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