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1 2 3

Miooconr resoiution test chadt

(ANSI and ISO lEST CHART No. 2)

d /APPLIED \M/V3E In

^S"^ '653 East Main Street

S'.a Rochester, Ne« rork t4609 USA

■^= (?'6) *82 - 0300 - Phone

^S (^'^) 288- 5989 -Fo<

The i'KOBATIOI\EK

AND OTIIKH STOKIES
HkUMAN WlIITAKEU

IIauI-EK <&• RkotHKRS PlTlir.IRlIERS

JTew Yokk and London
1905

ddUb4b

TO MY FRIEND

HALVOR HAUCH

CONTENTS

PAtiK

The Probationeu 3

A Soti OF Anak 37

The Mercy of the Fuost 69

A Drummer o^ the Qkeen 95

The Freckled Fooi 117

A Son of Copper Sin 133

A Saga of 54° 149

The Black Factor 179

Am Iliau op the Snow^ 205

The Devil's Mttskeg 227

A Slip of the Noose 253

A Tale of the Pasquia Post 279

Matty's Christmas Present 299

THE PROBATIONER

PULLING up his ponies on the crest of a long
divide, Jalie Mattheson extended his whip and
growled:

" Yon's the school. Thar's where we hold meet-
ing."

The minister who sat beside him shivered as he
looked down on the wintry land. A twenty-mile
wind plus sixty degrees of frost is not produc-
tive of warmth, and the bitter prospect added
a chill to their rigors. All about them clumps of
ragged poplar blotched the whiteness. Far off a
range of hills thrust sc- 'b-crowned poaks against a
livid sky; the snowy res were lifeless. In the
east a sad spruce forest blackly loomed. Over all
brooded the silence.

The vastness of it all, the solitude, the blanched,
far-reaching desolation, awed and oppressed the
3

The PaoBATioNEB

InT .T. ^* ""^ '° '^^''"'' ^'°^ the smug

oad-ruled Eastern townships. Hard, cruel, bruti

.te utter savagery rer.lled the eye and sickened the

^ "Settlement's behind the ridge," Jake added,
hee It m five mmutes. Git up, thar'"
In less than the specified time the minister -

looked down on the pastorate to which he had been
called on probation. Its appearance was not in^
sp^rmg Over a wide range of rolling prairie a score
or so of shanties were thinly scattered Rude they
all were-some built of sod, others of rough un^

arte ^ff ?".? "" " '"° '"'"^•^^ ^ -- dsto";
and, to offset the pretensions of these, still othei
were sm^ply mounds of straw threshed over loos^
pole frames. Grim, inhospitable - looking, they
stood amid unfeneed fields, their spurting colmnS
of wood smoke alone suggesting a note of chee"

"CoM° ShoTw';„'°"'' '"" '^' '^"^•^^ '^^d.
told? Shore! We'll soon be thar ■'

Glancmg quickly up, the student saw that a

smde was softening the lines of the man's grim

visage. Amazed, he tried to think what in that

bleak prospect could call forth a touch of feeling

and wondered if he, too, would some day come to

The Probationer

love it. It did not seem possible. Stern and for-
bidding, the land frowned upon him in its cold-
ness.

So steeped was he in this mood that he took no
heed of the trail. Scrub, bluff, and snowy waste
passed by m dim procession until a shout, a crash
and the sudden impact of his own body against the
dashboard effectually aroused him.

Turning quickly about a bluff, they had run into
a mounted man and just missed a girl who rode
bchmd him. When the student recovered and
looked around, the man was pinn.d in the deep
snow beneath his beast, while the girl sat her
bronco and looked on with an expression of half
amusement, half concern.

"Jake," yelled the fallen man, "kain't you give
me a hand?"

But Jake's bronci were showing what a Western
pony can do in the .ine of kicking when he humps
himself, and Jake said so in terras that were any-
thing but polite. Uttering an oath, the young
fellow continued his struggles until the student
jumped from the sleigh and raised the fallen beast
Then growling surly thanks, he rose and dusted
the snow from his moose-skin coat.

"Jake," he growled, "I'll take up a subscription

The Probationer

to buy you a string o' bolls. You came round thet
bluff slick as death."

A contemptuous grin wrinkled the settler's gnarl-
ed front. "Yer oars is long enough," he snarled.
" Put the gal ahead nex' time, McCloud. She ain't
deaf."

Flushing angri'y, the young fellow made a sharp
retort, which the settler answered. While they
were exchanging personal opinions, the student took
note of the girl. She was surveying his clerical garb
with a half-curious, half-quizzical glance. At first
he had taken her for a boy, for she rode astride.
Western fashion, and her long hair was coiled be-
neath her cap; bu^ the small waist, large eyes, and
unmistakably fenunine hips quickly undeceived
him. Pretty, he thought, turning his eyes from her
short riding-skirc, but— so bold! No women of his
acquaintance ever rode that way.

"Wal," finished Mattheson, "I kain't stop to
bandy words with no fool idgit. Git up, thar!
Who is he?" Jake answered to his companion when
the ponies were once more flying along the trail.
" Ye'U find out soon enough. Him an' thet gal hov
kept us out of a minister for more'n half a year.
Her name's Walton, Ruth Walton, an' she's the
derndest little minx west o' Winnipeg. Why," he

TiiE Probationer

ejaculated, slapping his thigh, "she jest runs the
vestry." Tlien, with a rueful grin that yet con-
tained an element of pride, ho told how she had
driven tlie three probationers back to the haunts
of men.

"The first," he said, "was a right smart chap
— you should hev seen him spank the Bible: but
Ru*a took a mislikin' to his hair. Said it was too
straight, an' — well, he hed to go." The student
blushed as he remembered that his call had con-
tained the rather unusual request for a photograph
and a snip of his hair. "Yes," Jake repeated, "he
hed to go, for Ruth raised the boys agin "-im an'
made his place hotter 'n blazes. The next chap,"
he mused, pulling out and biting off nearly half a
plug of tobacco, " was a lettle too pale in the gills for
her taste — didn't care much 'bout him; but the
third was a jim dandy. Licked two of the boys, an'
put some backbone in the vestry. Thought we was
agoin' to keep him, but"— he sighed— "man thet is
born of weemen is small pertaters an' few in a hill.
The derned fool hed to go an' fall in love with
Ruth. Thet fixed him. She made such a show
of tuc critter thet we fired him slick. She 'lowed,"
the settler finished, as the ponies pulled up in front
of his door, "thet you was a likely-lookin' chap.

The PnonATioNER

But, Lordy," he dubiously added, " there's no tellin'.
You hain't got the beef o' the last chap, an' the
boys might notion to hustle you theirselves. Mr.
Ritchie, wife," he said to the feminine duplicate
of himself who just then opened ' iie door. "He's
agoin' to board with us. Hustle oupper."

The remainder of that week the new minister spent
in making house-to-house calls, and everywhere he
went h<i heard more of Ruth and her tricks. She
was, he learned, an only daughter, the child of an
English settler of whom little was known save tliat
his speech and bearing proclaimed him o' good
family — such are plenty in the Northland, whose
vast womb lends itself to the burying of secrets. Of
her mother still less was known, but one or two who
had seen the portrait which hung in her father's
room said that Ruth came honestly by her beauty.

Yet, despite her ancestry, Ruth was a child of the
plains. Motherless at three, she grew up free as the
Northern air, unconventional as the wide plains,
saucy as a blackbird. She was a thorn in the side
of the settlement preachers, the dollars of whose
8

The Probationer

salary numbered less than the pains «he inflicted
upon them.

One Sunday she came to church clad in a ddcoiletd
gown which she had fished from her dead mother's
belongings, and so horrified the preacher that he
broke down in his sermon. Another time she sur-
reptitiously conveyed cigars into meeting and helped
the boys to smoke them. Sh« had piayed dancing
tunes on the church organ after a Sabbath service,
and offered the minister the loan of a yellow-backed
novel. All these things and many others, with ad-
ditions, su>'tractions, surmises, and suggestions,
were poured into the young minister's ears by shrewd
mothers of marriageable daughters, who also main-
tained that the things the girl had done were only
a trifle less scandalous than those she had left un-
done. In view of which revelations the calm coun-
tenance the minister held at his first meeting covered
a fair degree of nervousness.

The attendance was large at that meeting. On
the school benches were crowded the settlers from
twenty miles around — long, lean men, angular
women, and young girls from whose tender bones
hard work and harder fare had worn the flesh. In
the latter, youth constituted the sole claim to beauty;
and as the minister mentally compared their washed-
9

The P n o b a t I o X k r

out prcttincss with the rich bloom of tho Rirl ho met
on the trail, he easily divined the sourco of her
power over the vestry. As always, its mrmbcrs
had paid conscious or unconscious tribute to tho
strongest influence which can be brought to bear
upon their svx.

As he rose from silent prayer, he found himself
looking into her face. She was sitting on tho front
bench, almost within roach of his hand. In her
eyes was the quizzical look of their first mooting,
only to it she had added a touch of insolence. As
their eyes met, she turned and whispered to McCloud,
who sit beside her:

ot quite up to sample."

J. :ht as it was, the minister heard, and the
girl vw that he hoard. She saw him flush, and
noted with secret admiration the swift tightening
of the lips that controlled the sudden pulse and
turned his face to stone. In the brief glance that
flashed between them, each read consciousness of
the situation and answered the other's challenge.
Rising, the minister proceeded with the service.

After tho hymns he preached a sermon suited to
his hearers, using common words, freely illustrating,
strictly avoiding metaphor and trick.s of rhetori'\
And as he warmed to his work he forgot Ruth,

T II K P R O n A T I () V K R

McCIoud, anil the? Rtaring, curioux settlers. He saw
only a greut iniiK-rsonality that onibodioj sin, un-
liappiness, and all the ills that man is heir to. At
this he preaoheil, counselling, advising, exhorting,
pxt)luining, laying down an earnest, practical rule
of life. As he talked, curio.sity waned and gave
plac(' to an eager, bntathlcss interest. Leaning for-
ward, the iK'ople took the words from his lips; ari<l
when, at the end of an hour he closed the Bible, a
heavy sigh paid him the tribute of susfjended breath.

Now that his eyes were once more free, they drew
naturally to the front bench. Ruth was looking
coldly indifferent. He had not seen her attempts at
calm abstraction while he was preaching, nor the
flusliing color which marked her failure. Sighing,
he rose and pronounced the benediction.

W'Liie the minister exchanged greetings with their
wives and daughters, the vestry-men discussed his
merits in the stable. Jake Matthcson— who was
boarding the minister, and therefore wiis biased in
his opinions— opined that there were " no 'tatcr-bugs
crawlin' on him." Si, Jake's brother and the biggest
man in the settlement, endorsed the verdict in a
voice of thunder. Old Jemmy Hodges, a weazened
stick of a man, thought in a high squeal that tiie
preaching sampled well, but cost his vote for a
11

The Probationer

married minister. He always had maintained that
none but a woman could put k sing-straps on Ruth.
Of this Si Mattheson was not so sure; anyway, he
was in favor of giving the lad a show. If he did'the
job-well; if not, then they could call a married
man.

"Let him fight his fight," Si finished; "an' if he
wins out, I'm for callin' him for keeps."

"So're we!" chorused the others.

F'or the next month that fight went on in rather
desultory style. The boys were feeling their man.
Apart from a little giggling in meeting, and one or
two attempts to be funny at the minister's expense,
they had not committed themselves. And before
these preliminary skirmishes developed into any-
thing serious a furious storm burst over the settle-
ment and winter closed down with the snap of a
trap.

It was the hardest season in thirty years— seven
white months, a yard of snow on the level, and a
mean temperature of thirty-five below. Smoke
columns, ascending from amid huge drifts, marked
the sites of buried cabins. Landmarks were obliter-
ated, and twenty feet of snow banked in the bluffs.
Travel, except on well-beaten roads, was almost
impossible, and social life-meagre at the best of
12

^^^t~'''- mi :^:mEmir

The Probationer

times-languished. To give this a fillip, and to
break the monotony of existence, Ritchie enlisted
the aid of such young folk as possessed talent, and
got up a Christmas entertainment that was to be
long remembered because of certain numbers which
did not appear on the programme.

On the night of the social, he found Si Mattheson
waiting for him outside the school.

"There's agoin' to be trouble," Si said, in a
rumbling whisper. "The boys hev a keg in the
stable, an' they've been hittin' it hard."

Ritchie heard in silence. He looked at the
school. Out of the darkness its windows punched
warm squares of light, through the open door
floated laughter and the hum of voices. Above him
millions of cold stars gemmed the void. The north-
wester breathed an icy breath. Across the north
Aurora Borealis waved her shimmering veils of fire
He shivered. Chicken-hearted, Si wondered'
'I Where is that keg?" Ritchie suddenly inquired.

Tucked on top o' the roof-logs."
-Turning, the minister vanished in the darkness
Si heard the stable door open, and just about the
time his slow wits began to comprehend the minis-
ter's purpose there came a crash, a splash, and a
strong spirituous smell drifted down the wind Si

The Probationrr

gasped, and before he recovered his normal poise
the minister's voice sounded close beside him.

"Come along," he said. "The people are wait-
ing."

North, south, east, and west, every trail had
poured the settlers into the school-house, j vas
crammed— men, women, and children packi ' the
benches and lined the walls. In the far corner a
score of young men herded together; half of these
were Canadians, and the remainder either English
•remittance-men or Barnardo boys, grafts of the
London slums transplanted to a sterner and healthier
soil. Their flushed faces proclaimed the owners of
the keg fully as much as their actions. They were
playing rough jokes upon one another, and at the
minister's entrance they set up a hoarse laugh.

In a glance Ritchie sized the situation; then, cool,
calm, almost indifferent, he mounted the platform
and gave out the first number. This, a quartet, the
boys allowed to go by without interference, applaud-
ing vociferously at its close; but later in the evening
they began to interject remarks, stamping to the
music, doing their utmost to confuse the perform-
ers. At times they became positively uproarious,
yet through it all the minister kept his head.
At the end of each number he rose, made some
14

The Probationer

happy comment, announced the next number, and
sat down unruffled.

"He's got nerve," Jake Mattheson whispered
to Si.

"Takes muscle to hold this crowd," the latter
pessimistically responded.

At last Ritchie stepped forward to give his own
number — a humorous monologue. Coolly, as if
enjoying perfect silence, he spoke the first few
sentences. They could not be heard; still he held
on, and soon, perhaps moved by curiosity, the dis-
turbers abated their noise. Little by little it
lessened until he had almost perfect order. It
appeared as if he had won out; but just when he
paused to emphasize a line, a jeer broke on the
stillness.

\ hush followed. The remark contained so vile
an insult that even the corner refused to father it.
The people in front turned sharply round, those in
the rear loi,ked ^^heepishly ahead; all were excited,
only the minister maintained his coolness. He
waited amid dead silence. He did not know the
speaker, but there was no mistaking the accent; and
just when the stillness was becoming oppressive he
launched a retort that was sharper than a locust's
thorn. Quick, apt, biting, it covered the principal

The Probationer

failings of a remittance-man, and left a ripple of
suggestion flowing in its wake.

A roar of laughter followed. Ritchie's retort was
a master-stroke. It aroused instantly the fierce
jealousy which obtains between Briton and Colonial
and set the corner by the ears. The Canadian^
jomrd in the laugh against their fellows, and kept
good order unt.l. just when the last number had
been given out, a window suddenly flew up and a
raucous voice roared :

"All hands to take a drink!"

Instantly the man nearest the window vaulted out-
then feet first, headlong, sideways, any way, S

mitteT n''' T'k''' ^'''^ °' '""^'"^^ hand« per-
m.tted, Barnardo boys, Canadians, and remittance-
men streamed after. When the last rolled over the
sill, Ritchie rose to dismiss the meeting, but had
scarcely spoken the last word when an tgry yell
rose on the outside, and a scurry of feet came back
from the stable. A whisper passed around the room
hi„?f «P'lled tneir liquor, an' they're a layin' for

The minister went on buttoning his gloves. Wom-
™g'»nced fearfully in his direction and whispered
witn their husbands, but these shook their heads.
It was the minister's quarrel; if he couldn't hold his

The PnonATioNER

own he was no good in that settlement. Curious
eyes turned on him as he strode towards the

As he passed out, his eye fell on Ruth Walton
Her face was a study of emotion-anger, fear, appre-
hei^ion alternated in quick succession. Her eyes
said stay, but her proud red mouth locked firmly
on the wonls. In that strangely composite ex-
pression he read what he had to expect.

Smiling he stepped outside. A late moon shed a
flood of silver on the dark crowd surging about the
door. Its many faces were black with anger, bitter
with prejudice.

"Where you agoin' ?" a voice growled, and a man
stumbled heavily against him.

It was McCloud. Whirling quickly round, Ritchie
struck with all his heart-a smart, clean blow that
landed with a whiplike crack and drew a yell of
faerce delight from the crowding men

" ^f " f gt^t'" they howled. " Go in, Jim. an' give
him fits!" ^

McCloud needed no prompting. Recovering from
his surprise, he came with a rush; but, before he
could strike, a heavy body split the ring; he was
seized about the waist and hurled headlong in the
snow. ^

ISM^TP*

TiiR Pro RATION- 1

Si Matthoson roared. "My night nut!

"Next!"
Noxt!"

The crack of the minister's fist had roused the
fiercest fighting-blood in sixteen counties. The man
was a berserk. His face gleamed white and stern,
his eyes were steel rays, his huge figure loomed
larger in the tender light.
"Next!" he shouted.

"This ain't your quarrel," a voice grumbled; then
its owner fled precipitately to avoid the sudden
clutch of the giant's hands.

"No one?" Si challenged, walking to and fro in
the ring.

From the way the crowd shrank from his threaten-
ing fist he might have been a giant of old and they
pygmies of the fable. One or two men on the edge
of the ring slunk off to the stable. They had seen
big Jim McCIoud lifted and shot like a stone from a
sling— that was enough. He was slowly extricating
himself from the deep drift which had broken his fall.
Curious faces peered from the school door. It was a
dark picture, antl the pallid moon framed it in
gleaming silver.

"Look here, Mr. Matthcson," the minister said,
laying a hand on the giant's arm, " I'm perfectly able
to fight my own battles."
IS

T H K P R O n A T I () N R R

" I believn you," Si niniblpd, " liut you don't have
to when I'm iiround. Prcachiii's your lay. Come
on now, won't you?"

But the ring scattered for the stable, from the
shadow of which a voice yelled :

"You think you're smart, Si Mattheson, but we'll
ketch him alone one o' these ('ays!"

"You will, will you?" Si growled.

With the rush of a charging grizzly he swept down
on the stable, but before he had covered half the
ground a whip cracked and a double team dashed
off down the trail. The sleigh was black with men,
and as it flew along their savage yells came floating
back. A minute and they were out of sight; then,
one by one, the settlers hitched and followed.

"Thet was a right smart fillip you give McCloud,"
Jake Mattheson said to the minister as they drove
home, "an' it served you wc^ll. Si'd sooner fight
than eat, but he'd hov let the boys tear you in bits
if you hedn't s,hown grit. They'll shorely lay for
you," he added, comfortingly.

Ill

And doubtless they would have if opportunity
had waited on inclination, but after Christmas an-

The I'lionATioNER

other wild storm burst over the settlement For
ten days ,t raged without let, and, though it thon
eased for a single night, the next morning the wind
veered southeast and blew a perfect gale. Storm
followed storm in quick succession; for weeks the
a.r was thick as a fleece, and the temperatures
.iropped below the record. In two months the
mercury never once thawed, the spirit thermometers
often read down to sixty-five below.

In the cabins meals froze on the table, meat was
chopped with an axe for the pot, bread came hard
as a bnck from the box. Though one might keep
from freezing, it was impossible to get warm Men
sat close up to red-hot stoves that were swallowing
a cord of wood a day, and yet shivered with the cold
at their backs. In that frozen purgatory passion
languished, vendettas were laid a.side, and petty
jealousies dwarfed to their very seeds.

At the end of January the leaden "sky was still
feeding fat the .Irifts. One morning Ritchie sat in
his little study under the gable of Jake Mattheson's
house. The window was heavily frosteU, but by
breathing on a pane he had cleared a spot through
which he presently .spied a dark object la»oring
through the drift. A man was coming along the
trail towards the house.
ao

The Probation En

Springing up, Ritchie ran down-stairs, and as he
threw open the door Si Mattheson came stamping
a ong the veranda. "Any o' you folics seen anythin'
McCloud of late?" he asked. "There warn't no
smoke comm' from his shanty this mornin' "

"Mebbe he's away," Jake suggested, looking up
from his place by the stove.

Si shook hi.s head. "Might hev been teaming
wood, he ailowe,], "but thet don't count His
out trail goes by my door, an' there hain't been a
track on it in three weeks. Better come along o'
me an see what's doin'."
"Wait a minute," said Ritchie, "and I'll go too "
McCloud, who was a bachelor, lived alone in a
I.t le log shanty a couple of miles to the north of
Jakes; but, short as the distance was, it took the
three men, spelling one another on the lead, two
hours to make it-two hours of heart-breaking
wind-trying labor. About the shanty there was no
sign of life. The wind whirled the flying scud
drearily around its corners, the hissing drift flew
by, a huge white mound banked the door to the
very latch.

"Look's bad," Si muttered, as he kicked the cum-
bering snow aside; then, as he threw open the door
he whistled his astonishment. '

T H K P H (I B A T I O N K n

Inside, tho cabin was coniplotHy guttod-floorinit
rafters, bedstead, table, stools, everything in-
flammable was gone. The cold stove straddled two
floor -joists. In the far corner, wrapped in his
blankets, lay Mc^^loud.

A wooic before he ha.l run out of wood, and, taking
a.lvantage of a liti in the drift, he had gone to the
bush to cut u load. H(, ha.l to break new tr-il all
the way, and it was late in the afternoon when he
oa, <.,! oi. the last .stick. Twice on the way home
h.s Ioa<l up.set, an.l ius he reloaded the last time the
wmd rose and walled him in circling clouds of snow.
If li had held to the one quarter, he might have
ma le h,s shanty; but presently the stonn slewed to
the east.

No team can face the raw east wind when it
carnes seventy degrees of frost. McCloud's oxen
fell off before ,t. Towards evening he threw off his
oad an, travelled light, hoping to strike some set-
ter s eabm; but his team were headed away from
the settled lands. Hou^ of tumultuous darkness en-
sued dunng which he wandered like a lost soul in a
black voul. He folt himself freezing, but had no
reme,lv untd a merciful shift of wind turned his oxen
home; and ,t was n.idnight when, wif- badly frozen
leet, he crawled into his cabin.
22

m,1Ml

TllR IMl(inATIO\F, R

" Hed to hnv ii fire," lu' said, looking shoopishly at
the n>ini.st(!r, " an' for the hia' five days I iicpt her
agoin' with the fixin's. Burned 'orn all," he added,
with a wave of his hand. " Would hev started on
the stable logs, but thcni plaguey feet hold mo
down."

While Jake and Si cut the stable mangers into
stove wood, Ritchie exaniineil McCloud's feet. In
preparing for a frontier pastorate he had taken a
course in medicine, and he saw at once that
while the left foot might bo saved, the right wa-s
hopelessly frozen. Ho .saw also what this in-
volved. As yet no railroad pierced those wilds.
The nearest surgeon practised in Winnepeg, and
between him and them lay two hunilred miles
of drifted trail. His decision wa.s quickly
made.

" I stay here," he said to Jake. " Send my things
over as scon as po.ssible."

Before they left. Si and Jake tore up the granary
floor and laid it in the shanty, and after they were
gone the minister knocked up a table and a set
of stools. While he worked McCloud looked on,
ashamed. Once or twice he shuffled uneasily, and
at last that which was on his mind found exprc-s-
sion.

The PnouATioNER

"Say," he buret out, "would it make you feel
any better to lam me one in the eye? If it would,
jes fire away."

When the minister laughingly refused, he seemed
almost offended.

" VVal," he grumbled, " I thought as you might
like to get even. Anyway, you hit me one good
crack. Shucks, didn't I see stare I"

Through all the next week the minister carefully
watched the injured members, hoping that nature
might work a miracle; but when McCloud com-
plained of dull pains in the knee and hip, he knew
thi.'. the operation could no longer be deferred.
Already he had gathered together such rude ap-
pliances as the settlement afforded, and now he
called in Si and Jake.

"Jim stood it well," Jake said, describing the
operation to Jemmy Hodges; "but, Lord, man, I
sickened, an' Si plumb fainted."
"An' the preacher?" Jemmy queried.
" Didn't like it no better than us, I reckon," Jake
answered. " His face was white an' sot like stone,
but he cut an' stitched, an' ketched up them art'ries
skilful as a surgeon."

Jemmy allowed that they would stand some show
of keeping the minister after this.
U

The Probationer

Jako agreed with Jemmy, and «aid that the boys
were swearing by him.

Jemmy dubiously suggested Ruth.

Jalie recijoned that she couldn't do nothing with-
out the boys, and reminded Jemmy that the minister
hadn't begun on her yet.

"Ruther him nor me," finished Jemmy.

"Shore!" Jake agreed.

For a week after the operation McCIoud did well;
then, suddenly, blood poisoning set in. The news
flashed through the settlement. For the first time
since they had been snatching their bread from the
hands of the cruel North, death's shadow loomed
over the settlers, and now they pitted against it
the sullen determination that had triumphed over
frost and drought and creeping locust. One by
one, through drift and blinding storm, they came to
offer aid, and none came empty-handed. Each
brought some rile comfort from his scanty store;
but, while McC:.idd accepted these, he refused their
help, saying quietly to Ritchie:
25

The Probationbh

"Thprr'.s but one besides yourself as I'd ilk.- to
licv about me."

"Who?" asked Ritchie.
"Ruth," he answered.

And as if in an.swer to his wish, slie oainc that
night. Tlie minister was sitting by the bed, apply-
ing wot eloths to the patient's bui-ning head, when
a (^liish of bells sounded on the outside.

"Walton's!" McCloud exclaimed, sitting up.
"He's the only man as owns a double string."

As he spoke the door opened on Ruth. On her
fur coat frost diamonds sparkled, her face was flushed
from the kiss of the breeze.

"All right, dad!" she called through the door.
"Good-bye!" Then, walking over to the bed, she
said: "I've come to nurse you, Jim."

"J5ut," the minister began, slightly shocked at
the novel situation. "But—"

"Oh, it's all right," she went on with calm con-
fidence; "I've brought my blankets." Then, sur-
veying him authoritatively, she added: "You're
just worn out. Go and lie down."
"But — " he stanmiered.

"In that corner," she went on. "Here, you
haven't half clothes enough. Take my coat and
spread it over your blankets."
26

T II K P U () li A T U) N E U

Witliout furtlicr protest he obeyed, and had
scarcely lain down before he was fast asleep.

When ho awoke he stared about him. The cabin
was transformed. While he slept Ruth had sw<'pt
the floor, scrubbed the table, cleaned tlie lamp,
wliich now shone resplendent, and given Jim's
cooking-pans a needed .scouring. Neat ami cU^an
herself, slie was getting breakfast ready. A .savory
smell of frying bacon fille<l the cabin and mingled
with tile odors of coffee antl cooking biscuit.

"Well!" the minister exclaimed. "You art; a
fairy godmother!"

"Looks homesome, don't it?" McCloud chuckled
from the bed. " Her ckal ain't in the countj'."

Later, the minister came almost to believe it, for
as her days of imrsing dragged on to weeks Ruth
developed wonderfully. The mother - love which
lies dormant in every girl's heart came into full
fruitage. She mothered them both, and though on
occasion her maternal authority trenched on the
bounds of tyranny, it was exercised in such a
sweetly pretty way that slavery under her would
have seemed an enviable condition. Other (juali-
ties, too, wer(! expanding in the girl's nature. The
robustness of soul that made her enemy to the luilk-
and- water type of [ireaclier took no offence at

The Probationer

Ritchie; and this first groat requirement once
satisfied, a natural and most feminine inclination
towards refinement made her take pleasure in his
society They became last friends, and their
triendship was none the weaker because she had
found that in most things he was much stronger
than herself. ^

In moments when their patient balanced between
life and death, she learned to look to Ritchie. One
night, in particular, she never forgot. McCloud
was nearing a crisis. Fever had stripped his strong
bones of flesh until from sheer lack of fuel it had
burned itself out; only his tremen.lou. vitality
kept him alive. He was lying moticni,.,., scarce
breathmg, but suddenly, in the middle c. H, night
she heard him calling. '

"Yes," she answered, beniling over
So faintly that she barely heard, he whispered:
Oood-bye. I'm agoin'."

Pale, trembling, awed by this first glimpse of the
end of life, she stood until Ritchie answered her
sudden call. He found that the patient's hands
were icy cold, chills were slowly crawling up his
limbs; he was surely dying.
Stripping off his coat, the minister went to work
"Rub his hands! Slap them!" he said, and the

The PnonATioNER

mastorful tone gave her a sudden thrill and rn-
storod her courage. "Pour a little of this into
his mouth."

He handed her the whiskey, while he rubbed the
man s bo.ly with the fiery spirit. An hour parsed a
second a third, and all the while the faint spiHt
.seemed to be slipping, slipping, clipping farther
trom its clay.

"It ain't no use," McCloud whispered once.
Let me go.

"Nonsense!" Ritchie exclaimed, looking him full
m the face. "You'll live to ride the prairies many

McCloud's eyes wandered to his face; Ruth, too
ooke, there for comfort, for she intuitively felt
that death was hovering over them. It was the
psychological moment when the attitude of a sick
man's mind turns the balance, and the minister
knew It. Though morally certain that McCloud
was dying, he turned to the probing eyes a coun-
tenance that was inscrutable and clad in a ma.sk
of hope. At last the patient spoke.

"Wal," he faltered, 'I reckon you know best
Here goes— for— another— try!"

And that try carried him past the crisis. He
ought to have died; by living he violated all prec-

T|[K Prion ATION-RR

edents known to medical scioncp, hut livo ho did
and, onco on the n.pnd, tlie rude health and virile
onergy of the plainsman brought hini a ([uiok
convalescence. Hy the time that the ducks and
geese were flying north he was able to sit up and a
week after they set him in the warm sun by the
door. Then Ruth went home.

Every day, however, slie rode over to see how her
patient was progressing, and after each visit the
mmister would walk with her as far as C.e turn of
the trail. They were now on such friendly terms
that he felt at liberty to speak on a matter which
had given him some disquiet. He was beginning to
assimilate the Western life. One by one his Eastern
prejudices had sloughed off, but as yet he had
failed to accustom him.self to her way of riding' and
one day, just when she was about to leave him he
looked up suddenly and said:
"I wish you wouldn't ride like that."
" Why?" she queried, and the wond"r that floated
>n her eyes filled him with shame of his prudery
'How should one ride?" she naively asked, and his
(liscomfitur° was complete.

"Pardon!" he stammered. "I_I_I ought not
to have said it."

But she pressed for an answer. When ho would

T 1' R P K O B A T I O \ K R

not give it, she lodo thoughfully away. Next
morning .slm did not conio, noi tlio next, nor the
next. A week passed l,y, and still she did not
come. Once or twiee he caught a glimpse of her
when she w.is riding, but always at sight of him she
wheeled and rod(^ away. He was now sure that he
had given her mortal offence; but ho was mistaken.
She was seeing herself in his eyes, trying lierself by
his standards. Having found out from her father
how Eastern women ride, she tried their fashion,
and after a fourth tumble pronounced it utterly
hopeless.

"Bother!" she exclaimed. "It must be sheep
those Easterners ride!"

Yet, in due course, the trouble worked out its
own end. One morning, about sunrise, when she
thought no one would be abroad, Ruth mounted her
pony. Save for an occasional drift in the shadow
of the bluffs, the snow wa.s all gone. An infinite
greenness replaced the whiteness and the silence.
From under lazy lids drow.sy nature shot green
glances; the warm air vibrated to the song of the

The Probationrb
birds the woods softly whispered a *ale of sunlieht
g mtmg on the waters. The morning wa peZt

early on the trail. He and Jemmy Hodges were to
rrtSi°^^'-----eU;t

.aid^whe'! T"\T '^"'"^ '" ^°°"'" '^' '"'ni«t«--
"b ; Jm . all , '""^ ^'"■^"' '"'" °" 'he trail;

Jho-Us mv t' ""' """■■"'^ "- ^P'^" "f the

-llingi^thejoyofexil^Jo^^LZLV:?
pression m h s own soul On th * "«wtnng ex-

now. ^ face — he understood it

"It is beautiful," he murmured.

Walkmg on, he brea.s,od a sand-hill. As he crossed

T II E P 1{ o n A T I O \ E R

tho ri<Jge, Rutli camo galloping up the rise with hair
stnuiining on tlu- wind.

J" Aha young lady!" ho cried, seizing her bridle.
Now I ve got you. Tell-why do you run from
me? '

She looked rebnlliously from under h.-r cloud of
hair. He was tall; his eyes almost levelled hers
and she saw that while they were soft, they were
aI.so very determined. Bowing low, she said:

" I— I am so differc-it from the women you know.
I — I — cannot — "
"A-h?" ho breathed.

From her face his eye passed over the rounded
bust, down all the length of the shameless, shapely
limbs, and brought up at her foot. Within him,
the man and his prejudice battled fiercely; but man
is flame and woman is tow, and prairie winds blow
strong. Up in his nostrils wafted a sudden sod-
den smell of tho wild jjlains; his blood thrilled
to the keen Northern air; in his veins mad
spring rioted. Stooping quickly, he kissed her
instep.

She flushed and trembled and leaned to him, her
eyes raised to his; but as Ritchie lifted his hands
to the yielding figure there came a loud halloa, and
Si Matthesou's buggy topped the rise.

TliR Pro B AT lo \ ;; R

"Say," Si rumbled, pying thom curiously, "what
air you two up to?"

"Oh, shot up, Si!" McCloud grinned. "Kain't
you see when you ain't wanted? Drive on!"

Si whistled, but sat still and eyed the blushing
girl with a meditative grin. "Thet's the way the
cat jumps, is it?" he muttered softly. Then, fixing
the distressed couple with a fatherly .smile, he
addressed himself to Jemmy. "Say," he .said
elbowing that antediluvian in the ribs, "don't you'
reckon 'at it's 'bout time the vestry called this man
for keeps?"

After giving the subject the consideration its
gravity demanded. Jemmy still held to his former
opmion that a minister ought to be married.

Slipping his arm quietly about Ruth's waist, the
mmister faced the issue.
" We're going to be married next week," he said.

A SON OF ANAK

'Wfl«»tasi'».>

A SON 01' ANAK

ON tho verge f)f tlip Assiniboinp Valley a steiuii
thresher boomed, anil whined, and rattled its
slats, and whistled impatiently for liquid wherewith
to quench its fi thirst. Its boiler tubes were hot,
hot as the stoker's temper — a hundred and eighty
degrees Dy the gauge— and that son of Wilcan
fretted as if it were his own bowels that suffered
flame. Jerking on the whistle, he said scarlet
things to the water-hauler, who transmuted them
into sulphurous speech while dipping from the
river, eight hundnnl feet below.

"Can't make steam without water!" growled tho
stoker, and shook his fist at the feeder, who was
signalling for more power.

In the midst of a black smut pall, a forty-inch

separator whirled red arms like a squib in a cloud

of ink. From its brazen larynx hurtled a vibrant,

thunderous song that followed the feeder's hand

TlIK I'ltOHATlON KR

both up and down the scnlo \t

"Plit its larmoni," si "^ *" accidental

earners and mvopt r, ,■ ."""'.""= '^''chmg

<i«or of .ho i„,ii„ „, j„„ 7. rm°f ;° ""

.'«''■•

A Sox , 1 F A \ \ K

A flowor of a RiH „,« L.>tti.--pi„k, plump, tall
will, a sweet he rifting th,,,ugl, ,awny el„i.,|s ..f
hair. Iler mouth w;i.s ri|K- for kis.sinK, tliousi. it-
, cordmg to n.port, it was yet unkksed. She 'vvls
modest, too, ,H b,.ca>ue a girl brought up in the
shadow of a mission; yet within her wre sprouting
the gorms of a very healthy curiosity anent the
sterner sex, as evidenced by this journ.y to see the
wheat.

Within the log granary there was cool respite
from the stewy kitchen with its satiating smells,
.•ind the girls sat on a wagon .seat and gazed dreamdy
out on the threshing. Through the phtsterle.ss
ehmks a breeze came to toy with th.'ir hair
;; Dear me!" mu.sed Kate. •' How busy thev are!"
Ho s rutting bands," Lettie murmure,! sym-
pathetically, if not very con.s,.cutively. Then she
[Jceped through a chink and inquired:' "What's his

"Castle," replied Kate, joining her dark curls to
the tawny clouds. "Cattle, Arthur Castle "

Unconscious of their scrutiny, the band -cutter
plied his knife. He was a tall lad of twenty or
thereabouts; fair, when freed from the thrall of
^mut; a slip of the blooded English stock one finds
scattered from Winnipeg to Fort McLeod.

The Probationrr

"Why don't they stop?" pouted Kate.
"Must finish to-night," Lettie responded, wisely.
"We've had 'em three days."

To which very reasonable statement Kate un-
reasonably replied: "Bother! I wish the old
thing would break!" And just then, as though in
answer to her wish, the whistle blew and they
heard the feeder shout :
"What's the matter?"

"No water," the stoker answered. "Boiler's
nigh to bustin'."

Turning from the door, they began to examine
the wheat, and they gave it such close attention
that they did not see the feeder step from his board.
Letting a handful dribble through her fingers,
Lettie remarked, with the air of a connoisseur in
grains:

"Isn't it lovely?"

" Boauti— " Kate commenced, then stopped and
screamed, for a pair of hands grabbed her by the
ankles and tossed her into the bin. Then, full of
the horse-play which passed for wit among his kind,
the feeder turned on Lettie. She backed away, pro-
testing, but he followed and took her by the waist.
"Over you go!" he laughed.
She landed high up in the bin, and came slipping,

A Son of Anak

sliding flown on an avalanche of wheat. It waa
very mortifying. To make it worse, a.s she struggled
up, dishevelled, angry, ready to cry, she saw Castle
standing in the door. His face shone beneath its
layer of soot.

"You beastly cad!" he gasped. "You beastly
cad!"

The feeder turned, and civilization and the back-
woods faced together.

"Who's pinching you?" he sneered. "Mind
your own—" "Business," he meant to say, but
Castle's fist shot out and landed with a whip-like
crack.

It was a smart rap, too, given from a fall heart,
and, though it lacked weight, the suddenness of it
sent the feeder staggering against the farther bin.
There he paused, momentarily paralyzed, blank
astonishment and black anger darkening his face;
but when he straightened from the blow, he seized
a neck-yoke and swung it viciously.

With a swish it cut the ah- just above Castle's
head. The girls screamed. A clever duck saved
Castle his brains, but as he backed towards the door
the feeder followed, swinging for another blow.

But the scream had reached a score of ears.
Before he could strike again there came a rush of

The Pbobationer

foot, a fiozon hca.ls blocked the door, and the boss
thresher jerked Cattle back and out.
"^V hat's the matter, Sutherland?" growled the

"Oh, nothin'!- nmttere.l the fee.lor, .shouldering
ln« way through the crow.l, and he followed the
band-cutter back to the machine
"AVhat's the trouble, girLs?" persisted the boss,
ilut just then the water-hauler drew round to the
engine the whistle called to work, and the girls
remembered some pies which must be burning in
he oven. As they ran by the separator, Suther-
and turned h.s back and swept a pile of sheaves into
tne screammg cylinder.

"You can hev all the power you want!" yelled
the stoker.

He nodded and went on rolling the loosened
sheaves, feedmg steadily, coaxing, urging, pressing,
holdmg the thunderous voice down to a stifled
chokmg hum. When the boss thresher came to
mli hnn, he shook his head and fed on, and on
and on, mitil the sweat washed white runlets down
his face. And while he worked he thought

Why he a^ked himself, did the girl make such a
tuss { In the backwoods that sired him they never
cared. Why should these? Perhaps they didn't

A Son of A\ak

P-^rhaps it was all due to the Englishman with his
finicky ways. So he puzzled until the sun slipped
in a blanket of umber and gold over the edge of the
world, and dusk lent velvet shades to the threshing
reek. *

But at supper Sutherland quickly learned in
whom the fault lay. He found himself studiously
neglected. While the girls waited on the other men,
a hard-featured neighbor woman supplied his needs'
And he noted that his rival received many small
favors. Kate kept his plate heaped, and when
l>ettic leaned for an empty dish, her arm touched
his neck. Three times this happened, and every
time the feeder choked. Yet he ate mechanically
the thmgs which were put to his hand, swallowed
boiling tea without a wink, and got through the
meal somehow.

After it was eaten he lit a lantern anil touched
tastle on the shoulder.

"Chore time!" he growled. "Them bosses is
cool enough for oats by this."

As the door dosed behind them the girls ex-
change<l uneasy glances, aad a man said, with a lift
of the brow, "How about that?"

The boss thresher took the question to himself
and answered:

* 43

The Probationer

'■Oh I reckon it's all right. Sutherland's r good
sort, an he's had time to cool. Besides," he added
with a touch of the strong man's philosophy,'
they ve gotter settle it some day."
In the stable Sutherland hung up his lantern and
faced about. "I s'pose," he said, quietly, "a^
you re lookin' for a fight?" Castle nodded and
began to peel his coat. "Oi,, there's no hurry"
the feeder went on. "Of course, I reckon to pay
you some day, but not jes now. But say "-and
here the puzzle of his brain slipped into his eyes-
what made them girls so all-fired mad'"
The Englishman stared. It wa.s incredible' Yet
the man s blue eyes were wide with question, and his
face earned the look of a child corrected for mis-
h.e mnocently done. Into Castle's eonsclousnel
crep a vague conception of the workings of a
Western mmd, and with it a feeling of pity
truth-^' stammered, "to-to tell you the

■'ZT'\,'^\'''-" ''""""••og^d the Canadian.

Speak out! I'm like a blind hoss that's off the
trail, an' I want my bearin's."

"Well, you were— just a little rough "

"ThatM^asit?"

"It was."

A Son of Anak

The big man whistled. " Weil, I'm—" he began,
but paused, and then went on: "Jes to think!
Why, the girls in the stump townships didn't mind
it a bit. Reckoned it a ripping joke! Not that
these ain't right," he added, hastily. "They're dif-
ferent, kind of eddicated, got more polah to 'em."

Leaning against a stall, Sutherland chewed a
straw and the cud of reflection, and evidently made
emendations in his theory of manners; for when
Castle brought the horses from water he burst out:

"Say, put me down the dai-nedest fool in Mani-
toba! As for that crack on the law— let it go on
account of eddication. An', what's more," he
finished, holding out his hand, "jes so long as we
travel with this outfit I'll be etarnally obliged if
you lam me whenever I strad., traces." And

on this bargain they slept.

Now, healthy girls and well-fed robins sing in the
early morning, and Lettie sang as she skimmed the
milk. From the stables came the din of the thresh-
er's moving— blows and hangings, men's voices,
the rattle of the carriers, the stroke of the sled. In
the east a red sun smouldered. Down into the milk-
house it shot a crimson ray and clothed the singing
girl in ruby light. Sutherland, who just then

T II K I' R O n A T I O N E n

peeped in thought her the fairest thing on earth.
Though his shadow foil athwart her crock, «he went
on floating m the clotted cream, and. remarked
without looking up: remarked,

"He's going, Kate, but I can't cry'"
A masculine cough made her sensible of her mis-
take and brought her, confused but extremely
dignified, to her feet. " Well?" she queried. '

The interrogation reduced Sutherland to a con-
dition of at least partial imbecility. He coughed
again, and shuffled, and his face-which he had
washed very clean-rivalled the rising sun He

iwT * u^ .'^'^ °^ '^' "S^^ •^"'1 °f -^ "«'e speech
that he had been conning over the last two hours
Cattle composed it, that morning, in the dark stable"
before breakfast.

"I was wanting to say, miss," he began; then,
glancing up, he caught her eye, floundered, and
finished very lamely-'Tm real sorry!"

But his manner pleaded as words could not
Lettie's eyes softened, and her lips drooped into
their gentler curves, but she answered, very
gravely : '

" You were extremely rude."
He made no reply. A bewilderingly small foot
was tapping the ground just beyond her skirt-

A Son ok A x a k

enough in itself to deprive a man of the power of
speech.

"And if I overlook it," she continued, rather en-
joying her sudden accession of power, "I shall ex-
pect you to be friendly with Mr. Castle."

"Oh, that's all right!" he exclaimed, immensely
relieved. " I'll bring him safe back."

"Oh, he's nothing to me!" she hastily replied,
adding, with some confusion: "That is— well you
know, I meant, I shouldn't like to have him ill
treated."

"Jes so," he cheerfully answeretl, "an' I'll
smash any one as lays a finger on him! But there
goes the engine. Good-bye, miss!"

"Good-bye," she answered, and watched him join
the outfit.

Up the slope from the stables came the engine
with its double yoke of oxen hawing, geeing, swing-
mg right and left in vain attempts to avoid both
the curse of labor and the driver's cutting whip
After they had crossed the ridge and lumbered
down the other side, the thresher's black shire mares
snapped the separator up the hill, striking fire from
Its face. Sutherland handled the team, while Castle '
walked near by. Beside the feeder he appeared
frail, almost boyish, and though his refined air

The Probationer

caught the girl's fancy, her woman's instincts-in-
herited of a thousand generations— leaned to the
man's strength.

A long move the outfit made that day— long even
for Manitoba, where a horse reels off his seventy
miles a day and a man's neighborhood encircles
twenty miles; but it was not long enough to quench
the sudden interest Caatle developed in the Ellice
Mission service, nor i stop Sutherland from riding
once a week to his homestead on the Assmiboine.
This, a quarter-section of sand and gopher-pinned
down, as it were, and eternally prevented from
dribbling over the valley's edge by the lone log-
cabm that staked its centre-lay an hour's ride to
the south of Greer's.

Its seductions could hardly be accountable for
Its owner's Sabbath rides, nor is it to be wondered
at if he never got there. For, as the luck had it, his
trail ran in between Greer's house and stable, and
the law of the bachelor will not allow a wifeless man
to pass the house of a wedded woman without
tasting of her bread. Thus, when Castle escorted
Lettie home from mass, he invariably found the
feeder discussing seed grains, gopher poisons, or
kindred interesting matters with her father.

And each wooed the girl after his own fashion—

A S (> .V OK A N A K

one in words, with ail tlio ailvantage conferred liy
education; tlie otlier in tlie dumb language of the
eye. Lettie, for her part, held the balance and
distributed her favors so impartially as to puzzle
even her mother. Perhaps she was puzzled her-
self. At any rate, she walked in maitlen mystery,
veiling her thoughts— a sad enigma to her parents,
a sweet trouble to her lovers.

Up Miniska way, these soon began to taste the
joys of threshing at temperatures that froze the
mercury. About their settings stretched limitless
wastes, seas of white that curved from the skyline
clear to the frozen pole. On unthreshed farms the
stacks uprearctl like hills of snow, putting by
contrast a bright vermilion blush upon the dirty
separator.

The water-hauler had forsaken wheels for runners,
and moved like a blue iceberg. The stoker had
swathed his beloved engine in swaddling-clothes.
He warmeil him by banging the ice from his
water-barrels, and in the intervals of chopping wood
cursed the cold that lowered his steam. And as
these were the early snows, and the trails lay be-
neath a foot of drift, the siege of Lettie was raised
for the space of a lunar month.

One day a thing happened which came nigh to
49

TlIK r*liOHATIO\f;n

putting Sutl,orlan.l out of the running for good an.l
.11. From ,.vory shoaf, as it Htruol< the table, snow
and dust s,ftod .lown and packed into a slippery
">a.ss iK-neatl. his feet. At the length of his arm
1.0 iron -tooth.,! cylinder whirle.i two thousand
t.mes a mmuto; and he, while reaching for a sheaf
slipped ami plunge.l forward. A moment's hesita-
t.on and he had been done; but as his body struck

back ""''*' ^"'"" ""'""' ''™ "'"' ^'"""^ ^"'"y
Sutherland rose from the snow. The cylinder
hjid caught and ripped away his buckskin mit; the
blood ran freely from a mangled finger

"A clo.se shave," he said, .slowly; "an' but for you
-n^ .shave at all. An' what's more," he finished
W' a jerk of his shoulder towards the south'
• eres many a man, .seeing the way things i.s
hxed, as would have waited to cut another band "
On the third day of the following week the first
blizzard swept from the north an.l snowed the outfit
m for keeps. The drift flew by thick as fleece, and
all .signs pointed to a three days' blow; but early
m the morning of the second day it slacked suf-
ficiently for the boss to drive the threshers in to
Hussel. There he paid off-a wise action, which
earned him the applause of the burgesses and
so •

A Sox OF AVAK

also promoted the prosperity of the hotel, in which
he owned n half-interest.

Sutherland and Castle were not among the rois-
terers at his bar. They sat one on either .side of the
stove, watehing the storm and talking in low lone.s.
"Yes," the f(.eder was .saying, "we'd just as well
settle the thing now. In my time I've heen a no-
account .sort-that kind "-lifting his brow at the
half -drunken threshers-" but that's old hisfry
Not saying that I ain't a fool to even think of heV,
but— God, man, I could burn for her!"

He stared for a while on the white and whirling
drift, and then resumed.

"Of course that don't count, an' this is how the
busmess stan's, accortling to my idea. But for you
I d never trouble man nor woman more; therefore
to you falls the first chance. Nov—"
"-No, no!" Castle interrupted. "I won't have that'"
But the other was the Wronger. " Yes, you will,"
he rejomed, "for I'm jes a-goin' down to my own
pace, an' there I stay till you come an' say you've
played your hand."

Siknce fell between them, and held until Castle
broke It. "Think we can strike out to-ilayr' he
asked. '

Sutherland studied the flying drift. "It does

TlIK I'ltOH ATIO.N KR

8Pcm to 1)0 thinning," ho said at last. "I reckon
«r could make Nork's road-house for the ulyMt."

In half an hour it lightened still more, and the two
started south afoot. A line of grassle.*. white alone
marked trail from prairie, but this they followed
ea.sily enough until, after an hour's tramp, the
wind raiae<I and the drift thick(>ned.
■'Think we'd better go on?" Castle inquired.
"Have to!" Sutherland answered.
A loiik to the north gave his reason. The stinging
drift filled Castle's eyes, the wind smote him foully
the frost tweaked him by the nose. As they
plunged steadily south, the roar of the wind rose to
a muffled shriek. From the bluffs it tore the ten-
loot drifts, from the prairie a foot of snow, and it
stirred the mass and whirled it round and round
until the air was thick as cheese.

Still they pressed on, Sutherland in the lead. He
wa.s off the trail now, and knew it, but he kept the
wind slanting to his cheek, steered southeast and
trusted to strike Nork's mile-long fence. If the
wind hail held, they would have struck it; but in
the middle of the afternoon it veered due east, and
sent them miles off their course.

In the black of night, amid darkness thick enough
to cut, they stumbled by the road-house. Around

A Son ok A n a k

thorn tho drift whirled and fwistod, working up the
pivotal motion which keeps the wanderer on u circle
Once they tried to make a fire in a bluff, and ,s,K.nt
their matches on its green and sappy wood. And it
grew colder, colder, colder, until, at daybreak, it
registered forty and odd below.

They were out on the desolate Alkali Flats when
gray dawn banished the inky blackness, but they
had no surcease from the bitter blast, the stinging
spume, the searing frost. They mov-d now slowly,
wearily, automatically lifting their feet, wandering
hke sinful souls in a frozen purgatory. Castle was
nearly spent. In the early morning he fell forward
and began to lick snow— he was marked for the
white death.

"Let me sleep!" his tired body cried. "Let me
die!" his weary spirit echoed.

But Sutherland forced him up and on. AVhen
persuasion failed, he slipped his belt and laid on the
buckle end. Thus, as men in a dream, they wrought
out their travail, and thus, dreamlike, they found
themselves gazing stupidly upon an Indian tppto
Now standing out dirty, black against the snow, now
veiled in fleecy scud, it loomed through the drab of
the drift like a mirage or a portion of their dream.
Before its entrance stood a jumper, a native sled
53 '

The Probationer

but around the place was neither sound nor sign
of life. The flaps were laced with frozen shaganappy
thongs, hard as boards; yet, somehow, Sutherland
fumbled thoiii loose and pushed Castle in. Then he
followed into the presence of the coldest host that
ever welcomed man from storm.

At their feet, stark naked, lay a young Cree
squaw, and beside her, wrapped in the blankets she
had stripped from her limbs, was a dead papoose.
Cold, stiff, hard as fatatues of bronze, (! ey stared up
in Sutherland's face.

"Poor girl!" lie muttered, laying his hand on the
blankets. "Pony strayed, an' your man went to
hunt it. Well, I reckon you don't want these any
more. Here, Castle! Lend a hand to lift her."
But Castle was down, and as still as the dead
woman.

Sutherland swung his belt. "Get up!" he cried.
"Get up! Get up!"

The lad moaned, without opening his eyes, and the
feeder stood, bolt in hand, staring gloomily down
upon him. "Cfean tuckered out!" he groaned
"What 'II I do?"

Through the open fJap the fine drift spume poured
and powdered alike the quick and the dead. Out-
side the blizzard thundered wildly by; within the
54

A Sox OF A\AK

strong man wrestled with a sudden darkling thought.
A minute passed— two— then he stepped out and
walked rapidly away; but before he had covered a
score of yards he stopped, returned, and bent on
his rival the same frowning stare.

Once more he left, resolutely this time, yet halted
again at fifty yards and slowly retraced his steps.

About noon of the third day the wind lowered
and the drift lightened sufficiently for Pere Bayon
to make his way as far as Greer's. It was cold yet,
to be sure, but a layeV of comfortable fat kept the
good father snug and warm; so, like a red-cheeked
Christmas god, he waddled through the snow.

"For the land sakes!" exclaimed Mrs. Greer
when he entered her kitchen. " What brings you out'
father?" '

"There's something moving over the valley," he
answered, closing the storm-door. "Lend me your
glasses, daughter."

Lettie handed down the binoculars from their
place beside the clock, and said, "If you'll wait a
minute, I'll go, too."

While she slipped on her moccasins, P6rc Bayon
warmed his hands and looked smilingly on He
was proud of Lettie. He christened her; from him

The Probationer

she received her first communion; and his careful
hand had trained her until she bloomed like a sun-
kissed peach on the pleasant side of a convent wall.
"Come along!" she cried. "I'll race you to the
stack!"

Under its lee they took shelter from the wind.
From their feet the valley sheered down to the
drift haze which shrouded the bottoms and the
frozen river. They could hear the stream complain-
ing beneath its frozen bonds. Opposite, the bald
headlands plumped up, round, swelling, chastely
beautiful, like the breast of a proud woman. But
something else drew their eyes— a black spot that
moved along the farther slope, just where the crown-
ing bank cut the sky-line.

"Must be a wolf," Lettie said. "No man would
cross the trail that fashion."

The priest was focusing the glasses. "I have
known men to do it," he replied.

A moment later an exclamation brought her to
his side.

"What is it?" she asked.

" Look yourself."

She raised the glasses, and instantly, through the
drab of the drift, there loomed up the misty figure
of a giant man. He was stumbling along the trail,

A Son of A>fAK

f^ometimes in it, more often off, dragging an Indian
jumper.

"Why," she exclaimed, "it's Sutherland! What
can have happened?"
"Look again," said the priest.
"He's hauling a sled. Now he's staggering- oh'"
-catching her breath-" he's fallen! There he's
up again! Now he's made the ravine. He'sstretch-
mg on the sled— going to coast the hill."
"Needs a clear head," murmured P6re Bayon.
Slowly the sled moved off, but soon increased its
speed until it fairly flew. Half-way down it vanished
m a black ravine, and the watchers held their breath ■
then out from the dark of the trees it swooped
like a pouncing hawk, rounded the bottom curve
and shot the bank. '

"Where's your father?" hastily inquired the
pri66t,

"Cleaning stablee."

"Then run and tell him to hitch the ponies.
■1 II go on."

He ran heavily down the valley trail, but Lettie

made such speed that the ponies overtook him on

the flats. A minute later they pulled up at the

rozen ford, and Lettie held the lines while her

father broke a trail through the drift.

The P h o h a t I o n e r

"Why," he exclaimed, "there's two of 'em!"
Swathed in the dead squaw's blankets. Castle lay
beside the broken jumper. Over his face Suther-
land had thrown an arm. His own was turned
upward to the storm-white, deathly white, with
the whiteness of freezing flesh. When moved, he
groaned; but neither sob nor sigh tohl that the
spirit yet lingered in the body of the other.

In ten minutes the two were lying in shake-downs
in Greer's kitchen. Both were badly frozen, and
for two long hours the farmer and the priest rubbed,
and chafed, and soaked frozen limbs m kerosene,'
and applied all the remedies proved of prairie sur-
gery. Just before dark, when the sufferers slipped
their agony for heavy sleep, PIre Bayon straightened
his weary back and plodded back to the mission.

"Some one 'II have to sit up," said Greer. "They're
quiet now, but soon the fever 'U take 'em."
"Let me," begged Lettie.

Her mother looked dubious, and remarked, tenta-
tively, "They'll mebbe wander a little."
"Oh, I won't mind! An' dad will be in easy call."
After the old folks climbed the stairs to bed, she
did feel a little nervous. In the chimney the
nor'wester wailed sadly; across the floor black
shadows flitted. Outside the drift hissed by. The
ss

A S <) V O F A N A K

clouded windows rattled, and about the door every
bit of iron was bossed with glittering frost. Yet
she sat by the fire, picking pictures from the glow-
ing coals, until a voice babbled into sudden talk.

She rose hastily, every nerve thrilling. Suther-
land was sitting up in bed. He had torn the
bandage from his face; his red eyes peered into the
darkest corner; he spoke in low but earnest tones.
Get up! Get up! Get up, I say!"
She stepped ciuickly to the stairs; but before she
could call, her own name fell from the man's lips
She hesitated. He ealled again, gentlv, and • .ri-
osity balanced fear. Quietly closing the door, she
tiptoed to his bed.
"Yes?" she said.

He knew her, but incorporated her personality in
his dream. "Ah, there she is!" he sighed. "Come
for him!" Ther sinking back, he closed his eyes.

But Lettie w;. not more than .seated before he
was again unravelli.,;; his tangled skein of thought
I could leave him," he pondered, frowning
heavily. "Who'd know? One night alone, an'--
why not? ' He swayed from side to side while his
heated mind duplicate every detail of the mental
slruggle in the tepee. Then, with a wild toss of the
tiands, ho cried, bitterly :
* 59

The P r o b a t I o n e n

"God! I promised her to bring him back!"

In this fashion, bit by bit, with many breaks and
pauses, Lettie gathered from the man's own Ups the
story of his love, his trial, and his temptation. Aa
the night wore on and the fire died and the shadows
slid forth to play about the room, she came to know
him ; and when at last gray morning stole through the
whitened panes, it found her kneelmg by his bed.

On his frost-scarred face the chill rays softly fell.
One arm lay beneath his head ; the sleeve had rolled
from the other, baring writhing bands and knots
of muscle. She wondered at its strength. His face
was thinner, too. Strife, struggle, and mental trav-
ail had refined it; his mouth was lined with sorrow.
And these lines, as she brooded over him, let loose a
flood of love and tender sympathy.

A rosy flush banished the watcher's pallor; her
head drooped lower, lower, lower, until its tawny
clouds hid his face.

He stirred; but a moment later, when his eyes
opened, she was smoothing Castle's pillow. He
could not see her face, but he saw her hand fondle
the lad's tangled curls. How should he know that
it was done for love of himf He turned his back
and groaned.

"You're in pain?" she a.sked, anxiously.
.00

A Son of Anak

"A twinge," he answered, and just then Mrs.
Greer came ilown-stairs.

" Now you go right to bed, child," she said, " an'
get some sleep."

But sleep was not for Lettie. She lay, quietly
happy, dreaming her love-dreams, until a decent
interval elapsed; then, hungry for another look at
their subject, she dressed and stole down-stairs.

Sutherland's bed was empty.

"He's gone," said her mother, in reply to her
startled look. " Jes' wouldn't wait another minute.
I never did see sech a man!"

While Lettie, thinking he had felt her caress,
bowed her head in secret shaine, Sutherland broke
trail to his own place. The storm was over. Far
to the south the wild nor'wester was ending its days
as a tropical zephyr. Eternal silence wrapped the
prairie. All about the bluffs were veiled in shim-
mering white, the keen air thrilled like wine, the
frost set the limbs tingl'- 1. Earth, air, and sky
blazed; from a million fai is the snow cast up the
bright sunlight, yet not a single ray pierced the
blackness of his soul.

For the next two weeks he lay close, nursing a
sick heart and his frosted face. Nothing could
tempt him forth — not even the prairie-chicken that

T II K P H O n A T I O N K R

picked about his door, nor a saucy wolf tliat daily
throw a challenge to his dog. Then, tiring of in-
action, ho decided to put in the remainder of the
winter lumbering on the Shell. Ho tokl his mind
to his nearest neighbor, but— ho did not go. He
waited for Castle, faintly hoping he had read the
girl wrong; but Castle never came.

So the winter months ilragged on like years, and
m the middle days of March Sutherland drove into
Moosomm for provisions, and for tobacco, of which
he now smoked a double share. As he waited his
turn in the general store, two women at the counter
exchanged the gossip of a county. At first he
paid no attention. Like the hum of a hive their
voices sounded in his ears until the stouter of the
two mentioned Lottie Greer. Then he listened.

"Yes," said the other; "an' who's to marrv
'em?" ^

"PSre Bayon, to be sure!"
"Well, seein' as the young man's a Protestant I
thought—"

"Yoi urn, Sutherland!" broke in the store-
keeper. Tobacco? Must bo eating it these days!"
He laughed at his own joke, and chatted while
he bustled round. Sutherland answered, but he
caught every .syllable of the women's talk. One had
•a

1. : '

A Son of Anak

heard that the young man's father would stock
a farm; the other had seen a handsome present from
his EngUsh sisters. Botii had bids to the wedding
and nothing fit to wear. Thus they rattled on
until, heart-sick, he left the store.

"Looks real bad, doesn't he, poor fellow?" ob-
served the stouter woman, glancing after him.

"He does so," sympathetically agreed the other.
"What's he doin' here? Thought he was up the
Shell."

" Says he's going to strike farther west to-morrow,"
commented the storekeeper, which piece of news
the women carried to the wedding.

All that night Sutherland tossed and turned, but
towards morning he dozed off and slept till the
sun shone full upon his window. Then he rose and
flung wide the door. A flood of light poured in.
The air breathed warm of spring. On bare knolls
prairie-cocks strutted before admiring hens; Munro's
fowls cackled cheerily, a cow-bell tinkled down the
valley. And as he stood, drinking in the sunshine,
away to the north the mission bells began to chime.

At first he thought it the matin, but the lilting
measure and the high sun said no. All at once its
significance burst in upon him. Slamming the
door, he lay down and buried his head, yet, though

The P h o b a t I o \ e r

he shut out the brll'« faint music, forth from the
blackness shone Lettir's flower face.

He was still there when, two hours later, Castio
opened the door.

"Hello, sleepy head!" !,o calle.I; then, appalled
by the face which was raised from the bed-
clothes, he exclaimed: "Good God, inan, are you

Sutherland pas,sed the question. "You was to
have first chance," he sai.l, sternly an.l reproach-
fully. \ougotit. Was there need to leave me
here to suffer hell for three long months?"

"But look here, old man," Castio pleaded, "I was
sick for a whole month, and Munro said that you'd
gone to the Shell."

"Oh, well, it don't matter now," Sutherland an-
swered, m tones that were hopelessly dull, and he
stared at the opposite wall until Castle asked:
"Aren't you going to wish me joy?"
Sutherland glanced up anffrily and growled-
VVould you if I was in your shoe.s? You've—"
"Say," Castio interrupted, "you surely don't
thmkthati- By George, I believe you do! What
a lark! I must tell the girls."
^ As he ran outside, Sutherland sprang to follow
Come back!" he roared. "Come back, I sayi"

A So\ or AvAK

Then ho stopped dead, and gasped, for the door
opened and Lottie stopped inside.

"I thouglit it was your— your husband," ho
stammered.

"My hu.sband?" she echoed wonderingly. "I—
I haven't one!"

She stood before him, flu.shing and paling, trem-
bling lijio a lily in the wind, and he shook in sym-
pathy. For a moment he was silent, trying to
grasp the situation; then he spoke, and the only
thing the stupid could think to say was:

" But — but — but he asked you?"

"Yes," she answered, stepping by him to the
window, "but ho soon— got over it. Look!"

It was a small, low window, and, as Sutherland
bent, their heads almost touched. Outside, in a
brand-now Portland cutter, sat Kate Howard, and
in her ear Castle was whispering something which
made her blush and smile.

"Don't they look happy?" Lottie whispered.

And Mien— and then— and then— ah, well!

THE ME .v:'Y OF THE FROST

yn i;

w r

THE MERCY OF THE FROST

IT lacked but a day of Christmas, and over the
Northland the frost-god had thrown a cloth of
purest white. From the parallel of fifty -three it
stretched, unsullied, northward over the lands of the
Hudson Bay Company to the frozen pole, but to the
south, lonely farmsteads, black and ugly, thrust up-
ward through the snow. These occurred in irreg-
ular sequence, and were grouped in small settle-
ments, with wide tracts of prairie lying between. On
each uprose some sort of habitation— sod-shanty,
log-cabin, frame-house, or hut of mud and wattles,'
according to the taste and fortune of its owner.

Apart from the difference in house fashion.^— in-
dicative of past, not pre.sent, fortunes— the farms
presented a deadly likeness. The same yellow
straw-stacks dotted their fenceless fields; on all,
acres of winil-blown fail ploughing smirched the
eternal whiteness; and the smallest shack had its

Thk Pbobationer

huge tent of firewood upreared among the drifts.
Besides this identity of physical appearance, they
had other things in common. Sulicy-rakes, gang-
• ploughs, and self-binders thrust red and green pro-
testing limbs from hoary drifts; a universal mort-
gage covered all; and on this particular day a
pennon of smoke trailed above each house like a
banner of Christmas cheer.

On the eastern edge of the settlement of Silver
Creek, a large log-house seemed to be trying to out-
wiioke its neighbors. From either end of the main
tuiijdinc a steamy column spurted, the sod roof
reikeij through every cranny, while in the kitchen
lean-to a wood-stove roared like a thresher's en-
gine. The door of this house opened, and a shapely
girl called to a man who was chopping wood:

"1 declare, dad, the woodbox's enip'y ag'in!"

Through the open door came girls' laughter and
the hum of women's talk. The man leaned on his
axe-helve and looked up, a good-natured grin puck-
ering his rr'd face.

"All right, Sume: all right, gal!" he laughed.
"I'm a-eomin', but air you eatiii' the wood? Never
seetl .sech weemen ' Sill lion'no what he's a-gettin'."

"Thinks he d(ie^. r»-torted the girl, smiling
roguishly. "Hurry, dair"

Tub M h: n c v o i-

■'iiK Frost

Sho was to bo married Christmas morning, and
that evomnK tho neighbors would drop in, Northern
fashion, to offer their goo.l wishes. TJus meant
•supper an,l a dance, wi.erefore the house was
a-buzz wtii preparation, and in tlie lean-to a half-
dozen neighbor women baked and l)rewed

After he had filled the woodbox, the farmer hung
over the stove while he cracked a joke with th^
women Jes think. Mis' Harkins," h.. remarked
•slyly steahng a cooky from her pan, "how time
does scoot! Seems like yester.lay as I was buzzin'
you. D ye remunber the night I toted ye home
from smgrng-school, an' med Hank so mad he
wanted ter lick me?"

Mrs Harkins, a tall, gaunt woman, famih- worn
and shave.l to the bone by the stern struggle with
the mnosp.table Northern soil, looke.l up with a
pleasant smile. "Oh, shore!" sh,- laughed. "Thet
-Ion t count Siks. You was doin' it jes ter make
Umstie jealous."

"Well now, sis, I dunno! I reckon I mod Hank
race his horses.

•' Send him eriong, Christie !" exclaimed the pleased
woman, "afore he eats all my cookies. A=,?, vou
askuned, b.las, a-talkin' .sech nonsense afore "the

The PnoBATiovEn

"Silas Brown," ordered Iuh wife, "jes git to
yer choppin'. Here's three stoves to keep a-goin',
an' tlie folks a-comin' at six."

By the time the farmer had finished his chores the
pale winter sun had slid beliind the ilistimt school-
house. Ail signs pointed to a rough night. A dash
of snow powdered the air, the north wind was herd-
ing t^e drifts, iind all day a brilliant "dog" had
chaseil the sun. As Silas came up from the stables,
tinkling sleigh-bells sounded in the west. He
stopped and shaded his eyes, muttering:

"Kinder early! Mebbe it's the fiddler!"

Suddenly his eyes grew sick and troubled. . . .
"Shorely, it kcdn't be hhn," he murmured, "of a
Christmas night?" But a moment later his hand
dropped, and he groaned; "It's Frascr, shorely!
Them's his sorrels."

Over the stubble west of the house a beautiful
carriage team dashed wltli a Portland cutter.
Heavy furs nmffled the driver, but a gray beard
escaped from beneath his muffler and told that he
was old. His figure, too, was bent, but a pair of hot,
brown eyes burned under penthouse brows. At
this figur< Hilas stared, bereft of speech.

"Well," greeted the driver, In a high, nasal tone,
"yc'U know me again, Mr. Brown!"
72

Tin: Mkhcy of the Frost

hastMv °^T' "■;• ^"'"•"'■-"° '"^""''•^ •" ♦ho farmer
h^t ly apolog,.o,l. "I wa.s hardly expectin' ye.
lliis IS Clinstmas Kvo."
Tho oI,l n.an',s ryes snapM. "I km if he

'<W.. Y,.|l ,.at yor p,ul,len the better for bein'
• roo man. Of eoor.se," he wont on, lugging ,
;-%.;"veiopefro„U,i.,..kot/.yeha';th^t^s;
«ilas ,,uaile,i. The package was in.lissolublv
™;^"...ismin,,wi,hn,enK,Hesofhu.ij!;;^
brov^l>eatn g, of har,! toil an,l profitle.s., returns

l-l-Iin sorry-" }„. faitero,!; then catching
the usurer's glance, stop,K..I. ^

It was maliciously triun,phant, .lomineerine ami
pregnant of secret intelligence. The wiZfac
bnmmea with conceit of power, an.l the ^es le
".an,led.t,s observance. It expressed t e man
sooner than loo,se his grip on a debtor, it was aid
hat Fraser would have Imn die in his b ml X
Li;:""- •■" '^" '"--"^ *he fanr^er. IZ

♦i^-::s.;"l^i;::;r-"-

rraser, he called, as ,!,.. horses «tepfK.d, "don't

The PaoBATioNEU

bp so quick ! I ( IkI my bcs' , but this has been a hard
year. Wlioat froze i' tlie milii, cattle low, hogs
three an' a half cents dressed, an'—"

" Yo spent twenty dollars at Russel's store a week
agone," broke in the usurer, savaijely. "Twenty
dollars o' my intrust, Silas, ye spent on ribands an'
print an' sech truck. Now! now!" he went on,
raising a deprecating hand an though challenging a
lie. "It'snouse talkin'! Ye know ye did. '

The hectoring tone irritated the farmer. His
huge fists bunched inside hi.s mitts, but he answered
humbly enough, "Ye know my gal's ter be married,
Mr. Fraser,"
"WhiU's thet tome?"

"She jes kedn't be wi'out a bit we(hlin'-dress,
now, kcd she?" Sila.s pleaded. " Ye've had children
of yer own, Mr. Fraser."

The usurer made no answer, and the fading
twilight left his face in shadow. Twenty years
before he had been counte<l a fair neighbor; a bit
close on a bargain, perhaps, but otherwise an
average man. Then, all of a sudden, the hand of
fate pres-sed sorely on hini. In one short year his
wife died, a wagon-wheil crushed his <lrunken son,
and his daughter e|,.|"'d with a rakish hiied-innn-
to escape his hitter lenipir, people said; bul be (his

The Mkrcy or tiff. Frost

as it may, he ncvor forgave, to the day she died in
travail.

"Yc'vo had children!" reiterated Silas. He
could not see the coal-like eyes, the livid face.

"On'y a bit weddin'-dress?"

Just then a peal of girlish laughter travelled
from the hoase, and, like flame to powder, touched
off the usurer's pitssion.

"VWtrels'" he screoehetl, shaking his fist.
"Wastrels ;d!! Riotin' wi" my siller. Must ha'e
a weddin' - (ipe^, must she? Let the strunip(>t
wear — "

The sentence was never finished. As the vile
word pa.ssp<l, Silas struck him upon the mouth.
Then into his mind crowded the insults of a dozen
years. FrnsI, chouctit. rust, railroad monopolies,
all the evils that afflut the Xnrthern farmer in-
carnated in the person of the money-lender. Seizing
the axe, he raised as though to end them all.

"T$y Ood!" he shouted, "ril— "

For the space of a dozen breaths Fraser trcmbleil
on the threshold of the valley of .shadows. Had ho
flinched, even nioveil, the axe had .surely fallen,
but he ,sa( perfcrdy slill, glowering angrily upon llie
f.irmer. And Silas lliirsted (o let j;,,. He hung on
tiptoe, while a hot devil wiihin urged him to strike.
6 75

The PnonATioNEn

Twice he raised and twice he lowered, then, with a
bitter curse, he flung the axe far out in tlie snow. A
minute passed, and neither spoke. . . . Two! And
they still stared at each other through the gloom.

At last Fraser stuffed the deed in his pocket and
shook up his lines. " Y(! have mv congratulations,
Mr. Brown," ho said, as the sleigh moved off.
"Ye'vo done that which man never did before.
An' it '11 cost ye dear. Principal an' intrust, as yo
well know, are baith due on your mortgage. Yo
have lill nine in the mornin' to pay in full."

Until the north wind drowned the clashing bells
Silas stood like a frozen man. Behind him a poplar
windbrake tossed skeleton arms against the darken-
ing sky.

The snow was now falling fast, the drift flew hiss-
ing by. Suddenly the house door opened, and a
band of yellow light fell full upon him. Within, all
Wit-s liglit and warm. Scoured tins smiled from the
wnite walls, the .stove winked blackly, and chatter-
ing women moved about the well-scrubbed floor.

"Sup-per!" .sang a cheerful voice. "Bring an
armf'i! of wood with ycr!"

As he loaded up the wood, Silas thought of the
consequences of his act. " Brace up!" he muttered.
"He kain't do nuthin' till after the weddin'. Brace
76

'•'.imi vtwl; ' •■ icr^m •.yri'w*- 'jiy* :rrw a

TiiK Mkrcy of tiik Frost

up, Si!" Iio reiM'iitcd, with iiifiiiit(> toiulornpss, "or
yo'll Hpoil it for the little- kuI."

His supper was set iti tin- leaii-to, for tiie cotton
partitions had been removed in tiie body of tlio
house and the floor cleared for dancing. Susie and
Letty Green had hung the wails with spruce bougiis
and chains of scarlet iM'rries. A rough boanl seat
ran all around; in the far corner stood a chair and
table, which presently would enthrone the fiddler;
and a half-dozen stable-lanterns dangled from the
joists.

"Ain't it pretty!" exclaimed Susie, when she had
finished lighting up.

She and Lettie stooil, each with an arm about the
other, gazing pridefully upon their work. To
them the low-ceiled room, with its swinging lanterns,
w.-.s very beautiful. Peihai.s at that very moment,
two lliousand miles east and south, some careless
beauty was giving n l;(«( -uaw,- t,. i niyn.id-lighted
ball-room without exi'ii, -rlu r _^ (j,|„. pf ^^^^■^^
enjoyment.

"It's jes lovely!" Letlic ■■ -^ii-'r.siici ;• agreed.
"Dear! I wish the boys woi ;., huny -.. '

They had not long to wail. Tli.iujjii the .sto<in
now swept the prairie, a score of ■ , .uii,-- '-vre creeping
slowly towards the light Silas had hun,; from the
77

TlIR I'non ATI ON K 11

gnble. In five iiiinutps a hoarsj" .shout and tho
groan of frosty runners sont Susie llying to th(> door,
where three tall, snow - powdered MeKays were
diffging a like nuinlxT of girls from the bottom of a
sleigh.

"Merry Chri.stmas!" .she sereained.
The boys answered with a wlioop, and one of
them growled: "Hurry ep, now, Hclle! Here's
another loail awaitiii'!"

"Jim!" screamed the girl. " Let go! Kain't you
tell a han' from a foot?"

"Ain't much difference 'twi.vt yourn," Jim un-
gallantly answered. "Now! Heave-ho, in you go!"
Grabbing the girl around the waist, ho swung
her into the kitchen, then, leaping into his sleigh, he
whirled the team and galloped to tlie stable. Sleigh
followed sleigh. From all sides came tiu; tinkle of
storm-nmfflod bells, and .soon the house was throng-
ed with stout, red-laced lads and strong girls,
pretty, but thickened with heavy choring. The
boys were moccasined, and wore long arctic sock.s
over heavy woollen breeches; store tweed, or fancy
moose-skin coats covered their upper works, while
the girls had added a touch of finery to their lii„ .ely
winseys. By seven the guests wen; all in, and three
sets of lancers held the (loor.

TlIK Mkkcv op thk I'iiost

"All — n ~ iiianrle — left! f lands - acrnst!
Down — the - renin ! Swing — Ihc — corner —
Mil!" sang ./itii McKay, in time to the music.

The niufllcil siariip of niocciLsins, llif vigorous
clacli of Sunday slio<'s almost (irowncl iiis voire
and the sciucai^ing fiddle. Tiicy danccl furiou.sly.
While the girls balanced on the c.rncr, the hoys
(loul)l(-shuffied, did fancy .steps, and cut pigeon-
wings as (l:,.y i)iunged to meet their partners.

" An — turn —lo — ilie — riijlii ' (Jrand— march!"
sang .)ini, at the end of the .set.

His eye was on Susie, who was ushering in the
lasl load of girls, tireat is the prich; of the man
who cuts the prospective groom out of the lirst
dance with his bride.

" Cliauxxez!" he roared, at the opportune moment,
and .shot ucro.<!s the floor on a mad gallop. But
just then Sam Short, Bob Moore, and three re-
mittance-men also (lived for the prize.

"Hands off!" laughed Susie, wrenching free.
■■ ^'<'«-, 'x'ys, line up an' .shet yer eyes, and the man
that walks straightcst 'cross the floor gets the
dance. No winkin'."

While they were pacing forward, gobbler-fashion,
lifting their feet very high, .she .slid by and joined her
fmnci. "Thought they'd done you, Bill," .she

Tm-:i

MIOIOCOPY RESOIUTION TEST CHA«r

(ANSI ood ISO TEST CHART No. 21

I J^ III 1-4 iim

A /APPLIED IM/IGE Inc

'653 Eost MoJn Street
'^ocnestef. Ne* York 1*.
(716) 482 - 0300 - Phoni
(716) 288- 5989 - Fo.

The Probationer

whispered, as they whirled off together. " Oh, look
at them! Geese!"

But Jim got the next dance, a set of lancers, and
he handled it as became a virtuoso in calling off.

"Jes look at Maggie Ross!" Susie whispered, as
they balanced on the corner.

The girl, a strong, lithe creature, was sunply
revelling in an ecstasy of rhythmic movement.
Her supple body swung with an unconscious aban-
don, and she stepped prettily on the corners when
she might have been resting. Just as Susie spoke,
Maggie turned to speak to Belle McKay, who was
Bitting out the dance.

" All — svring — the — comer — lady!" sang Jim
McKay.

"Hurry, Mag!" called Bob Moore, her partner.

The girl turned, saw that she was late, and sprang
with out-stretched hands. Bob, who was executing
a pas seul while waiting, staggered from the impact,
tripped, and fell with a comical expression of as-
ton-shment on his face. The girl stood over,
horrified, looking down on the havoc she had
wrought.

"Well!" she innocently exclaimed. "Did— you
—ever? Why, I jes touched him!"

A roar of laughter greeted the naive remark.
80

TiiK Mercy op thk FnosT

Tho men howlod and the girls screamed, while the
unfortunate Bob lay, simulating immense alarm,
and yelled:

"Hold her back, boys! Hold her back! I give
in, Mag. I do, shorely. Fetch the parson."

And while tne young folks thus poured of their
abundance of tho wine of life, black care hobnobbed
with the master of the house. Silas did his best,
but now and then, perhaps in the middle of a
laugh, a sickening sense of coming trouble would
strike him dumb. Once Susie noticed his grave
face, and in a pause of the dance slipped behind
him and whispered, "What's wrong, dad?"

Before he could answer she was called to her
place, so she read his trouble in her own way.
"Dad's goin' to miss me ever so much," she said,
doubtfully, to Bill Lamance.

"He had orter," replied Bill, with an admiring
glance that drew upon him a box on the ear.

But after that Susie's laughter took on a quieter
note, and she cast many a sympathetic glance
towards her father, who sat listening to the voice of
the storm.

Until long past midnight the blizzard thundered
by. Early in the evening gray figures etched them-

The PnonATioNEii

selves upon the window-panes, to be buried quicidy
beneath a film of clouded ice. Whenever the door
opened a narrow band of light revealed a wild snow-
flurry sweeping by; and the cold blast, rushing in,
froze the hot, moist air, and filleil the place witli
chilly fog. At midnight the spirit thermometer
registereil a hundred degrees of frost. But about
two in the morning the winil eased; at three, the
moon peeped from behind a cloud at a white and
frosty world. The teams were brought round, the
girls snuggled in the sleigh bottoms, with hot
stones to feet and hands, and by four the house was
quiet.

Christmas morning broke fair and frosty. Not a
breath of air stirred the rime upon the trees. The
bluffs were wreathed in a shimmering veil, the keen
air thrilled— thrilled like wine, and when the sun
slipped out of hb blanket of ro.se and gold a sea of
sparkling diamonds shot back his ray.s. The wed-
ding had been set for eleven, but it was nearly
twelve before the minister's Indian ponies came
skipping down the trail. The lines were slung be-
hind the preacher's back, his fur coat bristled with
frost, and his long arms were flapping, windmill
fashion.
"Never saw a stiffer Christmas!" he exclaimed,

TilE Mr

n C Y OF THE F

Host

tinips
line,

bustling into tho house. " Had to sto,, ihr,
m ton niilas to thuw out. Waiting, arc you'
Harkins! H(-ip mo off with this coat."

While ho wa.s being .skinned of his furs ho stood
over the stove cracking hi.s wedding jokes-hoary
jests, accumulated a.id handed down by generations
of country preachers. But presently Silas came in
troni puttnig up the team, and the minister resumotl
hi.'i wonted gravity.

Bride an.l groom stoo.l ready. Susie carried no
flower.s-tho North offers none to a winter's bride-
but on her cheeks a pretty color came and went
A simple firess of white fluffed about her. 4 flood
of chastene<l light poured through the frosted
window., brightly touching the scarlet berries
among the green spruce bou^ and lighting the
circle of expectant faces.

The minister opened his book at the marriage
.service, and cleared his throat.
" Brethren," he began, " we—"
A clash of bells an.l the lament of a .swiftly mov-
ing sleigh interrupted. The minister paused, fore-
finger on his place, and glanced inquiringly up
i3ut Silas had already started for the door his
mind full of vague apprehension. As he threw it
wide, a smoking team of r.onies drew up opposite

S.3 '

T;ii: I'lionATioNER
and^he sheriff of Russol County stepped from the

Flyixo snow, fine as sifted salt; intense frost • a
wind that pierces fur, wool, ami flesh to the marrow
of one's bones, mix and serve cold for a prairie storm
But as the galo is to the cyclone, so is the snow-
storm to the blizzard. When it whirls over the
North, winds that whip a hundred miles of prairie
every hour snatch a season's snow from earth's four
corners and stir it until the air is thick as hasty-
pudding. The mercury freezes, but the spirit drops
down, and down, and down. Heavy snow, frozen
snow, snow that will drive through a stretched
hide, walls the traveller within a fleecy eloud that
stings the flesh like fire. In broad day, a hand held
at arm's-length may not be seen; a cry drops flat
and liollow to the ground; and at night inky
blackness drapes the twisting chaos.

In spite of the sardonic coldness of his parting
word, the usurer was full of a hot and bitter anger.
For the first time a debtor of his had dared resent his
arrogance of power. He had been defied, threat-
ened; the blood trickled from his stricken mouth
84

The Mercy of the Frost

Wiping it with his badger mitt, he leaned over and
cut the horses along the flank.

With a sudden snort the brutes sprang from
under the whip and raced along the trail. But
presently a black blot grew out of the gloom just
ahead, and a sleighing-song caught his ear.

"^ngle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.
Oh, what fun ,t is to ride in a one-hoss open sleigh!"

The singing stopped a.« he turneil out in the fleen
snow to let the singers by. They screamed Christ-
mas greetmgs, but he answered nothing. Again
and agam he turned ouv to let sleighs pass but

presently the last-drawn by a laggardToke
oxen— crawled past.

"Who is thet?" he heanl a voice e.xclaim
_'Looked like Fraser's sorrels!" a man answered.

ine old screw!"
The bitter answer smote his ear as the oxen
swayed along high above him on the trail Then
ho and the storm were alone together in the middle
ot a hundred thousand miles of prairie

Now, if the trail be packed and the wind steady
a man may buck into the blackest kind of storm.'
And .f he but keep the wind on one cheek, he is
bound, sooner or later, to strike some sort of

I li

T HE P R O H A T 1 () \ K n

shelter. Hut before the usurer had gained half-
way to Russel, the wind veered fifty points, a
smother of snow snatched his breath, and the
blizzard broke.

Instantly ho was enveloped in a whirling flurry.
He could neither see nor hear the horses, a wall of
snow drove in between; but the jerking lines told the
tale of their distressful snorts. He felt just as
though he were being drawn through a black void,
where the thunderous blizzard-voice drowned all
sound. And he got so used to the eternal sameness
of the great voice, to its one tremendous tone, that
at last he heard nothing— everything, but infinite
blackness, was not. Yet though blind and deaf,
he could tell by the even quiver of the runners that
the sorrels kept the trail.

For a mile or .so the plucky beasts drove into the
thick, then, all of a sudden, the cutter began to
pitch. Instantly Fraser pulled up. As he stepped
from the sleigh the wind struck him a foul blow,
the drift poured over him, the storm beat him and
howled like a fierce bully, but he struggled to the
horses' heads and pulled them on the trail. Five
minutes after they left it again. And a third
time; and on the fourth break he stayed by thi .1,
trudging along in the blackness, feeling the way with
86

Till: Mi:it<'Y () I Tin; FiiosT

his feot. But soon ovon lliis failed him. Wind
and snow conspired to pack tlie tlrifts. Soon they
bore his weight, and after tliat there was nothing to
distinguish trail from prairie.

Still, with ever-increasing fury, th(? storm raged
on. It seemed to him that lie had been toiling for
infinitely long periods of time through vast spaces,
seeking a lost trail. At last, all tired out, he
'Tawled back into the cutter. And now it was
getting colder. His breath congealed in his beard,
his eyelids froze together, the wind chilled hira
through his furs.

Once the twinkle of a distant light lifted him
from black despair. He waiteil eagerly for a break
in the ilrift. Again the bright pin-point pierced
the darkness. It was the gable light on Brown's
house — a cheery ray, significant of warmth and
mirth and life. But, even as he turned the horses
for it, a sudden eddy whirled up in the gable and
dashed the lantern against the logs. Within, Siias
heard the smash of shivering glass, and started, and
far out on the prairie the usurer's team resumed their
endless circling.

At break of ilay Tom Buchanan closed the door
of his road-house on the Russel trail and strode off

,S7

'Ml'

T II K V It <) 1) A T I O N K It

to do his chores. After Veiling, lie clcaneil out the
stables, then took a rope and fork to (;et some
straw. At the corner of the stack-yarJ he paused
and uttered a cry of surprise.

Under the loo of the stack a toam stootl, hitched
to a fancy Portland cutter. The horses were furry
with frost and snow, and were munching the dry
straw with all the appetite of starving beasts, while
in the cutter, silei.'ly watching them, sat a man.
Even at that distance there was something strange
in the dread intentness of his look; and, as he drew
near, Tom saw that the sleigh was drifted full of snow.
Cautiously approaching, he peered into the man's face.

"Fraser!" he exclaimed, drawing quickly back.

The usurer sat bolt upright. One mittened hand
mutely offered a bul'iy envelope, in the stiff fingers
of the other an indelible pencil was frozen fast.
Stooping, Tom read the superscription, then slipped
the packet in his pocket. And then, anil not
without a shudder, he steppe;i into the cutter,
whirled the team, and drove rapidly to Ilussei.

Ill

"Merry Christmas!" saluted the sheriiT, then
paused. Silas was staring at him with lack-lustre

t n

TiiK Meik.'v of the Fhost

cyps. "What ails you, man." coiitinupd thr
sheriff.

"Kciln't hp wait onp inoro day?" groanpd the
famipr. " May the cursp — "

Thp shpriff held up a staying hand. " Hush, man!"
he warned. " It'.s ill cursing the drad." Mut already
the farmer's cry lud filled the door with curiou.s faces.

" Dead?" echoed Silas.

"Who? How? When? Where?" a dozen voices
eagerly ijiestioned.

"Donald Frascr!" answered the sheriff, laconi-
cally. "Las' night! The ol' thing! Off the trail-
then, the white death."

A gush of feeling flooded the farmer's mind, and
while his neighbors plied the sheriff ho tried to
catch an end of I..- ^angled skein of thought. First,
he felt immense relief. He caught himself thank-
ing God for the usurer's death, and though he tried
to smother the thought, like a half-scotched devil
it kept thrusting upward. Then, with a sudden
revulsion, despair seized him— the mort~age still
held! And what brought Morris out on such a
morning? Suspense was intolerable! Stepping be-
fore the sheriff, he said :

" I reckon, Harry, as ye didn't come out jes' to
tell us thi '

T II E P II () 11 A T I O N E H

•1^

Morris smiled. " Woll — no, not exactly," he re-
plied, fumbling in his pockets, " though tny business
ain't p'r'aps what you think. SherilT'.s work 'd
never bring me out on a Christmas morning. Ah!
here it is!"

He drew forth a package and handed it to Silas,
who took it with a trembling hand. " Come, come!"
laughed the sheriff, clapping him on the shoulder.
"Get inside, man, and open it."

All crowded round, eagerly expectant, but Silas
hopelessly fumbled the packet with his stiff, cold
fingers. "Here!" exclaimed the minister, im-
patiently, "give it to mo, Mr. Brown!"

With a dexterous movement he slit the envelope.
Within lay Silas's mortgage, with its long row of en-
dorsements, extending over many a weary year.
Written of his sweat and blood they were, in charac-
ters of red agony. But across the face of the deed,
in the great scribble of a blind and feeble hand, the
usurer had written, " Paid in full."

Who shall tell tlic thoughts of him that [lerishes
at the hand of tlie frost-god? Perhap.'i, as the
merciful drowsincs.s which heralds the white death
cre])t on, tlu^ old man may have liarkeil back to the
springtime of his life? lie may have seen his
daughter's conduct in a kindlier light and cherished
90

The Mehcy of tiik Fhost

a tender thought for liis crritiK son? And— who
knows? As his stiffiminR fingers jx^rfornmd this
last kind act, his dead wife may have n r-hod forth
from infinity and drawn him from the dross that
he had made his god.

A DRUMMER OF THE QUEEN

K ii I

A DRUMMER OF THE QUEEN

PATSEY DOOLAN was a small "son o' the
widder." At her command ho blew silvery
calls from a brass bugle, receiving therefor the
princely income of twopence per diem— less a half-
penny a month, deducted for the services of the
regimental barber. He also received, annually,
two brand-new red uniforms, which turned the
souls of civilian boys green with envy, and as
much good, solid food as he could crowd into his
small stomach.

A bright boy was Patsey. At least, so said
Drum-Major O'Hooligan— a wise man, who could
tell what a boy was thinking about by looking at
him.

" It's a full-blooded colonel o' the quane Patsey 'II
be when ye'ro carryin' coal to the married quarters
av a Sathurday mornin'," O'Hooligan would say to
the "Drums." "Listen, yc small sarpints!" And

The Probationer

*
I:,

he would hold up his hand while Patsey made music
of the " last post."

But it was possible to have too much of a good
thing. The commendations of his superior officer
got Patspy into pecks of trouble. After practice,
the "Drums" would descend upon him in a body
and mottle his small body with assortctl shades of
blue and black.

Patscy's regiment, the One Hundred and Tenth
of the line, was stationed at the Curragh of Kildarc,
where rules a brigade-major with a will of iron and a
soul of brass. He is known, is that major, from
Cork to Cochin China and from the Cape to Kan-
dahar. Men who have served under him renounce
all other forms of abuse, and consign their enemies
to the Curragh Camp; and whole regiments have
been known to tremble at the mention of his name.

The One Hundred and Tenth had been ordered to
the Curragh by way of penance for infractions of the
peace of her Majesty the Queen. One black night
in Limerick, in an ill-advised moment, they painted
the statue of Daniel O'Connell a brilliant orange, and
now they repented in sackcloth and ashes at the feet
of Brigade-Major Cramp.

And the major did his best to bring the regiment
to a knowledge of the errors of its ways. Vexatious
96

A I) n U M M E R O K T 11 K (J U K F. V

night attacks upon imaginary enemies, while tlie
rest of the command snored bhssfully in the lines,
made the temper of the regiment as raw as the back
of a commissariat mule. Besides which, it was
harried by the brigade - general, ordered to make
extra route-marches by his cliief of staff, and publicly
anathematized by the conmiander- in-chief. To
add insult to injury, the other regiments made in-
sulting remarks anent the One Hundred and
Tenth's predilections for painting and other arts of
peace, until it rose in its wrath antl smote them
with belt and scabbarl from A Lines to the
Clock Tower. After which it was left severely
alone.

When marching orders finally arrived at division
headquarters for the One Hundred and Tenth, every
man, from the colonel to the latest addition to the
" Drums," hailed them as a release from purgatory.
They did not know where they were going, and
would not know until they got there, for the actions
of the British War-Office are shrouded in mystery
which may not be divined by a simpl regiment of
the line; but so long as it got out of the clutches of
Brigade-Major Cramp, the regiment did not care if
it was sent to Jericho.

It was in the spring of '85 whcu H. M. troop-ship
97

TlIK PnOBATIOXEIi

Jumm with the One Hun.lre.l and Tonth aboard
docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

"Just in time!" exclaimed the regiment when it
heanl of the rcbelhon of the Metis in the northwest-
but an unkind Providence had decreed otherwise'
Iho Dommion government undertook lo quell the
disturbance with its own militia, and the only
a^istance it asked of the Hundred an<l Tenth was
the loan of a staff-officer.

There was joy in the " Drums " when they heard
that the colonel was to take a bugler with him
Every boy in the lot was sure he would be the
favored one. Even Jimmy Buck, who had just
graduated from the married quarters, put in his

"I'm so little," said ho, "it wouldn't ma-.ter if
they did pop me orf."

For several days the buglers found innumerable
errands which carried them past the officers' quar-
ters and the colonel smilul as he noted the excessive
whiteness of their facings, the mathematical exact-
ness of their salutes, and the backwar.l glances to
note the effect.

"The 'Drums' would wipe out the rebellion
alone, he^ chuckled to his major, but that officer
received the remark with hauteur. He was suffer-

A DliUMMEK OP THE Q U E K .V

ing under a ^n>^ „f unclr.scrvcl injury. It was
certamly p,ggi«h ..f u.o colonel to n.onopolizo Z

ony chance of getting killed which ha.l been offered
the regiment in a decad(!.

The night before the colonel's departure the
hoice o a bugler had not yet been ann'ounced, and

the pitch of mutiny. In the absence of the drum-
niujor, a battle royal raged among the a.spirantl for
service at the front. That officer, L bl s,S
.gnorance of the conation of his command wa
closeted with the colonel. '

"And you can recommend the Doolan bov
Drum-Major?" ''

''Blows the sweetest G in the corps, sir "
_ Father and mother both dead, you say r-

Re/I: """T^" Color -Sergeant Doolan, sir'
Kest his sowl!"

"Ah, to be sure." The colonel reven ntly raised

AflI?'.T"- ,"'"""' '" "•'^^ '"Sht attack in the
Afghan hills in 78. A brave man "

The colonel leaned his head on his haml an<!
s.>cnce fell in the orderly room. The druml'o

ThTKh" r'p "" '""' ■^*^^"' '^'^^'^ht to his froit
The Khyber Pass ro.se before them in all its savage
grandeur, and into the minds of both RmI

T H K P n O B A T I O N K R

picture of a ring of dead Ghurkas, and the body of
the sergeant, slashed from shoulder to waist. Ivine
in the midst. *

"And the mother?"

" Died av fever, in the lines at Rawul-Pindi sir "

"Very well, Drum-Major," said the colonel, clos-
ing h.s oook. "Let him report at my quarters in
marchmg order at eight, sharp, to-morrow morning "

Patsoy paraded in the morning bearing upon his
freckled face many marks of the "Drums" disap-
proval of the colonel's choice.

" Fighting?" asked the colonel.

"Bill Hogan 'it me, sir," said Patsey, apologet-
ically. "An' I licked 'im."

" Why did he strike you?"

" 'Cos I said I'd bring 'im 'ome a 'arf-breed scalp
sir." '^'

"H'ra!" said the colonel. "You'll bo lucky if
you bring back your own."

Then he contemplated with ^'ondcr the look of
ecstasy which spread over the boy's face "I
believe the little beggars like to be killed" he
thought. "It'sbor.iin'em!"

Winnipeg was in a wild frenzy of excitement when
the colonel, with Patsey in tow, reported at head-
quarters. Lean and lank settlers wandered up and

100

A Drummer of the Queen

down Main Street, or gathoro.l in knot,, eloquently
descantmg on what they would ,lo if tl^y X " ,e

nS'"' , '^"''"" "™' """""« -'» 'he Jty
in buckboard.s, ox-wagons. Red River carts, afoot
and ahorse, bringing with the.n fresh tales of torture
and rapme. Big Bear had massacred all the wl te
men at Frog Lake, and carried off the wo.n n
was suul that Battleford had fallen. Lonelv settler
had been overtaken in flight, killed, and ;ealped;
That very day a mounted policeman galloped in
worn and weary, reeling in his sa.ldle, with the nels
Cromer's defeat at Duck Lake. Riel was .sa^ "
be advancing on Winnipeg. A bloody cloud of fear
smoke, and war, hung over the Great Lone Land, and
the danger, magnified by common report out of all
proportion, loomed terrible in the distance

But the much -maligned government was <loing
■ts best to grapple with the situation. Raw levies
of sturdy Scot-Canadians poured in fast as spec a
trams could bring them through fifteen huS
m.les of forest. Patsey inspected them as they
arnved w.th a critical eye. He sauntered roun.l
the.r quarters, bestowing a commendation here a
s^ncture there, with all the assurance of a c"m!
mander-m-chief on a field-day.
"A likely-lookin' lot," he observed, blandly • "but

The P k o n a t I o n k r

soldiers!'' — with a sniff of unutterable contempt —
"oh, crikey!" And having thus trstifiod to their
impossibility, judged by the superior standards of a
drummer of the Line, he proceeded to inspect the
drum-corps.

"Where's the ' Drums' quartered?" he asked of a
big private of the Ninotietli Foot. The man stared.
" The ' Drums ' !" Patsoy added, impatiently. " The
buglers!"

The private surveyed the little red figure and
laughed.

"Reckon it's the man thet blows the horn thet
ye're wantin'." Patsey nodded. "Ye'll fin' him
over there."

Patsey moved in the direction indicated, and was
shocked to find that a long, lean bugler was the sole
representative of the important branch of the
service to which he belonged. But quickly re-
covering his equanimity, he commenced to examine
the lone drummer concerning his qualifications for
his office, and soon found that he had a most shock-
ing habit of injecting a cracked C right into the
centre of his quavery G.

"Listen, ye long sarpint," said Patsey, rising on
his toes after the fashion of Drum-Major O'Hooligan,
" while I sound ye a G!"

102

A I) HUM. MRU OK Till.. QpRpy

The depth and fulness of that G haunted the
long bugler untU he almost bun.t a blood-vessel in
futUo attcnii .s at imitation. And l)eeaiiso of this
tribute to las suix-riority, Patsey patronized the
long bugler extensively, and had even a good word
for the Ninetieth. "Though, of course, ye'll never
be soldiers," he would add to his commendations.

The Ninetieth looked upon Patsey somewhat in
the light of a good joke; so that when he was finally
attached to them for mess purposes the arrange-
ment was. saiisfactory to all parties. He shared
with them the dangers and toils of the long march
from Qu'Appelle, and was w.th them at Fish Creek
when they engaged Iliol's forces and drove them
back upon Batoche.

On the evening of the second day's fighting at
Batoche, a semicircle of reil fires winked mockingly
out of the black night at the breeds sullenly lying
m their second line of defence. Around the fires
lay the men of the Ninetieth, swapping experiences
of the day s work. Here and there a man sat close
up to the blaze, writing home-perhaps for the last
time; and the firelight flickered on the faces of
thoughtful men who knew that death lurked out
in the rifle-pits. Between the Ninetieth and the
enemy extended a long line of pickets, but th-> -it-

103

The P u o n a t I o n k r

moHt vigilancp could not prrvont xtragcjIliiK siiiijcrs
from (Iroppiiig iiii occii-sionul hullot into oiitiip.

I'litsi'y sejuuttcd nt oiio of tho firps, licuting tea in
1 canteen, and knpt up a rum ng connncnt on the

ma'uvring of the Ninetieth.

"Ye didn't keep your distances," he remarked,
sagelj. "Lot o' jjooniin' siieep!"

The long bugler withdrew his cleaning-rod from
his rifle and siiuinteJ ilown the barrel, "(lue.ss
she'll do," he said, snapping the breech. "Say,
boys, (lid ye see I'atsey standin' behind the gen-
eral's hoss?"

"Out o' range, too," said another man, with a
wink.

"Priij'er place fer the reg'lars," said a third.

"Where else 'd I be, ye 'arf-baked lobsters?" re-
plied Patsey , with superior calmness. " Yer wouldn't
'a' know ''(1 where to go if I 'adn't tooted yer orders."

"Tooled us inter the rifle-pits from long range,
Patsey? Ye're brave!"

The kid lifted the canteen from the glowing coals
and ojjened his mouth to reply. A rifle flashed
beyond the pickets, and a whizzing bullet sen* the
tin flying from his hand. The hot te.r splaslied
all over the men. They jumped to their feet and
lushed for their rifles.

104

A 1) it u M M V. It OK T II i; Q I i: i; v

"Hero," said thn long bugler, "we've got tor gnt
thet feller! Are yo hurt, boy? "

Hut Piitsey Im.j seizeil u riHe and slipp,.,] off in the
darkness.

" I'Vaid, am I?" he muttered. " III show 'erii!'
He lay Hat on his iK-ily ami wormed his way U'.-
tween th<? piekets; but, oiie(- outside the line he
rose to his feet and moved rapi.lly arross the
prairie. Looking baek, he eould .see; the red fires,
and black figures passing between; and he l...,-,rd
the long bugler cautioning th(^ pickets not to let
"the little red drummer go by." A rifle llashcl
about a hundred yards ahead, and the bullet hum-
med along its path of death just above his head.
He dropped on his hands and knees, an.' crept
towards the fla.sh.

"I'll wait till I get within twenty yards of the
beggar," lie thought. "Then I'll plug 'im!"

He wiggled over the gra.ss towards the concealed
mark.sman. Once more the rifle flashed— this time
only fifty yards rway. Pat.sey crept a little nearer
and waited. He thought he could .see a dim figure
through the darkness, but dar'-d not fire. He waited
for the flash. At last it came. He sighted for the
very centre of the white smoke dimly rising in the
blackness, and i;ulled trigger.

105

The P n o b a ti o n e r

Blinding fire flashed from the breech of his rifle.
A crashing sound rent his brain, and he plunged
forward and lay still.

For a few niinut<'s after the bursting of tlie little
bugler's rifle, silence reigned over the prairie. Then
two figures loomed out of tlu; night and bent over
the !',y. 0|ie of the men picked up the shattered
v/eapo...

"Thought as much, Jean. Plugged nmzzle. Run
it inter tlie sand, I guess. Breecli blown right
out."

"By Gar! Luckeo for me," said the other.
" 'E va.s onloe twenty paces otT. Talce up hees feet,
Baptiste."

"Why, it's a boy!" exclaimed the other. "Poor
Icetlo beggar— a bugler. Here'.s hees horn."

When consciousness slowly filtered back, Patsey
found himself lying in a smoke-blacked tepee. His
temples throbbed with i)ain, and the blood still
flowed from a cut beneath his eye, but otherwise
he was none th(! worse for his mishap. He sat up
and took note of his surroundings.

A man sat writing at a lough (able by tlie light
of a cotton flare. As Patsey looked ui)on him, a
vague idea that he had seen tlie fellow before en-
tered his nund, anil he looked, and looked again,
liw

A Dhlmmkr of the Queen

tryir , to placo him. From tho man's straight
eyfbrows ro«. a high forehead crowned witli
bnstiing hair. His lips were tiiin, l.is cheeks
Hollow, and his uoso long and straight. Wild eyes
liot with the fires of fanaticism, gleame.l froir. hi.s
pale face. He glanced ciuickly up when the boy
moved, and then Patsey recognized him from a
portrait he ha.l seen in Winuipeg-it was Louis
Itiel.

" Who aiv you ?" ftiol spoke in <,uick, harsli tones.
Patsey Doolaii, sir."

"What regiment?"

"One Ilmidred and Tenth of the Line," replied
Patsey, jjroudly swelling his chest. "Attached to
the Ninetieth Winnipeg Rifles."

"Ah, a regular. Bugler?"

"Yes, sir."

Riel bit the end of his pen and stared at the boy •
but Patsy could see that the wild eyes were seeing
other things. For a full minute he stared, then
the eyelids drooped antl a sinister expression shot
across his face.

"We'll find you som(!tliiiig to do to-morrow," he
said, and turned again to his writing.

Patsey watched for a while. Indian runners
slipped in and out, bringing and taking messages.
107

The Probationer

Kiel would glance up, give a quick order, and plunge
again into his writing. Gradually the boy cora-
menced to nod; he heard the voices as in the dis-
tance, then he dropped into a sound sleep.

When he awoke, the gray lights of the early
morning were stealing into the tent, but Riel still
sat busily writing. When the t.ov moved, the half-
breed leader struck his open hand smartly on the
table. An Indian stepped to the door.
"Send Laval here, We-weep!" He spoke in Cree
Riel sat nervously biting the end of his pen
until a heavy step sounded on the outside The
flap of the tent flew back, and a big breed swag-
gere. in. lie glanced at the boy's red coat, and
scowled. Patscy shrank instinctively back. Brute
was marke<l on every line of the man's pock-marked
visage; h.s eyes squinted out, yet the boy could feel
the malevolent glare coneentratal full upon him

The two men whispered together, glancing over
their shoulders. At last Riel spoke aloud.

" Listen, boy," he said. " Go with this man. Do
everything he tells you, or-" A cruel smile ■
writhed his thin lips.

The breed grabbed the boy's collar and jerked
hmi roughly to his feet. A cloth was tied over his
eyes, and he was led out of the tent. For nearly a

108

A Drummer op the Quern

mile hn stumbled along bositlo his companion. He
could hear men talking, sometimes in English, more
often in French, and then again he recognized the
gutturals of the Cree. Suddenly he felt himself
raised from his fe : M dropped into a hole. As
he fell his hands . w instinctively to the bandage
that biindctl him, and he tore it off.

He was in a rifle-pit, the centre of a long line ox-
tending as far as the eye could reach to the right ami
left. In the next pit was Laval, and all along the
Ime he could see the heads of the swarthy breeds
peering through the embrasures of the pits. Just
then his attention wa.s attracted by the sound of a
British bugle, and, peeping through his loop-hole,
he saw the Canailian forces deploying for bat*Ie.
Again the bugle sounded the "right extend," anci
Patsey grinned with pleasure as a shrill C split
up the quavery G. Once • re he glanced along
the Ime of pits. The breerL .vero sighting through
the loop-holes and muttering curses on the slow-
moving troops.

The blaring bugle brought him back to his loop-
hole in a hurry. The Canadians were advancing.
He could .see the black uniforms of the Ninetieth
dodging from bush to bush. Away to the right,
Boulton's Horse were swinging out for a wide flauk-

109

The Probation er

ing movement. Grassett's Grenadiers deployed on
the left, and the Midlanders covered the Ninetieth.

A stir in the next pit attracted his attention.
Laval was looking through the sights of his long
rifle. A thin spume of smoke shot from the em-
brasure, followed by a sharp report— the battle had
commenced.

Three long hours Patsey lay in his pit watching
the advance. Sometimes a screaming hail from
Howard's Gatling swept over him, and then a rifle-
bullet would plump into his parapet, but none hap-
pened to find his loop-hole. He trembled with joy
a.s his friend.s drew gradually nearer in the face of the
destructive fire. As the day wore on, a thick cloud
of smoke hw^ over the pits, and the sulphurous
fumes of burned powder almost choked him. From
the yellow Tophec arose the wild yells of the fierce
Metis, the war-whoops of the savage Crees, and
the (loith-screams of hard-hit men.

Patsey watched Laval's moven'jnts with intense
interest. He did not fire very often, but "very time
his rifle cracked a man in black pitched forward.
As the troops drew nearer, the breed began to get
excited. He muttered wild curses and his squint-
eyes rested on Patsey with a look of deadly hatred.

Late in the afternoon the Canadians got well with-

110

A Drujimer of the Queen

in charging distance. Patsey wondered why they
did not charge; but, looking out, he saw the officers
holding them back. At length they could hold
their men no longer. The soldiers were slipping
by and taking up more advanced ground. Patsey
made out the long body of the Ninetieth bugler
slipping from bush to bush.

"Boy!"

He glanced up in quick surprise. He had forgotten
Laval.

"Take your bugle and sound the ' Retreat.' "

Patsey stared. "The 'Retreat,' sir?" he stam-
mered.

" Yes. Put your bugle to that loop-hole and blow
for your life."

Laval's rifle rose slowly, and the boy looked right
into the little black muzzle.

The meaning of the order suddenly flashed upon
him. He was to stop the charge of the Canadians,
and bring the day's fighting to naught. His soul
rose hot within him, and a blank refusal trembled
on his lips. Then an inspiration came to him.

"All right, sir," he answered, cheerfully.

"Thought that 'd fix you," growled the breed,
lowering his iifle.

The lad peeped through the embrasure as he
111

The Probationer

swung the bugie from under his arm. The men
wore still slipping past the protesting officers. Ho
raised the bugle, and with all the might that was in
him sounded the charge!

Loud and clear and shrill, the notes carried far
over the prairie. Away on the hill where stood
the general staff the colonel started as he recognized
the bugle's clear tones. From the fighting - line
burst a howl of fierce pleasure, and it rose as one
man and .shot into the deadly zone of fire.

I'atsey saw the long bugler spring from behind a
bush and dash towards him; then, mad with excite-
ment, he Ic.ped upon the parapet of his pit and
cheered tne Ninetieth on. The men saw the little
red figure, and then saw that which, for one second,
paralyzed their charge. The giant figure of Laval
rose from the pit behind the boy. A cry of im-
potent anguish burst from the lips of the long
bugler as he covered the ground with giant strides.
The breed's rifle rose in the air and fell. The little
red figure quivered beneath the stroke, and dropped,
limp and lifeless.

The next minute the slipping bayonet of the
long bugler had avenged his death. The Ninetieth,
the Midlanders, and Grassctt's poured into the pits
like a black flood of death, and many a breed paid in

112

A D n U M M K It O F T II K i) V F. F, \

full inoasure for Laval's evil stroko. Ton minutes
of lively fighting, and then Boulton's Hors(! smashed
the right flank like a pane of glass. The breeds broke
and fled— the rebellion of the Metis was over.

"Who ordered those men to charge?" exclaimed
the general, when the wild yell ro.se to the hill.

"No one, .sir," replied his chief of staff.

But the men of the Ninetieth know who ordered
that charge. Orders and decorations, knighthoods
and cro.sses, rewardeil the men on th(> hill for the
great deeds they had— not ilone. And Pat.sey also
got his cross. Before the men of the Ninetieth
returned to their lonely prairie farms they placed
a wooden cross at the head of a little grave; and
deep ill the wootl, the loving hands of the long
bugler cut Pat.sey's name, a bugle, and the regimen-
tal arms of the Ninetieth.

And on the anniversary of Batoche, tlie gray-
haired colonel rises to his feet in the officers' me.ss
of the One Hundred and Tenth, and, after "Her
Majesty," he glances round the board at the ofliccrs
standing with bowetl heads, and says:

"Gentlemen, I give you Patsey Doolan, a Drum-
mer of the Queen."

And from his place in the band Drum -Major
O'Hooligan utters a fervent "Rest his sowl!"
113

THE FRECKLED FOOL

Il-' I.

THE FRECKLED FOOL

rp \ boys sat at tlie end of a ridRr whid, hoR-

pra.no lay scorchmg brown in the hot Septon.hor
sun and across the lake stretched the vast forests

b.rch straggled along the opposite shore, a.id from
the h,gh steep bunks giant spruce and stately
poplar cast long shadows over the still shore-waters
The boys were quiet. The elder, a freckle-faced'

blue-eyed lad of fourteen, flung pebbles with ;
vicmus snap at a cheeky diver, while the younger
a red-skmned Cree, stared with black, solemn eyes
at the winrhng autumn leaves which checkered the

Sow" "' '''""' °' "''"^°"' '"-''"'' '^"J
The Indian boy touched his companion on the
shoulder and pointed to the water, working h
arms like a frog ^

117

T II i: 1* II I) U A T I O .N K R

"Swim, is it?"

Thn Crce lad nodded. Slippin); coUikc from his
bianlipt, ho stcpjx'd forth in tho sunshine, burn,
lithe, and brown. In ten seconds his friend had
shed ragged shirt and breeches, and stood tieside
him, a dozen angry - looking bruises marring the
whiteness of his skin. The Inilian uttered a
clucking exclamation of pity and astonishment.

"A/oonia/t' do that?" he asked.

"Yes."

The soft moose -eyes o|)ened wider. The little
fellow gazed pitjmgly for nearly a minute; then his
lips opened with a snap.

"Neshota kill him — that man!" he said, vi-
ciously.

A cheerful grin gleamed on the victim's face.
"Wy," he replied, with a strong Cockney accent,
" 'e'd smash yer like a full skeeter, Neshota. This"
— touching his back — "ain't much. Yer orter see
the w'y they paints a feller in W'itechapcl. Come
on!" he shouted, rushing into the lake. "Let's
swim!"

The Cree's brown body clove the water with
scarcely a splash, and they were soon in the centre
of the lake, diving and floating, looking for all the
* " White iti.in " (Crcc) .

lis

Till'. FUKCKLKI) ioOL

world like a pair of black-and-white wiioohnugh
cranes.

"1 ain't goin' Im-k any more," gasped i\v white
boy, treading water.

Neshota spurted a mouthful of spray into the air.
" You come nie," he said, with great gravity. " We
kill him— that man!"

While the Iwys laved in the cool waters of the
lake, Silas Peters'.s ramshackle huekboard rattled
over the baked prairie towards the log .school. !Si
was going to meeting. He was a tall, gaunt Scottish
Canadian; keen, shrcw<l, and ginger - temi)ered, a
driving worker and ferociously religious. As he
rode along, the sun smote down on his head, the
suffocating alkali dust filled his nostrils, and the
mosquitoes settled behind his ears; but iic sat
motionless, stoical as an Indian, hugging to his
fierce soul an indefinite feeling of persecuted right-
eousness. The buggy rounded a poplar-bluff and
passed a man who was swinging along the trail.

Silas pulled up. ".Jump in. Bill," ht said.
"Pretty warm walkin'."

Bill Chittock sank back on the scat with a sigh
of relief.

" Hot!" he gasped. " I sh'd swan! Yc'ie travel-
lin' light, Si. Where's Ben?"
itn

• I

The Probationer

"Run away."

"You don't say! What's wrong?"

" Lazy, an' I warmed his jacket a leetle. All them
Barnardo boys is lazy," he grumbled. "Don't see
what they wanter be shippin' 'em out here for, pcs-
terin' hard - workin' folk. Why don't they keep
'em in Lunnon, where they belong?"

Bill glanced sideways at the hard, black visage.
Silas Peters was reputed to be expert at the game
of coining human labor into hard cash, and noted
for his cruelty to his boys.

"Ain't ye just a leetle hard on the kid?" he vent-
ured, allowing his gaze to travel around the horizon.

"Nope!" snapped Silas. "The freckle-faced lit-
tle fool's no good. 'Spare the rod an' spoil the
child ' is a good maxim, neighbor, an' one as I alius
live right up to."

The sermon had little interest for Bill Chittock
that Sunilay. The voice of the minister sounded
afar off, and the face of the slum child, pathetic in
its loneliness, floated before him. His eyes moist-
ened as he pictured his own Jack orphaned in a
strange land. Nor was Silas Peters a good listener.
While the preacher dwelt on man's duty to his
brother. Si thought of the stripes he had dealt the
runaway, fiercely regretting the smallness of the

^1^

The Freck-.ed Fool

c. cntnc to the uncon-
liis ri( - ., heard every

measure; but when the ?.;!!,

verted he straightened up in

word, and appHed thei.. (.■ tlii^ lib.- 'nt sinner.

" 'Spare the rod an' sp.,il cue uiii' 1/ " ho muttered,
as he jogged homeward. " The boy's lazv. I'll fix
him."

"Mother," sai<l Bill Chittock, over the suppor-
table, "Peters ain't doin' riglit by that Barnardo
boy. A young hoss shouldn't ]xi put to a heavy
dro'r, nor a lad to a man's work."

" Well, I alius said as Mr. Peters wuz as hard as
flint," snapped his wife. "He ain't fit to have a
beast under him, let alone a boy. I deelaro, it
makes me real hot to hear him pray in mootin'."

"Steady, ol' lady! Steady!" said Bill, softly.
"There's none wi'out faults. Don't be unchari-
table, missis."

"I ain't, Bill. It's true, an' charity begins at
home. So there! It's too bad"— she banged the
milk-pans unmercifully—" to see them poor waifs ill-
treated. Keep an eye open for the poor lad. Bill."

"All right," replied Bill, and he picked up his
pails and walked off to the milking.

The lodgo-fire in front of Estahagan's tepee died
to a glowing coal, and from within came the regular

121

T II i: 1' rt o it A T I o ;\ ]■: n

!^!

breathing of tirnil sloepprs. The moon had just
topped tlio north bank of White Man's Lake, and
threw a silvery path of Hght across the sullen waters.
In the restless, sighing, gloomy woods, a night-owl
hooted; the weird wail of a loon sounded down
the lake, and the still air pulsed to the distant
howl of a wandering wolf.

The bull's hide moved noiselessly aside, and
Neshota slipped through the opening. Squatting
by the fire, he stared across the lake into the black
forest. A i)uff of wind rippled the waters. He
leaned forward with dilated nostrils, his eyes
shining rod in the firelight like those of a prowling
lynx, and his ear caught and interpreted the rustle
in the woods. Once more tl' vibrant howl carried
down the wind. The boy turned to listen. He
sprang to his feet; against the black northern sky
shone a thin red line. A shrill whoop burst from
his lips, and before the woods had ceased their
mocking Estahagan and his squaw were standing
in the open.

"Waugh!" grunted the old man. "Big fire!
Plenty burn'"

Neshota slipped into the lodge and shook his
friend.

"Lcinmc 'lone!" growled Ben. "It ain't five

122

T H li Freckled T o (j i,

yet. Lemrnc— what? Fire?" Ho leaped up and
ran out with his thoughts in a confused jumble.

The four stood silently watching the conflagration.
A wet spring and a liot summer had forced a
luxuriant growtli on the prairie. The cropping
buffale were gone, the ranch herds had not yet
arrived, and over twenty thousand .square miles
there waved eighteen inches of dried grass ready
for the burning. The whole northern horizon now
glowed redly, and forked flames leaped skyward
through luriil clouds of smoke.

Ben looked at his companions. He was nervous
and excited. Prairie fires do not run in London
slums, and this one looked hot. The old Creo was
keen, grave, attentive ; the squaw's heavy face was
as calm as a coppei n uisk She put one hand on her
boy's shoulder and v.atded the fire. Noshota dis-
played more emotion. His eyes sparkled blackly,
and his white teeth gleamed through his parted lips.
He looked at Ben, and stood, a small, brown,
malicious imp, pointing westward.

"Him burn plenty soon— that mnoniah!" he said,
vindictively. "Him sleep. Good!"

For a moment a feeling of fierce pleasure pos-se.ssed
the white boy. The bruises beneath his shirt pained
dully, and here was a fiery revenge racing across the
9 123

iiii

I ''S

The P n o b a t I o n e u

prairie. Then into his mind flashed the picture of a
burning London rookery. Ho saw flames .spout
through window.s and iiek the white night-gear from
slirieking women and iieard the agonized cries of
roasting men. Then, witii a swift transition, the
face of Silas Peters appeared, black, hopeless,
agonized, framed in smoke and fire. He threw up
his hands.

"Come!" he shouted.

The Crees stared. They had seen the boy's
bruised flesh, which surely called for killing; but if
it pleased the Great Spirit to take the matter in
hand, why should they interfere with his just de-
cree? The white papoose was surely fire-mad!

Ben laid his hand on Neshota's arm. The boy
shook his head.

"No," he snapped. "Him beat you, that
blackface! . . . Him burn! Good!"

Ben glanced appealingly to Estahagan, but the
old man .stood like a bronze, cold, stern, immovable,
the light of the distant fires .shining redly on his
wrinkled face. What was it to him if the incumbents
of his birthright died the fiery death?

The boy turned and ran wildly across the prairie.
He had covered almost a hundred yards when
rapid hoof-beats sounded behind. A pony shot by

121

The Freckled Fool

and then almost fell as the rider suddenly pulled it
down on its haunches.

"Come," said Nesliota, loaning over. "Quick!"

Ben mounted behind, and the pony stretched on
a long, loping gallop into the west. They were
riding across the front of the fire, which now raced
along about three miles to the northward. Light
smoke-clouds flew by, the pungent odor of burning
grass stung their nostrils, and an occasional puff
of hot wind smct3 them on the cheek. A mile west
lay the log shanty of Silas Peters, and half a mile
farther south the cabin of Bill Chittock. For nearly
ten minutes the boys held steadily on. Once the
pony plunged into a ba<lger-tiolc and sent them
sprawling, but they were up on the instant and off.

"Look!" Neshota pointed north

The freshening breeze had blown the red line
into a vast flaming triangle, the apex of which
swept south and the sides outward. Almost as
he spoke a black mass loomed against the blazing
point, then flared into a pillar of fire, illumining the
prairie for miles around.

"Peters's 'ay stacks," muttered Ben.

Half a mile ahead, the shanty stood up against
the reddish brown of the lighted plain; only a mile
to the north the fire leaped and crackled. The
12a

The Piioii ation f, r

bronco covered tho distance with steady strides,
spun round a bluff without slackening speed, and
shot up the rise. The house was dark and quiet.
Ben jumped from the pony and hammered the door.

" Fire!" he shouted. " Come out! Firo!"

The shanty trembled as the man leaped from his
bed. There was a stir and shuffle inside, the door
flew open, and Silas strode out without waiting to
put on hat or shoes.

"You, is it?" he growled.

He stared at the running fire, then ran round
the front of the house. Ben followed slowly.
When he turned the corner Silas was on his knees,
striking a match. The boy stared. Then the
meaning dawned upon him— the man was going to
fight fire with fire, regardless of the hazard of his
neighbors.

"Stop!" he shouted.

Silas glanced up. " What's the matter wi' you?"
he snarled. "Lookin' for another lickin'?" The
match flickered out, but he struck another.

"Stop, I say!" repeated the boy. "You'll burn
up Chittock's! Give me time to warn 'cm!"

"Shet up!" yelled Silas. "It's me or them!"

He bent over the match, shielding it from the
wind. Ben slipped off his cap. The crimson light

T H K F R E C K L K D F O O L

gleamed on his fair hair. To the south he could sec
Chittock's shanty, quiet and still, and he knew
that a dry chip pile led from the grass to the very
wall. He throw the cap with all his force, and
struck the match from the man'.s hand.

Peters sprang to his feet, his black face convulsed
with pa.ssion. "Ye freckle - faced little devil!"
he roared. "I'll kill ye!"

He rushed at the boy and .struck .savagely. As
Ben fell, a piercing yell rang out. A brown ma.ss
swept around the corner and smote the man with
tremendous force. He was thrown twenty feet,
and lay fighting for his breath while Bon struggled
to his foot.

Neshota leaned over and held out his hand.
"Quick!" he exclaimed. "Blackface up plenty
soon!"

As they shot down the slope to the south. Si
Peters rose from the ground. Looking back, Ben
saw his figure outlined against the red sky, black,
portentous, threatening. His fist was raised in
menace for a m.oment, then he bent over. A
flickering flame sprang up under his hand, widened,
and raced down the slope after the running pony.

The double load and the fast pace wore telling
on the bronco, and though Neshota scored his

127

The PnonATioNEB

flanks with a pliant willow, tl.o beast droppe.l into
a walk. Over his shoulder Ben saw the main
fire diVKle and slip by the burned ground around
the shanty; then, reunito.l, it swept like a red
death after the fire of Silas Peters. He slid to the
ground.

"Lick -im up!" he yelled, hoarsely. "You'll
make it alone!"

His voice sounded like a whisper ami,! the roar
of the flames, but Neshota understood. He hesi-
tated. Ben decided for him. He struck the bronco
sharply on the flank, and the beast plunged forward
and vanished in the smoke.

Crouching clo.se to the ground to get the purer
air, the boy struck a match and fired the grass
It caught, and a tongue of flame shot forv/ard
leaving a rift of blackened soil between two lines
of fire. He crept upon the burned path and
followed, almost choked with smoke and heat
The sweat dried on his skin, and the skin blistered
and burned. Burning embers sailed through the air
and dropped around, but with head close to the
ground he crept steadily on.

Twenty square yards of burned prairie protected
him when the fire flashed by. For a second, earth
and sky blazed. A leaping, soaring, searing, crack-

128

TiiK Frkcklkd I'oiir.

ling wave rollod ovpr him, loiiving everything bhiek,
smoky, .smudgy, acrid. He rai.sed his face froin
between his liand.s and tore off liis burning .shirt.
ni.s haiuLs and kiice.s were .seared by the liot ember.s,
he was sooty from liead to foot, but, heedless of
his own pain, lie staggered to hi.s feet anil peered
through tlie smoke towards C'hittock's.

A fiery ring was eating outward from the shanty,
and within (he mcU' dark figiuvs ru.shed (o and fro!
And even as he looked the red death shot by,
leaving the cabin standing on the black prairie!
Thi.s ho saw, anil then the ground began to lieave
wildly beneath him. Chittock's cabin danced madly
to and fro across the horizon. He tried to steady
himself, and spent the dregs of his strength in the
effort. He fell forwaril on his face.

Twenty minutes afterwards Bill Chittock picked
up the firc-scirred budy atid carrieil it gently home.
The burned hands and feet were smothered in
baking-.soda and swathed in cotton batting, but the
sun had peeped over the horizon on a black and
smudgy desert before Ben recovered consciousness.
His opening eyes rested on Mother Chittock tender-
ly bathing his blistered face, and Neshota sat on
the floor watching with solenui eyes.
"Feeling better, deary?"
129

T II F. P n o n A T I o N F, R

Bon nodded and grinned with dolight at Noshota's
grave face. The little free slipped across tlu! Iloor
and scjuatted by the bed. The door ipencd and
Bill Chittock walked in.

"McDonald's l)unied out, I reckon," he said;
"but Peters's shanty's there yet."
"More's the pity," snapped his wife.
"Steady, ol' lady!" said Bill, softly. "Don't be
uncharitable."

"I ain't, Bill ""'nttock. Ye sh'd jest see that
poor boy's ba^k ?,ayed!" .-he .snorted, angrily.
"Give me," she continued, laying her hand kinilly
on Neshota's shoulder, "a brown skin afore a black
heart, an' a freckled face with a white soul."

Neshota glanced uj) in surprise. His eyes
glowed.

" Stfuaw good !" he muttered. " But I kill him—
that man!"

A SON OF COPPER SIN

mm^-wimsmr ~

■i \ . w;-« i"

A SON OF COPPER SIN

TrrimiN ln.s buirs-l,i,|,. tnx-<-, ol.l Iz.lo-r«y |;,v
T T and fed his little fire, stick by stick. H,. was
sick, very sick-sick with the sickness which is made
up of equal parts of hunRcr, „ld age, fever, and
•lospair. Just one week Ijefon- his tribe had head-
ed ui) for W.nnipegoos, wiiere the whitefish may b.-
had for the taking and the moose winter in their
yards. But a sick man may not travel the long
tra.l ';,. rz-le-roy had remained at White Man's
Lake. And Batiste, his son, stayed also. Not
that It was expected of him, for, according to forest
law, the man who cannot hunt had better die- but
Batiste had talked with the gentle priest of Elliee
and had chosen to depart from the custom of his
fathers.

And things had gone badly, very badly, since the
tribe had niarche.l. North, south, east, and west
the round of the plains, and through the leafless
133

III

r jK.:-* m " ¥

The Probationer

woods, the boy had hunted without so much as a
jack-rabbit falling to his gun. For two days no
food had passed their lips, and now he was gone
forth to do that which Iz-le-roy had almost sooner
die than have him do — ask aid of the settlers.

"Yea, my son," the old warrior had faltered,
" these be they that stole the prairies of our fathers.
Yet it may be that Big Laugh, best of an evil brood,
will give us of his store of flour and bacon."

So, after placing a plentiful stock of wood close to
the old man's hand. Batiste had closed the tepee
flap and laced it. At the end of an hour's fast
walking, during which the northern sky grew dark
with the threat of still more cruel weather, he sighted
through the drift a spurting column of smoke.

The smoke marked the cabin of John Sterling,
and also his present occupation. Within, John sat
and fired the stove, while Avis, his daughter, set out
the breakfast dishes, and his wife turned the sizzling
bacon in the pan.

"I declare," exclaimed the woman, pausing,
knife in hand, "if the bread ain't froze solid!"

"Cold last night," commented Sterling. "Put
it in the oven, Mary."

As she stooped to obey, the door quietly opened
and Batiste slipped in. His moose moccasins made

134

A S o \ OF C o p p n n S i \

no noise, and he was standing close beside her when
she straightened. She jumped and gaspeil:

"Lor' 'a' mercy! How you do scare one! Why
don't you knock?"

Batiste stared. It was the custom of his tribe
thus to enter a house— a custom established before
jails were built or locks invented. His eye there-
fore roamed questioningly from one to another until
Sterling asked :

"What d' you want, young fellow?"

Batis e pointed to the frying-pan. "Ba-kin!"
he muttered. "The ba-kin of Big Laugh, I want.
Iz-le-roy sick, plenty sick. Him want flour, him
want ba-kin."

The thought of his father's need flashed into his
mind, and, realizing the impossibility of expressing
himself in English, he broke into a voluble stream
of Cree, punctuating its rolling gutturals with ener-
getic signs. While he was speaking. Avis ceased
rattling her dishes.

"He looks awful hungry, dad," she whispered
as Bafste finished.

Now, though Sterling was a large-souled, generous
man, and jovial — as evidenced by his name of Big
Laugh — it happened that, during the past summer, a
roving band of Sioux had camped hard by and

135

The Probationer

begged him out of patience. That morning, too,
the threatening weather had spoiled an intended
trip to Russel and touched his temper — of which
he had a good man's share.

"Can't help it, girl!" he snapped. "If we feed
every hungry Injun that comes along, we'll soon
be out of house an' home. Can't do anything for
you, boy."

" Him want ba-kin," Batiste said.

"Well, you can just want."

" Iz-le-roysick,him want ba-kin," the boy pleaded.

His persistence irritated Sterling, and, crowding
down the better feeling which spoke for the lad,
he sprang up, threw wide the door, and shouted :

" Get, you son of copper sin! Get, now! Quick!"

"Father!" pleaded the girl.

But he took no heed, and held wide the door.

Into Batiste's face flashed surprise, anger, and
resentment. Surprise, because he had not be-
lieved all the things Iz-le-roy had told him of the
white men, but had preferred to think them all
like Father Francis. But now? His father was
right. They were all cold and merciless, their
hearts hard as their steel axe-heads , their tongues
sharp as the cutting -edge. With head held high
he marched through the door, away from the hot

A Son of Coppkh Sin

stove, the steaming coffee, anrl the delicious smell
01 Irymg bacon, out into the cold storm.

"Oh, father!" remonstrated his v.ife, as Sterling
closed the door.

"Look here, Mary!" he answered, testily. "We
fed a whole tribe last summer, didn't we?"

'' But this lad didn't belong to them," she pleaded

"All the worse," ho rejoined. "Do an J .jun a

good turn an' he never forgets. Give him his

breakfast, an' he totes his tribe along to dinner."

"Well," sighed the good woman, "I'm real

sorry."

For a few moments both were silent. And
presently, as the man's kindly nature began to
tnumph over his irritation, he hitched uneasily in
his chair. Already he felt ashamed. Casting a
sheepish glance at his wife, he rose, walked to the
door, and looked out. But a wall of whirling white
blocked his vision-Batiste was gone beyond recall.

"Where's Avis?" he asked, returning to the
stove.

"A- vis!" called her mother.

But there was no answer. For a moment man

and wife stared each other in the eye; then, moved

by a common impulse, they walki-d into the kilehen

There, on the table, lay the half of a fresh-cut side

r.i7

The Probation kh

of bacon; the bread-box was open and a crusty loaf
missing; the girl's shawl was gone from its peg and
her overshoes from their corner.

"Good God!" gasped the settler. "The child's
gone after him!"

They knew the risk. All morning the storm had
been brewing, and now it thundered by, a veritable
bli-^'^ard. The blizzard! King of storms! It com-
pc. . the settler to string a wire from house to stables,
it sets men circling in the snow, it catches little
children coming home from school and buries them
in monstrous drifts.

Without another word Sterling wound a scarf
about his neck, grabbed his badger mitts, and
rushed outside.

When Avis softly closed the kitchen door she
could just see Batiste rounding a bluff that lay a
furlong west of her father's stables. She started
after him; but by the time she had covered half
the distance a sea of white swept in between and
blotted him from view. Then she ought to have
turned; but she pushed on, hoping for a break in the
scud. She never even made the bluff. The
furious wind walled her about with fleecy clouds;
unconsciously she bore off to the left, and was soon
travelling on the arc of a wide circle.

138

A 8 o X OF C o !■ r F, u Sin

And when she found tliat she had missed the
bluff, and trietl to retrace her steps, the drift had
filled her tracks. Somewhere near by, she knew,
ran the Russel trail, a hard, well -beaten road,
packed level with the topmost snow. If she could
only 'trike it! So she turned to the right and
turned to the left, but one turn offset the r and
the leftward swing kept her ever on the circle.
Thus she struggled on, and on, and still on, until,
in spite of the seventy degrees of frost, the perspira-
tion burst from every pore and the scud melted on
her glowing face. This was wcOl enough — so long
as she kept moving; but when the time came that
she must stop, .she would freeze all the quicker for
her present warmth.

This, being born and bred of the prairie, Avis
knew, and the knowledge kept her toiling, toiling
on, until her tired legs and leaden feet compelled
a pause in the shelter of a bluff. She was hungry,
too. All this time she had carried the bread and
meat, and now, unconscious of a pair of slant eyes
which glared from a willow thicket, she brok(? the
loaf and l)(>gan to eat. While she ate, the green
lights in the eyes flared brighter, a long rod tongue
licked the drool from grinning jaws, and forth from
his covert stole a lank, gray wolf.

" 13!)

TiiK 1' no II ATioN p;r

II f

Avis uttered a starded cry. This was no coyote,
to be chased with a stick, but a wolf of timber
stock, a great beast, heavy, prick eared, strong as a
mastiff. His nose puckered in a wicked snarl as ho
slunk in half-circles acro.'ss her front. He was un-
decided. So, while he circled, trying to make
up his mind, drawing a little nearer at every turn.
Avis fell back— back towards the bluff, keeping her
white face always to the creeping beast.

It was a small bluff, lacking a tree large enough
to climb, but sufficient for her purpose. On its
edge she paused, throw the bacon to the wolf, and
then ran desperately. Once clear of the scrub, she
ran on, plunging through drifts, stumbling, falling,
to rise again and push her flight. Of direction she
took no heed; her only thought was to place dis-
tance between herself and the red-mouthed brute.
But when, weary and breathless, she paused for
rest, out of the drab drift stole the lank, gray
shadow.

The brute crouched a few yards away, licking his
sinful lips, winking his devil eyes. She still had
the loaf. As she threw it, the wolf sprang and
snapped it in raid -air. Then she ran, and ran,
and ran, as the tired doe runs from tlip hounds.
For what seemed to her an interminable time,

140

A So>f OF CorPER Sin

though it was less tlian five miiiutos, she held on;
then stopped, spent, unable to take another step.'
Looking back, she saw nothing of tiie wolf; but
just when she began to move slowly forward,
thinking he had given up the chase, a gray shape
loomed right ahead.

Uttering a bitter cry, she turned once more,
tottered a few steps, and fainted.

As, wildly calling his (laughter's name. Sterling
rushed by his stables, the wind smote him with
tremendous power. Like a living thing it buffeted
t^im about the ears, tore at his breath, poured over
him an avalanche of snow. Still he pressed on,
and gained the bluff whicli Avis missed.

As he paused to draw a free breath, his eye picked
out a fresh-made track. Full of a sudden hope, he
shouted. A voice answered, and as he rushed
eagerly forward a dark figure came through the
drift to meet him. It was Batiste.

"What you want?" he asked.

Sterling was cruelly disappointed, but he an-
swered quickly: "You see my girl? Yes, my
girl," he repeated, noting the lad's look of wonder.
"Young white squaw, you see urn?"

"Mooniah papoose ?" queried Batiste.

141

Thk Piio ri ation' k r

"Yes, yes! She follf)w you. Want give you
breail, want give you bacon. All gone, all lost!"
Sterling finished with a de.spairing ge.sture.

"Squaw marcl to mc? Ba-kin for me?" ques-
tioned Batiste.

"Yes, yes!" cried Sterling, in a flurry of im-
patience.

Batiste's dark eyes softened, and he gave vent to
low duckings of distress. Then, striding out from
the bluff, he motioned Sterling to follow. Straight
as the wild duck's flight the boy led on, while the
man followed, wondering. To him all points of the
compass were alike; yet the Cree moved confidently
through the smother, planting one foot directly
before the other, Indian fashion, so that a line drawn
along his trail would have cut the centre of every
track. Once, passing through a slough, he stooped
and fingered the long grass which poked through
the snow, and then Sterling remembered that the
first storm of the season had fixed it north and
south. Shortly after. Batiste stopped and sniffed
the air.

"What's the matter?" shouted the man.
" Smell um smoke," Batiste answered.
Swinging a little to the right, he bore off north-
east, and in a few minutes landed the settler at his

142

A Son- of Coi

1' E H Sin

own door. Avis had not returnoil, and her mothor
sat trembling by the stove. On her husband's en-
trance she jumped up, wailing:

"It's a judgment on us! It's a judgment on us,
John, for turning out that boy! A\'hy, there he is'"
she gasped, as Uatisto followed in.
"I find um," he .said, softly.
"Not till you've drunk some coffee," Sterling
interposed, for the boy was again making for the
door. " Fix him a cup, mother."

While the boy sipped, the man paced uneasily to
and fro, and the mother listened, shuddering, to the
thunder of the storm. Both sighed with relief
when he set down the cup.
"Well?" interrogated Sterling.
Briefly Batiste laid down his plan, eking out his
scanty English with vivid signs. In snow, the
whit« man roils along like a clumsv buffalo, planting
his feet far out to the right and left. And becau.se
his right leg steps a little longer than the left, he
always, when lost, travels in a circle. Wherefore
Batiste indicated that they would move along
parallel lines, just shouting-distance apart, so as to
cover the largest possible ground.

"Young squaw niarche .slow. She there!" He
pointed north and east with a gesture so sure and

143

The Probationer

certain that the mother uttered a low ^..y and the
father stepped involuntarily towards the door
"Yes, there!"

In front of the cabin Batiste paused until Sterling
got his distance; then, keeping the wind slanting to
his left cheek, he moved off north and east. Ever
anil anon he stoppiMl to give forth a piercing yell.
If Sterling answered, he moved on; if not— as hap-
pened twice-hc travelled in his direction until they
were once more in touch. And so, shouting and
yelhng, they bore off north and east for a long half-
hour.

After that, Batiste began to throw his cries both
east and west, for he judged that they must be
closing on the girl. And suddenly, from the north,
came a weird, tremulous answer. He started, and,'
throwing up his head, emitted the wolf's long howl!
Leaning forward, he waited— his very soul in his
ears- until, shrill yet deep-chested and quivering
with ferocity, came back the answering howl.

No coyote gave forth that cry, anc' Batiste knew
it.

"Timber wolf!" he muttered.

Turning due north, he gave the settler a warning
yell, then sped like a hunted deer in the direction
of the cry. He ran with the long, lithe lope which

144

A Son- of {'((ppKn Sin

tires down even tho swift elk, and in fivn minulps
coverod nearly ii mile. Once more he gave forth
thu wolf-howl. .\n iULswer earn.- from close by, 'out
as he. sprang forward it cn<le(l with a frightened
yelp. Through ii break in thfi drift he spied a
moving figure; then a swirl .swept in and blotted it
from view.

Hut he had seen tho girl. A dozen leap.s and he
was close upon her. Just as he opened his mouth
to spi-ak, she screamed and plungeii lieadlong.

When consciousness returned, Avis was lying in
her own bed. Her mother bent over her; Sterling
stood near by. All around were tho familiar things
of life, but her mind still retained a vivid picture
of her flight, and she sprang up screaming:
"The wolf! Oh, the wolf!"
" Hush, dearie," her motlier soothed. " It wasn't
a wolf, but just tho Creo boy."

Batiste h:id told how she screamed at the sight
of his gray, snow-eovered blanket, and the cry
had carried even to her father. But when she re-
covered sufficiently to tell her story, tho fatlu-r
shuddered and tlie mother exclaimed :

"John, we owe that boy more than ever we can
pay!"
"We do!" he fervently agreed.
115

TlIK I'ROnATION KR

Just then the Intoh of the outer door olicltod, mid
a cold bliist strcmiic<l into ihc U'droom Jumping
up, the mothpr cried:

"Run, John! He's Roinf'"

"Here, young fellow!" si;;,i,ted tlio settler.

Batiste paused in the doorway, his hanil on the
latch, his slight body silhouetted against the white
of the stonn.

"Where you going, boy?"

"To Iz-le-roy," he answered. "Him sick,
ite/liou!"

Sterling strode forwarrl and caught him by the
shoulder. "No, you don't," he said— "not that
way." Then, turning, he called into the bedroom:
"Here, mother! Get out all your wrajjs while I
hitch the ponies. And Rk up our best bed for a
sick man."

:.i ;|

111'!

'! '■

A SAGA OF 54°

BEYOND the parallel of 54", a hundred miles
north of CLuiberland House— named after his
Grace, the "Butcher"— am' two hundred miles from
Pelly, lies the country of the Makwas. If you
should wish to go there, a team of shaganappy
ponies, if they be tough, will run you up from Pelly
.in five days. The High Commissioner of the Hudson
Bay makes it in three, but his horses are then turned
out for a year's rest. You cannot afford this. Be-
tween this country and the Lake of Amisk lie the
pot-hole lands. Here, say the Makwas, the Great
Spirit rested from his labors, and, blind to the
chaos at his feet, looked forth on his work and called
it good. But on arising to go thence, says the le-
gend, he saw the evil of the land, and, because it had
made him to say the thing which was not, he cursed
it forevermore. And so, seamed, rugged, broken,
bordered by forests of gloomy spruce, crude, just as
it dropped from his hand, it endures to this day.

T II K P It O B A T I O N E R

Over its scarred surface writhe fathomless earth-
cracks. Bleak sand-hills lie cheek by jowl with
black morasses; and huge pits— the pot-holes of the
Makwas— gape amid shaking quagmires and treach-
erous muskegs. A thousand lakes dot the bush.
From their waters petrified trees thrust skeleton
limbs. Over the inky depths the loon races his
shadow, the hawk shrieks a malediction from the
sky, and at night the owl bells anathema in the
sleeping woods. Accursed, devil-haunted, peopled
by wild beasts, it is avoided of Cree and Sioux and
Makwa, and even the trappers of Fort k la Corne
give it a wide berth.

The last rays of a blood-red sun flamed over the
pot-hole lands, crimsoning the waters and clothing
the abomination of desolation with scarlet robes and
gold. From the eastern face of a deep pit the rose
light glanced on the upturned countenance of a
man. He stood at the bottom. All around the
rock sloped up and out, so that a stone dropped
from the top would have landed ten feet from the
base. He was trapped ; a cat could not have scaled
that overhanging surface.

At the foot of the cliff the wearing hand of time
had deposited a loose bank of sand and rubble. On
this the man stood, the slack of a lariat coiled in his

A Sao a o f 5 4 °

left hand, his eyes fixed on a storm-riven stump that
leaned over the cliff. Slowly at first, but with
gradually increasing speed, ho swung the noose until
it whirled in whistling circles. Suddenly he jerked
it up and out. Like a darting cobra it rose, whip-
ping out the coils, hovered for an instant, straight
and rigid, then curved easily over the stump.

" Bien!" the man exclaimed, throwing up his arms.
He had forgotten his precarious footing. Over-
balancing, he rolled, the centre of a small landslide,
to the bottom of the heap. He sat up, wiped the
sweat fron his eyes, and gazed at the swinging ropo.

"Peste!" he muttered. "Two days in this pit of
hell. Mere tie Dieu! Two days!"

Scrambling up the heap, he began to climb,
gripping the rope with knees antl feet. Three yards
from the top he stopped dead. A grim face looked
down from above. The climber's wrists felt as big
as buckets, his arms were pulling from the sockets,
but, staring defiantly upward, he hung on, swinging
in mid-air. A minute passed. Then a big hand
slipped by the face and shook the rope. The man
dropped, and the next moment the lariat fell from
above, coiling across his body.

Stunned and badly shaken, he lay on the sand
while the sun slipped into his dusky blanket and

151

The Probationer

the twilight faded. Up rose the noises of the night
Frogs croaiced in the sloughs, a fox barked among
the sand-hills, a wolf howled in the bush A
bronze moon peeped at hin, over the tree-tops, then
climbed her silver path.

The man stirred, sat up, and glanced above.
The stump stood, solitary, clearly outlined against
the moonht sky. Noiselessly mounting the heap,
he tncd another cast, it missed. He tried again
and agam, and again, and still again, and many'
more tmios, until, to-vards midnight, the tightening
rope sent a welcome thrill along his arm. He
leaned forward, listening. The soughing night-
wmd, the myriad-tongued mosquito, the babel of
frogs, these were all he heard.
" So!" he breathed. " The weasel sleeps."
He seized the rope, knife between teeth, ready
to chmb, but, as he reached up, it flew through his
hand, rose, an.' f-11 about him. Sitting down, he
coiled the lariat, then lay over and flozed. Once
more, in the gray morning, ho la.<.soed the stump-
and this time his head levelled the bank before
the sient watcher snapped him from the rope
He fell, turning head over heels, and lay until the
rising sun flushed the east with trembling rose and
gold.

152

A S.\(i.\ OK 54°

Whon the sim arehod to the meridian lio crawjpil
into tlio siiado of the overhanging bank. It was
hot. The i)ot-ho!o glowed lii<e a devil's oven.
Wave.s of heat rolled down from the high eliff, the
sand-bank glareil, the .stones scorehed his feet.
Towards noon he stripped. Then lively sand-
lizards ran over him, an<l buzzing flies nipped pieces
from his body. Hot, hungry, and tired, he tried to
forget his misery in sleep, but choking thirst kept
him wide-awake until the sun ran down the western
grade. Then he dozed.

The clip of a cutting axe brought him flying into
the open. There, against the fiery sunset glow,
stood a man, chopping awav the stump.

" Devil !"

The man looked down. " What is it, M'sieu The-
Factor-That-Is-To-Be?" he sneered. "It is warm
down there, eh? I see m'sieu affects negligee since
he inhabited the lower regions."

"It is warm, yes.'" The prisoner's hand was
fumbling behind his back. "But, see you, (;ene
Lascurrettes, it is not .so hot as— hell!" The knife
flashed from his finger-lips straight at tlie chopper's
back, who just then stepped sidewise to reach
farther round the tree. It whizzed between arm
and body, and stuck quivering in the stump.
l.W

TlIK PnOBATIONEB

"So!" exclaimed Laseurrcttcs, swinging slowly
round. "The little knife! My own, too, I had
forgotten. Careless! An' this was a good throw
of the knife. Forty feet if an inch! Excellent!
But see you"— he pulled the knife and threw
it on the ground- "now is your last bolt spent.
An' M'sieu The-Factor-That-Is-To-Be will soon
have opportunity of comparing this"— he waved
his hand airily— "with hell." The prisoner made
no reply. He sat on the sand-heap quietly playing
with the coils of his lariat. " But m'sieu tires of the
play," continued Lascurrettes. "Then, see you, we
will finish." He thrust against the stump. "Not
yet, eh? More chopping? Behold the white chips
showering like the white blossom on the grave of
M'sieu The-Factor-That-Is-To-Be. A pretty fancy."

When Gene Lascurrettes gave out his intention
of building on the pot-hole lands, Fort a la Come
shrugged its shoulders and commented according to
its kind.

"The man's daft!" growled the Scotch Factor.

" He is one fool, this Gone!" chorussed the French
151

A S A Cl A o i- ■( 4 °

half-breeds. They liked not the prospect of having
Gene's wife, the prettiest woman in A la Corne, re-
moved from the sphere of their observation.

The Cree runners expressed their surprise in harsh
gutturals eked out by wealth of signs. Few men
cared to trap in the "scab lands"; that any should
wish to live there was beyond tiie compass of the
Cree imagination. But, indifferent to criticism,
G6ne continued his i)reparation.

He was something of a mystery to Fort a la
Come, and mysteries it hated. Experience had
taught it that those things whicli caimot be com-
prehended are to be feared. Therefore, being
incomprehensible. Gene was disliked.

The coldest day of the preceding winter, when
the spirit registered sixty and odd below and you
could hear the groan of a sled ten miles, a team
of lathered ponies had swept through the Fort gate.
Poking its nose carefully out-of-doors, A la Corne
had watched a sawed-off giant carry a half-frozen
woman into the Factor's house. And such a
woman! When the frozen veil was thawed from
off her face, the Fort forgot its manners (inherited
from the best blood of France) and stared; and not
until she quietly turned her back did they remember.
It was Gene and his wife. When they inquired of
" 1.55

The Puobationeu

his journey he was extremely reticent, answering in
general terms.

"He had come from the north?"

"Hchwl."

" Far?"

"Far."

"Then, it was somewhat strange that a man
should travel in th<! heavy frost?"

"Was it?"

" See you, sir, the ponies. They arc the brothers
of the little team of Pete De.spard?"

"Likely.."

Long after, they heard that he had traded dogs
for ponies at Norquay's roail-house, on the Great
Slave Trail.

By a curious stroke of fortune, there landed m
A la Come, the next day, tii(^ Commissioner of
Garry. He was on a ciucst for ponies, having just
killed a team. He came face to face with Gene in
the stable.

No one else was around.

" Ph-ew!" whistled the Commissioner. " I thought
you were beyond the Arctic Circle."

"I am at A la Corn ^ m'sicu."

" So I see. And your wife?"
"She also."

156

A Saga of 54'

Thn Commissioner thougiit awliilo.

"You wish to stay?"

"Wiiy not? A man must cat."

"How nmch for the ponies?"

"Two iumdml."

"I tako 'cm Now go and tell the Factor to put
your name on the books. But say!" (if'no stoppiMl.
"Therc''s a man looking for you beyond the Great
Bear Lake."

" Ho will not find me there, m'sieu."

The Commissioner watched him crossing the
yard. "If that man gets down to A la Corne," he
muttered, shaking his head, " there'll bo a pretty
fight. I'd like to see it" — he licked his lips in sin-
ful anticipation — " but there'd be some dead men
rounil. And dead men," he sighed, "are no use to
the Company. Well, we'll get something out of
him while he's here." The Commissioner had the
knack of getting things out of men, and, if there was
nothing to be got, lu; packed them off to some place
where killing was eiLsy.

When Gen(''s name was spread on the book, the
Factor wondered, the Crecs grunted astonisliraent,
and the breeds lost tlicir eyebrows in the roots of
their liair. Then they remembered his wife, and
grinned. Surely the Commissioner had been look-

157

TiiF. P n (> II \ T 1 () V i: R

ing at himsolf in tli().s<' dark pvi-s, which were as
deep, black pools edged with willow. But presently
they had other caus<( for wonder. Gtine drove a
nail with a rifle-shot at fifty yards, he tossed the
caber farther than the Factor, broke the back of a
Sioux wrestler, and his tongue cut like a two-edged
sword. Then- was at first great talk of his wife.

" She's seen sorrow," said the Factor's wife. " An'
I'm doobtin' if she gaes much on her man."

"La Petite!" e.xclaimcd France Dubois. "Alas!
To be married to one bear." Being young and hot
in the blood, France would willingly have consoled
the mismated woman. For a while he followed hard
on her trail. Then, hearing of the matter, G6ne
pitched him over the Fort wall into a snowbank and
left him there to cool. Which he did quickly, and
returned to his forest loves.

Though very much in the minority, the women
made most noise at the news of the moving. The
breeds' wives cluttered together like a fiock of
angry mallards, but it fell to the Factor's woman to
voice the general discontent.

" It's carryin' ye till that beast hole 'e'U be, is it?"
she exclaimed, kis.sing Lois. " We'll see aboot it."

First she tackled the Factor, getting no satisfac-
tion; then she cornered Gene in the store. " What '11

158

A Saga ok

be the meanin' o' this?" she demanded. " D' ye think
to tak' the puir lassie, an' her \vi' a weak heart, till
yon desert pluco aniang birds an' beasts an' deils an'
Injuns? Tak' shame till ye!"

She paused, windetl. Gi^ne's black eye wandered
over the stout figure. "Madame," he said, bowing,
"is please to be interest in, the matter? Yes?
Well, if she will know, it is good to trap on the bad
lands. Game is plenty. Imlians? Bah! They
will not go within goose-flight of the pot-holes.
Madame know this. The devils, is it? Yes," he
mused, "we will take with us the big crucifix, an'
Father F'rancis shall bless the cabin. Then again"
— his brows shot up, and a wicked smile twinkled
in his eye — "in Quebec, the Lascurrettes were of
importance. Yes! An' the aasociations of A la
Come are scarcely — but I see madame understand.
She, perhaps, has visit a good family." Slipping by,
he left the woman paralyzed with indignation.

"Weol!" she gasped. "Did — you — ever? Siccan
an impudcnci ! An' me once housemaid to a real
laird!"

In early springtime, Gfine raised a cabin of spruce
logs on the bank of a small creek hard by a big pot-
hole. It was an honest day's ride from the Fort,
which fact he took peculiar pleasure in drawing to

139

fir

The Probationer

the attention of the Factor's wife. And when the
ground thawed nnough to permit the cutting of
roof-sod, he loaded his gear on a huge-wheeled Red
River cart, and creaked over the prairie and through
the bush to his own place. For a month or so ho
and Lois labored at the house, chinking and pliuster-
ing, cTitting roof-poles and sod to cover them; there
was also a fireplace to build and a door to make.
But this done and the last shovelful of nmd plastered
smoothly on the walls, time began to drag heavily
on Lois's hands. Gene was away all day, tending his
traps or hunting among the pot-holes; so, sitting by
the cabin door, hands folded, eyes dreamily fixed on
the distant bush, she thought and thought and
thought; and through her mind slipped fleeting
shadows.

Harking back to her childhood, she saw dimly
the face of her mother, faintly beautiful, framed in
the cloudy past. Then uprose the log mission of St.
Ignace, its silvery chime, the gentle sisters, and the
things they had taught her. When she was grown
into a tall girl, swne things she learned of herself:
chief among them, that in the hands of a maid a
man is as wa.x, though hard as steel to the wedded
woman.
She dwelt tenderly on the glory of her first love,
160

A Sao A of 54°

wlipn tlif siin shone liriKlitcr ami tlio birds anng
swoptcr tli'ui before. Hut with tiiis Win linked the
memory ol the black day when, by unlri of the;
Company, ho mounted and rode away to Fort
MoCloud against tlie Roekics. Shortly after, she
followed her father the length of Mk; (Ireat Slave
Trail to Fort Confidence, lieyond (lie Arctic Cir-le.
There she met Geno Lascurrc 1 1 1 -i Tim; was a
bitter winter. The sun abdicated ruid vl'hihiw
to the Southland, leaving the North to tiie cnlii sLiis
and Aurora lion-alis. And the Forest I\ing blew
on her with his icy breath, and the elements .sr'cmcd
to conspire to chill the warmth at her heart, and the
young men of Fort Confidence wondered at her
coldness. The next summer came news of his
death, and Lois's sun went out. He was killed, in
the Rockies, by a grizzly, so said I.iascurrcttes, who
himself had the news from a trapper of Fort York,
who got it in Garry. Last of all, she thought of the
mortal sickness of old Pierre Mondot— how he be-
sought her to marry Gene, who stood well to become
a factor of the Company, and so let him die in
peace.

"Thou art beautiful, child, an' need a strong
husband!" Those were his words. Then he told
of the ruthlessness of men when hanilsonie women

The P n o n a t I o \ f. r

wore in question, until, half frigiitonori, and to
pleast! him, slio yielded. Happy? No' SIk- had
not been happy. She had done her duty in a me-
chanical sort of way, but there was nc lov(! on her
Ride. And now indifference wa.s fuming to dislike.
Had he not torn her from her friends at Confidence,
and hurried her through frost and snjw and ice and
shrieking blizzard, the length of t'le Great North
Trail? Made her a stranger in :.. strange land?
And, on top of all, isolated her in this barren spot?
Here was small cause of love.

She sat thus one afternoon in the late spring.
It was the time of flowers. Harlot-like, the pot-
hole lands had clothed their barrenness with robes of
spangled green. In the thick grass, brazen ^er-
lilies fla-i-ted before humble o.x-eye daisies, yellow
buttercups shouldered Scotch bluebells, and trem-
bling golden-rod bowed over seas of flandelion.
Through the floral ocean nimble gophers chased tlioir
loves. A dozen prairie-cocks strutted on a knoll be-
fore the hens, a (juacking mallard .steered her brood
over a prairie slough, while high overhead a pair
of sand-hill cranes circled up in the eye of the
sun.

Gene was among the sand-hills trying for a shot
at a sneaking wolverine: yet, far down the Fort trail,

11)2

A S A r. A

or 54°

the girl spied a black spot moving over the prairie.
It grew larger ami larger, presently resolving into
the figure of a mounted man.

Suddenly she sprang up, hands to brow, eyes
strained. "M6re de Dieu!" she whispered. She
sank back, white and trembling, one hand pressed
against her heart. The man hobbled his pony and
stood before her. He was tall, heavy-jawed, aquiline
of feature, and massively handsome; a strong man,
earnest in good or evil.

'"I will wait for thee, Jehan le Bait,'" he began,
surveying her with questioning eyes, '"until the
everlasting prairies shrivel in the fire of the last day.'
These were the words of Lois Mondot. These were
the words I told to my starved heart over there" —
he waved to the west— "at Fort McCloud against
the Rockies. Now am I a factor of the Company an'
return for my britle, to fiml — "

Every speck of color had vanished from her face.
Her mouth stood open, entreating breath ; she .sway-
ed, recovered, then fell forward. He caught her,
and pulled a flask from his pocket.

"Drink!" he commanded.

"It— it — is over!" .she gasped.

"Drink!" He .spoke with authority. The spirit
sent the blood flu><hing to her cheek. "You are

1G3

The P lion ATI oner

bettor?" She nodded. "An' when I come to
Garry," he continued, doggedly, "I find — "

"Stop, Jehan!" Slie held up a staying hand.
"You know I love — loveil you. But tiiey tell me,
my father an' Ciene, that you are dead — killed by
a bear. Mere de Dieu !" .she wailed. " How wretch-
ed I am! I do not care. 'Marry,' say my father,
an' — an' — I did." She hung her head.
" for this he — "

"Ah, no, Jehan!" .she anticipated. "For then
would there be blood be; "en u.s. It mast not b('.
No, Jehan, no!"

"Then you will — " He ilrew her clo.se, whisjier-
ing. Shi> .shook her head, repeating again :rnd igain
a faint "No, Jehan"; but, indifferent to yea or .>ay,
he talked on, rapidly, authoritatively, laying his
plan. Till' strong will prevailed. Soon she ceased,
and nestled in. warm flushes chasing one another
over her face and Beek.

" To-morroiw," she an.swered to a que.stion, "he
goes to the F<ort, an will not be back till midnight.
But oh, Jehan, Father Francis?"

"Bah! little fine! The fat priest, is it? The good
father know tha' love is greater than law, an' he
ha.s a fine eye for a pretty maid. Sec you, there will
be abac^ution when we are old and gray!"
164

A Saga of 54"

She smiled, and ncstlnd closer. The afternoon
slipped by and the flickering shadows moved round
a quarter-circle while they were still in talk. Sud-
denly the girl sprang from his arms; a passing cloud
had obscured the sun, bringing on the evening
twilight.

"Go, dear!" she exclaimed. "It is near sun-
down' He will soon be here!"

"Then," lie .said, kissing her on the mouth, "to-
morrow, little one! Before moonri.se. It is a long
trail, the Fort McCloud, but love lio.s by the way an'
happine.ss at the end."

She followed him among the pot-holes •• .^h her
eyes and down the trail to the distant bush, and
while she was still gazing, Gene turned the corner.
He leaned his rifle against the wall.

"This devil-beast," he growled, throwing down
the wolverine, "will no more rob the traps. An'
this was i. fine shot. By the Christ! Yes. Two
hund— What is that?" His eye had caught the
moving speck.

"I know not," .she faltered. "This half-hour
have I watched it, wishing for thy coming. Just
now I had another stroke of (he heart. One mon-
su<-h an' I am (lime."

- r-juf! He laid a caressing hand on her shoulder.
165

l*'V>: f.:.'^--^ \

^*f?f>.;*'-'

i"yt> A iii> ' <V<-'>

>>3^- ri^r '

■■i-«i.-%

The P b o b a t i o n e k

"What foolish talk is this? No Cree would venture
among the pot-holes. Afraid? Of a stray pony?
See you. I will mount an' bring it to thee, an' we
shall have the great laugh."

"No! No!" siic cxclaimrd, shrinking from his
hand. "Do not lrav<' me. An' you arc hungry?
It was wrong of nic to be afraid an' neglect the
meal."

After he had eaten she moved outiloors. Ho
lay on their bed, smoking and telling, betwiren
puffs, of a silver fox he had tracked in the sand-
hills. Fifty dollars was its hide worth at A la
Come ! Of this she should have ten, to buy her a
dress fit for a queen. She should liave brave gear,
yes, as became a pretty woman, wife to a good
hunter. Thus he raml)led on. She answered in
monosyllables. Twice he called her to come to
bed, but not until he slept did she enter the cabin.

She wa.s up betimes, and fried the breakfast
bannock while Gene hitched his pony to the cart.
After he was gone she hearkened to the huge wheels
creaking over the prairie and drew a long, full
breath. Just as he turned into the bush the night-
wind sank to rest, the air chilled, and the sky
blacks iialed to dullest drab. Trembling flushes of
red and ycWow shut through the grays of dawn.
1«6

A S A (t A

Easily tiie drabs fadod into tho blii»' of the zenith,
the yellows d('('|j<'ned and bluslicd into nsy reds,
while fleecy clouds drew dusky lines across the
eastern sky. As the sun raised a golden rim, a
robin perched on the roof-tree and piped his melo-
dious note. Blackbird-s in a near-by bluff broke into
liquid music, a mqx- chirped a cheerful pee-wee
from a xlougli, and a pair of jays quarrelled in the
>0- of the morning. The hush, the glow, the
throaty music of the birds, the infinite peace and
freshn<'ss of the new-born day, filled her starved
soul. Kneeling, like some fire-worshipijer of old,
she watched the great red sun lift and roll up his
burnished plane.

All day she burned with a fever of impatience.
Time and again, though she knew he would not
come till night, her gaze travelled down the trail to
the distant bush. Once, on turning from the door,
her eyes fell on the crucifi.x against the wall. She
shrank back. The Church had no blessing for an
enterprise like hers; and, beneath Christ's cro.ss,
Gtae had nailed a colored mission print of the
"broad and easy way" leading down to Tophet.
Ti/wards evening the excitement brought on an-
other palpitation of the lieart. which left her, blanch-
ed and trembling, on the lied. At last the unwel-

Tub Probationer

come sun dropped below the horizon. Rising, she
lit an oil fire, and by its light got ready for the
trail. She had but little gear. Her few things
wore soon rolled into a small bundle; then, throwing
a shawl about her, she Mt shivering with expecta-
tion. With dask came the thud of a horse's hoofs.
A hasty foot stumbled on the threshold.

"Jehan!"

She threw wide the door, and the yellow flare
shone full on her husband's face. With a choking
cry she fell at his feet. He stepped within. He
had heard the name; her bundle lay on tlie floor.

"So, so," he whispered, gently, " it was to be the
rider of the stray pony, was it?" The tone was
([uiet, but the veins on his forehcail rielged black,
the skin drew tight over his heavy jaw, and his
hand played with his knife. " Ri.se!' he roared, with
sudden pa.ssion. "Rise an' speak!" He struck his
heel heavily into her side. "The stray pony!" he
Laughed. "That was not to be caught! The heavy
pony! Whose hoofs bit deep in the soft places!"

She lay still. A minute pa.<,seil She had not
yet moved. Stooping, he turned up h<T face It
was marble-white. Falling on his knees, he tore
her dress from tlie twik and laid his roi^h head to
the »hite breast.

A Saga of 54°

Night fell as Jehan lo Bait spurred from the bush.
He was late. A led hor.sc had persistently taken
the wrong side of many trees, wlierefore Jehan
swore softly but with elo<iuence and variety.

"O son of the .ievil!" he muttered, "may you
burn in one tliousand hells! This is your fault.
Blaek night an' a new trail." Dismounting, he
followed the faint wriiite line of dead grass around
yawning pits and between bottoinle.ss carth-craeks,
while his an.xious eye .scanned a distant light. Half
an hour's fast walking Ijrought him to the big pot-
hole, and here he tied the horses at a poplar bluff.

The oil flare cist a broad stream of light through
the cabin door, puneliing a yellow hole in the blark-
ne.ss. "flo, petite!" he ealled. "Here am 1!"
The steep si.les of the pot-holes threw bark a
hollow eeho. .Vll was strangely silent. A sudden
fear chilleil him. High overhead, with rush of
b<>ating wings, a shape swept by.

He .started. "Bah!" h<' exclaimed. ".Tehaii le
Bait, )'ou are become as one chicken. Ma iui! To
jump at a pa<^ing goose!"

Stalling on the threshold, he laughed softly.
"La pauvre." he whispered. ",So? .She is tired,
an' sleeps. Good! She will travel the better."

.She lay on the rude bed, the torn dress revealing
ii.il

irmL^

fSiSLi!

T H K P R O 1) A T 1 O N E R

the ivory bust gloaming rouml and full in the yellow
flan;. Lov«! and passion surged with the hot blood
through his veins. 'J- 'ctly tiptoeing, he stooped
and kissed her full • ,i the mouth. Instant^ he
straightened. Her i 'is were icy cold.

"M'sieu salutes his love!"

Jehan whirled about. In the doorway, broad
body touching either post, stood Lascurrettes. He
was .smiling; his hand played gently with his knife.

" You— did— this— thing?"

The man shrugged his shoulders. "It was not
my fortune, m'sieu. The good God avenges the
outraged husband. So say the holy fathers. She
died of a stroke of the heart."

"Of a broken heart!"

"As you please. What matter? She is dead.
An' you, M'sieu The-Factor-That-Is-To-lic, pay for
her death. But not now. Presently. There is
work to do."

Taking axe and shovel, Gene led the way to the
bluff where the horses were tied. The moon had
just peeked over the trees; the black darkness had
withdrawn to the pits.

"Here is a good place." Lascurrettes buried the
axe in ti\i' sofl. "Soon there will be more light."

They worked by spells, prc.-iorving the silcnci' of

A Sao A of .54°

good haters, one picking ami the otlicr .shovelling.
After an hour's digging, (irno looked down on tlu;
grave. "It will do," he said.

At the door Johan It- Bait drew to one .si<le.
".M'sieu will wish to niak(' his adieus?"

He waited patn id\y. No need for hurry, thougii
the northern moon silvered |)lain and for("st, and he
could .see the fiiint whit(! trail winding over a mile
of prairie. Yet, time and again he caught himself
thinking of Lois as waiting, waiting, waiting: wailing
to start on the long journey which ended at Fort
McCloud.

" It is her spirit," he whispered.

"M'sieu?" Lascurrcttes stood hy the open door.
He entered, closed the door, and knelt hy the dead.
Raising the small hand, he placed it on his head.
.Softly, like a caress, it settled .among his curls,
quieting, with cool touch, the pain at his heart.
He arose soothed and calm, find called the Inisband.

"M'sieu," he .said, "this was good, an' I would
repay in kind. .\s I hope to presently kill you, I
swear she was innocent of wrong. Her heart was
always mine. This you knew when you Vu il awnv
her bo<ly."

I..i.scurrettes's lips <lrew iulo a wick -d snarl.
''Innocent!" iie growled. "This is the talk nf ;i
171

wikmt j vii.'Mikfi<Mr^ni:««&^

iV- ■v'^jxw.-.*

The P k o n a t 1 o n k k

boy. Dops tlip hand hold from the ripo fruit whon
the Ix'lly «iys pluck? This will not savp you."

In her bhuikc^ts thoy buried Lois, shovelling by
turns until the grave wiw filled and nioutided.
A\'hen the last sod wiis turniMl, th(>y stood for a
space with bowed heads; then, retiring a few yards,
they faced together.

Between the grave and the pot-hok- stretched a
level sward. Over this they Ix'gan to circle, back-
waril, forward, sidewise, tricking for an oix>ning,
knives .scintillating sparks of blue moonlight.

Suddenly Jehan let drive a i-ircular cut from
fac(? to waist. It fell short. The n^turn fliushed
straight at his brea.st, and Lascurrettcs drove in
thrust upon thrust, bearing him back towards the
pot-liole. A (|nick side-leap reversed the position,
and Jehan slashed at the side, and missed. Steel
sawed .steel. Th(^ knives fliushed in and out for a
breathless minute, weaving a fiery pattern; then,
blee(ling, they drew apart and circleil.

The next rush brought them together, free han<l
to knife hand, and .lelian felt the power of his foe.
Slowly he was forci;d back to the pit. lit' felt the
knif(^ hand tearing from his grip, while the grasp
tightened on his wrist lie nmst do something,
and do it quick.

172

A Sah \ OK ."it*

"Courago!" the voic-o of I.asciurcttos sounded
in his car; "it will .soon be; ovi'i-, au' ni'sicu in
hell."

Raising his kncp, Jehan jainmod it with ilospcrato
onorgy into the other's stonmeli, at the same time
throwing buck. The grapple broke. He fell, head
and slioulders over the pit. For one i lomeiit lin
hung in the balance, then La.seurretirs's knife
flfwhed straight at his fare. He .saw it eoniiiig,
dodged, overbalanced, clutched ul (lie ;;iasrt, and
toppled l)ack.

La>icurrettes crawli^l to the edge .uicl looked down.
Ho could .see nothing, but presently .i groaning curse
a.scendeil to liiin through the blackness. .lehan had
fallen in the loose .s.ind. Quietly withilrawing, he
walked to the grave and lay down to chew the;
bitter cud of .snirow and thwarted purpose.

He was the child of iron forces and riftorous condi-
tions; the last link of a chain every lengtli of wliicli
was hot-forged by nature and ehos, u from a thou-
sand. Strong, obstinate, acute, he had shouldered
through life, bending man and woman to his will.
fiut his wife's weakness had jiroved her strength.
She was gone beyond recall, lo be robhi.l of his
love!-- even by death? Springing up, ho shook a
threatening fist skyward, and cursivl the power
173

Jtf» .n^IVX^.

MICIOCOPY (fSOlUTION TIST CHAIT

(ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2)

13.2

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12.2

m m t^

A APPLIED IM^GE In

^K '653 EosI Main Strwl

g'.as 'ochesler, Me* rorl> 14609

^= (716) *82 - OJOO - Phone

^S (^'6) 2M - 5989 - Fa«

T II K 1' It O U A T I O N K II

which had levelled him in the dust. He waited, al-
most expectant. The stars looked coldly down, the
moon shed her pale light as before, the murmuring
night-wind plucked a <lead leaf and cast it in his hot
face. The mote in the sunbeam had defied the
infinite and received its answer.

Smarting under a vague sense of futility and
failure, he turned his gaze to the black pot-hole.
"Peste!" he muttered, "this is fool work, this
challenging the stars, but over there" — he shook his
big fist — " is one that shall pay."

For two days he kept secret watch and ward,
awaiting the torment of thirst and hunger. But on
the second day he observed the prisoner cutting his
mooseskin coat into strips, and saw him twist them
into a long lasso. When it was ready for the
cast, he crawled to the stump and waited. For
a night and day he feasted fat, then, glutted,
turned to destroy the last hope of the doomed
man.

"See you," he called below, "how great is my
solicitude. Presently the tree will fall, an' I would
not spoil a factor of the Company. Stand from
under!" The stump cracked. "Now," he laughed,
raising for the last blow, " to hell with you, Jehan
le Bait!"

174

A Saga of 54°

Unseen, noiseless, the lasso shot up from below,
hovered, curved over, and fell around his shoulders.
He grasped the tottering tree. Tt cracked smartly,
toppled over, and man and stump crashed into the
yawning ^.\„.

ittji

$.v.

THE BLACK FACTOR

WHEN you have snatclwd your canoe from the
grip of Assiniboine, labored across the Prairie
Portage, paddled a long week on Manitoba, and
sweated over the divide to Winnipegoos, you shall,
if your muscle be gcod for another week's paddling,
come to the Big Portage of Cedar Lake.

Two days thereafter, sore, stiff, and with the
appetite of a starved grizzly, you arrive — that is,
if your inner works are copper lined and proof, from
alkali — at Devil's Drum, a little corner of the
frozen North which has sent many a peltry to swell
the store of the Great Company. Then, when your
camp-fire flickers in the woods and the night-owl
solenmly bells the frogs to vespers, a trapper will
probably lounge over from the fort to sample your
tobacco and hear the news.

If the tobacco be good, the spirit may move him
to speak of the building of Devil's Drum and of the
notable circumstances attendant thereon, but unless
170

T 11 i: 1' 11(1 1! A r I o .V k ii

you have wliiskcy you will not licar tho story of ilic
Black Factor, nor will you Ix; nllowfil a peep into
the great book of the Company wlierein it is wriltrii.

I luui. Thus it was that I came to reail the stor;,'
which Pere (hi Fro wrote in the log of Devil's
Drum — the great book which lies on tlie top shelf of
the old log store, and which none but a commissioner
may open. And just as I read, it is hero set down,
save that I thought it better to omit some moraliz-
ings upon the duty of man with which the father
interspersed his narrative.

"The spring that Fraser came in from the west,"
he begins, " we of Garry were in straits. Not con-
tent with infringing on our charter, the Nor'west
Company had set itself to ruin our trade; to which
devilish end they had burned a Company's post
and killed its factor. Tlunr half-breeds, too, under
the command of one De Knyff, harried our packers
upon the trails and carried off their furs. And
while it is true we repaid these violations of the laws
of God and man in kind, yet the season's pack was
light and his Excellency the Governor both sour and
sulky. His state of mind may be imagined when I
say that for three months he went unconfesse;

'"Furs we must have, father,' he said, when I
called one morning intent on reproving him for his
180

The Black Factor

lack of duty. ' Furs wp must have, if I go uncon-
fcssed to tlic day of judgiucut!'

"'Son!' I protested, liut ho heard me not, and
fell to biting his nail.s and pulled his beard ragged,
while hi.s brow drew in heavy lines.

"'Ye.s,' he continued, talking to himself; 'wc
must carry the war into their country— build a post
north of the Dig Lakes, and hold it, if we have to
install the devil as factor and sink ihn Nor'wcsters
in the bottom hole of hell!'

"Hard words, but the man was sore beset. '()h,
where sha'l I get a man?' he cried, dropping liis
head, and as though in answer a half-breed runner
arrived with news that Fraser was in the fort.

" ' The very man !' exclaimed the Governor. ' Send
him here.'

"While waiting, his Excellency leaned head on
hand, his eyes fixed upon his papers. I studied
him. And once, looking quickly up, he caught my
glance and read the thought therein, for he answered
at once:

'"Yes, he will get himself killed, but what would
you, father? It is the way of the Company. We
must have furs.'

"'Men,' I answered, 'are of more importance in
the sight of God than furs.'
isi

T II K P !• ' ) n A T I O N K U

"'In tho siglit of tiod, yes,' ho rcjoinod, smiling;
'but in tho eyes of the Company, no, fatlicr.' And
bc'forc I could rebuke him Kraser strode through
the oiJcn door.

"At this time he must have been full two-and-
thirty, though the man was a mystery and none
knew aught of his parol, .age. Ho came into the
Company's s(!rvice from the west, bringing with him
some .scoria of silent Sioux, whoso discreet tongues
revealed nothing of his antoc-donts. All questions
they answered with a wag of tho head. But this
much wo guessed : his name betokened a Scots father,
and none but a French mother could have lit the
fire in his eyes. Of his appearance, it needs only
to know that lie stooped to enter the door, while
his shoulders brushed on either jamb. Tall, strong,
swart — swart as his own Sioux, and, if report spoke
truly, twice as crafty — I see him now even as he
stood that day before the Governor.

" ' Fraser,' his Excellency began, ' we're in a mess.
We've got to do s -imething, d' ye hear? — something
big — and you're tho man to do it. I was thinking
of tapping the country north of Winnipegoos. It's
risky — ' Here a raise of the Factor's black brows
brought him to a pause. 'AH right,' he continued,
smiling. ' We'll leave the risk and come to business.

182

Til K lil. A K I' Ml' on

If you buiiil ii fort oil th<' Moow River, I'll— I'll
make you Coiiimissioncr of Rii[M'ii's Lai li.'

"On the third day following this convrsation

I mind it well, for that morning I celebrated the
Easter mass — two ten -men lanoes rounded the
bend into the A.ssinibf)ine, after which, for weary
months, we la^lied news of fVaser. And just about
the time I had given him up, there came, early one
mornii:g, a thundering rap upon my door. Without
stood the Governor, in most excellent mood.

"'Good-day, father,' he greeted. 'This is an
unseasonable call, but I bear goo<l news. Tl is day
I take boat for a voyage of inspection to our new
fort of Devil's Drum, and, if vqu care to come along,
I doubt not Black Jack will give you welcome. It
is long since ho shrived him, and tlio tale must b(!
both long and bloody.'

" As it becomes a priest to be eve • zealous for the
cure of souls, I accepted the invitation, though not
relishing it overmuch. Had I known— well, it has
been wisely onlained that wo see not the perils that
beset our path. Yet ve fared well enough on the
journey, and came, after two weeks' toilsome
travelling, lu by night to Devil's Drum.

.ley!' chuckled the Governor, when at moon-
rise we thw .ered at the water-gate. 'Black Jack

1S3

T II K 1' no II AT I n N' K II

i ,

scoiiii well in tniiii for tin' ooinmissionor.'iliip, cli,
fiithcr? Wms lliciv I'vcr a liner bit iil liuildinj;?'

" Liki' sonic lillii' beast, the fort croucheil in tlie
crotch of Moose Uivrr ami Cedar Lake. Across the
lanilward side ran a loj; stockade, with ditch and
counterscarp, whih" on the double wati'r- front a
palisade jutted into lake and river. Tlie.se, draw-
ing to a point, gave the couchant beast a tail, and
provided a water-yard wherein a score of eanoe.s
could safely riilo. For u (luarter-niiln beyond the
barrier, too, the timber was cut and burned, and
within the enclosure Black Jack had built stores,
fur-hou.ses, and fjuarters for his men. With such
contidence (Md the fort inspire nie tliat I made a vow
right then timt tlu; Governor should lack the com-
pany of a certain churchman on his backward
trip.

'"Can't make out how you did it, Frascr!' the
Governor exclaimed, when, next morning, he com-
pleted his insjiection. 'Surely the devil must have
helped you?'

"'Sir,' I interposed, 'God was with Mr. Fraser!'

"With a twinkling eye he aske<l pardon for his
levity, and added, somewhat irreverently, that he
had for^^otten the alliance betwixt the Company
and the Almight}', and then turned to question

184

Tiir; Hi. a,:k Fact ok

Frascr. IIo wa^ ever a quiet man iiml ^uvo us littln
infonnatioii, yi-t tliH much \vc Icar- il:

"Sili'ut as (icalli's sliailow, lin luul stolon through
the land, a, id of llioso who crossed his trail none
liv(!(l to tell. They died quiekly and without noise.
And long before wind ( .lini travelled to th(! Nor-
wostors in their fort of Devil's I'oint, his outer
defences \»,'re stron^lv built. \or were tlwy
finished mw whit too soon. From Devil's Point ti
nie.s.senger sped north as far as fifty- ,-o, and raised
Cree, Obijay, and Swatnpy River ..)ux to drive
him from the land. In the third week of his oc-
cui)ation, tiio smoke of many fires minfiled with tl-;
reek of the burned clearing; at night the sky blush- ;
red above their camp; the still night air |)ulsed i.
the throbbing war-drum.

"'Wherefore,' said Black .lack, 'wo called this
Devil's Drum.'

"'As you please, father,' said his Excellency, when
I asked permission to remain and establish a mission.
'As you please. But 'ware that you heal not their
souls until Fraser has broken their bodies. Seeing
that you're not to bo of us, wo will, as we came in
by night, go out by day.'

" Which ho did. And while the Crccs cha.sed hi.>i
down the lake, the Governor sat in the gt(!rii, potting
1S5

The Probationer

I '

thorn like so many rabbits. All morning we heard
the crack of his rifle. From the tower by the gate I
watched his canoe grow smaller and smaller, until it
chew to a speck and vanished, carrying him with it
from this story.

"For the bigger half of a month after the de-
parture of the Governor death stalked in picturesque
guise about our walls.

"I began to despair of my mission, and was be-
ginning to regret not having journeyed with the
Governor, when one of our scouts brought news
of trouble in the Indian camp.

"When the man came in I was with the Factor
in the big log store, as yet empty of goods: and after
he had delivered him of his news Frascr said noth-
ing, but sat thinking. Just as I was about to put
a question — for the Sioux had spoken in his own
tongue— he struck his knee, roaring with sudden
laughter, and cried out:

'"Send Ncepawa here!'

"'What is it?' I asked.

"'That remains to be seen,' he answered, drum-
ming on his knee; and this was all the satisfaction I
could get. But I knew some desperate game must
be afoot, else had he not called for the chief of his
Sioux.

1S6

The Black Factor

"He came— a tall man, brown, lean, lank, pos-
sessed of the strength of three, yet lithe as a lynx
and twice as cruel. Taking him to one side, the
Factor whispered in his ear, and while he talketl
the Sioux nodded to every word. What they said I
could not hear, but, despite this lack of confidence,
which reflected somewhat on my strength of wit—
a wit which his Excellency the Governor has found
useful on occasion— at the end of their conference I
approached antl said:

'"Son, I judge there is deadly work ahead. Let
me exercise my office.'

"Whereat he laughed down from his great
height and answered: 'At present, father, there
is no need; but if that which I contemplate
comes to a head, then shall I require your ser-
vices.'

"That night I slept ill, and at break of day I
turned out to cool my fever in the morning mist.'
And as I stepped from my quarters the watch hailed
loudly. Through the gray of the clearing two
spectral figures loomed, each bearing upon its
shoulders a heavy burden.

'"What is it?' I inquired.

"But the sentry shook his head, cocked his
musket, and hailed again. A swirl of mist swept
" 187

The PROBAT'ONEn

in between, and from its centre the voice of the
Factor answered.

'"Where have you been?' I demanded, as he
strode through the gate.

" ' Seeking a wife after the manner of the tribe of
Benjamin!' he answered, with a laugh.

"Wherewith he set down his burden and un-
wound a blanket from the head of as fine a woman
as ever filled the eye of man. Half-breed she was
at the first glance, yet never have I seen girl more
winning in a tender way. Though tall, her round,
full shape moulded her dress in easy lines, her eyes
were lit with the sweet languor which makes men's
hearts as water, her loosened hair veiled her in
night's black splendor. 'And this,' continued the
Factor, pointing to Neepawa's burden, 'is Saas,
daughter of Clear Sky, chief of the Swampy
Sioux.'

"Then the plot came out. Saas had made
trouble in the Indian camp. On the north side of
lier father's tepee, Estahagan, headman of the
Obijay, had raised a pile of goods against her hand,
while on the south Iz-le-roy, chief of the Crees, had
stacked his store of wealth. Day by day the piles
had grown — for Saas was a famous curer of skins —
and just when the pile of Iz-le-roy was the greater

18S

The Black Factou

by full three packs of beaver, our scout brought in
the news.

" This it was that sent the Factor forth by night.
In the willow thicket behind Clear Sky's tepee, he
and the Sioux crouched, waiting until Saas should
go and draw water from the woodland spring. And
presently— just as the scout .said — .she came out
with her skin buckets and paused, unconscious of
their eager eyes. Within the camp a hundred fires
glowed with a strong red light, leaping and dancing
like fire blossoms in a wind, but it was yet dark by
the spring, and Saas was afraid. She niado to go
back, and dashed the watchers' hope, then paused
and filled them with joy. She talked with some one
within the tepee, then out into the firelight came the
half-breed girl.

"'So,' concluded the Factor, softly caressing the
girl's hair, ' these two came together to the spring.'
She shrank from his touch, but even this seemed
rather to please him, for he added : 'Modest? Well,
so be it! It is a grace that will become the wife of
the Commissioner of Rupert's Land — eh, father?'
And with that he placed her under my care and in
the cabin next to mine until such time as he should
finish the business of the Indians.

"Things fell out pretty much as the Factor

189

TllK 1' KO li AT I ONI; K

'!;

thought they would. Within the boar Clear Sky
himself strode into the clearing and stood, making
tli(! peace sign. He was an old man, gnarled and
rugged, but when they brought him to Fraser he
straightened with the swing of a young pine.

" ' Yes,' said the Factor, when the old man had
made oration; 'we've got your daughter.' And a
wave of his hand brought. ner from a near-by hut.

"The old man's eyes glistened — doubtless the
piles before his tepee seemed a little nearer for her
pr(\scnce. But, as it chanced, all that morning the
lean, brown chief of our Sioux had been making the
best of his opportunity with Saas, and now she in-
continently gave her father her back.

'"But the warm blankets, O Saas!' he gasped.
'The warm blankets, the knives, and the great
packs of winter beaver that stand before my tepee!
Wliat of these?'

"But as these were matters of another's house-
keeping, Saas remained unmoved. And here the
Factor stepped in. He explained that we of the
Company were peaceable men and friends of the
Swampy Sioux. All that we asked was leave to
barter peacefully for furs, for which we would pay
the highest price. And whereas the Nor'westers of
Devil's Point gave but one fathom of tobacco for
190

The 15 1. a c k F a c t o k

seven white winter beaver, we would give two.
Of powder, the Sioux should receive two pounds for
five beaver — good powder, measured with tlmtub
without the brim. And that Clear Sky might los(!
nothing by the maiden, out of the Company's store
he should receive tea, tobacco, and blankets that
would double in value thosi; of Estahagan. This
ended the talk. Clear Sky returned to his pc()pl(!
with instructions to make cause with the Crees
against the Obijay, and then to join with us of
Devil's Drum in driving out the Crees.

" And by the time the sun marked high noon wo
know that he was carrying out the plan. From the
watch-tower by the gate Eraser watched the ebb
and flow of fight, and I, standing beneath, heard
him growl :

"'Go it, dogs! Eat one another, but save a meal
for me.'

"That meal he got — a full one. Towards sun-
down, just before the Obijays fletl across the river,
he took up his position. And when the Crees re-
turned they were caught betwixt him and the
Swampy Sioux. Like cornered rats they fought.
But so hard were they stricken that out of a hun-
dred fighting men but twenty straggled back to
.^misk, north of fiftv-four.

The Probationer

'"We must give them no rest, father!' said the
Factor, when he returned at moonrise. So, leaving
six men with me to Iceep the fort, he took two days'
meat, and, while Clear Sky drove hard on the trail
of the broken Obijay, he chased th" Crees to the
heart of the Pasquia Hills.

"After he was gone, I remembered the girl-
that she had not yet eaten— and, taking a lantern
and food, I entered her cabin. She rose on my
entrance, and stood with heaving bosom, her eyes
saucerfuls of fear— a fair, frightened picture framed
in yellow light. She was pale, too, and tear-stained.
And as I looked, I wondered— wondered that so fair
a flower should spring and blossom in the dirt of an
Indian camp.

'"Tears, my child?' I began, intending ',0 cheer
her. 'What folly! Surely you are better here,
among people of your blood. Besides,' I added,
with a touch of archness, ' the Factor is in love, and
what better could a giil wish than to marry with a
good, strong man?'

"While I was speaking her eyes grew dark as
midnight pools. 'No, no!' she whispered, stretch-
ing a long, white arm towards me. 'No! Already
I am a wife!'

"As the word left her lips, the fear in her eyes
192

The Black Factor

passed to mine, and I trembled— for her. As yet
Fra-ser had proved singuhirly indifferent to tlie
charms of womankind, but for this very reason I
knew that, with liis love once cast, ho would burst
every tie that held him from his desire. Could it
be? Was the woman really bound? For a mo-
ment the doubt shook me; then, remembering
whence she came, I chided myself and answered:

'"Nonsense, daughter! Some pas.sing fancy,
mayhap. Some tie of the kind the Church knows
naught of.'

'"Ah, no,' she protested, with a quick intake of
the breath. ' I am wife to Rafo do Knyff.'

"'Rafc de Knyff!' I echoed. 'Tlien you are — '

"'Virginie La Franco!'

"It hardly required her as.sertion to assure me
of her truth, for Father Umfreville — a good man,
though strangely blinded to the rights of our Com-
pany — had married them at Fort William. And
now I remembered that when, according to our cus-
tom, he had forwarded a copy of the register, I had
fancied he expatiated somewhat warmly on the
beauty of the bride.

'"And where is Rafe de Knyff?' I queried.

'"Gone to Devil's Point, to report to Le Brun,
the Factor,' she answered. Then, folding lier hands,

193

'I' II R ]' Rd II A T 1 ON K It

slio broko out in uncontrollablo sorrow: 'To-mor-
row lio will bo back mid find mo gone! Oh, what
>:hall I <lo? What shaU I do?'

" For what followed I have boon taken to task by
many, soino good men, Hoino bad, but all agreed
that it >s right and proper to harry a Nor'wester, to
drive hi-n from the land, to reive him of his cattle,
or to carry off his wife. Yet, looking backwiird, tlu;
wisdom of later years approves the course? I took.
Gently touching the child's hair, I sai ':

'"Courage, daughter! No harm shall come to
yvu or him. I my.self will meet him.'

"And this I (lid, finding him a tall fellow, nearly
the height of Fraser, but lacking his bulk. His
countenance was frank, yet grave. Ho carried the
air of one usod to command. A good man, too, I
judged by his conversation, though holding most
heterodo.x opinions anent our rights. Still, he
camo with me most amicably, and in the pitch of
night I got him into the fort unseen.

"Next day we held a consultation. 'Will I join
with your people?' he answered to my suggestion
that herein lay the settlement of the difficulty.
'No! Nor will I ever acknowledge their authority
to trade upon these lands!'

" Not one whit would he swerve from this, so but

194

Tun Black K actor

one thing remainod— to lot thorn oscapo. To this
end, therefore, I secretly provisioned the smaller
of our two canoes, and at dusk loosed the water-
gate. Night fell thick as ink, and after the evening
meal I stepped outside and found all (juict. A
single ray shone from the men's quarters, stabbing
the blackness like a sword of light. Over in <hn
forest the night wind mourned; a breeze rippled the
lake along the shore; I coulil hear the river hungrily
licking its bank. Opening the door of my cabin,
I called De Knyff and whispered:
"'Go you to the water! I will bring your wifi?.'
"Silent as a shadow he .stole away, the while I
held my breath, listening. Once I thought a stone
rolled, but it was not from his foot, and the watch-
man by the gate gave no sound. After he was safely
gone, I crept back to his wife. She was ready.
"'Come, child,' I said; 'your husband waits.'
"But her face paled with sudden horror, she
gasped and staggered back, all trembling, her eyes
staring past me. Whirling about, I came face to
face with Fraser in the door.

"'Ye-es?' he said, smiling in my eyes. 'It w.q.s
well that I pushed on.' He spoke like one explain-
ing matters to himself. 'I thought to play a trick
on the guard, but this— this goes beyond e.xpccta-

195

ill

6 ' *

TiiK P no n ATioN En

tion. And now, M'siou !c I'drc,' ho growled, flush-
ing blackly under his skin, 'wlicrc, oh, where is the
happy husband?'

"He was angry, but his eyes wandered keenly,
searchingly, from nio to V'irginie, and from her to
nie. Outwardly he was calm, cool, rigid, but it was
the rigidity of the lava crust, beneath which surges
the molten rock. And as I stood speechless, think-
ing what I shoukl say, I came to know how quick
is the wit of a loving woman. Like a flash she an-
swered :

'"A day's sail down the lake, where even the
Black Factor dare not seek him !'

"'So?' he queried, quietly enough, but in a tone
that red !.>ncd her face and neck with the scarlet
flush of shame. 'So?' For what seemed a long
time his eyes drank of her glowing beauty, then he
turned on me with an eloquent shrug.

" ' It seems, father,' he said, ' that your services
are not for us, and, let me remind you, this is tlic
hour which gootl priests spend in prayer.'

"'My son!' I entreated. 'My son!'

"But he laughed once more in my face, an ugly
laugh, and advanced towards me. Now, it has
pleased the Almighty to make me a man small of
body and meek of spirit, yet it comforts me to know

190

The Black Factor

that in this liour of trial I found courage to perform
my office. Stepping fonvarl, I placed imnds on iiis
giant cli >t and thrust hini bark. He stiiggered —
not fr ,1 my force, but from its .suddeiine.s.s. His
eyes rcHected tiie Imea of hell. His knotty fi.st ro.se
and hovered, tiien, tjuickly changing iiis intent, lie
lifted me like a fractious child and dropped me
outside the door.

"As it banged to I could have wej)!, wept tears
of fire, .ind in my fierce anger I forgot the hu.sl)and
—forgot him till the sound of a i)lea<liiig voice
brought me to. Then I ran and plumped into his
arms, for he was comin- to find what kept us.
"'Go!' I gasped, choking.
"There was no need for more. Ho stiffened,
every muscle tense, and shot away. The door
creaked, a panel of yellow light winked at the black-
ness—he was inside. I tiptoed, listening, and from
the thick air my straining ears picked a dull vibra-
tion, a heavy, stifled thudding. It endured, per-
haps, for the space of a score of breaths, for the
little time it took for me to gain the door, and as I
laid hand to the bobbin there came a heavy fall,
and then — silence.

"I pulled and entered. The Nor'wester was on
his knees. A heavy bruise crossed his forehead,

197

The PiioBATioNER

one hand pressed his side, his breath came in painful
gasps. And beside hira stood Virginie La Franco,
a hatchet in her hand. At her feet, vacant-oyetl,
but still heavily frowning, lay the Factor. Under
his head a black patch widened, widened ai-l crept
out— out to join the drop that fell from her blade.
Over all the sickly lantern cast its yellow flare.

"'Father!' she whispered. 'Father!'

"Stooping, I laid my hand to Fraser's breast. I
felt no beat; and as I realized that this man of mighty
parts was stricken in his sin, anger faded, and
from its ashes welled a gush of pity. But there was
much to do. Rising, I 8teppe<l out and peered
aruund the corner. All was still. In the men's
quarters the light still shone, the sentry held his
lonely watch. It seemed that the thick spruce logs
ha' I kept their secret, but, to make sure, I sauntered
across the yard and saluted him as carelessly as I
might.

" ' Bezhou !" he answered.

"'You hear anything?' I asked.

"'Cowene,' he grunted.

"On my return, the Nor'westei would have it
that I should go with them, holding that if the Sioux
but dreamed I'd a hand in the killing >)t' the Ft^ctor no
torture would suffice them. But I refused, telling

198

Tin: Hi. ACK rv<T.»ii

him that I would hold the post against tho eoming
of his Kxcfllcncy tho Governor, an<l, though \'lrginio
joinwl her praycr.s to his, I would not be persuaded.
Yet a.s there was reason in the argument, I got their
help to make disposal of the body. It would lie an
easy matter. Outside the river called, culled with
gentle but insistent voice; it would clasp him loving-
ly to its bosom and bear him out to the deep wa-
ters where a man may rest in peace. So b', Iwecn
us we carried him to the brink, and as the icy
flood licked him off our hands, De Knyff whis-
pered :
'"There goes a man both strong an' br.ive!'
'"May God rest him!' I .answered. While th-
murmuring river, the mournful wind, and the sigh-
ing forest softly breathed his requiem, tho Black
Factor pa.ssed orward to tho lake.

" But time was passing and moonrise drawing on.
Far down the lake a milky glow already touched the
sullen waters. The doarl was gone to his place, and
there was need for hurry lest others follow. So,
getting back to the cabin, we "lean.wd the floor of
blood, and .set things in such order that it would ap-
pear Virginie had escaped by the window. For an
hour we thus labored, then, after a last glance round,
I closed and barred the door. In the east the dark-
too

The Probationer

blue sky was laced with silver, the moon just peeked
above the forest.

"'Hurry!' whispered De Knyff, and with the
word some one stumbled.

"'Softly!' I breathed.

" A loud laugh answered, and I paused, consumed
w.th wonder at his folly. Again the laugh rang
out, sharp, clear, like that of a mocking devil. The
Nor'wester was close by my side; it was not he.
We drew together, astonished, waiting in horrible
expectancy. And of a sudolen a blaze of powder
flashed and set fire to the beacon of dried grass and
reed which lay by the landing ready for occasion.
Under its fiery glance the dark shore-waters blushed
blood-red, a myriad yellow tongues danced in the
ripple, and the palisade, canoes, and open water-
gate stood as in the light of day. And there in the
beacon's glare, surrounded by his Sioux, stood the
Factor.

"From his hair and clothes water dripped. He
was smiling, but the smile lacked mirth, and when
he spoke it was in bitter irony. 'A well-considered
plot,' he said, 'but lacking one thing— the villain
yet survives.'

"Afterwards I found that when the woman
struck, the axe glanced, inflicting a flesh wound,
200

The Black Factoh

and then fell flat on the great nerve ganglion at the
base of the brain. Thus, completely paralyzed, with
respiration suspended and heart action enfeebled
to the point of stopping, Fraser had lain until the
icy flood shocked him back to life.

"'So,' he continued, 'it was to bo a merry trip
across the lake while the Black Factor slept soundly
to the music of the paddles?'

"We made no answer. The Nor' wester stood
sullen and defiant, his arm about his wife; she leaned
forward like one fascinated, silent, breathlo.s.s, her
red lips slightly parted. As for myself, I wiw sorely
puzzled, for I saw something strange in Fraser's face
— a dawning resoh'e.

" ' You would journey down the lake ?' he persisted
'Then— you shall!'

"At a wave of his hand, the Siou.x guard swept
the Nor'wester from his feet and lifted him on
high. Virginio screamed. She tliought they were
about to cast him in the lake, and so, for the mo-
ment, did I. But before I could open my mouth,
Fraser pointed to the canoe and ordered sharply :

'"Set him in!' Then, turning to the wife, the
Factor added, is tones that were strangely com-
pounded of tenderness and anger : 'You also! And
now,' he finished, when she was safely in, 'go!'

201

"iirn.? «v, .^^Hiw;v ^- -"w-Ti-*^'

The Probationer

"Though astonished beyond measure, De Knyff
spent no time in staring. At the word his paddle
cut the water, and down the trail of fire, with ever-
quickening speed, the canoe sped to the water-gate.
When it had covered half the distance, a change
flashed m the Factor's fac-. His hand gripped the
prow of the second canoe, and he stood, hesitant, as
though minded to follow. I saw the knuckles of
his great hand gleam white through the skin, a
shiver shook his frame, and then— he raised a sudden
foot and stove in the birch-bark bottom.

"The Nor'wester's back was on us, but Virginie
saw the play. As the canoe floated through the
water-gate, just before the darkness quenched the
star-fire of her eyes, they rested— as I live, they
rested on Fraser with an expression of regret. And
he read their message.

" ' By the mass!' he said, laying a kind hand upon

my shoulder. 'It is well, father, we have not a

third canoe.' "

rff

nie

AN ILIAD (

,ne

OF THE SNOWS

■'.aF fci

'^m4

r^^:^^7

AN ILIAD OF THE SNOWS

YES, he was a hard man, an' stout— this Com-
missioner," continued Red Brischaux, with
some irritation. " But what should a fat Easterling
know of stout men?" He viciously poked our camp-
fire, and sent the red sparks flying up to the black
sky. He had just finished a yarn of old Commission-
er M'Garry, and took this method of signifying his
displeasure with my lack of reverence for the
power that rules the North.

"He seems," I answered, soothingly, "to have
been a great man, BrLschaux." I should not have
thus lightly passed over the reflection on my birth
and girth had it not lacked four hours of mi.inight
and a hundred thousand wolve.'^ been howling round
our camp. A dozen, says Red Brischaux; but this
one might expect from a man so utterly devoid of
imagination. They made noise enough for a million.
You see, we had just stricken a great kill. From

205

'i' H K 1' li O B A T I o \ n n

the crotch of a black poplar swung the carcass of a
luoose, and the blood hung heavy on the air.

"Yes," I agreed, by way of provoking him to
another story, " he was, as you say, a great man, and
always carried his point."

" One man there was—" he began, hesitatingly.

"That defied him? No!" said I, warmly.

"Though in the end the Commissioner had his
way," he went on. "Thus it was."

Snuggling in ray blankets, I watched the sparks
fly upward and smoked a pipe while Red Brischaux
sang his Iliad of the Snows. Just as he gave it by
the fJickering camp-fire it is here set down; but as
Red Brischaux is warm of blood— as evidenced by
his remarks anent my girth — and loves strong
language, I have thought better to translate in
politer speech.

If Roche Bnile, Factor of A la Come, had wished
to select the most exasperating season to hurl de-
fiance at the Commissioner, he could not have chosen
better. A February thaw had smashed the winter
trails, Assiniboine had burst her icy bonds, and five
hundred packs of fur that ought to have gone down-
stream with the flood waters were dumped on a
hundred trails. The Commissioner, a dour man

206

w^-wmM:d

An 1 1.

A I) OF T il K vS N o W S

at the best of times, was become aa toucliy as a
wounded grizzly; and paciiers, clerivs, and full-
fledged factors of the Company stepped lightly
round the great log store wherein he sat.
^ A month before, Donald Fraser had trailed to
A la Corne to freight down the season's catch. With
him he carried news of the approaching marriage of
Jeanne Dumont, a wani of the Commissioner. Now,
as the luck would have it, for many a long year
Brule had kept this girl in mind. He had seen her
blossom from a long slip of a girl into a strong
and healthy woman. As the gardener watches
the bloom gathering on his choicest peach, so he had
pleasured in her ripening; and now the fruit was
ready, and an alien hand reached to pluck it. She
was to marry Paul xM'Garry, a beefy Scotchman,
nephew to the Commissioner— a man he sore dis-
liked.

Brule listened quietly to the Scotchman's tattle,
answering nothing to his jocular comment; then,
when he had all the news, he took his gun and got
from the fort, to think it out alone. All that day
they heard his rifle talking. Fox, rabbit, prairie-
chicken, coyote— anything that ran on legs or flew
with wings he shot, and left lying in the snow. He
was in the mood that hurls the she-bear at the

207

The P r o b a t I o .\ k li

slayer of her young, but by sundown his pp^sion
calmed. He returned to the fort (luiet and ap-
parently resigned. But the following day he hur-
ried south with a couple of his men; and a week
after, in the thick of night, he snatched the girl
from the Big Grass Post.

Now, Paul M'Garry was not lacking in physical
courage, but Brule had got a good night's start, and
he was an ill man to beard in his own den. Paul
flew to the Commissioner with the tale of his wrongs.
But when, ten days therefrom, a special courier rode
into A la Corne and demanded the girl of his hands,
Brule laughed in his face.

"My compliments to m'sieu the Commissioner,"
he said, stretching his great body to his full height,
" an' tell him if he wants Jeanne Dumont to come
and get her." Then he strode off across the yard,
a towering figure, to make his visit to the pris-
oner.

She rose on his entrance. She had been crying,
but at sight of him her eyes snapped. A bewilder-
ingly small foot, daintily moccasinod, impatiently
tapped the ground, and the hot blood flushed her
cheeks.

"Still inconsolable?" he queried, with a lift of the
brows. "An' tears? This is foolish. But see,
208

An- Iliad or Tin; Snows

the su,sp(<nse will soon he over. I have sent for a
priest."

"Brute!" She nared up in su.lden wratii, tlien,
conseious of tlic smile in his eyes, dropped li(>r own.
It was \-ery annoying. He- wa.s positively admiring
her passion. "Oh," she groaned, in hniiatient
anger, "wait till the CominLssionor lay.s hands on
you! He will hang you in the gates of A la Come."

"Ye-es?" he queried, cheerfully. "But this will
be long years after we marry, petite. None too big
a price for so much bliss."

"I will never marry — you!"

"No?" The smile still hung about the corners of
his mouth, but it seemed rather to pdd to the
sudden sternness of his face. He steppe<l forward
and bent to the level of her eyes. " Well," he said,
slowly, "in this you— please yourself. But most
women prefer — the — sacrament."

A quick challenge passed fro.n eye to eye. A
hasty answer trembleil on her lips, but there it froze,
for in his glance she read iron fixity of purpose.
For a dozen breaths she endured his gaze, defiantly
answering back; then, suddenly realizing her weak-
ness, broke. In her throat rose choking sobs, her
bosom heaved, she sank by the table anil burst into
a rain of tears. Brule looked down on her, and his

209

wjiPi \ -sr

T H K 1' It i» II A T I () N K U

glance soflent'd. His haml lightly swept lior hair,
but without another word ho stoppi'il outside and
quietly closed the door.

Long after he was gone Jeanne sobbed like a
grieved child, y(^t in the flood- tide of her grief she
was dimly conscious of the peculiar nature of her
feelings. Light as had been the touch of his hand,
she sensed it. She felt like a child that has first
been scolded, then caressed; and she was angry be-
cause she felt so.

"I hate him!" she exclaimed, springing up and
walking to and fro. "Yes, I hate him!"

She stamped her foot, t'lcn blushed to find herself
emphasizing such an obvious fact. She hated
Brule — she was sure of that. But deep down where
the springs of consciousness have their being a
secret doubt was shaking her faith in her love for
Paul. Bit by bit the history of her passion pieced
itself together, and the more she thought, the more
obtrusive became the unwelcome feeling.

When the courier landed in Portage la Prairie with
Brule's answer, the Commissioner was like to have
a fit. By gathering together Red River carts,
wagons, buckboards, and everything that ran on
wheels, the furs had been gotten to the water; but

210

An Ii. IAD o I' Tin; Snows

his succi'sn sct'iiicil nitlicr to li!iv<' incii'iuscd than
iliminishcil tlic ("oimuissioiu'i'.s iir. IlLs nephew
Paul, a tall fellow, slioiin, l)oiiy, ami of a Momewiiat
sulky counti'iiaiice, w;is clo.seled with liim when ttie
courier arrived.

"What?" roared the (bniinissioncr "Jle re-
fusi's to give lier up'.'"

"If m'sieu please:," replied the l)re<'d, politely,

"You're a fool!" bellowed th<; Cominiiisiuiier.

The man shrugged his shoulders. "Is one re-
sponsible for the errors of one's parents?" he re-
torted.

"Why didn't you take l;er from him?" snapped
Paul.

"Ah, yes, why?" The courier slightly rai.sed
his brows. "Does ni'.sieu the nephew of the Com-
missioner ai?k this?"

There was no mistaking the implication. Paul
flushed with anger and strode forward with raised
fist. "None of your insolence!" he .shouted.

A black .shade crept over the breed's dark face.
His hand slipped to his knife, and he crouched witli
the quick, nervous movement of a cat. Paul
stopped. "If m'sieu will have the reason," the
man purr '. "perhaps it was because one would
rather see Al'm'selle Jeaime wedded to a — man!"

211

The I'ltuuATiuNER

"Shut up, Paul!" testily ititcrruplod the Com-
miMsioiicr. "WIml ilo you luoun, DupiO? Drop
tliut kiiifi'!"

rnwillingly the man's Imnci fell. "Tliorc are
sonic tilings, " lio muttered, "that one would not
take from the Commissioner, much less this -" His
voice died to a whisper, but Paul caught the word
and turned uncomfortably to the window.

The Commissioner bowed his shaggy head and
thrummed on the ilosk. '"Come anil get her my-
self ' ?' lie mu'od. " Daughter of my old friend, too.
By thunder," ho roared, suddenly banging the desk,
"I'll smoke this wolf from his hole and hang him
high a.s Haman!"

"An' this will be a pretty hanging," mihlly sug-
gested the courier. " But one would advise hurry,
lest the girl be left a widow."

Forty miles to the west of A la Come, in the heart
of tlie Ragged Lands, stands a ruined cabin. It
is no longer habitnble, for none but desperate mi^n
would care to dwell there; but in the days when the
Commissioner was trailing northward it slieltered
Jeanne Dumont. At its best, it was but a rude
hut of unhewn spruce logs, plasteretl with mud and
roofed with poplar poles, sod, and clay; but when

212

A\ Il.IAD OF TIIK S.VOWS

Joanne kept it, Brule lined thr walls with warm
blanket-s, hi Ics, and the choicest oi hi.s furs.

In the last days of March, when the Commissioner
was still a (lay to the south of A la Come, he brought
her to this cabin. Next .lay, and still the iwxl a
blizzard swej.t over the land: but on the rnorninK
of the third day the sun shon.' suddenly out, the
wmd veered to the south, and the new-fallen snow
vanished tiuickcr than it came.

Brule threw wi<lo the door. "The morning is
fine, m'm'solle," he sai.l, "and hero you may have
more liberty. You are free to come and ro, but
I would advise care. Hemembcr, these are the
Rajtged Lands."

He was perfectly safe in allortiiig Jut this free-
dom. All about stretched a wilderness of crag and
lake and slough. Quaking nmskegs and treacher-
ous moras.ses clutched at ignorant feet, bleak sand-
lulls upreared among gaping earth-crack.s that of-
fered a speedy pa.s.snge to the bowels of Eld, and
wild beasts wandered among sudden pits which
peppered the .scant prairie. Then, too, evil .spirits
—the souls of hapless wanderers— were said to flit
through the wastes; and .somewhere in the desolate
environs gaped a great hole which sucked all that
came within its radius down, down, to lakes of

213

T II K Probationer

everlasting firo. A tiniiil girl was not likely to
wander far.

After that first clash of wills Brule treated her
with kindness and respect. His passion was strong,
to be sure, but a man's strength held it in. He
wanted no light love— such were plenty in the forest
—but a wife, a i)roper mother for his children.
He never intruded on her jirivacy. AVhen darkness
fell he pitched a fly of bull's hide against the wall
and lay athwart the door. Often, waking in the
pitch of night, she heard his heavy breathing; and
once she stole across the floor and looked curiously
on the great figure lying so still tti the red fire's
glow.

But with all this deference ho was deaf to all
appeals to take her home. Sighs, prayers, coaxings,
failed to touch him: and when from a burst of
passion she passed to a flood of tears, he looked
on quiet and unmoved. This she quickly realized,
and his iron finnness wore down her spirit. She
became quieter and ceased to complain. Some-
times of nights, when the fire blazed before the door,
he sang, and she discovered that his voice was full
and sweet. Soon insupportable loneliness drove her
to seek his companionship, and he would relax of his
sternness and tell her many a tale of flood and fire,

214

An- Ili

1) O I ! M 1

S N O W S

of wild beasts and \vii.ki- (uti. Once ho iiarratoil a
weinl tale of the Ruggeil i.:u;,ls, but this frigiitened
her and he told her no more.

One evening she sat, cheek on hand, lost in
thought. The April days were come and the snow
gone, but a touch of frost crisped tlie air, so he had
wrapped her about with his mooseskin coat. Out
in the sloughs the frogs chattered freely, a fo.x
barked on the prairie, an owl hooted in the timber.
He noticed that she was pale, anil that the hand
which held her head had lost its pkunpness.
"You are thinking," he (jueried, "of—"
"My mother," she (juietly replied. Two weeks
before she would have answered "Paul," but now
only on occasion would the old perversity flash
forth. She hail come fully to understand her feeling
for the Conmiissioner's nephew. She v/as, when
ho succeeded her dead father as Factor of Big Gra.ss
Post, of a marriageable age and fancy free. His
admiration touched her vanity and ambition, of
which she had a pretty woman's share. Some day
he might step into his uncle's shoes. Then what
could be more natural than her mother's wish to
see her safely settled? So vanity, ambition, and
interest had all helped to produce the feeling
Jeanne mistook for love. But the rude shock

IF'

The Probationer

which stirred her nature in its elemental depths had
shown lier the true nature of her liking.

When she answered thus, a strange looli crept
into Brule's face. He stealthily regarded her. He
opened his mouth as though to speak, then, quickly
changing his mind, held his peace. More than
once that evening he seemed on the point of com-
nmnicating some grave matter, but when she re-
tired that which held his mind was still unsaid.

Late that night she roused suddenly from sleep.
The iloor shook beneath his heavy knock, and his
voice called on the outsidi'. "Yes," she answereil,
sitting up.

"Rise!" he called. "Quickly!"

While she was dressing .she heard the murmur of
voices; but when she stepped out the midnight
visitor was gone, and the thud of hoofs sounded
faintly in the distance. Brule stood by the fire;
his pony was hitched to a Red River cart. All was
dark, no moon, and a haze hid the stars, but the
glowing embers cast a rctl light on his face.

"What is it?" she asked.

"The Commissioner," he replied, coldly, "left
A la Corne at sunset. He had with him a new rope
and a score of men. Come!"

Then began a long series of marches and coun-

216

An Iliad of the 8x0 w s

termarch(..s, tvvistings, doublings, turnings. Likn
a bliick vvill-o'-th(.-vvi.sp, Brule flitted through the
Rn?god Lands. To find a man in that earth chaos
IS ((luiyalciit to catching an eel in a lake of mud,
and this the Commissioner soon found. Once ho
got stalled among the pits; then again, but for
Brule's warning shout, the Commissioner's trail
V'ould have come to an end in the depths ol a
black mora.ss. It was very irritating. There on
the other side of the swamp stood the man they
sought, giving them ea.sy counsel; but it took a day
and a half to gain the place.

"Blood of f.e devil!" swore the Commissioner.
"I'll follow liii,i r ,v. to the bottom hole of hell!"
Yet, despite his ^mh, he began to tire of the cha.se
Besides the trials of the trail, things were not run-
nmg smoothly in his camp. Paul's bullying temper
kept his own men raw -edged and savage; their
woodland superstitions added to the trouble; but,
what was more aggravating, the men of A la Corn('
secretly supplietl Brule with information and pro-
vision. So the endless chase went on, while tlu'
Aiiril days drew close to May.

When the Commissioner began to scrape acquaint-
ance with the Ragged Lands, Brule cut over to the
I'asquia Hills, anil there was nearly caught. Tliink-
1'17

f '

T H K P II O li .V T I CI N K U

ing himself at least a day's trail ahea<l, he had
camped on the edge of a forest slough: but the Com-
missioner had news of him from a wandering Crce,
and pressed on by the light of the moon.

At midnight Brule awoke to find them close upon
him — just a strip of bush lay between. A neigh
from his pony, a cry from Jeanne, and he was done.
A slash of his knife silenced the beast forever; then
he raised the fly that covered Jeanne. A shaft ot
moonlight fell athwart lier face, heightening its
pallor. He thought she stirred when the pony
fell, but her eyes were closed, and her bosom heaved
with the slow sleep-rhythm. He stood over her,
knife in hand. A blood drop slipped from the
point and splashed her face. She started, the eye-
lids contracted, but she slept on.

"Hurry, men! Hurry!" The Commissioner was
speaking, and the grumbling tones of his nephew
answered back. Brule's face grew black; he held
his breath; his hand grip])ed the knife till the
knuckles shone. He glanced down. She still slept.
Until the creak of saddles and the thud of hoofs
died he let her lie; then they started on the back
trail — back to ihe Ragged Lands.

That long and weary march sapped the life of
Jeanne. Day by day her pallor increased ; she was

218

WV>J_-

An Iliad of t h k S \ o w s

getting thin, frail, and Brule began to bo afraid.
One nigiit lie watched her closely as, according to
her wont, she read the glowing embers. It seemed
he could read along with her.

"This has been a long trail," he said.

She returned a listless "Yes."

"You wish to .see him— this Scotchman?"

She wearily answered that she wa.s tired and
would like to see her mother. lie watched her
closely. The thought of home had brought tears
to her eyes, and the big drops rolled slowly
down her cheeks. He turned away, ro.se, and
paced uneasily to and fro. At last he returned
to the fire and placed his hand gently on her
head.

"Enough," he said, gently. "To-morrow m; go
to the Commissioner."

"But you," she e.wlaimed. in sudden fear, "he
will surely hang, according to his word."

" Yes," he assented ; " but was not this to be ? A
short shrift and a long rope? Well! Better that
than to se(! you wedded to — "

"Alive or dead, never!" she interrupted, ((uiekly.

"Then," ho returned, "this trail has brought forth
good fruit. Sleep now, for (o-morrow we have a
long journey."

■^ £

The Probationer

May-day had come, with its wealth of grecnory,
and for a week the Commissionpr had heard nothing
of Brule. He was wearied of the chase. To be sure,
the man might be close at hand; but then, also, he
might be trailing north towards the Arctic Circle.
This was not all. Urgent advices called him south.
For six weeks the business of the Company had been
neglected, and no longer could it get along without
its head. So, swearing a great oath to keep his rope
in pickle for a better season, the Commissioner gave
orders to break camp.

The morning after this decision he awoke cross
as a balked tiger. He was not used to being success-
fully defied. He loved the daughter of his old
comrade, and would like well to have had her of hih
family; and, to cap all, Paul was pestering him to
try another dash. As he paced irritably to and fro
before his tent, a shadow fell acro.ss his path.

"It's no use, Paul!" he exclaimed, without look-
ing up. " Might as well hunt a coyote in a howling
blizzard. Better give it up."

"Sometimes the wolf walks into the trap."

The Commissioner glanced up in quick surprise.
Brule stood before him. He was travel - stained,
his face was haggard, his eyes sombre. It had cost
him something to surrender his triumph, and, had

220

As Iliad of the Sxow's

he known this wus the moment of victory, he had
never done it.

"Are-you-mad?" gasped the Commissioner.
Brule shruggetl his shoulders and replied, dryly:
"You do well to ask, m'sieu. A month ago I
should have answered you yes."
"Where is Jeanne Dumont?"
"Here!" At tlie wave of his hand the girl came
running from the bush.

"By the mother that bore me," roared the Com-
missioner, fokling her in liis arms, "as you have
dealt with this little one, so will I deal with you!"

"Then," she wliispereil, returning his hearty
kiss, "you must treat this — gentleman well. As
such he treated mc."

"Paul!" bellowed the old man. "Paul!"
Paul strode from his tent: then, seeing the girl,
broke into a run. "Jeanne!" he cried; then he
spied Prule. Full of jealous rage, he face.l the
breed. But only for a moment. Tall as Paul was,
Brule looked down on him with cold, sardonic face
and savage eyes. For a moment he stood fiddling
with the butt of his knife, then, muttering, turned
away.

" Here, Paul!" The Commissioner made lo hand
the girl to her lover.

221

T II K P It O li A T I O N !•: U

"No, no!" she whispered, clinging to him. "Not
yet! Not before this man!"

"Tush!" laughed the Commissioner. "What
modesty! Take her, Paul."

" I tell you no!" she cried, stamping her foot with
the old fire. " I never loved him, and now I know
my mind. Go!" she cried, in sudden wrath, for he
was sulkily waiting with out-stretched hantts.

Paul cast an evil glance upon Brule. His brow
wrinkled, and a sneer trembled in the fat about his
nose. "So that's the way the buck jumps, is it?"
ne growled. "Very well, my lady. There are
flowers as fair for the picking, and some— fresher."

As the last word left his lips, Brule struck him
to the ground. " Beast," he growled, spurning him
heavily; "eat your words!"

"Leave him to me." The Commissioner laid a
trembling hand on Brule's shoulder. He was pale
with passion, his gray mane bristled, his eyes were
hot. "Get up!" he thundered. "Now go to your
tent and pack. To-morrow you break trail for
Confidence. There, among the Eskimos, you may
find your equals."

Paul well knew the meaning of that sentence-
banishment to dreary arctic wastes, to herd with
men that were lower than the beasts. He glanced

A.N Iliad ok the Snows

appealingly up, but the old man's face was storn and
hard. He turned and with hanging head slunii off.
" And now," spid Brule, "what is it to be? Make
an end."

The Commissioner withdrew his eyes from the
receding figure of his sister's son. " I had sworn to
hang you," he muttered, "and one hates to break
one's word."

" But you also .swore," pleaded Jeanne, " that you
would deal by him as he dealt by me."

"So I did; so I did. Well," he mused, "I sup-
pose the Company deserves a little consideration,
too. It cannot well afford to lose the best man in its
service. You'd better go back to A la Come. Now
off with you!"

Bowing, Brule strode to where his horse was tied
in the forest. Just as he reached it, there came a
quick patter of running feet, and Jeanne burst
through the scrub.

"You forgot," .she said, holding out her hand.
"Good-bye!"

"Good-bye," he answered. If he saw the hand
he did not heed it. She blushed, but left it ex-
tended.

"I— I— wanted to tell you something," she con-
tinued.

223

'ill!

The Probationer

"Yes?"

He was making it hard, but she was not to be
robbcil of this last chance. Three times the night
before she had ahnost waited him to tell that which
was on her mind.

"The night they pa&sed in the forest," she began,
blushing still deeper, " I— I— I was awake."

" You were ?"

"Yes. You will come and see me — some day?"

" To be sure," he replied, gently, " if you wish it."

How stup' ' he was ! Slie ii'most ilespaired of
him, but ti;e i igain. "And if you are of the same
mind" — now he started — "bring with you a — "
She got no further. How can a girl talk without
breath?

" Jeanne !" shouted the Commissioner. He hardly
saw the necessity of leave-taking, and she was very
long about it.

"Coming!" she called. "Yes — there! That's
two! Now let me go!"

"Com— mg! Oh, please!"

She tore loose and ran off, panting and dishevelled.
" And if you are sti" of the same mind,' she repeated
from a safe distance, "bring with you a— priest!"

Then she ran hard.

THE DEVIL'S MUSKEG

SHOULD it pver be your fortune to shoot over
the country that lies between Wiutc Man's
Lake and the Riding Mountains, keep a loon's eye
open for the Devil's Keg. It will pay you. There
is little to distinguish it from the connuon hay
slough, but you may know it by this-no water
gathers in the centre. Around its e.lges giant
reeds, like regiments of busbied grenadiers, raise
thoT brown polls on high, and spiky sedges turn a
'-"ttiu^; edge to grasping hantls. Its surface is of
fat black muck, snowed with alkali, apparently
dry; but if you would not follow Hamiota, the Croe,
down to bottomless dejiths of slime, keep your feet
from its treacherous levels.

Two days after I had this story of Pete Brnus-
seaux, I i ■ • ■ •

him

swerve from his beaten trail

to take a look at the Devil's Keg. As it L.

mile to the eas; of his string of traps, Pete" read'ilv

lay onr

The Probationer

\¥

agreed. Besides, we had just killed a red fox; its
hot entrails dragged from the toboggan head, and
it would pay well to trail the scent.

Ten minutes afterwards the ponies plunged
through the encircling wall of tangled reed and
drift, and .swept on to the dead level of the muskeg.
The sun shone brightly down. A foot of snow, all
glittering and spangled with frost diamonds, hid the
black muck; and the ten feet of frozen slime which
crusted the quaking deeps would have given firm
footing to a running manunoth.

"See, m'sieu!" said Pete, pointing to a poplar
stump that projected over the sedges. "There it
was the Cree went down, an' Jean le Gros so nearly
followed. He is a good boy, this Jean. Ma foi,
yes I But too fond of the ladies an' they of him.
Never was there a man could please them so! An'
because of this he nearly die. It is not good to love
too much, but worse to love too many."

The year before the Red River flood — the point in
time from which all Pete's stories date — Towobat,
headman of a small tribe of Crees, pitched his tepee
on the north bank of White Man's Lake. After he
had decorated the adjacent willows with strips of
white rag — med'cine for devils — erected the tribal
totem, and gone through all the other minutiae of

228

The Devil's Muskeg

shaking down, he loaded his big-wheeled Red River
cart with his latest catch of skins, and creaked off
to Pelly Fort.

There he got gloriously drunk; and, in his ecstasy,
maundered of a marriageable daughter of surpassing
beauty. Her eyes, he confidentially whispered to
Pete Brousseaux, would shame the full moon, her
waist was slender as that of the Factor's daughter.
She was round, full-bosomed, could bake bannocks
that were not as blankets, and pack a hundred
pounds through the heavy snow. So beautiful was
she that common report had it that he, Towobat,
was not her father, but that she was sprung from a
god who came on her mother sleeping in the grass.
All of which perfections, virtues, and accomplish-
ments were exchangeable for one rifle, two horns of
powder, and three bottles of strong water.

Unfortunately, Pete was already contracted to a
woman of the Fellies, who kept a sharp hatchet
against the coming of possible rivals; so, finding he
would not trade, Towobat loaded himself, some
bacon, and a couple of hundreil of flour into his cart
and creaked off to White Man's Lake. But his talk
brought results. Within a week Jean le Gros stalked
mto the Indian camp and took a look at the girl.
She was certainly pretty; tall, well built, graceful

229

The Probatioxek

—for an Indian— with large black eyes. In her
hair nestled the white feather, the maiden's mark.
Her skin was almost white. Whatever doubts
might be cast on her divine ancestry, Towobat was
certainly right in disclaiming parental honors; and
a musket and two horns of powder was a small
enough price.

"Waugh!" grunted the Cree, when Jean proffered
it. "Him dnmk, heap drunk, at Pelly! Squaw
strong, big, fat, plenty work! At Norway House
him fetch two rifle, four horn powder, an' sack
flour."

Now, the difference between Indian drunk and
Indian sober hardly justified a fluctuation in values
of two hundred and fifty per cent., but Towobat
held to his price. For nearly an hour they haggled.
Then a hint of a possible journey to Devil's Drum,
where squaws were short, brought Jean to time.
The bargain was closed. Towobat pouched a birch
chU to the Factor, and pounded his ragged pony
every inch of the trail to Pelly, while Jean stole off
to seek his bride.

He found her on the outskirts of the camp. She
was sitting on a ridge that runs out into White
Man's Lake. Behind her the brown prairies scorch-
ed in the sun; across the lake loomed the green

230

Tiin Drv

U S K K U

her
ark.
ibts
was
and
mall

ered
uaw
ouse
sack

and
ilues
obat
gled.
rum,
time,
birch
pony
leoff

She
Vhite
orch-
grcen

mountains. A gentle breeze checkered the wat-r
with vivid patches of crim.son, brown, and yellow
leaves. She rose at his step, and stood, looking
sulkily upon him.

" Lau is now my woman," he .said in Creo. " Let
her come to my tepee." She made no answer, but
stood, pouting her full lips that were red as the wild
cherry. "Yes," he added, by way of compliment
and to tempt her; "it is said that Lau's baimoek is
fit for the Commissioner, and that the venison
tenders in her hands. In my tepee is much flour,
also bacon; great stores of sharp knives, and red
blankets that are very warm."

She made no answer. Generally the Indian girls
were overready to take a 'white husband, and,
though puzzled, he put out his hand to take the
white feather from her hair. His fingers had al-
most closed on it when, with a laugh, she sprang
from beneath his hand. Her robe dropped from
her shoulders. He got one flashing glimpse of a
rounded body outlined against the silvery birch;
then, like a brown arrow, she shot through the air
and clove the sunlit waters.

Now, the summers of Jean's youth had been
mostly spent on the mighty bosom of the St.
Lawrence, and though a man may forget relatives,

231

i< 1

The Probationer

friends, enemies, even the wife of his bosom, skill in
swimming he may not forget. So, when the girl rose
fifty yards from the shore, she found Jean speeding
along in her wake. He swam heavily, to be sm-e,
and puffed like a grampus, but his great body shore
through the water. And the girl, too, swam well,
with a long overhand stroke. At every reach her
body flashed its length in the sunlight, lay for an in-
stan. ..-adled in foam, then sank in the limpid water.
By the time they had half crossed the lake, Jean's
strength began to tell. Gradually the distance
lessened until he could have placed a hand upon her
shoulder, but when he reached, she dived, coming up
twenty yards to the right. Again he caught up, to
have the dive repeat«(l; and again and again, and
still again, she slipped from his hand. Yet despite
her every trick and turn he kept so close that when
she left the water he was close behind.

Once in the woods, the waving branches marked
her passing, and in five minutes he had run her
down. Hot, gasping, panting like a chased hare,
but still defiant, she faced him in a woodland dell.
Jean the Big looked down on her with smiling eyes.
He was wet, his clothing clung to his body; he
looked and felt like some huge amphibian, yet he
was still Jean the Good-Natured.

232

and
thoy

The Devil's Muskeg

"The Cree maidens rvvim like the jacl
run Hke the red deer,'- he laughed "0^
but fly Hke the mallard, they might escape the
marrymg yoke." He reaehed towards the feather
but she drew quickly away and smote his hand'

'"'''[« J!^-" ''' ''"''^'""'''' «°"'y- "She must
needs fight!"

Seizing her by the shoulder, he pulled her ' anis
him, and the next moment was lying on hi. back.
The moment he pulled she had pitched forward
tripping at the same time, and Jean had thrown
himself. It was a wrestling trick of his own, but
who would have expected it from a girl? Angry
and ashamed, he sprang up and seized her She
struggled fiercely, but her obstinate resistance
simply made him more <letormined. Grasping
her by the waist, he tore her loose and swung
her up to the stretch of his arms. And there
he held her, watching the fear gather in her
eyes.

"Pouf!" he exclaimed, suddenly setting her
Jlown. "There is nothing to fear, little one. Jean
le Gros wants love that is freely given. Let Lau
return to her father's tepee."

As he turned to go a low laugh sounde,! in the
dell, and a gentle hand touched his shoulder

233

The Probationer

Slijiping to her knees--, Lau slid the feather from her
liair and laid it sliyly in his palm.

Ueing thus well married after the fashion of the
Crees, who stole the rite from the Bones, who took
it from the Mound-Buiklers, who inherited it from
Father Adam, Jean le Gros built a cabin hard by
White Man's Lake and settled down to family life.
I;au was now a ])erson of importances in her tribe,
and bore herself accordingly. Slie walked, nez
retrouss^, hj the bucks, who in the days of her
virginity hail laid fat puppies at her feet, while her
tribcswomen turned a greedy ear to her tale of bead
and skin, blanket anil provision, and other won-
drous matters of her housekeeping. To these, her
own people, she was cold and haughty, as became
the wife of a nwoniah, but Jean she loved with the
furious passion that is sometimes disconcerting to
its less emotional object.

Yet this excess of love had its advantages. She
sought to do the things that pleased him best. His
cabin was always neat and clean, his bannock sweet,
his meat well cooked and tender. And she was
greedy to learn. One day Father Francis found her
squatting in his kitchen at EUice while she gravely
noted the movements of Pierre Recard, the mission
cook. And ten minutes thereafter a tremendous
23-J

Thk Devil's Muskkg

smash brought him Hying to the rcscu.^ of the .saino
Pierre, who lay amiil the ruins of liis largest jilattor,
with Lau braiithsliing a cleaver above his lipa.l.
Then there was great inquisition. For three days
Pierre did penance for the sin of his eyes, but Lau
had to go elsewhere for lessons in cookery.

But .soon winter closed in. Ten feet of .soliil icn
mailed the lake, and the Devil's Keg gurgled help-
lessly beneath its winter coat. Sometimes a blizzard
tore over the lake, threatening to twist Jean's cabin
up by the roots, and then the frost would come out
of the north; the mercury wouKI drop to seventy
and odd below, and a great hush, broken only by
the pistol-crack of freezing trees, brooded over the
forest. But it was warm within the cabin. A half
cord of dry poplar crackled in the wide chimney,
and sent a stream of spark and flame high above the
roof-tree. On milder days Jean cut wood and visited
his traps.

And so the winter pas.sed. Th(! sun n-turned
from the Southland to the nuisic of luiming waters.
Day by day his arc increased acro.ss the sky; but it
was in this, the eighth month of her married life
that Lau'.s sun went out. With the first spring
days came orders for .Ipan le Gros to (rail north and
run the season's pack from Norway Hou.se

lii

The Probationer

i3' :■;

The evening before his departure they were at the
cabin door, looking down the lake. A thunder-
shower had just blown by. The air was cool and
sweet, the wind moaned in the poplar, an.i .shadows
of gray clouds leadened the white -capped water.
Jean leaned against the wall smoking; Lau crouched
at his feet.

"We have been happy." She spoke in dull,
hopcleas tones.

"I shall return."

"But the daughter of the Factor of Norway
House?" she went on, with darkening eyes. " She is
beautiful, it is said. I hate her!"

"Am I not married to thee, Lau?"

She nodded. " Yes, after the fashion of my people,
which binds not the men of the Company. Was not
the Factor of Devil's Drum married to Saas, daughter
of Clear Sky, the Sioux? She bore him three chil-
dren, yet did he afterwards marry a soft woman of
his own breed."

"Bah!" Big Jean stooped and lifted her to his
knee. "I am not Black Jack, but Joan le Gros.
There is none like my Lau. See you, little one, this
is an order of the Company. I go to Norway House?
Yes! But surely will I return to thee."

"Some day! I know it," she returned, thought-

236

The Devii/s Miskeo

fully. "And after that will marry with ono of thy
own race. But it i.s meet," she continued, resigned-
ly, " that wolf mate with wolf. But the little she-
fox that ran with the wolf— what of her? For her
folly shall she be torn and eaten. Yet I have
loved."

Creeping close, she ceased, and allowed present
joy to smother the prescience of coming sorrow.
For hours they sat thas; but when at last the copper
moon slipped from behind a storm-cloud, they rose
and closed the cabin door.

A month or so after Jean le Gros crosseil the
fifty-fourth parallel on his journey northward, the
wander lust entered into Towobat and his band, and
laid them by the heels. They made great prepara-
tion for a moose hunt, northerly to the Pasquia
Hills. Towobat would have liked well to take Lau
along. Unmarried trappers were plentiful at Fort
i la Corne, and Towobat's experience did not lead
him to expect the return of .lean le Gros. There
was really no reason why she should not take an-
other man. But when he entered her cabin and
gave orders to pack, she turned on him, hatchet in
hand. Towobat fled. It was nip and tuck. For
twenty yards he ran a smart race with death, and
won-by a nose. But he lost an ear. As he shot

237

The P r fi ii a t i o \ i: r

uirough the iloorway her liatcliot wliistlcd hy,
shaving the ear as clean as a surj,,-oir» knife. And
while the hatchet stuck quivering in a tree, Towobat
increased his lead, thanking his gods the while for
the^ excess of rage that offset his daughter's lack
of filial piety.

So the tribe marched without her. For a week
the smoke of burning bush by, day and the red sky
glow at night kept her posted on its movements;
then, as the deer scared to the north, the sign failed.
Jean had left her well supplied. Of flour and bacon
she had enough to last the summer. Jack-fish she
speared in the shallows, where the lake overflow
seeps into the Devil's Keg, saskatoons wore to be
had for the picking on the prairie, and cranh ries
were plentiful in the bash.

She was happy after a fashion, living, \ jman-
like, in her dream of love, though the practical
savage way of looking naked truth in the face
assured her of its ultimate ending. But he might
come back— for a little longer. Often she walked
over to the liog's-back where Jean found her, and
slipping, e( ke, from her blanket, gazed on the
reflection in the water. A dark face flushed with
red, white teeth, misty black eyes, these she saw
dancing, clflike. With the rounded body she had

The Dkvil's Miskkh

no quarrel; nor with the masses of knoc-long hair,
save perliaps tlipy wore a triHe stniislit. Hut that
(lark skin! Frowning, siic would dtuili licr foot
across the imago, dissolving it in a thousi.:>d ripples,
then, quickly diving, she would swim over the old
course, plunge into the woods, and lie in the little
dell.

But in the thiril month of her lonelineas she
rec(!ivcd news of Jean, and it came in this wise.
Returning from lH>r fishing, she saw at a hundred
yards her cabin door standi.ig wide. Surely Joan
must have returned, she thought. Eagerly she flew
over the intervening space, but halted dead on the
threshold. On the mud floor a blanket wa.s spreati,
and on it was piled her store of beads and moccasins,
knives, cooking utensils, the skins from her bed, and
all her provisions. Behind the heap, calm, im-
passive, but threatening, stood Hamiota, the Lame
Wolf, the one of all her former suitors whom she
feared.

"Waugh!" he growled. "Iiau has been long at
the fishing. Tie up, that we may be going." He
pointed to the bundle.

Laying down her fish and spear, she steppetl
forward, sullen but obedient, her lashes cast down
to hide her eyes.

L'39

) :

m 'H •Wli 'P

TiiK Probationer

!■■ ■

"I havp paid," he continued, pinching his fingers
into the Hosh of lier ann, "a great price in skins to
the old fox, Towobat. Come!"

She sanic ixjside the pile di'ew together the ends
of the blani(et and kn.it'tcd them, then, rising, waited
for further orders.
"Marche!"

She hoisted the bundle and stepped to the door,
then stopped and set it down. "Stay," she said,
'there is the money of the Red Bear — the big
dollars of silver buried in the earth beneath the
bed."

Tearing the bunk to one side, she drove the fish-
spear into the ground close to the wall. The Cree
stood over, watching with greedy eyes. Presently,
when the ground was well loosened, she began to
throw out the dirt. A little more digging, and the
spear stuck in something solid. It looked like a
square box. She stooped down and tried to raise it,
but failed.
"It is heavy!" she panted.
"Lau has become soft," sneered the Cree. "She
has lain too close and warm. Stand a.side!"

As he bent to the hole, she raised the sharp fish-
spear and struck down betwixt his shoulder.s.
Tlirough and through it pierced, standing out

240

The Devil's Muskeo

beyond his breast. Shuddering, he fell forward,
driving the barb buok witliin Iuh breast, ami writlied
on the ground worniliite, the blacli blood (xturing
from his tnoutii.

" So Lau is soft?" she cried. " Yet would it havo
tried the strength of even Hamiota to lift the sill
of the cabin. Now listen," she went on, stooping to
the level of his eyes; "Hamiota would havo forced
me to mate with him. Like a hsli he wriggles.
And when the Red Bear comes to his den, then shall
I, lying in his arms, tell of the folly of Hamiota, and
how he died at the hand of a squaw."

Through the man's dulling ear the name pene-
trated to the darkening chambers of his brain.
He looked up. His eyes were glazing, his tongue
strove desperately with the black blood for one
last utterance.

"The— Red— Bear!" he ga.sp<>d. "The— Red
—Bear — mates with— one of — his breed!"

Lau caught her breath, and for a brief space
looked down on the dying man. Then she s(!ized
him by the shoulders and shook him violently.
"Liar!" she muttered, hoarsely. "Liar! Tell me
more of this."

But the Lame A\'olf had already limped over the
great divide, and answered not her challenge. She

241

The PnoBATioNEn

rose with foar and trouble in her eyes, and sat down
on the bed to think. For a long half -hour she
brooded. Her gaze rested on the stricken Cree,
but she saw him not; her thoughts were travelling to
Jean le Gros. Was it possible that Hamiota had
news of him?

"Bah!" she exclaimed, rising and passing her
hand across her brow. "He was ever a liar!" She
spoke confidently, but a deadly fear gripped her
heart. And though she kept on assuring herself
that he had lied, she felt there would be no peace
till she knew for certain.

Hastily she dragged the body forth and loaded it
on her wood -sled. Ten minutes therefrom the
Devil's Keg opened its greedy maw, and with a
sucking splash the Lame Wolf started on his long
journey in its bottomless depths. Then, after
ridding up her houne— for Jean le Gros might come
back while she wm gone— Lau broke trail for Pelly.
There she got news : Jean was to be married shortly
to Virginie, daughter of the Factor of Norway House.
When the last word was spoken she drew the blanket
over her head, and, unmindful of pitying words, de-
parted for her place. They watched her down the
trail, a lonely figure limping its solitary way over
the illimitable prairies back to the wivage woods.

242

The Devil's Mcskro

On thn (hird ilay following her doparture, worn,
weary, hopeless, she crawled into her cabin and lay
Hke a stricken deer.

" "^'ou will have notice, m'sieu," said Pete Brous-
seaux, when telling this story, "what a great hunter
is the devil? See you, a man makes his cake, but
the devil bakes it. An' so it is with this Jean le
Gros. He is by order of the Company named Factor
of Big Grass Post. He will marry presently the
prettiest girl , I the North. Yes! Then, by Gar, ho
must needs kiss good-by to his ol' sweetheart! Was
there ever so much of a tool?"

But when Jean le Gros rode south to get his ap-
pointment of the Commissioner he had no intention
of seeing his Indian wife. His mind was perfectly
at ease in the matter. Had he not made full con-
fession to Father La Riviere, and received absolu-
tion, along with the intimation that it was his duty
to marry with his own kind and raise stout children
to Holy Church? Then, he had but done as other.-^
did. Lau would probably follow his example and
take another husband. Here came the first twinge
of conscience. For, though man loves to browse in
pastures new, it shocks him not a little to think that
similar inclinations may trouble his womankind.
While under the smile of the Factor's daughter,

243

i li

|i* 1

The Probationer

the feeling was bearable, but its strength increased in
proportion to the distance he travelled south; and at
last it was sufficiently strong to swerve him from the
path of duty— as laid down by the holy father— and
the Pelly Trail.

"What think you?" he said to France Dubois, his
fellow-traveller. "Would it not be one shame to
pass so near the old cabin an' no' bid the girl adieu?"
Being unmarried and of a warm fancy, France
agreed that it would. Now that he was thus
committed, Jean's feelings underwent a further
revolution. The figure of Lau danced before him
clothed with all the fascination of the forbidden.
After all, he reasoned, she knew nothing! Why dis-
turb her happiness? Let her love a little longer!
Then, there could be no harm in it. As for Virginie
—well, she was a sad flirt. Even now she would be
making eyes at the English clerk.

Thus it came about that at Ten-Mile Forks France
held on to Pelly, while Jean spurred hotly to White
Man's Lake. As his horse splashed through the
shallows where Lau took her fish, the dusky sun
sank over the edge of the world, but the great flat
moon sailed high and lit him up the bank. Bathed
in its brilliant light, lake, wood, and bluff stood
clearly out, lacking but the colors of the day. Over

244

< I' L

The Devil's Muskeg

him a black cloud swept with rush of beating wings
the ducks quacked and quarrelled on the waters, the
frogs chattered, and the owls hooted in the forest.

At the top of the bank he reined in, clapped hands
to mouth, and gave forth a piercing bush -yell.
Shrill and clear, it reverberated from shore to shore
and raised a thousand echoes in the sleeping woods.
Before the last answer died, he was riding along the
bank above the Devil's Keg. Beneath him it fell
sheer to the black morass; a false step, a stumble
spelled death. '

Suddenly he reined his horse back on his haunches,
aln:ost throwing him over the bank. A sombre
figure, like a black pillar in the white light, stood
squarely in his path. For the space of a dozen

breaths he sat his hor.se, staring; then the blanket

rolled from the figure's head.
"Lau?"

^^ "'Yes,' said I," she answered, talking to her.self.

'"He will come again— once. Then will the little

she-fox be torn in many pieces.'"
The tone was low, but he heard. " See you, little

one," he laughed, "said I not that I would return?

Here am I! There is none like my Lau!" The

words rang cheerily, but the consciousness of their

falseness kept him at his distance.

245

'Ml

The Probationer

"Hast thou truly returned, Red Bear-to me'"
Ho hesitated. Her face looked strange The
moonlight softened and toned down the harsh
Imes of sorrow, but her eyes glowed with a black
hre. Once, of a dark night, ho had gazed into the
eyes ot a mountain-lion just before he made his leap
f hey looked like these.

"Truly I ha-.o como back to thee!" Perhaps
he meant it-just then. His words sounded
smcere.
"Liar!"

She ran forwanl, arras stretched above her head
The horse snorted, reared, wheeled, poised for a
second in mid-air, then launched out over the Devil's
Keg. As he left the bank Jean slipped the stirrups
--too late! The brute shot from beneath him, and
they dropped, a few feet apart, into the sucking
clutch Over them, clearly outlmed against the
dark-b'je sky, stood the mad woman.

"Truly," she cried, laughing shrilly, "thou hast
returned to me!"

She stretched over the gulf. Jean had already
sunk to the knees, and the keg sucked and pulled on
his feet. He stood still and quiet. This was death,
slow death, for cowards; for him simply burial
Already his knife was in his hand. Two yards to
346

The D e V I l 's Muskeg

his right the horse weltered in a flurry of l)iack mud,
staking deeper at every struggle. Leaning over!
Jean cut the brute's throat. There was yet plenty
of time for himself. The Devil's Muskeg does not
haste in devouring its victims. It needs not, for
there is no escape.

" Thou hast returned !" she called again. " Come,
then!" She spread wide her arms. "No? Then
open for me!"

With the last word she sprang wildly out and fell
beside him. Jean sheathed his knife, slipped his
arm about her, and tried to lift her clear. Then he
bent over, scooped the mud from her ankles, and
tried again. With a squelch, her feet pulled from
the clutch of the keg, and he swung her up to the
full stretch of his arms; and, looking down, Lau
remembered the day in the forest. The cloud swept
from her hot brain; she saw, and realized where she
was.

"Set me down," she said, quietly, all trace of
madness gone. "Set me beneath thy knees and
let me die the first; for I brought this trouble on
thee, my love."

"No!" he answered, looking into her eyes. "In
this thou art innocent, and I am well served. And
there is work for thee. Go to the Factor of Pelly,

247

iJ :

The Probationer

and tell him to send word of this to Norway House.
There is one there that should know. Though,"'
he muttered, "she will soon be comforted. And
bid him also," he continued, aloud, "tell Father
Francis to say a mass for the soul of Jean le Gros."
There was no time for more. The Devil's Keg
lingers over its victims like some huge gourmand, but
beneath the double weight Jean was sinking fast.
Just opposite, a cave-in of the bank had swung a
leafy poplar down and out over the muskeg. The
branches trailed in the mud a few feet beyond his
reach. On this he fixed hLs eyes. Swinging quickly
back, he threw smartly forward and hurled Lau's
light body up into the tree.

She landed fairly in the centre, striking her head
agamst the trunk, and lay stunned. Up and down
tossed the tree. It seemed as if its living freight
must drop back. Jean watched with anxious eyes;
if she fell, it would be beyond his reach. But soon
the heaving subsided, the tree rested, and she still
lay among the branches.

With a sigh of relief Jean turned to his own affairs.
He was already down to the waist. The keg
gurgled beneath him, and sounds like the smacking
of great lips were all about him. The clutch at his
heels throbbed with the rhythm of a pulse. Slipping

248

The Devil's Muskeg

his knife, he got ready against the time when the
mud snould touch his armpits.

Ten minutes passed-fifteen-and the girl had
not moved. Five minutes more, and the chill slime
touched his breastbone. Now it was time. Rais-
mg the knife, he turned a last glance on the still
figure. Surely she stirred! He hesitated. She
moved, sat up, and caught the glint of the steel in
his hand.

"No!" she cried. "No, Jean! Not yet' The
horse! The horse! The lariat at the saddle bow'"

The beast's last struggle had brought him within
easy reach. A ray of hope shot into Jean's mind
Leaning over, he paddle<l in the mud. She watched
hmi breathlessly. Presently he raise.l his han.l
ana a black, dripping string followed it above the
surface. A slash of the knife freed the sad.lle end
and Lau caught the noose as it flew from his
hand.

She fastened it in the tree, and Jean le Gros began
his battle with the Devil's Keg. The gluey, viscid
muck seemed to suck with a thousand mouths, but
slowly he drew towards the tree. When his strength
Jailed he passed a turn of the rope about his waist,
and the woman held what he had gained. Inch by
uich, foot by foot, yard by yard, he fought his way,

219

The Probationer

and at last, pale, trembling, damp with sweat, he
fell against the bank.

Lau slipped from the tree and helped him up the
steep; then she took his head on her lap and wiped
his brow. He was drained of strength and lay weak
as a child.

" I have not deserved—" he began, but she cover-
ed his mouth with her hand. He kissed it and lay
still. Half an hour slipped by. A great hush
brooded over tlie forest. The frogs had ceased
their chatter, the owl his solemn questioning, and
the lonely bittern forgot his solitary cry.

"Come," he said, rising. "Let us go homo."

She paused, questioning him with her eyes

"What is it?" he asked.

" The — other — woman ?' '

"There is but one woman," he answered, gently.
" Come! For to-morrow we go to Father Francis."

■f !

A SLIP OF THE NOOSE

IT is well to be in-doors when the smothering
blizzard cuts loose in the Northland and turns
five hundred thousand miles of prairie into a white
and whirling hell; and so thought the Pelly
trappers. They hunched up to the red stove in
the big log store and listened to the voice of the
storm. It was intensely col'!. The spirit ther-
mometer on the log veranda registered si.xty-five
below zero, every nail and scrap of door iron was
embossed with glittering frost, and an inch of
clouded ice covered the window-panes. Outside,
the furiou.s wind, veering from every point of the
compass, now walled the fort with circling clouds
of snow; then, changing tactics, blew steadily from
one direction, threatening to bury it beneath mon-
strous drifts. Suddenly it dropped, and the falling
snow settled in straight lines.
"Storm over?" A man glanced up.

2S3

TiiK Probationer

"Bah!" A half-brml trapixr, who had just
come m, tuggod at his froze., board and shruggetl
his shoulders. "Hojustbogin. Listen!"

Far off the sigh of the wind rose to a sob, a moan
a shnek; then, with thunderous roar, the storm'
struck the building.

"So!" continued the breed, unwinding a long
neck-scarf. "He ecs the king blizzard. Soon we
havespreeng.eh? This dam cloth! No loose yet."
A solid inch of ice gripped scarf and beard.

"Guess you're right, Brousseaux," chipped in
another man. " You made the fort just in the nick
of time, old man. Here, stick that goatee o' youm
on this." The breed thrust out his chin. Placing
an axe head beneath the beard, the man gently
crushed the ice with the poker.

"There," he said. "Talk less on the trail, Pete,
an' you'll have less ice in your whiskers."

"Thanks! Ye.s, I will have your advice." He
combed the beard with his fingers. " It ees a hard
trail, the Pelly. An' in a blizzard! This ees
better, eh?"
"Anythin' new on the plains?"
"Ah, now you spick, my friend. Ees ther'
news? Of a sort, yes." He rubbed his hands, as a
cat paws herself, and his face darkened.

A Si.i

I' OK TIIK N008JC

"Good?"

" Who knows? I havp lisi,,, lo tho cry of a man
child born to tho grrat pr.iinp. That ..,•« g,,,,,!'
Men am few, oomra(lo.« .lin. Thr rhiM ■mis' boar
bees mother's name-tl,is ,.<,; bud! It wis Jm^sI for
boy to have father."

"What's this, PeteV A „!« ;:,„,|i.s|„„m, silting
next the breed laid a heavy iiai.J m i.k shoulder

"It ees you, Elliot? Yes, v„i, s|,:dl l,rai, but
first— more wood. The frost, lie's in niy bones."
When quarter of a cord of dry poplar was roi.ring
m the furnace he hitched closer and spread his
palms to the heat. "Yes," he continued, "it was
bad, ver' bad, for May Duprd that her father die—"
"What? Louis Dupri"'?"
Brousseaux nodded. "Qui! Louis have kill hecs
las' moose an' trap hecs las' mink, an' so much the
worse for hees daughtaire."

"A good man gone to glory!" " Best .*ot on the
plains!" "Guided the Red River expedition under
Wolseley in the seventies!" came from around the
circle. The breed waited for the last tribute of
respect.

"An' so much," he repeated, "the worse for hees
daughtaire. You see "-reaching for the English-
man's pipe—" las' spreeng Dupre an' Glen Cameron

255

'ijr

"Ilii

The Probationer

hunt north of Lak' Winnipegosis. They build
cabm at B,g Moose Lak', an' May cook hees grub
Las June Duprd fall seeck, ver' seeck. Soon he die
They bury heem. Then-ah, well "-with an ex-
pressive .•,hrug-"what would you? The girl was
pretty the man han'some an' strong. They hunt
t.11 first snows. Then Glen bring the girl to Ellice
while he go to Winnipeg. Before he return-the
child ees born."

He stopped. The men leaned to the stove,
silently smoking, listening to the storm, brooding
over his words. They were a hard-bit lot, swept
from he four corners of the ear tnd dumped in
this lit le corner of the frozen north; yet each had
his code of honor, his notions of morality, and
a strong sense of justice. Their own forest loves
they conducted very much after the fashion of
Father Adam; hut this was a woman of their blood
subject to a different law. Had she male kin, the;
would have noted the incident with mild interest,
expecting a red atonement; but she wa. an orphan.
From the law she could get no redress. True
by hard stretching, its long arm just reached the'
fifty -third parallel, but its clutch was, at best
spasmodic and uncertain. And she had grown to
womanhood beneath their eyes; was one of them

256

A Slip of the Noose

—a member of that community which counts its
neighbors from Winnipeg to Fort McCloud, from
Pembina to the arctic. Her wrong was theirs—
theirs its righting.
"Won't he marry her?" asked ElUot.
Brousseaux shooli his head. "No, my friend,"
he answered, slowly. "Was there ever before so
much of a fool? A girl, pretty; a man child, strong
and fat; an' marry? No! An' all because of the
hot word of a fool priest. But "—shaking his head—
"he was ever stiif in hees neck, this Glen Cameron.
Strong as a buffalo, straight as a young poplar, mark
you, with a tongue of fire an' a devil temper. An
ill man to meddle with! Ma foi! Yes."

"I know the breed," mused Elliot. "Aberdeen
granite foundation, dash of French pepper, and
blood enough to make 'em sullen. But what's this
about the parson, Pete?"

"The priest? You know heem, P6re Francis—
Ellice Mission."
"Fussy little fool!"

"As you say! Well, he spick beeg word, ver'
beeg, to this thick in hees head Scotclmian. It is
well to spick, yes, but softly, so hees word tickle
hees ears, but 'Scoundrel! Marry or I curse!'"
Brousseaux lifted his ey.l)rows. "This to a man?
257

ii I

?!■;

The PnonATioNER

It ees bad. But for tlio priost (ilon marry tho
girl."

"A praatc, a woman, to raise the divil," growled
Irish Dan, "an' its ni,.s..|f known the combination.
Whm Father O'Toole put- (he ban on Biddy-"

"Dry uf., Dan!" "Have your wind!" "We
iinow what happene.1 the father! .„outed the men
"Ought to," ad.le,! KMiot; "he'.s told us forty
times." ■'

"Begor," i,.umbled tiie Irishman, "wwln't yez
let a -nan tell ins little storj, .,. hayttnT. thav.s''
Fire up, Recarde. it's ^ttin' colder. lt> .„,«tin'
I am in front an' freezin' behint, h he same token •
He turned his back to the stove and wa-.hed the
powdery snow sifting through the key-hole It
stretched from the door to his feet, forming a
tumiature mountain range acnj* the floor Brous-
seaux iean«l, catlike, over the stove, heating the
marrow in his bones for tho ne.^t day's trail -he
w» due at Fort a la Corne, one hundred miles
away, m two days' time. Outsid.., the snow hi.ssed
alot« ahead of the nor'woster; the building shook
beneath the blows of the storm; the wind sobbed
and wailed in the chimney; the wimlows rattled in
the casements. The men .smoked quietly. Some
were travelling frozen trails with the dead trapper

258

A Sr.ir or tiir Noosf:

othoT. woro thinking of his .laughtrr. The iron
clang of the Uovo door brokn tho silenco Tli,.
Irishman was stoking up.

"VVhiTp's Olen now?" a man askod.

"Winnipeg. Gome back in the spreone "
An' May?"

"With Stewart, Factor of Ellice."

"She's in good hands," said EIHot. He glanced
interrogatively round the circle. "Well boys''"

A man rose and knocked the ashes from his pipe-
a tail Canadian, a son of Anak. landing six feet
«>x in h,s moccasins, straight as a pine, with a
^pl-nduly formcl body. He yawned. As he
•stretched, his knotty hands touched the spruce
rafters, and his bo<ly loomed up like a stocky oak
Boy^s, he growie,!, "we're a-goin' to play a
han in this game. I reckon May Dupre ,lon't' lie
■n the muil whil<. there's man or gun in Pelly "

'■Now you spick. Bill Angus," muttered" Brous-
scaux.

The south wind was eating the snow, an.i water
strangely unfamiliar, covered the slough ice before
-I'^n Cameron returned from Winnipeg, \bove
!.mi travelled the big mallar.l and the wild goose
heral.ls of coming .spring. Along the great vall..y

259

T H R P n O n A T I O N E R

of the Assiniboine tlio forpst awoko irom its long
sloep anil gave vrnt to arboroiil yawns, sighs, and
soughings; the music of running waters delight<>d
ears tuned to the stern hiss of drifting snow, and
the doors of Ellice flung wide tr admit the warm
sunshine of the first spring days.

Glon had settled in his cabin on the table -land
above the fort a couple of weeks before the news
travelled to Pelly. He lived alone. His father, the
old Factor of Devil's Drum, had, when Glen's head
topped hLs boot, mixed things baiUy with a bull
moose, and the mould of eighteen summers covered
his forest grave. His mother lived in Winnipeg on
a pension allowed her by the Company. Through
her he inherited a strain of French -Cree blood,
slight, but sufficient to speck his blue eyes with
spots of darkest brown and to touch his temper with
sullenness. This Uck of the blood was favored by
birth anil raising. He got his fir.^t notions of life
along with his first nourishment from a Cree foster-
mother, and this strange conjunction of blood and
breeding produced the stiffest man north of fifty-
three.

Three weeks passed without his going near p:ilice.
Ostensibly, he was preparing for a hunting to the
north, yet constantly upon some pretext he de-

'260

A Slip of the Noose

ferred his d.parturP. The ren- reason he never
acknou-lodgocl until, one Saturday, Peto Brousseau.

with his letters, gave him the news.

v"^/°" "'^' """■' ''"'" ^""'^^her, bon! Ma foi-
Ve.s! An you will be goin' to the christening to-
morrow, eh?" *

After Pete^ had gone, won.loring at the look in
Men s face, he paeed back and forth like a caged
b.'a.t. The sun went down on his walking, .'nd
1- gray lights of dawn found hi.n walking. When
the morning brightened a little he banged the
cabm door and strode off in the direction of the

Very shortly the winding trail brought him to
the valley. l,,ght hundred feet below the swift
Assmiboine writhed in giant convolutions along the
level bottoms. On the eastern horizon the ri.in.-
sun, a molten disk, gloamea ihrough a clou.l-glory
of ruby and gold. Gray .shadows shrouded the
river and towards these, down the steep headlands,
crept the rosy flush of the morning. Glen stopped
a^ gazed at the vermilion splendors of cloud an.l
J^y. Then from his right, the mi.ssion bells of
Ellice pealed forth the matin chime. Clear, silvrrv
resonant, the wave of sound flooded the valley io

261

I i'J

."t

The Probationer

the distant hills, echoed in the black ravines, and
tilled the air with rippling music.
The mnn's face took on a softer look. Those

bells had tolled the knell of his father, and, hey
called ba<:k v.vid memories of childhood days He
bowed his hea,l until the last vibrant echo died in
the black ravines; then the sun ro.se high above
the honzon, and things took on their workaday
aspect. The mood passed. Ho walked on to the
mission chapel, where, leaving the trail, he crent
into a poplar blufl and lay down in the grass

L.ttle by little the fort quickened into life
Smoke rose from the Factor's chimney, and then
tinkling bells told of cows wandering to pasture in
the bottoms. Gray squirrels popped from hole,
oxamined the tre.spasser, and skipped off about the
serious business of life. Cheeky gophers deei.led their
niatrimonial .s,]uabbles beneath his nose, but he saw
them not, as he lay quietly watching the smoke

A couple of hours pitssed before an old (rap.x-r
hobbled over to prepare the ehapel for service
(.len could hear him movinginside, openmg windows
sweepmg, and dusting tl^- altar He finished!
Ihere w,.- qui..t; then, .suddenly, the mass bell
swune .-.bov.. his hea.l. »d its solemn chime echoed
tlirough ih.- vail. y.

"5a

A Si.ir OF T,,,, No„,s,,:

And now ucmss the prairi.- .soun.lr.l tho croak
of hug,.-wh,H.Io,l Rod Itivor carts-Fathor Francis'^
Indian converts coming fron. the reservation. Thov
groancl up to the chapel .loor and discharged thei^
hem , '^^'-f-"'' 'Shattering squaws Afte
them a d«en .lent Indians filed into the mission.

<inv.ns buckboard. The Hudson Bay men lounged
hunV " the ort, but before they could enter fho
buddrng a half-score mounted men .swept round a
poplar bluff-tho Pelly trappc-rs come 'to lo "1 a
hand ,n christening Dupre's grandchild. Then
black.ca^,ockod, portly, with „.as.s-book underarm'
Father Pr,,„c,s stopped from his house and strod,!
acro.ss the yard.

At last the Factor's ,loor opone.i. Two women
canjo out and n.ovod toward, the ehapel. Glen g„t
^. Ins kneos and .stared. She was looking well!
Her face wa.s Ix-autiful a.s ever, an,l maternitv had
pvon a needed roun.lness to her figun,. Ho noted

^l'..l. Yes, .she certainly looke,l well and-a
ralo- pang nipped hin. hard-happy- This was

'What ho e.xpocte.I. and he tried to tell himself
tlut he wa« glad, but-what a fool he had been-
^he whom he had left clothed in the ugliness of form
■X3

m
m

The Probation eb

which precedes the birth of life had blossomed as
the butterfly from the chrysalis. She entered

oh, and the priest began to intone the

the c

mass

" i! nomine Patris et Filii ct Spiritus Sancti 1"
"Amen!" answered the quavering voice of the

clerk.

How familiar, but— how long! It seemed to the
mipatient man that the interminable responses
would never have done. At the "mea culpa, mea
culpa, mea maxima culpa," he unconsciously beat
his breast. At last the priest's voice hushed. There
came an expectant rastlo, and through the open
window there travelled the wail of an infant. Glen
started and half rose, but the voice of Father Francis
sent him back.

"And now we will proceed with the holy servi. e
of baptism, a sacrament ordained of God and
consecrated by the usage of Peter and Paul, His
holy apostles."

Once more the rustic, mixed with murmuring
voices and shuffling feet. The child wailed :igain,
thrilling the man with strange emotion. He heard
the mother hushing it. His straining ear caught the
swish of her skirts as she rocked to and fro; then
silence.

284

A Slip of the Noosr
"The name of the father of this child'"
Dead .silence. Glen sprang to his feot and made
for the chapel door. He was on fire. Hec.S
-0 .n .magmation, the girl meekly standing be ,"1
the aecM :ng p„e,st. Half-way ho stopped Tho
i* actor wa.s .speaking.

;'TilI some guid mon shares his name wi' this

pu.r m,sdealt l.s.sie, n, be father till the Id "

We taks my name."

"VVho stands sponsor for this child v"

We do!" Like the growl of distant thunder

the^res^ponse rolled from the throats of the Pel,;

Satl^t'''"* '^°"' ^''"="" «"''^»^t' renounce
baton, his pomp ami works?"

"I do!" the sponsors answered

^^reator of heaven and earth?"

"I do believe!"

"Dost thou believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son
our Loni, Who wa3 born into this world and sl^ed

"I do believe!"
^t«wart. May our blessed I, uly make intercession

365

iBim&M~ss:3»ijapxj:.jMiy^ j -dl*

ii '

II I, ;

TlIK J'koiiatiovkk

at the throne of tlie Most High, that tlio r.tain of
wedless birth be not cast against thee!"
"Amen!"

Strong and fervent, mixed witli the gutturals of
the Inchans, the answer piLssed througli the ofien
windows and died far out on the prairie. An old
Gregorian chant finislied th(! service'; then, laughing
and exchanging greetings, the congregation tumbled
out-of-doors— the good, tlie bad, and the indifferent
rubbing elbows, and none to t(>ll the difference.

For a while the young mother stood in a ring of
squaws, watching her baby passing from breast to
breast. The red women clucked their wonderment
at the exceeding whiteness of his skin. After
dowering him with small moccasins worked curious-
ly in beads, they mounted the crazy carts and
drove off across the prairie. Then the Factor took
the baby and presented him to his numerous
fathers in God; and the men of Pelly manoeuvred
him iis though he were a jewel of great price, liable
to break in the handling. The stout arms of Bill
Angus trembled beneath the load, and he sweated
profusely till relieved of the burden. They all
agreed there never wa,s such a baby.

Then eanie Ihc birth offering. Long knives
dama,scene(i in .silver or gold; rifles that— in the

2(i«

A S

''' '' "I- I 11 i; .\<),,s|.;

hands of a iiorlliiiian -

and other gear of war and tl
thn baby's fret. Bill Angus

iicver missed; belts, pouclies,
lie eli.-iso, were laid at.

< presented him with the
<l<-<-.l of a s(iuare mile of land, and Recard.. with a
stark of Ix.aver, to Ix; trapped the eotning summer;
but Pete Brousseaux, the eunnii.e. broke all their
hearts. With a shy j;rin h.. l„Mi«ht forth a re-
splendent rattle, wondrously tipped with rubber
and e.specially warranted to be eflicNeious in teething'
When the givinj; w:ls over, the I'elly men hobble, I
their horses and strolled off to the fort along with
their Klhce eomra.les. Ten minutes afterwanls the
head of the last settler bobbed out of .sight behiml
t\u' long roll of the prairie, and Glen was .done
He waited until llie Factor's door clo.sed on WMuan
and child, then took the road home.

Just before the trail .swung from the valley a
cloud hid the .sun. Instantly the smiling peace
vanLshed, and the land.seape ,-l„thed itself in naked
savagery. From the black of the tree-lined ravines
till' bald hca.llaii.ls stood forth like the breasts of a
proud woman. A chilly win.j came out of the w...sl
|ii'd moaned in the ,s„„,bre sprucr, while on the
Horizon smoky thunder-head.s piled fleece on Heece

The change .suited (ilen'

then hclrl on to his sol

s inorxl. He gazed his fill,

ilary cabin.
ao7

MIOOCOPY RESOIUTION TEST CHAIIT

(ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2)

^ APPLIED IIVMGE Inc

SfI- '6^5 E:ost Mam Street

S'.S Pochester, Nem York 1*609 USA

^g (716) *82 - 0300 - Phone

as (716) 288 - 5989 - Fax

i: i 'M

The PnoBATioNEB

By sundown black clouds covered tho sky, and
the roll of distant thunder announced the coming
storm. With night camp the first rain— big drops,
hitting the ground with a thud. Gray shapes
turned and twisted between earth and sky; the
lightning (juivered all around. The air was sultry,
and the windows of the Factor's house stood open.

May Duprc sat in her bedroom, watching the
approach of the storm. The baby was sleeping
quietly. She had laid ofif her dress for the night,
and her neck and arms gleamed in the flashing
lightning like polished marble. A gust of wind
swept the rain into her room. She raised her hand
to close the window, then paused, listening. The
tliud of horses! And from the fort! Surely the
Pelly men would never take the trail on such a
night?

A splitting crash overhead started her back, but
in the following flash she saw a score of horsemen.
A man was coming towards the house. She heard
his knock and whispering. A name rose to her
window.

" Hush !" warned the Factor. " The lassie's windy 's
open."

She leaned for\vard, straining her ears to catch
the whispers. Through the darkness she made out

A Slip of the Noosr

the figure of Bill Angus. In the dim light his Ion-
body took on an ad.litional cubit, an.l his inmuMwo
width, fa<ling into the gloom, conveyed an im-
pression of indefinite extension.

" I'll hae naught to do wi' it,' imished the Factor
aloud. "Gang yer ain gait. Bill Angus."

"Please yerself," answered the giant. "He
swmgs.'"

The girl gasped, and staggered back to the bed
Hang, they said! No! No! It must not bel
bhe tiad long ago forgiven. And-she still loved

Her preparations were quickly made. Picking
up the baby, she placed him to the breast and coax-
ed him to repletion. Then, with the little head
bowed m slumber, she tucked him warmly in bed
threw a shawl over her shoulders, and crept softly
down-stairs.

The Factor had gone to bed; she could hear his
heavy breathing. She opened the door carefully
and slipped outside, but as she turned to close it
the shawl swept away on the win.!. She hesitated
^hen plunged on into the blackness. The rain
splashed on her naked arms and breast, but she
moved steadily forwani, feeling the trail with her
teet. A crash of ihunder broke overhead. \
brilliant flash lit the prairie for miles around, and

2C9

V «

The P It o I) a t I o \ e n

showed the trail windhig like a black serpent across
the dun plain. The priest's house, black windowed
and wetly gli .tering, flashefl out as she passed by.
She thought she saw a white face peering through
the window. Another blaze of fire and the corral
came into view, with old Spot, the bell cow, standing
tail to wind, head over the fence.

A bolt flared from the sky and struck the ground
at her feet. The air filled with sulphurous fumes,
and she was momentarily blinded and half stunned
by the concussion. A lull, almost a silence, followed,
then the voices of the storm— the pattering rain,
the moaning wind, the rustling trees, and the splash-
mg water— resumed their interrupted song. When
the flickering light again illumed the prairie, old
Spot lay dead in the midst of a dozei: of her progeny.

May moved on. For one brief second, deatlilessly
still to the eye, though trees, shrubs, and grass were
in violent motion, the great valley uncovered before
her; then she turned the bend and headed for Glen
Cameron's cabin.

The rain beat heavily on the sod roof of Glen's
shanty, finding its way through in several places.
On a rude bunk, fashioned from poplar poles, lay
the owner, trying, in tobacco, to find surcease from

270

It '■■Jiu

,,, ill; 1:

A SLlI- OF Tllf; KuoHK

mental pain. A brass lant.Ti,
roof abovo his hoacl. Across

swung from tho low
tli<' building ran a

i-ti. stall. buuh.':;;ii.:™^^^^^^^

w.th h.s own blanket; and now, a. he sm ke ,

ZmiVi: '"'^^'i-"*™^^ munch a„;iw

gratelul for the companionship.

Suddenly the beast stopped eating R • • . •
head, he whinnied loudly A lin^ f ^"'''''"f'"''
thoroarofthesto™.^.itl :^^^^^^^^

atch cl eked, and a score of men filed in and sn-
rounded h.m He glanced round the eircTe-i '
Angus, Brouleaux, Elliot, Recarde, Brousseaux"
and a^dozen othe.. He knew them'al, and-thel;

For almost a minute they stood quietly regarding
him. At last he broke the silence. ^

"A bad night, gentlemen'"

h 7l'" ^u '* "°-" '^•'^ ^"^^--^ '''»«>e from behind
but when he turned it was to meet calm and S
pa^ive faces. He shrugged his shoulder.
What can I do for you ?"

''You know," said the same voice.

'Oh, I do?" His eyes glittered, his mouth drew

271

The Probationer

hard, his grasp tightened on the lantern Ho half

swuxig it to strii^e, then smiled contemptuously and

set It on the ground. "Well," ho said, folding his

arms, 'make it so! Now, what are you going to <lo
about it?"

'Looka'hr-re,Glen." The big Canadian stepped
to the front. "No HHng man "-with sinister ac-
cent on the wonl-" shall boast that he brought
shame to Dupre's girl. Yc'll either—"

" I'll trouble you to mind your own business And
1 might as well tell you I'm not interested in Sun-
day-schools."

^^ " This w our business," returned the giant, soberly
es yer'll soon find out. Nor is this a prayer-meetin'
crowd, es yer well know. Mebbe we ain't much
to brag about in the highly moral line, but there's
some things es is a leetle high for our stomachs.
Were .lere to give ycr a chance to do the right
thmg." "^

Glen made no answer. His eyes looked over their
heads, a smile was on his lips, his face the very in-
carnation of obstinate resolve. Out of the corner
of his mouth trickled a streak of blood where the
strong tooth had bitten through the iip.

"This thick in hecs head Scotchman," nmttered
Brousseaux, beneath his breath. "Strong, straight

272

A Si.rp oi- Tin; N„,,si:

coas,..l Ins .stamping, an,l l„„ko,l on witL shinin-
oyo. Outsule, tl.e thunder rollo.l an.l g I ! f
Jtful flashes ht the prairie to ti:e sky-line th r „
boat agamst the window and swept in'gli,, ring , ^^
thro g the open door. Five miuutos parsed tl^
» ill yer marry the girl ''" ^

"No!" ■

The men closed in.

Meanvvhilo May Dupre splashed on through
mud and „,ire. Xever sinee the Red Riv Z
'""' '" '""«h rain fallen in one night. The trai
were running rivers, an inch of water cov Ted S
praine, the lightning flashed baek from t^ f

"aninlandsea;yet,,lre„ehe,l,withhairflyingl,oe
around bare neck and arms, like some water-t ?
h pressed forward. Oceasionally she stopp to
on, a„ with the feeling that some oTwI;
ollowmg. Once a large animal crosse.l the Z
and plunged mto the willow scrub. At the foot o

273

T II K P n O B A T I O \ E R

the rise loading to Glen's cabin tiie sound of gnlloping
horses came down the wind. .Slu. had just time to
drop behind a bunch of red willow before the Polly
men swept by. Angus was in the lead. She got
one glimpse of pale faces, ghastly under the sickly
lightning, and, like an evil dream, they were gone.
Springing up, ;ihe ran desperately up the slojie.

A light shone through the open door. Then she
was in time! Perhaps he had been away! Or—
consented. No! Not on such terms! She walked
up and looked in.

He swung to and fro, hands still twitching, the
stretched rope giving forth a doleful creaking. At
each gyration, a black shadow, ominous and terrible,
swept across the floor to the opposite wall, driving
the snorting horse up in his stall. Black spots
danced before the girl's eyes; she leaned for^vard,
paralyzed, her mouth wide open as though to cry
aloud, but silent, fascinated by the dance of death.
An uneasy whinny from the horse restored to her
the power of motion. She moved, and with thr
released breath came forth the suspended cry of the
agonized spirit.

She flew at the rope tooth and nail, tearing her
fingers on the hard-drawn knot without loo.sening a
strand. Despairingly she glanced around the cabin.

274

'III- OK Tin: \,i,,sK

^Vn axe loaned in tlie corner. Ono stn.k,. and h. w..
clown; then, laying l.j.s head on her h.p, she drew

;v.h careful haste, the l.een edge aero'; the nool'
The fghtened strands flew apart, an.l with a hollow
. ound fresh air riishe.l to the choke.l lungs. Taking
her wet skirt, she wiped the blood ,^,„i f,„t,, ,Vo„,
hm mouth; thnn, pillowing his luv.,! on her bo.son.
^e rocked to and fro, waiting in agony for a sign of

Slowly the man's soul eame l.aek from the valley
of the shadows. The lagging purses took up their
beat, and a sigh, faint as the breath of suram.-r
issued from his lips. She heani it. R.-aching over'
she pulled the blankets from the bunk and made a
pillow for his head. Then she got water and poured
some m his mouth. He swallowed, groaned; his
eyeluls moved antl opened.

For nearly a minute he stared blankly at the
ceiling, a n.izzle.l look on his face, trying to colk-ct
his thoughts. Then lis eye lighted on tlu- girl
She rose, blurhing, and shook her long hair around
her shoulders.
"May?"

He sat up and gazed round the cabin, striving to
understand. The axe and the severed noose lay
beside him, the rope dangled from above.

275

T 11 K 1' n I) D A T I () ri K u

"You— tlid— this?"

"I tried to warn you," she said, softly. "I— I"
—shuddering—" was too late to prevent—"
"After the way I—"

She raised her hand. "Forgot it! And now I
must go; baby— wants me."

As she turned, Glen got to his knees. He held
out his hands, but the obstinate Scot-Cree blood
denied liim speech. Unseeing, she moved towards
the door. A mighty battle, fiercer than the thun-
dering tempest, raged in the man's soul. The old
Btubl .>rn spirit fought fiercely and— lost. Like the
breaking of a flood, a suffocating cry burst forth •
"Forgive!"

.She had conquered, and, woman-like, in the hour
of victory, surrendered. Returning, she bent over
and laid her cheek to his, but, stooping in utter
abasement, Glen bowed down and kissed her feet.

A TALE OF THE PA^qviA POST

A TALE OF THE PASQUIA POST

l^ORTH of line fi^ty, tho gloom of night follows
l^ast on tho trail of the sotting Ln TlJ
twilight .s so short us to bo scarcely ,lo.' rving of th
name; an.l .t therefore behooves the travfller to
t'l I n,"T"'"'^ ''"-'"' '^ '"' '"^^ ^--^ht of a goal
2 rr-^T" ''"' ^"" ""'• '^' horizon. S
hm fa.l m th.s ami, dovoure.l of „.„.s,ui,«,, ^e

2?^^C'^^^^°-"™'-tht

Fat!"Tp'^f °^ ""'' «"-in'Portant fact caused the
Fac or of Pelly to turn sharply in his saddle when
the last rays of the sun were obscured by a dista,"
^ump of poplars. He, with old Sandy and t
mZ ":: ™« '^^ ^t^^teh of lake and slough
which hes between the base of the Pasquia Hills and
the sleepy waters of the Carrot River' They Jre
a^good s,x days north of Pelly-far beyond the
u^ual huntmg-grounds-but furs had not been

27!)

The Probationer

coming in very lively of lato, and the Commissioner
at Garry was a dour man and hard to please.

Where s the Beaver?" the Factor asked, in

camp? We'll be eaten alive, and that without
sauce, m less than ten minutes from now "

J^i'^T^'''"''!"''," ''P"''* ^^' ''•Wer, "that the
red deds pushed awa' ahead. They Obijays we
fell m wi' three days syn' tell't him a muckle o'
queer tales o' these pairts. An' I'm no sayin'," he
added, gazmg suspiciously around, "that it's no'
a fearsome place."

Fearsome it certainly was. The weird wailing of
a solitary loon came from the reeds of a marehy
slouga close by, the night-wind rustled softly through
the gloomy spruce, and a distant owl filled the air
with his solemn questioning.

Pressing forward at a gallop, they soon overtook
the Beaver. The great wheels of the Red River
cart had ceased to send north their monotonous com-
plaint—ho was waiting for them.

"What's the matter, Beaver? Why haven't you
camped?" The cheery tones of the Factor's voice
echoea and re-echoed through the dismal swamps
and woods.

"No like to camp. Heap bad spirits here. Long

280

well, push on and camp at the first hiah
Spirits are better comnanv th.T '^'e'l ground.
Ttin o,.„ I • ^"'"Pany than niosqu toes "

The creaking cart lumbered on into the .!;. •

vent to human-like exclTmaZ; ''°«'^ ^'^^«

Wiping their chops SXrs'TnS^r'
moved forwarrl a .1 ■ '^"'^ "'"■'' they

P-^sion:;^:,::;«;,-;PP'n. ^wearm^

which on rilgtwirthrrT? ' '"■^'^ '"'^''«='^'
-me large buSdinr H couM t T''^ "" *'' ^
gables dimly outlined agli" h^l l' ""^'"''"^
no smoke arose from Z 1! '''•"'k-gray sky;

-litary, and ^lent aZ^^TTI 1 ^^^^ "=^^'^'

;vhich came the dank s :;tf:/""' "''''■'"
'eaves, surrounderl tt. i,- ■ ^'""■'■' •■"* ''"ff

The Pbobationer

Factor's halloa. The atmosphere of mystery about
the place affected even the animals; the horses
sniffed the air suspiciously, and the dogs crept
whining between the legs of their masters.

"What place can this be?" asked the Factor.
"I had no knowledge of any house in these
parts."

" It maun be the auld po.st," aaswered the trapper.
"Years agone, i' the time o' Factor McKenzie, the
Company had an outpost i' thees direction; but
they'd a micht o' trouble wi' the Injuns, an' drawcd
it in. I'd a thocht it wad 'a' burnt doon lang syn',
but there's a power o' lakes an' sloughs aboot here,
an' I reckon they keepit the fires awa'."

" Well, climb over, Sandy, and chop off that bar.
We stay here to-night."

"I'm no exactly likin' the job. The place has
aye an uncanny luik." The Scotchman spoke in
uneasy tones.

"Give me the axe, then. We stay here to-night,
spirits or no spi.'.ts."

A few vigorous strokes of the axe, and the great
gates fell in from the rotting hinges. The dogs
plunged across the open space and rushed towards
the building, bnrking furiously. .\ hollow echo an-
swered the noisy baying, and (hey saw within the

2S2

A Tale of the P.v.s.niA I'„st

old house that which sent the,„ back, bristling and
uneasy, to tiie Factor's heels.

The superstitious Indian made trembling haate
towards the getting-on of a fire. He gathe'e.H^

forth hs7rr' ''^ ''"''•=" '''"'' -''' •'""«■"«

hnlT f /^ '""■'^ '■='"«''(; with coa.xing

he blaze shootmg upward, brilliantly illumined thci

S T" ""' °' *;" °" ^"'^'■- I' --"Old
Red Kiver frame, and the plaster wa.s fallen awav
from the cracks between the logs, leaving it >h.
very skeleton of a building. The'shutter w e ^1
gone and the black .spaces looked forth like ghostly
eyes from the scarred front ^ ^

aZ^'ZTT ''"""' " '""''"« '"•^"'' f'-°'" 'he tire
and walked over to the open door. The does

whmed as though to warn him, followe.l him fo^^^
few step,, , ,h.„ ran, howling, back to the fire
He stepped w.thm. A cry of horror an.l surprise
bu^t from his lips, and he .stagg,.red agains '
advancmg Scotchman. The torch dropped from
h.s hand, ,t.s last sputtering sparks i,u'.u.sifyig
h black darkness; but lit up by nature's .secret
Jhe„,y. all sinning with phosphorescence, the awful
thmg reniauied ui full view.

The Probationer

Giving vent to an hysterical "Gude save us!"
the trapper shot through the door and ran for the
reassuring blaze of the fire. But the Factor was
made of different clay. Ceaseless conflict with iron
forces of nature and incessant strife with wild beasts
and wilder men had hardened his soul, wherefore
he stood his ground and faced the thing. The
door swung to behind him with a mournful creak
and shut him in with the dead. He was sore afraiil,
and breathed faster than his wont, yet moved not
nor gave sign of the inward terror. Small wonder
that he felt the touch of fear! The blighting
philosophy of modernity, which destroys the hope
of man while fortifying him against the terrors of the
imagination, had not yet laid its leprous hand on
the men of the woods. To him the spirits of gootl
and evil were concrete realities, and, for aught he
knew, the thing before him might be one of the
my 'nd shapes of the Father of Sin.

"Bring a light!"

The command issued from firm -set lips. The
trapper would willingly have disobeyed, but there
was in the voice that which demanded obedience.
So, fortifying himself with a couple of burning
brands, he re-entered the building. The ruddy
light of the torches penetrated into every corner

284

A Tale of the Pasquia Post

of the room, falling full upon the thing an.l dis-
pelling Its unearthly radiance.

It was the skeleton of a man lying beneath the
adder which led to the room above. Only a skele-
ton! yet surely never before had human being set
eyes on such a frame. The curving backbone rose
from between shoulder-bla.les of unusual width
telling the story of an immense hump. The bones
of one leg were shorter than those of the other
the hips set wide apart, and the legs bn-ved like
those of a gorilla. The entire frame was massive
and strong, and marked the owner .as having been
broad .^luat, misshapen, and immensely powerful.
The skull was that of an Indian, but the brow rose
high above the eyeless sockets, denoting an in-
telligence far above the average of the race; yet with
this miusual development were associated local
pecuharit-s which indicated the basest passions
strangely sirust^r was the impression conveyed by
this last poor remnant of a man, so marked, indeed
as to strike even the dull perception oi the
trapper.

^^ "The chiel was na' verra bonny," he remarked

an it wad pay a man weel tae keepit a twa days'

journey frae the likes o' him. An' what's thees?"

tie had stumbled over something lying on the

2g3

The PnoDATio V f, n

floor. "Gudo save us! oef it is no' an auld ledgy o'
the Company's!"

Tho Factor took the booic from his hand and
waliced over to the firelight. An old ledger it
surely was, bound in sheepskin and cornered with
brass. The entries were made in a neat, clerkly
hand, and set forth the amounts of goods received,
the manner of their disposal, and the number of
bales of fur despatched to Garry. The last entry
read :

" To Silent Man. to killing that thief Esthahagan.
1 Musket and 2 Horns of Powder."

The faded writing carried the Factor back to
those old times of trouble and bloodshetl, and the
persons mentioned passed before him in a long
phantasmagoria. He mused quietly over the yellow
pages and speculated as to their lives and deaths.
M'Garry, the recording clerk, he knew became
Commissioner of Garry, and died full of years and
honor. But what of these others, whose little
lives were just as important in their own eyes and
those of God? They also had departed and were
as the last year's grass.

But what is this entry on a new page, written
in a great, sprawling hand? M'Garry's trim goose-
quill never fashioned that splashing scrawl. A

2S6

A Talk of the I'asqvia Post
sharpene.1 stick, ,lip,x..l in soot and grea.^ and
w.elded by a he. -v hand, alono could have produced
Ind read o:'""'^^'""^'"^^" -•-'''' P'^Se

St^n^'Ar.::::^:*-;'!"; ^^^ -^ ">« company
the point of death, write thhthatthnl T"' ^'"^ "'

while they are still few, wUl I it 00^ th "f "^V'''-"'
and labor, the things I have ,e™ ' *'"'"^'' ""'^ P"'"

stoutness I mi,rhf ? , ,' '""^ """" ""»?* unhealthy
Detr'ThuTf Ullr """ '"""« "'^- '^°'* "' "'^
me.'rC s^t upon' re"t^ '"""'^^ '"' ^'''"^"^ «>at was in

M ' . ,

The Probationer

fear of the law, fled to a seaport and took ship for Canada.
But these things are past and gone, and I must on with
my tale, for out in the woods To-wo-bat dances the death-
dance in the blaze of his red fire, waiting for me, even as the
snapping wolf waits for the wounded bull. All of his
warriors have I slain, and, if l.e but come before my waning
strength is sped, him too will ' send after them."

"Sandy," said the Factor, glancing up from the
book, "did you ever hear of one John West?"

"John West — John West! Why, tae be sure,
I've heerd tell o' the man. He was Factor o'
Elphinstone. Strong John, they caod him, for he
was main strong o' his hands. They said he went
clean daft ower a half-breed squaw, and gaed amiss-
ing just afore the Company drawed in the Pasquia
Post."

" Listen to this, then :

"Zaar I sent from me under the cover of last night, that
she fall not again into the lecherous hands of To-wo-bat.
'Let me stay, thit I may die with thee,' she pleaded, not
knowing that men kill not the desire of their eyes. But I
was firm, and instructed her in the trail to Pelly, and gave
her wise counsel that she marry a man of the Company.
For she is fair to look upon and would be the better of a
husband. And she, weeping, promised faithfully to obey
my behests, wherein she set a pattern to women of whiter
skins' though, alack! the flesh is weak, and a little less
obed: ace in this matter would have been more pleasing.

" I remember well the day I first set eyes upon her — an
288

A Talk of tiik I'asquia 1'ost
evU one for Red Mike, the Irish trapper. He had nmrkod

uirh.h "'''• *"" """y i""'"' I """t him flying
throuKh the a,r. so said the men that took him up and hi!

my male '^ '"'" "'" '^■''■■^ "' '*"' e'^' that day and knew
"That night I sought the tcpcc of the old aoi.aw hn,
mother, and bought the girl with a great store of mer
ehand,se. And I would have ta>en he? to my house a .d
Zaar was w.lhng. But the old erone would none ofTt she
must needs first handle the goods. '

" Oh, that I had known it ! Without the tepee his nriek

ears eoeked to the listening, lay the twisted devH Wo'^:

The next n,o, n,g I loaded a Red River .art with the

merchandise, the price of the girl, and made nTy wly

^Tor„:'t one w^tfT'^ ''''" ^"""""^ '"'"^ '"« ■"«•"
"I will say naught of the hell that raged withir mo at

and thVl'i ^°-™-'"'t ''"■•"^ his red fire in the woods,
thtd hL T e^'-'VP"" >"«• It suffices that on the

th rd day I eame upon them in the Riding Mountains.

li.ht rr ":^}'^f ^''''" ^ ^""^ ^^^^ though the spm e the
light of the lodge-fires. The drums I had heard loig before
?ln ^"Zu^^' something of importance waS a oo '
fnT'"vf V^" ""' "' ""y '"'"y- 1 ""'de my way to a plat
in the brush close to the tepees. It was almost dark but

lVhr."uo th""' "' "r" --■'""go" high, brillLX

bla^rau7strin V'"T' ■'"'' ""'''^'^' '^'"' '"'*<'^ P»i"t^'-1
Wack and striped with white, so that they looked death-

289

The I'li

<) HATION KH

■.|

thTif; '^ ™'"'"' ?""•* " »»^' "'"i ""^ -<••' "p close to

ho fire, rheir eye. glittered with unholy 'ight andThev
uttered hideous, yells a..d screams. Long ropes „f hide

for the hanging, and as each danced he threw hin>,el

r^ r LI'^'T^u*"'"' "^"y- When .,„e suece,"
ran amuck through the crowd of watching „,,uaw, biting
pieces out of the bodies of those he met. At , he f lot oh!
great pole stood the chief devil of them all. He was a man
of mighty thews a,Kl sinews, broad and s,,u...t, ami a JTea
hump rose from between his shoul.lers 6ne eg^w^
shorter than the other and he limped as he danced HU
iThr TTk"''.''^'* '^''"''"'"' '"''""'-bright red, barfed
Zt Ki ' t^^ ^^- " "^'"'^y "'""'• A towering head-
dress of black featheni rose above hi: from whi-^h I judged

I noticed al»ut this man-there .«, emed to be method^n hU
madn^. For all hU frenzy, he kept a «harp eye around
him and saw everything that was going on. On occasion

II rmingle'r ''"' ""'' "'"' ''" «- '""' ^ -""'eap
"While noting these things, I looked for Zaar among the

arr'th"?"" ''" ""'= ""' ""^ ''^'-" 'o be seen mol ng
among the tepees. *

"One after the other the young bunks tore themselves

T^wX. ?K [T ,"™' '^^ ''"" doctor-for it ta
To-wo-bat-thrust backward with a mighty shove, and set

rr tTt- ^\T' *''•> "S^-^^-e Bhout,%he hell's cr^w
ran shneking through the village. He of the feathers

"A woman's screan,! I jumped to my feet, unmindful
■J90

A Talk or tuk PA.sgr.A P„st

the devil doctor following f,.,. „;;'•""'."""" '"ylire-tiM,,,
before did eripnl,. run , f„I, u ""'"'"« "" *"'■•• >"v.t
out his hand to ... z h"r "o.. "j*"' """'• "" l""' ^-uho,
round the w.,ist. (ireut (in,! r "'."'"' "'"■" ' '"<•'' *>"•>
before had man boo Z'^^^.^Z .^r^}''- »-' ^'-.r
for fully half « n.i.ute the rl"^ r'^ir '?""«•'"''"• y«'
smote hin, so that he lay nult ""* '"^•- '^■'"" ^

"And now should I, as a. .vi«,> ~
position of responsibility of the Cw"' "' T ""^ ''"'•""« »
;v.th the Kirl; but h./w„ 7^, " 'C ""• '""" '^'""'^"-"
forthwith foil racing o,. th ; 'u7,„; , "^j ""^'rils, and I
tho limb of a tr,.o of the thi.knn.l ,>f '" '">' '"'■"'■' «''«

this I sl,.w ten of them nor s, no?""""'™; '" ' «i">
presently the remnant X "r t H o/Th '""" '"''"• ^'"'
woods, leaving n,e ma-^er of thell *■'"""■' ""'' '" "'"

I took her up in my great a 'n.' . ' '^'"'' ""^ ^'"<

arms around my neck my C ll " "'"" 'l'"""''- •>-
bosom. And in this wise wo . Jr o ?."'1. *""■ ^'"''"'^
"l>eefmg to find ,hcrc M'Garrv W I ' ''""'"'" '''«t,

'■eyed, her rounded limbs estCthH ""'"• ^' '"' '""^
she told me of her father, the jli'^o';"''?^'' '"^ »™^.
vows 'For my mothe was beau uT';,' '"'«"' ^"'
saitl she, 'though now old An!l ill f '" "'""'" '•">'«>'

lovemestill,whtnUoo am old ;r'7'-,. ''"^ '^■'" 'h"u
-ne also of the witch;ries of What ^ 'r t"^ '^'^ '"'^
mind for a long time, and buTw^ted^r h'' '""' '" "'
how he waved his hand nuo- u "'^"t '"r her ripen ng:
bought her, so that i^lea^ u^ Zm "' '" »"« "'«•>'"'
"Pe'l^ and incantations whieh To w^'lf''' """^ "' ">«
~ that, though loath£i;rrlrd£ stf

The P II o n a t I o n e n

folded her tent and departed in the night. Also, «ho told
mc of hia crueltieH and wiekedni'ss, the hl<e of which man
never heard bcforr ■ But thou wilt not let him have .nc7'
she finished, low. • her head and looking into my eyes.
And I, awearing a j;,,at oath, pacified her.

"At night wo lay beneath the spruce, her head pillowed
on my arm, her sweet breath gently stirring the hair on my
brow; and sometimes, when lying thus, I lay awake thinking
of the great happincs-t this savage maid h-d brought inc.
It was in one of these wakeful spells that I caw the red blaie
of To-wo-bat'a fire far off in the forest, and knew that he
was not dead. And beeaus.^ of this the next day I bestowed
Zaar safely in a covert, she sore afraid for me, and I lay in
ambush for 'fo-wo-bat and his men. Thev came, but the
arch-fiend lagged behind. Ten of them passed me by, and
but three returned to tell of the manner of the going of the
others. Right valiantly tf.^y fought, as became better
men in a more righteous quii rrel, and they sorely wounded
me before I desvatched thcni; so that I was in great pain
and could no more carry Zaar. This troubled me much,
but she was of good cheer bi , ause I was spared to her, and
bound up my wounds and said— brave girl!— that she
loved walking. And t; us on the third day after the fight
wo came to Pesquia.

"Alack I M'Garry and his men were gone. Not for
myself did I care, but for the girl, whom I had hoped to
bestow safely until such time as we could safely return to
Elphinstone. But she took it in good heart, saying that
we should rest here until 1 was healed of my wound, and
then we would make for PcUy, where the good men of the
Company lived.

"Were all the m^n in the Company as good as I? she
asked, having in her great love forgotten Red Mike, the
Irish trapper. And was it true that we loved our wives
202

A Talr of thk Pahq,,,., Post

<l>.' thine «•«, uvLT:: ' """">-fKr..«t o«,h, that
half. Yea-" ^ ^' "" ""^ '"°'" ^'-f'-'ly the latter

Tho nanative stoppo,!. A puff of win.l .,wavo,l
he branchc. of the R|.x>,„y fore... The Z '
moon n«u.g above tho horizon, «ho.l a re.l liZ
through the trer^ nn,l »i • . **

1 actor CO .avo .,worn it was the retl fin, „f To-wo-
bat The, wa« chilly, and he «hive-ed.

Its no 1, >nishe,I?" Interrogate,! the trapper
nexttag:/" '^- ^^ *>- '^ ^-s again rthe

wall through wh'h I r^ht'^e thrfi^'orr '''"!' "' "■«
burned briffhtlv and w„. , , " "' ^o-wo-bat. It

mine hour applrhllVr'' '■'?'^;' '^'''-'-^'f"'-'" ' '"-v
thought «he'lLrdtor ne t at:lther"r • "?""■ '
but when I put forth mv l,„n "."""''" ''''«™ '«''• <'hil<l,
it was n dream. But I m, tt h T*^ '^'""•' ""'' ' "<"'•*
I'.id a hold of my wounds and atT:'; \' '"' '^f "^"■"" ''""'
"The second night of our Iv n ' ' '"■""' ''Rht-hoaded.

'■irt fever and auim^ ^nlTed fn''''"''' ' "^ '"'''"•'f "
And at midniirht thTrn ' ''"•'""'« "ot oven Zaar.

293

Zaar called to me, but I

The Probationer

;'f|,' i

babbled on with my maunderings, knowing them not for
enemies until they hacked mc with their knives. The
blade of one sank deep into my arm. Whether it was the
blood-letting or the sight of Zaar in the grasp of another I
know not; she had sought to throw herself between them
and me, and in the struggle her robe was torn from her.
But none lived to tell <>f er loveliness The head of one I
shattered with my fisi, 'le second I took up by the feet,
and, using him clubwise, killed the third. This last rogue
told us before he died that To-wo-bat lingered out in the
woods, having no stomach for a second encounter. They
also had no liking for the work, but he made great in-
cantation before them, and showed them a black glass
wherein they could see me lying sore and helpless; and thus
encouraged, they came on.

" There remains little to tell. Zaar— something moves
below — "

"Take a 'ight, Sandy. I must see what is uj)-
stairs in the old house."

The trapper pulled a couple of blazing brands
from the fire and followed the Factor toward.? the
old store. The night-winil rustled gently through
the trees, sighing a peaceful requiem; the door
swung to and fro, uttering its melancholy groan,
and in the far distance a wandering coyote raised
his mournful howl. The dank smell of the rotting
leaves rose in the nostrils; all was laden with the
odors of decay and death.

"How did this man come by his death?" The

294

IS up-

A Ta,,e of rur .'.vsgniA Post
Factor stooped over the grotesque frame of To-wo-

skul stuck a tnangular piece of rusted steel

Look here, Sandy. He was k-ilUi o i
ed the ladder." "^ '*■' '"' '"""""t-

"I reckon that wee bit of iron cam' from thees^"

blow, he added as they climbe.l the ladder

The hght of the torches flashed to the far corner
of the old garret. There, to the right hy S
which they had come to see-the \Sl'

her arms about the body of the man she lov w'

The Factor uncovered his head nnrl ct.. . ■ ,
-sing beside the dead, ^t:::':^^ ^^Z
broke in upon his meditations ^^

"She was no' sa obedient as ho thocht for
Weemen are kittle cattle; there's nae tS J"e

but that's what maks us luve them."

The

ii?

:i •

■mr.WKm^'T.2

MATTY'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT

mhi

iliii^^

>i^i

MATTY'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT

TIROZEN drift levelled the twin ruts of Bad
X Man's Trail, making heavy going for the sheriff
of Willianiette. Here, against the Canada line, the
trail traversed a bleak country, devoid of settle-
ment, counting thirty miles between solitary road-
houses. It Vfsxs always lonely, a peculiar highway,
the counterpart of the paths which, of old, led hot
feet to sanctvary.

Roughly limned, it zigzagged out of North Da-
kota, cut a wide angle in Montana, then jumped the
Canada line to lose itself in the heart of Assiniboia.
But such lineal statement contains no hint of the
weirdness of that wide traverse— tht silences of the
Lonesome Prairies; the sand, rock, and coulees of
the Bad Lands; the muskegs of the • ^h-grass
regions; the twistings in the ScratchL lis, d. •

as 29'^

The PKonATioNKn

vious enough to suit most of the trail's travel,
which rode with an eye ofxm for a possible sheriff.
For as yet extradition was little more than a name
on the border, and the trail took its name from
the "rustlers," horse-thieves, and forgers who rode
its lonely lengths.

But, lacking a good extradition treaty, Yankee
sheriffs and the Northwest Mounted Polic(? pooled
interests, keeping an eye to each other's quarries.
It was information from thi' other side that had
brought the sheriff of VVilliaraette a three -days'
drive from home in Montana. The telegram said:

" Look out for Bill Walton. Left Wood Mountain two
days ago. Headinj; south for Bad Man's. Remember me
when you draw down that thousand."

Bill Walton was a cow-puncher of the Lazy Q
outfit, who had invited his fellows to dine with the
general manager of a transcontinental road. The
invitation had come in this wise:

Having eaten something that di.sagroed with liim,
the manager, a dyspeptic Easterner, stopped his
train at a small station where the Lazy Q was en-
training cattle, to relieve his feelings by "jerking
up" the agent. But the agent was popular with
the Lazy Q. A heavy hand suddenly dropped on
.300

ATTy's ClIlilSTMAS PheseNT

the magnato's back, driving tho broath from his
body, while a Iwarso voice familiarly accosted hir.i
You re lookmg real well, Sammy. We got your
telegram, an' we'll be right glad to take dinner with
jou, me an' my friends!"

The magnate did not remember the invitation but
outwardly meek and inwardly raging, he sat for two
long hours and watched the Lazy Q prop .lusty heels
on his white napery while it swilled his costly wines
"You're a wolf, Sammy," Walton said, at part-
ing. "Come out to the range some day an' howl
with us. An' whensoever you're feeling dry going
through this burg, jest dismount an' chalk up three
lingers to Bill Walton."

The outfit's parting volley brought down five
hundred dollars' worth of glass and costly fixtures
and here, in the old day.s, the incident would have
closed. But in Montana mining an<l commercial
interests were beginning to overshadow the cattle
business. Traders and miners had long been clam-
oring for law and order, and now, owing to his
loquacity in the matter of names, the storm cen-
trecl on Bill. Out of his own pocket the magnate
offered a reward of a thousand dollars for his ar-
rest; and so, like the scapegoat of old, he bore his
sins and those of the Lazy Q over the border.

301

I
H

;-• ' Iff 51-*3»3J

The 1' n (1 II a t I o n f. n

Wood Mountain, where the sharp-eyed Canadian
po'iceman had recognized the cow-puncher, lay a
da}''s ride north of the border, and the sheriff had ex-
prcted to intercept his man on liis second day out;
but this was the evening of the third, and another
hour would bring him to his destination, a roailr
house on the border — a stopping-place of doubtful
reputation, built astraddle the line, so ihat a man
might roll from one country into the other and
evade arrest with a minimum of disturbance to his
slumbers.

Dusk, chill and mysterious, shrouded the vast
snowscape while he was still driving, and a huge
moon sailed up from behind a spectral butte, the
ghost of a hill. By its light the sheriff saw the
road-house, a low sod building, rise like a ragged
reef from white, wintry billows. In the moon ra-
diance it looked like an enormous reptile, some huge
amphibian at re t on the bosom of a weird planet-
ary sea; nor was the resemblance destroyed when,
at the sheriff's knock, the door opened like a huge
black mouth and vomited the keeper

Recognizing his visitor, the man, a black-browed
French Canadian, vouchsafed the effusive welcome
which was born of the knowledge that his house
was empty. Also he entered voluble denials when

302

MaTTv's ChHIsTMAS Pi,,;sK.VT

the sheriff inquiro,! for Walton, saying that ho ha.l
had no stoppers for more than a woek

"AVell," the sheriff comnicnU-,1, as (ho other Uwk
h.s horse, if he doesn't eome to-morrow I'll st'rk
for home for I promi.sed the girls sure that F t
back for Chr.stmas. But lot's have no tricLs, Lou^'
~?T. """'^ threshold, or that sort of thi .g."
M s.eu?" the man exclaimed

Gnnning at his injure.! innocenco, the sheriff
J^opped m..oors, where the keeper's wi., a sl^lte'f

supper. While he was eating the keeper came in
remarkmg, a. he hung up his lantern, that the moon
2jIouded over and that it would storm before

Midnight brought fulfilment of his prophecy It
was a m.ghty wind. It poured over the road-house
forcmg jots of snow, fine a.s st«am, in through ev^
cranny Awaking, the .^heriff found himself sS
mg under a drift, and after one glance out atX
w.Id flumes he concluded not to travel that day.

But noon brought him a change of mind. He
came hurrymg through the drift from the stable
where he had gone to curry his ho,^-, and thrust
h.s open hand beneath the keeper's no,se. Oh,

palm lay a locket, a gilt b.iublc .such

■mi

as swings at the

Illi

The Probationer

end of a fob. It was open, and from one of its sides
the face of a girl, pretty in a coarse way, looked up
at the keeper; on the other was graven the name
of a man who was wanted in three States for train-
robbery.

"Picked this up in the straw behind my horse."
The sheriff grimly cyod the other. "Right whore
it fell when But Masters yanked it off in cinching up
his saddle. You tol' mo theroM been no travel on
this trail in a week. How many brands o' lies do
you deal in, Louis?"

Shrugging, the man stared at the locket -vith
sombre eyes.

"Before now I have given you the news of the
trail, m'sieu— is it not so?" he questioned, hoarsely.
"But with this man it is different. A cry is soon
lost on the prairies, an' what protection have we of
the law? We have not forgotten Blind Antoine,
who was staked out hand an' foot in the path of the
red ants. He lives longest who talks least. We
do not desire crawling deaths."

"Well!" Tlie sheriff pocketed the locket. "It
will pay you to talk now. Hit it up, talk off your
record, an' mebbe I'll forget where I found this."

The half-promise brought the words bubbling.
The man had come to them two days before, had

304

■I

to Rovornmont blank<.t.s an,l bacon th, f" ,
had .sai,l, swoanriR .Imt he proformi ■„, A.

callows to Canada and p.o^,:^:' ^,trr
perate, .savage, what of his hard life, and ■ Z
spoken n.o«t bitterly of „.',i„u the .sh;riff t ,
who^d shot his brother and bro J ::'ii;.^^

finisLr-rriirf''^^,"''^'''"''' '''-'"
>u ■. ""* '^"■" noth ng but rev<.M<r„

sajs I II strike him where ho Mve.s''"

be ed ti^^hr"'"' '"" '"'' '^^ •"''-ff -"-'n-
oereci the phrriae in a rough scrawl whinh I,, i

y n>ail after his big coup. l^:^^^':Z

time, deeming the threat as idle as many h^ ht^

"My God, man! Whv dldn'f ,.11

305

^.?^ -m^:

Till: I'KDii A'lioN r. u

On thP evening of that samo <lay a solitary hordP-
man reined in his Ix-ast while he stared at a group
of buil<lings whieh had suddenly looine<l out of the
drift ahead. Three hours ago the last vestige of
trail had been blown from the faee of the earth,
and sinee then he had Ix-en sieering by the uncer-
tain wind.

"Story-an'-a-half log house, mud stables," ho
muttered, in satisfied tones. "That's Lanky's
road-house, shore. Billy Walton, you're in luck!
Hadn't no right to expect to make it so easy. Put
up your hoss, son, an' go to supper!" Without
more ado, he rode up to the stables and put in
after the free fashion of the country.

But the youth who presently banged the house
door did not wear Lanky McDonald's red beard.
He was a handsome lad, clear-.skinned, violet-eyed;
and, instead of flapping loosely, his fringed moose-
skins were cut to his figure. From cap to small
moccasins he was girlishly neat, and his voice, when
he greeted the cow-puncher from the stable door,
proved still unbroken.

The treble, so unlike Red Lanky's rusty bas-s,

Matty's Christmas I'iimsks-t

Rtartlcd llif row-puiicli(T. Dropping (lie wisp wli|,
which h(> Wiw rubbiiiK down his Ik'usI, h<' whirlcl,
Run in hand; but his arm ilropi^.d as the youlli ul-
tiTpd a small scream.

" Why, diiigfd if it iiiii't a woman! Pardon mo—
miss!" He- ehtssififd hw acconlinK to her vouthful
appearance. "1 didn't ro to scare you." If you
hadn't come so <iuietly, or hadn't Ix'en wearing— do
you always—" Tliere was an embarra.ssed pausf;.
Though intuitively sensing that th<- ((uestion was
merely the product of his embarrassment, the girl
orojvrly ignored it.
" .Vhat are you doing here?" she demanded.
"I mistook this for"— lu" had almost .said Lanky's
road-hou.se, but he remendiereil in timi; the un-
enviable reputation of the place-" a road-hou.se on
the Dakota line."

"On the Dakota line?" she shrilly echoed. "Why,
that is thirty miles away! You are in the middle of
Williamette County; only four miles out from the
town."

The cow-puncher experienced a sudden sinking.
He had spent the day skirting the holders of the
said county only to find himself in its centre! It
was, of course, a common hap. He himself had
known men to knock on their own doors to iiKiuire
x»7

'j-

The Probationer

the way in a blizzard, but he had never expected
to be so fooled himself. A touch of shame mixed
with his alarm. It was chore-time, and any mo-
ment might bring the men-folks from the house.

"Begging your pardon, miss," he said, reaching
for his bridle; "an' seeing that I've made a mistake,
I'll jest move on."

But already the violet eyes had taken his inven-
tory, anil discovered the humorous mouth and
frank gaze.

"Go out in this storm, and night coming on?"
she exclaimed. "The idea! If dad was here he'd
pound you for suggesting such a thing!"
The cow-puncher breathed a little easier.
"But your brothers?" he objected, angling for
information. "I wouldn't want to take up their
stable-room."

"Haven't any brothers."

" No ? Who does your chores ?" She was plump,
pretty, delicate, and well nurtured, unlike the labor-
thickened women of the ranches.

"I do when dad's away, but there's not many.
We don't farm much, just put up hay enough for
bed and feed. An' that reminds me— if you'll do
up the horses, I'll run in and get on supper. The
pump's round the corner, and you'll find oats in

308

^m'-i^

Mattv-s Christmas Prfh v^

ih was offset by an irresistible desire to s,e' t^
f' T'"- O" ^tering the house, however h
oar of censure from Mrs. Grundy 4s set at res
or a small girl of eleven met hin/at the Ir t" k

by The T """'^"' ^"" ■^'''>^-' '^"" "' th 'co™e

of fitv Th"' ''""^""^ '=^« ^-'"'^ tl- -lignity
o fifty. The cow-puncher felt quite in awe u,.t 1
a or a prolonged survey, she eventually 21^at
Wavor, and hopped to his knee like I bird':;;:

fidIn!L"'n;:tf"C ''" ""■ ''■•''"''^'"^ '"'° -"-

;-^J;S;^;?-r'i;;i;JT

wt:">^V-^ Dad, he doe.sn't

hc'f

«he has 'em. She only puts then,
away, because it makes me feel like

309

on when

there

s a

The Probationer

man around. Wo had a Crow sijuaw in from the
Reservation to make thcni."

Coming down just then, Matty put an end to
further revelations. A pretty boy in mooseskins,
skirts transformeil her into a picture of healthy
young womanhooil, a girl who.ie violet glance stir-
red the cow-puncher. A vast shynes.s fettered his
tonguo, and he felt immensely grateful to Luce,
whose chatter relieved him from the necessity of
conversation.

"I'm eleven," the latter volunteered. "M; ity,
she's — but no, that's telling! What do you guess?
Nineteen? No, she's going on twenty-one. How
old are you?"

Learning that he was five - and - twenty, she
branched off into genealogical research. Had he
any sisters? One? Where did she live? Indianny?
Then he would be on trail Christmas, and got no
turkey or pudding! Appalled by the event of his
calamity, she paused and surveyed him with pity.

"But you don't have to go. You can stay right
here an' help eat ours — can't he, Matty?"

Looking up from the biscuit she was rolling out
for supper, the girl nodded.

"There, didn't I tell you?" Luce ran on. "Be-
sides, if you don't stay you'll miss seeing dad, and
310

Matty's CunisTM.vs Pkksent

he's awful nice. Sheriff of ^^•illialnetto ho i.. an'-
what's the matter?"
"Spark burned my Iiand," Walton said.
''Oh, he's torr'ble bravo!" Luce continued.
Kight now he's gone to the Canada Hno after a
bad man. Tliere's a thousand dollars reward an'
if dad gets it I'm to have a doll as big as myself
an' Matty, she's to have a silk party dress. I hope
dad gets him, don't you?"

It was a most astonishing situation. The cow-
puncher had experienced nothing like it siLre he
broke the Lazy Q backing " four of a kind ' • ^v ist
a "straight flush," and after the first astoni.iunont
he felt Its fascination. "Torr'ble joko on the
sheriff," would have summed his thought.

But presently came remorse. Hero two nice girls
were lavishing hospitality on a man who was doing
Ins best to bereave them of Christmas presents !
At supper he felt himself unworthy of Matty's light
biscuit, and when Luce hopped back to her perch on
his knee, after she had put away her dishes, his feel-
ing bordered positively on criminality.

Not that it spoiled his enjoyment of the evening.
The sough of a storm and the hum of a stove are
mighty aids in the ripening of acquaintanceship,
boon the edge wore off his shyness, and he and

311

TtiE Probationer

iii'

Matty gradually drifted from commonplaces tocon-
ridcnccs. Both were astonished to find how much
of thought they shared. The iileas which filled the
round of her lonely days on the ranch had occurred
to him night -riding under the stars. Simple
thoughts they were, such as are natural to youth
when left untouched by city leprosies, but they be-
lieved them striking and original as the most pre-
tentious deliverances of the philosophers. So, in
this one evening, they came to know more of each
other tha 1 they could have learned in a month of
ordinary intercourse. Matty liked him, and her
voice was soft as her eyes when she took Luce
from his arras and said good-night.

"You can take dad's room," she said, pausing at
the foot of the stairs to indicate a small bedroom
that was boarded off from one end of the kitchen.
And when he answered that he was figuring on the
stable, she exclaimed: "In that cold place? Why
should you?"

Hot pincers could not have pulled from him his
real reason. He simply answered that he often
slept with his horse, and that he could smoke in the
stable.

"And so you can here," she answered. "You'll
find pipes and tobacco up there by the clock."

312

Matty's Christmas Present

After she was gone ho turno,! <Iown tlu, light and
sa stanng mto the stove's one eye, which gl. ,
redly through a monocle of isinghws

"Do they, or don't they, get that doll an' dress-
was the question he propoun.Ied to hin.self

The world ha. known no n.ore chivalrous knight-
c rantry ,han that of the range-ri.ler, and ,he Zl

of chnalry couki not have dropped lance in
quicker than the eow-puncher anLred the ^e ;

IgetJShS^^"'"'^-— '• "^'"-'"^

III

DuRi^.o the night the storm blew out; morning
broke fair and frosty. Heaving up from behind the
earth's wh,te shoulder, the sun just touched her vl I
white bosom and set it ablaze with glittering .liiv-
mon<ls. E.,ch snow facet threw back a ray ,.'';!,
the a,r was diamond in its quality. Waking late
Matty hstene,| for a stir beneath, then permitted he^
reflective glance to wander between the dress she
had won. the night before and her con.fortable
mooseskms. Choring in skirts wa^ distressing
313

I'll'O i'liOlJATlONEli

"I've a ,mn,l," .she „„„^.,, ^, , ,
- cou,., ,i„ „„, „„„ ,, ,^ J',J^

.ler^ilt";'""":''""'"'— "'p'l-
kHHnJi'';;;;;:^- "^-''-tnlghUhatyo

Thi« r,.portlu,luhn,«t-,l,.ei,l,.cl Matty bu

J -.c,,s„p before Icon.,. i„,,o„,,„.
!rs " '■"'"""■''' f'-"'" f'- head

h^ 111 she could «.a.H. withhold a burnt of

theeLt2yr';''-''-'i-tndde„r

oiooa, sljiing, fascmated fW «l,„ ,.„
hira at once Thr. , , ^or hlie recogr

' N E li

""I, " to put fhem
ur<; lie gels up."
I' (;liiij)(.,l from un-
lit tliat you looked

Matty, but, in tlio

ig-

. you'io not to lot

tlio head of the

;<'-<'y('(l iis a (leer
vitli a small nod

low COVC'lvd tll(!

ire forced her to
, the crisp, keen
filing ^stimulated
I burst of song. i
'<!; and, remem-
'lum— and so,
on a horseman,
ritiden in from
it from behind
y's hum died;
she recognized
■own, the high
nt angles, set

Matty's Christmas Plkskn-t
forward upon the .sliouhjers like tint of ., . i .
beaj, an belonged to the por^-J^f',:;!;;;
n her father's gallery of rogue.s. Only wW
the p.cure .as set and smiling, ,h. .sinLer ^
of the hvjng face were in constant n.o.ion, app
>ng and disappearing, fading or deepening to eh
change of turgid thought.
"Are you the sheriff's kid?" His voire I,.,,.),

i ;: -j-f eciMatty'sfright. HiL:::,,!:;^

; homer "'''"^•' ^y^-^^-^'i

She jumped, for the question came out like a
shot from a gun; then she forgot her terror He

"Won't speak, eh? Well, I reckon you'll serve
n place of your dad. Jest about the size o 1
kKl brother, the kid he shot, ain't you'" ^

111 u ""'""■'"' '"'^''- J««P^ir- and hi

glance was charged with the deadly h, te that disti
rem such hell-broth. Matty was^endurin;.^'
per.ence seldom undergone by one of her se.x; she

315

The P It o II a t I o .V e r

gazed into eyes that wore cruel with the fcrocitj
wiiich man reserves for his fellow-man. She realized
their menace, reail cold murder there; but murdei
was preferable to another look whose possibilities
she dimly felt. Taugiit by instinct, she prayed
desperately that he might shoot while she could still
turn lum the face of a man.

But even the beasts do not kill in cold blood.
There arc preliminary growlings, scourgings of sides
with tails, and so the outlaw lashed himself with
the bitter whips of memory.

"That's what! You're just the size of the kid
that was shot with his hands up an' his gun on the
ground; shot by your father like I'm—" He raised
his gun.

Matty saw the great white prairies heave drunken-
ly about the sun. For what seemed an age she
watched their crazy gyrations; then came a sharp
report, and— blackness!

But the shot did not come from the outlaw's
gun. Returning consciousness brought Matty the
sensation of a cold hand dabbling snow on her brow.

MaTTV'8 CHn,.ST.".VS l'„Ks,,.VT

hirot' Lf "^^. ''•"r-P"-'- o„ „„. knee,
ni.s oth, r Imnd covering the outlaw. The latt*^r Jt
h.« horse, wringing u wounded wrist ""'

. 'Fec^ling better?" the cow-puneh,.r whispered

gi'trtSr"'"""'""'^'"^ That's, hei::^

g-rl . Don t ell Luee-no ase searing her. Tell her
I took a eraek at a ptannigan. Fi] eo„,e when I ve
hnwlied with this gent."

l-ntil he heanl the door eiose on Matty he ke,„
his man covered. Then he .sai.l • '

"I allow, mi.ster that you'd better unlin.ber fron.
^>at hos.s an let h,m walk ahead into the stable
Be a bit pertickler, now."

Follovving in, he seated him.self in the doorway
and looked up at Hastens, who stood before hi, f
biank, sullen, blood dripping from his .oun.i;;;;

"I'm afraid I've spoiled your shooting some "

he cow-puncher said. Tossing the other the ke'r-

tl/r r "'"'' """ '=°"''""'"'-- " T- t""t up afore

Now he went on, when the other had adjuste.l
the bandage, "lot's tnlt «„.♦ "^'jusud

vou'rnin (■ , I °'^''"" P°'"' business

you re m, friend, shooting up girls "

frJif tt'" ?,"T'^ ^'^"^ ''"= ..mlignance clean
from the outlaw's face. "Before God, partner, I

317

The Probationer

didn't ' now it! It was the clothes. I calculated
to gel the sheriff as he came out to his chores.
He—"

"Just holil your ho.s.s there for a minute, son;
this ground's plugged full of badger-holes. If you
don't look out y -'l! bust the legs of truth. You
ilisturbed my slumbers, jest before I potted you
through the knot-hole, with a brsish statement of
how your kid brother was shot with both hands in
the air. Did you see that performance?"

"No; I was in the express-car. 1; ' man told me
that was going through the Pullmans."

"Big Dave Reddick, eh?"

A startled oath slipped from the outlaw.

"Who in — what do you know of Dave?"

" I know that he threw you down on that hold-up;
that he shot your brother, plugged him through from
behind after the boy had turned his gun loose on the
sheriff; that—"

"Oh, shore!" The outlaw laughed harshly.
"This is a weak hand you're dealing mo, partner.
Big Dave rode with me out of that mess "

"An' would have served you up to the coroner
if his hoss hadn't dropped a leg down to the ground-
hogs. Didn't you never wonder how he made his
get-away with the posse jest eating up your dust?

318

Matty's CirmsTMAs PnRsrvT

His <iui..t confi.lonco staggoro.! tho outlaw " Part-
nor !>.. Rroan,.,l, "how ,li,| you l.arn all thi.sr-

II.- oxplanation w=« sin.pl.v That .su.n.M.T th.
cow-puuohor ha.l ri-Ui-n with H.,iai,.k on th,- Al-
b.J a ranges, an.l had nur..,l hl„. through an at-
tack of "Icliriuni-troinpns.

for you, th.- k„l, an' th. .shoriff by turns. No he's
not uj. tl„.,v now." Uo antirinit,.,! ii, '.■

<. n . , '"""^'P'lii'i I the question.

iJave sober knew what Dave ,|runk ha.l given
away, and he could never bear to ride with n.o
agani. Lit out for Mexieo early in the fill "

Silence fell between then.. The eow -puncher
took his eyes from the other's face, res,)ecting its
agony. Its expression wa.s indescribable, and n.ay
only be app.oximated by simHe. Regret, ren.orse
ongmg, swayed in turn; then out flashed its plenti-
ful lines of hate like jagged lightning on a night
sky. Then .t settled, and the man sighed, the hard
sign of renunciation.

"Partner," he said, "I'd like to know whon. I'.n
obliged to for heading me off from a big mistake I
Sfo )'Z^'^'f *^t Sirl. What's your name?
Walton? Not the cow-puncher that shot up the

319

T II F. P n o n ,\ T t o V F. n

genrral maiiaKiT's rar? Sliorc? Say, this is a
funny piaoc for you to !«'!"

"Darkest under the lamp, you i<now. Tiie
shorilT's up Dad Man's Trail after mo, an' I'm
hern sitting in liis stable. He'd have got me,
though, if I hadn't taken a notion to como down
through the settlements. I was warned at Lonely
Kiver."

"Me, too," the outlaw said, "though I stuck to
Bad Man's as far as Louis' place." Pausing, he
adjusted the bandages then, with the gesture of a
man who knows that he is beaten, he said, " Well,
partner, it's up to you."

The cow-puncher ceased tapping the door-sill.
"I s'pose," ho said, slowly, "that I orter make
the people of Montana a Christmas present of you.
It would more than square my books. But— I've
run too long with the hare to turn with the
hounds. Here's your gun, partner. Take my
boss, he's fresher than yourn, an' I don't allow to
need him again." The outlaw was about to speak,
but he ran on. "Now cut it out an' make a
quick cinching. The sheriff's due 'most any min-
ute."

But the outlaw stood confounded, his face suf-
fused with astonished red.

320

Mattv's CirnisTMA.s Phi:

>< K \ T

"Partuor." ho burst nut. " you V- throwing away
fivo thousanil dollars!"

"Kxactly." The cow-imnchcr K,.i,„„,,| .. j f,,,,,
liko Vaml..rbllt. Ilroatho on that hit; its fn.slv "
Un.iisturlK-,1, cool, an,i pra.ti.-al, hr talk-.l whil.
the other made (juick preparation, and ^ave ad-
vice on the choice of trails.

"But you ain't going to stay liere?' the .mtiaw
said, as he leil his horse outside.

"«iiore! There's two girls up at the house thai
lion't connect with Santa Claus if their dad fails to
get his hooks on me."
Dunifounded, the outlaw sat his horse.
"I'm doubtful," ho .said, at last, "that I orter
stay hero an' .see you through. Rut 1 must pluy
that lone hand down h: .M. x;,,. Ain't there noth-
ing I kin do?"

"x.'othing but light out," the cow-puncher an-
swered. "I ain't going, either, to swear you to a
godly life or ask you to tend Sunday-school here-
after. I reckon you'll live by the patti-rn the Al-
mighty cut you on. Jest where train-robbers come
in on the plan o' salvation I don't rightly see.
Mebbe they're means to aba.se the pride of godless
corporations. Anyway, your time hain't come ac-
cording to my calculations till you've had your
321

I:i-

The Probationer

chance at Big Dave. All I ask is that you get your
feuds straight after this afore you pull a gun So
vamos now, an' adios, as they say down there "

"There's some," he mused, when man and horee
had drawn down to a dot on the snow, "as might
thmk I'd played it low on the Greasers. But I
don't love them none since I rode, that season, their
borders. An' they're plumb able to take care of
themselves. If our friend goes to monkey with
their rollmg-stock, I can tell him he'd better make
sure of his get-away."

At Tiger Buttes, on the settlements trail the
sheriff received first news of Masters. A roustabout
on the Bar X Bar Ranch had seen a man answering
to the outlaw's description south-bound on the Will-
lamette trail. Fifty miles of drift lay between Tiger
Buttes and the sheriff's ranch, but he made it in
SIX hours, though the beast he borrowed from the
Bar X Bar was not much of a horse at the end.

Yet the rider was in worse case. A man inured
to wounds and the face of sudden death, he almost
famted when, from the crown of a long snow-roll

322 '

Mattv's Chr.stmas Ph.skxt

he saw the stovepipes at either end of his house flin^
mg out wh.te pennons, banners of Christml eh "r

=s:Sf:;.-r^H^r^i

the latch. Suffocating, he raised

Consternation entered with him T „.„ u

inquiry, the sherds o'c.rHngTtrc '^'"r'
"Walton I" K„ ,'"S at the cow-puncher.

thoulht-"' ""' ^"P«'' '^^ '-^- "Where -I

Readily divining the cause of his painful agitation
the cow-puncher plunged to end it '

^.thegiHs, HrSefZZT^;:^^
poured out a glass of the brandy which M^ttv w!
"Sing to fortify her .nince-meat ^ ^"^

The sheriff gulped it. "He was here? Tell me

o— 3

The Probationer

doing this for me an' mine, I was out hunting the
price on your head!"

"Father!" Matty cried, "you don't mean
that—"

"Yes, he does," the cow-puncher quietly inter-
posed. "But there's no occasion for you to feel
bad. You see I was coming down to give myself
up."

But though he lied most glibly, one small witness
remained unconvinced.

"It's a story!" Luce's small treble startled her
elders. Brown eyes glowing, flushed, she voiced
her abiding faith in appearances from her chair by
the table. " It's a story! You ain't bad, are you?"

Walton laughed.

"Well, let's call it foolish, little girl. Anyway,
I'm the man he's looking for, an' you stand all right
to get that doll. Terr'ble joke, though, ain't it?"

But neither girl seemed to see the point, and,
divining from Luce's quivering lip and Matty's
troubled eyes that a scene was imminent, he used
the sheriff's tired horse as an excuse to escape.

A quarter of an hour later, the sheriff joined him
at the stable, a roll of greenbacks in his hand.

"Walton," he said, "Matty's told me all, an' it's
not for me to put the hand of the law on your shoul-

324

Matty's Christmas Present

der. Take this. It ain't much-a hundred or so,
bu .t s an I have by mc, an' it '11 help you along.
Saddle the roan mare. She ha^ Hamblotonian
blood, an will easily fetch a couple of hundred
when you re through with her."
But Walton quietly pushed away his hand
Too late boss! A neighbor of yours, a man
w.th whom I've clinked glasses in Willianiette, was
here this morning, an' I told him that Fd given
myself up. Besides," he paused, "that would be
mighty poor business for the sheriff of Willianiette
the man who busted up the Masters gang. Com-
pounding felony, ain't that what the law-sharps call
It? No, sirree! You couldn't do that sort of
thing if you tried. Go ahead an' pull the East-
emer's money."

The sheriff, however, was equally obstinate. "No
sir, It would burn my hands. As you say, I'm
the sworn servant of the people, an' as I'm not
equal to ray duty, but one thing remains " He
consulted his watch. "Half after three-just time
to change an' catch the west-bound freight at Will-
lamette. Will you hitch me the roan mare?"

The beast was tied to the snubbing-post long be-
fore the sheriff finished dressing; indeed, he was just
gettmg a "half-Nelson" on his collar when Matty

325

T II r, Probationer

came down-stairs and spoke to the cow-punchor.
Her voice easily penetrated the thin board partition,
and a largo knot-hole against the edge of his mirror
gave the sheriff a view of her face.
"Please," she said, "won't you go?"
"An' do you out of that party dress?" The par-
tition vibrated to his laugh; then came a sob, and
the sheriff saw the tears brimming, large and full,
in his daughter's ey^s.

"I was thinking- .)f that," she sobbed. "So —
heartless, but— I ciian't think!"
"'Course you didn't. There, there! Don't cry."
The hand that slipped out to take hers somehow
missed its aim and slid around her waist, and — she
did not draw back. Nay, her head lowered, and
she cried upon his shoulder. Gasping, the sheriff
lost his advantage over the collar. Here was a
complication! His mind refused to deal with it
until he caught a glimpse of Matty's face; then back
rolled the mists of more than twenty years, and he
saw his dead wife as she had looked when he asked
a certain question.

He deliberately fumbled the latch before stepping
out into the kitchen. "Going up to see the Gov-
ernor," he said, answering Matty's question. " I'll be
back on the midnight train." To which, looking at

336

■ji, I 1 1

Matty's Christmas Pre

SENT

Walton, he added, with a touch of grim humor, "I
s'pose there's n' hope of you escaping?"
"Nary!" the other grinned.

On that particular evening the private sanctum
of the Governor of Montana bore such a close re-
semblance to a toy-shop that the chief executive, a
grizzled old-timer, ordered his guest to be shown into
a room that should be more in keeping with the
State's dignity. But on recognizing the .sheriff, he led
him back into the heart of the .seasonable disorder.
"You have brats of your own. Jack," he .said,
accosting his visitor by the familiar title of the early
days; "but you won't get all that's in it till Matty
makes you a grandfather. How is she? And what
are you doing from home on Christmas eve?"

He whistled, and his grizzled brows drew down
when the sheriff told of the risk his girls had run,
but his eye twinkled at the close of the story.

"So the scapegrace refu.scs to run for it" he
laughed. "Well, I don't blame him; as for Matty
—takes a little after her mother, doesn't she, Jack?
You made a pretty quick business of it yourself, if
memory serves me. Now about this business of re-

327

lit

W'^.V

The Probationer

signing— you are taking altogether too serious a view
of it. Anxiety has knocked your nerve, and small
wonder. Just ease up a bit till you get your grip."

The sheriff shook his head.
"Now look at it straight," the Governor went on.
" If a jury of traders had got the boy after he shat-
tered the manager's dignity, he might have taken the
limit, but now the affair is regarded pretty much in
the light of a good joke. Why, the manager told it
on himself in a New York club the other day;
wouldn't sell the experience for five thousand. Of
course, it would have simplified matters if Walton
had turned Masters over to you, but I like him the
better for it. But let us have no more talk of resig-
nation. You need not shirk your duty. Just ar-
rest Walton, subpoena a cattle jury, and the fine
they'll give him won't knock much of a hole in the
manager's thousand."

"Look here—" the sheriff began.

"Just so," the Governor interrupted, "but if
things are as you think they are, don't you sup-
pose the young folks would like a little to start
housekeeping on? Besides"— he paused and sur-
veyed the sheriff with a twinkling eye— "you
wouldn't begrudge that Easterner the chance of
telling another on himself? Shut up, sir! We

32S

Matty's Christmas Present

have just time to slip out and buy that doll and
dress before the train pulls out."

Though it was midnight when the roan mare
puled up to the snubbing-post, Matty came running
out to greet the sheriff. Hor arms w.Te about his
neck before ho had half finished his news, and for a
minute thereafter he stood i„ imminent danger of
suffocafon. Fathers there are who would have ac-
cepted the cow-puncher's offer to stable the horse
but out of a consideration that had its roots in the
long past the sheriff refused.

And coming in from the stable he saw enough to
justify refusal. ^

It was not his fault. Matty had forgotten to pull
down the blinds. She was standing on a chair by
the Christmas-tree that the cow-puncher had sot
up the day before, and had just finished hanging
the big wax doll to the topmost bough. The cow-
puncher was handing her the bolt of silk.

"Just enough for a wedding-dress," he said
The sheriff did not hear the words, but he saw
the look, and-considerately turned his back

THE END