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Show berries nnil mushrooms. More lish wore, caught than could ho eaten fresh. A number were soon on Hie smoke rack, along with ducks and ralihits. For the present and near future, the question of food had been met. A cold sleety rainstorm drenched the camp. It brought only temporary tempo-rary discomfort, for Garlh kept the lire alive under a slanted heap of spruce, boughs. None the less, the raTt completed to his satisfaction He had huilt n superstructure that raised tin; footing well al'ove the waterline. Kails guarded against the risk of squall waves washing the slid weak millionaire overboard. over-board. For sweeps, Garth lashed the paddles to poles made of spruce saplings. He rijrKPd other saplings for mast and yardarm, ready to hoist the blanket as a sail In case of a favorable change in the wind. "Shift or calm, we'll put off ut XVr'V-"'X ; . I storm spurred him to redoubled activity, ac-tivity, lie knew it to be the forerunner fore-runner of the nut mini blizzards that might now howl down off the snow-clad snow-clad Selwyns at any time. While Mr. Kamill's slight fever remained, he said little and seemed to take everything as a matter of course. He had fully recovered from the effects of shock even before be-fore the fifth day when the bu'let wound through his upper chest began be-gan to heal. Put with the passing pass-ing of his feverish condition the Irritability of convalescence jabbed him nut of Ills placid contentment. "Why are you loafing around here, Garth?" be rasped. "Instead of wasting all this time piling up food, you could have made a canoe and run us down across to that re fueling post days ago." Garth swept his right hand edge- lie smiled up at her frown. "All the more sporting of you. Not half bad, I'd say." "Oh, but it is bad frightfully bad! No food not a thing to give Dad all this time. No chance of getting any either of you. And now his fever, too. No medicine for it !" sunrise, he announced. Though Mr. Kamill grumbled, he tile his fill of broiled whitelish, and rolled up for the night to fall Into the healthy heavy sleep of a convalescent. con-valescent. Lilith again took the first watch. In the midst of his first sleep, Garth opened his eyes with the Instant In-stant alert wakefulness of a hunter. hunt-er. The girl's hand was on his forehead. fore-head. "Yes?" he asked. "I I'm not sure," she murmured. mur-mured. "The wind has gone down ... It looks like a star. F,ut It is so low on the water, I thought I'd better call you." lie rolled from the bed of spruce tips and dry moss. A single glance downriver was enough. lie jumped to light the prepared bundle of brush at the smudge-fire and leap with It down the bank. As the heap of fuel on the beach hurst Into (lame he heard the girl's gasping murmur, close behind his shoulder: "It can't be a mistake? You're certain certain that it's really" "A steamer," he replied. I-R VII Continued j -12 ! Quivered, tensed, and '.nvays. The belt-ax was 00 ;,e knife. She clutched '.'. hand and straightened os ablaze. 1 lt;" she cried. "Go! or. ..'.i you!" with cool irony. "Why -73 1 Hysterics are not in "Vj dear Lilith." ...jrt'il her voice, but not ;ii 1 ax. She' began to 3 him, with the blades n"V to strike. Her voice 1 tier stiffened lips, low ton,!ti(l deathly calm: ' not go, I will kill you, 'ter, rst ki" me'" t left his lips. Ells eyes A sudden thought jerked Garth up to a sitting position. He swayed from dizziness. Then liiss head cleared, lie was only rather weak from blood-loss and sore about the back of his head. An exploring band found a wad of moss, tied upon his wound with a band of plaited grass. He heard the girl murmur: "I fixed Dad's the same way ashes and the moss to hold it on. Ashes or soot I once heard about something like that for cuts." wise out across his uplifted empty left palm. "No gun no hides. Dead birch no bark. No hides, no bark no canoe." "Huh! Do you mean to say we'll have to stick here and freeze In your d d Arctic winter?" "Growl away, sir," Garth approved. ap-proved. "Sounds good. It means you'll soon be in shape for rafting. raft-ing. As for your question, perhaps you Imagine Miss Itamill and I have been heaving that down timber over the bank just for sport." The millioEaire staggered to his feet unaided for the first time since Iluxby had shot him down. "A raft! How the devil can you make one if you can't make a canoe? No rope or rawhide thongs to tie the logs together." nad lie replied no less qui-seqi qui-seqi whetark crazy. I'm going. 1739 j or three weeks before back. That should be UHj for you to starve into Ti 11 be glad to welcome Sn, 'fly. now about your in m-3 it not sober you to Guari! be your fault If he e Cit) He pointed to the scattered ashes of the dead fires. "P.e quick. Build a big blaze and throw on green wood. That southbound plane! Must signal it. Even if he's aboard, he can't keep the pilot from coming com-ing down." Lilith Iiamill's head drooped despondently. de-spondently. "I saw it this morning way out across the sky. First there was the drone of the motor. "But what if if they don't see us? It's night." "Darker the better, if no fog. They can't miss seeing this fire." Garth turned to eye her in the glare of the upflaring fire. lie looked at her worn moccasins and lynxskin leggings, ut the crude skirt of moose-calf skin and the tattered upper part of the sports dress. He looked at the girl's dope-smeared face and at the tight pigtails of the semi-bobbed hair that had once been so frozen in that modish permanent wave. His gray eyes twinkled in the firelight. "Well, I'd say you're less a sight than when I first met you." Her eyes did not twinkle. They flashed. "You'll not have much longer to insult me!" "I may If you don't fetch the blanket," he said. "A fire on the shore means nothing of itself. Just an Indian camp John Buck and his squaw. We'll have to signal." ! The word sent her bounding up Garth supported him over through the spruce thicket to the drop-off of the bank. The wobbly Invalid squatted on the brink and stared In surprise. Down the beach, close beside the water, his daughter sat plaiting a great pile of willow withes into a thick line. Before her V, she took a full step 2 ST look in her eyes daunt-i daunt-i anted sideways, caught d not 1,e' ancI raD across t0 upo re the canoe. When, ndfsf she came to the top of ying a had the canoe launched ins 'iring in the wolfskin noney, your I ;ment ji aboard with the rifle "taa'le. As he backed off-(n off-(n down to the water's layflcU ? his engagement ring i It struck his upjerked NeW glanced outboard and , i1. instantly quenched In ' I !d PI , . . j-APTER VIII letal I Then I saw it way off. Only, I could do nothing. Yesterday I used f your last match. I wanted to boil ( for Dad the one pinch of tea that's left. A puff of wind blew out the flame. Now there's no hope. He took your rifle too. No fire or food or gun, or any chance of rescue!" Garth looked around and saw her father tossing In feverish sleep under un-der the shade of a slight brush canopy. He gave the overwrought girl a bantering smile. "What, merely a matter of fire, medicine, food, and escape? If only you were a Boy Scout ! How about becoming a Campfire Girl? Fetch me a two-foot willow branch the size of your forefinger, a thong, one straight dry stick, and that chunk of dead birch trunk." ,t lata Cypoderaft. p e pit of blackness, '' .Srst dimly conscious IZonb of water- He was d -witJi"S- N. the wn" rban "V"i his face. Not rain, lumbllhater something wet A 1, to . 'I P , W ' s - r 1 If"' f-.vw? ft -s A little sand Increased the friction fric-tion of the fire-drill point at the bottom of the shallow hole he made in the block of wood. The dry birch soon began to smoke. Lilith had gathered tinder of dead Inner bark. In wide-eyed wonderment, she watched the simple primitive method meth-od of firemaking. the bank. She came flying back with the blanket. Garth ordered her to hold one corner. He took another. anoth-er. They stood in front of the fire, with the big blanket stretched between be-tween them. Mr. rtamill called irritably ir-ritably from the top of the bank, j What did they mean, wakening him ' and taking away his bedding? Lilith cried out the glad news. Garth gave her a curt order to pay attention. At his commands, she began to stoop and rise in unison with him, lowering the blanket to the sand and jerking it up again in front of the fire, at Irregular intervals. After some time he ordered a halt, with the blanket on the ground. He added an explanation: "Those i were dots and dashes. We've given i the SOS and my name. They may I not have made it out. That light 1 Is nearer, but It has not turned. Ready now. We'll repeat." Above the low-hung star another anoth-er star flashed on and off. Across the silent, glimmering flood of the 3 river came the hoarse blasts of a r' steamer's whistle, muffled by dis- y sevj irehead. ani';lii3 eyes, blinked the ind det. an(1 founcj himself iat tb1 a pair of sunken blue , ere clouded and dark J Vet with strange sud- .. "V" brightened. At that LCI-IIMl;ey were tbe eyes of iTi5 THIf i:'Penel1'" he muttered. I Eilu ' ;is moved, he remem-ciu, remem-ciu, null, ' ly bis pistol. Must 3host j,S0n "Now, we're under way," he said. "Next comes medicine. By using the ashes, you gave our wounds sterile dressings. Your father was tuned up to the pink of condition. His wound will heal as rapidly as mine. What little fever he has means nothing. To cool it, crush in his drinking water some of the cranberries from over there along the edge of the muskeg. You might boil willow bark and add a little of the bitter decoction to the cranberry cran-berry juice." "You'll Mot Have Much Longer to Insult Me." floated a partly built raft of dead birch tree trunks. The shorter, smaller cross logs were lashed on with spruce roots and plaited-willow tie-lines. Mr. Uamlll's gaze passed over the raft, to peer out across the immense lake-like expanse of the great river. The water was covered with white-caps, white-caps, whipped up by the chill north- ai'lw wind. tance yet unmistakable. "All right, Miss Ramiil," Garth said. "Tell your maid to pack your lu age." She asked in a low voice: "Haven't I tried to play up? Is it sporting of you to mock me?" Her face was shadowed. He could not see the look that went with the questions. After a moment, he answered an-swered soberly. "It is not, and you yiareg0t l0 tense his flaccid cords t0 bouQd up She 10 ,r?Q.inS hand on his fore- He went-" walking j It Ee quiet, else you I'Clous again. The bul- srtL C1 the back of your ranches frightful stupor, i T,hoii up. I felt sure lECTw , 1 1 rJ' (ays?" he muttered. Actual txrain A10G0E Si liberate trial, and move his legs and "fS ;" paralysis. Soon be ans Ps-j,our f.uher? You mehow a'.only fr "J' claiui-,nnv claiui-,nnv surt "Oh, It s good 10 Know ne 3 uui sick. But to starve to death!" Garth pointed to the wild fowl out in the swamp. They were beginning to flock together wilh the approach of autumn. "How would you like canvasback or mallard for dinner?" Her eyes brightened, only to cloud again. "You have no gun." After looping some thongs to his belt, he went to stack a hollow pile of brush on a forked stub that had broken olT from a fallen beech tree. Out in the water, he bobbed under and came up with his head between the forks of the float. The leaves and twigs made a blind from which he could see out without being seen. "Baft! Ught It's worse out there than the white water when we shot those rapids." "There'll be plenty of free bathing bath-ing for us, but no danger of drowning," drown-ing," Garth replied. "Only trouble, this wind would blow us upstream. We'll have to wait for a shift. The only other chance is that one of the boats may be coming out." "Boats?" "The supply steamers of the Hudson's Hud-son's Bay company and other traders, taking out the season's cargoes of furs." have. Permit me to apologize. "Is that all?" "What else?" he replied. "You nre of course relieved and pleased to be rid of a man you so thoroughly thorough-ly hate. You may rest assured I will not intrude, once you're aboard ship." "Yes," she murmured, "when Dad and I no longer have any need of you to " Her father came staggering down the bank to thrust in between them. "I say. Garth ! don't lie. Is it true the steamer is putting in for us?" .. ; The cowardly beast ffiSJiJ1 murder you. But lililWaAi ajain, Dad jumped linum I known Kas a 1octor. it's ietal tne ilder. The coward ,mpound tt;lle c,mn jnst(i.ld Qf sntC8isoS;ke.mnn!- Frederick I1 he? Thought he j' lather?" 1; wasn't serious. All 777' t!ll;e natl ln the LbredPnr'?ic'H 'at man Tobin's C:0dtory""i" 't'lnut you?" j mntain TAUI). drove him off.. 1555, TV coward!" wii'r" Perplexed. "You did "'ted to take your ZZZ culd receive treat- , u it. SnK He waded, neck deep, up tne muskeg mus-keg stream so slowly that the stub and branches appeared to be an ordinary or-dinary bunch of driftwood. When he stepped off over his depth, he began to tread water. By a quiet movement of li is hands under un-der the surface, he glided the blind into the midst of a mallard (lock. The trick was to grasp a duck's feet and jerk the bird under before it could squawk. He waded bark to shore with live ilead mallards tied to his belt. After the meal on roast duck, he set some rabbit snares. He then showed I.ilith how to make cords by splitting olT strands from peeled spruce roots. While she worked at this, he collected more duck? and hung them over a smudge for The millionaire gruntco nis renei : Ugh steamers I Almost good as a plane." "If one comes along, and If we see it in time," Garth qualified. "You are rather farsighted. You might t watch for smoke downriver." "I'll do that. D n your diddling with any raft! Ten to one, you've already "let every steamer slip past. All this time with your nose rubbing those d (1 logs!" Garth went down to tell I.ilith that her father was by way of being a well man. He sent her to move the camp to a small opening in the thicket, close behind the grumbler. Fuel for a bonfire had already been Doubtful of a safe night landing at this unused beach, the steamer captain lay off-shore and sent In a canoe. Garth steadied Mr. Kamill into the birchhark. At the same time I.ilith stepped in ahead of her father. She repeated the maneuver when the two Indian paddlers drove the canoe out alongside the little river steamer. Garth saw no more of the girl until un-til after the steamer tied up at I-'ort Simpson, the trading post at the mouth of the I.ianl river. Taken into a stateroom by the wife ot a missionary from Fort Norman, she ri "He thought you ammed Ml to get up. I and is in 4 'Hive. I was afraid "Would move. Ho jp of Canal 'shed you. So I 3n o Conadj vincesJ "-elf nnd your fa- an Emperor! ( mmth weTeR jyldid It for a a S hncaiise I was ' 'li linish his sneak d BuTl '1 1 hilvp ,',,pn tll(1 d bull ot I 'IT .uui Pt voll jj L Vou must !" smoke curing. Next came the carving of Eskimo hooks from duck bones. With bait, a catgut leader and a spruce-root line, be began to catch Mackenzie whitelish. I.ilith had never seen so beautiful a fresh water lish. The newly caught lish proved far better eating than even the best of ,n,ut. Mr. Itaniill's slight fever gave him a distaste for (luck meat and the rabbits that were snared. Hut he ate" his full share and more of the delicious lish. r.esides the cranberries, Ulith gathered black currants and blue- heaped up on the heacli. Hut Garth did not count strongly on sighting any steamer. The boats mi-ht have lingered at the far-away Arctic trading posts. Delays meant dan-er of an early blizzard. He n,shed his work on the raft. When dusk came. Lilith went on watch, , p,ace of her father. Garth relieved re-lieved her at midnight. Tut neither neith-er of them saw any light out on U,e vast 0N-panse of ghostly gleam-ing gleam-ing whitocaps-! whitocaps-! r,y another sunset Garth had the remained in complete seems. on. Her father kept almost equally close in the skipper's own room. The canny Scot had welcomed the Mnerican millionaire to his bunk j fr a consideration. The cabin was iam.ned with fur traders and I-ort ! Norman oil held olhcials, who were i oing outside for the winter. Ganh messed and berthed forward itb the crew. I no de co.vnyvw |