Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1914-12-24
,M8dss PHILIP STEELE
MaAghSSS &sSyO gtaeROML NORTHWEST hNNTEDPOuCE
WklND VA BY JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD
K Author Of The Danger Tui heOnor theBe Sunssec
X>aAs> X W. Copyright The rrmc


say to him, 4 can get that man.
and when the big chief says you
can't, you call him a four-ply ignor-
anus in your mind, and get per-
mission to go after him anyway
just because you're in love. You
follow your man up here-four hun
dred miles or so--and what's the
consequence? You lose all hope of
finding her. and you man does just
| what the big chief said he would do,
and lays you out-though it wasn't
your fault after al. Then you take
possession of another mans shack
when he isn't at home, eat his
grub. nurse broken head, and won
der why the devil you ever Joined
the glorious Royal Mounted when
you've got money to burn. You're
wise one, you are, Phil Steele
But you've learned something new.
You've learned there's never a man
so good but there's a better one some
where-even If he is a man-iiller
like Mr.. William DeBar."
He lighted his pipe and went to
the sun was shining in cold blaze
OF fire over, the southeastern edge
Of the barrens, which swept away
in a limitless waste of snow-dune
and rock and stunted scrub among
which occasional Indian and half
breed trappers set their dead-falls
and poison bats for the northern
fox
Sixty miles to the west was Fort
Smith. A hundred miles to the
south lay the Hudson's Bay Com
pany's post at Chippewayan; hun
dred and fifty miles to the south
and east was the post at Fond du
Lac, and to the north-nothing A
thousand miles or so up there one
would have struck the polar sea and
the Eskimo, and it was with this
thought of the lifelessness and mys-
terry of dead and empty world that
Philip turned his eyes from the sun
into the gray desolation that reached
from Pierre Thoreau's door to the
end of the earth.
Far off to the north he saw a
black speck moving in the chaos
of white. 1t might have been a fox
coming over a sno"-dune, a rifle
shot away, for distances are elusive
where the sky and the earth seem
to meet in a cold gray rim about
one; or it might have been a musk
OK or caribou at greater dis
tance, but the longer he looked the
more convinced he became that 1t
was none of these-but a man. 1t
moved slowly disappeared for a few
minutes in one of the dips of the
plain, and came into view again
much nearer This time he made
out man, and behind a sledge and
dogs.
ITS Pierre" he shivered. clos
ing the door and coming back to the
stove. II wonder what the deuce
the breed will say when he finds
stranger here and his grub half
gone"
After a little he heard the shrill
creaking Of a sledge on the crust
outside and then mans voice
The sounds stopped close to the
cabin and were followed by
knock at the door.
Come I'M" cried Philip, and in
the same breath it flashed upon him
that it could not be the breed.
and that 1t must be mighty par
ticular and unusual parsonage to
knock at all.
The door opened and man
came in. He was a little man,
and was bundled in a great beaver
overcoat and huge beaver cap
that concealed all of his face but
his eyes, the tip of his nose, and
the frozen end OF a beard which
stuck out between the laps of his
turned-up collar like a horn. For
all the world ne looked like a
diminutive drum-major. and Philip
rose speechless, his pipe still in
his mouth, as his strange visitor
closed the door behind him and
approached.
"Beg pardon" said the stranger.
in a smothered voice. walking as
though he were ice to the marrow
and afraid of breaking himself. Its
SO beastly cold that. have taken
the liberty of dropping in to get
warm"
st is cold-beastly cold" replied
Philip, emphasizing the word. "It
J was down to sixty last night. Take
off your things"
; Devil of country-this," shiv-
cred the man, unbuttoning his coat
"I'd rather roast of the fever than
: freeze to death.
Philip limped forward to assist
} him, and the stranger eyed him
sharply for moment.
i Limp not natural" he said
I quickly, his voice freeing itself al
last from the depths of his Goa,
+, collar. "Bandage little red, eyes