OCR Text |
Show 1 Vanihed Men 11 By GEORGE MARSH fefCa ft 1 INSTALLMENT FIFTEEN 4 j STORY SO FAS: Bound for tb ytftmau (old country, (Is men lost jfvei on the Nottaway river. Red E carrett FinUy, brother of on Wilt, nd Blaise, ball-breed fulde, Notuway poilnf at turveyors ifl at. 3L to investigate. Murder If suspected. It U thought that Isadore, rich fur man, hat made a (old strike and aimi to keep prospector! out On the way to the Hudson's Bay post they visit Isadore in nil palatial borne, meet bit wife and i ji ji a 4 Lite, Isadore't stepdaughter. Answering an appeal from Llse, Flnlay it ambushed. am-bushed. It develops that they are Mounted Mount-ed Police officers. When Chief Wablstan trlet to help the disguised Mountiet, be It deserted by his tribe. iv tv rv rv f 1 Something so unusual that it called for action. It might involve their lives. Blaise Brassard determined to investigate. in-vestigate. Retracing his steps he" shouldered the Peterboro hidden near the camp and made his way through the scrub to the mud beach. Then with his rifle across a knee he paddled to the island and found the tracks of the airedale on a narrow beach. Caching the canoe in the brush Blaise started to follow the dog's trail into the heart of the timber. He had traveled less than a hundred hun-dred yards from the shore when he suddenly squatted while his narrowed nar-rowed eyes roved the thick forest growth about him. Lifting his head his nostrils caught a pungent odor in the air. Then his gaze fell to the birch shoots in front of him. Reaching, Blaise drew the shoots toward him and sniffed at the green, scalloped edged leaves which glistened glis-tened as if smeared with oil. "Beaver castor!" he muttered. "I bin smellin' dis all de way from de shore. Dat w'at make Flame swim to dis islan' beaver castor." "Beaver castor!" he repeated, rubbing his square chin, his swart face wrinkled in thought. "No beaver bea-ver on dis islan'!" Slowly the slits of eyes widened as a solution of the mystery began to crystallize in Blaise's active brain. He moved on through the undergrowth and, shortly, short-ly, found more birch shoots with leaves smeared with the pungent E- Blaise had given the In-:fthe In-:fthe details of the trip to Mata-U7abistan Mata-U7abistan said in Montagnals: are brave men but foolish to (back. Some night they will ou and you will die in your What can three do against my?" :en Kinebik sets up his mediant medi-ant in the round of the moon," r raid, "we shall be there to ' you and j. When the thun-funds thun-funds in the skies and the plane I from the north we shall still iEre to see." :se interpreted to the listening i you have heard of the flying i that comes from the North aoon?" said the old man. S, I have heard. Why does it iver in the 'Moon when the I fly after the Moult' will Isa-(lave Isa-(lave Montagnais at the post. i great secret, the coming of anoe of the skies." jat do you think It brings?" sided Finlay. in can I tell? When it comes ilsadore and Tete-Blanche go jin a canoe." w many men come in this ce we hid on the island and led. One man comes and, in J sleeps, one man goes away I s puzzled eyes met Finlay's. Ill, the only way we'll solve nystery will be to board her she shows up," said Garry. t B CHAPTER XV p "vas soon evident that the big more than sixty miles "in p, with its deep bays and count-islands, count-islands, was being searched the mouth of the Waswanipi to the Quiet Water for the men inenaced Isadore's future, jnost daily as they lay hidden in illows and alders of some is-jor is-jor point of shore the man on sweeping the lake with his fjlars would pick up a canoe r.g for signs of the camp of the (Isadore and Tete-Blanche had i should never see August. Dar-b Dar-b longer to remain within reach js post, with the chance of hear-Jrom hear-Jrom Lise, Finlay had left a under the quartz rock on the h and moved up the lake, the time they returned from nedicine making, if they did n, Blondell would be at Isa-s. Isa-s. Brooding over the situa-of situa-of the desperate girl Finlay ; his nails deep into his cal-d cal-d hands. But he was helpless, e day in early August they were ?ed in a maze of islands at the :h of a deep bay. Garry and Reckless with wrath and grief for his friend Brassard rose and walked boldly from cover into the patches of moss and Labrador tea. Halfway across the open space he found what he had dreaded. Under the heavy drop-log of a dead-fall lay Flame's limp body. Lured by the irresistible scent of the beaver castor the gallant airedale aire-dale had followed its trail directly to the dead-fall. With a groan Blaise dropped to his knees beside the dog he had loved from puppyhood. "Flame!" he muttered "W'y you do dis, Flame? You poor chien! Blaise, he navare forget you. He navare " Brassard was lifting the drop-log of the dead-fall, easing the dog'i body, when he suddenly caught his breath. "By gar! Dat dog is warm, yet!" His swiftly groping fingers sought the dog's breast ribs and explored ex-plored his neck and spine. "Dat log not break his neck or back!" he gasped in his joy. "And his heart-it heart-it beat! He still live! De drop-log crack him on de head, by gar, and knock him out! "Blaise's ear pressed against the shaggy ribs. "For sure! For sure, Flame! Dat old heart, she go good!" Brassard's fingers touched the dog's skull. "Dere it is! Right on de head! Big lump dere! It hit you on head, not de back or neck, and de t'ick moss save you, by gar!" Because the builders of the trap of logs had been careless in removing remov-ing the thick carpet of moss on which it stood, the dog's neck and back had not been crushed by the release of the drop-log when he reached the bait of moose meat smeared with beaver castor. Instead he had taken a glancing blow on the skull which had knocked him out. Reaching, Blaise took the inertbody of his friend into his arms and laid it on a soft bed of moss. Then the overjoyed man rubbed and kneaded the circulation back into the iron frame. At length the dog's legs twitched and his blood-shot eyes met those of the man for an instant of recognition. The stub of a tail lifted and felL Shortly the airedale struggled strug-gled to get to his feet, but sank back on the moss where Blaise's hand restrained him. "Quiet, now! Take your time, boy! By gar, it is good to see you alive! Bad crack you take on de head. Blaise stay wid you right here ontil you not so dizzy, eh?" After a space Flame again insisted on getting to his feet. Blaise watched the dog slowly regain his equilibrium, equilibri-um, shaking his head in an attempt to clear the mists from his brain. At last Flame's strength began to return, for he no longer reeled as he walked about Brassard whose roving rov-ing eyes covered the edges of the clearing. When Flame began to show Blaise Brassard determined to investigate. were asleep in a siana oi young e with Flame beside them f Blaise kept watch on the day they always slept, for they 1 if their camp was located any k would come on a black night it would be easy to approach ater. r hours through the long after-Blaise's after-Blaise's binoculars had cov-the cov-the lake beyond the islands but nicked up no tell-tale flash of a ing paddle. At last he mut-I, mut-I, "I go back and see w'at dat Red doin'. He got too moch i, already." awling back from the thick t scrub Blaise found his friends ing peacefully under their secloth canopy. But the dog missing. y gar, dat dog chew dat leash ;o somewhere and navare make jnd. Now why he do dat? He lart chien, dat Flame. He smell Dar somet'ing for sure." use reached for his Lee-Enfleld 1) stood against a tree, glanced e .45 he carried in a belt hol-and hol-and left his two sleeping ds. Circling the camp he man-to man-to pick up the dog's trail, lose nd find it again. At last he out on a mud beach. Over unmistakable tracks of Flame traight to the water. Two hun-yards hun-yards away lay another island ily timbered with scrub spruce, i and poplar. icealed inside the shore brush e stopped to consider the situa-"Dat situa-"Dat dog swim straight to dat i," he ruminated. "De air it ; from dere to hereand he 1 somet'ing, for sure."' ; airedale had followed no game the water for the . beach was irked except by Flame's feet, thing had led him to chew avv-hide thong and investigate, iut warning the sleeping men ?refore, reasoned Blaise, the ;ould not have been excited or ;ht them in danger. If he had it the wind of Montagnais on other island he would have d the sleeping men at once, for liredale could wind an Indian naif mile. W what was the dog doing over all this time to keep so quiet? ; problem was too deep for e to solve offhand. And he was ed. Something strange bad ened. oil, from the glands of the beaver, widely used by Indians as a game lure at trap-sets and carrying an irresistible appeal to the furred and shaggy owners of fang and claw. "Dey are here, on dis islan'!" he murmured. "Dey use dis castor to draw de dog ovair here and kill him. Den dey come tonight. He navare get dere wind, w'en he come, becuz dey smear de beaver castor on dcmself. All poor Flame smell is de beaver." Blaise Brassard was doing some hard thinking. Lured by the scent scattered over the low sprouts Flame was already somewhere in the center of the island and probably proba-bly dead. He would not give him up until he went in there and had a look. Silently following the trail of beaver bea-ver castor smeared at intervals on low bush, like a fox stalking wood mice, Blaise worked through the timber into the heart of the island. At length the timber began to thin out and Blaise reached the edge of a natural clearing. What had become be-come of the dog? Hidden in a clump of seedling spruce which commanded command-ed a view of the opening Blaise waited. wait-ed. Where were the Montagnais who had enticed the dog to his doom? Blaise had waited for some minutes min-utes in his "hide" when he chanced to glance at the sky and notice an eagle circling high above the break in the timber. "W'at dat fallar see, down here?" Blaise muttered. "He got his eye on somet'ing. Is it de dog?" Wings spread, the eagle drifted down in wide spirals while the man in the spruce watched, his heart sore with knowledge of what the bird's movements meant. So it was "a'voir" to poor Flame! The eagle was making his last circle preparatory prepara-tory to landing in the spagnum, when, with a thin whistle of fear, be wheeled in the air and flapped away over the spruce tops. "Ah-hah!" The cocked Lee-Enfield covered the center of the clearing. "Somet'ing scare dat eagle from landin' out dere! W'at was it?" Convinced that Flame lay stiff in death out there in that spagnum moss, crushed in a trap or deadfall, dead-fall, Blaise started to circle the clearing. Shortly, as he crawled, he came upon the unmistakable trail of the dog leading into the moss, and moccasin tracks in soft soil leading lead-ing away from it interest in the smeared bait of the trap and his nostrils -quivered as they caught the seductive aroma Blaise felt that the dog could make the trip back to the canoe. He picked up his rifle and, followed by Flame, left the clearing. As they entered the thick timber there was a warning rumble from Flame. He leaped past the surprised sur-prised Brassard, fell, recovered and roared his airedale challenge as two bodies catapulted into Blaise's back hurling him headlong to the ground. As he fell and instinctively rolled from the weight of the men on his back the halfbreed tore the .45 from its holster. A hand gripping a knife drove past his neck and buried its blade in the leaves. Blaise caught the Indian's wrist and with a wrench had the writhing body beneath him. Clubbing the .45 he bludgeoned the Montagnais into unconsciousness. Leaping to his feet he saw the injured in-jured airedale drive at the second Indian's legs, dodge a knife thrust as the Indian backed away, then leap again as the Montagnais reached for the rifle which had slipped from Brassard's hands when he was struck from the rear. Indian and airedale rolled over and over .in the brush, the dog slashing slash-ing with his long fangs as the other tried to use his knife. With a leap Blaise reached them and the clubbed .45 struck again. Holding the maddened mad-dened dog off the stunned Indian Blaise swiftly bound his hands and feet with strips of his shirt, and repeated re-peated the operation on his companion compan-ion lying unconscious a few yards away. A quick examination proved that the raging Flame had escaped with a surface cut. Picking up his rifle Blaise and the dog started for the canoe. "You t'ink I am crazee not to shoot dose fallar, Flame?" the man said to the dog at his side. "If I shoot dat old .45 we have free-four, mebbe ten-twenty on our heel before we reach de cano'. Dere are plenty Montagnais across de islan' wait-in' wait-in' for night. You and Blaise now go wake up Red and Garry and start up de lake, tout suite, w'en dark comes." Crossing the strait with the dog Blaise carried the canoe to the camp and waked his sleeping friends. "Wal, you fallar sleep pretty hard w'ile Flame and me make a little troubl' for ourself." (TO BE COSTISVZD) |