Copyright 1928-1034, Harold Titus. CHAPTER IV—Continued wes “An Inquest was held, on Don's story a warrant was issued for McManus and so It stands, after all these years.” He rubbed his face again. “Now, that's that. The thing that's stuck in the minds of some of us is this: that McManus, under no circum- stances, ever showed a quarrelsome streak, let alone giving evidence of be- ing a Killer. However,"—with a shrug—"he'd been on a long, long drunk.” He paused Then went on: “Brandon carried on the partnership and his own interests, buying his own logs in the name of the firm and saw- ing them in the mill. He bought right and left, left and right. As soon as another man would plan to operate here Brandon would try to buy him out. If he couldn't buy at his own figure things commenced to happen to that man. Duval has figured in a good many fallures!"—nodding pro- foundly. “The man seemed to be ob sessed by the idea that he must own all the timber in the locality, “Finaily it came down to this piece, owned by McManus, which was the last which Brandon wanted and that he didn't have, He commenced to jockey so he could get title to it. Ho- mer Campbell judge of probate then, Nick went to Homer with a petl- tion to have McManus declared legal ly dead the could be pro- bated and this timber disposed of. Mac had been gone seven years and such an arrangement could be brought about according to law, you see, and shook his head. one was 80 estnte “However, Homer got the notion that Brandon was a mite too anxious, satis- fied himself that while Brandon was | getting rich personally the partner ship was In a bad way, and decided that he wouldn't be a party to any scheme to rob an estate, “That ended Homer politically. Nick put up another candidate and trimmed us properly and we knew that when the new judge came In he'd take orders from Brandon. Seo Homer surprised Brandon by reopening the McManus matter, declaring him legally dead and appointed me administrator for the estate and guardian for Dawn” His stomach shook with his chuck ling at that. “Nick was pretty mad, all right! 1 commenced to pry inte things, found that the partnership books certainly | did look bad and decided to take a licking there and sold out the Me Manns Interest. We were stung. all | right, but there was no use squealing 1 took paid up the mort | gage on the Hoot Owl, sent Dawn off to school in East where she | wouldn't he known as the daughter of a murderer—a cloud shaping her whole the money, the i mis | tried to which was life—and make some money for her, it's how it st We're on estate right now inds to I've | the ragged edge: the date, considering the loen her in ! is Insolvent, tion of this tin 12 a linb Brandon's terri tory nad she's un Dawn's back here to H and to come where ve happy what's ahead of us depends on yon Hen gave a wry amile. killing 1} over “This ing, how. anybody Able “Faxson and And MeMar what's Did suspect Brandon? shook his head, McManus were alone disappenred. I know in vour mind, But there support the suspicion” 1s ten. wns nothing te He asked drily: “Haven't read old Don's letter yet 7° “Nor yet" “A stitch In yon know, . . . And Brandon was afraid of Don on acrount of something in the past” Ben sant xilent a moment and then time grinned. don't like to 1 have to: don't my hole ecard.” “Well, It's your message, that. let ter; your property.” Able sald. “And the nut's going to get tougher fast. | hate to think what'd happen If we had to stop sawing for two or three days right now, A shutdown certainly would put temper into the shell of the nut, Ben, and--" He stopped short. Into the stillness of the room came a muffled shout. Ben started to his feet and Able turned a bewildered face In the direction of the sound. “Fire!” a walling volce cried. mill's on fire!” Buller could be heard bounding from his bed In the next room. Able lurched to the door to see Ben Elliott flying toward the mill-yard, silhouetted against the dull glow of angry flame which showed through cracks in the mill The wide doorways to the ground floor were rectangles of dull orange, The fire was In there, beneath the «deck, under the earriage, eating Into the very vitals of the mill, A water barrel stood beneath the slide, Its bucket dangling from a stick 1ald across the top, but the barrel was empty. Ben seized the bucket, smashed the thin ice that had formed over the hot pond, filled his pall and rushed through the open doorways Into the smoke. He had a clear sense of Bul der's voice crying the alarm and of an- “I'm superstitions. 1 all until even look fie I've got like to “Tw swering shouts as the men began turn- ing out of their blankets. Ben soused his bucket of water Into the heart of the burning area and it scattered the blaze with wooshing sound. The flame did not go out; it only scattered. A belch of steam screened it for an Instant, putting a blot on the savage brilliance, but In the next breath the flame had hold again, leking hungrily through the water, bordering the orange glow with red and blue streamers. His eyes and his reason told him, then, what his nostrils had falled to register in his first excitement. “Gasoline!” he panted as he ran out, colliding with Buller in the door- way. “Somebody touched her off! , , Soaked with gasoline in there. , , . Look, it's spreading fast The fire was spreading, and no mis- taking the fact. Through the smoke they could see the flames leaping from that gas-drenched litter clear to the ceiling and then spreading, right and left and ahead. thwarted momentarily by heavy planks in their dance but, by that very stoppage, given fresh food for growth. Men were coming, shouting as they ran through the darkness. In all stages of partial dress they came, crowding close to Elllott and Buller, “Stand still, youn, and keep still!” Ben snapped. “You, McFee, and you and you"—pointing to individuals, “toll that barre! of salt up from the siding. Spap into It! “Yon and you and you ~-—indicating other men—"get every bucket in the place. Water buckets from the barrels in the yard and along the tramways from houses, kettles, anything hold water, “You, there. an at and a shovel S|anppy, now! His voice hind bite to It and as he tolled the men off for these explicit errands, they went on the run. “Buller! Get upstairs and gue Now! pails that'll and carry get me ” knock up, some big, some small, now and then one that leaked away Its preclous con- tentse Fire found hold on the edges of the hole Buller had made In the floor. Little tongues of flame ate into the dry wood and curled upward. To juller's right a finger of fire crept up between two boards; beyond It ane other appeared. In a dozen places fire was coming through the floor and Buller, swaying on his feet as he coughed, turned to the next man in dismay. “He sald have air! Move up!” The lice moved up. The man who had taken Buller's place soused a bucket of water across the floor, knock- Ing down those tendrils that wormed through from below. Then he attacked the uprushing column of flame again. Down below Ben Elliott had the heart of the burning litter a writhing mass of saffron smoke, He started out, fell and crawled to the entry, got his knees beneath him and retched again and again. His eyes smarted madly and streamed tears: he coughed as he vomited and it seemed as though he never would find strength to rise. But he did after a moment and renewed his attack. The gasoline soaked litter was blan- keted by its Hyer of salt, but over head belting blazed and fire was find- hold in uprights and cross tim- 2 he choked. “Got to ing bers. “Here, you! Three men. Two buckets Ben croaked as he ran out to the foot of the slide, “Throw It high, and hard. So!” he cried hoarsely and flung the first wa- ter himself with a wide, sweeping, overhead swing It knocked fire off the nigger, blotted out an orange panel on & heavy sill. “Now, you!" he cried to the next man, They filled thelr buckets and that duty took them Into the fresh alr, cleared their kept the nausea down, steadied legs and heads. each !™ own lungs, both Ben Elllott—{rom Don Stusrt, oid “king of the river,” and town bully the town's leading citizen, town and Elliott, resenting the sci, finds a friend In Judge Able Armitage ber camp. the Hoot Owl that He defeats Bull Duval, Nieholas Brandon, Ellictt is arrested. He able to grab This belongs up Ben Stuart dies tough.” efforts, a hole In the floor, to the left of the saw, boards wide. 80 with his spread to get that flame up instead of mush. rooming all over the foor hottont Form the rest of your men into a hieket brigade and pass water up the Fast as Don't think about anything but full buckets and taking Yon stand by the knock her ne Not ao fast, now, that and Hold your feet our only chance to lick it Couple of hands. “We've got drawing straight glide your ean! sending up down empty ones Buller, and she eames through son your hole, down genill water drop palis It's Hike, heads and now jm Grunting and four huskies the and Ben. trying to still his excited breath. ing, snapped his fingers as he waited for their arrival : cursing. Ingging barrel of malt came shouted to Able, see. him the first time. “Water won't tonch It! We've pot to smother it and we can’t get sand handily and galt should de, If Boller ean hold her when she sticks her head through the floor! “Casoline !™ he for ing pee Ben barrel of salt “Up here, boys! Close, now heaved the himself. rolling it In to the doorway which led directly into the fire. “All Jake! Into the bucket line, all of yon!” He swung his ax on a wire and the barrel popped open. He struck again te clear away gtaves and drove a dozen quick blows into the lumpy salt thal spilled out, to pulverize it. Next he scooped it the smoke, His eyes smarted but he took his” time, blinked and surveyed the fire, Then he swung his shovel apward and sideways and sent its burden in a pias tering, spattering smear at the center of a particularly hot spot. The blue green-orange combination of living fire gave up at once to a saffron smudge, Ben leaped Into the open again, breathed deeply, filled his shovel and doing his best to hold his breath, edged back into the smoke. Fle drove that shovel of salt hard upon flame, too, and retreated at once. A dozen trips, and he had the flame down in an area the size of a blanket. He worked to the right, then, going further into mill, coughing and reeling, and when he emerged that time he retched painfully. He stood over his salt pile a moment, gulping fresh air while nausea shook him. He breathed quickly, forcing his lungs to pump deep and fast, sending clearing life through his arteries. His head stead fed, he scooped up more salt and com pressing his lips against the shaking coughs, ducked into the mill Faster and faster the buckets came on heavy hoop grabbed up his shovel, full and disappeared into Don With hissing splashes the water from thelr pails went sloshing against the overhead woodwork and gradually the glare through the thick smoke sub- sided, “Getting her!” Ben panted as Able tried to say something to him. “Get ting her!” He coughed and his words had come In a8 half strangle but, even so, the exuliation in his tone was un- misrakable, Smoke on the ground floor thinned somewhat. Men ran further into the “Getting Merl” building with their water, took a bit more time in throwing it. Again sait was used down below to cover hot little islands in the liter, Up above fore water was thrown across the floor to kill lames in the cracks, Living flame no longer leaped and roared through the hole In the floor. Thick smoke swept upward but that was all and as Ben ran up the ley slide for the first time and saw this he cried out: “Good work, though; look I” Fire had taken fresh hold in a greasy timber and was worming its way up beneath the trimmer saw, Buller dashed a half dozen pails of water on the spot and It went black. “Keep going, Buller I" Ben cried, “TU take half your men.” He went slipping down the slide and at the bottom called men from the bucket line. “Stretch out, the rest of you!” he called. “Now, this ay, you lads; In here and mop her up, and make It fast!” Buller! Over there, WNT Servies, Stubborn flames ate into the litter on the ground floor, Again and again they broke out, but the driving heat was gone, roaring gases no longer gave Impetus to the spread of destruction fis the first need for speed became less Imperative, Not until the final curl of smoke had been subdued completely did Ben Elliott relax, Then, with lantern lght- ed, he entered the saw floor, complete- ly lee glazed, charred In places, and surveyed the damage. As he swung his lantern and looked about, peering at timbers eaten half away, at burned belting, at other vital damage, he moved slowly, sald little, as a man will who Is thinking soberly, He stopped beside Able Armitage finally. “Well, the Insurance'll cover It," the old justice sald, as If trying to make the best of things. Ben laughed shortly, “But she's two weeks idle at the inside. And belting gone and a good many other things, If “Say, chum!” It was the night watchman, sheathed in flakes of Ice from his walst down whom Ben hailed. “Where were you?" “Eating. when It broke out” Ben only nodded. The watchman, by long custom, went to the boarding house kitchen for his midnight meal where food was kept warm for him. “1 went through the yard and the mill, just like you've told me to do. 1 looked In at the boller the last thing. 1 hadn't been out of here ten minutes before 1 just happened to glance through the window and see it" “Yeah. Gasoline starts in a hurry.” “Gasoline I" the watchman croaked. “Sure.” Ben laughed drily. “The ground floor was drenched with it They'd scraped rubbish into plies and soaked them, too. They almost did a good job. Almost five minutes’ start, or If 1 hado't happened to see a garage fire put out with salt once where noth- ing else was handy to smother it, and it'd have been all day with us” He rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. “Didn't see anybody? Or bear any- body 7" *Not a soul or a sound.” Elliott looked up. No snow was falling. “Buller !™ be called. The foreman, face blackened, eyebrows gone, came up at his hall, “Herd this crew in close. It snowed early in the evening. Maybe I'l want te do a job of trailing and 1 don’t want tracks all over the coun- try.” He did his Job of trailing. The fresh tracks of a single man led away from the trampled snow about the mill toward decks of loge. The tracks went out along the siding toward town but Ben did not follow far. He stopped when he found a three-gallon demi john badly concealed beneath the end of a log. He sniffed its neck and nodded grimly. The fuel of an incendiary had been carried to the mill in that con- tainer, “And pow,” Able said, after he also had sniffed the bottle In Buller's house, “what's to be done? He tried to smile but deep trouble was In his old eyes, For the first time since he had come to Hoot Owl Ben Elliott shook his head dublously as he dropped Into a chair. He wag both grave and troubled. “They're getting the least bit rough,” he observed, “Rather rough, I'd say !™ Able's face flared suddenly in righteous wrath. “Dn Nick Brandon! I'd give a good dea! to hang this night's work on him I" Ben laughed briefly. "Don’t hope for miracles yet,” he advised. “It'll take no less than a miracle now to pull us through. Two weeks to get the mill running? Benny, in that time we'll be busted wide open! They'll have a case against me, I'll be walked as sdministrator and the tim- ber will be at Brandon's mercy.” “Yeah. . . . Wide open . . . and at his mercy.” Able rose and paced the small room, hands in his hip pockets. He came to a halt before Elliott and eyed him nar- rowly. He stood so a moment as If in debate with self, “We had a fire,” he sald. “Not the kind you fight with fire, exactly. . . . But old Don told Bird-Eye that you'd have to use fire to fight another kind with, didn’t he?” Ben smiled slowly. “You're thinking of the old timer's letter, eh? . . . Well, maybe . , . But we're not licked yet. Something may turn up. No, I guess 1 won't use whatever it was Stuart gave me just yet!” sumed his pacing. “What can turn up to give us a fight- ing chance, now?" he muttered, TO BE CONTINUED, Fresh Air Required The amount of alr required for each person in a room varies greatly with the circumstances. The factors deter- mining the proper amount are number of people, type of lighting fixtures and other sources of heat, and construction of the bullding or room. The standard figure used by ventilating engineers is 1,800 cuble feet per person per hour, which is usually considered a mini mum. - \ ) JITH EASTER at hand all sorts of alluring gift suggestions burst forth in early springtime spien- dor. This Is the season of the year for surprise presents chosen from the charming array of gift ideas the beauty field offers, says a fashion writer in the New York Hernld-Tribune. Perfume is always a delightfully ap- propriate present, particularly at this time of the year. Besides, the atmos phere of early spring spells enchant. ment—a certain new romance in living, especially identified with perfumes and spring fragrances. Some alert perfumers, to meet the various holiday requirements, are pre- senting bright and decorative Easter eggs. OGayly colored papler mache “eggs” of red, green, blue, white and yellow contain one or more attractively decorated bottles. Other firms whose perfumes suggest “Evening and Springtime In Paris” {certainly quite In keeping with this April season), also offer Easter egg packages. These French perfumes are presented in egg-shaped containers of Easter Vanity Boxes Are Filled With Surprises, metal with the familiar little sapphire bine and silver bottle resting snugly in one half of the “egg.” Here you have a cholece of blue, red, green, or- chid, pink and pale blue. Certainly a variety of Easter colors! Powder compacts make a welcome gift. One cosmetic house presents a particularly gay and springlike com- pact in chromium finish with a pearl gray enamel top, embellished with a basket of bright colored flowers, Just the right note for spring! A certain New York shop offers a gala display of vanity cases, Jeweled compacts and brilliantly decorative bles, The vanities come in black en- amel for evening wear and silver for daytime and sport. They are filled with surprises! Powder, rouge, two shades), a little comb. Quite a com- pact Easter package, to say the least. But one novelty compact, popular in the beauty field, is one which Is skill beauty combines with the practical, and eliminated are those moments of fumbling In one’s pocketbook for the key. The compact will hold any eylin- der key. You simply slide the little knob at the top of the case to push out key. The compact comes In two fos, a double and single com- past in enameled colors. You are able to use your own favorite powder, for the cases are made for loose powder. Such a novel vanity would be a delightful gift, r [ oes a a lot more to Easter than displaying finery. Take Scotland, for instance, Lads and lassies there cavort in an Easter spirit alleged to be typical of their country—at expense to none. hey get hard-boiled, dyed eggs (once fresh, it is hoped) and playfully roil or throw them at each other. And when they are through with their roll. ing and throwing, they eat the by- that-time-battered remains, But the old-timers in Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire and Warwick. shire were different. They played a lifting and heaving game. On Easter Monday the men lifted or heaved the women. How far or for what history falls to record. On Easter Tuesday the women, having the last word, lifted of heaved the men. And all this was a very serious matter, To explain the lifting and heaving, the maneuver was performed by two jesty men or women Joining their hands across each other's wrists, Then, making the person to be heaved sit down on their arms, they lift or heaved him aloft two or three times and often carried him several yards in the street, the distance, of course, depending on the avoirdupois of the victim, London Tit-Bits records. Even clergymen were unable to escape the heaving or lifting. It so happened a very austere minister was passing through a town in Lancashire on an Easter Tuesday. It was all he could do to uphold his professional dig- nity when three or four husky women ran into his room, exclaiming they had come “to lift him.” “To lift me” repeated the amazed divine. “What can you mean? Is there any such custom here?” “Ta be sure,” they chorused, “All us women was lifted yesterday and us {lifts the men today in turn” The reverend traveler, it is recorded, saved his position by bribing them with a half crown and scurrying off on his mission, In Durham on Easter Monday his- tory says the men claimed the privilege of taking off the women's shoes, and the next day the women came right back in a turn-about’s-fair-play manner, History again falls us, for it does not say what “kick” they got from tak- ing off. each other's shoes At Hungerford in Berkshire during Easter a young man is perfectly enti- tied to claim a kiss from every pretty girl he meets between noon and 6:00 pm One of the curious customs of the day was that which centered in the distribution of what was known as the Pax or Peace cake. Until very recent times persons who had quarreled were invited to share such a cake, say “peace and good will” and “make up.” Priests in England a few generations used to make small crosses of palms which they gave to their con- gregations, At the shrine of Our Lady, Nantswell, Cornwall, the people devel oped a ceremony of dropping these symbols into the holy well to test their luck-—if the crosses floated, good for- tune might be expected; If they sank, death and disaster would be forthcom- custom for London residents the country and bring back boughs on the day of palms, to visit
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers