The evening world. Newspaper, February 19, 1916, Page 11

(Ooprright, Street & Smith.) SINOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS, (Continued,) Once More to the Trail. OR & second or two the three of us thrashed in the pow~ dery snow like #0 many huskies over a frozen fish, till Mac and the doctor, a trifle slow on their feet, but none the less willing to take a hand in the forlmmage, renched us, when by gheer avoirdupols we mastered him, -and bore him struggling to the house. He was in a perfect frenzy. Neither pleadings. nor commands could calm %im down; and so we carried him to ‘MacDonoug! private prison and {Scked him in. **Out in the big room we sat down, Janting, and looked at one another “gWestioningly. Dick, whose game foot “had debarred him from doing aught Dut hover on the edge of the ruction, gtood staring out through @ window. long time he stood there, one hand ting a spasmodic tattoo on the frosted window, By and by he came “nd sat down. ‘ ‘ § r i ¥ “Since Mahomet won't go to the emountain, the mountain will have to sbe brought to him,” he sald tenta- tively. “How long will it take to go ‘to Edmonwn and back, Mr. Mac- Donough?" Mac studied a second. “Well,” he wered cautiously, “barrin’ dirty weather, in which ye couldna travel, ft should be done wi’ gude dogs, by o* the Athabasca, in aboot forty ways—nae less. But ye'd no be able tae stand such a pace, wi’ that foot Ym afraid not,” Dick admitted. ‘But it's like this; We can’t take him sout a8 he is, He'd got away from us if we trusted him, and if we unde: took to haul him out bodily he'd “probably freeze tg death. have an idea that time and put him right again—I won't believe otherw! ‘And as we can't take him where he can have those things, we'll have to bring them to him. If you, Mr. MacDonough, will furnish the outfit to start, I'll send for a doctor who can help lilm, if any one on earth ean—you remember Harrington Dib- bie, Tommy—and between him and the doctor here I'm positive that psoracthing can be done for Howe. At , least, it's worth trying, Don't you , thins so, Tommy?" “{ do. I think it's the best scheme I heartily agreed. “I'm dead ‘willing to make the trip. But do you suppose he'll face @ jaunt like that?” “Divble,” Dick answered, in a tone of Arm conviction, “would start en- thusiastically for the furthest Arctic regions or the heart of the tropics, if there was an interesting case to be treated—besides, he was family “physician to Howe senior, until he went Kast.” Bo it wos speodily settled that Howe should be held prisoner, and that Buck and I should fare forth in the morning, with two of MacDonough's beet men and four strings of dogs, ito span the five hundred miles of ‘snow that lay between us and Ed- monton, All that day we made prep- aration, and when night fell our gamp outfit was lashed to the tobor- gans, and the harness lay ready for the dogs. And before dawn, with a hot break- Maat to warm us, we marshalled the enapping, growling huskies into the traces and turned our faces to the south. CHAPTER XV. Harrington Dibble, M. D.— and Another. HE dead, still cold, kept its unrelenting grip from day to day. Flanked by the ever present sun-dogs, the red man's god drove his journey across the southern short sky, and through the short hours he shone upon us we chirruped encour- agement to our dogs, and mile by mile ate up the long, white trail. Two hours from the time we swung across the north Saskatchewan I had drawn a pocketful of currency from the Hudson's Bay Company store— where Dick, with heaven-sent fore- thought, had deposited five thousand dollars—and the wire that links Ed- monton to the outer world was a-hu:n With a message to Harrington Dib- ble, M. D. Soon came his reply, say- aug he would come to us by the first train, . He kept his wor n_Hollida jean!” I cried. “What in th of heaven brought you here?" “The train, of course,” she retorted, “Ugh, but this ix a shivery-looking and with him name eountry, Tommy.” “T must admit, Mr. Hedrick,” said the doctor, disgustedly, “that I've Deen guilty of an indiseretion that may cause you a good deal of trouble. Confound it! If I'd known I'd have Med like street faker, You see, when I received your telegram I was ataying with the Hollidays, and, naturally, when I announ that L had to go so suddenly, Jean was very much put out. She begged me to re- fuse the cas and in a thoughtless moment L explained that I couldn't, fer both personal and professional reasons; that the patient was the son of an old friend of mine, and a yery unusual-case. In fact it was only when I told her that it was young Howe, and where he that T learned th je state of affairs, And then Jean eried a bit, and suddenly ehirl up and calmly announced B that she would come with me." “It's a wonder,” L hagarded, “that ber mother and the major permitted . “@bey didn't" che doctor exploded, A Love-and-Mystery Romance of the Frozen North : : “Nor did I. I forbade her to think of such @ thin, uted the idea, But I took the sleeper that evening, and, behold! whom should I espy in the morning but Miss Jean, seated op- , ae and booked through to Edmon- vont" “Good heavens, man!” I protested. “There's 600 miles of the most God- forsaken territory I know between here and Fort Resolution; it's a Ls ing tri for strong men. wouldn't” I got no farther, Jean's voice hailed me from the 2 stairs: “When did you say you would tart?” she asked, “We start in the morning. Start out to buck five hundred miles of snow and cold, with dog-teams and frost-bite and long nights and short days, and no accommodations on the trail nor at the end of it,” I told her bluntly, and, I'm afraid, rather bit- terly. “And to make the play strong there's a half-human fiend running loose between here and there who will murder us all If he gets half a show.” “Level: she commented, clasping her hands over her knees and smiling at me in a@ perfectly maddening way. ‘lL have to get a parka and snow- shoes, won't I? And I'm sure I can learn to manage the gee-pole in a day or s0, d cry ‘Mush’ at the dogs—you see I've read all about Northern dog-teams and drivers, ‘Tommy. Or I'll cry ‘Mush’ and Uncle Harry can hang onto the gee-pole. I'd love to see him on the——" “Jean!” I was desperate by this time, “You simply can't go! Do you hear me? You can't, It’s @ horrible trip for men. And Howe won't know you when you get there. He doesn't know me, nor Dick. He isn't our old Howe; he'’s—Lord knows what he is! He's not sick—why, he's being kept locked up while I’m go! be off into the wilderness, savage and liking it. stopped there. I had to, for I couldn't face Jean and go on, with her look. ing at me like that, Sho was stand- ing up, and her hands were doubled up into white-knuckied little fists. Sho looked as if she wanted to hit me. “Come on, Tommy; bundle up and go shopping with me. If we start in the morning we must be stepping lively. I must go and get my snow- whoes and—and parka, and whatever else goes with the local color, Mush on, Tommy!" By this time she managed to laugh, but I knew it was next door to a woman's sob, CHAPTER XVI. A Day of Reckoning. Y now we had come to the very heart of winter, and, except in the thick timber, the snow was packed solid as wet sand, so that after we left the Landing and took to the river our dogs pattered over a smooth, hard surface, pulling the loaded to- boggans with little effort. We had left Lake Athabasca behind us, and journeyed far down Slave River without losing a day, But such luck couldn't hold forever, and just below Five Portages, not far from where the Ape and Francois made their midnight raid, we pitched our tents one evening in @ steady down- fall of minute snow-particles—hard, cutting stuff, like diamond dust. About midnight the wind changed from a whisper to a moan, then to a wild shriek, and the snow-whirl rose up and enveloped us like a morning fog. At daybreak it was still whoop- ing merrily; we had no choice but to lie in camp. ‘That afternoon I learned from Jean what had sent Howe to the North with us, and why their engagement hadn't been announced at that din- ner. I had left the doctor and our men comparing experiences north and south, and gone to Jean's tent for a while. Mimi, the half-breed girl, was curled in a corner, dozing, and while she slept, Jean and I, like the Walrus and the Carpenter, talked of many things, “Tommy,” she asked abruptly, “did Rex ever make any explanation about about that last day in Seattle?” I shook my head. Rex was her girl- hood name for Howe. “It was on a Saturday, wasn’t it, that you and Dick got our cards she went on, “Rex told me that Dick was in town and that you were golug away soon; I thought it would be so nice to have you all there together. And then on Wednesday morning he sent me a letter—oh, it was pitiful, Sald he wasn’t worthy, and—lots of things. Said he cared too much to let me marry blindly a man that wasn’t master of himself. I tried to reach him that day, but I couldn't. And that night he went away with you, I've wondered if you knew why? “I think I do,” I muttered, “The doctor told us." hat a little thing it was, after all!" she sighed, “He told me in that good-by letter that it began in his last year at Berkeley, and grew and grew on him. He'd mastered it for nearly a year, and then at the very last it rose up and conquered him in. And he didn’t give me a chance il him it didn't make any differ- Oh, Tommy, Tommy, if ever you care for a woman and she cares you, don't, don't put her on a and worship her from afar, I wouldn't have cared; I'd have helped Rex fight it out, if he'd only given me a chance, But he didn't— ‘he didn't, It wasn't falr to himself, She was staring hard at the little, ing stove, and blinking fast. And II sat there a minute, twisting a bit of bark between my fingers, The things | wanted to say T had to keep to myself—I couldn't tell her that my heart was sore with pity, without telling her more. It was the eternal triangle, over again, I wanted to take her in my arms and comfort her and let all the rest of the world go; but that was another man’s privilege, you see, and so I muttered some platitude and went back to the other tent, feel~ {ng as I imagine Howe felt when ho was wrecking the Chancellor cafe—at odds with all the world, That evening, in the Inst minutes of the long twilight, we set our camp on the rive In an hour or so we had everything snug for the night; dogs fed, wood chopped and tent walls banked with snow. In the yuncil lodge," as Buck whimaically termed it, the lot of us were squitted The Evening World Daily Magazine, Saturday, February 19, 1916 Can You Beat It? x22 tna, By Maurice Ketten ALLRIGHT SEND IT about on our bedding, waiting for the supper that Mimi and Henri Paleau had joined forces to get. I was sitting hunched against the wall, midway be- tween the stove and one corner. I had reached up and was idly fingering @ seam in the roof, when there was a sharp plup, and a hand's breadth from my fingers appeared a small round hole, Outside, and from quite a dis- tance, came a staccato crack that made my heart jump. Mim! gave a startled equawk, and in the same breath Buck, with one quick move- ment, blotted out the candle, “Drop down flat,” he commanded sharply. “Quick!” There was a little, subdued rustling, bundle of straw, Uke fleld-mice in «& and quiet again. Doctor Dibble’s pro- fessional instincts stirred, “Is any one hurt?” he inquired soft- ly. There wag a chorus of low-toned negatives. Jean, close by me, whispered: “What is it, Tommy?" and I could only answei “I don't know.” [ could guess, though, and Buck voiced my conclusion. “Punctured the tent, that's all,” he drawled calmly, “But lay low, every- body, and we'll see what comes next, I guess it's the baboon, all right, Seattle.” He moved carefully toward the door of the tent, and in a little while a puff of cold air told us that he was peep- ing through the flaps, It was too hard on the nerves to lie there su- pine; I wanted to see whatever might be seen. Rising up, I felt the place where the bullet entered, and though everything was vague and indistinct, by straining my eyes I managed to locate on the opposite side the hole It had drilled in passing. With that to give me the line of direction, I lifted gently the edge of the tent and scraped at the banked snow till the way was clear for me to ser. “Hit you, Buck?" I asked anxiously. “No,” he growled. “Knocked ashes in my eyes, darn him! Say, we got to get that Jasper, or he'll get us, Seattle, I expect he's locoed enough to dd anything by this time, One thing, if he hasn't made a raise since he sneaked into the Injun camp he ain't got any lead to waste.” A few minutes longer we lay quiet, 80 still we could almost hear each other's heart beats, Then Buck moved over beside me, and I told him whence I thought the shots had come. He located the holes, peeped out, and agreed with me, “In about half an hour the moon'll come up, She'll throw us right in the shadow,” he declared. “When it doos, I'll break for that timber and get around the bend and have it out with tne gentleman. The rest uh yuh lay with your guns ready, dif he slows himself, cut loose. Don't be afrald uh hittin’ me, because I'll keep under cover, Sabe?” “I'm going with you,” I quietly said, I felt that I, too, had a bone to pick with the Ape, if we could chance upon him, “Yuh better not," Buck objected, “You're part way responsible for this outfit, and yuh oughtn't to take chances, I got the best uh him once, and I guess I can go through again.” “That was different.” I asserted, “Anyway, I'm going. ‘Two guns are a heap better than one.” “If you're dead bent on it, all right," Buck grumbled, but there was that in hia tone which made me he was nowise set agains Paleau and MacRae be for chance to get in the game, but some one had to guard camp, and the Apo had struck Buck and me too hard and too often for us to forego an op- portunity to balance the account. It seemed a long time to the rising of the mooh, but it came at last; and as it cleared the sky line a long, sombre shadow stole out from the wooded bluff at our back and crept swiftly toward the tents. Our snow- shoes leaned against the canvas just outside, and, with our guns handy, we crouched by the flap, waiting. Up, up, within thirty feet, and there the treacherous black blot halted and came no nearer, Bathed in the white rays, our grimy tents and toboggans and dogs lay plain against the drifts. “She fell short,’ Buck whispered, “We'll have to make a run for it. Yuh better not go, Seattle; it's my fight.” fl I made an impatient gesture, Buck untied the lower flap-strings You fellers cover that bank," he said coolly, and stealthily slid a long arm out and got our snowshoes, With them in one hand and a rifle in the other, we broke from the tent and raced for the protecting gloom. He must have had the eye of an eagle, that vindictive brute on the bank beyond, We hadn't taken four steps, quickly as we went, when a bullet droned by our heads’ with the lilt of an angry buinblebee, and the familiar crack ‘echoed up and down the river. Henri, from the tent, fired at the gunflash, but he failed to meke connections, for the Ape shot at us again Just as we dipped into the edge of the tongue-shaped shadow on the now. But for that last shot things might have worked out different; chance, destiny, call it what you lke. I leaped like a frightened rabbit to get out of the revealiny white when his second bullet whistled by, stubbed a too on a snowridge, and fell head- long. As I rolled over on my side, it seemed to me that a black spot, a mere speck on the brink of the cut- bank moved, and lying flat on my stomach I fired almost without tak- ing aim, The black speck leaped to the full stature of a bulky man, poised an In- stant on the sheer then fell, turning over and over like a winged partridge, down, down to the frozen river three hundred feet below, “Yuh got him, Seattle!" Bu a whoop of pure exultation, sure got him, Holy smoke! but that was good shootin’. 1 never Kot sight uh him at all till he started to drop.” “We'd better make sure,” | suggest od. “He can't be any too dead for my peace of mind.” We put on our snowshoes, and, at- ter calling to the others in the teat not to smoke us up when we appeared on the other side, struck out through the timber, following the prow of the hill around the bend, Nearing the op- posite side we came across the Ape's trail. ‘See, Buck pointed out, “it's fresh, That jasper blew in there about the time we was makin’ camp. He knew who we was, and he couldn't resist the temptation to shoot us up @ batch, Say, he wouldn't ‘a’ done a thing to us if he'd waited till daylight!" Following the trail we stole eau- tiously up to the edge of the bank, not that we expected trouble, but, Buck said, we weren't taking any chances: “Look at snorted The Ape had reconnoitered from the shelter of the spruce which ran up within a few yards of the chopped-off bank, and then crawled on all fours to nd that, would yuh!” Buck the very edge and hollowed himself a snug nest in the hard drift. No won- der we couldn't seo him, Standing in hig hiding place, we could lean for- ward and look down the sheer wall. Straight below us @ black place in the ice yawned wide, and the bubble of the open water rose faintly at first, then louder as we listened. I looked luck and he looked back at me. ir-hole,” he remarked absently. of ‘Let's go down.” We went along the bank until we found a sloping place, scrambled down and turned back to the air-hole, Six or eight feet from the edge of it lay a fur mitten, Buck walked near, sounding the ice with the butt of his Winchester, and picked it up. He stared at it intently a second, then threw ft into the swirling water, and Sa ousrens sucked it under like a lash, “Dead and buried, forever and ever, amen,” Buck soliloquized, “Yuh can sure put that down in your ttle book. Well, darn him, he thad it comin’.” Then we turned and went quickly back to camp and our rudely inter- rupted supper. CHAPTER XVII. The Finishing Touch. iE fourth night from the passing of the Ape we made our last camp within ten miles of the post. At daybreak we were under way again, and before noon we quit the frozen river road and strung across the open flat to where the reecking chimneys belched wavering columns through the glinting air. Below the post clustered the many- poled lodges of the Little People, It might have been yesterday that we left, for any visible change. MacDonough, Dick and Morrison met us at he big gate. From divers places about the post doors opened for @ peep at us; noses were pressed flat against frosted window panes, Even in the North it ts counted no light task to buck @ thousand miles of unbroken snow, “Ye're returned, I see," was Maoc- Donough’s characteristic greeting, 1 could see him, out of the corner of my ey, appraising the added mem- bers of our party. Dr, Morrison, for once, forbore unilmbering his verbal quick-fire battery, contenting himself with a cheery, “How-de-do, every- body? A quick trip, indeed. Dick had little to say, but he shook hands with all of us tn a manner that bespoke relief, Jean, her head cov- ered with a thick hood and her face muffled in the upturned collar of @ fur coat, he passed up without a second glance, and when she laughed and spoke to him he stared in amaze, doubting the evidence of his own senses. “Snubbed in public, four thousand miles from hom Jean pouted. “Upon my word, that's a nice way to treat an old chum! I should think you'd at least say ‘Hello,’ Dick." She threw back the lapels of her coat and smiled mischievously at him, “Jean Holliday! What in the name Heaven brought you here?” he Dicky,” she retorted, mock. ingly, “you're not half #o original as you used to be, Those are the very words Tommy used, with a slightly different inflection, When I got off the train at Edmonton, What would bring one to this country Without more ado Morrison took Jean and Mimi under his wing and hustled them off to the care of his wife, MacDonough marsha Dr Dibble to his own quarters, and Dick lingered to bave a word with me while we stripped the harness from the do, Dick “He's' just the same,” oon- fessed when we'd finished and the three of us were hurrying to the com- fort of MacDonough’s house, “Doesn't know anybody or anything he ought to; sulks half the time, and throws out dark hints of what he'll do to us once he gets out of our clutches. It's the queerest turn ' ever knew @ man to take. You'd think, to hear him sometimes, he was some reincarnated pirate. Physically, he's as well he Well, it's up to Dibble; I hope he can make good. But how came Jean to know? What an un- godly trip for a girl like her to make!” I explained briefly, and Dick smiled understanding. “Just ike her,” he commented. “She was always in a class by herself. Sho certainly has good nerve.” “Nerve!” Buck echoed emphatically, “She's as game as they make ‘em, Pill throwers and society belles never did look like much to me, but I take off my hat to this pat nd here's hopin’ they don’t lose out. We tramped into the house and shed our heavy clothing. The warm room, the glowing stove, MacDon- ouvh's bluff hospitalty—big, arm- chairs to sit in, after days and days of monotonous plodding and squat- ting on robes—tt all seemed mighty good to us, trail-weary as we were; there is a Hmit to the endurance of men, and Buck and I had put many a mile behind us since the first snow, MacDonough brought forth a bottle of brandy; a stiff glass of that all round brightened us up. By th we'd given Mac @ terse outline of our trail-happenings, dinner was ready, and we mat down to a table once more. Just as the meal wea tinished Doctor Morrison came, and the two medicos straightway sat down to a professional discussion of the case. I won't at- tempt to record what they said—tech- nical terms are too appalling—but it ended with thetr cigars, and Dibble announced that he would like to see Howe. Morrison led the way to the room where Howe was a prisoner, and the rest of ue made a fresh smoke and settled ourselves to await with pa- tience the verdict. Barring the fact of his being @ pris- oner therein, Howe's ablding-place was cheerful enough; light and airy, with a good, clean bed, a table, and chairs, Only the inch-thick tron rods across the windows and the heavy, bold-etudded door made the place @ Ja! Howe hadn't been @ passive guest. Once, MacDonough told us, he smashed a window, and broke @ stout chair to bits in a vain effort to loosen the bars; and another time he turned on the man who brought his meals, and fought like a fiend for the door- key. But Mac himself was in the pas- sage, handy, and between them they got the best of him. After that they went to Howe's room in pairs—ex- cept Morrivon; him Howe asullenly tolerated. It was nearly an hour before they returned to the front room. I caught Dibble’s eye in mute appeal; he snook his head doubtfully. “Don't ask me, because I can't tell you anything—yet.” he said, and sat down, relapsing into frowning silence, Evidently the outlook wusn't What one might call promising Morrison put on his coat and cap. “In about an hour then, doc- tor?” he Dibble roused answer that will do nicely, himself long absently, “An hour then went back enough to The Golden to his meditating, the crow's-fect at the corners of his eyes running out like the ribs of a fan as he chowed the end of an unlighted cigar. “I hale wish I were a hypnotist,” he muttered to himsejf, after a fow minutes, “Why?" I asked curiously; but he didn’t seem to hear, and I let it pass. We sat there for upward of three- quarters of an hour, a wordless, moody group. Even Buck, light- hearted and cheery through battle, murder and sud death, seemed to be cast down. Donough sucked adily at a cl pipe, his face an expressionicas mask. I didn’t know what problem the knit brows and ins tense absorption of Dibble might por- wee, and I hadn‘t the temerity to ask. The tension grew unbearable; it was like waiting for the crack o' doom. 1 got up and paced the length of tho room. As I turned, the door opened, and Jean and Doctor Morrison came in, MacDonough was on his feet in- stantly. vill ye no’ be seated, Miss Holli-~ day?” He pushed a chalr forward, with a courteous bow, “Thank you.” Jean sat down, glan- cing from one to the other of us. “I tried to persuade Miss Holliday to rest a while,” the doctor addressed Dibble half apologetically, “but she wished to come over at once. “I oame over to see Rex, Uncle Harry,” she said evenly. “Where ts he “Uncle Harry” looked at her pity- ingly. “Wouldn't it be best to wait a ttle, my dear?” he temporized. “I want to see him—now,” Jean re- turned tinpatiently. “If you don't let me, U'—I'm sure I'll behave dread- fully. Don't—don't be a bear, uncle.” He studied a second. “It will be a decided shock to you, Jean,” he warned her. “He'll simply treat you as a stranger; and everything about him is #0 utterly changed. But if you insiat —well, such things are more or less intangible—one can't tell, how a familiar voice or face may affect-him, Jean stood up and threw off her wraps; cool, as if she were about to take # hand at bridge, no sign of what she felt—mve for red danger- signal that flaunted in either cheek. “L think—yes, we must experiment fully. ko with you, and Tommy --he hasn't seen you for some time, has he? You, too, Buck.” If Jean had any objections to our witnessing her meeting with Howe, she did not betray them. MacDonough preceded us and unlocked the door, and quietly, apprehenstively, we passed into the barred and bolted room. “Rex!" Just the word, but what a world of feeling it expressed. He swung on his heel from the win- dow where he stood with his back to us when Jean gave that half-stifled cry. Gaunt, bearded, his eyes glow! sombrely, he faced us without a word, watohing as a trapped animal might watch its captor. No hint of recogni- tion came over his face till his glance fell on me, and then he spat out an angry oath and came @ step nearer. Yu — =—— he blurted savagely. “What d'you want?" “Oh Rex, Kex, don't you know me? Jean shook off the detaining hand of her uncle, and went toward Howe, her hands outheld, Half in fear of, oh, 1 don't know what; a sort of ungoverny able distrust of Him in hie obsession— T took a step fofward also, But he had turned his attention to Jean, glaring at her with his lips drawn up into the snarling sneer of @ husky bracing himself for battle. he spoke to him again. Roughly he ook off the little hand she laid lightly en bis arm, and in same breath flung out a vile blasphemy. Oh, [ acted the fool, and I know it! But it out me to the quick to see the big tears start in her eyes, to see the white creep into her cheeks, and the pitiful quiver of her lips; that foul word sang in my ears like the hum of 4 fiddle-string and the hot plood shot clear to my fingertips. It was the finishing touch. I forgot that he wasn't responsible, forgot everything that I should have remembered, und in the grip of the same unreasoning passion that made me shake Crowley of the Comot from one end of his office to the other that day in Seattle, I took one long stride and swung a clenched fist for Howe's jaw with all the force of tratl-hardened muscles and a hot heart, It caught him fair on the point of the chin, a wicked blow—I'm no phys- jeal weakling; | weigh a hundred and sixty-five, and the double drill to bk monton and back had toughyned every fibre in my body—and he went dowa as if felled with a club, hi head the first part of him to stri the floor, At the same instant Buck's sinewy arms closed round me, “Holy smoke, man! Have yuh gone plumb buguouse, too?” he cried. Jean dropped on her knees beside him, with @ little sobbing cry that hurt me far more than the black looks of Dick and the astonished stare Unat Buek bestowed upon me when he at length released his hold, The black fury wos spent in a moment; and L wtood aghast at what I'd done, Dibble gently but firmly pushed Jean aside, He had sopped a towel it @ pitcher of water that stood on the Hittle table and this he applied to Howe's forehead, Full five minutes thay worked over him before there was so much as the flicker of an eye- Mi i. ‘Then the color crept slowly back into his cheeks, his eyes opened wide, with an odd, questioning look in them, and miracle of miracles! thanks be to the powers that sped my arm on that savage blow—he spoke to me in his old, languid drawl: “By Jove! Where are we, anyhow, Tomuny?" “At Fort Resol our lucky stars! and grabbing ‘b him to his ton Dibble, M pressive “Ah” When he was solid on his pina, I took him gently by the shoulder and turr@l him face to face with Jean, “H rbody that came a long Howe,” 1 sald, as jon, old man, thank I most shouted, n by the coat helped ; while from Harring D., came a long, ex- { co’ He looked at ler unbelievingly @ If You Could Get Your Hands on. $5. You Might Find Yourself in the Same Queer Plight as By DWIGHT TILTON This Will Be Next Week’s Complete Novel in The Evening Worl It ie the story of several men ai. that was carrying tons of gold from New York to England, TREASURE, BAFFLING MYSTERY and an ABSOLUTELY UN- FORESEEN CLIMAX—these are the “THE GOLDEN GREYHOUND!” 8,” Dibble went on thought- th: Greyho a girt aboard an ccean liner jont points of moment, and Jean smiled at him with misty eyes—deep-gray eyes that were aglow with happiness. And—dnd then he took her reverently im his arms and kissed her before us all— and I stayed to see no more. Out through the hallway, into the big front room I went, fipped my parka over my head, caught up cap and mitts, and hurried out of the house, away from the post, somd- where into the white, still world, where I could fight it out with my- self. Have charity, ye of phlegmatic temperament; I was young, and the young take such things hard. An hour later, and a good two miles from the post, I had walked the fever out of my blood, and the philosophy born of my lean year in the cities was beginning to assert itself. I turned back toward the fort. Swinging alot one side of a narrow belt of timber, rounded @ protruding clump of it and met Ponoka. A met, O queen of the Little 1 hailed recklessly. “Are o out walking off a fit of the She smiled and shook her head. “I came to speak wit you,” she an- swered in perfect English. “I saw you from our village. How goes It with the stranger who was sick in my lodge? Why did he go to t post and come back no more?" “Because,” I told her frankly, “he was sick not only in body but in hi head, and whilo he stayed in the lodges of the Little People he could not be cured. So we coaxed him to the post and made him a prisoner, and brought a great medicine-man from his own country—and now he “1 m glad,” she said gently. pitied him, for he had many hu: and I nursed him—and—and then he thought he loved me,” she laughed softly, and dug up the snow with the heel of her moccasin, sick in the head, as you say. wondered how he fared. The factor would tell us nothing. That is why I came to speak with you. You should be joyful,” she added naively, “that your friend is well—yet you are ead. “Blighted love,” I flung out heed- leasly, “Did you ever Jose the one thing in all the World that you most desired? if you should chance to have i , you'll know just how at < ied ith uzzled alr, She rega: me with a puzi . then looked away along the ragged woods’ edge, where the lowering oun flung creeping shadows. “Ah, indeed I know. I ‘porn among the wild people; but it chanced that in time I ame to live where there is little snow and many men of your kind. And they —they cast me out for a little sin; whereby I lost many things—many, many things that were very dear to me. SoIcame back to the wild, where I was born—it Is kinder to me than the folk of my own blood.” “Then you are @ whitelgee lex claimed. “I was sure 0! ws “T am i. of white people.’ she mured, “but my he an alad fer your friend—and—and for you I shall be sad; for I know @ sore heart heals slower than a broken bone. Goodby.” And she was Kono, Uke @ wraith in the thicket. That was the last I saw of Ponoka. Tho big, brooding North shrouds many @ mystery. ‘To Dick and MacDonough and Doc- tor Morrison I am an odd mixture of good and bad; a well-intentioned sort of @ cuss, but subject to gusts of un- controllable temper—a perfect demon @t such times. Even Buck told mo gravely one day. “I like yuh, Seattle —yuh know that—but, by thunder, you're sure uncertain!” don't know what she thinks she has never said a wo she treats me the same as of old, but r twice I've caught her eyeing me with a curious expression, How not knowing the circumstances, trea ed it as a Kood joke when he was told that I laid him ‘out. So, you see, I've sort of lost stand- ing with some of my friends, even though that rash blow effected what was beyond the power of medicine or Oh, well, I can't help it; ch care. If they un- derstod the “why” of it, they'd pity me—and I'd @ heap rather be misun- derstood than pitied. Only “Unele Harry”—kindly, shrewd old go! xuessed what ailed me that day, and he isn't the kind that tells. I know he knows, for he told me so one day, with his hand on my shoulder, Howe cannot remember, and prob- ably never will, what filled in the gap between the morning we halted to plan a crossing over that deep coulee and his waking at Fort Resolution with Jean at his elbow. He's honestly incredulous When we tell him, I don't attempt to account for it. I do know that Howe of California could never have lived, sorely wound- ed and altogether without resources, two days in the winter woods alone, It took a Howe such as Dick and L came upon that night; a man of grim determination, with the woods’ cun- ning that could devise rabbit snares from useless bits of twine, and coax fire from the back of a knife biad with a pleco of stone. Maybe a httle of the stuff which his adventuring grandfather told him lurked tn the devious recesses of his brain sprang to the surface subconsciously when the need was great, Maybe the old man's spirit personally conducted affairs. I don’t know. I leave the nent of that to spiritualists and rs in psychology. What a creature of moods is a mant Hunger and hardship, peril and patn, bestowed them all upon us there be with the North in heaping measure. Yet times when I walk the streets th currying human thousand, the smell of the big woods back to me, the shuffling patter of leather-shod thousands recalls the drift of the caribou herds; under my feet the concrete walks lie hard and unresiliest like the Slave Lake tees above my head the sputtering are- lights mock me as the sun-dogs did of old, And 1 have a hunch—thoug’ I don't admit it, even to myself-—that some time that’ same old North wht call too long and loudly, and T'll go back—to stay (LHE END)