Show the plains lains 1 0 of f abraham aoraha M by JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD 0 by doubleday doran co inc service I 1 THE STORY with his english wife catherine and son jeems henry bu lain french settler in canada Can adaIn in 1749 cultivates a farm adjacent to the seigne urle As the a tory story opens the dulaine are returning from a visit to the ton t tours ears catherines wandering brother hepsibah meets then their with presents for the family tp jeems he gives a pistol bidding him perfect h himself I 1 myself in marksman ship hepsibah tears fears tor for the safety of the lulaina in their isolated position jeems fights with Paul Tache c cousin ous in 0 of f tol nette Tont eur w whom h om they both adore ore next day jeems calls at the home and apologizes for brawling in front of tobnette Tol nette CHAPTER IV continued 7 teems jeems did not go again to manor though occasionally he heard news from the seigne urle every one was in high humor there because of the activities going on in preparation for the exit of the entire family for quebec early in september tobnette Tol nette was going to school at the convent of the jeems had a feeling of loss it was as it if the ire fire of his dreams had not only burned itself out but even the asli ash were being cleared away autumn came and with it a great glory jn in the wilderness jeems loved these days of golden ripeness of first frosts of painted hardwood forests and of crisp tangy air when all al life seemed seamed rejuvenated and his own veins danced to the thrill of un ending promises and expectations but this year a heaviness of heart was in him with the changing of the seasons tobnette Tol nette and her people left for quebec and one evening a week later hepsibah ibah gravely announced that he could no longer delay his departure for the far frontiers of pennsylvania and the ohio where his ob obligations Igat lons as a trader called him catherine was silent for a while then cried softly to herself jeems drew back where his uncle would not see him clearly cheerfulness died out like a lighted candle extinguished by a breath of wind face was grimly set so hard was lie he fighting to hold a grip on his emotion lie ile promised that he would never again remain away long at a time ile he would return during the ft winter inter if lie he failed to come they would know lie he was dead when got out of ills his bed to build the fire the next morning ailep was gone lie he had stolen off like a shadow in some still hour of the night more afore determinedly than when his uncle had been with him jeems continued at and at the mental efforts with which lie he was struggling to reach out into the mountains and valleys of experience ahead of hlin hin through the fall and winter the bu lain cabin was visited by wandering indians who had learned that food warmth and a welcome were always there jeems friendship for them was tempered by the things had told him and while he brought himself closer into intimacy with these uninvited guests winning their confidence and making himself more efel dent clent in their heir speech he was also watching and listening for the signs of hidden bidden dangers against which his uncle had repeatedly warned him most of the indians were from the canada tribes and among them lie he found no cause for unrest but when occasionally nn an onondaga or an onelda oneida come came lie detected in their manner a quiet and sleepless caution which told him these visitors from the six nations considered themselves over the dead line which marked the country of their enemies and lie he made note that they always came through that part of forbidden valley which hepsibah had predicted would be a future warpath karpath for the mohawks Mo hawks bawks this winter lie he went farther in ills his ad captain illde the old cau caughnawaga glina waga had a habit of spending several atthe ot the hardest weeks near benr the Bu bullins lains and with ills his two sons W white bite eyes eves and big cat jeems traveled to the shores of lake champlain Champl aln for the first time lie he was gone a week and planned with ills his friends to make m a he a longer expedition the following year as far as crown point and a place called ticonderoga where the french were going to build a fort some day on this excursion on h he ex per perlen fenced ced the real thrill of danger for white eyes and big cat both of whom were young braves who had won their spurs moved with a caution which was eloquent in its significance with tobnette Tol nette and her people away from the tha sel beurle ne urle jeems had no hesitation in going to the and made trips there with ills hla father on snowshoes and in march during ts break in a spell of intense cold lie he went alone and remained overnight in the house of the aarons overseer with whose young people he had become acquainted qi quain a anted ted this overseer was peter lubeck lubeck an old veteran for whom held a warm affection affect iou and through his son lion peter boter the younger jeems beems had bad ills hla first news of tobnette Tol nette she was at the ursuline Ursul lue school and her ber parents had taken a fashionable huse house la in st louis street peter said tog eur wrote in every letter to ills father that he was homesick to get back to the richelieu chelleu ni As another spring and summer followed I 1 those which had gone bea before ra jeems un knew ew he was fighting something that had to be conquered a yearning for tobnette Tol nette which filled him with a bitter loneliness when its hold was strongest for two years tobnette Tol nette remained in quebec without making a visit to the ni chelleu during these years the tragedy of ills his divided birth was forced upon jeems there was no doubt that the english in him was uppermost or that the urge in his blood was toward the southern front frontiers lers and the colonies of hepsibah adams yet vet lie be loved the place where he liv lived edwith with a sincere passion the big forest forbidden valley nil the miles of wilderness about him film as far as he could look to the horizons tills this was new france it was ills his fathers country and not ills his mothers between his father ond and himself a comradeship had 90 gown t n up which nothing could break but for his mother was a 8 different thing as if something besides beides motherhood bound him film to her ills friends had increased in number ile he came to know people along the richelieu chelleu ni but was always conscious lie he was not entirely one of them words and her hatred tor for him persisted in his memory and kept recalling this truth late in august of the second year of her absence tobnette Tol nette returned to manor for a month jeems heart ached with the old yearning but he did not go to the seigne urle paul tache and his mother were also at the barons and he felt a sense of relief when lie he learned that all of them were on their way to quebec with the exception of Tont eur who remained for the harvesting of crops A fortnight after they had find gone peter told him about tobnette Tol nette and paul tache he had scarcely recognized tobnette Tol nette he said she had grown taller and more beautiful tache was a full grown man and dressed like a young noble one with half an eye could st bat he was desperately in love with tobnette Tol nette peter avowed but if lie he were a judge of such affairs and he considered himself to be that tache was a long way from a realization of his desires evyn even taking tender years into consideration she granted him no favors ali ere had actually seemed to be a coolness in her attitude toward him peters words stirred jeems with a satisfaction which he did not let the other see until he was on Us ills way home did he pull himself from the folly of his thoughts about toinette Tol nette even if she were not smiling agn tache as warmly as he had bad supposed he knew she was as far removed from him film now ns as the sun was from the earth yet as time went on this fresh contact with her presence though lie he had not seen her gave a determined impetus to his plans for the future there were hours in which he saw himself a splendid enemy where fate adte had ordained that he could not be a friend with increasing maturity giving to him a deeper and more understand ang passion for ills his mother and 11 fiffler comprehension of the noble qualities in his father fat lier lie he was harassed bi a of emotions which he revealed to neither nelt lier and confided only in hepsibah adams who had returned from its trip the difficulty of solving the problem which confronted jeems was us as great for catherines brother as it would have been for catherine herself for as early ns as the spring of 1753 when jeems had passed ills his sixteenth year there was no longer a doubt in the minds of the people of the Col colonies onles and new france as to the surety of the struggle which was impending while france and 8 england were officially at pence peace the forces of the two countries in america were on the verge of open war and were instigating t the indians to a strife of extermination E everywhere very where along the unprotected frontiers the indians were killing and burning and such vast sums were being expended by both sides for human hair that scores of white men had taken up the lucrative business of hunting or gic scalps alps almost at the door to jeems home war preparations were in progress for every landed baron along the richelieu was training pis his vassal farmer far merj and when the wind was right the could hear faintly the tmima a w week eek firing of muskets at ma manor nor being behrig free odthe of the seigne urial protection and laws isearl did no not t go to drill nor did jeems yet ton beur rode frequently to their home especially when was there lie ile was in better spirits than us usual and it was all on account of tobnette Tol nette he said sile she was homesick for the richelieu ifer her letters to film were filled with a longing for it and she declared that in another twelve months when her scho schooling would be finished she wanted to the live at the manor and not in quebec that was enough to make him happy and he laughed at the thought of danger tor for womenfolk along the richelieu chelleu Ri in the fortified places the english and their savages would not got nearer than the lower end of lake champlain when war came and th they e y would be driven from there very shortly and a also I 1 s 0 from I 1 lake ake george but or on such an outlying farm as the fie bblain place which had no protection whatever there was the possible peril of wandering scalp hunters and he never tired of urging and Cather catherine itle to make their home within th the e safet safety y of the seigne urle ne he asked jeems and t to 0 come to his drill and that they did not respond made no difference in his friendship he could understand how hard bard it would be for henri to ta prepare for war against his cifes country and his secret adoration for catherine was greater because of her courage and her faith in both peoples with the catastrophe so near it delighted him to think that his own confidence was a comfort to her and the eagerness with which she accepted its his opinions as a soldier encouraged him to go beyond what considered intelligent tell igent bounds in giving gavini easement to her mind lie ile did not guess what was in jeems heart nor did the boys father or mother only hepsibah knew fully what was there early in the autumn the trader took jeems on a journey to the t english fort on lake george thence traveling into the new york counley returning in november they found a change in catherine she was riot not less confident or lees contented in the paradise she was helping to build but something had bad come into her life which she was accepting bravely and courageously and even with pride one evenin evening g she spoke of the military activities along the Rl richelieu chelleu many river youths were training with their elders she said and it did not seem right that jeems should not be among the them m while killing was wag wicked and lne inexcusable x cu sable it was a god given privilege to defend ones home and family she quoted to substantiate all date her belief that war would never reach them and she knew that jeems would not seek it any more than his father but she thought it would 10 lo do no harm for jeems to prepare himself along with the other young men of the seigne urle to this suggestion homely philosophy made object objection lon ile he told catherine the day was coming when jeems would be comp compelled elfed to fight and that ile he would have to choose one side or the other to champion when that day arrived sentiment would not stand in the way for with a world in turmoil about them one could not be english and french at the same time no man could tell on which side Ahey would be when forced to it and as he despised a traitor more tha than n anything else it was ills his opinion th that t jeems should not be taught the wa ways of war under the flag of france an and then it might be tight for the english As a frontiersman he maintained that the finest lighting 9 man was the alio long rifle nine a free wanderer a of f t the he forests a leather stocking 1 trained to a hundred greater thin things g s than the firing of a musket in co company in anny with a score of others that was what jeems should be As a long rifle he could serve where lionor honor and duty called him when the act became necessary TO BM BE CONTINUED |