Show i j e Lamp in th e BY ARTHUR STRINGER INGER W. W N. N U U. Service I lr Sidney Lander rescued Carol Coburn from the annoyances of Eric the Red Ericson She Is returning to her native Alaska to teach Her father a sourdough died with an unproven mine claim Lander an engineer tor for the Trumbull 0 Co which isAre is isAre Are Arc you all right he asked Im all right I told him I attempted to prove it by going out and bringing in the smeared mud-smeared and forgotten blackboard He stood watching me as I wiped the mud and then what was unmistakably unmistakably unmistakably un un- mistakably a bloodstain from that ignobly acquired symbol of author author- ity Then still without speaking we stood rather foolishly looking into each others other's eyes he This wont won't happen again said with a steely sort of quietness He glanced down at his bruised knuckles You know of course what that rouser rabble-rouser wants to todo todo todo do He wants to throw a scare into you to frighten you out of your job to make this valley intolerable Why should he I asked I think answered Lander its I because he has Trumbull behind him Theres There's more than one way remember of fighting a mine claim A ghostly voice was telling me that it would be sweet to lean against a wide shoulder like that whatever the outcome until life lost losta a little of its uncertainty A car horn sounded outside the shack The door opened and we stared at the rough and mannish figure of Katie OConnell O'Connell Youre the bozo I want was washer her noted grim-noted announcement Weve Yeve got to get action here or therell there'll be hell to pay Theres There's three clear cases of measles in that tent colony colony colony col col- col- col ony and about two hundred kids who've been exposed to it Colonel Harts Hart's gone over for the Anchorage doctor but that doesn't solve our problem What is it you want asked Lander I want Doctor Ruddock here said Katies Katie's prompt proclamation And inside of twenty-four twenty hours Ive I've got to have a hospital of some kind Then yo you'll ll get it Lander said with reassuring curtness Weve got the material and weve we've got two hundred workers Ka Ka- Ka- Ka What workers challenged tie Those bindle stiffs in the camp have just told me they're walking out They say they're on strike And the gangs building-gangs claim they have orders to stick to houses To hell with orders barked Lander at a time like this I say you'll get that thal hospital And you'll get it lady before I take these boots off CHAPTER XVI Action is eloquence as Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare Shake Shake- speare once said Lander didn't fail the valley in its time of need And Katie got her hospital All she got was a board shed interlined interlined interlined in in- with plywood and roofed with tar paper a looking bald-looking building building building build build- ing with square windows and a row of army cots along one wall But Butt it t was shelter fo for Katies Katie's patients It didn't come easy When Lander Lander Lander Lan Lan- der put his pride in his pocket and talked to the transient workers he got nothing but jeers For Eric the Red obviously had been working on them They declared they were already imposed on and underpaid But Lander didn't give up He hurriedly canvassed the colony tents and unearthed three men who had once done carpenter work Then he went after the old He got Hans Then he got SockEye SockEye SockEye Sock- Sock Eye and the quick-handed quick father of Olie Eckstrom and a stalwart ex- ex cabinetmaker who knew the meaning meaning meaning mean mean- ing of edged tools The spirited acid-spirited Sam Bryson its it's true flatly refused to come to our help But Salaria just as flatly defied all paternal injunctions in injunctions injunctions in- in junctions and joined up with the group Then the dirt began to fly Half Hal an hour houf after the site and size of the the building b building had been decided the thep p pillars were bedded and the sills laid laid While I helped to lug two-by- two fours from the track side lumber piles the wide-shouldered wide Salaria strode back and forth with twelve- twelve foot boards on her back She gloried gloried gloried glo glo- ried in dumping her gigantic loads I at the feet of the busy Lander And almost as fast as we could carry the allotted timbers they were caught up and measured and shaped while the sound of hammer and saw filled the valley Northern nights at this time of I the year are not long But when darkness came on fires were lighted lighted lighted light light- ed and lanterns were swung above the busy workers They neither grumbled nor rested It wasn't until the sun began to show over the peaks of the T nas that Katie Jatie and I took time off to serve them with coffee and hard hard- tack But by then the floor had been laid and the walls were up and the roo roof was ready and waiting for its covering of tarpaper By noon the roof was finished and Katies Katie's new brand-new Red Cross flag was flying from its peak Then the windows were screened and the drugs and dressings and towels and instruments and enamelware were d carried in from the emergency tent Everything looked looke so shipshape hi s pe that I THE TilE STORY SO FAR fighting the Coburn claim breaks with Trumbull But he remains engaged to Trumbulls Trumbull's daughter Barbara Lander becomes field manager for the Valley project Carol and he both are enthusiastic about INSTALLMENT Katie hurriedly donned a uniform as brand new as her Red Cross flag and gave instructions for the carrying carrying carrying carry carry- ing in of the sick children There were seven of them by this time And just as the last of them was being tucked into bed Doctor Ruddock Ruddock Ruddock Rud Rud- dock appeared in our midst and promptly announced that that day forward he was to be recognized recognized recognized as the official of medi cine for the valley project I could see the glow that came into Katies Katie's Celtic eye as she caught the significance of that announce announce- ment great she said with a quaver in her voice He inspected the building and lamented the absence absence absence ab ab- ab- ab sence of running water and laughed at the electric sterilizer which couldn't be used of course until the completion of the Projects Project's generating generating generating gen gen- plant throwing money away on the wrong things he said after after after aft aft- er a quick appraisal of the sup sup- plies And that seemed confirmed two days later when a motor ambulance ambulance ambulance lance was unloaded from a flat car a highly varnished and urban look ing ambulance designed for the use of the new Red Cross nurse But Katie promptly cottoned to that vehicle vehicle vehicle ve ve- hicle which because of its sable paint scheme she christened Black Maria But Katie soon had other things to think of Two cases of scarlet fever fever fever fe fe- fe- fe ver developed in our little tent city t t 4 t f J y yv v I great Katie said And that stirred her Ruddy into still more frantic action He bundled bundled bundled bun bun- his nurse off to an isolation tent in a clearing at the edge of the farm and commanded her to carry on as best jest she could This is like stamping out a prairie prairie prairie rie fire he announced Weve got gotto gotto gotto to check it before it starts Katie went without a murmur I think she would have gone to the north pole if her abstracted of man-of- medicine had ordered it He boiled with indignation at the carelessness of the colony mothers One neglected neglect neglect- ed child in spite of his warnings developed pneumonia And that brought a hurry call to me Weve got to have help here he said when I confronted him in his crowded little tent office U And as asIm asIm asIm Im I'm stopping all public assemblage your schoolwork peters out and leaves you free So I was not only a nurse day-nurse and scrubwoman and mar deputy but also a human laundry and anda a stove-stoker stove and milk-distributor milk and of desquamating little bod bod- ies I took temperatures and changed sheets and doled out a galIon gallon gal gal- Ion lon of cathartics I kept the shed warm at night and the sunny side screened by day I patted soda solutions solutions solutions so so- on itchy little torsos and swabbed out spotted little mouths and baked sh sheets ets and played checkers check check- ers with the convalescents and shooed urchins away from Crom the door and went to bed so dog tied that seven hours' hours sleep seemed nothing more than seven ticks of my alarm clock But behind my back all the while life was going on as life has the habit of doing For the colony wasn't without a valor all its own Every mass migration migration migration mi mi- mi- mi gration I felt must have had its casual mishaps and touches of misery The misfits might rail at Ruddy and his health rules and the malcontents malcontents malcontents mal mal- contents might squat about the Commissary Commissary Commissary Com Com- porch and orate at the bureaucrats bureaucrats bureaucrats bu bu- bu- bu who were turning Mata Mata- nuska into something worse than Soviet Russia But the real home- home seekers were already out on their plots getting a bit of land ready for belated seeding or lending a hand at building shelter for their belated stock They were the hope of the Project And among the w women I found the future of the new colony Eric Erie the Red and a gang of workers bring Carol a blackboard and becomes In in- She faces them with a pistoL Lander Lander Lan Lan- der arrives and knocks Eric out Once more Lander had been her protector there was the same division between between between be be- tween the mongers misery-mongers and the homemakers While the triple- triple chinned Betsy sat on a chop- chop ping-block ping and railed at t the Commissary Commissary Commissary Com Com- for ladling out coffee that wasn't dated and butter that smelt cheesy a more energetic group of housewives were down at the salmon stream with pitchforks ladling out half a ton of fresh fish where the water was almost solid with red- red bodies which were promptly prompt prompt- ly dressed and salted or processed and canned and stowed away against a rainy day Some of them I noticed had already planted sweet peas along the black terraces terraces terraces ter ter- ter- ter races in front of their still unfinished houses They made my own humble up when Ruddy's prairie fire was finally stamped out and I moved back to my rny home on the Jansen clearing seem a very small and antiquated affair The quietness oppressed oppressed oppressed op op- op- op pressed me I was glad when Katie dropped in But her spirits for once seemed anything but light and airy on your mind I de de- A couple of snapshots was Katie's Katies Katies Katie's Katies Katie's Ka Ka- Ka- Ka ties tie's rather cryptic answer Snapshots of what I asked Of a snip of a surgical nurse down in that Seattle hospital the gloomy-eyed gloomy Katie replied Ruddy Ruddy Ruddy Rud dy just showed em to me He seems to think she's the last word wordin in womanhood Life I felt when Katie went on her way again was a dolorously up muddled-up affair It didn't make a good beginning for Cor my first night back in the up And a little later it was crowned by a still more unpleasant thing For most unmistakably on that first midnight of my new loneliness somebody came to my cabin and tried to force the door open I wasn't sure just how much pressure pressure pressure pres pres- sure my crossbar would stand So SoI I groped about in the darkness after after after aft aft- er slipping out of my bunk and made a search for Sock-Eye's Sock re re- re- re volver I waited with the big six-gun six in my hand until the sounds began again Then I deliberately fired a ashot ashot ashot shot at the wall as a gentle reminder remind remind- er of what that wo woUld woUld-be ld-be ld intruder might expect The warning apparently wasn't wasted For nothing but silence after that awful roar of sound came cameto to my ears But even though I took Sock-Eye's Sock six-gun six to bed with me it was a long time before I could go to sleep leep CHAPTER Long before this colony was thought of there was a small school at Village It was housed in what had once been a wooden- wooden fronted trading post Its floors had heaved with the frosts of man many a along along along long winter its walls had sagged and its roof leaked like a sieve Sam Bryson its owner soured by his removal as district superintendent refused to lift a hand in repairing the old wreck The workers were equally recalcitrant So Lander Lander Lan Lan- der marshaled a corps of volunteers volunteers volunteers volun volun- and tackled the job The undulating undulating un un- floor was made level once more the side walls walIs were patched and straightened two new windows were put in and the roof was made waterproof They also built a double dou dou- ble row of rough little desks and replaced the rusty old drum stove with a new and shining tight air-tight heater to say nothing of four equally equal equal- ly bright and shining gas lamps The Project officials may have been short on labor but they proved prodigal enough with supplies For they promptly shipped in six gross of blackboard wipers and a halt hall truckload of chalk boxes and enough paper and pencils to run a state university They also ironically enough sent a nickel and enamel water-cooler water and an electric fan both of them of course quite use use- less But all shipments of textbooks must have fallen by the wayside openly defying her acidulous acidulous lous old dad helped me sandpaper the rough little chair desks and sweep up shavings and brighten the windows with chintz When I asked as we worked there side by side if it wouldn't be easier to pursue her studies in such surroundings she startled me by the vigor of her revolt Me plant my carcass in one o 0 them kid seats she indignantly de de- Me squat here and do sums with a bunch of undersized who aint able t wipe their own noses Not me She was conscious of my frown of disapproval as I watched those fu full fulland and rose-red rose lips Bps framing language so unsuited to the seeker of culture Pops Pop's been she observed observed observed ob ob- ob- ob served with a new meekness in her smoldering eyes if you couldn't come and teach me private And once I t f handlin got a pen as easy as I handle a rifle he allows Id I'd be ready t f go outside and have f f- winter in the States TO BE liE CONTINUED |