Show the by james oliver curwood plains re achs abb 04 OB f P aoraha A 6 B I 1 service C by doubleday doran co inc WHAT WENT BEFORE with hit his 1 english wife catherine and twelve t ive ive year old son jeems henri bblain french nettier in canada in 1749 Is returning to his big farm after a visit to the sef seigne urle they meet catherines brother he distributes presents to the family to jeems lie ha gives a pistol and advises him to berf perfect act himself in marksmanship jeems gives tobnette Tol nette a present which hepsibah had bad furnished for or that purpose jeems lights fights iab paul tache cousin of coln ette jeems ap apologizes 0 louizes to To toinette Tol nette luette tor for brawling t in n front 0 of her the Tont eurs go to quebec where tobnette Tol nette la Is to be educated four years pass war between britain and franco france flames returning from a hunt jeems finds his homo home in flames and his father and mother slain he goes to the seigne urlis and frills ands the manor burned and and his servants dead believing him an enemy tobnette Tol nette tries to kill jeems 8 jeems returns return 9 to his murdered parents the girl follows and becomes convinced that her suspicions of the youth were wrong CHAPTER VI continued 9 with an effort jeems roused himself ile he saw odd at his feet day had come and the sun was rising ue lie sensed these things first in a lash flash of wakefulness akef ulness and then felt a weight against him and the softness of his mothers hair on ills hh cheek only it was Tol toinette nette and not ills his mother she must have come to him before the dawn broke her fler lead head was resting on his shoulder and his arms were about her ns as they had been about his mother ills movement had bad not awakened her but now a slow tightening of his arras arms brought a tremor to her lashes and a deep breath to her lips lie ile kissed her pale face and her eyes opened ile he kissed her again and the act did not seem to disturb her any more than it amazed or shocked him film there was a responsive greeting in her eyes then she sat up straight beside him and faced the rising sun the air was so cold that she shivered every shrub and briar and blade of grass in the clearing glistened with frost the coat she had brought from the house slipped from her shoulders and jeems drew it about her again they stood up and strength returned into the cramped limbs for a little while they did not speak that they belonged to each other was a truth which pressed itself on them without effort or confusion tobnette Tol nette was not ashamed that she had come to him nor that lier her act had proclaimed what pride and false prejudice had so long hidden from him in her heart her eyes glowed with a light which shone softly out of fathomless depth of pain and grief she wanted him film to know how completely the folly of her pride was gone and liow how glad she was that it was lie he who stood beside tier her now they might have been years older so clamay did the sense of surrender and of possession hold bold them except for the tenderness in her eyes Tol toinette nette was anchan unchanged ged but beema felt himself taller at her side and something had entered him which was like the ahe spirit of a it was another world orld now A vast mystery ahead of him something to fight through to win from to live for mysterious it was still very real it set ills his heart throbbing with lin an tw appalled and dial chat langing force yesterday black with tragedy and grievous with its ito pain was a long time little ago but with nith Tol toinette nette today h had id become a tremendous living present gently her fingertips touched his show shoulder 41 ir then she looked with him toward the east cast had and the richelieu and what lay b beyond yond from the moment they had risen to lo their feet odd had stood as rigid as carven wood in the white coated grass with alth his muzzle leveled toward cussans Lus sans saus meadow something definite had come within ills reach which alich wade made it unnecessary for him to measure tile alie wind ind and suddenly there rose above other sound the wild and raucous crying of a blue jay lind and a cawing of alarm among the crows A second and a third blue jay joined the first and their tumult came to an end crid when hen a piercing bird bira call terminated shar sharply lily in a single sere screeching note that was nas an arrow said jeems to ills his bow more than once I 1 have had to kill a noisy blue jay when lien creeping up ou on game ile he drew toinette Tol To nette luette into the shelter ot of the house und and called odd A few minutes later sIft swiftly ly moving somber horrors in a world of shimmering white they saw the mohawks come out of 0 the edge ot of cussans Lus sans meadow CHAPTER VII T THE 1113 spectacle of death marching back its trail 0 oer er brought no do terror to jeems lie ile had watched tor for it had halt half expected lt it and in a way it was like the answer to an unvoiced prayer which had foll follmer fullon med ed hla his awakening when ile he had found tobnette Tol nette in his arms to fight tor for her now to rush forth from uc the house with a battle cry on lila ills lips and to lid be cut to pieces i in tier her defense was as not a prospect which dismayed him but which instead inspired in him a fearless earless exaltation it was waa Tol toinette nette who saved him from wha whatever teNer tolly folly was brewing itself ilsek in his brain as he be stood blood with a long hunting ar row fitted to his bow with it a breathless cry she drew him away from the broken door nod there safe for a moment from the savages who ho were entering the clearing she flung her arms about ills his shoulders for in these tragic seconds a look had come into jeems bacq ace like that which had frightened her in the to tower er room of the mill a took look liard hard and vengeful with the desire to kill jeems dear we must hide she pleaded we must hidel the futility of trying to conceal themselves when their footprints were dearly clearly left upon the frosty ground did not occur to him at once it was her voice and the name it claimed for him that broke down tile the resolution which soon would have betrayed them theiu 1 I know of a place she was saying we must hurry to it I 1 ab ahe ran ahead abend of him and tie be follow to ell eil her into another room bare where a stair was tailing falling into ruin euln the red killers had paused at the edge of the open they stood motionless like stone men listening and watchful the upper parts of their bodies still unclothed until colder lays days and glistening with grease and paint tol uette nette did not allow jeems to pause and the steps made complaint as they trod upon them jeems looked doann dow n from the top and saw the marks of their feet in ili the dust aust below their fate has certain if af the mohawks came this far but with only the narrow stair for their enemies to ascend lie was determined in this event that each of ills his twenty arrows should find a home toinette preceded him into tile the room above she went nent directly to a panel like board which held a wooden peg and in a moment they were ere peering into tile the musty gloom ot of a huge black hole under the roof which the cussans had used as a garret Al i ladame lussan baroug brought glit me to this room after your fight with paul she whispered 1 I flung my spoiled clothes far back in therel there I 1 even with the savages so near pathos and memory were in the tremble of her voice jeems faced the narrow darrow aperture in the wall which lussan had left as a window and a gun hole tor for defense ue ile went to the window and Tol toinette nette came close to his side no eyes could see them as they looked through the rectangular slit shadowed under the eaves the mohawks had not moved and from the steadiness of their attitude jeems knew they had bid come upon the open unexpectedly not a hand among the silent savages had moved to hatchet bow or gun this tact fact drew a hopeful whis whisper I 1 e r from jeems v they see the place Is deserted and unless they tind some sign of us they wont ont come nearer he said look To toinette luettel 1 there Is a white man among them with a prisoners collar around his neck uis words were cut short by a sudden wo ement among the watchers as if a command had stirred them to life again the man in the lead with three eigle eagle feathers iu in his tuft stalked alone into to tile the clearing a tall and sinister figure burdened only his weapons and a warriors diminutive traveling pack a giant was red and black and ocl irish yellow in his war paint and at whose belt hunga hung a bundle of scalps in which tile the sun played and lanced danced with changing lights as lie he moved tobnette Tol nette closed tier her ebes that slie she might shut from her vision the grisly tro trophies of a warriors success when she opened I 1 WR A 0 S 4 fa N he kissed her pale face and her eyes opened them again two score warriors in single file die were follon following in in the footsteps of 0 llie lie leader and passed within a hundred feet of what once had been cussans Lus sans home ousting furtive sidewise glances as they went in more than oue one belt fresh scalps shone in the sunshine and two white men and a 1 boy with their handi hand tied and prisoner thongs about their throats walked in the line not until the lie trees on oa the other side of tile the clearing had swallowed the list last or of the mohawks did tol straining eyes turn to jeems there had find been no sound in the passing of the red scourge no 00 cautious voice no clatter of wood on steel no crackle of 0 brittle grass or weeds under fourscore moccas ined feet where their tricks tracks lay lav in the grass ono one might liuio thought that three men had traveled trave leil instead of forty and tile the horld was dead behind them crotts crois did not return to tile the meadow and the blue jaas had bid flown blown into safer distance the woodpecker w od pecker had gone to a farther stub even iu in the old house there ans as no longer the scurrying and squeaking of 0 rafee mice no sound but the tumultuous throbbing of three hearts two ot of them human and one a beasts it was tjien jeems spoke 1 I sear there us a white man a free white man in that painted crowd and long hair was banging from his belt he be sald said 1 I saw his blond head bead and a nd lighter skin but thought my eyes were note lying to me replied tol nette an EnOl englishman said teems jeems A murderer for money such as my uncle hepsibah told tile me about 11 and yet lie might be french they stood looking into each eyes she of the aristocracy of old prance france and he of the new Nv worlds freedom and tier her hands rose slowly to his face as his bow and arrow fell to the floor door for the first time she raised dermouth her mouth to his kiss me jeems and pray a if little atle aith me in gratitude for the merey mercy god has shon us the thrill of her lips lay for a moment against his 1 I am sorry for everything in the world she said some of the softness and beauty of boyhood returned into his face Is as she drew herself from his arms and he descended the creaking stair ahead of her they did not go out at once but stood near the lower door as listening for sound and watching tor for something to move they are gone jeems finally said cut but there may be stragglers behind and it Is safer not to show ourselves too soon it was easier for them to talk after this quite calmly as it if looking in back on a distant thing to toinette told jeems of the tragedy of manor her mother he learned had left for quebec two days preceding the coming of the indians Ina inns toinette expressed her thankfulness because of this but no great gladness was vas in her voice she could not remember in vivid details all that had happened it had been so sudden and over overwhelming helming like a stream of fire engulfing a black night peter lubeck was with dieskau eskau Dl and Hel heloise olse his young wife had come to stay with her both were asleep when the savages attacked in the early morning and she was of the opinion that most of the killing was over before they were fairly awake and before any guns were fired then came shots and her fathers voice olee roaring through th the big house they were out of their bed when the seigneur clime came in and told them to dress and keep to their room she did not know hat had happened until she looked out of her window In dow and then she saw what seemed to be hundreds of naked savages running about she rushed after tier her father but lie was gone when she returned to her room ll Hel eloise olse had disappeared and slie she did not see her again she could hear bear screaming and terrible cries and dressing hurriedly as her father had commanded she disobeyed him by going downstairs calling tor for him and for Hel II eloise olse the front part of 0 the house aas filled with flame and smoke and when she turned to the servants quarters she was eu cut t off by fire and there was no response to her cries it was then she ahe thought of the mill which she had often heard her father say was impregnable against both fire and guns she descended into the cellar and went from it through a short underground passage to an outdoor cadeau made of sod and stories stones in which they kept fruit an and neg vegetables ege ge tables during the winter she hid herself in this his earthy place and dared to 0 raise the surface door a little the he worst must have been over for or she could see only a few indians about and everything was on n fire there was yelling in tile the distance li stance where the savages were attacking tacking it the farmers homes when she ascended from the aveau cadeau silo she stumbled over the body borly of old babin the miller who lad had fallen with a musket in ills lands hands she took the musket and went to tile the mul mill and after that she lid did not see an indian about the seigne urle sickness overcame her and she was half bucon unconscious in the tower room later looking through one of the narrow windows she saw four men come colne from tile south she was as sure they were white men but was wag afraid to reveal herself beez because aus e their appearance was so terrible they were ere like monsters remaining only a little while to look at tile dead now since she h had ad seen the hie white warrior among the mohawks Mo hawks she was nas even eien more positive that they belon belonged ged to the war hand baud und and that she was fortunate to have kept herself concealed when she found that cabins babins musket was loaded she regretted that she had bad not used it to kill hill one of the murderers that was why mistaking liim film for another straggler she had fired at jeems one might have expected excitement cit ement in tier her narrative but it was told quietly ns is silo she looked from jeems across the clearing it was a recital of fact without the embellishment of pathos or drama and jeems a beems remain remained silent for a time when ahen it was ended then he told of his visit to lus sans and of his race homo home find and what lie he found there lie ile spoke of I 1 hepsibah leps ibah ile he must have discovered the alie mohawks on the far side of the alie valley and started the fire which lie had always told me to expect after that he tried to reach us os and they killed hilled him ile he may have escaped su suggested Tol toinette nette lioDe hopefully fully jeems deoms shook ills head lie he would hae come to us lie he Is dead ills ilia voice possessed the unemotional certainty with will which slie she find referred to her father and heloise there was no possibility of ills uncle being lithe tie lie repeated that bellef belief and added eliat their saha salvation tion was little short of a nil miracle but now he thou alit their way would be clear to friends farther down don the |