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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1916-05-04, Page 7i1 May 4 th, 1916. THE WINGHAM TIMES '4ge 7 tee v5SS/F.,SSS a'['NaJ eifffee., ;S MEE nasal the HONOR of THE BIG SNOWS By JAMES OLIVER. CURWOOD Copyright 1911 by the !Dobbs -Merrill Co, ci�'t�.Y5v5vS U�v�'�v S S.SI S uSn SYNOPSIS • • In the far northwest the wife of John .ICammins dies, leaving baby Melissa OYoun= Jan Thoreau comes from the Bar- sen Lands with his violin. Mukee, the •1Cree, had once spied on an Englishman ;peeping through the Cummins window. Mukee had slain the Englishman. Jan makes his home with Cummins, and the •'two resolve to bring up the baby in clv- -Sized manner. The mention of a mission- , arY anzsrs Jan. ' At last Maballa went into an ecstasy of understanding. Melisse was not to be taken out and rolled in the snow; • so she brought in the snow and rolled It over Melisse. When Jan discovered this his tongue twisted itself into sounds so terrible, and his face writhed so fiercely that Maballa began to comprehend that thereafter no snow at all, either out • doors or in, was to be used in the phys- Acal development of the little Matisse. This was the beginning of the prob- lem, and it grew and burst forth in all its significance on the day before • Cummins came In from the wilderness. For a week Maballa had been drop- ping sly hints of a wonderful thing • which she and the factor's half breed wife were making for the baby. On the day before Cummins' arrival Jan • came In froth cbopping wood. MelLsse ,teas smiling and making queer, friend- ly little signals to him from the table. • She was standing upright, wedged in ...a coffin shaped thing from which only her tiny white race peered out at him, and Jan knew that this was Maballa's Melisse was in a papoose surprise. • sling! "Melisse, I say you shall be no pa. , poose!" he cried, running to the table. "You ees ceevilize: You shalt be no ;.papoose, not if twee' t'ous'nd devil -come tak Jan Thoreau!" And he snatched her from her prison, flung Maballa's handiwork out into snowIt i 'theand waited impatiently anti for l y the return of John Cummins. Cummins returned the next day, not • that his work among the wild trap• lepers to the south was finished, but be- -cause he bad suffered a hurt 1n falling from a slippery ledge. When Jan, from bis wood chopping in the edge of 'the forest, saw the team race ap to the little cabin and a strange Cree half -carry the wounded man through the . .door, be sped swiftly across the open with visions of new misfortune before Whim. But the Injury was not serious aid .Jan lost no time in revealing its fears ;after Maballa had been soot to the lac• ator's wife. With graphic gesture he ttold of what bad happened. Cummins hobbled to the door to iook upon the wallow In the snow and bobbled back to the table wben Jan; ran there 1n excited tmitatlon of the way in which be had found the little !dettsbe in ma. tballa's sling., "Sba eau rrop►tize!" tlnlebed Jan .bot- Jy. "She ees not papoose! She mus be lak—berl" His great eyes shone, and Cummins felt a thickening in hi throat as be looked into them and naw what the boy meant. "Maballa mak papoose out of Melisse. She grow— know noting lak papoose, talk lak pa poose"— "Yes, she must be like her, Jan—Just as good and Just as sweet and just as beautiful," interrupted Cummins gen- otly. There was a quick Making of Me breath as he bobbled back to bis own :not, leaving Jan at play with the baby. That night, In the dim, sputtering glow of an oil lamp John Cummins and ..Jan Thoreau solemnly set to work to -thrash Out the great problem that had .suddenly entered into their existence. -.TD theee.SWeellee1e Nike let eletteent et Had Dyspepsia. ,Says; HE NEARLY TURNED UP HIS TOES. Burdock Blood Bitters CURED HIM. Mr. H. N. Manderson, Stettler, Alta., writes: "About twenty-five`yeate ago, in the Province of Quebec, I came pretty near turning up my toes with dyspepsia. A cousin of mine persuaded me to try litirdock Blood Bitters. In abont two Weeks I could eat anything from rawfat pork to unleavened bread. Threebottles .did the job, and I have never been -troubled with my stomach since. You would se,y that this is wonderful if you .could only see what we bannock,have •to live tin in this country; f •cooked beans, •etc." 'Burdock 'Bleed Bittern its been on the market or the past tort years, and Cannot be excelled as a me cine for all diseases or disorders of the stotnach =i1.'l1:'1.'is'mixutifactuted Only'i17i' fi, Milburn Co.. Limited. Toronto. Ott. humor in what1hey'•'were Ing, for into their keeping bad been given a thing for which God had not schemed them. So far as Cummins knew, there was not a white woman nearer than Fort Churchill, 200 miles away. In all that region he knew of only two full white men, and they were Williams and him- self. The baby Melissa washopelessly lost in a world of savagery—honest, loyal, big sealed savagery—but savage- ry for all that and the thought of 1t brought the shadows of fear and fore- boding to the two into whose lives the problem had just come. Long into the night they talked seri- ously of the tnatter, while Melisse slept; and the longer they talked the greater loomed the problem before them. Cummins fancied that he al- ready began to see signs of the trans- formation in Melisse. She was pas- sionately fond of the gaudy things Me- bane gave her, which was a sign of savagery. She was charmed by con- finement In the papoose sling, which was another sign of it, and she had not died in the snow wallows, which was still another. So far track as he could remember, Cummins bad ,never come into finger touch of a white baby. Jan was as blissfully Ignorant So they deter- mined ui,on immediate and strenuous action. Maballa would be ceaselessly, watched and checked at every turn. The Indian children would not be al- lowed to come near Melisse. They two —John Cummins and Jan Thoreau— would make her like the woman who slept under the sentinel spruce. "She ees ceevilize," said Jan with finality, "an' we mus' keep her ceevil- izel" Cummins counted back gravely upon his fingers. The little Melisse was four months and eighteen days old. "Tomorrow we will make her one of those things with wheels, like the ba- by wagons they have in the south," be said. "She must not go in the pa- poose slings." "An' I will teach her ze museek," whispered Jan, his eyes glowing. "That ees ceevllize." Suddenly an eager tight came into Cummins' face, and he went to a cali- co covered box standing upon end In a corner of the room. "Here are the books—her books, Jan," he said softly, the trembling thrill of Inspiration In his voice. He drew the books out, one by one, Ins "She loved this, Jan," he said huskily. ,fingers trembling and his breath cotltl• or quickly as he touched them, a dozen worn, dusty things. At the last one of all. which was more ragged and Worn than the others, he gazed for a long time. It was a little Bible his wife's Bible, finger worn, patched, pathetic In Its poverty. The man gulp- ed bard. "She loved this, Jan," be said huski- ly. "She loved this WOtn, old beak more than anything else, and little Melisse must love it also. Melisse meet be a Christian." "Ala yes;'t leetle Mellsse•mus' leve se great God." said Jan softly. Cummins rose to his feet and stood for a moment looking at the sleeping baby. "A missionary Is coming over troth tort Cbtitcflll to talk to our trappers when they come 1n. She shall be bap- tized." Like a cat Jan was on his feet, his ' eyes dashing. Iiia 'Ong, tints lingers ellne.hed. 111et body gtfleering with a $srrible exeitemenl: "Ito, not 'Not beptiae by mt alonat'I" be cried. "Sbe obeli be flood an' Inv* to great God, but not baptize by miss, kiitienti •H , tiler, midi OSMIUM turSed apes titin in asses Ishment. Before him Jan Thoreau stood for a minute like one gone mad, his whole being consumed in a pas- sion terrible to look upon. Lithe giant of muscle and fearlessness that he was, Cummins Involuntarily draw back a step, and the mainspring of Instinet within him prompted him to lift a hand as ft to ward off a leaping thing from his breast. .Ian noted the backward step, the guarded uplift of band, and with an agonized cry he burled his face In bis Hands. In another Instant be had turned and, before Cummins' startled voice found words, had opened the door and run out into the night. The man saw Mm darting swiftly toward the forest and called to him, but there was no response. Painting itself each instant more plainly through the tumult of his emo- tions was What Jan had come to know as tbe picture In his brain. Shadowy and indistinct at first, in pale, elusive !Ines of mental fabric, he saw the pic- ture growing, and, in its growth he saw tlrst the soft, sweet outlines of a woman's face and then great luring eyes, dark like his own. And be- fore these eyes, which gazed upon him with overwhelming love, all else faded away from before Jan Thoreau. The tire went out ot hls eyes, his fingers relaxed, aid after a little while he got up out of the snow, shivering, and went back to the cabin. l;umriilns asked no questions. Ho looked at Jan from his cot and watch- ed the boy silently as he undressed and went to bed, and in the morning the whole incident passed from his mind. CHAPTER 11I. The Caribou Carnival. Hil education of the little Me- lisse began at once, while the post was still deserted. It be- gan, first of all, with Maballa. Site stared dumbly and with shattered faith at these two creatures wbo told tier or wonderful things in the up - ming or a child—things or which she liad never so much as beard rumor be- fore. Her mother instincts were arous- ed, but with Cree stoicism she made no betrayal or them. The leather tanned immobility of her face underwent no whit of change when Cummins solemnly declared that the little Melisse was about to begin teething. She sat grimly and watched them in silence when between them upon a bearskin stretched on the floor they tried vainly to persuade Melisse to use per feet, Weeks passed and Williams came in from tbe southern forests. Mukee fol- lowed him from the edge of the Bar- rens. Old Per-ee, • partly Eskimo, re- turned from the Eskimo people, three- quarters starved end with half of bis dogs stolen. From the north, east, west and south the post's fur rangers trailed back. Life was resumed. Tbere was a softness in the air, a growing warmth In the midday sun. 'The days of the blg change were near. And when they came, John Cummins and Jan Thoreau, of all the factor's people, wore patches at their knees. One afternoon 1n the beginning of the mush snow a long team of rakish tnalemutes, driven by an Athabasca French-Canadian, raced wildly into the clearing about the post. The entire post rushed out to meet the newcomer. 13e was Jean de Gravols, the most Im- portant man in the Fond du Lac coun- try, for whose goodwill the company paid a small bonus. That he had made a record catch even the children knew by the size of the packs on' his sledge and by the swagger in his walk. Gravels was usually one of the last to appear at the annual gathering ot the wilderness fur gatherers. He was a big man in reputation as he was small in Stature. He was ono ot the few of his kind Who had developed personal vanity along with unerring cunning in the ways of the wild. 'Ev- erybody liked Gravols, for he bad a big soul In him and was as fearless as a lynx, and he liked everybody, includ- ing himself. He explained his.early arrival by an- nouncing in a nonchalant manner that after he had given his malemutos a, day's rest be was going on to Fort Churchill to bring back a wife. He hinted With a punctuating crack of his whip that he would make a second visit and a more interesting one at just about the time when the trappers were there In force. Jail Thoreau listened to blm, bunch- ing his shoulders a little' at the other's manifest alr of Importance. In turn the French Canadian scrutinized Jan good natnrediy. Every hour. after the'half breed's ar t'ivitl quickened the pulite Of etpectan' cy at the post. For sit Menthe It had been a smsll and tell -Lary unit of IN to the heart of a big desolation. The first Stiow tied smothered ft in a lone' lineaa that Y►ab Llnrotlt ,the lonellnbbd of desertion. With that first snow be - Oh the llama .t a.ot..ths •traplord, Heart Would Beat Violently. Nerves Seemed to Be Out of Order. The heart always works in sympathy with the nerves, and unless the heart is wprking properly the whole nerve system is liable to become unstrung, and the heart itself become affected. Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills will build un the unstrung nervous system, and strengthen the weak heart, so that the sufferer will enjoy the very best of health for years to come. Mrs. John N. Hicks, Huntsville, Ont:, writes: "I am ending you my testimony for the benefit I have received from using Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills. As a nerve and heart builder they have done wonders for me. At times my heart would beat violently, and my nerves seemed to be all out of order, but after using a few boxes of Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills I feel like recommending them to others that they might receive benefit as I did." Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills have been on the market for the past twenty- five years, and are universally considered to be unrivalled as a medicine for all disor :ers of the heart or nerves. Milbum's Heart and Nerve Pills are 50c per box, 3 boxes for S1.25, at .all dealers or mailed direct on receipt of price, by The T. Milburn Co., Limited, Toronto, Ont. Now the change' was at hatid. It was like the breath of spring to the a wakening wilderness. The forest people were moving. Trap lines were heing broken, shacks abandoned, sledge dogs put to harness. On the day that Jean de Gravols left for Hudson bay the company's supplies came In from irdrt Churchill—seven toboggans drawn by Eskimo dogs, laden with flour arid cloth. fifty pounds of beads. ammunition and a hundred other things, to be exchanged for the furs that wonld soon tie to London and Paris. Fearfully Jan Thoreau ran out to meet the sledges. '!'here were seven Indians and one white man. Jan thrust himself close to look at the white man. He wore two revolver holsters and carried an automatic. Unquestionably be was not a mission• erv. but au agent ot the company, well prepared to care for the company's treasure. Jan hurried back to the cabin, his heart bubbling with a strange joy. "There ees no missioner, Mellsse!" be cried triumphantly, dropping be- side her, bis face glowing with the gladness of his tidings. "You shall be good and beautiful, lak her, but you shall not be baptize by missionerl He has not comet" A few minutes later Cummins came in. One of his hands was torn and bleeding. "Those Eskimo dogs are demons!" he growled.led. "If they knew how to stand on their legs they'd eat our hus- kies alive. Will you help me with this?" Jan was at work in an instant ban- laging the wouuded band. "It ees not deep." be said, and then, without looking up, he added, "The missloner did not come." "No," said Cummins shortly. "Nei- ther has the mail. He Is with that." IIe did not notice the sudden trem- ble of Jan's fingers, nor did he see the startled look that shot into the boy's down turned eyes. Jan finished his bandaging without betraying his emotion and went back with Cummins to the company's store. The next morning two Chippewayans trailed in with a team of mongrel curs from the south. Thereafter Cummins found but little time to devote to Me- lisse. The snow was softening rapid- ly, and the daily increasing warmth of the sun hastened the movement of the trappers. Mukee's people from the western Barren lands arrived first, bringing with them great loads of musk ox and caribou skins and an army of big footed, long legged Mac- kenzie hounds that pulled like horses and wailed like whipped puppies when the huskies and Eskimo dogs set upon them. From east and west and south all trails now led to the post. By the end of the third day after the arrival of the company's supplies n babel of fighting, yelling, ceaselessly moving dlgaor_d..bfld driive s•terth .the .peac_e and dimismiimemedismisim The Wretchedness of Constipation Cu quickly 1» MOWN b CARTER'S LITTLI LIVER PILLS Purely vegetable —*deaths and Cent] y oa the liver. Cure Biliousness, Head - eche. Dizai. OW. end Indigesiea. de ILA duly. Small Pill. Satan leave Nasal Mow Genuine aim 1 Signstttts rwitqwwwwainewmist quiet In which Cummins' wife had died. The lighting and discord were among the dogs, and the yelling was a necessary butban accompaniment. Halt a hundred packs, almost as wild and as savage as the wolves from whom half of them possessed a strong Inheri- tance of blood, were thrown suddenly Into warring confusion. There was no cessation in the battle of the fangs. Half a dozen battles were fought to the death each day and night. '!hose that died were chief- ly the south bred curs -mixtures of mastiff, Great Dane and sheep dogs— and the fatally slow Mackeurte bounds. Yet beyond all this discord and bloody strife there was a great, throb- bing humap happiness—a beating of honest hearts tailed to overtlowing with the joys of the moment, a weld - Ing of new friendships, a renewal of old ones, a closer union of the broth. erhood that holds together all things under the cold gray of the northera skies. There were no bickerings among the hunters. These were days of unprecedented prosperity and triumph for the baby, as they were for the company. The cabin was half filled with strange things, for all went to look upon the little Melisse and gave something to her. , There were polar bears' teeth, brought down by the little black men who in turn bad got ,them from the coast people; strange gods carved from wood, bits of fur, busby (oxtails, lynx paws, dried fruits, candy bougbt at fabulous prices in the store and musk —always and incessantly musk—from Mukee's people of the West Barrens. Jan had not played upon his violin since the coming of Jean de Gravels, but one evening he tuned his strings and said to Melisse: "They have been good to you, my Melisse. I will give them ze museek of ze vfolon." It was the big night at the post—the night that Is known from Athabasca to Hudson bay as the night of the cari- bou roast, A week bad passed, and there were no more furs to be disposed of. In the company's ledger each man had received his credit, and in the com- pany's store the furs were piled high and safe. Three caribou had been kill- ed by Per-ee and his hunters, and on this night, when Jan took down his violin from its peg on the wall, a huge fire blazed in the open, and on spits six inches in diameter the caribou were roasting. The air was filled with the sound and odor of the carnival. Above the fight- ing and snarling of dogs the forest people lifted their voices in wlld cele' bration, forgetting in this one holiday of the year the silence that they would carry back into the solitudes with them. Shrill voices rose in meaning- less cries above the roaring of the fire. Caribou whips snapped fiercely. a y. C hi p- pewayans, Crees, Eskimos and breeds crowded in the red glare. The factor's men shouted and sang like mad, for this was the company's annual "good time"—the show that would lure many of these same men back again at the end of another trapping season. Huge boxes of white bread were placed near to the fire. A tub of real butter, brought 5,000 miles from across the sea for the occasion, was set on a gun case thrown where the heat played upon it in yellow glory. In a giant cop- per kettle, over a smaller fire, bubbled and steamed half a barrel of coffee. The richness of the odors that drift. ed to the air set the dogs gathering upon their haunches beyond the wait- ing circle of masters, their lips drip. ping. their fangs snapping in an eager. ness that was not for the flesh of bat- tle. attle. And above It all there gleamed down a billion stars from out of the skies and the aurora dung its banners through the pale Dight. Seated upon the edge of one of the bread boxes, Jan began to play. It was not the low, sweet music of Cum- mins and the little Melisse that he play- ed now, but a wild, wailing song that he had found in the autumn winds. It burst above the crackling fire and the tumult of man and dog in a weird and savage beauty that hushed all sound, and life about him became like life struck suddenly dead. After a while his violin sang a lower song, and sweeter; and still softer it became, and more sweet, until he was playing that which he loved most of all—the music that had filled the little cabin when Cummins' wife died. As he continued to play there came an interruption to the silence—a low re- train that was almost like that of the moaning wind. It grew beyond the tense circle of men, until a song of in- finite sadness rose from the throats of a hundred dogs in response to Jan Thoreau's violin. Cummins saw the surrounding cor- don become thinner as man crushed closer to man, and he saw strained faces turned from the player to where the dogs sat full throated upon their haunches, wltb their heads pointed straight to the stars in the sky. "For tile love of heaven, play no more of that!" he cried In the boy's ear. "Play something fast" Jan lifted his head as if from a dream. In an instant he perceived the strange effect of his music, and hie bow raced across the strings of his violin in a rhythm swift and buoyant, his voice rising shrill and clear in words familiar to tbem alt: "Oh. ze cariboo-oo-eo, ze carfboo-oo-oo. He roan' on high, Jee' under ze sky, Ze beeg white carlboo-oo-not "Oh, se carlboo-oo-oo, ze caribtio-oo-od, He brown an' lulu' an' eweett Ze Cariboo-oo-oe he Yet' polite -- 1U road on high. Jea' under se sky, Hi ready now to comb kV esti" Wltb yells that rose above the last words of the song Mukee and hits Creel tugged at their poles, and the ionated r*ribon tell unon the snow ,aItn drew manabossmsitsaffansmagmallmoolmilloluil Tl:ePropridaryortlt nitedicineAct. 1\Veget ble Prepare:Ion forAs-• stmilatinglheFoodandRegular• linalheStomecesand Bewelsof CASTORIA Promotes Digestion Cheerful• Hess and t'!st.Contains ltcl(lu r Opiunt.Atorphitte norMieral. NOT NAR C OTIC. Jre eotOldDA.£?NLZZP11Utc,T .(lar/kin Sad' dfIrSeaas + llerleilcSails- niseSeed -Jf jail tit/ - 1I�fu6aaalcT ln+ Iluem Seed- fladited Sager • WirtcryreellKa r. (,perfect Remedy forhonstipa• lion, SourStomach,Drarrhoea, Worms,Convuis:ons,Feverish• ness and LOSS OF SLEEP. FacSimile Signature of Tat CENTAUR CJMPAHY. MONTREAL&NE\I1 YORK For Infants and Children. Mothers Know That Genuine Castoria Always Bears the Signature ,of In Use For Over I Thirty Years STORIATNC C<NTAU,. COMPANY. HEW MONK CITY. Exact Copy of Wrapper. back and; with bis violin hugged un- der one arm, watched the wild revelers as, with bared knives flashing In the firelight, they crowded to the feast. Williams, the factor, joined him. "Looks like a fight, doesn't it, Jan? Once I saw a fight at a caribou roast" "So did I," said Jan, who bad not taken his eyes from the jostling crowd. "It was tar to the west and north," continued W111iams, "beyond the Great Slave country." "Far beyond," said Jan, lifting bis eyes quietly. "It was ver' near to ze Great Bear. For who you fight at ze Great Bear?" The • factor was silent, and the mus- cles of his arms grew like steel as he saw the madness in Jan's face. Sud- denly be reached out and gripped the boy's wrists. Jan made no effort to evade the clutch.. "For who you fight?" he cried again. "For who you fight at ze Great Bear?" "We tried to kill a man, but he got away," said Williams, speaking so low that only Jan beard. "He was"— The factor stopped. "Ze missioner]" panted Jan. The wild ilgbt went out of his eyes as be stared ap at Williams, and the softer glow which came into them loosened at once the factor's grip on the boy's wrists. "Yes, the missioner." Jan drew back. He evaded meeting the eyes of Cummins as be made hid way among the men. There was a new burst of song as Mukee and his Crees pulled down a second caribou, but the boy paid no attention to the fresh excitement. He thrust his knife into Its sheath and ran—ran swiftly through the packs of dogs fighting and snarling over the scraps that had been thrown to them, past Maballa, who was watching the savage banquet around the big fire, and into the little cabin to Melisse. Here he flung bimself upon his knees, and for the first time be caught the baby in his arms, holding her close to him and rocking her to and fro as he cried out sobbingly the words which she did not understand. "An' when I fin' heem an' kill heem I will come back to yon, my angel Melisse,"he whispered. "And then you will luf Jan Thoreau for letting out the blood of a missionerl" He put her back into the little bed, kissed her again and turned to the door. For a few moments Jan stood with his back to Melisse and his eyes upon the carnival about a great fire. As he looked the third caribou was pulled down from its spit, and the multitude of dogs rushed in upon the abandoned carcasses of the other two. He caught his breath quickly as a loud shout and the wailing yelp of a hurt dog rose for an instant above all other sounds. Only one thing was wanting to complete another picture in his brain—a scene which had hurtled Itself into his life forever and which be strove to fight back as he stood staring from the doorway. He halt expected it to come -the shrill scream of a boyish voice, an instant's sullen quiet, then the low throated thunder of impending vengeance—and the tight. With marvelous quickness his excit- ed relied reconstructed the scene be- fore him into the Beene that bad been. tae heard the screatn again. witch bud keen bis voice. saw as If Ion dream the frenzied rush at men and the tiasn of knaves. and then from where be lay. trampled and bleeding In the *now. the long, lean Lenhi of mein Muslin* that had carried in matl flight the one who*e We those *awes bought. Wilitathe bad been there; he and Veen the fight—his tell* had tlaeetel ttitb the others in Its detnand fur life; A nil •r t .lsa . an Theteats,li d. Sunt been recognized by the factor out there beside the caribou roast! He hurried towards the fire. Half way across the open be stopped. From out of the forest opposite Cummins' cabin there trailed slowly a team of dogs. In the shadows of the spruce; hidden from the revelers, the team halted. Jan beard the low voices of men, and a figure detached Itself from the gloom, walking slowly and in the manner of one near to exhaustion in the direction of the carnival. CHAPTER Iv. 11 The Fight at Dawn. IS IT was a new team. It had come from the trails to the east, and Jan's heart gave a sudden jump as be thought of the missionary wbo was expected with the overdue mall. At first he bad a mind to inter- cept ntercept the figure laboring across the open, but without apparent reason he changed his course and approached the sledge. As he came nearer be observed a sec- ond eaand figure, which rose from behind He Shot Out a Powerful Fist and Sent the Boy Reeling to the Ground. the dogs and advanced to meet hint A dozen paces ahead of the team It stopped and waited. "Our dogs are so near exhaustion that we're afraid to take them any nearer," said a voice. "They'd die Ilk* puppies under those packs!" The voice thrilled Jan. He advanced with his back to the fire, so that lid could see the stranger. "You come from Churchill?' he asked. His words were hardly a question. They were more of an excuse for hien to draw nearer, and he turned a little, so that for an instant the glowing fire flashed in bis eyes. "Yes; we started from the Etawney just a week ago today." Jan bad come very hear. The strap. ger interrupted himself to stare into the thin, fierce face that had grown like a white cameo almost within reach of him. S$'ith a startled cry he drew O. step back, and Jan's violins d_rnillied teak w. (TO BE CONTINUED.)