By ROBERT
AMES
BENNET
WNU Service
Copyright by Robert Ames Bennet
ERROR ART
SYNOPSIS
As Alan Garth, prospector, is prepar-
Ing to leave for his mining claim in
the Far North, & plane lands at the
Airways emergency station. In it are
Burton Ramil], millionaire mining mag-
nate: his daughter, Lilith; and Vivian
Huxby, pllot and mining engineer. Be-
lieving him to be only an ignorant
prospector, the men offer to make an
alr trip to Garth's claim, although they
refer to his samples of platinum-bear-
Ing ore as nearly “worthless,” Lilith
Ramill, product of the jazz age, plainly
shows contempt for Garth, Through
Garth's guidance the plane soon
reaches the olaim site. Huxby and Ram-
ill, after making several tests, assure
Garth his claim is nearly valueless, but
to “encourage” young prospectors they
are willing to take a chance in invest.
ing a small amount. Sensing treachery
ahead, Garth secretly removes a part
from the motor of the plane. Huxby
and Lilith taunt Garth, but their tone
scon changes when they try to start
the plane. Returning to shore they try
to force Garth to give up the missing
part. Garth manages to set the mono-
plane adrift and the current carries it
over the falls. He points out that he
fs their only hope in guiding them out
of the wilderness. Garth begins the
work of preparing for the long journey.
He insists that the others help. Ramill
and his daughter must be hardened for
the hardships ahead in thelr trek to
the outpost on the Mackenzie. Garth
experiences difficulties In getting his
companions into line. An experience
with a bear helps. Returning from a
long sleep in the woods, Garth finds
the party has stolen the tea and sugar
he has been saving for emergencies.
He makes no objection, simply pointing
out that he is accustomed to a strict
meat diet, and that they are hurting
only themselves. The work of getting
ready for the trip continues. Huxby
refuses to help, and works on the min-
ing claim. Garth stores food In an ice
cave,
CHAPTER VI—Continued
an)
“You'll have two more days for it,"
Garth told him. “Only don't forget
that an alloy of platinum and gold
weighs more than lead. You'll be tot-
ing my 60 per cent, along with the 40
for yourself and Mr. Ramill. If you
hide the loot in your pockets, you'll
go down like a shot, first time you slip
into a muskeg pool or quagmire. Think
of the all-around calamity that would
mean. You'd lose your life, Mr. Ramil
would lose his Man Friday, Miss Lilith
her flance, and I—-I'd lcse my 60 per
cent.”
Mr. Ramill interposed: “It's no joke,
Vivian. I've seen a strong swimmer
sunk by the gold In his money-belt. A
bag can be thrown off the shoulders.
Another thing, Garth is to recelve his
three-fifths of whatever you have
panned out. That Is understood.”
“It was his bargain,” Huxby replied.
He went to gorge on the leg of carl-
bou that Garth had roasted over the
fire on a twist-thong of rawhide. When
he could eat no more, he hastened
back to the placer trough to resume
his panning.
The others had already feasted upon
the tender venison, that was self-bast-
ed In its delicious fat. Lilith and her
father had helped Garth pack it, with
more meat and the skins, down the
long slope from the glacier.
Before sundown, Garth set several
rawhide snares, each attached to a
pair of downbent saplings. For bait,
ha used raw pleces of caribou flesh,
The beasts of the valley had never
been trapped. When, at sunrise, he
went the rounds of his snares, he col.
lected a lynx, two red foxes, a wolver-
ine, and a wolf.
Garth did not reset the snares. He
had more skins than he needed. From
the wolf-hide he made a knapsack for
Huxby. The fox skins furnished small
er bags for Mr. Ramill and Lilith.
At the second sunrise, Garth bun-
dled the lynx and wolverine pelts and
a quantity of catgut with the carl
bou skins,
Huxby eyed the bundle Ironieally.
“Mr. Ramill teld me about your carl.
bou parka talk. I take it, you alm
to go back and live among the Eskl
mos.”
“lI might do worse,” Garth replied.
“Here's your wolf packbag. Load our
metal, and slant up from the placer.
We'll meet you at the glacier.”
At Mr. Ramil's nod, the engineer
took the knapsack and started off.
Garth put the small aluminum pot and
the tin cup In the millionaire's bag.
He drew his blanket from the leanto
to strap it on his pack-board with the
bundle of skins,
Lilith Ramill erept Into the leanto
for the last time. She came out with
the pouches of salt and tea. Neither
had Been opened since Garth put them
in her care, after the wasteful eating
up of all the sugar,
Her worn boots lay at the foot of
the leanto, She had on her moose.
hide moccasins and Iynx-skin leggings,
As she backed from under the low roof
she picked up the boots and eyed them
with amused contempt, They had been
fit only for show, not for use. But
when she flung them down, Garth
added them to his pack, along with the
last small pleces of the moose hides,
“We might sew on rawhide soles”
he said. *“Now-—all set. How about
you, mates? Ready to hit the trall?”
. The girl showed the whisky flask
at he had left In her father's care.
It was full of fly dope—spruce pitch
mixed with caribou tallow. She put
the flask into her foxskin bag, along
with the pouches of tea and salt,
Mr. Pamill was already walking off.
A
Garth had made a tump-line for his
pack. As he fitted the band across his
forehead and stood up, rifle in hand,
he glanced over his shoulder at the
girl,
She turned and met his glance. Her
lips curled in thelr old scornful smile,
“What are you walting for? Aren't
we ever to get out of this beastly val-
ley?”
He started off without any reply but
with a glow of exultance under his
outward show of indifference, Lilith
Ramill thought she was about to
escape from the Wild,
He had promised to gulde them all
to the Mackenzie. The probabilities
were now In favor of even her father
making it. The girl would go back to
what she called civilization—to luxury
and self-indulgence, to jazz and night-
clubs—the vapid pursuit of sensation.
Yet a part of her would linger be-
hind In this lost valley of the deso-
late subarctic Rockies. She had eaten
of wild meat; she had smelled the tang
of smoke from man's first friend, the
camp fire. She had come face to face
with the Primitive—and had lived It.
The real woman of her had awak-
ened—had thrust aside the superficial
self whose world was made up of artl-
ficlality and dissipation. She had been
compelled to face the raw realities of
Life. And there were weeks more of
it to come,
Fortunately, she had already been
hard. Now she was fit. Under the
smear of mosquito dope, the lines had
smoothed from her face. The drawn
look had disappeared. Instead of the
scarlet of rouge, her lips were cherry
red with healthy natural color. She
had gained weight. Her body now
looked lean rather than emaciated.
As Garth overtook the girl's father,
he eyed him with a smaller yet no less
genuine satisfaction. For every pound
gained by the daughter, the father had
been rid of three or more. Though
still far from hard, the millionaire had
worked and sweat Into vastly Wetter
condition than at the start of his
training.
Huxby did not come Into sight. out
of the placer trough, until the others
were well up the tundra slope, half-
way to the glacler. That gave Garth
an excuse to tell Lilith to ease her
father along while Huxby was closing
up with them,
Garth himself swung briskly ahead,
So far, nothing had been sald to Hux-
by about the cave In the ice
tunnel of the glacier stream. He knew
only that the caribou carcasses had
been put on ice,
he one thing of which Garth felt
most certain regarding the engineer
was that he would never give over try-
to get the platinum placer until
every possible scheme had been balked.
Mr. Ramill might quit. He already
possessed a fortune,
But Huxby was still a relatively
poor man, and he had now made core
tain that the placer was worth at
least § million dollars. Behind his
polished front, he was no less un-
scrupulous than his millionaire part
ner, and he was absolutely cold-
blooded.
Among the cards that the future
was to deal in the game, the ice cave
might prove to be anything from a
two-spot to an ace. If the play should
shift back to the valley, a cache full
of meat would most benefit the player
who knew about it. No less so, the
caribou skins. In any event, it would
do no harm and might prove of ad-
vantage to leave Huxby in doubt re-
garding the location of the cache.
Lilith made the last climb to Garth
without effort. But Huxby plodded
up almost as winded as Mr. Ramill
He lowered from his shoulders the
small but heavy load in hls wolfskia
knapsack. The chunks of frozen carl
bou meat beside the bulky blanket.
wrapped bundle on Garth's packboard
drew his displeased attention.
“You can't expect me to carry any
of that venison. I'm no pack jack of
the woods. Forty pounds is quite
enough to sult me.”
Garth hefted the wolfskin sack.
“My guess is forty-five. Figuring
roughly, that makes forty-one troy
k pounds, or four, ninety-two troy ounces,
Call 1t five hundred even. Platinum
Is around sixty dollars an ounce troy.
The values of the alloy will average
at least thirty, That gives us a total
of say, fifteen thousand dollars. Not
80 bad for a few days’ panning.”
Huxby's face showed that this was
no news to him. For all his cool self-
control, his fingers clutched tight
hold of the wolfskin as he drew It out
of Garth's careless grasp.
Ever since coming into the valley
he had spent the greater part of every
long day scratching spots all over the
great placer clalm and panning sam-
ples of the gravel. Fifteen thousand
dollars was no fortune. But if a few
score panfuls of grassroot dirt could
yield that amount, there could be no
doubt of the vast treasure beneath.
Even If bedrock lay at a shallow
depth, the platinum placer was worth
at least a million dollars.
Though Garth smiled at the engl
neer's betrayal of cupidity, he took
note of it as an additional warning,
He had sald that Huxby was a com-
monplace wolf. But any wolf is apt to
be deadly when ravenous,
cache
ing
Garth's sideward glance caught an
amused twinkle in Mr, Ramiil’s shrewd
eyes. The hard training had put the
millionaire in better health than he
probably had enjoyed for many years.
Also, his mind was bigger and better
poised than that of his prospective
son-in-law. He could smile with Garth
over Huxby's obsession—smile and
put aside all thought of the placer
until in a position to take it from its
discoverer,
Lilith saw the situation from a
still different angle. She opened the
wolfskin sack to peer inside. At sight
of the nodules, she dropped the flap,
with a look of disgust. Mere value
meant nothing to her. The alloy
looked dull and uninteresting.
“Worth only fifteen thousand dol-
lars™ she bantered her flance. “You've
dug dirt all this time for a trifle like
that, and lugged it all the way up
here. Don't tell me you're so dumb
that you p:an to pack it for the weeks
Alan says we'll need to get back to
the Mackenzie, Forty-five pounds of
that stuff—how silly! From what
Alan told us, we may have all we can
do to carry ourselves on this cross-
country hike
“With my blanket and the
that's In it, I'm starting off with some-
think like two hundred pounds,” Garth
sald, “Game was scarce on the other
side of the pass when I went out the
other time, The weight of our metal
in meat may be worth more than the
fifteen thousand dollars. Let Huxby
choose which he prefers to pack.”
The engineer compromised by shov-
ing one of the twenty-pound chunks of
caribou meat Into the sack, on top of
the metal. This left a second chunk
of equal weight. Lilith bent over to
put it In her own sack.
“Lay off," sald Garth,
cholce. Besides,
neat
“It 1s his
frozen meat soon
“Alan Garth, You're a Man"
spolls when It thaws.
dian file. Here goes.”
He backed up to his boulder.
perched pack, slipped the tump-line
over his forehead, and started up the
great cleft as If his 200-pound pack
weighed no more than Huxby's 65
pounds of meat and metal
He halted only when the other men
were compelled to stop for breath.
Huxby, though carrying a load only
a third the welght of Garth's, had
soon begun to strain and puff as hard
as Mr. Ramill. He was larger than
Garth and seemingly stronger-museled,
But he lacked Garth's wind and en-
durance and the knack of back-pack-
ing. At every halt he sank down on
the ice or a moraine stone, panting,
Garth merely eased his back-break-
ing pack upon a boulder, slipped the
tump-line from his forehead, and walt-
ed for the other men to recover. Lil
ith Ramill's pack was too light to
hamper her, She climbed with the
agility of a goat,
In places the pitch of the glacler
became too steep for ordinary climb-
ing. Garth had to draw his belt-ax
and chop foot holds, The last of these
steep rises was far up towards the
head of the pass.
The remaining distance to the sum-
mit was not so steep, and there were
no dangerous crevasses, Garth made
the climb at a swinging pace. He was
halfway down before he met Huxby
plodding slowly upwards with Mr.
Ramill. The engineer looked at him
with cold-eyed rancor,
Mr. Ramill panted a wistful ques-
tion: *Wh-when-—do we-—eat?”
“At the top. Take your time”
Lilith had chosen to walt for Garth
down where he had left them all. His
pack lay on the snow below the boul
der upon which he had set it. She
pointed her slender finger at the fallen
bundle,
“1 tried to find out If you were lying
about the weight. I couldn't even lift
one end. But you see how the top of
the stone slopes. The beastly toning
slid ofr.”
“That's all right, Miss Ramil. Easy
enough to up-end It again”
“Easy!” Her blue eyes glowed with
an odd light. “You carried Dad back
Fall into In-
to camp that day.
hill,
all the way up here!
you're a man!”
“Well, it's a bit of a stiff pull-up ™
he admitted. “But we'll soon
the downslope.
knapsack,
bou meat.”
The girl whom her own father could
not command met the order with a
cheerful nod.
up the gap. Garth's steady climbing
brought him to the top of the pass a
few paces behind Huxby and Mr.
Ramil. Lilith was sprinkling salt on
slices of the raw meat,
The pass was barren even of carl-
bou moss. The meat had to be eaten
cold or uncooked, or not at all, Six
hours had passed since the party left
the camp in the valley bottom, After
the long, hard climb, even the girl was
hungry enough to have eaten rawhide.
The caribou meat was tender, and the
first taste of salt since the party had
come to the valley turned the meal
into a feast,
Less than half of the 20-pound chunk
of caribou remained by the time even
Mr. Ramil found could eat no
more,
All were
and rest that
Garth gave the word to start on. There
would be no more slogging wup-hill,
with lungs bellowsing for alr. One
would only have to hold back.
jut that rub—the holding
back. The south side of the pass was
far steeper than the north, and there
was no glacier to offer stretches of
smooth footing, The bed of the sharp
iy ted cleft frequently dropped over
small cliffs. Between these high ledges
slides of frostshattered rocks.
Patches of lee here and there made the
¥e
fo
But it was down-
Go up and slice that cari-
he
so refreshed by the food
no one objected when
was the
were
ting doubly treacherous.
In places Garth had to drop his pack
down before him. Not infrequently,
even Lilith had to be given a hand
down slippesy chutes, or caught In
Garth's arms Huxby
lowered her off the edge of a sharp
drop. Still oftener, her father had to
be helped by both Garth and Huzxby.
{TO BE CONTINUED)
upraised when
Shovel-Tusked Elephants
Used Big Jaws as Dredge
Nature never made any real me-
chanical steamshovels except indirect
iy through her agent, man, bt
000 years ago, before the Gobl desert
had reached Its present barrenness and
before man had put In his appearance
on earth, she had a creation far more
remarkable. It was an animated
dredge—a great elephant whose tusks
had taken the form of shovels extend.
ing from a scoop-like lower Jaw. These
mastodons dredged the muddy bottoms
of prehistoric swamps for water lilies
and other swamp growths which
formed their food. It has been sev-
eral years since their fossils were first
discovered in the Gobl desert. but in-
terest has reverted to them through
the discovery and Identification of
plant fossils which prove that swamps
existed In the Gobl during their time—
a fact previously doubted and which
doubt raised a question as to these
animals’ food and the purpose of thelr
shovel tusks. This doubt, however, Is
now cleared. Other discoveries have
shown that these long-extinet elephants
also lived in America and dredged the
swamps of California, Nebraska, and
Kansas. ~—Pathfinder Magazine,
it 20,000,
Spiders and Stars
Spiders’ webs have many uses, With-
out them astronomers would find it
harder to make accurate observations,
The eye pleces of their telescopes are
marked into sections by very fine lines,
which are really pleces of web held In
place by spots of varnish. Webs are
used because it is Impossible tu have
finer as well as equally distinet lines
by any other method. There are other
uses, too, for webs An Instrument
maker In York employs a man specially
to collect spiders and webs. Only a
special kind of spider Is caught, the
“eperira drademata,” which Is usually
found on gorse bushes and has a cross
on its back. The spiders are made to
wind their webs on special forks, each
insect winding about 40 feet before
the supply gives out. These webs are
used in the manufacture of the most
delicate types of scientific instruments.
~Tit-Bits Magazine.
Animal Prophets
A pithorse at Markham eolllery
proved wiser than the man who drove
it, says Tit-Bits Magazine. Suddenly,
for no apparent reason, the horse,
which bad worked underground for
seven years, bolted and refused to re-
turn, When its driver returned alone,
the roof fell on him almost Immediate.
Iy. Animals often sense danger and
the authorities In England know, for
instance, that pit-horses are aware of
danger long before the miners. Not
long ago, a New Forest dog pulied its
master from under the radius of an old
oak, which crashed a few seconds after
he reached safety. In Burme, where
elephants carry logs, one of these
beasts refused to cross a certain bridge
with Its load, Eventually the
were loaded on carts and dragged by
bullocks, but the bridge cellapsed when
they were halfway across
coor i
§
22 20 7000 2000 2 263 2 2
i
i
i
3
i
i
i
i
3
:
©2000 2000 0 0
bd
HERE seems to be an epi-
demic of quarrels around
male stars being the ones to suf-
fer most. James Cagney started
it, and George Raft has come in
keeping the upper hand.
According to reports, it all started
with a camera man. Mr, Raft felt that
vored by the gentleman in question,
in the
called
“A
his, would be all-lmportant
shooting of the pleture first
“Concertina” and more recently,
Princess Comes Across”
So Mr. Raft was told that he could
face the camera with Carole’s favorite
camera man in charge,
or step out, He stepped
out. Fred MacMurray,
who has advanced so
rapidly since he ap-
peared as one of the
boys in the band in
“Roberta,” was given
the role. And now
MacMurray has added
to the difficulties by
refusing to play the
part unless he is given
a new contract with a
raise In salary. The
ing that's sure seems to be
dk
MacMurray
that
{ot 1g
picture,
shoot-
nbard will make the
favorite camera man
w—f
Carmel Myers (surely some of you
old-timers remember her as a movie
star!) announced recently that radio
was a perfect field for a husband and
wife. She knows whereof she speaks;
her years in Hollywood have shown
her what a motion picture career Is
likely to do to a marriage, and she's
been broadcasting long enough to see
how much more happily married peo.
ple can co-operate on the air. And see
how many radio teams support her
contention. Jack Benny and Mary Liv.
ingston, Fred Allen and Portiand Hoffa,
(and in the days when they were on
the stzge, Portiand just appeared in
minor roles in her husband's produc.
tions), May Singhi Breen and Peter
de Rose, Julia Sanderson and Frank
Crummit, Ozzie Neilson and Harriet
Hilliard-—the list goes on and on,
wa fenn
Incidentally, Harriet Hilliard isn’t
going to have much time for broad.
casting. She has made a hit In Holly-
wood, and is to make another
picture very soon,
alin
it looks as if Donald Duck, the Dis.
ney character, would ruin the speech
of a lot of Americans. If you've seen
the grand new polo game picture that
Mr, Disney recently turned out, and
heard Donald's furious and not wholly
incoherent squawks, you've also heard
about half the audience imitating
him as they left the theater. Whole
conversations can be carried on by
means of those squawks, without a
real word's being said-—and more than
one exasperated mother is going to
have to tell Junior and Sister that
they'll leave the table without any
dinner if they can’t stop imitating that
fascinating duck and his strange lan.
guage,
ging
——
Here's a brave man! One radio
headliner after another has refused
to take the broadcasting time opposite
Major Bowes' Amateur Hour, but Vin-
cent Lopez says he wouldn't mind it
with a first-class orchestra,
anual es
Now Hollywood is going to have a
red and white ball, and a lot of girls
are wondering what
8 to wear-whether to
stick to the rules or
go in whatever they
want to. It's all a re-
sult of that White Ball
that was held a while
ago, when some of
them sent to New
York for white dresses,
and others had new
frocks made In Holly.
wood—-and then Nor
ma Shearer wore blue,
and Jeanette
Donald wore red, and both stood out
against all the white frocks like sore
thumbs! People who don't like Miss
Norma Shearer
| Period of Youth Is Crisis
or Seedtime of One’s Life
Let this thought, then, be lodged
i deeply in every youthful mind, that
row is the erisis of life—that every
hour of time, every habit of thought,
feel'ng, or action, the book or paper
you read, the words you hear, the
companions you associate with, the
purposes you cherish, each makes its
indelible mark, and all combine and
work together in forming you for
future honor, usefulness and happi-
ness, or for shame, misery, and
death. Collyer,
LIFE LONG FRIEND
Keeps Them Fit az 70
Thissafeall~ -
table Iazative—toRt
~has been as de.
pendable asafamily
doctorduring their
trying “after for-
ty” years NR keeps
Re
after year faith-
fully—~with mever
any need toincrease
Ihedlons. Nowonaes iis
their “event or
Life” is so free complaints, Millions of peo-
ie welcome the aid of this reliable corrective. For
vature’s Remedy strengthens and regulates the
entire elimunative tract--safely carries sway the
i that bring
i
es TO-NICHT
Get a 25¢ box. TOMORROW ALRICHT
All druggists. ¢ _
Resist the Magnet
Don't listen to two others argue if
you can’t keep out of it.
FOUND!’
Myldeal Remedy for
PAIN
“Though 1 have tried all good
remedies C ine suits mo
best. It is quick and gentle”
Quickest } ave it is liguid
in ingredients are already dis.
solved, For besdsche, neural.
gle, or muscle aches,
CAPUDINE
SOUR STOMACH—GAS?
Russell Charles Stalnaker
of 4 Kelly Addition,
Charleston, W. Va, says:
“Indigestion and sour
stomach made me mighty
uncomfortable. After eat
ing. 1 belched gas. I bad
lost many pounds in
weight and never wanted
to eat I used Dr. Pierce's
Golden Medical Discovery
and don't begrudge the
money I spent on it 1 was able to return
to my work. I slept like a top at night and
bad a fine appetite” Duy mow!
I's All In HOW You Fight
BALDNESS!
You need a medicine that
belps your hair to save i-
self by nourishing starved
heir roots and stopping Dao
a a
©
work Srttodey oD Glover's
Mange Medicine and Glover's
Medicated Soap for the shame
poo. At sil draggists. Ot ha
yout Barber give you ’
What Counts
Talking gets a job but working
holds it.
Black-Draught Relief
Prompt and Refreshing
It's 2 good idea that so many peo-
ple have—to keep Black-Draught
handy so they can take a dose for
prompt relief at the first sign of
constipation.
Mr, Sherman Sneed, of Evensville,
Tenn, writes: “I take Black-Draught
for constipation which causes head-
ache, a bad, tired feeling and for
biliousness, bad taste in the mouth
and sluggish feeling. Black-Draught,
taken about two nights, clears up
this trouble and I get all right”
Men and women like Jindk-Draught
well because of the refreshing rele
i in comstipation troubles.
BEFORE BABY COMES
Elimination of Body Waste
Is Doubly Important
In the crucial months before arrives
it is vitally important that the be rid
of waste matter. Your intestines mast func.
tion-regularly, completely without griping.
Why Physicians Recommend
Milnesia Wafers
These mintflavored, candy-like wafers
pure milk of magnesia in solid oy
muc
»”
it
kind designation was
brought into use.
selfs
nc ia
f