Evening Star Newspaper, October 13, 1931, Page 39

QOutlaws By Peter of Eden B. Kyne INSTALLMENT XXIX. HEN Silas Bat:on failed to come home for dinner the night the Bank of Valley Center closed forever, his wife waited until 8 o'clock and then telephoned Henry Rookby. Upon Mr. Rookby immediately fell suspicion _that something tragic 1 ended. He found Babson's tin box un- jocked, 50 he opened it and found Bab- son’s letter to his wife in the envelope with the life insurance policies. Shaking slightly with apprehension Mr. Rookby went into his cage and found there an envelope addressed to him. It was from Babson and said: “Dear Henry—I can't stand it. If I live my wife and children will be| paupers and I'll be the most hated man | in this county. I could never beat back—and I'm too old to try. And I'm | 100 tired. Look for me in Lake Babson. | Good-by and good luck. S. B." So Mr. Rookby telephoned the super- intendent of State banks at the capitol to send somebody up to take charge of the Bank of Valley Center. Then he; pasted a notice on the window, an- nouncing the closing of the bank. | Two days later a representative of the superintendent of banks took charge of the institution and com- | menced an investigation of the bank's | affairs. It was a task quickly done. A | preponderance of the assets consisted ot frozen loans. There was immedi- ately available a 30 per cent dividend to the depositors; the superintendent of banks lssued a statement that in time a further dividend of 10 or 15 per cent might be available. Then his Tepresentative padlocked the Bank of Valley Center, leaving Forlorn Valley | stceped in despair, until an event oc- | curred to revive its flagging interest in local affairs. | Somebody had opened the flood gates and the main canal down through For- lorn Valley was running bankfull. T stantly Babson was forgotten. The wa- | ter had arrived, and, since nobody knew how long it would remain, it behooved | Forlorn Valley to act quickly. The gates into the laterals were opened; the ditchtenders of the irrigation dis- trict got on the job, and a perfect frenzy of irrigation commenced When the first cutting of alfalfa was half harvested. Forlorn Valley had an- other surprise. Again the farmers awoke to find the main irrigation canal running bankfull; again commenced a season of irrigation, and when Forlorn Valley had slaked its thirst a second | time, again the district engineer went up and closed the headgate at Lake | Babson. A second crop of alfalfa was | harvested and, seemingly God was again or. the side of Forlorn Valley, for & third time the main canal ran bank- full—a third crop of alfalfa was har- vested. And that would be the last crop of the season. The payment of the semi-annual in- terest had been due on July 1. Alas! the funds of the district had been de- posited in the Bank of Valley Center, | and all but 30 per cent of them had | been lost in the collapse of the bank: | so the district, not knowing what the holders of its bonds purposed doing, | defaulted on the interest payment. | On July 2 the trustee for the bond holders notified the district that unles | payment of the defaulted interest was | made by August 1 legal action would be taken to foreclose the deed of trust given to secure the bonds. The directors of the district held & meeting. They recalled Nate Tiche- nor's threat to buy the bonds from the original purchasers. Was he scheming delude the farmers of Forlorn Valley into planting more and morg alfalfa and fruit trees, thus enriching the val- ley to a point where his winnings, at foreclosure, wonld be all the greater? The secretary was insiructed to write to Tichenor's attorney and ask him for a frank exposition -{ Nate Tichenor's iptentions. Back came a prompt reph to the effect that Tichenor's intentions were unknown to his attorney; that Tichenor was in Europe. A mass meeting was held, but while there was much talk there was no con- certed action; since nobody knew what to do, nothing was done, and on the first day of August the interest payment was still in default. On the second day of August suit was filed by the trustee to foreclose the deed of trust, and For- lorn Valley, realiing that all was over, sat dumbly and patiently awaiting the end. The farmers could do nothing else. They had fo place to go, so they waited to be dispossessed formally by the sheriff. On the 24th of December—Christmas Eve—every farmer in the Forlorn Valley Irrigation district received a formal no- | tice by registered mail that he no | longer held title to his farm and de- | mand was made upon him that he vacate the same within 30 days from | date, else legal measures would be taken to dispossess him! i On December 13 Nate Tichenor | and his wife came home. Darby met them with the limousine when they got | off the train at Gold Run and noticed | that they were accompanied by a nurse vho held a 2-month-old baby in her " said Darby, “I see I got an- “A boy, Darby. We had to have an sther boss.” heir to Eden Valley, you know.” “I suppose you've heard the news about Forlorn Valley.” “Yes, sir. Seems pretty bitter medi- cine, but they asked for it, as Rube says, and they got it.” You bet they got it. Have any of ‘“ie farmers in the district moved out?™ “No, I don't think so. Joe Brainerd | s&ys they haven't any place to go, so they're hanging on, hoping the new owners will lease the farms back to them, sir.” “Well, that might be possible. Stow | the bags, Darby, and let's go. We must | be out in Eden Valley for luncheon.” | Half-way through Forlorn Valley they | met one farmer who had decided to| wait to be evicted. He was driving a four-horse team attached to a wagon upon which were piled his household goods, and on an old mattress atop the | load four children sat. His wife was on the front seat with him and follow- | ing up the wagon came a l4-year-old boy on horseback, hearding before him some loose work horses, two milch cows and their calves. There was about the | sorry cavalcade an atmosphere incredi- | bly forlorn . . the woman was| weeping; as the Tichenor car slid b the farmer gazed at its occupen apath:tically and raised his hand in gesture that was half a greeting, half a ssess them in the middle of Win- | ." Lorry declared. “That's the man that kicked my ribs loose from my spine,” her husband re- minded her. “Still, now that his kicks are only a memory, I can't say I'm en- Jjoying his_pitiable condition as much as I thought I was going to.” “He waved to you, Nate. He didn't appear to be hostile.” “Oh, he knows me pretty well. I went to school with him. An ignorant ;hnpA but not a bad fellow. I wish him uck.” Her hand stole across and over his. always knew you couldn’t hold a grudge, darling.” I'm afraid it has to be fed regu- Jerly in order to thrive, Lorry, and my grudge against the people of Forlorn | Valley has been staived for nearly a ear. . . Well, I went through with it, just as I promised them I ‘would—just as I promised you I would. 1 can forgive my own enemies, I think, but forgiving yours is quite a different matter.” “I've felt the same about you and your persecutors, Nate. Still, I wish we hadn’t met that man and his little family.” He stared stolidly ahead. “Would be sny sense in Qur debs' if we couldn’t see our enemies suffer?” he demanded. “Oh, Nate!” He looked at her and saw her eyes were moist with emotion. “We're still hillbillies, d ‘We should have stayed outside several years more. We're not quite civilized yet.” “‘Are you chiding me, Lorry? I can't recall having heard you put in a kind word for these people heretofore.” ‘I know it, Nate. I had my share of concelt, " The words came trem- blingly. T thought I could hold a grudge better than you could and I told myself I had to be strong—for your sake. I was afraid you'd weaken and I wanted you to triumph in a big way.” “Well, I had figured on a very dif- ferent sort of triumph, sweetheart. I wanted to let the people know that something fine could come out of Eden Valley. But my back is still a little weak; sometimes it hurts—just enough to keep my hate alive—just enough to make me think that mercy would be weakness——"" “Poor dear! So you've been hmving A rough time also? I'm glad. think we ought to fight our hw(ts together and in the open. I think, too, Nate, we ought to be strong for our son's sake. He is so dear to us, why shouldn't we forget our triumph over our enemies and teach him to love humanity, even if human beings often prove unlobavle?” ‘You're a quitter,” he charged. ‘There are two little cemeteries up; in Eden Valley that are sound argu. ments in favor of quitting. Nate. We had our code—an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and we lived up to it: but it seems to me we never de- rived any happiness from it. 1 can't be happy in Eden Valley any more, be- cause every time I'll leave it I'll have to drive through this—this desolation— this place where men have lived and loved and fought and struggled and dreamed their futile little dreams—and went away in despair. I'll never forget that wherever these dispossed people may wander they’ll always hate you and me.” “We can get along without their ap- proval, Lorry.” ‘But can we get along without the approval of Nate Tichenor and Lorry Kershaw, young Robin Tichenor and those that, please God, will come after him?" “Darby!" es. sir.” “Turn the car around and overtake that farmer we just passed!” (To be continued.) e NAVY DELIVERS PLANES AT SAVING OF $250,000 | Service Men Pilot 30 New Machines From Baltimoge to Canal Zone for Patrol Duty With Fleet. The Navy has saved approximately 1$250,000 by ferrying 20 new Navy patrol planes from the Glenn L. Martin Co. Baltimore, Md., plant to the fleet air base, Coco Solo, Canal Zone. In making this apnouncement today, he Nayy Department explained that he_ operation was supervised by Lieut. V. H. Schaeffer, naval aviator attached to the base, and that each plane during | the long flight carried two pilots, & radio man and two mechanics. In six groups of threes and fours, the planes were flown to Coco Solo. The first section left Hampton Roads, Va., on August 28 and the last group de- partedy last Tuesday and arrived on Saturday in the Canal Zone. The new planes are atiached to the U. S. 8. ‘Wright, flagship of aircraft, scouting force. For Busy Men 19 TRAINS DAILY TO NEW YORK Every Hour. .. on the Hour EN of affairs, whose time is money, value the new faster Pennsylvania service to New York. There is now a fast train to Philadelphia and New York every heur on the hour throughout the business day. Four luxurious flyers—all making the trip in 4 hours 50 minutes or less—lead a fleet of 19 trains daily. They take you to Pennsylvania Station—right in the heart of Manhattan. Yet they have no estra fare! TO CHICAGO To Chicago, The Liberty Limited —now faster than ever—offers you a swift overnight schedule ‘which gets you there in only 18 hours. Leaving Washington at 4.02 P. M,, it arrives in Chicago at 9 o’clock next morning. De Luxe Flyers to New York ‘THE PRESIDENT Leaves Washington, X Arrives New York. THE SENATOR Leaves Washington. Arrives New York. Leaves Washington. Arrives New York. THE CONGRESSIONAL Leaves Washington. Arrives New York. Alan B. Smith, General Passenger Agent, 613-14th Street, N. W., Wash- ington, D. C. Telephone National 9140. PENNSYLVANIA RAILRDAD ° THE EV#&NING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., TUESDAY, -OCTOBER Vitally influencing the thoughts | and lives of over 2,600,000 Modern Women. Read these typical letters— LS i had expected to go on our first trip abroad this summer. Our plans were all made when my husband came home one night with the an- nouncement that changes in his office would make it necessary for him to stay on the job all summer. I felt heartbroken at first. But an article I read not long ago in the Journal gave me a consoling idea. Our house had long been getting shabby— why not do it over from top to bottom? It would be one way of getting a change of scene! “I have a scrapbook of all the articles on interior decoration the Journal has published in the last two years. It has given me the greatest possible help—in the matter of colors, materials, furniture, wall papers—everything. I have had such fun out of the summer! And our house is so lovely that I don’t think I'll ever want to leave it now ...” THE FOREMOST DECORATORS in the country are eontributing to the Journal every month the best modern thought on home furnishing and decoration; and through the Journal the woman on a Wyoming ranch or a Kansas farm is able to keep as closely in touch with all that is new and interesting in this field as her sister in the big cities. 1931. head ia “Y CAN’'T tell you what reading ‘The Kitchen-Sink Complex,” in the Septem- ber Journal, has done for me. It woke me up as surely as a cold shower does when one is sleepy. “I’d been thinking of myself in terms of dirty dishes and scouring powders, all right « .. but now my head is high once again. “The part of the article that meant the most to me was what you said about the significance and importance of the home maker and her job. Now I know I'm doing a fine thing in contributing to society a complete home. “I’m going to give up worrying aboutself- expression,” and wishing for foolish, impos- sible things. I'm going to do as you said— ‘lay out for myself tasks and pleasures that I know absolutely I can make come true.’ <« « My husband and children will be grate- ful to you, too, for the change in me.” MRs. COOK, who wrote “The Kitchen-Sink Complex,” is now eonducting a monthly department on child training—Raising a Family. N I was a boy, my father used to take me out to the barn and give me a licking every time I deliberately disobeyed him. I still believe those lickings were good for me. I still think there is something wrong with the fellow who can’t take a licking without bearing a grudge. *But punishment doesn’t seem to work with our boy the way it did with me. It seems to make him sullen and resentful. *“My wife showed me an article in a recent issue of the Journal about children hating their parents. I don’t want my son to hate me, but I want to raise him right. I wish you would give me your advice on how to discipline my 14 year old son ..." DR. MENNINGER'S sympathetic, open-minded discusstons on mental hygiene in the home are helping thousands of Jour nal-reading parents to deal more intelligently with their children.