| Show the hn i ns of 0 r A ET ta v ba J amas oliver cut woo arul myotte arl i ck i bw iuri doa m W ta wa THE STORY with his english wife catherine in e and ton son jeems i henry bu jeems laan a 1 n french bettler et I 1 ler in canada in cultivates a farm arm adjacent to the seigne urle As aa the story opens the Bul atins are returning from a visit to the ton deurs catherines wan wandering derin g brother hepsibah Hep albah meets I 1 them he with presents for or the family to jeems he gives elves a pistol bidding him perfect himself in marksmanship jeems lights with paul tache cousin of tobnette Tol nette ton tear whom they both adore next day jeems boenis calls at the ton beur home and apologizes tor for brawling blasting in front ot of tobnette Tol nette the Tont eurs go BO to quebec four y ear 1 pass war between britain and france names flames jeems returns from rom a hunt to find his home burned and his father and mother slain ile he goes ato to the eig neuris and finds the th manor de destroyed stroyd and and his tenants servant dead him an eney enemy tobnette Tol nette wounds joe jeems s and denounces hi him M as an eng englishman i ishman CHAPTER VI continued 12 jeems scarcely knew he spoke the words nords they rang back through the years as it if a ghost had come to life whose memory they had flayed clayed out of their hearts a long time ago what are you doing here she dem demanded she might have asked that same question in those unimportant years when lie he had bad dared armed to visit manor with his foolish gifts why was lie he here ile he turned in tile the direction from which he had come and held out his hand not for her to take but as a voice she understood what his burden had bad been tears 7 such trivial things could not exist in the after heat of the holocaust that bad consumed them pride defying grief raised her chin a little as she obeyed jeems she knew to what she was going and when she came to the place which jeems had prepared she was like a white angel who ho had appeared to gaze tor for a moment or two upon the dead with a tool he had found jeems had made a grave it was shallow and made less unbeautiful with a bed of golden grass did not seem unhappy as ho he lay upon it the top of his head was covered so tobnette Tol nette could not see she knelt and prayed and jeems drew back feeling that to kneel with her with the marks of her hatred on his face and body would be sacrilege even now when it should have known better the mill wheel continued to whine and scream and suddenly it occurred to jeems that it could not have been that way yesterday when was alive A devil must have come to abide nt at the top of tile mill I 1 lie ile waited scanning the horizons that were ere thinning of their smoke death had passed and death might return over its own blackened trail tobnette Tol nette beside her father made him think of that it seemed scorned a long time bafo before re elie ehe rose to face jilin she was n not ot r crying her eyes were blue stars scars in a countenance as pale as marble the sun shone on her and gave an unearthly radiance to her hair her beauty hold held him stricken just as ills his own terribleness forced from her a gasp of protest when lie he drew oft off tile coat borrowed from one of the dead men and spread it over Tont eur but eliut site she did not speak only tile the mill wheel continued its virulent plaint as the loose earth fell on the baron toinette Tol netto nette looked steadily toward the sky and when w I 1 en jeems was done she accompanied partied him back to the mill site she v watched arched him go for his bow where lie he saw that the form he be had thought was Tol tobnette nette was the wife of peter the younger ile he came back and spoke to her a second time the lips she had broken with tile the musket barrel were swollen and the brand across his forehead was turning a dark and angry color the cloth lie he had twisted about his wounded arm was red sickness and pain were forcing their way into his yes eyes e 1 I must take you away he said there Is not time to care for the others if they come back they will not harm you she said bald jeems made no answer but looked away over tile the richelieu toward cham chain plain and dieskau Dl eskau and they will not harm your father or your mother or anything that belongs to the bullins Bu lains but will reward them for their loyalty to murder and outrage Is not that true still jeems jaems did not answer but stood list listening aning for sound to come out of the distance site she saw the sickness gathering in ills his bacu facu mad and but pity for him was as dead in her breast ns as her desire to live site sho knew where he would tako take tier lier to his home a place left un sent lied by tile the killers to his mother the soft nud and pretty woman in altini hoi fief father had believed so faithfully to heart bblain the tr traitor altor liina bogerd boter cd his honor for an english woman over her fathers hill in forbidden valley were safety and mercy at the hands of her coun arys enemies her lips found a way to cut him deeper your hither and mother are waiting for you slie she said cio and leave me here I 1 prefer to wait for the return of your indian friends and I 1 am not sorry because I 1 tried to kill you I 1 ak lie ile moved away from her to where hebert find and Ju chereau and the simpleminded glaudot lay on the ground this time it was the idiots coat he took a fine coat made by bi the idiots mother the boy had loved birds and flowers and on oil the lapel of the coat was a faded geranium bloom jeems took it off and tucked it between the dead lods ads fingers then ile he went back to tobnette Tol nette and sold said we had better belter go after that he added 1 I am sorry but I 1 must go to my mother and father first 1 ile he staggered as he be set out and ton beur hill dipped and wobbled before his eyes there was an ache like a splinter twisting in his head and as she followed him tobnette Tol nette could see the effect of tier her blows with the iron gun barrel for site she did follow out of the smoke fumes into the clearer air of the meadows and across them to the worn path that led to the indian trull trail and the home ot of catherine bulale down there said teems jeems and pointed speaking to odd more than to her ile he took the hatchet from his belt and carried it in his hand band they entered the greater stillness of the big forest and odd who had traveled between them dropped back to side and thrust his muzzle against her hand band she did not snatch it away from him now they came to the slope and jeems forgot that tobnette Tol nette was behind him he walked straight down like a tall thin ghost and the girl stopped and stood alone staring at the place where his home should have been a cry wringing itself at last from her lips jeems did not hear ile he saw nothing but the clump of rose bushes end and the place where his bis mother lay ile he went to her first oblivious of other presence unconscious of tile the sun of the ruins still smoldering ills his soul stirring once more with the faint mad spark of incredulity but she was dead ile he saw her with clearer eyes though he was sick with hurt ile he knelt beside her calmly for a little while ile he touched her face gently with his hand and then went to his father odd trailed at his heels in the stump field was a shovel under ills his mothers big tree he be planned to dig when he returned his mother was not alone tobnette Tol nette was there on the ground with the tha english womans comans hend head in her lap her eyes blazed up at jeems and something like de defiance flance was in them something that was possessive and challenging and which hid whatever pity slie she might have had for him or pleading for life his forgiveness her hands were pressing the cold face of the tha woman she had wanted to liate hate and site she continued to look at jeems so hard so terribly so under that she seemed almost ilni ost to be waiting for him to punish her with a blow then slie site bowed her lend head over ills his mother and the shining vell veil of her hair covered death under the big tree he began to dig a it was late afternoon when they left the valley a still slumbering hour when the sun was about to go to its early rest leaving glows and sunset paintings behind that might have been made of swimming metals hand band lay in jeems as they went they were like a young god and goddess ready to face the hazards of a savage world with a strength wrought out of fire the had left ams jeems 11 ilia wounded aru arm we waa cared for b by y fingers as gentle as hill bli mott mothers aers had been hot tears teara caress leg ing ills his flesh from dark lashes had cured his physical pain words spoken in a voice he had nevet heard from her lips entreating hla his for torch ness eness tor for years of misunderstanding were like the peace of the day itself about his I 1 heart cart out of rain she had raised ills his soul to splendid heigl heights is of courage and resolution they th y passed ills his mothers gardens of 0 pow rowers rs whore where choice blooms were nodding it filled I 1 le to overflowing with ripening toy seeds th they skirted the turnip held field where a purple breasted crop lay waiting for spicy frosts to give crispness and flavor to its flesh in a place where fresh dirt was scattered about were tools used yesterday axes and shovels find and hickory prying poles and the big double bladed grub hoe which had made at Tont eurs forge on a stump partly dug from the earth as one of pipes made of half a corncob with a hollow reed for a stem jeems stopped and looked about his throat almost tensing for the old familiar call to hepsibah but the stillness warned him like a friend it was whispering the sacredness of another trust ills eyes turned to tho the lovely hood head near his shoulder in a moment tobnette Tol nette raised her eyes to meet ills his find and even with his they had not been so deep and gentle they must have caught my uncle out there he said keeping his voice steady and gazing over the forest tops topa of forbidden valley ue he set the signal fire for us and then was killed I 1 would RO go and find him it if it were not for you 1 I will go with you answered tobnette Tol nette but jeems turned west and did not look back at his home or betray the tha choking in his breast ile he found himself talking to tobnette Tol nette as if she were the child of the old days and he be changed into a man were explaining things ne ile described for the first time how the savages had come while he was on his way home from lus sans place and gave gate ills his reasons tor for believing they had departed in haste leaving leading many things like the gathered crops of 0 fruit and grain which they would surely hive have taun taken had they not been pressed presed pres ed by circumstance ua ile was vias sure they had not gone farther down the Hl ItI chellen but had turned back through forbidden valley to the tha mohawk country their own hope hopa was to swing westward out of the tha path of stragglers then eastward again toward cussans Lus sana sans tomorrow or the day following he be would have her safely at the next and there thera she would find means to be taken to her friends in quebec ile he would then join dieskau to fight the english the tha important thing was to reach lus lu sans tonight the indians would not loot go near there for they believed all abandoned places to be inhabited by ghosts and evil spirits if they lied bled upon it by accident they would get away as quickly as possible lie ile still held her hand as darkness dark nesi gathered closer in this gloom sh whispered does you arm hurt jeems no ko I 1 had bad forgotten it and your face where I 1 struck you 1 I had forgotten that too something touched ills his shoulder lightly lie ile could not tell what it was wag for they were in a pool of darkness dar knes but whatever it might have been a falling leaf a twig even shadow itself it filled him with a strange exalta tion out of the wreck of a world obliterated in a scourge of horror borror ha be it had a 1 I a s soul on I 1 beside his own to fight for twice in tile the next hour odd halted and gave a growl which warned ol of danger in the air jeems strained hla his eyes to see and his ears cars to hear and once more when they stopped to ta listen lie he felt the gentle touch against ills his shoulder 1 they struck a deer run a and nd fol fo owed it into a plain between two lines of hills where a ae devastating fire had passed some years ye irs before here they traveled trae led through a young growth ol of bushes and trees reaching scarcely above aboe their heads with the light of the tha stars falling failing on them it stirred a soft radiance in smooth hair and illumined jeems face until the wounds made by her hands were wera plainly revealed repealed they climbed the tha northernmost hill after a time and at the top of it stopped again to rest jeems like odd stood tense and listening searching the ills fences of the wilderness which lay about them ile he caught all movement and all sound the direction of the th wind the shifting shit ting play of the shadows shado wg the almost noiseless nutter flutter of an owls aln wings gs over their heads TO nn DO CONTINUED |
