Show By ARTHUR STRINGER THE STORY SO FAR To help Norland from bankruptcy Alan SUde to fly a so-called named Frayne and bis to the river In search of the breeding of the Slade la suspicious of who has nevertheless paid them to enable to buy new Just before tearing he goes with Lynn of the local to give first aid treatment to a flyer named Slim Slade is not pleased to learn that an outcast flyer who has lost his license for knows about the new plane and about Frayne's expedition That night the Lockheed Is stolen by a masked thief who heads On the way to the with Frayne and SUde runs out of nd they are forced to spend the night at the cabin of Slade's prospector Zeke and where Slade keeps a gas Frayne shows no Interest tn the fact that the surrounding country Is rich In source of a new kind of power But the next morning Frayne decides to stay near there and not go on to the While Slade Is on the way Lynn father decides to operate on the blind Uma In the hope of restoring his eyesight- is anxious to see again so he can hunt the he Slade has the operation Is and he and Lynn are She has received a letter from Barrett for Lynn s has offered her father a job In Lynn feels that his frontier work Is too hard for Now continue with the CHAPTER IX Her father watched her as she read the closely written It came home to him as he studied the stooping figure in the vital young figure with its ripening lines of that they could not always be about he repeated as the girl In white looked up from her been pulling wires she observed without meeting her father's was the Padre's prompt said the girl with the writes that he's had a cable from the Minister and there's an opening for you in the Department of Timber and He says it's grand chance for somebody in the know to co-ordinate the medical care of The Flying Padre's face hardened who asked Barrett to pull wires for he was his own acknowledged he naturally held back until he knew I agreed with The stooping shoulders he said with can't go to Not Lynn looked at him for a moment or two of she be disappointed Her father swung about on of why he's doing all was only thinking of Dad she said as she leaned against his towering He lifted her head and looked into her face there's always a string to arrangements like And in this case that string would be She attempted a protest against that but he stopped a good I like him a And I don't blame him for being in love with But I happen to know you're in love with him that be so she He stroked the cropped head that looked so and yet remained so not such a bad egg he said with a stabilizing sort of happen to know something that you've got tucked away in that lopsided heart of And I'm not going to sell my girl's happiness for an old-age pension and a berth in Barrett Walden s Department of Timber and after checking over a series of decided to head for Echo back at had told him to follow up any clue that showed And this shadowy plane that had been seen flitting between tidewater and some unknown hinterland base was worth looking That Slade I may have been but he had a theory or two of his own he kept his quest from I being entirely a wild-goose chase I He knew well enough the vastness of the country over which he was I with here and there only a time-bleached Eskimo cairn to mark ita And to lock for a plane in that tangle of river and i of ice-scored bluffs and starveling tree seemed very much like looking for a needle in I He was further depressed by the discovery that a rolling in i from the Arctic was cutting off his view of the broken Where be should have found Echo Harbor he saw only a blanket of gray mist So he turned south and winged his way into the sweeping the horizon with his glasses as he But still no sign of life came to This section of the be Celt as he stared about had for obvious reasons remained If there was mineral in you might remember you don't own thin those lonely gray ridges below him the new frontier hadn't crawled that far north to find it It still seemed to ache with And for that as he winged his way over the gray he knew a distinct quickening of the pulse when he caught sight of a faint plume of smoke beyond a darker stretch of that circled a lake studded with many small For smoke meant and fire implied the presence of human Slade dropped avoiding the Island-studded lake and circling off to a companion lake that clearer water for a a mile or more to the His eyes searched the shoreline as he drifted into a ridge-sheltered cove where he could moor and land without He mounted the ridge and once more peered about at the starved-looking But he could see no sign of Yet on second thought he stepped down to his plane and quietly removed a breaker With that he his engine was tied And he had no intention of taking His next line of he was to push on overland in search of that small but unmistakable wisp of But the going was not He found it best to follow the rock ridges where the footing was safe even though the direction of his advance was His presence he had been well advertised to any watcher between the spruce ridges and the Yet he advanced with both caution and quietness Twice he was compelled to back-trail and seek out more solid His final line of he was taking him out to a rush-fringed point abutting into an island-dotted lagoon that was half reed-beds and half open water It looked lonely and He was on the point of turning back and rounding the lower arm of the lake when he was arrested by an unexpected sign of life in the reeds ahead of This was a moment by the discovery of footprints in the soil about him But whoever or whatever lay hidden there refused to disclose So be pushed quietly following the vague path where other feet had preceded his own He went on until a turn in the narrow runway brought him to a thicker tangle of shrub-willow and just at the water's he caught sight of a This man was crouched low In a blind of roughly Beside him lay a pair of binoculars and a telescopic But at the moment he was making use of neither He was merely crouching intent and staring out over the island-dotted Slade knew it was even before he saw the bony face that turned to flash a look of annoyance at the was Frayne's preoccupied command as his gaze went back to the watery vista in front of Slade I have traveled eight thousand miles to was Frayne's quietly The half-whispered and half-hissed words came clearly tinged with is a trumpeter making love to his Slade peered through the rush tops and caught sight of two floating islands of white along the remoter reaches of the The thing that impressed him was first their size and then the snowy whiteness of the feathered bodies that glided in and out between the darker bodies of land that turned the lake end into an archipelago you're getting what you came Slade He noticed for the first time the collapsible rubber plainly lighter than any Indian which lay half-concealed in the fringe of when outsiders interfere with my retorted the is your mile or two southeast of Slade explained won't have a plane disturbing this Frayne proclaims with an unexpected note of means all my work has been for Slade's laugh was curt welcome to your wilder he looking for something bigger than kindly leave the swans tc said the unruffled you might remember you don't own this was the sharp-noted the sooner leave it the happier Til be said His mouth hardened a little as he stood eyeing the other what would you do if I happened to hang Frayne became conscious of the challenge in that His thin lips compressed and for a he remained Then he shrugged and stared out over the brow of his would not be so he quietly That Slade was not without ita own tacit chal since you regard this as your he suppose your camp is is countered Frayne is merely an observation My camp is farther toward the since that seems tc be caribou And we musi have of course you're nearer the ventured must be neighbors to my two old sourdough I mean Zeke and the men we bunked with on the wa out have seen nothing of was the deliberated response one object here is to be said He stood silent a moment before ask is that camp-mate of said cutting wood and smoking in case we should winter I have in unsettled tc think of the If you winter observed will no longer have your man of science learns pa retorted come back in the before next persisted be needing some plane have no need for a asserted the you've had course Slade found it necessary to give that some why did you try to buy a a couple of weeks And why did you want to hire The opaque eyes regarded him with asserted before I found what I was looking now you've spotted your swans you've no need for was the acidulated you haven't happened to see a plane in this until I had the misfortune of seeing you saw me as I came Frayne's nod was curL did my which you he I leave you to your tram said the like to ask just one Where do you come difference that demanded the your manners make me think you are The ornithologist's face hardened But his when he was a controlled I had my passports he quietly would learn His as he turned away and reached for his took on a touch of the I regret that interest in bird life must interfere with your curiosity as to my Slade good luck with your tram he said as be turned and strode from the He as be studied out the uncertain trail to where his plane must be that meetings like this were mighty rare along the BE |