Show SERIA STORY TOR 0 MARCH MACH OF THE auw VT n r I 1 T GUARD by SIR GILBERT PARKER wl tt U jo copy ight 1902 by IL t fenno A co CHAPTER III continued cent aued the cups w Nere ere passed round the sub factor measured out a very small portion to each thea the we ceif not men of uncommon sentiment their lives were rigid and isolated and severe corn com orts under fortunate conditions they saw but seldom and they were not given to expressing their feelings demon stra lively but each r an then save cloud in the sky had some memory worth a resurrection and hearts are hearts even under all uncouthness uncouth nesa jasper hume raised his cup the rest followed his example to absent friends and the day when we see them again he said and the all drank gaspe to solemnly and as it if no one was near made the sign jot of the cross for his mem ory was war with a darkened dark darke e jed ed soft cheeked peasant gill of the parish of saint ta gabielle Gab nelle brielle whom he had left behind five years before and had never nover seen since word had bad come from the parish priest that she was wa dying and though he wrote back in bis his homely patois of his grief and begged that the goo I 1 father would write again no word had bad ever come and he thought of her now as one of whom the candles had been lighted and masses had been said but jeff hyde s eyes were bright and suffering as he was the heart fn hint was um brave and hopeful he was thinking of a glorious christmas day upon the madawaska Mada waska river three years agone of adam the blind fiddler of bright warm hearted pattie chown the belle of the ball and the long drice home in he frost frosts night late latu carscallen was thinking of a brother whim he had heard preach I 1 is first Lse sermon rifton in edinburgh ten vais bhore and late carscallen slow of speech and thought had been tull full QI qt pride and love ione of tl at brilliant brother but they in the natural course of things drifted apart the tire low and uncouth one to make his home bome at last not far from tae tte arctic circle and to be this night on his way to the barren grounds but as he stood with the tup imp to his lips he recalled tie tl e words it of a newspaper paragraph of a few months before it made reference to the fact that the bev rey james ca carscallen D D preached before belore 3 ier majesty on whitsunday and had the honor of lunching with her majesty afterward and late car rubber ids leq left band hand joyfully Joy fulir against his blanketed leg and drank cloud in the sky a thoughts were with the present and his ugh of approval was one of the senses pure ly instead of drinking to absent fiends friends he looked at the sub factor and said how he ile drank to the sub factor and jasper hume the sub factor what were his thoughts 9 his was a memory of childhood af df a house besides a swift flowing river where a gentle widowed ma mother ther braced her heart against misfortune and denied herself and slaved that her son might be edu bated he had said to her that some day he would be a great man and ahe he would be paid back a hundred fold and he worked hard at school very hard but one cold day of spring a message came to the school and he sped homeward to the ho se bes de the dark river down which the ice fee was floating 4 he would remember that floating ice lee to his dying day and entered a quiet rooer where a white faced woman was breathing away her life and he fell at her side and kissed hei hel hand and called to her and she waked for a moment only and smiled on oil him and said be do good my boy and god will make you great and arid then she said she was cold and some one felt her feet a kind old soul who shook her head sadly at the mother and looked pityingly at him and a voice fisl rising g out of a strange smiling languor murmured I 1 II 11 I 1 away III away to the promised land to the promised land it is cold so cold god keep my boy and the voice ceased and the kind old soul who bad had looked at him pitying folded her arms about him and drew bis his brown head to her breast and kissed him with flowing eyes and whispered come away dear come away but he lie came back in the night and eat vat beside her and would rould not go away but remained there till the sun un grew bright and then through another day and night until they bore her out of the little house by I 1 the river to the frozen hillside and the world was empty and the icy river seemed warmer than his heart and sitting here in this winter des bation jasper hume beholds these scenes of 20 neais before and I 1 follows himself a poor dispensing clerk in a doctor s office work ing for that dream of achievement in which his mother believed tor for which she hoped and following further the hoy boy that was himself he saw a friendless first year man at college soon however to make a friend ut of varre lepage and to see always the best of that friend being himself so true and the day come when they both graduated together in science a bright and happy day succeeded by one still brighter when they both entered a great firm as junior partners then came the meeting with rose varcoe and he thought of how he praised his friend varre lepage to her and brought that friend to be introduced to her lie ile recalled all those visions that came to him when his professional triumphs achieved he should have a happy home and a happy face and faces by his fireside and the face was to be that of rose varcoe and the others faces of those who should be like her and like himself he ile saw oi 01 rather felt that face clouded and anxious when he went away ill III and blind for health s sake he ile did cot not write the doctors forbade him that he ile did not ask her to write tor for his was as so strong and steadfast a nature that he did not need letters to keep him true and he thought if she cared for him she must be the same u he ile did not understand a woman s heart how it needs remembrances and needs to give brances looking at jasper hume s face in the light of this fire it seems calm and cold yet behind it Is an agony of memory the memory of the day when he discovered that varre le page was married to rose varcoe and that the trusted friend had grown famous and well todo to do on the V C A 1 1 I 1 I 1 at ga I 1 VIM 05 5 51 5 1 5 77 Z 1 he abad 1 the first four vc see of the thirty first psalm off offspring spring of his brain his ilig drat thought had been one of fierce anger and determination to expose this man who had falsified all trust but then came the thought of the girl and most of all there came the words of his dying mother be good my boy and god will make you great and for his mother s sake he had corn com passion on the gl gi I 1 and sought no re ulon her husband rare type of man in a sordid world I 1 and now ten years later he did not regret that he had stayed his hand the world had ceased to call varre lepage a genius he had not fulfilled the hope that was held of him this jaspar hume knew from occasional references in scientific journals and he was making this journey to save if he could varre lepage s life and he has no regret though just on the verge of a new eia in his ca reer to gle give to the world the fruit of ten years thought and labor he had set all behind him that he might be true to the friendship of his youth that he might be loyal to bis his manhood that he might be clear of the strokes of conscience to the last hour of his life looking around him now the debat ing look comes again into his eyes he ile places his band hand in his breast and lets it rest there for a moment the look becomes certain and steady the hand Is drawn out and in it is 1 a book of common prayer upon the flyleaf is written jane hume a to her dear son jaspar on his twelfth birthday these men of the white guard are not used to religious practices what ever their past has been in that regard and at any other time they might have been surprised at this action ot of jaspar hum under some circumstances it might have lessened their opinion of him but his influence over them now was vas complete they knew they were getting nearer to him than they bad had ever done even cloud in the sky appreciated that lie ile spoke no word to them but looked at them and stood up they all did the same jeff hyde leaning on the shoulders of gaspe Tou jours he ile read first four verses of the thirty first psalm then followed of the prayer of st chry bostom and the beautiful collect which appeals to the almighty to mer cifelly look upon the infirmities oc of men and to forth ills hand t to keep and defend tl 0 em in all dangers I 1 and necessities late carscallen after a long lon lause i abuso said amen and jeff hyde said in ili a whisper to gaspe ron fou jours that s to the point in fit and dangers and necessities Is what troubles us immediately after at a sign from the sub factor cloud in the bov be gan to transfer the burning lood from one fire to the other u until antil only hot ashes were left where a gleat blaze had been over these ashes pine twigs and branches were spread and over them again blankets the word was then given to turn in and jeff hyde gaspe Tou jours and late carscallen lay down in this comfort able bed bach lach wished to give way ray to their captain but be would not con sent and be he and cloud in the sky wrapped themselves the melves in their blankets like muni mummies niles coveting their heads completely and under the arctic sky they alel t alone in an austere and ten antless world they never k know now how hov r loftily sardonic nature can be who ho have not seen that land where the mercury freezes in the tubes and there is light but no warmth in the smile of the sun not sturt in the heart of australia with the mercury bursting the fevered tubes with the fingernails finger nails breaking like brittle glass with the ink drying instantly on the pen with the hair falling oft off and fad ing would it if he could hae have ex changed his lot tor for that of the white NA bite guard they are in a frozen endless ness that stretches away to a world where neier never voice of man or clip of wing or tread of animal Is heard it Is the threshold to the undiscovered country to that untouched north whose fields of white are only fur rowed by the giant forces of the ele ments on whose frigid hearthstone no affre IS ever lit a place me electric phantoms of a land pass and repass and are never still where the magic needle points not toward the north but darkly down ward downward where the sun never stretches warm aarm hands to him who dares confront the terrors of 0 eternal snow the white guard sleeps IV no captain leave me here an push on to the manitou mouquin you ought to make it in two days I 1 in just as sate safe here as on the led and less trouble a blind man s nc good III haie have a good rest while you re gone and then perhaps my m eyes will come out right my aly foot I 1 nearly well now yes jeff it 11 de was sno snow blind this the giant of the party hau hail suffered most dut but jaspar hume said I 1 won wont I 1 leave iou on alone my man the dog can carry you ai they ve done for the last ten days but jeff replied I 1 m as sate safe her hero as marching and safer when the dogs are not carrying me nor any one leading me you can get on faster and that means everything to us now don t it ita jaspar hume met the eyes of gaspe Tou jours he ile read them then he said to jet hyde it shall be as aou ou wish late carscallen cloud in inthe the sky and myself will push on to man alan itou mountain you and gaspe tou jours will III remain he e jeff hydes s blind eyes turned to ward rard gaspe Tou jours and gaspe tou jours said yes we have plenty ot of tabac TO BE CONTINUED |