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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1932-02-11, Page 7c THIS EXETER TIMES-ADVOCATE THlWDAYt IWUOSY lit, t(MI2 S “The Silver Hawk II S BY WIL.UAM BYRON MOWERY lllllllle=5fllHIHIIIII>IHIIIHlllllllll SVlIillllllilllfclilllllllllllllll SYNOPSIS James Dorn, aerlar map maker, as- gigned to a territory ip, the noyth- 'grn 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 night to 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. He told his friend ‘ 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 where she remains in hiding and Dorn car­ ries supplies to her iby aeroplane. Carfer-Suowdon arrives, and with the help of some 'breeds is trying to locate her. Luke, the trusty old Indian, who knows her secret hiding place is captured and Dorn is trying to free him from Carter- Snowdon. III ■Saw i to you only in case of «ome 'accident’ 1 to myself, for this is my fight, wot : yours; and to tell you the truth j’m 1 jealous of my privilege of watching • out for Aurore McNain. But when J you get this, that privilege will have passed to you. you're partner’ i over here and what happened from here, Go to Aurore and you will like her; and aside from my . asking yop to, I know you will look out for her to the limit of a 'man’s ability. "She has told me nothing about her trouble, or what stands between her and Henry Carter-Snowdon, but I believe she will tell you because she will know at once that you are human, whereas she seems to think I am an ogre or a sword or a flaming judgment.” Along with this letter Dorn en­ closed a map showing Kansas how to get to Aurora's lake; and one night he handed the message aver to old Bergelot. During that interval when his en- , emies had no planes, and so there was no danger of them air-trailing him, Dorn had visited the Lake of the Dawn every day, at morning or at evening. He would skim over the towering peak-line and drop; and circling once or twice above her is­ land, would wave to Aurore there •on the jutting boulder and catch the tiny flutter of her kerchief in ans­ wer; but he had no reason to light except to be with her, and there was every reason why that should not be. With no presumption in the world toward Aurore McNain but rather with astonishment that it should be .'true, Dorn knew that Aurore liked him; and after what she had told him that evening of the rainstorm, he felt it would be dishonest if he should keep on'visiting her. ‘Then after Carter-Snowden had brought in those two ■ new planes and Dorn could never feel positive that a shiny speck was not hanging somewhere in the sky watching him, he stayed away from Aurore alto­ gether. Each day he put in double his limit of flying hours, at carto­ graphy; it was high-tension work that kept him from thinking * too much, that burned up. his nervous energy and made sleep possible when he homed to Titan Pass. At times when he passed within a couple doz­ en miles of her lake it seemed that his very compass needles swung in Aurore’ direction, and the Silver Hawk seemed to side-slip toward that fieTy mesa; but rather than endanger her in the slightest degree, he denied himself even a mere dis­ tant glimpse of.her. It was during one-of those early days, When Dorn was not afraid of 'being air-trailed, that Kansas Eby discovered where Aurore was hidden. At the Lest River Dutchman’s post a hundred miles north of the Dake of the Dawn, Kansas had stopped to take on gas and oil cne afternoon from the emergency drums which lie and Dorn‘had planted there. The Dutchman told him that Dorn had just been there and had gone straight south. Wanting to talk with his partner, Kansas whipped south full-throttle on Dorn’s trail. After a long c'hase he finally sighted the Silver Hawk far ahead. Watching, he saw the graceful plane skim over 'a ' ” , dip completely out of ^iglit into a mountain valley, and finally reappear and wing on toward home. He thought: "That’s a queer manoeuvre— losing seven feet of altitude; what did he was doing, anyway?” When he himself sailed the blue, beautiful lake and its sev­ en islands, Kansas looked under the keel and die fairly jumped, and his hands dropped from the controls When he ?Jaw a small human figure on a jutting boulder far away be­ neath him. Seizing his binoculars, he drew the figure close; and once again he swore: "For Lord’s sake, it’s that girl! Here’s Where .Jim’s got her!” Aurore was and Kansas realized teur eye his plane Silver Hawk. "She come back!” While out of the'cockpit with his machine lurching and yawing, be remember­ ed Aurore as he had seen her that night iir the lighted vestibule and as she flitted away from him in tlie ce­ dars; and curiosity ate him up. He thought: "Jim won’t tell me any­ thing about 'her; by the Lord I’ll see for myself; I saw her first anyway!” He shut off his ignition and pushed the stick forward and went down in a thundering dive. (Continued next week) Don’t betray that of mine by coming trying to find out to me. Stay away north immediately meet her. I know lr, from running a fleadraii line one blizzard week. A baby was born, Yoroslaf thrust it through the ice of a river, because it cried too much. He had amassed considerable infor­ mation at covering crimes, but this time, in some unaccountable. way, "the mopsebird started talking”;' and with the sergeant three pipes behind him Yoroslaf broke for the huge wilderness south of the Lost River Dutchman’s Post, and escaped, A wholly-whipper caught him in the mountains, For a whole midwinter moon the 'snow kept climbing up, up, up to the first limbs of the spruces; the Lord Sun was cached; the storm howled flown from the land of the Yukon-iho-tannah like ten. million Ioupgarou. During the blizzarfl Yoroslaf stumbled upon a cabin on an island, and after the storm abated he wanaered on south and finally came out to the Canadian National; and hearing that Titan Pass was free of Yellow-Stripes, lie went there and grew face-hair, Now, whe Soft-Shoe heard about that cabin—particularly about its comfortable furniture, . its double walls and two rooms—he knew that there was the place Aurore was in refuge. Yoroslaf had only a hazy iflea how far north from Titan Pass the cabin was; the storm had bewil­ dered him, he had come south by a circuitous route, and his mind in general now was bleary from rot­ gut lioutchini. But he did remem­ ber that the lake lay along the old Carrier trail-path, and he did know that by. following not help finding Soft-Shoe: "You take me, up north in an air machine, set us off; we hunt each way on trail, find cabane hiyu quick.” Wlpn Dorn had dynamited the planerthat night, Soft-Shoe’s scheme was Delayed for several days, till Cart/i'r-Snowdon brought in a new fouffplace biplane, together with a sm/|l swift monoplane to match Dcf/n’s Silver Hawk. This .pursuit ciBft, carrying a machine gun and a gunner, was to act as convoy to the heavy ship and to shoot Dorn out cf the air so that he could not prevent them from closing in upon Aurore. Then one morning when Dorn was 'busy mapping a nameless river far a way west 'of Aurore’s lake, the twft machines went north and set off the three metis; and after arranging a signal system with the ’breeds when they should find Aurore, they came back to Eaux Mortes to wait and to watch for a chance to "get” Doni. Left in that wilderness, Yoroslaf climbed a neighboring giant and from its eyrie pinnacle swept and studied the country with long-range glasses. North at the limit of vision ho made out a fiery-coloured mesa and a horseshoe range ridden by a star-shaped glacier; and they stirred vague memories in his brain; and ho guessed, correctly, that the lake he j peak-line, sought nestled somewhere in that' region. It was not his intention to split the reward money with Charlo and Narcisse; he coveted it all for his own sweet own. So he directed the two 'breeds to work south along the Carrier trial; but he himself with light tump-pack and rifle, hur­ ried north-—-toward Aurore’s lake. Dorn’s own machine gun came— afi air-cooled Lewis. He managed to instal it into the crowded cockpit, and took with him on all his trips. 'Then old Luke, who went scounting every day with his nose up-wind, brought him word of Carter-iSnow- don’s swift pursuit craft which car­ ried not only double guns but a gunner to operate them. That news hit Dorn hard. He saw this struggle now shaping toward an aerial battle between hipi and the fighting plane, and he knew that in such a battle, when he would have to pilot the Silver Hawk ami work > .'the unsynchronizeci Lewis too, his after Dorn^ had wrecked the own craft would probably go down ... J wreckage. Dorn never turned dwelt on the consequences to liim- began .self, but only thought* over with one of these days, the end comes, it’ll come quick and hard. Aurore shouldn’t foe dependent upon me alone. It's too terrible a risk now. Her safety and protection shouldn’t hang on any one person. If they ‘get’ me they” ‘get* Lake too, so that he could never tell tales. Then nobody would know where Au- roro is. She could never come out; she’d die there ... or some ’breed would happen along ...” There was one man he could turn to and pin faith to. He wrote a let­ ter to Kansas Eby relating how Au­ rore McNain had come to him that night of the metl dance, lioiv I10 had taken, her north, how Carter-Snow- don had established liis identity, hud fought him, and now had brought against him an aimed plane, his usual restraint Dorn wrote and when no longer strutting had murder in his heart. His prim­ itive code demanded retaliation in blood upon enemies who had thrust hot iron against his flesh and had tied thongs to rocks to sink him in a like. Dorn tried to head him off: "I had chance, tote you away Had to grab you, before ’breeds come ' "Huh! tumbled four jabs you kill ’em all.” Dorn knew ho could never explain to old Luke his aversion to blood­ shed. So he argued: CartejvSnow- don’s disappearance -would, raise a hue and' outcry, the Yellow-Stripes would come a'nd trace the guilt, and there would ibe disastrous conse­ quences for Aurore. With a trip-hammer beating inside his skull, Luke was in no mood to reason. He snarled: 1 "You hyas fool, damn’ fool! You try fight grizzly with pine bough!'1 You ’bout like all other white men— look one way, row another. Indian paddle where look. When Indian has enemy, Indian kill’m. You .... bimeby you lose young squaw-siche. S'pose Ave go back to their camp; kill 'em all? .... ” Because it fell in with what he had in mind, Dorn, pretended to agree. He said:. "Good. But you stay here; leggs wobbly; no account in fight. I’ll go down there again, sneak up, kill 'em this time.”lo me snuuvw «uu. — I stepped into the mouth of the was standing there, debating wheth-1 .avalanche shed where the flare oi. er he might not quietly step on down I his match was shielded, and prepar- the lake shore without showing a ‘ ed a second dynamite cartridge with yellow streak, some sudden and extra long fuse. Then leaving the mysterious missile, seeming to come. °hl Indian, lie crept back along the from a laurel thicket not twelve grade, cut down through the trees yards out in the dark, whirled past and struck the lake edge two hun- liis ear, spluttering and fizzing like dred yards above Carter-Snowdon’s camp. Wading out to shoulder-deep * CHAPTER XIX So CarteisSnowdon walked away to the shadow edge; and while he a tiny firecracker, and struck square­ ly in the bed of coals; and in the next instant that bed of coals ex­ ploded with a terrific flash, and the moss lifted up off the ground like strips of carpet, and the tent, snap- j|ing its ropes as though they were Slider webs, turned inside out and collapsed; and a blast of air struck Carter-Snowdon like a club and stretched him flat ana Knocked him ■unconscious. When he groped back to his sens­ es, Ike a swimmer struggling up through dark waters, he heard the guttural, excited voice of Charlo, the sentinel ’breed, trying to bring Yoro- slaf to his wits again. Minutes1 must have passed since the explosion and it must have plunged the camp into utter blackness; for the ’breed ■had kindled a new fire of dry twigs • and it was already burning brightly. By its light Carter-Snowdon saw what a terrible wreck his camp was; But his brain was still too foggy for him to understand that Cartographer had slipped ’breeds out in the dark ■struck and struck hard, I-Ie grasped the bole of a sapling .and got to his feet and stumbled over to the spot where his detective lay doubled up against a tree. That was the tree which the old Indian had been roped to. before that mis­ sile came whirling out of the bushes but now those ropes slashed to short lengths, were lying on the ground there and the old Indian had disap­ peared. Then -Carter-Snowdon heard Char­ lo explaining to the other ’breeds who had come running in: "That air devil he musta follow’ us. tMusta belly up'close. Out in bush I hear one leel’ scratch-scratch; I say, 'That meibbe rabbit or pine-hog or stink­ tail thd skunk? But no! no! Was air-devil. He throw earthquake stick on fire, blow camp to helln gone, grab oid son-of-she-deg, and go like that!”—Charlo snapped his fingers. The ’breeds, excepting Yoroslaf, all laughed; a camp so utterly wrecked as this one was a stupen­ dous joke-—; knocked out "earthquake took charge: flevil fast, both. At shed Dead bad run that distance at top speed carrying an awkward, limp 'burden in his arms. Aftei’ cutting the wrist and ankle babisches from old Luke, he brought water worked with the was sitting up. "You bad hurt, In a whisper, •Luke flexed his legs, and felt of- a thigh. He wai nose, and liid hair was a mat of blood from the clubbing lie had tak­ en when tho ’breeds but he grunted "NO” of Dorn; "You kill ’em all ItuM” "Why—no,” Dorn Icnew what was doming. Horn the past those and had ince they had not 'been by the explosion of the stick.” Then Charlo "Indian can’t walk. Air ■Can’t go We catcli’m long!” an _ avalanche mile from the hava to tote him, can’t be far, Hyaak, come the mouth of a good quarter Waters, Dorn had to stop; he in his helmet and Indian till Luke huh?” Dorn asked numbed arms and burn on his naked bleeding from the captured, him; He demanded down there. whispered. Ho Old LukO You there had knife, they lay on ground; tlnee, the trail he could the lake. He told Charlo, Narcisse, camp. Wading out to shoulder-deep water, he turned and paralleled the shore-line, half-wading, half-swim­ ming; and while the ’breeds were combing the tamarack drogue for ■him, Dorn was lifting himself into the cockpit of the biplane which •once had dogged him and which was a deadly threat against Aurore in her refuge two hundred miles north. 1 He saw Carter-Snowdon and the detective huddling over the fire, but not the ’breeds, and he guessed: ‘‘They’re looking for me. They’ll look still harder in a couple of minutes. This is worse than shaking a hor­ net's nest. I’d better take Luke and cup up along the mountain and get that way.” He planted the cartridge against the rudder-bar, lit the fuse, slipped overboard; and reaching a little headland up-shore, he turned to watch. When the explosion came it lifted the heavy machine off.the wa­ ter and tore the engine out of it and crumpled the wings; and a sheet of fire from the bttrsted gas tanks flar­ ed out across the water and lit up the demolished, sinking plane. Dorn, hurried on to the avalanche shed and found old Luke; and the two of them circled up through' the mountain pines on their way home. 3 . back JOB PRINT AU descriptions of Job CHAPTER XX Skirmishing ■Contrary to what Dorn thought, this capture of Luke Jlle-waliwacet had been more or less an accident; it was no part of^the main plan which Soft-Shoe had built up'-to lo­ cate Aurore McNain. It is true that Soft-Shoe at first had counted On getting Dorn or the Indian into his power and so find­ ing out where she was; but he had learned about the dynamite mine and all the precautions Dorn was taking, and he had given over tho idea and turned to a more promising scheme. ‘The 'breeds had merely been scouting around on Dorn’s Is­ land that night—prowling about like slinked wolves to snap up what­ ever might happen their way; Soft- Shoe had pinned no hopes to them, “the” unsynchronized Lewis and after Dorn had *■■'■>«1 camp and wrested the old Indian out m flaming of their hands, Soft-Shoe back to his main plan and pushing it. By inquiry among the metis Station he had found out that McNain and his daughter ui "pitch-off” from the Titan pass for their summers in the wilderness, that Old Luke had been their guide; that their general direction had been north from the railroad.He shrewd­ ly guessed that wherever they had spent those vacations, there Aurore was hiding noiv; but a staggering lot of country lay north of the Cana­ dian National, and Soft-Shoe was temporarily at a halt—till Yoroslaf supplied him with a bit of uncollect­ ed and priceless information. Throe winter ago Joe yoroslaf had got into trouble up at Fort Laird. The. Yellow-Stripe sergeant at Laird had*been watching him suspiciously; tlio young and pretty Sikanni squaw whom Yoroslag wag living with was hot his wife, and tho sergeant be­ lieved that ’breed knew why her husband had failed to come back at the .Roger jed to to Aurora. He This skirmishing will be When With s; "If yob get this letter, son, I’ll bo doing business; rm in* Had Bergelot to deliver it thousand he think •cut over waving to him, that to an ama- looked like the thinks I’m Jim, he leaned half John Neilson, who for a num- Printing done with neat ness and dispatch and at reasonable prices. If it’s Printing we can do it. The Exeter Times*Advocate Mr her of years has been employed with Mr. W. A. Criclt’s Bakery, Seaforth, has secured a position in Brace­ bridge and has left for that place. PPONE 31w Terrible, A well knowm resident of forth passed away at her home re­ cently in the person of Mis. John Fortune, Deceased was born in tho Township of Tuckersmith 76 years ago. Fourteen years ago< on the death of her husband she moved to Seaforth whore she has since made her home. Two brothers survive, Mr, Peter Cleary, of Tuekersmith and Mr, Thomas Cleary, of Sask. 1 MRS. JOHN POlWUNIi Bitters For the past 52 years MANUFACTURED ONLY BY THE T. 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