The Topeka state journal., 1919-11-12
EVENING STORY
A Feline Episode.
By WILL 4. AMES.


maple. Mazda wasn't so very sporting
a person; that is to say she wasn't
one of those social headlights who are
portrayed in the evening papers as
riding steeplechases, navigating aero
planes and stalking moose good deal
more skillfully than their brothers or
their instructors, but she knew enough
about such things to be aware that
in June there was no such thing as
game to be legitimately hunted. Be
sides, the young man wasn't gotten up
like a hunter He looked as tho he
had just stepped out of a couch ham
mock. He was bareheaded and wore
neither coat nor waistcoat. He car
ried neither game bag nor any sort
OF receptacle for cartridges. Moreover,
unless Mazda was much mistaken, the
young man was on the grounds of the
Halliday place, the country's show
estate, of which she had heard enough
and to spare during her three days in
these parts; and the Halliday place
was not at all the kind of place for
hunting. but an elaborately cared for
pretentious. intensively groomed area
of lawns, SNUG groves, and over
cultivated watercourses.
The young man, intently watching
in the opposite direction. did not hear
Miss Cortelyou's footballs on the
grassy path. His back was toward the
road, but his attitude was one of in
tense expectancy and he held the gun
lightly in both hands ready to throw
to the shoulder. MAZDA Cortelyou
stopped. She wanted to see what was
on foot.
Just beyond where the young man
stood there was a clearing. three or
four rods across. beyond that a prim
little thicket of rhododendron, full of
blooms. Toward this the young man
was gazing. Just as MAZDA halted
there was a flash of gray and white
out nF
among the foliage and a riot of flut-
tering and frightened cries of birds.
The gun went up and a nitrate shell
went off simultaneously. On the
ground at the roots of the rhododen-
drons something was splitting and
snarling.
'Damn." CALCULATED the young man.
as he jumped from cover and hurried
toward the laurels Ten feet away he
stopped, aimed hastily toward the
The splitting and snarlIns stopped. The
gunner stopped. lifted his quarry by the
tail and turned around just in time to
catch sight of Mazda as she stood at
the side of the road, a hundred feet
away, observing him.
Mazda wasn't the kind of girl that
any man ignores when she manifests
the slightest interest in him or his
works. So when Miss Cortelyou
stepped UP TO the spindling iron fence
a
road. the young man just naturally
approached that barrier from his side
of it. still carrying the victim of his
two smokeless shells.
MAY 1 see what you shot" asked
MAZDA when the gunner had drawn
Certainly. That" holding up the
creature.
Just what thought: but couldn't
be sure at that distance. A cat! a
H. 4Of~ VI x-<aJ ~f
the-@sayi", demanded Mazda suddenly,
"hasn't that cat a thin chain collar
on? I think know it."
The young man Eingerly pushed
back the fur from the neck of the
dead animal. yes" he admitted:
there does appear to be chain. II
isn't yours, / hope.
NO. it isn't mine 1t belongs to
Mrs. Wetherell. who lives a mile OF
so up the road and with whom I am
boarding during my vacation. L shall
tell her She seems to be a mild old
soul so I suppose you will hear moth
ing from her. But for fear that Meth
er she nor any of these other people
opinion of you I'll tell you mine. 1
think you're a cad-a mean, cowardly
cad, who ought to be borsewhipped.
I think any man is that who wantonly
kills or plistreats dumb animals; par
ticularly other peoples pets"
Having delivered which verdict
Mazda Cortelyou. with a delightfully."-
heightened color. turned her back
upon the young man and started off
down the road.
For an instant the young man stood
watching her. Then he dropped the
dead cat, set his gun against a tree
and vaulted the iron fence He caught
up with Mazda before she had taken
ten steps.
at isn't civilized to condemn any
y, To
clared as ne caught up with the girl.
You are highly civilized VIII you
give me two minutes? ?'
How long did you give the cat?"
-Four years"
what DO you mean?"
'.I mean I've been engaged in re
search work for the state bureau of
ornithology. all directed TO the sub
ject of cats and the operations, for
that length of time. That's what !
want to talk about for two minutes.
He was not such an ill-1ooking crea-
ture. Mazda thought-rather fine as to
the eyes. indeed. every we'll" she
condescended.
There are 25.000,O0o cats in Amer
ica," declared the young man. Half
of them live in the country. Country
cats kill an average of fifty birds a
billion birds. Most of the birds are
insect and weed seed eaters. The
birds of a single state eat $50 carloads
of bugs every day. If the birds don't
eat 'en1 the insects eat the crops. When
the cats eat the birds the birds can't
eat the insects. Only one country cat
in five catches rats, and only a few
catch many
How do you know all this?"
"I spent four years finding out. Cats
carry tenanus; cats have rabies: cats
communicate ringworm and other dis
eases to humans. And cats have been
judiciaIly determined to be wild ami
mails, incapable of tanning Now in
that laurel thicket week ago there
were seven nests of warblers and three
of chickadees A cat cleaned them all
out but one of the chickadees' nests
nearly forty birds dead. You can't
break a nest-robbing cat of his vice
because he's running true to his ma
fure The only WAY is the shotgun