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Show hym:y ig, COOI'JKU ' eCwrtoeyR Cooper. WNU Service. li cUAFIER XII-Continued lA ; mi'" She asked 1,18 E'r1- SX''-abunchof '.'.ri claims?" B v Joyce only Blared. tU said dul y. ."But they -ti, millions, Annie, "unions'" she put a hand to I ":J i T "Did you say millions?" ' e.rs the indication." Gawd1" the woman gasped. "iJ she poked a finger at mond-'Remernber me telling 7. check or note or something I "Ld over? It was them claims. W ' It have been willing to hock ft to get out of here that "lCnnond gestured futUely. This rap lv coming involved. w eve;' !,, you've got a lien against 0 ani'bjj'jor ten thousand dollars. But rorucg; inherited them when she mar- 5d Kenning." "That's what I've been trying to equira - h"er the girl snapped. Annie toif;fcer'otr. 'lien, hell Those became mine ilgDel ! fn'he signed 'em over to me. He re!-'joe was coming back the next , --ing. He didn't come back. And 1 ya rc!ed to give these frontier is.,.ya little present. They're gals. But, my Gawd, I didn't n ' -si was passing 'em out a whole 3 "Jj-Mmine!" u "You had no right to give that ,J rjji" Kay Joyce cried. There Thet w desperaUon in her voice. Annie t ltd her, suddenly seething, n'prj,.' 'listen, Baby! I gave it to 'em ts (15, li I ain't squawking. Let's see if " u've got the same amount of Serin (i." 'Tat It's not fair. It was what I 5tlC6 a going to live on. That's why isists t: Earned him so he could look ry, ami: Itr me. Don't you see ?" she cessarj- itured weakly "I haven't any- ig. What in the world will be- ins ot me?" 'Oh, you'll live," said Annie. . Isthe transfer recorded?" Ham-ik Ham-ik id asked. A Teh." Annie pawed for a ciga- ti. "I thought it'd look bigger if iid 'em to do that. One of 'em ' Jtjfi j it down to the office as soon as 1 1 lent had been put up again." j I limmond shrugged his shoul- jt 1 guess that's the end of it." ft iy flared. 'A So, it's not the end of it. She have any right to do it! I'll T 'I tor what's mine if I have Wt a minute, Baby," said An-5 An-5 15 "A dame like you ain't going jg fitke nothing away from the fron-W,;TOes. fron-W,;TOes. Not with a jury of min- f105 tte deciding. 'SpeciaUy JeS ; a they know all the crookedness J- "was mixed up in it." !eant Terry had strolled into ,Ilt6wom and stood silently by. TTf satched a match and janyj the side 0t ui black , Voik . . tried to murder two Miss Joyce" he said., "Lew om E' bone, Hammond here the eceivuv oUicr. More thnn that, he set fire to the bush, which Is a Rood deal worse. I don't believe I'd resort to lilW." The pirl seemed to wilt. "But what am I R0inR to do' Can t you understand? 1 haven't a thins! How will I live? How will I exist?" "You still have half of the properties prop-erties Kenning and I owned," Hammond Ham-mond interjected. "For that matter, mat-ter, you can have nil of them--I'm going on, over the hill." Three days later, Jack Hammond walked down to the lake with Jeanne Towers. A plane had just come in, one of the last of the season, sea-son, until the lake froze, permitting the landing of ships on skis. Tim-my Tim-my Moon crawled out of the cockpit. cock-pit. "Got a letter for you, Jack," he said. "A pilot gave it to me down at Fourcross." Jack took the envelope and stared at the penciled writing. Suddenly his hands began to shake. With a quick, jerky motion, he tore off the end and pulled out the rough, lined sheet of paper within. The words blurred for a long moment, at last to clarify: Cameron Bay, Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories Dear Jack: A fellow just flew in from down your way and said there's been hell to pay all around. Well, Jack, I guess that's what makes a mining camp I thought I'd get this off by the pilot. Hes hopping back this afternoon. If things don't turn out all right, and that girl has really done what this fellow says she did, what say we throw our grub In the same pack sack again? This is sure God's country down here at the Arctic. Why, I know a place where there's enough rich stuff to set a fellow crazy I never seen such a country; why it makes Sapphire lake look like a two-spot. two-spot. You and me could go wild finding find-ing stuff here, Jack. Why, there's a regular waU of quartz, stretching off into the Barren Lands God knows where There ought to be enough gold in it to make a man sick. Say, I hope this fellow didn't tell me all wrong -about what happened down there. But if you are all through with her and everything, what say you do what you've really been wanting to do. Now that sounds funny, but everybody could see it but you you know, see if you can't get the girl you are really crazy about. Well, partner, come right to Cameron Bay if you do come up. And if you do ask Jeanne and she says she'll come with you, I'll be awful glad. Good luck to you, Partner. Yrs. Joe. P. S. Be sure to ask Jeanne. Wordlessly he read it again. Wordlessly he handed it to the girL Her lips began to tremble as she read farther. Finally she looked up, her eyes misty, strangely eager. "Well" she said brokenly, "are you going to ask me?" A dog sled waited outside Sergeant Ser-geant Terry's tent the next morning, its tarpaulin high over the heaped provisions necessary to a long journey. jour-ney. Again, as Jeanne Towers and Jack Hammond stood before him, the Sergeant repeated as best he could from memory the passages of the wedding ceremony. There was a ring in his voice now and a smile on his generous, kindly lips. The service over, he followed them to the dog team and bowed stiffly, one hand properly crossed on his snow-flecked red tunic. "A kiss for the bride?" Jack Hammond laughed, his old, reckless, deep-chested laugh. He released Jeanne from the arm which encircled her. "A kiss for the police," she bantered, ban-tered, as she held up her hps. Sergeant Terry protested. "Please! Not for all of them." After a time, there was only the man in red coat and yellow-striped blue breeches, standing there bare- -headed, his stiff-brimmed hat held high. Far away, where the fire line ended, end-ed, a dog team wound slowly through the powdery snowfall, Into the silvered, spirelike spruce and onward toward the Arctic. THE END i |