Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-10-29
The Honor
Of the
Big Shows
Blu JAMES
OLIVER CURWOOD,
Author of THE Danger
Trail
Copyright. ;on.
bg the BobbS Merrill Co.
SYNOPSIS
Copyright. ;01l,
bg the BobbS Merrill Co.


In the far northwest the wife of .Tobn
Cummins dies, leaving baby Melissa.
Young Jan Thoreau comes from the Bar
rem Lands with his violin. Mukee. the
Cree, had once spied on an EngIishman
peeping through the Cummins window.
Mukee had slain the Englishman. Jan
makes his home with Cummins and the
two resolve to bring up the baby in civ
nlzed manner. The mention of a mission
airy angers Jan.
Jean de Gravois. hunter, is coming to
Lac Balm with his Indian bride. mis-
sonary is coming also to the big caribou
roast. For some unnamed wrong Of the
past Jan resolves to kill the missionary.
In fight in the woods the missionary
bests and nearly kills Jan The latter is
found by Jean and his bride, Iowaka, and
the F'rench-Canadian pursues the mission
airy.
Stunned and bleeding, Jan dragged
himself to his knees He saw the dogs
turning, heard low voice urging them
to the trail and saw the sledge disap-
pear into the forest. He staggered
from his knees to his feet and stood
swstying i'm MS MS Weakness. Then he
followed
He forgot that be was leaving his
knife in the snow, forgot that back
there about the fire there were other
dogs and other men. He followed,
sickened by the blow, but gaining
strength as he pursued. Ahead of him
he could hear the sound of the tobog-
gan and the cautious flashing of a whip
over the backs of the tired huskies.
The sounds filed him with fierce
strength. He wiped away the warm
trickle of blood that ran over his cheek
and began to run, slowly at first,
swinging in the easy wolf lope Of the
forest runner. with his elbows close to
his sides.
At that pace he could have followed
for hours, losing when the pack took a
squirt, gaining when they Jagged, an in
sistent Nemesis just behind when the
weighted dogs lay down in their traces.
When be heard the cracking Of the
whip growing fainter be dropped his
arms straight to his sides and ran
more swiftly. his brain Keeling with the
madness Of bis desire to reach the
sledge, to drag from it the man who
had struck him, to choke life from the
face that haunted that mental picture
OF his grinning at him and gloating al
ways from the shadow world, just be-
yOnd the pale, sweet loneliness of the
woman who lived in it.
He did not feel the soft. sun packed
snow under the beat Of his feet He
received the lash of low hanging bush
es without experiencing the sensation
e e,4Sn OoIu hot hS
wanted air-more and more air-and
to get it he ran with open mouth
struggling and gasping for it and YET
not knowing that Jean de Gravois
would have called him foot for the
manner 10 which be sought it.
He heard more and more family
the run of the sedge. Then he heard
it no longer His heart sWelled in a
final bursting effort, and he plunged
on until at last his legs crumpled
under him and he pitched face down
ward in the snow, like thing stung
by sudden death
1t was then, with bis scratched and
bleeding face, lying in the snow. that
reason began to return to him. After
little while he dragged himself weak
Iy to his knees, still painting from the
mad effort he had made to Overtake
the sledge. From a great distance be
heard family the noise Of shouting, the
whispering echo Of half a hundred
voices, and be knew that the sound
came from the jewellers at the post
1T was proof to him that there had
been no interruption to the carnival
and that the scene at the edge of the
forest had been witnessed by none. He
turned again on the trail
Where the forest broke into an open.
lighted by the stars, he found blood
in the footprints Of the leading dog.
Halfway across the open he saw where
the leader had swung out from the
trail and the others of the pack had
crowded about him, to be urged on
by the lashings of the mans whip.
Other signs of the packs growing ex-
haustion followed close.
The man now travelled beside the
sledge where the trail was rough and
rode where it was smooth and hard.
The deep imprints of his heeled boots
for only a short distance at a time
a hundred yards or less-and that aft
er each running spell he brought the
pack to a walk. He was heavy and
lacked endurance, and this discovery
brought a low cry of exuItation to
JAMS lips.
He fell into a dog trot. Mile after
mile dropped behind him. Other miles
were ahead Of him, an endless wilder
ness of miles, and through them the
pack persisted, keeping always beyond
sound and vision.
/ The stars began fading out of the
skies. Jan followed more and more
slowly. There was hard breathing eff
fort now in his running-effort that
caused him. physical pain and discom-
fort His feet stumbled occasionally