Show ta M 4 al alm M 4 the plains of abraham by james oliver curwood it by doubleday dornn doran co ino service I 1 T T T T T T T T T T T T CHAPTER XI continued 21 the fires burned down until th they ey were eyes in the night hours passed and the listened in the stillness as it oppressed by fear ear at last they heard the chanting of a voice coming nearer as fast as a canoe could travel it was the death song with which tiaona had bad grieved for his daughter and the savages were moved by it as leaves are moved by a wind the suspense was broken for in tile the song ong of grief was also a note of triumph which baroug brou glit tile the message that had been successful in his pursuit fresh fuel was plied piled on the fires and the flames leapt high when and his companions came from the river they brought no prisoner with them yet it a fierce light shone in their countenances as they entered the tha illumination and beginning his death song again tiaona snatched a burning brand and flung it into the midst of the pitchy material about the torture stake in it a moment a winding theet sheet of flame licked its way up the pole and around this danced finishing his song to the crackling of the pitch lie ile described how they had overtaken the fleeing ones at the edge of the great rocks beyond which the water thundered in a maelstrom the blind man had fought with a hatchet lie he had stolen from all ali de bahs tepee until another blade was sunk in his brain to quiet him lie ile was a devil in his blindness and pointed to Sh Indas who held back his buck back coln shirt to show a long and bleeding gash the white man was dead and his body weighted by tile the darkness of his soul was gone forever in the deep waters beyond the rocks but the unclean one who had tricked them the girl whose evil ell spirit had come to bring dis dishonor lionor upon them and to desecrate the soul of 0 sol yan mak ilak wun they had taken alive taw face grew livid ills soul had gone so black when they caught her that he could see only death for lie he heard ills his daughters voice crying to him for vengeance so lie ha had killed t the he treacherous one lie ile had killed her at the command of silver heels whose spirit was singing to him lie ile had killed the white girl with his own hands and had flung her body to disappear with that ol of the blind man suddenly drew from its hiding biding place next ills breast a thing which brought a gasp to the lips of those about him all recognized it as beautiful braid of hair streaming from the bleeding scalp the savage held above his bis head became more anore than ever a fiend in the flesh as he be danced about the stake flecks decks of blood from the 1 0 became more than ever a fiend in the tha flesia as he ha danced about the stake red ired scalp struck his face at the height of his madness lie he flung it into the heart of the pitch witchwood wood fire sol yan was wa avenged and the demand of ills his people answered CHAPTER XII at noon of the second day ot of his fits journey jeems came to the village of whose chief was matozel Ma Ala or cr yellow bear lie ile haj traveled the seventy miles in thirty hurs and was determined to return as quickly for he be was troubled deeply by the thought that tobnette Tol nette was alone at a time when tile the sentiment of the indians was turning against them why lie he and not a tribal runner had been sent to yellow bear puzzled him and the fact that he bore a message of small importance increased his uneasiness lie ile had scarcely reached when his bis went weapons ions a knife mud aud ba hatchet were taken from him and he was brought to AIa Ala this individual who w was as killed at lake george the following year and who was a boy in appearance though the french held him among the bravest fighters of the six nations informed jeems that he was a prisoner ile he said tiaona had defaulted in a payment of corn that was due and teems jeems was to cover part of the obligation SIa tersely explained the agreement between the chiefs it if jeems attempted to escape and ad was caught by his warriors he would be killed if by any chance he surce succeeded eded in getting back to chegut so then he would answer to with his life A dead line was drawn encircling tile the tepee in which he was to live and lie he found himself under a surveillance little less strict than that accorded to a prisoner whose fate was to be torti torture lre or death the fourth afternoon he perceived an excited gathering of women and ch children ildren some distance from him film but p paid id no attention to it depressed by fears fe irs w which aich had become unbearable he h e w was as determined determine d to gain ills his freedom before another dawn increasing cloudiness c lou diness during the afternoon and a promise of storm with the beginning 0 of f evening added to ills his hopes for success suco thunder and rain came with darkness and he feigned sleep at an early hour it was almost midnight when he sat up and listened to the downpour ile he was about to rise to his feet certain that no would be lying in the deluge when lie he heard the sodden rustle of the skin flap to the tepee as it was drawn back and some one entered in a moment a small voice ahls whispered ills his name cold hands found him film as ile he held out his arms ile he felt a childs drenched form then came choking words halt half smothered r mo in the heat of tile alie storm 1 I am wood pigeon geon I 1 ran away from three days ngo ago I 1 have come to tell you silver heels Is dead lightning flashes which accompanied the storm that night revealed a solitary figure hurrying through the wilderness toward a figure which sped until it was winded and then continued at a slower pace with a persistence no beat of rain or blast of wind could halt the traveler was jeems wood pigeon had repeated the message tobnette Tol nette entrusted to her a few min u atea tes preceding her light flight with liepse hall bah adams and no blackness was so thick that it hid bid from him tile the tortured faces of his wife and his blind uncle as they beckoned him to vengeance even vengeance seemed futile and inadequate hope did not rise in his breast ile he had hoped when he be knew ills his mother was dead he be had hoped as he s sought 0 u it for life among the ruins bugl of ton t e manor he had never quite given up hope that ills his uncle was alive but now bow it was waa impossible cpr or him to find that saying grace within its his mental reach As lie he went on he was slowly dispossessed of the power to hate bate though every sinew in his body was bent with implacable resolution in its mission of death lie he would kill lie ile would kill Sh indas there would be only justice and no gratification of the flesh or the spirit in his act A greater and more encompassing thing than the impulse which had sent him from Mato zees village began to choke him with a force that was sickening it was his aloneness the vastness vast nesa of the world the sudden going of the one who had remained to make it habitable for him without tobnette Tol nette there was no do rea son for its existence no reason why it should continue to give him the warmth of life tobnette Tol nette was dead it was a fate predestined from the beginning something he be had bad always feared vaguely nothing counted now to kill and would not cause a rift in the hopelessness which lay ahead of him ile he advanced with a speed which would have exhausted him at any other time As tile the hours passed an explanation for this haste gathered in ills his consciousness lie was going home that in all of its significance was the cabin in which Tol tobnette nette and lie he had lived their home A thing that had not gone with her body and yet was a part of lier her which lie he would find as lie he had left it when lie he came to the end of the trull trail unless had destroyed that too ile he reached the place gleamed with pools of water suspicious dogs appeared to identify him but the people were asleep lie he found ills his cabin with the door closed as it would have been it if tobnette Tol nette were asleep inside lie ile could feel her presence when lie ho entered nut but she was not there ile he made a light cautiously and screened it so that eyes outside could not see the floor the walls the room were illumined faintly ile he began to put his hands on things lings ti to gather them here and there making a bundle of his its treasures on the table her things lings ti when lie he had prepared the the bundle he armed himself with a knife and a hatchet and bit hi bow then extinguished the light and went w ent out closing the door behind him he sought Sh Indas tor for his plan was to kill him first then he would kill was not in hl his tepee the place wall wai empty and his weapons were gone evidence that he was amayon a journey for a few moments after this discovery jeems stood in the shadow of an oak looking at Tia ogas dwelling place the urge to destroy was not strong in him the gentle whispering among the trees and the drip of water from their foliage combined in a melody of peace which struggled to turn him from the thought ot of death it might have won it if a tall figure to he heard the arrow strike had not come out of the tepee he was wag watching jeems knew it was the chieftain advanced toward him as it if an invisible fate were leading him to his execution then he be paused the moon was bright it lit up his features thirty yards away as he gazed into a mystery of distance which his eyes could not penetrate what had brought him what lie he was thinking what the night held for him j jeems beems did not ask himself lie strung ills his bow and fitted an arrow then he called name in a low votes voice to let him know that retribution had bad come the bow twanged and a slender shaft sped i through the moonlight with the sound und of a humming bird ile he heard the arrow strike did not cry out ills bands banda clutched at ills his breast as he be sank to the earth and lay there a motion fess blot jeems beema went down the river for many days he fild along jon its shores seeking for coln Rs boZy body ile he saw pass and repass but as he traveled almost entirely in the water he was successful in evading them when he reached lake ontario he turned eastward still carding his bundle at night he slept with it close to ills his face breathing the precious incense of things sometimes lie he held to his lips tile the piece of red cloth she had worn around her hair no spring of action encouraged him to return to forbidden valley or the richelieu and it was chance nod not a definite purpose which brought him to the place on lake champlain called ticonderoga by the indians this was late in the summer of 1758 1750 the french had occupied a point of land and in d were building fort vaudreuil Vaud reull and fort carillon jeems seized upon these activities with the avidity of one who at last had found something to assuage a killing hunger ile he joined Mont calms forces and was given a mus musket ket and a spade in place of his hl bow and arrows ile he entered now an apprenticeship of digging and building in the earth w where here tile the forts were going up the work and its environment the excitement of war and the ever increasing news of french victories were a relief to its his broken spirits but they did not thrill thrift him ile he fought against this a pathy apathy ile he tried to hate once more lie he repented repeated to himself many times that the english and their indians were responsible for the tragedies which lad befallen his loved ones dut but lie he could not rise to the passion for vengeance lie he wanted to fight lie he wanted anted N to see the english and their allies overwhelmed but ills his emotions were as dull ns as they were implacable they burned with a fatalistic evenness which neither triumph nor defeat could raise to great heights or lower to the depths they had plumbed death could never stir him again as it had already stirred him no shambles could sicken him and no victory bring to him tile the remotest gladness of tile the song he had chanted in the firelight at TO BE CONTINUED |