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Show 4 "Last day !" said one. "D n, what a head!" They embarked shortly, the three In one canoe. I.aFane went directly to the tent, jerked the flap aside and looked down at the sleeping figure there. The face was upturned. It would have been a handsome one under normal nor-mal conditions, but now it was lined deeply with the ravages of dissipation. I.aFane stooped. "You !" he said gruffly. The sleeper made no response. re-sponse. "Jim!" He shook the lad's shoulder but, except for a long breath, Flynn made no response. The man went over the packs carefully care-fully and finally selected one that contained con-tained apparel which would fit the sleeper, discarding that which by any chance might belong to the others, and packing those belongings which were obviously Jim's. This done, he carried the pack to the canoe on the shore and set the craft In the water. The other canoe had disappeared among the Islands; no sound of human origin rewarded the straining of his ears. LaFane returned quickly to the tent, slung the recumbent figure to his shoulder and bore Young Jim, with little apparent effort, down to the shore and laid him gently in the bottom, bot-tom, head on the duffle in the bow. The boy mumbled in protest and brushed at his face. Once he tried to sit up but abandoned the effort and sank back to his stupor. Observing this LaFane left him, broke a stick and scratched in the sand on the landing the following message mes-sage in bold characters : "On my way. Good luck. J. F." With a grim smile he shoved off and paddled down the lake. He kept on for an hour, watching the sleeping man with him until he commenced to show signs of restlessness. restless-ness. Then at a point of exposed rock ledge he halted and stepped out of the canoe. He made the craft fast, and leaned down to shake the sleeper roughly. "You !" he said. "Come out of It, now. Get up !" "Lemme Tone, fellers. . . . Gotta res'. . . ." "Get up before you get hurt!" sharply. ( Young Jim came to life with a bewildered be-wildered start. His perplexed eyes finally came to rest on LaFane's face. "Who the devil 're you?" he demanded. de-manded. "My name's LaFane. Come along. We're going to make camp." This was spoken casually as though they were old companions. "Camp? Say, where the devil are we? And what . . . ." The boy frowned and made a wry face. "We're on our way to Good-Bye," LaFane said. "Get out and have a drink ; water, this time. It'll help you clear your head." This suggestion coincided with a need, evidently, for Young Jim got stiffly out of the canoe, lay down on the ledge and buried his face In the clear waters of the stream. He drank at length, with frequent interruptions for breathing. As he did this LaFane bore the canoe up into a protecting screen of bushes, careful to disturb them as little as possible. There was a chance that those three back yonder would suspect something and come searching. He wanted no complications. complica-tions. Returning to the stream he stood looking somberly down at his charge. Thirst slacked, mind ' somewhat r. SYNOPSIS Stephen Drake, with his four-year-old son, Is rescued from a blizzard by Jim Flynn, biff timber operator, whom I':irlie haa robbed. Flynn forgives the thi ft, and Drake, until his death, Impresses Im-presses on the boy, Hteve, the debt they own "Old Jim." Twenty years later. .Sieve meets "Younir Jim" Flynn, his b' nefactor's son. Sent by Old Jim, In-c;..-irltaled through an accident In which Kate, his dauhter, Is temporarily tempo-rarily blinded, to take charge of the company's the Polaris woods operations, op-erations, the youth is IndulKlnK In a drunken spree. Hoping to do something some-thing for 'Old Jim, Steve hastens to the company's headquarters, finding Franz plotting against the Flynn Interests. In-terests. Worsting Franz In a fist fight, the 1'olaris crew assumes that Drake In Flynn's son, and he takes charge, as "Young Jim." A photograph of Kate, which Steve finds, Intrigues him Immensely. Im-mensely. Steve gains the friendship of I-al-'ane, woods scout, and adds to Franz's hate by driving him away from Mary Wolf, Indian girl whom he has been abusing. Franz discovers Drake's Impersonation. Threatened with disclosure, dis-closure, Steve accuses Franz of attempting at-tempting to murder him, exhibiting evidence, and the man dare not act. CHAPTER IV Continued fc With a great bound he was gone, flying after the children as fast as he IiimI rushed on another day. But this time he did not pursue to malm or kill. When he overtook the children he ran among them, bunting them aside, licking ecstatically at hands and faces, frolicking like a spaniel puppy ! LaFane gave his deep chuckle again. "I'.ut how In the name of Heaven?' Drake Insisted. "I had it to do. And when a man has a thing to do It must be done. Isn't that so? When you first saw him, I had had him here only three days. I had been watching him, trying try-ing to find out what he was like. I knew him pretty well but I made one mistake: I was careless about the strength of the chain that held him. I should have made sure of that, knowing know-ing him as well as I did, and with the children here." He was still a moment. "He was as dangerous as I'd guessed. If It had not been for you, we would be bearing a great sorrow now. I took him that afternoon into the bush. Just the two of us. He came back . . . mine." "You knocked the poison all out of him?" LaFane shook his head. "No. I did not strike him often. When I did, of course, it counted. That was one - thing. After that was over, I put him in harness. I made him drag things through the brush. I let him get hung up and then forced him to try his best to pull loose. His best, understand ; made him pull his heart out And then, when he'd used all his strength and could not get free, I helped him. When he found out that he had a job to do and could not do It without my help, and that he must put into trying all the strength of muscle mus-cle and heart that he had before I would help or else suffer . . . why, then he was all mine." Steve sat down with a surprised ejaculation and the other smiled grimly. "It works, with dogs and with men. There few outlaw dogs, just as there arT few outlaw men. Give a man or a dog an idea of his duty, of his job, and see that he knows he must do It knows clear down to the roots of his heart that he must and there you are. "If I had shot him that day after he rushed my babies it would have been a coward's way out and they would have known It. You gave me the chance to finish what I had planned to do without . . . without h 1 coming to my home. That Is why I have been waiting to do something, some-thing, anything, for you." Steve, oddly touched, growled that LaFane owed him nothing. "But men and dogs, LaFane . . . You've not always lived here then?" "I have tried living in many places." "And handled men?" "Handled? Handled! I've herded men. I was a deputy warden in a big penitentiary once." , "Didn't like man herding?" "Didn't like seeing them herded without a chance to find and unearth the thing that would make them fit and safe to walk and work alone, free. Some, of course, must always be herded herd-ed : the weak ones. But so many of the others never have a chance, because be-cause of bad handling." Drake thought rapidly as he received re-ceived this confidence. "You think, then, that if you had a chance you could break men as you break dogs?" "I'm no breaker, I say. I can handle men, yes. That Is an answer to your question. I have done It. I did it In the prison, a doctor and I. Between us we sent many on parole that might have been there yet . . . being broken Blowly; what was left of them, you understand." Steve locked his hands around one knee and stared out across the lake. "Do you like to try handling men? Young men? Who are strong enough but who haven't discovered themselves them-selves yet?" "No, I'm happy here, with the dogs and my family. But . . . you've a man in mind?" "LaFane, can I trust you to keep a secret? A special, personal secret which Involves others." "I have kept it." "What? You mean . . . you've juesscd something?" - ( lly HAEOLD T5T5JS Copyright by Harold Tltu WNU Service "I have not even told myself that you are not young Jim Flynn." "Well, how In When did Who told you that, LaFane?" "Yob." "I? I haven't breathed it!" "No. You have said nothing. You have been smart and wise. But the first day I took the mail up to your cabin I walked in quietly. I thought you were out but you were sitting thore at a table and you thought, even though I surprised you, that you put It away in time. But you did not. I saw It In your face as you looked at It. "No man, you know, would look at his sister's photograph as you were looking at Kate Flynn's." Steve felt himself flushing. He recalled re-called how he had been e-reading her letters that first day in his new cabin and of how his heart had speeded up when he looked at her likeness. "Well, there's nothing much for me to say!" he laughed, abashed. "And no need of It. Your business Is not mine. Why you came as you did, I don't know. I'm not curious, even. I know what you have done, which Is to save Old Jim's hide for a time, anyhow. That Is all that matters. He, too, Is my friend." "Thanks," said Steve, feeling that any words were Inadequate. "I'm glad you found out about me for yourself. I was wondering how to tell it. . . . "Now, here's my present problem prob-lem . . ." and swiftly he told of how he had blundered on Young Jim, of how he had come to masquerade and of the worry which Franz's news today to-day had given him. "And if I leave the job and try to persuade Young Jim to stay away or to brace him up, things may all go to the devil before I can return." The other agreed. "Do you suppose you could do two jobs in one? Keep the boy away until we have a chance to see what can be done toward putting this thing really on its feet and, while you're doing it, handle him as ... as you handled Duke? I can't keep this game up very long. But until Old Jim gets squared away somebody must be in charge who has a clear head and the respect of the men." "You're asking that?" "I am." "Where is he?" Steve pondered. "How much red clay is there in this country? Within a day's travel, I mean." "Only in one place. On a portage between the Good-Bye and the Mad Woman." "I came that way. And the bottom of Franz's canoe was smeared with it today. It was fresh. He had just come across the carry." "If Young Jim- is still on the Mad Woman and bound to come here, it will be across that trail. If the rest are with him, it may be not too easy." La Fane shrugged and rose. "I will do what I can do." Then, without speaking further he walked toward his house. Steve stood on the beach watching him and thinking think-ing that, for such a situation, no better bet-ter man could have been found to accomplish ac-complish all that might be done. But after LaFane had, departed on his mission another problem arose in Steve's mind. Mary Wolf had been headed for the Mad Woman. If Franz had been that way, might It not be that he had gone to look for her and cause trouble? But If so, he reasoned as this suspicion arose, she had either rebuffed or eluded the man. Franz had been alone today and he had it from Tim Todd that he had gone on down the lower river, telling some one that he was headed for the Laird's. CHAPTER V And that night, up the waters that Steve had descended on his way to Good-Bye went another lone man in a canoe. LaFane's pack was light and he paddled steadily until he was well past the wood camp. Steve had described de-scribed the camping spot where he had met Flynn but none with a good eye would have needed the directions he gave because smoke was rising from a camp-fire against the afterglow. LaFane idled along waiting for night to come, then he let his canoe drift into the rushes and sat listening to the sounds that came from the camp. Sounds of revelry, they mostly were ; the snatch of a song, loud laughter, a careless oath occasionally. For a long time LaFane sat listening listen-ing and watching; then he backed noiselessly away, paddled half a mile, landed, concealed his canoe In the bushes and slept In a single blanket. He did not sleep long. He was up while many stars were still brilliant, folded his blanket, ate a cold snack and waited for the coming dawn. When light was strong he began to walk slowly and silently through the timber. He did not stop until he could observe the activity about the camp. Smoky, the guide, was up. Two of the three young men who comprised the party were washing in the. lake. "Ready for cakes now?" Smoky asked. "Dick and I'll be. Jim, though, he's dead to the world." The guide grunted and drew the coffee cof-fee pot from the fire. LaFane heard the others try to rouse Flynn, saw them finish their breakfast and then begin rigging their rods. cleared by the bathing, Young Jim hitched himself up on one hip. "Now," he said, pleasantly enough, "what the h l's this all about? How does it come that you're giving me orders?" "I came after you." "From Good-Bye?" "Yes," "Who sent you?" "Never mind that." The boy frowned. "Are we on out-way out-way there now?" "Might say so. A roundabout way." "What d'you mean by that?" He rose, belligerent now. "We are going to Good-Bye when you're fit to go. That will be when you can be of some use there." The lad's lower lip dropped and he wiped his hands on his hips. "Say, LaFane, or whoever you are . . . how'd I get here with you? Who're you to tell me what I'm going to do? And when? Where do you get your authority for all this?" "Here," said his companion, spreading spread-ing his hands. "Just in these ... If I need to exercise it." His voice was almost gentle and the light in his eyes was far from hostile. Still, his answer beneath the quiet delivery de-livery had been hard as metal. It was this last which the boy understood un-derstood ; probably he heard only that and his own face, with its marks of debauchery, went dark. He clenched his fists menacingly, a threat in his voice. "That's not enough !" he said huskily and, stepping past LaFane strode up the ledge to where the canoe had been cached. "Where are you going?" LaFane's question was stout, challenging. "To get my outfit. I'm going back to my gang and d n to you if ' The grip of those hands on his arms checked both words and movement He was spun about to confront a different dif-ferent LaFane, a man with glowing eyes and set mouth. "You're wrong again," he said quietly. quiet-ly. "You go where I take yon ; yon do as I tell you." "Like h 1, I" (TO BE CONTINUED.) |