The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965, October 29, 1942, Image 9

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    I
By ARTHUR STRINGER WN.U. SERVICE
THE STORY SO FAR: To keep Nor
land Airways in business Alan Slade
agrees to fly a so-called scientist named
Frayne and his partner, Karnell, to the
Anawotto river in search of the trum
peter swan. With the proceeds Slade’s
partner, Cruger, buys a Lockheed plane,
which Is stolen. When be returns from
the Anawotto Slade starts out to recover
the plane. In this be is being helped
by an esklmo named llmanak and by his
old prospector friends, Zeke and Minty.
Acting on a hunch Slade has gone to
Frayne’s camp and has discovered that
the missing plane is hidden there. Slim
Tumstead, a flyer who has lost his li
cense for drinking and Is little more
than an outlaw, has been flying it for
Frayne. But when Slade attempts to
examine the plane's cargo he Is knocked
unconscious by Karnell. Tumstead saves
him from being killed by Karnell, only
to abandon him later on a deserted Is
land because he “knows too much.”
Tumstead has just taken off again,
after leaving Slade with only a knife, a
pound of German army chocolate, a can
of “bully” beef and what looks like an
empty tin.
Now continue with the story.
CHAPTER XIV
He placed the knife on the shore
•lope. Beside it he placed the pound
of German chocolate, and beside that
again the tin of bully-beef. After
studying them for a long time he
reached for the tobacco tin.
This, when he opened it, proved
not to be entirely empty. In it, to
his surprise, he found half a dozen
•teel fishhooks.
He stared at them for a full min
ute, remembering how more than
one bush pilot had the habit of car
rying such things in his emergency
equipment. They gave a promise of
food, in case of a forced landing in
a wilderness threaded with water
ways.
Then, with a gasp of apprehen
sion, he crawled about the slope,
carefully retrieving the scattered
lengths of cord that had been cut
from his wrists and ankles. The
best of them were only a few feet
in length. But he had proof enough
of their strength. And when knot
ted together they would provide him
with a fish Jine that might land any
thing from an inconnu to a five
pound whitefish.
That gave him the courage to
climb the rocky ledge behind him
and examine his island. There was
growth enough about him, he saw.
to make a shelter of some sort,
growth enough for firewood and the
smoking of fish. And along the
westerly shore where the slopes end
ed in sedgy meadows his gaze came
to rest on a wide field of bulrushes.
That gave him new hope.
He was alone in an empty world.
But as he stood straight on his lone
ly ridge of rock he told himself that
he hadn’t yet reached the end of his
rope.
Two embattled and odd-looking
figures groped their way northward
between the muskegs and the rocky
hogbacks that stretched out to the
skyline beyond Lake Avikaka. Each
man carried a rifle and a cartridge
belt that bristled with shells. Each
was further burdened down with a
blanket roll and a grub bag. From
the waist of one dangled a belt
ax, from the waist of the other
6wung a skillet and tea pail.
They went on, stoically slapping
at black-flies and mosquitoes, until
weariness overtook them and a low
ering sun told them it was time to
call it a day. Then they made camp,
cooked their bacon and flapjacks,
adjusted their mosquito bars, and
rolled up in their worn sqid smoke
stained four-pointers.
When morning came they broke
camp and once more hit the trail.
They saw the sun climb higher in
the heavens and the muskegs be
come fewer as they advanced into
a country, of bolder rock ridges with
a scattering of tamarack along their
southern slopes. They saw the shad
ows lengthen and the light once
more thin out. And once more they
made camp, and slept, and pushed
on again.
"We’re on the proper trail all
right,” observed Minty as he mount
ed a knoll and surveyed the sur
rounding landscape. "There’s the
black-water lake I skirted on my
way back.”
"There’s been folks here before
us.” asserted Zeke, pointing to
where scrub spruce had been cut
along the hill slope.
"From the first crack out o' the
box,” said Minty, ”1 had a queer
feelin' about that two-eyed swan
hunter. I knew he wasn’t edgin’
up into this district of ours for any
good.”
"Then why’s he here?”
“That’s what I’m a-goin' to find
out.” retorted the grizzled old pros
pector, “before he gits another
sneakin’ shot at my carcass.”
It was as they were circling cau
^tiously along the westerly arm of
the lake that Zeke stopped short on
a ridge crest that ended in a deep
water bayou. For moored close in
under a cliff there he saw the
scarred and sun-bleached wings of
a plane.
“That’s the Snow-Ball Baby,” was
Minty’s sudden exclamation.
“That’s Lindy's old crate all
right,” agreed the perplexed Zeke.
“But where's our puddle-jumper?”
They still hesitated in their ap
proach. But curiosity finally over
came them. When they found no
pilot there, after invading its cab
in, they regarded each other for a
moment of silence
a ■ wmrf * ( x 'cr/x// m
—14—
"If they want to do it Injin style,” said Minty, “it’s okay with me.”
"I don’t like the look o’ this,”
Zeke Anally asserted.
“Chances are he’s scoutin’ round
on foot,” maintained Minty as he
clambered ashore. But Zeke, who
remained to assess the cabin’s con
tents, shook a dubious head.
“There’s grub and extra gas In
there,” he reported when he re
joined his companion. “There’s even
blankets and fly nets and one o’
them new-fangled air mattresses.”
“Then you’ll see him headin’ back
here pronto," Minty persisted.
But at the end of an hour’s wait
the azure of his optimism was shad
owed by a cloud or two.
“Something’s happened to that
boy,” averred Zeke as his old eyes
once more swept the silent rock
ridges.
“Then it’s up to us to roost here
and keep an eye on his plane,”
was Minty’s suggestion.
“I don’t like the idee o’ that ship
anchored close in here where any
outsider could climb aboard,” said
Zeke. “Where she ought to be is
out in the middle o’ that lake with
a quarter-mile o’ water between her
and shore.”
“How’d you git her there?” asked
Minty, as he studied the plane. “I
always had a hankerin’ for know
in’ how to handle one o’ them con
traptions. And right now that hank
erin’ is stronger’n ever.”
But Zeke had his own ideas Bbout
the matter.
“I could float her out and anchor
her there with a .couple o’ rock
slabs tied to her moorin’-lines,” he
explained. “Then she’d be where
no one could sneak up on her.”
“And how’d you git back?” de
manded Minty.
“I’d blow up that air mattress of
Lindy’s and paddle ashore. And
when our bush hawk shows back he
can sail out to her in the same
way.”
“S'posin’ he don’t show back?”
“Then it’s up to us,” said Zeke,
“to find out what’s keepin’ him away
from a ship he’d never desert of his
own free will.”
But the shifting of the Snow-Ball
to its new berth was no easy mat
ter. And even with the plane safely
anchored in mid-lake Zeke's trou
bles were not over. The inflated air
mattress, from the first, proved a
precarious craft. When halfway to
shore, in fact, Zeke lost his balance
and went overboard, with Minty’s
anxious eyes watching his struggles
as he floundered about and finally
resumed his perch on the little raft
of rubber.
Minty, standing guard on his rock
point, knew what would be needed,
and needed at once. He dropped his
rifle and lost no time in gathering
wood and starting a fire The flames
were roaring by the time the wet
and bedraggled Zeke crawled up the
shore slope. His teeth were chat
tering and his language was blas
phemous
"Quit cussin’.” admonished Min
ty, “and git out o’ them clothes be
fore they chill you to the bone."
Zeke's shirt was dry by the time
he was reddy to drink his tea. And
his ill temper had departed by the
time the dignity of clothing was re
stored to his sinewy old body.
“We can’t squat round these em
bers no longer,” he announced.
“What we’ve got 'o do is sleuth out
them white - skinned Comanches
who’re musclin’ in on our domain.”
“Lead me to 'em,” said Minty as
he shouldered his pack and took up
his rifle.
But Zeke, at the moment, was
busy mounting a near-by ridge. He
stood scanning the blue-misted
slopes between him and the lower
ing sun. He squinted long and close
ly at the wooded crest across a
wide valley studded with glacial
hardheads. And as he looked he
saw a puff of smoke bloom for a
moment against the hill top spruce
gloom at the same time a bullet
whined over his head.
His reaction to that was auto
matic.
He dropped to the far side of the
ridge, where he lay shouting for
Minty to get under cover. But Min
ty disregarded that advice He stood
with his rifle at half-arm, studying
the wooded crest across the valley.
But the whine of a second bullet
sent him ducking behind the shelter
of a hardhead.
“They want fightin’, eh?" he cried
c he leveled his rifle along the stone
top. “Well, they’ll git it a-plenty.”
But, after a two-man council of
war, they realized that closing in
on the enemy was not so simple as
it might seem.
“If they want to do it In jin
style,” said Minty, “it’s okay
with me. There’s no reason why
two can’t play at that game.”
“But dodgin’ round rock corners
ain't goin’ to find Alan,” Zeke pro
tested. "And our first job is to git
trace o’ that boy.”
If they declined to retreat, how
ever, they made their advance a
more circuitous one. When night
fall came they quartered off at an
angle, advancing craftily from rock
shadow to rock shadow, their old
eyes searching every ridge slope
and hollow. But they encountered
no sign of life. When weariness
overtook them one would sleep for
two hours while the other kept
watch.
"I don’t like this lull in things,”
observed Zeke as he blinked about
the silent ridges. "Makes me sus
picion them swan-hunters might be
puttin’ something over on us.”
"Let ’em try it,” barked Minty
after a look into his cartridge cham
ber.
Zeke’s weathered old face re
mained troubled.
“But while we’re pirootin’ through
these empty pine woods and Indulg
in’ our personal appetite for lead
slingin' they might be back-trackin’
to Alan's Snow-Ball Baby. And I
don’t want ’o see anything happen
to that boy's ship.”
"It won’t,” averred Minty, "while
I’ve still got a trigger to pull.”
"Then my vote,” said Zeke. "goes
to gittin’ back to that plane and
standin’ watch there until Alan
shows up."
Minty adjusted his blanket roll and
tightened his belt.
"I reckon you’re right for once,”
he conceded.
Seated on the barren shore of
his sub-arctic island, Alan Slade
knew a recurring pang of despair
much sharper than any pain in his
abused body
His first task, he told himself,
was to take in the circle of his
world, the only world that remained
to him. His steps grew steadier as
he mounted the shore slope and
worked his way up to one of the
bolder ridge crests.
From that vantage point he care
fully studied his island.
That island, he found, was not so
large as it had first seemed. So
far as he could see it was empty of
animal life. And this seemed con
firmed as he explored its irregular
shoreline. Along the rockier shore
to the east, where he had hoped to
stumble on driftwood, he found noth
ing beyond a tangle of bleached
boles and branches, the best of them
little thicker than a caribou-prong.
They were useful only as a reserve
of firewood.
The thought of a fire reminded
him that one of his first needs was
a shelter of some kind He knew
the north too well to nurse much
fear of marauding animals. More
than wandering bear or wolf, his
enemies there would be the vora
cious arctic mosquito and the black
fly that left a burning ring of poison
about its bite.
Under one of the higher crests he
found a rock-jut with an over-hang
ing lip that made a shallow cave.
The floor of that cave, he saw, he
could bed with dried moss and sedge
grass. The face of it he could close
in with loose rocks and a matrix of
scrub-timber branches from the
near-by slopes. It would not only
protect him from wind and rain but
with a smudge fire going in its en
trance it would be a defense against
mosquitoes and black-flies. It would,
for the time being, be his home.
To it he carried his beef-tin and
his chocolate, his sheath knife and
his precious little can of fishooks, to
gether with every carefully salvaged
foot of the equally precious cord that
had been cut from his wrists and
ankles. For on those strands of
cord, he remembered, might yet
hang his hope of deliverance. With
the evening coolness deepening
around him he felt the need of a
! fire. He regretted not having an
ax.
(TO BE COM I ^ I i i
NATIONAL
AFFAIRS
Reriewtd by
CARTER FIELD
Coming Election Has
Political Insiders
Guessing Again . . .
Effect of Bus Speed
Restrictions Debated...
Bell Syndicate—WNU Feature*.
WASHINGTON. — Though there
are always upsets in nation-wide
elections, the best opinions, obtain
able here at the political hub, are
that there will not be as many miss
ing faces as an actual result of the
election, when the next congress
convenes, as there will be due to
primaries and conventions.
In the senate, for instance, there
are very few close contests in pros
pect. The Democrats are hoping to
retire Henry Cabot Lodge of Massa
chusetts, and C. Wayland Brooks of
Illinois, to private life. Privately
they admit little hope of any other
gain. The GOP is hoping to knock
off Prentiss M. Brown of Michigan,
Theodore F. Green of Rhode Island
and Clyde L. Herring of Iowa.
But it is very difficult to find a
Democrat who is willing to bet
even money against either Lodge
or Brooks. Similarly it is dif
ficult to find Republicans willing
to lay even money against
Brown, Green or Herring.
Yet these are really the doubtful
seats. True, there is the case of
Senator George W. Norris of Ne
braska, running independent again,
but with the endorsement of Presi
dent Roosevelt and no serious Dem
ocratic opposition. There might be
a miracle which would put a Repub
lican in that seat. It would seem
about due, on the old doctrine of the
pitcher which went to the well once
too often.
Politics Always Perplexing
Massachusetts politics is always
perplexing—and dubious. The ad
ministration is most anxious to beat
young Lodge. He is too often em
barrassing. He not only knows too
much about the war, now since his
service in North Africa, and also
about domestic issues, but he has
some of the smartest political ad
visers extant.
That is the reason the adminis
tration leaders persuaded Joe Casey,
who had a sure Democratic district
for his house seat, to make the try
against Lodge.
Again the habits of voters over
a lifetime will help Lodge. The
Bay state ballot markers are
used to having a Lodge and a
Walsh in the senate. It is the
normal thing.
In Illinois the administration
lias been anxious to beat “Curly”
Brooks, and the Chicago Trib
une, FDR's pet hate among
newspapers, is just as anxious
to re-elect him.
Brook’s pre-Pearl Harbor lecord
did not hurt him, apparently, in the
primary, and his chances for the six
year term seem better than fair.
Of all the senators who have sur
vived the primaries and conventions
the one in most danger from the elec
tion seems to be Prentiss Brown of
Michigan, but the independent can
didacy of Gerald Smith, old Huey
Long and Father Coughlin lieutenant,
gives even him a sporting chance.
# • •
Problem: How Will
Bus Schedules Fare?
Time was when any governmental
move to cramp the style of inter
city busses would have been hailed
with loud cries of joy by the railroad
executives.
But the railroad men are wor
ried about the effects of the
recent order which will hold the
speed of all rubber-tired vehicles
to 35 miles an hour. No one in
either railroad or bus circles has
figured out how to maintain
present bus schedules at this re
duced speed.
Busses making long runs be
tween important cities have been
accustomed to running more
than 60 miles an hour whenever
possible.
Despite this high rate of speed on
the road; the schedule of most bus
lines has not been too attractive
when compared to the time of the
better trains between the same
points.
The inter-city bus runs as fast as
a train on the good stretches of
road, but it loses a lot of time going
through city streets to its downtown
terminals.
The competing train, running on
its own right of way, with tunnels
in two of those 'ities, and few grade
crossings, gains an enormous time
advantage.
As every passenger on a long
cross country bus ride knows,
the big loss of time is made at
the stops. Where a train would
stay in a station only a few min
utes, the bus generally stops 15
minutes or longer. It has to
make stops on long trips for the
passengers to get food.
Few trains make any stops today
for the convenience of its passen
gers.
All this adds up to a situation
which, beginning on October 15, will
put a heavy time penalty on the
bus passenger.
0
These Fashions Meet Demands
Of an Alert ’Teen-Age Group
By CHER IE NICHOLAS
FOR novelty, variety,
color intrigue, general
wearableness and utilitari
an service attuned to the
demands of youth; for that
young look that fashion
alert juniors and ’teen-ag
ers want in the clothes
they wear, this season's
entrants into the fall-win
ter fashion contest score
about 100 per cent perfect.
First and foremost, color is the
magic word that turns even the most
simple fashion into a thing of beau
ty, and it’s color that is stampeding
its way right through the entire
fashion picture this season. The
“big idea” centers brightly around
daring color contrast as interpreted
by the use of a jacket in one color
topping a skirt of another, or by the
use of materials of contrasting hues
seamed and patched together with
amazing adroitness.
A fashion that has completely cap
tured the fancy of modern youth is
the two-piece that tops a plaid or
checked wool skirt with a vivid vel
veteen jacket which is cunningly de
tailed with buttons and which relates
itself to the skirt it companions by
taking on a binding of its material.
It’s just as effective and style
correct to contrast monotones. A
fuchsia-purple skirt may be worn
with a fuchsia-red jacket, a bright
red jacket with an autumn leaf green
skirt and so on.
Every girl nowadays is building
her wardrobe around two basic
items, namely the softly styled
dressmaker suit and the little wool
dress that doesn’t miss a “trick” in
taking on fetching trimming detail.
Even the simplest little jersey frock
is audaciously taking on glitter
touches in way of nailheads and
jewelry-embroidered necklines, and
the latest gesture of the demure
jersey dress is to go so far as to
steal the glory of a sequin-embroid
j ered motif now and then. The in
triguing modes pictured in the above
illustration were given prominence
at a recent fashion revue present
ed by the style creators of Chicago
as types which have won the unani
mous vote of young girls.
It is evident that the suits shown
have succeeded in capturing the
I
spirit of youth which young moderns
demand. The suit to the right inter
prets the contrast idea in that it
teams a vivid Kelly green wool jack
et with a shallow pleated (comply
ing with priority rulings as to hem
line measurement) skirt of black.
The black binding around the jacket
effects a tie-up between skirt and
jacket-top that achieves a unified
costume. Self-fabric surface deco
ration is placed high on the jacket
front in a manner to suggest pock
ets.
The other suit is done in pale
beige wool with a slightly ribbed
surface. The prominence of beige
is notable in both dress and coat
collections. The slender gored skirt
and slit breast pockets and the gen
eral bid for simplicity which it
makes is in keeping with the fabric
conservation program. Note espe
cially the girlish round neckline
which is important fashion news. The
new square shoulder look is stressed
via deft seaming.
Every youthful wardrobe is sup
posed to have its quota of flattering
little one-piece frocks to wear under
the winter coat. The significant
thing about the two frocks pictured
is that they owe much of their charm
to bright yam trimming touches. It’s
a jersey-dress season and no mis
take! Both models pictured are
fashioned of natural wool and rab
bit’s hair jersey.
Style features of interest in the
dress to the right are the wool em
broidered pockets and the use of
wool yarn stitching about the neck
‘and shoulders. The tie-belt is also
an interesting detail. The two-piece
to the left features contrast sleeves
knitted of bright red yarn. The
edges, too, are finished off with
matched red yam.
Released by Western Newspaper Union.
Spaghetti Trim
Here is an effective use of the new
and smart “spaghetti" fabric loop
trim. There is an epaulet of the
loops at one shoulder and also a
modish peplum effect. This is one
of those good looking black dresses
that go anywhere in perfect style.
Smart styling features are the
long fitted-below-the-elbow sleeves
1 with the new deep armhole cut that
is now so extremely fashionable. The
slim, sleek silhouette so admirably
achieved is what every woman
covets. Designers are using self
trim, color contrast and sparkling
accents to achieve the variety so
noticeable this season.
‘Winter White’ Is
Again a Favorite
The young set adores “winter”
white for the date dress or for in
formal party wear. And so the craze
is on for whites and near whites as
it was last season. Favored materi
als in the much beloved white in
clude the new Aralac flannel, wool
and rayon mixtures and a very
smart looking wool and rayon boucle,
but the darling of all is the white
jersey frock that is enlivened with
gay yarn embroider# or vividly col
orful insets, jewel buttons or per
haps crocheted wool edgings and gilt
leather touches done in applique.
White fur, especially in boxy short
casual coats and capes, is also popu
lar. Young girls are wearing these
white fur casuals with slacks, and
later on they will be wearing them
with their skating costumes.
Priorities Coin a New
Word—‘Companion Suit
Women who are looking to the fu
ture are buying wisely and thought
fully. They look upon a suit of good
quality as the answer to their need
for a costume that will be ready to
wear on all but the most formal oc
casions.
Buying a "companion” suit made
up of jacket, skirt and matching long
topcoat this year is very different
from last year’s procedure. This
season priority rulings do not per
mit buying the three pieces as a
unit, the parts must be sold sep
arately. However, designers and
manufacturers are making it pos
sible to secure a perfect match even
if the topcoat must be purchased
separately.
CLASSIFIED
DEPARTMENT
WOOL and HIDES
WOOL A SHEEP PELTS WANTED
Now — At top cash priem. Writ•
UMULK WOOL COw, 4*3 M.Smsoma,CMe9g*
FARM FOR SALE
119 Amt. Best table-land farm In souther*
Greeley County, Nebr. Well Improved.
School on farm. One mile to state highway.
194 acres cultivated. Balance good native
grass. Priced right. Terms very attractive.
E. J. Frnhling. 819 Prairie St., Albion, Nebr.
TRADE SCHOOL
TRAIN FOR A GOOD JOB in war lndue
trics. Learn Auto, Diesel, Aviation Me
chanics, Welding, Lathe Machinist. Practi
cal training—low tuition. Free catalog.
Box 1780N, Hanson Trade Scbool, Fargo, N.D.
^AY little motifs — intriguing
little motifs—a multitude of
little motifs for guest towel em
broideries are given on pattern
Z9464. Every one of these is de
lightfully easy to do, so make your
spare moments productive by
using this pattern to replace your
own linens or make gifts.
• • •
There are His and Hers motifs, a crane
and a swan, three harmonious flower de
signs, and the dainty bluebird. Grand for
a fall bridet Pattern Z9464 la 15 cents.
Send yonr order to:
AUNT MARTHA
Boa 166 W Kansas City, Mo.
Enclose 15 cents for each pattern
desired. Pattern No.
Name ...
Address .
• In NR (Nature's Remedy) Tablets,
there are no chemicals, no minerals, no
phenol derivatives. NR Tablets are dif
ferent-art different. Purely vegetable—a
combination of 10 vegetable ingredients
formulated over 50 years ago. Uncoated
or candy coated, their action is de
pendable, thorough, yet gentle, as mil
lions of NR’s have proved. Get a lOe Con
vincer Box. Larger economy sizes, too.
'Ttour.
CANDY
COATED
REGULAR!
-1
Unity, Liberty, Charity
In things essential, unity; in
doubtful, liberty; in all things,
charity.—Rupertus Meldenius.
PENETRO
Many users say "first use is
• revelation." Has a base of
old fashioned mutton suet,
Grandma's favorite. Demand
stainless I’enetro. Generous
jar 251, double supply 354.
COLDS
COUGHING.
SNIFFLES.
MUSCLE
ACHES
Scorn of Evil
Nobleness of character is noth
ing but steady love of good, and
steady scorn of evil.—Froude.
CORNS GO FAST
Pain goes quick, corns
speedily removed when
you use thin, soothing,
cushioning Ur. Scholl's
Zino-pads. Try them I
WATCH
the-Special
You can depend on the spe
cial sales the merchants of
our town announce in the
columns of this paper .They
mean money saving to our
readers. It always pays to
patronize the merchants
who advertise. They are
not afraid of their mer
chandise or their prices.