THE CAROLINA WATCHMAN, SALISBURY, N. C. THE By THE TAUNTS OF A HIGH-SPIRITED YOUNG WOMAN CAUSE SMITH TO MAKE AN IMPORTANT DECISION THE PLOT AGAINST COL. BALDWIN IS AT WORK Synopsis. J. Montague Smith, cashier of the Lawrenceville Bank and Trust company, and bachelor society leader engaged to marry Verda Richlander, heiress, is wrongfully accused of dishonesty by Watrous Dunham, his employer, and urged by his guilty accuser to disappear. Smith Strikes Dunham, leaves him for dead, flees the state and weeks later turns up as a hobo at an irrigation dam construction camp in the Rocky mountains, where he gets a job as John Smith. His evidence of superior intelligence soon detracts attention from the boss, and after a short time he is asked to join the official staff of the ditch company, which is in financial straits. Smith demurs because he doesn't want his past investigated, but Colonel Baldwin, president of the company, urgently seeks the ex-hobo's aid. Smith saves Miss Corona Baldwin's life and drives some claim jumpers off company's land. CHAPTER VII. Continued. If Smith hesitated, it was only partly on his own account. He was thinking again of the young woman with the honest eyes when he said: "Do you know why I turned Williams down when he spoke to me the other day?" Colonel Dexter Baldwin had his faults, like other men, but they were not those of indirection. I reckon I dp know, son," he said, with large tolerance. "You're a 'lame duck of some sort. But that's our lookout. Bartley is ready to swear that you are not a crooked crook, what ever else it is that youre dodging for. Besides, there's yesterday " "We agreed to forget the yesterday incidents," the lame duck reminded him quickly. And -then : "I ought to say 'No,' Colonel Baldwin; say it straight out, and stick to it. If I don't say it if I ask for a little time it is because I want to weigh up a few things the things I can't talk about to you or to Williams. If, in the end, I should be fool enough to say Tes,' it is only fair to you to say that, right in the middle of the scrap, I may fall to pieces on you." Baldwin was too shrewd to try to posh his advantage when there was, or seemed to be, a chance that the desired end was as good as half at tained. And it was a purely manful prompting that made him get up and thrust out his hand, to the young fel low who was trying to be as frank as he dared to be. "Put it there, John," he said heartily. "Nobody In the Timanyoni is going to pry into you an ,inch farther than you care to let 'em; and if you get into trouble by helping us, you can count on at least one backer who will stand by you until the cows come home. Now, then, hunt up your coat, and we'll drive over to Hillcrest for a bite to eat. I had my orders from the missus before I left town, and I know better than to go home without you. Never mind the commissary khaki. It won't be the first time that the work ing clothes have figured at the Hill crest table not bv a lortg shot." And because he did not know how to frame a refusal that would refuse, Smith got his coat and went. Given his choice between the. two, Smith would cheerfully have faced another hand-to-hand battle with the claim jumpers in preference to even so mild a dip into the former things as the dinner at Hillcrest foreshad owed. The reluctance was not forced ; it was real. The primitive man in him did not wish to be entertained. On the fast auto drive down to Brewster, across the bridge, and out to the Bald win ranch, Smith's humor was frankly sardonic. He cherished a small hope that' Mrs. Baldwin might be shocked at the soft shirt and the khaki. It would serve her right for taking a man from his job. At the stone-pillared portal he got out to open the gates. Down the road a horse was coming at a smart gallop, the rider, Corona Baldwin, booted and spurred and riding a man's saddle. Smith let th6 gray car go on its way up the drive without him. "So you weakened, did you? I'm disappointed in you," was Miss Bald win's greeting. "You've made me lose my bet with colonel-daddy. I said you wouldn't come." T had no business to come," he an swered morosely. "But. your father wouldn't let 'me off." "Of course he wouldn't ; daddy never lets anybody off, unless they owe him money. Where are your evening clothes?" Smith let the lever of moroseness slip back to the grinning notch. "They are about two thousand miles away, and probably in some second-hand shop by this time. What makes you - think I ever wore a dress suit?" He had closed the gates and was walking beside her horse up the driveway. . . "Oh, I just guessed it," she returned lightly, "and if you'll hold your breath, I'll guess again." "Don't," he laughed. At the steps a negro stableboy was waiting to take Miss Baldwin's horse. - Smith knew how to help a woman down from a side-saddle ; but the two stirruped rig stumped him. The young REAL FRANCIS LYNDE (Copyright by Chu. Scribner'i Sou) woman laughed as she swung out of her saddle to stand beside him. "The women don't ride that way in your part of the country?" she queried. "Not yet." "I'm sorry for them," she scoffed. And then : "Come on in and meet mam ma; you look as if you were dreading it, and, colonel-daddy says, It's always best to have the dreaded things over with." Smith did not find his meeting with the daughter's mother much of a trial. She was neither shocked at his clothes nor disposed to be hysterically 'grate ful over the railroad-crossing incident. A large, calm-eyed, sensible matron, some ten or a dozen years younger than the colonel. Smith put her, and with an air of refinement which was reflected in every interior detail of her house. The dinner was strictly a famfly meal, with the great mahogany table shortened to make it convenient for four. There were cut glass and silver and snowy napery. Out of the past a thousand tentacles were reaching up to drag Smith back into the net of the conventional. When the table-talk be came general, he found himself joining in, and always upon the lighter side. He found himself drawn more and more to the calm-eyed, well-bred ma tron who had given a piquant Corona to an otherwise commonplace world Mrs. Baldwin saw nothing of the rude fighter of battles her daughter had drawn for her, and wondered a little. She knew Corona's leanings, and was not without an amused im pression that Corona would not find this later Smithsonian phase altogether to her liking. Smith got what he had earned, good measure, pressed down, shaken to gether and running over, a few min utes after Mrs. Baldwin had left him to finish his cigar under the pillared portico with Corona to keep him com- mm. , "You Have Committed the Unpardon able Sin." pany. He never knew just what start ed it, unless it was his careful plac ing of a chair for the young woman and his deferential and perfectly natural pause, standing, until she was seated. "Do, for pity's sake, sit down!" she broke out, half petulantly. And when he had obeyed : "Well, you've spoiled it all, good and hard." Smith was unable to imagine where in he had offended. "Really?"' he said. "What have I done?" "It isn't what you've done ; it's what you are," she retorted. "You have committed the unpardonable sin by turning out to be just one of the ninety-nine, after all. If you knew women the least little bit in the world, you would know that we are always looking for the hundredth man." Under his smile, Smith was begin ning to understand what this aston ishingly frank young woman meant. S'he had seen his relapse, and was calmly deriding him for it. "You may pile it on as thickly i as you please," he said, the good-natured smile twisting itself into the construction-camp grin. Then, with malice aforethought : "Is it one of the require ments that your centennial man should behave himself like a boor at a din ner table, and talk shop and eat with his knife r II MAN "You know that isn't what I meant Manners don't make the man. Its what you talked about the trumpery little social things that you found your keenest pleasure in talking about. I don't know what has ever taken you out to a construction camp. I don't believe you ever did a day's hard work In your life before you came to the Timanyoni." It was growing dark by this time, and the stars were coming out. Some one had turned the lights on in the room the windows of which opened upon the portico, and the young wom an's chair was so placed that he could still see her face. She was smiling rather more amicably when she said; "You mustn't take it too hard. It Isn't you, personally, you know; it's the type. I've met it before. I didn't meet any other kind during my three years in the boarding school; nice, pleasant young gentlemen, as immacu lately dressed as their pocketbooks would allow, up In all the latest, little courtesies and tea-table shop talk. They were all men, I suppose, but I'm afraid a good many of them had never found it out will never find it out. I've been calling It environment; I don't like to admit that the race Is going downhill." By this time the sardonic humor was once more in full possession, and he was enjoying her keenly. "Go on," he said. "This Is my night off." "I've said enough; too much, per haps. But when you were walking with mamma, you reminded me so forcibly of a man whom I met just for a part of one evening about a year ago In a small town in the middle West He- was one of them. He drove over from some neighboring town in his natty little automobile and gave me fully an hour of his valu able time. He made me perfectly fu rious!" "Poor you!" laughed Smith; but he was thankful that the camp sunburn and his four weeks' beard were safe guarding his identity. "But-why the fury in his case in particular?" "Just because, I suppose. I remem ber he told me he was a bank cashier and that he danced. He was quite hopeless, of course. Without being what you would call conceited, you could see that the crust was so thick that nothing short of an earthquake would ever break it." "But the earthquakes do come, once in a blue moon," he said, still smiling at her. "Let's get it straight You are not trying to tell me that you object to decent clothes and good man ners per se, are you?" . The colonel was coming out, and he had stopped in the doorway to light a long-stemmed pipe. The young worn an got up and fluffed her hair with the ends of her fingers a little gesture which Smith remembered, recalling it from the night of the -far-away lawn party. "Daddy wants you, and I'll have to vanish," she said; "but I'll answer your question before I go. Types are always hopeless; it's only the hun dredth man whp isn't. It's a great pity you couldn't go on whipping claim jumpers all the rest of your life, Mr, Smith. Don't you think so? Good night We'll meet again at breakfast. Daddy isn't going to let you get away short of a night's iodging, I know." Two cigars for Smith and four pipes for the colonel further along, the tall Missourian rose out of the split-bottomed chair which he had drawn up to face the guest's and rapped the ashes from the bowl of the corncob into the palm of his hand. "I think you've got it all now, Smith, every last crook; and turn of It and I reckon you're ! tired enough to run away to bed." Smith took a turn up and down the stone-flagged floor of the portico with his hands behind him. Truly, the case of Timanyoni ditch was desperate; even more desperate than he had sup posed. Figuring as the level-headed bank cashier of the former days, he told himself soberly that no man in his senses "would touch it with a ten foot pole. Then the laughing gibes of the hundredth woman gibes which had cut far deeper than she had imag ined came back to send the blood surging through his veins. It would be worth something to be able to work the miracle the colonel had spoken of ; and afterward ... Colonel Dexter Baldwin was still tapping his palm absently with the pipe when Smith came back and said abruptly : "I have decided, colonel. I'll start in with you tomorrow morning, and we'll pull this mired scheme of yours out of the mud, or I'll break a leg trying" to. But you mustn't forget what I told you out at the camp. Right in the middle of things I may go rotten on you and drop out." CHAPTER VIII. The Sick Project Brewster had grown into city-charter size and Importance with the opening of the gold mines in the Gloria district i and the transformation of the sur rounding park grasslands Into cultt - ranches. A summer hotel on thi eore of Lake Topaz reached only by &3tage from Brewster had added its fffluence; and since the hotel brought rjgopie. with well-lined pocketbooks, re. was a field for the enthusiastic ral-estate promoters whose offices ed all the odd corners in the Ho- a House block. Mn one of those offices, on the morn- fig following Smith's first dinner at xiiucresi, a ratner caustic coiioquy a in progress between the man wBose name appeared in gilt lettering o&; the' front windows and one of his unofficial assistants. Crawford Stan- he of the window name, was a i&ln of many personalities. To sum- visitors with money to invest,- he wis the genial promoter, and' if there vre suggestions of Iron hardness in te sharp jaw and in the smoothly s(pven face and flinty eyes, there was aio a pleasant reminder of Eastern iness methods and alertness in the pJmoter's manner. But Lanterby, tiping" uneasily in the "confidential" chair at the desk-end, knew another ani more biting side of Mr. Stanton, as.a hired man will. ?Good heaven! do you sit there and teme that the three of them let that hq$o of Williams' push them off, the ma.jp? And do you say all tiis hap pened the day before yesterday: how dofts It come that you are just now re peating it?" e hard-faced henchman in the chair made such explanations ashe could. -Boogerfleld' and his two partners 've befcn hidin' out somewhere; I allow tnly was plumb ashamed to come In anil tell how they'd let one man run 'eni off." VWhat do you know about this fel- loM Smith? Who is he, and where dlaihe come from?" 3&nterby told all that was known offgihith, and had no difficulty in com pressing it into a single sentence. Stan ton' leaned back in his chair and the lidgr of the flinty eyes narrowed thoughtfully. here's a lot more to it than that" he) said incisively at the end of the reflective pause. Then he added a curt prder: "Make It your job to find out lanterby moved uneasily in his In secure seat, but before he could speck, his'fmployer went on again, changiaf the atopic abruptly, but still keeping wlthjn the faultfinding boundaries. "What sort of a screw has gone loosl in your deal with the railroad meri$ Williams got two cars of ce ment and-one of steel the day before yesterday three hours after the stuff carnin from the East" AgVin Lanterby tried to explain. "Dougherty, the yardmaster, tosk the t bank roll I slipped him, all right enough, and promised to help out But he's Jcared of Maxwell." "Maxwell Is a thick-headed assl exploded the faultfinder. "His entire railroad outfit, from President Brew ster Sown, is lined up on the other side of t&e fight But go on with your dickering. Jerk Dougherty into line. Now?-go out and find Shaw. I want him and-1 want him right now." TbB hard-faced -man who looked as if hefmight be a broken-down gambler, Unjojxted his leg-hold upon the tilted chair:' and went out; and a few minutes JateraQother.of Stanton's pay-roll men. drifted in. He was a young fellow witngsleepy eyes and cigarette stains on bjs fingers, and he would have passed for a railroad clerk out of a job, rhlch was what he really was. "Wll?" snapped Stanton when the incomer had taken the chair lately va cated by Lanterby. ' "I Shadowed the colonel, as you told me tel," said the young man. "He went up t$ Red 'Butte to see if he couldn't rope in some of . the old-timers on his ditch, project 'He was trying to sell some3 treasury stock. His one-horse company Is about out of money. Mickte, a Clerk in Kinzie's bank, tells me' that the ditch company's balance is draws down to a few thousand dollars, withjio more coming in." "Dsd the colonel succeed In making a raie in Red Butte?" "iry," said the spy nonchalantly. "Drake, the banker up there, was hh one;jbest bet ; but I got a man I know to give Drake a pointer, and he curled up like a hedgehog when you poke It with" a sharp stick." "That's better. The colonel came backvesterday, didn't he?" "Yesterday afternoon. His wife and daughter met him, and told him some Ihingor other that made him drive up to th dam." fht plot which Eastern capi talists have made to steal the ir rigation ditch from the original owners is unfolded in the next installment. John Smith acts with decision. (TQ BE CONTINUED.) Beginning Early. "Fsher, aren't little girls silly?" "B! you think so, son? Mother and I worg thinking you might like to have a litte sister." "T&nks, father; but don't trouble on m" account, because I've got all I Can di to keep away from those girls at school. I don't mind their giving me presents, but I do hate to hav them -;tag after me going home from school." ' Zs. . An Explanation. Charlotte had been taught to say the grace" before each meal. One day she was invited to a little friend's for din ner, i When the father antf mother ol Charlotte were seated for dinner. Brad dockjpa three-year-old brother, bowed his hc?ad and said: "Amen, God, Cba 1 lotte' gone. i-WS COUNCIL NAMED FOR LIBRARY IRK GOVERNOR APPOINTS BODY TO DIRECT CAMPAIGN FOR TATE'S SHARE. DISPATCHES FROM RALEIGH Doings and Happenings That Mark the Progress of North Carolina Peo ple, Gathered Around the State Capital. Raleigh. The North Carolina Library War Council, which will have in charge the management of the state campaign to raise North Carolina's share of the Million Dollar Fund for Libraries for the nation's soldiers and sailors, was appointed by" Governor Bickett. The council is composed of Mrs. Clarence Johnson, Raleigh, president State Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. LJlliam Griggs, Durham, presi dent of the North Carolina Library Association; Judge Jeter C. Pritchard, Asheville; Mr. J. Frank Wilkes, Char lotte; Mrs. B. D. Heath, Charlotte; Judge W. P. Bynum, Greensboro; Mrs. R. J. Reynolds, Winston-Salem; Mrs. James Sprunt, Wilmington; Mr. Geo. W. Watts, Durham; Hon. Locke Craig, Asheville; Mr. E. F. Aydlett, Elizabeth City; Mr. John Sprunt Hill, Durham. This council met in Greensboro, with the committees of the Greens boro district At that time, the coun cil determined the goal which the North Carolina workers will under take. The districts into which the state has been divided and the cities -embraced in those districts for the pur pose of the campaign are the follow ing: Charlotte District Charlotte, Pal mer; Davidson, Mecklenburg; Con cord, Cabarrus; Gastonia, Gaston; Shelby, Cleveland; Monroe, Union; Wadesboro, Anson; Albemarle, Stan ley; Rockingham, Richmond. Greensboro District Greensboro, Guilford; High Point, Guilford; Reids- ville, - Rockingham; Burlington, Ala mance; Graham, Alamance; Winston Salem, Forsyth; Mocksville, Davie. Durham District Durham, Durham; Chapel Hill, Orange; Hillsboro, Or ange; Oxford, Granville; Roxboro, Person; Henderson, Vance. Raleigh District Raleigh, Wake; Wake Forest, Wake; Louisburg, Franklin; Clayton, Johnston; Fay etteville, Cumberland. Goldsboro District Rocky Mount Edgecombe; Wilson, Wilson; Kin ston, Lenoir; New Bern, Craven; Greenville, Pitt; Washington, Beau fort; Goldsboro, Wayne. Wilmington District Wilmington, New Hanover; Lumberton, Robeson. Salisbury District Salisbury, Row an; Statesville, Iredell; Hickory, Ca tawba; Lexington, Davidson. Asheville District Asheville, Bun combe; Waynesville, Haywood; Hen- dersonville, Henderson ; Morganton, ton, Burke. Case of Attempted Bribery. A special agent of the department of justice here stated that papers in the case against T. M. Stikeleather, of Iredell county, had been forwarded several days ago to District Attorney W. C. Hammer, at Asheboro, and that the arrest of Stikeleather on the charge of attempting to bribe Dr. W. G. Nicholson, who is chairman of the Iredell county local exemption board. should occur at once. It is alleged that Stikeleather several weeks ago offered Doctor Nicholson $25 to ex empt from the draft a negro tenant on the Stikeleather farm near States ville. Special Agent Dorsey Phillips was sent to the state to investigate the rumors growing out of the alleged attempt bribery, and he stated that he secured both oral testimony and affi davits in the matter. Regulate Cottonseed Industry. Information has come to the office ! of state food administrator irom Washington to the effect that the cot tonseed crushing and refining indus try will, in all probability, be placed under regulations similar in some measures to those governing the sugar Industry. This action was discussed at a recent meeting of representatives of the cottonseed crushing industry with the food administration at Wash Ington. If this program Is carried into effect it would seem, judging from the re suit of regulations on the sugar in dustry, that licensing must inevitably tend to the elimination of hoarding and all forms of speculation. To Buy Jersey Cattle. Mr. R. H. Mason of the office of dairy farming has gone for a trip to certain parts of Ohio for the purpose of obtaining two carloads of pure-bred Jersey cattle. Most ot the cattle which he will purchase have already been ordered by citizens of Harnett and Granville counties. The estab lishment of the calf club In Harnett county is already bearing good re sults, as many o fthe farmers In the vicinity of Coats have ordered pure bred cattle. Feed Soidlers Carolina Yams. North Carolina yams and-every oth er variety of sweet potato has been added to the list of supplies compos ing the United States Army rations, according to a letter Governor Bick ett received from Brigadier General Thomas Cruse, of the Quartermaster Corps. Governor Bickett is happy, and so will the soldiers be after they sample the "taters," for the CrOemor isays that once soldiers eat them, they -will fight for them. The letter from Gen eral Cruse was in answer to one the Governor sent Congressman Dough ton, the farmer representative from this state in Congress, ill regard to numerous complaints that sweet po tatoes would not be allowed by tas war department as a component of the army ration. His letter to Congressman Dough ton is as follows: "My dear Mr. Dough ton: I enclose herewith some correspondence In re gard to sweet potatoes. All I have to say is that if the President, or any body else fails to put sweet potatoes on the soldiers' bill of fare while in the South, he does the soldiers a great injustice. Evidently these peo ple do not know anything about North Carolina yams. I hope that you can do something to get the sweet potato introduced in the military circles. Once the soldiers eat them they will fight for them." Brigadier General Cruse wrote as follows : "My dear Sir : Your letter of the 15th, addressed to Hon.'R. L. Dough ton, member of Congress, relative to the addition of sweet potatoes as a component of the army ration, has been referred to this office for action. "In reply, I have the honor to state that the uestion of the addition of sweet potatoes to the list of articles composing the army ration has been under consideration by this depart ment, and the Secretary of War has decided that this article be added to the list of supplies composing the army ration, and all purchasing off I- xiers were advised accordingly." Adjt.-Gen. Cant Grant Dlsscharge. Men who are serving in military units that formerly composed the North Carolina National Guard can not receive discharges through the office of the state adjutant general, regardless of how meritorious may be the grounds upon which they make application. All such applications must be taken up through the regular channels of the War epartment of the United States. The North Caro lina National Guard ceased to exist as such on August 5 last when it was drafted into the federal service, and became a portion of the armed forces of the national government. This was the statement made fey Adjutant General Laurence W. Young, who explained that a great number of applications are dally reaching his office. In most cases these applications for discharges from the service are being made on behalf of the enlisted men by mem bers of their families, and not by the men themselves. In many cases the papers filed or voluminous. But Gen eral Young says that his office has no longer authority to act Preserve Sweet Potatoes. Dr. B. W. Kilgore, of the Agricul tural Extension Service, again calls attention to the fact that it is of the utmost importance that the large sweet potato crop in North Carolina be preserved during the coming win ter months. As an aid in furthering this work, the Extension Circular No. 30 has been issued, which treats In detail of the methods to be pursued in successful storage, and gives a typ9 of storage house which has been used by the Pender branch station at Wil lard with satisfactory success. All growers of sweet potatoes are (urged to write for a copy of thifl cir cular in order that they may be pre pared for handling the crop this fall. Each year North Carolina produces an abundant supply of this crop, but, on account o'f improper methods of storage, practically none are kept throughout the entire winter. Prizes for Teachers' Essays. For the best essays on "Why the United States Is at War," written by public school teachers of North Caro lina, prizes aggregating $300 are of fered by the National Board for His torical Service. To elementary teach ers, five prizes ranging from $10 to 75 each, and to high school teachers seven prizes ranging from $10 to $75 each, are offered. Essays must be submitted by January 1, 1918,. , ; Similar contests are being conduct ed in 14 other states. $Jie winning essays in each state will e entered in a national competition in which additional prizes of $75 each will he awarded. Full information, including the con ditions of the contests and references to material, may be obtained from D. W. Connor, secretary of the North , Carolina Historical Commission. ja- B leigh, N. C. '- ;f;'-:-' Secretary Issues Charter. Charters were issued from the of fice of the secretary of state for the following corporations to do business In North Carolina: , . Piedmont Hosiery Mills, of Lawn dale, with $50,000 authorized capital and $10,000 subscribed. The Incorpor ators are Decatur Elmore C. J Ye ton and A. E. McKlnney, all of Lawn dale. The Lawndale Auto Company, of Wilson, amended it charter tfi Increase Its capital from $25,000 to $100,000. -r .5.