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Show 1 Tire mv&m TRAIL & A GREAT MYSTERY STORY j CByJ&xncsOlWcr Curwood X yaC-toyritln. ifte. Tks Behbs-MerrUl Coarsssy -A A ha nat It rruahlnf Into thf othar'a abdo-mn. abdo-mn. It ii a moment brfora ha knew that It had barn aowaaaf ul, bafarr tha film elcarad from hla area and ha aaw hla a-aallant a-aallant arovallnf In tha no'. H ro to hi. feat. daa4 and tuartrlnf from tha rffrt of tha blow on nl head and tha murdrroua vrlp at hla throat. Half a flptol hot down tha trail h aaw Imlla-Inrtly Imlla-Inrtly tha twlttlha of bla. k objcta In tha anow. and aa ha atarad one of the ob. jacta came toward him. "Do not fire. M'aaur HnwUnd," he heard a voice call. " It 1 Joan Cmtaeel. a frUnd! Binned ralnta that waa what you call hem? cloae raJIT" The halfbreed'i thin dark fac cam up emlllng out of tha while cloum. For a moment Hoaland did not e hint, scarcely heard hla worda. Wildly he looked about him for tha alrl. She waa ftne. "1 happened here Junt In time with a club." continued Crolaaet. "Come, wa muit go." The amllf had gone from hla face and there waa a commanding flrmneea In tha (rip that fell on the young engjneer'a arm. Howiand waa ronaiMolie that thlnas were twisting about him and that there waa a letranse waakne.a In hie litnbe. Dumbly 1 .-alsed. hli banua Mi .bla liaa4. ukich hurt him until he felt aa if he muni cry i0ut In hie pain. "The girl" he gained weakly. Crolaaet'i arm tightened about hi want. "8h aea gone!" Howiand heard him aay; and thre wa aomethlng In the half-breed half-breed low voice that caueed him to turn unqueatlonlnaly and atagger along beald him In the direction of Trine Albert. And yet aa h went, only half conadou of what h waa doing, and leaning mora and mora heavily on hla companion, ha knew that It waa more than tha glrl'a dleappearanc that he wanted to understand. under-stand. For aa the blow had fallen on hl bead ha was aura that he had heard a woman's ecream; and as he lay In th now dased and choking, spending his last effort In his struggle for life, there had come to him. aa If from an Infinite distance, a woman's vole, and the worda that It had uttered pounded In his tortured tor-tured brain now as hla head dropped weakly against Crolnsefe shoulder. "Mon dleu. you ara killing him killing him!" He tried to repeat them aloud, but his voire sounded only In an Incoherent murmur. mur-mur. Where the forest came down to the edga of the rlvr the halfbreed stopped. "I must carry you. M'seur Howiand. he said; and aa he staggered out on the Ice with his Inanimate burden, ha apoka oftly to himself. "The saints preserve ma. but what would the sweet Meleese aay If aha knew that Jean Crolsset had come so near to losing the life of this M'seur t engineer? C monde eat pleln d fous! (To be continued.) CHAPTER IU. r . . Ths Mystariotu Attack, a aland was glad that for time there was an excuse for his silence. It began to daws on him thai thla was an eatraor- dlnsry adventure for a man on whose ehoulders rested the reeponsihllftlim of one of the greatest engineering tasks on the continent, and who wae due to take a train for the aeat of his operations at I o'clock In the morning. .Inwardly he waa experiencing some otrange emotions; outwardly out-wardly he smiled aa he thought of what Ven Horn would aay If he knew tie circumstances. cir-cumstances. He looked down at his companion; com-panion; saw the sheen of tier nalr as It rippled out from under her fur turban, ettidled the soft contour of her rheek and chin, without hlmeelf being observed, and . noticed, Incidentally, that Ihe lop of the Switching head beside him cam Just about to a level with his cigar which he waa smoking. He wondered If he aero making a fool of hlmeelf. If so, he assured as-sured himself that there was at aat one compensation. Thte night in I'rin.-e Albert Al-bert would not be eo uninteresting as It had promised to be earlier In iho iven- Ing Where the river ferry was haif drawn up on tha shore. Its stern frosn in the ice, he paused and looked down at the girl la quiet aurprlae- She nodded, smiling, smil-ing, and motioned acroaa the river. "I waa over there once tonight," said Howiand aloud. "Didn't e any houses and heard nothing but wolves. Is that where we're going?" Her white leeih gleamed at mm and he waa conscious of a warm pressure against his arm as the girl slgmfKd that they were to cross. His perplexity Increased. In-creased. On th farther hor the forest came down to th river's edge in a black wall of sprue and balsam. Beyonil that edge of the wilderness he knew that no part of Print Albert Intruded. It was possible that across from thm wks a squatter's cabin; and yet If thle were so, and th girl was going to It, why had st.e told him that she was a stranger In the town? And why had she come to him for the assistance she promised to request of him Instead of seeking It of thosu whom ah knew? He asked himself the questions without with-out putting them In words, and not until they were climbing up the frosen bank of tha stream, with the ahadowa of the foreet growing deeper about them, did n apeak again. "You told m you wr a stranger, he said, stopping his companion wher th light of th stars feu on th fac which ah turned up to him. he smiled and nodded affirmatively. "Tou seem pretty well acquainted over her," h persleted. "Wher are we going?" go-ing?" Thl time she ree ponded with an emphatic em-phatic negative shake of her head, at the earn time pointing with her free hand to the well defined trail that wound up from the ferry landing Into th forest. Earlier In the day Howiand had been told that this was the Great North trsll thst led Inlo the vast wildernesses beyond the V Saskatchewan. Two days before, the fac- tor from Lac Bain, the Chippewayan and tha Creee had come In over it. It hard cruet bore the marks of the sledgea of Jean Crolsset and the men from th Lac la Ronge country. Since th big snow, which had fallen four feet deep teo days before, a foreet man had now and then ueed thla trail on Ms way down to, the edge of civilisation: but none from Prince Albert had traveled It in tha other direction. direc-tion. Howiand had been told this at the hotel, and he shrugged his shoulders la candid bewilderment aa h stared down Into the glrl'a fac. 8h smd to understand under-stand hi thoughts, and again her mouth rounded Itself into that bewitching red O. which gave to her race an expression of tender entreaty, of pathetic grief that th oft llpe were powerles to vole th words which shs wished to speek. Then. Suddenly, she darted a few etepa from Howiand and with the toe of her ehoe formed a elngle word in the surface of the snow. 8he rested her hand lightly on Howland a shoulder aa he bent over to make It out In the elusive starlight. "Campi" ha cried, straightening himself. him-self. "Do you mean to aay you're camping camp-ing out here?" A .... , She nodded again and again, d!lghted that he understood hsr. There waa soir.s-thing soir.s-thing so childishly sweet In her face. In the gladness of her eyes, that Howiand stretched out both bis bands to nsr. laughing aloud. "Tou!" he exclaimed. "Tou-camplng out here: With a quick little movement she 'came to him, still laughing with hsr eyes and lip. .nd for an Instant be held both her hand llg.it In hie own. Her lovely face waa dangerously danger-ously near to him. Hs felt th '.ouh of her breath on his face, for an tnstsnt caught the sweet scent of her hair. Never had he seen ees Ilk thoss that klwd up at him softly, flUd with th gentl starlight: never In his life bad hs dreamed of a face like this, so near t him that it eent the blood isaping through hie veins In strange x-ciiement. x-ciiement. H held the hands llgher. Kd the movement drew the girl cloeer him, until for no more than breath h felt her against his breat. In that moment he forgot all sens of tint and place forgot his old self Jack Howiand - practical, unromantlc. meeter builder of railroads: forgot everything but thla presence of the girl, the warm preasurs against hie breaat. the lura of the great brown eyee that had oome eo unexpectedly. unexpected-ly. Iv Int his life. In another moment hs hsd re revered himself. He drew a step ? back, freeing the girl a ban da. i "I beg your pardon, he eald ooftly. His ! cheek burned hotly at what ha had doiie, I awd turning squarely about he strode up ths trail. He had not taken doaen paces wnen far ahead of hire he saw the red Slaw ef a lire. Then a hand caught his srm. clutching at It almost flercely. snd he turned to meet the girl's face, whits now with a strange terror. What is It?" be cried. "Tell me ' He caught her handa again, etartled by th look in her yes. yulckly h pulled hermit away. A doaen feet behind her. In th thick shadows of the forest trees, something took shape and movement. In f. flash Howiand raw a huge rorm leap rom the gloom and caught the gleam of an uplifted knife. Thcr wa no iiin for him to leap aalde. no time for him to reach for the revolver which ha carried car-ried In his pocket. In such a crisis one s actions are involuntery. machine like, aa if life, hovering by a thread, presence Itself Ih lis owrr manner and without thought or reasoning on the part of tha creature it animates. For a Instant Hoaland neither thought enr reasoned. Had he done an he would probably have met bla mysterious assailant, assail-ant, pittltrg hla naked fists against the knife. But the ery mainspring of hla existence whleh Is ssif preeervstlon called on him to do otherwlee. Before the startled cry on hie lips found uttei-ance uttei-ance he flung blmfelf face downward in tha snow. The move saved him. and as the other stumbled over his body, pitching pitch-ing headlong Into the trail, h anatched forth hla revolver. Before he could fire there came a roar like that of a beast from behind him snd a tsrrlfic blow fell on his head. Under the weight of a sec. end assailant h waa crarhed to the snow, his pistol slipped from his grasp, and ' two great hands choked a deepairfng cry from his throat. He saw a face over kirn, dletorted with paision. a hoge neck, eyee that flamed like angry gamete. He struggled strug-gled to free his pinioned irmi. to wrench off the deathgrlp at hie throat, but hla effort were like those of a child against giant. In a last terrible attempt he drew up hla kneea Inch by Inch under the . .weight of his enemy; It was hla only chare-, hla only hop. Cvn as he felt S the Angara about his throat, sinking Ilk r tint Iron Into his flesh, and ih breath elipplng from hla body, he remembered this murderous knee punch taught to him by the rough flghters of th Inland seas, ejad ertta all the UXe thst reasalaed la him |