Show alie plains of alb by james oliver curwood I 1 THE STORY with hla his wife cathar ino in ind and son ion I 1 jeems i henry bu lain aln french settler in canada in 1749 1719 cultivates a farm arm adjacent to the kontour As the tory atory opens the bullins ate aia returning from a visit to the ton t deurs ours catherines catherine wandering wander lne brother hepsibah meets m ets them with presents for or the family amaly to jeems he gives a pistol alst 1 bidding him gerfe perfect c t him himself s 1 f in marksman ship tear fears fo or r th the a safety of the balaine in their isolated position jeems je ms fights with paul tache cousin cou n of tol notta netta Tont eur whom they both adore next day jeems calls at the home and apologizes tor for brawling in front of tollette Tot Tol nette the Tont eurs eure go to quebec four years year pats pass war between britain and franco france flames I 1 CHAPTER IV continued 9 this recalled an important matter to his mind tobnette Tol nette fiette had entrusted him with a letter tor for jeems boiling over with his own selfish exultations exaltations lie he had forgotten it lie ile hoped it was wa S an invitation for or jeems to come to the seigne urle lie ile had often told hla his girl she should be more friendly with the lad ind jeems took the letter and went oft off by himself it was the first recognition from tobnette Tol nette since the day of the levee he had not seen her and had bad tried not to think of her alone he be read the words she had bad written him with pitiless coldness and brevity they called him a renegade and a coward on a september morning some days later jeems stood watching his uncle as he disappeared into the frost tinted woods of forbidden valley it seemed to him that suspicions and guardianship of the valley had become greater with the growing news of french triumphs in the south which so BO positively assured their safety only yesterday yeste iday had brought the latest word from Dl dieskau eskau the german bad been on the eve of smashing sir william johnson and his mob of Colon colonials lais and indians when his messenger had left by this time the event cent had probably happened jeems thought yet his uncle was going into forbidden valley with a look in his face which puzzled him restlessness possessed odd after had gone passing years were beginning to leave leae their mark on the dog ile he was growing content to watch life with jeems instead of ceaselessly pursuing it ile he was not old and yet he was no longer young soung there remained one thin thing 9 which did not fall to stir in him the tense fierce fierceness nebs of his youth this was the indian smell he always told jeems when one of their wilderness visitors was near sometimes many minutes before the savage appeared from the woods and he never tired of watching forbidden valley in the dawn he faced it at midday lie he dozed w with ith his half closed eyes turned tow toward ardIt it in the evening he sniffed its scents yet he did not go down into the valley unless jeems or henri was with him during the morning odds uneasiness began to reflect itself in jeems soon after noon he left his work and told his mother ho was going in the d direction of Lus cussans sans place catherine walled walked with him through the young orchard liard and up the slope never had she seemed more beautiful to jeems ills father was vas right this mother of his would always be a girl from above the orchard standing on a little plateau that overlooked the bulala farm they called to genrl who was in his turnip field and waved at him jeems stood for a few moments with ills his arm about his mother then he kissed her and catherine watched him until he was lost to her tight might in the big forest jeems did not have the desire to hunt bunt nor did odd unexplainable impulses were putting pulling at them both odds restlessness was unlike his bis masters whenever jeems paused the dog turned and sniffed the air of their trall trail facing forbidden valley in an attitude of suspicion and doubt jeems observed his companions enl benl enigmatic alc tlc actions odd was not giving the indian signal it was as if something without form or substance a thing belt and unintelligible ible lay behind them they came to cussans Lus sans nine miles from their home since cussans Lus sans departure the place had been aban boned and in those live five years the wilderness had largely reclaimed what man an had taken from it jeems stood where lie he had fought paul tache and ghostly whispers crept about him in the stillness then came a feeling of dread almost of fear ile he turned back to the house bouse and to td the open where long ago lie he had sto stood odwith with tobnette Tol nette and all her loveliness so near to him the I 1 he sun had set and dusk was gathering over the land before he drew himself away aay from the ghosts which haunted cussans Lus sans place night could add nothing more to his gloom odd whined frequently in his fits eager ness to reach home sometime lie he showed impatience a at t his masters slowness glow ness by running ahead jaems did not hurry ile he its his bow willell which was the only weapon he had brought and carried can led it ready in his fits hand ani nil yet vet if ol OJ had hinted of danger lie would have paid no attention rn the warning danger was wag miles way on the other side of LIes lau ad ills ids men it would come no nearer i 1 lip auld never have a chance to Q by doubleday doran co ino service lc meet it in colnett es eleshe eyes he would always remain a renegade and a coward night thickened the stars stare camo out oat deepening shadows lay about them as they climbed the tallest of the hills from which they could look over the ridges and woods between them and forbidden valley because from this hill it was possible to see over the big forest which sheltered their farm from the north winds I 1 jeems and his father called it home mountain odd whined as he climbed it tonight I 1 lie he went ahead of jeems and when he gained the crest his whining changed to a howl so low that one would scarcely have heard it at the foot of the hill jeems came jo to him film and stopped for a space there was no beating of a heart in his breast nothing but it a 6 stillness till ness that was like death a shock that was nas like death a horror that could come only at the sight sigh tand and the feeling of death rising from the tar far side of the forest into which hepsibah had gone that morning was a distant glow 0 of f fire nearer over the rim of for forbidden hidden valley the sky was a red III illumination atlon of game flame and this Il illumination lumina was r jeems leem stood for a few moments moment with Ws tile arm about his mother not of a burning forest it was waa not a r scorch of burning stumps it was not a conflagration of dry swamp grass glass reflecting itself against a moonless heaven it was a tower of blazing light mushrooming as it rose flattening itself in a sinister scarlet radl ance under the clouds dripping at its edges into colors of silver and gold and blood ills his home was burn burning ingi with the cry that came from his lips there leapt madly into ills his mind the words that hepsibah had spoken to him a last time that morning if ever im off there and you see a fire lighting up the sky by night or smoke darkening it by day hurry to the with your father and mother r as last fast as you can go for it will mean my hand band has set the heavens talking to you and that the peril ol 01 0 death Is near CHAPTER V for a space jeems could not move as lie he gazed at the crimson sky ills home was in flames tills this alone would not have deadened him with horror hla fits father was there to care for his mother a new home could be built the world did not end because a house burned but there were two ires fires and the other farther on reflecting itself dimly and yet more somberly was the one that terrified him it was fire alre talking to him through the night 1 then the choking tiling thing in him gave way and as the power to act returned he saw odd facing the lighted heavens and in every muscle and line of the dogs rigid frame the indian sign was clearly written he set off at a run down hill and as he ran bushes whipped at ills his face and shadows gathered under hs feet and long arms of gloom reached out from among the trees to hold him back lie ile could not come up with odd like two shadows in a playful night one closely pursuing the other they ran until jeems breath began to break from Ms his lips in gasps and at the end of 0 a mile he fell back to a walk odd lessened his pace to his masters they climbed a lower hill and once more jeems c could ou id see the glow of fire in the upper vault of the sky it was fading to a ghostly pallor against the sweeping are arc of the milky way they ran on and the spirit of hope began to fight for a place ein in jeems brain this ray of light gave life and force to the arguments argumenti with which he now made an effort to hold back the grimmer thing ills home was burning but it must be an accident nothing that should fill him with fright the other fire off in forbidden valley was nomore no more thana than a coincidence ci probably a conflagration started by a careless indian or a white mans pipe ile he paused again to get his breath and and odd stopped with him his fits shaggy body was trembling with the pent up u p emotions of suspense and passion w which hichi possessed him when he caught in the air the deadly poison to his nostrils the indian india n smell jeems struggled not to believe the evidence which hel hei saw and told lit himself that it by any chance here were indians at ills his home they were mends friends helping to save wit what at they could from the tragedy of the fire out of the silence jeems heard a 11 sound which rose above the pounding of his heart it was so far away awa yso BO indistinct that the stirring of the leaves had kept it from his ears but jeems had heard ile he had heard the firing of guns over the hills and forests the sound had come to him from the direction of the ile he did not wait for the oaks to drowse again odd led him in their last heartbreaking race into the big forest leaden weights seemed to be dragging at his fits feet before they were through it ile he had run too hard he stopped and sagged against a tree with odd growling in a low and terrible way close to his knees ile he was not trying to prove or disprove matters now A catastrophe had bad happened to his thoughts with the firing of the guns taking the place of hope even een of his fears was the one great desire to reach his father and mother as quickly as he could ills his exertions had bad beaten him when they came to the edge of the forest and he could have run no farther without falling failing before them was the slope a silvery carpet of the starlight at the foot of it was what had been his home that it was a red hot mass without form or stability a pile out of which tome rose lazily its fierceness gone added nothing more to his shock ile he had unconsciously looked for this the barn was also a heap of blazing blaring embers everything was gone even tills this tact fact was not the one which began to break down his reason which he had struggled so hard to keep it was tile the stillness the lifelessness the lack of movement lind and sound that appalled him at first and then closed in about him a crushing deadening force the fires lit up the bottom land ile he could see the big rock at the spring m the paths between the gardens the bird houses in the nearest oaks the mill but he could see nothing that had been saved saed from the berhing house ile he could not see his father or his mother or hepsibah adams even odds heart seemed to break in these moments A sound came from him that was like a sob ile he was half crouching no longer savage or vengeful but jeems did not see ile he wat wa trying to find some force in him that could cry out his mothers name ills his lips were as dry as sticks ills his throat failed to respond the silence was ter rifle in it lie he heard the snapping of an exploding ember like a pistol going off ile he could hear no one talking no voices calling fear the repulsion of flesh and nerve to danger was utterly gone from mail lim ile he was impelled only by thought of his father and mother the mystery of their silence his desire to call out to them and to hear their voices in answer lie he did not fit an arrow to his bow as he walked down through the starlight his feet traveling a little unsteadily what was tb there re or was not there could not be changed by fin an arrow unexpectedly he came upon Us his father genrl was on tile the ground near one of catherines rose bushes as it if asleep as leep but he was dead ile he lay with ills his face turned to the sky firelight played upon him gently now increasing now fadin fading g as the embers flared or died like fitful notes in a strain of soundless music TO BE CONTINUED |