Dewalt Bellefonte, Pa., October 10, 1913. w—— and got lost in the flats. 'Tis a wild | country, rimmed by high mountains, | full of niggerheuds and tundra, with | the river winding clean back to the 1 run out of ' Rex Beach Adventure Stories Wtiere Northern Lights Come Down o’ Nights By REX BEACH i i Copyright by McClure, Phillips & Co. 1 i HE mission house at Togiak stands forloruly on a wind swept Alaskan spit, while hud- dled around it a swarm of dirt | covered iginos grovel in an ecstasy of | abasement Many uvatives crawied out of these aad stared across the bay as down a gully came au arctic caravan, men and dogs. black against the deadly whiteness. Ahead swung the guide, straddling awkwardly on his five foot webs, while the straining pack pat- tered at his heels. Big George. the driver. urged them with strong words, idioms of the uortbland. aud bis long whip bit sharply at their legs His companion. clinging tf the sled, stumbled uow aud then, while nis face, splitting from the snap of the frost, was smothered iv 4 muffler Some times he fell, plunging into the snow, rising painfully and groaning with the misery of “snow blindness.” “Most there vow, Cap your grit.” “I'm all cight," answered the af- flicted man wearily. “Don't mind me.” George, too, had suffered from the sheen of the unbroken whiteness, and, while his eyes had uot wholly closed, be saw but dimly. His cheeks were grease smeared and blackened with charred wood to break the snow glare, but through his ask showed sigus of suffering, while his bloodshot eyes dripped scalding tears ana throbbed distressfully. For days he had not dared to lose sight of the guide. Once be bad caught him sueaking the dogs away, and be feared he had killed the man for a time Now Jaska broke trail abead. his sullen, swollen fea- tures baleful in thelr injury Down the steep bauk they slid, across the humped up sea ire at the river mouth and into the village At the greeuug of their guide to his tribesmen George started Twelve years of coast life bad taught him the dialect from Point Barrow south. and bie glanced at Captain to find whether be, too, had heard the message As Jaska handed a lisman to the chief he strode to bim and suatehed it "Oho! It's Father Orloff, is it? D— him!" He gazed at the token, a white spruce chip with strange marks and carvings. “What does It mean, George? said the blind man. “I's a long story, Charlie. and black. You should have known it be fore we started. I'm a marked man in this coast country It's Orloff's work, the renegade! ‘Father,’ te calls bim- self—-father to these devils be rules and robs for bimself iu the name of the church. His bate is bitter, and he'd have my life If these watery liv- ered curs didn't dread the sound of my voice. God help bim when we meet!” He shook his hairy claws at the hos- tlle circle, then cried to the chief in the native tongue: “Oh. Shaman! We come bleeding and hungry Hunger grips us, and our bones are stiff with frost. The light is gone from my brother's eyes, and we are sick. Open you the door to the mission house that the *Minoks' may rest and grow strong.” The indiaus clustered before the portal, with its rude cross above, and stared malignanty while the chief spoke At the vame of his enemy the ausightly eyes of George gleamed. and te growled contemptuously, advancing among them. They scattered ar the manner of his coming. sud he struck the padlocked door till ft rattled stiff. ly. Then. spying the cross overhead, fe lifted up and gripped the wood. It