Show E thac I 1 5 plains ay i JM H of fia aarah awl ikui ta i 1 ric ah or am a by JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 0 0 V 0 C toy by doubleday doran co inc service THE STORY with hi wife gather cather in ine and son on jeems henry bu ia lain 1 n 1 french settler in canada canad a in 17 1749 4 9 cultivate ll R a farm arm adjacent to 0 the th contour Tonte tir selene urle an aa the tory story opens oppens the th bulaon are ar returning from a visit to the th ton tours fun cather catherine nos wandering brother meets them with presents for the family to jeems he h gayos a pistol bidding I 1 him t im perfo ChIm self in marksman h hip ip fears ear for the safety noty of the th culaton in their violated lio in 01 position jeems fights with paul tache cousin of tol nette Tont eur whom they both adore d next day jeems calls at t the h home and for brawling in front of tobnette Tol nette the TOnt eurs KO go to quebec pour four years pass war between brit aln and france flames jeems returns from a hunt to find his ho home me burned and his father and mother stain slain ile he goes coes to the and finds the manor destroyed and and it hie ia I 1 servants dead CHAPTER V continued 11 against this clouding of ills his senses he felt himself struggling as if brimming in an empty space lie ile picked up his big hatchet and hla his bow and rose to his feet he had not lost sound of the mill wheel even when robbing bad seemed to be athis at his side it was crying at him now but before lie he turned toward it his eyes rested on Tont eurs wooden peg it was half cut off a mark of grim humor on the part of a butcher the mill wheel was forcing his attention lod to that fact look ook look loov look lt it said and then thea repeated the old song calling him an english beast he faced it in a flash of resentment not because of the wheel alone but on account of what lay at his feet and what he knew he be would find nearer to the walls of the manor ills mind was hurting hurling anathema at ibe wheel he wanted to tell it that it lied in this hush of death deaia lie he wanted to cry out that he be was not of tile the murderous 1 breed who had sent the killers proof was over there in the valley which at last was well named ills mother ills father ills his uncle hepsibah not one of them were dead by its hand he had been left alive by chance that was proof the wheel was wrong it lied ile he looked at again strengthening himself to go a little aitt le farther and find tobnette Tol nette ile he knew how it would be young body even more pitiful than lila ills mothers he forced himself to turn toward the smoldering walls tobnette Tol nette dead 1 ills father might die and Tont cur eur and all the rest of bf the world hut but these two his mother and tobnette Tol nette in inseparable asep in tile his soul forever the lie vital sparks which had kept ills own heart T beating how could they die willie while he lived ile he advanced pausing pa usini over ever one of the slaves a woman almost unclothed inky black except the top of her head bead which was red where her scalp was gone in the crook of her arm was her seal plesa pless infant white black women babies the loveliness of girlhood it made no difference jeems aca scanned nned the earth beyond her and where the smoke lay in a chite white shroud he saw u small slim figure which he be knew was tobnette Tol nette another young body might have lain in the same way its slenderness slender crumpled in the same manner a naked arm revealed dirtily dimly under its winding sheet of smoke but lie he knew this was tobnette Tol nette tiette the dizzying haze blize wavered before his eyes again and he put out his hand to hold it back tobnette Tol nette only a few steps from flom him dead like his m other mother odd went ahead of him halfway to the still form and stopped ped ile he sensed xo something methin g jeems could not see or feet feel through throng h the smoke mist which undulated before their eyes warning of impending danger confronted the dog and lie her tried to pass pasi it to jo ills his master in that moment a shot came trum from tile mill and a flush flash of pain darted through jeems arm he fie was flung backward and caught himself to hear echoes of the explosion beating against st the forested hills and the wheel at the top of the me mill screaming at at him ile he answered tile shot hot by dropping his bow and dashing toward tile the mill boath might easily have met him nt at the threshold but nothing moved in the vau chamber bh had find aniere entered d and there was no sound in it if except that of hla his own breath and ilis his racing betki feht t odd went to the flight of nar row steps which led to the tower room and told jeems that what they sought wes there jeems ran up his file hatchet raised to strike ile he must have been an unforgettable e and terrifying object as aa ho he appear appeared ej above the floor into the light which forced its way through the dusty glass of thre three e round windows over ills head there must evia have been a little of the monster ii about him ild he ha 1 1 l left some of ills hla garments with his mother and father and ills arms and shoulders were bare char an 1111 smoke and the f earth had disfigured tm his face appeared to be painted bior slaughter and a greenish firs fire glit berd ln lit the eyes that were nvere seeking 9 corf enema en enemy emT bicad dripped to the JAI oaken planks from ills his wounded arm arin he was a F r at i kenst eln ready to kill dishevelment and fury concealing his youth ills stature made appal appalling lingby by his eagerness to leap at something with the upraised hatchet if the ali hatchet had found a arah it would have be boon en T 0 inette s silo she faced him ns as lie he cipe capie ho hoelling illing the musket which site she had fired through a silt alit in the allas wall as it if she ahe still poa ilos iti messed seed falth faith in iti ftc power to defend tier her iler her eyes had in them fi a touch of ninino madness mad s yet she was so straight anti anil tense walting waiting fur for death that site she did not seem to be wholly possess possessed edby by fear or terror something unconquerable e was with her the soul of montt Ton himself struggling in tier her fragile bitaut to make her unafraid to die and gluing to tier her an aspect of de defiance flance this courage could not tilde hide the marks marki of tier her torti tort lre fire death find miraculously left tier her flesh untouched in passing yet she stood crucified in the mill roomi room respecting a savage she recognized jeems the musket fell from lier her hands to the floor with a lull dull crash and she drew back as if from one whose presence she dreaded more than that of a a mohawk until tier her form pressed against the piled up bags of grain and title she was like one at bay the cry tor for vengeance which was on jeems lips broke in a sobbing breath when he saw her lie he puke she had tried to kill wm and he had gone away leaving tier her alovel 4 her name and tobnette Tol nette made no response except that site she drew herself more closely to the sacks odds toenails cli clicked clied on the wooden floor as lie went to her this did not take tier her eyes from jeems they were twin fires flaming at him through a twilight gloom the dog touched tier her hand with his warm tongue and she snatched it away she seemed to grow taller against the gray dusk of the wall of grain you english beast I 1 it was waa not the mill wheel this time but voice filled with the madness and passion which blazed from her eyes with a sudden movement ent she picked 1 up the ar asket and struck at him I 1 it t it had been loaded slie she would have killed him she continued to strike but jeems was conscious only of of the words which came from her brokenly as shepp she spent nt her strength on him lie he had come with the en english itsu indians to destroy her people I 1 he fie and his mother had plotted it and they were alive while every one who belonged to her was deady the barrel of the gun struck him across the eyes it fell against his wounded arm it bruised his body site she kept repeating that she wanted to kill him and cried out wildly for the power with which to td accomplish the net act as he stood before her like a man of stone an english beast lier her peoples murderer a fiend more terrible than the painted savages she struck until the weight of the musket extin exhausted har and she dropped it ft she snatched weakly at the hatchet in jeems hands bands and his fin gers relaxed about the helve with i a cry of triumph sit she e raised it but bu the blow could descend she aih sank in a crumpled heap upon the floor ken even then her almost unconscious lips were whispering their denunciation anunciation nuncia tion lie fie knelt beside her and supported tier her head in ills his unwounded stiv bounded arm voi for a moment it lay against his breast iler her eyes were clofed her lips were aad A nd anis tier ber blown blow remembered hla file mothers mot heri god and bre breathed atheda a prayer of gratitude because of her deliverance then lie he bent and kissed tile the mouth that had find cursed him CHAPTER VI Tol tobnette nette wile alone when she awoke from tile the unconsciousness which had come to ease the anguish of her hermand mind and body it seemed to tier her she was coming coining out of et sleep and that the walls willell which dimly met tier her eyes were those of tier her bedroom in the manor that a truth whose evidence lay so horribly about her could be reality find and not a dream broke on her senses dully at first and then with a swift understanding she sat pat up expecting to see jeems but he was gone site she was no longer where site she had fallen at her feet but jeems had mado mada a resting place for her of empty bags and must have hare carried her to it she I 1 s shivered when she looked at the musket and the stain of blood on the floor she had lind tried to kill him and lie he had gone away leaving her alive I 1 As had bad happened to jeems something was burned out of aier now it had gone in the sea of darkness which had swept over her and she rose with an calmness as if the tower room with its dust and cobwebs and store af pf ripened grain had become tier her cloister passion hod had worn itself away anway if a thought could have slain she would still have wreaked wrecked tier her vengeance on jeems but slie site would not have touched the musket again that hat lay on tile flo floor or she went to the head of tile the stairs and looked down the son of tho the english woman had left no sign except the drip of blood that made a troll trall on the steps and out of the door I 1 exultation possessed her as she thought how nearly she mile had brought to the he the same shadow of death which they and their kind had brought to tier her tile thrill was gone in a moment tile the red drops fascinated her painted brightly by tho the sun jeems bulala out there with tier her dead 1 tile the boy tier her mother had bad tried to malte malce tier her regard with bitterness and from childhood a man grown into an english mon monster sterl she struggled to bring back her power to hate and tier her desire to kill but the effort she made was futile silo she followed the crimson stains all about her was the haze aliaze of smoke soft and still in the air jn the distance obscured by the fog which ran from tile the smoldering ruins she saw a form bent grotesquely under a burden it was a shapeless tiling thing distorted by the sun and the smoky spindrifts spin drifts dancing before tier her eyes but living because it was moving away from her behind it was a smaller object and she knew the two were jeems and his dog she watched until they were blotted from her vision and minutes passed before slie she followed where they had gone jeems must hare seen her for he fie reappeared with the dog like a werewolf at his heels lie ile had bad found a coat somewhere and lid did not look so savage though ills his face was waa disfigured ared and bleeding where she had find struck him with the barrel of the musket she tried to speak when he stopped before her accusation and a bit of ferocity remained jn 10 lo ler soul but they were impotent hinline inline silence between them his eyes meeting hers steadily from under the lurid brand of her blo blow w seemed less jess like a murderers and held more the gaze of one who regarded her with a gold cold and terrible pity he didiot did not put but out a helping hand albough she abe felt herself swaying he was waa no longer youth ile he I 1 was vas not even jeems bblain but his bib voice was the same 1 I am sorry Tol tobnette nette TO BE CONTINUED |