The Mena weekly star., 1917-10-11
CHAPTER V. Durance Vile.

DY Sept 1 a growing uneasiness
 hardened into distasteful certain
 ty upon Stella. It had become her firm resolve to get what money was due her when Charlie marketed his logs and try another field of labor That camp on Roaring lake was becoming a nightmare to her She had no inherent dislike for work. She was too vibrant ly alive to be lazy But she had had an overdose of unaccustomed drudgery and she was growing desperate If there had been anything to keep her mind from continual dwelling on the manifold dsagreeableness she had to cope with, she might have felt differ ently, but there was not. She ate, slept, worked-ate, slept, and worked again till every fiber of her being cried out in protest against the deadening round. Benton left to make his delivery of i logs to the mill company. and mean : time Stella had leisure to think and plan for the ture She felt that she could not stand her surroundings any ' longer and determined to tell Char. 1 lie so.
 Ten days later he and his loggers returned, all more or less exhilarated with liquor, He himself was fairly mellow and rejoicing over a 6,000,000 ! foot contraos he had secured and which was to be delivered as early as possible in the spring
 When supper was over, the work done and the loggers' celebration was slowly subsiding in the bunkhouse she told Charlie with blunt direc tness what she wanted to do. She wanted to go to Vancouver and earn her living there. With equally blunt directness he de- clared that he would not permit it. Stella's teeth came together with an angry little click.
 ! I'm of age. Charlie" she said to him. "It isn't for you to say what you will or will not permit me to do l want that money of mine that you used and what I've earned. God knows I have earned It. l can't stand this work. and l don't intend 10 It isn't work: it's slavery"
 But what can you do in town:" he ! fountered You haven't the least i idea what you'd be ga4ng up against. Stell. You've never been away from home. and you've never had the least training at anything useful You'd be on your uppers in no time at all Yot wouldn't have ghost of chance"
 ''I have such a splendid chance here" she retorted ironically "If could get in any position where I'd be more likely to die of sheer stagnation, to
 av nothing of dirty drudgery. than in this forsaken hole I'd like to know how. 1 don't think it's possible"
 You could be whole lot worse of ! If you only knew it." Benton returned grumpily. If you haven't got any sense about things, have. I know i what a rotten hole Vancouver or any other seaport town is for a girl alone. i I won't let you make any foolish break like that. That's fiat"
 | From this position she failed to ] budge him. Once angered, partly by ! her expressed intention and partly by the outspoken protest against the mountain of work imposed on her, 1 Charlie refused point blank to give her either the SO he had taken out of her purse or the three months wages due. Having made her request and having met with this, to her. amazing refusal, Stella sat dumb There was | toe fine q streak in her to break out in recrimination. She was too proud to cry.
 So that she went to bed in a ferment of helpless rage. Virtually she was u prisoner, as much so as if Charlie had Kidnapped her and held her so by brute force. The economic restraint wHs all potent. Without money she could not even leave the camp. And when she contemplated the daily treadmill be- fore her she shuddeaed.
 At least she could go on strike. Her