The Pulaskian., 1920-01-09

AOSHy LEdCL.
 "The offer Is too small7 doubt
 q will discuss that after have seen the concession"
 The notary sighed. Well, at least think the matter over for a while" he l said. 'Mr. Morris, the manager, is away on business. He should be in Quebec tomorrow, and perhaps he can arrange to take you up there"
 T am thinking of going at a very early date," said Hilary, "in fact, by the boat tomorrow"
 MT. Askew, assure you, you had better wait for Mir. Morris. He is a man of expert judgment. You cannot have better adviser, and he has abso- i lutely no personal interest one way or another. There are so many things to consider; and then-you don't speak French, do you?"
 "A little."
 Tt would not help you, anyway. The dialect up at St. Boniface is seven teenth century, They are a wild lot up there, a very bad lot of people :; smugglers and poachers, Mr. Askew." Hillary, who had already sensed La martine's objection to his going to St. l Boniface, awakened to suspicion at last. q shall leave on tomorrow morn ing's boat" he said. ''When I have made my decision I shall let you know. I think 1 shall refuse your company's offer. Will you let me have the pa- pers, Monsieur Lamartine, including the last half-yearly statement and the map of the Iimits?'
 ''But it is entirely irregular, MT. As kew. Really"
 Let me have the papers, please" said Hilary, smiling And you need have no fear that you will be held re- sponsible for my anticipating my in right there as MT. Norris
 "Of course, if that is your decision, there is nothing more to say" an- swered the other brusquely. He pulled out drawer and removed an envelope containing some documents. You will find the statement here" he said. "Mr. Morris has the books and the map of St Boniface. I wish you pleasant journey, sir. You wish me to continue to represent you?''
 For the present. yes. Good-day."
 When he was gone Monsieur Lamar tine sat back in his chair and drummed his fingers for nearly minute. Then he called up Brousseau.
 ''He's just gone," he said. "And he starts for St. Boniface tomorrow morn- ing, in spite of all my representa- tions.''
 He smiled at the sputtering that came over the wire.
 * *
 It was well into the afternoon when Hilary reached St. Boniface on the small tri-weekly mail boat. For fifty or sixty miles below Quebec the coun- try, sparsely inhabited though it is, and primitive, contains settlements with shingled houses, Eotels, tourists in season; and it was not until the St. Lawrence widened into the Gulf that Hilary realized, almost with surprise, that the ship was sailing into a terri tory as primitive as it had been a score of years after Jacques Cartier landed, Something of the primeval nature of the land entered Hilary's heart and gripped it. He had never known what it was he wanted. But he knew now: it was to take hold of virgin land and tame it, to grapple with life, not among the men of cities, but some- where with the smell of the pines and of the brown earth in his nOstrils. Pac- ing the deck of the little ship, he felt that his desires had come to light at the moment when their fulfillment had become possible.
 He looked about him with approval when he stood upon the porch of the tiny hotel at St. Boniface. Nobody else had got off the boat, and evident ly the landlord of the little hotel ex- pected nobody. After an intellectual attempt to enter into conversation with him, in which hardly a word was mu- tually ineligible, Hilary gave up the effort and started up the hill road which led, he surmised, toward the lumber mill.
 The whole settlement was gathered about the shores of the little bay. Be yond it were the mountains, on either side the forest-clad hills, broken, on the east by an inlet, and on the west by the deep cleft of the Rocky river, whose mouth, closed by a boom, was congested mass of logs.
 Hilary crossed the bridge and ap- preached the mill Two or three men, lounging outside the store, looked at him without any sign of interest. Everything was very still and peace ful; there was hardly sound to be heard except the distant hum of the mill machinery.
 Between the dam and the store, upon terrain heaped with tin cans and miscellaneous debris. were piles | f.@FN s~, r<. C.. I.