The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-04-18
"North of Fifty-Three"
BY Bertrand W. snclaIr-Copyright by Little Co.

l ooW a hhiiu iOOh OI bui ptibt lit
over his countenance when Roar
ing Bill walked in and coolly took
a seat. But not until Hazel
glanced at the newcomer did she
recognize him as the man who
had fought in the street. He was
looking straight at her when she
did glance up, and the mingled
establishment and frank admira-
ton in his clear gray eyes made
Hazel drop hers quickly to her
plate. Since Mr.. Andrew Bush,
she was beginning to hate men
who looked at her that way.
Exactly three days later Hazel
came into the dining room at
noon, and there received her
first lesson in the truth that this
world is a very small place, after
all. A nattily dressed gentleman
seated to one side OF her place
at table arose with the most polite
bow and extended hand.
Hazel recognized him as Mr..
Howard Perkins, travelling sales
man for Harrington & Bush. Aft
| err the first unwelcome surprise.
she reflected that it was scarcely
strange that the link in her past
| life should turn up here, for she
knew that in the very nature of
things, a firm manufacturing ag-
ricultural implements would have
its men drumming up trade on
the very edge of the frontier
Mr.. Perkins was apparently
glad to meet some one from home
He Joined her on the porch for
a minute when the meal was over.
And he succeeded in putting Ha-
eel at her ease so far as he was
concerned. If he knew why she
had left Granville, it evidently
cut no figure with him.
Finally Mr.. Perkins proposed a
walk up on a 300-foot knoll that
sloped from the back door, so to
speak, of Cariboo Meadows. Ha-
eel got her hat, and they set out.
They reached the top in a few
minutes, and found seat on a
| uCdu tlSt u uhhs wi
was properly impressed with the
outlook. But before very long
he seemed to suffer a relaxation
of his interest in the view and a
corresponding increase of atten-
ton to his companion. Hazel
recognized the symptoms.
Il think | shall go down." she
said abruptly.
ooh, | say, now, there's no
hurry" Perkins responded smil-
ingly.
She was already rising from
her seat. But Mr.. Perkins caught
her as she rose, and laughingly
tried to kiss her. Whereupon
Hazel slapped him with all the
force she could muster-which
| was considerable. But he did
| not seem to mind that. Probably
he had been slapped before, and
regarded it as part of the game.
why, you're a regular scrap
per-" he smiled. Nov, I'm sure
you didn't cuff Bush that way
Hazel jerked loose from his
grip in a perfect fury. Being free
of him, Hazel stood her ground
long enough to tell him that he
was acad, a coward, an ill-bred
nincompoop, and other epithets
grievous to masculine vanity.
With that, she filed down the hill
furious, shamed almost to tears
and wishing fervently that she
had the muscle of a man to re-
quite the insult as it deserved.
Like other mean souls of SINH
lar pattern, it suited Mr.. Perkins
to seek revenge in the only way
possibility confidentially relat-
ing to divers individuals during
that evening the Granville cpl
sode in the new teachers career.
At least, Hazel guessed he
must have told, for as early as
the next day she caught certain
of Jim Briggs boarders lookinN
at her with an interest they had
not heretofore displayed.
/ The feeling grew to certainty
after Perkins departure. There
was a different atmosphere.
In the meantime, she labored
diligently at her appointed task
of drilling knowledge into the
heads of a dozen youngsters.
The first Saturday after the
Perkins incident, Hazel went for
a tramp in the afternoon. The
few walks she had taken had
| lulled all sense of uneasiness in
venturing into the Unfolding for
est.
Eventually she gained a con-
siderable height. She could not
see the town, but she could mark
the low hills behind it.
So she thought. But the short
afternoon fled, and, warned by
the low dip of the sun, she left
her nook on the hillside to make
her way home.
But once among the close
ranked trees, she began to expe-
rience a difficulty that had not
hitherto troubled her. With the
sun hanging low, she lost her
certainty of direction.
She blundered on, not admit
ting to herself the possibility of
being unable to find Cariboo
Meadows. But she had walked
far enough to have overrun 1t,
and was yet upon unfamiliar
| ground.
The shadows deepened until