OCR Text |
Show 1 Vanuhed Men A ii By GEORGE MARSH &PC,X Q tl OTOitT SO FAR: Bound tor the tmau fold country, ilx men lost 3 . on the Nottaway river. Red .' Garrett Flnlay, brother of one 1,; 'and Blaise, half-breed (uide, a't Nottaway posinc ai lurveyorf firv . i .u jj INSTALLMENT SIXTEEN to Investigate. Murder Is suspected. It ii thought that Isadore, rich fur man, has made a gold strike and alms to keep prospectors out. On the way to the Hudson's Bay post they visit Isadore In his palatial home, meet his wife and t. JU -J -U J j. Use, Isadore't stepdaughter. Answering an appeal from Llse, Flnlay Is ambushed am-bushed and rescued by Malone and Blaise. It develops that they are Mounted Mount-ed Police officers. Blaise returned one night after a fight with some Indians. n jt ,at "They'll be moving soon, if they're over there," Finlay whispered. Suddenly the dog stiffened, the hair along his neck and back lifting as he sniffed. Finlay's hands closed on Flame's nose and throat "Wind something? Steady, boy I" Then from the murk drifted a faint sound like a splash of water. "Ah, I hear it! They're coming!" muttered Finlay. Again Finlay strained his ears, with caught breath, for a repetition of the sound. At last he heard what resembled the wash of ripples; rip-ples; as if something was swimming slowly across the strait What could that mean? He cut the gag and lease and the airedale tore through the alders up the shore. "It must be a swimming otter or beaver he's winded," muttered the surprised Finlay. "He'd roar at a canoe." Shortly from the gloom rose snarls, the thrashing of creatures battling in the water, then muffled gurgles. Rigid, Finlay listened, praying for the dog he loved. "Flame!" groaned the man on the shore. "What's happened ta you, boy? What did you meet out there?" Had he lost his dog? Had FJame gone out there in the blackness to his death? It was no canoe. But what was it? Garry waited In suspense, sus-pense, ears still straining. Then something moved swiftly through -a . ie it w ,e't d'you mean by spoiling a ternoon nap, you old say, )r re your shirt?" demanded r !. "Where'd you pick up all t On that handsome face of , What you been trying to do 12. w were asleep?" uir gazed benignly down on his yo( friends. "You wake up ren you hear." was nuzzling at Garry's Dthen the blinking eyes of the uddenly widened. "What in C you been into, Flame? cut and what's that damned ..m'you? I've got it! Beaver .... Bed, smell of that dog! He's ,d with it! And what happened ead. Blaise? He's been struck ""club." Solicitously Garry ex- t the scratch of the knife and llen head of his dog. a i Blaise had told his story of "eising dog, the log dead-fall set P "clearing and the fight, the .friends ate and prepared to rht island in the early dusk. !Ewai no doubt that their camp en discovered, ise, you and Flame are two levils," said Garry, as they den in the shore alders wait-) wait-) the rose tints to fade from d lake and the dusk to mask movements. "Both of you walk uuble and both of you bob up V. But my guess is that when Jlsvo Montagnais you left bound clearing are found by their nr tv v tagnais! Just what is a Windigo, anyway?" Blaise chuckled. "Wal. de Injun fink de Windigo is beeg, w'at you call giant who eat Injun and is ver' bad fallal. He like to holler at night and scare dem. Most bush Injun is scare of Windigo and will not go into country w'ere he live." "They certainly thought a man-eater man-eater was loose and hungry tonight" to-night" said Garry. "You had me guessing hard, Blaise, when you first opened up. Now before we get out of here I want to take Flame back, into the bush and look him over with a torch." "What's happened?" demanded Red. Finlay described the dog's strange battle in the water. Then they went back where the light from an electric elec-tric torch would be masked from the lake and looked the airedale over. "He's scratched, Garry," said Red. Brassard peered closely at the surface scratches which crossed Flame's shoulders and forelegs. "No claw or toot' make dem mark," he grunted. "It was a knife, then," said Finlay. Fin-lay. "You think a Montagnais was swimming across the strait? But few of them can swim." i "We put cano' in and have a look," said Blaise. At their camp they found Moise Wabistan waiting and told him the u we may hear something. rthey didn't have their guns rtem when they tried to am-;toui" am-;toui" dusk fell a Peterboro drift-it'ough drift-it'ough the shadows like a bound for the head of the ) C I CHAPTER XVI i olice party were hidden near lid of the lake waiting for the of Moise with news from his ir The following night, in the of the moon, it had been ru-through ru-through the fishing camps e Spirit voices would speak to ntagnais. During the day ca-ad ca-ad passed within a half mile ''camp, It was evident that anche had guessed that the ; fought were at the head of :eand that his scouts were tie shores for them. "Moise bef showing up if we're going veto that hide-out tonight" inlay. se will follow de dark of de t gtunted Blaise. "De moon is -jhtj it bodder him. Dey got story. Then the Peterboro, roliowea by the birchbark, passed through a patch of moonlit water before entering en-tering the bank of shadow. From the bow Finlay pointed to something floating ahead of them. "What's that?" The canoe slid up to the drifting object Kept afloat by air bladders of moose entrails, fastened under the arms, was the half-submerged body of a man. Blaise reached down and turned the drowned body to stare into an evil, grimacing face. "W'at you fink?" he demanded, meeting the peering eyes of his friends. "Tetu!" "Tetu? The side-kick of Tete-Blanche!" Tete-Blanche!" gasped Red. "Ah-hah! And good fing, for sure!" "He was coming across to hunt for us when Flame went out and met him, nose to nose, and the best man won," said Red. "Good old Flamey!" "Flame pull him undair and drown him before he stick a knife in him," added Blaise. "Dat smart chien. I navare saw so smart. He know more dan most man. But he men watchm . II need those shore shadows, irry," said Red. "When the slides toward those ridges it'll traveling." k!" muttered Blaise, point- H ly a mile distant the black of a birchbark cut across the ering ribbon of light banding 're's another!" exclaimed "And another!" it do you make of it, Blaise?" Finlay. "Think they've got a that we're in these islands?" sard scratched his iron chin, to" tell!" 9 island's not a hundred yards said Red. "If they land here jot a tough fight on our hands. a case of wolf eat wolf." t'f the trouble," regretted l"We want no trouble to-kill to-kill Wabistan's plans liej whole show." ;e cano'!" grunted Blaise, oak bad to me. We watch re. Dey may land on us. 'at ten in dose boat." right!" said Finlay. "This is- three cornered. Each man shore. That ought to cover ldjng in the dark." your pockets with shells. I'll lame gagged and hitched to t I won't cut the gag and rrl lonse until I'm sure thpv Finlay sat listening, his arm circling the fretting dog. the water to the shore near him, shook itself and bounded to his side. "Flame, you old water rat, what did you strike out there?" Finlay hugged his dripping dog. "Are you hurt, boy?" A rapid search of the dog's head and shoulders with groping fingers seemed to reveal no wounds. Garry threw a loop of a thong around Flame's jaw and waited with arm crooked about him. Presently the silence was split by a demoniacal wail which lifted like an eagle's screaming whistle to die in thin air. The startled Finlay clung to his aroused dog, clamping clamp-ing a hand over his nose. What in the name of all the fiends in hell was that? wondered the kneeling policeman. po-liceman. The voice ceased and silence si-lence again pulsed over moon-drenched moon-drenched forest and lake. Shortly the night was tainted by the bellow of some tortured brute voicing his agony. It was followed by mad roars of rage which echoed back and forth between the forest walls of the strait. Holding his struggling dog Finlay knelt on the shore as the mystery was solved in his active brain. Shortly he heard the thud of wood on wood fading rapidly into the dis- get foolish w en he smell beaver castor, eh Flame?" It was the first week. of August. For days the heat, like river mist before sunrise, had hung in the windless forests of the Nottaway country. "Are you game for a swim, Lise? I'm stifled with this heat. There's an urge in me to mingle my curves with some nice, cool lake water," yawned Corinne Isadore. "I'm crazy to but since that day at the beach I've been ordered to keep away from there," replied Lise. "I fixed that with Jules this morning. morn-ing. The king says we can go. Have you noticed him since he returned from that trip? He's worried, Lise. He mumbles and raves in his sleep. One night he kept saying: 'What's their game? What's their game? We've got to get 'em, quick! If they see that plane and get back to Montreal, Mon-treal, it's all over!" " Lise stiffened in her hammock. Had Tete-Blanche got them already? al-ready? "What could he have meant, Corinne?" she asked with seeming artlessness, wondering just how much the other knew. "It sounds as if they were hunting hunt-ing for Garry Finlay and that darling dar-ling Malone boy, doesn't it as if they were going to put them out of the way? Lise, I'm terribly fright- j 1 1 yaj're here and are going to 33; don't count on his getting irtd and sounding off." cse anyone fires," asked do we leave our posts and m up?" I If they land we've got to ;4ier." - iog Flame's leash to his belt sfossed the little island and i a position with his uneasy 3 long as the airedale felt his i hand he would not make se with the gag in his mouth. Instant he caught a strange m) shaggy body would vibrate ejtement. than a hundred yards from Inlay and his dog waited lay Ck bulk of shadow of the id. The water between was jby moonlight But past it, as the moon arched into the murk reached out toil to-il shore where Finlay wait-ajrtly wait-ajrtly the strait between the should be smothered in black-ifien. black-ifien. if the Montagnais had ed the police hide-out, they K)SS. Ijs rifle on his knees, Finlay itiing, his arm circling the pes- tance. He released Flame who plunged up the shore roaring his challenge to the hidden owner of the magic voice. "By the way they are beating it from that howling Windigo, those Montagnais won't stop until daylight!" day-light!" Finlay laughed until he was tired. "They're superstitious all right! Blaise, the Windigo! The giant who eats Indians! But where did he learn how to do this? What a voice! What a voice!'.' "That you Garry?" called Red, stumbling through the bush. "Where's that foxy Blaise? Ever hear squalling to beat that? They were waiting at the island to come across but he scared them stiff. Those paddles were hitting the lake sixty a minute. Our Blaise, the big voice the ventriloquist!" "How you like dat song?" With Flame .at his heels Blaise moved down the beach and joined his friends. "Wabistan tell me dose Montagnais have fear of Windigo. So I seeng dem de Windigo song." "Blaise, you're some prima-don-na! You always claimed you could sing. Now I know it" said Red. "A swell idea to scare those Mon- eucu. "I am, too. You saw the Indians who stopped here, yesterday?" "Yes." "There were twenty of them. They were hunting for the survey party." "How do you know?" "I heard Tete-Blanche talking to them. They acted drunk. Corinne, Jules is giving the Montagnais liquor liq-uor and it's against the law." "Jules swears that Finlay's a spy sent from Montreal to jump his gold strike oh the river. I suppose that's the reason for it all." "Has Jules ever talked to you of his gold strike?" "Nq. He treats me like a baby. But I'm sure he's secretly shipped a lot of gold south. He's made much money." "Yes, he's made money. Money's his god." "But what's going to come of all this? It makes me shiver to think of it. Three men have been shot What will the police do when they learn of it?" Corinne's great eyes were wide with apprehension. "Where's it going to end? If Finlay stays here and tries to find Jules' gold strike, Tete-Blanche'll kill him It's horrible!" (TO BE COTIMJED) |