Evening Star Newspaper, January 9, 1927, Page 84

HE SUNDAY T THE SUNSET DERBY BY WILLIAM DUDLEY PELLEY STAR, WASHINGTON, Two Race-Track Derelicts, an Emergency, and a Test of Mettle. BONY, undersized young man, with a slight imp in his left leg, shuffled into the yard of Vermont town _livery one afternoon in the Summer which has passed, and found Uncle Joe Fodder washing a buggy. He visibly summoned his courage to ask “Are you Mr these stables?’ Uncle Joe slopped his chamois in a five-gallon pail and twisted it dry. T do,” said he. “What you after, a Fodder? Do you run o, sir. A job." job doin’ what Looking after horses.” But 1 don't need no hostler. Scargely got business enough these days to keep myself. What you know about horses?” “That’s mostly the trouble. I know nothing else.” To*be confronted by a youngster who professed to know nothing but horses in this day of spark-plugs and motor cops was so unusual that the old man straightened. “How come you know nothin’ but horses? What's your name, and what you doin’ here to Paris? “Wade's my name—Barnaby Wade. Thought I'd come up and try for a job looking after horses. I been hang- ing around Saratoga all Spring— “My gosh! You ain't Wade jockey The other nodded, his thin lips tightening. 1 was,” he confessed, “till T took a bad spill at Belmont.” av, I've heard'o’ vou. Seen a piece in the paper 'bout vour accident. For gosh sakes, come into my office’” There are few such stables as Uncle Joe's now left in Vermont. The ga yages have driven them out. Even Uncle Joe's business has dwindled to | the occasional letting of one of his three little Morgan mares, boarding the rigs of the American Express Co.. or caring for the Percherons that pull the street department’s.carts. Its proprietor is an old Civil War veteran. His dusty feit hat, with selits for ven- tilation, always shows cobwebs, or oc- casional haystalks: his corncob pipe 18 a town institutio: He turned up the lamp, for the sun was now sinking and the place full of shadows. He brought out his pipe mechanically. “So you quit ridin’?” he demanded. “Yes, sir. I had to. When 1 get in & saddle now—and the horse starts running—something back in my head stops working. The boy's lip quiv- ered. “They say 1've lost my nerve. I dunno. I went down to Kentucky last vear and tried my, best to ‘come back.’ But 'twasn't any use. I might take up something else, of course, but —I can't, I can't!” “You got any folks?" “No, sir. My uncle, Ben Wade, owner of Flying Raven, died five years ago—after raising and training me. I'm glad he did, before smashed. He couldn't have stood I “You got any money “No, sir. I'm broke. bere from Montpelier. red there for grub.” “But it's 30 miles to Montpelie: es. sir,” “When'd you leave there?” “Yesterday morning. “You ain’t et nothin’ since yester- day mornin’?" , sir. “Well, come out along with me to the lunch cart!” “Couldn’t I stay around here and do something—if it's only for my keep 2-till T Jand something better that pays real money?” “Guess you could sleep in my barn, if you got no other place to go. Come along with me, anyhow, out to the cart. We'll swallow some beans and talk things over.” To this old veteran it was like tertaining fallen royalty—aiding rnaby Wade, who, five years ago, rode Flying Raven Yo spectacular vic tory at Churchill Downs. And yet he was only a boy—a heartsick, home- less, friendless boy, with his left leg stiffened from compound fracture of -the knee. 1 walked over Spent my last O K ‘HE next night the Daily Tele- graph carried a story of Jockey ‘Wade's appearance in Paris. Old horsemen from all over the country stopped at the red barns out behind the Whitney House to make the youthful celebrity’s acquaintance. But the younger generation took his advent with its tongue in its cheek, The young-buck element looked on Barnaby Wade as a freakish vagrant with a streak of yellow. Our local princesses took note of his wistful eyes and his painful limp, his slender bulld and woeful shyness, and put him contemptuously down as effemi- nate. Bubconsclously, too, the rest of the community entertained a vague con- tempt for an international celebrity who could descend to washing rigs and cleaning stables. And yet there was pathos in the way he worked over Uncle Joe's three remaining mares. For a month he did it, and Uncle Joe contrived to spare him $8 a week. He made himself a bed in the odor- ous office. Once, when a Percheron became cast in the early hours of thz dawn, he disclosed that he knew more about raising her than Doc Rickley, the veterinary. One morning his couch was vacant. Je was mysteriously absent all day An hour before sunset he came scuf- fling into the vard, his clothing torn and blood on his face. Moreover, he was pulling after him the mdst pathetic horse that ever fur- nished a $12 hide for Caleb Gridley's tannery—a rakish black horse of un- certain years that taguely resembled ® camel. “Where on earth have demanded Uncle Joe. * did you get hold o’ that' ‘Wade led the animal into the barn. It tried to lie down, but the boy truss- ed a surcingle under its belly and hitched it to a rafter-rope. T been in a fight,” he responded. beat up a gink named Levering.” +You beat up a gink named what?” Jacob Levering. He was trying to kill this poor plug with stones.” You beat up Jake Levering? Where?"” “Out west of town. I heard that a man named Nesbitt run a stock farm out toward Barre. 1 thought I could &et & better paying job out there. But bitt wasn't home, and I spent the y about his place, talking with Then 1 started walking I got along by that swell estate up on the hill—the Levering place and found a wop junkman had tried to camp on old Levering’s property This Levering'd come down to order him off. They got in a fuss. First 1 kpew, Levering was basting this plug with a cane—"" thought you sald stones?” ‘That was afterward. The junk- n couldn’'t get his plug to travel. o he runs off for help, and the horse es down. Levering probably meant $or the wop to find a dead horse when he come back—just for spite. Anyhow, he hoisted a good-sized rock to hash in its head, when I come along and hit him. We had a sweet time. I think he's crazy.” “Well, did you lick him?" ““He'll spend the next two weeks keeping appointments with a dentist’s chair, anyhow. I got the horse on its fest and kept him on 'em until ~—well, here he is!" And Jake let you get away with vou been?” nd where e | the ex-jockey treat the beast's “He couldn't help himself. A girl saw most of it—some sort ofrelation of his, 1 guess. She come into town with me and went to see the chief of police, to tell him how it happened and Save me from a pinch.” “What sort o' looking girl?” “About my size and age. Wea her hair in a braid. Big brown eyes.” “Must be Lettle Appleton, old Jake's stepdaughter. le hates the sight of her, I've heard. What I come o' the wop?” “I dunng. But T couldn’ and watch this poor plug get it stove in. Say, is Levering rich? what made him dippy “He swiped an invention from guy named Prescott. Cleaned up million. Prescott shot himself. Lev ering come back here and built him- If that place on the hill.” he’s his step-daughter, you said?” Bullied his first wife, Levering did, till she was glad to die, some said. Married a second, younger'n him, who already had this daughter Lettie. Got herself killed in a wreck and left Levering stuck with the girl. Uses her pretty nasty, like all his women folk—" Uncle Joe stopped The girl herself was coming into the yard. “I told Chief Hogan everything,” she announced. “How's the horse now?” “That's just what I got to find out,” said Barnaby. stand head And al ¢ i e e HROUGH the ensuing hour, Uncle Joe Fodder was merely a specta- | tor. But he was content to be merely A spectator, For he saw more than | an equine hat rack salvaged. He saw | color begin to come and go on the | Appleton girl's face, as she watched res and get him into a stall. Wade com- menced grooming him as the blowzy old camel had not been groomed in years. Mr. Fodder, this horse has got points,” he contended. *“Come in here and look."” “I saw that right off,” Uncle Joe agreed. “Fore feet look sound. Got a firstclass head. But he ain't got much wind.” “It may be only starvation.” “Sorry. Don't think so. I'm afraid his_wind's broke.” The girl cried in alarm. “It {sn't anything he's got to be killed for, is it—broken wind?"” No, no,” laughed the hostler. “An’ then, o' course, he may not be as bad off as he looke.” There were tears in the girl's eyes. “I'm crazy about horses,” she told the two huskily. “My daddy wa; a horseman. I can't stand to see tnem abused. 1 guess it's in my blood.” ‘This horse ain't gonna be abused any more, if I can help it,"*Barney vowed. , “But you don't own him, son,” ‘warned Fodder. “Sooner or later that wop'll come lookin® for him." There was anxiety in the girl's voice as she turned and cried, “How much do you think he is worth?" “Twenty-five dollars would be fiftcen dollars too much.” “I've got twenty-five dollars. I've got a hundred.” She grasped Wade's elbow. “You wait here. I'll go back to the house and get it. If that Italian shows up, we’ll buy him together. Lettie Appleton was back with some bank notes. The Italian came with her. She had picked him up, and brought him in, so that Uncle Joe and Barnaby might do the trad- ing. Thirty-six dollars they finally on. Then boy and girl worked over the horse till long after 10 o'clock. “I got a hunch this horse has been a racer in his day,” said Wade. “But if his wind’s bad, Wke Fodder says, he's off the track for keeps. Besides, he's pretty old.” I think he's beautiful!" the girl de- clared. And before she left she went into the stall where the lucky animal dozed, and clasped her arms around his neck. Fodder told us about it in the newspaper office next day. “Struck me she acted heartsick for something to love. Guess there ain't been much love wasted on her out to Levering's place.” “A woman could do lots worse things than love a horse,” remarked Sam Hod, the editor. * x % % ND so, introdyeéd by a hapless horse, drawn eloser together each day as they gradually brought the beast back, boy and girl began to love each other—as pretty and polgnant a little affair as our com- munity ever witnessed. Then suddenly, before the village was really aware of the depth of their attachment, Paris came down to its business one morning to dis- cover that they had married! An extra harsh bit of bullying on the stepfather's part had been re- sponsible. He had heard of his foster daughter's interest in horses and in Wade; and the truth of the matter was that the retired capitalist, with nothing but his country place and memories to occupy his mind, was slowly losing it. “We've decided t9 rent the old Pumpton place,” Barney announced the next day. ‘Lettie’s done with that stepfather of hers—she doesn't want anything more to do with him whatever.” ‘The Pumpton place!” cried Unecle Joe, ne miles out in that hollow?’ “Well, we can get it for nothing— if we plow over the mowings and let Jane Pumpton have the new hay.” “But how the two of you ever gonna support yourselves out there? There ain’t another house within five or six miles.” “There’s a good sugar orchard on it. And all kinds of land for garden. And there's three big hen-houses, too. We might make money with chickens.” ot the cash to stock it?” ‘We got enough for a table, some chairs, and a bed. And there's lots of old stuff we found in the attic. “But you two kids can't live way, off there!” “Well, we got Black Bullet to go back and forth with—if I could only buy one of those old buggies and some harness from you, on time.” Black Bullet! Is that what yéu | vour plug?”’ 5 eah. Lettie and Black Bullet and T will get along fine: I have been knocking around so much that any kind of a roost is welcome now. And we aren’t starting anv smaller than | |lots of folks start. It's like a first- |rate adventure, Lettie says, seeing how fast we can work up and get our. selves ahead!"” Anyhow, the old Pumpton place, far off in Bugbee Hollow, again had ten- ants, Often Uncle Joe would come into the newspaper office in those next few weeks and declare: “Just drove in along the Bryants Crossing bBack road. Passed the Pumpton place. Seems pitiful, some- how, for them two kids to be off out there like that. Nothin’ but children, both of 'em. I'm told there ain't even a carpet to their floors, just bare hoards and half a dézen pleces of broken old furniture, that's all. And them tryin’ to make a ‘go’ of life and love.” “Mebbe they'll do it a darned sight batter than lots of older couples right a'l horse, and their e really havin' each other, and thel dreams. 1 bet the the time of their lives. * ok ok K BUT this is not a tale of love in a cottage. It Is the tale of a horse. A salvaged horse, Black Bullet. And it means to ponder the question: Do horses have souls? Jeas Somers, who owns another lfv ery 20 miles eastward over the moun tains, entered the newspaper office one afternoon last Fall. “Came around by the Crossing this noontime,” he announced. “Met a girl off over there, ridin’ a hos Looked like Jake Levering's kid.” “Guess it must be,” anawered Sam. But I didn’t know she rode saddle." Darned perty plcture she made, i ou ask me. And that hoss of hers as a beaut. Must be a thorough- bred, the way he lifted his feet and shook his tail.” Barney Wade give $36 for that old plug. Regular fodder and kind treatment did the rest. There's horses like that, just the same as there's people. But Joe says the beast is mostly looks. Can't run far without choking like old Zach Has- kell with his asthma.” “That s0?' Glad you told me. Felt like stoppin’ the girl and askin’ what she'd take for the beast.” “Don’t think you could buy it at any price, Jeff. That hoss introduced them tio voung folks. He's one o' the famil “How'd old Levering take the elope- ment?" “Couldn't do much. Old Jacob's bad. They've took his auto license away. Won't let him drive any more like he used to, he's that resentful of folks in the streets who won't move out of his way. * x %k % UMMER came and went. The trees became naked: the days grayed. Word drifted into the office that the Wades had banked the sills of their house against the cold weather ahead. ‘“Must be they're makin’ a go of it," admitted Uncle Joe, “seein’ they're preparin’ to stay out there through snow time. Mebbe I'll drive out there Saturday and see how they're comin’.” “Stop in and pick me up, too,” the editor begged. The two made the trip in one of Uncle Joe's buggies. At the end of the wood tract, a mile from the Pump ton place, the narrow road they were following turned sharply westward “There's an auto comin’ somewheres with its cutout open.” the editor con- tended. “It must be on ahead.” “Hope we clear that turn, so it don’t catch us in this narrow road" and Uncle Joesslapped the mare's rump sharply with one rein. Closer they drew to the turn. almost made it. But a nousine was hurtling hack road, drawing close Out over the highway hung, screening them' from the griv er's sight. They also hid another from that driver's sight. Squarely on the turn, a woodland road struck in, Out of it came Lettie Wade, loping kently on the salvaged thoroughbred. “My heavens!” old Fodder cackled wildly. “What's the matter with that feller” Don't he see we're all in Jam?". Either the driver didn't see, or he had no care. Uncle Joe's buggy went off in the ditch. Black Bullet sprang, as the great car veered clumsily. Came a woman's wild cry, the snort of a horse. One heart-throttling crash sounded through those leafless Au- tumn woods. A tree took the shock as the car turned to junk, and a human body, a woman's body, shot through the alr and went out of sight under sumac and alders “You old fool cried Fodder, crawl- ing unhurt to the road. *Whatta you mean, tootin’ through these narrow roads at any such speed as that?" But Jacob Levering never answered. The terrific impact of the car against the tree had snapped his neck. “Barney’s wife's thrown!" Fodder cried crazily. “I seen her go them bushes.” Sam Hod ran forward with Uncle Joe to the undergrowth. In leaping clear of the danger, the girl's horse had unseated her. Yet, strange to relate, the horse had not bolted. “Great guns! There's,a stone plle in here!” old Fodder groaned. ‘‘She’s They down that nd closer ponderous | some sumacs | into | JANUARY 9 1927 7 U ¥ony AL i, 72 7 BLACK BULLET HAD STALKED CLOSE TO THEM. WITH NOSTRILS TO THE GROUND, HE COMMENCED TO SNORT CURIOUSLY ABOU LETTIE'S PROSTRATE BODY. T landed plumb on it, and ain't mov “Let's lift her out in the road White-faced, they did so. *Is she dead?” whispered Sam. but injured mighty bad. Some old Jake's kicked up to mark passin’! Thought they'd took his license?" robably got the car out regard- {less!" Uncle Joe was kneeling beside the girl, upon whose scalp was a clot of hlood. “You hetter try to get Barney. Somebody's gotta go for help.” Don't have to get him. H |away com- in' Uncle Joe glanced up. Down the grade the young husband was racing i as fast as his handlcapped knee would | | permit him. “Lettie!”” he cried wildly, dropping beside her. “Jake's dead! Broke his neck. What was he doin' here?” the hostler de- manded. “He was after Lettle. Claimed, if he found her, he was gonna take her Couldn't find her, and started off this way. I followed as best I could, 'cause I knew she was somewheres over here on Black Bullet."” “‘Son, she's gotta have a doctor.” “I Know it. Oh, oh, oh!" The boy was sobbing bitter ‘‘Better not move her, am advised “Best bring a doctor here—or an am bulance. “There’s no amhulance nearer than REMARKABLE detector of air- planes has heen evolved and perfected recently at the Bu- reau of Standards. It is an efficient sleuth for the detec- tion of aircraft that are anywhere from 5 to 20 miles away from the point where the tests are made. The potential importance of this discovery is immeasurable at this time, but it will surely develop into a most valuable accessory of both military, naval and commercial aviation. The detection is made by means of sound waves, the apparatus which has heen developed for that purpose being compact and reasonably simple. Here in brief, popular language is the way In which the modern de. tective of airplane presence works. The spund waves from the invisible and far-away aircraft enter a large horn. and then pass through an ex- tensive series of small holes drilled in a brass plate. A very sensitive aluminum diaphragm is placed a short distance behind this plate. The sound waves speeding with the marvelous rapidity at which sound travels, even- tually reach the device and set in vibration the aluminum diaphragm. These vibrations are transformed into amplified sound waves by electrical means, An ordinary set of raido ear phones is used in increasing the audibility of these vastly magnified sounds. This efficlent apparatus has been used successfully in detecting sounds from an airplane in flight from 18 to 20 miles away. It is a simple matter to distinguish these particular sounds. _ It the airplane is in operation only 5 to 10 miles from where the detec- tor is located, sclence is able to determine the travel direction of the cloud cruiser with reasonable ac- curacy. One outstanding feature is the compactness and easy portabllity of the ‘“airplane detective,” which occuples a small wooden case con- taining the amplifying unit as well as_the batteries. = The laboratories of the Department of Commerce, which delve into the most intricate puzzles of industry, are productive of answers to engineering, industrial, commercial and agricul- tural problems which never before have been studied or solved. The scope of the research program an- nually in progress at that establish- ment runs the gamut, from burning test buildings to ascertain how con- flagrations occur to solving the se- crets of pipe corrosion. The liveli- ness and durability of base balls may occupy scientific attention in one room, while in another hall of re- search photographs are being made of rifle bullets in flight or granite or marble samples are being frozen and thawed in technical ice chests to determine their serviceability. During the last year a curious study of the vibrations in rifle and gun barrels caused by the explosion of powder has been under headway. Uncle Sam, the most resourceful in- ventor the world has ever known, has originated a clever little device which records the amount of these vibra- tions. Insignificant though they may appear, these vibrations may resuit in defective marksmanship either with big guns or small target rifles. These technical tests have demon- strated that the greater muzzle vi- brations occur from the lighter pow- der charges just as the bullet leaves the gun. Big and little armament froin the period of the Civil War up to the best rifle of current popularity have been tested by the national “gun- shooters” in these experiments, the first of their kind ever attempted. In the three wind tunnels at the Bureau of Standards some 20 differ- ent combinations of aerial bombs have latterly been tried out under various wind speeds. By making slight modi- fications in the nose and tail forms of these hombs, the resistance of air ents and atmospheric pressure to | their flights have been reduced as much as 55 per cent. Air-resistance experiments with gas shells have also been made. Duralumin, one of the lightest and strongest materials produced for air- craft construction—particularly in the building of airplane girders—is |being. studied from stem to stern in order to eliminate defects and add increased durability to this important material. The embrittlement of this material, which is much lighter than stone and stronger than steel, is now one of the critical riddles of aircraft construction. _ Protective coatings | which Uncle Sam’'s engineers have developed have increased the depend- ability and durability of duralumin. it only takes one-half as long now as it did formerly to make an accu- rate aerial map of a certain city or stretch of country as a consequence of improvements made in the lenses | of regulation mapping cameras by here in town, with every advantage,” the editor responded. “They've got - 1 ) Standards’ specialists. Distortion, which was prominent in the former? 7 TESTING AIRPLANE INSTRUMEN Detector of Distant Planes in Action Among Products of Standards Bureau mapping of negative and enlarge- ments, have been eliminated by in- serting a special glass plate of par- ticular thickness at the proper place in the aerial camera. Engineering and industrial re- search for many years has needed a simple and accurate device for determining the load applied by test- ing machines during important ex- perimentation. The schemes and in- efficlent devices which have been in use have been either inaccurate or very clusmy. The Bureau of Stand- ards has perfected a proving ring of steel which can be used efficiently for that purpose. The deformation which occurs in this ring is an accu- rate gauge of the load applied. The deflection is measured by the in- genlous arrangement of a vibrating fork suspended from one extremity of the ring’s diameter and a micro- meter point adjustable to just touch the reed at the other extremity. Proving rings for larger loads as great as 200,000 pounds or more are now being developed. Apparatus for calibrating testing machines of a capacity of 5000 tons will eventu- ally be products of this research. Modern ammuntion depends chiefly for its success on the use of ex- tremely accurate gauges. These are t- a great extent the guideposts of gun-making and shell or projectile production. Ordnance may he made in dozens of different factories throughout the United States, yet as a result of the accuracy of these WHERE GOVERNMENT SCIENTI AIRCRAFT testing guages, all the different parts and pieces will fit together per- fectly when finally assembled. Our Government technologists have been studylng the wear of these gauges in service. It has used chromium successfully as plating material to give longer life and more reliable accuracy to these abbreviated vard- sticks of ordnance output. Gauges covered with thin layers of chromium are much superior in wear resist- ance and long-time accuraty to those made from special steels. Shop production was speeded up greatly and the art of cutting metals advanced rapidly about 20 vears ago when “high speed” tool steels were first developed. The Gov- ernment has been experimenting at standards shops with the cutting properties of tools made from high- grade steels when used on some of the commercial alloy steels, such as carbon, nickel, low and high chro- mium, chrome-vanadium and the like, which have tensile strengths of 65,000 to 195,000 pounds per square inch. This intensive investigation of steel uses is illustrative of many other important research enterprises now in progress A study of all the industrial mold- ing sands now used in this country is another example of the experiments going on at the Department of Com- merce laboratories, which crown the crest of one of the highest hills in Northwest Washington. These sand samples have been tested in every S SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF D BOMB:S way possible at the Bureau of Stand- ards foundry. Special appliances have been originated for determining the compressibility, permeability and re; fractiveness of molding sands. Photography's forward march by means of improvements in lens pro- duetion has now reached a stage of excellence where a halt may well be called. Simultaneously, the better- ment of photographic emulsions has been neglected relatively. Today there is 10 times as much oppor- tunity for producing better emulsions as compared with developing more ef- ficient lense: During the last 12 months more than 400 batches of emulsion have been made and tested here. As a result, a new and effica- cious system of increasing the color sensitivity of panchromatic emul- sions has been effectualized without any loss in their keeping qualities. Industry has furthermore been aid- ed by the inception of a new kind of glags for use in the goggles worn by workmen engaged in electric or acety- lene welding or cutting. A brown- colored glass was formerly used as protection against the invisible ultra- violet ray This color has not proved satisfactoty. Many serious accidents have occurred because workmen would persist in removing their brown goggles when they could not see through them satisfactorily. The Bu- reau of Standards, by thorough ex- perimentation, produced a blue glass by tho use of soft soda lime and cerfum oxide which solves this prob- lem. Glass making is an art which the majority of Washingtonians did not even know flourished in the District. During the last- year Uncle Sam has made 36,000 pounds of glass at the Bureau of Standards. Much of this supply is used for experimental pur- pose. All of the balance which is of satisfactory quality is delivered to th optical shop at the Washington Navy Yard, where it is converted into prisms and lenses for binoculars, periscopes and gun sights. Coast Guard patrol boats are now be- ing fitted with special radio direction finders which were designed and de- vised by Bureau of Standaids radio engineers. These devices link in ad- mirably with the radio receiving sets which these national experimenters also perfected. The radio direction finder is so bullt that only one move- ment of a hand wheel is necessary to determine the exact position a vessel sending radio signals. A new altitude testing chamber will soon be ready for use at the bureau, wherein aeronautical instruments of all kinds will be tested under condi- tions simulating those which obtain to points as high as 30,000 feet above terra firma. { The airplane*instruments are used by the pllot in a manner quite sim- {lar to the use of thé detailed map which the Washington motorist car- ries as a guaranteed pathfinder when he travels unfamiliar roads. It is critically essential that science ascer- tain all that there is to know about aeronautical instruments, such as alti- meters, altitude compasses, barom- eters and other scientific indicators which are standard equipment now adays on skyland's gasoline vehicles. To reduce aeronautical disasters by standardizing these aircraft instru- ments i of the ranking research projects Swhioh in the future will be explored ifrom every angle and ap- proach af the test shops. the Putney Hospital,” argued Joe Fod der. “Well, 1e “The boy took out a grimy handker-{ | chief and wiped his‘wife's head. “Oh'" he moaned. “Lettle! Lettie!" “Somebody’s gotta go after an am bulance and lug her to the hospital before she dles, do you hear? Bar- ney!" “You go after it. T can't leave her ! T can't! I can't!" “The auto’s smashed. gv. Nothin's left to use bit your| horse here. Don't you understand?| Barney, what's the matter with you?" “You go! Take Black Bullet. You go!" somebody's gotta go after 50 | So's the bug-| “I ain't rid on a horse saddle for nearly forty year!” “I couldn’t stick on a horse twenty yards,” added Sam. “Barney! Pay attention! Here's a horse with @ saddle. Here's you, an ex-jockey. You gotta go for that am- bulance. Race as you never raced in your life The boy looked up. Joe's hectic suggestion penetrated his dazed understanding. A greenish tinge set- tled about his mouth. “I can't ride any more. Besides, Black Bullet couldn’t make it."” A queer thing happened. Sam Hod felt something bunt him. Another bunt thrust Joe Fodder aside, Black_Bullet had stalked close to them. With nostrils to the ground, he commenced to snort curiously about Lettie's prostrate body. Up to her head he =nuffed, his twitching muzzle reaching her face,| nostrils smelling the blood of her| wound. Twice he rafsed his shapely head and looked up and down the road, cocking his steel-shell ears. Then | back he came again, snuffing about | the body. Sam and Old Joe looked | on, wide-eyed. | | “Barney,” cackled Fodder. | the horse. And ride, boy; ride! | “But I— | “Lookit: He's pawin! Don't you see what that horse is tryin' to tell you?” Black Bullet was pawing. The vhites of his eyes were showing. Barney, Barney! He's willin' to do his atuff, if you'll do yours! Pull your- self together.’ | The horse pranced excitedly. ney staggered up. I can’'s stay on a horse! Some- thin’ in the back of my head—" n't you stick to Old Bullet for the girl you both love 7 The boy sobbed again. He caught at Bullet's stirrup to steady himself. | Bullet pranced lightly without moving | from his place. He nickered then, a | high, eager nicker that echoed through those woodlands like a battle-cry. And all the time the lad fought his broken nerve with a desperation that w piteous. “Help me up,” he choked at last. I'm empty 1 take Bar- Sam | the laa nickered. horten these stirru the boy begged brokenly; “I'm not used to rid- ing like this! Shorten these stirrups! With arched neck, Black Bullet kept quiet as poth older men pulled clumsily at buckles. But he clamped at his bit. The whites of his eyes showed wilder and wilder. He hoisted Again Bullet leaped forward. into saddle. The boy shut his eyes. He clutched t the horn with steel-hook fingers. All right, old fellow,” he whispered huskily. ‘And if ever dumb brute | understood human speech, Black Bul let understood his rider in that mo- ment. He took a gentle lope forward to give Barney the movement. Then he settled down on his haunches and sprang into air. Down that country road sounded a staccato beating of horsehoofs. On a sunset derby for the life of a dying girl, a veteran among thorough breds was going into action! Down turn after turn, over bridges and water bars, around curve after curv out across level open spaces up heart-rending grades, down th other sides where one false step meant death for them both—a coal-black steed with mane and tail flying, ear: lald back against his neck, nostrils dilated, leaped the ground like a jug- gernaut of disaster. » Past Brasy's timber tract, past Lyons’ sawmill, up Blake Hill, that took his wind pitilessly, down toward Walsh Brook, the charcoal kilns and Frank Hale's farm, tore the most beautiful thing in all creation—a flying thoroughbred with every muscle co- ordinated, every sense tuned to speed speed, and yet more speed, every nerve and fiber strained for that race of races—a contest with death. Around the two curves by Bab- cock’'s and Drinkwater's, down the slight grade by No. 4 schoolhouse, into the Lake road and on toward Cobb Hill, that horse called Bullet lived up to his name. And Barney hung on. Barney hung on, indeed! Well enough he knew, before a quarter mile had gone, that the horse he had salvaged had been bred to the race tracks. On and on and on! Down Cobb Hill, away past McDermott's, around Harrington's Bog—and a strange, new exhilaration was seizing on Barney. Afrald to ride? On the back of Black Bullet? He rode as he never had ridden in his life. Black Bullet stumble? Black Bullet throw him? Not while the great horse lived. Not in a thousand years. Yet it seemed a thousand years— that ride. On past Harper's, Winslow's, Mer- ritt’s . . . up another heart-rending grade by Cogswell’s . . . scattering a flock of. ducks by Braithwaite's . . . rounding the Half-Mile Curve by the railroad crossing . . . heart-strained, wind going, still Black Bullet held to nized perfectly that his last great race must be a sweepstakes, he gave his best to bring aid to the one he had loved as only a horse may love and serve loyally. Do horses have souls? What thor oughbred lover doubts it? Beautiful, tender, brave, loving souls to match their stout hearts. And in life's great crises, who shall say that the soul of a horse may not shine brighter and finer than that of many a human? What of the soul of that steed who carried Paul Revere? What of the thundering midnight charger who car- ried little Phil Sheridan down into Winchester? What of a thousand horses to whom, all down history, men and nations have owed their lives? * X X K "THE fear went completely from Bar- ney Wade's brain. He talked to Black Bullet on the terrific hills, coaxed him on level stretches, handled him with all the skill he had in his power. “We'va got to win, Bullet! We'va got to! We must. And then, at last, the final grade down into the Green River Bridge showed ahead. ‘The horse was run- ning on sheer nerve now. Nostrils and eyes were swollen to bursting and his jaw swung open like that of a creature in agon) Down the long hill came the final effort. Foam-flecked, hoofs beating, rider hugging his neck like a manikin, in 12-foot leaps Black Bullet trod road- W And_then, scarcely a thousand feet from the bridge on the éast, came the last great test of all. Jimmy Shaw's flivver slewed in the sand ruts. In mad haste to get out of the way, ths hotel clerk, with wifa and baby beside him. succeeded only |in turning half sideways, stalling his engine, blocking the highroad. Sheer momentum would not permit Black Bullet to stop now. On either side were ditches and alders—no room to go around. Dazedly, Barney saw it. And Black Bullet saw, too. The flivver's top was down. In the flicker of an eyelid there was one solution. Horse and rider took it. They had no alternative. The racer did not slacken. His mad pace increased Barney crouched low, like an eagle for a swoop. “Up over it, old lover!" And Black Bullet went up. A great snort came. A woman screamed insanely. Something like a midnight avalanche stove straight at the car and then zoomed into space. Without a touch or a click, the horse passed over. Thereafter was a dust cloud, the beat of great hoofs on a bridge. * K K % 'HIS Spring at Churchill Downs, Barnaby Wade's “come-back” has | made turf history. T am writing this sketch on an_afternoon in May. In this noon’s New York papers I ses | several editorial cqlumns given over to Barney Wade's grit. They have much to say about “horse sense and man sense riding in harmony"- “‘courage and a stout heart"—"will to win"—“determination.” Perhaps it was an_epitomization of the best there is in thoroughbred rac ing, and all that. Perhaps the best there is in sports, because it is visual proof that blood will tell. But certainly Barnaby Wade would never have been there and handled 5olden Bess to victory, and certainly a frenzied girl-wife would never have been cheering him, up in the boxes had not another horse run anether derby up in the hills of New England Do horses have souls” Sam Hod sava that when Barney came back with Doc Johnson and the ambulance, the first thing Let Wade asked on cvening her e; “Where's Black Bullet Barney face washed He turned his face away. Where's Rlack with tears. Bullet?” No one answered her. She fainted a little while after that Johnson applied first ald. She re gained consciousness again as they were lifting her into the ambulance. “Barney." she cried faintly, “what did_he do?" “Saved Joe answered. They started the ambulance, and Barney rode that course a second time, seated in it. And all the way down into the vil- lage. the half-conscious girl kept re- peating: ‘‘He's Barney! beats? fast. tired up. you, honey,” TUncle trotting just behind us. Can't you hear his hoof Tell the driver not to go &0 Somehow Black Bullet's he wants to keep lirror Searchlight. OR some time there has been on the market a dombination of an electric searchlight and a diminishing mirror. The device serves the double purpose of an adjustable searchlight at night and in the day a mirror for rendering visible vehicles approaching from the rear. The device is equipped with all the necessary brackets and wiring attach- ments, so that the lamp may be in: stalled on a car in a few minutes time. ‘The switch is in the handle of the lamp, so that the driver can turn the light on or off as desired without interfering with the other lights. The lamp can be prepared for emergency service by wiring it direct to the bat- tery. The lamp embodies many conven- iences, among which may be men- tioned an adjustable lock at any angle desired, and a detachable back re- flector, 8o that the lamp bulb may be removed and replaced in the reflector without fingering or soiling the highly nolished surface. that contest. His veins stood out on his coat like whipcords. Froth flew from his bit. But, as though he knew the terrible need, as though he recog- - » Naturally. “That's my Impression,” sald the seal as it: pressed into the wax. ! A