Show awa BW VIB W 4 4 S tr W THE ahr i RIVER MUR of f SKULLS 0 by georoe george marsh arsh 0 PINN PENN publishing CO TOW 1 CHAPTER CHAP XIII continued Con linued 20 the eyes of heather shone like sapphires sapp hires as alan reached them she danced around the fire her wavy golden hair tossing about her head while her father reached a big hand to grasp alana in a fierce grip all aboard for or the caribou alan roy my boyl boy I 1 roared the giant now shed those worries of youral well soon have meat and skins for I 1 clothes old klu kill joyl i even the dogs grew excited fit at the feverish activity at the camp everything left behind was cached safely out of reach of wolverines rines ithen the impatient and I 1 noel elnoel started with rifles and light packs while john and alan waited for the aid of the moonlight to make their way with the canoe and the heavy packs up the trail through the j spruce and around the gorge on up the river in the morning went I 1 the canoe while heather walked the i shore with the dogs tor for company jin in the middle of the afternoon the signs of caribou hair along the water waiter line increased the deer were passing in greater numbers but how far upstream that night the tired holers made camp late in the twilight but there were no signs of the two indians ahead 0 ot them at sunrise heather and alan went back from the river to sweep the barrens with the glasses i rolling away before them reached the ahe white moss hills bills studded with boulders alan handed the binoculars clars to heather who focused them on the distant tundra while he held her rifle As she stood like a statue slowly searching the skyline his eyes feasted on the tumbled gold of her hair in its wayward luxuriance then followed the nape of her strong round neck to the collar of her patched shirt and the skin coat worn vorn over it tall and strong and straight she was in her tattered clothes as she swept the tundra with the glasses all unconscious of the silent tribute in the gray eyes odthe man beside her he wanted to touch her bertouch touch the gold that curled at the nape of her neck wanted to ta take her in his arms there on the barren and kiss the dimples in her brown cheeks As she turned find and handed him the glasses her violet eyes deep ened in hue by contrast with her tanned face caught the warmth of his gaze handshe looked away as she said 1 cioe I no deer it if you knew how you looked standing there he began but she interrupted hoarsely why do you say this to me when you carry her picture oh dont think im not sorry for you leaving her as you did with your heart sad he reached swiftly and placed his hand band over her mouth im not sad heathers He Hea atherl therill he cried im glad glad that im here with you youl do you you hear thail do you understand its you heatherd He atherl only you who counte why do you still carry her picture it went into the bre long ago its you heather He atherl you ive been carrying in my hearal he impulsively reached to take her in his arms but she stepped away from him she shivered as it if suddenly cold its only because im here with you alan youre lonely you only think youve forgotten her if we live get out of this terrible country be sorry if I 1 believed what you say now no its because youre youra lonely only be sor ryll I 1 he smiled as his gray eyes met hers you mean everything to mel everything I 1 getting out with the gold means little to me bowl its bringing you out safely that counts 11 without answering she started back over the caribou path toward the river her moccas ined feet seemed uncertain to the man who followed hour after hour the two men sla slaved vedAt at the poles pushing the canoe up against the hard running water heather was somewhere behind with the dogs when they turned a bend where the tha river broadened into a long reach ot of q quiet ilet water and alan shouted look ahead therel there I 1 weve struck them john weve got our meat beai and clothes now above them splashing the water in all directions four caribou plunged into the stream and star started ted to cross antlered Antler cd heads backs white rumps and tails out ot of water the frightened deer drove across the current as it propelled by engines seizing his bs rifle alan dropped to a knee while mccord steadied the boat with his pole end and fired as the deer reached the thee shallows hallows again as they left the water in a wild panic he fired and two bucks wavered stumbled and reaching the beach fell red meat for i erl cried mccord good shooting boyl from this distance in ina a canoe good shooting thoo weve struck them an alan there go two more alovel wed better camp here and wire up the dogs john noel has probably got plenty of 0 deer above here and the dogs might turn the deer to the west be coming for or bayst that night noel and kapayo a appeared p at the camp it was only the vanguard ot of the migration the told them the big herd would be crossing for days and they could select the fattest for meat and the best fauns dauns and yearlings yearnings year lings for clothing as they passed he and noel had bad already shot dressed and skinned a number from rom the scattering bands and placed them in a cache upstream while the resl of the hungry hunters revelled bevelled revel led in deer chops noel and the roasted the head and tongue the best part of the animal in the opinion of the indians the following day in small bands the migrating caribou continued to cross the river headed tor for the protected valleys and wooded country far to the south stationed along the river shore at the well beaten paths leading down from the tundra the hunters chose their deer avoiding the old bulls whose white manes and great antlers anglers distinguished them from the younger there go two more alove r animals by night they had enough chocolate and white faun skins for their winter clothing and sufficient meat to be cured and brought back bach to the camp but alan and john were anxious to see the th main emain herd which kapayo assured them was following these scattered bands a compact mass of literally hundreds of thousands of traveling caribou larger than the mythical buffalo herds that once roamed the west ern plains so leaving the indians mccord alan and heather went back on the barrens As they left the scrub of the valley and came out on the open tundra above to gaze over the rolling moss covered plain reaching away mile after mile to dim hills on an the horizon mccord gasped look at hose daerl in every direction bands of caribou dotted the white moss tundra always moving into the light breeze that blew from the west on the skyline of an adjacent rise in the barren a line of white stags were standing enjoying the breeze that gave them ethem relief from the pest of flies files everywhere the amazed eyes of the three hunters gazed they met moving groups of deer does with their parti colored dauns fauns year lings old stags all moving upwind up wind as is their invariable habit the three traveled on farther from the river watching the moving deer when suddenly out of a little valley rushed a band with their peculiar high knee auctioned trot snorting and grunting as they came hear the click of their hoots hoofs heather cried alan they al ways make it when they travel but dont they see us why going to run right over busill exclaimed the excited girl as the band of dier deer approached th the ti two 0 men smiled at the girls apprehension watch them when they get our scent see some antic anticol sl replied alan suddenly as the band of approaching pro aching deer whose eyesight is 13 poor crossed the scent ot of the hunters they recoiled as if by word of cor command several young bucks rose on their hind legs and pranced back and forth snorting loud loudly lyThe the band scattered and retreated then bunched again and led by a cow finally anally charged across the tainted air that so frightened them and were oft off over the tundra hear their hoofs click heather 1 I should say sol but arent they beautiful creatures creature sl I 1 its a pity to shoot them alanl yes but without them the indians would bowd starve and freeze and so would we this faill the two men and the girl watched i the scattered groups of 0 deer heading for the river cross crossings ingi then lo in the afternoon the van of th the e great herd appear appeared edl As aa tar far a as s they could see with the glasses marched the battalions and regiments of the army of caribou on their annual journey from tile the vast highlands west ot of bay to the sheltered valleys ot of the south one oae of the zoological phenomena ena of the world for hours the absorbed mccord alan and heather watched the marching thousands like great herds ot of cattle bulls cows and fauns dauns all moving into the breeze over them hovered circling ravens and a golden eagle hung high in the sky on a hilltop off the flanks of the main herd glasses revealed for or a space the slinking shapes ot of a family of white wolves watching for or a straggling faun or yearling for like ghosts the wolves follow the migration south and again north in uie the spring and nearer from the graveled summit of a ridge two shaggy animals with long bodies and bear like heads a pair of wolverines rines the most hated beast in the north viewed the spectacle then for days the hunters tolled at the camp on the river preparing the skins and meat to be taken downstream in the canoe and building a huge hugo cache of heavy stone on the river shore mays days after the head of the migration had crossed the river above the camp the stragglers were still coming from the north by thousands thousand CHAPTER XIV it was deep in september and each morning now a film of ice reached out from the shores of the bars where john and alan still w worked with sluice and shovel and pan while the othera others were busy sewing hooded coats breeches and leg gongs gings sleeping bags and smoke tanned moccasins for use on the snow pounding pemmican and storing it in bags and stringing the bows of snowshoes with rawhide the narrow ten foot toboggan sled with its wrapper ol of deer skin and the dog harness hung in a tree waiting tor for the long trail up the kok soak with its load of 20 pound bags of yellow dust and nuggets and still more precious food for man and dog before the water grew too cold and silt ice stopped them john and alan worked on the eddies in the gorge and filled two more skin bags with large nuggets and flake gold flurries of snow now frequently filled the frosty air the last of the geese and swan had passed south couth west the moons ot of the long snows had again come to the land of the Nas kapl late in september when light snow blanketed the barrens na ina payo again went on a mission up the to look for signs of mcqueen or the Na naskai Nas kapl fear ol 01 an ambush of the dog team on the river ice later was constantly constan tl y with w i th them A week passed pass ed and the he t 1 indian n did not return another an other week and each night around the fire in the spruce the faces of the waiting men and girl grew more grave tor for the boy had won his way to their hearts it if kapayo does not show by tomorrow said alan noel and ill take the dogs straight over the bar ren to the and follow it up a day or two the snow is beginning to pack its all right for the light load well carry yes and run into what hes probably met on an ambush objected mccord no lets hang together when we start up the Kok soak well travel like an infantry column with flank patrols out on the shores ive felt it all along burst out heather its ent nl hes got poor its this terrible gold in the bags therel theril for two months dad youve thought of nothing but goldi youve been mad crazed about III it you want to load the sled down with it until theres not enough food to take us through kill the poor dogs to carry your goldt goldi heather heather girl soothed mccord youre tired and worried you dont mean what you say were going back all safe and sound honey honer and we have a fortune with us McQueen enIl ll never bother this outfit it if hes alive but hes not well never see hide or hair of mcqueen again the took care of himl the may take care ol of us too she objected winking back the tears her emotion had aroused no heather said alan the dont winter in the valley kapayo told me iro probably bably in the timbered lake country hundreds hundres of miles south of here by now then were Is poor kapayo Na payo she cried you say mcqueen is dead i and rd the indians are arc not near us and yet boure youre going to look for signs ot i both mcqueen and the indians neither of you believe what you bayl youre only trying to keep your fears from mel in id the morning the river answered heathers question when alan and noel went down to the shore to the hole they kept broken in the ice tor for water they saw something adrift in the swift unfrozen channel What fl that floating out there beyond the ice fee in the channel noel asked alan be a deer could it the Montag nals gazed at the submerged flotsam reaching out from 6 a bar slowly noels swart features changed color and his face went grave we tak cano and see hs he said no daerl deer float floa lt high As they ran the canoe out over the shore ice and into the open channel alan knew that the dread in noels heart was the same dread that sickened him as they poled the canoe up to the submerged shape bobbing at the ice edge they turned over the battered body floating face down and looked into the glazed staring eyes of kapayo they got him noell noel they got himl groaned alan look at that hole in his head and theres another in the back see he was shot from the aearl no muzzle loader did thail that was made by a ross and that ross belongs to nl ato TO ISE BE CONTINUED |