A FIGHT FOR LIFE
SYNOPSIS —Lee Anderson, Roy-
al Canadian Mounted Police ser-
geant, is sent to Stony Range to
arrest a man named Pelly for
murder. He is also instructed to
look after Jim Rathway, reputed
head of the “Free Traders,” illicit
liquor runners. At Little Falls
he finds Pelly is credited with
having found a gold mine, and
is missing. At the hotel appears
a girl, obviously out of place In
the rough surroundings. A half-
breed, Plerre, and a companion,
“Shorty,” annoy the girl An-
derson interferes in her behalf.
The girl sets out for Siston Lake,
which is also Anderson's objec-
tive. He overtakes her and the
two men with whom he had trou-
ble the night before. She is sus-
picious of him and the two men
are hostile. Plerre and Shorty
ride on, Anderson asd the girl
following. In the hills the road
is blown up before and behind
the two. Anderson, with his
horse, is hurled down the moun-
tain side, senseless Recovering
consciousness, Anderson finds
the girl has disappeared, but he
concludes she is alive and prob-
ably In the power of Plerre and
Shorty. On foot he makes his
way to Siston Lake Thera he
finds his companion of the day
bafore, and Rathway, with a girl,
Este'le, a former sweetheart of
Anderson's, who had abused his
confidence and almost wrecked
his life. Rathway strikes Estelle,
and after a fight Anderson, with
Estelle’'s help, escapes with the
girl Anderson's companion’s
mind 1s clouded and she is suf-
fering with a dislocated Knee,
Anderson sets the knee and
makes the girl as comfortable as
possible He has a broken rib
The two plan to make their way
to a Moravian mission, of which
Father McGrath has charge
Their acquaintance ripens Into
love The girl 1bers
her name is Joy Pelly She
daughter of the man Anderson
has been sent to arrest Torn
between her love for her father
and her regard for Anderson. the
girl practically drives him from
her In the forest Anderson
stumbles upon the entrance to a
gorge and is convinced he has
cated Pelly's
that
in
reme
mine
CHAPTER X—Continued
— ne
Lee saw that from the point
he was clinging,
a fairly descent to the
It was only the upper parts of the cliffs
in the gorge that were unscu
But he could go no further
Anxiety for Joyce was rising In him.
He was half afrald she might do
something rash.
CUsY bottom,
In some
associated
protecting
with Pelly ;
him. Suppose, then,
girl had gone to the Free
Traders headquarters on Siston lake?
Or fled into the storm in her frenzy?
Suppose they had been followe 1?
Lee remembered his fancy that had
seen an Indian watching them. The
Free Traders would surely have been
watching the trail at either end of the
lake, knowing that sooner or later they
must emerge out of the forests,
Then he remembered the shadow
the log house, and this specter
which he had disbelieved, now began
to assume in his mind a formidable
aspect, ,
Suddeniy, as Lee
heard a rumbling sound above his
head, and a moment later something
hurtled past it and smashed upon the
ground of the chasm. Looking down,
Lee saw the fraginents of an enor
mons boulder lying on the ground im-
mediately beneath him.
He had had a narrow escape. And
reluctantly he turned to re-enter the
tunnel. But before he had thrust his
head and shoulders in, there came an-
other rumble. And this thme it was
only the little projecting ledge above
his head that saved his life.
The bhduider struck the edge of It,
shot out Into the alr, and, just missing
him,
perhaps he was
the back
he
in
clung there, he
smashed to pieces below.
looked up, but the overhanging
elifts shut out the view of everything
except the overhanging bushes and the
sky.
Whether or not human agency was
responsible for the fall of the two
bonlders, It was certain that the tun
nel's mouth did not appear to be a
particularly healthy spot at that mo-
ment,
And Lee forced his head and shoul-
ders through, and groped for the rock
ladder within, bruising his thighs and
shins against the edges of the open-
ings. Extending his hands, he felt the
smooth surface of the water-worn, in-
terior wall. He grasped the ladder,
clung to It, pulled himself up,
found his footing.
And then of a sudden Lee had the
unmistakable instinct that he wus not
alone, There was another living thing
within the tunnel!
lee
i
than by the death of one of
them. It would be a sharp, relent
less struggle, In which Lee's disadvan-
tage lay in the fact that he could not
be the first to fire,
Lee called: “Is that you, Pelly? 1
want to talk to you!
No answer came.
eves upward through
Colors and wheels of
across his vision and went
“Pelly, listen to me!”
again. “You know what I've come
for. You've got no
way
He strained his
the darkness,
light flashed
out.
Lee tried
chance, Surren-
der, and you'll get falr treatment.”
Still no answer; and yet Lee could
feel that other human personality
close to him. He walted, baffled.
There was no way to move,
tically ;
treat for him.
walls were all about him.
nel was a straight, narrow
and down, from the rocking
above to that deadly drop below.
It was impossible
impossible to do anything except
clamber stiffly up those slippery rungs
of rock, expecting every Instant to
hear th# roar of Pelly’s pistol and to
receive the bullet in his breast.
was absurdity. And once again Lee
tried:
“Pelly,
you
The
shaft, up
better glve up.
Surrender
you'd
shoot from here,
and
He did not
us he clung
thing above
life, action,
its throat,
within the
wall
Wii,
end that sentence,
ng in a moment
1d materialized Into
and the =gound,
shaft, and deflected from
sounded like the roar of
monster,
body
some prehistoric
And a heavy
against him with a
him.
but
Lee
force that all
instant
his bal
a blow over the
For
an
struceled ta retain
trug i
and then the ere came
that knocked the wind out
onntered an
Within
knife
closed
SROrMMos
that hand
teaching
upon the
blade,
Lee's hi
at
ind en
yan his chest
the hilt of a
Lee's fingers
f a wide
y O
By
Victor Rousseau
(Copyright by W, (4. Chapman.)
WNU Bervice
beneath the stone. He flattened him-
self upon the ground and drew his aun-
tomatic. He fired one shot, and, be-
fore the echoes had died away, had
pushed the stone back and emerged,
pistol In hand.
to the dark of the tunnel. Outside ft
was melancholy twilight, Lee emerged
Into a solitary, snowbound
There was no sign of his antagonist,
within his
i KwWenNse of
Lee felt a
pI,
body
was stab. but
a
natant dendly
ness overcome |
and clutched
had torn the hand away,
knife. and hurled it down through
darkness of tunnel into the
i
Then he
for
foothold.
the
below
The he
the
Was
battle
tunnel
snes
next instant
most desperate
win through
bled into
He caught
hat clutched his body
to fling him down: and, ding
their knees and the two wrestled
in complete silence
It the
| Lee,
of his
the before
ny
nsel
nt
hol
feet,
Was a4 man thing that
but it more ike a
for the naked arms were covered
underneath which the
over each other like
lee was no match in
he could only cling on like
grim death, feeling his lungs constrict
under that pressure, and expecting ev-
ery moment to feel his Injured rib
crack In his side
His left hand encountered a groove
in the rocky rung above him. and,
gripping it, determined that nothing
should tear his hold away, with his
fist he began hammering his as
sallant's face and body Incessantly.
His blo®%s rebounded from the great
chest ns if it were of rubber, and each
blow =ent the breath Issuing hoarsely
from tHe lungs with raucous wheezing
that filled the tunnel,
If the could have got Lee's
left hand, he might have torn him
from his hold, but, as if unaware of
his hold; his assailant put all his
strength into the endeavor to force
breath from his body and twist him
backward: while Lee, clinging on des
perately, continued to batter the face
and body.
Although it was impossible to draw
back his arm far enough to cColiver
a blow with full force, Lee's lower
position gave him the advantage of
equipoise over his strange assailant,
and enabled him to administer fear
ful punishment,
For a minute or two It was proble.
matic whether Lee could withstand the
The
great shoulders swung Lee from side
to side In the shaft ilke a child, and
ill the while Lee, believing hi nself
seriously, If not fatally wounded,
seemed
ster,
moved
steel bands.
other
cept for the faintest reflection from
the interior of the gorge, which filtered
up from below, and though Lee could
presence; by some inner sense that
was not hearing, he felt the rhythmical
pulsations of Its life,
And It was a human being. Lee felt
ward him, instinctively he knew the
imminence of an encounter under con-
ditions more nerve-racking than any
he bad ever experienced. He knew
for sure now that the fall of the two
boulders had been no accident,
le had been watched, he had heen
seen to enter, and that watcher meant
to fight him to the death,
course it was Pelly!
He did not relish the prospect of a
struggle with the erazed old man, one
slileh could hardly end In any other
of a piston, dashing his fists into his
opponent's face untii at last groans be-
gan to burst from the other,
Then, feeling the clutch relaxing,
Lee let go his hold, and, standing
straight up on the rung, brought both
fists Into play. No human being could
have stood up against that fearful
punishment. Lee's fists were wet with
blood. The grasp about him relaxed.
He redoubled the fury of his blows
His assailant was gone, Faintly
Lee heard the scraping of his feet on
‘ke upper ledges of the rock ladder,
Then, feeling cautiously above him,
tee continned his ascent, until at
fength there came a tiny glimmer of
light from above, changing into a sud-
den glare as of high noon,
The tunnel was empty.
The glare decreased to a glimmer.
ree understood what it meant. His as
sallant had tilted back the rocking
stone and fled.
tn another moment or two Lee was
|
present.
Lee looked down at the fragments
expect
blood.
# thin
tore the rag
to find himself soaked In
He
open.
There
skin from
a
culls
scratch on ft
hut
was only a
the knife-point,
spreading brulse——under
of hair, In which
blade had become entangled
blow, struck Immediately
would have killed him
for that, Lee ralsed the
to ps And
tenderness
his
the
was
thick Joyce's
The
the heart,
but
reverently his
feeling of
he hegan to make
twilight
in
{tresses
a deep
girl,
through the toward
house
He torn
for her and speculation as to his assail
His first thought had been that
was Pelly But now he be
gan to doubt this. An old man might
had his assaliant's strength--he
not have had the
stronger still was
that monstrois form
him In the shaft
been the father of
who Pelly new
mine?
was hetwesn
endurance
tut the conviction
which }
could never
Joyee
Yet
the
but the ret
wen
‘he problem was at
i but
with It the fear that
heen at
present
its consideration brought
Lee
the
tneked as well
rough
quickened
his footsteps th
He Flattened Himself on the Ground
and Drew His Automatic.
which was now subsiding,
snow still fell steadily.
himself bitterly for
girl. Surely the strength of that
and tenderness he felt toward
would reach her, and she
respond !
And he planned what he would say
to her. He would advise her that it
though the
having left
would
receive anything but a nominal sen.
tence, that he might even go free, that
in the absence of witnesses a convie-
tion might prove impossible. His best
course would be to surrender. Lee
began to grow more hopeful
The log house came Into sight,
standing bare and bleak in the snowy
wildernéss, There was no light within,
Lee's alarm Increased. He hurried
to the door He called, but no
answer came. He struck a match,
By the tiny light he saw that the
kitchen and the adjacent room were
empty.
And he began going from room to
room, striking matches and ealling
her, and knowing all the while the fu.
tility of it. Joyce was not in the
house.
She had fled Into the snow, and,
encounter, Lee had no alternative but
to take up the quest. She could not
have gone far, but she must have been
in a state of desperation to have gone
out into that storm. Which way? The
falling snow had surely long since ob-
literated her footprints.
He made his way down toward the
trall beside the river. Only two ways
were possible: one ran toward the
mission, nine or ten miles away, the
Free Traders’ headquarters.
But suddenly Lee's hopes and
spirits leaped up confidently. Stoop-
ing, he traced the tracks of a sleigh
along the trall, It had been drawn by
a single horse, and It was going in
the direction of the mission,
There & only one reasonable in-
ference. Father MeGrath must have
been passing, perhaps he had mel
Joyce, and he had taken her with him
{ Lee
diately.
WHS
i
i took up the long walk imme
| The snow was deep, progress
difficult without gnowshoes,
the frost had already crusted the sur-
{| face, so that his feet sank In cum-
| brously at every step. But
| load was removed from his mind; the
[Hutu now looked roseate,
At last the mission came
a group of log huts clustered about
a larger one on a low elevation, sur
{ rounded by the forest. Lights gleamed
| pleasantly inside them. A horse
| nelghing In some stables, Over
largest hut a wooden
| ngainst the background of the sea-gray
sky.
the
Lee strode up the ascent,
a8 to which hut to approach,
| resolute for a in
nt the crest the
us he
stood Ir
the open
Hetle hill
moment
space of
| Then, wilted, the
them was Hung open, and a man
{ mackinaw and lomberman’s
{ stepped out toward him Under his
he held a rifle He presented it
hools
{ arm
ut
{ He looked to be
| age, or a little older
fare
Lee's breast
nbout fifty
He
as
years of
had a round
fn
A sliver cross hung
mackinaw. A Jolly ng
but the within the face
steel-gray and jee He
distant,
domned
“or I'll
{ smooth
incipient paunch
from
an soft babe's,
his
priest ;
Were
looki
eyes
cold
Iwo
stopped pees
“Take off,
'rader,” he
yersel'
sn bed
into Kingdom
CHAPTER XI
“If You Find Ly Father”
foe poke
Miss Pelly
“Aye,
But
ve
softly
Come!”
Free
blow
Ver
qt ile
ye want te
canna
SE
yo gee her
’
ne on, Ye swine of
he shouted, hran
dishing his fists
[ow
"Ot ect
flung up hi
himself
that
s arm just
ARninst
have
in time to
straight
knocked him
moment Fa Mi
locked ar him,
in a
a
would
Next
were
if
| senseless ther
Grath's arms und
holding him vise
“Will ye tak’ yersel
| tempted forget
father panted.
“Father McGrath
“I'l ha'
{ Dest
an
awa’ hefore
my calli
I'm
to ng?" the
no dea
of ineequity
the Free Trade
o h I'll send
before jour time,
{ dilng wi’
“I've
ling wi ye
I'm no
ra that Iver come on
nl Your
afeard of
ye kK to the de'll
if
bie
you oome fev
my meesion
made my compact wi
I'd mak’ a
himself, to
Mebbe ye're a
remember
ye of it Ye're to be
| peddle your filthy
weel-—aye, an’ 1 dinna the guid
Lord wull score It again ye too, for
{ shamin’ His good corn whuskes
| meexin’ In your feeithy wood
i the way ye ye can peddle
| whur ye but ye'll leave
Insses and weans alone, I'l
Siston lake too hot to hold ye."
“Father McGrath—" Lee tried again
“Will ye fight, mon to mon, ye
donned Free Trader? Will
or wrestle wi’ me?”
“I'd be glad to, Father, but just now
one of my ribs is broken. When 1 get
better, perhaps-
Father McGrath released
“Ye're speakin’ the truth? Well,
tak yersel' off. Ye canna see
Pelly
A light footstep sounded beside him
| Joyce stood there,
| her.
“1 came to make sure you were safe.
Joyee—" Loe held out his arms
“Dinna speak to him, Mees Pelly. 1
understan’ he's helped ye there's
good in the wursst of us—but he'll
get around ye, Mees Pelly, Go back!”
“Father, there's something I want to
say to him,” Joyce answered In a low
voice,
“Aye, but he's got a smooth tongue,
and the stomp of Ineequity hasn't come
upon his face yet. Ye wouldna theenk
he'd sold hisself to his maister. If
ye must speak to him, I'll just stand
by, and If 1 see he's getting ‘round ye
I'll send him aboot his business”
With which the doughkty father took
up his post just out of hearing, glar
yOu
{ maisier, as wi
| the
| bairns
i don't
mind
compact
evil one protect my
new
I'i re
free to
whauar
your face—8sn
liquors
doot
ye
Fs
please,
or
mak
Ye
him
Mees
aye,
taneous intervention.
forward.
“Lee, I--I'm sorry for what 1 sald
to you this afternoon. It was partly
the shock of awakening, 1 think, 1
wis unjust to you, and unjust, too, in
coming here without trying to get
word to you. 1 owe you a great deal
I accept your word that when you met
me In the range you did not know who
I was that you did not pursue my
acquaintance because 1 was the
daughter of the man whom it was your
duty to apprehend. I--[ bear you no
fil-will for having to do your duty.”
“Then, Joyce—"
“But,” she said solemnly, “you will
see how my father's safety, perhaps
his life, stands between us, We can
only be enemies-at least, until"
“That's what I wanted to speak
about,” sald Lee. "As I understand it,
this killing was committed years ago,
a whole generation ago. It was more
or less Justified, If your father Is
brought to trial and convicted, It will
almost certainly be for manslaughter.
:
His sentence will be a nominal one,
| Quite probably it will be Impossible to
produce the witnesses required to eon-
viet at all, In such case he will go
free,
“He He
best
har acted llladvisedly,
{ should never have fled, His
| course will be to surrender. He will
t ind himself free man in a little
while, Instead of a hunted outlaw.
{ Will you unite with me In persuading
him to surrender?’
She shook her head, “We always
| told him that—my mother and 1.” she
answered, “But the thing had crazed
{ him, he hated civilization after it hap
| pened. He was insane upon sub
fect He will never surrender
‘Let me try to picture to
happened, and the treachery
that have
When my
came here
I was horn here
were
and
af the
i
that
you what
and faith.
pursued
the
lessness always
father fled
and settled w
from
he ith
For a
My fa
this
ms
mother iong
time we very ther
in
ri
hapyy
those days
hest fur
trapped, Was
| one districts In
{ Canada
“Bit my fathe
find in Was
hafing against He always
cherished the hope me day to
th
an educated
his
always
take
HE sou where
Then
ould educated
properly in an evii » fan
cled he had
“It hee
would tell nd
weoversd a
with
where it x
Id seers
fine a ma
y one ;
ant
Jacques Leboeuf,
| he try
#n o
They
and work It together
talking about
wl, He wanted
it
always afral(
and
and ns
vr and
ved
sted
| night
| was al
y | had
{the mi
WAYS
collects
ne, to sell
the was
covered,
off
he put
jther my
heel
h my father saved
vengeance He took
protected him
ways searching for it,
Lehoeuf
nce
father nor would
he tried
and Leboeuf had him by
throat and id have killed him
my father had not intervened
it
aon them,
where Was wp
the
wi
time
“My mother
| fat and consequential,
| helj my father with his traps,
{ though for a lk my fat}
not know it, continued debauch
Indians with his When |
a girl of seventeen THD
t He
know mut
died Rathway g
lived fue
wi}
mg time
whisky. wii
he he
: sald he
I didn’t h ab
I knew
ro
nt
Then one
the wos
in fr Hn
protect 1
ame
me to
i shot
“He
| through the
Rathwas
plming
heart,
ough
again to
for he wi
anger roused
standing facing him
his arm dripping blood, coolly told him
he knew thal my father
mitted one murder already,
was shoo
8 ferribi
when
with
{ when his was
lathway,
had
and
COT
that
writ-
ten down and left for safety with a
| friend in the south. The change in my
| father was dreadful. He dropped his
rifle, he seemed almost demented. His
| fears for my future, conflicting with
his fears for the present and his fears
of Rathway, broke will
“After that, Rathway stayed on and
and. they were always talking to-
gether, and Rathway threatened my
father, but still my father refused to
show him the mine, in spite of his
threats. My father wanted all of the
his
“Once Leboeuf came to my father
offered to kill Rathway, but my
father refused. and Lebouef, who was
never thought of dis
his strict command
“That happened before the Free
Traders were organized in Montreal,
but already the hooch sellers were
getting together. They had estab
lished a number of posts, one of them
at Lake Misquash, miles awgy, 4a
week's journey north of here. Rath-
way went to Lake Misquash to confer
with them. As soon as he was gone,
my father seized the opportunity to
send me away south te a convent, to
be educated.
obeying
Here's the big question. Will
it separate the lovers, in spite of
their love?
(TO RE CONTINUED.)
Growth of Jellyfish
The manner in which a jellyfish pro-
duces its “children” is really wonder
ful.
ih most cases the beginning is an
egg. which, lying on the bottom, pro
duces a beautiful tree-like growth, The
“tree” fastens Itself to the bettom and
brings forth buds which, when ripe,
drop off and develop Into jellyfish. The
latter, in turn, lny eggs and the process
is repeated, as told in London Tit-Bits.
Most of the very large species have
a different way of reproducing them:
selves. The egg Is set free In the water
and develops into a pear-shaped Inrvae,
which for. a while swims about rapidly,
being provided with halrlike append
Then the larvae settles down, anchors
itself to the bottom, Increases in size
rapidly and finally splits up Into thin,
flat discs which swini off and grow ap
into large jollyfishes,
Say ‘Bayer Aspirin”
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Handy “Bayer” boxes of 12
Also bottles of 24 and 100—~Druggista
Aspirin is the trade merk of Barer Many
facture of Motnegoeticacidester of Ballcylicacd
FOR OVER
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GO} iD oIL J 4
CEEESETR Fn
c
Bayer package
ns
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correct internal troubles, stimulate vital
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an the original genuine Goro MepaL.
PORTER 'S
Pal 7) Kin:
Ship Without a Rivet
An oll tanker In one
its hull plates or a bolt
firat one ever built
United States
met!
| pa
not
plex ¢, wit
a rivet in its
tee] frame
the
elding
in Providence,
Monthly
by
the
tric
ent
ninr
en
together
angle
by the elec
was nuached red
R. 1. says Po
Terri ly
electricity fu
yond
ly
Sclence
erated
1
the
weer)
sheets of steel and
in the
heavy
iron tanker's frame
Ambition and
actions
jove are the wings of
NE S:
»
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) BE under weight ofien proves
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It often means you are minus nerve
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it, too, all over your body. More red.
blood-cells! 8. 8. 8 will build them,
’ 8 8 8 is sold at all good
drug stores in two sizes. The
larger sige is more economical
YVree Dookiet
Send names and
address to 8 8 8.
Co, 111 8 & 8
Bidg.. Atlanta,
Ga. for special
booklet on Lhe
Blood.
NIFNER'S RING sHOP
$14 Utah Street twiede,
Bm A So
W. N. U. BALTIMORE, NO. 22.1828.