White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1925-04-03

!! THE EXILE OF
THE LARIAT
BY HoNoRE WlLLsIE
Copyright 1928
Frederick A. Stokes Company
New York
CONTINUED from Last Week.


Hugh jumped abruptly to his feet.
Wait a moment! can't be silent
while you two put me in the wrong.
I put in years trying to make Jessie
a part of my life and she wouldn't
have it. And I've been perfectly open
and honest with her about every
thing"
Eyes, you have, Hughie!" Jessie's
eyes were deep and tragic, but her
tone was carefully indolent. i've
been a fool and Pm paying for 1t. But,
as I've told you before, I'm going to
do my very best to keep you from
throwing yourself away on woman
who isn't big enough for YOU"
Big enough" snorted Johnny, bit
terly. big enough What's the idea?
Bookie was a big man, but l never
could get this stuff about Hughes
throwing himself away, because he
was too big for fossils. A man that
amt strong enough to put himself
where he belongs in the world, amt
big, and that's all there is about it."
Good heavens!" calculated Hugh,
forget It'll So you are against me
too in this fight, Johnny?"
Eyes, l am" replied the young
rider, shortly. 1--WE gotta be. Come
on, Jessie. 1t will be after midnight
when we get home," and the two left
The Lariat in silence.
Hugh paced the floor for a time.
He was resentful, puzzled, angry and
determined as he never before had
been. And lonely. After all his years
in Fort Sioux, the town, to his last
boyhood friend, was against him.
Ever since Booklets death, Hugh
had missed him poignantly and sin
cerely, but now the aching desire tc
turn to the wise old man in his trou
BILE was almost uncomfortable. And de
string Bookie so, he was suddenly i'm
|
old mans will. The copy Of it hat
lain in the bottom Of the cash register
ever since Judge Proctor had sent il
to him. He spread it out on the desl
and perused it several times. The1
he replaced it, lighted his pipe and sa
thoughtfully before the stove. He hat
been obeying the terms of the will as
a discharge Of part of his deep in
debtedness TO his Uncle Bookie. Ant
now he wondered If perchance he
were not instead adding to his indebt
edness. Anyhow, was it not possible
that the two years in The Lariat were
to teach him how to protect his work
from the vandals Of commercialism
j 1t was past midnight when the gutter
ing lamp wick sent him to bed.
The Committee on Conservation me
in The Lariat about a week afte
Grafton's first session with Hugh. I
was not large committee. Six won
en-, all of them young except Mrs. Mel
gan, gathered in the book store on
brisk fall afternoon. They had com
from little and big towns all over tn
huge state. After each of them ha
explained at length and in detail hoy
she had disposed of her houseworl
and her children for the period of he
absence, the chairman called the CON
mittee to order. This done, Mrs. MOI
gan stated the purpose Of the NEE
ing.
Ladies, one of the greatest foss
fields in the world lies in the neigl
borhood of Fort Sioux. 1t is threa
ened with destruction, and l aske
your chairman to call you togethe
that we might plan how to save it,"
A tall, tanned woman in fade
blue suit asked abruptly, why say
it?"
I'D rather have electricity in m
house than the finest fossil ever e.
humed," said the member from til
Jackson Hole country.
Mrs. Morgan turned to Hugh, VIII
decidedly embarrassed, was leanin
against a bookcase.
'Hughie," she said, briskly, "wh
save it?"
All eyes at once turned to the tai
melancholy figure which now move
from the book shelves to the old plac
before the counter. Hugh talked fe
half an hour, picturing in his inim
table way that strange dead life wit
which the Old Sioux Tract teeme
His audience was extraordinarily a
tentive to the end He clase quit
simply
"You are asking why this life of tn
past is so valuable to the present. 70
all remember when the Germans owe
ran Belgium and sacked the Librar