Show y 5 STRINGER ZV B S TORY STORY SO FAR just when it as though norland airways Is tajh hagh cruger finds a scientist named frayne who offers to pay well to be flown to the Anaw otto a river in canadas barren north country where tie he hopes to find the breeding ground of 1 le e trumpeter swan this good news helps to soften the blow when cruger has to tell his partner and ace flyer byer alan slade that his application tor for overseas service with the army air corps has been turned down slade explains that he signe d up because he thought they would lose the business cruger says he has bought a new lockheed that will keep them going for a while he and alan are discussing their new client who is apparently not inexperienced having recently returned from an expedition to the himalayas now continue with the story CHAPTER 11 II me i lat at was this man frayne after ie himalayas slade asked the great tibetan sheep karnell he explained was his on both occasions but karnell count all he does apparently is supply the brawn its our man of science who supplies the brain in that outfit your nature lover shooting wide of the mark when he went looking for sheep in winter its in spring and summer sheep come down anywhere every hunter knows that crugers brugers Cru gers chair shift was one of impatience dont worry about your passengers your business lindy is flying and it if you feel that dreamy eyed ornithologist is after gold like all the rest of them think along another une line when youve seen him hes different and before summers over you may be sure hell be calling for supplies should he go in there to starve questioned slade he wont starve retorted the other hes well heeled his papers are in order and the royal mounted have okayed oklyed his excursion hes carrying a lot of equipment crugers brugers Cru gers glance went to the window be bringing over their stuff from the terminal any time now themselves cruger nodded its too pu procious cious apparently for our port boys to handle before sundown be stowing it aboard your ship and when they do better stand by and check up on their kit why cruger shrugged well lets say its to make sure he give you an overload over load slade re buttoned his flyers coat ill be back from mcmurray in wo hours he proclaimed and ill check and double check on that s swan an stalker 14 g t iger glanced up at the route won ftp on the wall an early start tomorrow should give you light for landing it wont be easy flying remember ill fly baby elephants to the pole slade announced if its going to keep this outfit on its f feet crugers brugers Cru gers quiet smile was that of a man with a trump card still in his hand but the important point he pursued is that youre not the only one who get to the front this throw he paused for a moment as though to give timing to a message too important to be lightly uttered 1 I thought like to know that doctor Mor locks daughter swing in with that red cross unit slade turned away and looked at map it was taking time antly for information so unexpected to be absorbed ro d FA A 4 A 9 k Y y 00 bryin buy in diamonds for your girl friend down the basin how do you know that slade demanded with just a trace of a tremor in his voice the older mans half smile was quickly smothered it came from himself hed the offer of a chair in medicine at the university of manitoba and that girl of his was set on him getting out of frontier life flying I 1 guess she felt hed weaken if she stepped out and went overseas over seas but the old boy stuck to his guns he said he was needed in the north and would die with his boots on and that meant only one thing for a girl like that it meant she had to stick to her dad even cruger could smile a little at the newer light that crept into the viking eyes so ashes not going to england slade repeated no ashes flying to coronation with her father tomorrow cruger said as he picked up the envelope slades glance remained preoccupied he had the look of a tired swimmer who had unexpectedly found solid ground under his feet even the sunlight outside when he swung open the door seemed a little brighter for there after all to be a wide atlantic between him and lynn he drew a deep breath and turned back to cruger youre right about this outfit he said were going to keep her going he swung the door shut on cru gers smile alan slade jolting over the three mile trail between mcmurray and waterways sat back in cassie olins taxi and let the road and cassie do their worst but cassle cassie he saw knew how to handle her dust covered old callopy jall opy probably the most northerly taxicab omitting alaska on the continent for cassie who had driven an arctic dog team in her time was both stalwart of body and resolute of spirit cherell Wh reU erell I 1 be drippin drop pin you asked cassle cassie as they rolled into the towns wooden fronted main street at dillon the jewelers slade told her bryin diamonds for your girl friend down the basin slade laughed theres no such animal he said as he waved her goodby good by but he was wondering at the moment if lynn would be paying her customary visit to st gabriels shed be wanting supplies before heading north for the north was empty of much that was needed there his present mission was evidence enough of that it involved he remembered a wedding ring for a lovelorn love lorn mineworker mine worker at el dorado a mineworker mine worker impatient to travel in double harness with a full bosomed swede waitress who answered to the name of atlin olga oiga for five years now slade also remembered he had been an unattached shopping agent for the exiles along the new frontier he had taken in christmas turkeys and radio sets dancing slippers and tobacco compasses and clock keys he had swapped their beaver and muskrat pelts for layettes lay ettes and cot ton flannel and exchanged white fox skins for baby food and safety pins he had matched yarn and learned how to spot service weight silk stockings and select slips of the right tea rose tint he had sleuthed sleuth ed out needed machine parts and bought cough medicine and kidney pills so the purchase of a wedding ring and even a wedding ring of the massiveness si veness and diameter designated by the impatient groom seemed merely an incident in the days work he laughed a little as he inspected the big ring in its velvet box his smile faded as he looked at his watch his plane he kemem was awaiting his attention he turned and looked about for cas sies taxi he was still diffidently searching the dusty street ends when he heard his name called alan it quickened his pulse for he knew that calling voice belonged to lynn even before he caught sight of her between the loungers fringing the shop fronts she was he saw almost running along the none too even sidewalk her hair close clipped and boy like shone mahogany brown in the sunlight and she carried her familiar first aid bag there was neither alarm nor excitement on her face but there was resolution in her stride alan come with me quick she called over her shoulder without slackening her pace happened alan asked as he swung in beside her theres been a fight she said between breaths theres a man ble bleeding eding to death at least the word they sent where is he asked slade they turned up a side street where the idlers both indian and white could no longer gape after them at the blue goose was lynns answer it it sounds like a severed artery slade knew enough of frontier town gambling joints and gin mius mills disguised as dance halls to realize what they might have to face no place for a girl he contended ive been in worse was lynns quick reply and you may have to help me why the padre attending to this he asked as he hurried on beside her A shadow crossed the girls face you know how father feels about drinking but even a drunken man can die protested slade im afraid father would let him was the girls answer to that thal hes no longer a doctor where alcoholics co holics are concerned hes washed his hands of them and nothing will ever change him slade remembered something about that it tied up he recalled with the hazy story of the flying padres abrupt migration from a once opulent city practice to the outposts of the mackenzie basin lawrence he remembered had his reasons for hating drunkenness for as slade was able to piece the story together lynns father had been one of new yorks most successful surgeons he had flown high and flown fast until the tragic death of his wife brought him up short the enemy he was fighting on a well fortified front line dropped like a parachutist in his own home be mildered wil dered and stunned but refusing to give ground he had sought relief in overwork over work and alcohol but one night when called from a night club for an emergency operation his his hand had failed him and his patient a pillar of wall street had died on the table that death the surgeon always felt was due to his own drunkenness it rang the curtain down on all his earlier feverish scramble for wealth he cabled his daughter lynn then in switzerland that he was giving up his tice and selling his city home he quietly dropped out of his old life and a year later reappeared as a relief worker when a flu epidemic was decimating the northern camps of canada his field broadened as he learned the need tor for medical service along the outer fringes of the new frontier and he be equipped himself with a plane which was used in many a mercy flight his daughter lynn was proving herself a chip of the old block for when she realized her father was somberly happy in that work and definitely committed to what she accepted as a life of expiation she quietly went in training as a nurse equipped herself as a worker coworker co with the padre and joined him in his silent yet stoic campaign of redemption demp tion she had stuck to him with a tender loyalty if this is going to be a murder case he contended why not notify the police it be murder cried lynn to the man following hei bet she looked reassuringly fearless in the slanting northern sunlight they must have been waiting for her in the blue goose the door opened expectantly even before she reached it where is he the girl asked of the pock marked man in his shirt sleeves he closed and locked the door before answering in here he said with a side glance of hostility as slade pushed in after the girl the sound of a phonograph P hono graph blaring out dance music in some outer room suddenly came to a stop A bold eyed woman heavily rouged gouged backed away at the peremptory hand band wave of the proprietor who opened a second door and pointed inside without advancing his first impression of the room as he entered was one of blood there was blood on the cover of an overturned table on the floor and on the summer parka worn by a figure half lying and halt half crouching along a stained wicker couch splashed with red slade tell whether the man in the parka was being held up or held down by an and yellow faced bartender who sat with one arm about the wounded man and looked up at them with the round eyes of a bewildered rabbit as the girl with the bag ran to his side it until she pushed the man away that slade recognized the face above the parka it was the parka that he recognized first he promptly identified it as the garment that had been given to slim Tum Turn stead by air command er rollins benson on the occasion ot of a bush fire flight in which slim had proved both his flying ability and his fearlessness it was slim Tum Turn stead looking up at him with a one sided and slightly sardonic smile im all right he stubbornly protested but his bis voice was thin with weakness lets see challenged lynn with her bag already open each movement was quick and decisive as she examined her patient get me water she commanded without turning her head water been boiled TO BE CONTINUED a Z alvr 41 |