Part 21 (1/2)

If there was pursuit it did not coht The old schooner came safely to Ruddy Cove, where Bill o' Burnt Bay, Josiah Cove and Archie Ar fear of discovery and arrest But nothing was ever heard from Saint Pierre The _Heavenly Home_ had been unlawfully seized by the French; perhaps that is why the Ruddy Cove pirates heard no round in the circuovernment At any rate, Archie wrote a full and true statement of the adventure to his father in St John's; and his father replied that his letter had been received and ”contents noted”

There was no chiding; and Archie breathed easier after he had read the letter

CHAPTER XX

_In Which David Grey's Friend, the Son of the Factor at Fort Red Wing, Yarns of the Professor With the Broken Leg, a Stretch of Rotten River Ice and the Tug of a White Rushi+ng Current_

One quiet evening, after sunset, in the early suossip on the wharf, while they awaited the co of the mail-boat, old David Grey, who had told the tale of McLeod and the tomahawks, called to Billy Topsail and his friends A bronzed, pleasant-appearing rip of a woodsman Presently he drifted into a tale of his own boyhood at Fort Red Wing in the wilderness far back of Quebec ”You see,” said he, ” ical Expedition --everyprofessor, who had broken a leg a month back, and had set it with his own hands--it was thein the world that my father should coht be carried, from post to post, all the way to the department at Ottawa

”'And send the co is in a bad way, if I know anything about doctoring So you'll make what haste you can'

”'Yes, sir,' said I

”'Keep to the river until you coh the bush from there to Swift Rapids If the ice is broken at the rapids, you'll have to go round the er But don't be rash at the rapids, and keep an eye on the ice all along The sun will be rotting it by day now It looks like a break-up already'

”'Shall I go alone, sir?' said I

”'No,' saidthe wish in the question

'I'll have John go with you for coe, or thereabouts, who had been brought up at the fort--my companion and friend I doubt if I shall ever find a stancher one

”With him at my heels and a little packet of letters in my breast pocket, I set out early the next day It was late in March, and the sun, as the day advanced, grew unco!' I cried, e carunted

”And it proved to be so--ice which the suns of clear weather had rotted and the frosts of night and cold days had not repaired Rotten patches alternated with spaces of open water and of thin ice, which the heavy frost of the night before had formed

”When we came near to Great Bend, where ere to take to the woods, it was late in the afternoon, and the day was beginning to turn cold

”We sped on even more cautiously, for in that place the current is swift, and we knew that the water was running likethe way; and I found, to my cost, that the as unsafe In a venture offshore I risked too h

”It was like a fall, feet foreain to the possession ofof the shock, I found that e of ice, which cruhtily atwas neither heard nor needed John was flat on his sto slowly out, his eyes glistening

”Meanwhile I had rested e, which then crumbled no more; but I was helpless to save s under the ice, and now held the the as if to wrench me frorit e I had It was for John to make the rescue

”There was an ominous crack fro still Then I saw hi away like a crab

”'John!' I screamed