The Wilmington morning star., 1947-01-18
OpLACE>M1 WOMEN
Copyright 1914 by Tom Gil kz&Z~A
pMbmMbyM King Emw. Syndicate. EN18sJ ny lM AzIII
Copyright 1916, by Tom Gill
Distributed by King Features Syndicate

recently picked to bring the New
Dixie plantations of South Amer
lea into production. Bogard is 2
wise choice. Known from Rio to
Laredo as a two-fisted, hard-boiled
realist with few illusions, he has
already made-and lost-two for
tunes. Now he is on his way to
New Dixie to make-or lose-a
third"
She glanced up. you don't look
Old enough for all that"
1T doesn't take long to 90
broke If you put your mind to it."
She laughed. There was an un-
suspected Tilt to her infrequent
laughter that made you wish she
old 1t more often. "Shall I read
the rest?" she asked.
Just repeat that part about my
good looks"
The New Dixie rubber planta-
tons r the governments best
bet. Established in the late days
OF the rubber boom by a colony
OF United States citizens who mi
grated to South America before
the Civil War, the prantatio, can
be made to produce the highest
grade rubber in the Western Henri
sphere.
Getting the rubber out may not
be: easy. One well-known operator
has already tried - and failed. 1t
looks like a tough job, but Cliff
Bogard can be a very tough man."
Janet Norman closed the maya
zine. "Maybe that's your trouble
you were too tough" She looked
at him in the detached way n
looks at a laboratory specimen in
process of dissection. "Maybe it
was your toughness that got you
into this jam"
Maybe" he amended, "maybe
all I needed was your Olympian
wisdom"
She ignored that-she had a way
Of ignoring everything she didn't
like. What made you decide to
open up the New Dixie planta-
tions?" she asked.
His lean, tanned face went sud-
denly somber. "What difference
does it make? For one thing, l had
the machinery. and a gang of wild
Irishmen who needed work. So l
looked into it."
what did you find?"
II found that one man had tried
to open up those same plantations
just a few weeks before. He'd been
told to get out of the country and
stay out"
did he go?"
"He went so fast he didn't stop
to empty his warehouse. It's still
up the river, full Of machinery.
When 1 saw him down on the coast
he told me the story about a gang
called Blacklanders who live near
the plantations and don't want
anybody there. They must have
treated him pretty rough-nothing
could have persuaded him to go
back. He was washed up. So I took
over his option, bought his ware
house, and moved my boys up
from the Argentine. Then 1 went
to New Dixie to look at the plan
tations."
"And got thrown out yourself"
eyes, but not by the Blackland-
avg T.. w., 4~ca ~ y-.c {hN ho-Sy
Dixie authorities. They held me at
the boundary for two days, told
me they'd decided to recall the
option, and next morning they
shipped me back to the coast"
Bogard's slow, deliberate man
ner of speech gave his words grim
emphasis. THAT put me in a sweet
spot. When you've borrowed up to
the hilt, time counts. I began to
burn fires under the government
officials to make the New Dixie
crowd stick to their option. and
then Washington cabled me to hold
everything. So for three weeks I
held everything while the storage
charges on my machinery. Whitfield
down my bank account, and the
men on my payroll had nothing to
do but eat their heads off and raise
heck with the local ordinances -
I nearly went broke bailing them
out. Then yesterday Washington
cabled that everything was fine -
they were sending someone to
straighten it all out"
Janet Norman nodded. And
they sent me-
Cliff sighed. Yes, they sent her.