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Show M Vanirhed Men W ' U 11 Ev GEORGE MARSH Ca U U THE STORY SO fAR: Six men traveled trav-eled the C'hibougamau trail and six men died. Later they were reported report-ed drowned. Murder Is suspected. Garry Flnlay, brother of one of the six; Red Malone, Mounted Police officers, . -as. INSTALLMENT SEVENTEEN and Blaise, hall-breed guide, posing as surveyors, arrive at Nottaway to Investigate. Inves-tigate. Isadore, rich fur man, is thought to have made a gold strike and aims to keep prospectors out. Later, they visit Isadore, rich fur man, at his mag- -u. fe -it. Jt -u. a niflcent home and meet Llse, his stepdaughter. step-daughter. Finlay falls In love with her. They learn that Isadore's men with Tete-Blanche are hunting them. Several weeks later Lise went swimming with Corinne, her mother, it 4& -a. As Lise followed Corinne into the house to change into a bathing suit she wondered how far she could trust her how much Corinne really knew. They paddled slowly up the shore )of the lake. The nose of the boat slid into the sand. Dropping her blouse and slacks in the canoe and adjusting adjust-ing her rubber cap, Lise stepped out Into the shallow water followed by Corinne. Walking out to her knees, Lise made a long, shallow dive and warn away, revelling in the refreshing refresh-ing coolness of the water. "Don't go so far, Lise!" called Corinne. "Stay here with me! I'm afraid to go out there!" Lise turned back. "Great, isn't it, after this heat?" said Corinne, stretching on the sand. "Wish we'd brought our lunch!" But the thoughts of the girl were of the rock a hundred feet away, at the edge of the beach. Had Finlay returned and left a note for her? And how was she to get it? Lise. waded out and plunged in again. Swimming in a wide circle she left the water opposite the quartz rock at the edge of the beach and casually walked past it. Her heart suddenly picked up its beat The corner of an oilskin wrapper was visible. The letter was there! She rejoined Corinne who said: "You know, this morning I asked Jules if he was going to bring charges against Finlay for murder "And the Indians leave their canoes ca-noes at the clearing?" "Ah-hah." "So we land on the opposite side of the island, behind the tent?" "Yes.". "Then Garry and I wait at the edge of the clearing to back you and Wabistan up when the trouble starts?" "You .are in de bush by big Jack-pine. Jack-pine. It will be black dere. Dey will not see you but you see and hear dem." "Red," said Finlay, "this whole show is going to depend on the breaks we get Blaise thinks it can be done. I'm not so sure, but it's worth trying. If it doesn't work, we're in a trap. We'll never get off that island. But unless something happens pretty quick we can't last much longer on this lake, anyway." "You're right, chief," admitted Red. "If Blaise is wrong, God help us! But what a dog-fight it'll be there in the moonlight! "It's one of the boldest and cleverest clev-erest ideas I've ever heard of," said Garry. "We may have trouble justifying jus-tifying it at headquarters but we're committed now." "I'll say it's an idea. But it may lose us our jobs, chief; and you close to promotion!" "Our jobs won't be important if they bury us, Red. Tonight three t their agony. Demons and fiends screeched and bellowed in a mad cacophony of horror. At last a voice j rose through the octaves to a wail which chilled the blood as it died over the moon-bathed forest A silence so tense that it vibrated J in the ears like sound, followed. Then a sepulchral voice startled the cowed Montagnais. A spirit was speaking! "Montagnais, I come from the spirit places at the call of my brother, broth-er, Kinebik. I have traveled far from the land where the sun sleeps. My brother's heart is sick. The little lit-tle children are bewitched by the Evil Eye of the white men and die. Drive these white strangers from Waswanipi or the women will wail in the tipis of the Montagnais 1 through the Long Snows!" j Suddenly the painted walls of the medicine-lodge visibly shook and swayed. The conjuror was about to invoke another spirit voice. A low cough was cut off short and the skin tipi was again motionless. Presently, a voice so shrill, so penetrating that it tortured the ears, quavered over the clearing. It ; soared thinner and thinner. Then it descended to moan and roar like a March drifter on the barrens, later to drop lower until it boomed with the sudden thunder of ice split by frost. Then the voice cut high and clear through the silence. "Montagnais. I have heard the voice of Kinebik, when he went south. Do you know what he said?" "I can't guess." "He said it wouldn't be necessary." neces-sary." "Meaning?" "Why, that Finlay would disappear, disap-pear, I suppose. Lise, I'm afraid to stay here. I'm going to make Felix Blondell take me back with him. I want to get out of this and you should, too!" Lise sat up. Her dark face was suddenly taut and desperate.' "You remember what Jules told me about Felix Blondell?" "Yes, it was rotten! And I think he meant it! He's as hard as stone. When Blondell comes, you sleep with a pistol under the pillow!" "I will and I'll use it!" "I believe you would. He's vile when he's drunk and you know how they'll drink. He's due in a week." Lise was planning how to get the note unobserved. At last she had an idea. She rose, took her blouse and slacks from the canoe and releasing re-leasing the neck band of her bathing suit dropped it around her hips. "What are you doing?" demanded the Wabeno, who speaks with the split tongue of the snake. It was no spirit who talked. The voice was his own. He is a false shaman who destroys the young men with the whiskey of Tete-Blanche." There were startled murmurs of dissent The voice went on. "The white men were sent by the Fathers at Ottawa. Isadore fears them for he has broken the law and given whiskey to the Montagnais. If the white men are killed, the red coats will come and the Montagnais Mon-tagnais will be punished. The children chil-dren are no longer sick. There was no Evil Eye. It was the lie of Kinebik, Kine-bik, Isadore's servant. Why does he not answer? He is here in the tipi. He is afraid and is silent for he knows he has lied. Even now Tete-Blanche Tete-Blanche is here with whiskey to de-stroy de-stroy the young men!" The clearing was in a chattering uproar. In the murk Finlay and Red waited the outcome with drawn guns. "My people, the true spirit has spoken and has gone! Why has not Kinebik answered? Have his words choked in his throat? Follow me and we shall learn!" Corinne. "My swim suit's not dry. I'm going go-ing to spread it on that hot rock." Lise slipped the suit to her knees, stepped out, got into her slacks and put on the blouse. Then she took the suit to the rock and spread it to dry. When Corinne rose, turning her back, and went to the canoe, Lise reached under the rock and hid the wrapped note inside her blouse, which was tucked into her slacks. On the way back to the post Lise could feel the wrapped note inside her blouse with every stroke of her paddle. It comforted her. Hurrying Hurry-ing to her room, she opened it and read: "Dearest Girl: "We're back but they've been hunting us so hard that we haven't moved in daylight. At least twenty canoes have been combing the shores looking for us. We move only at night. I can't write what I want to say. This note might be found. I can't tell you where I am or meet you now. Next- week look for instructions. in-structions. Pack a bag with clothes and wait for the word. Courage! All will come out if you are brave and I know you are. I'm still living those last moments on your beach. I love you, Lise Demarais! If Blondell comes before you hear from me. sleep with and always carry your gun. Try to be patient and wait for my message. It will be soon. Courage, Cour-age, brave heart! I love you! "Garry.". She threw herself on her bed and cried for sheer joy. He hadn't for- gotten! He loved her. CHAPTER XVII v The yellow orange of a moon that hung above the indigo ridges be- Omd Waswanipi was full. The mo-lent mo-lent had arrived. Wabistan had learned that the medicine-lodge was to stand in front of the great Medicine-Stone in a clearing on a certain island. It was one of the many places where the old sorcerers had invoked the spirits. "He set his tent close to de scrub," Blaise explained, "so he go in and out and dey not see him." "You say the mob will all be in front but not near the tent?" asked Red, as they ate their supper in their hidden camp. "All in front but he will not let dem come near," said Blaise. "De spirit is shy and will not talk if Montagnais are close," he added with a grimace. "What are you doing?" demanded Corinne. more may be snuffed out on the Chibougamau Trail." The Waswanipi wilderness dozed under the spell of the full August moon. One by one, dark shapes of canoes ca-noes crossed a shimmering ribbon of moonlight bound for the island of the Medicine-Stone. Long since Wabistan and his son had left. Garry and Red stood on the shore, silent. Finlay was wondering won-dering if the plane from the south was anchored to the buoys in front of Isadore's wondering if he would ever again look into Lise Demarais' dark eyes, when Blaise touched him on the shoulder. "All right! We go!" The three men left their rifles in the Peterboro beached at the foot of a steep bank and worked across the small island. "What a mob!" whispered Red. "Must be fifty or sixty! Where's Wabistan?" "I don't see him, but he's there somewhere with his friends. He'll talk when the time comes!" Near the Medicine-Stone stood the conjuror's tent. "There's the medicine-lodge!" muttered Red. "Small, isn't it!" "Red, I think I see Batoche the bird with the hat pulled over his eyes!" "The Isadore mob's all there, backing up Kinebik!" "We've got to get closer," whispered whis-pered Garry. "If anything starts we're too far away." Inch by inch the two worked nearer near-er to the clearing drenched with light. "Look!" Red nudged the man beside be-side him. "They're passing a bottle!" bot-tle!" Suddenly, silence dropped like a blanket over the clearing. The faces of the Montagnais were turned toward to-ward the medicine-lodge. "Kinebik's in the tipi. Red! See it shake?" Shortly there rose the muffled beating of the conjuror's caribou-hide caribou-hide drum accompanied by a low sing-song. The shell-rattle joined In and the beat quickened. The listeners lis-teners in the clearing strained forward for-ward where they sat. Louder crooned the voice of the shaman in a rhythmic chant. The sorcerer was a superb mimic. His voice ran the gamut of the voices of the night. The voice again ceased, and the audience sat in awed wonder. Then from the tent drifted maniacal sobbing. sob-bing. Creatures in torment shrieked The old man strode boldly to the medicine-lodge. Crawling into it from the rear he re-appeared, dragging drag-ging a limp shape. Wabistan rolled the body on its back. The moonlight moon-light shone full on the glazed eyes and the swollen face with protruding protrud-ing tongue of Kinebik. The chief turned to those who had had courage to follow. "Look, Montagnais, the lies of Kinebik have choked him! The spirit has punished him for speaking with a split tongue!" Two men pushed through the circle cir-cle of gaping Indians and bent over the conjuror. One of them, with white hair and features knotted with rage, turned to the group and cried in Montagnais: "Montagnais, you are fools! Kinebik Kine-bik was strangled! It was the plot of the white men! They are here on the island! Hunt the men who killed Kinebik!" "No!" shouted Wabistan. "It was the good spirit that choked the lies in Kinebik's throat!" Instantly a milling mass of Indians surrounded Kinebik's body. There were cries of, "Kill the white men!" answered by shouts: "It was the work of the spirit! Kinebik was a false shaman!" In the gloom at the edge of the clearing two men with cocked pistols pis-tols listened. "Wabistan is safe!" said Finlay. "He doesn't need us now! Tete-Blanche will soon start to hunt us! We'd better meet Blaise at the canoe!" They moved swiftly across the island is-land but Blaise was not at the canoe under the steep shore. Finlay was cold with apprehension. "What could have happened, Red? He should be here!" "He's in trouble," said Malone. "They'll follow the shore path soon, nosing for our canoe!" muttered mut-tered Garry. "If they reach us. don't fire unler.s we're cornered. Ii will only draw the rest and we've got to get Blaise. God bless bis foxy old bones! It was magnificent! He snuffed tbnt shaman out without a sound!" "Listen! They're moving this way now, along the shore!" "You're right, Red! Stand by this path and we'll club 'em with our guns! Don't fire unless they come too thick! We must gel Blaise!" Brush snapped up the shore. The hunt had started. A dry stick broke directly behind Finlay andhewhirled with raised gun. There was a low "Shish!" A hand touched his shoulder shoul-der "We move quick!" whispered Rlaise. "Dey are cJose behin' me!' TO HE COXTIM Kl)i |
