Charlevoix county herald., 1914-07-25


them as if they had been Of the
greatest value.
Lorimer's haste had become mad
dening. An overwhelming desire to
be well on the desperately long jour
ney ahead of him-grim with dam
ger, fraught with all manner of
hardship and bitter weariness-over-
came him.
1t took him but a few minutes
more to make up his pack again, US
ing but one bag for everything and
abandoning the other. He swung the
load to his forehead, knowing well
that its slight weight-sOme forty
! pounds-wOuld often prove an intol-
cradle burden.
He knew enough of the great
woods to fully realize the distressing
toll ahead of him, but he plunged
| into the forest like one IN pursuit Of
some Elusive foe that is bearing
away all that man may hold pre-
cious.
At nightfall he was exhausted
After few days his journey became
labor. Every step he took gave
him pain, and his only moments of
rest were when dull apathy took
/ hold of him and he walked like a
man in dream.
But whenever his mind became
alert he began to count his steps and
| calculate the days and hours and
minutes of his Journey-to figure
out the distances Travelled and those
remaining.
Whenever he came upon the river
bank, from which he never moved
very far, and saw ome--fandmark
that he remembered, he was con-
scious of disappointing realization
! that he had again overestimated the
weary miles through alder brakes
and windfalls and quaking marshes.
In some places a mile an hour was
an absolutely impossible achieve
ment. There were so many obsta-
cles to be surmounted, so many turns
and twists to be made around steep
hills and cliffs, that he often jour
neyed for a mile or two when the
course of the river would have been
but few hundred yards.
Once, in despair, seeing the course
of the stream in a long, majestic
curve from a high hill, he plunged
into deeper woods, believing he
would have no trouble to hold his di-
rection. For a time the travelling
was better, but after time he be-
came confused and knew that he was
lost.
Fist came the well-nigh irresist-
ible inclination to run, to get out of
the maze in some way; but he re-
membered some hard-learned lessons
and sat down for moment.
He studied the sun carefully, and
finally turned at right angles to the
course he had been taking, coming
out to the river again, where he
fou-d that half days toll had been
wasted, for he was nearly at his
starting place, near the rapids of
Dead Pine Hill.
The pain in his limbs and his bis
tered feet and aching shoulders did
not alone trouble him. His food was
poor stuff for man on hard jour
ney.
There was no baking powder for
his flour, and the sodden cakes he
baked on fiat stones or the raw flour
he sometimes ate were like lead in
ms stomach.
Always he watched keenly for
game, yet he was able TO kill but lit
tie. He captured a couple of porcuS
pines as they were slowly climbing
trees with great rattle of quilts
and ate their fat meat ravenously. A
biz hare he shot lasted him a couple
of days. Patridges had been scarce
that year, and he killed but very few
with his pistol.
At the end of the first week, hav-
ing toiled from earliest daylight un-
til dark, and resting only when over
come with fatigue, he knew that he
of yat hal 70 Tcl IL,
Post. Already he had grown thin
and worn. His cheek bones pro-
truded, and his eyes darkened like
those of a man who has undergone
long vigils.
He knew then the awful WEAKNESS
of the man to whom inanimate
things become personal enemies
There is time when the endless
dragging of feet from the black ooze
becomes a torture; when hinderine
branches and vines that are snares
for heavy feet to catch upon and
fallen trunks that cannot be stepped
over become the wiles of fiends
united in conspiracy and try ones
soul to the verge of madness.
AT times, often for mercifu
half-hour, he would find himself in q
VII VI OptI lOTtSI WHtIt lItIC WCio
no windfalls, or where the high trees
shutting off the light, had prevented
the growth of smaller trees anc
shrubs.
Then he would feel as if he hac
been delivered from shackles, and he
went on, gladdened for a while, un'
til quagmires barred his way or tan
gled, deciduous trees halted him.
He might have collapsed anc
wept in moment of exhaustion, but
the sweating of his body and the
thinness of his poorly nourisheC
frame must have dried the fount OF
his tears.
For two days he had to tramp II
pouring rain. When the summer
warmth earth was moistened witt
the water that came cold from north
born clouds, it steamed and smoked
and the thick mist obscured his Wis
ion.
Several times he sank on soggy
moss and rotting leaves, and SLEPT
for time, to awake in terror lest ht
had wasted precious hours. Then bt
- - l,,~ ,,p41 he stiff