Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1931-07-23


kind In the mass. They brought picnic
baskets and boxes, prepared for
holiday.
The town seemed alive with blan-
keted Indians. They squatted In the
shade of the wooden shaeks. They
walked In from their nearby reserya-
tons, or rode their NANCY horses, or
brought In their entire families
squaw. papoose. two or three children
Of assorted sizes, dogs
Sabra, seeing them, told herself
sternly that she must remember to
have a Christian spirit. and they were
all Gods children: that these red men
had been converted. She didn't be
lieve word of It
Rangers, storekeepers. settlers Lean
sQuatters with their bony wives and
their bare-legged, rickety children, as
untamed as little wolves.
Sabra superntended the toiettes
OF her men folk from Yancey to Isaiah.
Yancey chided her, laughing, MY
good woman, do you realize that this
Ia no way TO titivate for the work OF
delivering the Word OF God? Sack
cloth and ashes Is, believe, the pre-
scribed costume" He poured and
drank down three fingers Of whisky,
the third since breakfast.
Chm cayorted excitedly In his best
suit, with the bright plaid silk tie and
the buttoned shoes. tasseled at the
Top. The boy, Sahra thought ~ she
dressed him. grew more and more like
Yancey, except that he seemed to lack
his fathers driving force, his ebulli-
ence.
Iancey's sure dramatic instinct babe
him delay until he could make an
effective entrance. A dozen times
Sabra called to him, as he sat In the
front Office busy with paper and pencil.
This was, she decided, his sole prep
aration for the sermon he would be
bound to deliver within the next hour.
Later she found In the pocket OF his
sweeping Prince Albert the piece OF
paper on which he had made notes
| One word he had written Oh 1t, and
then disguised 1t with meaningless
marks-but not quite. Sabra, study
Ing the paper after the events OF the
morning, made out the word .Yountis. :
At last be was ready. Sabra had
put on, not her second-best black gros-
| grain, but her best. and the hat with
the plumes. She and Yancey stepped
sedately down the street with Gins
warm wrlggling little fingers In her
own clasp. Sabra was sllmly ele-
| CANT little figure II her modish black /;
Yancey. as always, a dashing one.
They went on their way. 1t oc-
| CURED neither to Sabra nor to Yam
cey that there was anything bizarre or
even unusual In their thus proceed
! Ing, three well-dressed and reasonably
conventional figures, toward a gam
| bling tent and saloon which, packed
to suffocation with the worst and the
/ best that frontier town has to offer.
was for one short hour to become a
| House Of God.
Are you nervous, Yancey dear?'
| NO. sugar. Though | will say I'd
| fifty times rather plead with a jury
! OF Texas Panhandle cattlemen for the
life Of professional horse thief than
| stand up to preach before this gang
Of" He broke of abruptly. whats
everybody laughing at and pointing
tor Certainly passers-by were acting
strangely. Instinctiyely Sabra and
Yancey turned to look behind them
Down the street, perhaps fifty PAGES
| behind them, came Isaiah. He was
4 strutting in An absurd and yet unmls-
takably recognizable imitation OF Yam
cey's stride and swing. Around hii
waist Was wound 4 red calico sash
| and over that hung holstered leather
belt 50 large for his small waist that II
| hung to his knees and bumped against
them at every step. Protruding from
| the holsters one saw the ugly heads
| OF what seemed at first glance to BE-
| two six-shooters, but which turned
out, on investigation by the infuriatsd
Mrs. Cravat, 10 be the household
monkey wrench and a bar OF Ink
soaked iron which went to make ur
one OF the printing shop metal forms
| On his head was battered-an un.
| speakable-s ombrero which he must
! have salvaged from the back yard
debris. He managed, by the very
| power OF his dramatic gift, to give
to the appreciatiye onlooker com
| plete picture Of Yancey Cravat in
| ludicrous-in grotesque miniature he
| advanced toward them with an ap-
| palling imitation OF Yancey's stride
| Sabra's face went curiously sallow, sc
| that she was, suddenly, Felice Ven
:, able, enraged. Yancey gave great
| roar OF laughter, and at that Sabra'f
blazing eyes turned from the ludicrous
| figure Of the black boy to her hus.
! band. She was literally painting with
fury. Her idol, her god, was being
Knocked.
.You--laughl Stop. !.
She went In kind OF swoop OF rage
toward the now hating figure OF
Isaiah. The black face, all eyes now
(and those all whites), looked up at
her. startled, terrorized. She raised
| hor hand fr ftr paot hlonly fyi5 olay1