The Huttig news., 1917-04-28

T ain't sure whether she's to blame or her husband but misfortune has folded me to herself"
 -"How?" .s..lsa,.4s.
 Well, I'm sick fa'SfI7@
 You don't look it."
 T don't exactly feel it, either, but I am. l don't sleep good, my hearts actin up. I've got rheumatism, my stomach feels like I'd swallowed some thing alive"
 You're smoking too much" Alaire affirmed, with conviction.
 But skepticism aroused Blaze's in- dignation. With elaborate sarcasm, he retorted: "I reckon that's why my best team of mules ran away and dragged me through ten-acre patch of grass burrs, eh? It's wonder 1 wasn't killed. I reckon I smoked so much that l give a tobacco heart to the best three-year-old bull in my pasture, Well, 1 smoked him to death all right Probably it was nicotine poisonin' that killed twenty acres of my cotton, too. and maybe if I'd cut out tobacco I'd have floated that bond issue on the irrigation ditch. But I was welded to cigarettes, so my banks are closin down on me. Surei That's what q man gets for smokin'."
 And do yoG attribute all these mis- fortunes to Paloma's dressmaker?"
 The man nodded gloomily. That ain't half! Everything goes wrong Pm scared to pack a weapon for fear I'll injure myself. Why, I've carried bowie knife in my bootleg ever since 1 was babe in arms, you might say: but the other day I jabbed myself with 1t and nearly got -poisonin'. This fellow, Strange, with his fortune tellin and his charms and his conjyres, has hocus- -pocused the whole neigh borhood. He's gettin' rich off of the Mexicans. He knows more secrets than a parrot.
 He is nothing more than n circus fakir, Mir. Jones'
 'Yes'm! Just the same, these greas- CTS q vote him into the legislature if he asked them. Why, he knows who fetched back Ricardo Guzman's body :. He told me so."
 "Really?" Alaire looked up quickly, then the smile left her face. After moment she said, "Perhaps he could tell me something l want to know?.
 "No, don't you get him started" Blaze cautioned, hastily, "or he'll put spell on you like he did on me-
 ''I want to know what Ed had to do with the Guzman affair.""
 Blaze shook his head slowly. Well, he's mixed up somehow with Lewis. Dave thinks Tad was at the bottom of the killin', and he hoped to prove it on him; but our government won't do anything, and he's stumped for the time bein'. I don't know any more about Eds dealin's than you do, Mig Austin; all l know is that got a ser pent in my household and I can't get shed of her. I've got a lapful of troubles of my own"
 This is too occult for me" she de- elared, rising. "But-I'm interested in what you say about Mir. Strange. If the Mexicans tell him SO much, perhaps he can tell me something. I do hope 1 you have no more misfortuneS."
 "You stay to supper" Blaze urged hospitably. 'I'll be in as soon as that tarantula's gone"
 But Alaire declined. After a brief chat with Paloma, she remounted Montrose and prepared for the home ward ride. At the gate, however, she met Dave Law on his new mare, and when Dave had learned the object of her visit to Jonesville he insisted upon accompanying her.
 It was early dusk when they reached Las Palmas; 1t was nearly midnig,:. when Dave threw his leg across his saddle and started horne.
 Alaire's parting words rang sweetly if his ears: "This has been the pleas antcst day l can remember"
 The words themselves meant little, but Dave had caught wistful under. tone In the speakers voice, and fancied he had seen in her eyes queer, half frightened expression, as of one just awakened.
 Jose Sanchez had beheld Dave Law at the Las Palmas table twice within a few days. He spent this evening la- boriously composing a letter to his friend and patron, Gen. Luis Longorio.
 CHAPTER XV