| Show TELEGRAM I FICTION FORBIDDEN VALLEY By W. W V. V BYRON MOWERY MOWERY- Synopsis Just before reaching the land of ot the dangerous hee Indians in the Canadian northwest Curt Tennyson and Paul St. St Clair trailing the international international inter inter- national crook Igor Karakhan join parties with Sonya and Ralph Nichols The Nichols are on a mysterious mission they will not discuss The party just has beaten off an attack by the Indians but butan butan butan an unfortunate shot by one of its guides has eliminated all possibility of making friends Curt is interested in Sonya but she will not listen to his pleas CHAPTER 24 2 I When they got down to camp they found lound the place badly shot up Arrows Ar Ar- rows bristled in the canoes stuck out of ot the packs and sleeping bags bass and both tents had been riddled Pau Pau went into his tent for a flashlight flash flash- light and came out holding his left arm rm queerly Give me a hand with this his this partner the trouble One of those mosquitoes bit me me Curt leaned forward Good Lord LordI An arrow was sticking in Pauls Paul's left forearm It had struck him just below the he elbow and passed clear through the he head standing out two Inches on the he other side II Paul Pault Why didn't you tell me about this his before When did it happen When I was waco going back to those boulders to lo make Francois and quit shooting Curt whirled around in a ra rage e and looked for lor the two guides But they had lad wisely sidled away into the dark Did It break your arm Paul No It slid between the bones Pull it t out wont won't you Its going to hurt Paul Can you youland stand land it Paul braced his foot loot against Curts Curls Sonya Sona steadied his arm With a firm pull ull Curt drew out the arrow as gently genty gent gent- ly y as he could A spasm of pain swept across cross the young Canadians Canadian's face but buthe buthe he ie did not say a word A of or blood followed surprisingly little for lor foro forso so o bad a wound We ought to be thankful it didn't hit lit that l large rge artery in there Paul Ill I'll 11 fix this up properly and then you want vant to take care of it till it starts to o heal A wound lie that can beugly be beugly beugly ugly if it it gets infected While he was bandaging Pauls Paul's arm armie he ie heard a low groaning sound from someWhere out in the night A moment mo me- ment later it came again more dis dis- Wh Why its it's somebody hurt in paint paini Sonya exclaimed Paul did you catch the direction Over on that willow island Then it must be the man they shot Those others thought he was dead and left him Finishing quickly with Paul he be got gota a canoe ready and md carried it down downto to the water The anguish in that low moan tugged at him Sonya followed him to the water edge Please Curt she he begged dont run a n big risk like this Risk What do you mean mean Those others might still be over there This might be a trap Dont Don't goShe go go She was visibly afraid for lor him Wait Wail till it gets light But Paul saw them leave heave Sonya We cant can't let the poor devil lie over there and die Youre sure theres there's no danger Step in in he bade her by way o or of answer You can go go along If It you like You know I wouldn't take you ou if there was any risk Injured Indian At the willows edge a cladIn clad cladin cladin in mocca moccasins Ins and deerskin trousers lay sprawled on the gravel lace face down his body twitching in pain Curt knelt down n and gently turned him over The Indian was about his hi own age a well built and rugged man his hair coarse black and his skin the color of smoked leather All in all hew he w was the wildest looking fellow that Curt Curl had ever run across much wilder wild er than the outlying nomads or the primitive men of or the Nahanni mountains Yet there was something likeable about his untamed fierceness He was wac cleanly of person as hard as an oak clothes knot and his hig tanned smoke had the plea pleasant odor of mountain pines and md innumerable campfires Curt pointed at five long whitish veah which scored the Indians Indian's s left cheek and ran down his shoulder to tc his breast Look at those Sonya He Hes He's been in a tight light with a grizzly sometime some sometime sometime time or other He lie examined the Indian to see how ho badly he be had been shot One bullet had struck him In the shoulder a painful pain pain- ful CuI but not critical wound for it hadnot hadnot had hadnot not shattered the bones Another had hit him squarely in the forehead That forehead astonished Curt Cur It was WM the first firt time Ume he had ever seen Jen a man take a bullet between oJ the eyes and not get set killed instantly The fellow certainly was hard hard fight fight fight- Ing ng grizzlies and surviving a shot in inthe inthe the he head He brought water and washed the Indians Indian's face lace A granite pebble no larger arger than a pea was lodged in the forehead wound Curt pried it ou out with his knife point examined the wound and the granite pebble and suddenly understood what had happened happened hap hap- to the One of those heavy Winchester bullets bul bul- lets els had into the gravel in front of him kicked that stone against his lis head and knocked him senseless Stretched out limo limn with a hole be be- tween his eyes eyes no no wonder the others had thought him dead The cold water on the face ace brought him to In a few lew mo mo- ments When he saw that a white man was was bending over him his eyes turned suddenly cold His glance fell lell upon the hunting knife in Curts Curt's hand and his expression changed to a stony tightlipped tight lipped defiance Too weak to move he merely stared up at his enemy am and waited Whys he looking at you that way Curt Sonya asked She had stooped down to hold the flash Good heavens he thinks Im I'm going to kill him himi He hastily pocketed hi his knife Well hes he's certainly a stoical cuss He spoke in the Jargon to the Indian In In- dlan dian Dont be afraid I am friend I hear you say hurt cry and I come over here I take you now to my tepee and make you no You understand I am friend 1 The Indians Indian's look slowly changed to bewilderment He had expected th the white-skin white to gloat over him before f finishing him off and the stran stranger strange er was vas speaking in tones of sympathy and kindness What name you Curt asked Ha Tenn Hai i am oa m Curt smiled Spose I call you ou Tenn-Og Tenn huh Now we take you ou to tepee In the tent he gave g the a drink of diluted brandy to brace him and then began dressing the wounds The shoulder bullet had gone almost almos entirely through Curt extracted it stopped the thc bleeding bandaged th the wound and stuck a cross of 0 plaster plaste on the forehead cut Feeling stronger Tenn-Og Tenn leaned back against t a pack watching th the three I guess hes he's convinced were we're no not going to kill him at least not immediately immedi immedi- Curt remarked Now SNow lettry lets let's try tryout out his lingo Paul and see If h he speaks anything besides grizzly bear bea and porcupine They managed a 3 three-cornered three con can The Indian talked readily enough freely answering all their thel questions about his people and giving them some invaluable bits bils of or information mation about Siam and LeNoir Curt was surprised that he should do this and should seem so indifferent to his own clan It was only later when he knew Og Tenn-Og better anc and had heard his strange tragic stor story that tha he understood He learned that the southern band ban had broken away from the main group grou because of Siam Klales tyranny Mid Mid- die-aged die apparently having some som queer twist of ot cruelty in his lUs makeup make make- up the tribe leader ruled with a brutal hand Within Tenn-Og's Tenn memory h he had killed three men outright am and made broken cripples of several o othe of Ithe the others Besides that he possessed possess a shaman power of dealing some quick mysterious death to anybody he disliked Sounds like poison polson poison Curt re reo marked to Paul I shouldn't be surmised sur sur- to find LeNoir Is slipping him that hat powder Say I wonder iff If this isn't the explanation of LeNoir's stand stand- in n with Siam Lets Let ask him about the man were we're interested in Paul suggested Better not Paul He might get back baek ack to his liLs band and report our ques ques- ions He turned to the Indian and went wenton on n with his questioning LeNoir had planned the attack that evening Tenn Tenn- Og Dg said but had stayed on the mainland main main- land and shore and taken no part in the fight ight He had ordered that the men should hould be killed their bodies sunk in in the lake with rocks and their canoes set et adrift down the to give the tie appearance of oC a rapids disaster but ut the white girl must not be hurt if they could possibly help it IL Curt wondered why LeNoir had hat given ghen those orders about Sonya Certainly he hadn't intended that she should hould return to Russian lake for fat she would report how the party had me mets met its ts end Had he wanted her sp spared for himself Copyright 1934 William B. B I Mowery |
