Show I elM CIMARRON A R R 0 N THE STORY Yancey Tancey Cravat Just returned from the tho newly opened Indian territory relates his experiences to a largo o gathering of ot the Venable Ven- Ven able ablo family Yancey la Is married to Sabra Venable Is la a criminal l lawyer and editor of or the Wichita WI Wigwam wnm When the Run started Yancey had bad raced his hla pony against the thoroughbred mount of ot a a. girl C The rhe girls girl's horse was Injured and when Yancey stopped to shoot It she grabbed his pony and got the tho land Yancey wanted Yancey announces ho Is going back to the Oklahoma country with Sabra and their year four-year- old eon son CImarron They make tho the Journey In two covered wagons They arrive at Osage where Yancey Intends to start a newspaper Yancey is determined to find out who killed Editor Peg- Peg ler for of or the tho Now Day Preparations for tor the tho publication of or the OI Oklahoma Oklahoma Okla Okla- lahoma la- la homa V are completed Y Yancey ncy consents to conduct divine divino di- di vine vino worship on Sunday During the cervices Yancey announces ho has learned who killed Peg- Peg ler lor He stoops 3 in time to escape a a. bullet fired by YounUs Still stooping Yancey shoots and kills Then he announces that killed Sabra's second child Donna Is about three years old when she returns to Wichita Wichita for tor her first visit Yancey frustrates a bank robbery rob rob- bory bery and kills two desperadoes Yancey urges urge's urges s Sabra to Join him himIn himIn himIn In the Run at the opening of tho the Cherokee strip She refuses CHAPTER VII VII Continued Continued 11 11 Sabra's farewell was Intended to b be e cold Her ITer heart she told herself was breaking The change that these last four tour years ears had made In her never was more apparent than now no You felt the same wa way when I went oft off to the first Run Yancey reminded her Remember You carried on Just one degree less than your mother And If it I hadn't gone you'd still b be e living In the house In Wichita with your our family smothering you In Southern Southern South South- ern fried cl chicken and advice There was much truth In this she had to admit ad ad- mit She melted clung to him It Yancey I r Yancey Smile sugar Walt Valt till Ull you yon see elm and Donna five e years from now riding the Cravat ri yat acres acre acres After all a hundred other men In Osage were going to make the Cherokee Cherokee Cherokee Chero Chero- kee Strip Run The the town town the whole territory territory had had talked of nothing else months month She dried her eyes She even managed managed man man- aged a watery smile He was making the Run on a brilliant wild-eyed wild mare named Cimarron with a strain of Spanish In her for speed and grace and a strain of American mustang for endurance The start was made shortly shortly short short- ly after sunrise so as to make male progress before the heat of the day But a cavalcade awoke them before dawn with a tat rat of six-shooters six and anda a curdling blood-curdling series of cowboy yips The escort rode with Yancey and th the e others for a distance out on the plains Sabra at the last minute had th the e family horse hitched to the buggy bundled and Donna In with her and Isaiah hanging on behind somehow some some- how the how the prim little vehicle bumped d de and reeled Its way over oyer the prairie e road In the wake of or the departing adventurers adventurers ad ad- At the last Sabra threw the reins rein s to Isaiah sprang from the buggy ra rato ran n to Yancey as aa he pulled up his horse He bent far over oer In his saddle picked her Iier up In one great arm held he her r close dose while he kissed her long an and d rd hard bard Sabra come with me Lets Let's get ge t clear away from this Youve You've gone one crazy The children The children too All An of us Come Com e on Now His eyes were blazing She saw that he actually meant It It A sudden premonition shook her Where are you going Where ar are e you going He Tie e set her down gently and wa was s oft off turned halfway In his saddle t to face tace her his white sombrero lief held d aloft In his hand his curling black blac k locks Jocks tossing In the Oklahoma breeze rive Five years passed before she sa saw w him again CHAPTER VIII Dixie Lees Lee's girls were riding by o otheir on n their dally afternoon parade Sabra Sabr a glanced up as they drove e by She wa was S seated at her desk by the window i In n the front office of the Oklahoma Wig Pam wnm Her face darkened now as ns she sa saw w them driving slowly by Dixie Lee I ee never drove with them Sabra kne knew w where she was this afternoon She S he was down In the back room of th the e Osage First National bank talking g business to the president Murch Ran Ran- kIn The business men of the town tow n were negotiating for the bringing of the packing house and a n plow won works ks and a watch factory to Osage A Aone Any Anyone Anyone ray one of these Industries required a n su substantial sub sub- h bonus The spirit of the d day ay was the boom spirit Boom the town toy of Osage Dixie Lee was essential essentially ly a commercial shrewd woman woman shrewd cle clear nr beaded headed She had made a a. great s sue suc success u c cess of her business She was a p per per- er In the town Visitors came to her house rouse now from the cities a and ad counties round about She had hu built lit for or herself and her thriving burin business ess the first brick structure In the wood wooden en town a n square solid and Imposing rag I two-story two house Its bricks form formed ed om from the native Oklahoma red cl clay ay The house had been opened with a ac c celebration the like Ulee of or which h had ad sever been eQ seen In the Southwest est 1 By E EDNA BER II Copyright by Edna Ed Ferber Service I Sabra Cravat mentioning no names had had an nn editorial about It In which the phrases insult to the fair womanhood womanhood womanhood woman woman- woman woman- hood of America and orgy rivaling the Bacchanalian revels of history s library stood her in good stead these da days s figured prominently It was was thIs this red brick brothel less brothel less sinister than these good and Innocent women suspected Dixie Lee now a woman of ot thirty or more ruled It with an Iron hand Within it obtained certain certain con con- t tain am o laws and rules of conduct so rigid as ns to be almost prim It was In a away awny away way a club a n rendezvous a salon For hundreds of ot men who came there it t was all nil the they had ever eyer known of ot r richness of color of luxury Here they lolled sunk deep In rosy comfort while they talked territory politics s swapped yarns of the old cattle days clays played ed cards curds drank wines which tasted like sweet prickling water to their w whisky scarred palates They kissed these women thought tenderly of ot otman man many of them and frequently married them and these women once married settled down contentedly to an almost slavish domesticity A hard woman Dixie Lee a bad woman Sabra was morally right In her attitude toward her Yet this woman as well as Sabra filled her place In ln the early life lite of the territory The Oklahoma Wigwam had Irad flourIshed flourished flour flour- In these last flue five years of Sabra's p proprietorship She was thinking drinking seriously of making It a dally Instead of a weekly of using the fife entire build build- building buildIng building ing on Pawhuska avenue for the newspaper newspaper newspaper news news- paper plant and building a proper house for herself and the two children children chil chil- dren on one ono of the residence streets newl newly sprung up streets up-streets streets that boasted bonsted neatly painted houses and elm and cottonwood cottonwood cot- cot trees In the front yards Some one came up the steps of ot the little porch and Into the office It was M Mrs rs V Wyatt Well ell I she exclaimed simply but managing to put enormous bite and significance Into the monos mono mono- s syllable lIable Her glance followed Together the two women tight lipped condemnatory watched the fire gay gny parade of Dixie Lees Lee's girls go by The flashing company disappeared A whiff whit of patchouli floated back to the two women standing by the open window Their nostrils lifted In dis ils- gain dahL The sound of the fire horses' horses hoofs hoots grew fainter Its a disgrace race to the community Mrs M rs Wyatts Wyatt's voice took on Its platform platform plat plat- form note note and and an Insult to every wife and mother In the territory There ought to be a n law Sabra turned away from the win wIn- dow dew Her eyes sought the orderly rows of books bound neatly in tan and pact red red Yance red Yanceys Yancey's Yanceys s law books so long unused now except perhaps for occasional occasIonal occasional occa occa- newspaper reference Her f flies face ce set Itself In lines floes of resolve Perhaps Per h haps aps there Is A man like Yancey Cravat spec Cravat spec spectacular dramatic Impulsive has impulsive has a thousand critics scores of bitter ene ene- mies As the weeks lead had gone by and Yancey failed to return return had had failed to write write rumor rumor clouded by scandal leaped like prairie fire from house to house In Osage from town to town In Inthe Inthe the Oklahoma country over oyer the Southwest Southwest South South- west vest Indeed All the old stories were revived and their ugly red tongues licked a sordid path through the newly newly new new- ly opened land They say he be Is living with the Cherokee squaw who Is really his wife They say he was seen making the theRun theRun theRun Run In the land opening In 1895 They say he killed a man In the Cherokee Strip Run and was caught by a posse and hung bung They say he got a section of land sold It at a high figure and was seen lording It t around the bar of the Brown Palace hotel In Denver In to his white sombrero and his Prince Albert coat They say Dixie Lee Is his ills s real wife and he be left her when she was seventeen seven seen teen came to Wichita and married Sabra Venable and he Is the one who wire has set Dixie up In the brick house They say he drank five quarts of whisky one night and died and Is burled buried In an nn unmarked grave brave In Horseshoe ranch where the fife Doolin gang held forth They Tires say he Is really the leader of the Doolin gang They sn say They say The They say It Is Impossible to know how hov Sabra survived those first terrible weeks that lengthened Into months that lengthened lengthened length length- ened Into years There was In her the wiry endurance of the French the pride of the southern Venables She told herself that Yancey was dead She told the world that he was dead She knew by some deep and unerring Instinct that he was alive She ran the paper competently wrung from It a n decent livelihood for herself and the two children When It t had no longer been possible to keep beep secret from her parents the fact of Yanceys Yancey's prolonged absence Felice Venable had bad descended upon her Irr prepared pre pre- pared to gather to the fife family bosom her deserted rigid chUd and to bring her together with her offspring back to the parental home Lewis Venable had bad been too frail and III to accompany accompany pany puny his wife so Felice had brought with her the fire more Imposing amen among the file Venables and who chanced to be visiting the Wichita house at the time of her departure Osage lead had looked upon these stately figures with much awe but Sabra's reception reception re re- of them had been as coolly cordial as her rejection of ot their plans for her future was firmI firm I Intend to stay right here In Osage she announced quietly but In Ina Ina ina a tone that even Felice Venable recognized recognized rec rec- rec- rec o as Inflexible and run the p paper aper and bring up my children as us their father would have expected them to be brought up I mean to stay here hereIn In Osage until until Yancey-until until She never neer finished that sentence The Osage society notes became less s simple From bare accounts of quilt quilt- ings fags sewing bees hees and church so so- the they blossomed Into flowery Imitations I of ot the fire metropolitan dailies dailies' d descriptions of social events Sabra was without being fully aware of ot it a power that shaped the social aspect of this crude southwestern southwest southwest- ern town The ladles of the new h Happy appy Hour club on her declining to b become a member pleading lack of time and press of work as well she silo might made mude her an nn honorary member member mem mern ber resolved to have her Influential n name nume on on their club roster somehow tt t t 1 I 1 1 1 i u i i 1 As Sabra Looked at Him She Knew They were pa paying unconscious tribute e to Oklahoma's first feminist She still ran the paper single handed with the aid of Jesse Rickey the most expert printer In to the Southwest when sober and as good as the average when drunk There still was very little actual money In the territory People traded this for tint that Sabra often translated subscriptions to the Oklahoma Okla Okla- h homa oma Wigwam Wigwam and and even advertising g space Into apace Into terms of fresh vegetables berries wild turkeys quail pram prairie e chickens dress lengths and shoes an and d I stockings for the children Sol Levys Levy's store grown to respectable respect respect- a able ble proportions now provided Sabra with countless necessities in return fo for tor forthe r the advertisements which were sea sent t through the country via vin the Oklahoma a Wigwam In a quiet dreamy way Sol Levy had managed to buy a surprIsIng surprising ing tag amount of Osage real rest estate b by y now He owned the lot on which his s store stood the fife one Just south of It and among other pieces the building and lot which comprised com the site of the Wigwam and the Cravats' Cravats house I Inthe In Inthe Inthe the year following Yanceys Yancey's departure Sabra's economic survival was made mad e possible only through the almost shamefaced generosity of ot this quiet e sad eyed ed man Ive got It all down In my books Sabra would say proudly You kno know w that It will all be paid back some day He lIe be began nn In the Oklahoma Wigwam a campaign n of or advertising out of nIl all l proportions to his needs and Sabra s debt to him began to shrink to tir the e K Y Y ki Y X Y r To iFf Yi Y 0 vanishing point She got Into the habit of talking to him about her business problems and he advised her shrewdly When she was utterly discouraged discouraged dis dis- discouraged he would say not triumphantly triumphantly tri trI- but as one one who states an Irrefutable and not particularly happy fact Some da day Mrs Irs Cravat you and I will look back on this and we will Inu laugh laugh but but h-but but not very loud How flow do you yon mean mean laugh laugh Oh Oh I I will be very rich and you will be very vcr famous And Yancey- Yancey Yancey The word was wrenched from her like a cr cry The They will tell stories about Yancey Yancey Yancey Yan Yan- cey until he lie will grow row Into a legend lIe He will be part Lart of the history of the Southwest Southwest- Thc They will remember him and write about him when nil all these mealy faced governors are dead and gone and forgotten They will tell the little children abo about t him and they will dispute about him he him he did this he did that he was like this he was like that You will see Sabra thought of ot her own children who knew so little of their father tather Donna a thin secretive child of al almost nl- nl most seven now with dark straight black hair and a n sallow skin like Yancey's Yanceys Yanceys Yancey's Yan cey's almost thirteen moody charming Ima Imaginative Donna wa was s more like her grandmother Felice Venable Venable Venable Ven Ven- able than her own mother r resembled resembled re re- e- e Yancey so strongly in mood manner |