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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1948-01-15, Page 6"SALANA Synopsis Chapter XXI: El Caballero Rojo rides -to meet the settlers. He ad- vised them to return home. Clark Weber--oee of the three in the wagon—who has heard of the re- ward on Valdezhead, attempts to capture hint. Chapter XXII If Michael Valdez noticed the sneer of Clark Weber's face, he gave no sign. Nor did his man- ner change when he noticed We- ber's hand sliding beneath the seat blanket, his body inching for- ward as if he sought to look around the girl beside him, and yet see behind her. Tense silet c reigned for half a minute. 'Then Weber spoke de- risively. "Why do you try to frighten us? What does it mean to- you whether we go or stay?" 'Frighten you?" Valdez's tone -was mild. "If good advice scares you, then Madre ch.. Dios help the three of you—when you're settled down there," H. nodded toward the valley below, lit up by leaping scarlet flames. * "YOU% never nttil one of us to D o n Attero's Cross!" Weber challenged sharply. "You'll never set any of our buildings afire! Because you've seen your own last sunrise!" Few men could have snatched out and leveled a six-gun as fast as Clark Weber did while he pro- nounced that sentence of death. But even faster, Valdez's gaudily gloved hand lashed out from where it had dangled near his holster. Gun metal caught the moon's silvered rays. Flame leap- ed forth, Lead crunched into Clark Weber's gun. He cried out in pain as his weapon slid from limp fingers. Valdez 'toleteeed his smoking Colt. His eyes above the necker- chief and his voice were still mild when he said: 'If you r.! that again, hombre, do it faster—and not when you are looking str :ght at me." The girl recovered her power of speech, looking at El Caballero Rojo as she asked a question. "You're sure that—" "I've told you what I know," the strange apparition said. Valdez backed El Cielo into the shadow of a rock and horse and rider disappeared. There was no Amund, for he had gone as silently as he had come. For long awed moments the trio en the wagon seat did not move. Then suddenly, with a harsh (ejaculation, Clark Weber jumped to the ground and retrieved the gun that had been shot from his hand. The hand itself, he saw, had been nr more than scratched, but the shock of the bullet had done what El Caballero Rojo had intend it to "Curse him." Weber growled. ''rhe next tune—' "He might not be as generous Maxon finished for him. "He was only trying help us. Why did you draw that gun on him?" "Because he's worth money plenty of it -- dead or alive," Weber growled surlily, angered even at the girt he profen d to love. "I'd heard enough about him — and now that I know he is in these parts, I see how we're going to make it quick, paying- the balance due Bartle on our land." "With this man's body?" Chet Maxon demanded savagely. "You won't pay anything I owe — or El- len owes — with blood money. You mean you'd really stoop that low, Clark — after he Went out of his way to warn us to expect trouble?" 'Warned like funl" flared Weber. "It wouldn't surprise nie to know he crucified that man he said -was on that ere:Ss, and set that fire we Ian,. Whether he'clid it or not, Pm paying more 'attention for a while to get that red-headed Mex outlaw than I am to farming." Without a word Chet Maxon picked up the reins. The wagon creaked on. Even before it turned the bend and stopped near the ghastly cross, the silence of fear and disillusion dropped like a clam- my blanket over the plodding settlers. On Chet Maxon's side of the trail stood the ghastly cross. On his sister's side, far below, glowed the ember of the fire they had seen, but which now was dying down, . It was as if some mocking son of Satan had prepared the welcoming signs. Only an hour before, young Burr Aldinan, nicknamed "Straw" be- cause of his red -gold hair and freckled face, had been sitting across the table from his father, a hard-working tobacco farmer in Deep Water Valley. Burr, the son, was hard-working also, and he and his father had been figuring on their prospects. There was elation in both their hearts as they reached the conclusion that the contents of their - crammed drying shed would sell for enough to take up the next note on the farm. 4. * * "One thing we ain't figured, son," the old man told Straw ominously. "The fellers who are raising all the ructions in this here valley and burned Mike Chapman's drying shed. They killed Steve Ransom, too. We ain't taking no chances with them coming after us, at) to- morrow morning we start baling and hauling that tobacco out of here." But that had been an hour ago. Now young Burr Aldman was kneeling so close to the smoking ruins of the shed that he could feel the heat from the ashes. And stretched before him on the ground was his father — Isis life's blood - draining from a stomach wound. "I told you, son," old Aldman gasped. "It wasn't only Chapman and — and Ransom they wanted riddance of. Them beefinen ain't stopping at — at anything till they've run out -- every tobacco man in the valley." Straw Aldman was twenty-one. Or he had beer+ up to minutes be- fore. He was like a man of forty or more now, as bitter as gall, with but one purpose in life — to find the man who ha ' tossed that torch into the drying shed; the man who had fired point-blank at his unarmed father who had tried to stop the arson. * * "Yes, Dad," he wheezed out. "Pee -linen, Curse 'eml I'll pay every one of them b ck, coin for coin, till either lead or rope stop Inc." "No, son," the farmer's weak voice protested. "That's not the way. The thin.; for you to do is to get out of this hole of the devil. See — Russ Bartle. He'll help you find somebody to buy the farm. He's a good man, son. He'll help you. But get out of this Deep Water Val- ley. Start as soon as your brother Sam gets back home. You and Sam pull out of here tonight. Promise me that, Burr." "All right, Dad," the young man said reluctantly. "I -- I hate like all thunder to make a promise like that, but —" He stopped short, staring at bis father. For the next moment old Aldman died, stretched on the soil that nature had touched with such a prodigal hand. * * * The red-headed young man taw gored to his feet. His weary eyes to the smoldering ash -heap. Then shifted from the corpse of his father suddenly his teeth clicked together as he spun on his heels, snatching out the six-gun that was tucked be- neath his belt. But as swiftly he remembered. . "That you, $s111 he called hope - t filly. When there was no answer and he still heard approaching footsteps, • Record -Breaking Baby is 1,000th to be born this year in St. Joseph's Hospital, Chatham. The little girl shown here with her ' mother, Mrs. Frank Phelan of Stanley St., Blenheim, arrived Christmas Eve and was walked up and down the ward corridor by Santa Clatts.hhuself. Sister's Children Invade Girl's Home A YOUNG GIRL is about to declare * war on her married sisters. They, * with their children, invade her private lif e in such a way that s he cannot en- joy her own home. I quote from her letter: "Suppose y ou had an army of married sisters, each of whom brings back * home the trials, worries and cares * attendant upon every marrlage. * Suppose their children, parapher- * nalia, et al, visit your home 365 * days a year as surely as the sun * rises? Suppose their code of think- * ing to be: 'Want to take a job? * Step out any day? Why not? * Palm the children off on Mo- * ther. She's always home, and * you don't have to pay herl'" * "Snppose you could never ask * your' friends in because your * living room .15 perpetually clut- * terrcd with diapers, rattles, * blankets, booties and toys? Sup- * pose you're tired of bumping * into carriages, playpens, veloci- * pedes? Suppose you hesitate to * bring your young man home be- * cause it's too much like taking * him into a day nursery, or pro- * jecting him into a young ma- trons' society with their one- * track conversation? * "Suppose your parents were * weary unto death of this, but * believe it their- duty to be help- ful if it kills them? * "And worse, suppose your * heart is broken to see your * home's furnishings abused just * because they are unpretentious? * (My sisters have beautiful * homes of their own.) * ":SupPose they , never consider * knocking when they drop in any * hour of the day or night, or whether it is convenient for you * to receive them? (We, however, * must observe all proprieties * when visiting them.) Suppose * they all, including the small fry, * fed that they have a real share * in this home, without owing it * a particle of respect? * "And suppose your point- * blank request that they stay * away occasionally meets with * visits of redoubled length and * clamor? * "Talking is not going to * change them. We can't pull up * stakes and leave. I suppose we * must wait till the children grow * up before we can have peace, * And by then I'll be middle-aged * and these children will be bring- * ing home the flext generation to • again his six-gun was flung upward. His finger danced on the trigger. "Keep coming!" he commanded. A slight figure in ragged overalls came 10 the dying glow of the ruins. Straw Aldman glowered, then slightly relaxed. This was not the killer of his father, the men who had set fire to the drying shed, He had managed to get one glimpse of that man, a distant glimpse, -as he had rushed from the house at the sound of shots. That fellow with the torch and gun had been taller than this ragged figure, had moved like one who was much older. (To be (.tkronued) RIRST] • * plow roughshod through our * homel * "1 don't dislike children. If I * could, I'd marry and have my * own. All I ask is the chance to * be free to enjoy. my own home.- * Only God can help us through * this, I know; but a few ideas * from an outsider might save my * sanity—I might use this to write * a tragi - comedy or something! * Please answer soon." "TO GRIN AND BEAR IT.:" Does ,our mother know how bit- terly you feel about this monopoly of your hontet This is for her to han- dle. she should not oblige your sis- ters on nights when you have a date at home. Also, they should not leave the children's toys, etc., overnight. Your mother feels a natural pride that her daughters can count on her. But until you marry, the home is your home, too, and your privacy in it should be protected. Stop worry- ing, though, about how your dates regard this disorder, They're not so squeamish as you are. Hurry lip and pick your own young man and have your own home! Then you can park your babies with your mother, too. Every girl needs some privacy in her own hone, and every mother should try to arrange that she gets it. -Ann-e Hirst can help mother and daughter. Write her at Box A, Room 421, 73 Adelaide St., West, Toronto. Sunday School Les -son 13y Rev R. What We Know About God D -145,1149 :i'28-31; John 14: 8-14. G5C11'zt=but it isinsb1e1iFpletsehim. For h, that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.— Hebrews 11:18, Barclay Warren • what God the Father is like? Them read the- life of Jesus and become acquainted with Him as your peri somal Saviour and you will know the Father. The lesson closes with, a chal- lenge. There is a great work for us to do. It is to tell the world about Him. Jesus regards this as in a sense greater than the miracles which He, up to that time, had wrought, There is also the chal- lenge to pray. Dare we accept it? "If ye shall ask anything in my Name, I will do it." God lives and rewards those who in faith, dili- gently seek Him. New Old Joke A youth leader said, "If you want -to keep young, stay around young people; if you want to get old, try and keep up with them." How truly, he spoke! But Isaiah summons us to a source of strength greater than the springs of youth. "Even the ,youths. shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk and not, faint." ,Not only is the Eternal God, the Creator of the earth, a Being of unlimited strength but He is able to give of His strength to those who call upon Him. There are times when we need to spar as with eagles' wings above the confusion and din of a sin -torn weary world. But it is equally hnportant to be . able to walk and not faint. The mother of the little children, often feels the need of moral strength and courage to carry, on the humdrum duties of everyday life. She doesn't ask for eagles' wings to get above them but for strength to walk and not faint Isaiah also says of God "There is no searching of His understanding.". He who can trust the infinite wis- dom of God in the hour of stark tragedy has a strong consolation. * * Many who think well of Jesus Christ regard God the Father as a stern, austere Being who is not nearly as sympathetic with humani- ty as His Son. This is a false notion Jesus said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father!' His words and works are of the Father who dwelleth in Him. Would you know How Can I? By Anne Ashley Q. How can I clean windows and glass easily, and also give the glass a nice polish? A. By using a lintless cloth dip. ped in a solution of two table- spoonfuls of household ammonia to two quarts of water. Q. How can I give an added gloss to the linen? A. A gloss can be produced by making the hot starch with soapy water. This also prevents the iron from sticking to the goods. 0. How can I improve the fla- vor and the texture of fudge? A. Both the flavor and tex- ture will be improved if a small spoonful of cornstarch is added. .. Q. How can I distinguish fresh fish from spoiled fish? A. By looking at the gills and the eyes. The gills of fresh fish are red and the eyes are clear. ISSUE 2-1948 Question: "Who was the lady I saw you with the other night in that sidewalk cafe?" Answer: "That was no sidewalk cafe—that was our furniture—we're living there." /ROYAL 1457174111 DRY Y crEAS? s PAST STAYS, FRESH ! Standarcilirands "'entreat 7 Toronto -Winnipeg.-Vancouver It's here! New Fleischmann's Royal Fast Rising Dry Yeast, the modern granule form that's always there when you want it. No need to keep it in the icebox—New Fleischmann's Royal Fast Rising Dry Yeast stays fresh in the cupboard for weeks—ready at any time for speedy action. Just dissolve according to directions- on the package; IF YOU BAKE AT HOME—you'll be amazed at its fast rising action—delighted at the delect• able flavor, finer texture it gives to breads. Order a month's supply of New Fleischmann's Royal Fast Rising Dry Yeast today. At your grocer's; o1111.111-7:7-.1