The Seattle Star Newspaper, July 15, 1919, Page 11

BIG CHAPTER NI The Plunge Steha went over that queer debate ® B00d many times in the ten days that f@iowed. It revealed Jack Fyt to her Min a new, inexplicable light, Mt odd Yariance with her former con Seption pr the nan. She could not Rave Vigualized him standing with OMe foot on the stove front, speaking Salmly of love and marriage if sho| not seen him with her own eyes, rd him with somewhat in- Sredulous ears, She had continued to ‘@adow him with the attributes of un Pestrained passion, of headlong leap Ing to the goa! of his desires, of hing aside obtactes and oppo- Bition with sheer brute force; and he shown unreckoned qualities of | Festraint, of understanding. She was Hot quite sure if this were guile or Sensible conaideration. He had put HS case logically, persuasively even, Was very sure that if he had opted emotional methods, she ould have been repelled. If he had : siege to her hand and heart the orthodox fashion, she would have raised that siege in short order. it stood, in spite of her words to » there was in her own mind a Of finality. As she went about daily tasks, that prospect of try: ing a fresh fling at the world as Jack "Ss wife tantalized her with cer tain desirable features. Was it worth while to play the as she must play it for some to come, drudge away at mean, id work and amid the dreariest of environment? At best, she uld only get away from Charlie's ip and begin along new lines that ht perhaps be little better, that it inevitably lie among strangers @ strange land. To what end? it did she want of life, anyway? had to admit that she could not fully and explicitly what she nted. When she left out her ma- t wants, there was nothing but } neubulous craving for—what Love, assumed. And she could not de- love, except as some incompre- ible transport of emotion which ibly drew a man and a woman er, a divine fire kindled in two It was not @ thing she could for by personal experience. It ht never touch and warm her, it divine fire. Instinct did now then warn her that some time/ But | ‘would wrap her like a flame. the meantime—Life had her in an of its remorseless, drab |‘ irrent, sweeping her along. A foot- old offered. Half a loaf, a single ‘Blice of bread even, is better than Rone. _ Jack Fyfe did not happen in again nearly two weeks, and then only pay a brief call, but he stole opportunity, when Katy John was/ looking, to whisper in Stella's “Have you been thinking about bungalow of ours?” Babys First Summer HEN the days and the nights be- \ \ gan to be hot and sultry, began to droop. He lost a little weight ot he was fretful at night—he who “had always slept so well. ' > I thought a baby properly cared for should be as well and “as happy in summer as in winter, powder form, to which has been added cereal and sugar. “Why, of course,” he said. Bis, him Nestlé’s “We'll giv - Milk Food. So now I know I don’t have to be afraid of hot _ weather. With plenty of cool baths and light enough clothing, and with Nestlé’s _ digesting easily in that litle stomach,mybabygoeshappily on to health and strength. Nestlé’s is just pure milk in Y Nestlé’s is pure milk in powder form that fied and does not require the further a ik. Always pure and safe, always uniform, d from the dangers of home modification. Nestié’s has stood the test of three generations and has today the largest sale of any baby feed in the world, FREE! Enough Nestlé’s for 12 feedings. Send the coupon! Neastle’s Food Corepany, I 207 Call Daig., San Fran boil. will be glad to send you, free, feedings,and Book on how babies, if you will fill out and send the coupon to them. ‘They want weather, as they did mine. ne. cisco, Cal. Please send me trec your boots and trial pocksge. , OPrYRIGNT BY BERTRAND WV. SINCLAIR AVTHOR OF “NORTH OF FIF T‘Y-THREE } She out He shook her head, and he went! quietly, without another word. | neither pleaded nor urged, and] perhaps that was wisest, for In spite herself, Stella thought of him con | tinually He loomed always before her, a persistent, compelling factor: She knew at last, beyond any gain saying, that the venture tempted, | lurgdly, perhaps, because it contained | |80 great un element of the unknown, To get kway from this soul-dwarfing |round meant much. She felt herself reasoning desperately that the frying |pan could not be worse than the fire and held at least the merit of gree {dignity and freedom from the twin | evils of poverty and thankless do |mestic slavery, While she considered this, pro and} con, shrinking from such a step one! |hour, considering it soberly the next, | the days dragged past in wearisome | sequence, The great depth of snow} endured, was added to by spasmodic | flurries, The frosts held. The camp |seethed with the restlessness of the | men. In default of the daily work | | that consumed their superfluous en: | jergy, the loggers argued and fought, | jdrank and gambled, made “rough | |house” in their sleeping quarters til | jsometimes Stella’s cheeks blanched |and she expected murder to be done, |'Twice the Chickamin came bac [from Roaring Springs with whisky |abourd, and a protracted debauch en: | |sued. Once a drunken logger shoul dered his way into the kitchen to leer unpleasantly at Stella, and, him |self inflamed by liquor and the af. front, Charlie Benton beat the man | until his face was a mass of bloody | bruises. That wax only one of a| |dozen brutal incidents. All the rou: | jtine discipline of the woods seemed | jto have slipped out of Benton's} hands. When the second whisky | consignment struck camp, Stella} | stayed in her r refusing to cook | until order reigned again. Benton | grumblingly took up the burden him: | self. With Katy’s help and that of sundry loggers, he fed the roistering | crew, but for -his sister it was a two-day period of protesting disgust. That mood, like so many of her | moods, relapsed into dogged endur- | ance. She took up the work again! when Charlie promised that no more | whisky should be allowed in the) camp. “Tho it's ten to one I won't have a} corporal's guard left when I want to/ start work again,” he grumbled. | "m well within my rights if IL put| my foot down hard on any jinks| when there's work, but I have no/ license to set myself up as guardian of a logger’s morals and pocketbook | whén I have nothing for him to do, ‘These fellows are paying their board. So long as they don’t make them selves obnoxious to you, I don’t see | that it's our funeral whether they're |drunk or sober. They'd tell me so| quick enough.” ‘To this pronouncement of expedi- ency Stella made no rejoinder. She no longer expected anything much of Charlie, in the way of considera- tion, So far as she could see, she, his sister, was ttle more to him than one of his loggers; a little less | important than, say, his donkey en-| gineer. In so far as she conduced to the well-being of the camp and, effected a saving to his credit in} the cnatter of preparing food, he valued her and was willing to con cede a minor point to satisfy her. Beyond that Stella felt that he did not go. Five years in totally dif- ferent environments had dug a great gulf between them. He felt an arbi- trary sense of duty toward her, she knew, but in its manifestations it »my baby so J asked my doctor. ‘ou only add water fo it and 1 know the Nestlé Company ough Nestlé’s Food for twelve wy good Mother's to take care of take away your fear of hot is already NESTLE'S EOPLE who are compelled to P branch of dentistry. department, and all imperfectior our plate ‘needs. Our advice ts ‘e are able to refer you to hundreds of satisfied customer all work is done under a F YEAR GUARANTEE. the fact that we have a special department for this difficult Advanced methods only are used in th | | wear plates will be interested in #) is are eliminated. Consult us about REL. For the ben work | must jher seek extenuating circumstances |her suspicion, | feeling of repulsion. | he said. never lapped over the bounds of his own immediate self-inte it And so, when she blundered upon knowledge of ® state of affairs which | have existed und her very nose for some time, there w few remnants of rly affection to bid Katy John proved the final straw Just by what means Stella grew to suspect any such moral lapse on Ben ton’s part is wholly irrelevant. Once the unpleasant likelihood came to her notice, she took measures to verify and when convinced she taxed her brother with It, to hia utter confusion “What kind of a man are you?” she cried at last, in shamed anger. “Is there nothing too low for you to dabble in? Haven't you any respect for anything or anybody, yourself in: | cluded?" “Oh, don't talk like Puritan,” Benton growled, tho hie tanned face was burning. “This is what comes of having women around the camp. I'll send the girl away.” “You--you beast!" she flared—and ran out of the kitchen to seek refuge in her own room and cry into her pillow some of the dumb protest that | surged up within her. For her knowledge of passion and the work- ings of passion as they bore upon the relations of a man and a woman were | at once vague and tinctured with in- flexible tenets of morality, the steel hard conception of virtue which in the bulwark of middle-class theory for its wives and daughters and sis. ters—with an eye consistently blind to the concealed lapses of its men. | Stell nton passed that morning thru su stages of shocked amazement, of pity, and disgust. As! between her brother and the Siwash | girl, she saw little to choose. From | her virtuous pinnacle she abborred both. If she had to continue in timate living with them, she felt that she would be utterly defiled, degrad ed to their level, That was her first | definite conclusion. After a time she heard Benton | come into their living room and light | a fire in the heater. She dried her | eyes and went out to face him “Charlie,” she declared desperately, “T can’t stay here any longer, It's simply impossible.” Don't start that song We've had it often enough,” he an swered stubbornly. “You're not go: ing—not till spring. I'm not going} to let you go in the frame of mind | you're in right now, anyhow. You'll get over that. Hang it, I'm not the first man whose foot slipped. It isn’t your funeral, anyway. Forget it.” The grumbling coarseness of this retort left her speechless. Benton | got the fire going and went out. She saw him cross to the kitchen, and later she Mw Katy John leave the| camp with all her belongings in a) bundle over her shoulder, trudging away to the camp of her people arvund the point. Kipling’s pregnant line shot across her mind: “For the colonel’s lady and Judy O'Grady are sisters under their skins.” I wonder,” she mused. “I won- der if we are? 1 wonder if that poor, little brown-skinned fool isn't after all as much a victim as I am. She doesn’t know better, maybe; but Charlie does, and he doesn't seem ‘to care. It merely embarrasses him to be found out, that's all. It isn't right. It isn’t fair, or decent, or any- thing. We're just for him to—to She looked out along the shores piled high with broken ice and snow, thru a misty air to distant mountains that lifted themselves imperiously aloof, white spires against the sky— over a forest all draped in winter robes; shore, mountains, and forest alike were chill and hushed and deso- late. The lake spread its forty-odd miles in a boomerang curve from Roaring Springs to Fort Douglas, a cold, lifeless gray. She sat a long time looking at that, and a dead weight seemed to settle upon her heart. For the second time that day she broke down. Not the shamed, indignant weeping an hour cartier, but with the essence of ali things for- lorn and desolate in her choked sobs. She did not hear Jack Fyfe come in, She did not dream he was there, until she felt his hand gently on her shoulder and looked up. And so deep was her despondency, so keen the unassuaged craving for some human sympathy, some measure of under- standing, that she made no effort to remove his hard. She was in too deep a spiritual quagmire to refuse any sort of aid, too deeply moved to indulge in analytical self-fathoming. She had a dim sense of being oddly comforted by his presence, as if she, afloat on uncharted seas, saw sud denly near at hand a safe anchorage and welcoming hands. Afterward she recalled that. As it was, she looked up at Fyfe and hid her wet face in her hands again. He stood silent a few seconds. When he did speak there was 4 peculiar hesitation in his voice. “What is it?” he said “What's the trouble now?” Briefly she told him, the barriers of her habitual reserve swept aside before the essentially human need to share a burden that has grown too great to bear alone. “Oh, hell,” Fyfe grunted, when she had finished. “This isn't any place for you at all.” He slid his arm across her shoul ders and tilted her face with his other hand so that her eyes met his. And she felt no desire to draw away or any of that old instinct to be on her guard against him. For all she knew--indeed, by all she had been told—Jack Fyfe was tarred with the same stick as her brother, but she had no thought of resisting him, no a damned ssive again. softly, “Will you marry me, Stella?” he asked evenly. “I can free you from this sort of thing forever. “How can she returned. “T don't want to marry anybody. 1 don’t love you. I’m not even sure like you. I'm too miserable to think, even, I'm afraid to take a| step like that. I should think that} you would be, too.” | He shook his head. | “I've thought @ lot about it lately,” “It hasn't occurred to me to be afraid of how it may turn out. Why borrow trouble when there's plenty at hand? I don’t care whether you love me or not, right now. You couldn't possibly be any worse off aa my wife, could you?" | put | hi \he would do this | fastly, THE SEATTLE STAR—TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1919. tMiBER how I o she admitted ld.” a chance, then,” he’ urged. ‘Til make a fair bargain with you I'll make life as pleasant for you as 1 n, You'll live pretty much as you've been brought up to live, so far a8 money goes. The rest we'll have to work out for ourse 8, I won't ask you to pretend anything you don't feel. You'll play fair, be: cause that's the way you're made— unless I've sized you up wrong. It'll simply be a case of our adjusting ourselves, just as mating couples have been doing since the year one. You've everything to gain and noth ing to lose “T don't see some ways,” ery w aren't handic other man,” “How do you know?" she asked. ust a hunch,” Fyfe smiled. “If you did, he'd have beaten\me to the rescue long ago—if he were the sort of nan you could care for.” “No,” she admitted, “There isn't any /other man, but there might be. she murmured. he insisted. “You pped by caring for any | Think how terrible it would be if it happened—afterward.”” Fyfe shrugged his shoulders. “Sufficient unto the day,” he said. “There is no string on either of us just now. We start even. That's g00d enough. Will you?" “You have me at @ disadvantage,” she whispered. ‘You offer me a lot that 1 want, everything but @ feeling I've somehow always believed ought to exist, cught to be mutual Part of me wants to shut my eyes and jump. Part of me wants to hang back. I can’t stand this thing I've got into and see no way of getting out of, Yet I dread starting a new ain of wretchedness, I'm afraid— whichever way I turn.” Fyfe considered this a moment. “Well,” he said finally, “that's a rather unfortunate attitude, But I'm going into it with my eyes open. I know what I want. You'll be making @ sovt of experiment. Still, I advise you to make it. I think you'll be the better for making it, Come on. Say yes.” Stella looked up at him, then out over the banked snow, and all the dreary discomforts, the mean drudg: ery, the sordid shifts she had been to for months rose up in dis- tening phalanx. For that mo- ment Jack Fyfe loomed like a tower of refuge. he trusted him now. She had a feeling that even if she grew to dislike him, she would still trust him. He would play fair. If he said that, she could bank on it absolutely She turned and looked at him searchingly, a long half-minute, won dering what really lay behind the blue eyes that met her own so stead He stood waiting patiently, outwardly impassive. But she could feel thru the thin stuff of her dress a@ quiver in the fingers that rested on her shoulder, and that repressed sign of the man’s pent-up feeling gave her af odd thrill, moved her strangely, swung the pendulum of her impulse. “Yes,” she said. fe bent a little lower. “Listen,” he said in characteristic. ally blunt fashion. “You want to get away from here. There is no sense in our fussing or hesitating about what we're going to do, is there?” “No, I suppose not,” she agreed. “I'll send the Panther down to the Springs for Lefty Howe's wife,” he outlined his plans unhesitatingly. “She'll get up here this evening. To cnorrow we will go down and take the train to Vancouver and be mar- ried. You have plenty of good clothes, good enough for Vancouver. I know”—with a whimsical smile— “because you had when you came last summer, and you've had no chance to wear them out. Then we'll @0 somewhere, California, Florida, and come back to Roaring Lake in the spring. You'll have ali the bad taste of this out of your mouth by that time.” Stella nodded acquiescence. Better to make the plunge boldly, since she had elected to make it. “All right. I'm going to tell Ben- ton,” Fyfe said. “Good-by till to morrow.” She stood up. He looked at her a long time earnestly, searchingly, one of her hands imprisoned tight be- tween his two big palms. Then, be- fore she was quite aware of his in- tention, he kissed her gently on the mouth, and was gone. Thi turn of events left Benton dumbfounded, to use a trite but ex- pressive phrase. He came in, appar: ently to look at Stella in amazed curiosity, for at first he had nothing He sat down beside his makeshift desk and pawed over some papers, running the fingers of one hand thru his thick brown hair “Well, Sis,” he blurted out at last. “I suppose you know what you're doing?” “I think so,” Stella returned com. posedly “But why asked. “If 5 ried, why didn’t you let me know, so T could give y some sort of de. cent send-off? “Oh, thanks,” she returned dryly “I don't think that’s necessary. Not at this stage of the game, as you oc casionally remark.” He ruminated upon this a minute, flushing slightly “Well, I wish you luck,” he said sincerely enough. “Tho I can hardly realize this sudden move. You and Jack Fyfe may get on all right, He's @ good sort—in his way “His way suits me,” she said, spurred to the defensive by what she deemed a note of disparagement in his utterance. “If you have any ob- Jections or criticisms, you can save your breath--or addre them direct to Mr. Fyfe.” “No, thank you,” he grinned, “I don’t care to get into any argument with him, especially as he's going to be my brother-in-law. | Wyfe's all right. I didn’t imagine he was the sort of man you'd fancy, that's all.” Stella refrained from any comment on this. She had no intention of ad- mitting to Charlie that marriage with Jack Fyfe commended itself to her chiefly as an avenue of escape from a well-nigh intolerable condition which he himself had inflicted upon her. any such belittling admission, She admitted it frankly to herself—and to Fyfe—because Fyfe understood and was content with that under- standing. She desired to forget that phase of the transaction, She told 11 this mad haste?" he u're going to get mar-| Her pride rose in arms against | .o «x «a hobby that grew into a real enterprise— \ About ten years ago Fred S. Stimson started Hollywood Farm primarily because of his interest in farm life and his interest in the purity of the milk supply as related to the public health. At that time he had no idea that the farm would develop into what represents today—an institution which fills an impor= tant place in the business life of Seattle, Originally the farm followed the cus« tomary practice of wholesaling its prod- ucts, but because of growing interest in the farm, and deniand for its products at retail, the farm established its own delivery service six years ago. The pres« ent city plant was established in 1916, principally as a distributing depot for the delivery trucks. A retail store was opened as a part of this plant, where the Hollywood products were sold directly to consumers. Because of the greatly in= creased cost of delivery in recent years | it was possible to sell the products in the / store at prices considerably less than for the same article delivered, and the F customers were given the advantage of © this saving. As a result of this i the store grew to such proportions delivery service was abandoned gether more than a year ago, and producing capacity of the farm has been steadily increased to keep pace with The store has been twice increased ze, until it now occupies more than four — times its original floor space. est improvement has been the of a soda fountain and dairy lune service. Nowhere is there a farm retails its own products in such as Hollywood. Milk, cream, butter, termilk, eggs, cottage cheese and cream may be —a breakfast is served—a service is mainta: purchased to carry ho of day-old Hollywood e¢; complete dairy ed during the of the day—and ice cream, milk, b milk, sundaes, sodas, egg drinks, are served at all hours. The farm ers six hundred acres of land, and maintains more than three hundred h of pure-bred Holstein cows, and thousand White Leghorn hens. In eve large city there is a demand for pure am fregh dairy products, and the success 6 Mr. Stimson proves that it can be cessfully met. A farm and store Hollywood are a distinct asset to community. UNION NATIONAL BANK | Successor to U'nton Savings & Trust Co This Bank is empowered by Federal Reserve Charter to act as Trustee, Executor, Administrator and Registrar of Stocks and Bond Bond Department Hoge Bldg. Second fve. Branch at Georgetown Savings Department at Cherry St. B Trust Department Seattle ranch at Ballard Savings Departments at Main Bank and Branches open Saturday evenings 6 to 8 o'clock herself that she meant honestly to make the best of it. Benton turned again to his papers. He did not broach the subject again until in the distance the squat hull of the Panther began to show on her return from the Springs. Then he came to where Stella was putting the last of her things into her trunk. He had some banknotes in one hand, and a check, “Here's that ninety I borrowed, Stell,” he said. “And a check for your back pay. Things have been sort of lean around here, maybe, bat I still think it’s a pity you couldn't have stuck it out till it came smoother. I hate to see you going away with a chronic grouch against me. I suppose I wouldn't even be a welcome guest at the wedding?” “No,” she said unforgivingly. “Some things are a little too. -too recent.” “Oh,” he replied casually enough, pausing in the doorway a second on his way out, “you'll get over that. You'll find that ordinary, ev living isn’t any kid-glove affair. She sat on the closed lid of her trunk, looking at the check and money. Three hundred and six dollars, all told. A month ago that would have spelled freedom, a chance to try her luck in less desolate fields. Well, she tried to consider the thing | philosophically; it was no use to be- wail what might have been. In her hands now lay the sinews of a war It did not occur to her to repudiate her bargain with Jack Fyfe. She had given her promise, and she con- aidered she was bound, irrevocably. Indeed, for the moment, she was glad of that. She was worn out, all weary with unaccustomed stress of body and mind, To her, just then, rest seemed the sweetest boon in the world. Any port in a storm, express ed her mood. What came after was to be met as it came. She was too tired to anticipate. It was a pale, weary-eyed young woman, dressed in the same plain | tailored suit she had worn into the country, who was cuddled to Mrs. Howe's plump bosom when she went abroard the Panther for the first stage of her journey, A slaty bank of cloud spread @ she had forgone all need of waging. | somber film across the sky. When the Panther guardrail against the Hot Springs wharf the sun was down. The lake spread gray and lifeless under a gray sky, and Stella Benton's spirits were steeped in that same dour color. (Continued in Tomorrow's Star) Copyright, 1919, by Little, Brown & Co. All rights reserved. WILL TELL WHAT U. S. PLANS FOR VETERANS What is the government doing to aid the returned soldier? Sydney T. James, director of the after-care de partment of the Red Cross, will answer this question at the mass meeting called for Friday night at the Masonic Temple by the World War Veterans’ association. laid her ice-sheathed | STORE NEWS Mr. Robert S. Graham, repre- senting the coat and suit depart- ment of J. 8S. Graham's, has left on a buying trip for New York and other Eastern cities. Miss Susie Spencer, buyer of mil- linery for J. 8. Graham's, has left {for New York to be gone about three weeks, No young man ever considers his best girl too good to be true. A woman learns a lot from her ser- vants, but she will not admit it. NOW PLAYING TRICK OF FATE” WEEK DAY MATINEES To Lay Sewers on Wilson Ave. Provision for the laying of sewers | on Wilson ave., from Hudson st. to Gratton st, and on adjoining streets, was made by the city council at Mone day's session, Hearing was set for August 4, at 2 p. m, on the proposal to construct a sewer on W. 63rd st Peat anmeeete » | When you think of advertis- | ing, think of The Star. ‘ We COMING! SUNDAY NIGHT For Next Week OLIVER MOROSCO LEO CARRILLO In the Snappy Fun and Fash: ion Hit by Frederic and Kanny ” Hatton “LOMBARDI LTD.” VALENTINE And the Original New Cast SEATS THURSDAY METROPOLITAN.