The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1911-03-16

prospect the country thoroughly and stake out ev.
erything in sight.
During the following winter the husband of the
woman who was to become widow
seriously injured in mill. In few days he
realized that death near. He sent for the two
prospectors who had accompanied him to Lake
Abitibi. They came.
"Boys," said he II guess I've got to die. can't
go back with you in the spring to stake the claims
want you to promise me that if die you will give
the old woman 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
He knew them. He knew where they were work
ing. Bill hired out in the place. In the course
of few weeks one of them told him that they were
going to quit at certain time in the spring and
take 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 to start
Woodney quit his job, packed his kit and started
for Lake Abtib 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 the sight that he had
waited so long to 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 blue spiral OF smoke curling from the
bushes back of the lake.
For five days and nights the fires burned Then
there more fire, day 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
iu1D 1T F11t vr,;11 J1c
denly saw on the left bank-the two prospectors!
The next instant one of them threw an ak at Bills
that all but cut it in two and sunk it quick
Iy mine could sink battleship.
Woodney doesn't know yet why he Is alive. He
seemed to have no chance to live. 1t was two
against and the one was in the water. So
his food, his weapons and his tools. If he not
murdered during the next second 1t 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 few kicks with his feet put him
against the bank. No rabbit ever took trail faster
than Bill took to the brush.
The rest of this story be told in short sen.
fences Hunger, within the next fortyeight 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
next time he went to steal they not there.
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 stick or sign Of claim He
couldn't find anything himself that seemed
worth claiming.
The prospectors never returned. Whether they
were upset and drowned in Of the many rap
ids; whether they fell to fighting and killed each
other, no one knows Nor have they ever filed
claim to ore bodies along Lake Abitibi.