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Show cached In the cave the hundred pounds of smoked moose meat he had brought up on his pack-board. He then led on up the glacier, halfway half-way from Its foot to the top of the pass. That gave the three climbers some real Ice work. Coming back. Garth knocked three brace of fool bens from spruce limbs with a stick. The half dozen grouse made a pleasant change. Dut even with a poll of salmon berries for dessert they proved a scant meal for the four meat-eaters. The last leg of moose had already been baked and eaten, the tongues broiled, and the second muffle stewed. The remainder remain-der of the smoked meat would not last long. So far, Garth had not Interfered In-terfered with Huxby's all-day panning pan-ning out of the platinum alloy. He had not even asked to look at the take of precious metal. Food was same time as Mr. RamllL He wak ened to find the first pair of moccasins moc-casins finished. The girl had met his terms. He gave Huxby the moss bed, and started to collect fiattlsh stones as heavy as he couid toss. When he had pitched a dozen or so upon the cache platform, he strung the smoked slices of meat on rawhide thongs. Raking aside the smudge-fire, smudge-fire, he stood on the rack and tied all the meat close up under the cache platform. He then climbed upon the platform plat-form and piled the stones on the tle-thongs where they came around the poles. That would keep wolverines wolver-ines or other pilferers from gnawing gnaw-ing the rawhide to let the meat fall. No fourfonted creature could now j,t at the meat on the under side of the platform, and even ravens would have dlflleulty stealing much of It. To complete the Job, Garth pulled off the cross polos of the smoke rack. For breakfast, the party finished the baked leg of moose. As Garth had foreseen, his three city camp mates had developed camp appetites. appe-tites. Better still, they were less irritable. Their craving for drink and tobacco had begun to lessen. At tlmberllne Uuxby went up the trough with the gold pan. Garth headed again for the glacier. This time Mr. liumlll did not pant and gasp so hard, nor did he have to stop so often. He managed to climb to the lower end of the glacier. While he rested In a sunny nook on the rocky side of the lat- a different matter. Instead of shooting, shoot-ing, another moose, he called upon Huxby to Join In a caribou hunt. A band of the big animals had drifted along "the tundra terrace over towards the glacier. Garth counted 15. He waited until the band came within 75 yards. He then let drive, Bhootlng rapidly yet with careful aim. One after another an-other dropped, each with a bullet through the head. The stupid beasts stared In the direction of the sharp reports. Bui they could see nothing. noth-ing. The sixth went down before the nine survivors wheeled and clattered clat-tered off In panic-stricken flight. The flaying was well under way when Huxby and Miss Ramlll came hastening aslant the tundra ahead of Mr. RamllL The girl eyed the clean delicious-looking white fat on the first flayed body. "That looks good, Alanl Vivian, you can go back to your mining. Dad and I will help here." Her futher called out a panting suggestion for Huxby to wait and carry down a load of meat. "No need," Garth said. "Don't stop, nuxby. Most of this venison Is going on Ice. None will be allowed al-lowed to spoil." The engineer did not linger. He bad looked none too well pleased over the girl's familiar use of Garth's first name. Along with his displeasure about this, there could be no doubt of his eagerness to get back to the platinum panning. When Garth finished the flaying of the caribou, he started to dress out the bodies. Greatly to his aston- SYNOPSIS As Alan Garth, prospector, U pra-i pra-i paring to leave for bis mining; claim In the Far North, a plane land at , the airways emergency elation. In It are Burton Ramlll, millionaire , mining- magnate; his daughter, Lll-1th; Lll-1th; and Vivian Huxby, pilot and mlnlnc engineer. Believing him to be only an Ignorant prospector, the "' men offer to make an air trip to Garth'e claim, although they refer to his sample of platinum-bearing ore aa nearly "worthless." Llllth ' Ramlll. product of the jan age, ' plainly ahowa her contempt for ' Garth. Through Garth's guidance the , plane eoon reaches the claim site. Huxby, and Ramlll, after making . eeveral teata, assure Garth hla claim la nearly valueless, but to "encour-age" "encour-age" young prospectors they are willing to take a chance In Investing !. a small amtunt. 8enslng treachery ahead, Garth secretly removes a part from the plane's motor. Huxby and Llllth taunt Garth with hla "gullibility," "gulli-bility," but their tone changes when they try to start the crippled plane. ' Returning to shore they try to force Garth to give up the missing part. Garth manages to set the monoplane adrift and the current carries It over , the falls. He points out to the enraged en-raged trio that he Is their only hope In guiding them out of the wilderness. wilder-ness. Garth begins the work of preparing pre-paring for the long Journey. He Insists In-sists that the others help. Ramlll nd hla daughter must be hardened for the hardships ahead In their toll-some toll-some trek to the outpost on the . Mackenzie. Returning from a long . sleep In the woods. Garth finds the party has stolen the tea and sugar be has been saving for emergencies. He makes no objection, simply pointing point-ing out that he Is accustomed to a , trict meat diet, and that they are hurting only themselves. The work , of getting ready for the trip continues. con-tinues. Huxby refuses to help, and worka on the mining claim. "But in that case No, you can't make me swallow It I know you're not such a fool as to risk losing that placer," said ItamllL Garth laughed outright "What d'you take me fort Tour brand of gold-digger? Gad, that's the nubbin of It all. It's the reason rea-son why men like you and Huxby lose out. You worship the golden calf. Yet what value Is there to riches other than what you get from them? Can you think of a more enjoyable en-joyable game than playing draw poker, with our lives In the Jackpot, and Fortune dealing us the cards of chance?" "What's the catch V Inquired Miss Ramlll, with a sudden upwetl-Ing upwetl-Ing of her sophisticated cynicism. " 'Lives In the Jackpot,' that means nothing. It's your placer that's In the pot What stakes do you consider con-sider we have In to balance It?" "That would be telling," he teased. "You'll know If I win. If 1 lose, It will not matter to any of you what you've risked. The showdown show-down may come sooner than I expected. ex-pected. Your father Is already In fairly good shape. We'll start the trip out as soon as those caribou skins have been tanned." CHAPTER VI Hell In the Muskeg. GARTH sat beside the camp fire, sewing new moccasins for himself. him-self. Nearby, the millionaire dealer deal-er In mines and his fastidious daughter scraped the raw sides of the six caribou skins and rubbed them with the tanning mixture of fat liver and brains. Garth had told them they could either tan the skins, or wait for him to do It Until Un-til the tanning had been finished, the trip out would not begin. Mr. Ramlll was so keen to start back for civilization that be went at the disagreeable task with energy en-ergy and determination. Llllth not only worked as vigorously as her father, she showed a real Interest In the tanning. Huxby took no part In this preparation prep-aration of the skins. When he came down to the camp from the platinum plat-inum placer, the sight of bis fiancee's doing such squaw work struck him speechless. He stared in blank amazement When at last he found his voice, he started to threaten Garth: "You've gone a bit too far, you roughneck. Stand up, or I'll kick you up. I am going to " The girl broke In, with cool scorn: "Tune off, old dear. You're set on static. It's not Interference we want Dad and I are giving this performance perform-ance under our own direction. You see. It's a bargain. Alan agrees to start our trip out Just as soon as these skins are all tanned." The mining engineer drew back. "So soon as that My dear girl, if he's going to rush us off, I don't see bow I can spare any time here In camp. I haven't yet sampled all the area of the placer." "You'll have two more days for It" Garth told him. "Only don't forget that an alloy of platinum and gold weighs more than lead. You'll be toting my 60 per cent along with the 40 for yourself and Mr. ItamllL If you hide the loot In your pockets, pock-ets, you'll go down like a shot first time you slip into a muskeg pool or quagmire. Think of the all-around calamity that would mean. You lose your life, Mr. Ramlll would lose his Man- Friday, Miss Llllth her fiance, and I I'd lose my CO per cent" Mr. Ramlll Interposed: "It'a no Joke, Vivian. I've seen a strong swimmer sunk by the gold In his money-belt A bag can be thrown off the shoulders. Another thing, Garth Is to receive bis three-fifths of whatever you have panned out That Is understood." "It was his bargain," Huxby re-piled. eral moraine, his daughter went down In front of the glacier with Garth. They came to the channel where the milky stream gushed out of a tunnel cave In the blue-white Ice. Garth pointed to a shelf of rock on the near side of the stream. He walked Into the cave along the smoothly polished ledge. Llllth Ra Ishment at the' cutting up of the second caribou, Llllth took the belt-ax belt-ax and began to help. Mother Nature Na-ture had cracked the polished shell of artificiality in which the pampered pam-pered heiress had been encased. The girl's few days In the Wild had awakened primitive Instincts ground deep into the nature of woman during dur-ing the remote past of mankind. So, upon reflection, Garth's amazement amaze-ment passed. He bad managed to cover it even at the first when Llllth Lll-lth Ramlll took the belt-ax In her slender hand and severed the neck bone of the caribou with a single blow. Her father was the one who stared. He sat watching the girl's quick, eager wielding of the hand-ax, hand-ax, his mouth slack, almost agape. Garth could only surmise how she had always been coddled and pampered. pam-pered. Her father knew It He knew how, since her childhood, she had been wrapped about with silken luxury, waited upon by attentive servants, petted and spoiled. The millionaire had been born on a farm. He could recall seeing bis mother help butcher sheep and hogs. But she was a farmer's wife. Llllth Lll-lth would not have known how to prepare a spring chicken for the pan. And now she was cutting up caribou. Aside from an occasional word of direction, Garth said nothing. When he finished dressing out the fifth carcass, he handed his knife to his CHAPTER V Continued 8 Miss Ramlll's eyes widened. She glanced from his stiff back to the buckskin clad shoulders that had so lightly toted her father into camp. All this bad been a matter f seconds. In another moment site was darting over to the rill with the tin cup. When she came to the leanto with the almost scalding hot mixture of boiled water and tea, her father muttered, beneath groans, that he did not want It "No no I Oh-oh-h I Let me die In peace 1" Garth heaved up the lax head and shoulders, and held the cup to the quivering lips. "Drink, or I'll . pour It down your throat." A few minutes later the "dying" " millionaire began to eat He bolted down the Juicy tender meat until sleep overtook him In the midst of a bite. Though spoiled, Llllth was far from being a fooL She bad begun , to realize that to get what she wanted, want-ed, something more than wishing was necessary. Her father had gone over to Garth. Even Huxby had failed her. The rub was over for Garth. Miss Kamlll's surrender meant that he j was now the acknowledged master of the party. Huxby had also admitted ad-mitted the fact by going off, Instead of following up bis Implied threat of attack. He, however, would re- nnlrn wntrhlnp. EX She Followed Garth Into the Chilly Blue Shadow of the Cave. mill shuddered and glanced up fearfully at the steep over-hanging Ice face that seemed about to crash down. Yet after a moment's hesitation, she followed Garth Into the chilly blue shadow of the cave. Several yards from the entrance Garth stopped before a narrow side bole that opened above a waist-high uprise In the bedrock. He reached In and picked tip a bundled white skin. Out In the sun he opened the skin and showed a piece of frozen meat "How's that for cold storage?" he said. "Killed a young mountain sheep on my way out last month. Thought I'd test the glacier. Looks as If It's a safe meat house. No chance of spoiling, and not even a wolf had ventured Inside." Miss Ramlll said nothing. She saw no reason to consider the cavo of the slightest Interest. There was, however, the meat She suggested that If It was not spoiled, It would make a change from the moose meat This proved true. The descent had been made by Ramlll without aid. There was no need to support, much less backpack back-pack him. He bad really begun to get a start In training. To Garth this was all the more reason for pushing the millionaire the harder. In the week that followed, he alternated al-ternated more climbs, with trips around Into the muskeg swamps. He led his sweating, swearing charge over nlggerhead grass, where the heavy-bodied city mnn had to Jump nimbly from one big tussock to another or take a tumble. Miss Ramill tagged along on these grueling bikes. She also made another an-other climb up the gulch. Garth After eating his fill, Garth took to Huxby's bed, beside the smudge-fire. smudge-fire. He wakened to find that the aun bad taken Its northern dip and was just slanting up again above the mountain crests. It had been ' under much longer than In June, The summer was getting well along. Huxby had stayed on watch to keep the fire going. He met Garth's , offhand good morning with a show . of civility. His cool reasoning bad brought him to the realization v that nothing was to be gained by , upstaging Garth. When Miss Ramlll left the lean- to, Garth stooped In under the low roof and began to rub her father's knees and hips. The millionaire groaned that he had been stricken with a terrible attack of lumbago ; and rheumatism. It was Impossible for him to move. Heedless of the plaint, Garth rolled the complalner out beside the cold baked leg of moose. The I 'sick" man ate more than either ; bis daughter or Garth. Afterwards, Insistent urging and the promise of en easy work-out persuaded him to get on his feet They wandered around through the woods, with frequent fre-quent pauses In the glades. When, several hours later, they ' returned to camp, Miss Ramlll had completed one moccasin and was ; doggedly stitching at Its mate. Huxby Hux-by came down from the trough with the gold pan. Garth melted the last of the moose fat In It and fried a heaping mess of mushrooms. For Y salad, he shook a quantity of pleas i antly acid sorrel from the bottom of bis pall, with berries for des-aert des-aert the meal became a banquet While It lasted there was a general , plow of good feeling. Even Huxby " spoke punsantly to Jarth. j As before. Garth turned In at the 1i eager helper, packed a load of meat, and carried It to the Ice cave. Down In the gulch bottom he chose a pothole stone that would bold perhaps three quarts. In the bowl he colled a wick of twisted dry caribou moss, plied In caribou fat, and lighted the wick. When the fat melted, the wick burned with a strong steady flame. Caribou ribs furnished a grating on which to broil steaks. The fat meat was de-liclously de-liclously tender, Its flavor between venison and beef. When even Mr. Ramill could eat no more, Garth carried the stone lamp Into the Ice cave. Upon his return, he bad Mr. Ramill and Llllth look close at the caribou skins, "You see they are hair, not fur. But every hair Is hollow. Nothing Is warmer than a caribou parka. In fact the winter coat Is too warm to be worn. That Is why I killed six now, Instead of one. You have never wintered In the North." Mr. Ramill tensed as If prodded. "Wintered? You can't mean to infer in-fer you expect to stay on here. We bave your promise to take us out." Garth answered Mr. Ramlll: "You have my promise more's the pity. A winter a la Eskimo would ke a wonderful experience for Miss RamllL However, she will, of course, prefer to go back to Jazz and cocktails, to paint powder ana lipstick." She flared: "And rid of you!" "To be sure. That above all else," he agreed. "So how could I deprive you of that pleasure or fall to give your father and your fiance another chance to bilk me out of my placer claim? I agreed to get you back to the Mackenzie. When we reach the old post, we part company. You and Huxby will then be free to go as far as you can." He went to gorge on the leg of caribou that Garth had roasted over the fire on a twist-thong of rawhide. When he could eat no more, he hastened back to the placer trough to resume his panning. pan-ning. Before sundown, Garth set sev eral rawhide snares, each attached to a pair of downbent saplings. For bait, he used raw pieces of caribou cari-bou flesh. The beasts of the valley val-ley had never been trapped. When at sunrise, he went the rounds of his snares, he collected a lynx, two red foxes, a wolverine, and a wolf. Garth did not reset the snares. He had more skins than he needed. need-ed. From the wolf-hide he made a knapsack for Huxby. The fos skins furnished smaller bags for Mr. Ramlll and Llllth. At the second sunrise, Garth bundled bun-dled the lynx and wolverine pelts and a quantity of catgut with the caribou skins. Huxby eyed the bundle Ironically. Ironical-ly. "Mr. Ramlll told me about your caribou parka talk. I take It you aim to go back and live among the Eskimos." "I might do worse," Garth replied. re-plied. "Here's your wolf packbag. Load our metal, and slant up from the placer. We'll meet you at the glacier." Llllth Ramlll crept Into the leanto for the last time. She came out with the pouches of salt and tea. Neither bad been opened since Garth put them In her care. Uer worn boots lay at the foot of the leanto. Garth added them to his pack. "We might sew on rawhide raw-hide soles," he said. "All set How about you, mates? Ready to hit th trail?" (TO BE COMLWEU) |
