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Show MEN MAROONED CHAPTER I Out where sinister cloud banks fused with gray waters the sullen buy . mouned Utfully. Along shore, plover, nnriplper and yellow-legs, godwlt and curlew fed behind the retreating tide, while restless flocks of teal and pin-tall pin-tall patrolled the Hats between the marshes and the sea. Inland, where mice-hunting hawk-owls wheeled and dipped low ovor the grass flats, black-duck black-duck rose from a pool as a heavily burdened figure made Its way slowly toward a tent on an alder-grown tongue of higher land thrusting seaward sea-ward Into the marsh. As the man neared the camp, a dog harked. Then the warning, rough and sharp, softened soft-ened to whines and yelps of recognition, recogni-tion, l'lunglng at a stake, a huge aire-dale aire-dale wriggled an ecstatic welcome to bis goose-laden master. "Hello, Shot, old boy 1" With an exclamation ex-clamation of relief the man stretched his arms, for his load had been heavy. He was rangy and well made, his lean, strongly modeled features bronzed by wind and sun. From the corner of the right eye a scar crossed the cheek bone to the ear. Placing his gun In the tent, the goose-hunter freed the plunging dog. Throughout the long hours of the day a prisoner at his stake, nose tortured by the scent, eyes hungry with the 6lght of passing duck and geese, the alredale went mad at his release. While the animal worked off his pent energy In thrashing through the alders and long grass in the vicinity of the camp, his master started a tire and put on a kettle of goose to boil; then went In search of drift cedar, for a September norther on the west coast of James bay may blow for days, and cedar kindlings kept dry In a tent are useful. In an hour the marshes were purple with dusk. Then over the hay an unbroken un-broken roar as of a thousand guns, coupled with thrusts of light, signaled the turn of the tide, and the barrage of wind and rain opened. Along the wide beaches thundered the surf. A mile back In the rocking alders. In a low tent anchored and propped against the pounding of the wind, a man lay with his dog. As Garth Guthrie listened to the clamor of the wind, the far drumbeat of the advancing tide, the drive of the rain like machine-gun bursts on his teut, his thoughts followed the throbbing throb-bing years through which he had Just lived. Here, In this wild night on the gray coast of the bay, how shadowy It seemed that war which had caught him up, a boy fresh from college, and dropped him a man, scarred of body disillusioned. EveD Ethel seemed shadowy, although her last letter brought up the coast by canoe packet from Fort Albany hardly two weeks before, had flicked hlin with remorse regret, almost, for his decision to winter win-ter again on the bay Ethel, whom he had taken by storm (as he thought) at the time of his short leave home. In Montreal, after the tragic Snmme. It had been a typical war wooing. Enlisting as a private, he hnd gone overseas with the first Canadian division, di-vision, and returned, late In 1916, a veteran platoon leader, wearing a wound stripe and the Military cross; for one morning, Id his English hospital, hos-pital, Lieut Garth Guthrie had received re-ceived a double surprise a decoration for gallantry and sixty days' home leave while his wounded left arm recovered re-covered Its strength. This last was patently the work of his older brother, Charles, whose Montreal machine shops were running oight and day on government shell contracts, for home leave was rare among the Canadians TheD he had met Ethel. With a boy of twenty-four, who, two years before, had carried the dreams of a college senior Into the shambles of Flanders, the hours spent with the lovely Ethel Falconer could march to but one fulfillment. A member of the nursing corps organized by Clara Guthrie, Garth's efficient sister-in-law, the girl had captured his Imagination at their first meeting. Youth, war, and Mrs. Guthrie had done the rest-So rest-So young Lieutenant Guthrie, wounded and decorated for bravery, and brother of the maker of munitions muni-tions and member of government boards, had. In those tense, dramatic davs, found to his delight that the course of true love often runs surprisingly surpris-ingly smooth. In a manner foreign to earlier generations, Ethel Falconer had met the impetuosity of the ardent young soldier with a response equally frank. The days of his leave were too cruelly short to be wasted. In a week-she week-she was wearing his ring. Then came the parting, and the two shastly years nightmares of- grime and slaughter, soul-harrowing months uf alternate hope and despair, followed fol-lowed by victory I To the man lying in the tent shaken by the storm re-1 re-1 turned the face of Ethel, vivid as when, on his return from overseas, he stood at the rail of his ship being warped to Its pier. It had been a proud and happy Homecoming for MaJ. Garth Guthrie. D. S. O., but the three wound stripes on the sleeve of his tunic were not empty symbols. There remained to the man !n the tent the clear-cut memory mem-ory of tr-e moment when his yearning yearn-ing arm had released her and Ethel hnd gasoed, "Oh, Garth, how thin and old you've grown!" Then, as he turned to hug Clara and his brother, die Ul-concealed start the look of yam when Ethel Falconer first saw th red scar furrowing hia cheek from By GEORGE MARSH Copyright b7 The Penn Publishing Co. WNU Service. eye to ear. His letters had casually mentioned a scratch on the face, for it was gas which had held him weeks In the hospital. Until he met Ethel that morning on the pier he bad forgotten for-gotten he was disfigured. So poignant was the memory that the man, stretched on bis blankets In the dim candle light Instinctively raised his right hand to trace with his fingers the course of the bullet which had seared his face. Then with much grunting a hairy body wriggled its way to a place beside him; the moist nose of a massive, leonine head was thrust Into his face, while from a deep throat came low noises. "Etienue Is surely making a wet night of It In the hush. Shot," said the man, as the wind drove the rain in bursts against the straining fly of the tent. Then with the hairy hulk of the contented dog sprawled ' against the length of his recumbent body, head propped on one hand while the other rubbed the airedale's ears, Guthrie's thoughts were again with his homecoming, home-coming, two years before. The tense days following his landing land-ing marched past his dreaming eyes In a pageant of camp life and military duties preceding the discharge of his battery; swift hours with Ethel, dinners din-ners with his family, reunions with old friends. Again he rode through cheering thousands In the final review of hts brigade. He chuckled at the memory of Shot, marching with battalion headquarters (Wl f jiff Nightmares of Grime and Slaughter. In full field kit and wearing a blanket with Its wound stripe. At the time of his discharge the surgeons had shaken their heads over his lungs. "You're not out of the woods yet," he had been told. "A long rest In the open air, or you'll have trouble with that chest." But a desk In the office of Charles Guthrie waited wait-ed him and he had kept his own counsel. "You've lost five years, old man," his materialist brother had deprecated. "You're twenty-sLx and have a lot to learn." . Hot blood had darkened Garth's face. "Lost five years? Where would you and your money be If millions of us hadn't lost five years?" he blurted. "Oh, you know I appreciate all that, old chap," soothed the smug Charles. "It's unnecessary for me to repeat how proud I am of your record, but you know nothing about the business as yet; and I waDt to see you In a position to marry." True. Garth had acknowledged, he knew nothing of the Guthrie Steel company, which, created and developed devel-oped by the energy and ability of Charles Guthrie, had, through war contracts, made his brother a millionaire. mil-lionaire. And then there was Ethel, waiting. So, Instead of the summer In the open air on which the doctors had insisted, he had gone to work. The fingers of the man lying in the tent shut convulsively on the thick mane of his dog as he remembered the pain which thrust through him when he had first realized that Ethel never voluntarily walked or sat on his right side. Coming from a world of broken men. where the blind and the maimed were commonplaces, he had almost forgotten the shock the scar on his cheek had given her the day of his homecoming. Unpleasant though It might be, this red gash, to look upon, it was nevertheless the symbol of his service, the measure of his manhood. Yet to the girl who loved him. It seemed a thing of aversion aver-sion repulsive. Following the discovery, discov-ery, he had, on meeting her Ironically covered the cicatrix with his hand, or turned his head, but the red shame and the passionate tears of protest, which It invariably Induced, checked hiin. That Ethel Falconer was not of the filler of many of the women he knew, who patently cherished the scars of their men gloried, seemingly, In these proofs of their sacrifice for Canada and the empire, had forced itself upon the consciousness of Guthrie with a bitterness with which his philosophy vainly contended. Vehement as were her protests, her denials, when. In a moment of depression and disillusion, he had suggested that to hold her to a promise made In 1016 to a man whose face was presentable and body sound, was grossly unfair, now that he had returned to her the flotsam of war, scarred, changed, he nevertheless knew that Ethel, too, was having her bad half hours. But notwithstanding his moment of doubt, his gray moods, due as much to physical condition as unhappiness, Garth Guthrie had valiantly val-iantly clung to the dreams of the fair girl he had taken back overseas with him after the golden fortnight In 1916. Then, after six months in the office and foundry of Charles Guthrie, the lungs of the returned soldier had developed de-veloped a condition which medical authorities au-thorities diagnosed as alarming. A certain sanatorium In the foothills of the Laurentinns was the Imperative order, and the wedding In the spring, for which Ethel and Clara Guthrie had so meticulously planned, was Indefinitely In-definitely postponed. With his dog, trained as a puppy behind be-hind the lines in 1918. Guthrie left Montreal to make the fight for lost health and happiness. And before the snows left the Quebec hills and the spruces dripped In April thaws, he was well on the road to the first Six months In the I.aurentians had healed the lung lesions and put back the hard weight he had lost, but It was under strict parole that the Garth Guthrie of old, burned to a deep tan by the sun-glare sun-glare from the March crust, one day walked In onN Ethel and his sister-in-law. That night at dinner, through the course of which the practical Charles dwelt at length on his plans for his brother's apprenticeship In a special branch of the growing business, busi-ness, the sober eyes of Garth lit with frank amusemeDt the hint of a smile repeatedly lifted the corners of his mouth. At length the older brother abruptly demanded: "You don't seem to be taking me seriously. Garth?" "My dear Charlie," the man on parole rejoined, "I most certainly am deeply grateful for this Interest in my future these plans of yours; but I have put off telling you something " He paused, avoiding the startled look of Ethel, as he continued: "The big man at the hospital talked like a father to me this morning before I left. He said," deliberately continued Garth, "that It was a year In the open air for me, or . . . well, he wouldn't give much for my chances." "Oh, Garth I" Slowly the blond head of the girl drooped to his shoulder, shoul-der, as the pained eyes of Clara met her husband's shocked look. "My poor boy I You you mean he actually ordered you away for a year?" stammered the Incredulous Charles. Garth's arm shepherded the quivering quiver-ing snoulders of the girl, as he nodded ; to his brother over her golden head "But you look so fit so rugged. Garth," protested Clara. "You've recovered re-covered all your weight I don't understand." un-derstand." "And the wedding?" Ethel's questing quest-ing eyes lifted to his. "Poor dear I I wouldn't "have the heart to take you up there. It would be unthinkable." He gravely shook! his head. "Up where?" She turned on him fear in her eyes. "You can live out of doors here?" "I can-'t loaf here I must do something. some-thing. And a friend has offered me the chance of air and work, too. Cp on James bay. I've been offered a Job with the Hudson's Bay company." Had Guthrie's announced destination been China, the shock could not have been more profound to his hearers. The plump face of his brother darkened dark-ened in a scowl of frank disapproval. Clara sat open-mouthed, Incredulous. Ethel probed Garth's level eyes, as if In doubt of his meaning then, chin In hands, stared dully at the tablecloth. table-cloth. "You bound yourself," she said at length, In a voice empty of emotion. "You planned all this to go away for a year without consulting me I don't seem to count, then." KIsing stiffly, she had left the room, followed by the sympathetic Clara. Yes, It had been brutally abrupt-unfeeling, abrupt-unfeeling, admitted the man lying by his sleeping dog, as the storm drove past the tent In the alders. But the alternative would have been endless letters of protest, reproach, so he had not written. Through the slow months of the winter, with their loneliness and Introspection, he had learned to doubt both himself and Ethel. Often In the Intervals between her visits wltfi Clara Charles had been too busy to appear more than once Garth had desperately tried to analyze the nature of her affection; often, in his doubt of her, fought to free himself , from the magic of her hold over him; always. In the end, to realize how he was missing her how hungrily he waited for her coming. No, the separation sep-aration had not broken the spell or lessened his need of her, but It had touched his enamored eyes with vision. There in the white hills of his banishment, banish-ment, beyond the glamor of her physical phys-ical loveliness, he had learned to see how utterly she had failed him. Hurt in body, disillusioned, he had returned from the holocaust of Flanders to the refuge of her arms the solace of her love to find regret a veiled shrlnj-Ing shrlnj-Ing from the change In him; to learn that she still clung to her memories of, the boy with unmarred face who had carried away her heart Into the maelstrom mael-strom of the final years of the war. He pictured the scene at the Victoria Vic-toria station. Old comrades fellow officers, there with their Godspeed, chatting In a group, nearby, while he talked with family. "To think that I can hear from you so seldom that Is what makes it so hard," Ethel was saying. With a thrust of the old pain he remembered that the girl whose face bore the unmistakable marks of suffering suf-fering even at parting, had, from habit, hab-it, stood on his left side. A year had failed to reconcile her. The furrowed cheek was still a thing hideous. "It Is tough. There's only the Christmas mail and a summer packet up the coast from Albany," he had replied, "but there's always the chance of a canoe or dog-team being sent through between times. So write regularly reg-ularly and I'll get them In time. In France I'd often get five or six at once and read them In their order." "Oh, you mustn't erpect the letters I used to write. Garth," she had swiftly swift-ly replied. "No," he said grimly, "I've learned not to expect that" "You know why." "Yes, I think I know why." They stood, avoiding each other's eyes, in their unvoiced misery. The train was about to start A wave to his friends; a grip of the hnnd for Charles ; a hug for the teary Clara; and he turned to the dry-eyed girl. "Good-by. dear. A year is not so long." He took her in his arms and kissed her. But the face he touched was cold. Her arms hung stiff at her side. "Good-by, Ethel," he repeated. "I'm sorry." "Good-by, Garth, she faltered. "This, I suppose, U the end I've lost you." Down the Misslnaibl to Moose, up the coast to Fort Albany, the man who had gone into the north to find health and the solution of his problem 1c separation, was companioned by doubt and self-censure. It had been unfair brutal this wrenching himself from the sure appeal of her personal charm. But In fairness to the future. It was Imperative. A year would clarify nil vision prove her hold over him unbearable un-bearable or make him a free man However, notwithstanding the bitter ness of her farewell, the first mail tr reach him In the early months of his apprenticeship In the fur trade hac brought letters patently not those oi renunciation. On the contrary thej dwelt In detail on plans for his future homecoming and the wedding; were gay with gossip; related with frank pride the nrmor of a knighthood foi services to tne government during the war with which the name of Chanel Guthrie was being coupled; at tlraei, to his surprise, approached the ivarmti of the oid days. (TO BE CONTINUE;;.- |