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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance Times, 1935-10-31, Page 6�Il,i'1II: Fine Serial Fiction in a new form, .. Three "rice S • ort Stories (of four instelmer is ,ich) b e „ ter Is teller, They're Rex Beach et his best, FINAL INSTALMENT The nett he knew I3etty Durham wa:t holding his head in her Tan and splashing water into his face, It struck him as queer that the 'lamp should be burning when only the fraction of an instant before all had been darkness. Mechaniaclly Benmade an effort to rise, but could not manage it. "Must have hit on my head;" he xnunibly thickly; and raised groping lingers, Then he at up. He knew Trow that he had not fallen into a pit. "Where are they? What's -happen - Betty was sobbing wildly; her hair hung in a cascade about her shoulders; she was clad only in her nightdress, :and it was soaked with the water she ,had poured over :lien to revive him. Beside the open door to the hall lay the wreck of a chair; two of its legs were splintered, broken off: Ben real- ized more clearly now what it was that had crashed upon his head. With an effort he scrambled dizzily to his feet, Water was trickling,into his eyee and blinding him; he brushed it away, - then discovered, to his great surprise, that it .was not water at all, but blood, his c.wn blood. His head felt twice its normal size; lois brain did not func- tion clearly and his limbs refused to obey him: Betty's voice carne to him as if from a long distance; she was telling hire ., , suma:eltint;, trytnt, to make him under- stand c stand that they were alone in the house and that their assailant had flet.!. When this became plain to Furlong, he sat down. It was some time before the girl succeeded in stanching the flow of blood from the wound, for she was scarcely in condition to render help o anybody. By the time her task was completed Ben had managed to get a pretty clear idea of what ,had happened. She had been awakened by a sound and had realized that some- body was in her room; she had utt- ered a frightened challenge, only to feel groping hands upon her, to find herself in the graps of some unseen. e i e SSRI$ that it was the sound of his corning that had interrupted the attack, His plight had done a good deal to bring her back to herself, but now she threatened to again abandon her self- control. Furlong. checked this by saying: "Betty Durham.! You've got nothing He seized Betty, whirled her around and yelled, "Run! Get back!" person. She retained no very clear re- collection of any thing after that; the rest was hideous nightmare. Not un- til the miscreant had bolted out of the house and she had finally :manag- ed somehow to strike a light was she made aware of the reason for his iflight. Then she had stumbled over Ben and had realized that it was his I voice she had heard calling to her, t For ' a anareatt Betty stared at the speaker with shaking fingers she plucked at her dress, It was in a thin, reedy voice that she said: "It wasn't Maddox," "How do you know?" "Oh, I know! It wasn't Maddox." "Are you sure?" The girl nodded, and Ben bowed his throbbing head in his hands. "I'm glad," he groaned. "Providence certainly brought me back, It wouldn't happen that way once in a thousand times, Whoever it was, I'll find hire." Both the man and the girl were in wretched condition, The rest of -the night they, sat together, watching the clock and listening for a possible re- turn of the marauder, waiting for the day to break. It was shortly after they had fin- ishedbreakfast that Furlong was sur- prised to, discover signs of activity, movements, goings-on at. the well which caused him to' stare fixedly, then to announce, incredulously: '"Say! I believe Maddox is fixing to shoot the well!" Betty took her place at his side. "Why—he can't! He dassen't! The powder men won't be here till to-mor- row." o-morrow." "All the same; he's doing something queer. See those cans—those shiny things?" "You couldn't hire Tiller to touch nitroglycerine. He's scared of it—" Ben uttered an oath. "I tell you he's filling those cartridges. He's crazy! You've got to stop him!" Betty turned white; she shook her head. "I won't go near the place. It's —it's Aunt Mary's well:" "Then I'll stop him. Why, it's ten to one he'll sear the rock, ruin the whole job and—Damned if` I don't believe he's trying to do that very thing!" - r i on butyour nightie! 1Betty clungto him. When he pushed It was some time later.when the girl emerged from her room, dressed on past her she followed him. Toge- after a fashion, to find her deliverer ther they hurried across the field and v, citing in the kitchen with a scowl took the path through the mesquite. puon his face. As they went the girl continued to im- ( "You got a gun?" he inquired, plore him not to interfere. Halfway to the drilling camp they met the engineer hastening towards the farmhouse, and the latter an- , harshly. "No, Ben, Why?" "I'm going to kill Maddox." . Furlong started forrthe door but ETHIOPIA'S SECOND CITY AWAITING AIR BOMBARDM ENT Filteringthrr,ugl) the censorship conies storia;s of l,la rat — the second city of Ethiopia and a"tt(titnl of Ogaden ese whie'lr tell of privation, fear 'and suspicion. V. Drees, Acme photo- grapher, who escaped from Mara hid- den in a truck, sent these pictures as the inhabitants waited in hourly fear of at bomb attack from the air. ltarar nounced, breathlessly: Tiller's gone plumb off his nut! He's goin' to shoot the well himself:.You better stay clear." Furlong dashed pats the speaker and emerged from the shelter of the bushes in time to see Maddox ging- erly swing a long; cylindrical tin ov- er the well mouth and guide it into the opening. A new manila rope had been run through a block on the der- rick, and with this he lowered the charge. Ben yelled at him; he waved his arms. Maddox glanced over hie shoulder, then let the line slide • Smoothly through his hands. "Take my tip an' don't go too close, the engineer shouted. "He ain't no powder man an' that well's niakin' gas. She blows off every few mixt- utes." Betty seconded this waning in frantic tones of appeal; "Let him go, Ben. :fie knows what he's cluing, You've got no right stopping him. You'll just make trouble--" "It's none of my business," the lat- ter agreed, impatiently, "but there's something crooked--" He ceased speaking; then he seized Betty and, whirled. her around with the sharp command, "Run! Get back!" They were still perhaps a hundred yards from the well, but Furlong's practiced eye had seen something that suddenly raised' the hair On his head. That rope from which wets suspended the heavy charge of liquid death no longer hung vertically, it no longer ran over the block and into the cas- ing; instead it was `falling in loops about Middo.. It was coming up Ott of the weld! Maddox himself was alive to what 'had happened. That which he most greatly feared bad come upon 1dm, and he also turned to ,flee, But the platform was slippery or 'else he trip- ped over the rope and fell The oth- ers heard his cry of terror. Hequick- ly 'regained his feet, but to Furlong it seemed as if his Movements there, alter were mea slow and delib- erate, The engineer's apprehensions bad been well grounded; Once again gas bad been released fax ,down in the earth, and now, like breath forced from the longs of some tortured giant, it rose, propelling the smoothly fitting cartridge of nitroglycerine ahead of it Fos it per is propelled out of a pea. shooter, It was a pheaotnenott by no meant; unusual hi a well as unstable irm its balance of forces as this one. In fact, tinder like cnnditione hone. but madman would have dared to risk ;v addox'c maneuver, i The latter had not put fifty feet be- , hind hitn, when ftp opt of the well month shot the gleaming tin cylinder, :lireetly above and in its path hung alae massive fort -fool steel bit eus- pencled froxti its Vire cable. What ,litt;ppened text the observers were never able to agree upon, batt tote world dissolved itro art. inferno still is held by the Ethiopians, with desultory fighting continuing;"on three aides, (I) A view of Rarer from with- in the gates. (2) The market place in 'E'bu'ar, of t•anolce and flame and the sudden- ness of if' rocked tint sky, upheaved the earth. The two came together with a cataelysmio roar. Furlong and Betty Durham were tossed headlong, flung down like straws. When they scrambled to their feet, dazed; shaken, terrified, it was to find themselves cm- veloped in a mighty cloud of dust. The eighty -foot tower of heavy tim- bers was gone; in an instant it had utterly vanished, Where it had been was a shallow, smoking crater, Slint- ers of planking, debris of every sort, were. scattered far and wide; particles of earth'and gravel were raining from the heavens with the sound of a heavy hailstorm; nothing in the neghbor- hood of the well remained except the boiler and engine, and the former lay upon its side. Even the bushes had been whipped out, uprooted, shaved off as by a sweeping scythe. That afternoon Furlong's friend, the engineer, came over the farmhouse with a : considerable bundle in his arms. "How's Betty?" he inquired. "She's all 'right, but pretty well bruised, of course." "Well, I guess there's nothin' more us boys can do, so we're goin' in to town." "Right: I'll stay here until Mrs. Durham gets back." "Here's all of Tiller's. stuff that we could find. I reckon you better look after it." "Anything else besides clothes?" "Not much, ,A few letters an' things we found in his bunk. Miz' Durham face had grown black and theatening can keep 'em in case he's got relatives. his fingers were working as he storm - There's one suit of clothes that would fit me. No use to 'throw 'em away. Say! It's funny how scared he was of powder. It musts been a hunch." Shortly after the engineer had left, Ben came to Betty with a queer light in his eyes. In his hand he held a soiled sheet of foolscapcap paper. er. "Feel strong enough to stand ,an- other explosion?" he inquired with an effort to suppress his agitation. "Well —the queerest thing—! This farm doesn't belong to your aunt Mary, af- ter all; it belongs to you.!" The girl gasped; she voiced some breathless query,, but Ben ran on: "Your uncle Joe left it to you, just as he promised. He left everything to you, except a thousand dollars to her. This is his will and Maddox had it . I guess it's a good will, even though your uncle wrote it himself. Anyhow it's wit- nessed by two people --Maddox :grid another, From , the date I figure it must have ,been sig;'raed jest a day or so before he was killed," . 'Where did it come from? How did Maddox--" "I've figured that out, too. Mr. Dur- ham must have had it in his pocket when Maddox found Bial . That would expl,dn everything _-- how be made your. aunt do just what hewanted and why ;she' didn't dale to fire him." "That's why she said I'd have to marry 'him! That's why. -.-Oh ,Ben!„ Betty rose suddenly and clutched Fur- long, '!I. knew she was a mean, selfish old thing, hut I never thought she was so=wicked. This- oil is a curse to poor people. I hate it!" "Why, Betty," Furlong exclaimed.. "You're the wicked one to quarrel—" "She's the only kin I've, got left and. I tried my best to love her. But she was so greedy for quick money that nothing mattered. Maddox, too! It made beasts of thein. I almost wish we'd never heard of oil." After a'mos ment the speaker continued, more quietly: "I lied to you last night. It was 'Tiller •who came here," Furlong's body stiffened; he breath- ed an oath, then he ,muttered: "I thought so: Why didn't you tell nie?" "What's more, she knew he was— coming! They arranged ;it. She as good as sent him! That's how he got the kitchen key." • This announceinent the man greet- ed with the howl of an animal He. began to pace about the room; his W. A. CRAW FORD, M.D. Physician and Surgeon i Located at .the office of the late l Dr. J. P. Kennedy. 3I Phone 150 Wingham 1 ed: "Wait! Wait till she gets back here!" "You can't lay your hands on a wo- man—" "Can't I?" he breathed. Betty shook her head; a moment, then en a new expression slowly crept t into her eyes; her chin set itself -firm- ly. "No!" irm-ly."No!" she declared. "But you can lay 'em on her trunk and drag it .out here where I can pack it." "I sure can," . Ben agreed. "And what's more, when you get it packed I can lug it out to the gate where it will be nice and handy for her." As he finished speaking his frown disap- peared; it was replaced by a grin and he said: "Say, Betty! What d'you think? I'm going to marry an heiress, after all." ` THE END The young doctor sat down wear- ily in his easy chair and turned to his wife affectionately. "Has my darling been lonely with- out me?" he asked. "Oh, no,", she said, "At :least, not very lonely. I've found something to do with my time." - "Oh," he said. "What is it?" "I'm organizing a class. A lot of the women in the village have joined Do You Ever i Wander Whether the"Pain" Remedy You Use. is SAFE? Ask Your Doctor and Find Out Don't, Entrust Your Own or Yottr Family's Well- Being to Unknown Preparations ►ipHE person to ask whether the preparation you or your family are taking for the relief of headaches. is SAFE to use regularly is your - family doctor. Ask him particularly about "ASPIRIN." He will tell you that before the' discovery of "Aspirin" most '.'pain" remedies were advised against by physicians as bad for the stomach and, often, for the heart. Which is., food for thought if you seek quick,. safe relief. Scientists rate "Aspirin" among the fastest methods get discovered for the relief of headaches and the pains of rheumatism, neuritis and neural- gia. And the experience of millions of users has proved it safe for the average person to use regularly. In, your own interest remember this. "Aspirin" Tablets are made in Canada. "Aspirin" is the registered trade -mark of the Bayer Company, Limited. Look for the name Bayer• in the form of a cross on every tablet. Demand and Get "ASPIRIN" and we're teaching one another to. cook." "What do you do with the things. you cook?" "We give them to the neighbours."' "Dear little woman," he said, kiss- ing her fondly. "Always thinking of,a your husband's practice!" MONUMENTS at first cost. 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