Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-08-22
Halls hands hung clear Of his body,
carefully, as If he had been handling

udi . udnuS uuug clear OF MS D0dy,
carefully, as If he had been handling
sewage.
So this day too was started with
something wrong, something almost
stealthy in it-something besides the in
firmities of the car and the heat that
grew to slow embrace of everything in
the hazy, still landscape. To get to De-
troit quickly, to be quit of Miller and
the car-that was the focus for ur-
gency. Miller might, under his I'M
washed stupor, possess some faculty
for making Hal disappointed with his
own skin. At least there was no point
in trying to tell what made it till this
man was dropped.
The engine was little by little max
ing up it's mind to quit, discouraged
by the brevity of easier gradients and
cowed by team of three big buses
that charged down-a fierce happiness
in their Tapping tarpaulins-from the
Allegheny SUBMITS.
"This is bad enough" said Kerrigan.
But think of hopping the Atlantic.
Listening for the horses to cool off
every second for thirty hours would
harden all my arteries, give me mil
lion dollars worth of persecution COM
pick" And over his shoulder he asked
Miller, "What's the matter with this
studio-number of yours, Robin Hood?"
"Little warm" said Miller, like a
doped horse-trader GLOW far do you
reckon 1t to Detroit?''
There was a sort of lazy triumph
in Cracks saying, as if he had map
and speedometer in his lap: "Be-
tween three and three fifty. 'At'll
make it long trip for today"
"We're going to do it," said Hal, "if
we have to trade this barge for bicy-
cles.''
After long, laborious time, the car
churned out last fiat sneeze, and a
solid sign by the road proclaimed q
summit, with statistics to prove it.
There was no higher land visible
ahead. And can and half of
water sent the car off to the less rigor-
GUS dips and climbs of the Mississippi
Divide like an old dog remembering
the smell of spring.
1t rained as they dipped down the
last rolling land of Pennsylvania to the
straight roads of Ohio. For two miles
short passenger train hurried darkly
along the straight track that converged
upon the straight road, Kerrigan mus
ing on it, Hal glancing at him and at
it with a pleasant sense of intimacy
deepening between them. Then the
locomotive cried evaporation at the
crossing.
"Train comin'," Pulsipher murmured.
Miller chuckled. II seen that quite
a ways back" he said.
And for another two miles it raced
away on its divergent course, white
bursts from the whistle followed by it's
faint screams for crossings-hurrying
urgently under it's blackened breath as
if it had the whole country to cross
before night.
Then they came to Akron, a spread
of buildings that grew irregularly
higher toward nubbin of the tallest,
in the modern style. Mrs. Pulsipher
knew it was Akron by the smell of
rubber.
The city had lunch places, and that
was important. It was near three
o'clock.
Miller frankly distrusted the "Tea
Shoppe" that had caught Mrs. Pulsi-
piers bright and hungry eye, and he
wouldn't go in. But the lady made it
hard for the others-impossible for
John-not to follow her. The dog had
dragged Barry down the street on a
good scent, and Hal and Kerrigan let
the others fill one table, avoiding the
solicitation of Cracks lazily hopeful
look.
"You and the princess aren't still
walking round each other stiff legged,
are you?" said Kerrigan.
"Wouldn't be sure" said Hal, watch
ing the friendly, brown eyes quizzical-
ly. "Why?"
ooh, haven't got any Kreuger blood
in me-" said Kerrigan quickly. 81 just
wondered if we could begin having a
happy time-the three of us-or wheth-
err l had to be a referee"
II think she's grand girl" said
Hal, calmly. you'll forgive my ask
ing what Kreuger blood's got to do
with it,
"Kreuger made matches once along
with Mr.. TOLL" said Kerrigan.
Hal laughed and started to say some
thing, but then Barry came in to them.
Her unstudied smile of pleasure at
having been waited-for barely included
Hal in it's beginning and the end of it,
with a leisured dropping of the eye
lids, was all for Kerrigan. And that
piqued Hal smartly, even while he pre-
tended to chuckle to himself.
l know a weakness in you, beauti-
full, and Pm still going to use 1t.
But he found himself watching her
carefully, alertly, as if he might miss
something pleasant.
"First," said Kerrigan, when they'd
sat down, 1--WE ought to agree to be
sociable."
Barry glanced up from her menu in
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