The Pulaskian., 1920-01-23

e-AAAN ACNAA about him and, holding him securely with the left pummeled him. Hilary | forgot his science and shot his right upward between the arm and the body, landing on Pierre's chin. Pierre reeled, but he did not let go his hold. He grasped Hilary like a bear, hugging him till the breath was nearly out of his body and forcing the point of his chin in under Hilary's collar-bone.
 Pierre was several years the older, and winded by fast living, but his mus cles were as firm as a young mans. Knowing that his enemy's science was more than a match for his superior strength, he maintained the clinch, but gradually shifted his grasp upward, first pinioning Hilary's arm, then grip ping his shoulder, until he had him by the throat
 Hilary, gasping under the relentless pressure, saw the faces of the lumber men swim round him. He saw the tri- umph and the joy, the mockery and the hatred on each; there was no pity | for the American; many an old land | question, many a racial conflict had be- l come incarnate in that fight under the pines. Hilary realized that it was a battle, not for the timber tract, but for his own life
 Pierre's face grinned into his own indignantly, plastered with dust and smeared with the sweat that drove white furrows across it. Hilary let his hands fall Imply. For just a second Pierre relaxed his grasp, to shift it so the thumb-knuckles should close on the carotids Then Hilary put all his strength into a terrific drive with the left. The blow caught Pierre between the eyes, his arms went up, releasing Hilary, and he tottered backward. The yells of the lumbermen, which had been continuous, suddenly ceased.
 Before Pierre could recover himself Hilary let him have it with the right Pierre went to the ground. Hilary still only half conscious, and hardly seeing the prestrate body, drew in a deep chestful of air. A black cloud filled with dancing specks swan be- fore his vision. Out of it he saw the face of one of the nearest spectators. It was filled with an anticipation so pungent that instinetively Hilary leap ed aside. Out of the cloud he saw Black Pierre pRnge forward, knife in his hand The spent blow cut Hilary's sleeve. Pierre recovered himself and rushed at the American, fearful spec tacle, dripping sweat and blood. Hill ary caught him with the right under the jaw, sending him fiat The knife went whirling away into the under brush. Black Pierre lay still.
 Hilary turned to the nearest of the awed lumbermen. Bring him a cup of water" he ordered
 The man understood and ran into Pierres hut. But Pierre was sham ming; he opened his eyes, fixed them with burning hate on Hilary, and num- bled
 "Get up!" said Hilary.
 Pierre rose sullenly, edging out of the reach of the expected blow. He was cowed, the fighting spirit was out of him, as it was out of his eompan- ions. AS civilized men fear the law, the lumbermen feared the unknown forces that lay behind Hilary and manifested themselves through the strength of his arm.
 'I'll give you five minutes to get off the St. Bosiface territory into the Ste. Marie limits, the other side of Rocky | I-ix- IIo o1 fc l,o spectators. "Ill thrash every man not employed by me who comes upon my land" he announced.
 Whether they understood the mean ing of the words or not, they realized the significance of the gesture. Black Pierre, among his companions at the edge of the clearing, stopped his re- treat. He meant at least to save his face by threats. But Hilary had de liberately turned his back on him and, without apparent fear of danger, was examining the shacks, and poking the moss out of the interstices between the logs with a forked stick When he turned the last of the Ste. Marie men was disappearing out of the clearing down the road. He waited long enough for them to reach the fork, before re- entering the buggy.
 He was thoughtful on the drive homeward. He knew that it was only the unexpected nature of his action which had cleared the concession. That had been a paramount duty; at any cost he must preserve the integrity of his land But, given Brousseau's lead ership and active hostility, they could put up fight which would render him impotent. Physical force could bring him nowhere in the end.
 It took about an hour for the embel- lished story to filter through to the mill. Before work was knocked off that afternoon Hilary hecame conscious of