The Seattle Star Newspaper, December 21, 1922, Page 13

EMBER (Continued From Page 6) Panton to his once successful rival Ben's father, Ben did not wonder, now, at his own perplexity when For est had spoken of “Wolf” Darby. ‘That was his own name known thenout hundreds of square miles of forest and in dozens of little river hamlets tn an Eastern province, Partly the name was tn token of his skill aa @ Woodsman and frontiers man, partly in recognition of certain traits that his fellow woodsmen had seen and wondered at tn him, It was not an empty nickname, tn his case It was simply that the name sulted him. “The boys had reason a-plenty for caltin’ you that,” Ezram told him. “Up here, as you know, men don’t get no complimentary epithets un- they deserve ‘em. Some men, Ben, are like weasels, You've seen ‘m. You've seen human rats, too. As tf the souls they carrted around with "em was the souls of rats. Of course you remember ‘Grizzly’ Silver- dale? Did you ever seen any one who tn disposition and Moks and walk and everything reminded you so much of a grizsly bear? I've known men like sheep, and men with the faithful souls of dogs, You re- member when you got tn the big fight tn the Le Perray bar?” “I don’t think I'l! ever forget tt again.” “That's the night the name came on you, to stay. You remember how you'd drive into one of them, leap away, then tear Into another, Like & wolf for all the world! You was always hard to get into a fight, but you know as well as I do, and I ain't salvin’ you when | say It, that you're the most terrible, ferocious fighter, forgettin’ everything but blood, that ever paddled a canoe on the Atha- baska. Some men, Ben, seem to have the spirit of the wolf right un- der their skins, a eort of wild tn- stinct that might have come straight down from the stone age, for all } know. You happen to be one of ‘em. the worst I ever saw. Maybe yon don’t remember, but you took your bull moose before you was 13 years old.” Ben sat dreaming. The Athabaska Rapids was not an empty name to him now. He remembered the day he had won the canoe race at Lodge Pole. Other explolts occurred to him —of brutal, savage brawls tn river taverns, of adventures on the trail, of struggling with wild rivers when bis canoe capsized, of running the neases, And he blessed, with all the fervency of his heart, the man who to him. He lay Matening to g i i 3 ik successfully the rapids of In the long stilinesses he upon hour, not only to time but to find an outlet for hat they had brought for @ pal- ite cord, and to the cord bright spoon hook— salmon rod--and Ez- scorn for the whole . And it was certainly true by all the rules of angling, Ben had no chance whatever to get a bite. in the clear Iteelf was “It was Christmas eve,” Mrs. Kellogg continued, “:nd I was ready for anything, #o I wasn't at all startled by the voice. It seem ed awfully late, but I haven't an idea what time it was. It was Bam's voice calling my name. “‘Sarah,’ he whispered, ‘you know what I told you about that Santa Claus business, Well, let’s creep into the storeroom over the kitchen and peep thru the crack in that loose floor and see if mother and father don't fill our stockings. Then I guess we'll know.” “Now, that storeroom opened off the boy's room. You entered it by way of a low door, and you walked cautiously because its floor was a treacherous one of loose boards laid across the beama. ‘Thru that floor one looked direct- ly into the fire-lit spaces about the hearth. “ ‘Beer Sam whispered excited. ly, ‘I told you, didn’t 17 There's mother and there's father, But you don't eee any ole Santa Claus, do your “T didn't, but Just at that point Mother paused, and looking up said, ‘Children! I thought you were in bed.’ “We couldn't sleep, Bam ex. plained, ‘and—and—-we just thought we'd ‘peep down, and— and—watch to me If Santa came.’ “Well, te won't,/ mother said great logs thru white waters. It was! hie world, these far-stretching wilder- | . | panton regarded him. this northern | marked the end of the water route. |i,eded, advancing up the road toward Page Soo WHEN SEEING IS BELIEVING 21, 1922. THE SKY LINE OTR ROARDING HOUSE (DHA= LT was IN rt DOUBT WHAT "To BUY “THE MADAME FoR Y'see Now, rie PuT You WW GoLID wrk TH MISSUS IF Y'GivE IT" WER FoR A CHXRIGTM AS. PRESENT ! SPRUCE 2°-Little Frown & Ganpany stream was not at all like the famous saln rivers known to sportamen. In years to come, when the lines of ommuntoation are better and tourist hotels are established on ite bank BUT AX~ You See, | the river may then begin to conform UNDER “THE — to the qualifications of @ convention al fishing stream, and then Ben's CIRCUMSTANCES, [3] Jorude tackle will be unavailing, But TLL “TAKE Ea at present the salmon were not #0 particular, As fishermen came but \ rarely, the fish were tn countless numbers; and in such a galaxy there were bound to be a few minrul fish that did not know a sportem tackle from a dub's. | The joy of angling, once known | dwells in the body until death, and Ben was a born fisherman. The old deltght that can never die crept back to him the instant he felt the clumay rod tn his hands and the faint throb of the line thru the delicate mechan iam of his nerves And apparently jfor no other reason than that the river hordes wished to welc him home, almost at once a giga bull salmon took his spoon Earam's first knowledge of tt was }a wild yell that almost startled him over the side—the same violent out cry that old anglers still can not re strain when the fish takes hold, even after a lifetime of angling, When he recovered himself he looked to sce | Ben kneeling frantically in the stern hanging for deaf life to his rod and seemingly in grave danger of being pulled overboard No man who has felt that first overpowering jolt of a striking sal mon can question the rapture of that first moment. The Jolt carried thru all the intricacies of the nerves, Jarred the soul within the m: a seemingly registered in the germ plasm itself an Impresston that could be recalled, tn dreams, 10 generations hence. Fortunately the pole with. stood that first, frantic rush, and then things began to happen in ear- nest. ‘The great trout seemed to dance on the surface of the water. He tugged, he swam In frantic circled, he flopped and darted and sulked and rushed and leaped. If he hadn't been #e- | curely hooked, and tf tt had not been | for a skill earned tn a hundred such battles, Ben would not have held him a moment. | But the time came at last, after a! sublime half-hour, when his steam began to die. His rushes were leav powerful, and often he hung like a dead weight on the line. Slowly Bon | worked him in, nét dartng to believe that he wars conquering, willing to sell his soul for the privilege of see- Ing the great fish safe in the boat. eyes protruded, perspiration ed on his brow, he talked fool- n's ty io Tie MAJOR THE SEATTLE STAR PAGE 13 / Now Here Ss “tH! mars wa te ~ A 7 see / | (DEA MAJOR = TLL BV JOVE ROGER ~~ / BUV HER \ < eid ~ OF~. SELL Vou THAT CAMEO \/ 1 BELIeve Har \ 7 AN ELECTRIC | EV UNE o ; BROOCH FoR A DOLLAR!|| TO BE AN EXCELLENT Oe he \ oF STEAM Hel ‘RUNABOUT’ ALL CHRIGTMAG = 1 WAS WE COULDN'T CONTEMPLATING ON MAKE A PAY- GETTING HER AN MENT ON A OF CARVED ELECTRIC RUNABOUT, c { RIGHT RUN KROUT) FIVE MINUTES © WE PRESENTS Wer With THAT Piece DOES WIS CHRISTMAS SHOPPING ==. RTERDAY MRSANDSTONE TooK ME OUT AND SHOWED ME THE NEW HOME You BUILT FOR ME - AND TO THINK | MISTRUSTED You AND ‘YOU WERE DOING SOMETHING FOR MALL THE TIME -| DON'T SLeeP BY AHERN THE OLI) HOME TOWN BY STANLEY. ; ‘DBE A WAND MRG. HooPLe Wien ANUMBER OF THE ‘TOWN Borys REPORT THAT Town MARSHAL OTEY WALKER LEFT THE LODGE ROOMS BEFORE EIGHT OCLOCK AND WAS HEADED TOWARD AUNT SARAH PEABODYS HOME DOWN ON MAPLE STREET Helen Sheds Tears of Happiness ‘TOM fm SORRY | DID THAT BUT! DIDN'T KNow WHAT YOu WERE DOING - THE HOUSE IS WONDERFUL ICAM HARDLY BELIEVE IT AND You DIO IT ALL FOR THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD THE WHOLE wor.D! Boo -n00-D08 NOW QuIT YOUR CRYING - I WANT You To BE HAPPY AND I WANTED TO SURPRISE You! «' ishly and incessantly to Fzram, the |fish, the river-gods, and himeelf. | Eeram, something of an olf Isaac, Walton himself, managed the canoe | with unusual dexterity and chuckled | in the contagion of Ben's delight.| And lo—in @ moment more the thing! was done | “You'd think you never hed @ rod) in your hand before,” Ezram com- mented tn mock disgust. “Such hol- | lerin’ and whooptn’ I never heard. Ben grinned widely. “That's fy ing—the sport that keeps a man an amateur all his days—with an ama-! teur's delight.” His vivid amile quiv. ered at his lips and was still. “That's why I love the North; it can never, YEAR TL TAME YOU HOME AN! ENE |ning. Ezram, old man, It's lif Ezram nodded. Perhaps, moment's fire, Ben had touched eat} the truth. Perhaps life, in its fullest | sense, fn something more than being born, breathing air, consuming food, | and moving the lips tn speech. Life | fs a thing that wilderness creatures | now, realized only when the blood, ping red, sweeps away lifelers and | Palsied tiasue and builds a more sen- | tlent structure In tts place; invoked wv, was By || ger and battle and triumph. For the! wich his brother had written and | past half-hour Ben had lived in the | wien, they must ascend to reach | | fullest sense, and Ezram was a Iittle goeuce Pass. Only five miles distant, | touched by the look of unspeakable |i, « quartering direction from the gratitude with which his young ‘ie was Snowy Guich, the villag EVERETT TRUE Cet “No” OF AN ANSWERS where they were to secure supple UB ongftrard ogi A gros a last] and, from Steve Morris, the late Hiry L S410 am's gun and his pet, Fenris « bad |been told to watch for, and soon | “Do St" ihe at least, they hed lett | NO": |after they came to « green bank! tne utter solltudes of the wild. Men |from which the forest had been cut had cut away the forest and had built | jaway. « Softly, rather regretfully, |, crude wagon road to Snowy Gulch. | they pushed up and made landing | Ang before they were fully unpacked | on the banks of @ small stream. |they made out the figure of @ mid-| tributary, to the great river, that dle-aged frontiersman, his back | them. Both men knew something of the | ways of the frontier and turned in le greeting. “Howdy,” Earam began a pleasantly. | “Howdy, ‘the stranger reptied. + & “How was goin’? iclancd_—_¢ “Oh, good enough.” | “Come all the way from SaltevifieT™” by Goin’ to Snowy Gulch.” 's only five miles, up this road,” thé stranger ventured. “I'm goin’ to Saltsvilie way myself, but 1 won't have no river to tow me. I've got lord I'm only goin’ « small part of the way.” “You ain't goin’ to swim, are you? Where's your boat.” “My pard’s got an ol craft, and he and I are goin’ to pack it out next trip.” The stranger paused, blinking his eyes, “Say, partners—~you don’t want to sell your boat, do you?” calmly. ‘He never comen till little boys and girls are asleep. Now you go right back to bed and go to sleep.” “‘Just the same,’ Sam grum- bled, ‘I'll bet she just wants us out of the way so she can fill’em.’ “I turned and turned, and I Ben started to speak, but the tried and ‘ried to go to sleep, but | doubtful look on Ezram's face sleep wouldn't come, And once | checked him. “Oh, I don’t know,” the more 1 heard Sam's voice saying: | old man replied, in the discouraging ‘Let's go look again,’ and back we | tones of a born tradesman. In real- crept, making never a sound. fty the old Shylock'’s heart was leap- “Downstairs the fire had burn- | ing gayly in his breast. This was al- ed low. Mother was nowhere to most too good to be true: a purchas- be seen, nor father either. A few J er for the boat in t first hour. bulky parcels stood near the chim- | “Yet wo might,” he went on, “We iuey, the stockings hung no longer | was countin’ on goin’ back in it imp as we haf last seen them, fo and right over our heads we heard || a sound on the 100f—a sound 4 just as leave buy ft, if you want to sell it. In this jerked-off which was followed by a soft thud town there ain't « fit canoe to be had. on the hearth, then another and Our boat is the worst tub you ever then another, every thud meant Jj/seen. How much you want for It?” a parcel dropped down the chim- Karam stated his figure, and Ben ney. Yes, down tho chimney they ‘was prone to believe that he had came in a regular shower, }aeortes a highwayman for a buddy, Th the most vital importance to thelr venture, And it came like a bolt fro mthe blue. “Back to bed we hustied. Every amount named was nearly twice| “So you don't know any folks in doubt removed, Banta Claus had which had paid, And to] Snowy Gulch, then?” the stranger made good! | his amazement the stranger accepted | had asked politely. “But you'll get “What did sister and Dave | the offer in his next breath, acquainted soon enough——" bring from Olympia? Toys, won- || “Tt's worth something to bring It “Tye got a letter to a feller named derful toys; 1 think Olympia had |) up here, you dub,” Ezram Informed | Morris,” Ezram replied. “And I've more toys than any other place. || his young partner, when the latter /heard of one or two more men too- Tin soldiers and a cannon, and accused him of profiteering. Jeffery Neilson was one of ‘em—— much else, In the stockings were After the sale was made Ezrant| “You'll find Morris in town all nuts and raisins and candy, 1 | and the stranger soon got on the tn-| right,” the stranger ventured to as- can't remember when we didn’t ]| timate terms that alntost invartably| sure him, “He lives right next to have candy, and in the top of each follow a mutually satisfactory bual-| Neflson's, And—say—what do you a wee mince ple for a stopper.” ness deal, and tn the tatk that en-| know about this man Netlson?” ttt #0d the old man learned @ fact of “Oh, nothin’ at ll, Why? to do my own paddiin’, Thank the = Aw, CIS ON, PO fxnovucrHe eveaeert: sar ves WON'T “ou Fay W@ CAN COUNT ON You ¢ —| lm You Don't COUNT TOD FAST tit ELF DAKIN HAS TO BE.MI CAREFUL WHO HE SITS BEHIND + WHEN HE GOES TO ‘THE MOVIES. “If you fellows is prospectin’, Jef- fery Notison is @ first-class man to| tification whatever in fact. Never-| stay away from—and his understrap- | theless, he couldn't restrain the ques- 1 agg tt d ers, too—Ray Brent and Chan Hem-|tion that was at his lips, AS NIGHT inway, But they're out of town right| ‘You don’t know where they went, JUSTINA WAYNE now, They skinned out all in a/do you?" he asked, AND bunch @ few days ago—and I can’t| “Not exactly. They took up this! Cosmopolitan Players tell you what kind of @ acent they /|oreek here a ways, thru Spruce Pass, Zona Gale's Intensely Human got.” and over to Yuga river—the coun-| Comedy Ezram felt cold to the marrow of|try that kind of a crary old chap | “MISS LULU BETT’ his bones, He glanced covertly at/named Hiram Melville, who died here Ben; fortunately his partner was|a few weeks ago, has always pros- Ell, 5639 Ber Sftiee busy among the supplies and was | pected.” P LAR PRICE not Hstening to this conversation.| The stranger marveled that his old Yet Wkely enough {t was a false|iistener should have suddenly gone ORPHEUM THEATRE alarm! Doubtless the ugly possibil- | quite pale, Third and Madison ity that occurred to him had no Jus Wontinued Tomorrow)