Gilpin observer., 1918-01-17


did not reveal.
This day the chief thing that he
came to understand was that the little
creature on the sledge was very pre-
ciOus to the girl who stroked his head
and talked to him, and that it was very
helpless. He learned, too, that Joan
was most delighted, and that her voice
was softer and thrilled him more
deeply, when he paid attention to that
little, warm, living thing in the bear
skin.
For long time after they made
camp Pierre Radisson sat beside the
fire. Tonight he did not smoke. He
stared straight into the flames. When
at last he rose to go into the tent
with the girl and the baby, he bent
over Kazan and examined his hurt.
you've got to work in the traces to-
morrow, boy" he said. 1--WE must
make the river by tomorrow night. II
we DON'T"
He did not finish. He was choking
back one of those tearing coughs when
the tent-fap dropped behind him. Ka.
zan lay stiff and alert, his eyes filled
with strange anxiety. He did not
like to see Radisson enter the tent,
for stronger than ever there hung that
oppressive mystery in the air about
him, and it seemed to be a part of
Pierre.
Three times that night he heard
faithful Gray Wolf calling for him
deep in the forest, and each time he
answered her. Toward dawn she
came in close to camp. Once he caught
the scent of her when she circled
around in the wind, and he tugged and
whined at the end Of his chain, hoping
that she would come in and lie down at
his side. But no sooner had Radissop
moved in the tent than Gray Wolf was
gone. The mans face was thinner,
and his eyes were redder this morn
ing. His cough was not SO loud or SO
rending. 1t was like a wheeze, as If
something had given way inside, and
before the girl came out he clutched
his hands often to his throat. Joan's
face whitened when she saw him.
Anxiety gave way to fear in her eyes.
Pierre Radisson laughed when she
flung her arms about him, and coughed
to prove that what he said was true.
'You see the cough 10 not so bad,
my Joan," he said. at is breaking up.
You cannot have forgotten, ma cherie?
1t always leaves one red-eyed and
weak"
1t was a cold, bleak, dark day that
followed, and through 1t Kazan and
the man tugged at the fore of the
sledge, with Joan following in the
trail behind. Kazan's wound no longer
hurt him. He pulled steadily with all
his splendid strength, and the man
never lashed him once but patted him
with his mittened hand on head and
back. The day grew steadily darker,
and in the tops of the trees there was
the low moaning of storm.
Darkness and the coming of the
storm did not drive Pierre Radisson
into camp. 1--WE must reach the river"
he said to himself over and over again.
ave must reach the river-we must
reach the river" And he steadily
urged Kazan on to greater effort, while
his own strength at the end of the
traces grew less.
It had begun to storm when Pierre
stopped to build a fire at noon. The
snow fell straight down in n white
deluge so thick that it hid the tree
trunks fifty yards away. Pierre
laughed when Joan shivered and snug
gled close up to him with the baby in
her arms. He waited only an hour,
and then fastened Kazan in the traces
again, and buckled the straps once
more about his own waist. In the silent
gloom that was almost night Pierre
carried his compass in his hand, and
nt last, late in the afternoon, they
came to a break in the timber line, and
ahead Of them lay plain, across
which Radisson pointed an exultant
hand.
"There's the river, Joan," he said,
his voice faint and husky. 1--WE can
camp here now and wait for the storm
to pass"
Under thick clump Of spruce he
put up the tent, and then began gath q
erng firewood. Joan helped him. As
soon as they had boiled coffee and I
eaten a supper of meat and toasted
biscuits, Joan went into the tent and
dropped exhausted on her thick bed
Of balsam boughs, wrapping herself
and the baby up close in the skins and
blankets. Tonight she had no word
for Kazan. And Pierre was glad that
she was too tired to sit beside the fire
and talk.