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Show J I : i 1 ,j $ !5he B david j:j ANDERSON $ I " " ' 1 1 S o4 Tale of the Flat woods V Bobbs-Merrill Company V - 1 . . y 3- o "UP WITH 'EM!" Synopsis. Never having" known his father, and living Willi his mother on a houseboat on the Wabash river, Pearl hu liter the only name he has learns from her a part of the story of her sad life. He meets a young- pi rl whom he mentally christen? the Wild Rose. She eludes him before be-fore he can make he,r acquaintance. acquaint-ance. A vacant cabin on the shore has attracted l lie attention of the ailing woman, and they move Into it. Tln-ir tiit meal is interrupted by the Mm n-in-t he-Fancy- Vt-st. J 'ca rlhunter strikes h i id. G u n p lay t h r t a t e n s. T h e mother dneniatlcally drives t lie intruder away. She says he is the '"Other Man." whom she has not seen tor 20 years. They liiul a red mask droiiped by the Other Ma a- That night Pearlhuntcr tin. Is the Blue Moon, a final freshwater pearl. ' His motlu r dies without rcvealintr his father's fa-ther's name. Pearlhunter and the jther Man meet in the villa?; e ; a pistol tisrht is narrowly averted. Pearlhunter believes him to be t lie Red Mask criminal. Pea rlhunter rl-hunter rescues Wild Rose fmm the Other Man and meets Wild Man. her father. He is a man nf culture, crazed from concussion of the brain, the result of an attack at-tack by someone wearing a r-1 mask. Nobody knows his identity; iden-tity; he is known at the post office of-fice simply as Box 23. Pearlhunter Pearl-hunter proposes that he sell the Blue Moon and send for a sur-gvon sur-gvon to operate. Wild Rose agrees. Pearlhunter sells the Blue Moon for $5,0 to lxuie Solomon. Solo-mon. o :Q CHAPTER VII. 9 The Face in the Draft. The hanker brought haek the plush case and set it down on the table. The .lew look out his check hook and be-Can be-Can to write. The I'earllmnter never could remember re-member tlie thoughts that came over liitu at that high moment of his life. For all he could recall, there were no clear thoughts at all just a loosening of the throat; a relaxing of the muscles, as if he had dropped a load Under which he had been straining. Ho didn't know it, but the old banker was watching him. The old. embarrassing embar-rassing question what name to write in the check brought him back out if the haze, lie noticed that the Jew's hand trembled as he wrote. It was an odd trifle to notice, but it was the one thing he could afterward clearly recall. The check, made out to 'Tearlhunt-pr," 'Tearlhunt-pr," was in his fingers! Five thousand thou-sand dollars in words, and big plain figures! It was the first check he bad ever owned the first one he had ever seen. He was still reading it, puzzling puz-zling over it, when '.he banker grasped his hand. The banker shaking hands wirh him! This was his day! "May I have the money on this?" "Why, my dear boy," the banker answered, an-swered, laughing, and shipping him on the shoulder, "there isn't that much cash in the bank." That was a new one on the Pearlhunter. Pearl-hunter. He had supposed a bank had In its vaults unlimited loads of money. "What will I do?'- "You can draw part of it. and deposit de-posit the rest to your credit." All of which was a foreign language to the I'i arlhunter. "I didn't want to use any of the money." he finally managed to say. "I don't expect to spend a cent of it for you know small mailers. I expect to leave it right here till I can spend It f..r s..me:hiiiL' veil big. I Just warred to show it to a friend." "Von miirht show your friend the check." The banker stole a g!an"e at Solomon floating openly over tho-jeni now that the deal was closed. "No," he continued, "there's a better" safer, lie was about to ay. but didn't "way than that. Why not deposit tTie cheek and take our a draft?" T'raft? What's that?" The old banker rCaehed his fingers lip through his hair and studied the loan before him. Sitting down at his desk, he wrote rapidly feu- a moment. "This is a drart." he said, handing over the slip he had been writing on and taking t lie cheek in exehange. "It Is as good as gold anywhere, at any hank, any time. Show It to your friend, and I suggest that you afterward after-ward bring it back to the bank and deposit it. I will then give you a check book and show you how to use It." The I'earlhuiiter rend the paper eer i!b curious interest, put it in the big. formidable envelope the banker bank-er l':im him for the purpo.e. alel lilll-t'.n. lilll-t'.n. .! it away In an inside pi. chut of Irs l.'.ouse. The lit'ie .lew had by this time put the I'.lu" Moon bai l; in the plush ease, put the e; s" in his vest poeket, and piuio-d lift 'he poeket. "I I iniini'l !" he grunted, turning n-.'.ay from the table. "Von pearl fishers fish-ers iss- nil crazy. I'd giff it to you a t'oiis;ni more." "I got my piiee." "t'ndt dot's more as anbo(iy got It yet from Louie fsolomon." II.- chuckled all the way to (he door. A small crowd walled outside. Nobody No-body knows how news leaks out In n fciuull town. Not a man but knew how much the pearl had brought. One of the crowd, a lanky, one-eyed fisherman, fisher-man, sidled up to the Pearlhunter. "Y'u got it, didn't y'u?" The Pearlhunter was too slow, and the little Jew answered for him. "Course he got it. What chance a pore devil pearl buyer got tnit d'e wliole town against 'ini !" That statement, or one like it, was what the crowd had been waiting for. The tension was over. The finding and selling of tlie famous gem, the most valuable pearl ever "h'isted" along the Wabash, was now history Flatwoods history. The one-eyed fisherman chucked his hat up in the air and yelled a lusty cheer, in which the crowd joined. One would have thought that each man there had sold a Blue Moon or found one. The Pearlhunter felt a good deal as the crowd seemed to feel a loosening of tlie tension. For that matter, tlie fat little buyer seemed to feel .something .some-thing of the same relief. Caught up in the crowd, both buyer and seller were swept across the road and into the expectant ex-pectant door of tlie Mud lien. The Pearlhunter had just twenty-five dollars and twenty-seven cents in Ins pocket. He had counted it that morning morn-ing while waiting for Louie Solomon to come. It was the last cent after paying pay-ing his mother's funeral expenses. He threw a pocket-worn twenty-dollar bill on the bar and motioned to the crowd. "Make it good whisky," he said. "No . 'squirrel' goes this round." He couldn't have made a better speech for the occasion. The crowd cheered. The little Jew said something, some-thing, but it couldn't be heard. The bartender set out a long row of glasses. The river men grew suddenly quiet with the gurgle of the filling. -Each man picked up a glass and stood waiting until every other man was served. The crowd was too occupied occu-pied to notice it, but the Pearlliunter's knees were fairly shaking under him ; his face set mid pale. He was about to do the . hardest thing he had ever tackled in his life, even harder than mentioning money to the Wild Rose. He picked up bis glass ; set it down pushed it back. "Water for mine !" To a man, the crowd whirled and stared. Louie Solomon swore. "Vot iss !" he said. "You make It foolishness?" "No," was the slow answer. "I'm off this for keeps." "U 1 !" growled the one-eyed fisherman. fisher-man. "Since't when did y'u quit?" "Yesterday about sundown." He raised his glass and clinked with ' Louie Solomon tljj aristocratic bourbon bour-bon against the Flatwoods spring and drank the celebration of bis great day in a glass of water. The others were too busy just theft, or cared too little, to press the point, or take the trouble to wonder just what and what all he meant by "yesterday about sundown." Louie Solomon set his glass down with a bang. "Himmel! Oof don'dt slit ruck bottom bot-tom yet. It vas all soaked up in mine In i ZW R "Make It Good Whisky," Ho Said. throat a-ready. Fill 'em up ag'ln, all hands roundt. Undt dis one iss on Louie. "Where ss mine friendt vot trim from me tweuiy-t'ree miliar?" Louie asked, feeling his ve.-.f pocket, as he had done probably a score of times since crossing the street. "Oh, lie went up the Yellow branch this afternoon to look at some timber options," tlie bartender answered. "Tell 'lui uiebbe he come by d'e camp I'night undt gitT me chance to git If back my twenty-free dollar." "I'll tell him when lie conies In." The barlender wiped off the bar. The Pearlhunter was already out on the sidewalk, where the Jew soon Joined him, anil they walked together dow n to tlie white ski", 'The three rowers were still In (hop ices, glum as their employer em-ployer w' Me. It was well toward evening when they pulled up to the landing at which the houseboat lay. Louie gave careful directions where to build the fire, and followed the Pearlhunter up through the underbrush beyond the strip of open shore, and to the cabin, tapping, every few steps, the pocket where the pearl lay. He went straight to the spring. "You should eat supper mit me, hain'dt it?" he said, the dripping gourd poised in his hand. "Sure. Hut I'm not much on that friend of yours. I think I'll leave before be-fore he comes." The Pearlhunter had for some time been debating witli himself whether or not to warn Solomon of the dangerous danger-ous character of the man that was coming. com-ing. The one consideration that kept him from speaking was tlie fact that he had no proof certain knowledge, but no proof. He decided not to speak yet. "You no like him?" The Jew-laughed Jew-laughed easily, hung tlie gourd back on tlie stick and stood looking out over the landscape spreading away under the genial sunshine. "Vot you do now:" The question caught the Pearlhunter unawares. He, too, was gazing out over the landscape, but absorbed in things of which the placid little Jew had not the remotest inkling. "I hardly know," he answered slowly, slow-ly, as if feeling for each word. "Thought maybe ll go to school." "School!" The Jew ridiculed the word with his hands. "I know a-ready men could be professors, undt dey got not'ing. I go by school not more as two weeks for mine life, undt look nt me." The Pearlhunter did look nt him hard-faced, red-nosed, yellowish teeth, a potty protuberance swung to tlie front of his waistline. It looked like two weeks wasted. "Why you don't buy timber? You can shoot H dis waterfall into a flume undt run a mill yet." ' The Pearlhunter made no answer. The little Jew talked on. '"You can buy it d'e Flatwoods a-ready a-ready yet, if you handle right your money." He walked back around the end of the cabin. The Pearlhunter followed. "Yell, you come 'long ven you get ready, hain'dt it?" He went on down the slope, through the bushes toward his skiff; the Pearlhunter Pearl-hunter turned in at the cabin door. Alone at last, he did the very thing that nine men out of ten would have done; look the draft out of his pocket and fingered it over the concrete and tangible evidence of a great day won. He had seen it born at midnight; hud seen It drive in through the gates of dawn and now it was forever his. He spelled out the magic words; Five thousand, a wavy line, no hundredths, dollars. He said each bold figure over to himself. Slowly a face grew alive among the words and figures; a face framed in yellow hair; eyes that laughed. They had laughed for hiin. lie had made them laugh. Tlie draft would make them laugh again. And tomorrow she should send for that surgeon. sur-geon. Tlie sound of groaning came In at the cabin door from the bush.es down the hill. The face was gone from the draft. He thrust it back In his pocket and stepped out into the yard. His first thought was that the little Jew. none too sure-footed among the rocks, had stumbled and hurt himself. The groan came again, lie sprang into the bushes. The Jew had hurt himself. A look so wild anil terrible 1 1 io Pearlhunter l ad never seen upon the face of a man. He had fallen upon his bark, with one arm cramped under him. Tlie other arm was free, hut he seemed unable to rise. With his free hand he was clawing desperauiy at his bosom, and the fingers of tlie hand were mussed wllh blood. The Pearlhunter leaped down the hill and bent over Win. It was then he saw what the bloody hand was clawing at the bundle of a knife, hilt deep in his breast. The Pearlhunter raised him, add the oilier hand came free. It clutched a till of cloth of Hauling Haul-ing red a red mask. Tlie Jew opened his eyes, recognized the man bearing him up. ' "Dot timber buyer," he gasped out of his Hooded chest. 'lie choke me I tear off d'e mask he shtlek me." The stricken Jew dropped tlie uiasK anil beat the pocket of his vest. "Himmel ! D'e pearl ! D'e I'.lue Moon !" Ills eyes grew vacant ; Hal ed up again. "Mine Coll! Kacliel ! Itacl.el!" , Ills nioiiih quivered open so wide that his heard rumpled upon his bieast, and the blood welled out over bis chin. His eyes bulged; the smeared fingers ceased clawing at tlie knife; he gasped twice; and dropped hack dead. The I'earlhuiiter picked up the bit of scarlet cloth that had fallen from the dead man's h I. It Is surprising how fast a man can think when he has to. The mystery of the arm thrust In at the cabl" door ncross Hi,- moonlight cleared. The finding of a red mask beside be-side the body would Identify the murderer mur-derer to any man in the Wabash country; coun-try; the finding of another, upon a search of the cabin, would he deemed sufficient proof that the tenant nt the cabin was the murderer. Put why had tlrj bandit planned to lay the theft of the jewel on him? It was not his way. He took his toll at the pistol's point and galloped away. Why had he changed his methods now? He had laid his plans well, though they hadn't worked out quite as he expected. ex-pected. The killing of Louie Solomon had been an accident, forced on him by the fact that the little Jew, in his struggles, had chanced to claw the mask off and had recognized him. Otherwise Oth-erwise he would have merely choked him Into unconsciousness, taken the pearl and left the mask behind to complete com-plete the tangle he was weaving around another man. He had probably intended faking the pearl some time that night, leaving bis mask behind, and afterward, when the hue and cry was raised, suggest a search of the cabin. His chance had come sooner than he had expected. Of course, he could not have foreseen that the man he wished to fix the crime upon would be the first to find the body. It was not lost on the Pearlhunter that he had undoubtedly crowded the murderer close, else why had he left the knife? Hut why all theb'e elaborate plans against him? Was it some ancient an-cient grudge lie bore bis blood? Did lie wish somebody to die in his place to deceive an outraged world into thinking tlie lied Mask was settled for good and all. and so give him a chance to start over again? Was It because he was not yet ready to leave the Flat-woods? Flat-woods? It was probably for all these reasons. Put with the last, there flashed across the young man's mind that scene at the fence. It stung him like a lash. F.ven though the evidence secreted in the cabin was now in ashes, by that dead body was the most dangerous place in the world for him just then. "He Choke Me I Tear Off de Mask " Hardly five seconds had passed since the last gasp of Louie Solomon, so fast does a man think under such a stress, when the Pearlhunter threw the mask down by the body and turned to steal back up the hill. "Up with 'em !" He whirled; stared; slowly raised his hands. It's one thing to face odds; quite another to face certain death. Ilehlnd the three black muzzles poking out through the bushes glowered the truculent, bearded faces of Louie Solomon's Solo-mon's three rowers. Grim as tlie three Fates, they stalked toward him. Two of them kept hlra covered, while the third plucked the revolver from his pocket and dropped it into bis own. After that he bent over the body of his master; touched his face; lifted a hand; laid It across his breast. He picked up the red mask and snarled around at the others. The others growled; swore; and the Pearlhunter Pearl-hunter fancied the revolvers pointed at him a little straighter, a little more vindictively. It was not the first time these three had faced the lied Mask, lie had long been their particular nightmare. It was the first time they hail seen him with his mask off, and wltli empty bauds. The one kneeling by tlie body seemed to be the leader. He felt carefully care-fully Inside the pocket where the pearl hail been pinned; searched the other pockets; felt carefully over the clothing. cloth-ing. He rose after the fruitless search anil faced the Pearlhunter. "Where iss it?" . The Pearlhunter shook his bean. With a snarled word of Yiddish, doubtless a curse, and a flourish of his clenched hand that came uncomfortably uncom-fortably close to the young man's face, the Jew began to search him: pockets; hems; waist-band; socks; even his hatband, ears and hair. Of course (he search again proved fruitless. fruit-less. The .Tew drew his revolver, cocked It. and thrust It Into the Pearl-hunter's Pearl-hunter's face. "Where Iss it?" Tlie bearded Hps were drawn so tense that the yellow teeth were bare. The Pearlhunter knew the yellow teeth meant exactly what they seemed to mean. Louie Solomon's three guardsmen bad r. reputation along the Wabash.. The reward for the Red Mask was the same whether dead or alive. Still, his death would not bring them any nearer finding the pearl. He pinned bis hope lliere, and shook his head II n "Hung 'im! Hung 'im!" (TO UK COM'INUKD.) Gossip gains currency, but no coin. |