| Show C I 1 M A R by edna ferber t by edna beeb service WHAT WENT BEFORE yancey cravat lust just returned from the newly opened indian territory where he participated in the run over the border relates his adventures to a gathering 0 of the venable family yancey vancey Is a criminal lawyer editor of the wichita wigwam and husband ausband of sabra cravat when the run started yancey rancey raced his pony against the thoroughbred mount of 0 a girl the thoroughbred broke two legs ices and when yancey vancey stopped to shoot it the girl grabbed his pony and beat him to the land lie he wanted yancey with v ith his wife and four our year old son cimarron Cl marron start for tho the oklahoma n i country they arrive to hart a newspaper he declares he intends to find the murderer of 0 fegler editor of the new day yancey shows he can handle P a gun preparations io or r the publication of the wigwam are completed yancey tancey accepts an invitation to 0 o conduct church services on sunday grat gotch lends his gambling gambl lne tent for the services the place Is packed before he be starts his sermon yancey announces he has bas learned who killed peeler he stoops in time to escape a bullet fired by lon youn tie and then kills a announcing noun cing that murdered murder ed peeler second child donna donina do nna nina Is three years old when she returns to wichita lor for her first visit CHAPTER VII Contin continued ved it 11 Thurs thursday dayl I 1 cut but the day the paper comes out well the wigwam aint been so regular since you been away she allowed that to pass without comment up in the hills bills he stumbles on doctor valliant drunk but not so drunk he dont recognize yancey well he tells yancey rancey drunk us its he Is that hes right in the camp where the kid and his gang Is hiding out one of them was hurt bad to in that last santa fe holdup hold bold up at cimarron like to died only they sent for doe doc and lie came and saved him they got close to thirty thousand that trick and it kind of went to their heads val rant llant overheard them planning to ride in here to osage like today find and hold up tile the citizens national in broad daylight like hka the md kid always does they was rag already started well yancey off on his horse to warn tile town nod and knows hes bes got to detour or hell come on the gang and smell a rat well say he actually did meet em came on em cm accidental the kid sees him and grins that wolf grin of his and sings out yancey tancey you still that paper of yourn down at osage yancey says yes well say hl he says how bow much is it yancey rancey says a dollar aryear a year the kid reaches down nod and throws yancey a shot sack with ten silver dollars in it send me the paper for ten years he says where to yancey rancey asks him well say the kid laughs lauglin that wolf laugh of his again and he says 1 I never thought of that ill have to leave you know later well yancey looking as meek and mealy mouthed as a baby he rides his way lies hes got a little book of poems in ills his hand and hes reading ns as he rides or pretending to but first chance he bees he cuts across the hills puts his horse through the gullies and into the draws and across the scrub oaks iske he was a circus horse or a centipede or something he gets into osage dead tired and ills his horse in a lather father ten minutes before the kid and his gang sweeps doun don pawhuska aenus their six shoot ers barking like a n regiment was coming and makes a rush for the bank but the town Is expecting them say 1 blood sabra waited for no more she turned and as slie she turned she saw coming down the road in a cloud of dust a grotesque scarecrow all shanks and teeth and rolling eyes black isaiah 1 nom miss hiss sabra he aint hurt not what yo rightly call hurt no maam jes a nip in de arm end and lie he got it slung in a black silk d c ld e f and d looks right handsome athey they let him a lon long agh er Evy body in town t they b shakan I 1 ills his hand caze lie shoot the eliot dat kill de kid an you ihnow what he do then miss sabra bra ue lie kneel down a he cr cry Y like ea a baby LO le me tote ris yere re valise ali ah kin tote mis don na 1 too my bly she ilio I 1 the newspaper off office leethe the print agop lop her parlor her kitchen her bedroom idro orn were packed with men in ats spurs sombreros sombre ros men in we re ralla ralls women with children urs rs wyatt was there the philo not beans as aa one woman were here bere iere dixie lee actually every me ae but sinister loule louie klefner ll efner foer twell wel mis alls cravat I 1 guess you lust he be pretty proud of him I 1 ou on missed the sho shoot otin ln mis crait but youre in time to help yany yonly ly celebrate say the san r ife 44 e a alone 1 one offered red five thousand allars foi the capture of the kid pd id or r ae KI yancey ancey gets it all it and the t katy at y lone done the lie same I 1 theys a government price on head and the citizens nation making up a purse be i lu in your carrinee car ringe dettlo ettl 1 in from now ancey wits was at his big desk he 1 wigwam alg fil ce ile he looked 18 she c time came in and at tile the look is filce face she the fat forgave ave jilin him ills his neg deg tot lier ller forgave him tile house 0 of o what felice venable would rIf frair and worse his falth faith ss to alia it WI wigwam dunna donna lin and I 1 frightened had bad set up a 1 alm bewildered had gone on cut but as yancey took a bling step toward her she had one child and that one need or fr slip sim thrust donna again Isa lihs arms left alm airn whirl ing among the throng ran toward him she was in his big grent arms but it was her arms that seemed to sustain him alini sabra sugar send them away im so tired oli oh god im so tired next day they exhibited tile body of the kid in the new plate glass show window of heffers furniture store and undertaking parlors all osage came to view hini him they rode in on trains on horses in wagons in ox carts for miles and miles around tile tiie kid tile the boy who in his early twenties bad sent no one knew how ninny many men to their death whose name was the symbol for terror and daring in and merciless ma throughout tile the southwest even in the east in new york the name of the kid was known stories had been written about him I 1 he be was long iong before his death a mythical figure and now he together with clay Alc mcnulty Nulty his lieutenant lay side by side quite still quite passive sabra did a strange a terrible thing yancey would not go near the grisly window sabra upheld him denounced tile the gaping crowd as scavengers and ghouls then suddenly at tile the last minute as the sun was setting blood red across the prairie she walked out of the house down the road as if impelled as if in a trance like a sleep walker and stood before Ilef heffers ners window the crowd made way tor for her respectfully they knew lier her this was the wife of yancey cravat the man whose name appeared in headlines in every newspaper throughout the united states and even beyond the ocean they had dressed the two bandits in new cheap black suits of store clothes square in cut clumsy so that they stood woodenly away from the lean hard bodies clay ys face had a faintly surprised look uis his long sandy mustache drooped over a mouth singularly sweet and resigned but the face of the boy was fixed in a smile that brought the lips in a sardonic snarl away from the olf like feet teeth and the eyes whose lightning glance lina hau pierced you through and through like one of the bullets from his own dreaded six shooters now were extinguished forever behind the waxen shades of his eyelids it was at the boy that sabra looked and having looked she turned and walked back to the house they gave them a decent funeral and a burial with everything in proper order and when the minister refused to read the service over these tw sinners yancey consented to do it and did standing there with the fresh turned mounds of red oklahoma clay sullying his fine high heeled boots and the sun blazing down upon the curling locks of ills his uncovered head bead they put up two rough wooden slabs marking the graves but souvenir hunters with little bright knives soon made short work of those the two mounds sank lower lower soon nothing not liing marked tills this spot on the prairie to differentiate it from the red clay that stretched for miles all about it they rient to yancey by mall mail in checks and through solemn corn com in store clothes and white collars the substantial money rewards that for almost five years had been offered by the santa F fe road the M I 1 K T the government itself and various banks for tile the capture of the kid dead or alive yancey refused every penny of it the committees the townspeople 9 i but the th town Is expecting them the county were shocked and even offended sabra tight light lipped at last broke out in protest 4 we could have a decent house a new printing press clias education donna 1 I dont take money for killing a man lann yancey repeated to each offer of money the committees and the checks went back as they had come 0 4 0 0 sabra noticed that yanceys Yance ys hand shook with a perceptible palsy before breakfast and that tills was more than ever noticeable as that hand approached tile the first drink of whisky swallowed before he ate a morsel lie ile tossed it down as one who seeking relief from pain takes take medicine when he returned return cil the glass glasa to the table he be drew a deep breath brent li ills his hand wag waa miraculously quite steady alore and more lie ile neglected the news and business details of the wigwam lie ile was restless moody distrait sabra remembered with a pang of dismay something that he had said on first conning coming to osage G d when I 1 think of those years in Wl Wi almost five years in one place the longest stretch cli ive ever done the newspaper was prospering for sabra gave more and more time to it but yancey seemed to have lost interest as he be did in any venture once it got under tinder way even in the courtr courtroom oora or while addressing a meeting of townspeople yancey sometimes es would be 11 leave ave strangely ile he would stop in the midst of a florid period at once a creature savage and over civilized the oaring flaring lamps tile the hot bot breathless atmosphere tile the vacuous white faces looming up at him like balloons would repel liim him lie ile hall had been known to stalk 0 out U t leaving them mg in the courim courtroom ni h he was an alarming figure when he was defending a local county or territorial case they flocked irom from miles around to hear him and the crude pine shack aback that was the courtroom would be packed to suffocation fo cation catlon lie ile towered over any jury of frontiersmen a behemoth in a prince albert coat and fine linen his great shaggy buffalos buffaloe buff alos head charging menacingly at his opponent his was the florid oratory of the day full of sentiment hyperbole anil and wind but lie he could be trenchant enough when needs be and his charm his magnetic power were undeniable nod and almost invariably he emerged from the courtroom victorious sabra saw more and more to the editing and to the actual printing of tile the OL oklahoma dahoma wigwam in she got in as general and liepper an osage indian girl of fifteen who had been to the indian school and who had learned some of the rudiments of household duties cleaning dishwashing laundering even some of the simpler forms of cookery slie she tended donna as well iier her name was arita aalta red nod feather a quiet gentle girl who went about the house in her calico dress and moccasins and had to be told everything over again daily isaiah was beginning to be too big tor for these duties ile he was something of a problem in the household at the suggestion that he be sent back to wichita he set up a howling and walling wailing and would not be consoled until both sabra and yancey rancey assured him that ile he maht remain with them forever when jesse rickey was too drunk to stand at tile the type case and yancey was off on some legal matter lie he slowly and painstakingly helped sabra to make possible the weekly issue of the oklahoma wigwam sabra in a pinch even tried her unaccustomed hand at an occasional editorial thou L yancey seldom filled failed her utterly in tills this department A rival newspaper set ser up quarters across the street and for two or three months kept up a feeble pretense of existence yan tan beys editorials during tills this period were extremely personal but it was sabra who held bed the women readers with her accounts of the veal loaf coleslaw baked beans and angel food cake served at the church supper and the somewhat touching decorations and costumes worn at the wedding of a local or county belle if in the quarter of a century that followed every trace of the settling of tile the oklahoma country had been lost excepting only the numbers of the oklahoma wig wigwam warn there still would have been left a clear and inclusive record of tile the lives morals political and social and economic workings of this bizarre community week hy by week month by month the reader could coul have noticed in its columns whatever of progress was being made lo 10 tills this fantastic slice of the republic of the united states sabra except except for yanceys Sance Yance ys grow ing restlessness was content enough the children cli ildren were well the paper was prospering she had her friends the house had taken on an aspect of comfort they had added another bedroom site she was in a way a leader in the crude social life of the community church suppers sewing societies family picnics one thing rankled deep yancey had bad been urged to accept the office of territorial delegate to congress without vote and had bad refused all sorts of territorial political positions were held out to him the cly of guthrie capital of the territory wooed him in vain vain ile he laughed at political position rejected all offers of political nature now he was being offered tile the position of governor of the territory ills his oratory ills his dramatic quality his record in many affairs including the murder and the shooting of the kid had spread ills his fame even beyond tile the south west oh ob Yan yancey ceyl 1 sabra thought of the venables the the the goforthe at last her choice of a mate was to be vindicated Gover governor norl but yancey shook ills his head there was no moving him he would go on the stump to make others congressmen and governors but he himself would take no office Pa lavering to a n lot of greasy office seekers and panhandlers pan handlers dancing to the tune of that gang in washington 1 I 1 know the whole dirty lot of them restless moody irritable riding out into tile prairies to be gone for days corning coining back to regale clin with stories of evenings spent on tills or that tar far oft off rese reservation ration smoking and talking with chief big horse of tile cherokees Chero kocs with chief buffolo hide of the chickasaws with of old black kettle of the usages 1 but ut he be was not always like illic tills this there were linies limes when ills old fiery spirit took possession ile he entered tile the fight for the statehood of oklahoma territory and here he encountered opposition enough even for him lie ile was for the consolidation of the oklahoma terri territory tors lind tile indian territory under stogie single statehood the thousands who were opposed to the indians who upon them thein ns as savages totally unfit for citizenship fought him A year after their coming to oklahoma the land had been divided into two territories one owned and occupied by the indian tribes the other owned by the whites here the cravats lived on oil the border line and here was yancey fighting fight log week after week in tile iho editorial and news columns of the oklahoma wigwam for the rights of |
