Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1911-03-17

prospect the country thoroughly and stake out e'
erything in sight.
During the following winter the husband of the
woman who was so soon to become a widow was
seriously injured in a mill. In a few days he
realized that death was near. He sent for the two
prospectors who had accompanied him to Lake
Abitibi. They came.
Boys" said he, 81 guess I've got to die. | can't
go back with you in the spring to stake the claims.
l want you to promise me that if l die you will give
the old woman a third of what We found last year
The men promised. The wife heard them. But
she didn't believe them.
The widow had told Bill who the men were.
He knew them. He knew where they were work
ing. Bill hired out in the same place. In the course
of a few weeks one of them told him that they were
going to quit at a certain time in the spring and
take a long canoe and hunting trip in the country
far to the north.
That was good enough clew for Bill. Two weeks
before the announced time for the men to start
Woodney quit his job, packed his kit and started
for Lake Abitibi himself.
When he reached the lake he drew his canoe
from the water, hid it in the bush" as Canadians
call a forest. and prepared to wait.
On the eighth day of his vigil, as he was peering
out of the bushes. he saw the sight that he had
waited so long to see. Down the placid river came
two canoes, cutting their ways through the cool
waters and leaving fatiron wakes in the rear.
Late in the afternoon Bill saw the two specks
disappear in what seemed to be an inlet.
The first night there was no fire, but the next
day Bill saw a blue spiral of smoke curling from the
bushes back of the lake.
For five days and nights the fires burned. Then
there was no more fire, day or night. Evidently the
men had gone. Bill wanted to be sure, so he waited
three more days. Then he went down to the lake
where his canoe was hidden, put it into the water,
took pains to observe that there was on the lake
no sign Of human life, then slowly padded his way
along the shore, looking for the inlet.
Bill was padding as quietly as he could when, at
the "knuckle' of the water fnger-a point where
the inlet was not more than so feet wide-he sud-
denly saw on the left bank-the two prospectors!
The next instant one of them threw an ak at Bits
canoe that all but cut it in two and sunk 1t as quick
ly as a mine could sink a battleship.
Woodney doesn't know yet why he is alive. He
seemed to have no chance to live. 1t was two
against one and the one was in the water. SO were
his food. his weapons and his tools. If he were not
murdered during the next second it seemed certain
that he would starVe during the next month. Not
that he thought out all of these things while he was
sinking. He thought out nothing. All he did was to
act first and think afterward. A few strokes with
his hands and a few kicks with his feet put him
against the bank. No rabbit ever took a trail faster
than Bill took to the brush.
The rest of this story can be told in short SEN
fences. Hunger, within the next forty-eight hours.
drove Woodney into the very camp Of the men
who would have slain him. He crept up to them,
late at night, and stole their food. He could not
steal much at a time, but he stole enough to keep
him alive. He stole, not once, but three times. The
They had pulled up camp and gone, bag and bag
gage. He took his life in his hands the next day
and went down to see the claims they had staked.
He didn't find a stick or a sign Of a claim. He
couldn't even find anything himself that seemed
worth claiming.
The prospectors never returned. Whether they
were upset and drowned IN one of the many rap
ids; whether they fell to fighting and killed each
other, no one knows. Nor have they ever filed q
claim to ore bodies along Lake Abitibi.