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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1916-05-18, Page 7ray zath 1916 aSSSMS Wigigf THE WINGHAM TIMES t182W LW -5'8,r: bgSV1 the HONOR of THE BIG"SNOWS By . JAMES OLIVER. CURWOOD Copyright 1911 by the Bobbs-Merrill Co, 52eS s TMSI 4-1 Na 19. • SSSSS!`e:eS • "Theeupply ship from London came ,3In while I was at Churchill, and those -came with it," he explained. "They're 'schoolbooks. There's going to be a school at Churchill next winter, and -the winter after that it will be at 'York factory, down on the Hayes." He set- tled back on bis heels and looked at • Jan. "It's the first school that has ever come nearer than 400 miles of us. That's at Prince Albert." For many succeeding days Jan took long walks alone in the forest trails and silently thrashed out the two prob. lems which Cummins had brought back from Churchill for him. Should he warn Jean de Gravols that a company officer was investigating the disappear- ance of the missionary? At first his impulse was to go at once into Jean's haunts beyond Fond du Lae :and give him the news, but even if the •officer did come to Post Lac Bain how would he know that the missionary was at the bottom of the lake and that Jean de Gravois was accountable for -it? So in the enol Jan deckled that it would be folly to stir up the little hunt- ••er's fears, and he thought no more of the company's investigator who had :gone up to the Etawney. CHAPTER VI. The Red Terror. UIIMINS' word of the school at Churchill had put a new and thrilling thought into Jan's head, and always with that thought he coupled visions of the growing Melisse. This year the school would be at Churchill and the next at York factory, and after that it might Abe gone forever, so that when Mellsse grew up there would be none nearer than what Jan looked upon as the oth- er end of the world. Why could not he go to school for Melisse and store up treasures which in time be might turn over to her? The scheme was a colossal one, by all odds the largest that had ever entered into his dreams of what Iife held for him. It was not until the first cold chills of approaching winter crept down from the north and east that be told 'Cummins of his intention. Once his mind was settled Jan lost eso time in putting bis plans into ac- tion. Mukee. knew the trail to Church. ill and agreed to leave with him on the 'third day, which gave Williams' wife time to make him a new coat of cari- bou skin. On the second evening he played for •the last time in the little cabin, and after Melisse had fallen asleep tie took ber up gently in his arms and held her there for a long time, while Cummins ,lnq',:nd sta.;la. rt!"^c ZEh&n.he sestets' ilas Not Much of a Believer in Patent Medicines ceut Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills Are All Right. Mrs. Wm. McElwain, Temperance `Vale, N.13., writes: "1 am not much of a i believer in medicines, but I must say 'Milburn's Heart and Nerve Pills are all -right. Some years ago I was troubled • with smothering spells. In the night I would waken up with my breath all gone and think I never would get it back. I was telling a friend of my trouble, and he -advised me to try Miiburb's Heart and Nerve Pills. He gave me a box, and I had only taken a fei>: of them when I could -sleep all night without any trouble. I did not finish the box until Some years after when I felt my trouble toning hack, so I took the rest of thein and they cured me." Milburn's Heart and Nerve PULP have begirt on the market for the past twenty-five years. The testimony of •the Fusers should be enough to eew. ,vines you that what we ciaitn for thein IS true. 11. and N. Pills ate 50c pet box, 3 boxes for $1,225; at all druggists or , dealers, mailed direct on receipt of rite by The T. Milburn Co., Lintited, wife, Ont. her in the little bed against the wall Cummins put one of his long arms about the boy's shoulders and led him to the door, whsre they stood looking ut upon the grim desolation of the sorest that rose black and anent against the starlit background of the sky. "Boy, won't you tell nee with you are tad why you carne tbat night?" "I will tell you now that I come froip ae Great Bear," whispered Jan. "I am only Jan Therein, an' ze great God made me come that night because"— his heart throbbed with sudden in- spiration as he looked up into his com- panion's face—"because ze leetle Me- lisse was here," he finished. • For a time Cummins made no move or sound; then he drew the boy back into the cabin, and from the little ging- ham covered box in the corner he took a buckskin bag. "You are going to Churchill for Me- lisse and for her," he said in a voice pitched low that it might not awaken the baby. "Take this." Jan drew a step back. "No, 1 tin' work with ze compan-ee at Churchill. That is ze gold for Me- lisse whr,n she grow up. Jan Thoreau is no—weat you call beem?" His teeth gleamed In a smile, but It lasted only for an instant. Cummins' face darkened, and he caught him firmly, almost roughly, by the arm. "Then Jan Thoreau will never come back to Melisse," bo exclaimed with finality. "You are going to Churchill to be at school and not to work with your bands. They are sending you. Do you understand, boy? Theyl" There was a fierce tremor in his voice. "Which will it be? Will you take the bag or will you never again come back to Lac Bain?" . Dumbly Jan reached out and took the buckskin pouch. A. dull flush burned in his cheeks. Cummins look- ed in wonder upon tho strange look that came into bis eyes. "I pay back this gold to you and Me- llsse a hundred times!" he cried tense- ly. "I swear it, an' I swear that Jan Thoreau mak' no lie!" Unconsciously, with the buckskin bag clutched in one band, be bad stretched. out his other arm to the violin bang- ing against the wall. Cummins turned to look. When he faced him again the boy's arm had fallen to his side and his cheeks were white. The next day Jan left. It was a long winter for Cummins and Melisse. It was a longer one for Jan. He had taken with him a letter from the factor at Lac Bain to the fac- tor at Churchill, and he found quarters with the chief clerk's assistant at the post a young, red faced man named MacDonald, who had come over on the ship from England, He was a cheer- ful, good natured young fellow, and when he learned that his new associate had tramped all the way from the Bar- ren Lands to attend the new public school, be at once invested himself with the responsibilities of a private tutor. The school opened in November, and Jan found himself one of twenty or so gathered there from 40,000 square miles of wilderness. Two white youths and a half breed had come from the Etawney. the factor at Net - "'I pay back this gold to you and Me - Hare A hundred times!" eon House sent up his son and from the upper wlitere of the Little Church- ill there carte three others. P'rona- the first Jan's music round hits a premier pt*co In the Interest of the tutor sent 'over by the centptlny. Ne studied b night 'at es` by day, and b!/ the end of the seeond month bid only rohipetitor was the yeah Steen 'toxon Clouse ercate est 'source 'of 'knowledge' was nor the teacher, but MacDonald. There was. in him no Inherent desire for the learn- ing of the people to the south; that he was storing away, like a faithful ma- chine, for the use of Melisse. But MacDonald gave him that for which bis soul longed—a picture ot life as it existed in the wonderful world be- yond the wilderness, to which some. strange spirit within him, growing stronger as the weeks and months passed, seemed projecting his hopes and his ambitions. Between his thoughts of Melisse and Lac Bain he dreamed of that other world, and several times during the winter he took the .little roll from the box of his violin and read again and again the written pages that it con- tained. "Some time I will go," he assured himself always --"some time when Melisse le a little older and can go too." To young MacDonald the boy from Lac Bain was a "find." The Scottish youth was tilled with an immense longing for home, and as his home- sickuess grew he 'poured more and mote into Jan's attentive ears his knowledge of the world from which he bad come. In the spring Jan went hack to Lae Bain with the company's supplies. The next autumn he followed the school to York factory, and the third year he joined it at Nelson House. Then the company's teacher died, and no one came to fill his place. in midwinter of this third year Jan returned to Lac Bain, and, hugging the delighted Melisse close in his arms, be told her that never again would be go away without her. Melisse, tight- ening her arms around his neck, made his promise sacred by offering ber lit- tle rosebud of a mouth for him to kiss. Later the restless spirit slumbering within bis breast urged him to speak to Cummins. "When Melisse is a little older should we not go with her into the south?" he said. "She must not live forever in a place like this." Cummins looked at him for an in- stant as if he did not understand. When ,can's meaning struck home his eyes hardened, and there was the vi- brant ring of steel in his quiet voice. "Her mother will be out tbere under the old spruce until the end of time," he said slowly, "and we will never leave her—unless. some day. Melissa goes alone." From that hour Jan no longer looked into the box of itis violin. He strug- gled against the desire that had grown with his years until be believed that he bad crushed it and stamped it out of his existence. In bis life there came to be but one rising and one setting of the sun, Melisse was his universe. She crowded his heart until beyond her he began to lose visions of any other world. Each day added to his joy. tie call- ed her "my little sister," and with sweet gravity Melisse called him "brother Jan" and returned in full measure his boundless love. He mark- ed the slow turning of her flaxen hair into sunny gold and month by month watched joyfully the deepening of that gold into warm shades of brown. She was to be like her mother! Jan's soul rejoiced, and in his silent way Cum- mins offered up wordless prayers of thankfulness. So matters stood at Post Lac Bain in the beginning of Mellsse's ninth year, when up from the south there came a rumor. Rumor grew into rumor. From the east, the south and the West they mul- tiplied, until on all sides the Paul Re- veres of the wilderness carried news that the Red Terror was at their heels, and the chili of a great fear swept like a shivering wind from the edge of dv ilization to the bay. Nineteen years before these same ru- mors had come up from the south, and the Red Terror had followed, The her ror of it still remained with the forest people, for a thousand unmarked graves, shunned like a pestilence and scattered from the lower waters of James bay tb the lake country of the Atbabasca, gave evidence of the toll fl demanded. From DuBrochet, on Reindeer lake, authentic word first clime to Lad Bain early in the winter. Henderson was factor there, and he passed up the warning that bad come to him from Nelson House and the country to the southeast. "There's smallpox on the Nelson," hte messenger intended Williams, "and 11 has struck the Crees on Wollaston lake, God only knows what it le doing to the bay Indians, but we bear that It is wilt. Ing ant the Chippewayantt between the Albany and the Churebill." ISO lett the same day with his 'Winded dogs. "Y'un oft for the Frenchmen tet the webd with the compliments of oni.'comiSanY',s he explained. Three Jaye later word came frofri Churchill i 11tt`°ala• of the eatipanyl servants and her mnjebty's subjecta Vet di .#hit /s.0, ' Ahead ii 1 Lt a -the His Pace Miss Covered With Pimples. r., Pimples are not a serious trouble, but they are very unsightly, Pimples are caused wholly by bad blood, and to get rid of them it is neces- sary to purify the blood of all its im- purities. Burdock Blood Bitters has made many remarkable cures; the pimples have all; disappeared, and a bright, clean, com- plexion left bellied. Mr, Lennox D. Cooke, Indian, Path, N.S., writes: "1 ani writing you a few lines to tell you what Burdock Blood Bitters has done for me, Last winter my face was covered with pimples, I tried different kinds of medicine, and all seemed to fail. I was one day to a friend's house, and there they advised me to use B.B.B., so I purchased two bottles, and before I had them taken I ir'-gel I was getting better. I got tee ore, and when they were finished was completely cured. I find it is a great blood purifier, and I recommend it to all." Burdock Blood Bitters has been on the market for the past forty years, and is manufactured only by. The T. Milburn Co,, Limited, 'Toronto, •Ont. selves for the cuming of"tfre ReuTerror. Williams' thick face went as white as the paper be held as he read the words of the Churchill factor. "It means dig graves," he said. "That's the only preparation we can make!" He reed the paper aloud to the men at Lac Bain, and every available man was detailed to spread the warning throughout the post's territory. There was a quick harnessing of dogs, and on each sledge that went out was a roll of red cotton cloth. Jan went over the Churchill trail and then swung southward along the Hasabala, where the country was crisscrossed with trap lines of the halfbreeds and the French. First he struck the cabin of Croisset and his wife and left part of his cloth. Then he turned westward, while Croisset harnessed his dogs and hurried with a quarter of the roll to the south. Be- tween the Hasabala and Kiokol lake Jan found three other cabins, and at each he left a bit of the red cotton. Forty miles to the south, somewLfere on the Porcupine, he found the cabin of Henry Langlois, the post's greatest fox hunter. Over it, hanging limply to a sapling pole, was the red signal of horror. With a terrified cry to the dogs, Jan ran back, and the team turned about and followed him in a tangled mass. Then he stopped. There was no smoke rising from the clay chimney on the little cabin. Its one window was white with frost. Again and again he shouted, but no sign of life responded to his cries. He fired his rifle twice and wafted with his mit- tened hand over his mouth and nos. trils. There was no reply. Then, abandoning hope, he turned back into the north and gave his dogs no rest until he, had reached Lac Bain. His team came. In half dead. Both Crimmins and Williams rushed out to meet him as he drove up before the company's store. 'The red flag is over Langlois' cabin!' he cried. "I tired my •rifle and shouted. There is no life! Langlols is dead!" "Great Godl" groaned Williams. His red face changed to a sickly pallor, and be stood with his thick hands clinched while Cummins took charge of the dogs and Jan went into the store for something to eat. Mukee and Per-ee returned to the post the next day. Young Williams followed close after them, filled with terror. He had found the plague among the Crees of the Waterfound. Bach day added to the gloom at Lac Bain. Death leaped from cabin to cabin in the wilderness to the west. By the middle of the mouth Lac Bain was hemmed in by the plague on all sides but the north. The post's trap lines had been short- ened; now they were abandoned en- tirely, and the great fight began. Wil - Dams assembled his men and told them how that same battle had been fought Dewar two .decildesl efore. .For, slaty dadhadhomihmemobssimktal The Almy of Constipation 1. Growing Smaller Every. Day. CARTER'S LITTLE LIVER PILL are responsible—they not only give relief— they permanently cute Constipa- tion. Mil. Gone nee them for B;liop. sue, .indigation, Sick llagi.d r, Sallow Skin. Small Pill, Small Dors, Smell PrirA, Genuine onetime Signature P2go 7 tulle but the' post every cabin and wigwam that floated a red flag must be visited and burned if the occupants were dead, in learning wbetber life or death existed in these places lay the peril for those who undertook the task. it was a dangerqus mission. It meant Lacing a death from which those who listened to tbe old fnctoc shrank with dread, yet when the call carne they re- sponded to a man. Cummins and Jan ate their last sup- per together, with Melisse sittlrlg be- tween them and wondering at their si- lence. When it was over the two went outside.. "Mukee wasn't at the store," said Cummins in a thick, strained voice, baiting Jan in the gloom behind the cabin. "Williams thought he was off to the south with his dogs. But he Wet. I saw blit drag himself into his shack like a sick dog an hour before dusk, There'll:be a red Hag over Lac Bain in the morning." Jan stifled the sbarp cry on his lips. "Ab, there's a light!" cried Cum - mine. "It's a pitch torch burning in front of his door!" He gripped Jan's arm in a sudden spasm of borror. "The flag is up now!" be whispered basicity. "Go back to Melisse. There is food in the house for a month and you can bring tbe wood 1n tonight. Bar the door. Open only the back window for air. Stay Inside—with her—until it is all over. Gol" "To the red flags, that is where I will gol" cried Jan fiercely, wrenching hie arm free, "It is your place to stay with Mellssel" "My place is with the men." "And mine?" Jan drew himself up rigid. "One of us must shut himself up with her," pleaded Cummins. "It must be you," His face gleamed white in the darkness. "you came—that night because Melisse was here. Some- thing sent you—something—don't you understand? And since then she bas• never been near to death until now. You must stay with Melisse—with your violin!" "Melisse herself shall choose," re- plied Jan. "We will go into the cabin. and the one to whom she comes first goes among the red flags. The other shuts himself In the cabin until the plague is gone." He turned swiftly back to the door. As he opened it he stepped aside to let Cummins enter first, and behind the other's broad back he leaped quick- ly to one side, his eyes glowing, his white teeth gleaming in a smile. Un. seen by Cummins, be stretched out his arms to Melisse, who was playing with the strings of his violin on the table. He had done this a thousand times. and Mellsse knew what it meant—a kiss and a joyous toss halfway to the cell - Ing. She jumped from her stool and ran to him. "I am going down among the siek Crees in Cummins' place," said Jan to Williams half an hour later. "Now that the plague has come to Lac Bain, he must stay with Melisse." CHAPTER VI1. Atmoat a Woman. THifi next morning Jan struck out over his old trail to the Hasa - bale. The Crees were gone. He spent a day swinging east and west and found old trails leading into the north. "Tbey bave gone up among the Eski- mos," he said to bimselL "Abs Kazan, what in the name of the saints is that?" The leading dog dropped upon his haunches with a menacing growl as a lone figure staggered across the snow toward them. It was Croisset. With a groan, he dropped upon the sledge. "I am sick and starving," be wailed. "The Send blmself bas got into my cabin, and for three days I've had nothing but snow and a raw whisky Jack." "Sick!" cried Jan, drawing a step away from him. "Yes, sick from an empty belly, and this. and this!" He showed a fore- arm done up in a bloody rag and point. ed to bis neck, from which the skin was peeling. "1 was gone ten days with that red cloth you gave me. and when I came back, if tbere wasn't the horror itself grinning at me from the top of my own shanty! 1 tried to get in, but my wife barred the door and said that she would shoot me it 1 didn't get back into the woods. 1 tiled .ta .mal 1n sat .night through . a a Jan surhed Lenplols And liir Cltbh ISIMUNOMMUMNIMMINCOMMISOMOMMA CA$TORIA' 9oopoops lit PI et" eraAlO ,saatfl r•4� n ;4;t pie 42 The ProprietaatyorPatent Medicine.; . • AVe getable Preparation forAS, similatiWho rood andReguta• ting the Stomachs and 1uwcisor Promotes Mgesti C !cede!': ness and Rest Contains paha' r Opium, Morphine nor NOT NARCOTIC; 11ec/% '.i'e d .44,t Solna XedielkSar Atieraaft Wan sad ClmriScdpror. irifOryiri^ • tion. Sour Stomach D arrhatai Worts, Feverish Et as and Lp` SSF Sad IacSimilce cf For Infants and Children. Mothers Know That Genuine Castoria Always Bears the Signature of iiINK: Fa�o1RCEEAN� T.&�kf�nrVY aEo4K Csr� In Use For Overt Thirty Years, STORIA r:.xact Copy of Wrapper. THC CKNYA V,. COMPANY. HEW VO"K O,YY4 window`, and she 3renched fns in hot water. I balls a wigwam at the edge Of the forests and stayed there for five clays. Hongreel Blessed saints, 1 had no matches, no grub; and when I got close enough to yell these things to ber she kept her word and plunked me through a track in the door, so that I lost a pint of blood from thie arm." "I'll give you something to eat," laughed Jan, undoing his pack. "Sow long has the red Hag been up?" "I've lost all count of time, but 1t'e twelve days, It an hour, and I swear it's going to take all winter to get It • down!" "It's not the plague, Go back and tell your wife so." But Croisset said he would go to Lae Bain. Jan left him beside a good fire and turned Into the southwest to burn Langlols and bis cabin. Then he con- tinued westward. At the head of the Porcupine he found the remains ot three burned wigwams, and from one of them be dug out charred bones. Crolsset reached the post forty-eight hours b after t e had encountered Jan. "The red flag is everywhere!" he cried, catching sight of the signal over Mukee's cabin. "It is to the east and west of the Hasabala as thick as jays in springtime?" A. Cree from the Gray Otter drove in on his way north, "Six wigwams with dead in them," he reported in his dwaiangaai;e to WlflietEre.' `i3 com- pany man, with a one eyed leader and four trailers, left the Gray Otter to burn them." Williams took down bis birch bark moose horn and bellowed a weird signal to Cummins, wbo opened a crack of his door to listen, with Me llsse close beside him. "Thoreau is in the thick of It to the south," he called. "There's too much of it for him, and I'm going down with the dogs. Croisset will stay in the store for a few days." The days brought quick changes now. One morning the moose horn called Cummins to the door. It was the fifth day after Williams bad gone south. "There was no smoke this morning, and I looked through the window," shouted Croisset. "Mukee and the old man are both dead. I'm going to burn the cabin." A. stifled groan of anguish fell from Cummins' lips as he went like a dazed man to bis cot and flung himself face • downward upon it. Melisse could see his strong frame shaking as if be were crying like a child, and, twining ber arms tightly about his neck, she sob- bed out ber passionate grief against his rough cheek, The next morning when Cnmmine went to awaken her his face went as white as death. Melisse was not asleep. Her eyes were wide bpen and staring at blm, and ber soft cheeks burned with the hot glow of fire. "'Fou aro sick, Melisse," he whisper- ed hoarsely, "You are slckr' He fell upon his knees hestde her and lifted her face to his hands. The touch of it sent a chill to bis beart, such as be had not felt since years ago, in that other room a Lew steps away. "1 want Jan," elle pleaded. "I want Jan to come back to mer "I wilt send for him, dear. He will come back soon, 1 wilt go out and send Croisset." He hid bis face front her as be drag` ged blmself away. Croisset eavr tin coming and came out or the store to Feet hitit. A hundred ]yards eaves ClImmto9 stopbed. ^t:roiseet, for the sous of (tori, tidal ., ion rn and go nrms .lair 'thnr,au,' !t1. • 4.,1 -Tell him ".at elelee • is dying „, ,. ,Y I; i,,vo” ....-..-.......-.y..M._M.-...... 1 CAUTION. i If a man whose integrity you ?1 j� do not very well know makes T� you great and extraordinary professions, do not give much i credit to him. Probably you t will find that he aims at some- l' ithing besides kindness to you f and that when he has served his 2 turn or been disappointed his 4 regard for you will cool. "Night and day!" shouted Croisset. Twenty minutes later from the cab- in Window Cummins saw bim start. "Jan will be here very soon, Me- lisse," be said, running hie fingers gently through her hair. Toward evening there came a change. The fever left the child's cheeks. Her eyes closed and she felt asleep. Through the night Cumming sat near the door, bnt in the gray dawn, over- come vercome by his long vigil, his head drop- ped u is breast upon p beast and he slum- bered. When he awoke the cabin was filled with light,. He heard a sound and, startled, sprang to his feet. Melissa was at the stove building a Ore! "I'm better this morning, father. Why didn't you sleep until breakfast was ready?" Cummins stared. Then he gave a shoot, made a rush for ber and. catch - Ing her up in bis arms, danced about the cabin like a great bear, overturn- ing the ehalrs and allowing the room to fill with smoke in his u'itd joy. "it's what yell saw through the win- dow that trade von sack, Mellasel" he cried, putting her down at last. "D; thought"— He paused and added, hilt 'mice trembling,' "I thought you were. going to be sick for more than one day, my sweet little woman!" He opened one of the windows to lel; in the fresh air of the morning, When Croisset returned,i he did not find a red Hag over Cummins' cabins nor did be bring word of San. For three days he had followed the trate to the south without ending the boy. But ho brought back other news. Wit Hams was sick with the plague In a Cree wigwam on the lower Porcupine; It was the last they ever heard of the factor, except that he died some time in March and was burned by the Crees. Croisset went back ever the Church, i11 trail and found his wife ready to greet him with open arms. After that he joined Per-ee, who came In from the north, in another search for Zan. They found neither trace nor word of bite after passing the Gray Otter, and Cummins gave up hope. It was not for long that their fermi could be kept from Melisse. This first bitter grief that bad Come into het Iife fell upon her with a force which alarmed Cummins and cast him lute deep gloom. With growing despair" Cummins saw his own efforts fail. As the days passed Melisse mingle*, more and more with the Indian and half breed children and spent much or ber time at tbe cotnpany's store, listens ing to tits talk of the men, silent, at' tentive, unresponsive to any efforts they might make to engage her stnitee„ From tier; oWn heart ebe looked oak upon a world that had become a void for her. Jan had been mother, brother and everything that was tenor anti.' sweet be ber, and be was gone; Mukee, ttthom She triad loved, oras gents, Wile llama was Prone. Th. world *alk Changed, terribly and suddenly, and i added years to her parapeCti*e 4 tb9lragtl.