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Show CHAPTER VII Continued 11 Instead of taking out his waterproof water-proof match case Garth took up his paddles. "The rule Is never burn your last match until you have to." Huxby dipped his own paddle. "Come on Mr. Ramill. By his own account, three hours more will rid us of him and his Insolence." "Wait," said Llllth. She pointed to the bank where the pleasant green of young spruces showed among the weathered white trunk's of fire-killed birch trees. "If we have so much time we'll land there and clean up." "But with the post so Dear, my dear Lllllth!" Huxby protested. "That fellow Tobln had any amount of soap." "All the more reason. I'll not have even a common navvy see me In this condition. The rags can't be helped. But the dirt! " Out burst her suppressed loathing for all the grease and grime that smirched herself and the men. "Mud 1 slime! rancid fat! spoiled meat! Alan Garth, I know that I have to go In dressed like a squaw. But this this filth!" He surged the canoe around shoreward with a powerful sweep of his paddle. "Not necessary, Miss Ramill. A scouring with hardwood ashes and sand will do the work of soap. We can go in sweet." They landed where an Ice jam of some spring break-up had gouged through the muskeg mud at the end of the ridge and left a clear beach of glacial sand and gravel. Up over the ten-foot cut bank, Garth started a fire with one of his two remaining remain-ing matches. . No cleaning could be done until the fires burned out. When Mr. Ramill took off the spits of cooked meat, all squatted down as usual to share the meal. Garth smiled his thanks as he took the slab of hot meat handed to him by the millionaire. million-aire. The smile hardened. A sudden change had fallen upon his three companions. He could easily guess the cause. They realized real-ized that this was the last meal they were to share as fellow voy-ageurs voy-ageurs with him. The moment they stepped from the canoe onto the wharf at the emergency refueling post, their forced companionship with him In the lost valley and on all the long trip would be at an end. Instead of a trio dependent upon their opponent op-ponent for food and guidance for life itself they would be a trio not only Independent of, but hostile to him and his interests. That was at least true of the two men. And even Llllth betrayed In her look and manner a vivid consciousness con-sciousness of the impending change of relationship. As for Huxby, the cold gloating In his stare showed how ht'was anticipating the robbery rob-bery and ruin of the man who had so far outplayed them. Mr. Ramill had reacted In his own way. His temporary friendliness friendli-ness had disappeared. He was again the bland, adroit Investor fn mines who so generously presented present-ed worthy prospectors with a thousand, thou-sand, and In return took over claims worth many thousands. Huxby had been a hopeless case. But Garth had fancied there were possibilities pos-sibilities In the older pirate. Llllth Ramill, however, was the real disappointment Though she had done nothing so far as Garth could tell, to disprove her declared hatred of him, she had seemed more and more to show a spirit of fair play. It had led him Into thinking she possessed a true spirit of sportsmanship. By the time Garth finished his own half-spoiled meat, he managed also f swallow his bitterness. After all, what else could he have expected? ex-pected? The girl was the daughter daugh-ter of Burton Ramill the selfish spoiled daughter of an unscrupulous unscrupu-lous business sharper. He broke In upon her rubbing of the begrimed diamond : "May I ask you for the salt and tea bags, Miss Ramill? They're as good as empty, I see. But I can refill them for my return to the valley." She stared at him, wide-eyed. "Valley I Ion you're going back-there?" back-there?" "To be sure. Why not? You can't suppose I'll abandon all that million in my platinum placer." Huxhy's face had gone blank. His agate eyes stared with all their cold rancor. But Mr. Ramill chuck-led. chuck-led. "Of course, my dp.ir the placer. He will be going back to his placer next spring." The girl did not turn her astonished aston-ished gaze away from Garth. "Pal dr.s not understand. I do. You mean now I fou planned It from the first. All that caribou meat and mt "Good guess," he broke In. "It has taken a bit longer than I expected ex-pected to get you out But In my light birch-bark, I fancy I can make the head of canoe water before the freeze-up. After that, frost and snow will make no difference. I'll have a pair of webs snowshoes." The millionaire spoke In place of his wild-eyed daughter: "But, man, the cold?" Garth smiled. "Have you forgotten forgot-ten I told you that I wintered with the Eskimos at Coronation Gulf?" "They have dog teams." "Some of those teams were reared from wolf pups. I might experiment. ex-periment. There are several wolf families In the valley." "You're stark" mad I If you think you can " Mr. Ramill paused. He listened to what Huxby was muttering In his ear. His frown smoothed out, and he again favored Garth with the smile that did not go up as high as his shrewd eyes. "Oh, well, my boy, If you're bound to risk your life In foolhardy fool-hardy adventuring, that's none of our business." "Quite so," Garth agreed. "If our sixty-forty deal had not fallen through, it would have been your business to do the legal assessment assess-ment work on the claim. But as things stand, I may as well put in the winter doing the work myself. The metal I sled out with my wolf team should pay enough to buy me a fair-sized freight plane." The millionaire beamed. "Yes ah true !" Garth smiled back at him. "By the way, I meant to let you discover dis-cover for yourselves at Fort Smith the happy surprise I've "had all along for you. But since you're so pleased already over my prospects, I'll let you into the secret right now." "Secret at. Fort Smith?" "Yes. I forwarded my papers by the southbound Bellanca before I had the pleasure of meeting you and Miss Ramill. My claim has been on record for the past four weeks or so." Huxby glared with a sudden change from gloating to cold rage: "You lie! You were going out In your canoe." He was on his feet almost as soon as Garth. His fists swung in blows driven by all the force of his furious anger. Garth sidestepped side-stepped both, and clipped in a, hook to the jaw. Huxby dropped as if hit by a sledge. Yet It was not a complete knockout After three or four seconds, he sat up, blinking like a dazed owl. Garth had stepped back. He said : "Apologize, or get up and take what Is coming to you." Huxby stopped blinking. The daze cleared from his eyes. They took on their usual calculating look. He felt the beard on his sore jaw, and replied with cold deliberation deliber-ation : "I withdraw the term." Arrogant as was the tone, the words were an unqualified apology. Garth turned to Lllith, who stood gazing at him with a peculiar hard glow In her blue eyes. He spoke as If nothing had happened: "Some of the ashes are now cool enough for you to use, Miss Ramill. Rub them on as a mud paste till the potash cuts the grease, then scour with sand, and rinse. Better take your ashes In the blanket, and use It for protection while you do your laundering. The skeets and bulldog flies are swarming. You'll find a bit of sand beach just under that clump of spruce." Without a word of thanks, she dragged the blanket to the edge of the nearest outburnt fire and began brushing the fluffy gray wood ashes upon it with a spruce spray. Her father had been gazing thoughtfully thought-fully at Garth. He took up his empty foxskin bag. "Come on, Vivian. This Is washday. wash-day. Take Lilith's bag and get your potash." The wolfskin knapsack, with Its platinum alloy treasure, had been left attached to the mooring line of the canoe. There was no bag for Garth. He made one by opening the front of his buckskin shirt and unnd-lndling wood ashes Inside. Lllith went . over beyond the spruce thicket with ti. blanket-bagged blanket-bagged ashos. Garth led Mr. Ramill and Huxby to the strip of sand he-low he-low the be;relttl canoe. There he showed them inv to cheat the buzzing Insert pes!s Instead of stripping for his laundry, work, he muddled his ashes and plastered the paste all over his body and on the inside and oulshle of his clothes. j lie rnlibod in tlie mess and gave ; the weak solution of potash hp time to act. After that came the, rinsing. Hp waded our and sat down ' in the water up to his ne-k. Thus ' protected from the swarms of stingers, he stripped off one garment gar-ment at a time, washed It clean of ashes, and tossed It upon tlie edge of the beach. Before coming out, he toek a luxurious swim in the clear river water. y First Ramill and then Huxhy rather gingerly copied Garth's method. Like him, both wound up with a swim. Neither, however, ventured far out Into the vast slow flood of the Mackenzie. With the landing came the comedy. com-edy. The others ended their bathing bath-ing before Garth. He tread water to watch them. Both had wrung out their clothes and flung them well up the beach. The moment they splattered ashore, the waiting swarms of blood-suckers buzzed to the feast Huxby cursed, snatched up his half-dry rags, and dashed back in, to dress under water. Mr. Ramill, however, had no desire to put on wet clothes. He beat at the zizzing pests with his tattered union suit. It enabled him to get into the leather trousers and coat without being stung more than half a hundred hun-dred times. Garth's mirth was mixed with admiration for the mine investor's nerve. Along with this he felt a glow of satisfaction over the results re-sults of what his rigorous training had done for the once-soft millionaire. million-aire. Though still heavy-set, the portly gentleman had become something of an athlete in appearance. appear-ance. His flabby muscles had been hardened ; his loose Jowls were now firm. His paunch had disappeared, "My word, sir," Garth sang out, "you look fit for the football squad. That should be worth more to you than a dozen platinum claims. At least, you might toss me my buckskins." buck-skins." Mellowed by the bath and swim to a temporary return of friendliness, friendli-ness, the millionaire chuckled and came down the beach to fling the sodden garments out to their owner. own-er. His loitering afterwards may have been for Huxby. Yet he went back to the dead fires with Garth, when the engineer muttered something some-thing about having dropped his penknife. As the two disappeared over the top of the Ice-gouged bank, Huxby sprang to open the wolfskin knap- Garth Side-Stepped Both, and Clipped In a Hook to the Jaw. sack. From it he snatched out a piece of rancid bear-cub fat, a clip of pistol cartridges, and his "lost" automatic. With swift, purposeful movements, move-ments, he rubbed the fat on the rusty pistol and began working the mechanism. It Jammed repeatedly. repeat-edly. But a3 the sun-melted fat soaked the rust, the action became normal. Still quick yet unhurried, he loaded the clip into the hollow butt and slid back the outer barrel to throw a cartridge into the breech. As was of course to be expected Llllth Ramill had not returned from her own dip and wood-ashes laundering. laun-dering. Garth sat down beside the tin cup and little aluminum pot to mend a rip In his buckskin trousers. Still in a friendly mood, but with shrewd calculation In his eyes, Mr. Ramill stretched out on his back in the long grass beside Garth. "Well, young man, It appears that the game Is played out The Joke on us is that you had the cards stacked. A cold deck, and no stakes up." Garth differed : "Why not put It according to the facts, sir? I offered of-fered a square deal a straight business proposition. The placer was in on that. Had I not sent out my papers for record, I would have had no legal claim to offer In my bargaining." "Why er But when I refused your terms, and you refused mine, you said you preferred to play out the game." "My game," Garth qualified; "not yours. It was you and Huxby who thought you had tlie cards stacked to win." "But your game? Yoz nd tlie placer clinched. Why not have said so at once, or at least there at tlie lake when you turned the tables on us? 1 iniLdit have accepted your terms. At least we could have Mown out together, instead of going through all these weeks of privation priva-tion ami hardship." The last words won ... j-cJ glance from Garth : "Hardship privation? Yon must know several fellow millionaires who call It prime sport to spend a month In the bush." "Sport?" "Oh, well, If you can't fee that side of It, just recall yourself as you were when I had to hoist you out of the monoplane cabin." That held the millionaire for a long moment. Then "Admitting how much I've benefited bene-fited from your health cure, Doctor Garth, your methods have done my future son-in-law no good. Ai for my daughter, to drag a delicately nurtured lady Into the dirt and privations and dangers of your raw wilds" "Delicate!" Garth cut In. "Do you know of anyone more hard? The point In her case is that she was only a brittle, harsh alloy. Now she's at least partly tempered into true steel. I had hopes of still better bet-ter results from the both of you. But hate and treachery blacken the blood." At the bitter statement the millionaire mil-lionaire flushed with anger. He started to turn over on his side to frown at Garth. The movement drew Garth's glance. Above a clump of wild currants, less than ten paces distant he glimpsed the top of Huxby's hat and the outthrust muzzle of the automatic. As Garth ducked forward, the pistol blared. Garth pitched down on his face. At the same instant, startled by the shot, Mr. Ramill jerked up on his elbow. The long grass had hidden him. Huxby could not have known that his partner was lying so close beside Garth. In the excitement of the moment, he must have thought he had missed his kill and that Garth was bounding up again. He instantly pulled the trigger a second time. Knocked over by the shock of the bullet, the millionaire sprawled across the flaccid body of Garth. Even as the roar of the second shot dinned in his ears, the killer saw what he had done. The pistol dropped from his paralyzed hand. Betore he could recover his wits, Lllith burst screaming from the spruce thicket Half clad, wet hair flying, she dashed forward to fling herself down on her bare knees beside be-side her father. Under the partly washed off coat of mosquito dope, his face was the same sallow gray as Garth's. She looked up, her eyes black with horror. Huxby had risen to his feet He was advancing, once more cool. She flung out a forbidding forbid-ding hand. "Stop ! Keep away ! You murderer mur-derer I" His lips tightened. "You're mad, darling clear off your head. I shot to save your father, not at him. No, listen you must listen to me ! The d d roughneck attacked your father fa-ther with the knife had him down. At my first shot he dodged. I thought I missed. Your father sprang up Just as I fired again. It's the truth." "Truth!" she cried "t r u t h I You've killed them both !" Huxby advanced with wary quickness. quick-ness. But at -sight of the two meu he had shot, he thrust his coat-hidden coat-hidden pistol Into Its sheath. All the back of Garth's sideward turned head was a crimson blotch. What need of wasting powder on a man shot through the head? Mr. Ramill's wound gave him no less satisfaction, though for an exactly ex-actly opposite reason. The bullet had struck high up on the shoulder blade, between neck and arm. Huxby Hux-by pulled the thickset body from under Lllith and opened the front of the leather coat The steel-jacketed bullet had drilled clean through and come out below the collarbone. "Lookl" he shouted his relief. "Your father he's not killed, only knocked out The wound's not serious, seri-ous, so high up through the chest Same way one of my classmates was shot by a hold-up. Take hold. We'll get him -into the canoe and make a quick run down across to the refueling post. That fellow Tobin will have a medical kit." The pulling of her father from under her had let the girl down upon the body of Garth. Huxby's eager assurance roused her from . the semi-swoon. She struggled partly part-ly up, to peer at her father, her hands braced upon Garth's lax side. Even as she gazed, the gray of her father's face became less ghastly. But in place of the smile of relief for which Huxby looked, she sprang up to flare at him In another an-other outburst of denunciation: "Murderer! Liar! There's his knife where I left It. He did not have it! Liar! Sneak! He did not attack Dad. But you you crawled up and shot him without warning warn-ing !" Huxby dropped his mask. "What of it? The d d wood louse lied first He thought it funny to keep mum about having recorded his claim to play your father and me all this time. Great Joke that. Only It back-fired on him. I'm the only pilot who can find the valley. No one can say that the claim we file on Is the same as the one hs recorded." re-corded." (TO LE COTIXUED) |