Graham guardian., 1922-06-06

CHAPTER I.--Looking over Big Mus
keg. a seemingly impossible swamp in
the path of the Missatibi railroad, Joe
Bostock, builder of the line, and Wilton
Carruthers. chief Of engineers. are con
sidering the di. .culties. A rifle shot in
stantly kills Bostock and breaks Car
ruthers' arm. Handicapped as he is, Car
ruthers determines to carry the body to
a station of the Hudson's Bay company.
where one Mcdonald is the factor,
He stumbled over the rough ground
until he reached the cleared road
through the trees. Here the going was
easier, but the burden numbed his
right hand and shoulder. the throbbing
pain In his left seemed To beat time to
his footsteps. and the uche Of the
cramping muscles Increased the agony
Of his wound and begsn TO spread
down his body.
A wind sprang up. driving gusts 0f
whirling snow into his eyes. A deadly
lethargy was creeping over him, and
presently, turning his head to shield
his eyes from the beating blasts, he
saw a trickle Of crimson on the road
behind him.
The tourniquet had loosened. He
was bleeding his life away, The blood
was gushing down his fingers. VIII
ton set Joe's body down and succeeded
In tightening the compress. And It
was only after an almost superhuman
struggle that he could get Joe over
his shoulder He knew that if he was
forced to set the body down again he
could never lift II.
With knees bent. tripping over the
roos OF the trees, and reeiln9
through q swimming world, he stag.
gered on and on and on. And neither
his anger nor the thought Of Kitty
could have kept his resolution through
that nightmare Of pain. 1t was all Joe
now, the memory OF Joe, his love for
him, and his resolve thai his friends
remains should not be torn by the tim.
ber-wolves.
Joe had befrlended him years be-
fore, when he had drifted, penniless.
into Winnipeg. Joe's faith had been
his own, and the secret or the Mlssati-
hi theirs.
So the mileS reeled of behind him,
while the wind increased and the snow
fell thicker along the way. At last the
trees opened, and the bleak shore Of
Big MuSkeg lay before him, a desert
of Ice and SNOW, with the bluffs oppo-
site, and beyond them the trees once
more.
At once the fierce swirl of the gale
caught him, whistling like sirens, Dor.
Ing into his face like white hot
probes. The ice that fringed his
lashes blinded him and pulled them
from the lids when he tried to open
his eyes. He reeled on, clutching Joe's
body. and heard his own voice go
from him In shouts of despair. They
rolled across the snow. and the echoes
came In faint, mimicking answer from
the distant cliffs. ..
Wilton retained sufficient conscious
ness Of his surroundings to make his
way along the shore toward the port
age. He might have shortened his
route to McDonalds store a little by
risking direct crossing; but the sur
face of fnuskeg is always dangerous,
even In mldwlnter, when the appar-
entity solid ice conceals slnk-holes of
slush. which, mixed with. peat aud
ooZe, does not CONCEAL firmly, and en-
traps the unwary traveller, a quick
mud from which escape is next to I'M
possible.
The portage was firm ice, although
1t offered no foundation for a railroad
bed, 1t ran between two openings In
the low bluffs, and the store was Wis
lble from the farther shore. ...
The icy blasts pierced through Will
tons fur hood and macldnaw ns II
they had been cotton. His feet seemed
like foreign bodies attached TO his
legs, up which he could feel the numb.
ness creeping by inches toward his
body, And when at last he reached
the portage he looked out with in
credulity toward the opposite shore.
seeing only hickering line of
shadows through the slit between his
frozen eyelids. ....
Resolutely cIaSping the frozen form
with his right arm, he stepped out
upon the surface. The wind which
blew through the gap with hurricane
violence at almost all times, had
swept the ice as broom might sweep
! rink, In enormous circles, CLASSY and
irm, with whTling Snow-pIles round
hem. Wilton could progress only by
inches, fighting the full blast OF the
gale, and seeing the line OF his route
1nly In fractions of seconds.
He saw the bluffs in front Of him,
md the opposite shore nearing. And
ne fought furiously against the creep
ng numbness, knowing that each sec
md counted for victory. 1t was per
laps a hundred feet farther. He
'pened his eyes an instant. Eighty now
seventy. perhaps; one last effort
o cross the portage.
Fifty feet With all OF will and
that remained Wilton
'et his face resolntely toward his
anding place, and strode on into the
,snk Of pnow piled np by the wind bas