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Show M Vanished Men &5 ' & M By GEORGE MARSH , U & J INSTALLMENT SEVEN Finlay receives an anonymous letter suggesting that the six men were not drowned as reported. Suspicion prevails tbat lsadore, rich fur man, has made a sold strike and aims to keep prospectors out of the country at any cost. The three 1 The beast plunged on, followed by the airedale, and his hoofs clopped on the stones as he took the lake shore. There was a laugh from the gloom. "By gar, Boss!" chuckled Blaise. "We need dat moose meat bad!" CHAPTER Vm The survey party were squatted on their heels around their supper fire screened from observation by shore alders and scrub. Young Moise Wabistan had just arrived with the rumor that Kinebik was secretly making medicine again and the Montagnais were growing restless. rest-less. "Where does he pitch his medicine medi-cine tent?" asked Blaise. "It is a secret for he fears my father." "What are the spirits telling the Montagnais?" "The spirits say that the 'Eye with Three Legs' you look through to make the picture of the lake is th 3 of Matchi-Manitou, the Evil Si- Kinebik warns that the spirits spir-its tell him many Montagnais will die this Long Snows because the Eye has come to Waswanipi." Blaise's face was shadowed with foreboding as he interpreted the reply re-ply to his friends. "Dat look bad for us! Kinebik make plentee trou- men start out on the Nottaway for Uie Hudson's Bay post. Finlay and Malone visit lsadore In bis magnificent home. The three men located Bob Finlay's grave to discover If he bad been shot or died accidentally. way!" He remained by his boat while the men back at the smudge fires rose. "Bo'-jo'l" returned Blaise, joining the young Indian whose nervous eyes watched Brassard's crag-like face as if he feared an assault. "What's this, Red?" queried Garry Gar-ry as they followed Blaise to the beach. "A trick of Isadore's?" "Sure! Wonder how he found us! We must be over forty miles from the post. Look! He's got a message wrapped in that skin he's handing to Blaise." "He come from Isadore's place," explained Blaise. "Moise say, now, he see him at de trade. He carry dis lettair to you." Blaise handed Garry the skin wrapper the boy had given him. "What do you suppose this is?" Garry asked Red. He opened the wrapper and stared in surprise at the folded sheets of blue note paper it contained. A faint fragrance met his nostrils. Red grinned widely at the scowling scowl-ing Blaise. "Is this lad a fast worker?" work-er?" he chuckled. "I'll tell the world he is." With mixed feelings of elation and suspicion Garry turned the closely written sheets and saw at the fool of the last page the name Lise Demarais. Why had she written him?' What was behind the sending of this boy forty miles to find the survey party? Again he saw her velvet-black eyes mock him, then furtively fur-tively study him; later to fill with dread of the sinister face of Tete-Blanche Tete-Blanche peering through the doorway. door-way. He read: "Dear Mr. Finlay: "Louis, whose Indian name is Mi-kisis, Mi-kisis, Little Eagle, is carrying this to you. He is absolutely trustworthy and devoted to me. I saved his life last year in the 'flu' epidemic. No one here knows that he is searching for your camp. He is supposed to be away sturgeon fishing. "Of course, I know, after what you saw and did with my glass that night, that you suspect Jules lsadore. lsa-dore. Just why you are here on the lake I do not know. Jules thinks you are prospectors who have heard that he has struck rich placer bars on the Waswanipi and are going to investigate under cover of a survey of the lake. "However that may be, I have gol to make you trust and believe in me for without your help I am lost. First, I believe in you that you're'" a gentleman and a brave man. Behind Be-hind your banter there was something some-thing in your eyes, something THE STORY SO FAR: Bound for the Chibougamau gold country, six men lost 'tlieir lives on the Nottaway river. Red Malone, Garrett Finlay, brother of one of the six, and Blaise, half-breed guide, arrive at Nottaway posing as surveyors. "Here's a piece of their canoe Wabistan found on the shore and buried with them. There's a bullet hole in it." Garry took the shattered cedar. "We'll ket.p that for evidence," he said, then followed Malone. While the others stood with bared heads he gazed into the shallow grave at the havoc a year had wrought. "Bobby!" Finlay dropped to his knees and gazed at what had once been the younger brother whom he had carried in his arms; with whom he had shared his bed. "It's Bob and Andrew!" he muttered. "They shot them through the headl" He swallowed repeatedly at the tightening tighten-ing in his throat but the eyes he lifted to his friends were dry and hard. "He wore a ring of hammered gold! His mother would treasure it. It's on the little finger of the right hand, Red." Malone leaned over the grave. "The finger is gone!" Wabistan caught Blaise's eye and nodded. "Tete-Blanche is a thief! When he kills he steals." "Good-by, Bobby!" Finlay's grief was too deep for outward sign. "It may be weeks! It may be months! It may be years, lsadore! But some day you'll pay to me for that dead boy, there!" The survey had been under way for two weeks. Two of Wabistan's sons were working for Finlay as canoemen and the old Indian often came to the camp with news of his secret search for Tete-Blanche, Tetu and Kinebik. But Isadore's private assassin and the medicine man had disappeared like river mist before the sun. "Tete-Blanche is somewhere in the islands but none will say they have seen him.. They have fear," announced an-nounced Wabistan to Blaise as his canoe slid in to the beach one day in early July. "Your ears must be ever listening for he is waiting for a chance to strike." "Whejo he comes, we will fill him with lead," laughed Finlay. The Indian scowled. "Like otta-wok, otta-wok, the gray owl, he will move in the night and when he strikes there will be no sound." Finlay had mapped the head of the great lake and was working west toward the post It was two hours before dawn of a morning when Finlay had taken the last watch. Stars and moon were blanketed by drift. With Flame sleeping beside him Garry sat, back against a birch, rifle across knees, in gloom so velvet thick that it seemed to the man on guard it could be sliced with a knife. SiiliHI The beast plunged on. bl' wid dat story," he said ominously. omi-nously. "The transit an evil eye!" Garry exclaimed. "Don't they see that Tete-Blanche is behind that?" Blaise asked the question of the worried Moise, then turned to Finlay. Fin-lay. "He say dat a child who watch you look through the 'Eye with Three Legs' has died. Kinebik tells them it was the Evil Eye that sickened sick-ened him." "Blaise," said Garry, nursing his chin with a hand, "I guess we'll have to put the fear of Matchi-Manitou into this medicine man or he'll soon have some of the Montagnais knifing us in our sleep. lsadore and Tete-Blanche are about all we can handle at present" Brassard was doing some intensive inten-sive thinking. At last he asked young Wabistan in Cree: "Have you heard when Kinebik makes his medicine again?" "Some say when the moon is again round. My father will know when the secret word passes. His knife is already sharp." Blaise nodded. "I will go with Chief Wabistan." Moise and his brother, Michel, nervously found each other's eyes as Blaise repeated the conversation to the white men. Later, they sat smoking inside the rim of the shore alders beside small smudge fires, for the mosquitoes were ravenous. Blaise slowly removed his pipe and squinted into the west At length he announced: "Cano' comin'!" The others followed Brassard's pointing finger while Finlay went to the tent for his binoculars, returned and adjusted the focus. In the distance dis-tance the dripping paddle of the canoeman flashed blood-red from the water. Later, from the shifting course of the boat it was evident that the paddler was searching the shores. Twice he disappeared to enter bays, only to reappear and continue his course. "He hunt for somet'ing," said Blaise, when finally the canoe turned abruptly and headed straight for the camp. "Dat somet'ing is us." "Have a look, Moise," said Finlay Fin-lay handing over the glasses. "Do you recognize him?" Young Wabistan looked through the binoculars and shook his head. "He's coming from Isadore's," observed ob-served Red. "Now what?" The canoe slid in to the beach and the swart paddler, little more than a boy, stepped out with a "Kek- staunch and unafraid. That is why I'm sending this strange letter; for your life and my future are at stake. Jules lsadore fears that you may know and report to the authorities. He's playing a desperate game for high stakes. He has ordered Tete-Blanche, Tete-Blanche, the half breed you saw that night in the doorway, to follow your party until the chance offers to murder you every man. Then he will send word to the railroad that you were drowned. But he can't let the Montagnais see this have any proof. What has saved you, thus far, is the presence, with you, of Wabistan's sons. He doesn't wish to attack the treaty-chief's sons. He is waiting until the boys are away. Keep Wabistan's sons with you! Bui I beg of you if you value your lives, leave this country before August "I've got to go with you. It's my only chance. If you'll take me to the Hudson's Bay post at Matagami, I can get out from there. Jules doesn't dare make trouble with the Hudson's Bay people. "I realize to the full that you will suspect treachery think I'm doing this for Jules and am a callous creature who would lure you into an ambush. But I beg you to trust me give me a chance to tell my story-just story-just one chance. I know this sounds wild, but I'm desperate. Just tell Louis the reply is: 'Yes! That will be sufficient. And I'll be at the white sand beach, behind the lop-stick lop-stick point, two miles east of the post, early Friday afternoon. I swear to you I'll not be followed for it is Corinne's and my private swimming swim-ming beach. We go often and lsadore lsa-dore has told them he'd shoot any man who was caught following us. "Bring your men as a guard ii you doubt me but I implore you, Garry Finlay, to meet me for I'm in ghastly trouble and you are my only hope. What I know will aid you in getting out of this country alive. "Corinne knows nothing of this letter. let-ter. She hates Jules lsadore but 1 dare not trust her. Louis cannot read English so is ignorant of its contents. If you say, 'Yes!' and anything any-thing prevents your reaching there Friday, leave a note under the white quartz rock on the edge of the beach stating when you will come and Louis will get it. For God's sake, Garry Finlay, don't think this note is an lsadore trick and I'm such a low beast I'll kill myself rather than stay here through the summer I've got to get out! I've got to get out! I've got to get out! "Lise Demarais." 10 BE COTlVED) "What a night for a stalk, Monsieur Mon-sieur Tete-Blanche!" muttered Garry. Gar-ry. "If you know where we are, you're missing a trick, my friend. But it'll be just too bad if this seventy sev-enty pounds of dynamite smells one of you out and hops on him. You won't see him but he'll reach you plenty! Eh, Flame, old partner!" Finlay reached a hand to the wire-haired wire-haired back of the sleeping dog beside be-side him. The airedale grunted with contentment content-ment and, for a space, lay sprawled over Garry's legs while the man he worshiped crooned into a hairy ear. Then, of a sudden, the iron muscles hardened along his spine and the coarse back hair lifted. "He's winded something!" Finlay muttered, with a quick tug on the raw-hide running to the sleeping Red's wrist. As two invisible shapes moved to Finlay's side the aroused dog split the thick silence with his brittle challenge. "That'll worry 'em!" muttered Red. "Stop 'em in their tracks! Hear anything?" "Not a thing! Flame winded them! You'd better stiffen up the boys while Blaise and I listen here." Red moved silently away while the enraged dog charged deeper into the forest. "Flame'll keep them guessing, Blaise!" muttered Finlay. "He'll rip chunks out of the first one he noses out! They'll have no chance to shoot or use a knife on him tonight." Presently Red returned. "The boys are all right. They're hot for a fight' Hear anything?" "Flame's working this way, now! OHear that?" There was the unmistakable sound of something moving through thick brush. "He's nosed some of them out and turned them!" whispered Malone. "They're worried and don't know they're headed straight for us!" "Where's Blaise?" asked Finlay. But Blaise was not beside them. "The cat! He can see in the dark! He's gone to meet Flame! You move over near the boys while I take the shore!" Nearer worked the roaring airedale aire-dale nosing out the trail in the night. "Strange," muttered Finlay, "they should make so much noise! From the way they travel they must be stampeded." Shortly there was a crash of brush in front of him. He raised his pistol. Then a heavy body floundered past. 'Hell!" The cocked gun dropped to Finlay's side |