The evening world. Newspaper, January 24, 1916, Page 13

ofirep! IS COON “Roaring Bill” Wagstaif! A Romance of Love and Fortune tots SET TO in the Big Nort Or RP INCONSCIOUBLY, by natural | stay in the high latitudes. fow people know just what they can do until they are compell try, and upon this, her second journey northward, the truth of that ptatement grew more patent with eagh Central interior of British Columbia unfolded its orderly plan of watercourses, mountain ranges and valleys. She passed camping places, well remembered And at night she could close her eyes beside the camp fires and visualize the prodigious setting of it all—eastward the pyramided Rockies, westward lesser ranges, the Telegraph, the Babine; and through the plateau between the turbulent Fraser bearing eastward from the Rockies \nd turning abruptly for its long flow south, with its sinuous doub- lings and turnings that were marked in bold lines on Bill Wagstaff's r . . So trailing north with old Limping George, his fat klootch, and two half. adily across country as the roiling land allowed for the cabin tl of that first protesting journey, Grown Siwash youths, Hazel bore st up to the peaks that guard Pine certainty became sure knowledge at sight of an L-shaped body of water giimmering through the fire-thinned spruce. Her heart fluttered for a minute. Like a homing bird, by grace of the rude map and Limping George, she had come to the lake where the Indians had camped in the winter, and she could have gone ‘Diindfolded from the lake to Roaring BIN's ‘cabin, On the lake shore, where the spruce Fan out to birch and cottonwood, she called a halt. “Make camp,” she instructed. fn over there,” she wave jo. Byemby come back. en she urged her pony through the light timber growth and across the little meadows where the rank Brass and strange varicolored flowers ‘were springing #p under the urge of the warm spring sun. Twenty min- utes brought her to the clearing. The &rass sprang lush there and the air was pleasant with odors of pine and balsam wafted down from the moun- tain height beyond. But the breath of the woods was now a matter of small moment, for Silk and Satin and Nigger loafing at the sunny end of the stable pricked up their ears at her Approach, and she knew that Roaring Peal) was home again. She tied her horse to a sapling and drew nearer. ‘The cabin door stood wide. A brief papic seized her, @ sudden shrinking, a wild desire for headlong flight. But {t passed, She knew that for good or dil she would mever turn back. And so with her heart thumping tremendously and a tentative smile curving her lips she ran lightly across to the open door. On the soft turf her footsteps gave forth no sound. She gained the door- Way as silently as a shadow. Roaring Bill faced the end of the long room, ‘but he did not see her, for ho waq slum: in the big chalr before the his chin sunk on his breast, staring straight alead with absent eyes. In all the days she had been with him she had never seen hin look like that. It had bi his habit, his de- fense, to cover sadness with a smi to joke when he was hurt. T weary, hopeless expression, the wry twist of his lips, wrung her heart and drew from her a yearning little whis- per: “Bint? He camo out of his chair like a panther. And when his eyes beheld her in the doorway he stiffened in his tracks, staring, seeing, yet reluctant to believe the evidence of his vision. His brows wrinkled, He mit up one hand and absently ran it over his cheek, “I wonder if I've got to the Point of seeing things?” he said slowly. “Say, Uttle person, is it your astral body, or fa it really you “Of course it's me,” she cried trem- ulously, and with fine disregard for habitual preciseness of speech. He came up close to her and pinched her arm with a gentle pres- eure, as if he had to feel the material substance of ther before he could be- Neve, And then he put his hands on her shoulders, as he had done on the steamer that day at Bella Coola, and Jooked long and earnestly at her looked till a crimson wave rose her neck to the roots of he glossy hair. And with that Roaring Rill took ‘her in his arms, cuddled her up close to him and kissed her, not neo but many times, “You really and truly came back, little person,” he murmured, “Lord Lord—and yet they say the day of miracles is past!" “You didn’t think I would, did you?” whe asked, with her blus! face nuggied against his sturdy breast. “Still you gave me a map so that | could find the place?" “That was just taking a desperate chance. No, | never expected to you again, unless by accident,” said honestly, “And I've b er the hurt of it to the stars all the back from the coas “Cab- her hand. She felt way 1 only got hi yesterday. I pretty near passed up coming back at all. I didn't see how 1 could stay, with everything to re mind me of you. & like a lonesome hole, this place—but | didn’t love it last night. It seemed about the most oheerless und depressing spot I could have picked, I think I should have ended up by touching a match to the whole business and hitting the trail to ome new country. 1 don't know, T'm not weak. But I don’t think [ ould have stayed here long.’ They stood silent in the doorway for @ long interval, Bill holding ler close to him, and she blissfully con- tented, careless and unthinking of the future, 80 filled was she with joy of the present. but it looked I used to love Do you love me much, le per- gon?” Bill asked, after a little Pie nodded vigorous assent “Why? he desired to know “Oh, just because—because you're a man, T suppose,” she returned mis- chievously. The world’s chuck-full of men, Hill observed. sho looked up at him ra not lika you to start in ren't many men of your type. Bill-boy; and strong ‘and capable, and at the same time kind and patient and able to understand things, thiug® a Woman can't always ut into words. Last fall you burt Maybe it's bad policy attering y but’ there By Bertrand M. Sinclair (Author of “NORTH OF 53, a RRNW RRR ANAN HORI AOR RAE RR RRO II (Coperight, 1913, ty Btreet & Smith.) CHAPTER I. An Ending and a Beginning. had absorbed more woodcraft than she realized in her over-winter River Pass, There came a day when brief un- ~~~ ote Ren alge, You ARE Bes | JOHN ‘You HAVE ie eehune ‘ToDo TODAY But CARE OF Your Gaps p TAKE A_GooD LONG STEAM BATH and SWEAT IT OUT. Northwest. AAA Ete.) by assimilation, so to speak, Hazel Weir Bill Wagstaff hau once told her that to pissing ay. JAttle by little the vast DARN IDIOT | WHERE SyerARe. | WANTS To Pe WE ARE NTS To SPEAK GOING NEXT ) To You ~ SUMMER 5 er IMPORTANT + ——— A MAN , driving as straight tenuggled in a woodsy basin close my pride and nearly scared me to death by carrying me off in that law- less, headlong fashion of yours. But You seemed to know just how I felt aboyt it, and you played fairer than | ny man [ ever knew would have|{ done under the samo circumstances, I didn't realize it until I got backi into the civilized world. And thet all at once [ found myself longing | for you—and for these old forests | and tho mountains and all, So 1 came back. “Wise girl,” he kissed her. “You'll! never be sorry, I hope. It took some | nerve, too. It's a long trail from here the outside, But this North coun- | try—it gets in your blood—if your blood's red-—and I don't think there's any water in your veins, little person. | Lord! I'm afraid to let'go of you for | fear you'll vanish into nothing, like a | Hindu fakir stunt “No fear,” Hazel laughed, “T've got | @ pony tied to @ tree out there, and | IN { THe BORES ARE CALLING | four Siwashey and a camp outfit over / by Crooked Lake. If [ should vanish DRE UEAND Ln e fF Vd leave @ pain trail for you to| = e follow.” j GRIP. “Well,” Bill said, after a short si- JOHN lence, “it's a hundred and forty miles to & Hudson's Bay post where there's a mission and @ preacher, Let's he on our Way and get married. Then we'll come back here and spend our honeymoon, Kh?" She nodded assent, re you game to start in half an! hour’ he asked, holding her off at arm’ 's length ac ge { n game for thing, or I} wouldn't be here,” she reworted i “All right, You just wateh an er- hibition of speedy packing,” Bill de- cla —and straightway fell to work. Hazel followed him about, helping to get the kyaks packed with food, They caught the three horses, and Bill stripped the pony of her riding gear and placed a pack on him, Then By Maurice Ketten {Ban IT LOAN ME A DIME Tite PAY Day, ULL PAY You Six PER CENT You ouanT TO TAKE A Good = | Bard STEAM / py BATH AND Just cL saat aon nrFtel a | 3 OUT If you were on this earth and your one of a hundred queer and original Did you read MAR itself, Don’t miss it. Monday's Evening World. What Would YOU Do— NEXT WEEK’S COMPLETE NOVEL IN THE EVENING WORLD, THE GODS OF MARS > : By Edgar Rice Burroughs (Author of “TARZAN OF THE APES,” &e.) NDER THE MOONS OF MARS,” by Edgar Rice Bur- rougs, in The Evening World a few weeks ago? is a sequel to that great serial. Remember “THE GODS OF MARS” will begin tn sweetheart lived on Mare? complications in “THE GODS. OF It is also a complete story by than glad to get away,” be answered lightly. “Come on, let's pike home and get thingy In order for the long trail, woman o' mine. I'll teach you how to be a woodland vagabond.” CHAPTER Il, En Route. ONG wince Hazel had t come aware that whatso- over her husband set about doing hoe did swiftly and with inflexible purpose. ‘There was no madingering or doubt- ful hesitation. Once bis mind was made up, he acte Thus, upon the third day from the land staking they bore away eustward from the clea ing, across a trackléss area, tra ling by the sun and Bill's knowledge of the country. “some day there'll be trails blazed through by a paternal govern- ment,” he laughed over bis shoulder, “for the benent of the public, But don't need ‘em, thank goodness,” Tho buckskin pony Hagel had bought for the tip in with Lamping George ambled sedately under @ pack containing bedding, clothes, light shelter tent. The black horse, Nigger, he of the cocked ear and the rolling eye, carried In a pair of kyaks six weeks’ supply of food. Bill led the way, seconded by Hazel on easy- gaited Bik, Behind her trail the pack horses like dogs well broken to heel, patient under the'r heavy bur- dens, Of in the cast the sun wa barely clear of the towering Kockles, and the woods were still cool ar shadowy, full of aromatic odors from plant and tree, Hazel followed her man contented~ ly. They were together upon the big adventure, just as she had seen it set forth in books, and @e found it good, For her there was nom diverging of trails, no more problem fearsomely at the Journey's Jog wily through woods peadows all day, and ve with her head pillowed peering up through ha fockcd branches at a myrind of {gleaming start—that was sufficient to fill her days, ‘Ty. tive and love and |} bo loved, with all that had ever | seemed hateful and sordid and mean | thrust into a remote background. — Lt was almost too good to be true, she told hervelf. Yet it was indubitably at night to on Bill's arm, true, Ail she was grateful for the he put her saddle on #ilk. fact. ‘Touches of the unavoidable “He's your private mount hene bitterness of life had taught her the forth,” Bill told” her laughingly. endar mont of thirty-one days, huh? “ft Won't be all smooth sailing,” be was that J had too much time to the handiwork of @ man she loved Worth of days that could be treas- i ride him with more pleasure You don't say so?, Seems like it was Warned. “It’s a Jong trip and a hard think, and nothing to do when [bit with apassion that sometimes started Ured in the memor, you did the first tim Won't only day before yesterday, little per- one, and the winter will be longer and a live town.. It wotld be different her by its intensity. Occasionally she would visualize 1? son.” harder than the trip. We won't have now. We can do things together that She had plumbed deptas of bitter. the cabin drowsing lifeless in tt Presently they were ready to start, “{ wonder,” she snuggled up a little the semi-luxuries we've got here in I couldn't do alone, and you couldn't ness there, and, contrariwise, reached erald setting, haunted by the rabbi Planning to ride past” Limping closer to hin, “if any two people were tis cabin, Not by a long shot, Still, do alone, Remains only to get the a point of happiness she bud never that played timidly about in the George's camp and tell him whither: ever ay happy ax we've been?” there's a chance for a good big stake, wherewithal, And since I know how believed possible, Just the mere twilight, or perhaps a wandering dee they were bound. Hazel was already 431) put his arms across her shoul- Tight in that one trip.” tu manage that with a minimum sibility of that place being given over peering his whie-eyed curiosity from mounted. his Roaring Bill paused, with “But why the necessity for making in the stirrup, and smile Se oid: beute aeert a stake?" she inquired thoughtfully he d back so that could smile down into her fai amount of effort, Ic it before somebdy like to be about head of toe wets whimsically at her over bis horse's “They have been a bunch of golden “fter a lapse of five minutes. me, Though there's small chance of bagi days, haven't they?” he whispered, thought you didn’t c anything that? “I forgot something,” sald he, and SWo' haven't come to a single bump About money so long youu ha i a partnare,’ ealn abbr (HOW went back into the cabin--whence he in the road yet. You won't forget this hough to get along on? And we wit we divide the profits, Billu shortly emerged bearing in his hand jo. time if we ever do hit real hard Surely have that, We've got over two We'll spilt even,” he dec @ sheet of paper upon which some- 2g, will you, Haxel?” thousand dollars in real money—and wpnae ig, Tl make ‘the mons thing was written in bold, angular "unhe bird of ill omen croaks again,” "0 place to spend itso we're come yout spend It Soar Tievel redo. ‘Silk up close to fhe Teproved. “Why should we come PT TY smoke ring over his They chuckled over this conceit door EY ae § © to r ‘ call it?” 5 e ring ove r s voit, see what it might be, and laughed ‘ Ait enue ae ne ae , head and watched it vanish up toward hd as the dusk closed in slowly tley amusedy, for Bill had’ written: cae Sanne ae ‘eee aa fe dusky ‘oof beams before he an- fide Persad ee data i ee Mr. and Mrs, William Wag- = M™° a Mae ‘ > pwered, , and in its yellow glo ever can tell what's ahead, Life takes ‘ he. “that's Pored over maps while Bill idly staff will be at home to their hevercan “ E - Well, little person,” said he, “that's Pored o aps while i idly friends on and after JUNC toe eet ad aoe tert crnimtty clogs Nery true, and we can't truthfully say eeeened ee eine eu & Abaat OF they fozeer across the open, In the ther in mee sere nd that's eee been A ching need With me, # Wild tangio of mountains and m npanion- novelty edge of the first timber they pulled tain up and looked backward at the cabin torrents three turbulent But [ hadn’t many wants when i was P, By and by, whe playing a lone hapd, und I generally the Stikine, the Skeena and the Naas, » ilently under its sentinel Wears off—maybe you'll get sick Of tet “the future » care of itself. It took their rise, A God-forsaken re- Arowalnk sieeUy vaoeahea ont ene. ff elo: the seine PLE vel around and is tivaratcaay io die up oY ney gion, ho: told her, where few whit arm and laid it across Haxel's nobody cise, Youseo I've always been onough to buy books and grub or any- men had penetrated, The ks shoulders. or my good behavior with you. Do YOU thing { wanted. Now that I've as- flirted with tho clouds, and r “Little person,” ho said soberly, TG mon Ieee ten a quick and fumed a certain responsibility. 1: hag Sides wero scarred with glaciers, A “here's the end of one trail, and the | oo” oly acne - Bn hae and Hegun to dawn on me that we'd enjoy lonesome, brooding land, tie home of Deginning of another--the Ton ge8t pe eee eaten een ant ctave up life better if we were assured of w & Yast and seldom-broken silence, trail elthe as ever faced, laxed to let her lean back a are UP Competence, We can live on the coun- _ “But there's all kinds of game and How does it look to you?” at ‘him tenderly try here indefinitely, But we won't Bill remarked thought. She caught his fingers with a quick, | “I ought to punish you for saying gtay here always, i'm pretty much fully, “And gold, Stull, it's a Heres hard pressure. things like that.” she pouted. “Only T eontented just now, So ure you. But country for a man to take hia best VAIE trails took alike to me," she can't think of any effective method. |'know from past experience that the girl into. L don't know whetner I said, with shining ¢) “just so we Sufficient unto the day the evil outside will grow mo: juring as Ought to tackle hit them together, and there is no evil in our time passes, You'll got lonesome for — “We couldn't be more isolated than rs aie bape A mea oe ’ brie e re he ‘etic, Look at that poo: CHAPTER | Ml. tell’ to silent ‘contemplation of out to mix with yur follow humans Woman at ae tinue, poor ‘Three babies A Brief Time of Planning. the rose and gold that spread in a We want to meet tien on terms Of porn since she saw a doctor or an- HA‘T day of the month te Wonderful blazon over all the western wor ldly equality. Which Is to @AY other woman, of” hervown “roler! 66 } ane sky. with good clothes and « fat banK= What's a winter by ourselves com- this, BIN?" Hazel asked. “““pwenty-fitth of July, eh?” he roll in our pocket, The best is MONG pared with that. And sho didn't | f “Haven't tha least mused present! ummer's half gone too good for us, lady. And the best think it so great a hurdship, Don't f} idea,” he answered ready. T didn’t realize \:. We ought costs money. | Anyw au ieee you worry about me, Mr, Bill, 1 ly. “Time is of no con- t0,be stirring pretty soon, lad guilty to changing, or, ra m = think it will be fun, I'm a real pio- Wy “Let's stir into the house, then," she ing my point of view--getting married peer at heart. The wild places look sequence ‘to me at tho present MO- suggested, “These muserable little has opened up new vistas of pleasure good to me—when you're along.” mahi black flies have found a tender place for us that call for dollars, And last, "no received her due reward for They were sitting on tho warm on me. My, but they're bloodthirsty but not least, old while I Tove tO that, and then, the long twilight hav- t » the abin, their backs } loaf, | can only loaf about so long & ing brought the hour A lateness earth before their cabi ‘oe Bill laughed and they took refuge in Contentment, Sab ve Bot to be that manifested itself by sundry propped comfortably against & 108) tne cabin the doorways and windows doing something; whether It) was yawns on their part, they went to bed. watching the sun sink behind a dls- of witen were barricaded with cotton Profitable or ver mattered, “With breakfast over, Bill put tant sky line all notched with pur- mosquito met against the winged Just so as it compass in bly pocket,’ after having plo mountains upon which snow stil swarms that buazed hungrily with sabe, ‘ Hazel ground his axe blade to a keen ed lingered, Beside m muds out, Ensconced in the big chair by smiled, 1 do, Only lagy ~ “Come on,” on: “I'm Koe dribbled a Wisp of smoke sufficient the fireplace, with Bill sprawled people Vik tl Tlove ing to transact « important busl- to ward off « pestilendal swarm of the bearskin at h . Hazel this place, migh here ness." mosquitoes and black flies. In the back to his last remorh for ye tisfled, But! “What is sie promptly de- clear, thin air of that altitude the “Why did you say it was time for But we'd be satisfied if we manded occasional voicea of what bird and to be stirring, Billa knew that wo could lea t whenev his domicile of ours, girl,” he told animal life was abroad In tha wild — “Because these Northern seasons we wanted to,” he interrupted, "THAt® her wile he y through the land broke into ta evening hush blessed short.” la anawered, the psychology « uman anima, surrounding timbe urs only by with astonishing distinetness a lc ught to try and a litte good all right, Wee tol grace of the wilde It's built on goose winged above in wide circles, for ourselves —muke hay while the sun even by eircumstar unsurveyed Government land—land uttering his harsh and solitary cry. shines, We'll needa da mon’,” health, one be . . 4 that I have no more legal claim to He had lost his mate, | told her Needa fiddlestich she Inugued, Cireumstance, if ¢ p eet than any passing trapper. L never War off in the busi a fox barked. “What do we. 1 roney for? WW cold cash, | lancholy fact tnt thought of it hefore—which goes to ‘The evening flight of wild duck costs practically nothing to live up the thir dcan only gow that thin dc harness tr pfeors\ ake to a chain of here, Why thia sudden desire to be had for a ec tr hess puts a differ face on swamps passed intermittently over pursue the dollar? Besides, how are “If you made a lot of money min- everything, But ns the clearin sibilan. wh you going to p ing, we could tr ne could do edy that. Of course, it may twen of wings the wild thing 40 pro: he replied lots of things,” she reflecte “I” ty"yeurs before this country begins to loss than to the twe who watehed promptly i for a place don’t think I d want to live In @ City gettle up enough so ti some indi- id listened to the forest traffic, it | Know where of coarse again, But it would be nice to 89 yidual may cast ( va on was @ land of peaco and plenty gold, if you can get t low there sometimes.” 7" this particular spot—but I'm not g “We ou to Un to the swamps water, How'd you like to go into t ss, dear girl, would Bill ing to take any chances. I'm going to-morrow and ruse somo duck Upper Naas country this fall, ea 1, With a ehum elp you to formally stake @ hundred and aixty e Bill observed irrelevant) all winter, work the sand bars in the enjoy things, | never got much fun geres of this and apply for its pur- eyes following the arrow fight pring, and come out next fall with out of the bright light wyself— chase, Then we'll have a cinch on our nallard flock But his wife sack of gold it would take a h it was too lonesome, Eu prowl Lome, ave a refuge to yunting audil one the days to pack around by myself an analytical fly to, no n we go." off on her fingers. Hazel c ther bands eye upon nanit und J was She nodded app m of This Jury " fifth, M “Oh, Bill, wouldn't \ bumping into a lot of sordid- ‘The cabin In the clearing stood Bi” Wagstal she a she cried, Acr her mind 1 and suffering that | couldn't in some of those momen 1 a We've been married ex wid pleture of the Journey, pregnant tie least 1 it offen pave » large and unt ttal actly one month. with adventy ross the wild hins me a bad my mouth, ‘Then woman's experience, She had come "A whole month?" he echoed, in terlanda—the two together. “I'd love I'd beat it woods—and they there onoe in hot, shained anger, and mock astonishment, "A regular cal- to," always look good to me, ‘he trouble she had come again aga bride, It was to others roused in her a pang of re- t timber's edge. ‘The books and ventinent it Was theirs, hera and russ and curtains were stowed in Bill's, and being « woman, she viewed Doxes and bundies and hung by wires its possession jealously, to the ridge log to keep them from the busy bush-talled rat Every- Bo she what he ¢ simplo enough. ed with Keen inte Which, in truth, ull they gained a througi the back and see BIL cut off leaving th feet high four flat sides of the spectively the e A PASs, On one smoothed Bill set to work with his poe Hazel little rise when cabin rool tmp fe proximate sure kni est was He worked bis way to a point southeast of the clearing treetops they could 100k There in eight-inch jack pine This he hewed square, the post facing re vardinal points of the whit thing was dong wafe-keeping, ax became a ho ix to be long untenanted, The Instinct to keep a newt snug guve her a tiny pang over the at ay for se that nother nd cozy ne up and put joned home ne dust of many months would ¢ n the mpty shelves, Stl it only & passing alwence. uld = com be with t from the strong how of the wild ly Fortune could not forbe wr smiling on a mate like There w »notony in the pass- sat down and watched ing days, ‘8 barred their wa ho busied himself at this, And when These they forded or swam, or fer he had finished she read, in deep- ried a makeshift raft of lows, as carved | most fit, Once thelr raft W. WAG E. CORNER. to grief in the maw of a snarl- ‘Then he penned on @ sti of letter ing current and they laid up two days er a brief notice to the effect that [0 ity, thelr saturated pai Will staf, intended to ap. i Yvterious he hit. the ply for purchase of the land em= back trail in a black night of down- braced in an are mile square, pour and they trudged half a day of which the x SVUINCASE Through wet grass and dripping serub corner mark. fastened tg overtake the truants, — ‘Thunder- to the stump with acks, and storms drove up, shattering the bush t down to rest from his labors of the land with ponderous detona- “How long do you suppose that will tions, assaulting them with flerce stay there, and who is there to read bursts of rain, Maps and mishaps it, if it does?” Hazel observed alike they ted with an equable “Search me, The moose and the spirit and the true philosophy of the deer and the timber wolves, | guess,” trall--to take things as they com: BIN grinned he chances are the When rain deluged them there was paper won't last long, with winds and always shelter to be found and. fir rains But does! matter, It's to warm them. If the files assailed simply a form prescribed by the Land too flereely a smudge brought ease Act of British ( as I go througi lumbia, the | and so long al motions, and sun ment of that ii], And when the lay under @ pleasant that lets me out, Matter of form, you they hearted and care-fr know." ing 4 mt a What eise do you have to do spirit moved. I alone, t othing but furnish the money fell non when the Jand department gets around Se. inte s ept my appl on ald, “E peopled plice: Ket an agen ttend to gil the thing more tha Is, Ob, T have to furniahsa doe Mane MT ton of the land by natural boun. Peeled, for whieh tuated. Well, lets take Mountain, in the hollow of eve i catate from another Canyon, or met them boldly corner.” open, naked and unafraid, GY 0 the Necha This, roughly ascert 1 by sight Hearing up to where nw a line with the npass und debouches from Fraser Lake, with pp.ng off eight hundred and eighty Hudson's Bay fur post and an India yards, brought them up on a knoll mission on ite eastern fringe, they that Commanded the small basin of came upon a blazed line tn the serub which in the “Aba ur rane eres bask section. Is know, | 0 it before, fin land wasn't look| ted there there was mew nd trout in the cre of the cabin, Sot bullt the o largely on the convente the clearing w entre, Bill ex vald y in % pra imed, “Look vu; our widespe he ‘sun 4 chunk, Do thought much thore's ap! that out but li was hay for pretty place cally A quarter you about of the for land when [ squat- and uy horses {n that k buck 1 shack and nat timber, Roaring Bull pulled up, and squinted away down the narrow lane fresh with axe marks “Weill,” sald he, “f wonder what's coming off ne ‘That 1 survey line of some s¢ isn't a trail-too wide, Let's follow it a while ) 1 bet “that's a a nickel,” he asserted next, railroad survey They had traversed two miles more or less, and the fact was patent that the blazed line sought @ fairly constant level across country, "A land survey runs all same latitude and longitude aty of the spot, But ler mo prey 1, if t utry should get a eat y joxging set {and settle u at GUT? ghee 0 NOUe BF only JORRIEE Se SOOO IUBAE produon: Bl) nd Hotes “They cat 4 un squinting at dee: through & | nstrument set. on Look t avings of his outspread hands, ce tt 4 tin act f other men ahead of . and sooth him ing. | hate to leave.” Weil, Vill be’ he bit off the “Better be sorry to leave a place sentence, and stared @ moment in , frank astonishment at Hazel, he took off his hat and bowed. morning, “sure Bill grinned. mornings like this around here altthe time. What are all you fellows doing ~ Wilderness, anyway? ‘Rafl- ‘ross section work for the G, T. the surveyor replied, “Huh,” Bill grunted. "Is it a einen, or iv it something that may come to pass in the misty future?” Then “Good “As near a cinch as anything ever is,” tho surveyor answered, struction has begun—at both thought the few white folke in this country kept tabs on anything as im- portant as a new railroad.” “We've beard a lot, but none of ‘om bas transpired yet; not In my time, anyway,” Bill replied dryly. ‘“How- ever, the world keeps right on mov- ing, I've heard more or less talk of this, but I didn't know it had got past the talking st What's their Pacific terminal?” ince Kupert—new town on @ peninsula north of the mouth of th Skeona,” said the surveyor. “It's a rusia job all the. way through, L be- eve. ‘Three years to spike up the last rail, And that’s going some for 4 transcontinental road. th the Dominion and B. C. governments have wKuaranteed the company's bonda uway tip into millions, “Be a great thing f this country say, where does it cross tho Kockt Whace the general route®’ til asked abruptly. “Goes over the range through Yel- low! i. Krom here it follows the 3 0 to Fort George, then up the Kraner by ‘Tete Juan Cache, through the pass, then down the Athab; till it switehes over to strike Edmonton “Uh-huh,” Bill nodded. “One of the modern labors of Hercules, Well, we've got to peg. So long. “Our camp's about five miles ahead. Better stop in and noon,” the sur- veyor invited “if it’s on’ your _ “Thanks, Maybe we will," Bill re- turned. ‘The surveyor lifted.bjs hat with a swift glince of sdrviration at Hazel, ud (ey pamond sevtiy a uneetad “ow loi . hat do you thitk of that, old girl?” Bill observed presently. “A real, honegt-to-God rat vv within a hundred miles of our shack. Three years. It'! be there before we know it. We'll have neighbors to burn.” “A hundred miles!” Hazel laughed. “Is that your idea of # neichborly Lintanes eWhat's_ a hundred miles?” ne de- fended. “Two days’ ride, that's all. And the kind of people that come to , settle ina country lke this don’t atick in sight of the cars. They're like me—need lots of elhowroom. There'll ardy souls looking for ® location up where we are before very long. You'll se They passed other Crews fot "men, surveyors with transite, ehainmen, stake drivers, axe gunmy widening the path through the tim! Most of Thema looked at Mazel st “ae pur- prise, and stared long, af rR pnawed by, And when an ope tom. bei A molay, He veri showed the seattered tents of survey cam Hagel ta: “Let's not stop. Bil He looked back over his shoulder a comprehending smile, Make you wneom- 1! these boys look at he bantered, “All . But all these fellows probably haven‘t seen a white woman for months, You can’t blame them for admiring. You do ook good to other men besides me, you know.” At length they fared into Hagleton, which is the hub of @ vast area over which men pursue gold and furs. Some hundred odd souls were gath~- ered the where the stern-wheel steamers that ply the turgid Skaeha reach the head of navigation, A land recording office and a mining recorder Hazleton boasted as proof of its civic importance The mining recorder, who combined in himself many, a- pacities besides his governmental function, undertook to put through Bill's land deal. He knew Bill Wag- taft ire man,” he nodded, over the description If some more uh these boys that have blazed trails through this country would do the same thing: they'd be better off. A chunk of land anywhere in this country is a good bet now, We'll have rails here from the coast in a year, Detter freeze onto a couple uli lots here in Hazie~ ton while they're low. Be plumb to the skies in ten y 8. Ite aston. ishin’ how the settlers is comin’.”* Here where folk tatked only of gold and ¢ railroads and settle- ing boom that utd rich, BIL Wai a ponies to his pack train, ‘These he loaded down with food, staples only, flour, suger, beans salt, tea and coifee and a sack of dried fruit. Also he bestowed upon Nigger a further burden of six dozen steel traps. And in the cool of a midsummer morning, before Hazleton had rubbed the sleep out of its collective eyes and taken up the day's work of dieuss~ ing its future greatness, Roaring: Bill and his wife draped the mosquito nets © thelr heads and turned their faces north, They bore out upon @ wagon road. Vor a brief distance only did this en- dure, then dwindled to a path, A turn in this hid sigat of the clustered log houses and tents, and the two steam- ers that lay up against the bats, The river itself was soon Jost in the far stretches of forest. Once more they rode alone in the wilderness, For the first time Hazel felt a quick shrink- from the North, an awe of its silent spaces, which could so nds such as they 1 untamed, sed, and she spell of the neuf thous and still r Hut t came trail, main a la} feeling uni the riding with eyes and ears alert, again g at ease in the saddle, and tatk- ng each new crook in the way With quicke ned interest, (To Be Continued.) il