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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 1924)
nnnimmwi:: iinrnmioniimiincmnmimininin wntanimmjj X5he S Ragged Edge by § Harold MacGrath I -- - - ■■iuniiiimMinillllln CHAPTER XI The second call energized her Into action. She dropped the auurascripts and swiftly brought ihe coat to him, noting that a votton hung loose. Later, she twould sew it on. • ’“‘What is it you want?” she Asked, as she held out the ooat. “‘E-old it.under the pillow.” 4 'This she did carefully, but in wardly commenting that he was ■till in the realm of strange fan cies. Wanting his coat, when he must have known that the pockets were empty I But the Effort to talk had cost him some- • hing. The performance over, ho elaxed and closed his eyes- Even as she watched, the sweat of weakness began to form on his forehead and under the nether lip. She wet some absorbent cot ton with alcohol and refreshed his face and neck. This done, ■he waited at the side of the jbed; but he gave no sign that he -{was conscious of her nearness. The poor boy, wanting his fempty coat I The inoident, how ever, caused her to review the irecent events. It was now evi dent that he had not been normal that first day. Perhaps he had bad money in the eoat, back in IJIong-Kong, and had been rob bed without knowing it. Perhaps these few words were the first real conscious words he had ut tered in days. Iiis letter of credit; probably that was it; and, observing the strangeness .of the room he was in, his first concern on returning to con sciousness would naturally relato to his letter of credit. How would be act when he learned that it bad vanished f She gathered up the manu scripts and restored them to the -envelope. This she put into the trunk. She noticed that this trunk was not littered with hotel labels. These little squaros of .coloured paper interested her mightily—hotel labels. She was sfor ever scanning luggage aud ^finding her way about the world, wia these miniature pictures. ILondon, Paris, Rome 1 There were no hotel labels on the ^patient’s trunk, but there were *hip labels; and by theso she was able to reconstruct the journcyi from Now York to biaples, thence to Alexandria; from Port Said to Colombo; from Colombo to Bombay; from Cal cutta to Rangoon, thence down to Singapore; from Singapore to Hong-Kong. The great world outside 1 She stood motionless beside the trunk, deep in speculation; and thus the doctor found her. “Well?" he whispered. “I believe he is conscious." «he answered. “He just asked for his coat, which he wanted tinder his pillow " “Conscious; well, that’s good news. He’ll be able to help ua a little now. I hope that some day lie’ll understand how much he «wes you.” “Oh, that!" she said, with a deprecating gesture. '“Alisa Enschede, you’re seven kinds of a brick I" “A brick?" He chuckled. “I forgot. That’s alang, meaning you’re splendid." “I begin to see that I shall have to learn English all over again." “You have always spoken it?" “Yes; except for some native. I wasn’t taught that; I simply fell into it from contact." “I see. So he’a come around, then? That’s fine." He approached the bed and laid his palm on the patient’s forehead, and nodded. Then he took the pulse. i "‘He will pull through?" ““Positively. But the big job for vou is yet to come. When he Jbeguis to notice things, I want you to trap his interest, to amuse aim, keep his thoughts from re verting to his misfortunes ’’ "‘Then he haa been unfortun ate!” t* “That’s natent enough. He’s rhad a hard knock somewhere; wand un^il he is strong enough to SraDt, we must keep his interest •way from that thought After that we’ll go our several ways.” “What makes you think hg has had a hard knock t” “I’m a doctor, young lady.” “You’re fine, too. I doubt if you will receive anything for your trouble.” “Oh, yes I will. The satisfac tion of oheating Death again. You’ve been a great help these five days ; for he had to have at tendance constantly, and neither Wu nor I could have given that. And yet, when you offered to help, it was what is to come that I had in mind.” “To make him forget the knockt” “Precisely. I’m going to be frank; wo must have a olear understanding. Can you afford to give this timet There are your own affairs to think of.” 4 4 There's no hurry. '* “And moneyt” “I’ll have plenty, if I'm care ful.” 4 4 It has done me a whole lot of good to meet you. Over here a man quickly loses faith, and I find myself baok on solid ground once more. Is there anything you’d like!” 44Books.’* ' ; ;• “Whatkindt” ■ i “Dickens, Hugo.” “I’ll bring you an armful this afternoon. I've a lot of old maga zines, too. There are a thousand questions I’d like to ask you, but I sha’n’t ask them.” “Ask them, all of them, and I will gladly answer. I mystify you; I can see that. Well, when ever you say, I promise to do away with the mystery.” “All right. 4’ll call for you this afternoon when Wu is on. I’ll show you the Sha-mien; and we can talk all we want.” 4 41 was never going to tell any body,” she added. “But you are a good man, and you’ll understand. I believed I was strong enough to go in silence; but I’m human like everybody ! else. To tell someone who is kind and who will understand!” “There, there!” he said. There was a hint of tears in her voien. “That’s all right. We’ll get to gether this afternoon; and you can pretend that I am your father.” “No! I have run away from my father- I shall never go back to him; never, never!” Distressed, embarrassed be yond measure by this unexpected tragic revelation, the doctor puttered about among the bottles on the stand. “We’re forgetting,” he said. “We mustn’t disturb the patient. I’ll call for you after lunch.” “I’m sorry.” She began to prepare the room for Wu’s coming, while the doc tor went downstairs. As he was leaving the hotel, Ah Cum stepped up to his side. “How is Mr Tabor?” “Regained consciousness this morning.” Ah Cum nodded. “That is good,” i ou are interested 7 “In a way, naturally. We are both graduates of Yale.” ‘ “ Ah ! Did he tell you anything about himself 7“ “Aside from that, no. When will he be up 7” “That depends. Perhaps in two or three weeks. Did he talk a little when yen took him into the city 7M “No. He appeared to be strange ly uncommunicative, though I tried to draw him out. He. spoke only when he saw the sing-song girl he wanted to buy.” “Why didn’t you head him off, explain that it couldn’t be done by a white man 7” Ah Cum shrugged. “You are a physician; you know the va garies of men in liquor. He was a stranger. I did not know how he would act if I obstructed him.” “We found all his pockets empty.” “Then they were empty whei> he left,” replied Ah Cum, with dignity. “I was only commenting. Did he acted to you that day as if he knew what he was doing f” “Not all of the time.” “A queer ease;” and the deo tor passed on. Ah Cum made a movement as though to follow, but reconsider ed. The word of a Chinaman; he had given it, so he must abide. There was now no honest way of warning Taber that the net had been drawn. Of course, it was ridiculous, this inclination to assist the fugitive, based as it was upon an intangible university idea- And yet, mulling it over, he began to understand why the white man was so powerful in the world: he was taught loyalty and fair play in his schools, and he carried this spirit into the world which his forebears had conquered. Suddenly Ah Cum laughed aloud. He, a Chinaman- troubling himself over Occidental ideas l With his hands in his sleeves, he proceeded on his way. Huth and the doctor returned to the hotel at four. There was an air of repressed gaiety in he * actions: the sense >ct freedom had returned ; her heart was empty again. The burden of de cision had been transferred. And because he knew it was a burden, there was no gaiffty upon the doctor’s face; neither was there speech on his tongne. He knew hot how to sot, urged as he wa4 ih two dlreotiou. It would be useless to tell her to go back, even heartless; and yet he could hot advise her to go on, blindly, not knowing whether her aunt was dead or alive. He Was also aware lhat all his arguments would shatter themselves against her resolutions. There was a strange quality of steel in this pretty creature. He understood now that it was a part of her in heritance. The father would be all steel. One point in her narra tive stood out beyohd all others. To an unthinking mind the dpi sode would be ordinary, trivial; but to the doctor, who had had plenty of time to think during his sojourn in China, it was basio of the child’s unhappiness. A dozen words, and he saw En schede as clearly as though he stood hard by in the flesh. To preach a fine sermon every Sunday so that he would lose neither the art nor the impulse; and this child, in secret rebellion, taking it down in long hand dur ing odd hours in the weekl Preaching grandiloquently be fore a few score natives who understood little beyond the gestures, for the single purpose of warding off disintegration 1 It reminded the doctor of a stub born retreat; from barricade tc barricade, grimly fighting to keep the enemy at bay, that in sidious enemy of the white mae in the South Seas—inertia. The drunken beachcombers; the one-sided education; the ut ter loneliness of a white child without playfellows, human or animals, without fairy stories, who for days was left alone while the father visited neigh bouring islands, these pictures sank far below their actual im portance- He would always see the picture of the huge, raw boned Dutchman, haranguing and thundering the word of God into the dull ears of South Sea Islanders, who, an hour later would be carrying fruit penitent ly to their wooden images. He now understood her in terest in Taber, as he called him self :habit, a twice-told tale. A beachcomber in embryo- and she had lent a hand through habit as much as through pity. The grim mockery of it!—those South Sea loafers, taking advantage of Enschede’s Christianity and im posing upon him, accepting his money and medicines and laugh ing behind his back! No doubt they made the name a byword and a subject for ribald jest in the waterfront bars. And this clear-visioned child had compre hended that only half the rogues were really ill. But Enschede took them as they came, without question. Charity for the ragtag and the bobtail of the Seven Seas- and none for his own flesh and blood This started a thought moving. There must be something behind the missioner’s actions, some thing of which the girl knew nothing nor suspected. It would not be possible otherwise to live in daily contact with this level eyed, lovely girl without loving her. Something with iron resolve the father had kept hidden all these years in the lonely citadel of his heart. Teaching the word of God to the recent cannibal, oaring for the sick, storming the strongholds of the plague, adding his own private income to the pittance allowed him by the So ciety, and never seeing the angel that walked at h'a sidej $e*a3 thing the girl knsw nothin* about; else Enschede was un believable. It now came to him with an added thrill how well she had told her story; simply and di reotly, no skipping, no wander ing hither and yon: from the first hour she could remember, to the night sha had fled in the proa, a clear sustained narrative. And through it all, like a golden thread on a piece of tapestry, weaving in and out of the pat terns- the unspoken longing for love. "Well,” she said, as they reached the hotel portal, "what is your advice!” “Would you follow it!” "Probably not. Still, I am curious- ’ ’ "I do not say that what you have done is wrong in any sense. I do not blame you for the act. There are human limitations, and no doubt you reached yours. For all that, it is folly. If you knew your aunt were alive, if she ex pected you, that would be dif ferent. But to plunge blindly into the unknown!” "I had to! I had to!” She had told him only thi first part of her story. She wondered if the second part would overcome his objections! Several tiines the words had rushed to her tongue, to find her tongue paralysed. To a woman she might have confided j but to this man, kindly as he was, it was unthinkable. How could she tell him of the evil that drew her and drew her, as a needle to the magnet!—the fascinating evil that even now, escaped as it was, went on distill ing its poison in her mind! "Yes- yes!” said the doctor. "But if you do not find this aunt, what will you do! What can you do to proteot yourself against hunger!” "I’ll find something.” "But warn the aunt, prepare her, if she lives.” “And have her warn my father 1 No. If I surprised her, if I saw her alone, I might make her^understand.’ ’ He shook his head. “There’s only one way out of the muddle, that I can see.” “And what is that!” ‘ * I have relatives not far from * Hartford- I may prevail upon them to take you in until you are full-fledged, providing you do (*TO feB CONTINUED) Beyond Endurance. From Judge. "So you’re goln' t’ break It off with th' college boy, Mamel How comer "No tact, dearie. All th’ time he Insists on slttin’ around talkin’ about Themlstocles and Atlantis and Cath erine II, when ha knows how low I think horse racing la!'' One of the wortd’a longest, trans mission spans measuring 4,317 feet, swings across Cheat rtver In West Vir ginia. _ _ _ Vacation Remarks. From Life. "Kenneth, you have been In that water long enough.” "Oh no! We never have hay fever up here. This la Just a coryza!” “Would you mind putting a grass hopper on this hook?’’ "No ma’am this lake ain’t never been fathomed.” "Do you suppose those berries were poison?” “Our guide said 1 was a born rider— and I never sat on a horse before!” "How often do the geysers go off?” "Oh, are you from Kansas? I won der If you knoW^my cousin out there!” “Our party was the only one that saw any elk. The guide said it was very unusual.” “There—you moved, and that was my last film!” “My, them mountains sure do look grand!’ <*sJi “Did anybody see me pick It?” "They call It ten miles but the guide says it's at least twenty-five.” “That’s the best dance I’ve had this evening.” “Yes, I think I’ve met you some where before.” “W611, ‘jiggers’ or ‘chigers,’ I’ve got ’em!” "Somebody please rub some cold cream on my back!" "I like it because you don’t have to dress up.” “If I ever get back to civilization.” > ' ^ ' . ' ' ~ It’s Warmer Down Below. From the Kansas City Star. One of the deepest holes In the earth Is a boring made In the hope of striking oil near Carnavon, South Africa. It was carried down to a depth of 6,080 feet below the surfaoe of the land, whioh itself was some 8,200 feet above the sea. Water now Stands In the hole to within 82 feet of the surfkoe, but thermometers have been lowered down to 4,912 feet and temperature observed. At the lowest level the temperature is 167 degrees Fahrenheit, or as high as that of scalding water. At 65 feet depth temperature Is 78 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year. Above that level there Is some dif ference, due to the seasons. The rate of increase of temperature de clines as the depth increases. In the deepest hole in the earth, the San Juan Del Ray mine in Brazil, the rock temperature Is 117 degrees at a depth of 8,726 feet below the surface. The Measure of His Wetness. From an English Newspaper. At a party In London, one of the guests became hilariously Intoxicated ahd an American was heard to re mark In plctufesqhe idiom: "That guy Is so -wet that If the Wind was te View. tills: minus* ijXjippla. i i The Akrvtfms $ “How will we ever get the Zuni ga® out of your cunning little cot tage. Mrs. Mingle, so that you can go back and live In It?" Raggedy Ann asked. She and Raggedy Andy and Mrs. Mingle were sitting upon a stone, a very hard one out In front of Mrs, Mlngle's cottage. “The Zumzee has no right to walk Into my house Just as we were about to sit down to breakfast I” Mrs. Mingle said. “ndeed! He hasn’t!" Raggedy Ann agreed. » would have wrestled him,’’ Raggedy Andy said, “but the Zum see is so large he easily pushed all of us right out of ths house! And now that he has all the doors locked we cannot get back Inside." “And now the Zumzee has eaten all the breakfast and has gone to sleep with his muddy feet right on Mrs. Mlngle’s nice clean white bed!" Raggedy Ann said after sne had run over and peeked Into a window. "And I am getting hungrier and hungrier and hungrier every min ute!" Mrs. Mingle sighed. But there was nothing the Rag gedys could do, so they just sat up on the hard stone beside Mrs. Min gle and felt sorry. But pretty soon Mrs. Mingle criea, “Listen! What Is that racket in side my nice little oottage?” Indeed, there was a loud racket Inside Mrs. Mlngle’s house. Like this “Bang! Crash! BUMP! BANG!” only a great deal louder. “Maybe the Zumaae ate so much it made his tummy ache and ha Is Jumping about and breaking up the furniture!" Raggedy Andy said. “Oh, no. it couldn’t be that!" Mrs. Mingle replied, “All the food was raagio food and would never give anything the tummy ache!’’ “Then It Is something else!” Rag gedy Andy said. “Wowt" the loud voice of the Zumzee howled from Inside the house, “Ouch! Wowle! Ouch!” then there were a lot more loud "BANG BANGS and CRASH CRASHES!" “Why!” Raggedy Ann said, "I can hear the Zumzee running from one room to another and something seems to be after him!" “I’ll bet a nickel the Zumzee hag found the magical hobby horse and The Raggedy® Sat Upon the * Hard 8tone. has tried to throw him out of the bouse!" Raggedy Andy suggested. The howls of the Zumzee, the crashing and thumping of something could be heard for a long way out Bide Mrs. Mlngle’s little house until finally the front door was broken right off of Its hinges and the Zum tee came rolling out, head over heels and right behind him came the magical hobby horse thumping the Zumzee as hard as he could. "Now will you ever do it again?" the magical hobby horse cried ag he thumped the Zumzee so hard tn* Zumzee went sailing Into the bushes kith a crash. wnen tne magical hobby horse saw that the Zumzee was running away, he came up to Mrs. Mingle and the Raggedys, “My goodness!" he said, “I thought when I saw the ! Zumzee throw all of you out of the house that he was very strong, but the very first time that I kicked him with my wooden legs, the Zum zee howled as If he was frightened, so I kept kicking him and thumping him until he ran and jumped right through the front door!" Mrs. Min gle, with her magic charm soon put tho house In order again and in three minutes, she and the Rag gedys and the wooden hobby horse were enjoying their breakfast, brought from Mrs. Mingles magical cupboards. "Thank you nice magical hobby horse for thumping the Zumzee and driving him out of my little cottage!” Mrs. Mingle said as she tied a nap kin around the hobby horse's neck so that he wouldn’t spill maple syrup In his lap at the breakfast table. “I am very glad that I could drive the Zumzee out of your house after he had pushed you and Raggedy Arn and ftaggedy Andy outside to sit up on the cold hard stone." “Yes," Mrs. Mingle continued as she put a large plate of pan cakes In front of the hobby horse. “If It bad not been for you the Zumzee would still be In the house and I guess I would have had to hunt a new home!” When the magical hobbv horse had eaten eleventeen plates of pan cakes and the others had all the pan cakes they wished, Mrs. Mingle said, "Now we will sit out on the front porch and have (home Ice cream sodas! No one stwjkld ever eat ice cream sodas before breakfast, but Immediately af ter breakfast they are nice to have If they are real for sure magical Ice cream sodas!" So Mrs. Mingle brought out the Ice cream sodas and she and the hobby horse and the Raggedys had just started eating the soaas when there came the Zumzee running up to the house; and with him another strange looking creature. uvm the Thlagum," the new ere* ture cried, "And the Zumzee says Chat the hobby horse thumped him right out of his own house!" "Why! The Zumzee is telling a great big fib!" the hobby horse said. “Didn’t you thump the Zumzee?" the Thingum asked the hobby horsa. “Oh yes!” the hobby horse truthfully replied, "But I did not thump hnn right out of his own house! Did I?" The Thingum Thumped the Zumzefe Upon the Beck. he asked Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Mrs. Mingle. "Indeed! This is not the Zumzee'* house!” Mrs. Mingle told the Thing um. ‘‘The Zumzee came walking In Just as we were about to have break fast and sat down at the table and ate everything up. Then he pushed us out of the house and locked the doors! But the brave hobby horse was inside and he thumped the Zum zee with his head and kicked him with his weoden legs until the Zum zee howled and jumped right through the front door!” "Why! The idea!” Thingum said. “Why did you tell me such a Mg fib. Mr. Zumzee, don’t you know it is wrong to tell ’stories?' ** “Anyway! This is going to be my house because it has a lot of maglo cupboards in It so that If you wish anything to eat, all you have to do is to reach in the cupboards and get it! So I guess I will push everyone off the porch and go inside and lock the doors!" “And I just guess you will do noth ing of the kind!” the Thingum said as he took a short stick from h!s •-< pocket and thumped the Zumzee upon the back. “There’s one for telling ne a fib and there’s another thump for being so impolite to nice Mrs. Mingle ! and there’s another for making me thump you as I have done and there’s another thump to keep the other thumps company!” And at each thump with the short stick, the Zumsee howled “Ouch!*' and hopped ten feet, but as soon as he hit tho ground the Thingum gave him another until he was a long way from Mrs. Mingle's nice house. “Now! I guess he will know bet ter!” the Thingum said as he came back and took the glass of Ice cream soda Mrs. Mingle handed him. “Anyway Zumzees are a nuisance and I hope he never bothers you I again. Mrs. Mingle!’’ And the Rag gedys and Mrs. Mingle hoped so tor .. * , i, Wanted—A Word. Speaking of words, there Is noth ing more curious In a study of Wichita signs than the Inability of English speaking people to hit upon a short and simple word to describe a place where one can eat a meal, England has no better luck than America in this. An Inn was all right in its day and so was a tavern, but neither word describes the place de voted singly to the service of meals. So England has done what America has done, taken from the French, cafe and restaurant. But cafe or cafeteria, describing a single Item irt a meal, Isn’t satisfactory and the un gainly restaurant Is too long and, promising in its meaning bodily res toration, is not happily descriptive. This part of the world long ag» contributed "parlor,” as In “chill par lor.” But such a place is not a par lor. A later contribution was “stand.” as In a “lunch stand,” whore no one actually stands. Another was "eat ing place.” The place doesn’t eat. Wichita has. In recent times, added another word, “castle.” as In “ham burger castle.” But “castle” doesn't fit. The slang “beanery” Is impos sible. All this Indicates a curious lingual lneapacity. What’s the matter with the race which found a word for home, another for bed, another for chair, others for street, store, station, car, but flunked flabbily and still flunks in finding a word for the place which interrupts all of humanity at least once a day, and a goodly portion of it three times a day? Death, The Wind. Death, like a wind, shall come some day— Come to my threshold, where I stay And work so hard at little things. Death, like a wind, shall come some day And blow the clutter of things away. Then across my threshold clear, < I shall walk straight out with a tear. Just one—or—two—or, maybe three For the email white house that shelters me. A tear for the fire and hearth and all. And one for the flowers by the ter race wall. The rest of my loves I carry with me When Death, like a wind, sweeps the doorstone free. Oh, Death, like a wind, shall com* some day And blow the clutter of things away. I shall walk straight out to the mountain high, To the tallest peak, where the big clouds He. I shall lay my hands against the sky When Death, like a wind, has come that day And blown the clutter of thing* away. —Marion Bullard, In Harper’* Magazine.