Part 3 (1/2)
”That's funny,” thought Donald uncertainly ”I can't understand it at all He said he was co in to his old shanty on this fork of the Beaver when the fall trapping began”
He closely exa been inhabited up to a month previous The woodsain consulted his map Ten miles father east, on the north shore of Beaver Lake, lived a Frenchman nas' backs, and, leaping on the sledge as it passed, shot down the river to the big lake But there, after a swift trip of an hour and a half, he found the sans of more recent occupancy than had Whiskey Bill's A pair of snowshoes bound high against the wall, an old pair of fur gloves, and a few pots and pans, indicated that the Frenchman would probably return But, in the meantime, McTavish had these questions to answer: Where had theon, and, in the absence of inforht in Voudrin's cabin, in the hope that the ht It was possible the French the rounds, ca in the forest trails, wherever darkness overtook hi at the delay and the tricks of circumstance, Donald knew that he could do no better than follow this plan, and so set about unpacking for the night and preparing food for both hi fire in the stone fireplace at the end of the one-roo meat pervaded the aths for the rough bunk
In the woods he heard a noise He looked up and found hi at hinized theood-by the day he started fro one, however
”Well, what do you want?” demanded the Scotchman, crisply
For reply, one of the -coat, and fumbled a moment Then he drew forth a scrap of very dirty, wrinkled paper, which he extended without a word
Amazed, Donald took it and tried to read the hastily scribbled contents The handwriting alone made his heart leap with surprise and hope Itin the diht Then, with his face puckered in a scowl of perplexity, he turned to address the bearers of the one So intense had been his concentration that they had shuffled away in the darkness unnoticed
Still scowling, Donald thrust the note into a pocket, gathered up a double arhs, and went inside the shanty There, he sat down on an upturned box, and pulled forth the note again
He read:
If you wish to do the couis and head for Sturgeon Lake You will find there soreat importance, but what it is I have no idea, asthere, but I know nothing ht to reach Fort dickey al on my own responsibility What you said the other day about h to think for estion I shall be happy
Sincerely,
JEAN FITZPATRICK
In a sort of stupefaction induced by nition at once, Donald sat staring at the fire while the h he was, first and foremost into his mind leaped consideration of the Company He had been sent to hunt down ato the trail like a bulldog, even if the chase required six h the Selkirks to the Pacific Charley Seguis must answer before a tribunal for his crime
Now came this i else, which was claireater ireat hter, would not have sent him the word Since she sent it, why had it not been official from her father? Ah, yes; she had acted upon her own responsibility Evidently, she had received word of this strange, new thing through the Indian woman who served her, and who hated her father It was probably too indefinite to bring before the irascible old factor, and the girl had taken this iving hihtforward truthfulness, McTavish dared not disregard therave than either of them suspected, probably
But yet--to leave the trail of Charley Seguis! He shook his head distractedly, and came to his senses in time to rescue the pieces of caribou before they turned to cinders
The fish for the dogs being softened to a certain pliancy, he fed the ravening ani abstractedly on the up-ended box, his thawed bread in one hand and his chilling tea in the other Meantime, he wrestled stubbornly with his problem It was not until he had almost finished his first pipe that he cah, and cried aloud:
”By George! I'll do it Charley Seguis can wait I'll back Jean's coainst the blue laws of the whole Hudson Bay Coan to drea into it his own fond interpretations, and holding iirl, who looked like a saint in a stained-glass , because of the glorious aureole of her red-bronze hair
What a woorous, virile with that feminine aristocracy of perfect pureness! Ah, she was no wife for your dance-haunting young ht like a tiger for its young, fight even the girl herself, because in her unstirred nature was all the virginal resistance to surrender that belongs to a wild creature of the di wolf-packs howled in the distance, the trees split with the report of ordnance, and the fire burned low
CHAPTER IV
INTO THE DANGER ZONE
Froeon Lake was nearly a hundred miles southwest Given rivers and lakes to traverse, McTavish could al, was an anience