The Key West Citizen Newspaper, August 12, 1947, Page 3

’ Weng THE KEY WEST CITIZEN ' Chapter 1° E was lost. ‘With a snort of self-disgust Doug Andrews sat down on a fallen log and fumbled around in ‘his leather wind-breaker for his pipe. After sucking on it noisily until the dottle caught, he leaned back and surveyed the area near him. He was in a silent pocket of the forest. Inch-thick moss and maiden-hair fern sprouted from the rotting hem- lock on which he sat. Overhead Washington cedar, fir and pine met in a dense canopy which al- most excluded sunlight and sound. The ground was. spongy with generations of droppings from these same trees. He sniffed the air. appreciative- ly. For the past five years his nostrils had been assailed by an unremitting series of unpleasant odors—cordite, burning rubber, blood, sweat and the fetid suffo- cating smell of decaying tropical undergrowth. Now the cool fra- grance of fresh-cut pine was as exhilarating as champagne. It came from a blaze in a tree near | him and he grinned wryly as he recognfed the course. He had been following the blazes, think- ing them a trail, guide; only now did he realize that they were all on ancient trees marked for fall- ing. Well, he wasn’t completely lost. | He could retrace his steps back to the skid road or even if he kept on ‘the’d eventually come upon some trail, but his actions could hardly be considered aus- picious for a man who was play- ing his first role as trouble shoot- er in a timber outfit. Leaning against a broken branch he shut his eyes and re- viewed the events that had brought ‘him here. A few lances | | | | | | | | iSomething whined past his AP Newsfeotures . - ear—unmistakably the hum ‘of a bullet. lnow after two years he found it difficult to speak of his lost friend. “He spoke-of you and your lum- | ber businéss so much.” “So you’re the boy Glen men- jtioneds. . .”. of sunlight escaping the massed! , greenery above, speared down | ‘LOCUM stared out the window lending a gleaming coppery pati-;‘7 unseeiny!y at the busy turbu- na to Andrew’s brown hair and! lent mixture of seund afd move- widening the white scar high on! ment that was the Seattle water- cut during the war, I’m only in the shipping end of it now.” “Guess I’m just wasting your time then, sir.” “Maybe, maybe not. Worked in Military Intelligence, eh?” ; Doug nodded, wondering what Slocum was driving at. The older man thrust his jaw forward, his eyes met Doug’s | steadily. “IT have a proposition for Ne TT TROUBLE SHOOTER BY CAMERON DOCKERY his right cheek bone. Even in re-! front. When he faced Doug again| you, see how you like it—There’s pose his face bore an energetic determined look. ‘ Only the day before he had ay- rived in Seattle after being re- leased from the Army on the east coast. It had seemed strange to come back to Washingion from Japan via India, Suez and the At- lantic, but it had given him leisure in which to think things over and by the time he’d reached the northwest he’d kncwn he wanted to get back into forestry of some sort. isome of the coler Tace. | Pie | “Tell me something about your- j had left his self, Andrews.” “There isr’t much to tell, sir. During my high scnooi summers ;t worked in variotis ivumber i camps, then I had a vear and four months of icrestry at.the Uni- ‘versity befo:e Pearl Harbor set things off. ’'m twenty-four and | single.” | “What branch of the Army F 'were you 42! % a medium-sized logging outfit, the Larson Lumber Co., operat- ing on the Olympic Peninsula. Grif Larson was my best friend— we climbed the timber trail to- i gether. He died three years .ago and his danghter and her grand- father have been trying.to make 1a go if it.” | “They’re not succeeding?” “Not very well, and it seems to me it’s more than just a streak | of bad luck They’re too proud to accept help from me even though He’d locked up the address of! “Communications and_radar at|I have a small interest in the J. W. Slocum in the Seattle <i-, first, later Militery Intelligonce.”|company. How'd you like to hire rectory and gone straight to his! Slocum studied him without/out there <s a logger and do a office. To hi; surprise the lum- berman had seen. him at once. Slocum was a big bluff man in his fifties, the scars of his timbor-! bucking days still on him. His eyes were shrewd and bluer than Doug’s own. “Sit down,” he ordered crisply, “What can I do for you?” Doug decided to be é¢qually enn “Give me a job,” he said. Slocum’s ruddy cheeks crin-| kled. me?” “Your son—we served together “How'd you hear about | speaking. His stubby fingers beat- ing a nervous tattoo on the win- dow ledge cut across the hel- ligerent beliow of a locomotive flinching its way along Railroad |; Avenue below. i “Look here, Andrews, why idon’t you finish up at the Uni- versity?” ! Doug shook his head. “My last ;years in the Intelligence in ‘Japan was mostly desk work. -I j want to get away from that sort of thing fo: awhile.” “I can understand that... the | trouble is, I’m not in the lumber business any more.” little snooping for me on the sidé?” All of which was why Doug Andrews was now sitting on a fallen log listening to the high distant keening of a hound. After a second he knocked out his pipe, picked up his gear and started in the direction of the sound. Ten minutes later he paused on the edge of a stump-studded’ eleat- ing, resting beside ‘a tall young: cedar. As he moved forward again something whined past his ear and clipped a piece of bark from the tree. It had the unmistakable through Guedalcanal to the Phil-' A wave of _ disappointment . eccage ot ippines, until—’ He paused to'swept over Doug. “But I — y he ee eS ee give the awkward lump in his!thought .. .” P y ib nt & throat a chance to dissolve; even’. “I know you did. But I sold QUARANTINE BARRING THE DOORS—These fiscated by Department of Auriculture inspectors from passengers} arriving at LaGuardia Field, New York. IT PAY» BIG DIVIDENDS on) * IN THE WAR ON BUGS a GE. on oe fruits and vegetables were con- The reason: insects or disease had got ‘em, Se By CYNTHIA LOWRY AP Newstfeatures AJEW YORK.—The “golden nc de made itself at home. Plant dc frantically to control the sprecc oi the worn. tode seemed to resist all spray«———— wha DS >matode”, hardy little worm u County u few years ago and stud.ed and experimented The gosaen nema- atara (To be continued) ee erent Girls '¥ eave Big Business | pasttime which started ago in Australia as a wartime and then | hobby is now a thriving commer- imecessity grew into a {cial activity for two former Army nurses. They weave handsome tweeds years | | SANTA FE, N. M—(AP).—A of Australian wool, linens and | yards of material for interior ' decorators. The women, Miss Dorothy | Best, a Pennsylvanian, and Miss Muriel Giggloz, both employed iin medics: positions in this an- {cient cap‘tal, say their weaving lis strictly an after-hour vocation. As Army nurses, | occupational therapy, women began weaving in the best | Australian traditions. Apply To Wed Applications for marriage licen- ses were filed vesterday County Judge Raymond R. Lord by Thomas J. Boardman, 26, of {the U.S. Navy and Lois Hall, 20, Ae 712 Eaton street, and by Wil- liam E. MecDavitt, 23, of the U.S. {Navy anc Rita Demerech, 32, of with a voracious appetite for potaices materialized from|418 Bahama street. nowhere in Long Island's Nussu ee geese i crossing state lines to make sure thet devastating insects, | diseases and viruses are held . - es s omid dian. meceures. ‘a within ; known boundarie county lire. And t being | where they can be extermina- Then, because it threatened Sai : ‘es: iene eaninehiin ale sae urged to p'ant ne other crep—{ ted by icint action. a uniy ref i ee eae “J st “ await : St no = os principally a cover crop f a Each state has at least half a ei ; se . a sh spe ~~ Se years thar the golden!dozen qv:rantines on carriers of en me | cor nistid ue ted " nematode way be starved out. ‘ plant lestrovers: California ns asthe anne gia quel ihe quxrantine seems to befalone has 24. Entymologists and oS -..Ony sr wash mg)" working well, Ib is one of hun-{plant pa‘hologists by the score ce ’ 4 . at “ Ceneees wie mer reds. int Qaarantines heing|search v.anes, boats, — trucks, e golden nematoce seems 20) unforced the narion vodayv. itrains are automobiles. have been hemmed in. An ati..y of state and federal The fecoral department of ag- Farmers can’t ship their vota toes outside the county and must sterilize potato-raising tools fore they can take them over the be inspectors are stationed all over the United States, guard- lriculture .lso has imposed a vast jnumber of quarantines banning ing ports, air terminals, rail- |certain imports from the United road = tracks) «and highways i States. assigned to the two with