward, he seemed to be the only one
who watched and listened for danger
to come out of the beauty and still
ness of the world about them. Now
and then he glanced up at his master.
Trouble lay In the hoy's face and eyes,
and the dog sensed It after a little
and whined Id a questioning way in
bis throat
Panlel James Bulaln was the boy's
name, but from babyhood his mother
had called him Jeems. He was twelve
and weighed twenty pounds more than
his dog. Odds and-Ends, called Odd
for short weighed sixty, If the scales
in Tonteur's gristmill were right. One
would have known the dog and the boy
belonged together even had they been
In a crowd, for if Odd was a battered
old warrior, the boy, on the other
hand, gave every evidence of an am
bition to achieve a similar physical
coin! It Ion.
"Why, he's dressed np like a bold,
bad pirate come to abduct my little
girl and hold he for ransom." Ton
teur had roared, down In the valley,
and Jeems' father had Joined the
baron In his laughter; then, to make
the thing worse, Tonteur had turned
him round and round, slowly and an-
Th Man Should Have Marched at
th Head of His Precious Column.
pralslngly, with lovely little Marie
Antoinette looking on, her dainty nose
upturned In patrician disdain and
with Paul Tache, her detestable cousin
from the great city of Quebec, openly
leering and grimacing at hlra from be
hind her back. And this after he had
prepared himself with painstaking
care for Marie Antoinette's eyes should
she happen to see him I That was the
tragedy of it lie had put on bis
new doeskin suit He carried a gun
which was two Inches longer than
himself. A big powderhorn swung at
bis waist In his belt was a knife, and
over his shoulder hung the most treas
ured of his possessions, a slim ash
bow and a quiver filled with arrows.
He bad worn his coonskin cap of fur
In spite of the warmth of the day, bo
cause It looked better than the lighter
one, which was stripped, and In this
cap was a long turkey feather. Odd,
the dog, was proud of his martial-looking
master, but he could not under
stand the change that -had come over
the boy or why he was going home
with such a strangely' set and solemn
face.
From her position behind the dog.
the boy, and the man, Catherine Bu
laln looked upon her world with a Joy
ous and unafraid pride. No boy, In
her opinion, could equal Jeems, and no
man her husbnnd. One could see and
feel her happiness, and as Tonteur
secretly built up the fire of his yearn
ing when he was alone, so she loved to
exult in her own possessions when her
men folk were ahead and could not
see all that came and went In her face.
This desire to hold within herself
some small and sacred part of her
rejoicing was because she was Eng
lish and not French. That was why
Daniel James had an English name,
Inherited from her futher, who had
been a New England schoolmaster and
Maya Indians Have Been "Pioneers" in Corn?
At Qulrlgua, In the republic of
Guateinula. there exists a number of
most Interesting ruins, apparently the
remains of temples and other public
buildings. There are many Individual
monoliths, erected as monuments of
different sorts, sculptured with human
faces and figures nnd animal designs,
as well as hieroglyphics, which arcbe
ologlsts have not as yet been able to
decipher accurately. One such stone
bears a date In Mayan chronology
which has been computed to coincide
with 535 A. D. of the Gregorian cal
endar. The carving of this monolith,
which is the largest of the surviving
remnants, Is Bill! clear and perfect,
despite the long procession of cen
turies that has passed over It In
scriptions and representations on this
and other stones tend to the belief
afterward an agent of the Penns down
in Pennsylvania, it was on the
frontier of that far province that
Henri had found and married her.
Tonteur was aware, possibly even
more than Henri Bulaln, that Cath
erine's adoration of her men folk and
of everything that went with them,
even to the primitive discomforts of
the wilderness life which had claimed
her, was built up against a hunt
ground of something more lhau merely
being the mute of a man and the
mother of a son. Culture ami learn
ing and broadness of vision and
thought, nurtured In her first by a
gentle mother, and, alter her death,
developed and strengthened by a
schoolmaster father, had given to her
a medium of priceless value by which
to measure happiness.
Because of her adroitness In fash
toning beauty and perfection out of
simple and inexpensive things, and
also because she was of the spuwn
of the despicable English. Madame
Henrlette Touteur had conir to re
gard her with much the same aversion
and dislike with which she would have
looked upon a cup of poison.
Touteur knew this and cursed In his
honest heart at the woman who was
his wife, with her coldly patrician
face, her powdered hair, her Jewels
and gowns and her platonlc Ignorance
of love and then thanked his God
that little Marie Antoinette w:is grow
ing less like her with each day th.it
passed over her pretty bead. For
Marie Antoinette was lempestiioti. like
himself, a patrician without douli.
but with a warm and ready p.isslou to
offset that curse, and for this. tou. he
blessed the fortune which In one way
had been so kind to him.
Behind her husband and boy Cnth
erlne had been thinking of Tonteur
and of bis wife, the aristocratic Hon
rlette. For a long lime she had known
of Madame Tonteur's hatred, but It
was not until this afternoon that the
other discovery had come to her. for
In spite of hi most heroic efforis.
Tonteur had betrayed himself when
suddenly she had caught hlin looking
at her. Catherine had seen the shitd
ow of his secret like a ghost swlfily
disappearing. Up over the hill she hn.t
added many twos and twos together,
until. In the sure way of woman,
she knew what Tonteur was thinking
and did not fear or distrust hlro for It.
And Madame Tonteur hated her.
Disbelieving whatever good might have
been said of Catherine, she hated her
first as a deadly enemy of her race,
and hated her then because she dared
hold her head as proudly as a baron's
lady, and bated her last of all because,
nothing more than the wife of a worth
less backwoodsman like Henri Bulaln,
she was Impudent enough to be the
prettiest woman anywhere near the
Tonteur selgneurie.
And, so far as It was In her power,
she had planted and nurtured this
hatred to growth In the heart and
mind of her proud daughter, Marie
Antoinette, until Tonteur, blind to the
feline subtlety of a woman In such
matters, wondered why it was that his
girl whom he worshiped above all
other things on earth, should so openly
display unfriendliness and dislike
whenever Jeems came to Tonteur
manor.
Of this same thing Jeems had been
thinking as he walked ahead of bli
father and mother. His mind, at pres
ent, was busy with the stress of fight
ing. Mentally, and physically In a
way, he was experiencing the thrill of
sanguinary battle. Half a doze.) times
since beginning the long climb over
Tonteur's hill be bad choked and
beaten Paul Tache, and In every mo
ment of these mental triumphs Marie
Antoinette looked on with wonder and
horror as be pitilessly assailed and
vanquished her handsome young
cousin from the Dig city of Quebec,
Even in the heat of these vivid
Imaginings, Jeems was sick at heart
and it was the shadow of this sick
ness which Odd caught when he
looked up Into his master's eyes.
From the day Jeems had first seen
Marie Antoinette, when she was seven
and he was nine, he had dreamed of
ber, and had anticipated through
weeks and months the Journeys which
his father permitted him to make with
him to Tonteur manor. On these rare
occasions he had gazed with childish
adoration at the little princess of the
selgneurie and had made her presents
of flowers and feathers and nuts and
maple sugar and queer treasures
which he brought from the forests.
These tokens of his homage had never
served to build a bridge across the
abyss which lay between them.
(TO EE CONTINUED.)
that Indian corn was first cultivated
In Guatemala. The cornenkes of the
Mayan Indians were probably the first
attempts to cook corn, or maize, and
these rakes are still today the staple
of the Guatemalan and Mexican diet
Seedless Oranges
The original seedless oranges were
produced In Brazil by means of bud
ding and the orange trees of this type
In the United States all descended
from two imported Brazilian trees.
Buds or budding sticks are taken from
seedless orange trees In spring or fall
and inserted In two-year-old seedling
orange trees of ordinary type. When
thejjuds send out shoots the seedlings
are cut back so that only the budding
portions develop.
PICTURE ON SHELL
BRINGS BOY WEALTH
Chinese Youth Charging 10
Cents a Look.
Shanghai. He was only a poor
Chinese country boy, who managed to
kwp his rice and noodle bowl filled
by catching crabs and selling them to
the residents of Swutow, a South
China seaport, at prices so low a New
York restaurant could servo crab meat
cocktails ut a nickel each and make
100 per cent profit That was less
than six months ago.
Today this same boy has more
money than ho knows what to do with,
snd all because of a sluglo crab.
Ills name Is Wuttg Chllxe, and ho
Is a direct descendant of a long line
of Kwatigtungese farmers and fisher
men, simple folk, who worked and be
lieved In legends. It was a legend
that helped make Wang rich.
D tired to Becom a Fish.
One of the tales In which Wang's
people took great stock concerned one
of his great-great great grandmothers.
The. story goes that she was a beauti
ful woman, who believed In the trans
migration of souls and cherished a di
al ro to become a fish after her death.
She was burled In the ocean several
miles from shore.
Inspecting his basket of crab one
night sometime ago, Wang noticed one
whose shell seemed to bear the out
line of a human face. A close look
revealed the face was that of a charm
ing Chinese woman. Wuntf was con
vinced the old story about bis ances
tor was true.
lie spent the next few days show
ing the find to his customers. News
of the discovery spread, and soon the
boy was spending all his time showing
the crab to throngs of curious farm
ers and townspeople nt 10 cents a
peek.
Business at a Carnival.
Three months ugo Wang came to
Shanghai and a carnival nuui offered
him a booth. Wang engaged an Eng
lish speaking Chinese to explain the
attraction to the foreigners who might
come to see it and opened up for busi
ness. Twenty thousand persons, mostly
Chinese, pold 10 cents each the first
week to see the crab. Business In
creased the second week. It Is esti
mated that fully 2."-0,0m Chinese have
viewed the creature. Many foreign
residents of the city, too, visited the
carnival for no other purpose than to
see the wonder.
The majority of foreigners, however,
are Inclined to regard the lady of the
shell as an extraordinary piece of
carving.
Boy Engineer Succeeds
Where Other, Failed
Lebanon, Mo. The dream of an nn
successful engineer has been fulfilled,
and soon lights will glow and In
dustry will bum with electricity from
the harnessed power of the Nlangua
river.
A twenty-five year old engineer, two
years out of college, has accomplished
what veteran constructors fulled to do
building a $I,0iO,0(i0 dam across the
Nlangua.
II. E. Murray Is the young engineer
He graduated from the Minnesota
School of Engineering two years ago.
The Nlangua dam was his first project
It consisted of more than the mere
construction of a dam, as J. B. Qulg
ley and his engineering firm discov
ered many years ago. Qtilgley organ
ized the Missouri Water Power com
pany nnd began construction of a dam
In 1020. The project was too big, and
after spending $2.18,000 Qtilgley wns
forced to quit
The Missouri Electric Power com
pany, subsidiary of the Utilities Power
and Light corporation, employed Mur
ray to build the present dam.
The most outstanding engineering
feat Is an 850-foot tunnel, lined with
concrete, cut through the baite of a
mountain. When In operation the dam
diverts the water through the sloping
tunnel, nt the opposite end of which
Is the hydro-electric power plant.
College Prexy Say Man
Is to Become Extinct
Utlca, N. Y. Man will follow the
dinosaur in extinction because he is
a "terminal twig" and cannot keep
on developing, according to Dr. George
B. Cutten, president of Colgate uni
versity. Doctor Cutten, In a speech here, suld
that the species of man must pass out
of existence In ages to come, In keep
ing with biological precedent. Then,
too, man Is overspeclnllzed, Doctor
Cutten asserted. One example of over
specialization lies In the fact that
he walks upright. If be would avoid
appendicitis he must revert to all
fours.
Another fault of overspeclnllzatlon
Is that, although ho knows "alcohol
Is bad for him," he wants It to escape
from life's realities.
Open Diplomats' School
Moscow. factory workers who are
being prepared to assume diplomatic
posts abroad will be given a speclnl
one-year training course. The for
eign office has opened the course,
which Is expected to truln good dip
lomats. Latter Brings $23,000
New York. A letter, written by
Thomas Jefferson on July 1, 1770, In
which he told of drafting the Declara
tion of Independence, was sold at auc
tion recently for $23,000, a price said
to be a record for Jeffersonluna.
-
.if
Cargo Boat on
lrrr1 r the National 0srsnle
Boi'lalr, WuhlHStvH. I). C )
TUB treaty between Great Brit
ain and her most Important man
dated territory, the Kingdom of
Iraq, which has been before the
representatives of the two countries
for nearly three years, has recently
been definitely ratified. It recognises
Iraqan independence to take effect
when Iraq becomes a member of the
League of Nations.
Iraq, present day heir of ancient
Babylon In the valleys of the Tigris and
Euphrates, has had an up hilt Job
since the World war, in Its efforts to
transform itself into a modern state.
It has had constructive plans for
physical development; but politics, re
ligion, and the age-old social customs
of some of Its people have Interposed
stubborn obstacles In the paths of the
contemplated progress.
The Iraqis have sought a status
comparable- to Turkey, Persia and the
Ilejas, all important and Independent
Mohammedan states, rather than that
of a mandated area on somewhat the
same footing as smaller snd less pop
ulous Syria and Palestine-Trans-Jordan.
Ever since the treaty of Versailles,
placing the country under mandate to
Great Britain, became operative In
102O, Iraq has obtained a greater and
greater degree of independence. It I
the only one of the twelve mandated
territories which has a king, parlia
ment, and responsible government As
a result of Irnql Insistence, the rela
tions between mandatory and man
dated territory were defined In 1!22 In
a treaty between the governments of
Iraq and Great Britain which looked
to the termination of the mandate
when Iraq could enter the League of
Nations. This treaty was later re
vised twice with Great Britain under
taking more specifically to use her In
fluence to obtain membership for Iraq
In the League If Iraq continued to
make progress. Still Inter Great Brit
ain agreed to drop this provl-yi and to
seek league membership fur Iraq un
conditionally In V.Wl. It Is the treaty
so altered that has now been ratified.
Great Britain now lias both a civil
ami a military place In Iraqan affairs.
A British high commissioner resides
In Bagdad and advises the king mi
International ami financial matters. A
British air force Is maintained In the
country under the command of an
air vice marshal. British military
officers are training the Iraq army,
and a number of British gornmcntal
experts are employed In the various
civil offices of the Iraq government.
These contacts will continue under
the new treaty after Iraq Is admitted
to the League of Nations.
Restoring Its Irrigation,
Embracing the potentially fertile
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates
and large stretches of semi arid and
desert lands, Iraq has always, been
primarily nn agricultural and pastoral
country. In Babylonian and Grecian
days the valleys wero herring boned
with Irrigation canals and these were
kept up by the Arabs In the days of
the Caliphate. The lands of Iraq
were exceedingly productive and Its
people were highly prosperous until
1258 A. D. when the Mongol Invasion
destroyed the Irrigation embankments
and head works. Afterwards under
Turkish rule Iraq became less and less
prosperous, much of Its once fertile
valleys turned Into wilderness- and
malaria-breeding swamps.
The aim of the most thoughtful lead
ers In Iraq la to restore the Irrigation
works which the valleys possessed
during their golden age. This, bow
ever, would be a tremendous task, re
quiring vast amounts of capital, which
Iraq Is at present unable to command.
The government has organized a de
partment of Irrigation nnd tinder Its
supervision Is slowly bettering exist
ing Irrigation works and undertaking
new ones. One of the most Important
steps has been the construction of a
permanent weir In the bed of the Ttlvei
DIJala to replace earthen dams which
were constructed annually, only to bo
washed away each flood season. Sev
eral river regulators and cscapos wore
constucted In 1028, and canals were
extended to revive areas that were
passing out of cultivation and to bring
tens of thousands of acres of new
land under Irrigation.
Railway System Incomplete.
In transportation agencies, other
than railways, Iraq has made a marked
advance In recent years. The natural
A'
A.
A
"A
the Tigris Rlvr.
outlet for the country Is southeast
ward along Its rivers to the Persian
gulf. But Its customers and client
asc chlelly to the northwestward and
the northeastward across extensive
deserts and mountain range. These
barriers have not yet been bridged by
steel rails. Gap set 111 exist In the
famous proposed "Purlin to Bagdad'
railway so that it Is not even possible
to move Iraqan product as far as th
eastern Mediterranean port by rail.
There are close to a thousand miles
of railway track In Iraq, but It Is en
tirely an internal system. At no point
doe a railway enws the Irsq border.
The rail system, however, does per
form two Important function In Inter
national trade. It carries exports ami
Imports to snd from the port of Basra,
head of navigation on th Shalt al
Arab for ocean going ships; and It con
nect at Khanaqln near th Persian
border with a motor road over which
Is tarried on Irsq'i sizable transit
trade with Persia.
In th absence of railways to the
north snd west, all of the heavy freight
leaving and entering ftsq must move
by water through the Persian gulf.
But within the last few year an effi
cient and rapid system has been set
up for the transfer of psssengera,
mail and light express overland be
tween Bagdad and Basra on th
southeast, and Dama'cut, Be)routh,
Jerusalem and Cairo on (ha northwest.
Good, bard surfaced highways have
been constructed through long section
of the river valleys.
Across th desert that separate
Iraq and Syria the way sre merely
natural earth roads, but they are In
fulr condition, and over them power,
fill American built busses carrying
passengers, mall and express cover
t) miles In 21 hours. The quickest
malls, however, travel by the weekly
airplane service whl h extends from
Basra to Cairo. Airplanes fly ap
proximately over Ihe highway route
for a considerable part of the way
between Bagdad and the west. At the
halfway point, Itulhah Wells, the
Iraq government has established a
station which Is used for refueling and
rewaterltig by both planes and auto
mobile, and there a desert police
force of considerable strength I
maintained. At this station a restau
rant Is conducted, and even over night
accommodations are provided.
Of the two great rivers of Iraq, only
the Tigris can be used by boats. An
Important freight service, moving hun
dreds of thousands of tons In large
river steamers. Is operated between
Bagdad and Basra. Special shallow
draft stern-wheel river boats ply the
Tigris up the river from Bagdad tn
Mosul; and above the lattur city con
siderable quantities of supplies are
brought downstream on raft.' Below
the Junction of the Tigris and Ku
ph rates the combined tidal stream Is
known as the Mhntt al Arab, The com
merce on the Shatt ol-Arab has been
greatly facilitated ami Increased sine
Ibo World war by the deeper and deep
er dredging by the Iraq government
of the bar at the river's mouth. Ships
of 20 foot draft can now cross the bar
nt low water and ships of .'10 foot draft
nt high water.
Products and Industrie.
Although some progress bus been
made In recent years toward the de
velopment of Industry and the extrac
tion of mineral wealth from the
ground, Iraq Is still predominantly an
agricultural and pastornl country.
This condition is reflected In the ex
ports and Imports. During the fiscal
year BI27 28 the exports, Including
goods In transit, amounted to about
$ 10,000,000, while the Imports were
valued at approximately $51,000,000.
Dates, valued at close to $(I,000,om,
led the list of exports, followed by
cereals and flour, $.',000,000, nnd
wool, $2,500,000, Among ha leading
articles Imported were textiles, val
ued at approximately $8,500,000; and
sugar worth $;i,(XX),0O0,
The few Industries carried on In
Iraq are on a small scale. The resi
dents maintain factories for spinning,
knitting, carpet mnklng, and shoe man
ufacture, copper smelting and flour
milling. It Is only a matter of time, how
ever, until the country will have nn
Important place nmotig tln regions
producing and refining petroleum. Twe
financially strong companies have con
cessions to explore and develop th
Iraqan oil supplies, and hoi ti have
brought In producing wells within the
past two year,