Show G e ta aides V H M egbert W N U mark darrell young american lumberman Is boss ol of a lumber caina camp near st victor canada lie he has fallen la in love with madame madeleine kinross youn g wa widow rd who owns the timberland S she he returns his affection but tells him that hat marriage Is impossible as she believes oer husband Is still alive her lawyer horace broussal Brous sac Is also a when tie he was rejected he became marks bitter enemy As mark returns to camp he Is set upon by three man th they ey bind him throw him into his cabin and set fire to the surrounding brush nat page pace his assistant sees the smoke and hurries harries to the rescue meanwhile marks enemies are gathered in the town tavern drinking to keep up their courage CHAPTER VIII the smoke clo cloud ud had blotted out the mist A little anxious group had gathered about nat page at the mill looking northward toward it now and again flashes of lurid fire could be seen in the midst of the curling smoke that was beginning to obscure the stars in the night sky I 1 the whole neck Is afire said one of the lumberjacks lumber jacks it will take in monsieur barrels Darr els cabin but he could not have been asleep he must have escaped in time said another they peered anxiously across the dark terrain but by now the smoke was rolling toward them blotting out all sight ol of anything nat page spoke sharply get all the men you can with axes mr darrell may have been trapped in his cabin its up to us to get him out within live five minutes twenty five lave men were streaming across the terrain at first they poured along the trail under a sky of blinding smoke then the heat of the fire fare began to reach them little billets of fire ran through the underbrush on either side of them and the cabin was still tar far away in the heart ot of the dense yellow smoke cloud that was pouring toward them monsieur if he is in his cabin we are too late well try nat led the way the smoke was almost intolerable now the lumbermen gasped and choked as L they I 1 faced aced the turbid yellow clouds and now they were approaching pro aching the district of the fire on either side of the runway wisps of flame were racing through the scrub and in front of them was a solid roaring wall of fire eating up the trees and roaring toward the neck and the natural bridge A 4 dead ulan alan returns to take vengeance fhe ae lumbermen halted overcome by the heat beat of the conflagration we cant go any further big louis said to nat see boss bass there is a line of flame right along the ridge the cabin is behind that if he has not escaped he Is roasted to a cinder by now no time nat panted weve got to get on and he hurled burled himself against the wall of living fire that was sweeping down with a roar as the rising wind tanned fanned it hurled himself against it only to recoil ile he knew that if mark was in the hut in the heart of that conflagration there was not one chance in a thousand that he could escape alive the tog fog was thickening andre well fortified with brandy had vanished silently from the hotel but hector mackintosh and monsieur alphonse eitard still sat there drinking and muttering together outside a strange silence seemed to brood over st victor no voices were heard now the settlement might have been de populated then suddenly the outer door of the hotel banged mackintosh and eitard straightened themselves convulsively in their chairs someone was coming along the hall toward their room s shouting out ng an old ballad throatily mon dieu its hel whispered mackintosh in terror they leaped to their feet they looked about them lor for weapons they were too late the door was flung open as if by a blast of wind and a man stood before them he must have been six feet two or three in height and he was build like a hercules his long blond hair hung down over his forehead his clothes were nondescript and did not fit him at all they consisted of a sweater jacket and trousers but they were not the sort of clothes that are to be found along the st lawrence lie he stood before them ending his snatch of song and then he laughed gustily eyes of pale brown that passed from face to face while the two tiko shrank back against the wail witching watching him in turn so I 1 have found youl but where Is andre galipeault at the lighthouse eric lie he keeps the lighthouse now mon saig cicur your bif cifes fes father Is dead there was something like madness that sounded in the bay of mirth that burst from eric kinross lips and my little wife she is there living there still ahl and what have you to say my conrades who sailed away and left me to face the murder charge on st pierre it was monsieur eitard who an in trembling trem bline accents eric we were not so much to blame we tried to restrain you irom from drink I 1 ng that french brandy then the th e brawl arose with the french revenue men and you killed one of them with a blow of your fist alst we were afraid we fled back to the schooner we told everybody that you had been lost on an ice see floe tor for fear that the truth would lie be known and we should be arrested and taken away to prison in france hector and I 1 and andre aye you told nobody the truth my wife thinks I 1 am dead and has remarried come ill have the truth IU ill have the truth I 1 say she has never remarried mon seig seigneur neuA faltered altered hector mackintosh and she does not believe you are dead somehow somehow the truth has been guessed by everybody in the village and you let me sweat and rot in the french prison at marseilles thinking I 1 should never return until the french government pardoned me did anybody know that I 1 had been pardoned and was coming home they looked at each other and licked their lips out out oui mon seigneur faltered eitard horace f NO andre leaped at broussal Brous sac again broussal Brous sac knew he warned us to expect you A roar of anger broke from kinross lips so he is here he has dared come back here there was no reply that money that would have saved me had I 1 been able to employ a lawyer lawyer what did he do with it it never reached me it has cost me five years of my life mon seigneur we are poor men there was nothing that we could do faltered monsieur eitard we knew that horace broussal Brous sac had raised that money tor for you but we were not sure whether he sent it to you after he became guardian of madame kinross guardian eric kinross set his bis back against the door go on you amuse me he said my lands horace broussal Brous sac my dear kinsman horace has perhaps sold them no mon seigneur but he has leased a strip to an american a monsieur darrell who is operating the mill that horace broussal Brous sac set up name of a dog where is he he is dead snickered hector mackintosh he died in that fire that is raging along the lighthouse neck you see horace broussal Brous sac persuaded andre galipeault that this monsieur darrell was a spy come to take us all away to prison in france we knew better but andre is a very ignorant man go on eric hears what has been going on and horace broussal Brous sac loves your wife and was jealous because she is in love with this monsieur darrell the seigneur remained perfectly silent glaring at the two stammering out their story like schoolboys so it was arranged tonight that this monsieur darrell should die an where is horace broussal Brous sac 1 I think he is at the lighthouse mon seigneur another hoarse peal of laughter burst from eric kinross throat then without a word he opened the door and strode out into the chill tog fog and whipping wind leaving the two mere men looking at one another in terror he is the same devil as ever whispered hector mackintosh but I 1 think his years in the french prison had made him mad what shall we do alphonse do nothing keep still but what will he do kill horace broussal Brous sac of course then everything will be known and we bah you are a coward hector mackintosh that affray ou on st 1 pierre Is 13 already old history besides it was not we who killed the french revenue man let matters take their course we are sale safe leave that devil to make his plans it if he kills horace broussal Brous sac nobody in st victor will miss him he is not one ol of us habitants by birth he is a foreigner from quebec there was a sea road at low tide by which one could pass from st victor to the lighthouse it was along this that broussal Brous sac had driven tortured by the terrors of kinross anticipated return and his desire tor for madeleine during his five years ot of guardiani ship he had bad managed to secure the bulk of the rights in the form of cash in a M montreal etreal bank J ile he had disposed of marks strip and an additional one to certain s lumber companies he had played his crooked game desperately tracing the hours almost the minutes that must elapse before kinross came back he pulled his horse to a standstill before door with a grating of wheels upon the gravel the girl was upon him white faced terror stricken almost before he was out of the rig the firel themire The jire she cried Is monsieur dartell sate safe darrell oh I 1 reckon hes safe answered broussal Brous sac 1 I come here to talk about dar roll rell madeleine my yacht Is in the harbor I 1 want you to come away with me tonight I 1 am a rich man J I 1 can give you everything in the world instead of your living here shut up in this cottage the use of waiting any longer youre mad cried madeleine my husband Is alive and it if he were dead I 1 dont love you youre a tool fool a little foell I 1 tell you hes dead come with me youre coming with me I 1 say he panted clutching her by the wrists 3 let me go got I 1 will not go with you y I 1 hate you youl cried madeleine madele ine 1 I 1 I tell you youre coming with me cried broussal Brous sac almost de dented he knew that kinross 17 f ship had reached quebec the day before from france he had to stake everything on a few minutes to beat down her resistance a 1 I will not go got I 1 w ill not go got yi he was dragging her toward the ji rig but suddenly the bearded tace face of andre galipeault Galipeau ft loomed up out of the fog andre half coaled crazed and holding a knife in his h hand without a word he slashed at broussal Brous sac viciously the point of r the knife went through the lawyers coat ripping a long rent to in it kill him andre cried madeleine hysterically he is torturing me and she darted into the darkness andre leaped at broussal Brous sac again broussal Brous sac was a strong man and a burly one but he be saw death in the old mans eyes he knew his dream his mad dream was over madeleine would never be his but he still had the proceeds of the kinross estate neatly piled away in the bank in montreal in i the investments that would make him a rich man when he took up the new life he had been planning broussal Brous sac dashes to his yacht he lashed out furiously with his foot at andre catching the old HJ man in the stomach and doubling him up with pain then leaping into his rig with a last shouted invective at madeleine he turned and p raced back along the sea road he thanked his god for th the fog 1 which would enable him to steal away unperceived upon the yacht he had kept his two men aboard thick as the tog fog was the lighthouse beam would enable him to pass the dangerous ridge of rocks and gala gain th the e open channel broussal Brous sac nearly ran down a man who was striding shouting along I 1 the edge of the rocks perhaps had they encountered kinross would have settled his account with broussal Brous sac then and there but kinross did not recognize broussal Brous sac in the tog fog and it did not occur to y him that the man in the rig was wa broussal Brous sac returning from the light i v house As a matter of tact fact it was not broussal Brous sac of whom the seigneur was wa thinking at the moment he was wa thinking of his wife the little girl of fifteen whom he had haa married halt half an hour before the boat sailed for the sealing grounds he had bad 1 loved her all his life the demon of violence that had made eric kinross a sort of berserk vikings especially when he was in liquor had never changed that feeling ol of tenderness tor for madeleine there was something quite un usual in his feeling for her and he ha had never ever even kissed another woman in his life that had bad been his heu bell in the prison at marseilles marseille thinking of her of course he be had si not guessed that his three companions had concealed the incident oita st pierre he strode along the road shout hout s k I 1 I 1 ing pg gaily and now they beard be ard sh a she him old andre terrified an aa ik he was for he be knew that voice ter rifled by the return of the maa ma to tg whom he had left to take his pun bloh ashment alone nevertheless stood alj d gamely beside madeleine TO BE CONTINUED CONTINUE Di 14 f tl tell af |