The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1939-03-30

/ lnfOrmal10n. lIdl NOulu involve too
much explaining. Riding alone,
after leaving Louise, ne had thought
of what she had told him. He began
to see the heart of her with its deep
compassion for all mountain peo-
pie; taking their burdens upon her
self, trying to solve troubles here
without more bloodshed. To him
that way was impossible. But he
saw the fineness of her attempt and
could yield to it until his plan
opened.
Upon entering the room Cook
drew a packet of letters from his
saddle bag.
Breck unwrapped his letters, see-
ing at once the postmarks were
| from one to three weeks old. His
| correspondence was not large, as
his plan of coming to the mountains
! was known only to few persons.
Here was business mostly; though
one envelope among the lot had
never seen an Office desk. 1t had
cream paper inside, and even
through the accumulated smell of
Leather and mules, gave off a GER
tain fragrance.
Breck had reason to recall that
fragrance, yet now, here in the odor
of pines he was not sure that he
liked it. His name was written with
swift impulsive dash, while the
flap bore only, Irene Sutherland.
He tore it open at once, and as
he read, Irene came to him vividly.
Tall and slender and undeniably
beautiful. Black hair drawn to
make three cornered her high fore
head and accentuate her languorous
dark eyes. It was a strange beauty,
perplexing, all out of accepted
standards.
The note began with gossip, ig-
noring the fact that they had agreed
not to write She filed a page and
said nothing. But then, on the Sec
ond, came to her real purpose. The
senator was home now, grumping
for a vacation. No place to go;
nothing new. Driving the family
frantic-like big grizzly. do you
have grizzlies? How splendid you
must look in uniforml Like the
rangers at Arrowhead"
Breck looked down at his black
ened work clothes and grinned.
| And then the truth. The High
Sierrasl How marvellous for the Sem
ator's vacation. And with a ranger
friend to show them about. "Gor-
don, you can't refusel Be a deari"
He stuffed the letter into his shirt
pocket. Irene had turned to him
again for amusement. She would
do that where any other girl would
have suffered the limits of ennui
first. Somehow it seemed natural
in her.
"Mud's up" said Slim, pouring a
cup of coffee.
Breck left his bunk and joined the
two men around big black pot on
the table.
$50 the testers threw you down,
did they?" Sierra began at once.
"And Art Tillson was riding their
country before the fire. Amt hard
to read that sign. A pack of bug
juice was about due to go out oi
these hills. Tillson wanted to keeI
us too busy to notice it.
"This was lightning fire. Breck
argued. "No one set it to help the
TillsonS."
Sierra shrugged. "Hand of God
on their side then!"
"I think Slim has the straight OF
it," Cook put in. "This particular
fire may have just happened, but
the Tillson crowd are due to make
shipment and might have used it.
They've been in here long enough
to have made up quite batch"
MAYBE So" Breck agreed. "And
when they do start out"
"We close in There's new judge
down on the valley. He'll back us
with convictions if we send any man
before him. I've only waited for
Jud to make his first play and that
certainly won't be long now"
Breck stirred his coffee and stared
into the cup while old thoughts
swept him at Cooks words. eve
close in"
"What about the nesters?" he
asked presently. 'Do we include
them in the clean-up?" He was
thinking of Louise and her anxi-
ETY. for the families there.
1.-THE Potholes are a different
proposition" Cook said. 81 don't
look for any trouble from them il
we take care of the Tillsons. Like
this tool business. Art may have
scared them off, but if you'd had
tools you could have forced them to
work. Lack of equipment was our
fault, not theirs"
Breck shot glance at the gray.
haired man across from him. Bitter.
ness had come into the rangers
voice when he talked of tools
Dad" Breck asked, ''just why
aren't there any in the Pothole
| box?"
Nov you done stirred some
thing!" Sierra cut in. "You beer
to college; maybe you can figure il
out. Go ahead, Dad, and tell him
about the seventy-eight bucks"
Cook smiled grimly. "There aren't
enough tools for the same reason
that there aren't half enough trails
half enough telephone sets, hall
enough miles of wire to protect this
forest. Come right down to it, we
just can't get the money. What dc
we count in politics anyway?
Like this seventy-eight dollars
Slim spoke of Now I've never beer
to Washington, but I reckon here's
the way of it, The talk gets around
to appropriations for the forest serv
ice. Maybe they see I'm asking fol