By ARTHUR STRINGER w.N.u.sifcvicc.
THE STORY SO PAR: Because he and
Us partner, Crater, need the money to
keep Norland Airways In business, Alan
Slade has agreed to By a supposed sci
entist named Frayne to the Anawotto
country In search of the breeding ground
of the trumpeter swan. Slade's suspi
cions about Frayne are aroused when
ke watches the swan-hunter and his
partner, Karnell, put their supplies on
the plane. They appear to be carrying
prospectors’ equipment. While In town
on an errand Alan goes with Lynn Mor
lock, daughter of the local doctor, to
girt trst aid treatment to a flyer hurt
In a flght. The flyer Is Slim Tumstead,
who has already lost his license for
drinking and who, to Slade’s displeasure,
appears to know all about Frayne's ex
pedition and about the Lockheed Cruger
bought with the money Frayne paid
them. During that night the Lockheed
fs stolen by a masked man who heads
north In the plane. 81ade, en route to
the Anawotto with Frayne and Karnell,
runs out of gas and Is forced to land
near the camp of his prospector friends,
Zeke and Minty, whose one Interest
Is gold. Frayne shows no interest In
t either gold or the black egg-shaped ob
ject Minty has Just told him Is pitch
blende.
Now continue with the story.
CHAPTER VII
“It was for this, I take it, that
you came into such empty coun
try,” Frayne quietly suggested.
Minty laughed.
“Not on your life, stranger. It’s
only the good old yellow metal’ll
ever git me and Zeke steamed up
to the boilin’ point”
“Of course,” said the other. He
inspected his nails and snapped shut
his knife blade. "But there is more
of what you call pitchblende in this
territory?”
"Oodles of if,” chimed in the qua
very-voiced Zeke. "The dang stuff
bothers us in our strippin’.”
“From what you say,” observed
Frayne, “I assume it to be some
sort of mineral. But I remain un
enlightened as to either its use or its
value.”
Minty, however, was not to be
sidetracked.
"If you’d been around Great Bear
for a spell,” that old sourdough was
saying as he reached for the egg of
pitchblende, “you’d sure have seen
’em scramblin’ for this stuff like a
she-bear scramblin’ for a honey
tree. Coin’ down through five hun
dred feet o’ rock for it! And then
totin’ it three thousand miles to that
Port Hope plant where it takes sixty
tons o’ chemicals to git one gram
o’ what they want out of it!”
The ornithologist’s reaction to that
statement seemed perfunctory. He
merely shifted back a little from the
heat of the stove.
“For this, stranger,” pursued the
Indignant Zeke, “is what they git
radium from. And radium’s worth
just thirty-five thousand smackers a
gram.”
“But such things, my friends,
stand remote from the field of my
immediate interest,” maintained the
quiet-voiced ornithologist
“Same here,” concurred Minty,
“seein’ it takes million-dollar ma
chin’ry to squeeze a pinprick o’ col
or out of a trainload of ore. And
the surface pitchblende in this dis
trict, that assay-office sharp report
ed, ain’t as rich in radium as the
deep-lyin’ Great Bear stuff. What
this seems t’ have, accordin’ to as
say, is an overdose o’ helium.”
“I know what helium is, of
course,” Frayne admitted with an
accruing note of irritation. "But 1
am not interested in such things.”
Slade felt the need of putting in
an oar.
“You get more than helium, Min
ty,” he announced, "and more than
radium. You get uranium. And, in
pitchblende like that, uranium is
just about a million times more
abundant than radium.”
“And what good's uranium?” de
manded Minty.
“It’s the key," said Slade, “that's
going to unlock the new Age of
Power.”
Frayne’s gaze wandered about the
cabin.
“You are no longer young,” he
i observed. “Life owes you a little
\ comfort.”
‘‘We’ll git it, later on,” conceded
Minty. “And when me and this
leather-gulleted old skillet pal o’
mine strike Outside you’ll sure
see us hittin’ the high spots.”
“That is a possibility which might
be easily achieved,” observed their
quiet-voiced visitor.
“I don’t git you, stranger,” said
Zeke.
"Supposing,” pursued Frayne,
“somebody should buy you out, pay
you well for what claim you have
here and take over this camp you
have spent so much time and labor
in making comfortable.”
Slade smiled a little at the man
ner in which the newcomer once
more seemed intent on buying up a
right-of-way. But the pilot sat si
lent, conscious of the covert glance
that passed between the two old
sourdoughs.
“Who’d be doin’ that?” demanded
Minty.
Frayne’s abstracted smile seemed
fortified with some unparaded pow
er.
“I might,” he said after a mo
ment of silence.
Slade was not surprised by the
prompt hardening of the two weath
ered old faces. He knew, even be
fore it came, what the answer would
be.
f “We’re sot here,” said Zeke, “and
we're a-goin’ to stick it out to the
end.”
She lingered on the rock point and looked up at the aerial migration.
Slade got up from his chair and
crossed to the door.
“I’ll have a look at my ship,” he
explained, “before we turn in for
the night. And if you two old bush
whackers will rustle us an early
breakfast we’ll push off at sunup.”
But Slade, as he made his way
down to the lake front, was trou
bled by some small voice of uncer
tainty that refused to articulate it
self.
Then his thoughts went to other
things. For on the shore point be
side the moored plane he saw the
huge figure of Kamell, with the
hooded pigeon cage beside him.
"Feeding them, I suppose?” Slade
questioned as he bent lower.
At the same time that he saw the
cage was empty he heard the gut
tural voice beside him.
"They got away,” mumbled Kar
nell. “They slipped off, before I
could stop them.”
Slade studied him for a moment.
"That’s just too bad,” he ob
served. And in spite of the quick
and hostile glance of the other
man he was able to laugh a little.
Yet that sense of being enmeshed
in movements that were unpredicta
ble returned to him the next morn
ing when, a brief half-hour after his
take-off, his passenger barked out
an unexpected command to land.
With one hand Frayne held his
binoculars poised; with the other he
pointed to a lake that lay off to
the left, framed in its encircling
sprawl of spruce ridges.
"That,” he announced, “is where
we shall land.”
"Why there?” asked Slade.
“I think,” said the ornithologist,
"I spotted a trumpeter swan."
Slade’s one-sided smile seemed an
announcement of his doubts as to the
truth of that claim. But he remem
bered Cruger’s warning about pilots
not being supposed to wonder.
"Okay,” said Slade as he turned
into the wind and dropped lower.
"But you’re still a long jump from
the Anawotto.”
He could hear the mumble of for
eign voices as his ship lost head
way and drifted slowly in to the
shoreline.
He saw the massive-shouldered
Kamell wade ashore with an ax
in his hand. T«o minutes later he
could hear the forest stillness ring
with the familiar music of an ax
blade against tough northern spruce
trunks. The sullen giant seemed to
know just what was expected of
him. In less than half an hour he
had his spruce boles trimmed and
lashed together in a neatly made
landing platform. His movements,
Slade observed, were made with the
automatic precision one might ex
pect from a military engineer.
Slade sat on a sun-bleached rock
and lit a cigarette. He sat there
with an achieved air of remoteness,
watching the swan-hunter as he
made ready to land his equipment.
Then the bush pilot’s casual gaze
wandered out to the empty ridges
that ended in an equally empty sky
line.
‘‘A nice place to summer.” he ob
served.
Frayne turned and faced him.
And when Slade caught the unex
pected flash of fire that came from
behind the bifocal glasses he real
ized how some ghostly armistice be
tween him and his passenger had
ended. He didn't like the man, and
he never would.
"When you are interested in more
than engines.” that passenger was
proclaiming, “you will perhaps
learn that uncomfortable localities
quite often have undisclosed advan
tages."
Slade didn't quite know what that
proclamation meant But his smile
was condoning as he tossed his ciga
rette end into the lake and rose to
his feet
“I guess you’re right Doctor," he
said with a casualness that carried a
note of insolence. “And here’s where
1 pass out of the picture. But be
fore I leave you to your swans’
eggs I’d like to tip you otf to just
one thing. My interest sometimes
extends beyond engines."
And this time, apparently, it was
the man of science leaning out from
the cabin hatch who didn’t quite
know what the speaker meant.
Lynn could feel spring in the air.
Against a softening sky she could
see eiders and snow geese, in vees,
heading for their breeding tarns be
tween the slowly greening muskegs.
Every swale and slough was noisy
with mating whistlers and waveys
and loons. But that clamorous love
making failed to lighten her heart.
Even the sight of her father, moor
ing his plane between two saddle
backs in Iviuk Inlet, failed to take
the cloud from her brooding hazel
eyes.
“What’s on your mind?” ques
tioned the Flying Padre as he joined
her on the rock point
"I’m worried about Alan,” she ad
mitted. “We haven’t had word
about him getting out of that Ana
wotto' country.”
The Padre laughed.
"That cloud-wrangler can take
care of himself,” he proclaimed
with slightly forced blitheness. ‘‘I’ve
been shooting out messages from
Fort Norman to the Pelly, telling
him what supplies to fly in as soon
as he’s free.”
"Then why doesn’t he come?"
"He’s got his work to do, the
same as the rest of us,” was the
Padre’s reply to that. “And here’s
where we get busy. I’ve got to
change the dressing on Ukeresak’s
leg wound and pull a couple of
teeth for his glamour girl of the
igloos.”
Lynn watched her father as he
strode up to their rough-boarded sur
gery.
But instead of following him
she lingered on the rock point
and looked up at the aerial mi
gration above her.
Those relentless wings made
her think of the equally relent
less advance of the white man, the
steady and stubborn northward trek
of pioneers in their search for
earth’s bright-colored metals. It was
affecting more than the wild life of
the country. It seemed to disrupt
both the modes and the mores of the
natives, breaking up their tribal tra
ditions and leaving them more and
more dependent on the palefaces
who took their hunting grounds away
from them. Both the Eskimo and
the Indian, her work along those
scattered littoral villages had taught
her, were a perishing people.
Yet she liked these people. They
so stubbornly claimed their human
right to survive; they stood so val
orous in their fight against hunger
and cold. They were, she felt, the
most courageous people she had
ever known. They demanded so lit
tle of life that a plug of trade to
bacco could make them happy for
a week, a mouth-organ could turn a
funeral into a fiesta, a bright-col
ored handkerchief could bring rapt
ness to a sloe-eyed face under its
well-oiled locks.
Lynn recalled the expression of
the girl Kogaluk, after bringing her
aged father, whose hunting days had
been ended by blindness, to the Fly
ing Padre. Old Umanak had un
doubtedly lost his vision. But a
quick examination by the man of
medicine had shown that the blind
ness was due to cataracts which an
operation might remove. The Eski
mo girl still had faith in the father
whom she had to lead about by the
hand, like a child.
“Him good hunter,” she had said
in her hesitating pidgin-English.
“Him always good hunter until two
winters ago.”
“What would you say,” questioned
Dr. Morlock, “if I flew him out to
Fort Smith and brought him back
as good a hunter as ever?”
"I say you work good magic,”
said the daughter of the wilderness.
But difficulties had interposed.
Umanak had no wish to enter the
devil-bird of the white doctor and
be flown away from his people.
Rather than be taken away from
the friendly fish smell and the husky
howls of his home he would prefer
remaining with darkened eyes.
“I could patch the old boy up
here,” the Padre had explained, "it
we only had the equipment”
“Then why not get it?”
“How?”
“Perhaps Alan could fly in with
it,” Lynn had suggested, coloring
a little before her father’s smile
of comprehension.
"So it’s Alan you want?”
“I want to see Umanak cured,"
she had contended. "And I’d stay
on, of course, to look after him."
“Then we’ll take a chance,” th<
Flying Padre had agreed.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
By VIRGINIA VALE
Released by Western Newspaper Union.
EIGHTY army nurses whose
names ought to go down
in history because of the cour
age with which they did their
work during the siege of Ba
taan will receive their due
partially, at least, in a picture
which Paramount has sched
uled for production in the au
tumn. Called “Hands of Mer
cy,” it will be produced and
directed by Mark Sandrich,
who’ll take a hand also in
writing the scenario. Another
timely picture will be Metro’s
“Next of Kin,” in which Joan
Crawford will appear as a girl
without social background, who
marries a naval officer, and finds
herself confronted with navy snob
bery. Joan will come out on top of
course!
—m—
Bette Davis refuses to call her
vegetable garden at her Sugar
Hill, N. H., home a "victory
garden." Like a lot of other
people, she discovered to her
sorrow that vegetables won’t
grow just because you plant
them. She says she’ll be lucky
if she gets one New England
boiled dinner out of the whole
crop.
-*
Charles Boyer couldn’t have Greta
Garbo for that murder mystery,
‘‘Flesh and Fantasy,” of which he
CHARLES BOYER
is both co-star and co-director. But
Universal did very well by him by
getting Barbara Stanwyck to play
opposite him in the second sequence.
-X
Rosalind Russell thinks she knows
what the boys in camp expect of
picture stars, so she decided to take
all the glamour clothes that she
could pack into seven trunks when
starting on the tour of army camps
scheduled to follow completion of
“My Sister Eileen.” Though on a
16-hour-a-day schedule, she’ll have
clothes enough to change ten times
a day. “I’ll wear everything but
a bathing suit,” she announced. And
she looks so fetching in a bathing
suit!
Betty Brewer, the Paramount
starlet, isn’t wasting any time be
tween pictures. The 15-year-old ac
tress, who plays a featured role in
"Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch,”
is studying singing and taking piano
lessons—takes piano from Diana
Lynn and singing from Susanna
Foster, also budding stars.
__
Paulette Goddard’s new prior
ity gown was made from just 1%
yards of fabric. Designed by
the famous Valentina, it’s a
dinner dress of black jersey,
made with a backless top and
a short, peg-top skirt. You’ll see
her wearing it in “The Forest
Rangers.”
•1/
Warner Baxter, who hasn’t ap
peared on the screen since early
last year, when he appeared in
“Adam Had Four Sons,” for Colum
bia, has been signed by the same
studio to make two pictures a year.
They'll be based on the radio pro
gram, “Crime Doctor,” one of our
most popular air shows.
Can’t keep “Mrs. Miniver” out of
the news. With the announcement i
that it was being held at the Radio
City Music Hall for the ninth week
no other film has been held there
for more than six—comes the news
that it had been seen in that theater
by 1,142,107 persons.
"t
A 400-foot long, 200-foot wide
duplicate of the original runway of
the Wake Island airfield was con
structed in ten days at Salton Sea,
Calif., for Paramount’s “Wake Is
land”—a picture that promises to
be one of the most stirring of all this
year’s crop of war films.
-*
ODDS AND ENDS—Gary Cooper’s
rapidly catching up to Don Ameche <u
a portrayer of famous men on the screen
. . . Dennis Morgan has been taking
daily treatments for the “sand blind
ness” he suffered while on location near
Gallup, N. M., for “The Desert Song”
. . . Ginger Rogers taps to only the tune
of her own humming in “The Major
and the Minor” . . . “Little Miss Mark
er,” the film which made Shirley Tem
ple famous eight years ago, may be
filmed again by Paramount, with Baby
Sandy in the leading role . . , Dorothy
Comingore, has refused all assignments
since she made “Citizen Kane.”
Fabric-Conserving Fashions
Possess a New Kind of Style
By CHERIE NICHOLAS
LET no one think that specifica
tions for conserving materials
in wartime have put restrictions on
attractiveness. On the contrary, the
new order of things is ushering in
a fashion cycle frought with a new
ness in chic and charm that is ex
citingly interesting. Instead of find
ing them disappointing, you'll find
that the new styles have exactly
what every woman is looking for—
neat silhouette and fine basic design,
together with innumerable little
niceties of detail which are flatter
ing and lovely and expressive of all
that is best in costume technique.
The manipulation of fabric so as
to use less yardage simply fasci
nates with its artfulness and re
sourcefulness. Materials favored for
the new "priority fashions” are
those which lend themselves best to
a delightfully feminine, draped and
moded styling which achieves the ut
most in figure flattery. For this
purpose rayon crepes are proving
ideal for the entire dress or used in
combination with satin, faille or vel
vet. The working of two fabrics
together is fashion news of out
standing importance for fall. In fact,
the new black-on-black vogue which
works black crepe or jersey with
satin or faille or touches of black
velvet is the fashion high spot of the
immediate moment.
Another new trend which reacts
to the good in response to the de
mand for curtailment in the use of
metal fastenings is the amazifigly
clever way in which dresses and
coats and blouses are made to close
with self-fabric ties, or wraparound
devices or with plastic buttons which
are as ornamental as they are use
ful. New to fashion is the wrap
around frock with surplice back clos
ing. It’s a style you'll adore, for
it’s slenderizing to the 'nth degree.
See it pictured to the right in the
accompanying illustration interpret
ed in smart black rayon sheer, a
material which is ideal for summer
into-fall wear. Delicate touches of
fine black rayon net at the neck,
sleeves and hemline carry out the
black-on-black idea now so impor
tant. A self-fabric sash ties softly
at the buttoned back closing. Worn
over a correctly fitted foundation
garment, this suavely fitted frock
has unusual grace and distinction.
Dressmaker tailoring distinguishes
the charming two-piece suit frock
to the left in the above illustration.
Designed for now and later in hand
some black rayon faille, this model
features the slim long-torsoed sil
houette accented by folds of the
fabric at chest and hips of the fitted
jacket top. The new "priority’' suits
with close, fitted jackets and slim
skirts must be worn over carefully
fitted under garments to achieve the
smoothly streamlined effect so es
sential this season.
For the very chic afternoon dress
centered in the group sheer rayon
crepe in deep, rich black is draped
and molded along slim figure-reveal
ing lines. A self-fabric spaghetti
trim makes soft little bows at the
flattering sweetheart neck and knots
casually at the waistline above the
skirt draping, which is concentrated
at the front.
Tremendous play is being made on
the working of black satin with dull
surfaced rayon crepe. Yokes, in
sets and bandings of the satin, as
well as big. soft bows, give pleas
ing variation to fall frocks of con
trasting fabric.
Color contrast is another featured
theme. Designers are highlighting
striking effects in no uncertain
terms, using sleeves of one color
and bodice top of another with the
two colors appearing in the skirt.
Coat dresses have panels of con
trasting color to match the color of
the plastic buttons.
Released by Western Newspaper Union.
Black Satin
Black satin suits are big news for
fall. Carefully sleek for autumn
wear is this stunning suit done in
fashion's newest fabric favorite—
satin! The little jacket of this New
York creation features the new
shorter length, It flares slightly, as
does also the discreetly gored skirt.
The highly decorative plastic but
tons are in aqua coloring. Togeth
er with an aqua colored corsage,
they add the prettily feminine touch.
The stores are showing satin suits
of this type in dark, rich jewel col
ors, too, but black is the favorite.
Bangles
Braiding, passementerie, dangles
of all kinds, sequin embroideries,
beadwork, novelty buttons, plastic
gadgets, much jet and crystal and
a wide use of embroidery and ap
plique give to fall fashions inter
esting variety.
"Black’ Is Still an
Important Word
At all fashionable gatherings it
becomes increasingly apparent that
black is staging a triumphant come
back into the fashion picture. The
smartness and importance of black
is strikingly evidenced in the stun
ning new black satin gowns featured
in a prologue to the fall season.
The new black frocks that make
slim silhouettes their theme are ap
pearing everywhere in fashionable
gatherings. They look smartest
adorned with a single, important
piece of jewelry and with giddily
colorful long gloves and an enchant
ing hat to supply the prettily femi
nine touch.
Then there are the entrancingly
•‘pretty-pretty” black sheers, many
of which take on endearing pink or
pale blue accents. Black shantung
and black linen suits are declared
by many to be the smartest town
wear costume of the season. For
dressy afternoon wear there's noth
ing in the way of a suit which out
classes those styled of black benga
line. Women are also expressing a
desire for simple daytime frocks
made of black rayon jersey.
An Old Favorite, the
Lace Blouse, Is Back
It is anticipating its advent a long
time ahead, but there is promise of
the return of the lace blouse to be
worn with jewel colored velvet suits
and, for that matter, with satin in
deep dark colors or black.
The sheerest of sheer black lace
blouses has been in evidence for
some time past, and it will continue
its triumphs, Jlowever, the big news
is the lace blouse made delightfully
feminine with frilly accents, styled
either of delicate Alencon or of very
1 sheer Chantilly.
OUSEHOLD
All wild meat should be soaked
clean of blood. An onion roasted
with the meat improves the flavor.
• • •
Don’t twist, bend or tie the so
called cord attached to your elec
tric iron. It is not a cord, but
two bundles of wires.
* • •
Put a small piece of hard soap
in the sewing basket to rub over
yam or thread so it can be put
through the eye of a needle with
less difficulty.
• • •
Peroxide will remove perfume
stains from linen bureau scarf.
Keep a blotting pad under scarf
to protect dressing table or bureau
top when perfume is spilled on it.
• • •
Knitted garments should be laid
flat to dry, shaped to the outline
drawn before the garment was
washed.
• • •
Three sprigs of parsley, one bay
leaf, six whole cloves and a bit of
thyme tied loosely together in a
cheesecloth make an aromatic
spice bag for cooking with soups
and stews.
J. Fuller Pep
By JERRY LINK
‘'Puller," say* Aunt Netty, the
other day. "Polks are like wine.
Borne sour with age, and some,
like you, get better!"
"Mebbe," says I, pickin’ up that
little compliment, "that's because
I feel so good most of the time.”
For. you know, folks, when you
feel good your disposition's apt to
be good, too. But to do that, you
got to eat right, which Includes
gettln’ all your vitamins. And
KELLOGG’S PEP Is extra-rich In
the two most often short In ordi
nary meals—vitamins Bi and D.
Mighty fine-tastin’, too. Try It I
f&f&ytfSf ftp
A delicioul cereal that mppliet per rerriag
(I at.)i the full minimum daily need of
ritamin D; lid the daily need of ritamm Bu
Everybody wants to know what
to send a soldier, sailor. Coast
Guardsman, or Marine. The an
swer is simple if he smokes a pipe
or rolls-his-own. Send a pound of
tobacco. Tobacco, according to
numerous surveys among the men
themselves, is the gift most ap
preciated, and most wanted. Fa
vorite smoking tobacco of many
service men is Prince Albert, the
National Joy Smoke—a title well
deserved since Prince Albert is
the world’s largest-selling smok
ing tobacco. Local dealers are
featuring Prince Albert in the
pound can as ideal gifts to men
in the service.—Adv.
pIMSj
on “certain days” of month
If functional monthly disturbances
make you nervous, restless, high
strung, cranky, blue, at such times
-try Lydia E. Plnkham’s Vegetable
Compound - famous for over 60
years — to help relieve such pain
and nervous feelings of women's
"difficult days.”
Taken regularly — Pinkham s
Compound helps build up resist
ance against such annoying symp
toms. Follow label directions. Well
jivorth tryingI _^
We Can All Be
EXPERT
BUYERS
• In bringing us buying Information, a*
to prices that are being asked for
what we Intend to buy, and as to the
quality we can expect, the advertising
columns of this newspaper perform a
worth while service which saves vs
many dollars a year.
• It Is a good habit to form, the habit
of consulting the advertisements every
time we make a purchase, though we
have already decided just what we
want and where we are going to buy
It. It gives us the most priceless feeling
In the worldi the feeling of being
adequately prepared.
• When we go Into a store, prepared
beforehand with knowledge of what is
offered and at what price, we go os
on expert buyer, filled with self-confi
dence. It Is a pleasant feeling to have,
the feeling of adequacy. Most of the
unhappiness in the world can be traced
to a lack of this feeling. Thus adver
tising shows another of Its manifold
facets—shows Itself as an aid toward
making all our business relationships
more secure and pleasant.
