The daily Alaskan., 1920-10-28

OSDLS 4LL~E-I 4-s-S w A z ~ = [ ....a. .Tff5It fIt and day. I fear death viii sometime come of that knlfe"
 Ills eyes urged her to go on.
 Seven years he's been as you see
 him. Up to that time he was the most
 wonderful father a girl ever had. He
 wasn't gray until then, and he didn't wear q beard. Those who knew him then wouldn't know him now. It was seven years ago this June-the twen- tieth. remember 1t because 1t was my blrthday-I was twelve. That eve hing I heard a groan at the kitchen ] door. l ran out, and there was Dad 1 dy, holding to the door post to keep from falling, his hands covered with blood. and blood all over his face and hair. I helped him In, washed off the blood and discovered It came from n wound in his head. I bound 1t up the best I could and ran to the village for the doctor.
 When he came, he said Daddy had been shot. There was a long scar like q groove-that the doctor said was made by the bullet. It had caused cOncusSiOn of the brain. Since that he has been llke-this. The knife he
 must have taken from the person that shot him. for he had none of his own. It was clutched light in nls hand when I found him-the knife, and this"
 She beckoned him across the room
 10 the book case. It was the first car pet the Pearl Hunter had ever walked over. He set his feet down like man crossing thin ice.
 She fumbled out from behind q TOW of books a small packet, with the eau ton:
 You mustn't let Daddy see 1t. He will go wild If you do. I used to keep 1t stuck behind the picture, but It l worked out Into sight one day, and he drove the knife through it before I could get it away from him. If he ever finds the man 1t belongs to he'll serve him the same way, I'm afraid. | Sometimes I think that's why he i haunts the woods-to see if he can find him. There, you can see where the knife went through"
 She had been unwrapplng a fold of paper as she talked. The sight of Its contents surprised q low exclamation from the Pearlhunter. It was a red mask.
 The Pearlhuntcr fingered the bit of stiH' cloth lying across the girls palm with such quick eaEerness that her eyes sought his face CurlOusly. The red mask The slit of the knife near an eye hole-no man in the FlatwOods better able to read the story 1t told; none better able to piece together the fragments of that seven-year-Old trag- edy.
 Up through the eye holes there seemed to glow a pair of eyes-blue, like blue ice; eyes that glow black when reused. He knew what they looked like when the blue turned to | black.
 Suddenly, without warning, a deep groan set the silence ashiver. The girl crammcd the packet back behind the books; the Pcarihunter whlrled.
 The Wild Man had risen from his chair and stood pcering toward him with wide, weird eyes. With step that was ghOstly noiSGIcss Ee crossed the floor Quite close he came, his dulled senses seeming to need the stimulus of close contact. His bOny hands and long arms were Quivering; his hollow face twitching pitifully.
 Hes never like this" the girl whispered
 The young man glanced at her and stood still. The thin hands fluttered over his face and head. Even their llghtest touch was heavy with strength that must have been prOdlg- ious-as if the fires of his malady kin dled q force in him more than human. Some impulse of compassion must have reached the heart of the Pearl hunter, for he stretched his long arm forth and laid it about the old mans shoulders. Instantly he felt the weight of the gray giant upon him. It might have been the one thing the stricken man craved in his dumb way-the touch of his kind; the prop of mans arm.
 The situation embarrassed the Pearl hunter. It was like winning the con- fldence of a little child, and then not knowing what to do with 1t.
 The girl was quick to see his embar- rassment, and, much as a mother might coax q child away from some one she imagined 1t was annoying, she led the old man back to his chair; then. leaving him, she hurried across the room to the book case.
 "I never saw him so restless before" she said, as she passed by. He seems to like you. though" she continued while finding the book she wanted, Strange, too, for he's cross usually, even to the doctor. Won't you excuse me till I quiet him?'
 Before he could reply she had found the book and hurried back to the chair. Opening if. she laid 1t upon the old mans knees He bent his head and