Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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X: BEN AMES Her Word Final; Says Au thority on Indian Customs. CHAPTER XII^HCeotinuea —20— And Mflt-m Pierce, after a moment’s Hesitation, drew back almost reluctant ly. She stood there, small and straight In the darkness, as they drove away. It was no longer raining, although beside the road the leaves were drip ping, and the headlights revealed black majors of muddy water In the ruts. At tfie tuiW that led down to Carey’s, Saladine swung that way, carefully, since the clay was slippery; and so presently he saw the farm buildings, the pale white blur of the house, and the barn with Its lilgh peak black against the gloomy sky. He turned into the barnyard and stopped by the kitchen door, and switched off the engine.' The head lights, fetj^by the magneto, died as the engine/medr^atid darkness embraced them tWre. In the deep silence and the dark. Bart said hospitably: "You folks go inside and light the lamp. I’ll feed the critters and come light in. - Won’t take me a minute.” He and the sheriff swung to the ground. Bart started toward the barn, but the sheriff, standing here beside the car, called: “I’ll be wanting to look at that belt of yours, Bart!” “Certain,” Bart agreed,.without stop ping. “I’ll be right In!?’ “Need a light yodrself, won’t you?” the sheriff suggested doubtfully; and Bart said: “There’s a lantern In the barn!* He had not paused'; he did not now. The wide barn doors were open, so that there was a gray rectangle of light against the black bulk of the struc ture, and Bart’s figure, as he moved toward the barn, was In silhouette against this gray. So they were able to see, though In distinctly, what happened. Bart reached, the barn, walking steadily enough; and then suddenly his hands Jerked toward bis head, and Instantly he seemed to dive straight upward, out of their sight And at the same time, with a ter rific splintering Impact and a metallic clank of Iron, something fell shatter- ingly upon the barn floor. Then silence; and In this silence a rusty, creaking sound. CHAPTER XIII For a moment after Bart disap peared In this fashion so mysterious, the sherifT^ bulky figure was motion less beside the car; but Saladine scrambled to the ground, and tripped on the running board and fell hard on hands and knees, his fingers digging deep into the soft and spongy sod, and there was a wet chill of water on his shins. He was on his feet, Instantly. From the barn came, diminuendo, that rusty, creaking sound. His eyes ached with peering Into the darkness; and he heard the sheriff Hdr Mo dry Ups, heard his quick breath as he sucked his lungs full, and heard him gulp and swallow hard. -Something rattled in the barn; a cow, moving in the tie-up, probably. Hot metal cooling under the hood of the car cracked loudly, here close beside them, startlingly. The brook down by the bridge was singing, and Its low deep murmur filled their ears. Yet the night, despite these small sounds, was so still! They went forward at last like wooden soldiers, stiffkneed, on tiptoe, warily; till as they came close to the barn, looking up they saw something dark and bulky swinging a little to and fro above their heads. In the peak of the roof above them there was a projecting beam from which the horse fork was rigged. It was from that beam that this object was sus pended. Blurred and foreshortened, it was yet unmistakable; and the sheriff uttered a saumnerinfe exclamatlpn, and he went blundering Into the barn, groping here and there. He stumbled over something, and Saladine struck a match, and the sheriff demanded nvaiTCij • ^——— —r-i-.mitim “A knife? Clot a knife? Quick!” As he spoke, he looked up at Sala dine and above him. Saladine, very stifTly and warily, turned his head to look that way. The barn was framed on heavy tim bers, as barns In Maine are apt to be; and the interior of the big struc ture was divided Into sections by these timbers. Just behind Saladine, there was a horse stall, boarded In; and the boards were carried upward to a cross timber, heavy and firm, which was a little above the level of the top of. the barn door. When Saladine looked up over his shoulder now, following the sheriffs eyes, be saw a man sitting cross-legged on this timber, his hands hanging idly over his shins, his eyes bright as a cat's eyes la the dark, and burning strangely. His grinning teeth were white. ’ •' • It was Zeke Dace, with that big bat. Its brim curled so Jauntily, pushed far back on bis head. Zeke, above them, said in a drawling tone: “Here's a knife! Help yourselfT* And something thumped on the barn floor. The sheriff found the knife even in the darkness, end twisted open the blade, and Saladine heard steel saw on hemp. Then a pulley whirred, and something fell heavily on the ground outside the barn door. The sheriff wfiFqhlck that way.. He. became busy there, and he said' over his shoulder; “Fhtd the lantern, Jim! One some where l” V ...» ^ Zeke spoke calmly. “It hangs right here under me 1”^ ., , 1 Saladine was a man not easily daunted; but^hls hands were shaking now. He tried fruitlessly to light the Ig^tern, broke two or three matches in an absurd futility before Zeke dropped from bis perch and said: , “Here! Let merV-wl^ And he took the lantern and with steady hand had it lighted instantly. So they turfced to where Bart lay. The shoriff had Bart’s wrists in his hands, pushing Bart’s arms up and back aud down to the ground above Bart’s bead; then bending the elbows, 1 pressing the folded arms hard home on Bart’s chest. He repeated this in a rhythmic persistence. - Zeke said at last. In tones which had a peculiar terror of their own: “I 'low you won’t do him any good that And Instantly H« Seemed to Dive Straight Upward, Out of Their Sight way, mister. His neck’s broke!" He added contentedly: “Or if it ain’t, it ought to bel” The sheriff relaxed his efforts. “It’s all I know to do,” he admitted, help lessly. He bent forward,, examining the dead man. “I guess yo’re right,” he said at last, and stood up slowly. “You must be this Zeke Dace they tell about,” he reflected. That’s so,” Zeke assented. “That’s Vho I be!” The sheriff looked down at Bart there on the ground. “You done this to him. did you?*’ - . “Guess I did,” Zeke assented; and after a moment, he explained as though proud of his^grim device: “I ’lowed he’d come to tend the crit ters in the barn here, give him time. So I run a fall through the tackle of the horse fork, and got enough pur chase with It to h’lst the grindstone into the upper mow. I didn’t know as it’d be heavy enough; so I fastened some trace chains and such truck onto It. Then I balanced it up there-on the edge, so’s It’d tip over easy, with one end of the fall fast to it, and a run ning noose in t’other end. I fetched the noose end down here and waited; and when Bart come in, al^l had to do was drop the noose over bis head and twitch the grindstone off its perch.” The sheriff tipped back his hat, ran bis Angers across his brow. “Well, we’d ought to get Bart In the house,” he decided. “Can’t let him lay out here !” And he said to Saladine: “Take his feet. Jim. will you. I’ll carry his head.” And he spoke to Zeke In a matter- of-fact tone. “You hold the lantern," he directed, ‘‘Open the door for us.” So they carried Bart Into the kitch en, and laid him on the floor. Zeke closed the door, and he set the lantern on top of the cold stove; and the sher iff mopped his brow and turned to face this man. “You done this, you said?” Zeke seemed almost to chuckle-in assent “How come?” the sheriff protested. “Why, they don’t hang for a killing in Maine," Zeke explained, in a satur nine satisfaction. “But It looked to me that was what he needed!” “You mean to say," Sohler prompted, “he was the one killed Mis’ Ferrlnf’ "Certain!" "Know that for a fact, do you?” “I low I do,” said Zeke, without vehemence; yet there was slow passion In his tones. The sheriff considered; and then on a sudden thought he knelt down to fumble at Bart’s belt, feeling It with his fingers. He looked up at Saladine. nodding. “His belt’s dry aa a bone!” he said hoarsely. "The old woman hit on It. finally I That was one thing he couldn’t lie out of, and that was enough to nail him!" He wagged his head. “He had a cold nerve,” he said, almost admiringly. “Stood up to her good, didn’t he? You wouldn’t ever have thought he was ly ing." And he decided: “But I guess he see he was done. Likely he aimed^ |o duck and run, Just now. If he could have got to the barn, hevcould go on through, and cu.L for - It, and we wouldn’t have a chance to catch him. in the dark.”-* ’ Saladine was curiously pleased that old Marm Pierce had been aible to prove her case In the end. But—that wag over now, and Zeke was here and must be dealt with. Saladine turned to him. “How do you know Bart did It?" he asked. , J , Before Zeke could speak, the sheriff warned him gravely: "You don’t have to say a word. Iqss’n yo’re a mind." Zeke stared at them In ah abstracted fashion. “I’ve got no rpason to hold back,” be said. He stood wltrf his stinulders against the door, his hands behind him, and his eyes flickered from one of them to the other as he spoke. „ “How come you didn’t try to get .away?" the sheriff asked. “Here after you’d finished him?”- Zeke shook his head. "With Huldy dead.” be said, "I hadn’t ju> place to go. nor nothing to go for!*! “I’m going to have to take you along to Jail,"-the sheriff reminded him; and Zeke said humbly: “Why,-the way It Is now,-I’d full, as lief be .in Jail, as anywheres.” And after a mopient, when they did not spea.k, he added; “Likely you know about Huldy and me. It was kind of desperate, *nd dreadful for me, rfeht from the start; like having holt of a live wire when you can’t let go.” \\ He stood tall In the dlnwjafttern light; he went on, as thoujrt^rspeech eased him, to tell all that ‘ r&nalned now to be told. ' T - ft It fell to Saladine to repeat fp Will Perrin and Marm Pierce a'tfd^ Jenny what Zeke told them now. When half an hour later the/ returned to the house divided, Will and Jenny came to the door; but the sheriff stayed with Zeke and that other In the car. “Jim, you go tell them what hap pened !” he said. So Saladine alighted and came into the warm kitchen and while they lis tened without question, he told the tale. “You were right, Marm Pierce,” he said. "It was Bart His belt was bone- dry!" Will stirred, but Saladine added' quickly, restraining the- other man: "But. Bart’s dead a’ready, Will Zeke killed him.” And he related the manner of that killing; then harked back,."Zeke was upset when Huldy took me down to the brook," he. explained. “As soon as Will left him, he tried to find her at the ledge; but she wag gone. She must have tried to follow me.” He hesitated, struck by the percep tion that bis own coming here today had precipitated all that ensued. “Zeke didn’t »ee*her,” he explained. “But he traipsed down brook, and caught up with me. and he thought she was bound to meet me somewhere; so he followed me till I got over here. He was hiding outside when Bart come through the barn, carrying her. “Zeke was too far away to stop Bart; but hfe knew it was Huldy by her dress, and he was wild; and he crawled Into the other side of the house, to try to hear what had hap pened to her.” “It was him I heard in there?” Jenny whispered. Saladine nodded. “And It was. him in the shed, after that, Marm Pierce,” he said. He looked at Jenny. “Zeke heard Huldy tell you that Will killed her,” he explained, cand he set out to find Will, ready to do for him! But on the way home, he see Bart’s tracks In the woods, and back-tracked Bart to where; he picked Huldy up after she fell. “It hjpid rained, but the ground was all soft before the rain, ..and Zeke was Wackefr enough to make out what had happened. B$rt didn't* come up from •rook to where she fell. There’d tracks to show, if he had. but there wg’n’t But his tracks was all plain where he’d come down from the ledge and across to where. Huldy was laying." Marm Pierce Interjected sharply: "There was tracks coming up from the brook when I went over there, while you and Bart was here!” - - Saladine considered, admiring the old woman’s thoroughness, yet per ceiving an explanation of this matter, too. “Bart must have laid a fake trail,” he/suggested. “On hls way hack here from Will’s. But you see, Zeke got there before Bart bad a chance to do that, right after Huldy died.” He added: “And If Bart) told the truth, hls‘rod and all would have been there then;hut they waVtl” And he explained: “Zeke went up to the ledge, and found enough to let him make out that Bart' and Huldy bad had some kind of a scuffle there; so he knowed Huldy had lied about Will, and he raced over to Bart’s bouse, meaning to hill him; but Bart wa’n’t there; and Zeke come back here and missed Bart again; and he spent the rest of the day like a dog betweep rat bolee. trying to find Bart and to get at him In some way so Bart couldn’t use hls gun.” He concluded: “And he finally way laid him over at the barn I That’s all!" 0 - /. Jenny clung fast to Will’s armV and Marm Pierce Exclaimed: "Well, good riddance!” There was never any senti mentality in that stout old woman. “Huldy wa’n’t worth It; but 1’inylght glad to know that Bart got hls come uppance ! It was high time.” But Will said: “Pore Zeke. He won’t live tong, in Jail!" “Pore fiddlesticks!” Marm Pierce protested. “I sh’d say you didn’t have any call to pity him I” “1 dunno,” Will confessed. “I bl-' ways was kind of 8orry»for Zeke. And It wa’n’t his fault He tried to hold out against her. But Huldy, I guess she could outnumber most’ any man.” Saladine felt himself an outsider here. “The sheriff’s in a hurry,” he remembered. “We’re taking Zeke— and Bart too—to town; so I’ll be moving on.” And turned toward the door. “I’ll come see you folks again, sometime,” he promised. "So do,” Marm Pierce assented, and Will seconded the Invitation. So Saladine bade them all good-by, and went out into the night vitbere the sheriff and Zeke were waiting 1 , In the car, and b e g&u the long, w^s ome drive to town. He forgot his rod and fish basket; but it would be long before he came to claim them. Zeke Dace, as Will had foreseen, did not live to face trial. He died in late August, In the jail on the hill above East Harbor. “He wa’n’t sick.” the sheriff told Saladine, stopping at Jim’s farm on the Ridge above Fraternity one day. “He was always kind of thin and rtiaky, but no worse than always. He Just died, that’s all!” x They talked together of Zeke for a little; and then Jim asked word of the other folk fn Hostile valley. “I was out .there last week,” the sheriff explained. ’To tell ’em about Zeke. Marm Pierce has made It up with her brother. Win’s living with her now, and fixing up hls side of the house to keep the weather out He swears he’s never going to touch an other drop of rum as long as he lives, prob’ly.” Saladine asked for Will and Jenny. “They’re fine,” the sheriff assured him. “They’re aiming to get married, here in a week or so!” ' "Not married yet?” Sal&dlne ex claimed In surprise. ' Sohler shook hls head. “You’d ought to go out and see ’em,” he suggested. “They spoke kindly about you." “I left my rod out there," Saladine recalled.- “Forgot It that night snd I never did go to fetch It Maybe I will!" There was in him no Immediate In tention to do this. Hls first experi ence of Hostile Valley had not been of a sort to attract him to that gloomy place again; yet If Bart, and Zeke, and Huldy were gone . . He thought of Jenny and Will and of old Marm Pierce with pleasure; and when the next day proved fine and fair, and the blue hills were beckoning, be yielded to sudden Impulse, climbed into hls old car and set out along the re membered way. (TO BE CONTINUED) I White women insist on their rights and fight*"Tor Independence. Navajo women are such complete bosses in the wigwam they' don’t have to worry about emancipation. They bead their clans, which kre established on the mother’s /side, and holds the strings of the family^ purse because the Navajo wealth Is in. sheep, which are handed down from mother to daughter. This Is divulged by Wick JMlller, who has given much time and study to Indian arts and customs. "Navajo women don’t argue about equal rights,” he said. “And they don’t Insist on deferential gestures; they know their word Is final, thelrt position Is enviable.” One of the Navajo weavers, Eekh- [ pah (Coming Again Woman), sub stantiated this Idea. "I don’t argue Thinking is only one aspect of tal activity and mental activity to only one aspect of vital activity. Life must go farther than mere think ing can carry it It cannot stop where thinking stops. Then what is to be the guide of life when thinking falls to be a sufficient guide? Is there to be no guide at all? A negative an* swer is too often given, and hence the confusions of the hour. But there is no Justification (p thought or anywhere e^ge for the negative an swer. Thinking stops fery often before it needs to stop. It ought td proceed as far as it can, and when it does so it sees the reasonableness of seeking help beyond itself. Busy Little Insect Is Manufacturer of Shellac Few people realize a man’s debt to an Industrious little Insect called laccl- fer lacca. India first knew It as a ram paging parasite, despoiling forests. But, as the raw manufacturer of shel lac, the resin used for making gramo phone records, stiffening straw hats, coating wood and metals, and other in sulating purposes, it is today treated with marked respect. Knowing its appetite for succulent young branches, the natives prepare these specially for it, attaching them to troos. The lac then dines at its pleasure, covering the bark with a resinous secretion. The female lac is the most prolific source of supply. Then, when the harvest appears ripe, The resin is melted into a plastic mass, which on drying is cut up into circular cakes or sheets, ready for export— Tit-Bits Magazine. > —r*r - The Black and Tan Tarriar Outside of their short, glossy coat the most distinctive thing about the black and tan terrier Is its markings, the tanned muzzle with the Jet black nasal bone; the tan spot on each cheek and over each eye and hair in side the ears the same color; the fore legs tanned to the knees with black pencil marks on each toe, writes Ruth Mansfield, in the Washington Post The average weight Is arounli seven pounds. The dog has a mod erately short body, curving upward^at the loins; riba well sprung, back slightly arched at the loins and fall ing again at the joining of the tail to the same height as the shoulders; straight legs; feet more inclined to be cat than hare-footed; moderate length talL The head is long, flat, narrow, level and wedge-shaped, with small, sparkling and dark eyes, oblong In shape. The coat to close^ smooth, short and glossy. ^' '""V about my rights,” she said. “I don’t even think about theni, and neither does any other Navajo woman.” Dressed li.’deer-skih moccasins and ! a gayly colored skirt topped by a | dark * velveteen, bh use, Eekh-pah 1 fingered her turquoise-set bracelets and talked quietly about the cus toms of her people. “Our w-omen keep busy,” she ex plained, “with making blankets and rugs. - Wdkget the wool from our ^sheep, comb and card It,' and then spin it on that.” She pointed to a • istafT. a remnant of the ancient type of spinning wheel. She further explained that the wool is dyed /after it Is spun and then woven lr\to rugs and’ blankets on a loom. Eekh-pab v hspeaks English as well s a.-white woman for she went away to school. Returning to her »rihe, she married a young brave who ilready ha.d a wife ariflgbaby. "I didn’t .want to marry him. — I ildn’t love,” she confessed. “But my people pursuaded me to marry him. .Vow, I to longer live with him; I am divorced." Divorce among the Navajos.con -ists in separntinn-wlthout benefit of a court decree. Marria’ge, also, often | takes place without a ceremony. The | common procedure Is for the Navajo maiden and her lover to begin living under the same shelter, thereby an nouncing to the ^>lan they are mar ried. Occasionally, after the first child Is born, they have a marriage ceremony. . ,• “It is not strange.” said Eekh-pah. “for a Navajo man to have more than one wife.at the same tlme^ But the woman never has two husbands unless one is dead or unless she has •i divorce." Postiblo ( ■ Goethe said, "Every wrong to avenged op earth.” It may be If th* laws are enforced. Quick Safe Relief For Eyes Irritated .\ Bv Exposure fo Sun Wind i:: and Du'.f FOB YOUR EVES Fate 7 Staying single is hardly ever planned. It Just happens. hmnn^sii Hcting gGSH eS GENTLE HINT Air Pilot—Have you heard the re mark, “See. Naples and die?” Passenger—Yes. Pilot—Well,- we are over Naples apd the engine Is not fupctlonlng. Just Average Wife (heatedly) — You’re lazy, you’re worthless, you’re bad-tem pered, you’re shiftless, you’re a thor ough liar, i * Husband "(reasonably)—Well, my dear, no man Is perfect. The Professional Anglo The champion athlete In bed with a cold was told thqt he had a tem perature. * “How high is it, doctor?” he want ed to know. “A hundred and one.” “What’s the world’s record?” INSTANT LIGHTING Iron the easy way in one-third less time with the Coleman. Iron in comfort any place. It’s entirely self-heating. No cords or wires. No weary, endless trips between s hot stpve and ironing board. Makes its own gas. Bams 96$ sir. Lights instantly ' — no pre-heating. Operating cost only Vif an hour. See your local dealer or write for FREE Folder. THE COLEMAN LAMP 6- STOVE CO. dw. wumjr^w o*fc- BUY YOUR FIREyVORKS DIRECT: assort* ments $1 and up, or make your own aelee- .tion. Free complete catalog. Send today. H. E. REOHRN CO.. Box 45. Cloeter. N. t. Pelican’s Pantry —^— It is the pelican that carries hto own pantry with him. Calendar Ready for Distribution m riooe JANUARY 1006 i §n§ X » 1 il t T 7 I 1 ip V V $ ? V ¥' £ V V f £ p- fab pm He Knew Pat Mike—I haven’t seen my Uncle Pat for ten years. I wonder what he’s been doing all that time. Ike—I can guesa^ ten years. Parliamentary **Do you think you’ll be able to - getthe speaiker’s eye?” ' “The speaker hasn’t done any thing to me yet,” said the athletic yoong member. “If he. does, I won’t aim for hls eye. I’ll aim for hls - Jaw,” - . Ask at the nearest store where Car* dal and Black-Draught are sold far a biff 1936 CARDUI CALENDAR. Large figures, easy to read. Weather forecasts for every day. It’shows holidays, moon's phases, eclipses. It the itorn hMa’t •rdcred, w If tba ■apply has ram rat hafara yan aak far a CarM Calendar, tend as It seats and wa wtB sand yea ana, by auO prepaid. Address:. CARDUI CALENDAR, Chattanooga, Team GENERAL ALARM Worm—Doggo nit, that fool near sighted firebug thinks Tm a piece of hose. Nothing Gratia ‘Ton can’t get something for nothing in this life.” “That’s right,” repUed the gloomy citlzeft. “If I want even a few kind words about my disposition and some hope of future success, Tve got to go to a fortune teller and pay for them.” • 'I