Nebraska Newspapers

    B^ALAN Lt MAY
W. N.U. Release
• a
Dusty King and Lew Gordon had built
op a vast string of ranches. King was
killed by his powerful and unscrupulous
competitor, Ben Thorpe. Bill Roper,
King's adopted son, was determined to
avenge his death In spite of the opposi
INSTALLMENT 16
THE STORY SO FAR:
tlon of his sweetheart. Jody Gordon, and
her father. After breaking Thorpe In
Texas. Roper conducted a great raid
upon Thorpe's vast herds In Montana.
Jody was captured by seven of Thorpe’s
men. Roper and Shoshone Wllce res
cued her In a surprise attack. Sho
shone and Jody rode to a prearranged
spot, but Roper was captured while
fighting a rear guard action. While
watting for Roper to meet them. Jody
saw Shoshone fall down. dead.
CHAPTER XXII
We’re making a big mistake, not
to hang him and be done with it,”
Bed Kane said.
They were two days from Fork
Creek now. This long and narrow
room, which Jim Leathers paced so
restlessly, was the kitchen of the
main house at Walk Lasham’s south
west camp—a convenient stop-over
on the way to Sundance, where Rop
er was to be turned over to Ben
Thorpe.
“The quicker we hang him, the
better we’ll be off,” Red Kane said
again.
Wearily, doggedly, Jim Leathers
rolled a cigarette. He took his time
about replying. "Seems like you al
ready said that once before.”
“I’m liable to keep on saying it,”
Red Kane told him. “Things is dif
ferent now.”
In the doorway, behind the two
men who watched Bill Roper, a girl
now appeared, a slim, full-breasted
girl, whose dark, slanting eyes had
sometimes troubled Bill Roper be
fore now.
He had not been surprised to find
Marquita here in Walk Lasham’s
southwest cow camp, to which his
captors had brought him. He had
guessed, when he had last talked to
her in Miles City, that she was Walk
Lasham’s girl; and in spite of her
expressed eagerness to leave Lash
air. and ride with Roper, he real
ized that Marquita still had to live
in some way.
Girls of her stamp could not af
ford to throw down such a man as
Lasham, until more interesting op
portunities offered.
Her face was impassive now, but
one of the slanting dark eyes nar
rowed in a definite signal to Roper.
The combination of Spanish and In
dian blood in this girl from the Tex
border gave her a lithe, lazy grace,
and a haunting depth of dark eyes;
and the same blood made her un
accountable—sometimes stoic and
smouldering, sometimes livened by
the lightning flashes of an inner fire.
Undoubtedly she was capable of a
passionate devotion, and an equally
passionate cruelty. Anything could
happen in a situation which included
Marquita—with Marquita in love.
For a moment Bill Roper resented
. the fact that he couldn’t be interest
* ed in any girl except Jody Gordon—
a girl who didn't want him or need
him. All the worst aspects of his
own situation were apparent to him,
then. He was an outlaw wanted
the length of the Trail; probably
would be an outlaw all the rest of
his life, which gave every promise
of being a short one. That even
Marquita wanted him, or had any
use for him, was a gift which he
should have been glad to accept.
What he had to think of now, though,
was that Marquita was extremely
likely to precipitate a lot of imme
diate disturbance.
Troubled, he wished to shake his
head, or in some other way caution
her that she must make no attempt
to interfere. Roper had no inten
tion of ever coming into the hands
of Ben Thorpe alive. Somewhere
between this place and Sundance,
where Thorpe waited, he would make
his play, however slim the chance.
Yet he would rather take his
chances with some unforeseen op
portunity later, when they were
again on the trail, than to be plunged
into some helpfully intended situa
tion which the girl might devise—
with danger to herself and question
able advantage to him. She had
never brought him any luck.
He was unable, however, with the
eyes of his two enemies upon him,
^ to signal her in any way.
“Ben wanted him alive, if I could
get him,” Jim Leathers said stub
bornly. “Well, I got him alive, and
I aim to keep him that way. You
bums ain’t going to talk me into
anything different just because you
figure a dead man is easier to
pack.”
Bill Roper listened sardonically.
In the two days spent in traveling
from Fork Creek rendezvous, the
scalp wound which had brought him
down had nearly healed; but when
he laced his fingers behind his head
he winced and dropped his hands
again.
It was typical of the quality of his
captors that his hands were not tied
or manacled. They told him where
to sit and they made him stay put,
and they were careful that no #p
portunity was given him to snatch a
gun from an unwary holster; but
these were merely the routine pre
cautions of sensible men. For these
riders were the picked gunfighters
of Ben Thorpe’s scores of outfits.
They did not fear Roper, would not
have feared him had he been armed.
Bill Roper had no doubt that Red
Kane and perhaps one or two of
the others would kill a doomed pris
oner for no more reason than Jim
Leathers had suggested.
The Lasham camp had been boil
ing with news as Jim Leathers’ men
had ridden in at dusk with their
prisoner. Much had happened on
the range while Leathers had waited
out Bill Roper at the Fork Creek
camp. The news that had reached
►
• •
Lasham’s southwest camp was bro
ken, and seemed to have been little
understood by the men who had
brought it; but Roper, with his in
side knowledge of the force he had
turned loose against Lasham. could
piece together its meaning well
enough. Lasham's southwest out
post, with its big herds of picked
cattle wintering in this deepest and
richest of the Montana grass, had
been more powerfully manned than
any other Lasham camp. But twice
in the past week frantic calls for
reinforcements from the outfits to
the east had drained most of this
man power away—first five picked
gunflghters, then a dozen cowboys
more, until only five men had been
left.
The messengers who had killed
their ponies to come for help had
brought the camp a fragmentary
story which gave Roper the deep
est satisfaction.
In their tales of incredible losses,
of raiders who struck night after
night at far separated points, driv
ing cattle unheard-of distances to
disappear weirdly in the northern
wastes, Roper read the success of
his Great Raid.
Dry Camp Pierce was sweeping
westward across Montana like a de
stroying wind; by unexpected dar
ing, by speed of movement, by wild
Dry Camp Pierce was sweeping
westward across Montana.
riding relays which punished them
selves no less than the cattle they
drove. Dry Camp was feeding an
increasing stream of Lasham beef
into the hands of Iron Dog’s bands,
who spirited the beef forever from
the face of Montana. By the very
boldness of its conception and the
wild savagery of its execution the
unbelievable Great Raid was meet
ing with success.
And now Dry Camp had struck
even deeper than Roper had
planned, lifting the best of Lash
am’s beeves from almost within gun
shot of Lasham’s strongest camp.
So well had Dry Camp planned, and
so steadily did the luck hold, that a
full day had passed before the loss
inflicted by the raiders was discov
ered. The five remaining cowboys
at the southwest camp were only
tightening their cinches as Jim
Leathers rode in.
Most of the Leathers party had
joined the Lasham men in pursuit
of Dry Camp’s raiders. Only Jim
Leathers himself and the unwilling
Red Kane remained to convoy Rop
er to Ben Thorpe at Sundance.
Because of the confusion involved
in the organization of the pursuit,
the night was now far gone; already
it was long past midnight.
“There’s still another reason,”
Red Kane said, “why it would be
better to hang him now. Suppose
that wild bunch of his knows he’s
here?”
“How the devil would they know
that?” Leathers said with disgust.
“Maybe they was scouting us with
spy glasses as we come over the
trail today.”
“If they was, they would have
landed on us right then, in place of
waiting till we got into camp."
“Maybe the girl run to them—”
“The girl! You make me sick.”
“Have it your own way.”
"You’re darned right I’ll have it
my own way. I don’t want to hear
no more about it. And I’ll tell you
this: if your trigger finger gets itchy
while you’re on watch tonight, you
better soak it in a pan of water, and
leave the gun be. Because if any
thing comes up while you’re on
watch such that you got to shoot
him, by God, next thing you got to
shoot me—you understand?”
THIS IS * '
! Q%>ER\QP^
IA MARK Of FINE FICTION
“I guess it could be done,” Red
Kane said nastily.
Leathers ignored this, and Red
Kane disappeared. This time the
door shut after him.
Leathers said, “Get me a drink.”
Marquita unhurriedly set out a bot
tle and a glass on the table beside
Jim Leathers’ elbow.
“A deck of cards,” Leathers said.
She produced this, too.
Marquita strolled over to Leath
ers, the high heels of her slippers
clicking lazily on the puncheon floor.
“Why are you so cross with me?”
she asked reproachfully. She moved
behind Jim Leathers, and slowly ran
her fingers through his hair.
“Ain’t going to get you a thing,”
Jim Leathers said sourly.
“No?” said Marquita. For a mo
ment one hand was lost in the folds
of her skirt; then deftly, unhurried
ly, she planted the muzzle of a .38
against the back of Jim Leathers’
neck.
There was a moment of absolute
silence, absolute immobility. Jim
Leathers' eyes were perfectly still
upon Bill Roper’s face, as still as
his hands, in one of which a playing
card hung suspended. But though
his face did not notably change,
Marquita, with her .38 pressed hard
against the back of the gunman’s
neck, had turned white; her mouth
worked as she tried to speak, and
her wide eyes were upon Bill Roper
in terrified appeal. Perhaps no more
than a second could have passed in
that way, but to them all it seemed
as if time had stopped, so that that
little fraction of eternity held them
motionless forever.
Bill Roper, moving up and for
ward, exploded into action smoothly,
like a cat. It was the length of the
room between them that saved Jim
Leathers then.
Leathers twisted, lightning fast.
Marquita's gun blazed into the floor
as her wrist swept down in the grip
of Leathers’ left hand; and Bill Rop
er checked a yard from the table as
Leathers’ gun flashed into sight, be
coming instantly steady. Marquita
sagged away from Leathers, and her
gun clattered upon the puncheons;
but although Leathers’ whole atten
tion was concentrated upon Roper,
Marquita’s wrist remained locked in
j his grasp.
The guntighter s voice was more
hard and cold than the steel of his
gun; it was as hard and cold as his
eyes.
“Get back there where you was.”
Bill Roper shrugged and moved
back.
Leathers flung Marquita away
from him and with his left hand
picked up her gun as the door of
the storeroom was torn open and
Red Kane bulged in.
“What the—”
"This thing come behind me and
stuck a gun in my neck.” Leathers
told him.
“The devil! You hurt?”
“Hell, no! I took it away from
her.”
Gently, tentatively, his long fin
gers ran over his wounded leg. Thai
bullet wound in his thigh must have
tortured him unspeakably through
the two days in the saddle; and it
must have been jerking at his nerves
now with red-hot hooks, roused by
the swift action that had preserved
his command.
His face had turned gray so tnat
the black circles under his eyes
made them seem to burn from
death’s-head hollows, and his face,
which had changed so little in this
moment of action was relaxed into
an ugly contortion. Slowly the gray
color was turning to the purple of
a dark and terrible anger.
“By God.” said Red Kane, "1 told
you we should have hung him!”
“You told me right,” Jim Leath
ers said. The burn of his eyes
never for a moment left Bill Ro
per’s face. "You was right and I
was wrong. I should have hung !
him at the start.”
A pleasurable hope came into Red
Kane's face. “Well — it ain’t too
late!”
“No, it ain’t too late. Tie his
hands.”
Keeping Roper between himself ;
and Leathers, so that his partner’s j
gun bore steadily upon Roper’s belt
buckle, Kane lashed Roper’s hands
behind him. The frost-stiff rope bit
deep.
“Tie up this girl, too,” Leathers
ordered when Kane had finished. “I
want her to see this show.”
Marquita said, “I’m sorry, Bill."
Her voice was broken by hard, jerk
ing sobs, and tears were running
down her face; yet somehow her
words sounded dull and dead. "I
did the best I could.”
“You did fine," Roper said. “That
was a game try." Hobbling on his
stiff leg, Leathers moved to the out
er door, flung it open; coatless, he
stopped and signaled Red Kane
back with one hand.
“Red, get back! Get out of line!"
With the quick instinct of a man
who has always been in trouble. Red
Kane jumped back into the room,
carrying Bill Roper with him. They
all could hear now the sound of run
ning horses.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Fine Wale Corduroy Answers
School Bell and Campus Call
By CHERIE NICHOLAS
WHEN the school bell
peals forth its sum
mons to classroom and campus en
virons over this land, corduroy will
be one of the first to answer the call.
Not the old-fashioned kind of cor
duroy, that was stiff and unmanage
able, but an educated kind that has
learned it must be fine to be smart,
and lightweight and drapable, as
well as long wearing.
School and college girls know this
very new and modern corduroy as
cordurella, while the male contin
gent call theirs cordurex. The Latin
students in the class will understand
why. It’s just another instance how
the girls have taken of late to copy
ing boys’ fashions for corduroy,
which used to be almost exclusively
a male fabric.
And now look at it! Now whole
families go corduroy-clad these days
from father, big brother to Junior
and from mother and big sister on
down from the teen-age to the littlest
daughter of the household. Not only
have the girls taken over the fab
ric, but they’ve taken it in slacks
and shirts and jackets that the boys
wear, as well as in their own femi
nine dresses and suits.
There's no end to the types and
styles that are fashioned of cordu
roy. Take jackets, for example.
Pets of the campus, are the conven
ient wear-with-everything jackets, of
the fine lightweight modern cordu
roy, such as are shown, boy and
girl fashion, at the top of the group
illustrated. Though they go with
any kind of campus clothes, men
like them best with slacks of the
same material, but often in different
color, while the girls like free-strid
ing skirts.
Varied types of jackets are avail
able. There are plain, classic sin
gle-breasted buttoned styles, fly
front closings with either buttons or
slide fasteners, blazer types with
the edges bound in contrast, cardi
gan styles, fitted jackets and loose
jackets. In fact, a jacket for every
age and figure.
Skirts, too, are very versatile. The
favorite is simplicity itself, cut bias
with a center front seam and having
plenty of room for free-striding. For
variety, there are gored skirts,
made with the ribs in the alternate
gores running one gore horizontally
and the next vertically. Dutch boy
pockets give a swank look and a
favored trimming trick is a line of
contrasting color piping around the
hem top.
Gay skirts to wear with sweaters
are a "must have” in any college
wardrobe. For the striking skirt
worn by the girl reclining in the
foreground of the illustration, cordu
rella is used in three contrasting
colors, beige, brown and brick red,
the usual order of things being re
versed by putting the lightest tone
at the bottom. The jacket is beige.
To the right in the picture you see
cordurella presented in a dressier
mood, for this modern corduroy is
really choice looking and makes up
beautifully for afternoon wear. The
western influence has scattered met
al stud trimming over many cos
tumes that never heard the word
“cowboy.” Witness this smartly tai
lored fly-front frock of cordurella.
Gold studs decorate the belt and
the pocket flaps in the manner of the
most ornate cowboy trappings, yet
the frock is far more suggestive ol
the luncheon table than of the cor
ral.
Jerkins or weskits are also mak
ing a place for themselves in cordu
rella school wardrobes. The suits
have many an interesting style de
tail, such as peplum jackets, weskit
type jackets, high skirt bands in
peasant fashion, novel closings such
as metal daggers instead of buttons.
Military touches are not missing ei
ther.
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
Corduroy Outfit
Corduroy is regarded as an out
standing current fabric success.
This clever outfit is enough to set
the heart of any little fashion-wise
daughter a-flutter with joy. It is a
classic shirt-type dress made of the
new velvet-like ribbed cordurella.
Durable and handsome, this fabric
is making conversation because of
its likable qualities. Gold star but
tons down the front and on the
pockets add to the thrill of this
jaunty costume. The Scotch cap has
matching gold stars.
Knitted Accessories
Is New Autumn Style
Add the fashion “touch that tells”
to your tweeds and your plaids, your
velveteens and your corduroys, with
knitted accessories. It’s considered
smart style to match stocking cap,
scarf and gloves that are either
knitted or crocheted.
Women are crocheting their hats
also and trimming them in ruches
of loopyarn. Wide brim felts with
crochet bands or entire crochet
crowns lean also to the new trend.
Crochet handbags are enormous
in size and are worked in ways to
ensemble perfectly with the knitted
details that complement the cos
tume.
Irish Crochet Lace and
Fine Venise Trimming
At the lace counters you can get
circular Irish crochet by the yard
for collars and cuffs and trimming
purposes. The same is true in re
gard to handsome Venise laces. The
latter is also used in allover pat
terning for blouses to wear with aft
ernoon suits, or to top party skirts
of yards and yards of tulle.
Quilted Velvets
Very handsome and very new
looking are the coats and suits fash
ioned of quilted fabric, especially
those in velvet and wool. The girl
going away to school will take
keen delight in a quilted velveteen
jacket to wear with her plaid skirt.
Farm
Topics
SOIL ELEMENTS
VITAL FACTOR
For Fertile Farm Lands
And Future Yield.
By DR. W. A. ALBRECHT
(Dspsrtmoat ol Soil*. Uaivsrsitr
Ot Missouri.)
If we Americans paid as much at
tention to our soils as we do to our
cars or radios, the matter of soil
fertility would not be the mystic
business we often think it is.
It is high time we learned a little
about soil chemistry — at least
enough so that chemical terms such
as calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus
and potash are no more difficult to
comprehend than other terms like
carburetor, differential, superhetro
dyne, static, radio beam.
There is nothing really mysteri
ous about the elements which com
bine to promote soil fertility.
Calcium, or lime, that serves as
part of the growing plant’s protein
making activity and is needed so
badly by most soils before legumes
can be grown, is so common it
ought to be a household word on
every American farm.
Nitrogen, the distinguishing ele
ment in protein for which all forms
of life struggle, is getting scarcer
in our soils and should be more
fully appreciated for its elusiveness.
Phosphorus, which enters into com
bination with nitrogen to make pro
tein, the secret stuff of life, growth
and reproduction, must likewise be
added to other items about which
we must familiarize ourselves fur
ther.
Phosphorus is likewise becoming
more deficient in our soils, in spite
of the fact that this country has more
and larger deposits of phosphatic
material than any other in the
world. We must learn more, too,
about potash which is the balance
wheel that promotes healthy
growth, enables the growing plant
better to use the nitrogen supply
and develop resistance to disease.
Like the others, potash has been
steadily drained out of our soils.
It is fitting that all of us should
make closer acquaintance with the
foundations of our farm crops and,
in turn, the foundation of our very
bodies—namely, the soil itself and
the elements which make it pro
ductive.
USD A Purchases Cheese
On Wisconsin Exchange
Purchases of cheese under the
Food-for-Defense program are in the
future, to be made on the exchange
at Plymouth, Wis., according to an
announcement by the department
of agriculture. The new method fol
lows the invitation of the Wis
consin Cheese exchange to use its
facilities. The present method of
buying cheese through the accept
ance of bids from manufacturers
and others will be continued in addi
tion to purchasing on the exchange.
Department officials said that by
buying cheese on the exchange to
supplement the present bid method,
purchase operations should be more
directly reflected in cheese market
prices with increased benefits to
milk producers. Exchange officials
have indicated that trading rules
would be modified to permit buying
in accordance with the depart
ment’s usual specifications.
Between March 15, when buying
operations under the Food-for-De
fense program began, and July 16
the department bought over 46,700,
000 pounds of cheese. Most of the
purchases have been of large styles
of cheese (Cheddars and twins)
which are preferred for export. Re
cent prices paid at midwestem
points have been between 22 and 23
cents per pound, including differen
tials of age of cheese and kind of
pack. Some daisies, or small styles
of cheese, have been bought previ
ously. with the usual trade price
differential of one-half cent per
pound over large styles, in order to
make it possible for the industry to
utilize all of its cheese-making facil
ities.
Manufacturers are now urged by
the department of agriculture to
shift from the manufacture of
daisies to large styles of cheese in
order to meet export requirements
more adequately. Cheese buying
operations of the department will
continue to be concentrated on the
large styles.
Cheese and other foodstuffs
bought in tha department’s program
can be used for domestic distribu
tion to public aid families and for
school lunches, to meet require
ments for the Red Cross for ship
ment to war refugee areas, for trans
fer to other countries under the
terms of the Lend-Lease act.
Farm Notes
A school of nutrition, said to be
the first of its kind, has been es
tablished at Cornell university. Five
colleges will co-operate in offering
instruction.
• • •
The unusually favorable position
of the nation’s poultry industry is
reflected in the June output of more
than 4,000,000,000 eggs, largest for
the month since 1930.
Live Stock Commission
BYERS BROS & CO.
A Real Live Stock Com. Firm
At the Omaha Market
BEAUTY SCHOOL
Enroll New. Nebraska's Oldest School.
Individual instruction, graduates placed In
good paying positions. Write Kathryn WU
aon, manager, for FREE BOOKLET. Call
ferula Beauty School, Omaha, Nahr.
Aiding Another
The only way in which one hu
pnan being can properly attempt
to influence another is by encour
aging him to think for himself,
instead of endeavoring to instill
ready-made opinions into his head.
—Sir Leslie Stephen.
The best way to find out what to
Send soldiers in camp is to ask
lie soldiers themselves. Surveys
among the men with the colors
show cigarettes and smoking to
bacco head the list. Actual sales
records from service stores in the
Army, Navy. Marine Corps and
Coast Guard show the largest
selling cigarette is Camel. Prmce
Albert Smoking Tobacco is well
known as the "National Joy
Smoke." A carton of Camels or a
pound tin of Prince Albert is al
ways welcome, doubly welcome
around the end of the month. Lopal
tobacco dealers are featuring
these brands as ideal gifts for men
in the service.—Adv.
MENRy MILL
fOUNP A BETTER WAV
fOft SPlEPy WKITIN6.
HE INVENTED THE
msr ryptwRirez
IN I7K.
W THE BETTER WAV TO TREAT
constitution pue to lack of
PROPER 'BULK* IN THE PIET IS TO
CORRECT THE CAUSE OF THE
TROUBLE WITH A PELICIOUS
CEREAL, KELLOGG'S,
AIL-BRAN... EAT I
rrEVERy t*y
ANP PRINK ftENTY,
OF WATER.
Noble Creed
Live truly and thy life shall be
a great and noble creed.—Hora
tius Bonar.
rNc is Restless-i
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If 1 Can't sleep? Tire
INI easily? Because ot
distress ot monthly
functional disturbances? Then try
Lydia E. Plnkham's Vegetable Com
pound.
Plnkham's Compound Is famous
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and cranky nervousness due to such
disturbances. One of the most effec
tive medicines you can buy today
for this purpose — made especially
for women. WORTH TRYING 1
Envoys of Soul
Words are the soul’s ambassa
dors.—Howell.
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with dizziness, burning, scanty or too
freauent urination and getting up at
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all upset... use Doan's Pills..
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WNU—U38-41
BARGAINS
; . I
—that will save you many a
dollar will escape you if
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regularly the advertising of
local merchants » • » »
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