Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-01-30
Something Calling
By Douglas Nelcton

ing. He Jumped the snip AZ 6ania
Honda Cuha with the skill OF an old
shelback. II wasn't what he wanted
hnt he discovered that men IN his po-
sition must. take any chance they could.
He swan ashore and landed pennies,
Int that no longer seemed very I'M
nortant He was working as engine
driver on a narrow guage cane rail-
way within a week. -,
He shipped on a coaster thaI carried
him through hot and golden days
through the leewards n
and ultimately gave HIM MS cnance OF
skipping to the mainland not more
than four hundred miles from santa
Orca.
They were four hundred miles main
" Jungle, and many lines more ne
told himself he was a iooi' out ne
went on. he Weiie ol Will
something steadily hardening WITHIN
him. A safe job at q desk q loSt
its appeal.
He took job after job with a grow
ing for staDlnty' MS only
aim being to work nearer ana nearer
to Santa Orca. He travelled with a
mule train through the heats and levers
of the Jungle. He served for q spell
on a cattle estancia which was better;
he did a trip on a river rubber bOa
which stank ferociously. But he drew
nearer Santa Orca all the time.
AS soon as he had collected enough
cash by work on a plantation to make
him reasonably solvent he Joined up
as general handy man to q botanical
party and went down river nearer his
! goal.
Two years and five months after he
+ had started from home to reach Santa
| Orca he arrived at his destination. The
!, years had changed him-perhaps not
5 for the worse. He was tall, but nc
! longer thin. He looked, as Miss Valen-
tin Leicester told her brother, IAN
/ eagle of q man, a man with fire IN
: him like like one OF
; those large striding heroes OF the
legends"
Valentin Leicester was, perhaps, 9
I little romantic. She was twenty-five
! and vital, and men Of her own race
and blood we're few and far between
in Santa Orca. 1t was good to SET
! so fine a specimen after a lifetime o.
S Latins and Anglo-Saxon dead beats
t And the fact that Valentin Leicester
v looked from the window OF the bes'
e hotel in Santa Orca and failed tt
note the degeneracy OF Ovens clothes
e though it showed up pitiably IN tn
stark sunlight Of the Plaza del Colseo
showed how interested she was.
S Owen found, as Valentin had found
that the members of his own race IL
and about Santa Orca were very few
q l--I %A-% < G~rt roun him q urnQ
deal of hope. Santa Orca was a small
: and undistinguished place. Their
n were one or two coffee and genera
S plantations, owned mainly by Italians
on the hills behind, but little else t
attract foreigners. The search for tn
n Wilds would be easy, Owen decided
n and grew light hearted, until he foun
n that the search for the Wilds was hope
less.
lie They were not to be found. Their
was no clue to them in the town itsel
or trace of them in the outlying dis
\ tricts. He searched, easily at first, bu
= as he realized facts, he became NOR
concentrated and combed the plac
with the greatest labor and care. H
paid particular attention to those dag
hotels the man with the husky voiC
had spoken of. There were not man,
He had come on a FOOLS Grand afte
all.
He was certain that the man wit
the husky voice had seen the Vile
when he was in Santa Orca. He sa
now that where he had made his mis-
take was in thinking that the fugitive
had chosen the little town as the
permanent hiding place. +.
= was easy to understand how he ha
arrived at this conclusion, at the tim
~ his own mind was set on order an
" settled positions in life. He saw no
&c, that a man flying from the law woul
,ut not stay in any one place, that l.
" would feel the need of constant move
ment, and that he was probably war
- dering the length and breadth {
Ill South America with the object {
ur lodging the law.
On the eighth day of his search
Santa Orca Owen recognized that /
could fight against the uncertainty
~ his failure no longer. He sat in tn
beautiful but rather rank gardens thu
III faced the river, confronting facts an
- knowing despair. He had throw
everything away and descended int
- the gutter for a mere folly. For a mel
lc sentimental dream he had smashed h
Tor life to scrap. He paused {
that. Perhaps it was not quite tina
= he had seen things and done thins
that weren't SO bad, and he wouldn
go back to clerking for all the none
at in the world. Still, at tt
same time, here he was nearly thirt
- and a Wastrel, all for sentiment.
1t was just about then that IL
per girl called to him. She called quietl
ut. but with a clear urgency in her voic
He knew her name was Leicester, Va
. entin Leicester, because she had con
he within the scope of his search. The
things came to him in a flash, hut
was her attitude which held his min
He had seen it before. He rose quie
ly saying: What is it-snake?"
p yes" she said evenly, her ia
IS. white and her eyes fixed on the grour
nd at her feet. She had pluck, that gil
She was afraid but she knew how
r. be sensible.
ON He approached cautiously and sa
TO the serpent in the sand and in fro,
W, ve of her. 1t was a j~araraca, a particula
We ly dangerous and deadly brute who W
rev e. fight rather than run when disturbe
rly The new Owen did not bother abo
'ot' romance or weapons; he used his hi
It was a big, heavy, fOppy felt ha