Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-05-04

do what's wrong, and maybe you won't pc SO d----d anxious to tell your friends about this trip or spread your story up and down the river"
 She saw Runnion gazing over his shoulder in search of shelving beach or bar. They rounded bend where the left bank crumbled before the un- tiring teeth of the river, forming a bristling cheval-de-frise of leaning, fallen frs awash in the current. The short side of the curve protected gravel bar that made downstream to dagger-like point, and toward this Runnion propelled the skiff. The girls heart sank.
 The mind of Poleon Doret worked in straight lines. Moreover, his memory was good. Stark's statement, which so upset Gale and the lieutenant, had a somewhat different effect upon the Frenchman, for certain facts had been impressed upon his subconsciousness which did not entirely jibe with the gamblers remarks, and yet they were too dimly engraved to afford founda- tion for definite theory. What he did know was that he doubted. Why2 Because certain scraps of a disjointed conversation recurred to him, a few words which he had overheard in Stark's saloon. something about Pe- terborough canoe and a woman. He knew every skin that lay along the water front, and of a sudden he de- cided 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. If Necia had gone up river on the freighter, pursuit was hopeless, for no boatman could make headway against the current, but if, on the other hand, that cedar craft was gone He ran out of Stark's house and down to the river bank It was just one chance, and, if he was wrong, no matter. The others would leave on the next up river steamer, whereas if his suspicion proved a certainty, if Stark had lied to throw them off the track and Runnion had taken her down stream-well, Poleon wi2hed no one to hinder him, for he would travel light.
 The boat was gone. He searched the line backward, but it was not there, and his excitement grew now, likewise his haste. He stumbled up to the trad ing post and around to the rear, where, bottom up, lay his own craft, a birch but man schooled in the ways of swift water. He laid it carefully in the whispering current then stripped himself with feverish haste, for the driving call of hot pursuit was cn him, and, although 1t was the cold, raw hours of late night, he whipped of his garments until he was bare to the middle. He seized his paddle, step ped in, then knelt amidships and push ed away. The birch bark answered him like living thing, leaping and beneath the strokes, while rippling. rising ridges stood out upon his back and arms as they rose and fell.
 
 Runnion drove his Peterborough to- ward the shore with powerful strokes and ran Its nose up on the gravel, rose. Himself and dragged it far | ther cut. tfeD looked down at Ne,ia.
 Well. what is it--yes or no? Do you want me for husband or for q mas- fer?" She covered in the stern. pale, fearful creature.
 She cast her despairing eyes up ard S)wn the river, then at the wilderness s1 either shore, but 1t was as silent ind unpeopled as if it had been creat- Ed that morning. She must have time She would tempori1e, pretending to yield, and then betray bim to the first ,omer. A promise eyacted under du. ress would not be ri~dinQ.
 (To be eontinued)