By ARTHUR STRINGER W.N.U. SERVICE
THK STORY SO FAR: To keep Nor
land Airways In business, Alan Slade
has agreed to fly a so-called scientist
named Frayne and his assistant, Kar
nell, to the wild Anawotto country of
northern Canada, where Frayne expects
to And the breeding ground of the trum
peter swan. Slade suspects Frayne of
having other plans than swan-hunting,
but he has paid them enough to enable
Slade’s partner, Cruger, to buy a Lock
heed they have been needing. Mean
while, Alan goes with Lynn Morlock,
daughter of the local doctor, to give
first aid treatment to a flyer named Slim
Tumstead, who has been hurt In a fight.
He learns that Tumstead knows about
the new plane and about Frayne. While
Slade Is on his way north with Frayne
and Karnell, someone holds up Cassidy,
night watchman for Norland Airways,
and steals the Lockheed. All Cassidy
can tell Cruger is that the thief wore a
mask and that he headed north In the
plane. Now Slade and his passengers are
flying into a head wind, and Frayne has
Just complained that they are not mak
ing good time.
Now continue with the story.
CHAPTER VI
“It is very empty country,” the
swan-hunter observed.
"Fine and empty,” said Karnell,
who looked up slightly startled by
an admonishing elbow dig from his
companion.
“It’ll be better in an hour or
two,” Slade told them. “We’ll be
coming out on scrub timber and
heavier ridges. Then you’ll see your
last mine camp or two along the
Ashibik.”
He went on for half an hour of
silence, conscious of the two heads
bent over the chart, the mumble of
voices, and the repeated studious
peering through the poised binocu
lars.
“Weather’s clearing,” he cried
out, half an hour later, when he
sighted blue through the torn wisps
of gray. “That means less wind to
buck.”
But a glance at his fuel-gauge
suddenly lowered his spirits.
“We can’t make the Anawotto,”
he announced as he retarded his
throttle to conserve fuel. “We’ll
have to land at Lake Avikaka and
fill up.”
Slade, pointing to his gauge, could
see Frayne’s face tighten a little
with annoyance.
“What is at Lake Avikaka?” ques
tioned his passenger.
“Just two old sourdoughs who
have a camp there on the fringe of
Nowhere.”
"Sourdoughs? What are they?
“Just two funny old birds who
happen to be friends of mine. I
keep a gas cache in their back
yard.”
He could hear the two voices con
ferring. It gave him the feeling
of being excluded from something
that might be of importance to him.
“That’s the Kasakana there, just
ahead of us,” Slade explained, “the
stream that looks like a twisted
wire. We’ll have about sixty miles
of it. Then we’ll land just where
it empties into Lake Avikaka.”
Frayne, tight-lipped, inspected his
chart. x
“Who are these—these old sour
doughs as you term them?” he
asked.
“Just two old lone-fire prospec
tors who’ve panned gold and staked
claims all the way from Arizona
up to the Circle,” Slade explained.
“With an itch,” he added, "to be al
ways pushing out to what seems like
the last frontier. They’re pretty good
old scouts. You’ll like 'em."
Frayne’s expression failed to con
firm that claim.
"For what do they prospect?” he
exacted.
"Gold, of course,” answered
Slade, "niey won’t interfere with
your swan-hunting.”
Frayne’s side-glance seemed in
search of possible second meanings.
Slade looked for some sign of life
from the cabin between its shelter
ing rock shoulders. All he saw, as
he nosed cautiously down to the
lake end, was a gray plume of
smoke from the shack chimney. It
impressed him, in the midst of the
gloomy ridges furred with stunted
timber, as a sort of pennon of valor,
a flag defying the forces of nature.
It was a brave little outpost, the
flyer repeated as he swung lower.
But he could catch no glimpse of
either Minty Buckman or Zeke
Pratt. And it was seldom he found
them far from that cockeyed old
windlass and hoist of theirs.
Then his heart lightened. They
must have heard him, after all.
For two ragged old figures
emerged from the shack door
and ran about the rock slope In
small circles, waving arms as
they went.
One figure wore an apron of butch
er’s linen which he tore from his
shoulders and whirled in the air
while the other executed a creaky
dance step about him.
‘Those old wilderness waifs are
sure glad to see us,” Slade observed
as his ship landed and lost headway.
Frayne did not share in his ex
citement.
"We go on to the Anawotto,” he
suggested, “as soon as you have re
fueled?”
Slade, stiff and tired, rose from
his seat.
"Not on your life. We bunk with
these bushwhackers tonight. I want
a hot meal and seven hours of
sleep.”
Two ragged old figures emerged from the shack door and ran about.
“But your friends," said Frayne,
“are not my friends.”
“But come and meet ’em,” said
Slade, leaping ashore with his moor
ing line. He was halfway up the
bank when the two old sourdoughs
descended on him. They circled
about him and slapped his shoul
ders, shouting with shrill and child
like excitement at the unlooked-for
break in their solitude.
“How are you, puddle-jumper! By
crickety, it’s Lindy!”
Slade knew, even before he felt
their hearty handclasps, that he was
among friends. They may have
looked uncouth in their patched and
ragged Mackinaws. But in the crow
footed old eyes above the grizzled
whiskers he could see open affec
tion.
“Bring me them darnin’ needles,
son?” questioned Zeke when the
body-slapping was over.
“Sure thing,” said Slade, produc
ing a package from his jacket pock
et "And that oilstone you’ve been
hankering for.” Then he lowered his
voice. “How’s the color been show
ing?”
“Swell,” said Minty. "We struck
a vein that'll make your eyes bug
out. But keep it under your hat,
son.”
Slade glanced toward his plane.
“I’ve got a couple of visitors for
you,” he announced.
The two old faces promptly hard
ened.
"What’re they after?” was
Minty’s quick inquiry.
“They’re after swans’ eggs,” an
nounced Slade.
“Swans' eggs?” said Zeke. “That
don’t sound natural."
“I know it, Zeke, but we’ve got
to take their word for it. They're
headed for the Anawotto to dig out
the breeding ground of the trumpet
er.”
Zeke, from under his shaggy
brows, inspected the strangers.
“How’d you know they ain’t field
scouts?”
Slade smiled at the concern on
the seamed old face.
“I’ll bring ’em up,” said Slade.
Solitude, he had long since learned,
always left a bush-worker morosely
suspicious of unidentified intruders.
He had even known some of those
lone-fire gold-seekers to greet the
casual prowler with a flurry of buck
shot.
Yet he himself was a little puz
zled, when he reached the landing
stage, to find that Frayne had de
cided to have his man Karnell re
main in the plane cabin.
“You're the captain,” said Slade.
But his meditative eye passed casu
ally over the gas drums that stood
on the spruce rack which made them
so easy to roll aboard. And it was
always better to be safe than sorry.
He was whistling as he climbed
into the cabin and busied himself
for a minute or two with his instru
ment board. Then, as his two pas
sengers conferred at the water’s
edge, he quietly abstracted the mo
tor’s breaker assembly and slipped
it into his pocket. He felt that it
was as well, all things considered,
to know that his Snow-Ball Baby was
definitely bedded down for the night.
“You’ll like these two old codg
ers,” Slade persisted as he followed
the reluctant-footed Frayne up the
shore slope.
Frayne, however, remained silent
and abstracted as he entered the
shack where the smell of frying ba
con mingled with the aroma of three
sourdough bread-loaves just turned
out of their baking pans. He noted
the glowing cookstove and the or
derly dish shelves, the spring traps
and the shooting irons in the shack
corner, the wall bunks with their
abraded Hudson Bay blankets, the
floor rugs of wolfskin, the home
made table and chairs darkened by
time and smoke. Everything bore
an air of frontier roughness, of in
genious expediencies in a land of
strictly limited resources. But the
general result was one of craftily
won comfort, of security obtained
through toil and persistence. Even
the meal the two old-timers pre
pared for their guests was an am
ple one.
But as the meal was made away
with an odd constraint hung over
the men seated about the rough ta
ble.
“I see you have a radio,” Frayne
observed as he sipped at his sec
ond cup of coffee.
Minty’s saddened eye regarded
the instrument.
“She’s been dead for seven
months now. Battery’s plumb gone.
And this-here air-robber’s freight
charges ’re so high we jus’ can’t
see our way to a new one.”
Frayne, Slade thought, looked re
lieved.
“You are very much alone here,”
he observed.
“You’re tellin’ me,” said Minty.
“But we don’t reckon that as a
drawback,” amended Zeke, "seein’
the two of us have kind of a hanker
in’ for elbow room. Only time 1
feel right lonesome is when there’s
folks around. Then I git a feelin’ o’
bein’ hemmed in.”
Frayne’s eye wandered to the
shelf that held a pestle and mortar,
a long-handled quartz-roaster, a
dust-scales under a cracked canopy
of glass, an assortment of variously
mineralized rock of all colors and
shapes.
“How long,” he inquired, “have
you been here?”
“Well over two years now,” ac
knowledged Minty.
“Have your labors been reward
ed?” was the next casually put ques
tion.
Slade could see the two pair of
crafty old eyes suddenly become ex
pressionless.
"Not by a long shot,” protested
Zeke. “I natcherally git a little out
o’ my winter trappin’, and this
shorthorn mate o’ mine brings in
enough game meat to keep us go
in’. But we ain’t had what you’d
call a strike.”
“Reckon we never will,” said
Mintv.
“It’s been hard goin’,” chimed in
his bunkhouse mate.
“How do you do your mining,”
asked the man of science, "without
power and machinery?”
The two old sourdoughs exchanged
glances again.
“Oh, you’d scarce call it minin’,”
ventured Zeke. "Most we do is
strip a bit along the back slopes or
hawk a speck o’ float gold from
the Kasakana sandbars.”
“Then it’s gold alone you are in
terested in?” was the next question.
“That’s right, stranger. And
we’ve been that way for forty-odd
years now,” Zeke conceded.
“All the way from the old Rio
Grande up to the Porcupine,” added
the dreamy-eyed Minty, “not omit
tin’ the Klondike. Now your main
interest, this young cloud-clipper
tells m^, is swans’ nests.”
“My only interest,” amended
Frayne as he pushed back his chair.
“I am an ornithologist.”
The word seemed to puzzle Minty.
“Why, I seen a black-billed swan
on the lake here three days ago,”
Zeke announced. "He sure was a
beauty.”
“It is the trumpeter I am in
search of," said the ornithologist.
Zeke scratched his head.
“And what’ll you do with him
when you git him?”
“It is my wish to obtain their
eggs,” said the other, “before they
are extinct."
Minty got up and crossed to his
ore shelf.
“Speakin’ of eggs," he said,
“could you be spottin’ the bird laid
this one?"
His cackle was slightly derisive as
he produced an ellipsoid mass of
black and burnished material almost
as big as an ostrich egg. The luster
of the oblate spheroid with the feath
ering of light streaks made it look
as if it had been polished by hand.
“It looks like tar,” Frayne casu
ally observed.
“Tar my eye!” croaked Minty as
he placed the burnished spheroid on
the scarred table end. “You’re miss
in’ it by a mile.”
“Then what does it happen to be?”
inquired the swan-seeker.
“If you was more of a minin’
man,” Minty was saying, "you’d
know it was pitchblende.”
Frayne shrugged and let his wa
vering glance come to rest on the
pictured bathing beauties tacked
above the wall bunks.
“The eggs I am in search of,”
he finally observed, “are of another
color.”
“But they won’t hatch what this’ll
hatch," averred Zeke, bent over
the table end.
Frayne, almost reluctantly, let his
gaze return to the black spheroid.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Farm Building Must
Have Board’s Permit
WPB Recognizes Need of
Limited Construction
County war boards of the United
States department of agriculture
will co-operate with the War Pro
duction board in handling applica
tions for authorization to begin con
struction work on farms, the War
Production board announced.
The United States department of
agriculture is co-operating with the
WPB in formulating policies under
which county and state U. S. D. A.
war boards will make recommenda
tions covering farm residential and
agricultural construction. Projects
recommended by these boards will
be forwarded to the War Produc
tion board for final approval.
Order L-41, issued by the War
Production board, prohibits the start
of unauthorized construction proj
ects which use materials, labor and
construction equipment needed in
the war effort, and places all new
publicly and privately financed con
struction under rigid control.
The War Production board
recognizes that a limited amount
of construction by farmers is
necessary to maintain and in
crease production to meet agri
cultural goals and that certain
off-the-farm facilities are also
needed for the production, han
dling and processing of farm
products.
A farmer planning to begin con
struction which needs authorization
should consult his county United
States department of agriculture
war board.
All farm projects, including resi
dential, agricultural, and off-the
farm construction, such as ware
houses, processing plants, cream
eries, etc., will be considered first
by the United States department of
agriculture county war boards. Ap
plications for projects recommend
ed by these boards will be sent to
state war boards and then to the
department of agriculture.
The department will consider
the recommendations and send
to the War Production board for
final approval those which are
deemed essential.
So far as residential construction
is concerned, farm dwellings are
covered by the same regulations
as other residential construction. If
farm residential construction, dur
ing any 12-month period, costs less
than $500 per farm, no authori
zation is necessary. Likewise no
authorization is required for con
struction begun prior to April 9, 1942;
for maintenance and repairs; or
for reconstruction or restoration of
farm residential construction dam
aged or destroyed after Decem
ber 31, 1941, by fire, flood, tornado,
earthquake, act of God or by public
enemy.
Take Care of Your
Milking Machine as
Parts Are Hard to Get
The milking machine is essential
to wartime agricultural production,
and must be cared for properly be
cause shortages of rubber and metal
will not permit normal replacement.
The following rules for the care of
rubber milking machine parts are
suggested:
Use two separate sets of liners,
alternating them each week. Rub
ber needs "rest.”
Keep liners tight in tcat-cup
shells.
Keep milker rubber parts clean
and free from all butterfat, which
causes deterioriation.
Rubber cuts easily when wet. Use
care in assembly and disassembly
of units.
Do not use chlorine solutions of a
strength exceeding 250 parts per
million, for excessively strong
chlorine solutions will injure rub
ber.
If lye is used in the care of rub
ber parts, be sure that it does not
remain in contact with the metal
parts.
Battling Soil Erosion
Legume crops such as alfalfa, clo
ver, soybeans and lespedeza are be
ing used with increasing success as
"heavy artillery” in fighting the bat
tle of soil erosion. Legumes keep the
topsoil in place, deposit nitrogen in
soil and provide it with needed <
supplies of organic matter. To do
their best work, legumes should be
reinforced by intelligent soil man
agement such as the use of fertiliz
ers high in phosphorus and potash.
Smart White Accents Bring
Costumes Up to the Minute
By CHERIE NICHOLAS
g •'! 1 ■< ..'■W S' 9BHBI
ALL signs point to a continu
ance through fall and win
ter of the high fashion rank ac
corded during the past few
months to pretty, flattering and
"feminizing” white accents on
dark costumes. The vogue for
dark dresses and suits high
lighted with lovely, lacy neck
wear and various other frilly, im
maculately white touches is particu
larly apropos at the immediate mo
ment in that it so beautifully solves
that tantalizing problem of smart
and timely dressing through the “be
twixt and between” season which
leads from summer into fall.
For the touch that is warranted
to lend a new lease of life to sum
mer-on-the-wane clothes that you
are loath to give up as long as
warmish days persist, regardless of
what the calendar has to say about
it, there is nothing that surpasses
the refreshing prettiness of dashes
and splashes of billowy, frilly white.
That is why so many fashion-wise
women have taken to collecting a
"neckwear wardrobe,” just as the
college girl once collected sweaters.
What with suits registering as
fashion “firsts” on the fall style pro
gram, one of the most-to-be-desired
items you can put in your collec
tion of lacy fineries is a dainty dickey
of exquisitely embroidered organdy
like that pictured above to the right
in the illustration. Note, particu
larly, the cunning self fabric bow tie
fastening, a new note in last-word
chic. A dickey of this patrician type
is a choice possession that will
prove to be "a thing of beauty and a
joy forever.” Incidentally, we might
add that reports from neckwear de
partments say there are more calls
for dickeys to wear with suits this
season than ever before. One of
the clever diversions milliners are
indulging in is the trimming of hats
with dramatic lingerie touches,
ruches and frills especially. You
can see by the picture how effective
the result is.
The jabot of hand-crocheted lace
pictured at the top left is another
item that should be included in ev
ery neckwear collection. It will
prove a standby when an extra
touch of allure is needed. You will
be wearing it with your suit, and it
will prove definitely “right" with
your one-piece frocks and your
blouses.
As inspiring »nd as spirit lifting
as a good repartee is the bright
and piquant set of scalloped organ
dy collar and cuffs illustrated below
to the left in the group. A hand
some set like this is a miracle work
er when it comes to imparting a
dressy afternoon look to a simple
daytime frock.
To set off a pretty face and to
add glory to a dark dress, the ador
able collar at the lower right in the
above illustration possesses a fetch
ing way all its own. Spanking white
and crisp and immaculate, it will
add a lilt to your walk and a gay
ness to your spirit. The handsome
Venise lace that edges it helps to
make the vote unanimous that it
is one of the prettiest collars brought
out this season.
Speaking of lacy accents, here’s
news for fall that really is news. It's
in regard to the new velveteen suits
now being shown in smart autumn
fashion previews. The all lace
blouse of Alencon or Chantilly to
wear with it is cast for an impor
tant role. Froths of lace in pretty
confusion cascade down the front
of some of the blouses. They will
add grace and daintiness to fall and
winter suits for cocktail and on
into-the-evening affairs. Sports
blouses will be good, also, and neat,
trim and spic-and-span looking.
Colorful wool lace blouses are also
scheduled for fashion prestige.
Released by Western Newspaper Union.
Fall Coat
There is a movement among wom
en. which is gaining momentum
with each passing day, toward buy
ing apparel of enduring quality and
the genteel smartness which reflects
discriminating selection. The sim
ple good taste characteristic of the
better fall coats is exemplified in the
model pictured above. The Forst
mann woolen of which it is tailored
has quality in look and in velvety
texture. For the rest, the appeal of
this coat centers in the gentle modu
lation of its superb lines and in the
color, for color is scheduled to play
a most important role in coats and
suits this fall.
Show Wash Cottons
For School, Dates
The vogue for tubable cottons goes
on at a rapid pace. Back-to-school
wardrobes, especially, include cot
tons, many which look like wool
being made up into suits and even
coats.
Jacket suit-dresses of richly color
ful plaid ginghams are high style
for town wear, and black linen or
shantung costumes are holding good
and will continue to do so until really
fall days set in.
Young folks who eagerly don “aft
er duty" dresses, when uniforms are
laid aside after hours of war work,
take keen delight in the crisp organ
dies, dotted swisses and smart pi
ques that make up so pleasingly into
dance frocks.
The honors for loveliness go espe
cially to the new crinkled seersuck
ers that are beautifully flower-print
ed and are so sheer and tissue-like
they are exquisitely dainty and fem
inine. These are for the most part
made with wide swirling skirts, or
are ruffled in triple tiers for the
skirt.
Velvet Trim
Very new and attractive are the
new black wool coats that are col
lared and cuffed with velvet. Some
of them are tied with a sash of
velvet to one side. Other new mod
els have velvet yoke., or plastrons.
Felt Flowers
The newest felt hats are sporting
cunning felt flower trims. The flow
ers ace cutouts in multi-colors.
These are attached to the ofl-the
face brim so that the petals are
left free and away from the back
ground.
CLASSIFIED
DEPARTMENT
FARMS FOR SALE
M. A. LARSON. Central City. Nebr., will
mall you Information on many farms,
priced right. Drop me a card.
BEAUTY SCHOOL
LEARN BEAUTY CULTURE in an ap
proved school. Low tuitions. Write Hastings
Beauty Culture Academy, Hastings, Nebr.
Trailers—Cars For Sale
SCHULT—the World’s finest trailer $603
up. Streamlite, Indian, Moon, Ollder tc oth
ers $305 up—new and used cars $250 up.
Cash paid for used cars and trailers.
A. C. NEL8EN AUTO SALES, INC.
ZZ1Z Harney St., Omaha, Nebr.
ZZIB Weet Second St., Grand Island, Nebr.
% Red Wing Ledge, North Platte, Nebr.
Mountain Lodge for Rent
NEW MODERN MOUNTAIN LODGE. Alao
furnished cottages, Marshadale Park, near
Evergreen. 27 miles from Denver. Golf,
horses, games. Send for folder. Guests met
In Denver: no charge.
W. C. MARSH - EVERGREEN, COLO.
CABINS FOR SALE
CABINS
Modern, garage, station, machine shop,
cafe and residence combined In defense
area on U. S. 30, 111 health.
CYRIL KRIPOL • LODGEPOLE, NEBR.
{~\UR good neighbors south of the
border provide these pictur
esque tea towel motifs. So get out
your most brilliant floss and do
these bits of embroidery. Fin
ished, they will give a cheerful
note to your towel rack and thus
to your entire kitchen.
Pancho’s serapes and Ramona’s
skirts, the fruits, .and the awning
should all be done in vivid colors.
To complete the set, there is a
panholder motif of bright-colored
Mexicaa pottery.
• • *
Transfer Z947S. 15 cents, brings the
seven motifs for tea towels and the one
for matching panholder in transfers which
may be stamped more than once. These
extra stampings may be used for luncheon
or breakfast cloths and napkins, curtains,
etc. Send your order to:
AUNT MARTHA
Box 166-W Kansas City, Mo.
Enclose 15 cents for each pattern
desired. Pattern No.
Name .
Address ...
From an old French word
“mes” derived from the Latin
word “missus” meaning a course
at a meal, comes the Army’s
name "mess” for its breakfast,
dinner, and supper. Favorite meal
with the soldier is chicken dinner
—his favorite cigarette, Camel.
(Based on actual sales records
from Post Exchanges.) A carton
of Camels, by the way, is the gift
he prefers first of all from the
folks back home. He’s said so.
Local tobacco dealers are featur
ing Camel cartons to send any
where to men in the armed forces.
—Adv.
*..— - ■ .. ■ -5
These Advertisements
Are a Guide Book
To Good Values
