THE DESERT MOON MYSTERY BY KAY CLEAVER STRAHAN CHAPTER XXXVIII Lynn MacDonald On Friday afternoon, late, I went with John and Sam down to Raitafl to meet the train. When It came thundering, anortlog op, I thought of the last time that Sam and. I had met a train together, and of hoar oar entire world had changed hi the two months. Was it going to keep on chang ing. I wandered. I could not bear to took into the past; 1 found that I did not dare to try to think into the future. Just before the train •topped, with its usual roar of pretest against Rattail, Clarence Pette swung off it. He came over to us with a timid air. Tike an animal just learning to eat out of a per son's band. He took no risks, anti! Sam had greeted him, real pleasantly, and politely. Mis MacDonald is on this train." he said to Sam and me. “£* there anything else I can do tar you?” “Holm thing, If you are positive that she is Miss Mac Donald, except to take your fifty—here it is—and va moose." 24 pleasant, but there was some thing brisk and crisp about it. and about all of her, that seemed to say plenty and plenty of time for everything, but not one precious minute to waste. In the background, during this meeting, John and Danny had been hugging and kissing. ! as if the rolling train right l behind them, filled with star ing people, were a peaceful, flowing river, and the people fishes that were swimming past. At last, to my relief, they came over to join us; Danny, looking paler and more snuffed out than usual, by contrast, maybe, with Miss MacDonald; John beaming with triumph at having her home again, “But,” Danny said, after Sam had Introduced her to Miss MacDonald, and had ex plained why Miss MacDonald had come, “you didn’t tell me that you were coming here.” “You girls get acquainted on the train?” Sam asked. “We had breakfast together in the diner this morning,” Miss MacDonald answered. “Did you know who I was?" Danny questioned. “It was my business to know that, wasn’t it?” Miss Mac Donald smiled. “Only—why didn’t you tell me?” Danny persisted. *Tin positive. Thanks. Here the comes now.” I looked np to see her com ing. I could hardly believe my eyes. I don’t know what I had expected; but I surely had not exported anything to get off that smoke-dirty train, in the middle of a Nevada desert, on • sweltering hot July evening, that looked as she did. In the first place, in her pongee silk dress with coat to match, and perky little green bat, she looked as if she had been fresh picked, in the last nice California garden, and had been kept under glass, on Ice ever since. But that was only » part of it. She looked, loo. like linen sheets feel, at Ihe raid of a long hard day; •heels that have been hand washed, and sun-dried, and dew-dampened, and Ironed •mouth fts satin. She looked like very early on a September morning, in our mountains— Ihst was tiie zip and the zest of her, combined with her comforting freshness and cleanness. She was tall; taller than most women, and with weight enough to look durable and nseful, but not a mite fat. She had eyes that were as gray as pussywillows, and that did no monkey-tricks of changing to green or blue; she had wavy carrot-colored hair, that was so fun of life it looked as if it were trying to break Ihe bonds of Us neat, boyish bob and go floating off, on its own, to make maybe a tiny sunset d lud. Her nose was small; her m mth was a mite too large, •> owing freely in a smile her ioeth. ✓little and polished, waite. like a puppy’s. "I don’t wonder tnat yau ask,” Miss MacDonald said. “And I hope that you will for give me for seeming unfriend ly, secretive. It is, simply, that I never want try first history of the case to come from the nearest relatives. Of course they feel too deeply to see clearly. Mistaken impressions are so hard to eradicate, that I go to any lengths to avoid them. If I had made myself known this morning, Miss Canneziano, I should have had to seem more rude and ungracious than I seemed by acting as I did. Because, please,” she included all of us in her glance, “I have to ask each of you not to talk to me about the case. I should have to refuse to listen. When I need to know anything about it—I shall need to know many j things—I’ll ask it, as a direct i question. Until I ask for more, j from you, if you will do that, 1 i simply answer my questions, ( you will help me immeasur ably.” “That’s easy,” Sam said. “I am afraid,” she answered, “that it won’t be easy. And I have to make another request that won’t be easy to fulfill, ; either. It is, that no one will question me. I am sorry to have to ask that. I am afraid that it seems as if I were try ing to surround myself with a glamour of mystery—pre tending to false wisdoms and acumens—” “Not a bit of it,” Sam inter rupted. “ ‘He travels the fastest who travels alone.’ ” “I have always questioned that,” she said. "At any rate, I don’t intend to travel all alone.” “You mean you are going to take a few days to size us up, and then get some of us to help you?” Sam asked. "Question number one,” she said, and laughe'd, too. cunting suai^iv xikjiii • Francisco, she used no visible cosmetics; which is much the same as If I had said, rising out of the Pacific Ocean, she was as dry as a chip. But you could no more imagine Lynn MacDonald stopping anything, much less herself, to peer at her freckled nose in a vanity easels mirror, than you could .Imagine a baseball player atopplng between first and second base to take his tem pera to re with a clinical ther mometer. AO of this general satls factortness, coming through the alkali dust and offering to shake hands with a person, was, I might say, disarming. Mv impulses were all mixed. I felt like putting my old. muddled head down on that nice high chest of hers and having a right good cry. And yet, J felt for the first time In days, like a broad grin. I managed it, and forewent the other. Her voice was low and UilAt'J.tK AAA1A A Trap We had got into the sedan, by this time, and were riding along the Victory Highway. I declare to goodness, a sound that was pretty much like a ripple of giggles went tittering around. It did us good, every last one of us. It was antisep tic, as laughs so often are. Just as I was thinking how much more wholesome everything felt, since I had shaken hands with Miss MacDonald, Danny who was riding in the front seat beside John, spoiled it all by emitting a shriek; it was not a very loud one, but it Corporation Farming. Pmm The fled field (S. D.) Journal Observer. A professor at State college Ins snaked out a plan for the industry of agriculture which seems to us to yotat some of the basic and inher ent reasons for the condition of the indtaatry as a whole and which wnild make an experiment worth out somewhere. He would aO the farmers in nine sec itows toto one giant corporation is suing stuck to each farmer to the catoe of his farm. Tlte first and rent drastic saving which this plan vtoid rffect, he says, is the con xredretlon of farm buildings ar.d lead tots It would shminat* the duplication of a lot of equipment and afford more specialized tvpes of buildings. A second primary auvantage would be In the corporation’s abil ity to hire managerial brains of the first order as do the industrial firms oi the east. Under the man ager would be specialists in feeding and breeding cattle, in small grains, in dairying, in poultry. As far as possible those farmers who on their own farms had shown special apti tudes would be allowed to exercise them on the corporation farm. A third advantage would be in the use and care of farm machin ery. The average small farm must have a large Investment In ma « was tnicK with norror and re pulsion. John talked to her for a minute or two in a low voice, and then explained, over his shoulder to us, that he had told her about “that man” be ing on the ranch. “Uncle Sam,” Danny pleaded, "do I have to see him?” -Well, Danny,” Sam apolo gized, “I’m right dov/n sorry about it; but, you see, he is staying on the place. We’ll keep him out of your way as much as we can.” “Why can’t he stay, if he has to stay at all, down at the outfit’s quarters?” Danny asked. “We’ll see what Miss Mac Donald says. I kind of thought, maybe, she’d like to have him where she could keep an eye on him. I kind of wanted, myself, to keep an eye on him.” Danny put her head on John’s shoulder and began to cry; weak, choking little sobs that hurt like having to watch a sick baby. “Poor little thing,” Miss MacDonald said to me, her voice lowered and rich with sympathy. I thought she would ask me what the trouble was, and who the man was that was causing it. Instead, still speaking low, to me, she said, “So often I get completely at odds with my profession. And then I hear some woman crying like that, or something else as heart breaking comes to me, and I know that I am justified. Not because I shall discover this criminal. That won’t help this little girl, greatly; but because I am one of an army that is fighting crime.” I didn’t say it, but I felt like telling her that she seemed like a whole army herself—an army with banners. I leaned forward and tried to soothe Danny; told her that we would all do what we could to keep him away from her, and to make it easy for her. “It can’t be made easy,” she answered. “You can’4; keep him away from me. I won’t see him, I tell you. I’ve been so homesick—and now to come to this. I can’t see him. I won’t—” Miss MacDonald, who the minute before, had seemed all pity for Danny, began, sudden ly, to talk right through and over her sobs, to Sam; to talk in rather a loud voice about stock raising, paying no more attention to Danny’s troubles than she paid to the humming of the motor. I sat ana suixea ana nursea my disappointment. If I had been a man—which praise the Lord I am not—it would have been a case of love at first sight with me toward Lynn MacDonald. But now I told myself bitterly that I had been a fool to expect real womanly sympathy and kindnesses from a person in her profession. Ferreting out criminals would make anyone as hard as nails. I was right, in a way. That was not the last time I was to see her turn, suddenly, from a sympathetic woman into a crime analyst. It was sort of a pity, though, that I had to see that side of her so soon; so long before I could begin to understand it. Not until Danny had quieted down, and had turned to us with stammered apologies and attempted explanations, did Miss MacDonald ask, “Who is this man?” “Dreadful as it must seem to you,” Danny answered, “ he is my father. But he has brought sorrow, and fear and trouble to my mother, and to my sister, and to me, whenever he came near us. He is a wicked man.” “Wouldn’t it be possible,” Miss MacDonald turned to Sam, “to have someone go ahead of us to the house, and ask him to keep to his room, this evening?” “Well—” Sam hesitated. "But Danny will have to meet him, sooner or later.” “Better later, in this case, I should say. She will be rested ! to-morrow. Possibly, too, it would be easier for her if their chinery which for the greater part of thi year stands idle. On the cor poration farm these would De util ized a maximum amount of time thus malting a relatively smaller in vestment for machinery. Specialist* in the care of machinery would cer tainly be found among the 25 farm ers who on the average now inhabit nine square miles. The state college professor of course, recognizes that there is no panacea for any industry. And in agriculture in particular no group of farmers can band themselves to gether to bring rain when it is needed or consume a world surplus of such basic products as wheat Eves so we believe that much may i iir.n meeting couid oe m private. Shouldn't you rather see him alone, Just at first. Miss Canneziano?” “Oh, no!” Danny exclaimed “I hope I need never see him alone. Please—don’t any ol you ever leave me alone with him, not for a minute, if you can help it.” For all the fuss she hac made about it, I will say that Danny did very well when wr all went into the house ant* she saw Canneziano, standing over by the east windows smoking a cigarette. “What ho, Dan,” he saic smiling his smooth, -mirking smile at her. “You are looking seedy. Bad times around here lately.” She didn’t go near him. Shr edged closer to John; but sht answered, looking at hiir straight and lifting her chin in a pretty, dignified way sht had, “Very, very bad times in deed.” She and John walked through the room to the stair way, and up the steps, and oul of sight. Canneziano stood watching them, a dark, ugly look on his face. “There’s filial affection for you,” he said. And then with a half laugh, as he li; another cigarette, and shook the flame from the match “The girl is a fool.” CHAPTER XL The Missing Box Miss MacDonald came dowi, to breakfast in the morning trim and white as a new candle. She ate heartily, com plimenting the food. She askec atfer Danny, who had not come down for breakfast. She talked about how splendidly the high altitude and the mar velous Nevada air made hei feel. She told us, who had lived here all our lives and didn’t know it, that the air ir Nevada was supposed to bt the best in the entire United States for growing things. And all the time, she was either not noticing, or pretending not tc notice, how we were all hang ing on her every word, and watching her every movement I guessed the others were doing as I was doing; watching for penetrating glances, and listening for catches in hei innocent questions. But, at that, I blushed for them; par ticularly for John, who sat and stared at her as if she were something he had tc learn by heart, before the meal was over. She caught him al it, several times; but, though he would then have the grace to blush, and go glancing about, he’d begin again, at the beginning, the minute she looked away. When we had finall> finished breakfast, she askec Sam if she might detain him I stayed on, when the others had left the dining-room. She said pointedly, though politelj and to Sam, not to me, that she wanted to speak to hiir ! alone. 1 LOOK inyatrii un. uuu open window in the pass pan try was too big a temptation: so I went in there, softly, and stood far back and to one side Her very first words took mt right off my feet. “Mr. Stan ley,” she questioned, “do yot trust your housekeeper?” “Mary?” Sam drawled "Well, now,, I don’t know ai to trusting—” I don’t know how to exprest what my feelings were when I heard Sam say that. Pulver ized is a word that would edge it, I guess—as if I had beer caught in a sausage machine and ground up into small pieces, each one hurting or its own hook. “But,” Sam continued, “il Mary were going on a long journey, to indefinite foreigr parts, and felt the need of m> right eye to take along witt her, I’d loan it to her for a? long as she wanted it—nc questions asked. I can’t sa> that I’d go much further thar that, though.” I was whole again, ano warm and glowing. Sam, the old ninny, getting his dandei up, and to a beautiful woman like that, just because she had asked him a simple question (TO B* CONTINUED) be done co-operauveiy n ■ lure that Is now done individually and at cross purposes. The larmei is proud of his independence and individualism and rightly so. Yet we believe that he will come to be iust as proud of his ability to work together where that course seems to'be the better one^_ Portland. Ore.—(UP)—The bridt whow as left waiting at the church couldn't be much more chagrined than Miss Ethel Maranay. 19 year! i old. who reported to police that a thief entered her apartment and stole her wedding dress a few days before she was to be married. Restoring Exhausted Soil Prof, S. Krnvkov, a Russian soil Scientist, told his colleagues at tlie j second international congress of soil science at Leningrad that lie Iws do- | veloped a method fo( restoring fer tility to apparently exhausted soils j without tlie use *■( fertilizers. It j consists of keeping tlie soil to he | treated under optimum physical eon- , ditions, especially ns regards tem perature. moisture and aeration, while (lie natural rnlerohiolie (topti lation builds itself up and capture* nitrogen front t lie air. Professor Kravkov stated that lie had increased tlie nitrogen content of ••podsol," a poor gray soil, found in certain for est lands, approximately tenfold by his method. Perfect dyeing so easily done!! DIAMOND DYES contain tho highest quality anilines money can buy! 'fhat's why they give such true, bright, new colors to dresses, drapes, lingerie. The anilines in Diamond Dyna make Ahem so easy to use. No ■polling or streaking. Just clear, even colors, that hold through wear and washing. Diamond Dyes never give things that re-dyed look. They are just 15c at all drug stores. When per fect dyeing costs no more—is so easy—why experiment with make shifts? 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