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Show Vanuhed Men afc U tl By GEORGE MARSH Ca Li U INSTALLMENT TEN THE STORY SO FAR: Bound ior the Chibougamau gold country, six men lost their livei on the Nottaway river. Red Malone, Garrett Finlay, brother of one of the six, and Blaise, half-breed guide, arrive at Nottaway posing as surveyors. u. -a. Finlay receives an anonymous letter suggesting that the six men were not drowned as reported. Suspicion prevails that Isadore, rich fur man, has made a gold strike and aims to keep prospectors out of the country at any cost. The three -V. -V. A. Jf. Ji men start out on the Nottaway, and visit Isadore In his magniGcent home. Finlay meets Llse, Isadore's stepdaughter, stepdaugh-ter, in response to an appeal to save her. He Is ambushed and knocked unconscious. un-conscious. Malone and Blaise And him. , -it. m. Malone flashed his pocket torch on the face of his friend, swollen beyond be-yond recognition. "By the father of all the moose, Blaise, look at him!" "By gar, boss, w'ere you get dem bite?" "You mean to say you two didn't hear the .45 a few hours back?" demanded de-manded Garry. "Not a shot! I saw through the glasses that you and Lise were sitting sit-ting pretty cozy on the beach and everything looked all right, so Blaise and I took a paddle up the lake. We came back around five, couldn't find you, so turned Flame loose. Then we lost him." "Yes," laughed Garry, "everything "every-thing was all right except that Tete-v Tete-v Blanche and his mob jumped me after she left. But I got three or four before they cracked me from behind with a club. I came to, lashed to a tree in a small bog back in the bush. Flame, bless 'im! took their trail and found me. IThen chewed the thongs on my Iwrists." m "I told you, Garry!" burst out Jj Red, flourishing his long arms in his Hanger. "Blaise and I warned you! The little, doublecrossing " "Wait till you hear the story, Red. It's a queer one!" As they paddled back to camp, Finlay told the story In detail. "Well, what do you think. Constable Consta-ble Malone?" "It looks like wolf eat wolf, now. Sergeant Finlay. If we don't get this Tete-Blanche, he's bound to get . us! After today it'll be no quarter." "Well, what's your idea, Blaise?" asked Finlay.' "Well, what's our next move, chief?" demanded Red, fidgeting like a bear on a chain. "After what they tried today I'm not sleeping sound until I get my hooks on this white head." "Don't underestimate that bird, Red," warned Garry as he sat stripped to the waist by the fire, rubbing his tormented body with the soda solution. "He's quick as an otter. ot-ter. I was sure I had him today. He wasn't ten yards away and coming com-ing in, head on, when I threw the gun on him! I never made a worse miss." "You don't make many, Garry. Now what are the orders?" "I'm going to Matagami to have a report for headquarters relayed by canoe to the railroad. It's my alibi and last will and testament," said the blinded man, nursing his puffed face. "With these wild Mon-tagnais Mon-tagnais crazy with Isadore's whiskey whis-key and fed up with the idea that we've sickened their children, we've got the chance a rabbit has with a snowy owL" Malone stopped his pacing, bent and peered anxiously into the fire-lit face of his friend. Then he faltered: "You're you're not sending for help?" An effigy of a smile touched Fin-lay's Fin-lay's distorted features. "Do, you think I am, Red?" "Not the Sergeant Garrett Finlay I wintered on the Liard River with not the man I saw bluff those miners at Fort McLeod!" "No, we'll play this through, the four of us, as we started," said Fin- spread hands above his head, the Montagnais gesture of friendliness. Then he drew something white from his shirt and waved it. "He's shaking like a bush In the wind," commented Malone. "Tell him to come in Moise. He's safe." The canoe moved in to the beach. "Well, here's where she tries to alibi herself out of it." His freckled face sour with disgust Red handed Finlay a skin wrapper containing a letter. "What a nerve that little decoy de-coy duck packs in that swell shape of hers! She's as tough as raw-hide but who'd guess It with that face!" Finlay ignored his friend's characterization char-acterization of Lise Demarais. He began to read: "After what has happened you have good reason never to trust roe again. The very thought drives me frantic. But I had to write you. I swear I did not know they had followed fol-lowed me. If I had, could I have acted that way before those breeds? Could I have lost my head done what I did? Do you think me as j cheap as that? But I'm not sorry. I'm terribly glad. Believe it or not, I was honest. I was carried far out to sea. I've never met a man like you, Garry Finlay! "That night Labelle rushed in and called Jules from the table. When he returned, I knew by his face something awful had happened. 'You met Finlay this afternoon, damn you!' he roared. 'Now three men are dead and another hurt! But this fake surveyor paid for it tonight!' to-night!' Then he struck me in the face! rmKi y f 1 WW "We get dat white-head, quick, or we navare leave de lake. Dey goin' to hunt us like starve wolf. Some night we go straight to Isadore's Isa-dore's place, I put a knife into Tete-Blanche Tete-Blanche in hees bed and we take Isadore to de railroad." "Steady! Not so bloodthirsty!" objected ob-jected Finlay, splashing water on his tortured face and chest. "We happen to be police, you know. My order-are to investigate the disappearance disap-pearance of six men.- "Until we can show that Isadore has a vital reason for keeping white men out of this country we've got no motive for his having them shot." "I thought, of course, it was placer plac-er gold, somewhere on the river, Isadore Is-adore was covering," said Red, "but Wabistan's never seen them working work-ing the bars." "That's just it. We can't show a plausible motive for murdering these men. Until we find one we're licked. We haven't scratched the surface of this case yet. Red." "You're right, chief. And if he succeeds in turning the Montagnais against us, we'll never get out of this country." "They'll swarm on us. If we have to disclose the fact that we're police, po-lice, Isadore will blame the Indi- ii was an so suaaen so gnasuy. He wouldn't tell us what had happened. hap-pened. I didn't know whether you were alive or dead. He accused me of trying to betray him. When I asked him what there was to betray he started towards me and I ran to , my room to get my pistol. He'll I never strike me again never! "Oh, I beg you to believe me! I knew nothing nothing about those men! They saw my canoe leave for the swimming beach and followed. They never had done it before. I was sick not knowing what I had done to you. And I was so terribly alone so helpless! I didn't dare trust Corinne. She talks too much. Finally I found Louis Mikisis, my messenger, and he listened outside Tete-Blanche's cabin and learned that you had been left to die in a swamp. If I had known where you were, Garry Finlay, I would have found you, that night. But I coulH only suffer and pray. "In the morning I saw Tete-Blanche Tete-Blanche and Tetu returning in a canoe to the post. Jules met them on the shore and acted like a wild man. Later Louis told me that you had escaped. I went to my room and cried. You were alive alive and free! "Don't underestimate that bird, Red." "Last night Jules was in the trade-room trade-room with Tete-Blanche, Tetu and Labelle. I listened at the open window. win-dow. They are going to set a guard at the outlet of the lake, the Quiet Water. They'll try to ambush you. "Your lives depend on your leaving leav-ing at once! "I implore you, Garry Finlay, trust me and send an answer by Louis. If you wish to reach me, later, lat-er, leave a note under the big rock on the bathing beach. Louis will get it. Please, oh, please believe that 1 was honest that day, that I that you're my only hope. "Lise." Finlay's brown hands were unsteady un-steady as he finished the letter. As wind driven surf pounds a beach, wave on wave of emotion had beaten through him as he read. He read the letter again while the waiting Malone and Blaise scowled. Finlay handed the letter to the disturbed Malone. "We were wrong. Red. This letter is honest and explains ex-plains the whole thing. It couldn't have been faked and, besides, they know it wouldn't work the second time. There's news here that'll interest in-terest you. When you read it, you'll agree that Isadore couldn't have had a hand in this. It's too damned straight!" Malone slowly wagged his head as he took the letter. "What the women wom-en will do to a good man!" he sighed. But, gradually, as he read, the sneer on his incredulous face smoothed out. lay. "I'm going to report that we've found the bodies of two men who had been shot, not drowned, and were, ourselves, fired on, on the Nottaway; Not-taway; that I was ambushed and, finally, that we're going to stick until un-til the arrival in August of a mysterious mys-terious plane from the Bay when, if we live that long, there'll be a showdown. Because of the gravity of this Indian situation, I am advising advis-ing the dispatch of a police plane in September to view our graves and clean up the case. This looks to me like the Waterloo of Sergeant Finlay and Constable Malone." A look of incredulity lay on Ma-lone's Ma-lone's freckled face. He squinted curiously at his chief: "You're not talking like your old self, Garry. You've taken a tough lacing from those bugs. You're in misery. And you're naturally sore over the scurvy scur-vy trick that Jane played on you. But when the poison's worked out of your system you're going to feel better bet-ter about this jam we're in. I tell you we're going to bust Isadore wide open and if those Montagnais start to hunt us, there'll be plenty of red widows in these parts." "You may be right. Red." Finlay raised his face with its closed eyes to his friend. "But if we're licked, we'll go down with our colors flying!" fly-ing!" In the morning Wabistan left for the head of the lake to carry on his losing fight against the medicine man. For two days Garry's physical physi-cal condition kept him in camp, then ans, stand pat and we're licked." "Exactly, and he'll bring charges against me for firing on his men without cause." Red snorted in disgust. "Why, you had to fight 'em, Garryl You knew they'd wipe you out if they took you and there'd be no proof of what happened. Of course, it's regulations regula-tions but, after what we know and what they tried to do to you, what are you going to call it when Blaise and I meet up with this Tete-Blanche?" Tete-Blanche?" "Self-defense, Red!" Garry chuckled. chuck-led. "Thanks, Sergeant Finlay! Do you know this is the toughest assignment assign-ment you and I ever had? You asked for it and got it because you were a trained surveyor before you joined the force." CHAPTER XI The returning Peterboro was met at the camp by Wabistan and his two sons. Beneath his thatch of grizzled griz-zled hair and seamed forehead the old man's eyes were beady with excitement. ex-citement. "Ver' bad time at head of lakel" he announced. "Kinebik geeve de Montagnais whiskey an' tell dem white man make de chil' sick, an' more will die if de 'Evil Eye on Three Leg' stay on Was-wanipi." Was-wanipi." The startled Indian peered Ointo Garry's caricature of a face as he took his hand. "How you come dis way?" he demanded. Finlay attempted a twisted smile. "Your friend, Tete-Blanche, tied me up and left me to the bugs." The muscles in Blaise Brassard's jaw bulged. "When we leave Was-wanipi," Was-wanipi," he rasped in Cree, "we leave Tete-Blanche in the ground and take Isadore with us! He has broken the law and given the Montagnais Mon-tagnais whiskey!" "Take Isadore with you? Are you police sent by the Fathers at Ottawa?" Otta-wa?" excitedly demanded the old man. Blaise shook his head. "No, but we are sent by the Fathers to make a picture of the lakes." He repeated his talk with Wabistan to his friends. "He's right, Blaise," said Garry. "They've shown their hand. After today they've got to get rid of us to save their skins. And they'll use Kinebik and this evil eye mumbo-iumho mumbo-iumho to do it" j "Well. I'll be shot at sunrise if I don't think the kid is on the level!" exploded Malone, returning the letter let-ter to Garry. "I've handed her some pretty raw compliments, Garry, Gar-ry, but I'm goin' to take them all back right here and now. Isadore'd never play it this way il he was behind be-hind this. That girl can sure write a letter, and boy! is she weak on Sergeant Garrett Finlay? Some medicine man, chief!" The blood drifted up over Fin-lay's Fin-lay's brown neck and cheeks as he met Malone's grin. "Red. we're going go-ing to take care of her!" he said quietly. Malone thrust out a big-wristed hand and gripped Garry's. "We are. chief, and so is Blaise! Aren't you. Blaise, you old sour face?" (TO BE COXTIXLKD) the swelling began to leave his eyes and he could see. The afternoon of the third day, on his return from the gill-nets with Moise Wabistan, Blaise announced: "Cano' movin' up de shore!" Red got his glasses from the tent. "Well, I'll be whip-sawed if that double-crossing Jane hasn't had the gall to send that boy hunting for us, again!" snorted Malone. "Sure it's the one who brought that message?" asked Finlay, alive to the sudden tightening of his throat, the jump of his pulse. "Absolutely, and he's scared into a cold sweat," said Red, his binoculars binocu-lars at his eyes. "Got to hand it to that kid! He's game to show up here after what happened." A hundred yards from shore the canoeman held his paddle with |