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Show ' 'V-"; ''" J OL1VBSL 'fe 4 OCTOBER GEORGE BARR McCUTCHEON COPYRIGHT. BELL S YN 0 I CATEw.N.U. SERVICE) .,, l gloomy statement that drew from the proud and happy minister an unusually unusual-ly harsh rejoinder. "You ought to be kicked all the way home for saying such a thing as that, Joe .Sikes." Turning to the slim, pretty girl who walked beside him across the June-warmed campus, he said comfortingly com-fortingly : "Don't mind this old croaker, croak-er, Jane dear." A word in passing about Jane Sage. Slender, graceful, slightly above medium height, just turning into young womanhood, she was an extremely pretty girl. She adored Oliver October. There had been a time when she was bis sweetheart, but that was ages ago when both of them were young! Now he was supposed to be engaged to a girl in the graduating class and Jane was going to be an old maid so the childish romance was over. Late in the fall of 1911, young Oliver, Oli-ver, having passed the age of twenty-one, twenty-one, packed his bag and trunk, shook the dust of It ii m ley from bis feet, and accepted a position in the construction department of a Chicago engineering and investment concern. Early in 1913 he was sent to China by his company on a mission that kept him in the Orient for nearly a year and a half. A week before Christmas. 1914, the Rumley Dispatch came out with the announcement under a double head that Oliver October Baxter was returning from the Far East, where he had been engaged in the most stupendous stu-pendous enterprise ever undertaken by American capital. When he arrived, he was met at the depot by a delegation. "I can't believe my eyes no, sir, I can't," cried old Oliver, quaveringly as he wrung his son's hand. "You're back again, alive and sound." "Y'ou bet I'm alive," answered Oliver October, laying his arm over the old man's shoulder and patting his back. "It's mighty good to see you, and it's wonderful to be back in the old town again. I-Ieilo, Uncle Joe! Well, you see they haven't hung me yet." "And they ain't going to If I can help it," roared Mr. Sikes, pumping Oliver's arm vigorously. "Not on your life! It's all fixed, Oliver. We've got you the appointment of city civil engineer of Rumley." "You needn't worry about that, father, fa-ther, m not accept the position." Mr. Baxter brightened. "Y'ou won't? Good for you ! That'll show Joe Sikes and Silas Link they can't run everything." every-thing." Presently they drew up in front of the Baxter residence, and as they did so an uncommonly pretty girl opened the front door. "Hello, Oliver she cried. "Hello, Jane !" he shouted back, as he ran up the steps. "Gee ! It's great to see you. And, my goodness, what a big girl you are." He was holdin ; her warm, strong hands in his owi. ; they were looking straight into each other's eye9. "You haven't grown much," she said slowly. "Except that you are a man and not a boy." "That's it," he cried. "The difference differ-ence in you Is that you're a woman and not a girl." "Come in," she said, with a queer dignity that she herself did not understand. under-stand. When he came downstairs, after having unpacked his bags and scattered scat-tered the contents all over the room, he found the "company" already assembled. as-sembled. As might have been expected, ex-pected, the guests included -Rev. Mr. Sage, Mr. Sikes and Mr. Link, and one outsider, the mayor of Rumley, Mr. Samuel Belding. "What's this I hear?" demanded the latter sternly, as he shook hands with the young man. "Your father's just been telling us you won't accept the distinguished honor the city of Rumley Rum-ley has conferred upon you. What's the matter with it?" "The truth of the matter Is," Oliver answered seriously, "I have other plans. I'm going Over There in February Feb-ruary with the Canadians. It's all settled. I'm to have my old job back when the war Is over." "But it's not our war!'" cried Mr. Sikes. "It's everybody's war," spoke young Oliver out of the very depths of his soul. "We will be In It some day. Oh, I'll come back, never fear. . You see, Uncle Joe, I've Just got to pull through alive and well, so that I can he bung when m time comes." Off to the war! Well, he's safe. He'll have to come back to be hanged. (TO BE CONTINUED.) I I OLIVER AND JANE SYNOPSIS Oliver October Baxter, Jr., was born on a vile October day. His parents were prominent in the commercial, social and spiritual life of the town of Rumley. The night that Oliver October was born a gypsy queen"",-eads his father's fortune and tells him what a wonderful future his son has before him, but adds that his son will never reach the age of thirty, that he will be hanged for a crime of which he Is not guilty. CHAPTER II 2 Ten Years Later Ten years passed, years of change and growth Rumley had not stood still during the decade. It was the proud boast of its most enterprising citizen, Silas Link, that it had done a great deal better than Chicago : it had tripled Its population. Oliver Baxter, Sr., owned one of the new business "blocks" on Clay street. It was known as the Baxter block, erected in 1896. Mary Baxter died of typhoid fever when young Oliver was nearing seven. Her untimely demise revived the half-forgotten half-forgotten prophecy of the gypsy fortune-teller. People looked severely at each other and in hushed tones discussed dis-cussed the Inexorable ways of fate. II was the first "sign" that young Oliver's fortune was coming true. Of an entirely different nature was the agitation created by the unrighteous un-righteous behavior of Josephine Sage who had finally succumbed to the lure of the stage, leaving her husband anc , child, In order to gratify her life's ambition. am-bition. Half the women in town, or learning that she was going to Chicago for a brief visit with her folks, wenl around to the parsonage to kiss bei good-by. Excoriation and a stream ol "I told you so's" were bestowed upor the pretty young wife and mothei when It became known that she was not coming back. Herbert Sage was stunned, bewildered bewil-dered She wrote him frorr Chicago at the end of the first weet of what was to have been a fortnight's visit to her mother. She was leavinp at once for New York, where she hac been promised) a trial by one of the greatest American producers. A montt later came a telegram from her say Ing she was rehearsing a part in a new piece that was sure to be the "hit 01 the season." "You will be proud of me, Herby,' she wrote, "because I will take mlghtj good care tb.t you never have any rea son to be ashamed of me or for me to be ashamed of myself. You know what I mean. I don't suppose I will say my prayers as often as I did wher you were around to remind me of them but I will be a good girl just the same.' That was four years ago. Her confi dence In herself had been justified and, for all we know, the same may be said of Herbert Sage's confidence li her. . She had the talent, the voice, the beauty, and above all, the magnetism and so there was no holding her back For two successive seasons she ap peared in a Chicago theater, following long New York runs of the pieces In which she was playing. Finally, in one of her letters an nouncing a prospective engagement ir London, she put the question to him "Do you want to get a divorce froir me, Herby?" His reply was terse am brought from her the following undignified un-dignified hut manifestly sincere tele gram : "Neither do I, so we'll slid till the cows come home. Sailing Fri day. Will cable. Much love." She made a "hit" in London in the big musical success of that season They liked her so well over there thai they wouldn't let her go back to the States. She was greatly missed by little Oil ver October. For some reason per haps she did not explain It herself a any rale, she did not go to Ihe trouble I of speculating she had taken a tre mentions fancy to the child. Tills smal boy of five or six was the only being ii town with whom she could play t( her heart's content, and she made the most of him. Her own tiny baby Jane, interested but did not amuse her. I Oliver was always to have a warn corner In her heart for the gay Ann Josephine, but new diverting games re duced his passionate longing for her tc a mild but pleasant memory. Perhaps too, her own daughter had soineihinf to do with Josephine's fading from Oil ver's mind, j For Janie Sage, at the age of six was by far the prettiest and the mos , sought after young lady In Rumley I OUver was her chosen swain, ane many were the battles he fought in her defense. The time came when Oliver October Baxter, age ten, had to be told what was in store for him if he did not mend his ways. For, be it here recorded, re-corded, Oliver not only possessed a quick temper, but a surprisingly sanguinary san-guinary way of making it felt. He was a rugged, freckle-faced youngster with curly brown hair, a pair of stout legs, and a couple of hard little fists, with which he made his temper felt. It was after witnessing a particularly particular-ly ferocious battle between Oliver and Sammy Parr, that Joseph Sikes and Silas Link decided that the boy musi be warned of the fate that awaited him if his awful temper was not curbed. And so it came to pass that young Oliver October learned what was In store for him if his "fortune" came true. In the presence of his father, his good friend, Mr. Sage, who had opposed op-posed telling the boy, and the Messrs. Link and Sikes, he was made to realize the vastness of the dark and terrifying shadow that hung over him. When they bad finished, he cleared his throat. "I wish my ma was here," he said, his lip trembling. "Amen to that," said Mr. Sage, fervently. fer-vently. "Amen !" repeated Mr. Link in his most professional voice. Mr. Sage laid a hand on the boy's 111 ' 51 Jjiiir. 1 ' ; "Yes, Sir," Said Oliver, "I Do." I shoulder. "Do you say your prayers every night, Oliver?" "Yes, sir I do." "Well er If Brother Baxter doesn't mind, and if you gentlemen will excuse ex-cuse me, I think I will go upstairs with Oliver and and listen to his prayer." A little later on, the tall, spare pastor pas-tor sat on the side of young Oliver's trundle bed and talked in a confidential confiden-tial whisper. "I am going to tell you something. Oliver, and I want you to believe lt-Nohody lt-Nohody on this earth can foretell the future. All that talk abont your being be-ing hung some day" is poppycock pure poppycock. Pon't you believe a word of It. I came upstairs with you just for the purpose of telling you this not really to hear your prayers. Now don't you feel better?" "Yes. sir," said Oliver. "I do." "What I want you to do, Oliver, is to go on leading a er regular boy's life. Do the things that are right and square, be honest and fearless and no harm will ever come to you. Now, 1 turn over and go to sleep, there's a good boy." And the kind-hearted minister went 1 downstairs feeling that he had given the poor lad something besides the gallows to think about. ! It Is not the purpose of the narrator of this storv to deal at length with the 1 deols. exploits, mishaps and sensations of Oliver October as a child. He was seventeen when he left Kumtey high school and became a freshman at the , state university. The last of the three : decades allotted to him by the gypsy - was shorn of its first twelve months when he received his degree. As Mr. , Sikes announced to Reverend Sage at the conclusion of the commencement exercises, he had less than nine more I years to live at the very outside a |