Evening star., 1923-07-22
[OHNNY. GERALDY

Frenchman in the colonies seems
often 10 be-blunt, unimaginative. of
tremendous physical endurance. Ma
RE fremont, whom he married, was
of another planet
Marie was afraid of the wind in the
forest, the hoot of the night owl. or
the evil spirit that made the flame
flicker in the lantern and the pun
cheons creak when no one stepped
upon them. During the long days.
when she was left in the cabin she
conjured up calamities that might
overtake her - the timber wolves
might come, a marauding band of In
dians, fever: but most often OF all
that ghost that stalks every woods
man---flre.
Johnny Geraldy grew up to look
Ike his father. His shoulders were
broad and his hands were large and
his eyes were set far apart. He could
swing an axe and, with the best OF
ris fellows trek the long miles TO
tie northward. True. Johnny Ge-
raldy was the son Of pioneer, but
he was also the son Of his mother,
who was afraid when the puncheon
c-eaked and who woke up at night
with the smell of wood smoke in her
nostrils AS the peasant people say
II. Johnny Geraldy was marked, but
he prayed nothing would ever hap
pen that would make patent TO all
the wcrld the thing that was so pitt
fully known to him.
II WAS the last of October, and
Devils Greek licked it's way like
tongue of fire between the banks. 1t
was difficult to remember how, after
the spring rains set in. the creek be-
came a river down which the Tama-
rae people tioated the winter cut to
the mills at Pierre Fonds, for till the
rains came there was never man
who could run that stream In a boat.
TITS the devils own creek" said
JACQUES Morceau, land whoever would
run It safely must first give his soul
over outright, and then never lift
paddle"
THAT seemed to be the way of 1t,
l. but what man would have the
courage 10 sit stark in his canoe ana
trust even the Angel Gabriel to lead
him over the rapids and safe TO the
lake at Grandes Forets, where Dew
lis Creek srnoothed out?
Grandes Forets was the outfitting
village from which the Tamarac lum-
Der crew set out. This they left
every fall in November, when the
first heavy SHOWS were in, and they
did not come back until April. when
they floated the black logs down to
Fierre Fonds.
&c
stores and saloons and church.
Every man had sweetheart there'
and there were dances sometimes in
the tavern, where old Jacques played
the fiddle. Every man acheo TO gee
back home to pretty race ana
home cooked stew and as much ap-
pleiack as he wanted. Even Johnny
Gsraldy dreamed. though he had
never breathed a word to Jeanne
Beaumont.
Before he tramped back that night
TO the shack, he strofled down the
trail to the water. In a thicket of
cedar in the lee of shelter stood
slender birchbark canoe. Johnny Ge-
raldy glanced at 1t idly. He wondered
whether 1t would not be safer In the
cabin. Not for six long months could
a. man use it. 1t would be sure death
now. Oh. well, he would bring 1t up
tomorrow. Then he trudged along
back to the shack. The room was
heavy with wood smoke, for the f1ue
In the fireplace was a bad one.
Johnny hated the smell Of wood
smoke, even smoke from tame old
fireplace with three men to watch 1t.
II made him feel strange and Ill. and
his heart stumbled fast in his breast
but. then, that was because he was
marked.
This was the first year that Johnny
Geraldy had come UP early. 1t was
a promotion, of course, to be MADE
a. cruiser, to be sent on ahead to
blaze the tract that would be cut
that winter.
But 1t meant going up alone into
that forest, hearing all day and all
night the sound Of the wind In the
branches; never seeing the sun. 1t
does terrible things to man II he's
not forest broken. Only tough
fiber can stand up against 1t. Jean
ReboIt was a good woodsman because
he was a dullard, and Peter Lafferte
because he was a devil may-care.
Johnny was neither Of these.
At the company shack in the tim
Der Jean and Peter Joined him. They
had come up ahead with provisions.
brought arduously over the narrow
trail northward. They brought him
news of how old jacques Duval was
having all the village in to revel at
the tavern the night before the log
gers were to leave
Tomorrow it is," Peter said. "A
curse to be here in the timber that
night" He threw another log Of pine
sprang UP to meet 1t, and how the
needles writhed back in the heat.
psThat's the way the whole woods would
70 tonight if a spark was to touch
them" he said. THE trail up is
slippery with needles and dry as tin
der"
They ate their supper on the rough
deal table, in the heavy light Of the
lantern. Jean Rebolt kicked log
on the hearth. "She will smoke to-
night" he grumbled, ''for the winds
from the east"
Then they rolled their blankets
around them and lay down in the
narrow hunks to sleep. In a twink
ling there was no sound in the shack
except the deep, even breathing OF
healthful fatigue and the soft fall
Eng of ashes on the stones of the
hearth.
X n sS X
gYOHNNY GERALDY never knew
y what time 1t was when he was
Awakened. Suddenly he was sitting