HHH
By ROBERT
AMES
BENNET
WNU Service
Copyright by Robert Ames Bennet
+ CHAPTER VI—Continued
ons l en
Even after this, Garth had to bear
the brunt of the heavy work. Much
of the time the others were forced to
stop off, to get the cramp out of their
knees or rest thelr arms. And when
they paddled, their unskilliful stroke
kept Garth twisting his own stroke
te keep the canoe from being swerved
from side to side like a ship with the
yaws.
Had work been the only consideration,
he would as soon have done It all
There were, however, reasons for more
speed than he could make alone with
the heavily loaded skin-covered craft.
The summer was now far along. The
days were rapidly shortening, the
nights becoming colder and darker,
Delay would mean a serious chance
of being caught in early autumn bliz-
zards. Even Lilith Ramill might not
be able to survive an all-day drive of
sleet. Such a storm would undoubted-
1y kill her father and, not improbably,
Huxby also. Persistent use of the
paddles would continue the toughening
of the three chechahcos. It would also
quicken the speed of the canoe as they
acquired skill from practice,
He himself kept to his stroke like
the born voyager he was, dipping his
paddle for hour after hour, His steady
pull never varied except when, at long
intervals, he shifted the paddle over
to the other side. He stopped that
clocklike stroke only when landings
had to be made for food or sleep.
On the third day Lilith attempted to
keep stroke with him. She paddled
until so exhausted that she broke down
and wept. After that Huxby quit less
often, though he never came 80 near
to overtiring himself,
They had twice camped on muskeg.
The third afternoen brought them to
broken ridges where the stream dashed
through a gorge. So far as could be
seen, the rapids looked easy to shoot.
But Garth said it was a portage.
He slung a pack from his tump-line
and took the canoe on his shoulders.
The total load was a full two hun
dred and fifty pounds. At sight of it,
the others took on all the rest of the
meat and equipment, For miles Garth
led them up and down rocky slopes,
through brush and bogs. Twice they
skirted sheer falls that showed why
he had taken to land.
At last, below the lower fall he
launched the canoe In the eddy of a
deep pool. The others sank down on
the bank, outspent. He bullt a fire
and boiled tea for them. They ex-
pected to camp overnight. He ordered
them back into the cance.
“Can't chance walting here. May be
too foggy to see tomorrow,” he ex-
plained. “Sit flat in the bottom, and
keep your paddies Inboard.”
They understood when a few strokes
of his paddie brought the canoe to the
foot of the pool. For a long twe
miles they crouched low In the bottom
while the frail craft glanced down the
foaming, swirling torrent of white ws-
ter. Garth smiled at thelr cowering
backs. He had often shot worse
rapids, and he had been down these
once before. Skillfully as an Athabas-
kan Indian, he drove the canoe clear
of dangerous whirlpools and dodged
past rocks with deft twists of his
paddle,
At the foot of the rapids, he headed
in alongside a bit of gravelly beach
and helped Mr. Ramill and Lilith
ashore. When he remarked that there
was gold in the gravel, Huxby nearly
upset the canoe in his baste to get out
and look.
*Gold !
gold pan?”
Garth laughed and streached out on
the dry grass above the gravel. “Gal.
lant gentleman, your lady is building
the fire.”
“Don't mind him, Vivian”
chimed In on the banter. “You can
use the cup for panning. I need only
the pot to boll Alan's tea”
Hikby glanced sidelong at Garth
and Bastened to help the girl. Her
father had flattened out beside Garth.
With a yawn, Garth stretched up his
arms and let them fall. The left one
came down across the mililonaire’s
body. The back of the hand felt a
lump under the leather coat. Huxby
had not again gained possession of the
pistol,
Nothing would have been easier
than to have pulled out the weapon
and flung It Into the stream. The im-
puise to do so passed as quickly as It
flashed into Garth's mind. He was
mot the kind of sportsman who shoots
lions from a boma, or tigers from the
backs of elephants. There is far
more sport stalking a beast that has
a chance to kill the stalker.
The chechaheos had now experi.
enced the different phases of canoeing
~days of paddling through muskeg, a
portage, and the running of rapids,
‘But all proved to be no more than a
mild sample of the difficulties and
‘hardships that followed. In the next
two weeks three more rapids had to
be shot and two very hard
made. Between times, the canoe was
dled Interminably through mean-
dering channels that twisted and
looped and split off In blind lends,
Down In the lower country, the pests
of black gnats, mosquitoes and sting-
ing flies became worse. At the same
Why dido’t we bring the
Lilith
time the flask of grease and pitch
dope began to give out. Most of the
camps were on wet ground. For days
the party were drenched by a steady
drizzle, varled only by downpours that
kept Lilith and her father balling the
canoe,
Several times fog on the water com-
pelled Garth to put ashore. Without
sight, even his training could not en-
able him to follow the right channel
He was not an Indian, But between
the forced halts, he put in still longer
hours of paddling.
Matters were coming to a pinch,
After the first wetting by the raln,
what remained of the meat spolled. It
became so flyblown and tainted that
Lilith threw It away before Garth
could prevent the wastage. He de
cided to give them all another lesson.
In the fast that followed, Mr. Ramil
was the first to fall Huxby came
next; Lilith last of the three. By the
third day they had given up all pad-
dling. On the fourth, they lay slumped
in the bottom of the canoe. Garth
only tightened his belt again and
dipped his paddle in his strong, steady,
seemingly tireless stroke,
Whenever he found himself nearing
his limit, he headed ashore, bolled tea,
slept, and then put off again. The
fifth day began to draw on the last
reserve of his wiry endurance. To
wards noon he made the boggy shore,
almost outspent. He dragged out the
wolfskin knapsack anchor, with {its
load of platinum alloy. The girl and
the two men lay In a stupor of star
vation. He himself was so tired that
he could not have lifted even Lilith
ashore,
As he rested on the west sedges he
recalied the place as one of his for
mer camp sites. A spruce-covered
ridge of higher ground here thrust out
into the muskeg The first remem-
brance brought another. The second
gave him strength to pull his rifle
from the canoe and climb aslant the
ridge end. There was a berry patch
on the east slope. The fruit would be
better than nothing. He hoped, how-
ever, for something more,
Circling to get the wind in his face.
he crept through the spruce thickets
until he could peer out on the open
(Eran nnngrrgeoy
4
“Out of the Muskegs; but a Long
Way From Out of This D-—d
North!”
ground of the berry patch. Luck was
with him. The old black bear had
gone off and left her cub. He rested
the rifle barrel on a spruce branch
to get a sure alm,
That was the end of famine. Gorged
upon the fat, tender meat of the bear
cub, even Mr. Ramill rapidly regained
strength. He was still rather weak,
however, when they came to the last
portage,
The approach to solid ground was
across a narrow belt of muskeg. Near
the far side of the swamp, the mil
lionaire failed to jump squarely upon
a tussock of niggerhead grass. He
slipped and plunged headfirst into a
pool.
Huxby was following close behind,
alert for every move of his partner.
He sprang to grasp the feet of the
sinking man. A heave dragged him
out, slimed and spluttering, Huxby
worked over him, scraping off mud,
until Lilith hastened back to help as
sist her father across the rest of the
quagmire. Once on firm ground, the
millionaire joked about his mishap,
“Haven't bad a bath since the last
rdin,” he sald. “This one Is higher
class—equal to the mud baths at Hot
Springs. How about my pack Lilith?’
She looked In his foxskin bag.
“Everything there, Dad—with some
mud added.”
Garth had been too far ahead, with
his heavy pack and cance, to see or
hear the accident. Mr. Ramill joked
again about his extra bath when they
took to the canoe at the far side of
the portage. But all the time until
they reached the evening camp and he
started to wash the mud from the
leather coat, he did not notice that the
pistol was missing,
At the announcement of the loss,
Huxby met Garth's gaze with a stare
of cold hostility. Garth walked up to
him, empty-handed.
“If you've done what I think you
have,” he sald, “I call you for a show-
down."
The engineer's lips tightened in an
ironical smile. He put up his hands.
Not to be fooled by the seeming bluff,
Garth went over Huxby's tattered
clothes, from coat collar to moccasins,
The pistol was nowhere on the engl-
neer,
“This 1s one time I'm due to apolo-
glze,” Garth admitted,
“1 accept no apology from you,”
Huxby replied.
Lilith looked from one to the other,
her own lips tightening,
Mr. Ramill good-humoredly inter
posed, as he hung the washed leather
coat before the fire: “Postpone your
fight, boys. We're still in the mus
kegs. I'll bullt a cockplt for you when
we gat out.”
That won a chuckle from Garth.
Huxby smiled with his lips—not with
his eyes. As Lilith looked from Garth
to him, her eyes narrowed and her lips
tightened,
————
CHAPTER VII
The Gafied Wolf.
Mr. Ramill's good-humor over his
fall Into the muskeg pool had not been
forced. It was based upon his feeling
of physical well-being.
Instead of having been broken
down by the hard toll and exposure of
the trip and that severe lesson in the
meaning of famine, he had come
through It all in even better shape
than before the start from the lost
valley. The days of starvation had
completed Nature's rald upon the de-
generate fats and polsons of his once
obese body,
There had followed the feasts of
tender bear-cub meat. He was again
putting on weight, but it was hard
muscie. The healthy biocod flooded his
brain with a comfortable glow that
was not to be dampened by any
amount of toll or discomforts,
He was paddling as vigorously if
not as skillfully as his daughter, when,
mid-morning of the twenty-fourth day
from the valley, the canoe neared a
wooded point that rose well above the
swamps. Garth called out from the
stern of the canoe:
“If you want as surprise, friends,
shut your eyes while we take ten
strokes.”
He knew that Huxby would keep on
staring ahead. But he guessed right
about Lilith and her father. At the
end of the tenth stroke, the girl flung
up her paddle and uttered a shriek
of joyous amazement:
“The river! The river!"
Close upon the cry came the deep-
lunged shout of her father: “By the
Almighty, you've done It, Garth! We're
out.”
Huxby continued to stare fixedly
shead at the mighty flood of the Mac-
kenzlie. He was last to speak: “Out
of the muskegs; but a long way from
out of this d—d North!"
“Long by canoe or even by steamer,”
Garth agreed. “Not so far, though,
by alr passage. We can make the
emergency supply post by two or threo
hours’ paddling downstream”
“What of It? That fellow Tobin told
us planes never stop there, unless foul
weather runs them short of gas”
Garth met the suddenly anxious
looks of Lilith and her father with a
smile,
“All pllots have orders to sight non-
stop posts in passing. Tobin has a dis-
tress signal. There'll be a plane com-
ing south from the Arctic coast within
three days—probably tomorrow. You'll
be lying In the lap of luxury at Ed.
monton within a week or ten days”
The millionaire feit at the grease-
and-pitch mat of his month-old beard.
He chuckled. “A bath and a barber!
Hand over that last cigar, Garth.
Here's where 1 celebrate,”
He opened the gold-mounted case,
bit off the tip of the sole surviving
Havana, and snapped his patent light.
er. It failed to flair, He tossed It
over into the water, and turned to
Garth, with an impatient command:
“Give me a light”
“Only two matches left, sir.”
“Enough to light a cigar. Pass them
over.”
Instead of taking out his water
proof match case, Garth took up his
paddie. "The rule is, never burn your
last match antll you have to. You've
thrown away that little flint and steel.
The fire-drill 1s all right in dry weath-
er but hard to use in wet.”
Huxby dipped his own paddle.
“Come on, Mr. Ramill. By his own ac-
count, three hours more will rid us of
him and his insolence.”
“Walt,” sald Lilith. She pointed
to the bank where the pleasant green
of young spruces showed among the
weathered white trunks of fire-killed
birch trees. “If we have 80 much time,
we'll land there and clean up.”
“But—with the post so near, my
dear LUlth!" Huxby protested. “That
fellow Tobin had any amount of soap.”
“All the more reason. I'll not have
even A common navvy see me In this
condition, rags can't be helped
But the dirt!" Out burst her sup
men. “Mud! slime! rancid fat! spoiled
meat! Alan Garth, I know that I have
to go In dressed like a squaw. Bat
this—this filth!"
He surged the canoe around shore
ward with a powerful sweep of his
paddle,
“Not necessary, Miss RamliL A
scouring with hardwood ashes and
sand will do the work of soap. We
can go in sweet”
They landed where an ice Jam of
Some spring break-up had gouged
through the muskeg mud at the
end of the ridge and left a clear
beach of glacial! sand and gravel, Up
over the ten-foot cut bank, Garth
started a fire with one of his two re-
maining matches,
Even Huxby joined in
other plles of fallen birch branches
for more fires. While they were burn-
Ing, Garth beached the cance and
tiited it so that the sun would dry the
Soggy Inside. Huxby stirred the fires,
and Mr. Ramlll brolled the last of the
partly spoiled bear-cub meat, while
Lilith tried out a cupful of the ran-
sid fat for a final mess of mosquito
dope. Garth brought the girl pitch
for the mix from the nearby thicket
of young spruces,
No cleaning could be done until the
fires burned out. When Mr. Ramil
took off the spits of cooked meat, all
squatted down as usual to share the
meal. CGarth smiled his thanks as he
took the slab of hot meat handed to
him by the millionaire. The smile
hardened,
A sudden change had fallen upon his
three companions, He could easily
guess the cause. They realized that
this was the last meal they were to
share as fellow voyageurs with him.
The moment they stepped from the
canoe onto the wharf at the emer
gency refueling post, thelr forced com-
panionship with him in the lost val
ley and on all the long trip ont would
be at an end. Instead of a trio de
pendent upon their opponent for food
and guldance—for life itself—they
would be a trio not only Independent
of, but hostile to him and his in-
teresta,
That was at least true of the two
men. And even Lilith betrayed in her
look and manner a vivid consciousness
of the Impending change of relation.
ship. As for Huxby, the cold gloating
ig his stare showed how he was antici
pating the robbery and ruln of the
man who had so far outplayed him.
{TO BE CONTINUED)
gathering
Coronation of New King
or Queen Is Great Event
A great thing to see In London is
the crowning of a new king or queen.
It does not happen often, but when it
a writer In the Detroit News.
takes place In Westminster abbey and
the archbishop of Canterbury is In
charge of the ceremony. The new king
sits in the famous Coronation chalr,
which Is covered for the event with
cloth-of-gold. He promises that he will
govern by the laws made by the Brit.
Ish parliament; that he will carry out
a rule of justice and mercy; and that
be will maintain the Protestant re
ligion,
the time of King Edward I, who ruled
six and a half centuries ago. It is
made of oak, but under the seat is
“the Stone of Scone,” which was taken
of Edward. Before that the stone had
been used during the crowning of
Scottish kings.
There is a legend that the Stone of
Scone was used as a “pillow” by Ja-
cob, the Hebrew patriarch, The leg
end says that the stone was moved
from Palestine to Ireland, and from
there to Scotland before it fell into
the hands of the English. There 1s
reason to believe, however, that ft
was obtained from a quarry near
Scone, a town In Scotland,
Underground Schools
LA |
As Told to:
FRANK E. HAGAN and
The Faithful Crutches
OST people know about the loy-
alty of dogs and other dumb
| do not realize that inanimate things
| are frequently just as faithful. So
| says Herbert Sharples of Montreal,
| Que, who tells this touching story
of the faithful crutches,
One day he saw a traveling doctor
in the market place offering for sale
a marvelous salve which, he claimed,
would cure all ills. One of the first
purchasers was a man whose legs were
so shriveled and twisted that he had
to use crutches to get along. One min-
ute and eight seconds after he had
rubbed some of the salve on his legs
they were so straight and strong that
to walk home without them.
The doctor, having no use for the
salve left In the box by the man, and
noticing that the crutches were very
dingy from long use, began rubbing
some of the olntmept on them to see
if it would brighten them up. At once
the crutches began to dance and caper
around him, stopping now and then to
admire each other's bright, shiny ap-
pearance,
Suddenly they paused in thelr an-
tics and the next moment they were
trotting gally down the street until
they caught up with thelr former mas-
ter. After that they walked sedately
at his heels, ready to come to his as-
sistance if need be, even though he
had cast them off without a single
thought.
Victims of Imagination
Josars THOMPSON, of Nashville,
Tenn. who gets around the country
quite a bit In his work for a raliroad, is
seldom surprised by the queer things
that folks do--like putting tacks in a
dining car meal, eating them and
threatening to sue the carrier,
The remson Joe preserves his calm
is that once he operated a farm and
most everybody knows that the queer
est sort of things are forever happen-
ing there,
Joe's plantation featured fine hams
and a herd of nervous goats but he
still likes to talk about his trials and
tribulations with a patch of popcorn.
“Never had any decent luck with
the popeorn,™ Joe testifies. “Gets hot
as blazes down at Nashville and first
thing you'd know my fleld would be-
gin to pop and I'd lose practically
everything I'd put Into It. Don't sup-
pose I ever got to market more than
half a crop.
“What I finally did was to plant the
popcorn at a spot very close to the
house. The noise of its popping kept
the children amused and sometimes
they would be quiet for hours, just
popping corn,
“One time,
began to pop at the same time,
white peliets flew into the air in a
thick cloud and fell in the pasture
with my nervous goats. Eighteen of
the goats thought it was snowing and
lay down and froze to death”
though, the whole fleld
The Unfinished Story
HARLES M.
tales because of silent hours with
tains of Wyoming. But,
enough, his favorite yarn concerns the
open spaces.
Chicago had numerous banks and many
bank vice presidents.
is of one of these 1 sing.
shore, commuting dally to the loop.
ways crossed downtown.
box at the bank.
luggage rack.
“At his station, the banker seized
the garden. But when he opened the
parcel there was revealed a T.-bone
steak which an unknown but soon-to-
be-shocked commuter had selected.”
© Western Newspaper Union,
Mystery Springs in Queensland
Fifty miles southeast of Boulla town.
ship, in the far west of Queentbland, are
two mystery springs. One, known «3
Elizabeth spring, consists of a circular
hole four or five feet in diameter in
WITH SILK GLOVES
You can't handle exceedingly hand
some men by the usual rules for han-
—
\
Here are Perfect
Baking Results/
E Carp
E Conwy, 7
This actual scoring card proves
how cakes, baked with
CLABBER GIRL, shew
Perfect stores where
Baking Powder counts.
[=
ATTRA
BAKING POWDER
Greatest Art
The greatest art is to be busy with
out seeming so.
Tired .. Nervous
Wins Back
’ “dead~
be. he tired” feeling. Won
color—resthul nights, active days
3
colda. See
how refresh
Riel NA hg
TOMORROW ALRICMTY
GLOVERS
MANGE MEDICINE
MPLES
from surface conditions
need not be endured.
Make your skin clearer
and: smoother with
Elimination of Body Waste
Is Doubly Important
In the crucial months before arrives
it is vitally important that the be rid
Why Physicians Recommend
Milnesia Wafers
These aint wyored, candy