Show ac rl L on 0 C DL P OE I 1 of the V V V by MAROLD TITUS copyright by harold titus service I 1 SYNOPSIS stephen drake with his four year old son Is rescued from a blizzard pl Dl izzard by jim flynn big timber operator and drake until his death impresses on the boy steve the debt they owe old jim twenty years later steve meets young jim flynn his benefactors son sent by old jim incapacitated through an accident in which kate his daughter Is temporarily blinded to take charge of the comp company anys s the woods operations the youth Is indulging in a drunken spree hoping to do something tor for old jim steve hastens to the comp company anys s headquarters finding franz plotting against the flynn interests borsting Wor sting franz in a fist fight the polaris cre crew w assumes that drake Is flynn s s son 0 n and he takes charge as young jim A pho ot of kate intrigues him tin densely steve bairs the friendship of lafane woods scout franz discovers drake a impersonation threatened with disclosure steve accuses franz of attempting to murder him t ing evidence and the man dare not act steve sends lafane to find youn young jim and sober him up steve stee w wins I 1 ns th the e friendship of macdonald who owns timber land vital to the flynn inter ests and the scotsman gives him an option tor for polaris to buy his timber franz plans to put steve out of the caybut the latter outwits him know ing drake has wired kate at chicago franz steals her reply from the tele graph office and learns that 25 Is to be forwarded and the time of its ar rival he plane plans to steal the 25 CHAPTER VIII continued 14 all right I 1 make camp somewhere close I 1 stay away but be your girl no no I 1 I 1 think you re fine mary but I 1 cant can t have you for my girl you see we don dont t travel the same trail I 1 go one way you go another under stand some day you want to get married sure I 1 priest and every thing me ale I 1 don t think III get mar fled right away maybe never when I 1 do III marry a white girl it Is better that white people marry whites and that indians marry indians youre you re young yet how old are you anyhow dont don t know as she shook her head bet you re not much over eighteen anyhow when your father dies you should go back to school you are smart you can learn a great deal from teach erg ers and maybe they can learn some thing from you youre you re the best quill worker I 1 know of you re an oj abway and should be proud of it you should beep keep on being ojibway do the things agur mother did marry an ojibway boy have plenty of ojibway papooses its our trails remember you go the indian way I 1 go the white man s way WRY they cant can t cross understand that no she said and looked away and a suggestion of disappointment rested about her red mouth it was not pain not despair just an accept ance of t frustration perhaps and it touched steve profoundly 1 I won wont t be here very long now mary he said I 1 may be going any lime now I 1 will go perhaps even before your father d es I 1 don t know where I 1 haven t any plan but be fore I 1 go 0 I 1 m going to look you up and see how your father is and fix it some way so franz wont won t bother you even after I 1 in out pf the country you d better get along back now W want ant a cancer canoe no I 1 walk fast in the woods arent aren t you hungry she had risen and looked at him in a manner which made him wince it was hot a conscious glance of re but her face reflected a hun bull ger such as he had not had bad in mind 1 when he put the question she was starved silently crying for nourish ment mint but it was not a hunger of the body not meat and drink which she needed I 1 have bread she answered I 1 go now good by jim good by mary she walked walled down the trail to where another branched off to take her along the lake shore and drake stood alone feel ng small and humiliated his ills sense of having failed so miser ably to meet a situation clung it bothered bothered him riad that was why he gave the arrival of mcnally s team no heed for the moment and did not even look out when the jingle of tug chains arid arld the chuck achuck of heavy wheels heralded phd when he be glanced op up mcnally was clambering down over cover the wagon wheel and stanc standing ung where she had risen from her place on the seat was a girl outlined there against the sky she was a dana D ana 14 her laced bacs were vere trim the rid ng breeches encased leg s A gay shirt fitted well ivar ver a slender torso orso and square boyish shoulders her throat rose in a P uy p column and her head flung back with the brisk breeze blowing tendrils of fair hair about it seemed like a posture of 4 brave defiance e to the valte hite bandage which covered her ei les es kate flynn I 1 kate flann holding in bott hands a w rn brief case kate rate flynn coming herself as a saving messenger for polaris I 1 strength trickled out of steve steves a body she was more fair to look upon than he had ever dreamed in all those dreams he had had of her fairness through these feverish weeks and it was this beauty which weakened him not the thought that here was the per son whom he could not deceive that his pretense of being young jim must end now and the truth about that in at last be told the girl leaned down groping with her free hand for mcnally ys 8 support she talked softly and rapidly and laughed as one will in excitement and old mac mae seeing steve in the doorway called out to him jim I 1 oh jual jim I 1 heres here s katie her self I 1 the girl stopped talking as me nally taking her in his arms swung her to the ground the narrow band age covered her eyes the windows to the heart hearts s expression but it could not wholly hide the high eagerness which possessed her she started forward eagerly leading mcnally toward the store rather than being led herself i biml she called and her voice olce was as lovely to the ear as her body was to the eye duffer im I 1 in herel here I 1 duffer I 1 coulden couldn rit t send anybody else I 1 bad to come myself 1 steve moved down the steps and halted awaiting her approach in the deepest confusion he had ever expert encee where are you duffer she cried breathlessly she stopped withdrawing her hands from mcnally ys s biml jimmy where are you steve stepped forward then swat lowing and took both her small hands she clutched his convulsively drawing herself close touching his body with hers he went slightly giddy she was freeing her hands now lifting them letting them creep about his neck hun bull and her breath was uneven as she whispered to him you did it duffer I 1 you did it all yourself I 1 you re the old dads dad s son for certain she he pulled his face down offering her lips he wrapped his arms about her he kissed her on the mouth a long ion lingering kiss unable to resist the impulse impulse before the strength of her ap you did it duffell you did it all yourself ll peal she responded as their lips touched and then he felt the breath gush from her lungs warm on his face felt her body tense as if in sur prise and possibly fright at the ardor of his caress she put a palm against his chest bewildered wil dered and resisted his tight em ein brace tim bewildered jim why don t you say something to me speak to me duffer feri I 1 I 1 he ile let her go feeling weak and con trite his voice he knew would reveal to her the secret confirm the sus that his kiss had awakened he groped tor for the word to say which would not shock her not send her into panic or anger and then instead of his voice me nally s rose rire he cried good G d jim my I 1 look I 1 he ile stood beside them pointing up the lake to its western side where a great column of gray smoke tinged with orange rose like a thunder head firel tim todd echoed it its s in th soft wood slash it s got to be can cant t be nowhere else elsel 1 II 11 Is 1 s busted loose timmy I 1 oh H I 1 Is s busted loose this mornin I 1 almost roughly steve put the girl to one side and ran from the store down to the beach so he might be be yond the scattered trees and see bet ter fire for certain 1 the thing which he had feared and prepared for through tl ese weeks of drought had come but because of it he would not riot tor for this hour at least be forced to unmask and tell this g rl A that her brother so far as any man at good bye knew was still a wastrel was still bearing the shame of a trust be brayed calmly and rapidly he gave his or ders the few available men at head were assembled the fire fighting equipment held there for such emer genales was rushed to tho the lake shore outboard motors were clamped to two 11 1 ge flat bottomed boats and the pumps and shovels and axes loaded within a surprisingly brief time the laden boats were heading up the lake j across the head of which now drifted the first outriders of a heavy smoke I 1 pa I 1 I 1 and up there in the timber to the w ai southward of the burning slash a man fled rapidly for a mile or more he ran stoutly and then the toll ot of that exertion slowed his pace he ile dropped to a v alb but when hia his breathing became less strained he jogged on again once he be paused at an opening near the water and stared out at the boats making their way up the lake ills 1 mouth twitched as he watched them the weather had played into franz 8 hands had it rained the night before his well laid scheme would have fallen to uselessness but it had not rained heat would be great toward midday and there was no sign of a change in the skies shies ever since his arrival at good be steve drake had been insistent that every man in polaris employ be ready at a moment moments s notice to give bat tie tle to fire As the weather hazard in creased he had been consta constantly BUY on the alert for reports of smoke today the money which was to remove the lairds I 1 aird s timber forever from the horizon of franz s hopes would ar rive at headquarters timed properly the alarm of fire would drain the place of every able man and once that brief case which franz had seen mcnally place carefully beneath the blanket on the wagon seat in shoestring passed out of the possession of the flynne or their loyal help without being delivered to macdonald the principal point in his plotting would be achieved so the man had waited even past the time when fire would take a rapid hold then he be had heaped materials together against a huge pile of brush applied the match which would send a destroying element on ita its way and turned in flight southward the diree tion of headquarters fire Is a dual element mans first friend or his worst enemy those woodsmen in the boats knew what a fire meant starting in that resinous slash with the whole country like tin der it would leap across the country burst upon the stand of green swamp tinder under with such a fury that spruce and balsam cedar and pine would flare like torches leaving valuable timber dead and spoiling in its wake it seemed to steve that the boat scarcely crawled as if good bye lake expanded stretched out its boundaries as though many hours instead of less than one elapsed before he cut off his motor and leaped out men flung themselves into the low water carrying equipment with them and wartin bartin who had seen their approach came running got your crew all on it I 1 steve called yes just now but G d jim she licked up four five forties before we could even git in here I 1 she s gow like h 1 itself I 1 I 1 the man was badly frightened going to be licked without a try 7 drake snapped get hold of yourself wartin bartin I 1 where ve you put your men A small crew was behind the fire armed with shovels to throw sand and hold the line from crawling back against the wind A larger detail was on the western flank supplied with hand water bumpers trying to squeeze the fire toward the lake to keep it from widening in their direction we well 11 start in at the creek and backfire the whole works steve an decisively maybe we cant can t stop it from crossing but nobody dyll 11 ever say we didn dian t try I 1 hop now I 1 we well 11 fire a few rods roast at a time and see what kind of job of holding it we can do I 1 he knew that he was taking a long chance setting a fire to work backward toward a phalanx of approaching flame burning the ground clean aa as it went so that when the main plain front met it there would be no food to feed it if his backfire got away it if the wind threw brands from ikover it over the heads of his men on the creek and they could not control the islands of flame so started surely they would lose losea nothing but desperate effort it if they waited for night the proper time for backfiring when heavy and quiet air becomes an ally of the fighters the front surely would have reached the green timber and might be a raging monster beyond any human control drake with a gasoline torch set fire to the first brush piles they ignited with a vengeance orange flames lick ing into the brittle stuff melting the piles down throwing themselves up ward in ragged banners snarling snapping and roaring he ile set twenty rods of fire and then waded the stream that he might better watch his handiwork and the function ing of the crew the men he saw believed their fight tight hopeless and he rushed in among them give me that I 1 he cried to one and pulled the device from the fellows fellow s back hot as the man made h s excuse hot as the hubs of h 1 11 I 1 but that s all the more rea son for keeping after it 9 crouched low he edged in closer than the closest of them he held his breath because the air was liquid heat he ile bent his head and smelled burning wool as even enen his clothing though soaked in the creek began to singe shovels now he croaked I 1 get your in mad mac I 1 close in youl sand as well as water commenced to fly the burning spot was sur bur rounded by fighters the skin of steves steve s face was taut and dry with the torture of heat it seemed as it if his lips cracked open but they were making headway checking the spread of the fire driving it back I 1 good I 1 he panted relaxing a trifle three of you keep her where she Is now bury everything with sand that smokes spread out the rest of you yonder I 1 there a another one I 1 tto TO CONTINUED 1 |