The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-26
Copyright, 1911, by the Bobbs-
 Merrill Co.

Merrill Co.
 and then swung southward along the Hasabala, where the country was crisscrossed with trap lines of the halfbreeds and the French. First he struck the cabin of Croisset and his wife and left part of his cloth. Then he turned westward, while Croisset harnessed his dogs and hurried with quarter of the roll to the south. Be tween the Hasabala and Klokol lake Jan found three other cabins, and at each he left a bit of the red cotton. Forty miles to the south, somewhere on the Porcupine, he found the cabin of Henry Langlois, the posts greatest fox hunter.
 Over 1t, hanging Imply to a sapling pole, was the red signal of horror. With terrified cry to the dogs, Jan ran back, and the team turned about and followed him in tangled mass Then he stopped. There was no smoke rising from the clay chimney on the little cabin. Its one window was white with frost. Az; in and again he shouted, but no sign of life responded to his cries. He fired his rife twice and waited with his nit tened hand over his mouth and nos trils. There was no reply. Then. abandoning hope, he turned back into the north and gave his dogs no rest until he had reached Lac Bain, His team came in half dead. Both Cummins and Williams rushed out to
 meet him as he drove up before the company's store.
 'srhe red flag is over LangIois'
 cabin"' he cried.
 T fired my rifle and shouted There Is no life. Langlois is deadv'
 "Great Gody' groaned Williams.
 His red face changed to a sickiy | pallor. and he stood with his thick
 hands clinched while Cummins took charge of the dogs and Jan went into
 the store for something to eat
 Mukee and Per-ee returned to the post the next day. Young Williams
 followed close after them. filled with
 terror. He had found the plague among the Crees of the Waterfound Each day added to the gloom at Lac
 Bain. Death leaped from cabin to
 cabin in the wilderness to the west. By the middle of the month Lac Bain was hemmed in by the plague on all sides but the north. The posts trap lines had been short ened; now they were abandoned en- 0wd Ina Grrh& Hams assembled his men and told them how that same battle had been fought
 nearly two decades before For sixty miles about the post every cabin and wigwam that doated red flag must be visited and burned if the occupants
 were dead Tn learning whether life or death existed in these places lay the peril for those who undertook the task. 1t was dangerous mission. It meant facing a death from which those who
 listened to the old factor shrank with dread, yet when the call came they re- sponded to man.
 Cummins and Jan ate their last sup per together. with Melisse sitting be- tween them and wondering at their si- lence. When it was over the two went outside.
 "Mukee wasn't at the store," said Cummins in thick, strained voice, halting Jan in the gloom behind the
 cabin. Williams thought he was of to the south with his dogs. But he
 isn't. I saw him drag himself into his
 shack like sick dog an hour before
 dusk. There'll be a red flag over Lac
 Bain in the morning"
 Jan stided the sharp cry on his lips. "Ah, there's a lightp' cried Cum
 mins. "It's a pitch torch burning in front of his ,doorl"
 He gripped Jan's arm in a sudden spasm of horror. "The flag is up
 now" he whispered huskily. "Go
 back to Melisse There is food in the
 house for month and you can bring 1 the wood in tonight. Bar the door. i Open only the back window for air Stay inside-with her-until it is all
 over. Go"
 ''To the red flags, that is where will go"' cried Jan fercely, wrenching
 his arm free. Ut is your place to | stay with Melissev'
 My place is with the men," "And mine?' Jan drew himself up
 rigid.
 "One of us must shut himself up with her" pleaded Cummins. Tt must
 be you" His face gleamed white in 1 the darkne%a You came-that night because Melisse was here. Some thing sent you-something- you understand? And since then she has never been near to death until now. You must stay with Melisse-with your violin"'
 ''Melisse herself shall choose" re-