Show va d M viah r penn publish n co by GEORGE MARSH C THE STORY S SO 0 FAR bound for or the calbo agamau gold country six men lost their avei on the Nott nottoway away river red malone G garrett arett finlay brother of one of f th the lie six and blaese halfbreed half nail breed guide arrive at nottoway Nott away posing as surveyors she was so na natural finlay groaned inwardly so terrible and her story seemed so straight but that was just the bait to catch the mouse poor red and blaisel what have I 1 done to them with a shiver he brushed her from his thoughts shame and chagrin vanished with his 45 covering the direction of the last sound it was another man who lay there a cold fighting man who waited like a cornered wolverine for a movement in the scrub evidently from the fact that they had not shot him on the beach their intention was to take him alive brush snapped behind him his eyes flashed back but saw nothing they had him surrounded but could not reach him without drawing his fire so were playing safe for minutes he lay rigid listening presently his roving eyes caught the green plumes of a young spruce shivering as if touched by wind but there was no wind the spruce top moved into the notched rear sight of the 45 again the spruce quivered and finlay glimpsed a pair of glittering eyes in a swart face like glass splintered by a hammer the brang b rang of the 45 crashed ci on the silence of the bush there was no face behind the spruce one gone finlay muttered inching swiftly around to cover his rear he was just in time from behind the boll of a jack pine eyes roved the undergrowth seeking his position finlay lined his sights then the full face and a shoulder edged into view flambeau again the forest rocked with the thunder of the 45 there was a scream followed by a stillness so in intense it hurt the eardrums ear drums then the liquid notes of a chickadee broke the spell two gone but the jaws of the trap were closing on the hunted man his firing had marked his position he must move quick flat on his chest he hunched to the sanctuary of another spruce from three sides came the snapping of twigs as the hunters closed in on an the hidden quarry the eyes of the trapped man blazed with the fighting flame of a beast at bay his nerves were ice as he be knelt watching in three directions for the rush that was coming suddenly there were yells and a thrashing in the brush but the concealed man would not be stampeded into showing himself then a ring of men simultaneously rushed a few yards to fade flattened to the earth but one never moved again A slug from the 45 had drilled his forehead three gone close in now muttered finlay the next one will reach me then five men flung themselves at him he found the white head of tete blanche and the 45 flamed again it roared they reached him and he fired point blank into a grimacing face the face burst into a bloody mask with his heavy gun he bludgeoned a black head that dove at him free he stumbled back and swung at another As he did there was a blinding flash of light in his eyes he sagged to his knees then to the earth CHAPTER X at intervals in Fin lays brain flickered a dim consciousness of his surroundings through blurred thoughts filtered the sound of voices only to die away for time and again the dull pounding in his head drove him back into the abyss but gradually he groped his way through the mental twilight and was aware of his splitting head and of an indefinable torture sharp pains sliced through his upper arms and legs he tried to move but his hands and feet were numb something held him like a vise with difficulty finlay peered through the cracks between his puffed eyelids he was on the lip of a bog lashed to a trimmed spruce sapling for a time he stared stupidly at the four men with rifles watching vat ching him then into his dazed brain shot the memory of the fight on the shore so they had clubbed him from behind it seemed long ago very long ago they had him lashed hand and foot with rawhide thongs the he victim of clouds of black fl flies acs ics that hovered around him like smoke what would they do shoot him or leave him to be stung to death by the flies and mosquitoes men had died that way in swamps he heard again the crash of his 45 and his tortured lips twisted in a smile it had been a fight while it lasted hed got three perhaps four remember that but the man he wanted whom hed promised bob hed get stood there with a leer on his hideous face under its thatch of yellowish white hair hed missed tete tele blanche beside him were batoche and two others one a bowlegged dwarf with the darting eyes of a mink tetu installment NINE finlay receives receive an anonymous letter suggesting that the six men were not drowned as reported suspicion prevails that isadore Isa dorc rich fur man has made a gold strike and alms to keep prospectors out ol of the country at any cost the three ave k X je how you like fly surveyor taunted tote tete blanche he start to make hees bees music soon and you swell up like poison dog there was laughter from the three breeds Fin lays face neck and arms were stippled with blood on his head was a lump left by the clubbed gun his eyes were almost closed you win finlay groaned you win win now but tell isadore that a police plane is due here from ottawa in september mounted poli police c e ever hear of them you win n now ow but hang before the snow flies think that over the four breeds exchanged startled looks then tete blanche stood over the man lashed to the spruce the feral eyes in his groi grotesque esque f face ace with its broken nose glittered F finlay in had seen such eyes in a trapped wolf tree good men you shoot he snarled now you pay for dem A wave of exultation beat through the man who was about to die he had made them pay death held little terror he had looked it full in the eyes before but in the slow hours of unspeakable torture that awaited him he faced an end of which he had never dreamed an icy sweat burst from his body but what lay in his heart these men should never see he squinted d through the slits which were now his A T what hat would they do eyes at the venomous face of tete blanche and said 1 I wanted you handsome for myself now the get you its too bad to soil an honest rope tete blanche thrust his deerin leering 9 face close to Fm Fin lays the pupils of his eyes dilated like those of a snake you get de kiss from 11 fly y and now not de he jeered Bonso ir feen lee he made a mocking bow we see you in de mornin you sw swell ell up good by den look like beeg fat man bo jo fernlee Feen lee I 1 wish you sleep good the breed waved his hand across Fin lays face on the little finger was a ring of hammered gold bobs ring A storm of hate beat through the man trussed to the tree he strained desperately against the thongs that held him but bul tete blanche had done his work well As they left batoche struck fin lay in the mouth dat ees for joe flambeau blood burst from Fin lays split lips as he flung back sorry I 1 missed you you yellow dog garry finlay was alone with the horror of the coming night he gazed through his fast closing eyes at the rose afterglow above him last sunset last twilight garry carry with the th spruce sweet air and looked long at the black silhouettes of tree tops etched on the horizon slow death from poisoning and shock slow deatel he was young and life was good but it was over now he peered hungrily at the fading flush in the sky last evening garry tie ile thought of the loyal red and blaise anxiously hunting the shore of 0 his family and of the grave on the waswanipi two of us now bob he groaned hes got your your ring I 1 saw it two instead of one bob and I 1 promised to get tete blanche for you again and again he wrenched at the thongs on his wrists until his lacerated skin and the throb of his head stopped him sergeant garrett finlay of the royal canadian mounted police lost on butyl lost neglecting his duty I 1 begged for the detail and I 1 got it and this is what ive done with it walked into a trap with my eyes omeril forgot duty and a clear clean record for a lying cheat of a girl red blaise he pleaded forgive me for what ive done to youl you men start out on the nottoway Nott away and visit isadore isadora in his bis magnificent home where they meet use lise his bis pretty stepdaughter in response to her desperate plea tor for aid finlay meets meet her secretly alter after the she left gunmen attack attach him under the lash of his remorse finlay grew numb to the stings that were fast poisoning his blood then a sound back in the bush silenced him shortly he called come and finish it you bush rats they had returned if he c could soul rl only taunt them to cutting it all short with a bullet Is adores handsome white haired boy comes back he jeered and the cross eyed batoche who was bitten in the face by a rabbit f but his answer from the scrub was a mad yelp and the snapping of brush as a dog burst from the bushes stopped gazed in doubt at the huddled figure approach approached bed and sniffed at the man who spoke to him then in a delirium of whines and caresses threw himself on the master he loved flame god bless yo your ur old bones you followed their trail from the shore boy im glad to see your whiskered map again I 1 frantic with joy the dog nuzzled carrys tortured face and neck hope flowed through finlay as water through a burst dam with flame there was a chance flame would never leave him if he could only get the airedale to chew through the thongs that bound his wrists wheres red flame red and blaise they turned you loose to hunt for me but where A distant shot stopped him he listened while the dogs soothing tongue licked the blood on his face and head red signalling sign alling or else theres a fight on like a madman finlay battled with his thongs they gave slightly and the blood began to ease into his numb hands then the long hours that sergeant finlay had spent on the education of an airedale puppy began to bear fruit fearing that some day he might be stolen and tied up finlay had taught the dog to chew through any rope leather leash or rawhide raw hide that held him prisoner after much coaxing gari garry Y managed to focus the dogs atten attention tio n on his bound wrists shortly flame was licking the thongs as well as Fin lays hands eat it up its good good chow for dogs chew it it tastes good flame the man endlessly coaxed while his dog licked the thongs and the swollen forearms i then flame hooked a long fang under a loop and tugged at it the dog eat it up flame urged the man battling desperately against time gradually the airedale seemed to comprehend it was a game they were playing and he liked the taste of the fresh hide at last the dog lay down behind the bound man and with his great grinders jammed against Fin lays wrists began to chew at the knots the dog chew it up spurred by his masters approval and relishing the taste of the hide as he would a bone the airedale chewed through two key knots A last heave and Fin lays numbed hands were free in his joy he shook like grass in the wind again life beckoned as a campfire camp fire to a man lost at night in the bush he laughed now at the black cloud of his tor mentors which once meant a slow death he laughed at tete blanche at isadore hed come back from the grave weve licked em flame he panted bless your old hide youve done it boy hugging the dogs wriggling body finlay crushed his face against the scarred skull 1 I love every hair of your old carcass he crooned ill have my feet clear in a minute but have to lead me to the shore im stone blind when his numbed legs could carry him flame led him by a thong over the back track to the shore headlong into the cool water plunged man and dog maddened by the thrusts which had stippled their bodies with welts oh this is good flame laving his burning arms and face finlay wallowed with grunts of relief in the comforting water im puffed up like a poisoned pig flamey old socks but weve whipsawed whip sawed this tete blanche you and 1 I well meet again some day and when we do therell be lead in the air ile he laughed bitterly A distant shot cut him short hear that must be red and blaise hunting for us answer em flame ive lost my gun its redl red tell em were here the airedales brittle bark floated through the settling on the lake then red hailed finlay answered and shortly the peterboro Peter boro slid up to the man lying in the shallow water of the shore happened to you garry cried the alarmed red leaping from the canoe and bending over the man soaking in the water what are re you lying there for garry you hurt hello I 1 red you there blaise im all right but ive been eaten alive by bugs im blind as a dead fish and ive got a lump on my head like an egg I 1 hate to leave this water even to shake hands vieb you TO BE CONTINUED CONTINUE |