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Show GUY EVANS had never been hunting. Ha had always thought he'd like to go hunting because his closest friends, Mel Harper and Ed Jordan, seemed to get great deal of pleasure from their sojourns Into the north woods. "Suppose you take me with you?" he said to his friends a week before they were due to depart on their annual excursion. "I'd like to get away (or awhile and have some fun." Mel and Ed exchanged glances. "Ever been In the woods?" Mel asked. ; "No. That's why I'd lfke to go." ; Mel and Ed talked it over and agreed to let Guy accompany them. Guy was delighted. It would be swell, he thought, spending a couple of weeks with two congenial companions com-panions far away from it alL He pictured a leisurely ride up to Watervllle on the train, and many pleasurable moments later in a snug log cabin deep in the forests. Guy outfitted himself at a local sports store. The night before departure de-parture Mel called up and told him to meet them at the airport at dawn. Guy was rather surprised. He had looked forward to the leisurely lei-surely train ride. A taxi deposited him and bis baggage bag-gage at the airfield in the bltii.g cold of a mid-winter's dawn. Mcl and Ed looked at his baggage and shook their heads. "You'll have to leave it all be-hind be-hind except for a 25-pound pack and the clothes you wear," they told him. They landed In Watervllle two hours later. It was stil cold and barely light. Guy was in favor of a hot cup of coffee, but Mel said they wouldn't have time if they wanted to reach camp by nightfall. Saul Payson, 6 feet 3 and with a voice like a moose horn, yelled at them from a ramshackle flivver. Saul was the guide. At sight of Guy he looked questionlngly at Mel and Ed, but nobody said anything. They piled into the flivver and drove through the town and out on to a rutted country road. The wind whipped in their faces. An hour later Saul stopped the flivver in a cleared place beside the road, covered the engine hood with an old rug and began unloading. "This is where we begin walking,.' walk-ing,.' Mel explained. ' The trail that they followed was a tote road that wound through the woods. It was deeply rutted, besides being covered with a three-inch fall of snow. Before they had traveled a mile Guy's new boots began to pinch. . . They had walked, It seemed a thousand miles, before Saul stopped to rest. Or that's what Guy thought was happening. In reality, Saul had stopped only to shoot a rabbit that was sitting on fts haunches and watching them in the most harmless manner imaginable. Then they went on. At 1 o'clock' they came to a frozen-over stream, on the banks of which was a one-room one-room log cabin. There was nothing very snug about It. There was nc fire In the rusty box stove and only two bunks besides a couple of roughly made chairs and a table. It was colder inside the cabin than it was outside. When Saul handed Guy a bucket and an axe and told him to go down to the brook and chop a hole in the Ice for water, he was grateful. A fire was burning when he got back and bacon was frying. It was the most delicious odor Guy had ever smelled. He eased down on one of the bunks and thought that he'd never be able to get up again. Saul made coffee and cut up some bread and they ate ravenously. Then Mel and Ed suggested going go-ing hunting. Guy would have preferred pre-ferred to remain where he was and die comfortably. They tramped around and saw nothing. They returned to a cold cabin and built up the tire. By the time the cabin got warm, Guy was half asleep in his bunk. He awoke about midnight to find Saul snoring beside him, and his body chilled to the bone. He dozed occasionally till dawn. Then Saul routed him up and sent him after water. It was barely light when they went out hunting agaia They divided, Saul and Guy going to-, gether. In a clearing Saul told Guy to wait and he'd scare up deer. Guy. waited. Hours passed. He thought he must be freezing. It began to snow. He guessed that Saul had become lost or forgotten him. He began to walk around to keep his feet from freezing. After a while he came to a road he thought must be the road that led to the camp. He followed It. He walked for hours. The snow stopped. It grew colder. It began to get dark. Guy kept on walking. He figured the road would lead somewhere and he only hoped he'd get there before It grew so dark he couldn't see. He was right. The road led to where the flivver was parked. Guy was an expert mechanic. It took him five minutes to get the motor started without the ignition keys. He drove back to Watervllle and went immediately to a hotel. The hotel lobby was warm. The" room that he hired was warmer. He relaxed, re-laxed, sighing deeply. Then he drew a hot bath, rang for the bellboy and got into the bath. . "Get someone to go out to the Harper camp," he instructed the bellboy, "and tell whoever's there that Mr. Evans Is safe. Warm and safe, and he's going to stay that way." |