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Show hf ' " ' 5m hy GEORGE MARSH Copyright he Pnn Pub. Co, (WXT? Service) S FROM THE BEGINNING At his fur post, Sunset House, In the Canadian north, Jim Stuart, trader in charge, with his headman, Omar, rescues Aurore LeBlond, daughter of Stuart's rivai in toe fur business, from an overturned canoe In the lake. She proves a charming companion, and Stuart Is naturally attracted. Jim's superior, Andrew Christie, displeased at Stuart's trade showing, allows him, at his request, ene rear to "make good." Paradis bribes an Indian to ambush Jlra and Omar. The attempt fails, and Jim takes the Indian to Lefilond. After hearing the story, LeBlond discharges Paradis. Jim and Aurore acknowledge their mutual love, though Aurore U returning to Winnipeg, and Jim has planned m canoe trip to make a personal appeal to the Indians, who have persistently refused to trade their furs with him. He finds that Paradis has enlisted their superstition supersti-tion to discourage them from trading with Stuart. Paradis' men ambush Jim and Omar again, but they are not harmed. Esau, half-breed partisan of Stuart, leaves on m mysterious mys-terious Journey which they hope will result m the overthrow of "JingwaJs," Indian, "medicine man" in the pay of Paradis. Camping for the night, the Trader and Omar roll their blankets in the sliape of men sleeping beside the fire, and hide nearby. Indians attempt to knife the men supposedly In the blankets. Jim and hie friend attack and kill them. CHAPTER VII Continued 13 "nubliltl" growled Omar, as tha familiar thumping of the bind feet of K buck snowshoe win repeated. "Wlint're you going to do? Hunt up old Jlnuw In the morning and accuse ac-cuse him of this?" whispered Jim as, with rlfle9 across knees, they settled Mown to their long watch for the pos-fulhla pos-fulhla appearance of others of the Paradis hand. "Ah-hnhl For he tell Paradis all he know about us. I close hees niouf." Tliere was no disputing the fact that the old mnn'a knowledge of their enrch for ICsau would he a grave menace to their safety. Yet It was unlikely that lie would leave his wife to die alone while he hunted for Paradis. Para-dis. And to the white man who sat through the hours beside the Implacable Im-placable half-breed who had already pronounced sentence of death on the lngrate, It was unthinkable that the courageous old squaw should be deserted de-serted to a slow death. Rut In holding hold-ing Omar's hand, In giving her her chance of recovery from the infection, Jim realized that he was gambling with his own life and that of his friend forgetting what he owed the Elrl at the Lake of the Sand Beaches. And yet he could not bring himself to do otherwise. At dawn, the watchers on the shore, Jiow confident that the would-be-assas-alns had come alone, started a search Tor their canoe, which they shortly fonnd not far away, and drew up and hid In the brush. Then, leaving their own canoe, for they did not wish to be seen, they started through the timber tim-ber for the tlpl of JInaw. Squatted by a small .fire, over which Blmmered a tea pall, they found the old Indian frying a pan of fish. At the sound of their appronch, to Jim's aurprlse the Ojlbwa hailed them with "bo'-Jo' " without turning his head. "How Is the woman?" asked Stuart la Ojlbwa. The deep lines of the old Indian's face softened, as he rose and faced the hostile eyes of the white man and the half-breed. Then a look of bewilderment shaped Itself on his hawk-like features as he glanced curiously curi-ously from one to the other. "Sleep has come to her," he said ; "At the first light she said the pain had grown little In her arm. The medicine of the white man Is strong." Old Jlnaw stared quizzically at the wrath In the black face of Omar, who Stepped forward and started to speak, when the raised hand of Jim checked him. "Heat some water," ordered Stuart "I will wash out her hand." Futtlng a pall of water on the fire, Jlnaw led Jim into the tlpl. His entrance was greeted from the pile of Bktns by a low, "Nla I nla I You have come! Your medicine Is strong, for the pain has grown small." Jim placed his hand on the wrinkled forehead. The fever had dropped. Then he took the bandage off the arm and washed the Incision he had made in the hand, while the squaw, mumbling mum-bling her gratitude, stoically refused to voice her pain. Sending Jlnaw for more water, Jim quietly asked her: "Was It your son who stopped here the last sleep after I put medicine on your hand?" The eyes of the old woman, sunken with hours of agony, widened at the question. There Is no subterfuge here, thought Jim, as she whimpered : "My son, here, the last sleep? No, he has forgotten he comes no mora There was no one here." As Jlnaw entered with the warm water, Stuart said : "We thought that you had sent two men to knife us in our sleep and we came here to make you pay." "I saw It In your eyes," said the Indian, calmly meeting Jim's gaze, "but I did not know why your hearts had turned bitter. The men of Paradis found you, but your medicine was too strong?" "They will stalk no more sleeping men ;" Jim closely studied the wrinkled wrin-kled mask of old Jlnaw, but In the expression ex-pression there, he found only mild surprise. "It was, then, the moon on a wet paddle, as I thought." "You saw their canoe?" "No, after you left, I saw far on the lake, a fla.-h. Then the moon was hid." "We thought you had sent them to Hod us." Sorrowfully the Indian shook his nead. "Jtnaw has little to give the jwhite trader for his good medicine. but his friendship. He gave him that the last sleep, when he touched hands. Does the trader from the House of the Sunset believe Jiuaw now speaks with a single tongue?" Rising, Jim gave the old man his hand. "I do. We shall be friends." CHAPTER VIII When Esau left Jim and Omar and started down the Sturgeon river on bis mad mission In search of Jingwak, he traveled all the first night, watching watch-ing the passing shores for the red embers em-bers of a dying fire. For, once Paradis Para-dis was warned of the coining of the men from Sunset House, he would lose no time In guurding the river road over which they must pass. So the old man rode the swift current through the shadows, his eyes straining strain-ing for the glow of a campflre on the foliage of the shore. Before dawn the roar of white-water drifted to his ears, and he landed. For he would need the light to Inspect the strange rapids and decide whether he could run them or would have to carry around. So Esau hid his canoe, went deep Into the forest, boiled his tea over a diminutive Are masked from the river by thick timber, ate, and slept. Later In the morning he walked downstream to the head of the rapids. Across the river was the cleared space at the end of a portage trail. The white-water was Impassable; the Indians In-dians carried around It. But the veteran, vet-eran, who had passed his life on the wild rivers of western Klwedln, did not return to his canoe and drop down to the portage. Along the opposite shore he followed the rock-scarred white-water as It foamed and churned and thundered through a half-mile of clamoring chaos. Then he returned to his canoe and started downstream for the head of the portage, for not even the trained eyes of Esau Otchlg who, In his youth, had run the Chutes of Death on the Winlsk and the Long Sault of the Mad river, had found a way through for his canoe. The old Indian was crossing the river a quarter-mile above the rapids, when, to his consternation, two men appeared on the portage. With a lunge of his paddle Esau swung the nose of the canoe to the opposite op-posite shore. Was It Paradis on his way up river, or traveling OJIbwas who would pay him slight attention? He had paddled but a few strokes when he saw a canoe carried from the forest and slid Into the water. Leaping Leap-ing Into the boat, the two packers started straight across the head of the rapids. They were trying to cut him off! It was Paradis! Furiously Esau drove his paddle, angling across the current for the opposite op-posite shore, as his keen brain grappled grap-pled with the situation which confronted con-fronted him. He could land and take to the bush ambush the two men in the canoe if they dared follow him up. But there were others behind them on the portage. That meant losing canoe and outfit defeat Without these he could not reach Jingwak. Then, at the head of the carry, a third man appeared. There was a puff of smoke, a faint explosion of a 0X0 rille above the drumming of the rapids, and a bullet whined past Esau's face. as the two canoes swiftly approached ap-proached each other, the old Ojibwa made his decision. Life meant little to him, now. There was one chance In ten of his coming through; but he would make the great gamble for that one chance for Jim and the memory of Jim's dead father. The trail to Jingwak led through the half-mile of white fury ahead. He stopped paddling, reached for his rifle, and fired at the bowman in tha boat cutting across his course. Hit, the paddler slumped back Into the cunoe. Close to the suck of the first drop, the sternman seized his pole and fought to check the drifting canoe, as a second shot passed over Esau's head. Then, at the head of the portage, the old man saw another canoe leaving leav-ing the beach, as again an Indian fired at him from the shore. "Ah-hah I" he cried, bis furrowed face glowing with tha exaltation of his mad purpose. "So you catch old Esau? Wal, come on I Catch heem I" Esau sighted his rifle and fired at the sternman battling with his pole to free the canoe from the fierce suction on the lip of the flume. Splintered by the bullet, the bending pole snapped In the Ojibwa's hands. He lunged head first Into the racing current, and, followed by his yawing canoe, was swept Into the rapids. Shifting his load forward to make the canoe bow-heavy, Esau rose with his setting pole. As his boat slid WSkM Desperate, Ha look His Rifle From Where It Lay at Hia Feet In the Water, and Boldly Drifted Down on the Waiting Canoe. toward the dip of the long chute, the old man waved his hand at the pursuing pur-suing canoe and the men on shore as hi3 cry of defiance, "Come and get me I" was drowned In the drum-beat of the rapids. No rifle shot's followed the doomed figure standing with setting pole in the stern of the birch-bark, as It leaped forward. In awe the men of Paradis watched the mad canoeman deliberately steer his craft into the maw of death. Down into the maelstrom of broken water plunged the canoe, guided by the spruce pole of the gallant old Ojibwa In the stern. Following the black water channels past boulders mounded with foam, and knife-edged rocks thrusting through the spume, checking with his pole when the way was blind, then on, grazing calamity by a paddle's breadth as he rode the roaring reaches, went the dauntless old voyageur. Drenched with spray, his leaking canoe scarred with wounds from a hundred rocks, he fought his way until, suddenly, the river widened Info an unbroken barrier of white-water. white-water. With a groan, Esau read his XXOOOoxxooooooX doom written in the buried boulders which barred his path. He had made the fight, taken the long chance for Jim, and now It was over! But Esau Otchig would go down lighting! Into the chaos of foaming boulderi dropped the canoe, "snubbed" by the bending pole. The bottom grounded on a rock, was lifted off by the pole; the boat was caught and Bwung Into another by baffling cross-currents ; but still the old man fought unconquored In the face of certain disaster. At last, the unleashed river caught the shattered canoe, like a straw, and dropped It on a huge boulder, over which the water mounded. Pivoting on the rock, the canoe rolled and started to fill. It was the end! With a desperate leap Esau was In the water, his feet braced on the submerged sub-merged rock. A heave, and he freed the rapidly filling boat swung her with the current, and fell gasping on his knees Inside, clutching his pole, 1 Shortly he was clear of the shallows. Then on down, through the riot of 1 plunging river, the bent figure In tha stern steered his boat, the glitter of victory In his black eyes. He had hung, for a space, on the lip of death. But he had won. Then his heart sank as he saw a canoe below him. Desperate, he took his rifle from where It lay at his feet In the water, and boldly drifted down on the waiting canoe. As he neared the craft, the faces of the occupants watched him with awe. "Are you a Manltou, a spirit," gasped an Ojlbwa, "that yon pass alive through the Rapids of the Win-dlgo?" Win-dlgo?" Esau put down his gun. "I am a great shaman in the land where tha sun goes to sleep. I fear no rapids." Here was an opportunity to Impress the Indians of the Sturgeon country, I and the keen-witted old man swiftly made the most of it "The spirits are your friends, for the Wlndlgo allows no man to pass his rapids." Esau gravely nodded. "Enh-enh, yes, the spirits are my friends." The Indian exchanged frightened looks with the awed squaw who cowered cow-ered In his canoe. "Jingwak, the shaman, fears to pass these rapids In his canoe. Your medicine medi-cine Is stronger than his." A look of contempt crystallized on the face of the old man. "Jingwak is a wabeno, who deceives the Ojlbwag to get their fur for the trader Paradis. The spirits do not know him." "You go to the Lake of tha Sturgeon?" Stur-geon?" "Yes, Tell the people there that you saw the shaman from the land of the setting sun, who comes to talk to them, pass unhurt from the Rapid of the Wlndlgo. I have traveled many sleeps to find Jingwak, the false shaman who speaks with a double tongue to tha OJIbwas, and drive him from the country." With a sweep of his paddle, Esau left the spellbound hunter and his squaw, and continued down the river. Going ashore behind the first bend, he rested, then carried the canoe Into the thick "bush," built a fire to dry his outfit, and with pitch and spruce roots started the necessary repairs. As he worked over the rock-scarred craft, the wrinkled face of the old man lit with smiles of satisfaction. He had beaten Paradis and lived through white-water that no canoe had passed, to start on its way tha story of his charmed life and miraculous mirac-ulous powers, which would travel swiftly from tlpl to tlpt up and down the lake. For a time he would hide while his mysterious appearance swayed the talk around the supper fires. For he knew his people. Then he would strike. For three days Jim and Omar camped near Jinaw while the infection infec-tion In the arm of the old squaw rap-Idly rap-Idly cleared under Stuart's care. Then when she could travel, the grateful Indian stnrted down the great lake to endeavor to learn the fate of Esau. Two nights later, the canoe from Sunset Sun-set House waited at the rendezvous the Rattlesnake had set in a deep cove near the foot of the lake. Restless from days of doubt and forced inaction, In which the absent Esau might have so sorely needed their aid, Jim and Omar sat beside their hidden canoe. "Dere ees Jinaw," announced Omar, as a black shadow slid In toward tha shore. "Esau Is here, on the lake," began the old man, who spoke no English. "I have talked to the hunters at many camps.' A strange story has passed down the lake. Seven sleeps ago an Indian and his woman saw a canoe pass out of the Rapids of the Wlndlgo. Wln-dlgo. In It was a great shaman who told them his name was Otchlg and he sought the sorcerer, Jingwak." "He ran those rapids!" Jim peered triumphantly into Omar's startled face. "By gar!" grunted the surprised half-breed. "How he do dat?" "No canoe hp, ever before passed the Rapids ihe Wlndlgo," added Jlnaw. "The woman who saw It says the boat had wings, and neyer roda tha water." (TO BIS OONmifTJHDJ |