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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1927)
HEPPNER GAZETTE TIMES, HEPPNER, OREGON, THURSDAY, NOV. 24, 1927. PAGE FIVE RMCKSHEEP! & Meredith Nicholson COPYRIGHT CHARLBS SCRIBKER3 SONS - RELEASED THRU PUBLISHERS AUTOCASTER SEHVIC Isabel Perry recommend a life of crime, adventure, romance and excitement u a cure for Archibald Bennett's nerves. Ar chie goes to bailey Harbor to investigate a house for his sister and spends the night in the empty house. He is awakened by footsteps during the night ; the intruder tires at him and misses. Archie fires in turn. He doesn't know whether he has killed or only wounded the man. but fear ing the publicity, plans to make his es- cape. In his night he meets The uovern- or" a master mind criminal who mistakes him for a fellow criminal. Archie, afraid to tell the truth, falls in with "The Gov ernor." A aeries of events leads him to believe he has shot Putney Congdon the owner of the house. They proceed to New York, where they are visited by Julia, the Governor's sister. Archie promises her he will stick with the Governor through the strange phase she claims he is passing through. While strolling in the park, Ar chie sees Mrs. Congdon with her two chil dren, and Is witness to the kidnapping of the little girl, Edith. He learns from the Uovernor that the father-in-law of Mrs. Congdon a very wealthy man is engaged in the circulaiton of counterfeit twenty- dollar gold pieces. They go to Rochester, where the Governor receives a letter from Ruth, the girl he loves, in which she tells him he may be able to serve her. At a dance at Ruth's home, Archie meets Isabel I Now read on: 4 "In spite of my warnings you con tinue to follow me!" said Isabel when they were establishd in the supper room. "Are we to have another row? I don't believe I can go through with it." "No; for rows haven't got us any where. And Ruth whispered to me a moment ago to be very nice to you. While the gentleman on the other side of me is occupied we might clear up matters a little." "It's not my theory of life to ex plain things; I tried explaining my self at Portsmouth and again at Ben nington but you were singularly un symapthetic. Please be generous and tell me why you were skipping all over New England, drting through trains and searching hotel registers and manifesting uneasiness when po licemen appeared." "It occurred to me after the Ben nington interview that I might have been unjust, but I was in a humor to suspect everyone. When you said you'd shot Putney Congdon you frightened me to death. Of course you did nothing of the kind!" "This is wonderful chicken salad," he said, hastily. "I beg you to do it full justice. The people about us musn't get hte idea that we're dis cussing homicide. Now, to answer your question. I had shot Mr. Put ney Congdon and in edging away from the scene of my bloodshed I was guilty of other indiscretions that) made me chatter like a maniac when I saw you." "My own nerves had gone to pieces or I shouldn't have flared as I did at Portsmouth and I was even more irre sponsible when I saw you in that par lor car at Bennington. And please don't think that because I am show ing you so much tolerance I am wholly satisfied that you were'nt trying to thwart my own criminal adventures. When we met at Portsmouth I was trying to meet poor Mrs. Congdon somewhere to help kndnap her little girl!" "Edith a lovely child," Archie re marked and picked up the napkin that had fallen from her knees. He en joyed her surprise. "If I hodn't been warned by Ruth tht you were to be trusted in this business I should begin screaming. How did you know that child's name? What do you know about the Cong dons?" "Volumes! Let my Imagination play upon your confession. You were trying to find Mrs. Congdon and whisk the child away to your camp, when 1 ran into you. You had missed c:' -.ections with the mother and thought I was trying to embarrass or frustrate you? I had troubles of my own and you couldn't have done me a greater wrong!" "Mrs. Congdon was in a panic, skip ping about with the children to avoid her husband; but it was really her father-in-law who was pursuing her. Mrs. Congdon loves her husband and from what Ruth says he's devoted to her, but the father-in-law is a ma licious mischief makerl I came here to meet Ruth, who is an old friend of hers, hoping she might be able to deliver the little girl to me unde tected. I was to run with Edith as hard as I could for Heart 0' Dreams, my girls' camp, you know, up in Michigan." "How stupid I am! With a word you might have made unnecessary our two altercations! We have but a moment more, and I shall give you In tabloid form my adventures to date." Of the Governor he spoke guard edly, finding that Isabel knew noth ing about him beyond a shadowy im pression that she had derived from Ruth that he was a wanderer who hod charmed her fancy. When he finished he said: "We can't stay here any longer, I suppose; there's a young blado at the door looking for you now. Is there any way I can serve you?" "Ruth has explained all that to Mr. Saulsbury by now. She felt sure that he would help; and, believe me, I have confidence in you." Archie and the Governor wolked back to the hotel in the best of hu mor. As they crossed the lobby the Governor suddenly slapped his pock ets and walked up to the cigar stand. A tall man in a gray traveling cap was talking earnestly to the clerk, meanwhile spinning a twenty-dollar gold piece on the show case. The Governor purchased some cigarettes and while waiting for change nodded to the stranger who absently re sponded and began tapping the coin with the handle of a penknife, "Not many of those things in cir culation nowadays," the Governor re marked, thrusting the cigarettes into hie pocket. The stranger carelessly inspected the two gentlemen in eve ning clothes and handed the coin to the Governor. "What d'ye think of that?" he a&ked. The Governor turned the g-ld diik to the light and then flung it iharply on the wooden end of the counter, where it rang musically. He handed is back with a smile. "The real thing, all right! Wish I had a couple of million just like it." "It's a good thing you haven't!" the man remarked with a grin. "It doesn't seem possible we can lose!" he said when they reached their rooms. "There will be cross-currents yet; but a strong tide has set in, bearing us on." "That chap was Dobbs, a Govern ment specialist in counterfeiters, and that twenty-dollar piece had almost the true ring, but not quite. The man who turned it out showed me the difference only yesterday. Perky? Certainly! He said Eliphalet Cong don had taken a bagful to pass on the unwary. The old boy had changed a lot of them in New England and the Government is not ignoring the mat ter." "You don't think old man Congdon has been here lately?" asked Archie. "Only a day or two ago! I picked that up while I was buying my mag aiine. Congdon bought some stogies at the cigar stand and changed that twenty. We're all loaded for Elipha let,,Archie. After you told me your kidnaping story, I telegraphed to Perky for all the possible places where the old man might be. Perky has ranged the country with him and from his data we can keep tab on the old boy. Dobbs knows nothing of the kidnaping; it's the gold piece that interests him. I overheard enough to know we're on the right track. Eliphalet Congdon owns a farm in Ohio. Perky spent a month there boring out gold pieces. What we've got to do, Archie, is to find the Cong don child and turn her over to your Isabel and my Ruth. A very pretty job, demanding our best attention!" 'But we're not leaving here un til" "You were about to say that we can't shake the dust of Rochester from our sandals before we've made our party calU. Alas, no! We shall not communicate with our ladies again. First we must justify their confidence in Us and find the Congdon child. It's still the open road for us, Archie. Good-night and pleasant dreams!" The new car which the Governor purchased proved to be a racer and he drove it with the speed of a king's messenger bearing fateful tidings. We ride for our ladies! Let the constables go hang!" At Buffalo the Govenor made earn est efforts to rent a yacht, without confiding to Archie just what use he expected to make of it. No yachts being in the morket, the Governor set about hiring a tug, and did in fact lease one for a month from a dredging company, paying cash and the wages of the crew in advance, and reserving on option to buy. The Arthur B. Grover was to be sent to Cleveland and held there for orders. He might want to negotiate the lakes as far as Duluth, he told the president of the company, who was surprised and cha grined when the singular Mr. Sauls bury readily accepted a figure that was intended to be prohibitive. 'We must be ready for anything," he remarked to Archie. "The signs point to a disturbance of great wa ters, and there's nothing like being prepared." At Cleveland Archies last doubt as to his mentor's connection with" the underworld of which he talked so entertainingly was removed. Reaching the city at' midnight the car was left at a garage downtown, their trunks expressed to Chicago and they arrived by a devious course at an ill-smelling boarding house. Here, the Governor informed him, only the aristocracy of the preying professions were received. Next morning Archie was dragged from the hardest bed he had ever slept in. 'No more scented soap! ' cried the Governor. "Here's where we pet down to brass tucks and let our whis kers flourish!" Ho threw a rough suit of clothes on a chair and bade Archie got into it as quickly as possible, "We shall leave this thriving city as farm hands eager to step softly upon the yieldnig clod. We go by trolley a little way, and if you hove never surveyed the verduous Ohio Valley from a careening trolly car you have a joy coming to you. But don't assume that we shall ride ail the way; It's afoot for us, Archie! We shall be tramps seeking honest labor but awfully choosey about the jobs we take!" The first night they slept in a barn. without leave, begged a breakfast and walked until Archie cried for mercy. At the end of the fourth day as they kicked their heels against the pier of a bridge that spanned the San dusky, watching the stars slip into their places in the soft, tender sky the Governor's quick ear detected the step of a pedestrian approaching from the west. "Unless we've missed a turn some where, that's Perky. A punctual chap; this is the exact time and place for our meeting, and he should bear tidings of Interest in our affairs." The man who was dressed like a farm laborer, responded carelessly to the Governor's greeting, and swung himself to a seat beside him on the abutment. "What news of the lunib in the pas ture?" the Governor inquired. "The little lumb Is not liHpjjy. The father is cxpocted tonight. I've got orders to iliop wood while he's cn the reservation." "The son is not wise to the metal trick and you drop into the back ground?" "The t-ue word has been spoken, brother." "The son has been long on the read. What caused him to linger?" "A broken arm, so the old man has it; and repairs have been made m a hospital at Portland by the eastern sea." "Is there work in the fields for willing hands? Shall we find wel come as laborers keen for the har vest?" asked the Governor. "The slave driver weeps for lack of help and the pay is high. You will be welcome. When the sun makes its shortest shadow tomorrow you will sign papers for the voyage." "Do I understand," Archie asked at length, "that tomorrow we're going to find jobs on Eliphalet's plantation and kidnap his granddaughter?" "Much as I hate to anticipate, Ar chie, it's not only little Edith we're going to kidnap! We're going to steal the old man, too!" CHAPTER VII , "I never saw a tramp yet that was worth his breakfast," snarled Grubbs, the foreman of Eliphalet Gongdon's farm. "There's some old hats in the barn; shed-them pies y' got on yer heads and try t' look like honest men anyhow." After supper Perky strolled away in one direction; the Governor in an other, and Archie, left to his own de vices, fumed at this desertion. An hour later, wandering idly about the premises, he stumbled into the Governor. "Mooning? Perky anl I have been smoking our pipes off yonder in the woods. He says old Eliphalet is more and more delighted with his work. The more he's delighted the better the sport for us." "I don't see where the sport comes in!" said Arcnie testily, tie resent ed his exclusion from the conference with Perky and said so. 'My dear boy, suspense is good for the soul; I'm merely cultivating n you the joy of surprise. The dis cipline of waiting will sharpen your wits, which is important, as I mean to honor you with considerable re sponsibility and leave you here when I depart, which will- be tonight as dewy eve spreads her sparkling robe " "Leave me here! My God, man, I'm not going to be stranded in this wil derness!" ' 'Patience, little brother, and not quite so vociferous! This much I will impart; tomorrow morning Per ky will whisper to Eliphalet that the Government is wise to the gold piece trick and that they are watched. Per ky will throw a scare into him, then he'll advise him to beat it, and the old chap will throw his arms around Perky's neck and beg for protection. And Perky, with a reputation for never deserting a pal, will seiie him firmly by the hand and away they'll go. Next, I take the little girl into my care and start for the camp. You, Archie, will remain here to watch Mr. Putney Congdon. The part I'm as signing you flatters your intelligence. You are to watch Putney Congdon and follow him when he leaves." 'Cut that rubbish and listen to me," said Archie, his voice quavering with anger; "you think I'm going to follow him? What if he stays all summer! " 'He won't," the Governor an swered. "He's going to follow that child of his if it leads him to king dom come! If you went to see your Isabel again, follow Putney Congdon. You will of courss be a model of dis cretion, but " 'Do you mean to say you'll tell him where you're taking his child?" 'I shall not of course spoil the joy of kidnaping by taking Putney into V confidence, but after the child 8 well out of the way I shall send him a wire telling him where his daughter may be found a gentle hint, but suf ficient to tease his curiosity." 'You'll wire him where you re headed for when you haven't told me!" 'I'll just whisper the address in your ear and you'll do well to remem ber it. Heart o' Dreams Camp, Hud- dleston, Michigan; post-office, Calder- ville. Good-bye and God bless your' But the Governor's blessing failed to dispel the gloom thafrsettled upon Archie as he crept through the shed where the laborers were housed and found his cot. The morning opened auspiciously with a raking from Grubbs, who, find ing that the Governor had decamped, most ungenerously held Archie re sponsible for his departure. "Look here," he asked suddenly, d'ye know anything about horses?" "Oh, I've always been around horses," said Archie. "Guess I can hnndle 'em all right." 'Well, go to the barn and clean up the pony, and clap on a boy's saddle you'll lind there; and there's a sor rel mare in the last stall on the left yu can take. The old man's grand daughter wants to ride. I gotta waste a horse right now so a grown mun can play with a kidl Guess all them Congdon's got something wrong with 'em! The old man's skipped this morning without snyin' whether he'd ever be back again not only that, but he's took a scrub I was usin' a handy man on the place. Archie set ofr stolidly for the barn. His appointment as groom for the daughter of Putney Congdon was only another ironic turn of fate. The child enmo running into the barn lot fol lowed by the woman who had been a party to her abduction, and danced joyfully toward tho pony. The wo man, after watching for a moment or two, was satisfied that the groom was a master horseman and sat down on the grass by the gate to read. Archie, in his anxiety to save the child from mishap, had given little attention to the traffic on the road until he awoke to the fact that the same touring car had passed twice within a short period and it flashed upon him in a moment that this was either the Governor's New York chauffeur or some one who bore a striking resemblance to him. The woman's attention was wholly relax ed and she scarcely glanced up as he passed her. There could be no bet ter opportunity for the seizure, as the laborers were widely distributed over the farm. The gray-clad chauffeur passed again this time in a more powerful car. He made no sign but Archie caught a glimpse of the Governor busily talking with a strange man. Convinced now that the Governor's plans were culminating and that the car was muking their circuits of the farm to enable the occupants to get their bearings, Archie awaited anx iously the next appearance of the ma chine. When at the end of a quarter of an hour it shot into view Archie was at the farthest point from the gate indicated by the woman as the range of Edith's exercise. , "That girth needs pulling up a lit tle; let's dismount here," said Archie, drawing up under a tree at the road side. The woman was deeply preoc cupied with her book and apparently oblivious to the traffic on the road. Archie pretended to be having trou ble with the saddle as he filled in the time necessary for the car to reach them. It passed the gate more rapid ly than on previous occasions, but slowed down at once and a familiar voice said: "Edith Miss Edith Congdon." said the Governor, smiling. "Yiur mother wants you very, very much and I've come to take you to her. If you'll jump into the car you will see her very soon. We must be in a hurry or that woman will catch you. You needn't have a fear in the world. Will you trust me?" The child hesitated a moment then glancing at the apprndpM woman with a look of fear jumped numbly into the machine, nimbly into the machine. Continued next wee:. Such Service "Are you through with the finger bowl, sir?" "Through? I haven't even started. I m waiting for some soap." Only a Companion "Why did your pop say I reminded him of a telescope?" "Because you're so easy to see through and you magnify everything so." The Dumb Bell Pause and pray for William Peck, He thought bis girl would pay the check. Observing Youngster "I'll give you fifty cents if you'll wash your face," said the college pro fessor to his small son. "Keep it and get a haircut," was the young hopeful's reply. Such a Gal Such a Gal One: How is her line? Two: Judging from the crowd fol lowing her, it must be a tow line. Hey, Fellers A New One Edith "Arthur says I am a riddle to him." Mary "Yes, and he wants to give you up." Fair Enough Teacher: What holds the moon in place day after day and year after year? Carpenter's Son: The moonbeams. Weaving Ladies, I will weave your rags into beautiful rugs and carpets. They will make nice Christmas pres ents for your friends. Price reason able. Phone 14F4, or write Mrs. Mar garet Rippee. 33-6 Don't Delay Before long it will be too late to have those Christmas Photos taken. "Pic tures live forever," and your friends would rather have them than anything else. Bogg's Photo-Art McMurdoBldg. StUCHO Main Street Heppner, Oregon F. W. Turner & Co. LICENSED REAL ESTATE BROKERS ALFALFA AND. GRAIN FARMS Good Listings in Both Morrow and Grant Counties. CITY PROPERTY for RENT or SALE tUTOCSTTiJ For the Feast The one day in all the year when the fam ily dinner dominates the festivities and mother will have nothing but the best foods in the land for her table. Already we have anticipated those wants and needs and here you will find an array of foodstuffs that will tempt every palate. Bring the market bas ket here and stock up for that Thanksgiving dinner. Prices are no higher for the best. Phelps Grocery Company PHONE 53 Lesterfield smokers don't change mth the calendar , , but ivatch how other smokers are changing to Chesterfield! 5k IORTOE BEST : fflbpK OF GOOD REASONS S3 yy ::-$