Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1922-06-15

Corvet's life was not only In the past;
1t was something still going on. 1t had
amazed Sheriff. to learn that Corvet,
for. twenty years, had kept trace of
Alan but Corvet had kept trace in the
same way and with the same secrecy
Of many other people-of about a
score Of people. When Alan thought
OF Corvet, alone in his silent house,
he must think of him as solicitous
about these people; as seeking for
their names in the newspapers which
ne took for that purpose, and as re-
cording the changes in their lives. The
deaths. the births, the marriages
among these people had been of the
tntensest interest to Corvet.
1t was possible that none of these
people knew about Corvet; Alan had
not known about him in Kansas, but
had known only that some unknown
person had sent money for his support.
But he appreciated that it did not
matter whether they knew about him
or not; for at some point common to
all OF them, the lives of these people
must have touched Corvet's life. When
Alan knew what had been that point
OF contact, he would know about Cor
vet; he would know about himself.
Alan had seen among Corvet's
books a set of charts of the Great
Lakes. He went and got that now and
an atlas. Opening them upon the ia
Bile, he looked up the addresses given
on Corvet's list. They were most of
them, he found, towns about the north
ern end Of the lake; very few upon
other lakes-Superior and Huron
but most were upon or very close to
Lake Michigan. These people lived by
means Of the lake; they got their sus-
tenance from it, as Corvet had lived,
and as Corvet had got his wealth. Alan
was feeling like one who, bound, has
been suddenly Embossed. From the time
when, coming to see Corvet, he had
found Corvet gone, until now, he had
felt the impossibility of explaining
from anything he knew or seemed like
ly to learn the mystery which had sur
rounded himself and which had sur
rounded Corvet. But these names and
addresses! They indeed offered some-
thing to go upon, though Luke now
was forever still, and his pockets had
told Alan nothing.
He found Emmett county on the map
and put his finger on it. Spearman,
Wassaquam had said, came from
there. "The Land of the Drum!" he
said aloud. Deep and sudden feeling
stirred in. him as he traced out this
land on the chart-the little towns and
villages, the islands and headlands,
their lights and their uneven shores.
A feeling Of "home" had come to him,
which he had not had on coming to Chi
cago. There were Indian names and
French up there about the meetings
Of the great waters. The sense that
he was Of these lakes, that surge of
feeling which he had felt first in con-
versation with Constance Sheriff. was
strengthened an hundredfold.
He gazed down at the lists of names
which Benjamin Corvet had kept so
carefully and so secretly; these were
his fathers people, too; these ragged
shores and the islands studding the
channels were the lands where his ia
Their had spent the most active part
of his life. There, then-these lists
now made it certain-that events had
happened by which that life had been
blighted. North, there by the meeting
Of tho uyOtors xuoc tho rsopion ~ tho
wrong which was done.
"That's where must go!" he said
aloud. "That's where l must go!"
Constance Sheriff., on the following
afternoon, received a telephone call
from her father; he was coming home
earlier than usual, he said; If she had
planned to 60 out. would she wait I'M
til after he got there? Tie afternoons
mail was upon stand in the hall. She
turned 1t over, looking through tin
vitations, social notes. She picked
from among them an envelope ad-
dressed to herself in a firm, clear
hand, which, unfamiliar to her, still
queerly startled her, and tore it open.
Dear Miss Sheriff." she read.
Il am closing, for the time being,
the house which, for default of other
ownership, must call mine. The pos
sibility that what has occurred here
would cause you. and your father anxi-
ETY. about me in case I went away
without telling you Of my. intention is
the reason for this note. But it is not
the only reason. could not go away
without telling you how deeply I ap-
preciate the generosity and delicacy
you and your father have shown me
in spite of my position here and Of the
fact that I had no claim at all upon
you. I shall not forget those, even
though what happened here last night
makes it impossible for me to try 10
see you again or even to write to you.
ALAN CONRAD"
She heard her fathers motor enter
the drive and ran 20 him with the let
ter in her hand.
"He's written to you, them" he said,
at sight Of 1t.
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