| Show 7 H H haij 4 44 the plains of abraham by jarnes james oliver curwood 0 by doubleday doran co in ina service lAn nuigi CHAPTER VII continued 15 thattie Th atthe the explosion of the gun would reach the ears cars of the mohawks was in teems mind as he comfor comforted led his hh shocked chocked companion for a fe few w ino it was WB difficult tor for her to be bileve the combat was wag over sad and that ahat the fiend who lay like a great spider on his back was no longer a menace to them to her relief and herfarth her faith falth in jeems was added an emotion of joy when n she bhe saw that odd was alive tche dog had dragged himself to his feet and stood watching the slain man grimly the dead man man stared up at them as they passed in their path lay the arrow which had gone cleanly through him tobnette Tol nette could not keep back the hysterical sob which came in tier her throat but she looked at jeems with such wonder and love in her face that lie he heard only the throbbing tumult in his he heart art and brain ile he had fought for or her and won I 1 and lie he had fought on that same ground where almost six years before he be had failed to whip paul tachel the indians have heard the shot knot and will return he said this white man must have discovered some sign of us and came to do murder and have his spoils alone dear god gad when I 1 think ile he was looking at tresses which had bad burst free from their plaited bonds we must run he sald said they passed the barn bam and went through the deserted field belaf behind nd it odd following them there Is a stony ridge less than a mile from here he encouraged it if we can reach it I 1 know of 0 twenty places where bare rock will let us throw them off our our trail we will reach it breathed tol hette if lie ile pointed the way and let her go ahead of him turning his head bead every dozen steps to look behind along the hardwood knoll where the cussans lius sans had gathered their fuel tol bette tte sped like a graceful nymph her long aig hair streaming about her in the he tun sun until at times jeems saw nothing but its beauty and in the contemplation of its loveliness a shuddering horror borror ran through him in the stump field at home hepsibah had told him how both the english and the ther french rench had begun to make use of hair and that many a gentleman and courtly dandy wore shining curls taken by the scalping knife in wilderness orgies of rapine and murder in the he narrowness of escape the thought oppressed him with sickening force soon her lack of endurance compelled them to slacken their pace and when they reached the rocky ascent which led to the crest of the ridge breath was breaking sobbingly from her lips and for a while the could go no farther she gazed in the direction from which they had bad tome come and almost with challenge in her look her breast wildly throbbing tier her hand reaching out to jeems each of the few minutes that passed teemed seemed an hour to him then they climbed to the crest of the ibe ridge here jeems picked his way choosing the places where their feet would not touch scattered stones or gross or soil until half an hour of slow blow and tedious progress lay between beav can them and the point where they had come from the valley if they come this far they will think we have taken the wider and easier country he explained can you hold out a little longer it was the running that turned me faint said toinette Tol netto nette 1 I am as strong as you are now jeems but may I 1 stop and braid my hair it Is cumbrous and warm and I 1 wish you would cut it off I 1 1 J I would cut off my arm first declared jeems we will be i safe e farther on and it if you will wait until we have put ourselves beyond that mass of rocks off there ills his words remained unfinished prom from behind them come a cry I 1 it t was not fierce nor one that seemed to carry menace end and bore with it a strange and almost musical softness jems jeems knew its meaning the mohawks were on the ridge one of them was calling his scattered companions to evidence of their passing which lie he had discovered jeems hastened tobnette Tol nette over the rocks they have found some sign of us he explained it may be oneff one of odds claw marks on a stone or the scratch from a nail in your shoe whatever it Is they only know we have hae come this way and will still believe we have taken to the plain toinette Tol To nette luette saw sav now flow desperately lie ho was trying to keep from her the real nea nearness mess of their peril 1 I have feer indians indiana climb over rocks and windfalls wind falls they alicy tire ere like cats and iam I 1 am so BO slow blow and clumsy clamey slie she said bald you rou can move taster faster than any indian jems iilda hide me somewhere among these rocks and go on an alone I 1 am sure anro they will not harm me if 1 they should happen to discover where I 1 am jeems did not answer 13 they had come to the tha rocks which he had spoken of a few moments before here it if anywhere was a place for concealment it was oiled cited with dark a and n d cavernous refuges and where rethe the boulders met and crushed together were hidden pockets where their bodies might lie ile unseen tobnette Tot Tol nette perceived these things with a heart that lightened with relief and hope A dozen steps from where they stood were three boulders apart from the others one of the three had split itself so that one half of it was a slab that formed a roof tor for the crevice between theother the other two jeems eyes revealed a deeper excitement cit ement as he pointed it out to tobnette Tol nette we will hide and in therel there 1 he cried make haste tobnette Tol nette 1 it Is smooth rock and will leave no sign behind us go in and keep odd with you I 1 I 1 ile he began to throw loose stones about the huge boulder heap some he flung over the top of it so that they fell on the opposite side and at last lie sent a few into the edge odthe of the valley each farther than the other lie ile finish finished pol by shooting an arrow w aich descended in an open space at the foot of the ridge tobnette Tol nette watched wat clied him in amazement and alarm until lie he commanded her in a ster sterner r vo voice fee to crawl quickly under the stones she waited no longer but pulled puffed herself a few inches at a time be beneath the boulders jeems thrusting odd ahead of him had greater dlin culty in performing this same feat and for a little while they squirmed and twisted until they found a dark recess in which they aliey could crowd themselves and even sit upright t jeems explained to tobnette Tol nette the meaning of his strange behavior outside first they will find the loose stones and the marks I 1 made and search for us in every hole and cranny of the pile he said when they discover the arrow I 1 hope they will believe we have fled into the forest they waited in a silence wherein the beating of their hearts was wa like the sound of tiny drums in the gloom 0 of f their hiding place A shudder r ran an through tobnette Tol nette but she whispered 1 I am not afraid 11 she felt jeems fumbling for his hatchet and heard him place it quietly on the naked rock at his side then the rock itself seemed to give forth a faint sound as it if some one had bad tapped it gently with a stick this sound grew into others that were soft and swift and jeems knew that moccas ined feet were all about them low voices added themselves to the pattering tread tobnette Tol nette fixed her eyes on tile the crack through which came the shaft of light and occasionally it was darkened as a body passed it the tread of feet came and went and they heard the alie clatter of rocks but for a time RII all aled away and tt it was this silence which became almost unbearable for colne tolne tobnette Tol nette tte this clutch of a danger which they could not see or cope with seized upon her until each moment she expected to hear a ghostly creature stealing into their hiding place or to see a pair of flaming eyes on a level with her own it was a feeling of horror instead of fear and with it came a strong desire to cry out and ease case tier her suspense in a scream jeems too had almost found himself in the grip of something which he could not control not more than a quarter of an hour passed in this suspense but it seemed to be a lifetime then there were voices again which increased in number and excitement until above them all a yell rose from the valley as one of the searchers discovered the arrow when tobnette Tol nette raised her head she heard no evidence of life other than their own on the ridge thank god they think we have gone into the valley ill I 1 said jeems tobnette Tol nette touched him with a cautioning hand and in the same moment lie he was aware of the sound her ears had caught 1 some one was near the rock more alore than han one there were two their voices were distinct though low and they stood so close that their forms shut out the light from the crevice to his astonishment jeems heard a language which heisl bah adams had taught him and it wa was s not Moli mohawks awk these were Se the discovery thrilled him ile he hated the mohawk hatchet wielders who were the scourge of the southern frontier pr but the Se also brethren br ethien of the six great nations he h doubly daumy feared for while the mohawk killers were the wolves of the wilderness the were its foxes and panthers combined onedas one was a creature of darkness and surprise the other a lightning flash that came and went wen t with deadly swiftness lie he might trick it a mohawk Moli awk but a seneca was the cleverest cres t of his kind lie he felt its his blood turn cold as he listened to the two one was arguing that the arrow was a ruse and that tile the fugitives were somewhere not far away the other whose mind was still on the huge pile of stones discredited the thought that it had been thoroughly searched and set off to find some proof of his bis suspicions alie first of the two speakers remained and neither tobnette Tol nette nor jeems could hear him move it seemed an infinity of of time before movement came again the rock metal tt it cs the seneca mado made a resting pance avice ot of it for his gun footsteps went away returned and halted close to the r arrow macrow aperture through which they had squeezed their bodies under the stones the savage ravage wn was lo looking oldrig at the en trance to their hiding biding place I 1 jepma jeems pictured tho warrior his bis doubt and ana hesitation the and was as sure aure in his hl as though no b barrier lay between them ue ile heard a gr grunt the seneca was wa on his stomach peering in and the grunt was an expression of the foolishness which had bad made him grovel like this in a moment he would rise and go away but the moment passed one two three a dozen Tol tobnette nette was like ilka one dead odd sensing a mighty danger knowing that it was coming crouched like hire a sphinx at last the silence was broken so BO softly that the disturbance might have 11 been that of a tress of hair falling from her shoulder across jeems arm the indian had thrust in his head ile he was 11 listening stent ng smell smelling in g then advancing slyly and cautiously like a ferret on the trail of prey there could no longer be a doubt ile he knew there was wag something under the rocks and with true seneca courage coura gt foreseeing glory for himself even it if death paid for it he was coming alone every ini instinct reached its highest tension in jeems as a danger approached pro ached which lie he would be able to touch with his hands tn in another moment or two ile he remo removed ved himself gently from embrace and prepared his arms and body for action their eyes tind had grown more accustomed to the gloom and tobnette Tol nette could see him as he crouched forward and gathered himself for the struggle which would roean mean life or death for them suddenly she understood that it would not bea he a struggle j when the Se head appeared jeems hatchet would smash it in she could see the hatchet it was poised to strike there would be no cry no moan only that terrible hidden sound she listened to the doomed man slowly coming the feathers of his tuft appeared first then the ion long g black scalp lock the hair plucked head a pair of shoulders jeems put till all his strength behind tile the upraised hatchet he knew there must be but one blow well placed in the middle of the skull that would end it ile he almost closed hla his eyes and the file hatchet descended a little an overwhelming sense of the horror of the thing holding back hla his stroke it was not simply killing it was murder the seneca turned his head and looked up ills his eyes were trained for use at night and he saw more clearly than jeems lie he saw the white face the hatchet the death behind it and he waited transformed to stone no voice came to dis bis lips and no movement to his cramped body in this moment of shock and stupefaction when he must have realized that all the power of his forest gods could not help him the pupils of his eyes glowed darkly lie he did not breathe conscious of his impending end he was as amazed but not terrified ills his ine fine countenance did not shrink from the steel about to sink into his brain into jeems face as he paused for a moment to study the ground about then them for a second more the blade did not fall and in that second teems jeems eyes and those of the savage met steadily tend fly then the hatchet clattered to tile the rock floor and with a protest of revulsion at what he had almost done jeems clutched ot at the Se throat the indian was at a disadvantage and though his powerful body strained and fought to loosen the choking grip his position was so hopeless that in a short time he was limp and unconscious the Se adventure and the combat if it could be distinguished by that name had not terminated a moment too soon for those concealed under the rocks the trail hunters were now aware that the placing of the arrow had been a ruse to delay them and began swarming back to the ridge half a dozen warriors gathered in a fierce and animated debate one close about the rocks coclis if nerves were on the point of 0 breaking then odds were in no better condition when the returned to the ridge ills his heart was breaking in its subjection to inactivity and stillness now he be looked again on victory his master was vas triumphant as the indians returned and crowded a bout about the rocks defiance rose in hn hid soul in an overwhelming flood he hated the smell outside ile he listed hated the creatures creo tures who made it without warning his passion broke loose in the howling rage of a beast gone mad arms and jeems handi IV were L re futile in their efforts to stop it the seneca on the stone floor moved a little outside there fell an awful stillness then odd realized what lie he had bad done and grew quiet they could feel rather than hear a velvet footed voiceless cordon gathering about them in a ring of death TO BE CONTINUED |
