Show MIM ft I 1 I 1 the by jimes james oliver cu curwood atwood P I 1 4 aim e 0 of abraham M I 1 0 by doubleday donn doran co inc fier vico WV F 4 I 1 CHAPTER X 13 waskom led he tie way to a it hard wood country in which be he wai was inre sure there would mould be bunting that would mould laet last through the binter inter there were plenty of raccoons end and the mergansers sers or fish ducks would come to the swift sift running headwaters to feed as 0 toon soon as ice closed the lie lakes and the mouths of the tut here they made their lodge of saplings it wai was a new kind of home for wood pigeon jeems built it with a cooking hearth and a chimney and a tiny room set apart for wood geon herself the child s eyes glowed with dell delight glit nt at thie this poe an session loeb daiy diy jeems told her more about tobnette how sol lan yen bated for her brauti ful hair how bow it was part of her religion to keep herself clean how inin and wry iy ay she the did this thing filing an annl I 1 that until lh thoughts and desires title grew head and she he employed the comb and the bruh which jeems made for her tier until her fleck sleek black hair was vas never untidy I 1 healy snow extreme cold caino come early in the season by the middle of december jeems was campt compelled ailed to hunt on snowshoe and go bitter were the nights that I 1 the first of january found even the head headwaters freezing out the mer mergansers gansert this was the memorable winter 41 of 1755 and 1750 the story of which the handed down from father to son for miny gen orations erat loni ions a winter inter in which all gaitre to hae hole gone from the face of the birth und ab n hardship end starvation v 4 tenth of the three westernmost mot of be the bit greit ore it fat lons the sen cent the cayugan Cay and the onon 1 dagas i at tint jaems was uns partly prepared because he had killed billed a buck buk and with ith us hoos shrewd assistance had find marked a number of trees in which filch raccoons were sure to hibernate but late in january faille drew closer about the cabin on tl e I 1 title ittle situs and I 1 jeems traveled farther in his hunts until he was nas gone no days at a time in february he roads made four of these hunts bunts and found no eon game the cold was ter terrific rifle trees orn arod crac aed ed like flues rifles in die file moods caal bitter winds minds continued night and day bood pigeons a grew larger and her body more fragile i as the weeks beeks passed each time W is 1 jeems came in from his hunts she r I 1 blazed up ille a fire in her happi V I 1 r nesi but he could mark the steady fading failing of her strength lie hunted wilb with almost insane energy every E very J thing was for her when fa famine mine 4 clutched at them hardest k torturing fears assal assailed led jeems tobnette Tol nette was unis neer out of his I 1 mind for even in his sleep be dreamed of her she too was a part of th tb is fight to hold life together at night when the wind ind howled emi an trees walled wailed ID in their distress he be sweated in to fear and more than once the thought came to him to abandon bis his family and go in search of tobnette Tol nette ills his visions of the fate fatt which might be overtax ing jug her tier beviline almost unbearable I 1 als hunts bunts ere not long now and seldom took him more than three or foar four miles from the cabin for his own strength was ebbing ills only hope was to kill an occasional I 1 bird find and it was as in the dartest r hour that an answer came to his k prayers in a against t which he was working his way in half blindness he stumbled upon a doe as weak eak as himself and I 1 I 1 I 1 J wed killed her without this strobe stroke of fortune wood algeon and boo koo must have died when the thaws came they were alive rac coons began to appear and fleshy roots could be gathered out of the opening streams early march brought a break in to which I 1 jeems and b s companions started i for food in was as on the way may and anil each ight they of gathered strengthening sip from i I 1 r the mai faipler the armed arrived at u tue tsie end people there bad had alvea frugally on their supplies and from the first running of the maple sip had been I 1 making sugar only four families ce had bad preceded jeems to the village and of their number which filch was twenty eight the file bad bid died no 1 I word had been received from I 1 tiaona and his warriors I 1 the maple sap sup ran steadily in spite of this opening grace of X N spring there hung over C a grim specter whose shadow 1 grew darker with each day that 1 passed 0 thia this specter was aith scarcely t a 1 family returned which did not I 1 bring grief with it IL and ah ali de bah bab the mightiest hunter of them I 1 all did not come no 0 o one had heard beard of him no one knew where 0 he was fifty wentha a buu bun ti dred and then a hundred and it fifty of those who bad gone in the 1 u break up were nere accounted for by the end of march among them v was sas mary marv dagelen of their num ill ber thirty had died still ah de bah bab the tall laiu did cot not come then he appeared one day he lie I 1 ras nas a grotesque rack rock of fleshless I 1 bones whom hom tiaona would not I 1 have recognized behind him trailed his people jeems counted them before he wild could tell cne ne from another he ile ran toward them and tobnette Tol nette swayed from the line at the head of which the I 1 tall man alan marched he ile might not I 1 have known her at firt if she the had I 1 not met him in this way fur for those who were behind ah ali de bah bab walked with bowed heads and ers I 1 dragging steps like death figures in it weird parade her eyes vy t 6 i stared at him from a n face eo so strange and thin that it choked hie ills joy her tier body was bot heavier thad than a it child childs a when ben he clasped clapped her then the he began to cry soft ly IY with ber her face against bli his breast lie ile carried tarried her to the tepee her ter clothes more ft ere in tatters her moc casino worn morn to shreds she was as eo so small a burden that her lightness lent sent horror through him film and his aei were ere blinded by a hot fire when hen flie she raised a cold hand to loach touch his face he lie minced her tier on the soft ekins skins tn in the tepee I 1 lien then he lie aa was conscious of alood wd near him in a moment mary came come tn in jeems made way may for them he ile went ment outside find and in his ills path was us a creature alho leoet weakly against him it m was as odd a skeleton with red and watery eyes and jims falling apart jeems waited un til fit the tle thrush come out and told aln she was going for warm arm water and food and that algeon was undressing tobnette Tol nette then be fought sought the others all but ah ali do liah ball had disappeared and note being cared for the tall man alan could scarcely stand as he told his story he ile had brought his eleven people back the dog and nod tie he I 1 ike the truly great he gave credit to his ills inferior without the dog he would mould have hole failed in his struggle to feed eleven mouths and jeems knew knes 11 why by odd had find not been eaten after a time alory dagelen let lot him tee agian she was tn in her bed of skin skins the look which baj bal frightened him was pone gone from her eyes and they were more bright with the he joy of his presence slie she held field out her tier arms to him bill and he knelt be beside beide ide her ution pigeon looked at the two no with shining ees and end a soft mist gilt gathered heroo in hiar enry Dagh lons after this jeems did not see tol tot nette again for an afternoon and anti a at night during this time she slept and the thrush and were mere never far from her side the nest next day she the walked with milli him film about the town ineat was utis in tobnette Tol nette s heart vas as also in ilary Digh lens the young girl who had known knon no other life than that of her adopted people since babyhood but bill whose mother had bed kept god and church alive in ber her soul watched etched with in creasing anxiety for the return of Sh Indas and she told tobnette Tol nette that at last she urs wr prepared to yield to her environment and if no priest camp hat that spring or r sum mer she would mould marry in the indian ludian any ny this thought now held less of horror for tol tot nette she had seen the fadel fidelity ily and courage of ao an indian family in its struggle ag finst death she had find seen the tall man gnaw at b bitter itter bark that his women and children might have scraps of skin and flesh she had seen feen a mother hide her portion of food day after day that she might save it for her children she had witnessed a faith and devotion chidi fildi could have hole been inspired by nothing less than the strength of god in the souls her iler prejudices melted away in spite of their background of unforgettable tragedy and she began to experience emotions which filch had not come to her before and though she fald said nothing of it to jeems the conviction was growing in her heart been that she would mould not allow fi nother winter inter to separate them even if a priest did not come to 10 but he came following closely the months of starvation he ile was as a it gaunt dath doth faced man on his efly to take lobe the place of a brober who ho had died among the indians of the ohio that was what hat he 8 ild ill amory tory was as to relate other wise for a year later he was the tone force behind the in their slaughter of the english at fort 11 illiam henry his ills name was rather pierre he ile was a cold terrible man of god I 1 ft pt he tie was as the church he lie would have died a thousand deaths for the cause of which he was as the I 1 if it pt tb marni athe he lie would mould have hole eaten human flesh in defense of it he ile did see euch such flesh eaten by his savage disciples at fort william henry he ile remained in two wo days on he second of thebe duys days he marri mard d jeems and tol tot nette according to the ritual of the catholic church the gloom he brou brought git with sith him was as dis by this event gaze gave itself up to a it few hours of rejoicing in honor ot of TIa ogas da daughter tIghter and the son of but this happier spirit could not n eiduke long with the plop IP death bad had settled oc or then them heively no word had bad come from tiaona and bis his wari wan ora lors there were ere whisperings that they had been annihilated in to battle and would mould never return anxiety grew into fear fear into certainty the gr grimness dimness of a tragedy darker than 1 lie e table robes of the priest hor boy ered over oer in their happiness jecies and tobnette Tol nette did not feel the under current of change about them their hiding abiding plate place became a home whose roots spread so securely that death could not have torn them up the cloud of the lie tragedy through which they had passed was as a curtain vit vaguely guely soft and distant behind them they thought of 14 it tl ley ey talked of it and deams d earns homet bom ellmes lines awakened ened To ipe to god comfort 10 lo jeams arms hut but its memories did not wound so deeply the spirit spirits of and find of jeems mother drew nearer to them thein each d daiy diy ty with invisible chains IV the love which bound thern m it 11 11 the inrush who isho first ninde tec m them fee see what hot wai vies happening about hero them ai As days and necks ecks passed isIt without hout word ord from tiaona the fear cliot biot was dead clutched her with on an evil hand band slip iann to avoid mold Tol tobnette nette and k kept e pt t to 0 h herself the hardness which aich had settled in to the face faces about her came earn into her own she wn III a changed mary buhlen she wai was the seneca it was vies this change in the one she ho had come to regard as a elster which startled elart led tobnette Tol nette into a realization of the Altu situation atlon which nas ilas gathering about her and jeems and end the she avas no now dee des lined filed to witness to in all of its say agery that streak in indian char acier which arout croupe es hate and find the desire for or vengeance ince in the face of adversity at the hands of hu man en ewles jeems marked its rising symptoms he ile was no long er greeted with friendliness men lien were sullen and aloof aloot end and women tolled vilt without hout their usual chatter death and misfortunes bad had ridden too hard and anti human nerves nere nt at the breaLl breaking ng point vies us like a handful of powder poder ready for the fouth of ire fire ilien canie the he lightning lash flash it was as an afternoon late title in may when appeared in chei cher lie ile was as ajon ills erms arms and shoulders nere mere hacked backed and cut and some of the wounds nere sere scarcely healed A scar sear lay lily across ils his cheek ills moccasins nere mere in tatters ond and bis his eyes held the 0 A 0 4 0 o I 1 d f 0 1 10 I 1 4 I 1 0 U I 1 I 1 it on the second of these dayi days he married jeems and Tol toinette nette ferocious light of a that had tied been hunted he ile made no effort to soften the news of which he aas the bearer he ile h hid id come conle from the border of the cayuga country as a messenger from tia tie oga ogo and ans as many hours ahead of his comrades com rudes nas vies return ing with ith nine nae of his thirty war nar gium the others were nere dead this tragedy was uns a cataclysmic one anen for a arile of the most moat warlike of the six nations noth oth ing had equaled it in seneca ills fory ory for generations twenty nere dead out of thirty hirty the loner of the very sinew of tia tie oga ogas s people I 1 SI sandas indas waited until his words siuk like barbs of iron into the hearts of the men and women about him he lie waited until there seemed no relief from the despair over them and then slowly gave the names of those who ho had been slain by their en aniles iles A white man had killed three of the twenty warriors he ile was llos a prisoner now with they had put out bis his eyes so that he could not see they had find built a lie flie around him in which it had been their intention to see him die rut but in the last moment when the flames were scorching him tinous had bad pulled the blazing fuel away with his own hands in order that the file people of could witness his s at the fire stale stoke after ibis this one might have hole thought that mad men and women and not a grief stricken people filled for hours the lament of the omen did not die out still tobnette Tol nette saw no tears her iler horror increased as she observed the preparations for ven spas iba it digging of it brila ind 1 the setting in it of a tall stake all by comens hands the pith rath cring ering of pitchy fuel by little chil dren and their mothers the trans formation of friends she had known into fiends whose hote eee filled alth hatred when they looked looted at her tier she tried to hide from these things in their home and to keep jeems with mith her came clime to them he ile had a command from tiaona for jeems it was that jeems should go to the village of seventy miles distant and slid bear of a arar party from that town shin das doe fave gale him the me message sago and taw law that he departed with it it he ile wa no longer a brother he ile dis close no sign 1 of pIc pleasure nure when he learned that tobnette Tol nette was jeems mary mory daglen found him so grimly changed that he lie frightened her tobnette Tol nette remained alone no one out came to pee see her except wood pigeon Il geon and the afternoon follow ing the day of rhindie Sh indie arrival the child ran in ich wide mide eyes to teu tell tier that tiaona was as approaching pro aching arbIng they were mere sann fang at the head of the waiting melting lines when ala tiang i and the remnant of 0 his band came come over the hill and across the fields had said there |