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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1927)
PAGE SIX HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, APRIL 21. 1927. OUND to north 'Harold MctcGrath Illustrated fcv Henrv Tav Lee Copyrltfkt ly HaroU MaeOraA -KlB.sed tlmi Au-tocMt.r Servlor "Bound to the North" CHAPTER L It was one of those hot Southern midnights, when the stars them selves seem overtaken with drowsi ness and droo from the ranks as weary soldiers do. Street-lamps threw a circle of light on the pavement; beyond the circle's rim was soft, impenetrable blackness. Out of this a slender young man suddenly emerged and leaned against the lamp-post for a moment, breath ing sharp breaths. A short rest seemed to revive tWe youth. He straightened, clicked his heels together and stepped forward. The dim yellow light held his back in view for half a dozen steps. The youth did not reappear in the next circle of light. The quality of the street was good. The flanking rows of brick residences with their white marble steps, pre sented a dignified front in the day time. Into one of these houses the young man had gone. Sile;.tly he mounted the stairs to his room, en tered and flung himself upon the bed, burying his face deep into the pil lows to stifle the wild and passionate sobs he could no longer repress. Along the road to the north, be yond the grim cordon of sentries, eleven men were racing their horses. They rode like furies. Death was not only behind them but lay in ambush before them. Death was ready, but the sleeping telegraph operator was not. By the time he awoke, sensed the message hammering at his key and gave the alarm, the night-riders had slipped through into a passively friendly lone. of the sheet. John Kennedy, D.D. C-WG-L H-RD-M A-NK-S P-PA-G G-RD-A J-NK-F J-WG-A F-BN-S F-WG-S W-BE-H What the literal translations were she had not the least idea, but she did know that they were code-names belonging to a free-lance organiza tion known only to the War Office and the Secret Service in Washing ton. She had heard of this little band, but never, until last night, had her path and theirs crossed. This or ganization was composed, with one exception, of young men, educated, well-born, daring and reckless be yond belief in other words, spies who individually performed as many wonders for their cause as she per formed for hers. And for weeks they had been here in Kichmond, stealing Jts nearis blood, drop by drop! They had had the daring to permit her to carry away those code-namesl Was it be cause their work was really done and that they would now scatter and keep scattered until the war was at an end? Only one face she had seen, but she would remember that ah, she would remember that until she diedj" Eleven men against one woman so be it! She took up the gauntlet; and woe to them! One by one would she track hein down, ruthless, without mercy. They had trampled her pride in dust, mock ed her; so would she trample upon their honor and mock them. Not for nothing had she been giv en beauty and a facile tongue. She placed the paper in the bosom of her dress, rose and went down to break fast, smiling. She had the strength You are wasting time." "Do you love any man?" He eyed her exquisite beauty. "Do you expect to go through life with out loving?" I don't know," she answered frankly. "But I hope that I may. I want revenge. My father, my broth ers, whom I loved, have given their lives freely. I wish to add mine." So young and so terribly seriousl "Jeanne Beaufort, you shall have your revenge. Come; I will take you to the president himself. We need women, need their arts and guile. Tomorrow you shall start for Wash ineton. You shall become a member I of some family we trust. Choose some I name, and always in Washington be Known by it. Ana nna a man oy the name of Parson Kennedy. Bring him into our lines, and you will have served the cause to a far greater extent than your father or brothers. To-morrow I shall give you all your instructions, codes and so forth." An officer came into the room. He looked like a Creole, Spanish in color and French in gracefulness. He paus ed, undecidedly. "Ah, Morgan," said the Secretary; "this is Miss Beaufort. Just a mo il ent, until I see if the President is disengaged." Henry Morgan fell In love with Jeanne on the spot. Jeanne, on her side, saw a handsome young officer in butternut. She forgot all about him the moment he was gone. Lifter she learned something defi nite regarding Henry Morgan. He gave to the world the impression that he was a rattlepate; vain he really was; but underneath this vanity was a matchless valor. This discovery rather interested her; for no woman is left untouched in the presence of a brave man. Soon she reconstructed her opin on of him as a whole. His grace was due to muscles as strong and highly tempered as watch-springs; and his rattle-patedness cloaked a mind as sinister and flexible as Mach Presently the girl on the bed Sighed, turned and awoke. As dawn kindled the tree-tops they drew down to a walk. There was 110 chatter, no jesting, no expression of thankfulness over their escape. Only one made speech. It was a mat ter of directions, for now each man must go his own way, as once more they were in a hostile country. They divided at the first fork in the road, divided at the next, and so on until each man rode alone. Ten eventually reached Washing ton. The eleventh, when he was pos itive that his comrades were well on their way, wheeled about his horse and returned to the main pike, and in leisurely stages wended his way back to Richmond, through blue lines and butternut, magically. When the brillian tmorning sun shine poured into a certain window in that beleaguered city (for it was in the summer of 1864), it gilded a grimy, tear-stained face, small, grimy hands flung out upon the pillow, and powdered with fine sparks the tousled locks of hair which matched the color of the copper-beech. The tenant of this room might easily have passed as a boy at night, for the figure was boyish; but in the daylight the male attire could not wholly disguise the delicate contours of the satiny smoothness of the skin. The tear-stained face did not speak of a higher order of courage; yet Jeanne Beaufort was as brave and daring as any woman in the South. At that time the North knew her neither by name nor by feature; but it had often sensed the danger of her wit and resource, seen a care fully built campaign tumble like a house of cards in the wind. So it began to grope for her as one person gropes for another in the dark. So the tears had no bearing upon that attribute of courage. The room she occupied was in the house of her aunt, her mother's sis ter, a widow. Mrs. Wetmore never questioned her niece in regard to her mysterious absences. Upon a lowboy, which served as a dressing-table, stood three photo graphs. Each rested in a little frame of mourning: Jeanne's father and her two brothers. Presently the girl on the bed sigh ed, turned and awoke. She blinked a little, rubbed her eyes and smiled. But the sight of that grimy hand obliterated the smile instantly. She jumped up and stood in the middle of the room, palsied with ter ror. With fumbling fingers she fe:t into the inner pocket of the coat she wore and drew out a crumpled sheet of paper. It was true, thenl This thing, this abominable, cowardly thing had happened. She made a wild gesture as if to tear this dreadful testimony into tat ters, and paused. She laid the paper on the dresser, discarded her male attire, bathed, dressed and then sat down on the edge fo the bed and studied, not the body of the docu ment, but the hieroglyphics which cascaded from there to the bottom to do that. . Jeanne Beaufort was the daughter of Lawrence Beaufort, a wealthy Vir ginia tobacco-planter. There were five in the family: Beaufort, his spin ster sister, his two boys and the girl. The mother had been dead since Jeanne's youth. Father and sister took care of her mind, and the brothers saw to it that she should b6 sane in body also. She sang and played delightfully; her wit was nimble, in argument she was wise; and her brothers taught her how to walk through a forest with out crackling a twig, to break and tame fiery thoroughbreds, to shoot, swim, run. The plantation was like hundreds of its kind: enormous veranda-pillars and rambling wings and French windows. Below, on the river brim, was a clean little gathering of cabins for the plantation slaves. Upop the peace and plenty of this happy little duchy fell the thunder bolt of war. Beaufort accepted a colonelcy in a local regiment, and the boys sought glory under Pickett. When the news came to Jeanne that her father had fallen at Manas sas and that his beloved body had been buried there, her grief had been terrible. The death of her two bro thers at Cemetery Hill left her out wardly unmoved. She did not close the piano; she did not wear mourn ing; and when the spinster-aunt mildly remonstrated with this con duct, which she said was lacking in leverence to the dead, the girl whirl ed upon her: "I'm a woman. I can't shoulder a musket; I can't go forth end demand of the North an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth. But hear me, Auntie: I'll have that eye, I'll have that tooth!"- A week later Jeanne said: "I am going to Richmond." "To visit your Aunt Delia; I think it a good plan, child." "I'll be home from time to time, unless the enemy stands in between. And even then, I'll come." "Shall we win?" "God knows, but win or lose, the Yankees shall pay a price." Jeanne knew but little of Rich mond. This turned out very well for her later; neither friend nor foe knew anything about the personality of Jeanne Beaufort. This time, however, she dabbled a little in the frivolous, but all with a grim purpose. Step by step she maneuvered until at last she stood in the presence of the one man she sought. "But you are so young," he pro tested "scarcely twenty." "I am very, very old," she replied with a dry little smile. "And I am all alone, besides." "There are terrible risks death always to face, and perhaps dishon orable death," "I am ready. I want revenge." "To play at love, to suffer the touch of men you despise, in order to gain their secrets that is not a pleasant task for a well-bred woman. War is not always won by bullets; duplicity plays its part." "You are trying to discourage me. iavelli's. In their frequent encoun ters in Richmond he fascinated and repelled her at the same time. He was always about to join his regi ment at the front, but aomehow he never did; and yet for weeks he would disappear completely. When he returned he was always a little thinner, a little harder, a little less effervescent. When he began to make love to ler, she was at first amused. But when she realized that he was in ear nest, she broke up his dream some- what rudely. That was the last of it. apparently. He disappeared again, and her duties compelled her to return to Washing ton. (Second fine Installment of thla story in Heppner Gazette Times next week.) Read it every week. 2ND HAND BARGAINS Our ex change department offers seven styles of second hand ranges, and seven types of 2nd hand dining tables. Case Furniture Company. Best Leghorn chicks, hatching each Monday from matured hens, mated with males from hens with records of 250 to 306 eggs. R. 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Camel taste and fragrance come from the choicest tobaccos grown. They lead to supreme smoking pleasure. Voull never find a higher standard of goodness than in this favorite cigarette. Your own enjoyment will confirm the overwhelming choice of modern smokers. To know how mild and mellow the quality cigarette can really be "Have a Cornell" 1917, 1. J. Il.ra.ld. T.bx Wiuioa-Sia, N, C. S3f 5jg