The evening world. Newspaper, April 22, 1922, Page 13

COMPLETE NOVELETTE. Who’s Who In the Story JAMES-AUSTIN MARCH, a New York wheat speculator who bought 10,000 acres of timber land at $5 an acre and then couldn’t find the land. It was a V-shaped cut off of four townships in the Northwest—the famous gore of Range 19. “ROARING BILL” BENSON, who, as drive-master of a gang of lumberjacks, never belied his name. “SQUIRE” TRISTRAM SHAW, field attorney for the Great Onawa Grant, a paper and pulp syndicate more familiarly known as the “GOG.” , BESSKE AMBROSE, teacher and guiding spirit of the downtrodden squatter village of Misery. “JUST JIM.” one of “Roaring Bill thing but finishes it. pe ae HB Governor and Legislature ofthe great State owned up to James Austin March that the situation was very singular indeed. “There was humor in: it, viewed one way, though’ Mr. March failed th perceive any point to the joke. . Mr. March, or somebody, had mis- ifid a small parcel consisting of ten thousand acres—good, solid, ledge founded acres of timberland for which le hed paid five dollars an acre. It was recorded on the books of the State lund office as a ‘‘gore,"’ its location was given as being In Range 19 of the wild lands, and it was described as @ surveying set-off from four town- ships, According to the State ac- counts which ran back for many years, the V-shaped section did exist und had reverted to the State be- couse the taxes had not been putd for so long that the tax titles allowed land agent to give a clear decd {o a purchaser Mr. March lived in New York and 4 not in the land or the timber nisiness, He was a speculator. On count of the development of the paper industry and because he had heard of the fortunes that were made ) the pulp-timber enterprise he do- ded to take a flyer, and he ran down to a border State and asked the land egent what he happened to have on the shelf that day. Land agent pulled down the gore, ‘The land agent's office was in the Capitol Building of the State, and Mr Mareh had admired the structure very i] niuch from tle qutside;. doing, busi- | ness qyith a State right Im its ‘own Stute House certainly seemed to be « ore reliable proposition than buying tt on margin. Therefore Mr, arch took the gore and paid cash xd went right back to New York. HEN he later went bump by W selling wheat which he had never seen to somebody who did not waht see any but only the of Mr. Murch’s money, the owner of the gore asked a paper mill magnate to send some timber cruisers over the tract and make an offer. It was then that Mr. March was assured, after the cruisers had re- ported back, that he did not have any gore, According to deeds of adjacent township owners, figuring trom thei: racorded metes and bounds, there was not one acre of land that Mr. March could call his own. ; He hustled down into the State and interviewed that land agent under the dome of the Capitol. The agent averred that the situation was very vingular, But he declared that he had ad no hand in making the land up in, the timber country; that he had done only what he was entitled to do to wheat, color sell on the basis of the State's records, After that, Mr.! March went to the Governor and interviewed members of the State Legislature. He found no alacrity anywhere in regard to hand ing back his money. Buying tax titles from a State, at cut rates, was different from buying real land, he Was told, He hired lawyers; they told him that a State could not be sued unless the Legislature passed a Special dct permitting the suit, He hired lobbyists to help him in putting through that special act. Apparently the State did not care to get into a laweuit.-over a small matter; Mr, Murch’s idea was turned by both. branches, ‘That was in April, carly, One day, Just before ‘the middle of the month, <cf, staren dropped dead in his New York office. Apoplexy was uscribed. So that was the end of James Austin March. F eyy Jaws down ULLY two weeks ahead of time in May, because the season was open, the head of the Cupsuptic dvive reached the gorge of M Roaring Bill maxi He savagely than usual that seasor because se winter snowfall had been drive drove jis more 's” crew, who not only starts some- light and there was not much reserve water behind the driving pitch. Benson gave his men four meals a day—the second at ten in the forenoon. They had taken their tin plates of food and their pannikins of tea from the cook and his helper and were scattered around the cook tent, sitting on rocks and the ground. ‘The drive master had two men as guests at a table made of boards nailed between trees. One of them, whom he addressed respectfully as was Tristram Shaw, field attorney for ''"GOG."" The men of the section never called the Great Onawa Grant —powerful paper and pulp syndicate- anything but “G O G."" Shaw was elderly, and his face was as full of wrinkles as his black suit The sullen man who accompanied him wore a deputy sheriff's badge. Shaw had told Roaring Bill what business was taking them through the territory under the sway of "G OG." They were serving legal notices on the squatters to get off the timberlands “Good idea when every spruce tree is worth ten dollars and timber ain’t growing fast enough for the pulp grinders,"’ agreed Benson. “How about this settlement at Miser: “They've got to go. ENSON surveyed the settlement B narrowing his eyes evilly. On the ledgy slope that stretched back from the falls were log houses and shacks with roofs of tarred paper. He grinned at w when he turned again to the lawyer, , “I'm wondering where the pretty girl will go. I'll hate to lose her off the before I get her.”* “What girl?’’ snapped the attorney, not especially interested, river better acquainted with “Bessie Ambrose. Teaches the school up there." “I didn’t know that the infernal quill pigs had a school or wanted one."’ “Perhaps they don't. But she has made ‘em think they do. As 2 get it, she came fromm somewhere outside, ull filled up with some kind of a mission- ary idea. She made herself the boss, all right! ‘The women have put curtains In the windows and the men on't chew tobacco when she's looking orm." But even lin slight interest di. played by Shuw was gone. He rose from the block of wood on which he had been sitting while he ate. Benson followed Shaw and the of- ficer toward the settlement; the men who had finished eating straggied along behind the boss. Among the structures on the slope was a new house of pecled logs. ‘It was plainly not @ dwelling; there was a flagpole and from the staff the Stars and Stripes snapped in the fresh May breeze. “City Hall, eh? remarked Shaw. He had thin lips and an acid manner. “Just the place for your notice, Jack! The officer stripped a sheet from a roll of papers and began to nail it to the log wall. The nack-tack of the hammer called girl to the door of the house, Children crowded behind her. I were red and her features were regular. However, her hair was her distinguishing charactéristic It was blaek, riotously wavy, and un- bound; it clustered closely in ringlets at the nape of her neck and was short enough to show her neck; the masses furnished an ebony frame for her slowing beauty. She possessed poise and spirit—the manner of one who had been called on HERE were luminous depths in her brown eyes and her lips te undertake responsibilities, Com- manding the children to remain with in doors, she walked to where the officer was Mailing the paper and read it over his shoulder, ‘What does this mean?" she demanded, She whirled quickly on hey 1 when Shaw ad- dressed he “It's a nolic f eviction from these lands, miss. squatters are al- lowed sixty di et off. The notice tolls it all, Squatters are entitled .o be paid for the buildings they have erected; the Great Onawa Company will pay damages in the course of time after ufe claims have been filed “Where can t) “Off these lands AN the answer I'm culled on to make, as attorney of the company She marched up to him. “You know even better than I do that all the lands which adjoin the territory THE EVENING WORLD, 8 wy ve ann? j Fm)! t of your company are’owned by other timber companies just as selfish; none of you will sell lands to settlers. And you know that in organized towns outside the woods there's a prejudice against allowing the people of a com- munity like this to go in and settle. The taxpayers allege that they run the risk of having paupers on their hands,” she declared with bitterness. “And in most cases the taxpayers are right about it,"" he sneered. crew had arrived on the M scene and were banked below on the slope in a half circle, The men and the women of the settlement came OST of the men of the driving hurrying from their houses and tl employment and massed behind ty people here," she p t waking up to know that t pu Way to make somet The men are Kg hoops and spool wood selves, handles, "Yes, belong down ut On. chopping to the with a haw grimace “But it is hardwood w the puly He u on woods if tl company can't use, here in the eut it? Shaw turned on his he a protesting hand ¢ “Oh, T argned bet this v re a legislative und I've no notion of vit ' again with a girl in t law is dew “What building up? He did not halt his “They'll be up mited! you'll have t will be do sir, after the t up in th deputy of through the the lawye massed m ing crew took th und river The girl looked uj fas ATURDAY, APRI which waved above the log house, and @ strange fire came into her eyes; then she went and sat down on the edge of the camp's porch, set her chin in her hands and meditated. “I don't blame anybody for wonder- ing how some folks get away with certain things in the country where that flag is waving,’ said one of the , driving crew. Roaring Bill turned quickly from his admiring survey of the girl. ‘Who said that?’ he shouted. SAID it.” He was dressed as $0 roughly as any of the men, but he had youth and good looks, manly erectness and an ex- tremely serene pair of gray, eyes; the sat down beside her. She did not changé her position nor look at him The children e.me timidiy out of the door of the new log house. “You may go home now,"’ said the teacher. The children joined their parents and the little throng melted away INSON, gazing down with humid stare on the girl's tum bled mass of hair, thought that she was offering an opportunity to a wooer, ‘You know I've had my eye on you for some time, Beauty," he mumbled, ‘You don’t belong tn a tribe like this, mo matter where it goes straggling off to. I want you. What say?" A) She gave no sign that she heard him Her stubborn indifference surred his quick temp« here, girl! Don't put on airs with me. I'm drive master of the greut Onawa—a better un than any you have ever met ip with, When | 1 want you, I wean busine eyes did not flinch under Benson He had been poieit n and, hostile stare and un ling his fingers “E don't seem to place you, bantam for momen uddenly he boy.’ stabbed the fingers into her hair and “IT came into the ere terday, with the other hand seized her chin With the last bunel up,’ ind pulled her head around, ‘I'm 4 “What's your nu ood mind to kiss you," he declar ‘Jim. icky “What else? She had lithe t nd ‘agility “Just Jim Vwisting out « p. when he There was of laughter 10 started’ to vise +t ped him: suri he crowd, A n is a teal- gusty weross the face nding him ous autocrat; to endure even the Se” staggering back Llance of ridicule’ endangers his BID ghe did not fe it t on his men, And Be He iment, but toward 1 ‘ 1 standing news ian ware aleoal) work “earding “No matter ubou name, If the ledges," rolling the logs int the ou're ashamed of it, But about that tuybid flood, Benson went thumping flug—you needa little training in how yrter her, callin r angrily to respect it." The Might and the pursuit attracted I don’t think the calm re attention, ‘The man who had joinder, “Not only 1 { always re- engaged in a cx with the Uy pected it, but t eas and leaned on the stat 1 cantdog and helped make othe t. You displayed at it The girl mubt huye misunderstood what T 1 slowed her pace to « k when she bout the flax was near the riy Roaring Bill ) not been Benson overtook lie I've been versen, dropped the flag matter. ‘i laughed at once t nd 1 don't in’t misunderstand lur about propose to stand for it again,’" he told Go Remember you're working her, ‘You stand here and talk so for GQG,’ And, speaking of work, clable to me where they can see you st back onto the job—the whole of so that the curse can be taken off that you!" When the men started away, running ‘way, It isn't ue tol Henson sauntered toward the girl, said about me up and down this who had gone back to the porch; beriver’’—— a clutch at her wrists. She slapped him again with all her indignant strength. The young man came running up (he bank, Benson made a swing at him, but the latter caught the swing- ing arm, crouched, dived forward, and flung Roaring Bill in such a manner that. the boss's body turned in the alr and he came down on the flinty slope, close to the water, with his right arm doubled under him in sick- ening fashion; the arm was dislocated at the shoulder, The young man who called himself Jim leaped to the boss's side, calling for helpets. They came on the run. The champion commanded them to hold the boss while he grabbed the flopping arm, set his foot against Benson's breast ind snapped the bone back into the socket by a tug and a twist; all the Ss‘ started to go on, and he made time Roaring nicknam Bill exemplified his Jim found the girl stiffly self-pos- ised when he faced her. ‘I thank she said, and walked away. knight went and picked up lis cantdog; he had thrown it down when started up the river bank, ‘Two of the crew had helped Benson seat on a ‘Jill poke," a rotting that had been wedged between the ledges of the shore, One of the men was mumbling earnestly in the boss's The mumbled suggestions jogged lis memory regarding the riverman's vays of olden time 1 him to stand right there im his he ordered his aid, “I don't ¢ to trust my voice on him right the play has got to be worked style no good for tracks, ar or it's a how!" Isut when he spoke his tone was sin- gularly mild: ‘Never keep honor way trom a man who hus earned it, All who ag with me say ‘Aye ‘They all shouted agreement, except- ing the young man; le found some- thing bodeful in the boss's blandness, “There's the man who has earned It," stated Benson; he took his left hand away from his aching shoulder and pointed at Jim, “And we ain't true rivermen if we don’t give it, Fifty years ago Vat Rattigan’ The older men in the crew guftawead Nilariously; they understood “Mister Jim, you sing the hero of this grand event, you'll kindly keep to one side a but Was an unmistakable challenge, challenged did flinch or y unea seek to retreat. the riot iness or s is open!" shouted the boss. man who had suggested the thing secured a battered tin pall which lay beside the log. He held it in front of him and the procession started, led by the older men HE first voter held high above vy his head a rusty spike and dropped it with a clatter tata the empty pail; others followed with chips, rocks—anything they could pick up. The pall was heaped when the last man had voted. fi “Polls is closed!" bellowed Roaring — Bill, “And it's unanimous for the gent called Jim! Men, do your duty by @ popular hero ‘The demonstration was quick and elamorous. Men raised Jim on their shoulders and paraded him around fn a circle. Drivers secured pick poles and cantdogs and held them stiffly Uke lances and rifles and formed &# guard of honor, The cook and cookee brought tin pans and clubs and added a tom-tom effect to the din. . Others secured the big canvas wind- break which shielded the cook’s Gre, manned its edges, and began to teen the hero of the occasion after he had been dumped into the canvas trough. They marched up the slope with him, pausing every few feet to fling him , high, ‘You're elected!’’ some of them yelled. ‘Three cheers for the new Mayor of Misery!" called the others. / Tt was the plan first adopted by old Pat Rattigan when he wanted to fire an especially objectionable driver. In the case of Jim the skylarkers were too hilarious and kept the play up too long. Either they stumbled or their cramped hands slipped from the edges of the canvas; ghe fell heavily, volled down the ledge and lay bleeding and unconscious. The girl had come to meet the parade; she marshalled a group of men from the settlement. When the young man fell she rushed to his side, kneeled and spread protecting arms over him. The persecutors heldy when she Mashed the fires of righteous anger by eyes and speech, Roaring Bill and the men of the “G@ O G" went on, and the folks of Misery took in their new “Mayor” and lodged him in the best house—the log house where the Ambrose girl had dwelt and taught her little ones. The men ministered to him in watches, the women helped, and the schoolmistress was in complete al- thority. OME days later his brain had S cleared and he was able to talk. The girl was sitting beside the bed. “What is your name?" she asked. “Only Jim.” “No, that's not it—that's not the name you have given before." She smiled when he blinked hie alarm; it was the first smile, he had overt seen on her face. ‘‘Oh, you have not been babbling in delirium. But when you gave your name to the brute you sald ‘Just Jim.’ And I be- lieve that you deserve to be called just, You stood up for these poor fol who are persecuted. They ail understand here in Misery. So we'rd all calling you Just Jim.”* In thé course of a few days he be- held and experienced that * which stirred his emotions profoundly. Men tiptoed in from,time to time and gently changed the position of his achitg body. Women brought food; children searched among the ledges for flowers and timidly carried them to the bedside of the stranger. Again and again he protested to the girl that he had done nothing to de- serve ull this, You might call it reward for your od thoughts about them, Just Jim,” she said, “But they don’t mean it aa pay for anything. They have taken ou to themselves because you're poor —thrown out of the driving crew and persecuted,” She smiled tenderly and under- standingly when he reached for her hand; his face emotion, “I know!" she assured him, “It's wonderful—real charity is!” Jim was soon able to be about agaim. He sald that he did not propose te desert true friends in the time of des- rate need, and the time of need was approaching with the lapse of every day of the sixty allowed for quitume® the land, H The young man trankly admitted te the schoolmistress that he had ne idea what he could do to trig the Moloch car of the law. But he had some plans for the pres- ent, then and there evietion had forty days to go. simple folks of Misery The were sitting down and waiting for the inevitable to happen, “They've got to be stirred up and. their minds taken off their troubles,” Jim informed Bessie, The ability to de out the open, on two sound lege had given him an alr of brisk oplle mism, “I've been thinking « lot about what you have told me from time te time about them—about what you're trying to do for them, And one thing” you said has stuck right by me: ‘Ita not in money but in self-respect that the folks of Misery are poorest, The timberland owners, by refusing to eell, by driving them to and fre like wild animals, have robbed them of what is in (Continued on Next Paged ~ was working with