White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-02-12
By JAMES OLIVER cURWOOD

house in st. Louis street. Peter said
Tonteur wrote in every letter to his
father that he was homesick to get
back to the Richelieu.
AS another spring and summer fol-
lowed those which had gone before,
Jeems knew he was fighting something
that had to be conquered, a yearning
for Toinette which filled him with a
bitter loneliness when it's hold was
strongest.
For two years Toinette remained in
Quebec without making a visit to the
Richelieu. During these years, the
tragedy Of his divided birth was forced
upon Jeems. There was no doubt that
the English in him was uppermost or
that the urge in his blood was toward
the southern frontiers and the col
onies of Hepsibah Adams. Yet he
loved the place where he lived with
sincere passionate Big forest, For
hidden valley, all the miles Of wilder
ness about him as far as he could
look to the horizons. This was New
France. 1t was his fathers country
and not his mothers. Between his
father and himself comradeship had
grown up which nothing could break,
but his worship for his mother was
different thing, as if something be-
sides motherhood bound him to her.
His friends had increased in number.
He came to know people along the
Richelieu but was always conscious
he was not entirely one of them.
Toinette's words and her hatred for
him persisted in his memory and kept
recalling this truth.
Late in August Of the second year
of her absence, TOinette returned to
Tonteur manor for a month. Jeems
heart ached with the old yearning, but
he did not go to the seigneurie. Paul
Tache and his mother were also at
the baron's and he felt a sense Of re-
lief when he learned that all of them
were on their way to Quebec, with the
exception of Tonteur, who remained
for the harvesting of crops A fort
night after they had gone, Peter told
him about Tolnette and Paul Tache.
He had scarcely recognized Toinette,
he said. She had grown taller and
more beautiful. Tache was a full
grown man and dressed like a young
noble. One with half an eye could
see that he was desperately in love
with Toinette, Peter avowed. But If
he were Judge of such affairs, and
he considered himself to be that,
Tache was long way from realiza-
ton of his desires, even taking
Toinette's tender years into consider
alton. She granted him no favors..
There had actually seemed to be
GOODNESS In her attitude toward him.
Peters words stirred Jeems with
satisfaction which he did not let the
other see, and not until he was on his
way home did he pull himself from
the folly of his thoughts about Toinette.
Even if she were not smiling on Tache
as warmly as he had supposed, he
knew she was as far removed from
him now as the sun was from the
earth. Yet, as time went on, this fresh
contact with her presence, though he
had not seen her, gave a determined
impetus to his plans for the future.
There were hours in which he saw
himself splendid enemy where fate
had ordained that he could not be a
{y,o ciYon of,,,, ~
ing to him deeper and more under
standing passion for his mother, and
a fuller comprehension Of the noble
qualities in his father. he was harassed
by confliction of emotions which he re-
vealed to neither, and confided only
in Hepsibah Adams, who had re-
turned from his trip. The diff
Guilty Of solving the problem which
confronted Jeems was as great for
GATHERINGS brother as it would have
been for Catherine herself, for az
early as the spring of 1853, when
Jeems had passed his sixteenth year
there was no longer doubt in the
minds Of the people of the Colonies
and New France as to the surety OF
the struggle which was impending
While France and England were off.
cially at peace, the forces Of the two
countries in America were on the
verge of open war and were instigat
ing the Indians to strife Of ex
termination. Everywhere along the
unprotected frontiers the Indians were
killing and burning and such vast
sums were being expended by bott
sides for human hair that scores Of