The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-23
CHAPTER v. For Her.


 umph. and with a savage yell
 Jean cracked his caribou whip over his back. He saw the man ahead of him lean over the end of his sledge as he. urged his dogs, but the huskies went no faster, and then he caught glitter of something that dashed for moment in the sun.
 "Ahr' said Jean softly as a bullet sang over his head. He fires at Jean de Gravois!' He dropped his whip, and there was a warm glow of happi- ness in his little dark face as he level ed his rife over the backs of his male mutes. He fires at Jean de Gravois, and it is Jean who can hamstring a caribou at 300 yards on the runv'
 For an instant. at the crack of his rife there was no movement ahead, then something rolled from the sledge and lay doubled up in the snow. A hundred yards beyond it the huskies stopped in a rabble and turned to look at the approaching strangers.
 Beside it Jean stopped, and when he saw the face that stared up at him, he clutched his thin hands in his long black hair and cried out in shrill amaze ment and horror:
 'The saints in heaven, it is the mis- sioner from Churchill!' E He turned the man over and found where his bullet had entered under one arm and come out from under the other. There was no spark of life left The missioner was already dead.
 '"The missioner from Churchill!' he gasped again.
 He looked up at the warm, sun and kicked the melting snow under his moccasined feet.
 "It will thaw very soon," he said to himself. looking again at the dead man, "and then he will go into the lake,
 He headed his malemutes back to the forest Then he ran out and cut the traces of the exhausted huskies, and with his whip scattered them in free dom over the ice.
 "Go to the wolvesv' he shouted in Gree. Hide yourselves from the post. or Jean de Gravois will cut out your tongues and take your skins off alivey' When he came back to the top of the mountain Jean found Iowaka making hot coffee, while Jan was bundled up in furs near the fire.
 "It is as I said" she called. "He is alive!"
 Thus it happened that the return of Jean de Gravois to the post was even 1 more dramatic than he had schemed it to be, for he brought back with him
 
 i'll, but also the half dead Jan Thoreau from the scene of battle on the noun tain. And in the mystery of it all he reveled for two days, for Jean de Gra- vols said anot word about the dead man on the lake beyond the forest, nor did the huskies come back into their bondage to give hint of the missing missionary.
 From the day after the caribou roast the fur gatherers began scattering. The Eskimos left the next morning. On the second day Mukee's people from the west set off along the edge of the Barrens. Most of the others left by ones and twos into the wilderness 1 CO Cue SOuCu dnQ east.
 Less than a dozen still put off their return to the late spring trapping. and among these were Jean de Gravois and his wife. Jean waited until the third day. Then he went to see Jan. The boy was bolstered up in his cot. with Cummins balancing the little Melisse on the edge of the bed when he came in.
 For a time Jean sat and watched them in silence. Then he made sign to Cummins, who joined him at the door.
 T am going the Athabasca way to- day. he said. ''I wish to talk with the boy before I go. have word to say to him which no ears should hear but his own. Will it be right?"
 "Talk to him as long as you like,' 5 said Cummins. ''but don't worry him about the missionary. You'll not get a word from him."
 l Jan's eyes spoke with a devotion greater than words as Jean de Gra- vols came and sat close beside him. He knew that it was Jean who had brought him alive into the post.
 "Ah, it was wan be-e-a-u-tiful fight he said softly. "You are brave boy, Jan Thoreauv'
 You did not see it?' asked Jan.
 Unconsciously the words came from him in French. Jean caught one ot his thin h1nds and laughed joyfully, for the spirit of him was French to the bottom of his soul.
 'I see it? Mo- neither nor Iowaka but there it was in the snow. as plain as the eyes in your face. And did not follow the trail that staggered down the mountain, while Iowaka brought you back to life? And when I came to the lake did not see some thing black out upon it. like charred log? And when I came to it was il not the dead body of the missioner from Churchill? Eh. Jan Thoreau?"
 Jan sat up in his bed. with a sharT cry.
 tTo Be Continued)
 D. c. Bybee. teaming contracto