The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutThe Huron Expositor, 1919-05-16, Page 7_ems _ 0411004111140% • ish the Bod oh Acts Directly iot Weaken ing touch a thiug but a ter, and even that dis- ks a result I was very re and slept so poorly 1 night coming: on. I y taking medicine, but growing worse instead ming often read the by Dr. Williams' Pink &tided to give them a ad great cause to bless foe by the time I had of boxes there -wile no I were helping me, and had anticipated cured me, and 1 was not only good diges- ir health in every way YS FEELS FIT ful success of Dr. Wil - ills is due to the fact iight to the root of the' r blood, and by making rich and red strength - n and every nerve, thus lisease and pain, •and despondent people and strong. Mr. W. T. , of the beet known and steemed men in Lunen - N. S. says:—"I am a nd Surveyor, and am reater part of the year Lvork travelling through r day and camping out find the only thing find the only- thing I me up to the mark is Pink Pills. When I 1- a trip in the woods I -„ed in havirig my supply kViSitiMS, and on such oc- :- them regularly. The am always fit. I never . 'can digest all kinds of we have to put up with 1 in the -woods. Having rattle of Dr,, Williams' ; a tonic and health never without them and ortunity in reeonimend- weak people I meet" ROUBLE CURED Parkbeg, Sask. yeears ago 1 was attack - la on my hands. I tried ;hing that was advised, uble was growing worse i doctor and took his same time with no bet - By this time my hands of sores and 1 began to ading a eurm A friend ised me to try Dr. Wil - ills, and 1 decided to do ing two boxes, 1 could rement and I got a fur- -1 used altogether eight ich time every trace of had disappeared and n not a single symptom ubIe since that time. hend Dr. Willams" Pink [isles of this ldiad." se Pink Pills should be horae and their occa- ill keep the blood pure f illness.. You can get through any medicine mail at 50c a box or six .50 from The Dr. Wil- ne Co., Brockville, Ont. Truck ead) a.nd ready for very. a oak floors, sills of ..tkory and specially dine es. and castings. truction at every Les for rough usage 7 truck is bound to bodies have closed ect the driver. sbs have sliding • d two-way, double Nindshields. learn what it will wee complete trucks iness. Look them ly. See how they er trucks in every Stscudarei Fora fik•dies extri. Get our prices Hensall Seaforth ilOR SALE. (tali acre of land in the ; kiondville. The property Centre Street, close te ian church and is know* property. Good, coin- s, good shed, good well ltern. All kinds of fruit series, raspberries, and This Is a corner pro - breaks on front, And 1.a good state of cultiv*- a nice property for ; and the taxes are light- s apply on the premises Seaforth, 2584-tf KAY 160219 000080. —,100101.1110,..0,000' el, a THE, HURON EXPOSITOR •11011•10,m, THEINDIANDRU: By WILLIAM MacTiARa . and EDWIN BALMER Thomas Allen, Publiiiker, Toronto • (Continued from last week.) "What's the matter?" he asked, as the old nian halted and, looking down at the tugs shook his head. - "They're crossing," the wheelsman said aloud, but more to himself than to Alan. "They're laying her up here," he jerked his head toward the Stoughton. Then they're crossing to Mani- towoc on- the tug." "What's the matter with that?" Alan cried. • Burr drew up his shoulders- and ducked his head down as e gust blew. It was cold, very cold indeed in that wind, but the old man had on a mach- inaw and, out on the lake, Alan had seen him on deck coatless in weather almost as cold as this. "It's a winter storm," Alan cried. "It's like it that way; but to -days the 15th, not the 5th of December!" "That's right," Burr agreed. "That's right.' The reply was absent, as though Alan had stumbled upon what he was thinking, and Burr had no thought yet to wonder at it. "And it's the Stoughton they're lay- ing up, not the—" he stopped and stared at Burr to let him supply the word and, when the old man did not, he repeated again—"not the---" "No," Burr agreed again, as though the name had been given. "No." "It was the Martha Corvet you laid up, wasn't it?" Alan cried quickty: "Tell me—that time on the 5th—it was the Martha Corvet?" Burr jerked away; Alan caught him again and, with physical strengtl, de- tained him. "Wasn't it that?"the demanded, "Answer me; it was the . Martha Corvet?" The wheelsman struggled; he seem-. : ed suddenly terrified with he terror which, instead of weakening, sepplied infuriated strength. He threw Alan off for an instant and started to flee back toward the ferry; and now. Alan let him go, only following a few steps to make sure that the wheelsman re- turned to Number 25. Watching old Burr until he was a- board the ferry, Alan spun about and went back to the Stoughton. Work a laying up the big steamer had been finished, and in the snow - filled dusk her crew were coming a- shore. Alan, boarding, went to the captain's cabin, where he found the Stoughton's master makingready to leave the ship. The captain, a man of forty-five or fifty, reminded Alan vaguely of one of the shiproasters who had been in Spearman's office when Alan first wentthere in the spring. If he had been there, he showed no recollection of Alan now, but good- humoredly looked up for the stranger to etate his business. "I'm from Number 25,"iAlan intro- duced himself. "This s a Corvet, Sherrill, and Spearman ship. Do you know Mr. Corvet when you see him, sir?" "lenow Ben Corvet?" the captain repeated. The manner of the young man from the car ferry told him it was not an ithe question. "Yes; 1 know Ben Corvet. I ain't see him much in late years." "Will you come with me for a few minuets then, Captain?" Alan asked. AS the skipper stared at him and hes- itated, Alan made explanation, "Mr. Corvet has been missing for months. His friends have said he's been away somewhere for his health; but the truth is, he's been missing. There's . a man I want you to look at, Cap- tain—if you. used to knew Mr. Cor - vet." "I've heard of. that." The captain moved alertly now. "Where is he Alan led the master to the Ferry. Old Burr had left the car deck; they / found hini on his way to the wheel - /muse. • The Stoughton's skipper stared. "That the man?" he demanded. "Yes, sir. Remember to allow for his clothes and his not being shaved and that something has happened." The Stoughton's skipper followed to the wheelhouse and spethe to Burr. elan's blood beat fast as he watched their conversation. Once or twice more the skipper seemed. surprised; but it was plain that his first interest in Burr quickly had vanished; when he left the Wheelhouse, he returned to Alan indulgently. "You thought that was Mr. Corvet?" he asked, amused. "YOL1 (10111 think so?" Alan asked. -Ben Corvet like that? Did you ver see Ben Corvet?" "Only his picture," Alan confessed. "But you looked queer when you first saw Burr." "That was a trick of his eyes. Say, they did give me a start. Ben Cor - vet had just that sort of trick of look- ing through a man." And his eyes were like th,at?" "Sure. But Ben Corvet couldn't be like that!" Alan prepared to go on duty. He would not let himself be disappointed by the skipper's failure to identify old Burr; the skipper had known im- mediately at sight of the old man that he was one whom Alan thought was Corvet, and he had found a def- inite resemblance It Inight have been mei' the impossibility of believing that Cervet could have become like this which had prevented fuller recognition. Mr. Sherrill, undoubtedly, would send. same one more familiar with Benja- min Corvet and who might makel oroper allowances. f enooring lines were taken in; the rails upon the fantail of the lefty sae - rated from the rails Open the wh andclearwater showed between: lan took up his slow pace as lookout f om rail to rail across the bow, straining his eyes forward into the thickness of the -snow -filled night Because of the severe cold, the • watches had been shortened. A an would berelieved from time to ti ne to warm himself, and then he .wo ild return, to duty again. iOld Burr at the wheel would be relieved and woLild go on duty at the 'same hours 1 as Alan himself. Benjinien Corvet! he ifancy reiterated itself to him. Co ld 1he be turned alternately from the cm - pass n Was that man; wh se Ipass to the bow of the ferry' as it shifted and rose and fell, the same who had sat in that lonely chair turned toward the fireplace in the house on Astor Street? Were those hands; which held the steamer to her course, the hands which had written to Alan in secret from the little room off his bedroom and whichpasted so carefully the newspaper clippings concealed in the library? ' Regularly at the end of every rn.n- lite, a blast from. the steam whistle reverberated; for a while, signals from the shore answered; fee a few-: ethromthe snow. Then the ee. lig ts ',-minutes %lie (shore lights gilled were gone, and the eddies of the gale ceased to bring echoes of the obscure - tion signals. Steadily, at short, sixty- second intervals, the blast of Number 25's warning burst from the whistle; then • that - too stopped: The great ferry was on the lake alone; in her 1 . course,, Number 25 was cutting acres the lanes of all ordinary lake travel; but new, with ordinary navigatien closed, the position of every other ship upon the lake was known to the officers, and formal signals were net thought necessary. . Flat floes, driven by wind and wave,, had 'windrowed ' n their course; as Number 25, which capable of maintaining two thirds its open water speed when runnieg through solid "green" ice two feet thick, met this obstruction, its un.dei- cut bow rese slightly; the ice, crusae ed down: and to the sides, hurled, and scraping, under the keel and•along the black, steel sides Of the ship; Alan•could hear the hull resounding lto the buffeting as it hurled the floes away, 'and more came, or the wind threw them. beck. Ttheewater was washing high—higher than . Alan ha, experienced seas before. The wind, smashing almost straight across the lake from the west, Nide only a gut or two from the north, was throwin up the water in great rushing ridge on which the bow of Num tber 25 rose jerkily up and up, suddenly to fall, as the support passed on, so that the next wave washed nearly to the rail,. Alan faced the .wind with machinaw .buttoned about his throat; to make certain his hearing, his ears were un protected. They numbed frequently and he drew a hand out of the glove to, rub them. The windows to pro- tect the wheelsman had been dropped, as the snow had gathered on the glass; and at intervals, as he glanced back he could see old Burr's face as he switched on a dim light to look at the compass. The strange placidity which usually characterized the old mans face had not returned to it since Alan had spoken with him on the, .dock; its look ,was intent and oueerly drawn, Was old Burr beginning to remember—remember that he was Benjamin Corvet 7 Alan did not be- ' lieve it could be that; again and again he had spoken Cm -vet's name .to him without effect. Yet there must have been times when, if he was actually Corvet, he had remem- bered who he was. He must have re- membered that when he had written directions to some one to send those things to Constance Sherrill; or, a strange thought had come to Alan, had he written those instructions him- self? Had there been a moment when he had been so much himself that he Md realized that he might not be himself again and so had written the order which later, mechanically, he had abeyed ? This certainly would am - count for the package having been mailed at Manitowoc and for Alan's failure to find out by whom it had been mailed. It would account too for the unknown handwriting upon the wrapper, if some one on the ferry had addressed the package for the fed man. He must inquire 'whether any one among the crew had done that. What could have brought back that moment of.recollection to Corvet, Alan wondered; the finding of the things which he had sent? What might bring another such moment? Would his seeing the Sherrills again—or Spear- man—act to restore him? For half an hour Alan paced stead- ily at the bow. The storm was in- creasing noticeably in fierceness; the wind -driven snowflakes had changed to hard pellets which, like little bul- lets, cut and stung the face; and it was growing colder. From a cabin window came the blue flash of the -wireless, which had been silent after notifying the shore stations of their departure. It had commenced again; ' this was unusual.- Something still more unusual followed at once; the direction of the gale seemed slowly to shift, and with it the wash of the water; instead' of the wind and the waves coming from dead ahead now, they moved to the port bean', and • Number 25,\ still pitching with the trust througli the seas, also began to roll. This meant, of course, that the steamer- had changed its • course and was making almost due north It seemed to Alan to force its engines faster; the deck vibrated more. Alan had not heard the orders for this change and could only speculate as to what it might mean. His relief came after a few min- utes more. "Where are we heading?" Alen , asked. - "Radio," the relief announced, "The Alan went forward to his post ias a least from the steam whistle of the ziwitching engine, announcing that the ears all were on board,: was answered by a warning blast from the feisty. On the car decks the trains had been AeCUred in place; and, because of the • roughness of the weather, the wheels • had been locked upon the tracks ,with additional chains as well as with the block- and chains .usually used. Orders now sounded from the bridge; the steel deck began to shake with the reverberations of the engines; the R. C. ii1chitiatio4ii-c-alling; she's up b the Manitous." "Whit sort of trouble?" "She's not in trotible; anothe ship." "What ship?" "No word as to that!" Alan, not delaying to question fur ther, went back toe -the cabins. These stretched aft, behind the bridge, along the upper deck, some score on each -side of the ship; they had: accommodations for allmost 1a hundred-pa,stiengers; but on this cross- ing only a few were occupied. Ala had noticed some half dozen men besineis men, no doubt, forced to make the crossing and, one of them, a Catholie priest, returning probably some "mission in the north; he had seen no women, among them. A little group of passengers were gathered now in the door of or just outside the wireless cabin'whieh was one of the row on the starboard side. Stew- ards stood with them and the cabin maid; within, and bending over the table with the radio -instrument, was the operator with the second officer beside him. The violet spark was rasping; and the operator, his receivers strapped over lhi s ears, strained to listen. He got no reply, evidently, and he struck his key again; now, as he listened, he wrote slowly on a pad. I "You got 'em?" some one cried. "You got 'em now?" 1, The ,operator continued to write; I the second mate, reading, shook his head, "It's only the Racharilson: a- gain." "What is it?" Alan asked the s officer. • "The .Richardson heard four blasts I of a steam. •whistle about an hour ago when she was opposite the Manitous. She answered with the whistle • and turned toward the blasts. She could- n't find any ship." The officer's reply was interrupted by some of the others. "Then...that was a few minutes a- go...they heard the four long again ...They'd tried to pick up the ether ship with radio before....Yes; we got that herm ...Tried again and got no answer... . But, they heard the ses for half an hour.... They -said they seemed to be almost beside the ship once....But they didn't see any- thing. Then the blasts stopped.' sudden, cut off short in the middle as if somethinghappened...She was blow- ing distress all right... .The Richard.. son's searching again. riow. .. Yes, she's searching for boats." "Any ; one elge answered?" Alan asked.`"Sorestetiops on both sides." "Da they know *hat ship it is?" "What ship might there be now?" The efficer could not answer that He had, known where the Richardson must ,be; he knew of no other likely to be there at this season. The spray feom thie waves had frozen upon Alan; me gleamed and glinted from the -rail and from the deck. Alan's' shoulder's drew up in a spasm. The Richard- son, they said was looking for boats; how long. could men live in boats exposed to that gale and cold ?" He turned back to the others about the radio cabin; the glow' from with- in showed him faces as gray as- his; it lighted a face on the opposite side of the door—a face haggard with dreadful fright. Old Burr jerked a- bout as Alan -spoke to him and moved• away alone; Alan followed him and seized his arm. • "What's the matter?" Alan de- manded holding to him. - "The four blasts!" the wheelsman re ted. -"They heard the four bl s " He iterated. it once more. "Yes," Alan urged. "Why not ?." "But where no ship ought to be; so they couldn't find the ship—they couldn't find the ship.". Terror, of aw- ful abjectnese, came over the old man. freed himself from Alan and went forward. Alan followed him to the quarters of the crew, where night lunch for the men relieved from watch had been set out, and took a seat at the table opposite him. The louder echoing of the steel hull and the roll arid pitch- ing of the vessel, which set the table with its dishes swaying, showed that the sea was still increasing, and also that they were now Meeting heavier ice. At the table men computed that Number 25 had now made some twenty miles north off' AS course, and must therefore be approaching the neigh- borhood where the distress signals had been heard; .they speculated uselessly as to what ship could have been in that part of the lake and made the signals. Old Burr took no part in this conversation, but listened to it with frightened eyes,. and presently got up and went avia:y, leaving his coffee unfinished. Number 25 was blowing its steam whistle again at the end of every minute.. Alan, after 'taking a second cup a coffee, went aft to the car deck. The roar and echoing tumult of the ice against the hull here drowned all other sounds, The thirty-two freight cars, in their four long lines, stood wedged. and chained and blocked in place; they tipped and tilted, rolled and swayed like the stanchions and sides of the ship, fixed and secure. Jacks on the steel deck under the edges of the cars, kept them from -rocking on their tracks. Men paced watchfelly between the tracks, ob- serving the movement of the. cars. The cars creaked and g-roaned, as they worked a little this way and that. the men sprang with sledges and drove the blocks tight again' or took an additional turn upon the jacks. As Alan ascended and went for- ward to his duty, the increase in the severity of the gale Was very, evident; the thermometer, the wheelsman said, had. dropped bedew zero: Ice was making rapidly on the hull of the I ferry, where the spray, flying thicker through the snow, was freezing as it' struck. The deck was all ice now, Underfoot, and the rails were swolleni to great gleaming slabs which join- ed and geew together; a parapet of ice had appeared on the bow; and all about the swirling snow screen shut: off everything. A searchlight 'which had flared from the bridge while Alan was below, pierced that screen not ship's length ahead, or on the beam, before the glare dinimed to a glow which served to show no more than the fine, flying pellets of the storm. Except for the noise of the wind and the water, there had been no echo from beyond that screen since the shore signals were lost; now a low, far -away sound came down the wind; it maintained itself for a few seconds, ceased, and then came again, and cantinued at uneven intervals longer thai the timed blasts of Niunber 25's whistle. It might be the horn of some strUggling sailing vessel, which in , pits of the storm andthe closed season was braving the seas; at th e d of each interval of silence, th h rn blew- twice now the echo cam eamt, passed astern, and was nger to be h,eard. How far away s orgin had been, Alan could only ess; probably the sailing vessel ay to windward, had not heard the histle of Number 26 at all. Alan salt old Burr who, on his way the wheelhouse; bat i halthdto listeno. For several minutes the old man ood motionless; he came onagain d stopped to listen, There had been sound for quite five minutes now. "You bear 'ern Burr's voice quav- ered in Alan's ear': "You hear 'em?" "What ?" Alan asked. 'The four blasts! Youlear 'em now? T e four blasts!" Burr was !straining as he listened, a d Alan stood still too; no sound canie to -him but the noise of the st nye "No," he replied. "I dant her anything Do you hear them now?" B- urr stood beside him without mak- . in reply; the searchlight„which had n pointed abeam, shot its glare for - w rd, and Alan could see Burr's face the dancing' reflection 'of the flare. 'The man had never more plaihly re - se bled the picture of Benjamin Car- ve ; that which had been in the pie- ttute, that strange sensation of some- thing haunting him, was upon this men's face, a thousand times , intens- ified; but instead of distorting the fe4tures away 'fro/mall likenessto the piclture, it made it grotesquelyIdent- ica +aaavroo....1mame,.•....mammowa.oraw Slowly, steadily, Number 25 was e responding to her helm. The bow e pointed away, and the beam of the e ferry came beside the beam Of the a silent steamer; they were very close now, -so close that the searchlight, which had turned to keep on the other , vessel, shotebeve its shimmering deck and lighted only the mites; and, as the water rose and fell between. them, , the ships sucked closerNumber 25 shook with an effort; it 'seemed oppos- ing with all the power,of its scre-ws sbme force fatally drawing' it on—op- posing with the last resistance before giving way. Then, as the water fell again, the ferry seemed to slip and be drawn toward the other vessel; they 'mounted, side by side...crashed—re- f coiled, ..crashed again. - That second icrash -threw all who had nothing to hold by, flat .upon the deck; then No. 25 moved by; astern her now the silent steamer vanished in the snow. Gongs boomed below; through the new confusion and the cries of men, orders began to become audible, Alan scrambling to his knees, put an arm under old Burr, hal raising him; the form encircled by his dem struggled up. The skipper who had knocked Burr away from the wheel, ignored him .now. The old man, dragging hirh- self up and holding to Alan, was star- ing with terror at the snow screen behind which the vessel had .disap- peered. His lips moved. "It was a ship!" he said; he seemed speaking more to himself than to Alan. • "Yes;" Alan said. "It was a ship; and' you thought-". "It wasn't there!" the wheelsman cried. "It's -tit's been there all the time all night and steered through it ten times, twenty times, every few minutes; and then—that time it was a ship!" Alan's excitement grew greater; he seized the old man again. "You thought it was the Miwaka!" Alan ex- claimed. "The lifievaka! And you tried to eteer through it again." "The Miwaka!". old Burr's lips re- iterated the word, "Yes; yes—the Miwaka!" He struggled, writhing with some agony not physical. Alan tided to hold him, but now the, old man was be- side himself withddismay. He broke away Ind started aft. The captain's voice recaljed Alan to himself, as he n tured back to the wheelhouse. a nd Burr was hearing something— sorflething distinct and terrifying; but he seemed not surprised, but rather , satisfied that Alan had not heard. He 'nodded his head- at Alan% denial, am , without reply to Alan's demand, he stood listening. Something bent hinit forward; he straightened. again he straightened. Four times Alan oounted the motions. Burr was hear- ini again the four long blasts of digress! But there was no noise but the gale. "The four blasts " He rechlled old Burr's terror outside the radio cabin, The Old man was hear ing blasts which were not blown .,, Ie moved on and took the wheeL He was a good wheelsman; the vessel see ed to be steadier on her co.urse an somehow, th .steam easier when the old wan steered.. His illusions, of hearing could- do no , harm, Alan con idered;they were of concern oily to 3urr and to him. . ,41an, relieeing the lookout at the bov‘I., stood on watch again. The ferry threst on alone; in the wireless cabin the iflame played steathly. They had beee able te get the shore stations again on both sides of the lake and also the Richardsoh. As the ferry had woleced northward, the Richardson had beee working north, with too evedently under the impression that the vessel in dstress, if it had headway,was mov- ing in that direction. By its position whi h the Richardson gave, the steam- ers were about twenty miles "apart. an fought to keep his thought all to ijis duty; they must be now very nea ly at the position where the Rich- ard on last had heard the four Ring blas ; searching for a ship or /for boa , in the snow, eves almost hope- less With sight even along the search- ligh 's beam shortened to a few hun- dred. yards, only accident could bring Nunliber .25 up for resew, only chalice coula carry the setthe-shoutsi wr k still floated and had steam— wou d be heard. t —oil the blasts of distres4 if • the. H lf numbed by the- cold, Alan e striped and beat his arms about his body; the swing of the searchlight in the eircle about tht ship had become long lege monotonous, purely mechan- ical, like the blowieg of the whistle; Alan1 stared patiently along the beam as it turned through the sector where he etched. They were meeting fr- qu,en and heavy floes, and Alan gave* warning of these by hailgto the bridge;, the bridge answered and when possible the steamer avoided the floes; when; it could not de that, it cut through them. The windrowed ice, beatieg and crushing under the bows took strange, distorted, glistening shapes. Now another such shape ap- peared. before them; .wherethe glare dissipated to a bare glow in the swirl- ing meow, he saw, a vague. shadow. The man moving the searchlight fail- ed to; see it, for he swung the beam „on. The shadow was so dim, so ghost- ly, that Alan saught for it again be- fore lie hailed; he could see nothing now yet he was surer, somehow, that he had seen. "Soieething dead ahead, sir" he shouted back to the bridge. The bridge answered the hail as the s,earchlight pointed forward a- gain. A gust carried the snow in a fierce flurry which the light failed to pierce„ from the flurry suddenly, sil- ently, spar by spar, a shadow emerg- ed—the shadow of a ship. It was a steamer, Alan saw, a long, low-lying old vessel -Without lights and without smoke from the funnel -slanting up just forward of the after deckhouse; it -rolled in the-Arough of the seal. The sides and all the lower works gleamed in ghostly phosphorescence, it was1refraction. of the searchlight beem from the ice sheathing all the ship, Alan's brain told him; but the sight Materializing from behind the screen tof snow struck a tremor through him "Shipl" he hailed. "Ahead! Dead ahead Sir! Ship!" The sh ut of quick commands echo- ; ed to hirji from the bridge. Under.; foot he e4,uld feel a new tumult of the i deck; thd engines, instantly stopped, I were ibping set full speed astern. But Nuinber 25, instead of sheering' off to right or to left to avoid collision steered straight on. The strugle of the engines against the rnonlentum of the ferry told that other .had seen, the gleaming ship or at leagt, had heard the hail The skip- pers instant decision -had been to put to starbeard; he had bawled that to the wheelsman, "Hard over!" But though the screws turned full astern, Number 25 steered straight on. The flurry was blowing before the bow again; bece through the snow the ice - shrouded shimmer ahead retreated. Alan leaped away and up to the *heel- housen. Men iirere strugglin. g there ---the skipper, a mate, and old Burr, who had held the wheel. He clung to it yet, as cue in A trance, fixed, staring ahead; hie arms, stiff, had been hold- ing Number 25 to her Course. The skipper struck him and beat him a- way, while the mate tugged at the wheel. BinT was torn from the wheel now, and ' he made ne resistance to the skipper's blows; but the skipper in his frenzy, struck him again and knocked him to the deck. (Continued Next Week) Kluck Talks of the Marne, But Fails to Understand Reason for Great Defeat teleeeeeeeetedeeesteeeeeereeedeedseseeeeee IN n.o direction has there been more eager curiosity since the signing of the armistice than in • that of military informaAion. What are the German explanations— not propaganda statements, but ac- tual explanations—of various battles, some successful, some disastrous for their arms And, above all else, for It remains the supreme mystery of the war, ›vhat is the German explan- ation of th Marne? ( We know that in the first years of the war. G-erman generals and press agents industriously circulat- ing the legend that no such battle occurred. The G-erman army, "in ac- .cordance with the plan," the farailiar formula, retired behind the Aisne, only advanced ..guards crossed 'the Marne, Bernhardi, of literary fame, explicitly denied the battle in a statement to an American cOrrespon- dent in 1916. Meantime, on the Allied side a great dispute arose over the struggle —a dispute which seems likely to rival Waterloo debates." Was the bat- tle wen by Maunoury'sarmy coming out of Paris to the Ourcq? Was the decisive thrust that of Foch at Fere Cbalppenoise? Was it the result of suprbme strategy that the. Germans GEN. VON KL11301i. were turned bnck, or was it ---as the MAW Of Preach peasants have decid- ed—a veritable "miracle"? And 110W, at last, we begin to have light from German sources. First of all, the vx-Crown Prince, in a public statement, asserts that he recognised at once that the war had been lost at the Mame, lost becalise of the fallure of the nerves of certain Ger- man generals. Here at last, is &duds- sion of the fact of the Marne, pressive testimony, even if open te Usemipowniewomt AVOID *IP 13G1-0 COUGHERA Coughtai Spreads Dino -se 4 elms 30 DtatKooftritovcor HALT' MIS WIt. MOON The !‘Quality',' Character of this brand has an International Reputation. 13566 A Trial Packet will bring speedy conviction suspicion in detail. Bat far more lit rrsting evi-!cncf; has followed. Thi,; f binr i • is iuel who speaks. It ws;s Ii. -111::k who com- manded the German rtrr..y whic7i ad- vanced from Pru --3s to 1 • environi of Paris, sweepin:; all i:Ti:ore it. II was Kluck who erazse0 „ the Manic: and turned his ha o Po.ris, in-.716ng the thrust or Iaunoury, changed the who.] face or the situa- tion. z, Now Kluck s not expfain his defeat—he admits i'..hat it was a' de- feat—in military terms.. He does not talk about flank or rear, manoeuvre or counter offensive. What Ire says— and it is significant—is that he was surprised; as others after him, be grimly adds, not by French generals, but by French soldiers. Thitt an army could retire for ten days, losing prisoners, guns, becom- ing exhausted, and then, of a sudden, return to the offensive irresistibly— this was a thing the German mili- tary books never regarded possible, never discussed!, never warned Ger- man generals to exPect. The material elements are all duly accounted for, but failure to estimate the moral lac - tor lost the battle — lost the war, Kluck hints. . "We made a in istake," Muck says, with engaging frankness. The mis- take was not strategic -Lit was not that the attack, coming out of Waris, was in itself a surprise—the •thing was deeper: Muck; Moltke, the whole Gerinan iligb.iCoMmand had calculated that the "'French soldier was beaten; their actions were based upon this assumption. It was beciuse of this assumption that Kluck .went south of the Marne and opened his flank to Maunoury. Nearly four year later Ludendorff did the same thing, with. precisely the same consequences. ' Yet those French writers who have best described the Marne have paid most *attention to the slime phenome- non which Kluck discusses. By all the ordinary standards of measure- ment, the French- military force was on the edge of ruin on Sept. 5, but on Sept. 6 it was attakking from Paris to Verdun„_ and on Sept. 13 it was beck at the Aisne, victoridus and CJNIECi'011.15 of .the magnitude of RS Tie - tory. , Frenchmen tell you that fn the Marne Wile all eleamee Was conscious that the fete of the nation Was at stake But out of the perception. grew the resolution; e men moved by the, same spliet, pet • aside their weariness, their sufferings, and—at- tacked. X1ik does not understand it now. His brief comment betrays continuing mystification. He was sur- prised in December, 1918. He recog.! nizes the fact—the explanation still eseaees him -I -Frank Simonds in New York Tribune, Farm Tractors. Interest in farm tractors has in- creased rapidly in Ontario in the past two or three years. In the early part of this year the Ontario Department of Agriculture held 32 courses on farm power in different parts of the province, and there was a total at- tendance of 12,270. No greater in- terest has been shown in courses on any other subject, and much usefill educational work was done. LIFT OFF CORNS! Apply few drops then lift sore. touchy corns off with.. fingers Doisn't hurt a bit! Drop a little Freezone on an aching corn, instantly, that coni stops hurting: then you lift it right out. Yes, magic! A tiny bottle of Freezone costs but * few cents at any drug store, but is suifi- • dent to remove every hard corn soft corn, or r_onl. between the toes, luie. the -calluses., without -soreness or irritation. Freezone is the sensational diseove of a Oncinfiati genius. It is wonderfnt CASTOR1A Per Mote and asann. Thal Yis Have Meals Bait* sous eMurt of te GIRLS! LEMON JUICE IS A SKIN WHITE E How to make acamy beautyJotior • . for a few Genta.- The juice of two fre.ii 'lemons strained into a bottle containing three ounces of • orchard white makes a whole quarter pint of the most remarkable lemon skin beautifier at about the cost one must pay for a small jar of the ordinary cold creams. Care should be taken to straits the lemon juice through a fine cloth so no lemon pulp gets in, then this lotion will keep fresh for months. Every woman knows that lemon juice is used. to bleach and remove such blemishes all freckles, sallowness and tan and is the ideal skin softener, whitener and beautifier. - 'Just try it Get three *Tunes of 'orchard white at any drug store and two lemons from the grocer and make le, a quarter pint of this sweetly fragrant lemon lotion and massage it daily into the lam, neck, arms and hands. fi•• "SMOOTHER THAN VELVET" ice Cream like mother used to make? No indeed! Ice cream far superior to that.. Nothing but pasteurized pure cream, cane sugar and pure flavor extracts go into Silverwood's Ice c+arn That creamy, velvety taste that. mother never could have given to her home-made ice cream is the result of homogenizing and scientific freezing. STINERWOOD'S LIMITED, LONDON, ONT Bricks in all Flavors Loakfor the Silverwood's Sign ;s 'What COMFORT LYE. Comfort Lye is a very powerful cleanser. It is used for cleaning up the oldest and hardest dirt, grease, etc. Comfort Lys is fine for *making sinks, drains and closets sweet and clean. Comfort Lye Kills rats, mice, roaches and insect pests. Comfort Lys will do the hardest spring cleznin' you've got. Comfort Ly, is good for making soap. It's powdered,perfumed and 140,t pure. 0 splendid t.7,7A _LK.014