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Show ME LEHI SUN. LEH1, UTAH 1 1 Rs under rozen By George Marsh UCHT OyPENN Tui 00 W.1 CHAPTER XII 15 A WEEK later Jim, Esau and Migwan, with three loaded sleds, left Sunset House bound for the Pipestone lakes, while Omar re mained at the post to prepare tor the Christmas trade, Night after night the hurt which tortured Jim's days waked him with the poignancy of the dreams it brought. And, after supper, as he conjured up the face of Aurore In the fire which held his brooding eyes, often, from eld habit, his hand Instinctively groped for the furry ruff, the point ed ears on the masslre skull of Smoke lying beside him, to meet no touch of a moist nose, no lick of a warm tongue. He had lost them both the two creatures he loved. At the Lake of the Great Stones old Jloaw, who had acted as his agent, waited at a large camp of hunters for Jim's sleds loaded with trade goods. In two days Stuart and Esau turned south with more black and silver fox, lynx and marten than had reached Sunset House the previous year. And, according to Jlnaw, the bulk of the Christmas trade was yet to come. "Christie's eyes'll stick out of his head when be sees the fur we send to Expanse after Christmas," Jim said triumphantly, to Esau. "We've got more than double the value of last year's trade on the sleds right now." He patted the old man's shoulders affectionately. "And you are responsible for It Esau's seamed face beamed In his pleasure, "Your fader, he feel happy, now, to know dat Sunset House get de fur, ah-hah I" 1 The man who carried a wound no material success could heal smiled at the quaint fancy of the loyal old OJIbwa. 'Yes, father will be happy now. He knew he left Jim In good bands." Through the dusk of one starless J night, three trail-weary teams of huskies left the lake Ice and turned Into the clearing where the candlelit candle-lit windows of Sunset nouse beck-oned. beck-oned. Warned by the yelping of the dogs, Omar threw open the trade-house trade-house door and hurried to the sleds with welcoming "bo'-Jo's." "You get de fur?" demanded Omar, peering at the sled wrappings. wrap-pings. "Heaps of It, Omar," cried Jim. "Jlnaw and old Zotaire are bringing the whole hunt of the country with them Christmas. We've got LeBiond Le-Biond licked to a standstill 1" When the sleds were unloaded at the trade-house door and the dogs fed, the hungry and tired factor of Sunset House sought his supper. In his kitchen he found Sarah busy . over a pan of sizzling moose steaks. "Bo'-Jo', bo'-Jo. Meester Jeemr cried the red-faced cook, brandishing brandish-ing a fork in one hand as she welcomed wel-comed Stuart with the other. "You home all safe? You make de beeg trade, ah-hah I I heard you tell Omar. But you breeng back de face so thin. Sarah, she feed you up." Then with a questioning look of her snapping black eyes, she asked, as she nodded toward the living liv-ing room: "You see nodlng een dere?" . "No, what d'yuh meanr Sarah's flat face divided in a wide grin. "You lookl" Curious, Jim walked into the living liv-ing room. There on the table lay one of his own envelopes. Casually he picked It up. On the envelope he read his own name in the handwriting hand-writing of Aurore LeBiond. Jim studied the envelope. What could it mean? What trick were they playing on him now? She was at Winnipeg and yet here was her handwriting on one of his own envelopes, en-velopes, without address or stamp. He turned angrily on the woman who waited. "Who brought this? Why don't you tell me? What's the" The complaisant smile of the OJIbwa as she fingered some dark stuff which circled her throat and was tucked into her woolen blouse, drove Jim to open the envelope. en-velope. She was bidding him good-by, telling tell-ing him what he had already learned from the Winnipeg paper. Then he read: "Jim darling, Tve come backl I was hurt tried to close my heart to you. But it was no use, you already al-ready were there had all of It! You Just wouldn't be driven out Oh, I've been so unhappy since leaving that note. They tried to drive me into a hateful thing, but my magician in the forests held me with his spelL Jim, I couldn't wait for spring Tve come back to you, dear maker of magic Do you want me, now, after the pain I gave yout X reached Bonne Chance by dog-team dog-team yesterday, and here I am at Sunset House writing you, so you many know on your return I want ed those big arms of yours around me again wanted to know you still loved me. "I beg of you come to Bonne Chance when you get this, and tell me 1 haven't lost you haven't brought my heart through the snows to you in vain. I love you love you, Jim. AUEORE." Jim Stuart read and reread the letter until the words grew illegible to his blurred eyes. Like the thrust of a knife had come the shock of her first letter, and now, numb with the dull agony of despair, a joy more poignant than pain held him inarticulate. He raised his hand to his hot forehead, as his dazed eyes turned to the woman who watched him. "She come wld sled to see you, explained Sarah. "She cry w'en I tell her you travel nord wld de dog, I not let her een de house ontll she say she ees your woman. Den she write dat lettair and tell me to say nodlng ontil you read It." Jim's heart was. beating with de lirious joy. She had cast Mac Lauren aside laughed at the lure of the city, to come to him. Her heart was too wild to be caged down there in Winnipeg; she belonged to the forests, to the land of the "long snows." His face darkened with disap pointment as he looked at his watch. It was too late too late to gallop his tired dogs across ten miles of frozen lake. The post would be asleep. Tomorrow morning he would go to the girl who had flouted the smooth MacLauren to come back to her fur trader, and demand his daughter of LeBlond-rtaJce her by force if it came to thjit; for she loved him, loved him. She had said she was his his woman. In the face of LeBiond he'd take her. They'd be married by the missionary mission-ary at Fort Hope, She'd never escape es-cape him again. For he was a made man, now. Sunset House would startle headquarters at Winnipeg Win-nipeg with its trade. Now, he had more than a heart and empty bands to give her. Aurore 1 Aurore 1 Already Omar had started opening the fur packs brought from the north, and the two men ran their fingers through the shimmering pelts, classifying their prlmeness and making an estimate of their value down on the railroad. They were admiring a large black fox which for size, thickness and sheen of its fur was the prize of the trip north, "It will bring a thousand In Winnipeg, Win-nipeg, Omar," commented Jim. "I never saw a better one." "Ah-hah I Dat ees good wan for" The hurried entrance of Esau drew the eyes of the men at the counter. "De sky look ver queer 'cross de lak 1" he announced. "I watch eet for long piece." . "Where?" Jim demanded; "south, toward LeBlond's?" "Ah-hah I De sky ees light lak bush fire mak' een de summer." "Then It's the buildings at LeBlond's Le-Blond's I" said Jim, starting for the door, followed by the others. "It's out of range of the northern lights, and there's none tonight, anyway 1 It's too thick I" A fire at LeBlond's 1 What could it mean? Outside in the snow the three men gazed through the gloom of the thick night across the frozen lake where a dull glow hung above the horizon. "Dat ees fire for sure," muttered Omar. Fire! thought Jim. It might be the living quarters, the trade-house, too! If so; she'd have nothing but the Indian shacks for shelter. He would go! "Hitch our dogs, Omar, I'm going over!" "W'y you worree eef dat place burn?" demanded the half-breed. Jim thrust his face close to the almost invisible features of his friend. "Because," he said, "she's come back to me my girl 1 She's there 1 She may need help; understand?" under-stand?" For answer, a calloused hand fumbled in the dark, found Jim's, and closed in a hard grip. "I get de dog I" And Omar hurried away. Ten miles of lake trail broken only by the passage of the sled which had carried Aurore to Sunset House lay before Jim and Omar, as they started with the empty sled through the murk of the starless night. "Marche, Wolf V Jim snapped his long dog-goad in the biting air, as he called to the lead-dog who had taken the place of the lost Smoke. Shortly the racing team rounded a point of Island and there, a mile away, an Inferno of red flames leaped from the ruined trade-house of Louis LeBiond. "The trade-house I" cried Jim with relief. "His quarters are safel" She was there, among those dark figures, and in minutes he would look in her eyes hear her voice. Yelping as they ran, the excited dogs took the sled up from the lake ice Into the clearing. Running to a shawled group of awed Indian women, wom-en, Jim cried: "Where's LeBiond?" as his roving eyes circled the clearing clear-ing for the familiar figure he sought A gray-faced squaw pointed to four men carrying bags of flour on tumplines from a heap of salvaged provisions to the stockade gate leading to LeBlond's bouse. Following, Stuart overtook the packers as they reached the house and dropped their loads on the slab porch. " "LeBiond I" he called. At the name, one of the packers turned, and from a face blackened with char, the reddened eyes of LeBiond Le-Biond glared at Jim. "What d'yuh want here?" "We saw the light In the sky," replied Jim, unruffled, "and I came to offer you my quarters if you needed them. I'm glad that you don't." "That's not why you came! You came for her. Well, y can't have herl" And the smudged face of LeBiond Le-Biond tightened with passion as his red-lidded eyes glittered. ' "You're all In, LeBiond. I'm sorry this happened this loss to you. F77 FM'-'j Jim Stuart Read and Reread the Letter Until the Words Grew Illegible to His Blurred Eyes. Let me see her for a minute, and I'll go." As though he had not heard, LeBiond Le-Biond turned and staggered into the house, "Flore I Are you here, Flore?" Jim beard LeBiond call in French; then, "Mon Dleul What's this?" Jim and Omar looked into each other's startled eyes, as the trader appeared In the door. "Come In here! There's something some-thing wrong" With a bound Jim was In the house, Omar at his heels. "What can it be? What's happened?" he gasped, suddenly cold with a great fear. "Look I" commanded LeBiond. On the floor of the large living room, bound and gagged, lay an Indian In-dian woman, unconscious, a red welt smearing her forehead. Overturned Over-turned chairs bore evidence of a struggle. Tve searched the house 1" Le Biond cried in his desperation. "She's not here; she's gone I They took her when they bound Flore, here!" The brutal swiftness of the blow left Jim dazed, incapable of thought "Aurore! Aurore l" he groaned, "what have they done to you?" Then his brain cleared. There was no time to lose! He must think act! "Omar, circle the house and stockade for tracks! LeBiond, tell your people! We must bring this woman to, and get her story. Get some whisky I Quick 1" Jim slashed the rawhide thongs binding the unconscious OJIbwa, removed the gag, and forcing whisky whis-ky down her throat, got a weak pulse from her wrist as Omar burst into the room. "Trail of dog-team from behind stockade to lak'. He got her w'en dey fight de fire at trade-house! Faradees 1" Faradls had come for his revenge 1 "Aurore! Aurore I" groaned Jim in his agony. "Well trail him, Omar, night and day until his dogs die on their feet ! If you get him first he's mine! Bring him to me alive I He's mine I" "I breeng heem. He weel die slow. I breeng heem." As the hurt OJIbwa revived under the stimulant the half-crazed LeBiond Le-Biond appeared with Renault "We've found his trail on the lake! He's headed for the outlet! Jules and I are starting now! No one would be mad enough for this but Paradisl" "Yes, it's Paradis," said the tortured tor-tured Jim. "I'm crossing the lake for two six-dog teams. Look herel You can't hold his tracks in a night like this, man. You're worn out Get some rest, start at daylight and wait for me at the NIpIgon tralL If he hasn't turned south, there, hell take the Albany, the Pipestone, or the Deer Lodge trail north, and well separate and get him." Renault nodded, "Dat ees right ting to do." "Hell have hours the start of us, LeBiond." Jim rose to his feet and rested his hand on the shoulder of the other. "But If he's ahead of me, I'll get him, if he goes to the Winlsk barren-grounds 1" LeBiond gripped Jim's hand as he murmured his gratitude. Then Flore found ber voice and, kneeling beside her, the two drawn-faced drawn-faced men. got ber story. When the cries of fire, outside, drew LeBiond from his supper table, Aurore had watched from a window while she slipped into her heavy moccasins and fur coat Suddenly there was a noise tn the kitchen, a rush of moccaslned feet and, as Flore turned to recognize Paradis, a blow on the head shut from the Ojibwa all knowledge of what followed. na sot- that fire to eet me out of the house, then gagged and tied her and carried her to tne siea Demna the stockade," groaned the trader. "But she fought him she fought him! Look at this rooml" CHAPTER XIII BACK through the thick night to Sunset House hurried the tired dogs and men. In a half hour two six-dog teams, each loaded with food for three weeks, sleeping robes and shed tent left the lighted trade-house, trade-house, and faded Into the murk. Before Be-fore dawn the dogdrivers saw in the distance a fire on the shore of the white thoroughfare of the NIpIgon NIp-Igon trail. Shortly they Joined LeBiond Le-Biond and his head man. "He's headed for the Albany ; we followed the trail beyond here for a mile," announced LeBiond. "He may follow the Albany as far as Fort Hope," said Jim, "but from there hell strike north for the Sturgeon Stur-geon country where he's got friends. But we've got to cover the three trails north; you take the Albany. We'll hit the other two." "He's thirty or forty miles ahead of us," groaned LeBiond, nervously pacing to and fro. "IH wish you luck and say good-by." "If he's on the Albany," said Jim, "you'll hear of them from Fort Hope Indians bound for the trade." Two great tears coursed down the hooded face of LeBiond. "We must travel night and day, Stuart give his dogs no rest, wear him down, fast! She'll klU herself if we don't get him soon. I know her; she's like that! She won't wait longl" With a muffled sob, LeBiond turned away and followed Renault and the dogs out to the ice. Jim and Omar crossed the outlet to the mouth of the Deer Lodge river, but as they searched in the dim light of thv dawn they found that the falling snow had obliterated all traces of a sled turning in to the river on what a few hours before had been packed snow and wind- brushed Ice. "He's circled and struck north this way or by the Pipestone trail, Omar, He's too shrewd to take the Albany where he'd meet traveling hunters who would bring the news. But I wanted LeBiond to take the Albany. This is our Job. Here's where we say bo-jo' old friend." Then, losing his self-control, Jim's nervous hands gripped the heavy shoulders of his friend as his voice broke with his grief. "If they're ahead of you, Omar, bring her back bring her back to me 1" "Omar, he find dem I" And the white-sheathed figure of the half-breed half-breed turned away. Breaking trail on snowshoes, for his dogs, Jim pushed north up the White valley of the Deer Lodge. And each hour as he traveled in the fall ing snow, his chances of finding traces of the passing sled of Paradis lessened. When dusk fell he turned his exhausted team Into the spruce or the shore and, scraping out a fire hole, made camp. The dawn of a clear day broke blue and bitter. For an hour Jim had traveled in the half-trot, half-walk half-walk of the snowshoe swing, when, as he passed close to the alders of the shore of the fast narrowing river, he suddenly stopped. A mit ten brushed the rime from his eye brows as he stared at a clump of frozen bushes. Running to the shore, he reached above his head and tore from the brittle twigs a piece of white fabric, fab-ric, stiffened by frost. "Handkerchief!" he shouted, tri umphantly, and in a corner found the embroidered letters, "A. L. B." Her handkerchief! He was right! They were on the Deer Lodge trail ahead of him. She had dropped It as a sign to those she knew would follow. "Courage, girll" called Jim, delirious de-lirious with the Joy of the discovery, discov-ery, as he thrust the handkerchief into his capote. "Courage, stout heart 1 We're coming fast as dogs can travell" Up the Deer lodge, over the portage por-tage trail through the hills, to the Vermillion, and on through the day slaved dogs and man ontU the cold, strengthened with the dying wind and a freezing dusk fell on leg-stiff team and driver, driving them Into the spruce. But through the day, as the hurrying sled passed the cold' hill and the black spruce of the shore, hour after hour devouring the white miles, the snow yielded no further traces of the lest girl. (TOBBCONTINUED.) Like Sunlight Yellow, gold and pale orange curtains cur-tains make a room look lighter and sunnier than it really la. WHEN esi m GOODYEARS are first' choice -rated first in quality by a nation-wide vote of more than 2 to 1. . . .......... j Goodyears are best. The public says so the public buys so! More people ride on Goodyear Tires than on any other kind and have for 17 years. And as to Goodyear prices they're as low as you'll pay even for an unknown or second-rate tire. In a year when everyone's careful care-ful with money, don't take chances on tires. You can get the best tires that ever came from the world's largest larg-est rubber factory if you stick to this simple question: iWhy buy any second' choice tire when FIRST-CHOICE costs no more ? TRADE IN your thinun-safe thinun-safe tires -let them help you pay for stout new Goodyears THI ORIATIST NAM! IN RUBBIR r ill jg :V t . 1 I f ;H i TUNE IN on the Goodyear Program every Wednesday night over N.B.C. Red Network, WEAP and Associated Stations IMPORTANCE OF BEING IMPORTANT Matter of Moment, as You Look at It, The Importance of being important impor-tant Is, it seems to me, too disturbingly disturb-ingly Impressive to the people who Would like to be, or, at any rate, seem to be, important, said Mr. Cato Nlnetalls. "If course, there are people who are undoubtedly important, im-portant, but it is not so much the result of their special efforts to be Important as of a combination of circumstances and their individual talents. That is to say, they are not important merely because they want to be Important, but because of the natural order of things. There are other people who are not important, but who seem to be important I dont know whether this is merely the result of chance or Is brought about by good management. Which ever it Is, It seems to require no great effort by them, and they undoubtedly un-doubtedly fool a great many people. Sometimes I suspect that they even fool themselves. There are still others of high ambition or perhaps strong egotism who notwithstanding notwithstand-ing their vast expenditure of effort, thought and imagination, are unable to make themselves seem Important ; and their persistence is a trial to their own nerves, and an irritation or, even worse, a bore to their acquaintances. "Now, is seems to me that being important must be rather burdensome, burden-some, and seeming to be important Is even more so. On him who Is Important Im-portant many things are loaded that, by rights, should be carried by other oth-er people, but with his peculiar talents tal-ents I doubt that he finds oppressive a load that would crush most of the rest of us. Importance Is his job in the world, and he is built to endure It It Is not likely that the burden of imitation importance that is, that carried by the people who seem Importantis Im-portantis nearly bo heavy; added to the workaday pack of him who is important It is probable that it would hardly be noticed; but for the carriers It is sometimes so great that close observation shows that now and then they stagger under it for all their knack of maintaining misleading appearances. Theirs is a hard life, but they like it because so many people think that they are important My sympathy goes out to those who want to seem important and can't They atrive so hard, and achieve so little. Nor do they ask much, for while they would undoubt-edly undoubt-edly like to be important they would be fairly well content If they could Just manage to seem Important ure with them must be a succession or disappointments, of trial and error, with error predominating. It seems to me that somebody whose oral flow and command of expression were equal to It should explain to them that ttiey do not know when tsey are well off, for not being important Is one of the easiest If not the eas- Slapped by "Her Majesty" In a voice that couia eav y heard throughout the large hall, colonel col-onel Crompton acknowledged we At the age of eighty-six a scientist and electrician won a fresh reputa tion by delivering one of the wittiest and most entertaining after-dinner speeches evei heard In the Savoy hotel, London, writes Henri Pickard in the Cincinnati Enquirer. This pioneer octogenarian was CoL C E. Crompton, the Faraday medallist of 1922, who was accorded a complimentary compli-mentary dinner by admirers, friends and colleagues. compliments paid him ty some amusing stories of his earij scientific days. . -I am about the only person wno has ever been slapped by model of dignity as Queen Tictoria. he declared. -That happened tow or "82, when I Introduced rnte sorclstlethetypeof lighting which lest-of life's assies - mnm AlP It IS important yi -work, however equal to I k nrhn HPfflltl may ue; -tent Pays for it wltl ever iae ues -may present to th. must find a bitter Wf. savors; on willing to leave j portant, or 8eem!E others is relief H njostarduonsrefll BponsibiUtlesareHgK';! gtions areu f Skethepeop' who seem taPif to get out f tte 1 contemplative . pjjy and thank Ws has no aspttJJJj with a quiet fndcoi What taWy important How would 1 I sponaed. t "'Why wbut, , -Only tttWfJJ. hence will K important no& News. 5,d ments are tje ( the seal- their sea" present leS '" 01 u" v When be ru- |