Show TB HI f A L B the I 1 fr via ins of or fv abraham branam la 1 anam ur ft by JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD by do doubleday doran co ino ina service THE stony with his english wife gather cather ins ine and son gon jeems lienay bum bu laan french settler in canada in 1749 cultivates cult hates a farm adjacent to lo the seigne urle As tl alif story opens the th bullins are returning from rom a visit to the ton catherine cathell nes wan wandering derin g brother meets them teem wl with pre presents ants tor for the faint family Y to deerns h he gives a pistol pi bidding him perfect himself in marksmanship ni aksman CHAPTER III 4 henri and his u wife afe sat up tip lute late with lap leab adams for tills this tin time to top had come with a set and doter determined ter mined purpose purpose to ills sisters home the traders tra deia countenance had grown stern and catherines cheeks wore were like those of a pale nu nun 1 n in ih the candlelight tn in flenorl Bulf Bul alna tins face were still the alicer and good huntor humor and unruffled equanimity of confidence and faith that with the darkest pictures ures chehad lie had painted had been un able to disturb th they ey were talking about war As early as this spring of 1749 the american wilderness berness had begun to stir with whispers of the lie impending conflagration a which was destined soon to turn the part of the continent into a lilg pot of fury and death while george the second of england and louts bouts the fifteenth of france were playing placing at friendship after the peace of alx aix la chapelle france rapping gasping for breath with the flower of her armies burled buried on european battlefields and england with tier her lighting forces reduced deduced on land to eighteen thousand men and to less than seven teen thousand on the sea the vast colonies of the two countries working out their own salvations salvat ions were steadily and surely and with deadly intent eti encroaching cro aching upon each other the stage was set for the writing of the bloodiest and most picturesque pages in american history southward flom fr om the richelieu chelleu ni were the bitterest of all the white mens ed enemies emles the warriors of the six nations and northward sweeping east and west through the canadas Canad hs were tile the forty scattered tribes who bore allegiance to new france behind these savage vassals on one side ilde were eleven hundred thousand english colonists holding the seacoast sea sen coast lands from maine to georgia and on the other less than eighty thousand souls counting women and children as aa well as men to defend and hold the illimitable domains of new france which reached from the upper canadas to the gu gulf if of mexico and from the to the rocky mountains of this alarming disparity in power of fighting men and of the pitiless scourge which ho he swore would some day sweep through all the country of lake champlain Champl aln and the richelieu adams ad inis had spoken at length but with small effect on nn henri bblain lot let war come it if it must said henri the heart of new france fiance is set behind nn an impenetrable wall of rock and forest and with these ramparts in our favor fin or eighty thousand will be a match for the million english g of they come this way As tor for me should fighting chance to come why I 1 shall be a friend to both sides and strike at neither nelt lier F for or no matter what cause should bring about the strife I 1 could not strike at the people of my catherines blood nor would she have me turn against my own so why move from here it Is neutral ground and ye e being neutral are fitly placed here oneidas and mo hawks have eaten under our roof as we well 11 as unions and and when deadly enemies buell auch as these nice meet t thus on common ground what cause caus have we for fear 7 A I 1 light I 1 glit of pride prid e glow glowed ed in catherines eyes as she listened to tier her hus bus bands words and she added I 1 Illen uearl rl loves the indians and I 1 have grown to love them too they are all our ti lends friends friends 1 sniffed it Is because of catherine and jeems that I 1 call you a tool fool take them where this danger does not liang hang day clay and night along the 04 edges of tile the fron frontiers tiers take tapin to the st lawrence if you will or bring them south into catherines country but do one or tot lier for gods sake or the d daiy diy ay will come when christ himself cannot save saie you and ills his voice shook with earnestness there will be no war insisted noart earl stubbornly england and france have bled themselves white on continental battlefields and the peace which was signed only last october will surely not be broken again while you and I 1 are living for hanover and austria austila have had their nil fill as well as the others and are like two dead men oa 01 their backs that Is right nodded catherine alth a shudder 1 I think all fighting Is over for many years fools innocents I 1 her brother growled 1 I tell you neither nelt lier george nor louis will have anything to do with the running of this war until every mile of wooda between our col nil enles and your city of quebec la Is red ath th are and blood god love lov ML me it has already begun began I 1 french and english traders are lighting fighting wherever they come together along the frontiers and the hired indians of one are taking scalps for even evan white men have joined in that pretty gains for massachusetts lias has sent gent out lovewell and ills his fifty men to hunt the heads of indians and r rench french lt it makes no difference ference which though the order sayi says r askins only at a price of live still shillings tin s a day plus a bounty for every scalp that Is taken and down in new york coun country try sir william johnson counts out Engl en sli money for human hair while the french and you know it are paying paving a hundred i crowns apece tor for white scalps as well as red its hair the indians are bring ing in instead 6 0 fur and here you sit it like a couple of foolish doves with a young one in the nest your scalps worth fifty pounds a piece your windows d 0 ws open your lour door unlocked your sell senses sos gone catherine rose from tier her seat scat and came me around to tier her brother so that slie she stood behind him with tier her arms bout about his shoulders we know tills this you have told us its it true slie lie said pressing tier lier check against ills his face there Is terrible murder along the frontiers from which you have come nod and tant alint la Is why henri has brought jeems and me into this country of his where are only peace and friendship and no thought of the hideous killings and ugly you speak about you have argued against yourself brother for it Is you ton who should move out of strife and danger and come to live with vs us together we will have a paradise here urged and I 1 will find you a wife added catherine A wife who will love you greatly and until you have children of your own we will give you half of jeems rose gently out of her arms for jeems you should change your home to a place where there ther L Is a schoolmaster and more for him to learn he said catching d desperately espera tely at a last argument where all others had failed in all of now france and the english colonies there Is no better teacher than our catherine answered henri proudly in english and frn french ell silo has given to teems more than lie he could ever have learned in your town of albany or our college in quebec tor for there in one it place atlace lace he would have been english and in the other french while here he Is both like ills his father and mother and will never strike at either cither of the two bloods that are in his veins of that I 1 am sure agreed coth cath critic 1 I pray god my jeems will never be a fighting man when hepsibah went to his cot in the loft lie stood for a moment w with it it ills his lighted candle beside jeems bed where the boy lay sleeping with the cloth of velvet close to his hands a smile on ills his lips looking down on him hepsibah thought of henri Bu bullins lains last words and ills his sisters prayer and id ills his lips moved whisperingly to klinl self they cant keep it from you in lad d hope nor prayer prater nor all thier falth faith its coming and when jt t comes couii you 11 strike and strike hard bard and its then be what youre bound abe jeems a fighting maal catherines breakfast was on the table with the break of sunrise and jeems was even ahead of that helping his father with the chores cli ores the ox was tod fed and the cart rendy ready for a days rough travel before his uncle hemsi ball came down from his sleep talk of war and massacre and death had left no shadow in catherines Crith erines heart and hepsibah could hear bear her singing the sound of bf her voice made him pause find and face tile hie south ills wide shoulders twitched and he be marked the ewel swelling ing and dips of the timbered solitudes of forbidden valley and taw saw tile the mohawks would enter it and where they would come out 1 if hla his prediction and his fears came true with the allver still in his blood he ha turned and found odd standing close behind film also facing the stillness and mystery of the valley galley his nose sniffing the tha air and his eyes as the mans had been A moment before tilled filled with a steadiness and tenseness of look which had in it a somber and voiceless foreboding at the touch of hand the strain seemed to leave odds body bear watching matching day and night but specialty specially in that hour of darkness which cornea comes just before the crack 0 0 dawn daw n not now but soon I 1 when jeems went ahead of his father i and uncle to luss Lus cussans ans sans place he did not burden himself with sary habiliments of either peace or war ile he wore Ms his old suit of brown homespun cloth with indian made moccasins and leggings of doeskin and on its his head was a frontiers mans cap with nn an eagle feather teat lier in it from under this cup cap ills his blond hair fell with its ends touching ills his shoulders and etli with only his bow tor for a weapon his slim young body was nas free and buoyant and much handsomer than it had been the previous day with its calef carefully a fly chosen raiment and warlike ments ile he was filled with exultation mingled with a determined eagerness lie ile knew lie he would fight it if paul tacha was at Lus cussans sans place and what was going to happen in that fight was was as definitely fixed in his mind ile he was on its his wit way y to elevate himself to supreme heights in the opinion of marl maria a antoinette after he had given her the piece of velvet no one was ahead of him when he arrived alrh ed at cussans Lus sans place it was nine 0 clock and the sale was not until eleven een half of a young ox was spitted on a long iron bur bar and slowly roasting over a red hot mass of hickory cords coals the outside dutch oven was tilled filled with a huge baking of bread and benches were set with pewter and snowwhite snow white dishes of poplar wood lussan was a famous maker of whisky and flip and beer and three barrels were ready leady hoisted on chunks of wood with their spigots down waiting for the willing hands of his friends and neighbors to turn them jeems hunted out the plow and kettle and loom which his father wanted to buy white while occupied in this way lie he came upon a table piled with a of articles and ills his heart gave a pump when lie he saw a number of books printed in english ills mind was filled with the thought of his mothers joy if lie he could take these thesa treasures home ionic to her there were five of tile the books malvern mahern dale evelina eloiza and jo seph andrews a thrilling list of titles it seemed to him and as quickly as lie ha could lie approached lussan upon tha subject of their worth and purchase seeing no merit in printed english and small chance for their sale and being as well a free fice hearted man dian ani al ready warmed by ills his own excellent boor boer lussan gave thorn them to jeems overjoyed by thi tills unexpected windfall of fortune jeems began to watch anxiously for the coming of ills his father and uncle and for the ap bearance pe arance of tile the seigneur sels neur ana and whoever might be with him lie he placed himself where he could see down the road that came from tile tha and when at last he heard the auctioneers auctioneer 8 voice hot bel lowing low ing forth ills his announcement that the sale was about to begin he be felt a somber sinking of his hopes they livened instantly when three figures on horseback appeared at the end of tile the halt balf mile of road the foremost rider wits was Tont eur the second paul tache and in the third saddle rods rode a slim allm wide little person who was none other than marle maria antoinette herself TO BE BD CONTINUED |