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Show MEN MAROONED y CHAPTER VIII Continued 13 There Garth and Etienne found them, the airedale lying beside his kill. Etlenne bent to stare, with an oath. Into the features, knotted In their death grimace, of Joe Mokoman. "Ambush us, eh?" snarled the half-breed. half-breed. "You do fine job. Joe Mokoman." Moko-man." And he spurned the body with the bow of his snowshoe. "So he meant to get that fur if he had to bury us In the snow?" said I Garth, turning from the ugly picture I to his dog, still whining with the heat i of battle. "Good old Sliottie!" And I the man hugged the hairy shoulders of his friend. "You tracked him down for Carth, didn't you, old comrade of mine?" "He dam good dog, Shot, eh?" cried Etienne, slapping the shaggy back. He know more dan some men; he know Joe, he hunt us." "He thought Joe was a German sharpshooter, didn't you, Shot?" And seated on the snow, Garth rocked to and fro, rubbing the ears of his dog. soothing his excitement in the low notes of a language none but the wriggling airedale understood. "Wal, we buree dis skunk een de snow and let ni'sieu' fox deeg him out." . "That's air we can do. lie must have heard from the traveling Indians we were bound for the Canoe and decided de-cided to stop us. Do you suppose that McDonald knows we are here and sicked him on us?" Etienne shook his head. "He bin np dis end de islan', so de hunter say." "I'm sorry this happened," said Garth. "There's no telling what kind of a tale they'll make of it I wish a sled would show up so we could show our evidence." "Eef we slay on Islan' after Mc-Donal' Mc-Donal' hear hees man ees dead, w-e have to fight for sure." "I'm not afraid of McDonald," laughed Garth, "but I don't want the Indians drawn Into the tight. We're here for fur, not trouble, and I'll have to answer to my superiors for what happens. That's why I want you to be careful v.'hen we meet Souci. 'o fighting understand ?" Savanne nodded. "De hunter know Etienne Savanne," said the half-breed with finality.. "Dey weel not start troubl' wid heem." "AH right! .Now -let's make tracks for the Canoe and that medicine lodge of Souci's." . With their snowshoes, they heaped a mound of snow over the body of the skulker in the. spruce, to be found by the lynx and foxes, and started. At noon the team turned down into the valley of the Canoe. In the windbreak of the spruce on the shore of the frozen river, the men from Elkwan found the tipis of the hunters. From north and east and south had come the fox trappers with their families for the- great medicine making , of Souci, the shaman. The wigwams hummed witlr gossip of the crossing of the strait by the tall factor fac-tor of Elkwan to right for the trade with McDonald Ha! Ha! From valley val-ley to valley Mokoman had traveled, urging the hunters to go to the schooner. . Black Breault, too, and Skene had visited many of the camps, but as yet the wily hunters had sold little .fur, hoping by their seeming reluctance re-luctance to obtain higher prices. , Also, in the last few days, rumors, vague terrifying, had been adrift. A hunter from the Ptarmigan claimed he had been down to the hills above- Seal cove and seen fire dancing on the masts of the boat at night; that black magic was being made by the man with the face of a mad wolverine. Another swore that his cousin, trapping on the Calling river, had been to the schooner and heard devil music from a box. An old squaw had already planted panic among the women with a story that bewitched hunters would leave Mc Donald's ship to desert their wives and children. All this and more the industrious Etienne gathered from the gossiping Crees, from the Elkwan while Garth made camp and fed and chained the dogs. His seeds, planted with such care in the camps of the Ptarmigan and Rabbit, hud indeed sprouted, were in fact already bearing fruit. The Crees were ill at ease suspicious of ' these strangers who had come to the , island with their - smiles and trade goods, and in the conjury of old Saul, that night, lliey hoped and waited for the advice and assurance that It would be safe as well as wise for t hem to carry their fox pelts to the schooner at Seal cove. As for the old shaman, Etienne learned that he was camped downstream, down-stream, beside his medicine lodge, alone, preparing himself for commun- Ion with his confreres, the spirits whi. ii. that night beneath the stars, be would summon with bis magic to speak to the Crees, and remove from i their hearts the doubts and fears which harassed them. "Ah-hah!" mused Etienne as he 1 returned to Garth, busy cooking sup-I sup-I per. "Did Saul, he keep away; he not see Etienne Savanne." But, gratifying gratify-ing as was the news he had picked up among the gossiping hunters, Savanne knew bis Indians, and feared wha the night would bring forth. For the ; old wizard was past master in the art of playing on the superstitions of the Crees, 2nd with his incantations and mumbo-jumbo would doubtless persuade per-suade them Into starting at once for seni cove. But Ktlenne had no Intention of lv . By GEORGE MARSH Copyright by The Penn PublUhlnff Co. WNU Service. Ing Souci a free hand. Secretly, be fore the ceremony, and openly, when Souci from the tent delivered the admonitions ad-monitions of the spirits, he would brand the old man as the hireling of McDonald, friend of devils.. If the outraged Saul dared to start trouble, this might be dangerous with the Crees in a high state of excitement, but the arm of the company was long, Its hand heavy, and Etienne Savanne, its servant, feared as a fighter the length of the coast. So the prospect of trouble gave Etienne little concern, but the loss of twenty thousand dol lars In fur, which the Crees had with them, would he little short of a calamity. calam-ity. On his return to his tent, his active mind groped for the best nieth-ed nieth-ed of, that night, hanging the shaman with his own rope. "Weil, what did you hear?" asked Garth. "Did you see Saul?" "Xo, he keep ver' quiet. De Cree have mooch fur, and manee of de men would go to McDonal', but de squaw have fear of devil. A feller by de name of Savanne. he tell de squaw down on de Ptarmigan some bad story, also up on de Rabbit, an' eet mak' dem squaw ver' nervous." Etienne smiled at the success of his efforts. "That was certainly a good bit of strategy, Etienne, but you say the men He Returned to Garth, Busy Cookin Supper. are now wabbling in favor of the schooner?" "Ah-hah. I t'ink dat Souci, wid hees spirit, weel beat us tonight." "We've got to think of something to do we can't let him get away with all the fox in this camp, man!" urged Garth, handing his friend a heaping plate of beans and bacon. As Etienne ate, his swarthy face was grave with the problem confronting confront-ing hira. What could be done? He even considered secreting himself in the medicine tent downstream, binding bind-ing and gagging the old man as he entered, and playing shaman himself. But the danger of discovery by the outraged Crees would be too great. Failure would make matters even worse. The medicine rite was to take place under the moon, which was late, so deep in council of war lingered white man and half-breed, until the silver disk rode above the white .tundra already al-ready lit by low-swinging stars. Then Etienne returned from a short reconnaissance recon-naissance to report the hunters and squaws already moving to the rendezvous rendez-vous downstream where a fire glowed in the spruce. Small and cylindrical in shape, its tanned caribou-hide walls painted in red and black with the shapes of animals, the sun, and gri- inacing faces of the spirit friends of the conjurer, the medicine lodge stood a short distance from the fire. Gathered Gath-ered In the warmth of the blazing logs, shawled women and hooded hunters, heads together, conversed in low tones. Higher over the tundra above the valley, the moon uswuug through the star-incrusted heavens. It was a night for magic, and as his curious eyes shifted from the awed Crees to the medicine tent, Guthrie despaired of the efforts of Etienne, In such a setting to nullify the necromancy of old Saul. Moon and stars and the aurora au-rora joined with the purple shadows to lend invincible enchantment to the arts of the sorcerer. These simple children of the snows, bewitched by the mystery and magic of the night, would fall willing victims to the voices of the spirits. The muttered exclamation of Etienne Eti-enne at his side aroused him. "Dere he go." Faintly, to the measured tapping of a caribou-hide drum, from the tent lifted low wailing. Seizing the arms of their men, the women at the fire stiffened. Swart faces went gray. Gradually the wailing drifted into a sing-song, which, accompanied by the shell rattle, rhythmically swelled and died. Suddenly the song ceased. Growls and snarls, whines and mewing mew-ing the bickering of beasts filled the forest. Shrieks of a mating wolverine wolver-ine followed the caterwauling of a lynx. A wolf howled, lonely for his kind. From a September ridge drifted drift-ed the moaning call of a cow moos. In a swamp a bittern chugged, a whooping crane startled with his trombone-like blast. From the gloom drifted the hoof of the snowy owl. Down wind, in full cry, swept wavies and Canadus, blue geese and brant. Through a repertory of the voices of the night and the sunlit forest wandered wan-dered the ventriloquist in a marvelous imitation of nature. Guthrie turned in surprise to Etienne. Eti-enne. "He's a wonder!" "Wait!" was the laconic reply. Then, amid groans and eerie cries, shrieks, as of souls in torment, the whimper of children, sobs of women in anguish, men tortured, the voice of the shaman addressed the spirits he had conjured from the world of demons. de-mons. His kinsmen, the Crees. were in great doubt and perplexity, and had begged him to call r.pon his familiar spirits, who saw into the future as one looks from a hill; to whom the devils seeking to destroy the Cree were as children harmless. "The hunters," continued the shaman, "possessed "pos-sessed much fur " Etienne's hand gripped Garth's arm, as he interpreted the speech of Saul. "Now he mek' de spirit tell dem to go to McDonal'." "Fur of much value which they have toiled for on the cold barrens where the wind always blows," the sepulchral voice went on. "It is the time to go to the traders for the Xew Year's feast. But the hearts of the hunters are troubled. At the schooner of the trader who waits at Seal cove, the Crees have been told evil spirits and devils wait to bewitch them. And the women have begged their men to take their fur across the ice to Elkwan." Elk-wan." With a puzzled look Etienne stared into Garth's eyes. "W'at he do now? I don' understand," under-stand," whispered the half-breed. . Garth waited, hardly breathing, through the silence which followed. Then, on the hushed night boomed a voice, hollow, sepulchral. "Oh, Souci! Great Shaman of the Crees! It is well you call us to warn your people. There has come to the island a sorcerer from a far country to destroy the hunters of Akimiski " "By gar!" And the fingers of Etienne Eti-enne shut like a bear trap on the arm of the man beside him. "We are de beeg fool 1" he muttered, lnterpre'Ing the reply of the spirit to the unsens-lng unsens-lng Garth. "This conjurer," went on the voice from the ttpi, as the listening Indians gasped with surprise and fear, "was bitten In the face by the devil. Matchl-Manitou, Matchl-Manitou, himself. He Is the friend of demons and woe to the Crees whe bring their fur to himv for their wives will see them no more." "Ahuah! Ahuah!" From the womes at the fire rose a low wail as they clung in panic to the cowed hunters. "Go not to Seal cove but across the Ice, for there the Crees may trade and feast in safety." The voice died. Presently another answered in the same vein, and yet another, while the astonished and ashamed Etienne and Guthrie, who had so lightly accepted the treachery of old Saul as a proved fact, electrified electri-fied by the swift turn of fortune, listened lis-tened with admiration and gratitude. With the artistry of a master, Saul bad played upon the known weaknesses weak-nesses of his people, relying on the mysteries of the medicine lodge rather than on his personal influence winning win-ning the squaws by the judicious planting of rumors, as had Etienne. and stampeding the men with a single stroke at the medicine rites, for no Indian who heard that unearthly voice from the tipi would now dare to trade with McDonald. "The old son-of-a-gun," chuckled Garth. "He went to that ship to throw them off the scent and keep them away from this end of the isiand. He gets a life job with the company for this night's work." In an overawed, whispering group, the hunters and their squaws returned to their tipis, where deep Into the night was discussed the marvel of the spirit voices, which the great magician magi-cian -of the Elkwan had invoked for the safety and guidance of bis people. In the privacy of their tent the two men, still dazed by the unhoped-for success of their mission to the island, gossiped by the fire. "Forty-six silvers and eighte'i black, besides a lot of cross and patch, you say?" Garth repeated, elated with the trade that would come that Christmas Christ-mas to Elkwan. "Ah-hah ! Wor' twenty t'ousand dollar de beegest trade Elkwan evair mak'.' We do good job w'en we breeng Saul Souci from de headwater, w'at?" "You and Saul turned the trick, Etienne. 1 can't thank you enough." . In his second year in the trads Garth had made a telling business stroke. In the face of the higher prices of the free-trader of what seemed inevitable failure, he had. with the help of the crafty old Cree, swung a huge trade to his company. They could hug their fire at Kapiskau and Attawapiskat, but he had carried the fight straight to the enemy, and had won. Going out to Shot, snug in his snow-hole, Garth poured his happiness hap-piness into a hairy and Comprehending Comprehend-ing ear, before he rolled into his blankets blan-kets beside the staunch half-breed who had made It possible. CHAPTER IX "Queer we haven't heard from Joe yet," McDonald said to Skene, in the cabin of the Ghost, two days before Christmas. 'Time enough," answered the bearded beard-ed mate. "He was to round up the hunters In the north, you know, and bring them down the shore ice." "Well, we've made a good start. We've got twenty silvers now, with the three that came in this morning, and twelve blacks, not to count the cross and patch. There's fifty thousand thou-sand dollars in this winter's work for us, John." Skene looked hard at his chief. "What you goin' to do with your share of the fur we land in St. Johns?" The deep blue eyes of the giant half closed as the heavy brows contracted. "Do with mine? What is there to do with it?" "GoLn' to head for the states and drink it up?" McDonald laughed, without mirth. "Drink it up? No, I'm goin' to hunt up the family of a pal who 'went West' at Vimy liidge. There's a wife and kiddies, out in Alberta. I'm goin' to share mine with 'em." For a space Skene smoked In silence. si-lence. Once or twice he glanced curiously curi-ously at the man opposite, who sat with head in hands, staring at the floor. "It'll be some surprise to my old girl with a nest-egg," he said at length. "She ain't had a too soft a life with me." McDonald made no answer and Skene went on : "I'm goin' to buy a little place for her and the two girls a cow or two. and a horse to get around with; then I'll have me a tidy schooner, and summers go cod-fishin' on the Labrador." "That's sensible,"' vouchsafed the other. "You owe it to the woman." "Yes, she's never whimpered. When I enlisted, she turned to like a soldier and carried on. I owe her a good home, now and a little of my company." com-pany." McDonald's broken mouth widened In a smile. "Y'our company, you old scalawag! How many weeks In the year will she keep a restless old pirate like you on the farm?" . "You can laugh, Craig, hut Pm fur a home now, except that hshin' in tli. summer." (TO UK CONTINUED.! |