| Show th Y U k T ALP al I 1 0 I 1 an alaskan story love copyright william macleod by william macleod raine CHAPTER continued it 11 so far the mind of the scotsman followed the probabilities logically but at this point it made a jump there were at least two robbers he was morally sure of that for this was not a one man job now it if holt had bad with him a companion who of all those in kuslak kusiak was the most likely man ile he was a friendless crabbed old fellow since coming to K kusiak old gideon had been seen constantly with bno one man they had been with each other at dinner and had later left the hotel together the name of the man who hid had been so friendly with old holt was gordon elliot and elliot not only was another enemy of macdonald but had very good reasons for getting out of the country just now the strong jaw of the mine owner stood out saliently as he gave short sharp orders to men in the crowd one was to get the coroner a second wally selfridge another the united states district attorney ile he divided the rest into squads to guard the roads loading leading out of town and to see that nobody passed for the present the coroner took charge of the body and wally of the bank the and the district attorney walked up to the hotel together As soon as they had explained what they wanted the landlord got a passkey and took them to the room holt had bad used apparently the bed h had ad been slept in in the wastepaper waste paper basket the district attorney found something which he held up in a significant silence macdonald stepped forward and took from him a small cloth sack one of those we keep our gold in at the bank said the scotsman after a close examination this definitely ties up nolt holt with the robbery now tor for elliot he left the hotel with holt about five this morning the porter r says mys this was as the contribution of the landlord the room of gordon elliot was in great disorder garments had bad been tossed on the bed and on every chair and had been left to lie wherever they had chanced to fall plainly their owner had been in great haste baste macdonald looked through the closet where clothes hung ills new fur coat is not here nor his trail boots looks to me as though mr gordon had tilt kit the trail with his friend holt all doubt of this was removed when a prospector reached town with the news that he had bad met holt and elliot traveling toward the divide as fast as w they could drive the dogs the big scotsman ordered his team of siberian wolf hounds made ready for the trail As he donned his heavy furs colby macdonald smiled with deep satisfaction ile he had bad elliot on the run at last just as he be closed the door of his room macdonald heard the telephone bell ring ue he hesitated then shrugged his shoulders and strode out into the storm it if he had bad answered the call he would have learned from dlane diane who was at the other end of the line that the stage upon which sheba had started for fatma had not reached the roadhouse at smiths crossing five minutes later the winners of the groat great alaska sweepstakes were va 41 A the winners of the great alaska sweepstakes were flying rown down the street flying down the street in the teeth of the storm armed with a rifle and a revolver their owner was into the hills to bring back the men who had bad robbed his bank and killed the cashier lie ile traveled alone because he could go faster without a companion it never occurred to him that be was not mot a match tor for any two kwoi men lie he might fac CHAPTER in the blizzard swiftwater Swit Swift water pete the driver of the tage abage between kusiak duslak and fatma did not inot like the look of the sky as his ponies breasted the long uphill climb that endom at the kaaa her back up tor for a blizzard looks like doggone it if that jest be my luck he murmured fretfully shoba sheba hoped there would be one not of course a really truly blizzard such as macdonald had bad told her about but the tall tail of a make believe one enough to 10 send tier lier glowing with exhilaration into the roadhouse with the file happy sense ot of an adventure achieved the girl was buoyed up by a sense of freedom for a time at least she was escaping Mac macdonaldd donalds driving energy the appeal of gordon elliots elliote Elli warm warin friendliness and the unvoiced urging of dlane diane good old peter and the I 1 kiddies id were the only ones that let her alone she looked back at the horses laboring up the bill swiftwater Swift water had got down and was urging them forward his long whip crackling about the ears of the leaders he was worried ne ile would have liked to turn and run for it but the last roadhouse was twenty seven miles back it if the blizzard came howling down the slope elope they would have a sweet time of it reaching safety smiths crossing was on the other side of the divide only nine miles away alicy would have to worry through somehow miss oneill knew that Swift swiftwater water pete was anxious and though she was not yet afraid the girl understood the reason for it the road ran through the heart of op a vast snow snowfield field the surface of which was being swept by a screaming wind the air was full of sifted white dust and the road furrow was rapidly filling soon it would be obliterated sheba tramped behind the stage driver and in her tracks walked mrs olson the other passenger through the muffled scream of the storm swiftwater Swift water shouted back to sheba you wanta keep close to me she nodded her head ills his order needed no explanation the world was narrowing to a lane whose walls she could almost touch with her fingers A pall of white wrapped them upon them beat a wind of stinging sleet nothing could be seen but the blurred outlines of the stage and the drivers figure the bitter cold searched through furs to her soft flesh and the blast of powdered ice bt beat upon her face the snow was getting deeper deeler Us as the road filled once or twice she stumbled and fell iier her strength ebbed and the hinges binges of her knees gave unexpectedly beneath her how long was it ohp asked herself that macdonald had said men could live in a blizzard staggering blindly forward sheba bu bumped ped into the driver ue he had drawn up to give the horses a moments rest before sending them plunging at the snow again no chance he called into the young omans ear never make smiths in the world goin try tor for miners cabin up gulch little way the team stuck in the drifts fought through and was blocked again ten yards beyond A dozen times the horses gave up answered the sting of the whip by diving head first a ai the white banks and were stopped by fresh snow combs pete gave up the fight lie he began un hitching the horses while sheba and mrs olson clinging to each others hands stumbled forward to join him the words he shouted across the back of a horse were almost I 1 ost lost in the roar of the shrieking wind ride gulch sheba made out he flung mrs olson astride one of the wheelers and helped sheba to the back of the right leader Swift swiftwater water clambered upon its mate himself the girl paid no attention to where they were going the urge of life was so faint within her that she did not greatly care whether she lived or died her face was blue from the cold her vitality was sapped she seemed to herself to have turned to lee ice below the hips numb though her fingers were she must keep them fastened tightly in the frozen mane of the animal she recited her lesson to herself like a child she must stick on she must she must whether she lost consciousness or not sheba never knew the next she realized wai was that swiftwater Swift water pete was pulling her from the horse lie ile dragged her into a cabin wt pre fro mrs olson lay crouched on the floor got to stable the horses he explained pla ined and left them after a time he came back and lit a fire in the sheet iron stove As the circulation cu that meant life flooded back into her chilled veins sheba endured a half hour of excruciating pain she had to clench her teeth to keep back the groans the cabin was empty of furniture except for a homemade home made table rough stools and the frame of a bed the last occupant had left a little firewood beside the stove enough to last perhaps for twenty four hours sheba did not need to be told that it if the blizzard lasted long enough they would starve to death in the handbag left in the stage were a box of candy and an irish plum pudding she had bad brought the latter from the old country with her and was taking it and the chocolates to the husted busted children but just now the stage was as far from them as drogheda Drog heda like many rough frontiersmen Swift swiftwater water pete was a diamond in the raw so far as could be be made a hopeless and impossible situation comfortable for table ills judgment told him that they were caught ln ln a trap from which there was no escape but for the sake of the women he put a cheerful face on things lucky we found this cabin he growled amiably cy this time wed a been up salt creek it if we seeing ns as our luck has stood up so tar far I 1 reckon well be all right mighty kind of mr air last tenant to leave us this firewood we aint so worse off it if we only had some food mrs olson suggested r food I 1 pete looked at her in assumed surprise huhl huh what about all that live stock I 1 got in the stable ive heard tell maam that broncho tenderloin Is a favorite dish with them there french chiefs that do the cooking they kinder trim it vp up sos BOS its most as good as legs sheba had never before slept on bare boards with a sealskin coat tor for a sleeping bag but she was very tired and dropped oft off almost instantly twice she woke during the night disturbed by the stiffness and the pain of her body when slie she awakened for the third time it was morning it seemed to tier her that the hard whipsawed planks were pushing through the soft flesh to the bones she was cold too and crept closer to the stout swedish woman lying beside her presently ent Y she fell asleep again to the sound of the blizzard howling outside when she wakened for the third time tt lt was morning in the afternoon the blizzard died away As far as the eye could see shelba sheb a looked out upon a waste of snow her eyes turned from the desolation without to abo he bare and cheerless room in which they had found shelter in spite of herself a little shiver ran down the spine of the girl had she come into this arctic solitude to find her tomb As soon as the storm had moderated enough to let him go out with safety pete had taken one of the horses for an attempt at trail breaking we me im after that plum pudding I 1 cotta get a teed feed of oats from the stage for my broncha too the scenery here Is sure fine but it aint what you yon would call nourishing huhl huh I 1 watch our smoke when me and old boldface Bald face git to bucking them drifts ne ile had been gone two hours and the dusk was already descending over the white waste when sheba ventured out to see what had become of the stage driver but the cold was so bitter that she soon gave up the attempt to fight her way through the drifts and turned back to the cabin some time later Swift swiftwater water pete came stumbling into their temporary home ile he was tagged to exhaustion but triumphant upon the table he dropped from the crook of his bis numbed arm two packages the makings for a christmas dinner he said with a grin mrs olson thawed out the pudding and the chocolates in the oven and made a kind of mush out of some oats pete had saved from the horse teed feed they ate their one sided meal in high spirits the freeze had bad saved their lives if it held clear till t tomorrow 0 they could reach smiths crossing on the crust of the snow Swift swiftwater water broke up the chairs for fuel and demolished the legs of the table after which he lay down before the stove move and fell at once into a sodden sleep presently mrs olson lay down on the bed and began to snore regularly sheba could not sleep the boards tired her bones and she was cold sometimes she slipped into cat naps that were full of bad dreams when she wakened with a start it was to find that the fire had died down she was shivering from lack of cover quietly the girl replenished the fire and lay down again when she wakened with a start it was morning A faint light sifted through the single window of the shack sheba whispered to the older woman that she was going out for a little walk As slie she worked her way down the gulch sheba wondered whether the news of their loss had reached kuslak were search parties out already to rescue them colby macdonald had gone into the blizzard years ago to save her father perhaps he might have been out all night trying to save her fathers daughter peter would go of course and gordon elliot the work in the mines would stop arid men would volunteer by scores that was one fine thing about the north it responded to the unwritten law that a man mai must risk his own life to save others X from rom a little knoll sheba looked down upon the top of the stage three hundred yards below her and while she stood there the promise of the new day was blaz blazoned oneA on the sky it came with amazing beauty of green and primrose and amethyst while the he stars flickered out and the heavens took on the blue of sunrise she drew a deep slow breath of adoration and turned away As she did so tier her eyes dilated and her body grew rigid across the snow waste a man was wag coming no ile was moving toward the tha cabin and must cross the trench close to her the heart of the girl stopped then beat wildly to make up tho the lost stroke strobe ile he had come through the blizzard to save tier her at that very instant as it if the stage had been set for or it the wonderful alaska sun pushed up into the crotch of the peaks and poured its radiance over the arctic waste the pink glow swept in a tide of delicate color over the snow and transmuted it to millions of 0 sparkling diamonds the great magicians wand vand had recreated the he world instantaneously CHAPTER two on the trail E elliot allot and holt left kuslak in a spume of whirling blinding snow they traveled light not more than L across the snow waste a man was coming forty pounds to the dog for they wanted to make speed it was not cold for alaska they packed fur coats on the sled and wore mittens of moose moosehide hide with duffel lining on their I 1 feet mukluks above german socks holt had bad been a sourdough sour dough miner too long to let his partner perspire from overmuch clothing ile he knew the danger ot of pneumonia from a sudden cooling of the heat of the body old gideon took seven of his dogs driving them two abreast six were huskies rangy muscular animals with thick dense coats they were in the best of spirits and carried their tails erect like their malemute leader butch though a malemute SIn lemute had a strong strain of collie in him it gave him a sense of responsibility ills his bus iness was to see that the team kept strung out on the trail and butch was a past master in the matter of discipline his weight was 03 93 fighting pounds and he could thrash in short order any dog g in the team the snow was wet and soft it clung to everything it touched the dogs carried pounds of it in the tufts of I 1 hair that rose from their backs an icy pyramid had bad to be knocked from the sled every half hour the snowshoes were heavy with white slush densely laden spruce boughs brushed the faces of the men and showered them with unexpected little avalanches they took turns in going ahead of the team and breaking trail it was heavy muscle grinding work before noon they were both utterly fatigued they dragged forward through the slush lifting their laden feet sluggishly they must keep going and they did aid but it seemed to them that every step must be the last shortly after noon the storm wore itself out the |
