| Show tham M t F h plains of abraham by james oliver curwood 0 by doubleday doran domn co inc WN U service lc M M M M M fr M H H H t ta t CHAPTER VII VH continued 14 they see ee the place Is deserted and they find some sign of 0 us they wont come nearer he saad look Tol there 1 Is a white ninn man amons them with a prisoners c collar oil ar around his neck ills his words were cut short by a sudden movement among the watchers as it if a command had stirred them to life again the man in the lead w with ith three eagle feathers in ills his tuft sta aked clone alone into tire clearing a tall and sinister figure burdened only with his hi weapons and a warriors diminutive traveling pack a giant who was red end and black and yellow in hla his war paint and at whose belt hung a bundle of scalps in which tile the sun played and danced with changing lights as lie he moved tobnette Tol nette closed lier ber eyes that she might shut from her vision the grisly trophies of a warriors success when she opened them again two score warriors in single file w were re following in the footsteps of the leader leader and passed within a hundred feet of what once had bad been cussans Lus sans sana home casting furtive glances as they went in more than one belt fresh scalps shone in the sunshine and two white men and a boy with their hands tied and prisoner thongs about their throats walked in the line not until the trees on the other side of the clearing had swallowed th the last of 0 the Afo mohawks hawks did Tol e training eyes turn to jeems there had been no sound in the passing of the red scourge no cautious cautions voice no flatter of wood on steel no crackle of brittle grass or weeds under tinder fourscore mocca pined feet where their trucks tracks iny in the grass one might lieve thought that three men had traveled instead of forty and the world was dead behind them crows did not return to the meadow and the blue bauo jays had flown into safer distance the woodpecker had gone to a farther stub even in the old house there was no longer the scurrying and squeaking of mice no pound found out but the tumultuous throbbing of three hearts beerts two of thern them human rind and one a hearts beasts it was then jecies spoke 1 I swear there was a white man a free white ninn man la in that painted crowd and long hair lineras was hanging from his belt lie he sold said 1 I saw tits his blond head bead and lighter skin ekin but thou thought lit my eyes were I lying fing to me replied tobnette Tol nette an englishman sold said jeems A murderer for money such as my uncle told me about and yet he might be french they stood looking into each others eyes she of the aristocracy of old france and ho he of the new worlds freedom and her hands rose slowly to its hla face as his bow and arrow fell to the floor for the first time she raised her mouth to his kiss me jeems and pray a little with me in gratitude for the mer mercy cy god has shown us I 1 the thrill of her lips lay for a moment against his 1 I am sorry for everything in the w world rid she said some of the softness and bea beauty uty of boyhood returned into his face as sh she e drew w herself from ills his arms and lie descended tho the creaking stair ahead of her they did not go out at once but ut stood near the lower door listen listening ig for sound and watching for something to move they are gone jeems finally said bald but there may be ba stragglers ierg behind and it Is safer not to show ourselves too soon it was waa easier for them jo 0 o talk after tills this quite calmly as if looking back on a distant dl stant thins tobnette Tol nette told tod jeems of the tragedy of manor ller her mother lie he learned had bad left for quebec two days preceding tile the coming of the lEd indians lans tobnette Tol nette expressed her thankfulness because of tills this but no great gladness was in her voice she could not remember in vivid details nil all that had bad happened it t had bud been so sudden and overwhelming wh elming like a stream of fire engulfing a black night peter lubeck was with dieskau Dlesk nu and lIel olse his young wife imd had come to stay with her doth both were asleep when the savages attacked in the early morning and she was of the opinion that most of the killing billing was oven over before they were fairly abali e and before any guns were fired then came shots and lier her fathers voice roaring through the big house they were out of their bed when the seigneur neur came in and to id them to dress and keep to their roon room silo not know what had happe happened fied until site she out of her window ant and then slie silo saw what seemed to be hund ads of naked savages running about she rushed after her father but he was gone when slie she returned to her room liel olse had disappeared and she td d nt not see bee her again ngali 11 abio II could beu screaming and terrible cries and dressing hurriedly as her father had commanded the she disobeyed him by golrig going downstairs calling for hlin him and for liel olse the front part of the house was filled with flame and smoke and when she turned to the servants sen ants quarters she was cut off by fire and there was nas no response to her cries it was then she thought of the mill will which eh she bhe had often heard her father r say ay was impregnable against both fire and guus guns silo she descended into the cellar and went from it through a short underground passage to an outdoor ealean made of sod and stones tn in which they kept fruit and vegetables during the winter she hid herself in this earthy place anti and then dared to raise the surface door a little e tits worst must have been over for she could see eee only a few indians about and everything was on fire there was yelling jelling in the distance where the savages were attacking the farmers homes when she ascended from the cameau shi she stumbled over the lie body of old bacin the rattler miller who had fallen with a musket tn in his hands she took the musket and went to the mill and after that slie she did not see an indian india about the S sickness lc kness overcame her and she bhe was half unconscious se in tile the tower room later looking through one of the narrow windows slie she saw four men come from the south she was sure they were white men but was afraid to reveal herself because their appearance was so terrible they were like monsters N A ai jeems struck at his enemy and clutched hit his slippery throat remaining only a little while to look at the dead now since she had seen the white warrior among the mohawks Mo hawks she was even more positive that they belonged to the war band and that she was fortunate to have kept herself concealed when she found that babins musket was loaded she regretted that she had not used it to kill one of the murderers that was why mistaking him for another straggler silo she had fired at jeems one might have expected excitement in her narrative but it was told quietly ns as she looked from jeems across the clearing it was a recital of fact without the embellishment of pathos or drama and jeems remained 13 silent for a time when it was ended then ile he told of his visit to cussans Liis Lus sans and of his race home and what he be found there lie ile spoke of lie ile must have discovered the mo alo hawks on the far side of the he valley and started the fire which he had bad always told me to expect after that he tried to reach us and they killed him ile he may have escaped suggested hopefully jeems shook ills his head lie he would have come to us lie ile Is dead d ead ills voice possessed the unemotional certainty with which she had referred to her father and there was no possibility of his uncle being alive ile he repeated that belief and added that their salvation was little short of a mir miracle nele hut but now he thought their way would be clear to friends farther down the river the indians could not have gone many miles in that direction for evidently they were hurrying back before baron learned of their presence in the french country and set out forces to cut them oft off it did not occur to jeems that the baron and ills his meu men might have been defeated as was true in that very hour lie ile produced apples and a pair of purple topped turnips from the provision pouch which he wore at ills his belt and they ate these as they waited meanwhile tie lie told her what they roust must do they would be forced to spend a night in the woods but he be was sure he be could make a comfort comfortable abl place for her ile he walked ahead instead of at her side when they began their journey jeems carried on an arrow fixed to the string of his bow and suddenly lud denly a twig caught it and it slipped from hit his fin fingers geral and fell to the ground lie was stooping to recover it when a terrified cream from tobnette Tol nette brought him er erect ct not more lhnn eight or ten paces from them stood a painted and half naked savage whose intention had bad been to make his bis way toward the abandoned house ile he was wag an appalling figure and during the few seconds in which they faced each other jeems recognized in him the white skinned scalp hunter he and tobnette Tol nette had seen with the mohawks Mo hawks at this discovery there shot through him a lash flash of relief but a second glance glanc showed him a fiend more dangerous than an indian one of the merciless butchers who hunted human hair for the price lis hia own people had set upon it A blue eyed indian how often had he heard his uncle curse their breedl breed I 1 beasts more cruel than tigers demons set loose and paid by english money until their sport as well as their vellwood Vell hood became an orgy of ambush murder rape and firel here was one of them the roan man was greased and painted but he was white ills warlock arlock was light and his eyes were small and blue he carried a gun a knife and a hatchet and at his belt was a womans comans hair and with it another scalp that must have been taken from the head of a child so quickly did jeems see these things that tile the echoes of scream had scarcely died away before their meaning ng pressed itself upon him ham the savage possessed a moment of advantage and as jeems made a movement to whip an arrow from his quiver the scalp hunter swung his gun to fire seeing the hopelessness of his position jeems sprang forward and hurled his useless bow at his enemy this and the impact of his body came at an instant when the other let the hammer of his flintlock fall and with the explosion of the gun die lead from its barrel flew wild the scalp hunter had seen only it a boy and a girl and a vision of easy victims had leapt to his mind now he found upon him an antagonist of unexpected strength and ferocity in the first few seconds of the fray neither had bad a chance to draw knife or tomahawk and with all the pent up madness ot of his body and brain jeems struck athis enemy and clutched his slippery throat as they crashed to earth to gether for a space horror filled eyes could scarcely tell which was ft as one and which the other and odd snarling white walte fanged at t their heir heels was unable to become a partner in tile the conflict then with a powerful effort the scalp hunter freed himself and sprang to his feet drawing tits hh tomahawk tom hawk in the act As lie he prepared to use his w weapon capon odd vaulted for ills his throat and the blunt head bead of the hatchet met him in midair striking with such force upon ills his head that ho he fell a limp and inert mass to the ground A cry of triumph came from the bleeding lips of the frankenstein frankenste ln who saw victory within his reach for he be now regarded the youth south who was vas on tits his feet with a hatchet in his hand as an insignificant obstacle between himself and tile the pallid faced loveliness lovell ness of the girl whom chance had so fortunately placed in his way this cry disguised by gulls guile and habit betrayed only a trace of th the white ewhite man it was guttural of one lost to all the obligation of blood and race a cry loosed not so much by heat and passion masslon ns by the promise of what ft bat he saw as tits his eyes ees appraised tobnette Tol nette tobnette Tol nette had possessed herself of tile the empty gun and stood at jeems side prepared to fight jeems was so BO near that his arm pressed against her and he gave a sidewise thrust which sent bent her headlong among the bushes in this same movement mo ement he hurled ills his hatchet at tho scalp hunter who was slowly advancing As the other dodged to avoid tho the hurtling missile jeems snatched one of his bis scattered arrows from the ground and ran to his bow tobnette Tol nette saw what happened then she Is saw w the slim beautiful figure of jeems drawn as tensely as his weapon in the pathway she saw the painted monster descending upon him she heard the musical twang of the bowstring and saw a silvery flash a flash which passed in at one side of the blue eyed indian and went out at the other a flash which fell to earth a score of paces beyond a bloody and broken arrow that had done its righteous work TO BE CONTINUED |
