The HEART OP
NIGHT WINES
A STORY OF THE GREAT NORTH WEST
Oy VINGIE £. ROE
ILLUSTRATIONS by fay OfiZra/t&fc
COPYO/CfiT OY POOD. f f£AD ACID COMPAVY ' 11
SYNOPSIS.
CHAPTER I-Siletz of Daily's lumber
camp watches a stranger mishandle his
horse in climbing the ridge and din eta
him to the camp.
CHAPTER II—Walter Sandry Introduces
himself to John Dally, foreman, os "the
Dilltligworth Lumber Co., or most of it. " j
CHAPTER III—Sandry makes acquaint !
anee With the camp and the work he has
come from the East to superintend ami
make successful.
CHAPTER IV—Sandry wisely decides to
leave immediate supervision in the hands
of Daily and writes to his father that
he intends to get a handful of the wealth
in the uncut limber of the region.
CHAPTER V—Sandry gives Siletz per
mission to ride Black Bolt, his saddle
horse.
CHAPTER VI—Sandry In an emergency
finds himself no lumberman, hut proves
to the foreman that he does not la« k
Judgment. Siletz tells Sandry of the
Preacher.
CHAPTER VII—Sandry discovers that
Siletz hears the sign of the Siletz tribe
of Indians and wonders what her stir
name is. In the flush of a tender moment
he calls her “the Night Wind in the
pines" and kisses her.
CHAPTER VIII—Poppy Ordwav. a mag
azine writer from New York, comes to
Daily's to get material for n romance of
the lumber region. Hampden of the Yel
low Pines Co. wants Sandry to keep off a
tract of stumpage he claims title to and
Sandry this ks he has bought as the East
Belt.
CHAPTER IX—Hampden sets up a
cabin on the East Belt and warns tres
passers off. Sandry can find no written
evidence of title to the tract. His men
.pull down the cabin. Sandry compares
Siletz and Poppy.
i CHAPTER X—Sandry’s and Hampden’*
m< n fight over the disputed tract. The
Preacher stops the fight.
CHAPTER XI Sandry finds that the
deed to the East Belt has never been re
corded. He decides to get out his con
tract first and fight for the stumpage aft
j ervvard.
CHAPTER XII—Poppy scents trickery
and flirts with Hampden to gain his con
fidence. She tells Sandry that Hampden
is crooked an£ that she’ll get him.
CHAPTER XIII—Poppy goes to Salem
in search of evidence against Hampden.
Sandry and Siletz ride to the seashore
and Siletz sees the ocean for the first
time. Sandry’s men desert him for Hamp
den. who has offered more money.
CHAPTER XTV—Siletz goes to her
friends the Slwashes and persuades them I
o work for Sandry to save his contract.
CHAPTER XV—Poppy tells Sandry that
she has proof of Hampden's filing bogus
entries tn collusion with the commission
er She sees Siletz and Sandry talking
together and becomes jealous.
CHAPTER XVI—The big timber raft Is
started on its way, but is blown up and
Sandry is dangerously Injured.
CHAFTKR XVH—Foppv Insists on tak
ing carp of Sandry and s i vs she Is Ids
promised wife. “No," ci s Silct*. "he
kissed me and ! arn his woman."
CHAFTKR XVIII—In Sundry's delirium
I|p gives Foppv a clue to his past. < In
recovering Fully tells him of the suc
cessful filling of Ills contract and lie snva
that lie is going after Hampden himself
and “get him straight.”
CHAFTKR XIX—Ma Daily shows foun
dry Poppy’s notes of his delirious talk
1‘oppy plays with Hampden and asks j
Sundry when he will let her use her in- i
formation to stop the crooked dealing '
He refuses her aid and she tells him she ;
is going East for a while.
CHAPTER XX—Back East Poppy finds
that Sandry held up an associate of a !
crooked partner of his father for tlie !
price of the IUllingworth I.umher Co., the
associate dying tlie same night.
CHAPTER XXI—Poppy goes hack to
Daily's and hints to Sundry that she
knows ids secret.
CHAPTER XXII—Sandry Is called East
by ids father's sickness and is with him
w hen he dies.
It was a long tirre before she came
out again, and Sandrv had gone. When
she ditl she stood in the doorway and
looked at Siletz, white and tilled with
a towering anger, and Siletz. looked
back as white. They were women,
pure and simple, and they matched in
that moment their wit and their
strength Miss Ordway knew by that
look tliat Siletz nad those papers—
more, that she knew their contents—
but she dared not say a word If the
girl should show them to Sandry,
should destroy them— She was al
most on the noint of flinging herself
upon the slim, lark creature, risen
along the doorpost, and lighting for
possession ot Iter rtroperly. Rut there
was something sickening *n the steady
glint of those dark eyes, in the half
wild crouch of tho slender body, and
pIip only stood and held to the lintel,
consumed with a wrath tliat. could
have killed
Rut the wrath of Siletz was worse
- it would nave killed, forgetful of the
Preacher, whose word had been ner
fiimpie law of life, forgetful of Sandry,
who had become her pattern in hi3
sanity and iudgment.
With an effort tho woman moistened
her lips.
‘Did— did you find—a bunch of—let
ters?" she asked between her gripping
teet h
And Siletz, for the first time in her
life choked down her literal fear of
damnation and Ited.
"Lord, forgive me," she whispered
first, and then, "No."
CHAPTER XXIV.
“Fight! Fight Like Hell'"
So began veiled hostilities between
these two. At first Miss Onlwav cov
Bred bei fury with a smile and tried j
every art of conciliation, but Siletz
held far from her. Night and day she j
kept the packet in her breast, thougli
tor what end she did not know. Shu j
knew only "with "her un?ailing"Tnstiriel i
Uiat it must never go east to (lie '
cities, or Infinite harm would befall !
Sandrv. Also, as unfailingly, the same
instinct warned her not to show them
to him. even though their possession
might mean his safety The primal
cunning of woman kept her from be
littling or betraying her rival.
Sandry was becoming more and
pore anxious about the Rest Belt.
More and more he feared .the contin
gency of having to fall hack upon a
woman for help at the last, and this
was particularly galling to his man
hood
It hail become a personal question
with him, the ‘getting” of Hampden
The timber at trie north was running
better than they had expected, and
Daiiv and Collins with the lumber
jacks from Sacramento and the Si
washes were doing splendidly Still
the magnificent belt was the Hilling 1
worth's future and it was in gfave i
jeopardy.
From time to time he ran across
Hampden along the shores of the
backwater at Toledo, or on the Si
letz road. Here the Yellow Pines
owner often rode to meet Miss Ord
way who had lessened her efforts in
his direction since he had given her
all the material she needed for his
own undoing. He was more wild
about her than ever, and added to
his enmity for Sandry the mighty
.spur of suspicious jealousy.
So July dragged out in blue heat
and August blazed down upon the
hills.
The eastern lawyer at Salem was
ready to give lip in despair. Not one
tiniest point showed itself whereon
he could hang a thread of evidence;
and one day Sandry, sitting on the
east porch, shocked the heart into
Miss Ordway's throat.
“I believe I will write to New Y'ork
for the great Farnsworth," he said;
"it's a mighty risk, for lie'll bankrupt
me if he comes, though it's hardly
likely he’ll bother. They don’t know
the chances for big work out here,”
And the woman shut her teeth
hard, while the blood loft her face
in pale anger. Siletz, on tlfe, step,
played with Coosnah's ears and she,
too, lest a fcft of color.
The next day Miss Ordwav made a
flying trip to Salem, stopped over a
train, and went on to Portland. There
she sought out the most well- !
thought of legal firm in the city and
was closeted for three hours in its
private offices.
She was much too shrewd to trust
the great scheme in the hands of a
Salem firm. Hut here she had bun
gled after all, for her newly allied
lawyer, a tine-looking, open-l'aced in
dividual. followed her to Salem on
the next train, beaming copies of her
mysterlonsly obtained proofs of
Hampden's guilt, which were as good
as warrants for his arraignment and
that of the amorous young commis
sioner.
The “ring” was wider than she j
had any conception of and readied
afar throughout the state
She was not half over the Toast
Range on the one-horse railroad when
her lawyer laid the copied papers on
the commissioner's private desk.
“It’s come at last" he said tensely;
'somebody's leaked.’
And in a lightning flash the com
missioner knew what had become of
his account book and tho missing let- \
ters from Hampden.
He slumped in his chair, drumming
with senseless fingers on its arm.
He saw black nars across the win- !
dow with the waving trees beyond, ,
amt knew himself for that weakest
among men, a woman's tool.
So, filled with exi ited determina
tion to beat Sandry with the Hamp- !
den case sjid forestall his sending for !
Farnsworth, which was the last thing !
she wanted. Poppy Ordway again
rode up the valley. The mighty hills
were silent in the deadlock of an
Oregon summer. No breath of wind
found its way into the sheltered val
leys and the pines were still.
The tidewater slough was gray
with fhe inland brine
“Glorious'” she said to lierseif lift
ing her gaze to the, hazy mountains
“And I’ll save it for him—even
against his will!”
She was sure sh9 had sueceeded
in her mission, and. happy in the
knowledge was eager to be out of
the nired rig
.And Sandry, as he assisted her out,
thought simply that, she was the
most oeauMt'ul woman in the world,
for a'l the iov of triumph lent snarkle
to her lovely features, deepened the
slumbrous blue of her eves
Nr, woi i had ever been spoken
about that night at the rollway and
fiandrv bore a sense of guilt that he
had taken her avowal without open
reciprocation. But ttie face of Siletz
held him back. He scorned himself
and yet he knew he was blameless,
save for that unguarded kiss in the
glade.
But did he wish to reciprocate? He
did not know.
Daily's camp droned on—getting
nut its logs, flooding them down the
slough, binding them slowly "into the
now familiar ocean-going raft.
The foreman himself was un
changed, though the world had
changed for him since that miser
able "Yes" of Siletz in the darkened
room when he laid a gentle hand on
her shoulder. To Sandry he was the
same, for he had come, through the
slow processes of the simple nature
to be his friend. The elusive line
ness that had shown plain to Sandry
from the first in John Daily's heart
was solid as a rock* a foundation, an
abutment.
They watched Hampden s trail
grow toward the East Belt with an
exaggerated slowness, a Haunting ot
security.
And then, two days after Miss Ord
way’s return, the young commission
er and the Portland lawyer got off*
the train at Toledo and were driven
out to the Yellow Pines. They bore
for Hampden the wildest agony of
his strong life in the revelation of hh
goddess. '
They were closeted together the
whole of the night in the Yellow
Pines office and it was a strenuous
night for the two strangers, for
Hampden was a man to fear in his ;
rages.
At first they 1 eld him by main
force, and later by argument and rea
son.
“Fight,” said the lawyer in the pink
dawn, "fight like hell! And biufi
It’s your only chance.”
"Fight?" snarled Hampden hoarse
Jv, "what for? This damned driv
efhr has let her get the originals of
these letters of mine about the three
timber claims in 7-10, and thev
alone’d put me behind bars! You re
the damnedest ass 1 ever seen!"
And the man's small, red eyes
glared at his accomplice with the
murder-lust. But the commissioner
had some spirit himself and came
back with defense.
“Fools? We're two together. It
was from you she got her first knowl
edge of the game. She fooled her
first suspicions out of you in her
horseback rides. She told me so—
that’s how you took her in on the
deals, she said ”
Hampden groaned and flung his
head in his arms on the pine table
"All right," he said at last, “I’ll
fight."
But with the last sight of the buck
board bouncing down the hill road
with his visitors to catch thp earlv
train back to Sai^m. a light grew up
in his heavy face that would have
puzzled that astute man, the Portland
lawyer.
“Yes, by God^" he said In a voice
thick with menace, "ill fight’ And
I'll make a fight that’ll be remem
bered all along the coast!”
CHAPTER XXV
Fire in the Forest.
The next flay was the ninth of Au
gust. The thermometer, hanging on
the eastern side of Sandry's otFire.
went slowly up to 108 by two o’clock
Ma sat on the east porch in her
little rocker and Siletz braided het
mats on the step, while Poppy Ord
way watched her from a cushion
against the wall. The donkey tooted
faintly at the upper cutting and
Closeted for Three Hours in Its Pri
vate Offices.
from time to time the dinky engine
trundled its high piled fiats down the
little track to the railway at the
si nigh's mouth The men were all
out and the summer silence hung
upon the cock shack and the desert
ed "a hi ns, err. pi* ever since their for
nnrr occupants had turned their coats
foi Hampden's twoyeai contracts
Suddenly Coosnali, lying on the
step, got up and sniffed the air. Si
let* looked a* him her fingers ar
lested Then he sat down on his
haunches, threw up his muzzle and
negan to Lav, a melancholy, lonesome
sound.
"Husli." said Si'etz, “hush, Coos
nab!" Viicf lie, too. lifted her head
after the fashion of wild things,
smelluig the sultry atmosphere ,
Mother!'' she cried swiftly, "it's
fire! ’
The general creaked tin and liur
rieil to the steps, but already Silet.z
was off and running up the <ml!ey
toward the cutting. When she reached
the donkey Sundry was standing be
side it, but the girl passed him with
out a glance, running to where the
foreman set a choker.
“John!” she cried; “John—there s
a fire on the west ridge! "
Every man within hearing dropped
Ms work instantly and stood up
"Call in th' men,” said Uaily as he
v
passed the Horikey en"g77ieer.'"atf selTtt
'em alon,g. Wed better all go Mr
Sandry. 'Tain t likely it's much, hut
<ve got to stomp it out, whatever 'tis
1 ben n lookin' fer 'em. ”
They all trailed down the valley on
a dogtrot, It. took them the better
part of an hour, but when they went
down there was not a spark left
alight.
‘What do you suppose .started it.
John?” asked Sandry.
“Oh. some darned little college
snipe f”om Corvallis, likely, witn a
gun an a cigarette. Or mebbe it was
some camper stayin’ overnight on
the ridge—some greenhorn. An' it s
mighty dry—mighty dry.”
They went back to the cutting,
though every lack of them lifted up
his eyes from, time to time to the
ridges around. At supper the loggers
discussed the forest tires of other
years, the topic opened by the nci
dent. It was a close night with a
dark sky. though the heat had given
way to the stveet coolness of the
coast -under the mysterious ocean
wind, and Sandry from his old seat
at table looked out at toe western
ridge.
'John!” he cried rising suddenly,
“it’s broken out again!”
Sure enough. Against the upper
darkness little red tongues licked fit
fully up and the men. white and In
dian, tumbled out of the cook shack.
it was twelve o’clock when they
turned in. and Sandrv was puzzled.
The next day nothing happened.
Then at dawn of the day following
the camp awoke to see a fine, fairv
white haze all through the valley and
the crest of the west ridge, for half
a mile, sending up fanciful pearl
plumes in the soft morning. This
time it had gained a start and the
camp tinned out in earnest.
Scattering fires wore burning slowly
in the lower growth, all linked to
gether by creeping trails. It was as
if a light wind had blown in the latter
part of the nig!.;, bearing a brand
here and there. Daily set his men in
groups, all along the burning strip,
and they attacked it with spade and
shovel, ax and blanket. wet from the
five-gallon oilcans they had tilled at
the slough and carried up the rrouii
tain with heavy labor. This time they
worked unceasingly all day, going
down to dinner in relays, and night
found them a weary crew with grimy
faces, while a narrow, black scar ran
along the high shoulder of the ridge.
“John ” said Sandry solemnly, "that
is no college hoy with his cigarette.
Could it he Hampden?"
The foreman turned upon th°
owner
"You hain't a real westerner, yet
Mr. Sar.dry, ’ he said with a smile
"You think Hampden’d resk his veils
pine—as fine timber as there is in th
whole state? H?’d bury th' hatchet
I at)- come tight with us like a brother
first.”
“Then what’s setting those fires?—
I for it looks ns if they ere being set—
My God! l.ook there! There’s an
other! ”
A merry, red eyewirked anti leaped
and died, to leap again across th*
early twilight at the- valley’s head.
“That’s damned close to our cut
tin’!” cried Daily starting down th* j
mountain cn a sliding run.
And that last fim, burning strongB I
where no brand could have droppe'1 j
even with a wind, marked the begin j
.ting of such a time of anxiety, r>f feat
that grew and mounted t . heart-still ■
ing panic, of superhuman labor, as !
Sandry, a year before, could not havf !
believed possible—a time to be long !
remembered m the coast country
Daily sent Silotz on Black Bolt to !
Toledo, to ask for a dozen men to !
help in the fight.
He abandoned the one the j
■idge. for fire goes down hill slowly I
utd set his nu-n again in the valley, j
Dally abandoned the one on the I
ridge, for.tire goes down hill slowly
and set his men again in the valley. ;
Here the bed of dry needles was ,
hick and rotted into ideal condition
or that most treacherous of fires, the i
ground-fire, which gets into the pow
Jerlike mat of packed deadfall and
creeps hither and thither like a thief
n the night, breaking out, unexpect
edly, at. unseen, insidious enemy.
There had been two years of unusu
ally heavy foliage and the rains had
ceased early, so that the time was
opportune for a forest lire.
The timber at the valley’s head was
smaller than on the hills, consequent
ly there was more undergrowth, littie,
young nines and firs, slender and
branchy, each one of which was a res
inous torch ready t > flare into splen
did kindling for its greater br thers
These it was that toon the fire run
ning with the little wind, skimming
swiftly along the surface, catching
here and there a sapling, which in its
turn, if it was not foiled quickly by
a blow from a broads x, reached up tor
the lower branches of some full-grown
nice. That was tlie thing they fought
against, these men oi tli-' iimberiands,
for if once a great nine took up the
tito with a roar like the sea in a iiol
low cavern, >t would spread to an
other and another in the close packed,
swaying canopy of the forest and the
horror of the country would start
broadcast on a track of ruin—a crown
fire than which there is no greater
menace, for a horse cannot outrun it.
and man, if the hills are thickly wood
ed, is almost poweriess against it.
Within an hour after Silotz left,
men began to arrive by the rood on
horseback, in wagons, and later on
foot, for there is no call like that oi
“Kire" in the big woods to bring re
emits. rimy put themselves under
Daily’s orders and fel. to with a will,
boating out the surface flames cutting
every sa; ing in flight, digging
trenches to head off any ground Urea
that might bo started.
Blit destiny was against tlie Oil
ling worm. The wind—''unusual,” to
use that overworked word ot the re
gion truly for once—grew steadily,
and despite the trained work, for ev
ery man knew this dusiness. it rushed
the flumes through the undergrowth
faster than they could handle it.
Daily, black with smoke and ashes.
rm
“It's Broken Out Again!”
was everywhere. Sundry clung at his
heels, watching his methods, learn
ing everything he could, listening
picking up. catching on with light
ning rapidity. He knew himself to
be ignorant, and where lie was the
head with his interests at stake he
must make hiuiself competent.
}?y bight Pally was grim and silent,
hoarse with shouting,.and lie stamped
into the porch, where the women
watched the flames that flared red
against the night in a hundred
places n-i the west ridge and up the
hills on both sides at the cutting.
“S'letz, honey," he raBped, “I’ll have to
call on you agin. They'a a new
one over the first shoulder toward
the East Belt—up In th’ old cuttin’.
Hide down to Toledo an' tell 'em to
send th’ town. We’ll need 'em all.
1 can’t spare a man—I've sent out
six to hunt th' devil behind this, an’
if I ketch him I'll kill him, damn
him!”
“Son!” said Ma from the shadows.
So Siletz and Black Bolt and C'oos
nah thundered down through the
darkness to save the Dillingworth,
and the heart in the giri's breast was
throbbing with anxiety for Sandry—
black as Daily, and as rough looking,
fighting with his lesser strength, a
Westerner at last by every sign.
By midnight the town was there,
and Daily saw among the crowd Har
ris, his old saw-filer, young Anwor
thy and several more of those who
had deserted to the god of gold. They
kept sheepishly in the background,
but they were there for the common
good that Daily had spoken of—they
would have answered a call from a
real enemy In such a crisis, for that
is <;h9 way of the West.
5fa Daily, passing her interminable
tin cups of coffee—she had brought u.
great iron kettle and boiled it over a
lire on the ground—stopped before
Anworthy. the curly headed boy of
whom she was very fond, with a hand
on his shoulder.
‘‘I’m mighty glad to sea you. son.”
she said kindly, and the young scape
goat had the grace to blush.
Destiny was against the Dilling
worth. The wind leaped and shout
ed up between the hills and by mid
night the flames suddenly leaped up
as if a restraint had been removed.
Huge, red streamers flung themselves
out against the Mack night sky.
reaching half way to the zenith.
Dense clouds of smoke leaped and
bellied to the heavens, while Hit' roar
that appalls a woodsman's heart began
to sound throughout the hills.
TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEIf
’ Granny’s Talk to Young Mothers
“Granny” Cbamberlain “Few young mothers realize the extent to
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Mothers should never allow a cold to run for twenty-four
hours without attention. If this is made a rule there will be less
sickness for young mothers to worry over. A good reliable med
icine for coughs, colds, croup and bronchitis should always be
kept in the home where there are children. You may say that
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you have never tried
Chamberlain’s Cough Remedy
This medicine is thoroughly reliable and has stood the test of
nearly half a century. No, it will not hurt the children—there is
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7JcaMJ. —
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TET it help you to get new business
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Reach out and get hold of some of the
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for the asking.
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The Southwestern Telegraph
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i