Show CODE of the NORTH CHAPTER I 1 I 1 the wind swept in long savage blasts driving its cold through layers of wool through a man a s flesh straight into his bones snow came fine snow stinging blizzard snow it clung to the man s cloth ing to his eyebrows and mantled the burden on his shoulders now and again he lifted his head from the bending which protected hi his face somewhat from the drive of the storm and spoke all right stevie he would ask from the huddle up there which was a pack sack with a blanket drawn over the small boy riding in it would tome come a whimper foots are colda wiggle cm em stevie I 1 wiggle em fasti fast I 1 the man would say and plunge on with something like desperation despen tion in the grit of his snowshoes through the loose covering of old snow pulling the ends of the blanket which he held in his hands a bit closer to keep the child childs s head and shoulders covered the man was frIght frightened eDed it showed in his pace which was too swift for long journeying showed in his excited breathing which the effort of even forced travel alone would not have produced showed also in the way he turned frequently to look backward RS its if fearful of pursuit for the first hour it had not been so bad it was cold yes and blowing a bit still the conditions were not discouraging to a man with less than forty pounds on his back and with only twenty miles to go not aging when necessity seasoned with desperation occasioned the trek even if it had bad been storming at the start and had the burden been much I 1 bavler the effort would have been as nothing compared to the prospect of jail but he had scarcely left behind the yellow squares of windows in flynn s camp before the first outriders of snow quails squalls struck and before he had bad cov coy ered a third of the way the blizzard roared down upon him for drake a bl azard was nothing new for drake alone that Is but with a tour four year old on his back a storm like this was something else again and biow now cheth the ild for the first time tim e volunteered a complaint daddy my foots are cold I 1 wont won t be long now stevie hang on well get into a nice warm place pretty quick now I 1 the little boy snug snuggled 9 led closer the hands which hid had rested on the man mans s shoulders under the pro teching blanket worked forward half embracing his father s neck drake s breath caught and he shook his head bead to clear away the mist which formed in his eyes going back was out of the question the thing which had driven him off would be d ered by now A stop to attempt to warm the child would have been risky even had bad he a belt ax with which to knock up a shelter and fuel but it was a dozen miles yet to the railroad a dozen miles with the going getting rapidly worse and the cold in creasing and his own strength taxed by the demands of his physical feces sity and the sap saplings sappl pIngs of twin fears ebbing steadily I 1 he edged to the left now watching the bank of the winter locked stream looking for an opening in the timber taking it he would be forced to cross a bald ridge and face an even more intense sweep of the storm but men said it saved three miles on the trip to town three miles an hour hours s travel I 1 da addy the child whimpered a little for the first time all right stevie I 1 wont won t be long now here we arel are I 1 he ile ra saw w the leaning cedar and the opening of the trail and swung toward it the going was more difficult because loose snow had fallen to shin depth and lay unpacked by the wind the cover yielded a measure of protection from the blizzard and this was wel come but the climb was a fresh de mand on drakes drake s overworked lungs and heart and muscles breath began to sob in la his throat and he staggered until the little boy clasped his neck in a hold that strangled dont don t stevie I 1 pushing the small handsaw y cant breathe when you u do that T the lie child began to cry softly and the man stopped panting and sway ing slightly wiggle your toes stevie I 1 dad 11 take care of you hush now don t cry please don t 11 I 1 drake bent lower and drew the blanket tighter over his son sons S head he began to 0 exercise caution of a sort in his progress so he might surely mark the depression in the snow which was the trail he ile must not leave that trail he ile must not lose it for an instant he told himself that half aloud between shut teeth and held his pace to a cautious plodding the wind drove deeper than the mar row of his bones now it seemed to thicken the very blood flow in his heart it seemed to penetrate his skull and numb his brain and then suddenly he stopped every trace of a trail suddenly was gone he ile turned about and followed his own tracks filling so rapidly with snow there it went I 1 he had edged to the left when the trail went straight ahead he ile pressed forward with a feeling of relief and then tell fell sprawl ing this caused stevie to scream shrilly and ana commence to cry it took nit minutes for drake to get up tr L ay TETOS TITUS copyright by harold titus service because he had broken through the mantled top of a down tree and could find so little purchase among the dry brittle branches and because he lie was trembling with a fresh and g greater reater fear no trail leads across a down top he had missed it again I 1 we were re lost I 1 he cried crie d turned around stevie I 1 we got to get bach back to the river somehow I 1 drake began circling panic stricken the hulking figure that many min utes behind followed this aimless and changing and rapidly fading trail was panic stricken as well never in all his experience haj jim flynn been keyed up as he was now he real zed tl at drake had lost his way before he had been atop a top that ridge ten in because jim knew the country as he knew hia his own shanty back yonder at headquarters he lie saw where the other had doubled after first losing the way saw where he had fallen twice read in the signs indications of panic then a sort of fear shook flynn he read the story in the snow and roared out into the hubbub of mad awl I 1 every trace of a trail suddenly was gone I 1 weather drake 1 HI you drake A great bellowing voice his but it was swallowed by the storm reached nowhere rioN here was as useless for its pur pose as a whisper he lie traveled down wind now run ning bing where sign showed clearly most cautious in those places where it was faint and then through one of those brief lifts he saw them the man with his burden staggering along with a alani et trailing and flynn called out again with all the strength of lungs and throat if drake heard he did not stop he kept on and after him through the snow which seemed to fly even thicker went jim flynn a moose of a man HI III you youl I 1 come back from that drake I 1 keep away from that I 1 for such a heavy man he made tremendous speed but it was a tre need that drove him now he ile had to keep going he must stop that other before he reached the rim that lay before him it broke off like the edge of a table he knew it went down a hundred feet of almost sheer drop with rocks jutting out from the face of the cliff to catch and mash and malm a man drake you drake his ills bellow carried then and he saw drake turn his face over his shoulder but he did not halt it was not until flynn s great mit bened hand band caught him by the shoulder and spun him about and hurled him backward into the snow that drakes drake S flight was checked two more of those crazy strides and man and little boy would have been over and down As he reeled backward drake cried oh jim I 1 and then as he cowered in the drift oh jim I 1 you found it out I 1 stevie was crying a muffled sound and old jim dropped to his knees and lifted the little boy bryin I S he said and choked a bit as in relief bryin eh ell then it aln aint t too late I 1 he jerked open his thick mackinaw mackl naw gathered the child in his arms and holding the small body firmly against his breast folded the heavy jacket over it put your face ag in my neck stevie and you drake come on follow me close 1 the prostrate man made no move get up I 1 flynn cried angrily and kicked at him with his snowshoe snow shoe get on your feet there 8 a trap pers cabin half mile yonder get up I 1 say I 1 he lie stooped and grasped one of drake s arms dragging him to his lag 0 gard legs you keep by me I 1 don t you dare try to quit now drake I 1 and come fast because A little kid in this I 1 the pace he set was taxing out the trail he broke helped the exhausted man behind they dropped down a steep slope and beside a fold in the snow which was a tiny stream came upon a small log cabin window gone door sagging on its hinges here we are stevie I 1 the voice was hearty almost laughing now but the look in flynn s eyes was harried here we are I 1 my foots 1 whimpered the child in here drake said flynn and shouldered the door open the other staggered behind him leaning against the cabin wall panting through open lips kick rick off your snow shoes you chump I 1 here hold th laddy I 1 he ile thrust the boy into his fathers arms the ruin of a sheet iron stove was in one corner with pipe rusted and askew but still jointed A rude bunk held a deep thickness of balsam boughs brown and brittle tearing off an armful of these flynn thrust them into the stove and struck a match soon the twigs ignited and flames roared out came flynn s belt ax and crashed into the framework of the bunk in mere minutes lengths of tinder dry aspen were burning and then jim stripped off his mackinaw mackl naw hung it over the window and shoved drake away from the doorway the drift about the entry was cleared the door kicked into an approximation of its place and then jim turned to the other work up some more wood now tour your cheek cheeks s frosted but that dont don t count here stevie come to old sim jim I 1 I 1 foots I 1 the boy walled my foots 1 as his father surrendered him hurt do they that s good that s fine stevie I 1 hands hurt too AID aint t that great bothin frozen much about you likely not by a hair I 1 off came the small mittens exposing reddened hands then the rubbers and socks were stripped tripped from his feet they were blue with the toes curled up and jim holding first one then the other in his cupped hands new blew on the discolored flesh alternating this with brisk chael g you freezing by a hair sonny I 1 gosh ain aln t it a relief that they hurt though he ile had seated himself on a worn bench and now swung the lad to his knees so that they faced one another he ile fumbled at his shirt opening the front then ripped open his heavy un der shirt exposing his great chest in they go stevie I 1 into old jim s oven now where they 11 warm up but not so fast as to make em hurt aw ful fill he ile thrust the small feet in beneath his armpits clamping down on them and holding them tight now tuck them cold hands down my back stevie that s the lad ladi I 1 that s the little man I 1 now we re going to warm up in a hurry I 1 he wrapped his ponderous arms about the small body and rocked back and forth crooning in a deep rumble drake in the meantime had knocked more of the bunk into proper lengths filled the stove and braced the pipe already the heat was penetrating their clothing filling the room they were sheltered from the wind they had a fire tire and although little steve still sobbed with fright and pain he was out of danger never so long as he lived would steve drake forget the del clous ness of that sensation at first he tugged at his throbbing feet tried to draw away from the clamp of those heavy arms because the sharp pains of restored circulation shot clear to his hips but the big man only crooned the louder and held him closer and kept saying that the hurt would soon be over now and that it was a good sign he was right the throb and burn died out and a tremendously sweet warmth began to seep through the small body feeling so comfortable took all the child s attention it made him heed less of the things his father and jim said to each other most of the tinn timp but of course no boy who Is even half awake and not really hurting could be wholly heedless of the things that a boss as important as jim flynn rlynn said to his father a little later neither can a boy see hie his father cry and not remember it drake did just that for a long time he cried as a little boy might cry as stevie had never seen any man cry and jim did not look at him just looked other places and hummed some and seemed to be trying to think up something to say after a while he appeared to think of things and what he said was what any boy would remember for instance you re a fool drake yes what a fool I 1 I 1 thought I 1 could get away with it and you might never do anything about it and a thousand dollars oh that I 1 as it it dlan t matter and jim cleared his throat with a great noise t chinkin about that drake about stevie here I 1 mean bad enough for a grown man to monkey with weather and get froze up but a fine little duffer like stevie into it that s what proves you a fool sure but I 1 im in thinking about the money jim and arid that I 1 in a thief now never mind that drake nobody much knows but us and a thousand s nothing TO BE BM CONTINUED |