unday Bee
magazine' section!
vol. 52 no. ir,.
OMAHA, SUN'DAV MOIININC, M.IT..MI.KK 21. 1922.
KIVK I'KNTS
THE OUTLAW
By Arthur Stringer
The
It All Started When Cosgrave Set Out
to Arrest the Girl Whose Turban Was
oj Forbidden Herring Gull Plumage,
Topped off With a Snowy Egret.
COSGRAVI' first saw t he snowy egret at lie turned
into Fifth avenue al Thirty-third sin i t. Iff 1iaJ in
tended walking south, to his publisher's ofhee, but
lie promptly headed not th. For that egret was to
bini very much wlj.it an aniseed linn might be to a beagle
or wli.it a rid rag might lie to a bull.
Nor was it the .snowy egret alone that awakened bi.s
anger. 'J lie thing seemed doubly offensive because the
wind-tossed white feathers cascaded about a small and
slightly tiptiltcd turban most unmistakably made of herring
gull's plumage. Anil both were interdicted; were illegal a
hat ornaments. He bad no knowledge as to who was wear
ing these forbidden decorations, but he had his
own opinion of the woman who would deck herself
out in such tilings. She was a violator of the law.
an enemy of the precious wild life that her petty
vanities bad all but exterminated.
Vet so briskly did site walk up the carlv morn
ing avenue that J'bilip Co-grave, was compelled to
follow her for three blocks before catching up with
her. When he did so be tapped her on the arm,
very much as a patrolman might. She turned
sharply, at that unlocked for alfront, and made lwr
shoulder movement away from him a perceptible
one. Hut his stern eye was fixed on the snowy
egret.
"I suppose you know you're breaking the law
in wearing those feathers," he proclaimed, notic
ing for the first time that the soft gray of the hrr-ring-gull
plumage matched the soft gray of her
eyes.
"What feathers?" she demanded, with open
hostility on her face. It was a pretty enough face,
but Cosgrave had no intention of permitting a pret
ty face to come between bint and a moral obliga
tion. "The feathers on your hat there," he anonnnced,
with all the acerbity at his command.
"Is it any particular business of yours what I
wear on my hat?" she challenged, resuming her
walk up the avenue and compelling him to fall into
step or be left hhind. She was looking straight
ahead of her by this time, and he noticed the qu:cl
flush of annoyance which had deepened the color
ing of her oval cheek.
"It's very much my business," asserted Cos
grave, nettling under her obvious contempt. "It's
my business, not only as a member of the Migra
tory Birds' Protective association and an officer
of the Audubon society, but also as a decent citizen
decently interested in seeing our laws enforced."
"From which I am to infer that I'm not even
a decent citizen," she said, smiling for the first
time. Her face, he noticed, was not as hard as
he had expected. The head wearing the snowy
egret, indeed, bad just nodded gayly to an old
lady in sables, stepping out of a limousine.
I hat, he told the girl at his side, is not the
important point."
"Then what is?" she demanded.
"The fact that there's a law against the use of '
the snowy egret and herring-gull plumage as ap
parel and that you are at the present moment
breaking that law."
Her gloved hand went up to the tiptiltcd tur
ban, giving it, if possible, a slightly saucier angle
than before.
"Would you be good enough to tell me of that
law?" she said, quite solemnly. And Cosgrave ex
plained to her the enactment of ffie migratory
birds' convention act, after which he told her, as
graphically as he could, how4hc dorsal plumes of the Ameri
can egret, the Ardea candidissima, were plucked during the
breeding season, and how such pot-hunting for venal mil
liners had almost succeeded in exterminating otic of the
loveliest of the native herons.
"You know, I never thought of that," she said, favoring
him with her first oblique glance of appraisal.
"Too few of you do," snapped Cosgrave. determined not
to be sidetracked by any last-moment parade of humility.
"Hut in some cases," she gently suggested, "there may
be extenuating circumstances."
"That." he coldly announced, "is a matter for the court
to decide."
"The court?" she echoed, sweeping him with still an
other sidelong glance.
"They are maintained for precisely that purpose," he
announced.
"Am I to understand, then, that you insist on pro
claiming me a lawbreaker "
The peach blow that had come into her cheeks, Co
gravc noticed, had now 'given way to a gardenia-white.
"Isince you are breaking the law, 1 intend to see that
voii'te arrested," be s4'd. with a firmness which kept her
silent ior a full halt block.
"lo you realize just how humiliating that might be to
mi she finally aked
"It should be humiliating to any woman ni imagination,
ni on !jj nation enough to perceive how much sultet iik her
ae i can impose on the dumb creatures oi this earth!"
lie si,.ke with more heat, peihjps. than he ha I intended.
Hut in the tiptilti'd tin ban and the woman hfnle him he
i.nind something on which to renter bis nebulous h.itrrd for
tli.se i !y peacoiks who linked them, elves out ill bathers
an I mi i rav aged from tbc hod (i oi I eel s helples ereatui e
,,1 III,- w.ld
' Ion a.tiise Ine ol ciil!tv, of unthinking rruiltv," the
beside f on i s jtt, ttiat 'lint don't voU thmk that de
ll.. .t ntrlu i quite as hud - the other kind.' And you
. I. miu ib I In nieb, t ru I with mr "
Mi . wn (nll.," n no... mo el. "ir, in t oiiptxt Hit.
lii .' s i s its .Hid V i "it bt ke o "
him. Ami be r a nlcd the momentary show of timidity in
her eyes.
"'I he law oi ih'vahy, of tolerance," hr t.dd him, "of
(p-iicrosity toward the weak."
"Von don't inipiess as weak," lie cuitly informed her.
''lint 1 am a woman "
"A woman Mihject to the laws of your land," he ror
reeled.
"Hut m have so many laws," the protested with a mi ni
cotine l.ttle gesture,
"And an equally reglettabte frequency of violation," lie
amended, net in bin purpose that no feminine blandishment
idioiild steer him away from the straight and narrow path
ol duly. And that duty seemed plainer than ever .n lu
looked up ami daw, a block ahead of him, the blue iiiiifoiin
of a policeman mi patrol.
"Can't we RO somewhere and talk this over quietly?" the
girl suggested, also conscioim, apparently, of the otlicrr'
approach.
"I imagine we've laid about a'I there in to say," was
Cosgravc's altogether unsympath. tie rejoinder. He had been
A m A
loved you and wanted
to be with you."
examining her vvitii .
him, in a vague sort
of
ipcronal glance. It annoyed
.. ..it,
il H
...I v.iu trail bi ill If another .til U ?
oi. I i ed
!ei ' he d o, .( d
i'. i I tiji at In. i t. 4 1 b '' !'e .t i(rH
way, to discover Iier crown of
interdicted plumage perversely added to her beauty.
"And you insist on this public humiliation?" she asked,
without looking at him.
"I insist that a law which I helped to frame should be i
respected," he maintained. And she nodded, comprthend
ingly, after turning that statement over for a moment or
t wo.
"You must hale me very much," she said, with her
meditative Mona Lisa smile.
He resented that essentially feminine, tendency to reduce
everything to the personal. His one desire, he reminded
bimelf, was to remain judicial, And he strove to sustain
that pose by staring pointedly at her headgear as he re
marked: "1 am a member of the auduhon society."
"Which .means, I take it, that you love birds much
more than you do human beings," she siigested, with
out bitterness,
"I'm alt aid you w ill be quite unable to argue me out of
what I've accepted as a matter of conscience," he au
iiouuied to the I'lid stiue in silken hosiery and serge beside
nun. i he nine soul she could claim, he began to fee
. 1 i. - ii i i i
inn sriinuig sum oi one wnicti sue got eveiv
from her null ner and her ntasciise.
"O, it's cnscieiice " she said, with a small l and ges
turrioi enlightenment. And be thished, m .iite himself,
as she add. (. "That, of course, leaven it qulie hou hss'" '
el, even as she spoke, she quickened her pace and
stepped slightly ahead of linn. teine ,e cniihl fully
naiie the iiii.oiuig u that nuiieoiivi r she sloiM'd hoi l
b. ioie the appioai hmg figure in the blue uniform.
' Oihur," she promptly proilaimed, ' tbn nun U an.
tioving me."
the iqiaque Cillic eve leisiirily and nonr Phi ai.proV
ing!v uispe i led t u'suir'i person 'I lien it ipnte n b isuie
U and nnii h more a.pr..i .nly uispei ted the kul nf.innn
ll'i" lierrniai Iurti4ii.
' Il.i vuh know bun'" inquired the (. Iiifiiian.
"I in vi r saw him bef .re h. 4crolrd lur bri on lh
Uil.' .ia her u,t.., ir,. ld to.rve wmtrj
Bi t. . i H it 4 tbf "4n osied"
vuh Vi ,m bun rtle. iiuiiod tht t-H'ivr,
Ha,. Ii d,. ii . 4ut b in nn..inj me.' iil rtd
was
morning
I ' i
"I i
tU-
u d lb,
.1 t.
with an. .tiler lutie to flail' ling inspection of the luau be
tide lu i .
Cosgrave, at that, felt that he bad riidimd about
i lioueh.
"l In the loliliary, ofii.er, I want this, woman aiH-sted!"
"So y ii Ii want her arrested :" repeated ilie sidl'Impai
Dive Ccllie xiant. "And Jul why khoiild juli be waiitui'
ln-f arrested.'"
"l or breaking the law in wearing those egiri feather
on her li.it," nnnotmrrd ( osgiave.
'1 inmihy s McArthur, the oflicer, inspreled the egret
feather.
"And how'm I t'know them'a eagh I (eaihers?" ut
quired the large bodied mall in blue,
"h gret," rorreited losgravc.
"Well, whatever you call "rm, they suit the lady fine,
to my wav o' tlinikin'l '1 hey may be eaglet teatheii and
they may he r'Mistcr feather. Hut yuh've got a divd of a
lot to do, you big oinadhaun, wanderin' around and pek
in' your long nose into what a gerrl' wearin' on her bead.
Yuli' better be getlin' bai k to the millinery department.
I don't care who yuh are or what yuh are. Yuli'
be on you way. And if yuh speak to this gerrl
agj'n I'll Rather yuli in o quick yuh won't know ,
an eaglet feather from the tail id a Coihin-.
China-!" i
The one thing Cosgrave noticed was that the
oval face under the herring gull tin ban was wear
ing the softest of smiles.
"Well nie t again perhaps," she said over her
shoulder.
"I hope that never happens, retorted Co
grave, with a glance at the nightstick of the m
tervening Celtic giant, implacable as fate, point
ing in a direction opposite to that which the
girl in the snowy egiet was taking.
Hut Cosgrave and the fuiowy egret girl did
meet again. They met unexpectedly nil the sec
ond evening alter bis lertuie on "The (iulf HirH
Sanrtuaries," wdien he was dining at the Woleotts'.
He was unaware of her presence there until a
footman, going from group to chattering group,
passed around the cocktails. She turned on him
suddenly as he took a diffident sip of the amber
mixture which meant so little to him.
"Doesn't your conscience trouble you?" she
demanded, with an accusatory eye on the glass in
his hand.
"Why should il ?" he asked, noticing that she
wa; l'oliing lovelier than ever in her dmner gown
of nasturtium n il. Hut there was no mistaking the
enmity behind her pose of levity.
"Don't you know that you are breaking one of
the laws of this laud?" she magisterially inquired.
"1 never thought much about it," he retorted as
he put down his glass.
"Hut there are so many who never think much
about it," she pointed out with mock solemnity.
He was able to laugh a little, but he could see that
she was still intent op making him ridiculous.
"Few of us are perfect," be observed, though
he wa wondering at the time why nothing stood
to devastating as the scorn of a beautiful woman.
"Yet go many of us demand perfection in oth
ers," she proclaimed. She said it light-heartedly
enough, but he was not unaware of the saber
sheathed- in rose leaves. He stood studying her
(ace with an impersonal intentness which brought
the faintest touch of color into her cheek.
"I 'fancy it' going to be hard for ns to be
friends," she observed, with her disconcerting small
mile.
"I rather imagine it's going to be quite impos
sible," he found the brutality to retort.
lie was sorry, the next moment, that he bad
said it, and he was still sorrier when, a few min
utes later, he found himself confronted by the
lugubrious pleasure of taking her to dinner. He
had tto wish to nurse grudges. But he was not
unconscious of the enmity which she necessarily
entertained for him. And he hail small liking for the type.
He flattered himself that he knew it only too well, the youth
fully arrogant and unchallenged, the indulged and sell in
dulgent and blightingly derisive jettne hlle of modern
America, imperious in her pursuit of pleasure, tiading casii
aly on her beauty, and cynically persuaded that both the
problems and the laws of this world were for persons other
than herself. What began to puzzle him, however, was her
sustained air of meekness. It reminded him, in a disturbing
sort of way, of the dis.siinulative wounded bird movement
of the mother pheasant when frightened from the nest.
"It's a small world, isn't it?" she observed toward the end
of a dinner which could still show perversely pleasant mo
ments to him. "Especially to the evil doer "
Ue asked her why she said that.
"liecause I've discovered that it's on Lake Trevor yiit
have your bird sanctuary. And I find that I'm to spend 4
month with the Wolcott's, almost side by side with it."
"I shudder to think of the cotisiqucncrs!" He was able,
however, to smile as he said it.
"Your fears, I feel, are quite groundless," she countered,
with her quiet smile. "I intend, in fa. t, to find out a gie.it
deal about bird life,"
"I trust it will change voiir p .ml of view," he rcniaikrd,
wondering why she should sn studying him with such 4
meek and iiieJiUtive eve Yet his sense of triumph in scot
iiiit against a too open-banded enemy wj not as enduring
as it might have hern, For, a few minutes later, he bad the
dubious pleasure of hearing her rente to a yun'h whom shu
addressed as "Kennie" the lines of a new- song wiinh l e
lightly asked him to et lev liuisie,
"It ends up. Kfiiiuf, something like this
"Remember, gentle neighbor, t'-en
"Ii wroig to ti-aie the bat;
Fuibrate ibf ha lifrr in ii ibn,
II friendly oh the fit.
tol love the bttle t.inliri h
Ihry bve you, tit If tl:
And nff pluck the ioii wren
"In dm. nie , nr t''"
t'"S(tt4 tinned !os, h . t nd lo,.ked tl the g'4
tth Hi.h,:. ihrk
"Your poem." h lolenmlv mf it ned rrr, 'a nuiili pit
tit r than lb ieoii, whh m-fixd it "
(' lueii'lv shr.itf tt A 1 Vi .'r bo ibb f nn h'f it itf.
iter nirtillrd ((rap ' i .ii ,..' b viou 'y icautkti, ' t'l
1
