Show M ia 4 t th tsie J plains U 0 oy of T abraham by james oliver curwood Q by do doubleday bleday doran co lao ino service jam A CHAPTER XIV 11 lie said nothing or tile me incident ani even cn to mere de statute rigaude clatilde tile the lupei for who took a special interest in him nor to filly of lier her virgin sisters who cared for ailin so bo tenderly in tile the dark hours of tits ills struggle for 11 life fe and the more hope hopeful fiji ones of of his if con rales cence 1 had ach flay day of strength added to tits suspicion that what he hads had keen ePli rind and heard were the illusions of senses crumbling under tile flip effects of hurt burt and UK shock find ho hi kept kvil tto to himself whatever faith lie lial had in them when at last lie he was able to mingle with the populace find and tile flip crowds of mildiore lit in the streets lie he wits strangely Kely unlike the old jekins 1 MIN lie ile hit and been badly wounded vo and realized that nothing less ic ss than it a loua tits intervention which the nuns mins n ns bribed to the inerney of sod could have kept him blin beyond the reach of death A hall ila had passed through his shoulder when three ollier rf struck film bilm nt fit the dise barge rf of tile Eri glish guns that they had filled to kill film he did not accept as a blessing file impression grew in hini him that lie he had been very close to alts IS mother an and tobnette Tol nette and that a fate not with ills lind drawn hini hack back from them this thought established tits bf bellef lief that floth odds ls at appear pear mice ns its well MS its its ilia moth pra voice and tile the nearness esq of tobnette Tol nette had been purely spiritual hut but whenever he saw a log dog in the streets of quebec lie he looked to see if one foot was missing ills excursions were short an and d he wandered alone ile he saw a nur number ilber of I 1 ay I 1 N his excursions were short and 11 1 he 1 e wandered alone his comrades lout hut they tild did not yecon nize film and lit did dd not ferl feel tile the impulse t to let thein know who lie kvas flesh had dropped from tits ills bones ones ull until tai lie he resembled one approaching death instead of if es escaping it lie IIII walked with will stooped shoulders ills eyes were sunken and ilia his hands in one of which lie cat carried aled it a staff were emaciated emaciate to the thinness of extreme age the small interest life had beld for him seemed to have shriveled with the strength of tits his body the 11 ish r rekindled kindled e the spark his mot liets the half of of self which lie he had tried to liate hate they were not actins acting the part pait of cominer ors they were unbelievably friends from tile the gallant murray to tile commonest sol soldier lier they were courteous humane generous se nerous dividing their rn rations with uie tile star stai pd ed citizens shar beliar ing their tobacco I 1 with thero them helping without pay to build up tili ruined homes each flay day working themselves deeper into tile alie I 1 good will of those who had been cli cheated bated und and des despoiled polled by governor Vaud vaudreuil reull and his degenerate crowd and by the weakness of the king of eranee iun tile hip nuns and id the priests thein nien men und and women of oi od who for two hundred years ila had fought for new france honor flonor and chivalry had come to conquer conquer quebec and had brought such for its people that a british soldier wils was hanged in tho ilie public square for stealing from a resident of at the town jeems felt tills this comradeship of hla his enemies at first he was taciturn and aloof und talked only when courtesy required the effort of liim lit lie oh ob served that ciany eyes regarded him film with n pity which adder added shame to the burden of ills distress anil and it at times when lie he wits struggling to hold ills stooped shoulders erect sympathetic hands cattle came to help belp him in spite of I 1 himself Ini self ills health returned slowly hut nt in the second week of his freedom sin an incident occurred which sent ft warmer glow through tits lits veins lie he heard two soldiers talking on tile the street they were talking about a dog it a three legged dog to that passed lit in front of their line as they lind had stood ready to fire upon the french when lie returned to tile the little room which lie he still occupied in the general hospital nere de chinte claude thought fever had set itself upon him again the net nest flay day lie ho wont went out looking for the dog and found others othera who alio had beheld what his own eyes had seen dut but lie he asked questions no except in n casual way and did not the reason for ills his interest lie ile knew the log dog could not be odd yet it wits was odd tor for thoin lie he was waa seeking tills this paradoxical state of mind bothered jilin and lie wondered it if its his illness had left liim him entirely sane to think odd hit biad escaped Tia Thi ogas vengeance and had wandered through hundreds of if miles of wilderness to quebec would surely be tin an indication that it ila biad not lie ile continued to souk trying to believe lie wits was making the quest a diversion which wits was healthful for tits his body arid and that curiosity not hope or falth was encouraging him to find the three legged log dog As lower fower town w was is the home of niost of the alie logs dogs lie he spent much of if his time dine among its ruins hut but without success sl ills search canie came to an unexpected end in st louis bouls street where eliere many aristocratic atle families of the city lived naney gagnon who had been nancy bufore fore her mar marriage ringe to peter gagnon and it a dearly loved belle of tile the town described the incident soon sift erward in a letter to anne anna st perils idock and tills this letter partly unintelligible because of I 1 its ts al aap e Is it a cherished possession of that thai family 1 I ila biad come out of the house site she w wrote rote in time to see a strange figure pause near the alie iron gate which shut him out from the plot of ground who where re the dog ans watching little jeems at play with some blocks and sticks ile he was a soldier in a faded uniform of france with a hospital badge on tits ills arm and tin had apparently just risen from a terrible sickness As lie he staggered tho the gate with it a strange tige cry I 1 thought he was about to faint and hurried toward him then a most amazing thing happened tile the dog dg sprang straight at liim film and so tightened Ight ened was r by the unexpectedness of ills his attack that I 1 screamed nt fit the top of my voice art and snatched up nil one of the babas sticks with willed which I 1 was about to beat the animal from lit ills victim when to my still greater astonishment I 1 saw that both man und and beast were overcome by what appeared aped I 1 ien i ed to tie be a paroxysm of reeo gril tion and joy the fiction action of the log doa together with my scream set little jerins to crying lustily and my terri benl tied fled voice brought tobnette Tol nette and my hither to tile the floor door I 1 ever forget what happened then tobnette Tol nette barted t vir ted first toward her bally then saw the man inan at the g gate ate and the cry which came front from tier her lips ills will remain with me ine until my lying dying lay day in a moment slie was in that poor wreck of a soldiers arms kissing him find sobbing until with the of the log dog arid and the fiercer shrieking of the child tu to nothing of my own wild appear 1 abw with the stick we were beginning to attract the attention of the public in tills this wily way teems found his wife and boy their story was destined to ile he remembered because it was a marked incident in a transition of land people and customs which history could not regard too lightly manuscripts find and letters were to bear it on until almost forgotten foi gotten it was to remain only a whisper among a thousand others of days and years yea whose echoes grow fainter as time passes the walls of the old home in st louis street close to the rest resl dirce of tile the beautiful but infamous air idame me de papan paean witnessed the piecing together of the story and might repeat it today if they coull could talk for teems the few minutes after his entry in the LothIn lere house where lie and Tol were guided by nancy and her father while a black servant brought up the rear with the buhy aaby were nearly as unreal as tm the last moments of his consciousness on the plains of Abra abraham liam inside the door nancy placed tile the child in his fits arms arnis which tin biad not rel relinquished inqui ched their hold of tobnette Tol nette arid and the discovery that he be possessed a son leapt upon him lie ile w waa its so overwhelmed oy dy the endo emotion tion which followed that lie he did not see adam as he felt his way through g li the wide hall to find flold what the excitement and crying were about it was with his round sightless face and his voice breaking with joy when he found teems alive undo his great fumbling hands which added as nancy wrote in her letter to anne st denis rock la a final proof that god does docs answer prayer that tills god who had seen new france sink into ruin had guided their own on desti destinies with a h hw hid W jeems devoutly believed when toll tol nette told him film what had befallen her after the flight from they were alone in her room it was the eleventh of december and the afternoon sun shone from a sky filled with tile the smiling warmth of autumn rather than the chill of winter A few fer hundred yards away general burray was wag holding a review of tile the regiments which were soon to fit face C e L levla evis in fit ills hla attempt to retake the city the sound of 0 martial music came to them faintly and with it vie the distinct but softer gofter tolling of a hell bell which marked an hour of prayer find and to tills appeal tobnette Tol nette bowed her head and murmured words of adoration taught her by tile the white robed sisterhood of christ three years tin had changed her not time alone but motherhood and the grief of hopeless waiting had made her more a woman and less a girl at last she had believed teems jeems was dead and now she had hlin again an indescribable beauty suffused her race face and eyes with its radiance as the mystery of the years was unveiled she told of capture by the mohawks in forbidden valley of lis ills escape his recapture later by the St Se and of lier her appeals to das and and of her failure to inspire their mercy when blinded he was brought to only god could have directed me after that she rhe said tor for I 1 was so desperate that I 1 scarcely know how events shaped themselves na as they did I 1 feared aliat your action might be when boti you returned and couns found your uncle had been blinded and and killed an and d not until I 1 filtered entered ali ah de bahs tepee did it strike me as an all answer to rny my prayers that a hunting knife should be dangling by its cord lit in the opening with tills knife I 1 freed fill and cut cat a hole in the skin tent through which we crept to the canoes after I 1 had given wood pigeon my message to you when we WB were pursued nil and oer oi taken my hope died hut but the depth of my despair was no greiter greater than the joyous shock overcame me when I 1 heard titomas Tl TI togas voice telling us na not to be afraid but to go ashore quietly and that no aarni would befall us explained what chat they wore were about to do foi fo as soon us its we were it diore went off alone into the darkness ile ie told us its that three days before reaching they had learned through facts which hull bill related that their prisoner already blinded was your uncle an and my ins own dear fric friend tid it wits was too late for them to save him for tile the warriors wore were in bad limmor and demanded tile 0 sacrifice at the stake of the one wl who lo 10 had killed several of 0 their number came ahead so you would not be in the village when the prisoner arrived As talked to us I 1 learned that hearts as kind as any in this world beat in savage breasts for these three men had turned traitors to the that mat we might live in the light of 9 n torch disclosed a long braid of hair which looked horridly like my iny own and drenched its scalp in fresh blood which lie he drew from tits his breast it was a scalp tiaona had taken from a french indian he had killed and I 1 turned faint when alien I 1 saw it gleaming in the flare of the pitch pine then and I 1 went on in the canoe hours later rejoined us and said that tiaona had danced with the scalp before his people and that they believed we were dead stayed with us until we came upon french soldiers near fort Front frontenac erinc and each day I 1 dressed the wound in his breast to be continued |