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Show lHH-M 1 i 1 I 1 11 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I '1' 1 1 I'WM 1 I ! 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 I :!! ! 11 i 11 I 1 I 1 1 t i l' 11 1 1 1 i ! i-H 1'H i I i i 1 H-i I I ! I I I Hgl It B UICTOR ROUSSEAU jl E WNTJ SERVICE (Copyright by W. O. Chapman.) . M $.M ! T 1 ? t I M ! 1 1 I -H"! ! 1 M 1 I ! M 1 I I ?!'! MM ..-...-.H- 'I I I I I I II ! T I I I I 1 I I M I r- I -T--T--I-1 --t I I t I M 1 I 1 1 I I I I I I I I I 11 1 I I I M I '??! ' "C. P." SYNOPSIS. I-ee Anderson, Royal Roy-al Canadian Mounted Police sergeant, ser-geant, is sent to Stony Range to arrest a man named Pelly for murder. He is also instructed to look afteT Jim Kathway, reputed head of the "Free Traders." illicit liquor runners. At Little Falls he finds Pelly is credited with having- found a gold mine, and la missing. At the hotel appears a girl, obviously out of place in the rough surroundings. A half-breed. half-breed. Pierre, and a com pan ion, "Shorty," annoy the girl. Anderson An-derson interferes In her behalf. The girl sets out for Siston Lake, which is also Anderson's objective. objec-tive. He overtakes her and the two men with whom lie had trouble trou-ble the night before. She is suspicious sus-picious of him and the lwo men are hostile. Plerrtr and Shorty ride on, Anderson and the girl following. In the hiils the road is blown up before and behind the two. A nderson, with his horse, is hurled down the mountain moun-tain side, senseless. Recovering consciousness, Anderson finds the nirl has disappeared, but ho concludes she is alive and probably prob-ably in the power of Pierre and Shorty. On foot he makes his way to Siston La ke. There he finds his companion of the day before, and Kathway, with a girl, Estelle, a former sweetheart of Anderson's, who had abused his confidence and almost wrecked his life. Kathway strikes Estelle, and after a fight Anderson, with Est e lie's help, escapes with the girl. Anderson's companion's mind is clouded and she is suffering suf-fering with a dislocated knee. Anderson sets the knee and makes the girl as comfortable as possible. He has a broken rib. The two plan to make their way to a Moravian mission, of which Father , McGrath has charge. Their acquaintance ripens into love. The girl remembers that her name is Joyce Pelly. She is daughter of the man Anderson has been sent to arrest. Torn between her love for her father and her regard for Anderson, the girl practically drives him from her. In the forest Anderson stumbles upon the entrance to a gorge and is convinced he has located Pelly's mine. In the tunnel tun-nel he is attacked by an unseen adversary, whom he takes to be Pelly. A knife thrust is turned aside by the girl's hair in his blouse. Escaping, he returns to the cabin, to find Joyce gone. He follows her trail to the mission of Father McOrath. The priest repulses him, but Joyce feels her love return and welcomes him. Her memory has been in a measure meas-ure restored. CHAPTER XI Continued 9 "lie would not touch the hoard of gold which he claimed to possess we hurt never believed in it but he had made money by his furs. I was to be well educated. I spent three years at the convent, and then I went to a missionary training school, to study medicine, because it had always been my dream to teach the Indian and half-breed children in this district. And then " She stopped and looked at him doubtfully. Father McGrath strode toward them. "lie's gettln' round ye!" he cried. "I can see the softenln' in your face, Mees Telly !" "No, no, Father!" cried Joyce sharply. "Leave us a few minutes more !" Father McOrath withdrew, muttering, mutter-ing, after a doubtful glance at her. "And then and then I can't remember. re-member. Lee," Joyce continued. "There's a blank, a terrible blank in my mind still. The next thing I remember re-member I was riding north alone, to save my father, because that devil Kathway had betrayed him. But how was I to save him? That I don't know. I remember that I was half crazed with anxiety. I remember seeing see-ing you at a hotel, and those two dreadful men. "And they had some power over me. and I wanted you to help me, and dared not ask you I didn't know what to do. Once, in my despair, I begged you to kill Kalhwuy, to save my father. Hut how could that have saved biin, when be was already betrayed?" She looked at Lee In anguish, "on, I don't understand!" she cried, "if I could remember! It was something terrible, something that 1 could never go through again." "Do you think." asked Lee, "that you had pledged yourself to marry Kathway Kath-way in order to save your father's life?" "I I couldn't have. No, never, Lee!" She trembled. Lee stepped lo her. "Joyce, darling Joyce, nothing has changed. You are still mine." "Lee, It can't be. My father stands between us will always stand " "Joyce, I've been thinking of something on the way here tonight. We both wish to do what is best for your father. Let us work together. Marry me !" "Lee, It can't be not till " Hut she swayed toward him. In a moment they would have been In each other's arms. It was a bellow from Father McGrath, whom they had forgotten, for-gotten, that forced them guiltily apart. "He's got 'round ye, and I knew 'twould come aboot !" he cried. "Get ye bark to your de'il's wurrk " ' OU, Father," cried Joyce, half sob bing and half laughing, "this Isn't one of Itathway's gang. I've tried to tell you " "Aye, and ye told me that ye wouldna see him, and noo ye'd have bussed him if I hadna stopped ye! Weel, I ken the pertinacity of the de'il's agents " "Listen to me, now !" said Lee, taking tak-ing Father McGrath by the arm. And, ignoring the good priest's Impulsive interruptions, he told him their story. Before he was half way through, Father McGrath was listening in profound, pro-found, perplexed astonishment. "Father, I want Joyce to marry me," cried Lee. "Once she Is mine, we can face the future together, whatever It may bring forward. There is no real antagonism " Father McGrath shook his head in perplexity. "I canna understand It," he said. "I ken but little of what's been happening here. I'm a new man in the deestrict. It isna as if I'd known Mr. Pelly himself, you see. I canna imagine what Mees Pelly intended in-tended to do when she was coming up to see her father. Was It your intention in-tention to warm him, do you theenk?" he asked the girl. "Or was it something some-thing more?" Joyce could not answer him, and Lee saw how it distressed her to try to remember. It was from that crux, of the problem that the mind had withdrawn itself, refusing to remember. re-member. "Ye were going to the Free Traders?" Father McGrath persisted. "Oh, I don't know I don't know !" cried Joyce in agony. Father McGrath cleared his throat and delivered his deliberated opinion. "It's my opeenion," he said, "that until we deescover Mr. Pelly, or learn that he's dead or awa' fra' the deestrict, dees-trict, it wadna be advisable for ye and Mees Pelly to marry unless her memory mem-ory comes back to her. Mebbe I'm too consairvative, but a while agone she hated ye " "Father, I never hated him !" cried Joyce indignantly. "And I'm no' in favor of thesr queek changes," said Father McGrath, Joyce sided with him. "Lee, dearest, dear-est, until one of those two things happens, hap-pens, we must just wait," she said. "But if you find my father and I'm convinced now that it would be for the best well, then, I I'll marry you if you want me, Lee." And this time there was no Father McGrath to interfere with them, for the good priest was patting the head of an Indian baby at the door of one of the huts. And, late though the hour was, Lee declining the father's offer of hospitality hospi-tality for the night, set off for the log house again. He wanted to be alone with his singing heart in the silence. He reached his destination some time in the small hours, and, careless of possible attack by the mysterious wanderer, flung himself down In one y Hs Had No Doubt That Pelly's Gold Mine Lay in the Chasm. "f the rooms, and lay like a log until nvakrned by the sunlight streaming n. Jumping up. completely rested and res "tvd, he ran down to the river, pl'.m ed into the ice-cold waters. r;tr( laek over the frozen snow, and dres-- d. .I'.'rp was to remain at the mission uni: Lee knew definitely whether or not licr father was in the district. l'.( f 'v leaving the night before, Lee had drawn the father into a talk, and had earned from him that she would not be in danger from the Free Traders. Trad-ers. The father had been compelled, he siM.l, much against his will, to come to an understanding with them, by which he undertook not to attempt to interfere with their operations provided pro-vided his women and bairns were left I fclone. The board of missions was a power that the Free Traders were not anxious to tackle. Father McGrath, hating the necessity of making terms with Rathway, had felt nevertheless that he was doing the only thing possible pos-sible under the circumstances, until the government made a move to wipe out the organization. He assured Lee that Rathway and his men would not dare to molest Joyce, ant!, furthermore, further-more, that he would protect her with his life if necessary. Lee had thought best to say nothing to Joyce about his discovery of the mine, but he meant to make a thorough thor-ough search of the gorge for Pelly. Failing him, he meant to discover his mysterious assailant, in the belief that he could provide him with the clue he needed. He had no doubt that Pelly's gold mine lay in the chasm. After having breakfasted he made his way to the rocking stone, and slipped quietly into the tunnel. Striking a match or two, and assuring himself that It was empty, he descended, de-scended, and within a minute or two had reached the lower orifice, and found himself again clinging to the interior wall of the chasm. Here the artificial excavation of the rungs ended, but there was a fairly easy descent down the lower portion of the cliffs, which afforded plenty of hold for the hands and feet. Lee quickly scrambled down, and, swinging swing-ing free of the wall, found himself standing at the bottom of the gorge, whose inclining walls shut him off completely from the sight of any one above. Only by standing in the very center of the defile could he see the summit of the cliffs, with their dense covering of scrub. The base of the ctwsm was a little wider than he had supposed, perhaps fifty paces across between wall and wall. Along the center a thin stream trickled over a sandy bed, issuing from one end of the chasm, where it burst out through the granite, carrying with it the debris of the alluvial land above mud, gravel, and sand. This sandy deposit, carried along by the stream, had been heaped up, probably in times of overflow, against the granite walls, and within the little limestone caves that studded their lower surfaces. Looking about him, Lee saw that some two or three hundred yards from the place where he had emerged out of the faceof the cliff, the gorge made a sharp bend, almost at right angle, and here the ground was strewn with a mass of fallen boulders, ranging from huge rocks to small debris. Above it was a gap in the lower section sec-tion of the cliff, from which It had been detached. Lee made his way in this direction. At once he came to the conclusion that dynamite had been the cause of this collapse of part of the surface of the granite wall, which, smooth' as a steel lining, could have been disrupted by no natural force such as gravity. And then he came upon something that confirmed the obvious deduction. It was a rotting wooden cradle. Beside It lay a rusty pick. Not far away were two huge Iron pans, their bottoms eaten out with rust, so that they resembled fretwork In steel. Under them were still the ashes and charred residue of the wood that had been used to thaw out the frozen earth. All about among the fallen rocks were mounds, the residue from the pans after the extraction of the gold, now covered with tangles of dead vegetation. There was no longer any doubt that this was Pelly's gold mine. Before making further Investigations Investiga-tions here, Lee decided to explore the remainder of the chasm. It ran on beyond be-yond the bend for a quarter of a mile, and then came to an abrupt termination. termina-tion. Without any gradual lessening of the depth It simply ceased, the two cliff walls . coming together, in the same way as they did near the rocking stone at the other end. The chasm was, in fact, simply an elongated crater. Returning. Lee made his way to the cave formed by the explosion. If Pelly was in the district, there was hardly any doubt hut that he would be hiding hid-ing in that inaccessible spot, where lie would be safe against discovery. It was not unlikely that he was In the cave itself at that moment. Lee first examined the snow about the mouth of the cave for footprints, hut he found no tracks except his own. Drawing his automatic, he advanced into the opening. The sand in the interior in-terior bore the marks of continued trampling, but there were no imprints with clear edges, and it was certain that no one had been there for a long time. Unfortunately. Lee had brought no candle, hut he advanced some distance dis-tance within the cave, lighting his way with matches. However, it was a foregone fore-gone conclusion that I'elly was not in there, for the sandy interior bore no fresh footprints as far as he went. A faint, distant roaring, as of a waterfall, came to Lee's ears, and the air was fresh, as if the cave were con-nec:ed con-nec:ed with some opening m the mountain moun-tain side. Lee resolved to explore It another day. But it was clear enough that Pelly was not in the chasm after all. Another thing that led Lee to that conclusion was the fact that no mining operations had been carried on there, for a considerable time long enough for the pans to have rusted through. If Pelly had taken refuge within the gorge, It was incredible that he would not have resumed operations. And these seemed to have been Interrupted In-terrupted unexpectedly, to Judge from the exposure of the pans to wind and weather. Perplexed and disappointed, Lee turned his thoughts toward the capture cap-ture of the man who had attacked him in the tunnel. He could no doubt throw light on Pelly's whereabouts. Perhaps he was the assistant of whom Joyce had spoken. Lee expected that he would be lurking lurk-ing In the tunnel, ready to renew his attack, but this time there should be no such fiasco as before. Lee made his way back on the opposite oppo-site side of the gorge. Here there was a thick growth of dwarfed scrub laurel, which had taken root in the soli brought down by the little stream, and bordered it, extending back from it toward the cliff In a sort of miniature jungle. Something protruding out of this growth arrested Lee's attention. It was a wooden cross carved with the name HELEXE PELLY, standing up above a low cairn of boulders. Lee stood and looked, and vaguely mournful thoughts coursed through his mind. It was a sad and lonely burying place for Joyce's mother. Its existence there was In itself a testimony testi-mony to the old man's mental condition con-dition that he should have carried his wife's body through the tunnel to that place of his dreams. And yet It was certain that no prowling thing would ever violate that grave. Lee went on, and, a few steps further, fur-ther, stumbled against something else. It was the skeleton of a man, the bones protruding through the rents and tatters of the scarecrow clothes. The laurel tangles sprouted between the ribs1. The bones were bleached white, the flesh had long since disappeared. One bony hand still tightly clutched the handle of a large, old-fashioned revolver. The muzzle was choked with rust ; there were rusted cartridges inside. in-side. Disengaging It with difficulty from the fingers, Lee saw, on the less rusted portion of the handle which they had protected, the Initials, C. P. But he hardly needed that to know that his mission was at an end, and the last barrier between himself and Joyce overthrown. The problem so inscrutable an hour before had been solved. All cause for antagonism between them had come to an end. And Lee was conscious of a quiet satisfaction. It was the happiest solution, solu-tion, and though Joyce would grieve, she would come to see that it was the best. She would be glad, after the first shock, that her father would not have to face the ordeal which he had dreaded for so many years. But as Lee looked down at the remains re-mains of the dead man, he became aware of a single fact. Nearly every bone on one side of the skeleton was broken the skull, ribs, arm and leg bones, and pelvis. Then Pelly had not died of a stroke or from a sudden attack of heart failure. fail-ure. He had fallen from the summit of the cliff above perhaps he had been flung down, for the revolver which he had been clutching showed that he had either encountered or anticipated an enemy. And, filled with a mixture of emotions emo-tions happiness for their future, grief for the news that he must break to Joyce, Lee made his way toward the tunnel. But all at once he made the singular and unexpected discovery that he did not kuow where the entrance was. CHAPTER. XII Freed by a Lock of Hair It seemed to him that it would be a simple matter enough to ascend the cliff again, and he had not taken the precaution to take note of landmarks. Xow, however, he discovered that the lower third of the granite wall was scored with hundreds of holes and fissures fis-sures where the friable limestone had crumbled away, or bad been washed out by the streams. The entrance to the cliff tunnel was somewhere on that side of the chasm, some little distance from the bend but where? Lee stepped back to the brink of the stream and looked up. trying to locate the rocking stone or monoliths for a guide, but the upper incline of the cliff hid them from view. It was high noon. I.ce set himself to the task before him. He looked about him, trying to orientate himself. It would be necessary to ascend to a point about one-fourth the distance up the clifT in order to discover the iu-irress, iu-irress, which was no wider than any of numerous cavities in the wall. Plenty of places along the chasm afforded access, and Lee grasped a projecting rock which seemed familiar, and began to ascend, digging his hands and feet into the holes, until he found it Impossible to proceed farther. Swinging to the right, he discovered a large cavity and thrust his arm In up to the shoulder. A bitter disappointment awaited him, however, for at the end his hand encountered only a smooth surface sur-face of rock. He tried again as he descended, thrusting his arms into all the likely crevices in the vain attempt to find the orifice. He descended, selected another place and scrambled up the wall again, only to achieve the same negative result. And when he reached the bottom of the cliff again, and looked up at the innumerable crevices, he realized that not only did he not know at which point to begin the ascent, but he did not know how high to climb before h reached the level of the tunnel entrance. en-trance. He looked up at the huge cliff, with Its inward Incline, and scored with its myriads of mocking mouths, and now a sort of fury took hold of him. Again and again he scrambled up and clung like a fly to the cliffs face ; scrambled down, baffled, and then began once more. It was now the middle of the afternoon, after-noon, and he was no nearer a solution. One Bony Hand Still Tightly Clutched the Handle of a Large, Old-fashioned Revolver. He had accomplished nothing. He was becoming bewildered. It was necessary to proceed in a systematic way. He now proceeded to mark off what he considered the possible boundaries within which the tunnel lay, by stamping stamp-ing down two birch saplings. And again and yet again he essayed his task, always to recoil, beaten. He was only half way from sapling to sapling, and it was beginning to grow dark. His hands were bleeding, his nails split to the quick. But It was the eerie nature of his efforts in the loneliness of the darkening gorge that was the most nerve-racking part of all. He was like some mythical hero of the classic world, tortured by Inanimate Inan-imate things like Sisyphus, con demned to roll his stone up the hills of Tartarus forever, only to have It bound down again before It reached the summit. He had been toiling by moonlight for an Infinity of time. He had covered cov-ered all the space between the saplings. sap-lings. He extended his radius; and now, In his desperation, he attacked the cliff as if it were a human enemy, beating on It with his fists In senseless fury. Dawn, clear and gray, and bitter cold crept Into the gorge and found him still at his labors. The sun rose. Long rays of light streamed down Into the chasm, in which Lee struggled like a madman, dust-white, dishevelled haggard, half-delirious from want oi sleep and exhaustion. lie stopped, tried to collect himself. But to cease meant to yield to despair. des-pair. Only by Incessant labor could he keep up the pretense that he was about to find the tunnel. He felt at the end of his resources. One conclusion con-clusion was being botne in upon him: he had worked his way far beyond th saplings on either side; he must have passed the tunnel during the night. One little orifice unexplored in the obscurity, and all his work had gone for nothing. lie would have to go back to the beginning be-ginning and start over agdin. But no human being could go through the test again. There occurred to him an alternative, but so fantastic that he only played with It as a madman plays with a straw. The tunned might be no longer I here. It might have disappeared through a rock slide. That seemed incredible Lee put the thought from him; Its very occurrence made him realize that his mind was beginning to wander. And. lapping up some water from the stream, and sprinkling himself with it. he begun again at the farther sapling. Evidently the question of Joyce's father is not to separate , the lovers. Any guess as to what new danger threatens? 1 (TO UE CONTINUED.) |
