Show I 1 I 1 th e V u k on i rai 0 I 1 love an story by WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE copyright william macleod mine CHAPTER continued 12 while they ate the party went into committee of the whole to decide what was best to be done gordon noticed that in all the tentative suggestions made by holt and Swift swiftwater water the comfort of sheba was the first thing in mind the girl too noticed it and smilingly protested her soft hand lying for the moment on the gnarled one of the old miner it matter about me we have to think of N what hat wal be vest best for mr nolt holt of how to get him to the proper care my comfort can wait the plan at last decided upon was that gordon should make a dash for smiths crossing on snowshoes where he be was to arrange for a relief party to come out for the injured man and mrs olson he was to return at once without waiting for the rescuers next morning he be and sheba would start with holts dog team for kuslak macdonald had taught sheba how to use snowshoes and she had been nn an apt pupil from her suitcase she got out her moccasins and put them on she borrowed the snowshoes of holt wrapped herself in her parka and announced noun ced that she was going with elliot part of the way gordon thought her tn movements ove ments a miracle of supple lightness her lines had bad the swelling roundness of vital youth her eyes were alive with the eagerness that time dulls in most faces they spoke little as they swept forward over the white snow wastes the spell of the great north was over her its mystery wits was stirring tn in her I 1 heart just as it had been when her lips had bail turned to his at the sunrise As tor for him love ran through ills his veins like od wine but he allowed his feelings no expression for though she had come to him of her own accord for that one blessed minute at dawn he be could not be sure what had moved her so deeply she was treading a world primeval meral the wonder nonder of it still in her soft eyes would she waken to love or do to disillusion ile he took care to see that she did not tire presently he stopped and held out his bis hand to say goodby good by 11 will yov you come back this way she asked yes I 1 ought to get here soon after dark will you meet me she gave him a quick shy little nod turned without shaking hands end and struck out for the cabin all through the day happiness flooded her heart while she waited on holt or helped mrs olson cook or watched ter while he put up the tent in the lee of the he cabin little snatches of song bubbled from her lips sometimes they w x ere bits of old irish ballads that popped into her mind once while she was preparing some coffee for her ya yati tient it was a stanza from burns till 50 a the seas acas gang dry my dear and the rocks melt all 1 I the sun eun I 1 will love thee still my tear dear while the sands nanda 0 life shall run she caught old gideon looking at her with a queer little smile on his weather tanned face and she felt the color beat into her cheeks 1 I haveit bought a wedding present for twenty years he told her presently apropos of nothing that had been said 1 I wont know chats vi hats the proper thing to get miss sheba it if you talk nonsense like that ill go out and talk to mr Swift swiftwater water pete she threatened blushing old gid folded ills his hands meekly ill be good honest I 1 will lets see I 1 got to make safe and sane conver converst a tion have havel I 1 lira hail 1 wonder NN when hen that lazy long legged good for nothing horsechief horse borse thief and holdup that calls him calf gordon elliot will get back to camp sheba looked into his twinkling eyes suspiciously as she handed him his coffee for a moment she bit her lip to keep back a smile then said with mock severity now I 1 am going to leave you to mrs olson when sunset came it found sheba on the trail Swift swiftwater water pete had offered to go with her but she had been relieved of his well mell meant kindness by the demand of holt no you dont pete you tou aint a coln off with no young lady youre a coln to stay here and fix my game leg for me what do you reckon miss shoba sheba wants with a fat lopsided lop sided lummox like you along with her pete grew purple with embarrassment lie he had not intended anything more than civility and lie he wanted this understood limp aint you got no sense atall a 11 tall gid cid it if miss bent on eoln to meet elliot I 1 allowed some one ought to go along and keep the dark often her course there aint going to harm her unless she goes and gets lost sm io 16 cooled the bent beat of the driver which she going to do good of you to offer to go with toe me dont mind mr holt everybody mows he mean half of what he fe says id be glad to have you come aith lah me but it necessary at all so ill not trouble you darkness fell quickly but sheba still beld to tho trail thero there was no sign blen of elliot but she felt sure he would come soon meanwhile she followed steadily the tracks he be had made earlier carlier in the day she stopped at last it was wal getting much colder she was miles from the decided to return ca camp mp reluctantly she then out of the darkness he be came abruptly u upon pon her the nan man whom she had come out to meet under the magic of the northern stars they found themselves again in each others arms tor for that brief moment of joyful surprise theu then as it had been in the morning morn lne sheba drew herself shyly away they tire are waiting supper for us she told him irrelevantly lie he did not shout out his happiness and tell her to let them wait F for or gordon too felt awed at this wonderful adventure of love that had befallen them it was enough for him that they were moving side by side clone alone in the deep snows and the biting cold that waves of emotion crashed through his pulses when his swinging hand had touched hers they were acutely conscious of each other excitement burned in the eyes that turned to swift reluctant meetings she was a woman and he was her lover neither of them dared quite accept the fact yet but it filled the background of all their thoughts av with ith delight sheba did not want to talk of this new amazing thing that had come into her life it was too sacred a subject to discuss just yet even with him so he began to tell him odd fancies from childhood that lingered in her celtic heart tales of the little folk that were halt half memories and halt imaginings salfred to life by some ON om OSSO asso elation clation of sky and stars she laughed softly at herself as she told them b but ut gordon did not laugh at her everything she did was for him divinely done even when ills his eyes were on the dark trail ahead he saw only the dusky loveliness of curved cheek the face luminous with a radiance some women are never privileged to know the rhythm of head and body and slender legs that was part of her individual heaven sent charm the rest finished supper before gordon and sheba reached camp but mrs olson had a hot meal waiting tor for them 1 I fixed up the tent for the women folks stove sleeping bags plenty of wood touch a match to the fire and be snug as a bug in a rug explained Swift swiftwater water to gordon elliot and sheba were to start early for kuslak and later the rescue party would arrive to take care of holt and mrs olson time to turn in holt advised you better light that stove elliot the young man was still in the tent ILI arranging the sleeping bags when sheba entered lie ile tried to walk out without touching her intending to call back his goodnight good night but he could not do it there was something flamey about her tonight that went to his head her tender tremulous little smile and tiie the turn of her buoyant little head stirred in him a lovers rhapsody its to be a long trail we cover tomorrow sheba you must sleep good night good night gordon there was a little flash of audacity in the whimsical twist of her mouth it was the first time she had ever called him by his given name elliot threw away prudence and c chught u lit her by the hands my dear my dear I 1 he cried she trembled to ills his kiss gave herself to his embrace with innocent passion tendrils of linar fine as sill silk brushed ills his cheeks and sent strange thrills through tigh him they talked the incoherent language of lovers that Is compounded of 0 murmurs and silences and the touch of lips and the meetings of eyes there were to be other nights in their lives as rich in memories as this but never another with quite fee same delight presently sheba reminded him with a smile of the long trail lie he had mentioned mrs olson bustled into the tent find and her presence stressed the point good night neighbors gordon called back from outside the tent good night echoed softly back to him the girl fell asleep to the sound of the light breeze slapping the tent and to the doleful howling of the huskies hu CHAPTER A message from the dead macdonald drove his team into the teeth of the storm the wind came in gusts sometimes the gale was so stilt stiff that the dogs could scarcely crawl forward against it again there were moments of comparative stillness followed by squalls that slapped the driver in the face like the iN whipping hippIng of a loose sail on a catboat nigh high drifts made the trail difficult not once but fifty times macdonald left the gee pole to break a way through snow waves for the sled the best he could pet get out of his dogs was three miles an hour and he knew that there was not another team or driver drivie in the north could have done so well it was close 0 o noon when he reached a division of the road known as the fork one trail ran down to river rod ind up it to the distant creeks the other ither led across the divide struck the L yukon ukon and poin pointed teda a way to the coast white drifts had long since blotted out the he track of the sled that had preceded him riad had the fugitives gone up the he river to the creeks with intent to lole hole themselves up for the winter or was vas it their purpose to cross cros s the divide and nd go out over the ice to the coast the pursuer knew that gid holt was wise vise as a weasel lie ile could follow blindfolded the paths that led to every reek creek in the gold fields it might be taken aken as a certainty that he had bad not plunged into such a desperate venture without having baying a plan well worked out olt beforehand elliot had a high grade of il intelligence would they try to reach each the coast and make their getaway to seattle or would they dig themselves tn in till the heavy snows were vere past and come back to civi civilize liza tion ion with the story of a lucky strike to the gold they brought with hem neither gold dust nor nuggets could be identified there would be no 10 way of proving the story false the only evidence against them would be that hat they had left at kuslak and this was ivas merely of a corroborative kind there would be no chance of convicting them upon it to strike for seattle was to throw iway away all pretense of innocence fugitives from justice they would have to disappear froni sight in order to escape the hunt for them would continue until at last they were unearthed one fork of the road led to comparative safety the other went by devious windings to the penitentiary and perhaps the gallows the scotsman put himself in the place of the men lie he was trailing given the same conditions he knew which path he would follow macdonald took the trail that led down to the river to the distant gold creeks which offered a refuge from man hunters in many a deserted cabin marooned by the deep snows even the iron frame and steel muscles of 0 the scotch canadian protested against the task he be had set theta them that day it was a time to sit snugly inside by a stove find and listen to the howling of tle the wind as it hurled itself down from the divide but from daylight till dark colby macdonald fought with drifts and breasted the storm ile he got into the harness with the dogs ile he broke trail for them cheered them soothed comforted punished long after night had fallen he staggered into the hut of two prospectors his parka so stiff with frozen snow that it had to be beaten with a hammer before the coat could be removed how long since a dog team passed seven huskies and two men was his first question no dog team has passer passee for four lays days one of the men answered you mean you seen one macdonald corrected 1 I mean none has passed unless it went by in the night while we slept and even then our dogs would have warned us macdonald flung his lee ice coated gloves to a table and stooped to take off hla his mukluks muk luks nis ills face was blue with the cold but the bleak look in the eyes 1 55 slowly macdonald auvel toward it came from within lie ite s ild bathing more until lie he wis volis free of his hi wet clothes then he heavily and passed a hand iver his frozen eyebrows get me something to eat at anil ana take care of my dogs there is food for them on the sled lie he said while he ate he told them of the bank robbery and the murder their resentment against the men who had bad done it was quite genuine there could be no doubt they told the truth when they said no sled bad preceded his they were honest reliable prospectors pec tors ue he knew them both well the weary man slept like a log he opened his eyes next morning to find one of his hosts shaking him six mr macdonald your breakfast Is ready jim Is looking out for the huskies half an hour later inter the scotsman gave the order dushl ne ile was oil off again this time on the back trail as far as the narrows from which pol point nt lie he meant to strike across to intersect the fork ot of the road leading to the divide the storm had bad passed and when the late sun rose it was in a blue sky fine enough the day was ove overhead but the slushy snow where it was worn thin on the river by the sweep of the wind made heavy travel tor for the dogs maedonald macdonald was glad enough to reach the narrows where he could turn from the river and cut across to hit the trail of the men he was following lie ile had about ive five miles to go before he would reach the smith crossing road and every foot of it he would have to break trail for the dogs this was slow business since he had no partner tit at the gee pole back and forth bad and forth beating down the loose snow for the runners it was a hill trail and the drifts were in most places not very deep but the scotsman was doing the work of two and at a killing pace over a ridge the team plunged down into a little park where the snow was wag deeper macdonald breaking trail across the mountain valley found his feet weighted with packed ice slush so that he could caraly move them when tit at last he had beaten down a path for his dogs he stood breathing deep at the summit of the slope before them lay the main road to smiths crossing scarce fifty yards away he gave a deep whoop of triumph for RIO along n g it ran the wavering tracks left by a sled he was on the heels of his enemy ai at last As he turned back to his siberian hounds the eyes of macdonald came to abrupt attention on the lit hillside alside not ten yards from him something stuck out ot of the snow like a signpost it was the foot ot of a man slowly macdonald acdonald ai moved toward it ile he knew well enough what he be had stumbled across one of the tragedies that in the north are likely to be found in the wake of every widespread blizzard some unfortunate traveler blinded by the white swirl had wandered from the trail find and had staggered up a draw to his death with a little digging the alaskan uncovered a leg the man had died where he had fallen face down mae macdonald scooped away the snow and found a pack strapped to the back of the burled buried nan man he cut the thongs and tried to ease it away but the gunnysack gunny sack had frozen to the parka when he pulled the rotten sacking g gave way under the 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