HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1931-12-17, Page 3TUB
S
“The Silver Hawk W
BY WILLIAM BYRON MOWERY
SYNOPSIS
James Dorn, aerial map ma!Xer» as
signed to a territory in the north’
ern Canadian Rockies lives alone
in his camp on Titan Island.
, Kansas Eby, his friend for the
past six years was stationed at
Eagle Nest, two hundred miles
east. Kansas came over one
Bight te a dance that the Indians
were having on the station
* platform. When the midnight
train pulled in he seen a girl
come out and glance hurriedly
around and then disappear into
the darkness. Kansas followed
hurriedly but failed to find any
; trace of her. ...... .... .
Dorn about it and the same night
Pere Bergelot, a trusty metis ar
rived with the girl.
The girl, Aurore McNain, asks
Dorn to go to a lonely lake in
search of her father and she wish
es to accompany him.
When they arrive at the cabin
. there is no sign of habitation.
The girl, Aurore McNain, asks
Dorn to take her to a lonely lake
in search of her father. When
they arrive there is no sign of
habitation but she tells Dorn
is going to Jive there alone.
an
his
the
He told liis friend
she
CHAPTER XI
fled
Ber
and
tree
pair
The dust and sweat and garish
bustle of th city oppressed Dorn as
they never had done before. He
■ felt hot and grimy, and his nerves
were on a raw edge. The moun
tains, cool and clean and sweet,
where winds blew free from high
snowfields and the bighorn and the
golden eagle were at home, seemed
in a. different world altogether. He,
ached to be back at that wilderness
lake, to go swimming in its spark-
lings waters, to saunter over the
springy moss under those great
.drooping pines and hear Aurore’s
low golden voice telling him of a
bird she had seen or a rare flower
she had found, or perhaps telling
iiim of the tragedy she had
from and explaining away old
gelot’s warning.
He stepped to the window
stood looking out. In a rowan
rearing tip near the balcony a
of sedate monogamous ro'bins were
roosting beside their new-built nest.
■Westward over the tops of houses
and trees he saw a distant range of
liills. so far away that the limber
pines crowning them were gossamer,
and the faint afterglow of sunset
was tangled in them as he had once
seen the sun in Aurore McNain’s.
hair.
It was sunset now in the moun
tains. All the stir and feverish
battle for mates had stopped. From
pine-tops, the golclen-crowned spar
rows were calling their flute-like
evening song. Trout were noisy in
the shallows around the island. The
moose and caribou were swimming
back to the mainland to browse dur
ing the brief northern night. . Out
of their daytime, caves the grizzlies
were coming now to eat skunk cab
bage and dig for hoary marmots and
along the mountain torrents seacrh-
ing for dead fish.
Aurore was probably sitting lone
some on the jutting boulder, watch
ing the valley fill with purple shad
ows; watching the last touch of sun
fade from the high pinnacles and
linger a few moments longer, among
the clouds still higher. She was no
intruder upon‘that solitude, but a
part of it all. She belonged. Ini
his stirred imagination Dorn ident
ified her with the elusive mystery
Of the old mountains, with the wild
free spirit of them, with the
rant air and clean sunshine
chaste pure colours of white
blue and evergreen.
Responsibility for her rested
heavily upon him. If her enemies
should discover his connections with
lier, they would knock him out of
the air with a hostile plane or else
get him into their hands. Th'e slight
est suspicion would be fatal to her.
Tf they shot him down it would
mean her death. If they captured
liim, lie would have to disclose
where she was to save her life.
On the sun roof just below Dorn
a young, pretty woman in negligee
sat talking to a man of middle age;
and without meaning to listen to
their pitfire argument Dorn gather
ed that this girl, kept there in the
hotel by this man, was neither wife
or daughter, 'but mistress to him. In
the apartment next door a phono
graph wa^ 'playing a suite from the
“Samson et Dalila” of Saint Saens.
■Dorn listened to the bittersweet
harmonies of the piece, to ths sens
ual harem music mingling with the
xeliglous proundity of Jehovian rites
to the heartless mocking laughter of
Dalila breaking into the measured
agony of Samson’s prayer; and as,
ho listened, thinking of Aurore, .that
mocking refrain took hold of Dorn
and presently to the music of it he
was unconsciously repeating those
frag-
and
and
very
Hew'
them
(be
came
suit,
words, “Can never,” which had
broken into his friendship with Aur
ore however much he tried to reas-
on them away, and which were
ugly, jarring note in all
thoughts of her.
A chime in a distant part of
city 'began sounding. Dorn glanc
ed at his watch. Ten o’clock. Jerry
would fae coming in a quarter of an
hour. Turning from tile window
lie reached for his hat and coat.
Out of the corner of his eye he
saw the door of his room flung
suddenly open. A police sergeant,
revolver in hand, stepped inside.
Four other officers; one of
jingling handcuffs, filed in
hind the patrol leader. Last
a plainclothes man in gray
grey cap.
The sergeant, a clean-cut young
fellow, glanced sharply at Dorn’s
powerful physique, at his silent
stern face, and stepped between
Dorn and the window, his heavy re
volver covering his prisoner.
He must have decided he was ar
resting a gentleman. He must have
seen the anguished despair
swept over Dorn like a flood,
he nodded friendly enough
there was respect in his tones,
“Sorry to come busting in,
Please don’t make any ruckus,
got a squad here and a squad
low.We wanted you had.”
CHAPTER XII
Valiant Wings
th at
For
and
sir.
. -I
be-
1 B.B.-T B BB f B • B B ■ • B.B ■ • ■ ■ R BI • I ■ ■ ■ ■ 111 11 III| .l.fl | ■ 1| HIIb» '
be scared, You're gripping an aU’
tomatic in your coat pocket, I no
tice.” He saw the glint of wary gns*
picion in th man's eyes; and with A
plan of escape rapidly crystallizing,
he added: “My fcliristiau friend, if
you won’t talk I’ll send for a law
yer at the jail and I’ll talk to him,
and to-morrow morning the papers
will run the whole story,
would you like that?”
His shot struck. The detective
blinked his eyes slowly like a turtle.
“We’ll hold you incommun'------” he
started to say.
“You will like hell!” In a swift
diplomatic appeal Dorn spun on the
sergeant. “How about it partner—
do I have the right to a lawyer and
habeas corpus?”
“We don’t railroad anybody. Af
ter the examination’s over, you’ve
got the right.” To the detective:
“And ’less you slap some definite
charge onto him, we can’t hold him.
Better make up your mind. Want
to talk to him or not?”
The detective drew a black auto
matic, slipped the safety catch and
.stepped over to
block
cape.
“If
clean
minute,” lie directed, in the polygot
of the crooks he associated with.
The sergeant nodded to
and led them out into*the
With five of his enemies
of at one neat scoop, Dorn
easier. He had only
Soft-Sihoe.
He drew a couple
to the detective, as
ley. He counted on the man or
dering him to keep his distance. His
manoeuvre worked. Sol’t-Shoe or
dered him, “Get back,” and empha
sized it with a nervous flip of his
automatic.
“All
fully,
against
scared.
ness.
He surprised the detective by de
manding abruptly, “How much?”
The electric light switch was
pressing against his backbone and
he could feel the door holt against
his shoulder-blade, and he exulted
that in a, few minutes he would,
smash his way out of this trap,
Soft-Shoe .evidently admired liim
for being sensible, that is,, for hav
ing a price; and he became a little
more communicative,
“I can’t say definite how much,
But I can get in touch with the
party that ean. Oiffhand—if .you
take us where she’s at and you pro
mise to keep your mouth shut
about her—I’d say twenty thou
sand.”
For a second Dorn’s thoughts
went leapng away from his plan to
escape. “Lord, twenty thousand
dollars. Just for information. And
defectives sowed from Hazelton to
Edmonton. Money, power,
lentless hunt—that’s what
said!”
“Do you. know her?” he
a re-
Aurore
asked,
rising slightly on liis toes to hook'
iliis belt over the electric light
switch. And when the detecive
nodded, Dorn haggled cold-blooded-
you know twenty tliou-
much of a price for a girl
so,”Soft-Shoe agreed.
the window
that faint possibility of
himyou’re sure you frisked
for a gat, step outside for a
his men
corridor,
disposed
breathed
to -handle this
of steps closer
though to par-
die, alone in
■he
unstaggered under
now, facing his en
down the despera-
trapped and corner-
And as he struggled up
he swore doggedly:
this. I
to jail.
I am.
will still be
from
“I’m
don’t
They
If I
in would
I’m be-
fellow’S
Arrested! Those white-caps crowd-
into the door, that lanky sergeant,
revolver in hand, were a thunder
yelp out of a clear sky to Dorn. In
the despair that swept over him his
thoughts were wholly of Aurore.
|“Now I’ve bungled it. N°w 1’^
given them a chance at her. They’ve
got me and I’m her sole depend
ence. I’ll have to give her up or
she’ll , starve, she’ll
those ranges.”
They did not need
his arrest had come
flash he saw how. Aurore’s enemies,
knowing she was penniless, had
reckoned upon her trying to sell
her only valuable possession. Even
here in Edmonton, hundreds of miles
from Titan Pass, the jewellery
stores had been warned to look out
for the ■ costly barrette. Under pre
tence of testing the stone the pro
prietor had ’phoned detective head
quarters, and an operative had sha
dowed him to the hotel.
But after a moment Dorn braced
himself against the shock. In the
same cold, stern way in which he
would have met any disaster,
stood tall and
the chandelier
. emies. fighting
tion of a man
ed.
despair,
going to break out of
dare let them drag me
haven’t any idea who
can get away, Aurore
safe.” But to break free, confronted
by five guns, six men . . .
•Stalling for time, for a few pre
cious seconds to think, he spoke to
the young sergeant.
“Before you take me
you mind telling me what
ing arrested for? It’s a
right, isn’t it?”
“Yes, ‘tis,” the s<
not unfriendly. “But I
what for. All I know,
passed down to me to
squads and back up This
He jerked a thumb at
clothes individual.
Across the table Dorn sized up
up the detective. Here then was the
person he had to deal with. A man
of some importance he seemed;
.possibly head of the private detec
tive corps flung out in hunt of Aur
ore. I-Ie was thirty-odd, tall and
lean, cadaverous of face, with eyes
as cold as window-glass. A perfect
ed sleuthing machine, a prototype
of his calling-—there was nothing
warm-blooded or human about him.
Dorn was reasoning swiftly: “Bo
you didn’t tell the police about your
•business with me! You drew them
into this arrest because^ you had to
make dead'sure of getting me. Your
party didn’t enlist the Mounted oi‘
the Provincial in this hunt. You
want to keep the affair quiet if you
possibly ca’n. That’s what Aurore
hinted at in her telegram, too.”
The sergeant stepped up and ran
his fingers over Dorn in search of
weapons, and feeling some metal
object on Dorn’s breast, ho drew
back the jacket till he disclosed a
military decoration—a pair of sil
ver wings with bar “FLegiments
Etrangors” an4 pendant “Pour la
Valeur.” He stared at it for a
moment, then looked up at Dorn
with something
in his glance'.
A constable
Dorn spoke past
detective;
a minute,
fair over.
•agreedlergeant
dont know
orders was
bring two
man here.”
the plain-
of respect and awe
jingled handcuffs
the sergeant to the
“I want to talk to you
iSupposd we talk this af-
In private, You needn’t
right,” Dorn agreed scorn-
purposively backing up
the door, “if you’re all that
Now let’s get down to busi-
What do you want with me?’
“Nothing with you personal. We
want to know where she faded
I can make it worth your while
you to come across.”
'There was no use
knew nothing about
would be clingin;
.ready demolished.
to.
for
pretending he
Aurore. That
a defence -al-
ly, “Then
sand isn’t
like her.”
“Mebbe
“But it’s twenty thousand or noth
ing. That much jack *ud keep a
fellow the rest of his life. You don’t
look like a man who’d lose his head
over any floosey, and her—you
know you got about as much chance
as a snowball in hell of ever hav
ing her. That’s out, bo!”
Dorn suddenly stiffened, forget
ting the light switch, the door bolt.
Those words “That’s out” were
blunt statement of a blunt fact. Old
Bergelot’s warning rose up again,
alive agaiii. Both men, one his
friend, the other his deadly enemy,
knew Aurore’s story. One had
said: “You have begun the Great
Flight . . . and I must turn you
back.” The other just now likened
his chances of having Aurore to a
snowball in hell.
Outside on the street the squeal
of familiar brakes recalled Dorn.
■Jerry had come, Jerry would run
into the police. . .
“You mebbe could get habeas
corpus and go hack to her,” Soft-
Shoe went on, while Dorn esimated
distances and gathered himself for
explosive physical action. “But how
long ’ud that nice little party last?
'Less you’re a damn fool you know
already that this Dominion, would
n’t be big enough to hold you. Bet
ter pull out of this trouble while
the pulling’s good. Suppose you
don’t: we’ll find y-ou; there’ll be a
fight; you ought to see your head
ing for that. What chance have
(you got in a fight with us? If, you
'try to be contrary, I’ll give you a
hand
door bolt
He ducked
RCAF Camp
Eagle Nest ■
Bring that D-H crate over to
Lake Lobstick south inlet open her
up J. D.
Kansas knew the wre was from
Dorn. It had been filed in Edmon
ton at eleven o’clock last night.
Noon now of the next day and Dorn
not yet come, though
had been urgent. By
tomobile either one he
showed up hours ago.
In growing keen anxiety, Kansas
tried to reason out what he ought
to do.“ Dorn’s in trouble. He would
never have called for help unless
he needed it bad.
meet me
pened to
wire. And
a chunk,
fly on
him a
his. message
train or au-
should have
hells, his
his limp
which way
fist lifted
week to live. What’ll it be now—
you want that jack, or want to be
bumped off because you went nuts
over a floosey ...”
Dorn came down on his heels. At
the same instant that the room was
plunged into blackness his
shot up and sped the
against the policemen.
under the spurt of flame from the
automatic, lunged across the room,
and swung at the dim figure beside
the window. Something like an iron
maul caught the operative flush on
the jaw. The automatic spun
against the wall. SoftoShoe heard
the tintinabulation of
knees forgot their duty,
•body wobbled, uncertain
to fall, till Dorn’s left
him clear off his feet and stretched
him flat on the rug,
Dorn vaulted through the window
to the sun roof below. He poised
a moment on the balustrade, then
leaped for the top of the rowan
tree.
One hundred and thirty
west of Edmonton, in
let of Lake Lobstick,
sat in the cockpit ot
D-H biplane, waiting.
For the twentieth I
ed out of his pocket
telegram and re-read :
He expected to
here, but something hap-
liim after he sent that
here I sit like a bump oir
when maybe I ought to
and look him up and givein
hand.”
(To be Continued)
miles
the south in
Kansas Eiby
an anchored
crumpled
John J. Donohue passedMr.
away -at his home in Sarnia recent
ly. Mr. Donohue was proprietor of
the Royal Hotel now known as the
Arlington, Parkhill, for a number
of years.
Mr. John McIntyre, of West Wil
liams, has been appointed clerk of
the Division Court . in Parkhill tak
ing the place of the late C. Noble.
time he pull-
a .
_ ... ... iL
Edward Eby, Cartographer
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I