Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1931-09-10

ished In these last five years of sahra's
proprietorsiip. She was thinking
seriously Of making 1t daily instead
OF weekly. Of using the entire build.
ing on Pawhnska avenue for the news.
paper plant and building proper
house for herself and the two chill
dren on one of the residence streets
newly sprung up-streets that boosted
neatly painted houses and elm and cot
tonwood trees In the front yards.
Some one came up the steps of the
little porch and into the Office. 1t was
Mrs. Wyatt. WE'LL" she exclaimed,
simply, but managing to put enormous
bite and significance into the mono
syllable. Her glance followed Sabra's.
Together the two women, tight Tipped,
condemnatory, watched the gay parade
Of Dixie Lees girls go by.
The flashing company disappeared.
A Whit OF patchouli floated back to
the two women standing by the open
window. Their nostrils lifted in dis
dain. The sound of the horses hoofs
grew fainter.
Its disgrace to the community
Mrs.. WAITS voice took on Its plat
form note--"and an insult to every
wife and mother In the territory.
There ought to be law"
Sabra turned away from the win
dow. Her eyes sought the orderly
rows of books, bound neatly in tan
and red-Yancev's law books. 10 long
unused now, except, perhaps. for occa-
donal newspaper reference. Her face
set itself In lines Of resolve. per
hAps there is"
A man like Yancey Cravat---spec-
tacular, dramatic impulsive-has a
thousand critics. scores OF bitter enc
mics. AS the weeks had gone by and
Yancey failed to return--had failed
to write--rumor. clonded by scandal
leaped like prairie fire from house to
house in Usage, from town to town in
the Oklahoma country. over the South
west, indeed All the old stories were
revived. and their ugly red tongues
licked snrdid path through the new
~ opened land.
They say he Is living with the
Cherokee suuaw who is really his
wife
They say he was seen making the
Run in the kickapoo land opening in
1895.
They say he killed a man In the
Cherokee Strip Run and was canght
by posse and hung.
They say he got section OF land,
sold it at high figure. and was seen
lordlng 1t around the bar OF the Brown
Palace hotel In Denver, In his white
sombrero and his Prince Albert coat.
They say Dixie Lee Is his real wife,
and he left her when she was seven
teen, came TO Wichita. and married
Sabra Venable and he is the one who
has set Dixie up in the brick house.
They say he drank FIVE quarts OF
whisky one night and died and is
buried In an unmarked grave In
Horseshoe ranch, where the Doolin
gang held forth.
They say he is really the leader of
the Doolin gang. They say They
say. They say.
1t Is impossible to know how Sabra
survived those first terrible weeks that
heightened into months that length
ened into years. There was In her the
wiry endurance OF the French Marcys,
the pride OF the southern Venables.
She told herself that Yancey was
dead. She told the world that he was
dead. She knew, by some deep and
nnerring instinct, that he was alive.
She ran the paper competently;
wrung from 1t decent livelihood for
herself and the two children. When
1t had no longer been possible to keep
secret from her parents the fact OF
Yancey's prolonged absence, Felice
Venable had descended upon her pre-
pared to gather to the family bosom
her deserted child and to bring her.
together with her offspring, back to
the parental home Lewis Venable
had been too frail and III to accom-
pany his wife, so Felice had brought
with her the more imposing among the
Venables, Goforths, and Vans who
CHANGED to be visiting the Wichita
house at the time OF her departure.
Usage had looked upon these stately
figures with much awe, but Sabra's re-
ception of them had been as coolly
cordial as her rejection OF their plans
for her future was firm.
II intend to stay right here In
Usage" she announced, quietly, but in
1 tone that even Felice Venable rec
ognIzed as infexible, 'and run the
paper, and bring up my children as
their father would have expected them
to be brought up. mean to stay here
in Usage until Yancey-until-" She
never finished that sentence.
The Usage society notes became less
simple. From bare accounts OF quilt
ings, sewing bees. and church So
cables they blossomed into fowery |
limitations OF the metropolitan dailies'
descriptions Of social events.
Sabra was, without being fully !
aware Of It. 4 power that shaped the
social aspect Of this crude southwest