The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-06-12

Gerry stores on the old buffalo trails.
They went plumb locoed, tell you.
They couldn't fight progress, but they
could get revenge on the people who
had taken their world away from
them and cut it into little strips and
dirtied it!
'The Kids bad, yes. They don't
come worse than he. And they'll get
him, eventually. But the man who
fathered him needn't be ashamed Of
him. There's no yellow in the Kid"
For one dreadful sickening second
something closed with iron fingers
around Sabra Cravat's heart and
squeezed it, and it ceased to beat.
White faced, her dark eyes searched
her husbands face. Wichita whispers
Kansas SANDER. But that face was all
exaltation, like the face of an evan
gelist, and as pure His eyes were
glowing The iron fingers relaxed.
But Pegler. The men who killed
Pegler. Why are they SO much
worse"
"Skpnks. Dirty jackals hired by
Wn1te-llVered 'p0llt1c1anS.
''But why? Why?"
"Becausel Pegler had the same idea
have-that here's a chance to start
clean, right from scratch. Live and
let live. Clean politics instead of the
skulduggery all around; new way
of living and of thinking, because
we've had a chance to see how rotten
and narrow and bigoted the other way
has been. Here everything's fresh.
It's all to do, and we can do it.
There's never been a chance like it
in the world. We can make model
empire out of this Oklahoma country,
with all the mistakes of the other
pioneers to profit by. New England,
and California, and the settlers Of the
Middle West-it got away from them,
and they fell into the rut. Ugly poll
tics. ugly towns, ugly buildings, ugly
minds" He was off again, Sabra, all
Impotence, stopped him.
"But Pegler. What's that got to do
with Pegler?" She hated the name.
She hated the dead man who was
stalking their new life and threaten
ing to destroy it.
II saw that one copy Of his paper.
He called it the New Day-poor devil.
And in it he named names, and he out
lined policy and belief something
like-well-along the lines I've tried
to explain to you. He accused the
government of robbing the Indians.
He accused the settlers of cheating
them"
"Oh, my heavens, Yancey! Indians!
You and your miserable dirty Indians!
You're always going on about them as
If they mattered! The sooner they're
all dead the better. What good are
they? Filthy. thieving, lazy things.
They won't work. You've said so
yourself. They just squat there, rot
ting"
"rve tried to explain to you," Yam
cey began, gently, 'White men can't
do those things to helpless"
"And so they killed him!" Sabra
cried, irrelevantly. "And they'll kill
you, too. Oh. Yancey-please-p please
II don't want to be pioneer woman.
I thought did, but don't. I can't
make things different. i liked them
as they were. Comfortable and safe.
Let them alone. don't want to live
in model empire. Darling! Darling!
Let's just make it town like Wich-
ita with trees -. and
people being sociable /. not kill
ing each other all the time :.
church on Sunday a school
for Gin.
The face she adored was a mask.
The ocean-gray eyes were slate-gray
now. with the look she had seen and
dreaded-cold, determined. relentless.
.'All right. Go back there. Go back
to your trees and your churches and
your sidewalks and your Sunday roast
beef and your SNUG, dead-alive family.
But not me! Me, I'm staying here.
And when / find the man who killed
Pegler I'll face him with it, and I'll
publish his name. and if he's alive by
then I'll bring him to justice and I'll
see him strung up on tree. If I
don't it'll be because I'm not alive
myself"
"Oh, Cd" whimpered Sabra, and
sank, limp bundle of misery, into
his arms. But those arms were, sud-
denly, no haven, no shelter. He put
her from him. gently, but with iron
firmness, and walked out of the house,
through the newspaper Office, down
the broad and sinister red road.
CHAPTER Nv