The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-21
Biz Shows Auehor of 1.-The
 Danger 1Trail''

days rest he was going on to Fort | Churchill to bring back a wife. He hinted with punctuating crack of his 1 whip that he would make second visit and more interesting one at just about the time when the trappers were there in force
 Jan Thoreau listened to him, hunch- ] ing his shoulders little at the others manifest air of importance. In turn the French Canadian scrutinized Jan good naturedly.
 l Every hour after the half breeds ar rival quickened the pulse of expectan- cy at the post For six months it had been small and solitary unit of life in the heart of big desolation. The first snow had smothered it in lone Illness that was almost the loneliness of assertion. With that first snow be- gan the harvest days of the trappers. Now the change was at hand. It ! was like the breath of spring to the awakening wilderness. The forest people were moving Trap lines were being broke0, shacks abandoned. sledge dogs put to harness. On the lsday that Jean de Gravois left for Hudson bay the company's supplies came in from Fort Churchill ll-seven 1 toboggans drawn by Eskimo dogs, 1 laden with flour and cloth, fifty pounds l of beads, ammunition and hundred other things. to be exchanged for the furs that would soon be in London and Paris.
 Fearfully Jan Thoreau ran out to meet the sledges. There were seven i Indians and one white man. Jan thrust himself close to look at the white man. He wore two revolver holsters and carried an automatic. l Unduestionabty he was not mission ary, but an agent of the company. we'll prepared to care for the company's treasure.
 I Jan hurried back to the cabin, his heart bubbling with strange joy. s 'There ees no missioner. MeIissev he cried triumphantly, dropping be- side her, his face glowing with the gIadness of his tidngs. 'sYou shall be good and beautiful. lak her, but you shall not be baptize by missioner! He has not come!"
 l A few minutes later Cummins came in. One of his hands was torn and bleeding.
 ~Those Eskimo dogs are demonsr' he growled. eff they knew how to I stand on their legs they'd eat our hus- kies alive. Will you help me with 1 this?'
 Jan was at work in an instant ban daging the wounded hand
 1 Tt ess not deep." he said, and then, I without looking up, he added. "The missioner did not ceme."
 tNo,'' said Cummfns shortly. 'Nei- ther has the mail. He is with that" I He did not notice the sudden trem- ble of Jan's fingers, nor did he see the startled look that shot into the boys down turned eyes. Jan finished emotion and went back with Cummins to the company's store.
 l The next morning two Chippewayans trailed in with team of Hongrel CUTS from the south. Thereafter Cummins I found but little time to devote to Me lisse. The snow was softening rapid ly. ana the daily increasing warmth of the sun hastened the movement of the trappers. Mukee's people from the western Barren lands arrived first, bringing with them great loads of musk OK and caribou skins and an army of big footed, long legged Mac kenzie hounds that pulled like horses and walled like whipped puppies when the huskies and Eskimo dogs set upon them.
 From east and west and south all trails now jed to the post. By the end 1 of the third day after the arrival of the company's supplies a babel of fighting, yelling, ceaselessly moving discord had driven forth the peace and quiet in which Cummins' wife had died. The fighting and discord were among the dogs, and the yelling was a necessary human accompaniment Half hundred packs. almost as wild and as savage as the wolves from whom half of them possessed a strong inheri- tance of blood. were thrown suddenly into warning confusion.
 There was no cessation in the battle of the fangs. Half a. dozen battles were fought to the death each day and night Those that died were chief ly the south bred curs-mixtures of mastiff, Great Dane and sheep dogs and the fatally slow Mackenzie hounds.
 Yet beyond all this discord and bloody strife there was a great, throb- ping human happiness-a beating of honest hearts filled to overfiowing with the joys of the moment, weld ing of new friendships, a renewal of old ones, closer union of the broth erhood that holds together all things under the cold gray of the northern skies. There were no bickerings among the hunters.
 I These were days of unprecedented prosperity and triumph for the baby. as they were for the company. The cabin was half filled with strange things. for all went to look upon the little Melisse and gave something to her. There were polar bears teeth, brought down by the little black men who in turn had got them from the coast people; strange gods carved from wood, bits of fur. bushy foxtails, lynx paws. dried fruits, candy bought at fabulous prices in the store and musk II always and necessarily musk-from