Copyright 1928-1884, Harold Titus,
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WNU Service.
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Ben Elliott—from
He defeats Bull Duval,
Elllott is arrested and
feaving a letter for Elliott
win tha fight by his own efforts, Fire
tide him over,
CHAPTER V—Continued
wb
“] saw your trail. That is, I . . .”
How different, this beginning, from the
manner of address he had planned!
He felt called upon, now, to explain his
presence on her trail rather than to
demand a reason for her being there.
“1 saw your trail,” he began again,
“and I thought It seemed to me
you might be a little lost.”
“As a matter of fact, 1 am complete-
iy turned around,” she sald. “It was
silly of me to come into the woods,
especially on a day like this, without
a compass. But I did and here
1 am!” She was eveing him closely,
now, as though searching for some
special detail of face or figure.
Lost! He thought: a lost Diana!
“I kept losing my bearings and had
trouble getting oriented and am getting
a little tired. It was so silly! Down
right stupid! If you know this coun
try you can set me right. 1 should
be back in Tincup before long or they'll
worry.”
Ben wondered quickly and Ir
relevantly, who They might be. Yes,
ne could get her out. In a half hour
he could have her In his camp and
send her on her way to town. . , . But
in a half hour . . . And with her man-
ner so clearly hostile for no reason at
all? She impressed him as a
young woman most desirable to know
well and also as one whose confidence
would be slow In acquiring.
“Lost, eh? he asked and laughed
oddly. “Matter of fact, I came out
without a compass myself.” That was
troih., He needed no compass for a
short swing such as he had made to-
day; his sound woodsman's Instinct
‘would hold him safe.
“Well, that complicates matters,” the
girl said drily. “I've got to get out of
this timber and I'm not good for much
more travel in this sort of going. |
haven't been on webs In several years
and I've gone further than 1 should
have.”
“By George, that's too bad!" he said
and hoped that none of his men, who
would be trekking into camp by now,
would shout or sing so thelr voices
would break down the illusion of empty
distances surrounding them which evi
dently possessed the girl. “Too bad!
It's getting dark sure enough but It
isn't very late. If you could sit down
and get your wind, now-"
“But what good will that do? If we
stay here until it's reajly dark there
may be no getting out until morning.
All 1 have with me Is a cake of choco
late and the prospect of a hungry, cold
night in the woods with you Isn't allur-
ing.”
Ben rubbed his chin,
“I'm sorry. If the impression I make
is as bad as"
“I meant nothing personal. But 1
don't know you. I don't fancy being
lost with anyone, let alone a stranger.”
He thought she almost smiled, as If
relenting a bit from her brusqueness.
“Look!” he said, pointing aloft to
where a break In the clouds near the
zenith let about the last of the day-
light through. “It's going to clear.
We'll have stars directly. Let me bulld
a little shelter and a fire here. A few
minutes of rest will do a lot of good
and with stars we can get anywhere”
She hesitated, seeming to consider,
“All right, 1 must admit the last half
hour's going has been hard.”
Out came his beit ax, off went the
lower limbs of young hemlocks. In
less than it would take an ordinary
man to lop the branches he had a
bench of trampled snow on a knoll cov-
ered with aromatic boughs and a thick
windbreak of them behind it. Then,
attacking a huge birch stub he peeled
off a quantity of lose bark. This he
lighted from a match carried in a tight
ly corked bottle and as the quickly
burning stuff shed a comfortable glow
on the bower he had built, he knocked
dead branches from a hemlock, fed
them to the flame and then turned to a
nearby dry top of a fallen maple,
knocking off substantial faggots,
By the time he finished this the girl
had shaken off her snowshoes, stuck
them on end In the snow and was sit
ting on the couch he had built for her,
She eyed the fire as he stood erect,
drawing off his gloves and spreading
his big hands to the warmth,
“Strange,” she sald, “that yon should
be lost. From the way you make your.
self comfortable in the woods I'd say
you'd been born in timber.”
“From the way you know woodcraft
when you see it, I'd say it's as strange
that you should be lost!”
“What 1 know of the woods was
learned years ago. One gets rusty,
I've discovered. Who are you and
what are you doing here?”
Her directness quite took his breath.
“Well, my name's Ben Elliott, If
that means anything to you. And I
was looking for somebody who has no
business to be here. Who are you and
what brings you into this timber?”
He was bound, now, to break through
her aloofness,
“That,” she replied, however, “Is
largely my own affair. But, Mr, El
lott, if you should guess that I was
simply trying to lose a certain un-
pleasant mood in the woods where I
once was quite happy, you wouldn't be
far from right”
She spoke incisively and unhesitat-
ingly but it seemed to him that behind
this brusquesness was something guite
different: something he could not
fathom. He was about to remind her
that she had not yet revealed her
identity when she went on:
“Looking for someone who has no
business here, you sald. Just who are
they, what are they doing?
“As to the first. I can't tell you.
For the second, thelr purpose probably
would be to attempt to hold up a tim
ber operation in which I'm rather in-
terested not so far from here”
Her eyes were on him with a curious
expression, which might possibly have
been personal Interest.
“To hold you up? How?
“Are you from Tincup?
*1 am."
“You know people there? And what
seems to be the town's most famous
tradition?”
“1 don't ynderstand.™
“Isn't it that Nicholas Brandon
finishes what he starts out to do? That
whatever he says goes, come what
may?
Her eyes dropped.
“I've heard that sald. People like
to talk.”
“Right! But I'm managing an out-
fit that's encouraging rough going
from some source. All sorts of things
are happening and I'm trying to head
off certain of them™
“I see.”
She looked away and puckered her
delectable lips as though to whistle
Ben rubbed his chin again, She was
not even Interested In learning more
about him, but where many young men
would have been piqued at that he only
laughed softly.
“What's the joke?” she asked, almost
defiantly.
“I was just thinking that it's a
funny situation when 8 man gets into
a scrap and It looks so big to him that
he thinks the whole darned country
must be watching it and him: and then
along comes a nice girl who's been In
a position to hear all about it and who
isn't Interested a dime’s worth”
She looked up at him slowly.
*You mean that you want to talk
about it?
“perfectly natural that [| shonld. I'm
in one whale of a fight and having the
time of my life. It's the first job I've
found In a coon's age that was hard
enough and complicated enough fo be
worth working over.”
“That's what I've heard about you."
“You've . . , Oh, so you have heard
about me?”
“Of course, I live in Tincup. Few
have any secrets ino a town of Tin
cup’s size”
Ben chuckled again.
“Well, then, If you've heard that
much about me and my job, maybe
there isn't anything 1 could tell you
that would be interesting.”
“Maybe not,” she sald with an air
of dismissal.
Ben watched her closely as she slow
ly broke a twig to bits with her slim
fingers,
“Deer used to yard In the swamp
back of here,” she sald. “When 1 was
a little gir! 1 used to come out and
try to make friends with them. That's
why 1 came out today . . . wonder
ing If they'd started to yard yet.”
“It's too early for them to yard."
“Yes, but the snow may get deep
enough any day to bunch them.”
“Snow I” he sald and shrugged. “If
it gets deep In a hurry the deer will
yard all right and, maybe, I'll be licked
and a little girl done out of all she has
in the world.”
“All she has In the world? Meaning
Just what?”
“If you live In Tincup and know the
town you must know about the owner
of this property. This Is the Hoot
Owi timber.”
A queer smile twitched at the girl's
lips. .
‘Sometimes I think I do; as often,
1 wonder what she's like . . . really
like. 1 happen to be Dawn McManus.”
Ben Elliott opened his mouth as If
closed It again and
foolishly helpless movement
He stared at her and
ea
“Why I . .. Why, you Why,
Able said! . . .” He laughed out
right, then, as his misconception be-
came clear. “Oh, If I'd given It a sec
ond thought I'd have known! Able first
told me about you as a little girl, It
stuck in my head; a little girl! But
that was years ago, of course. . . .
Gee! Why, then you're lost In
your back yard, as you might gay.”
“I was,” she corrected. “But a few
minutes ago I heard some one sing
out: and just now the cook called the
crew to supper.”
“Then why didn't you—"
“Because 1 was rather curious to dis-
cover what sort of man Is standing
between me and poverty,”—perhaps
ironically, this. “And, of course, 1
knew you weren't lost.”
Elliott flushed on that
“1 played at being lost myself so rd
have a chance to talk to you. I'm glad
[ did . . . unless it has offended
you."
“No,
I'm . . . I'm only ready to
She adjusted the harness of her
shoes dexterously and they set out. On
the way to camp Ben tried fo talk to
her further but her responses were brief
and non-committal., Her interest ap
peared to be only poorly aroused even
on such a vital matter as the opera-
tion of her property, and so finally he
gave up trying to make talk and broke
trail thinking that now the job would
have an added zest, that a girl like
Dawn McManus was an ever greater
incentive than the thought of a small
child, alone, with her timber at the
mercy of hard schemers, and depend
ing on him to make safe her heritage.
In camp Blackmore, the veneer buy-
er. was walting for Ben and after eat-
ing silently nm shanty with
two Dawn set for Tincup
with Blackmore, leaving Ben with con
siderable think about re-
vamping the mill and getting out’cholce
logs.
the cook
out
to hesldes
CHAPTER VI
The new piston head
motive arrived and Elliott wag at the
station when the train bearing it pulled
in. More, he was close beside the ex-
press car when it halted and carried
the part himself to his waiting sleigh.
The veneer logs were ready to come
out to the siding. Standard cars had
been set off at Hoot Owl that day. To-
7AM,
for the loco
“The Pool Room's a Good Place for
You to Be, Limpy.”
morrow, bright and early, they would
start loading and by night his con-
tract with Blackmore would be filled
He would receive a large check, a sub-
stantial part of it clear profit, in re
turn,
His men were growing restless on
der the driving; whidbers in camp had
it that the job was broke beyond re
pair and he knew that to pass a pay
day would send his crew scattering, a
handicap which he could never over
come in time. But with the men held
on the job and the mill ready to saw
in another week he would be ready to
give the Hoot Owl a fresh starl, a
new hold on hope.
After reaching camp he plunged into
his blankets for a night's rest.
And about the time he burrowed
into the pillow Nicholas Brandon sat
in Bis office talking to a pale, slender
young man whose blue eyes smiled
genially, Genially, yes, but in that
quality was a flaw, one might have ob-
served on close scrutiny. Familiarity
with Limpy Holbrook might not breed
contempt ; but surely, in an alert man,
it would stir an awareness for the need
of caution soon or later,
Brandon now nodded slowly.
“All right. Don't start antl dark.
And do Just as I've told you; don't for
get to give yourself plenty of time
You can't travel fast.”
“I get you, Mr. Brandon.”
“Have you . , . That Is, bas he
ever seen you?”
“He came into the pool room and 1
sold him tobacco the other day. We
visited a minute.”
“Friendly 1”
*Nothing but!” The open smile had
the cast of a leer as Holbrook made
reply.
“I'he pool room's a good place for
you to be, Limpy. Great center for
news. Well . . . You keep on re
porting everything that's said there.
. Good night”
Holbrook limped out and Erandon,
alone, puffed for a time on his cigar.
Next, he opened a lower drawer and
drew out a bottle of whisky, Only one
drink remained in it, He frowned. A
year ago he had procured that liquor;
for nearly twelve months it had been
scarcely touched. But since the night
that old Don Stuart died its contents
had been drawn upon frequently. His
hands shook a bit as he lifted the bot
tle to his lips, now, but after dridking
new strength began to surge through
his body and he smiled. He looked
at his watch after a time and then
out into the street. After a time he
rose and walked to the wall telephone,
“Give me Miss Coburn's house, will
you?" he asked the operator. “Hello!
Miss Co— Ah, Dawn! Its Uncle
Nick talking. Want to go to the movie
tonight?"
She seemed to hesitate and he tilted
his head sharply, lips parted. Then
her volce came,
“It's nice of you to think of me, Mr,
3randon. But | don't think I care to
go with you tonight.”
“Oh: sorry,” he sald genlally enough
but his brows gathered. “Another
ime, then”
“Perhaps.”
Her clicked
turned away from the
scowling thoughtfully.
“Mister Brandon, eh? he sald softly,
“And Well I
The last was with a
snap, as though a chapter were closed,
He paced the floor slowly. He was
brooding, planning. and by the look
on his face it was evident that he
planned good for no man , . . except,
possibly Nicholas Brandon,
Perbaps he was thinking of the mat.
ter that was to confront Ben Elliott
within twenty-four hours.
receiver up and he
instrument
No excuse,
word spoken
That young man was lo high feather
as the crew came In to supper. BMs
locomotive had shunted the standard
cars up from Hoot Owl before daylight
and the veneer logs scattered along the
steel had commenced going up at once,
Able had come driving out from
town In midafternoon, Dawn beside
him. and with an added thrill because
of her presence Ben directed the load-
ing of the last car, conscious that the
girl's eyes were often on him with an
expression which belied her apparent
indifference when he tried to engage
her in conversation
It was dark when the jammer man
swnng the last log into place and tog-
gles were made fast. Able and Dawn
rode with Ben in the locomotive as
they trundled down the track to camp.
“You boys have had a long day,”
Ben sald to the engineer and fireman.
“It won't get any darker. You eat
your suppers here and we'll run ‘em
in this evening.”
He turned to Able.
“Our contract calls for delivery In
time to meet the local She's been
coming through a little before eight
in the morning. Want to take no
chance of having this stuff held up
now. That would be a tough break!”
TO BE CONTINUED,
Serbia Always Markets
Brides Through Broker
Many of the younger Serblans wish
elders would abolish the custom of buy-
ing and selling brides, but the older
generation can’t see it that way. And
the authorities are helpless to stop
between the parents involved are car-
ried on In secret by a marriage broker,
called the storinik, and no one ls wiser
until it is settled,
The supporters of the old order
claim they are put to great expense in
rearing their daughters and itisonly
right and fair that the bridegroom
should pay for the added help he thus
wife.
possess it her value is enhanced.
been too poor to pay the price asked
by the girl's parents, he has abducted
out the deep hpmiliation and disgrace
of having a daughter “snatched,” feuds
lasting through generations have In
this way begun.—Pathfinder Magazine.
Foot-Worm Disease
The malady which has been termed
a foot-worm disease, is an Infection of
the feet by a thread-like, white nema-
tode worm known as the onchocera
which sometimes reaches a
length of 10 inches, says the Detroit
News. These parasites are found ex-
tended in the subcutaneous tissues,
and, In advanced stages, colled In
cysts near the surface. Deer afflicted
with this malady usually have inflamed
and swollen feet, are often notably
and in some cases the hoofs may
loosened.
| GREAT FEATS OF
| MEMORY PUT ON
| HISTORIC RECORD
Unless there is something unusu-
| ally difficult in memorizing figures
guickly, the young Serb of Belgrade
| who claims to have set up a world's
record by committing to memory In
ten minutes a number containing
| more than eighty figures does not
seen to have done anything remark-
able. He would at any rate have
ond & formidable rival In James
Milnes Gaskell, a cousin of Lord
Houghton (Monckton Milnes), who
nce repeated the tellers in every
gouse of commons division for the
preceding sixty years and suggested
tn “amusing game” which consisted
in each player giving the name of a
parliamentary borough and the per-
sons who had represented it during
the same sixty years, Gaskell sald
that he and his father once played
at that game nearly a whole day
without stopping. What prodigies of
peen !
Another remarkable feat of mem-
ory is recorded of a soldier
tionary force during the war. He
tlaimed that he could remember the
pame and number of every soldier
in his battalion, and his claim was
gp and all the records were de
stroyed., But the soldier, who is now
a professor at Edinburgh university,
wns as good as his word and sup-
plied the missing detalls.—Montreal
Herald,
Russia Looking Ahead
lussia has recognized Australia,
at least so far as its fauna is con-
cerned, declares the Los Angeles
Times, In years to come the emu
and the kankagoo which adorn the
Australian coat-of-arms may be
hopping around the steppes more
freely than in thelr native land,
where they have been warred on by
generations of sheep and cattle
men because of their appetite for
crops and grass,
As part of the five-year
emus and kangaroos were intro-
duced to Russia, and they have
thrived and multiplied, even In the
cold winters of the Moscow region.
Emu eggs contaln about 600 grams
of nutritious foods and kangaroos
can be eaten, bur their principal
value is In providing shoe leather
plan,
. Pierce's Pellets are best for liver,
bowels and stomach. One little Pellet for
a laxative—three for a cathartic—Ady,
Settled That
“I can't live without your dauzh-
ter, sir.”
“Right: I'll pay for the funeral!”
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