Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1913-12-17
Copyright. Oil.
Du the BObbS Merrill Co.

He turned into the trail upon which
Jean de Gravois had fought the Eng
lishman, led his dogs and sledge in a
twisting path through the caribou
swamp and stood at last beside the
lob stick tree that leaned out over the
edge of the white Barrens. With his
knife he dug out the papers which he
had concealed in that whisky jack hole.
1t was near dawn when he recovered
the rife which he had abandoned Oh
the mountain top. A little later it be-
gan to snow. He was glad, for it would
conceal his trail.
For thirteen days he forced his dogs
through the deep SHOWS into the south.
On the fourteenth they came to LIE
Pas, which is the edge of civilization.
1t was night when he came out Of the
forest, so that he could see the faint
glow of lights beyond the Saskatche-
wan.
For a few moments, before crossing,
he stopped his tired dogs and turned
his face back into the grim desolatiOn
of the north, where the aurora was
playing feebly in the skies and beckon-
ing to him and telling him that the old
life of centuries and centuries ago
would wait for him always at the dome
of the earth.
1.-The good God bless you and keep
you and care for you ever more, my
Melisse,'' he whispered. And he walk
ed slowly ahead of his dogs across the
river and into the other world.
There was music that night in LIE
Pas. A door opened and a man and
woman came out. The man was ours
ing, and the woman was laughing at
him-laughing as Jan had never heard
a woman laugh before, and he held his
breath as he listened to the haunting
mOckery in it. KaZan, the one eyed
leader, snarled. The trace dogs skunk
close to the leaders heels. With a
low word Jan led them on.
Close down to the river, where the
Saskatchewan swung in a half moon
to the south and west, he found low,
squat building with a light hung over
the door Illuminating a bit of humor
in the form of printed legend which
said that it was "King Edwards ho-
tel" The scrub bush Of the forest
grew within a hundred yards Of it,
and in this bush Jan tied his dogs and
left his sledge. 1t did not occur to
him that now. when he had entered
civilization, he had come also into the
land of lock and bolt, of robbers and
picion that sent him back to unleash
Kazan and take him with him.
They entered the hotel, KaZan with
suspicious caution. The door opened
into big room lighted by an oil lamp
turned low. The room was empty ex-
cept for a solitary figure sitting in
chair facing wide window which
looked into the north. Making no
sound that he might not disturb this
other occupant, Jan also seated him.
self before the window. KaZan laid
his wolfsh head across his masters
knees, his one eye upon him steadily
and questioningly. Never in all his
years of life had Jan felt the depth Of
loneliness that swept upon him now
as he looked into the north. He did
not know that he was surrendering to
hunger and exhaustion, the cumulative
effects of his thirteen days fight in the
forests. 1t was the low, heartbrOken
sob OF grief that fell from his own lips
that awakened him again to a con-
seriousness of the present.
He jerked himself erect and found
Kazan with his fangs cleaning. The
stranger had risen. He was standing