The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1921-04-27

view OF his camp. But be knew that
the chance of Dan starting upon any
such journey before the snow had
melted was not one in thousand To
be caught i'm the Divide in the winter
means 10 be showed In as completely
as the Innuits of upper Greenland. No
word could pass except by man on
snOwshoes.
Yet IL the chance did come. IL the
house should be left unguarded, II
might pay CranstOn to make an inn
mediate search. Dan would have no
reason for supposing that Cranston
suspected his possession OF the lei
tiers; he would not he particularly
watchful, and would probably pigeon
hole them until spring in Lennoxs
desk.
And the truth was that Cranston
had reasoned out the situation almost
perfectly. When Dan awakened IN
the morning. and the snow lay already
a foot deep over the wilderness world.
he knew that he would have no chance
TO act upon the Cranslon case untli
the SHOWS melted in the spring. 80
he pushed all thought of 1t out OF MS
mind and turned his attention TO more
pleasant subjects. II was true that ne
read the documents over twice as ne
Law in bed. The. he tied them into a
neat packet and put them away where
they would be quickly available. Then
he thrust his head ont of the window
and let the great snowtlakes sift down
upon his face. 1t was winter NJ last,
the season that he loved.
fe didn't stir from the house that
first day of the storm. Snowbird ana
he found plenty of pleasant things 10
do and talk about before the roaring
fire that he built in the CRATE. He was
glad of the great pile of wood that
lay outside the door Ii meant lie IT.
self. in this season. Then Snowbird
led him To the windows. and they
watched the white drifts pile up over
the low underbluSh.
When finally the SnowStorm ceased,
five days later the whole face Or me
wilderness was changed. The buck
brush was mostly covered, the fences
were out of sight: the forest seemed
clear, clean sweep of white broken
only by an occasional tall thicket ana
nv the great. snow-covered trees.
When the clouds blew away. and
the air grew clear, the temperature
began 10 fall. Dan had no way OF
knowing how low. il went. Thermome-
tiers were not considered essential an
the Lennox home. But when his eye
lids CONCEALED with the frost, and his
mittens froZe To the logs of tirewood
that he carried through the door. and
the pine trees exploded and cracked In
the darkness, he was correct in his
belief that il was very. very cold.
But he loved the cold. and the ST.
Ience and austerity that went with IL.
The wilderness claimed him as never
before. The rugged breed that were
his ancestors had struggled through
such seasons rs this and passed a love
Of them down through the years to
him.
When the ice made crust over the
snow. he learned TO walk on snow
shoes. At first there were panied
ankles and endless floundering in the
drifts. But between the fall Of fresh
snow and the thaws that softened the
crust. he slowly mastered the art.
Snowbird-and Dan never realized the
full significance Of her name until he
saw her flying with incredible grace
over the snow-laughed at him nj first
and ran him races that would usually
end i'm his falling headfirst into ten
foot snowbank. She taught him how
To ski and more than once she would
stop in the middle of an earnest BIT
of pedagogy to find that he wasn't lis
tening at all. He would seem To be
fairly devouring her with his eyes, de-
lighting in the play of soft pinks ana
reds in her cheeks. and drinking, as
man drinks wine, the amazing change
of light and Shadow in her eyes.
She seemed 10 blossom under his
gaze. Not one of those short winter
days went by without the discovery
of some new trait or little vanity to
astonish or delight him--sometimes
an unlooked-for tenderness toward the
weak. often a sweet. untained philos-
ophy of life. or perhaps just lower
ing of her eyelids in which her eyes
would show lustrous through the
lashes, or some sweeping. exuberant
gesture startlingly graceful.
Lennox wakened one morning with
the realization that this was one OF