Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-03-19


in trader"
''He said" answered Andrea, that
you were engaged in some horrible
business. but that he COULDN'T conceive
of any reason why he should tell me
what it was. / was very curious then,
but now | really don't care"
''Finicling, growing prudel' ex-
claimed Manchester, his mind on Ire
vor. "Why, it's the most legitimate
hundred per cent little business that
ever crawled out of big brain. If it
wasn't for me this whole back coun-
try would run short of wives
You mean you buy and sell wom-
en-" asked Andrea.
mo, not exactly" answered Mac
Closter. Il raise them. I'm the legal
possessor of hundred and eighty-two,
or five, or six, wives. Can't just re-
member"
"Ohv' gasped Andrea, cvouching still
| farther into her corner.
There you CO." said Manchester,
calmly. Don't let your imagination
run away with you, my dear. said
I'm the legal possesso@ and mean
just that. But what's the use of talk
ing. You'll see"
All through the night and well into
| the next day the boat travelled stead
| lily upstream. Manchester yawned pro-
digiously three or four times, but
never gave up the tiller to a boy
In the early morning they entered a
long reach of the stream flanked on
both sides by fiat plains. Manchester
stood erect and his eyes made the cir
cult of the horizon. Nothing" he
said. IF he could have beaten US to
this our name would have been Den
MIS- He's given up his favorite little
spotted hen. Flap your wings and say
/ good-by."
Andrea's heart, already low, sank a
lot lower. Not once through the night
had she closed her eyes and she knew
now that she had been hoping and
praying that the first CLEAN of MORN
ing would find Trevor, the avenger, on
the bank. She could not know, as did
Manchester, that an impossible forest
i
between the two camps. There was
just one open road to MacCloster's-
the river-and on that no other boat
could equal the speed of his own.
aSay," said Manchester. moved by a
sudden thought, lis there anyone that
would give lot of money for your"
Andrea's brows drew together in
honest valuation of what was left of
her old self. Il don't know" she said
meekly. perhaps not now"
.What would he give for you?" Mac
Closter asked, jerking his beard over
his shoulder.
HE said he wouldn't give three
pounds" answered Andrea in still,
small voice. She began to cry.
MacCloster's eyes grew round with
fright. "Oh, come now" he protested.
Here you've been hours without even
thinking of that ID old trick. Stop
itw he roared suddenly. "Stop it or
| I'll mash your head in"
II wish you would" sobbed Andrea
and cried harder than ever.
Manchester rolled his eyes heaven
ward as though he implored aid. Ills
ten" he said, talking into the sky.
Listen and I'll tell you what I'll do.
Are you listening?"
Eyes, gasped Andrea.
"Well," said Manchester. "You've
been lot of trouble to me and a big
loss. You can't expect a dry man to
forget a whole case of schnapps. Now
I'm going to let you write him note
and if you can get him to give three
cases of gin for you, why he can have
you, dn him."
Andrea stopped crying, sat up
straight and dabbed her eyes with her
very dirty fingers, but there was a
strange, set look in her face that made
Manchester doubt her sudden cure.
"Will you do it?'' he asked.
Never" said Andrea.
you're queer, like all of them" he
commented musingly "But somehow
the suggestion stopped you crying"
"What on earth is that?" asked An
! drea. her eyes fixed far ahead on an
enormous pale-yellow dome that
looked as if all the haystacks in the
world had been gathered into one.
"That," said Manchester, his vast
chest swelling in equally immeasur-
able pride, sis my Gaia, my hut
Il think there is something the mat
ter with my eyes" said Andrea.
"What l see isn't possible
"Oh, yes it is,' said Manchester
"Thats my hut; eighty feet high, one
hundred and twenty feet across and
most a hundred yards dash around"
"But how did you build it?'' asked
/ Andrea, absorbed in spite of her
misery.
well" replied Manchester, 'Tm
modest. / don't mind admitting that
God did the building; I just came
along and put on the roof Trevor
ever show. you any mafuta trees?"
Eyes they are wonderful" said An
drea. understanding beginning to dawn
in her eyes.
"That hut of NINE" said MacClos-
ter, lis nothing but the biggest. round
est, widest mafuta tree in the world,
trimmed bit and matched over"
Half an hour later they made a
landing. "Want me to carry you
again" asked Manchester with a leer,
"or will you walk?"
"pll walk" said Andrea, going sud
|