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Show I m BAREE Son of Kazan Chapter XIV Continued The stranger was looking at Baree. Ills' face wag turned away from Mc-Taggart Mc-Taggart He wild: "I guess you are right. Let the devil rot. If you're heading for Lac Bain, m'sleu, ITI travel a short distance with you now. It will take a couple of miles to straighten out the line of my compass." He picked up his gun. McTaggart led the way. -At the end of half an hour the : tranger stopped, and pointed north. "Straight up there a good five hundred hun-dred miles," he said, speaking as lightly as though he would vouch home that night. "I'll leave you here." He made no offer to shake hands. But In going, he said, "Ton might 'report 're-port that John Madison has passed this way." After that he traveled straight northward for half a mile through the deep forest. Then he swung westward for two miles, turned at a sharp angle into the south, and an hour after he had left McTaggart he was once more squatted on his heels almost within arms' reach of Baree. And he was saying, as though speaking speak-ing to n human companion: "So that's what you've been, old boy. A trap robber, eh? An outlaw? And you beat him at the game for two months ! And for that, because you're a better beast than he Is, he wants to let you die here as slow as you can. An outlaw!" His voice broke Into a pleasant laugh, the sort of laugh that warms one, even a beast. "That's funny. We ought to shake hands, Boy, by George, we had! You're a wild one, he says. Well, so am I. Told him my name was John Madison. It ain't. I'm Jim Carvel. ' And, oh Lord ! all I said was 'Police.' And that was right. It ain't a lie. I'm wanted by the whole corporation by every danged policeman between Hudson's Hud-son's bay and the Mackenzie river. Shake, old man. We're In the same boat, an' I'm glad to meet youl" Chapter XV Jim Carvel held out his hand, and the snarl that was in Baree's throat died away. The man rose to his feet. He stood there, looking In the direction direc-tion taken by Bush McTaggart, and chuckled in a curious, exultant sort of Way. There was friendliness even In that chuckle. There was friendliness In his eyes and In the 6hlne of his I teeth as he looked again at Baree. About him there was something that seemed to make the gray day brighter, that seemed to warm the chill air a strange something that radiated cheer and hope and comradeship just ns a hot stove sends out the glow of heat. Baree felt it. For the first time since the two men had come his trap-torn body lost Its tenseness; his back sagged ; his teeth clicked as he shiv-i shiv-i ered In his agony. To this man he betrayed his weakness. In his blood-! blood-! shot eyes there was a hungering look as he watched Carvel the self-confessed outlaw. And Jim Carvel again held out his hand much nearer this time. "You poor devil," he said, the smile going out of his face. "You poor devil !" The words were like a caress to Baree the first he had known since the loss of Nepeese and Pierrot. He dropped his head until his jaw lay flat In the snow. Carvel could see the blood dripping slowly from It. "You poor devil !" he repeated. There .was no fear In the way he put forth his hand. It was the confidence con-fidence of a great sincerity and a great compassion. It touched Baree's head and patted It In a brotherly fashion, and then slowdy and with a bit more caution it went to the trap fastened i to Baree's forepaw. In his half-crazed ; brain Baree was fighting to under-j under-j stand things, and the truth came finally when he felt the" steel Jaws of the trap open, and he drew forth his maimed foot. He did then what he had done to no other creature but Nepeese. Just once his hot tongue shot out and licked Carvel's hand. The man laughed. With his powerful hands he opened the other traps, and Baree was free. For a few moments he lay without moving, his eyes fixed on the man. Carvel had seated himself on the snow-covered end of a birch log and was filling his pipe. Baree watched ' him light It ; he noted with new tn-toroct tn-toroct the first purplish cloud of smoke that left Carvel mouth. The man was not more than the length of two trap-chains away and he grinned at Baree. "Screw up your nerve, old chap, he encouraged. "No bones broken. Just g little stiff. Mebby we'd better get ""tie turned his face In the direction of Lac Bain. The suspicion was in his mind that McTaggart might turn back Perhaps that same suspicion was 'impressed upon Baree, for when Carvel looked at him again he was on his feet, staggering a bit as he ealned his equilibrium. In another moment the outlaw had swung the pack-sack from his shoulders and was opening It. He thrust in his hand and lreW out a chunk of raw, red meat. "Killed It this morning, he ex-olained ex-olained to Baree. "Yearling bull tcn-"der tcn-"der as prtrid,e-and that's as line a sweetbread as ever came out from under un-der a backbone. Try It !" lie tossed the nesn to Baree. There K-as no equivocation in the manner of ,Ts acceptance. Baree was famished-en. famished-en. meat ' " to him by . I BY James Oliver Curwood i (, Doubljday, F A C.) WNU Srvlo friend. He burled his teeth In It. His Jaws crunched It New fire leaped into his blood as he feasted, but not for an Instant did his reddened eyes leave the other's face. Carvel replaced his pack. He rose to his feet, took up his rifle, slipped on his snowshoes, and fronted the north. "Come on, Boy," he said. "We've got to travel." . It was a matter-of-fact invitation, as though the two had been traveling companions for a long time. It was, perhaps, not only an Invitation but partly a command. It puzzled Baree. For a full half minute he stood motionless mo-tionless In his tracks gazing at Carvel as he strode Into the north. A sudden sud-den convulsive twitching shot through Baree; he swung his head toward Lac Bain; lie looked again at Carvel, and a whine that was scarcely more than a breath came out of his throat. The man was just about to disappear Into the thick spruce. He paused, and looked back. "Coming, Boy?" Even at that distance Baree could see him grinning affably ; he saw the outstretched hand, and the voice stirred new sensations in him. It was not like Pierrot's voice. He had never loved Pierrot. Neither was It soft and sweet like the Willow's. He had known only a few men, and all of them he had regarded wdth distrust. But this was a voice that disarmed him. It was lureful in Its appeal. He wanted to answer It. He was filled The Meat Was Flung to Him by a Friend. He Burled His Teeth in It. with a desire, all at once, to follow close at the heels of this stranger. For the first time In his life a craving crav-ing for the friendship of man possessed pos-sessed Baree. He did not move until Jim Carvel entered the spruce. Then he followed. That night they were camped in a dense growth of cedars and balsams ten miles north of Bush McTaggart's trap-line. -For two hours It had snowed, and their trail was covered. It was still snowing, but not a flake of the white deluge sifted down through the thick canopy of boughs. Carvel had put up his small silk tent, and had built a fire; their supper was over, and Baree lay on his belly facing the outlaw, almost within reach of his hand. With his back to a tree Carvel was smoking luxuriously. He had thrown off his cap and his coat, and In the warm fireglow he looked almost boyishly young. But even In that glow his jaws lost none of their squareness, nor his eyes their clear alertness. He rubbed his hands together, and held them out toward the fire. Baree watched his movements and listened intently to every sound that escaped his lips. His eyes had In them now a dumb sort of worship, a look that warmed Carvel's heart and did away with the vast loneliness and emptiness of the night. Baree had dragged himself him-self nearer to the man's feet, and suddenly Carvel leaned over and patted his head. "I'm a bad one, old chap," he chuckled. "You haven't got It on me not a bit. Want to know what happened?" hap-pened?" He waited a moment, and Baree looked at him steadily. Then t i - Carvel went on, be If speaking to human, "Let's see It was five years ago, five years this December, just before Christmas time. Had a dad. Fine old chap, my dad was. No mother moth-er jnst the dad, an' when you added us up we made just One. Understand? And along came a white-striped skunk named Hardy and shot him one day because dad had worked against him In politics. Out an' out murder. An' they didn't hang that skunk ! No, sir, they didn't hang him. He had too much money, an' too many friends in politics, an' they let Mm off with two years in the penitentiary. But he didn't get there. No s'elp me God, he didn't get there !" Carver was twisting his hands un-till un-till his knuckles cracked. An exultant smile lighted up his face, and his eyes flashed back the firelight. Baree drew a deep breath a mere coincidence ; but It was a tense moment for all that. "No, he didn't get to the penitentiary," peniten-tiary," went on Carvel, looking straight at Baree again. "Yours truly knew what that meant, old chap. He'd have been pardoned inside a year. An' there was my dad, the biggest half of me. In his grave. So I just went up to that white-striped skunk right there before the judge's eyes, an' the lawyers' law-yers' eyes, an' the eyes of all his dear relatives an' friends and I killed him ! And I got away. Was out through a window before they woke up, hit for the bush country, and have been eating eat-ing up the trails ever since. An' I guess God was wdth me, Boy. For He did a queer thing to help me out summer sum-mer before last, just wdien the Moun-tles Moun-tles were after me hardest an' It looked pretty black. Man was found drowned dawn In the Reindeer country, coun-try, right where they thought I was cornered ; an' the good Lord made that man look so much like me that he was buried under my name. So I'm officially dead, old chap. I don't need to be afraid any more so long as I don't get too familiar with people for a year or so longer, and 'way down Inside me I've liked to believe God fixed It up In that way to help me out of a ad hole. What's your opinion? Eh?" He leaned forward for an answer. Baree had listened. Perhaps, In a way, he had understood. But it was another sound than Carvel's voice that came to his ears now. With his head close to the ground he heard It quite distinctly.' He whined, and the whine ended in a snarl so low that Carvel just caught the warning note in It. He straightened. He stood up then, and faced the south. Baree stood beside be-side him, his legs tense and his spine bristling. After a moment Carvel said: "Relatives of yours, old chap. Wolves." He went into the tent for his rifle and cartridges. Baree was on his feet, rigid as hewn rock, when Carvel came out of the tent and for a few moments Carvel stood In silence watching him closely. Would the dog respond to the call o( the pack? Did he belong to theml Would he go nowf The wolves were drawing nearer. They were not circling cir-cling as a caribou or a deer would have circled, but were traveling straight dead straight for their camp. The significance of this fact was easilj understood by Carvel. All that afternoon after-noon Baree's feet had left a blood smell In their trail, and the wolves had struck the trail In th deep forest, for-est, where the falling snow had nol covered It. Carvel was not alarmed More than once In his five years ol wandering between the Arctic and th Height of Land he had played th game with the wolves. Once he had almost lost, but that was out In the open Barren. Tonight he had a fire, and in the event of his firewood running run-ning out he had trees he could climb His anxiety just now was centered li j Baree. So he said, making his volc quite casual, "You aren't going, r , you, old chap?" If Baree heard him he gave no evidence evi-dence of It. But Carvel, still watching watch-ing him closely, saw that the hall along his spine had risen like a brush and then he heard growing slowly in Baree's throat a snarl of ferocioui hatred. It was the sort of snarl thai had held back the Factor from Lac Bain, and Carvel, opening the breecb of his gun to see that all was right, chuckled happily.' Baree may hav( heard the chuckle. Perhaps It meanl ; something to him, for he turned his head suddenly and with flattened eari looked at his companion. (TO BE CONTINUED.) : I |
