The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-06-02
THE INDIAN DRUM
By William Macf1arg and Edwin BaImer
Copyright by Edwin Jaime

Nothing definite at all. None Of
them knew my father; they were only
amazed TO find hat anyone in Chicago
had known their Names"
In her feeling for him, she had laid
her hand upon his arm now her fin
gers frightened to sudden ~tenseness.
What do you mean?' she asked.
ooh, it is not definite yet-not
clear!" She felt the bitterness in his
tone. "They have not any Of them
been able TO make it wholly clear to
me. 1t is like a record that has been
blurred. These original names must
have been written down by my father
many years aSO-many, most Of those
people, l think-are dead; some are
nearly forgotten. The only thing that
is fully plain is that In every case my
inquiries have led me TO those who
have lost one, and sometimes more
than one relative upon the lakes"
Constance thrilled to a vague hor-
ror; it was not anything to which she
could give definite reason. His tone
quite as much as what he said was its
cause. His experience plainly had
been forcing him to bitterness against
his father; and he did not know with
certainty yet that his father was dead.
You'll lunch with us, of course"
she said to Alan, "and then go back
with us to Harbor Point. It's a days
journey around the two bays; but
we've a boat here"
He assented, and they went down to
the water where the white and brown
power yacht, with long, graceful lines,
lay somnolently in the sunlight. A lit
tie boat took them out over the SHIN
mering, smooth surface to the ship;
sWells from a PARKWAY f~reighter swept
under the beautiful, FURNISHED craft,
causing it to roll lazily as they board
ed it. A party Of nearly a dozen men
and girls with an older woman chap
eroning them, lounged under the shade
Of an awning over the after deck.
They greeted her gaily and looked
curiously at Alan as she introduced
him.
"Have you worked on any Of u
boats?" she asked him, after luncheon
had been finished, and the anchor Of
the ship had been raised.
A queer expression came upon his
face. I've thought it best not to do
that, Miss Sheriff." he replied.
She did not know why the next mo-
ment she should think of Henry.
The yacht was pushing swiftly,
smoothly, with hardly a hum from its
motors, north along the shore. He
watched intently the rolling, wooded
hills and the ragged little bays and in
lets. His work and his investigatiEgs
had nOt brought him to the neighbor-
hood before, but she found that she
did not have to name the places to
him he knew them from the charts.
Grand Traverse light" he said to
her as a white tower showed upon
their left. Then, leaving the shore,
they pushed out across the wide mouth
Of the larger bay toward Little TRAY
erse. He grew more silent as they ap-
preached it.
at is up there, isn't it." he asked,
pointing, that they hear the Drum?"
yes; how did you know the placer"
II don't know it exactly; I want you
to show me-"
She pointed out to him the copse,
dark, primeval, blue in it's contrast
with the lighter green OF the trees
about it and the glistening white of
the single and of the more distant
sand bluffs. He leaned forward, staring
at it, until the changed course of the
yacht, as it swung about toward the
entrance to the bay, obscured it.
Seeing the ships made me feel that
l belonged here on the lakes" he re-
minded her. II have felt something
not recognition exactly, but something
that was like the beginning of recOg-
nltion-many times this summer when
l saw certain places. It's like one of
those dreams, you know, in which you
are conscious Of having had the same
dream before. l feel that l ought to
know this place"
They landed only a few hundred
yards from the cottage. After bid
uAuS SOOu-Dy W LICK lIkcLuS, llley Weul
up to 1t together through the trees.
There was a small sun room. rather
shut off from the rest of the house, to
which she led him. Leaving him there,
she ran upstairs to get the things.
She halted an instant beside the
door, with the box in her hands, be-
fore she went back to him, thinking
how to prepare him against the sig
nificance of these relics Of his father.
She need not prepare him against the
mere fact of his fathers death; he
had been beginning to believe that al
ready; but these things must have far
more meaning for him than merely
that. She went in and put the box
| down upon the card table.
"The muller in the box was your
fathers" she told him. HE had it on
the day he disappeared. The other
things" her voice choked q little, ARE
the things he must have had in his
M