Show By GEORGE MARSH P CHAPTER I With a grinding of brakes the Imperial Express came to a stop at a huddle of log buildings and frame shacks buried in the eternal spruce traversed by the Canadian Beyond the clearing a steel bridge spanned the upper River which flows north to James The attention of the Idlers at the shack of a station was suddenly focused on a russet-haired giant carrying a cased duffel bag and a surveyor's who blocked the platform door of a He swung to the ground followed by a wide-shouldered young man with penetrating agate-gray From the Scotch station who to two half-breeds who heads as they watched the the gray eyes missed The strangers left their dunnage and started for the head of the Reaching the staring the larger man What's the he threw at the surprised Blood leaped to their sullen faces as one spik to you strain your eyes don't You're figuring what my name and age is and where I'm I always aim to I'm four years my name's Marie and I've forgotten where I'm That help The listening group of waited with caught breaths as the scarred face of the taller breed filled with His yellow eyes blazed as they measured the man who big hands on smiling at his For an instant his right hand hovered over his coat then left it as his companion seized his look for he I thought you were after drawled the amused I was giving you Of if you can't use it WelL With a careless wave of his hand the russet-haired young man joined his waiting start anything cautioned the dark too We've got to look But you sure got the goat of that meant That bird looks like a bad boy to He needs a job somebody did on his face with a At the head of the train the travelers found a blocky individual sliding an eighteen-foot Peterboro canoe from a baggage His high slits of eyes and crow-black hair marked a strain of Indian Watching the proceeding fretted a huge said the man with the gray give you a The airedale leaped on the speaker who grasped the dog's hairy old The bush smell good after the Depositing the canoe on the slant of the railroad the man called Blaise got ta rush dat grub Dis train not stop for long Shortly a heap of dunnage and provision bags lay beside the The square-built Blaise tossed the canoe to his shoulder and started down a path to the said Garrett guess is that those two breeds at the station might know something we came a long way to we leave this great city of six shacks and a store I'm going to make some talk with those altogether too keen to know who we are and where we're We'll give them a chance to find said the line they say no one at will Before we start we'll find out we can't go you and Blaise and until we do find We've burned our It's sink or The bronzed face of the other hardened while lights flickered in his deep-set We'll get to the bottom of this if it takes all winter and God help somebody when we After supper the friends Leaving conversation with the Finlay went to the house of the station you're going to the bay on the observed the glad of chance for a gossip with someone from the we're meeting the main party at Rupert We won't get out until next fall By the what's all this mystery threw out McLeod shot a sidelong glance over the steel rims of his spectacles at his wife's troubled face before he noticed The place seems scared to When I asked Cotter who this Isadore was who has the big store-house he looked at me as if I was throwing a gun on Again the eyes of McLeod and his wife did Cotter tell he said Isadore was a big fur man on Lake He had a depot here because all his stuff went in from the But when I asked him if prospectors were going into the this way he acted like a scared I understand that three parties who tried It were reported drowned in the But what's mysterious about demanded Finlay with assumed McLeod's pale blue eyes squinted hard at his I've been on this section of steel only six My business is Your job is surveying for the What's going on in the bush two hundred miles north of here my Is it Finlay slowly there is something going on in the bush north of said had my you've had admitted mind I'm and Finlay took a sheet of paper from his wallet and folded it to expose a single line of writing at its He leaned and showed the folded sheet to the station wonder if spik to you'd recognize that he While his wife peered over his McLeod read the line don't believe those six men were The station agent nervously cleared his saw that handwriting he with a shake of the while Finlay caught a look of suppressed excitement in McLeod's pink don't think that anybody in wrote that The Scotchman's faded blue eyes I don't want anything to do with he spat did you get that was sent to my family at North Robert one of those six was my TchI Too murmured you're here to I'm here on survey duty-bound for James after our getting that letter I'm asking questions while I'm Finlay looked significantly at the It looks as if no one dared answer said all I can tell you is that Isadore reported that the canoes of the parties had been found by Waswanipi Finlay Isadore's freight already gone down he suddenly weeks the two who were so curious when we left the train arc lookout McLeod blinked Into the stare that drove into I don't mean that they're checking on every canoe that leaves here for the What I'm asking is who are they checking for and McLeod caught his wife's warning then you think there was something cious about your brother's why don't you bring in the provincial haven't got a thing but this 1 letter not a But there's one 1 question I'd like to ask Why docs this fellow with the knife slash on face pack a What's he afraid pretty Mr you'll have to judge for I don't After a chat about lower the McLeods' home Finlay bade them As he left the house he saw the taller of the half-breeds who had watched his arrival at with such Finlay's curious eyes studied the man who was evidently waiting for him in front of the frame which carried on a spruce plank above the door the name Approaching the he The other slapping vigorously at his face and night for Finlay lost no time In getting to the know the river to the The breed for de Bay on he we're heading for The river runs pretty hard for a hundred miles below I strong water on all dese Two men drown last Finlay closely watched the flickering eyes as he four the year but that was on the they tell see that the Hudson's Bay and Jules Isadore have depots observed nodding at the storehouses beside the is this The half-breed gaped in nevare hear of you not see hees place on does a big fur I by the size of his beeg he he talk wid you Finlay laughed he says he's new doesn't know As yet the man who had evidenced such curiosity concerning the survey party had not shown his Then Finlay abruptly brought the matter to a work for name is What's handle his Now returned the other with a ask you you go by dis way to Rupert and not by easy trail to Finlay So that was the in the They wanted lo know why the survey party was taking the Trail to the He answered we're going to make a new survey of the from Lake Matagami to Rupert Otherwise we'd have gone by Garry narrowly watched the effect of his The half-breed lifted his brows in seeming surprise as he I The answer appeared to satisfy Batoche's His eyes dropped to the river shore where the smoke from Blaise's smudge fire hung in the spruce Then his gaze shifted to a tent above the are those men camped asked Batoche head for de Rouyn interested in trying for the Finlay watched the other Batoche's eyes he fool head for de Chibougamau from they paid for it by drowning in the Waswanipi rapids all of Batoche's pale eyes probed the inscrutable face of the white then shifted to the spruce beyond the V Indian travel dat It ees bad De prospector all go in from Lac St. hear that Isadore's people found a piece of a All smash up below beeg on party was young fallar who go In last year wid Peterboro Finlay's eyes clung for an instant to the purple ridge as pain lanced through all they found no bodies or Batoche shook his I'm much said got to see my We'll be pushing off In the replied Batoche as Finlay left him and started for the camp on the river In the down on the river Blaise Brassard had been smoking in the lee of his smudge fire before a small A tent with a cheesecloth mosquito Near him lay the big said the ruminating exhaling a cloud of pipe and Blaise got big job dis Wat you The dog raised his His three-cornered eyes gazed fixedly through shaggy brows as If he understood and Then he suddenly cars rose to his feet and stood with head thrust forward peering Into the Somebody The hair on Flame's neck and lifted as bis throat swelled In a menacing BE |