Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1930-12-12
The Plains Of Abraham
e. By JAMES OLIVER cURWoOD >.
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BY JAMES OLIVER cURWOOD


has already beguni French and Eng
llsh traders are fighting wherever they
come together along the frontiers, and
the hired Indians Of one are taking
scalps for t'other. Even white men
have Joined In that pretty game. for
Massachusetts, has sent out Lovewell
and his fifty men to hunt the heads of
Indians and French--it makes no diff
ference which. though the order says
redskins only lat price of Eve shil-
lings day plus a bounty for every
scalp that Is taken; and down In New
York country Sir William johnson
counts out English money for human
hair, while the French-and you know
it, Henri ARE paying a hundred
crowns apiece for white scalps as well
as red. It's hair the Indians are bring
ing in instead O. fur. And here you
sit like a couple Of foolish doves with
a young one in the nest, your scalps
worth fifty pounds piece, your win
dows open, your door unlocked, your
senses gone"
Catherine rose from her seat and
came around to her brother so that
she stood behind him with her arms
about his shoulders. "Hepsibah, we
know this you have told us 1t true"
she said, pressing her cheek against
his face. "There is terrible murder
along the frontiers from which you
have come, and that is why Henri has
brought Jeems and me into this coun-
try of his where are only peace and
friendship and no thought of the hid
eous killings and ugly traffickings you
speak about. You have argued against
yourself, Brother, for 1t is you who
should move out Of strife and danger
and come to live with u.s."
Together we will have a paradise
here" urged Henri.
"And I will find you a wife," added
Catherine. "a wife who will love you
greatly, and until you have children
of your own we will give you half of
Jeems."
Hepsibah rose gently out of her
arms.
For Jeems you should change your
home to a place where there is a
sehoolmaster and more for him to
learn" he said, catching desperately
at a last argument where all others
had failed.
I'm all of New France and the Eng
fish colonies there is no better teacher
than our Catherine" answered Henri
proudly. "1n English and French she
has given to Jeems more than he could
ever have learned in your town OF
Albany or our college in Quebec; for
there, in one place, he would have
been English. and in the other, French,
while here he is both. like his father
and mother, and will never strike at
either of the two bloods that are in
his veins"
"Of that l am sure" agreed Cath
crime. 81 pray God my Jeems will
never be a fighting man."
When Hepsibah went to his cot In
the loft, he stood for a moment with
his lighted candle beside Jeems' bed
where the boy lay sleeping with the
cloth Of velvet close to his hands,
smile on his lips. Looking down on
him Hepsibah thought of Henri Bulain's
last words and his sisters prayer, and
his lips moved whisperingly to him.
self. "They can't keep It from you, lad
hope nor prayer nor all their faith.
It's coming, and when 1t comes you'll
strike and strike hard, and it's then
you'll be what you're bound THE,
Jeems-a fighting mani"
GATHERINGS breakfast was on the
table with the break of sunrise, and
Jeems was even ahead of that, helping
his father with the chores. The OK
was fed and the cart ready for days
rough travel before his Uncle Hepsi-
bah came down from his sleep. Talk
of war and massacre and death had
left no shadow in GATHERINGS heart,
and Hepsibah could hear her singing.
The sound Of her voice made him
pause and face the south. His wide
shoulders twitehed, and he marked the
swelling and dips of the timbered
solitudes Of Forbidden valley, and saw
where the Nohawks would enter it