Newspaper Page Text
7HE SUNNY SOUTH
SEVENTH TAGE
NEW ZEALAND Something of
PfftnR G« Crftmentpr __
Written for THE SUM MY SOUTH HER FACTORIES
lanrcartlll Is Iht Lottos
i town ortho Pacific *ff that to Panto Arnos, S A, It Is ths lewost city on
the Globe
HRISTCHURCH. NEW
C ZEALAND.—New Zea
land is the chief meat
freeling country of the
world, and Christchurch
Is Its mutton metropo
lis. It Is a city of more
than 50,000 people, sit
uated near the sea on
the Canterbury Plains,
where they raise more
sheep to the acre than
anywhere glse. This
country leads all others
In Its product of mut
ton. Millions of sheep
are frozen here every
year for the tables of
— n„, „i._ a great fleet of steamers is
always moving back and forth across the
equator over the oceans, carrying this
cross breeds; they are known as freezers.
It is an old expression that It Is hard
to get b^iod out of a turnip. The New
Zealand's haw discovered how to do It.
They use their sheep to grind up turnips,
and the result Is the blood which makes
meat which sells tor millions of dollars.
Ir fact, every good chop you eat here Is
half turnips. The people tell roe that tur
nip-fed sheep produce the best mutton.
In buying a sheep farm the first question
asked Is whether the land Will rais° tur
nips, and If so the price is much higher
than otherwise. New Zealand has more
than 100,000 acres of turnips. Turnip fields
are to be seen on every landscape, and
they often form a striking feature. The
cron grows luxuriantly and before the
sheep arc let In It forms a bed of bright
greeh. laiter on, when the sheep have
had tfleir first chance at It, the green has
all disappeared and In Its place there Is
an expanse of black soil covered with
operative institution, the sheep owners
being the principal stockholders. It gives
them a market for their sheep, working
entirely on commission. The sheep are
driven or shipped to the factory. They
are there killed, frozen, put upon ships
and delivered to the butchers of London
at a fixed charge of a penny a pound,
and all profits above this go back to the
farmers. The factory kills about 6,000
sheep every day, shipping on the average
more than a half million carcasses a year.
We take a carriage and ride out to the
works. They are within a few miles of
Christchurch. The buildings consist of
great sheds surrounded by paddocks filled
with sheep ready for killing, and drying
yards, which at first sight seem covered
with snow, but which as we get closer
we see are spotted with great piles of
newly washed wool. We are first taken
to the sheep yards and watch the men
drive the animals up a passage way to
lishment to see the by-products. In one
place they are canning sheep tongues to
be shipped all over the world. The output
is about 5,000 tongues a gay and the
tongues sell for 20 cents a can In one-
Dound cans. The cooking is done in great
vats in which the water is kept hot by
steam pipes. The white tongues bob up
and down In the boiling water and the
hare-armed men take them out from time
to time with pitchforks and out others In
their places.
Blood money far Americans
In another room we see them rendering
fat. In another they are taking care of
the sheepheads and in others they are
pulling wool from the skins, and spread
ing It out to dry. A curious department
Is that where the blood and bones are
turned Into fertilizer. The blood is roasted
in a great cylinder several hundred feet
long. On the floor of the factory is a pile
of blood as big as a small haystack. It
smells like ammonia, and our eyes water
as we look.
This blood Is very valuable for manure.
For a long rime It went to waste In most
of the factories of New Zealand, when a
couple of Americans came down and made
a contract for the product. The New Zea
landers soon saw that they were getting
rich cut of their blood 'money. and they
concluded to have the profit themselves,
fo when the time came for the renewal
of the contract they refused, and now
this and the other by-products of the fac
tory Pay. I am told, about all of the ex
penses of Its operation and management.
As we walked through the works I ask
the manager to give me some Idea of
waxes He replies that they range from
$L® a day upward, and that for a day
of eight hours. The men come to the
factory at 8 a. m. and they leave at 5 n
m.. taking an hour off for dinner. They
have In addition to this what are called
smokers. These are recesses of ten min
utes twice a day for a smoke. The fore
man fixes the time, which is ueually at
10 o'clock In the morning and 3 o'clock in
the afternoon. These smoke recesses are
common in all New Zealand factories.
As far as I can see the men seem con
tented with their jobs. Many of them-own
little cottages near the works, the aver
age workingman's houfce being worth
about 3250. The manager tells us that if
a man Is ordinarily economi cal he can
pay for his home In five years, and that
most of the men accumulate money. He
tells us that the factory Insures the Uvea
of Its employees upon such terms that If
they are killed while on dut£ their heirs
will receive from 11.500 to $2,500. according
to the amount of their policies.
You people of the United States look
upon New Zealand as a half-savage coun
try. You -think it may perhaps have
some good farms and sheep ranches, but
I venture you have never considered It a
land of great factories. These people
have woolen mills which would he con
sidered large In New England. They make
ha fine doths as the best mills of Great
Britain, although their mills havs to he
protected by the tariff In order to live.
At Kalpoi. near Christchurch, there Is
a woolen factory employing 600 hands. It
is the largest woolen mill below the equa
tor. and It makes every variety of goods,
from knit underclothing to the finest of
ladles’ dress goods The mill tabes the
wool In bales of 100 pounds each, lust as
It comes from the backs of the sheep. It
is sorted according to fineness, for the
hair on sheep varies as much as that on
man. some being as fine as the hair of a
baby and some as coarse as the wool of
a negro.
Next it Is washed and scoured by ma
chinery. then dried and then dyed. It Is
next treated to a bath of olive oil to
soften the fiber and then carded and
combed and twisted Into ropes and re
twisted by the spinning jenny until each
rope becomes a thread so small that it
will go through the eye of a needle. It Is
now wound upon bobbins and then woven
Into cloth. Just as In the best ^voolen mills
all the world over. The machinery la the
latest and the product of the first
quality.
This mill employs many girls. They are
healthy, rosy-cheeked and well dressed;
they are well bred and well educated.
Hundreds of them ride to and from their
work upon bicycles. They work eight
hours a day. their wages being about
$7.50 a week, more or less.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Some Interesting Discoveries Made in
Graves of the Ancient Royalty
T-
,
The grwatwst sheep freezing works in (few Zealand iff Kotlas wool in foreground spread out to dry
product to London. The distance via the
Straits of Magellan Is more than 12,000
miles, it Is even farther by the Cape of
Good Hope or the Isthmus of Suez, but
nevertheless the freights are such that
the mutton can be sold at a lower price
than that raised In England itself.
What da you think it costs to raise
shofp *v<ay down here below the equator
and deliver them to English butchers, so
that all parties can make a fair profit?
Ju«t 7 cents a pound! The New Zealand
farmer makes money by selling his sheep
at the factory at 4 cents a pound, and
the extra 3 cents suffices to pay for the
killing, the dressing and freezing, and all
the freight charges and handling between
here and London. I doubt whether mut
ton can be produced at this cost In either
the United Statea or Great Britain.
The great sheep (arms
But first let me give you some Idea of
New Zealand's sheep industry- It Is the
one out of which the country makes the
most money. New Zealand now has about
at.000.006 sheep, or enough to give every
man, woman and child a flock of twenty-
five and have thousands to spare. It has
almost half as many as we have In the
United States, and Its product of wool is
proportionately much greater than ours.
It gets an annual Income of $23,000.fl00 out
of its exports of wool, and In addition re
ceives more than *8,000.000 for frozen mut
ton. $1,500,000 for Its tallow and more than
that amount for sheep skins and rabbit
skins.
There are sheep farms to he seen every
where. I have visited many of them dur-
whlte balls wt out In rows. The flel.l
looks as though It had been plowed and
sown with billiard balls.
You see the sheep biting the balls. They
eat them out of the ground, digging away
until ^very root has disappeared. In sumo
cases the turnips are dug up by the farm
er and fed In the pasture to the sheep.
The aneitlon of waff as
Labor Is high In New Zealand and ev
erything Is done to cut down expenses.
On the large estates the sheep are kept
In enormous fields, so that a few hands
suffice to care for a large flock. The
shepherds put In about ten hours, except
at harvest time, when they work from
daylight to dark. Their wages are higher
than those of the United States. In tl.e
busiest parts of the year they receive
from 18 to 23 cents an hour, and In many
cases their employers add to this a pres
ent at the clcse of the season. I met one
man who told me he gave each of his
hands $51 when the hardest of the work
was done.
The shearing usually begins in Septem
ber and lasts until January. It Is done
by the piece, being performed by profes
sional shearers, who get from 4 to 4*4
cents a sheep. There are men who ran
shear mere than a hundred sheep In a
day. and not a few make their
$5 per diem. The wool clips vary
greatly according to the breeds.
The Merinos range all the way
from four to i even pounds each,
while the Lel-jostess will average ten
pounds and the Lincolns about eleven
pounds. There are Sleep which each pro-
the killing department on the second
floor. This driving is done by means of
decoys. There are several old sheep
which are used day after day and year
after year as the advance guard to lead
their brothers to slaughter. They start
the procession, and the thousands be
hind. sheep-like, follow them. Often ten
thousand' sheep pass up that roadway In
one day. v
Ib ths killinff rooms
We follow the Sheep into the building.
The killing room is several hundred feet
long. It Is a great.hall walled with pens,
each holding twenty sheep. The pena
face a central aisle in which stand the
butchers. The sheep are killed at the
rate of ten every minute. The butchers
are very expert. They drag out the ani
mals and with their knives kill them
so quickly that they do not even kick.
One man has been known to kill 280
sheep in a day, but the usual average per
hour is nine sheep for each man.
After killing a sheep the butcher hangs
it up on a hook behind him, strips off the
skin, cuts off the head, dresses it and
washes it down with hot water. This is
done so quickly that It takes only seven
minutes from the time the live sheep is
picked up until it Is ready for freezing.
When a sheep is finished the butcher
gives It a shove and the pulley to which it
Is hooked, running by gravity on a little
steel track, carries It off to the cooling
room. From nov fin it is not handled
until It Is ready for shipment. The work
is done so rapidly that there Is a long
ntream of hot carcasses steadily flowing
out of the butcher shop Into the cooling
NEW LIGHT THROWN UPON
OLDEST EGYPT #
By C H Levy
ff Copyrlffht 1901 ff
|F ancient monarchs
made history, modern
explorers are creating It
anew by their discov
eries; and the most no
table triumph In this
direction is one Just
achieved by Professor
W. M. FUnders-Petrle,
the explorer of the
Egypt exploration fund
—at Abydos in Egypt, fa
mous in the Inscrip
tions as one of the most
ancient settlements in
that land of remote
dates. Abydos has been
visited before and so
late as 1885 by M. E. Amellneau. a
French explorer, who claimed to have
swept the ground clean and found what
ever was worth finding. Mr. Petrie was
struck by the Importance of the French
man’s discoveries, but did not believe
that «ie ground has been exhausted and
his work on the same site bus established
the value of this preconception. Amel-
tneau did find the tombs, but he worked
In to Unscientific a way. that although
he astonished the learned world, he did
not add as much positive knowledge re
garding the ancient kings, whose tombs
were found, as has since been brought to
light by the careful work of the greatest
archaeologist now living.
The work which Mr. Petrie did at Aby
dos has been hinted at in the public or-
THE VICTORY v
OF ZALIA ROSS*
Coat! peed from Fifth Pwffo
infinite In number and variety. Between
1C,000 and 20,000 pieces of vases were
found, ranging in date from the earliest
to the latest times. Some two hundred
of these vases have been restored. Ma
of the vases and crystal cups bore
scriptions which made It possible to trace
them to some of the royal owners. Ivory
was found in considerable quantity, eith
er in tablets or In small pieces used for
inlaying, showing that this delicate art
was practiced then. The Ivory carvings
of boats and the legs of animals are re
markable for their realism and faithful-
noFs to nature. It was the custom to
deposit jars containing food and drink in
the tombs, and each jar was sealed with
a. clay stopper bearing the stamp of the
king for whose tomb the,jar was intend
ed. An examination of these clay stop
pers bos helped greatly In the reading of'
the names of the mouarchs. On the base
of a dish of brown pottery is a fragment
of accounts, the oldest known. It Is evi
dently a scribe's tally of some sort of
article. The number 20 occurs often and
100 and 200 are several times repeated.
On another series of seals measures for
water or wine and for corn or other dry
produce are found, showing that so early
a distinction was made between measures
fer liquids and dry measure. The re
markable Ivory carvings of heads from an
Inlaid cabinet date from the earliest
omitted. It Is plain from the Inscription
that Sabef was keeper of the tombs, com
panion In the royal palace, and overseer
of the Sed festival; titles which appear in
the age when the pyramids were built,
proving the existence of a thorough po
litical organization even In these early
days.
Games were played by the royal hands,
and probably by the people, for a reed
used In a game of chance has been found
In the tomb of Qa. Small objects in gold,
bronze, copper. Ivory and stone were
found in great number. An ivory toilet
dish, carved In two halves out of a single
block of ivory, each in the form of a half
a duck, must have stood upon the toilet
table of the consort of one of these early
monarchs, while her maidens decorated
her face with the colors befitting her
rank. This was found in one of the
earliest tombs with pottery of the most
primitive form. Another toilet institution
which receives the stamp of ancient line
age from these discoveries, is the hair pin.
One of these utensils of beautifully carved
ivory was found In the same tomb. A
pair of copper pincers Is a remarkable
tool for so early a time. The pottery
ranges all the way frtfn the coarse, in
formed bowls and Jugs, made simply by
putting a lump of mud into a hole scooped
out of the ground and trimming and wip
ing the vesael with the hand, up to those
('■iiSs
u
1 > J
X T 1
The frozen carcaztea are slid down In clzutaa from the c ora to the shops
lng my tour through the Islands. They
are much better kept than similar proper
ties In the United States, being divided up
Into lurge fields fenced with wire and of-
ten carefully cultivated.
Many of the holdings are large. The
average flock at present contains about
a thousand sheep. There are 2.700 men who
have each between 500 and 1.000. and there
nre 2.000 farmers who each own from 1.000
$,000 sheep. There are more thafi 200
^#b.o have from 5.000 to 10.000 and 140 who
each own flocks of twenty thousand or up
ward. The tendency just now is toward
small flocks. The farmeis have found it
pays to raise sheep for mutton, and the
day will soon come when every farmer
still have his own flock of sheep.
In Australia the sheep are reared chiefly
for their wooi, and mutton. The weather
Is zuch that they can feed cut of doors
all the year round, thus laving the ex
pense of barns or stables. On the larger
estates the total expenses are not more
than $1 per sheen, ar.d their annBal in
crease of the flock is from SO to ICO per
cent of the number of ewes.
Sheep farming In New Zealand Is man
aged upon scientific principles. The peo-
Dle have studied the breeds and have se
lected those which will produce the most
wool and the best mutton. The-ohlef
breeds are the Lincolns, the Merinos, the
Leioeaters. the Shropehires. the Scutli-
downs and the Romney Marsh. Each of
these breeds have special localities^ The
Merinos thrive best on the wild lends art
hfils. the Lincolns and Romney Marsh on
dry i-if 1 "* The best mutton strap are
duce from twenty to thirty pounds of
wool at a clip, but these are exceptions.
The craze which Is running over the
United States as to Belgian hares should
bo stopped, for they may become as great
a pest as the rabbits are here. Rabbits
wtre Introduced into New Zealand as
pets and with the Idea that they might
furnish meat. They Increased so rapid
ly that they soon overran the whole
country. They ate up the pastures and
millions of dollars have since been spent
In killing them or in fencing them out of
sheep lauds. Of late a large industry fias
pi own up Ir. trapping them for their skins
and In freezing the carcasses for ship
ment to London. There are men here
who make a business of rabbit trapping
and rabbit buying. I see crates of rabbits
at almoct every railroad station, and I
am told that about eleven million pounds
of frozen rabbits are annually shipped
from New Zealand to London. In one
year 17,000.000 rabbit skins were exported
and such exports now bring in several
hundred thousand dollars annually.
Frozen rabbits are shipped with the fur
on. and they are. I doubt not. often sold
cs fresh from the warrens of the Eng
lish nobility.
But let us go to one of the factories
and see Just how they prepare this New
Zealand mutton for the tables of Lon
don. New Zealand has twenty-one meat
freezing establishments, and the largest
and oldest of all is here at Christchurch.
It is knows as the Belfast freezing works,
having a capital of $500,000. upon which It
pays dividends of S per cent It is a co
room and later on from there down to the
freezing chambers.
After having been cooled forty-eight
hours, that the animal heat may go out of
them, the carcasses being weighed as they
go, take another trip on their pulleys Into
the freezing chambers There are a dozen
of these, each having a storage capacity
of about 100,040 sheep. Each chamber cov
ers one-fifth of an acre, and if you will
Imagine a good-sized city lot Inclosed in
walls of frozen, brine coated with snow
and filled with carcasses of mutton hang
ing down from the celling so near one
another that they almost touch, you may
have some Idea of a freezing chamber.
Suppose we enter. How cold it Is! The
temperature is 8 degrees above zero. The
sheep put in three days ago are already
as hard as stone. Tap one of the car
casses. The sound Is like a tap on a drum
head. Take one down and rest It on the
floor. It Is so stiff that It stands alone.
It feels like Ice. My fingers freeze as I
take notes and we are glad to get ont.
We now go out 'nto the chambers In
which the frozen mutton is stored. They
are equally cold. The carcasses have been
put Into bag* of white cotton and they
are stacked up like cord wood. They are
now ready for the ship and the car* will
carry them down to the harbor. They
will be thrown Into trough-Uke chutes and
will slide down Into the hold, not to come
out of the ship until they are landed In
London.
After a look at the freezing machinery,
which the manager tells us In American,
we go on to other branches of the estab-
gans from time to time since its an
nouncement, but the first authoritative
account of this work from him is just ap
pearing In England. Not only does it fill
In the spaces In the history of Egypt
with names of authentic kings, but it tells
the twentieth century how mankind lived
100 centuries ago. Fortunately It was the
custom of the ancient Egyptians to repro
duce the life of the -people In their tombs,
burying with their kings many of the
jewels and utensils by which they were
surrounded In life. One of the most in
teresting and important of the tombs
Identified by Mr. Petrie, Is the tomb of
Menes. the first king of united Egypt,
who Is now by this discovery reclaimed
from the limbo of myths to which modern
historians had consigned aim. The date
of his reign la not determinable, for
Egyptologists differ widely In the chro
nology of the kings, but It is certain that
he lived r.ot later than 5(00 B. C. and per
haps as early at 6000 B. C. At this remote
period one might suppose that civiliza
tion was In Its infancy, but the finds in
tb's and other tomibe give evidences of an
art that must have taken many centuries
for Us development up to that point,
Meneses tomb and those of his successors,
constituting the eight kings of the first
dynasty and two of the second, let In a
flood of light upon the life of that very
ancient day. Of course the hieroglyphs
of that period are very primitive and
may be read variously, but It will be gen
erally taken for granted that Mr. Petrie
is right m Identifying Menes. Athothis.
Kenkenes, Uenefes. Usatats. Miebis.
Bemenpses and Bienekbes of the list given
by Manetho, the ancient Egyptian histo
rian. with the persons buried at Abydos.
the great royal cemetery. Manetho says
of the place that the site selected for the
royal tombs was on a low spur from the
hills, slightly raised above the plain with
a deep ravine on the west of it. so that it
could never be flooded. This accounts for
the perfect dreservation of the tombs
with their priceless contents.
Each royal tomb Is a large square pit
lined with brickwork. Close around )L
on its own level or higher, are smai*
chambers In rows, in which were burled
the domestics of the kings. The tombs
as they were left by the kings seem to
have been slightly heaped up. The roofs
of the great tombs were discovered about
six or eight feet below the surface. The
massive beams easily supported the
weight of the drifted sand. On the flat
or almost flat ground of the cemetery the
graves were marked by stone steles set
upright In the open air. Each royal
grave seems to have had two great steles.
Two of Mernelt were found by Petrie.
Amellneau found one stele In the tomb
of Qa and Petrie found a second. The
royal cemetery seems to have gradually
fallen Into decay; the steles were blown
over, and the whole site was neglected in
the later ages. It wet not until the
glories of the eighteenth dynasty (about
MtO B. C.) that Interest was revived In
this cemetery connected by tradition with
the early kings. Offerings of pottery
were made at the tombs until now the
place Is piled high with thousands of
fragments and is called by the natives.
Ora el Ghabu, Mother of Pots.
The articles found by Mr. Petrie are
period and Ere unique instances of the
advance of art in that time. The Ivory
tablets are easy to account for, being
made of tusks easily secured In Egypt or
from surrounding countries, but the large
amount of ebony used on other tablets
1 c-ints to a wide commerce, even at this
date, for ebony did not grow anywhere
In the neighborhood of Egypt, and must
have been .brought from distant parts of
Asia.
The most perfect stele of a private
person found was discovered near the
tomb of King Qa, and belonged to Sabef.
The block of stone was ground all over
with rounded edges, and the Inscription
was sketched on It In red Ink, and then
drawn in black Ink. This ground was
roughly hammered out. but the final
dressing and scraping of the stone was
9F f'VE-RNElT
1. Undisturbed Chambe-r
2. Looking E-ast-
srwwino Back n Defaced
5T&L6-
(ff\E-A9URftft)
formed with the art of the potter's wheel,
the earliest Invention made by man. The
art of the potter made rapid strides
and was succeeded by that of the sculp
tor, who cut crystal vases and hard mar
ble into artlstlo shapes. Alabaster bowls
and Jars of almost classic shape produced
at a very early period, were found. One
of the most astonishing facts In connec
tion with the inscription found at Abydos,
dating from the first dynasty, is that,
differing as they do from the later script,
the principles arid many of the. charac
ters seem to be already generally estab
lished. This Is additional proof that with
the civilization even of the remote first
dynasty, we have not yet reached the
dawn of civilization, although we have
come near to It by a few thousand years.
Ezitazh of b PriwBto Individual
Iun's mouths ter line hlz own pockets
with the pay ha gits fer imntlnf yer down
like dogs.”
His bitter words were tefllng, and tho
passion of the crowd lose with them.
Zalla heard the angry murmuring as
she drew nearer. She had seen the light*
and figure* as she came over the divide,
and she knew what It meant. If she
saved the man she toted, she must do it
In the face of Trammel and thd'bziUL
“Go back now. Yorlck,” she said to the
boy. “I will go the rest of the way alone.”
In the excitement that swayed them the
men did not see her until she had pushed
her way through the crowd sod faced
them. There warn no fear In her face.
Somehow she seemed to hare left it hack
In the valley -Where she had prayed.
‘Tve come to save you. as well as his
life,” she said; "to save you from the «ta
of murder. Down in your hearts you.
don't warit to kill him, this stranger who
has dono you no harm. You may believe
he Is an agent of those who are seeking
to stop the -work you claim you have to
do—the work that breaks the laws of
your stats—but you do not know It. Down
In each heart. I say, there Is doubt of It.
even though you stand ready to do your
leader's bidding and bring the curse of
God upon you for shedding innocent
blood.
‘Trammel, you are at the head of this.
I know, for though I've never pried Into
the affairs of your men since I came here.
It is hard for you not to seek some re
dress for poor Haley's death. But one
wrong never rights another. Trammel,
never!
‘‘My home has not been among you for
the last three years for naught. I’ve
taught your little children and I love
them. 1 have done whait I could for all
of you in the slokness and trouble that
has come to many of you since I came
here, and you have done much for me,
too. Won’t you do stlH more and spare
him for my sake?”
She held out her hands to them srith a
swift, appealing gesture, and though her
voice was still steady, her eyes shons
through a mist of tears.
A dead silence fell upon the men and
they glanced uneasily at Trammel and
then at one anqther. What she said was
true. She had done much for them and
their children. Not one but what knew
some token of her kindness; not one but
had felt the power of her sympathy. She
had been a teacher bringing light to them
as well as their children. She had loved
them and worked for them; she had
watched by their sick and prayed by their
dead.
Kennon stood nearest Trammel.
“Zc-ke,” he said. In a husky voice, “let
him go fer God's sake. Her eyes looked
that way when she prayed by my dylri
baby. Band or no band, I can’t stand
agin her.”
Trammel's face turned livid.
"Be you uns fools," he said angrily.
"Thar's no turnin' back now; we uns is
got too fur, and I ain’t kalkerlatlng ter
spend ther rest of my days In Jail. If
you uns Is.”
He raised his revolver and aimed It
steadily. Kennon sprang forward and
grasped his arm. The man next, for
getting allegiance to the band, ran for
ward, too. but others stood by Trammel
and grappled with them and the strange
ly assorted crowd broke Into a hand to
hand struggle.
In the melee Trammel’s pistol went
off, and then, as some one dragged her
into safety, the lights around Zalla went
out, and she sank into darkness, clutch
ing at the curious thought that Kennon's
baby's hands were reaching out to save
her.
When she came to herself she was ly
ing just outside the tent door and Easter
ling was standing over her trying to
force some brandy between her MpOr-"-a2U
it seemed in a dream she heard Kennon
calling to the men for God's sake to stop,
that they had killed her.
They relaxed their hold of one another,
but Trammel still clutched the pistol—the
rest were conquered. Her white face ly
ing there before them was a stronger plea
than her brave words had been.
As for the men, their threats and his
own danger, Easterling seemed to have
forgotten them all. He had eyes only
for her.
"Thank God,” he said, in a voice that
trembled, as he saw she was unharmed.
For the moment he thought the shot
meant for him had killed her.
"Go Into the tent and .bring me that
robe near the opening, she is shaking
with cold," he said to Kennon, who had
stood by his side since Zalla fell.
The man touched his arm: “Hadn't you
uns better take her home now while the
boys is better minded and will let you
go?”
Zalla caught the words, and before
either of the men could help her, she had
raised up alone.
“It Is all right,” said Easterling, be
fore she could speak, "my brave little
love."
He could feel she was trembling still,
but her old dauntless spirit never failed
her.
"Yes," she said, "It Is all right. I knew
you would all be better minded, Kennon,
when you knew just how It was, and
you will all be glad tomorrow—glad for
your own sakes, as even now I believe
you are glad for mine.”
They were going, and Easterling with
the knowledge that they were moon
shiners—nay, more, were almost mur
derers.
"Gilbert,” called Trammel to one of the
men whom he knew to be the bitterest of
the band. But before the man could
raise his revolver Kennon sprang before
him.
"For the love of God. don’t shoot!”
he cried. "You might kill her.”
Already they had passed too far away
to hear the low, tense voices, but Zalle
turned and looked back, and the moon
light shone full In her face, giving some
thing salnt-Hke to Its fairness.
Gilbert turned to Trammel.
"The game la ud.” he said gruffly.
“There ain’t no use ter try ter stand
ag"ln her. I’m er goto’ ter leave out
from here, and you uns and the rest
what’s help ter stir the boys up had bet
ter do the same. The little schoolmarm
Is stronger than we be around here, and*
the band’s fust example la er dead thing.”
Trammel looked seorchingly at the men
who had bound themselves to do hta bid
ding. and he knew Gilbert was right A
power greater than his strong will stayed
their hands. With the stoical cagn of
his people he met his defeat without a
word, and turned away and followed the
direction Gilbert had taken over the rock."
trail leading to the deeper fastnesses ol
the mountains. -
Quietly and with softened faces the
others separated—these men who »*a-j
come together with murder in their
hearts.
Kennon was the last to go. A feeling
of relief and thankfulness surged through
bis aouL
"She wua rlght-God bless her," he
said. "The boys ain’t bad hearted, and
they'll be glad tomorrow that no man’s
death lies at their door; and their **»»*•»-
is tree from blood."
Bid Witthf
Cared Samples free. D».»
K. Umy, Moomtngton, HI.
Old Books Made Mewl
The Georgia Book Bindery. 814 8. Broad gt.,
Atlanta, Qa., take old books, bind and repair
them and make them look ilka new. They
guarantee satisfaction. They bind books and
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