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Show v - i THE PROGRESSIVE OPINION , WSk'tr' v? HAR.OLD CHANNING WIRE H WM LEW BURNET has been engaged by TOM ARNOLD, owner of the CroV, T TonT. aVrau boss on the drlve ,r to OgaUala In the spring STEVE and joy, are moving to Wy. oming. Tom must deliver 3,000 longhorns to the Indian agent by Sept. 1 or lose a profitable contract. Lew suspects that the Indian Supply Co. Is trying to delay the Cross T. Tom Arnold is killed dur-ing a stampede. CLAY MANNING and extras, to be held by him in pay- - ment for half interest in his Powder River lands of Wyoming." Ames Strayhorn, Tom Arnold's attorney in Ox Bow, had witnessed and notarized the document. There w,as no loophole. Its legal-ity was beyond question, and he couldn't help but feel the compli-ment of the old man's trust in him. Joy was the first to look up. Any sudden surprise is hard to take for most people. You come up behind a man and only yell his name and most likely he gets mad. He thought it was that way with the girl now. She stared at him with a quick, be-wildered anger. He saw Steve's eyes lift from the paper and strike at Clay, questioning him, all of their old hounded fear suddenly in them again. Of the three this turn seemed to hit Steve the worst. For Clay's reactions were slow at times. His head came up. He stood like a huge bull swelling with his rage. It burst from him with the mad-ness of one hardly knowing what he said. "This changes nothing!" "Clay," he said, "that's enough." He could feel the scar across his cheek begin to itch and burn. "You call this a showdown. All right, let's showl Something happened be-fore the start that's made you want to block this herd from going north. Now you think you've got your chance. You'd make Joy an excuse to let it go. Want to hear why? The Open A is coming up be-hind us. If we lose our herd to the Cheyennes they'll pass with no trou-ble. There's a stacked deal for you! It's all you want." He saw Joy's face down beside his shoulder turn from, anger to shocked disbelief. She stared at Clay, drew back from both of them suddenly, holding them both with darkly bitter eyes. Without speak-ing she walked with rigid steps to-ward her wagon. The group of men had begun to break up. Joe Wheat rose and came over in his casual walk, a thin slat ED SPLANN dispute Lew's authority, and Lew discharges Splann. Lew hears from the soldiers at Doan's store that the Indians are being Incited to raiding. They cross into Indian Territory. A party of Cheyennes demand 600 cattle. the direction of a wind. He pulled to a stop and let the longhorns flow past, waving the men on as the drag end came abreast. Most of the crew were riding back here now, each with a rifle scab-bard thrust under his left stirrup leather, stock forward, close to his hand. They had made a good start, beat-ing the dawn by an hour. The cat-tle had risen of their own accord from the wet bed ground and would not feed in the rain. They were walking fast. He figured they had already made better than ten miles. Still his main hope had been that when 'the wind came it would be out of the north eold and stormy. What he felt against his cheek was a warm, melting breath from the south. It would clear the skies too soon. t In a dead silence, as the clacking thud of the longhorns passed on, he sat facing their back trail where even in this short time a breeze had begun to tear the gray curtain into shreds. As far as he could see the land was as flat as a floor, unbroken by any creek or dangerous hollows of ground. Five minutes' wait brought him nothing. Riding on, to circle the herd and come in at the point, he fell back upon an old confidence. Texans had met Indians before in overwhelming numbers and got through all right. Except for Joy, he knew he would not be dreading it now. When he passed her wagon, drawn up close along the point behind Owl-Hea- d Jackson's, he saw that she had her father's frontier forty-fou- r lying on the seat. They hadn't talked this morning. He was going to ride on. She called him over. "Forget it, Lew." She smiled. "Nothing's bad enough to make you look like that." "Well," he said, "I got you into this." "And you'll get us out." She believed it. Her clear eyes showed him that. He grinne'd at her. He was suddenly warmed be-neath his wet, soaked clothing. "Sure," he said. "We'll get out!" If only the fool longhorns could grow wings! In another hour the rain had stopped. The herd was grazing now; loose-knee- heads down, crawling at a slow, torment-ing pace. A thick ground mist was left blowing northward. It gave them shelter until sometime past noon. The lift came abruptly in a layer of fog that rose and hung suspended overhead. He swung out from the herd and looked beyond their close formation, hunting off southeast in the way from which Joe Wheat would come. But off there and on behind him the land stretched emp-ty and flat. He brought his eyes around slowly to hold a fixed gaze on the back trail toward the of the Wichita range. That emptiness was too good. So far away that at first he hardly caught it, looking like a part of the brown earth, a darker spot of brown was moving. He yelled and crooked his arm at the dragmen. They jumped their mounts into a run toward his side of the point. Quarternight loped around to him. Moonlight Bailey and young Jim Hope began to drive the leading horse herd back. He waved the wagons over, and under that pressure of mules and horses and men the point began to swing. Gradually four thousand longhorns were turning back upon CHAPTER XIII A man could be wrong as well as right and often both right and wrong m anything he did. One was the same as another like that. When you swapped leaders you only swapped an equal chance of good or bad in a different way. That was what she would know. But Clay could be a convincing cuss when he set himself about it. Over his corn-me- bread and steaks and coffee he watched to-ward the cook's wagon with only a curious interest. Steve was over there, too, eating with them. But it was Joy that Clay was working on, making something light of it, with his hat pushed back on his blond head and all of his big face showing her an easy reassurance. He could wheedle her when he want-ed to, with a sort of concerned gallantry, his blue eyes going mo-mentarily grave. Then he could see their talk was coming to a decision, and his first feeling that Clay could get nowhere with Joy left him. For she stood briefly with a little frowning doubt. Steve took her arm and spoke to her. She nodded. They tossed their empty plates at the wreck pan and came on toward the fire. He was not watching them now. They could have saved that deci-sion, whatever it was. He had his own ace in this game. Stretched out against his bedroll, he looked up and saw the sky's complete dark-ness. A misty air brushed his face. Without turning his head he knew they had stopped a quarter circle around the fire from him. "Well, Lew," Clay said. He brought his eyes around. "School's out, Clay. Class dis-missed. Sit down." He grinned at Joy. "We've got to know your plan," she said.. "All right. We're turning west at dawn." He held out one hand, palm up. ."Here's rain coming. Indians won't travel in the wet, so we're safe enough tonight. Isn't that about it?" He glanced at the half ring of men to see what backing he would get. Some of them nodded. "Spoils their feathers," said Rebel John. "They'll stay under cover now." "Then we can count on that. If ' the rain holds tomorrow we can make better than twenty miles to the west. We'll be close to the Texas panhandle by that time,. It's thin safety, I know, but we can call on the army if we have trouble off of Indian lands." "Army!" Clay mocked. "You got any idea where that "is?" "There's a troop," he said, "at JJoan's Crossing. I'm sending a man back tonight." "That all you got?" Clay asked. "That's all. Keep moving. Ex-cept we can make a fight of it if we have to." "Sure. Against six hundred In-dians! " "Eleven men," he pointed out, "held off more than that at Adobe Walls. But there won't be six hun-dred bucks. Half of any tribe are squaws." He leaned back on. his elbows. He needn't go on with an argument, and yet he wanted Clay to show his hand. It came forced out with heat, where none was called for, as if Clay needed that fire of temper to bolster him up. "You're right about turning west. But the herd travels too slow. We'll send the wagons on ahead." "What about splitting the men?" he asked. "You can't divide this outfit now. You'd have no protec-tion anywhere." "Then send plenty with the wag-ons. Make sure of thatJ It's Joy I'm thinking about!" Maybe. Yet Clay's plan boiled down simply to abandoning the herd. He grinned dryly. "Why not all go with the wagons? Let the Cheyennes take the cows." "Lew," Steve put in, "Clay's right!" Lew gave the boy a long straight look. "Steve," he said gently, "you know better than that. You stand there in your dad's boots and lell me to desert four thousand long-horns at the first scare of Indians. You've got more reason than you're telling. That's plain enough. No man with any honest sense would split his crew here or run off either. I won't." "Then I guess," Steve said flat-ly "a showdown's come. Hate to do it, Lew. Clay's taking charge." Lew stood up. "By owner's vote?" "That's it." "You agree, Joy?" he asked. "Lew, I" she began and fal- - teAll right," he said. "That's all I wanted to know." He paced to-ward the three of them slowly. I wanted to be sure you "nderst0d the owner had full power." He pulled . folded sheet of paper from inside "I hadn t in-tended his buckskin jacket. to show this or use it. ping the paper in his own hands, he opened it and held it to the fire-lig-for her to read. The two blond heads bent in close to hers and he followed the lines following, written in their eyes were Arnold's oddly small, rounded Tom over the firs script- - He passed preamble to the meat of what legal Burnet, in the t said' "To Lew this will is read while the C herd is still on the trail That ownership to Ml ownership. is reached and a ride. Such money then to divided half to my son, Steve. be ,, Joy. To Lew )n mv daughter, "This changes nothing." of a man with a gaunt, morose face. But there was a thing behind Joe Wheat's morose silences that men understood. In his quiet drawl he said, "Time for the first guard, ain't it, Lew?" He turned his deeply hollowed eyes on Clay. "Our watch," It was Wheat's plain statement that there had been no change in bosses. And under those quiet hard eyes some of the stiffness went from Clay Manning's back. With no more the old man started away. Lew fol-lowed him past the fire. "Not you, Joe," he said. "I'm riding guard in your place. You're going back to Doan's." He picked up his saddle, carrying it on to the night-guar- horses. "We haven't come more than seventy miles. You can make it by daylight and lead the troop back. They said they wouldn't give me any help in the Nations, but they've got a young lieutenant.. He'll come when he knows we have a girl along." Saddling, he looked past the Are-lig-toward her wagon. Steve was over there, leaning in across the endgate to where she lay motion-lesso- n the blankets, her head buried in her arms. It was strange how rarely he thought of them as broth-er and sister. There was never much between them to show that bond. Yet all of a brother's com-fort, for some reason now, was in the way Steve's hand brushed her hair slowly, his lips moving in talk. Her stillness tugged him. But there was nothing he could do for her himself, nothing more to say. He had used an ace to play this game as he felt it should be played. He had damn well better be right! Any man, he had known before, can be both right and wrong. He knew he had been right in holding the outfit all together, turning west. But he had been wrong in counting on the rain. Sometime past the middle of the next morning he saw the first breath of wind stir through a gray curtain of drizzle that had been falling straight down. He dropped back along the herd, feeling the bitter irony that so much could hang upon themselves, until thfty made a great letter U. And then the gap closed as the leaders joined the drags. There had been no confusion to give them a scare. They milled only a little and came to a stop in their compact pool. It had taken perhaps ten minutes' time. Watching east, he had seen the dark spot grow in size, coming on swiftly in these minutes,. "John," he said, "you're an at this. What would you say?" "Take it easy," Quarternight an-swered. "Set like we are. They'll have to do their fancy ridin' first. If they get too close we can out-tal- k 'em some ways off." His Springfield - Allin lay across his knees; an eager brightness shone in bis puckered old eyes. They sat with men spread out at intervals on either side, the two wagons close behind them, the horse herd bunched between the wagons and the cattle. Like that they formed a line facing the direc-tion of attack, a line that could shift around the pool of longhorns if the Indians swung. He turned once and saw that Clay was backed against Joy's wagon seat, making himself her guard. Then his fcuckskin's little black-tippe- d ears pricked up, swinging forward. He felt the animal's heart pound beneath his leg. Even the horse knew these were Indians, somehow, from a mile off. He wrapped his reins around the horn and drew his rifle from its scabbard. A cool fascination gripped him, like the thing you felt when you watched the rippled movements of a snake. They made sight, no longer a solid brown. Their mounts were streaked with red and yellow. Naked, painted bodies and black heads lay close to the horses' backs. They came on at a steady trot, knee to knee in a widespread line. "Ain't that a show!" Quarter-night said. "Cheyennes, sure enough." "How many you figure?" he1 asked. "Some less than a hundred. Notj near what you were told." (TO BE CONTINUED) fast cloth or place doilies is 6 by 6 inches. Embroider them in sin pie line stitch for gifts! To obtain transfer designs for 6 Canar Towels (Pattern No. 5244) color chart foi embroidering, send 16 cents in coin, your name, address and the pattern number. Send your order to: SEWING CIRCLE NEEDLEWORK 149 New Montgomery St. San Francisco, Calif. Enclose 15 cents (plus one cent to cover cost of mailing) for Pattern No Name Address OM THE HOME r FRONTS RUTH WYETH SPEARS PERHAPS you've made lawn straight cuts of the handsaw. It is almost as easy to cut curves as to make square cuts but a pattern and a little extra care are necessary for perfect- re-sults. In this design curves add com-fort as well as beauty, and a tufted cushion distributes the weight so rC i - COMFORTABLE ' I 1 TUFTED PD I XCOMPflSS --A OVER TIGHTLY X5AW2Li STRETCHED V V' J. (Lf) CANVAS l r Hi I' 1 that springs are not missed so much. The curved pieces are shown at the left. You can see how easy they are to cut out of odds and ends of h lumber that you may have on hand or can get at the nearest lumber dealer. The re-inforcing pieces are all square cuts. NOTE: Mrs. Spears has prepared an actual-siz- pattern for all the curved sect-ions of this chair. Complete dimensions and directions for the chair construction and for making the tufted cushion, with list of materials included. This is patt-ern 265 and will be sent postpaid for 15 cents. Write direct to: MRS. RUTH WYETH SPEARS Bedford Hills New York Drawer 10 Enclose 15 cents for Pattern No. 265. Name Address (IS pHE first days of spring are no more colorful than the 'colors if this gay little canary, done life-iz- e and in bright yellow with lowers of red, green and blue, iach design for tea towels, break- - f Just 2 drops Penetro Nose Drop3 in each nostril help you llh breathe freer almost kElD Bill instantly, so your 'IilL' CJr&Ja1M head cold gets air. Only 25c 2y2 times as jTZr much for 50c. 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Non-Votin- g Soldiers More than a quarter of Amer-ica's 8,000,000 fighting men cannot vote this year because they are under 21, the minimum voting age in all states except Georgia, which permits to vote in all elections. 'Praying Trees' In some parts of Asia there are strange trees that "pray," bending toward the ground once every 24 hours. Newsax Behini By PaulMallon .y Released by Western Newspaper Union, DISCIPLINE IN OUR DEMOCRACY WASHINGTON. One editorialist has implied that my exposures of the laxities in discipline and scholar-ship in the schools strikes at the heart of democratic institutions-leaving a reader to suspect that dis-cipline would overthrow democracy. Now where in the world did he get that idea? The truth is the oppo-site, as any reasonable man should be able to deduce for himself. Why did Naziism, Communism and Tokyo dictatorship rise to their present power in the world? Because they said democracies were weak, our people undisciplined, and 'our sys- - terns deficient? " Democracy failed in Germany be-- I fore Hitler on this very ground. The Weimar Republic was a moral fore-runner of what weak France later suffered before her fall. The people were not strong, 'well ordered, but confused and lax in all ways. I say we shall suffer the same fate unless we mend our easy ways and reestablish discipline in home, school and church. Juvenile delinquency is only a first crack that shows in our gilt. Deficient scholarship from pro-gressive education is another. So j is adult delinquency. These are warnings of the de-generating road that is leading on into business (condoning of black markets, etc.), into poli-tics (easy-goin- g acceptance of lack of common integrity and respect for promises), and into personal attitudes of some of our people who have no righteous in-dignation against cheapness, ig-norance, laziness or even dis-honesty. They are more apt to scorn work than crimes against nature. They not only tolerate sloth, they worship it. These are weaknesses when we need strength. At the end of this road is dictatorship, not democracy. By discipline, I do not mean Ger-man Russian servility, or Tokyo bootlicking of an emperor. These critics even seem to have for-gotten the meaning of democratic discipline as well as its operation. It is only a national standard a state of national mind main-tained insistently by a majority. It is a custom established by the people themselves. FIX A JUST STANDARD The army and navy do not main-tain discipline with a e tails. They fix a just standard to which all must subscribe, and all save a very small minority of the misguided do subscribe. The guard-house is maintained for them as a last resort of punishment based on a fair trial under majority democratic standards and customs. If you think the example of the army too strained for civilian appli-cation, consider how order is main-tained in your church. There, you have no guardhouse or sergeant-at-arm-or even written rules of con-duct, yet the sternest discipline is maintained by majority demand. You see very little vandalism such as carving of seats, such van-dalism would be practically elimi-nated also in the movie houses, street cars, and other public places where it is now rampant if a majority of this country only firmly insisted. SCHOOLS CAN HAVE IT Discipline can be restored to the schools the same way. So can good scholarship. Parents can thus be in-duced or compelled by scorn alone to take the reins at home, and churches invited to assert them-selves again. This then is the democratic way of maintaining a strong and orderly nation, and when it fails you get dictatorship; in fact, you must have dictatorship as a necessary conse-quence of your own degeneration. All today who condone the easy-wa- y doctrines, easy learning, easy discipline, who have only sympathy and "understanding" for everything weak, wrong and inefficient, are the ones who are striking at the heart of democracy and will kill it by leading it to its inevitable ruin. The majority must maintain standards of behavior in home, school and church, in business, in politics, which will require both chil-dren and adults to express their better selves, to study, to work, to develop themselvs, to obey, to stop condoning and sympathizing with rottenness and laziness, to eliminate the standard of sloth and ease, to make this nation strong within itself and stronger than its dictato-enemie-or competitors. S OKLAHOMA'S TRUE MEANING True meaning of the somewhat surprising Oklahoma special elec-tion result seems to have been lost. Itsimply suggested the Democrats can win if they ofCer the best man. Their candidate for. the congres-- i sional seat was a former state com-mander of the American Legion, and the more popular man. The Republi-can candidate had been to the same well once before, and ran close to victory then solely because the Democrat who then held the seat had become personally unpopular. Some have attributed the outcome ' to the Democrats pouring in Sena-- I tor Barkley and promises of some war plants (the district had received few) while others conversely claim the Republican ra$e was due to the Republicans pouring in some money. Far more important was the fact that the Democrats had the assist-ance of a state machine and county machines, which nearly always can wield dominant power in special elections where the general run of people do not go to the trouble of voting. Housefathers Among the aborigines of Aus-- I tralia it is common for fathers to look after the children while their wives work. Orchid Species There are no less than 5,000 species of orchids. : |