Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-11-24

reestablished himself in popular favor
/ by volunteering TO do the shopping at
/ the nearest trading post in spite of
| the brewing storm and camp gossip
/ that the Indians were ION the shoot"
The day before Thanksgiving the
mule train that had been pressed into
! service to deliver Faro Jin's"
various purchases drove into Palmer's
/ gulch and deposited at the widows
door a sitting-room carpet of flaming
scarlet and yellow, huge mahogany
bedroom set, a box of playthings for
the boys, and an assortment of bric-a-
brac that would have delighted the
soul of a Choctaw chief.
Faro Jim," the driver said, had
waited to bride the agency cook for
the only two chickens at the post.
But he might better not ha' done it,"
he added, for the kintry is chuck full
of snow drifts, and the redskins are
ugly and making it lively where they
cam
Thanksgiving dawned bright and
singing cold. 1t had cleared glorious
ly at day-break, and the gorge for
miles was a fairy landscape, brilliant
ly, dazzlingly white from mountain
top to river bed.
The trading post was half hidden
in the drifts, and Jim wondered, as he
started forth with the chickens firmly
strapped to his saddle, if the boys had
remembered to dig out the widows
cabin, move her wood pile close to the
door, and milk the COW. AS he can
tered briskly away over the stretch OF
prairie which the gale had left bare of
snow, he was conscious of two new
and strange sensations, the irritation
OF a stiff paper collar about his
brawny throat, and a peculiar fiutter-
ing feeling as he would have ex-
pressed it, somewhat down below the
left shoulder blade"
He flung open his coat, and expano,
ed his chest with a great breath OF
splendid mountain air, and as he
settled back in the saddle his eyes
were shining with sudden rush of
happiness. All unconsciously he hau
come into his birthright.
Self-analysis he was incapable OF.
The greatest joy of his life had come
to him and he accepted it with the I'M
questioning delight of a child.
AS Jim left the prairie road and
struck the trail that led through the
mountain gorge, the little pony picked
her way gingerly from drift to drift
and over crusting slopes. Jim did not
notice that the snow had rendered an
always bad road almost impossible, or
that the sun was already making
dangerous riffs in the ice-coated
stream. Jim was in love. Dangers
by land or water, or from the tricky
red-man, were not worth considering.
A faint, gurgling sound, like the far
away howl of a coyote, drifted down
the gorge. The pony shivered Slip
ped, fioundered and righted herself in
the drift; but jim only smiled as he
patted the frozen fowl and remem-
bered the dandy poker game he had
played to win them. The cook
couldn't be bribed, but poker was toe
much for the agent.
A cry, like a wolf in sight of prey,
fierce, broad, exultant, broke the
death-like stiffness, and echoed from
mountain top to mountain top. This
time the pony quivered convulsively,
fell back on her launches, ana
neighed as though in pain.
Jim's face blanched and icy fingers
closed over his heart. For the first
time in his rough, wild life he careo
what the outcome of fight with the
red skins might be.
Again and again, behind him and on
both sides, that awful cry rang out,
sharp and resonant,-a cry thrilling
with the eager anticipation of bloody
work
Choking down a gasp of anguish and
rage, Jim sent the spurs sharply into
Jenny'S sides. He would have liked
better turing back and downing halt
dozen of the skulking rascals; but
that meant death, sure and quick, anc
jim meant to try for the life and
happiness that lay ahead of him up
the gorge.
AS yet the path seemed open, and
the little broncho struggled bravely
through drifts and over ice-crusted
banks. With her rough shod feet her
chances were fifty to a mans one.
The cries had ceased; but in spite
of the distance that still lay between
him and his pursuers, Jim heard the
THANKS