The Little River news., 1920-12-08
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 = CHAPTER I.-Never hav1nG known his father. and living with his mother on . houssboat on the Wabash river. ''Ths Peaf1hunter"-tAe only nane hs has learns from her . part of the story of her sad life. The recital is interrupted by fearful fit of coughing and he hurriss adhere to seek a root that affords relief. Returning with the root. he. meets . young girl whom hs mentally christsns ehs "Wiid Rose" She eludes him before he can make her acquaintance.
 He dutched the oars in earnest. A few iusty strokes drove the boat down to where the glare from the campfire of the Boss crew of ''clammers" flared out across the water. There he turned in to get the jack light.
 A dfrtier bunch of men than the five lounging about that campfire couldn't be found anywhere else in the world except in another "clammer's" camp. The practice of the early pearl fishers was te put the clans in vats and al- low them to die there and rot. This muck was afterward carefully "han- dled" for whatever pearls it might con- tain.
 The ordinary jack light is simply an oil burner-in early days candle, or fire of pine knOts-arranged with re- fectOr-Oa the bow of the boat in such a way as to throw the full briIliancy of the light down upon the water, leaving the fisherman himself in dark ness. Such a light, if the night be dark and the water quiet and clear, renders objects beneath the surface perfectly plain to a considerable depth.
 While the Boss was fastening the jack light to the bow of the boat the Pearlhunter stepped ashore to blacken the points of the freshly sharpened spear in the blaze of the campflre, for all fishermen know 1t is never advis- able to strike with a spear that gilt ters. He knew every man of them around the fire. But toss of his hand, a toss of five hands. in .rasponsa. was all that passed. between sthem - men that wcufG Mys caiftea com rade fer miles at need; that would share the last bite with him; that would knife him just as readily at . fancie4 grievance. Such were the river men; law unto themselves-a simple code, warped fantastically- with knife and pistol for judge and jury: a leftover product of other days when clansmen followed their chief and asked no questions; bi-product of the border who found it hard to disarm when civilization came in.
 The Boss slipped an oar into the water and laid the boat more toward the south shore, over the deepest part of the bar. Hardly had he done so when the Pearlhunter lowered the point of his spear. The outline of an immense black bass took shape under the glare of the jack light, half hidden among the swaying verdure. as if ly- ing in wait for his prey, which in all stream in ambush. The spear sl.d into the water and stole toward him. All una.armeU he lay. his fins idly fanning the fern-like moss in which he lurl;el little suspecting the five-psonged death creeping upon him. The points were within three feet of the glossing scales when the Pearlhunter struck. There followed moment of fierce furry among the waving ferns; little shower of spray broke the surface of the water. and all was over. A fish does not struggle long when the spear goes home.
 "Six-pOunder. if he's an ounce," chuckled the Boss when the fish lay in the bottom of the boat. The Pearl hunter rested his spear upon the gun vale and bent above the jack light. The boat drifted on.
 It was perhaps half an hour later when, in the leisurely manner of men returning from a season of successful sport, the two fishermen, with the pick of all they had foated over In the bottom of the boat rowed up the stream. The glare of the campfire was beginning to slither upon the drip ping oar blades and the ripples they raised when the Boss laid the boat . nearer the south shore with the re- mark:
 1, "Here's where we're expectin'- t hist tn sinners tomorrow-all along here. List look at tn tracks. Make a right smart track don't they, fer beast without no feety'
 The Pearihunter made no answer. Crouched down by the jack light well toward the bow of the boat, he had been for some time watching the un- usually thick tangle of winding marks Nupon the siimy bottom, pfowed there l.by the mussels or clans while feed ing, dozens and hundreds of the creep ing bivalves. half buried in the o0ze, at that very moment cotting the river !. bed
 The Boss was in the very act of turning the boat across the river to the camp when he was startled by an 1. excited exclamation from his c0mpan- ion, who had suddenly leant low and dangerously far out over the water. He xas up on the instant and had