Licking Valley courier., 1922-05-04

Henry comes from there, too"
"Then that is where they hear the
Drum"
Eyes, Alan"
my father took newspapers from
those places, did he not2'-
Wassaquam looked over the ad-
dresses again. "Yes; from all. He
took them for the shipping news, he
said. And sometimes he cut pieces
out Of them-these pieces, I see now;
and afterward / burned the papers;
he would not let me only throw them
away"
"That's all you know about them,
Judahr'
Eyes, Alan; that is alp
Alan dismissed the Indian, who,
stolidly methodlcal In the midst of
these events, went downstairs and
commenced to prepare dinner which
Alan knew he could not eat. Alan got
up and moved about the rooms; he
went back and looked over the lists
and clippings once more; then he
moved about again. How strange a
picture Of his father did these things
call up to him When he had thought
Of Benjamin Corvet before, vt had been
as Sheriff. had described him, pur-
sued by some thought he could not
conquer, seeking relief in study. in cor
respondence with scientific societies,
in anything which could engross him
and shut out memory. But now he
must think Of him, not merely as one
trying to forget; what had thwarted
Corvets life was not only In the past I;
It was something still going on. 1t had
amazed Sheriff. to learn that Corvet,
for twenty years, had kept trace Of
Alan; but C0rvet 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 sollcitous
about these people; as seeking for
their names in the newspapers which
he 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
lntensest 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 C0rvets
books o set Of charts Of the Great
Lakes. He went and got that now and
an atlas. Opening them upon the ta-
be. ne 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; II very few upon
other lakes-Superlor and Huron
but most were upon or very close tC
Lake Michigan. These people lived by
means Of the lake; they got their sus
tenance from 1t, as Coryet had lived
and as Corvet had got hlswealth. Allan
was feeling like one who, bound, has
been suddenly unloosed. From the time
when, coming to see Corvet, he hat
found Corvet gone, until now, he hat
felt the impossiblllty 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 ant
addressesl They indeed offered some
thing to go upoh though Luke nov
was forever still, and his pockets hat
tod Alan nothing. ss
lie found Emmett county on the maj
and put his finger on 1t. Spearman
WassaQuam had said, came from
there. "The Land of the Drum |" HI
said aloud. Deep and sudden feeling
stirred In him as he traced out thi'
land on the chart-the little towns ant
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
cngo. There were Indian names ant
French up there about the meeting
Of the great waters. The sense tina
he was Of these lakes, that surge o
feeling which he had felt first In con
versation with Constance Sheriff. wa
strengthened I'm hundredf0ld.
4 lie gazed down nt the lists Of name
which Benjamin Corvet had kept s.
carefully and so secretly these wer
lhls fnther's people, too; these ragge,
shores nnd the Islands studdlng tn
channels were the lands where his 70
thu had spent the most active par
of his life. There, then-these list
now made II certuln-that events ha,
happened by which that life had bee
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