Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1916-01-19
also-holding it tight in his own for
moment
Right you are. ma" he answered,
and sat him down.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Call of the Wind.

The Call of the Wind.
The night lay thick over the Siletz
country High above. the pine tops
sang with a roar. soft-voiced but far
reaching as thunder. Mystery and
loneliness pressed upon the wilder
ness like a finger. 1t quivered the
sharp ears of Black Bolt. pricked for
ward, listening. it padded the feet of
Coosnah running ahead in the trail,
| but upon Siletz it's touch was lost.
She. too. was of the forest on a night
like this; she, too, was free of it's hid
den paths. Hour after hour they
threaded the familiar way, and pres.
emily the forest ightened. fell away
left them at the steep shore of the
Siletz river, gurgling along in the
darkness, swift and shallow.
Fields and pastures lay here upon
right and left and cabins stood squat in
the shadows. This was the headquar-
tiers of the reservation. Through the
small settlement, up lane and across
a woods-lot went the trio. and pres
emily Siletz drew rein where a sorry
shack crouched forlornly beneath a
mammoth fir. The sound brought to
its door bent figure that came and
| stood at Black Bolts head like a
| shadow.
| Siletz spoke in jargon, slid down.
| trailed the reins on the earth and en-
tered the little house.
An hour later she stood against its
closed door, facing a dusky circle of
squatting figures. her trim form
straight in the lamplight, her shirt
open bit at the throat. her slim
hands eloquent in quiet gestures.
Near the pine table that held the
fitful -ght stood old Kolawmie. a
splendid illustration of the white
mans ways.
He might have been fifty years of
age, he might have been a hundred.
Pure blood of chiefs ran in his veins.
and he had memories of the time when
the Oregon country reached from the
northern sound to the valley of the
Sacramento. About him gathered
silent circle. young men who could
speak good English and write essays
on the evolution of man, older ones
who accepted the modern modes with
reservations, and few like himself Of
the ancient time.
To them Siletz was speaking.
Trouble has fallen upon the Night
Wind" she said sweetly, land she
comes to her friends for help. Sandry
at the camp is deserted by his men.
| The camp fails, the work is stopped,
| the engines are silent at their posts,
and big contract that means much
is ready to be lost-and Hampden OF
the Yellow Pines laughs in glee, for he
has done this thing. Men there are
not in the country-and to go to Port
land means loss of time on the great
contract. Therefore Sandry sits with
his head in his hands. thus"
With swift art she bent her dark
head forward upon her palms. dropped
her slim shoulders, and instantly De-
spair doomed before the dusky circle.
For which the heart of S'letz sick
Gus, for she is Sandry's woman"
There was silence for a space. The
| girl was an artist.
"She would help him. Therefore
she comes to her frienda. whose hearts
are large with friendship, though their
hands are soft with leisure. The ST.
letz need not work. viii they give
the free gift of labor for the Night
Winds man?''
1t was a heart-speech, it was in Jar
gon and it was successful, for with
the early dawn, blue-gray with mist
and sun-shot with crimson, Sandry,
who had not slept, standing with fur
rowed brows on the Office step, heard
sounds of hoofs at the valleys head.
He looked and beheld a cavalcade of
horsemen. riding with ease on their
ragged ponies, and led by Siletz upon
Black Bolt, who still stepped proudly
after his day-and-nights journey.
while Coosnah rolled with swinging
ears at his side.
Here" said the girl as she rode up,
they win work for the big contract"
And she slid down with a little sigh
of WEAKNESS before Sandry could of.
fer his arms.
"Goshl" said Daily to himself in the
shadow of the Office, ''the Siwashes!"
Mr. Sandry." he said to the owner
when the long tables were filled in
every place with the best of the van
fishing tribe that Siletz could pick.
I'm kickin' myself that didn't think
of the Indians myself. though Lord
:.