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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 
 

 Copyright, rgo^, by Hakppr & liRDTHSRS. 
 j4// righli rtitr^ld. 
 
 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 
 
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 
 
 4 
 
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 
 
 5 
 
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." 
 
 II 
 
 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 
 
 13 
 
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 
 
 15 
 
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 
 
 16 
 
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. ^ 
 
 17 
 
 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- 
 
 19 
 
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. ' 
 
 21 
 
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. 
 
 23 
 
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. 
 
 IV 
 
 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 
 
 2S 
 
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- 
 
 29 
 
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 
 
 30 
 
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 
 
 32 
 
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. 
 
 33 
 
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 
 
 37 
 
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 ;° "" 
 
 3S 
 
 .'«''■• 
 
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, 
 
 40 
 
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 
 
 41 
 
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 
 
 42 
 
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." 
 
 44 
 
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 
 
 45 
 
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- 
 
 46 
 
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 
 
 47 
 
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— 
 
 48 
 
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 
 
 SI 
 
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, 
 
 56 
 
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 
 
 61 
 
! 
 
 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 
 
 C3 
 
I: 
 
 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" 
 
 64 
 
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 
 
 I 
 
 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- 
 
 81 
 
 I 
 
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, 
 
 82 
 
TilE Mr 
 
 n C Y OF THE F 
 
 Host 
 
 J 
 
 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 
 
 m 
 
 II 
 
 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 
 
 85 
 
 I li 
 
T HE P R O H A T 1 () \ K n 
 
 m 
 
 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 
 
 88 
 
 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 ' 
 
 U9 
 
T II E P II () 11 A T I O N E H 
 
 •1^ 
 
 If 
 
 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. 
 
L: 
 
A DRUMMER OF THE QUEEN 
 

 I, 
 
 i 
 
 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 
 
 95 
 
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- 
 
 98 
 
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 
 
 99 
 
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 
 
i 
 
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 
 
 !^! 
 
 II 
 
 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 
 
 i 
 
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!) 
 
 w 
 
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 
 
i 
 
 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° 
 
 I 
 
 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 
 
li 
 
 w 
 
 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." 
 
 II 
 
 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 
 
 
m 
 
 m 
 
 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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 Hi 
 
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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 
 
 m 
 
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 
 
 I 
 
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-*^' 
 
li 
 
 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 
 
 le 
 
 
 r- 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 he 
 
 
 as 
 
 
 of 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 en 
 
 
 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 
 
 Si 
 
 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 
 
 li 
 
 '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 
 
 iM 
 
 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 
 
 m 
 
 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 
 
 Hi 
 
 ) : 
 
 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 
 
 I, 
 
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 : 
 
W' 
 
 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 ! 
 
 H 
 
A SLIP OF THE NOOSE 
 
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 « 
 
 Wl 
 
 
 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 
 
A 
 
 '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 
 
 i! 
 
 ■.| 
 
 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 
 
M 
 
 
 ii? 
 
 :i • 
 
 ■mr.WKm^'T.2 
 
MATTY'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT 
 
 m 
 
m 
 
 mhi 
 
 HI 
 
 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 
 
M 
 
 ATTy's ClIlilSTMAS PheseNT 
 
 i 
 
 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 
 
 I 
 
 ;-• ' Iff 51-*3»3J 
 
The 1' n (1 II a t I o n f. n 
 
 li 
 
 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 
 
 1 
 
 ■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 
 
 II 
 
 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 
 
 ^W 
 
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! 
 
 IV 
 
 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. 
 
I 
 
 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. 
 
 VI 
 
 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