Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-03-09

/ in her life she felt the meaning Of fear.
/ She saw what a frail and helpless thing
, she was; nothing about her was great
/ save her soul, and that was immeasuraoly
vexed and worried. She had just hVeo
through a grief that had made her gem
erous, and now she gained her first
knowledge of the man-animals gross
| selfishness.
sYou are absolutely daft" she said.
''You can't force me to marry you.
IT amt going to force you; you'H DO
| IL willingly"
'T'n die first. I'll call the first man
we see-Pu tell Father Barnum, and he'll
have you run out of the country-it would
only take a word from me-
"If you haven't changed your mind
when we get to his place, I'll run through
without stopping; but there isn't another
priest between there and st. Mixes, ana
Z by the time we get TO the mouth or the
river I guess you'll say yes to most any
thing. However, I'd rather marry you at
| Holy Cross If you'll consent, and I'm
pretty sure you will-when you think 1t
over"
I'VE won't discuss it,
you don't understand sel," he con-
tinued, slowly. What will people say
, when they know you ran away with me-
IN tell them the truth
Huh! I'm too well known. No man
on the river would ever have you after
that"
''You-you-" Her voice was a-quiver
with Indignation and loathing, but her
lips could not frame an epithet ut for him.
He continued rowing for some time, then
said:
''WiIl you marry meT'
mo! II this thing is ever known, Po-
leon viii kin yoU-or father"
For a third time he rested on his oars.
hat threats. let
me talk. 1 offered to marry you and do
the square thing, but if you don't want
to, I'll pass up the formality and take you
for my sduaw, the same as your father
took Alluna. / guess you're no better
than your mother. so your old man can
say much under the circumstances, ana
II he don't object. Poleon can't. Just re-
member you're alone with me in the
heart Of a wilderness. and you've got to
make a choice quick, because I'm
going ashore and make some
breakfast as soon as IT'S nght
enough to choose q landing-place. If
you agree to come quietly and go
through with this thing like a sensible
girl, I'll do what's right, but If you don't
then I'll do what's wrong ana maybe
YOU won't be so damned anxious to tell
your friends about this trip, or spread
your story up and down the river. Make
up your mind before 1 land"
The water gurgled at lie bow again,
and the rowlocks squealxed. Another hour
and then another passed in silence be-
fore the girl noted that she no longer
seemed to float through abysmal dark
ness, but that the river showed In mud
dy grayness just over the gunwale. she
made out his hateful outlines. though
for all else she beheld they might have
been miles out upon a placid sea, and
so imperceptible was the laggard days
approach that she could not measure the
growing light. II was a desolate dawn,
and showed no glorious CLEANS of color.
There was no rose-pink glow, no merg-
I ing of a thousand tints, no final burst
/ OF cleaning gold; the night merely faded
away. changing to a sickly pallor that
grew to ashen gray, and then dissolved
! the low-hung, distorted shadows a quar-
I ter of a mile inland on either hand into
! a forbidding row of unbroken forest
/ backed by plain, morass, and distant hills
untipped by slanting rays. Overhead
bleak ruin Of clouds drifted; under
meath the river ran, bilious yellow.
The whole country so far as the eye
! could range was unmarried by the hand
/ Of man, untracked save by the feet OF
the crafty forest people
She saw Runnion gazing over his
shoulder I'm search Of a shelving beach
or bar, his profile showing more de-
based and mean than she had ever not
/ iced 1t before. They rounded a bend
where the left bank crumbled before
4 the untiring teeth of the river. forming
/ a bristling chevaux-de-frise of leaning,
fallen frs awash in the current. The
I short side of the curve. the one nearest
! them, protected a gravel bar that made
Z downstream TO a dagger-like point and
/ towards this Runnion propelled the skiff.
: The girls heart sank and she felt her
! limbs grow cold.
1 The mind Of PoleOn Doret worked in
straight lines. Moreover his memory
was good. Starks statement, which so
/ upset Gale and the Lieutenant, had
somewhat different effect upon the
Frenchman, for certain facts had been
/ impressed upon his subconsciousness
4 gamblers remarks, and yet they were
too dimly engraved to afford foundation
1 for a definite theory. What he did know
/ was this, that he doubted. Why? Be
/ cause certain scraps of a disiointed con-
| versation required 10 him, a few words
which he had overheard in Starks sa-
] loon. something about a Peterborough
( canoe and a woman. He knew every
skin that lay along the waterfront. and
| OF a sudden he decided to see If this
one was where It had been at dusk; for
/, there were but two modes of egress from
/ Flambeau, and there was but one canoe
OF this type. u Necia had gone up river
! on the freighter. pursuit was hopeless
/ for no boatman could make Roadway
| against the current; bat II, on the other
/ hand, that cedar craft was gone He
/ ran out OF Stark's house and down 10
the river-bank. then leaped TO the shingle
beneath. II was just one chance. and if
he was wrong. no matter; the others
would leave on the next up-river steam
er: whereas, IL his suspicion proved a
certainty, II Stark had lied to
throw them off the track, and
RunniOn had taken her down.
| stream-well, Poleon wished no one to
hinder him for he would travel light.
The boat was gOnel He searched the
line backward. but it was not there, and
his excitement grew now, likewise his
haste. Stil on the run, he stumbled up
10 the trading post and around to the
resr. where, bottom up, lay his own
sraft. the one no guarded jealously, a
birch canoe. frail and treacherous for
any but a man schooled in the ways Of
swift water and Indian tricks He was
very glad now that he mad not told the
others OF his suspicious; they might have
claimed the right to go. and OF that he
would not be cheated. He swung the
shell over his shoulders, then hurried TO
the bank and down the steep trail like
/ some great, mis-shapen turtle He laid