White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-03-05
CHAPTER v-Continued
no.


sob or cry, Jeems knelt beside him.
He spoke his fathers name, yet knew
that no answer would rise from the
lifeless lips. He repeated it In an
unexcitable way as his hands clutched
at the silent form. The starlight left
nothing unrevealed; his father dead,
his white lips twisted, his hands
clenched at his side, the top Of his
head naked and bleeding from the
scalping knife. Jeems slumEsM down.
He may have spoken again. He may
have sobbed. But the thing like death
that was creeping over him. it's dark
ness and vastness, hid him from him.
self. He remained beside his father.
as motionless and as still. Odd
crouched near. After little, an inch
at time, he crept to the dead man.
He muzzled the hands that were grow
ing cold. He licked Jeems' face where
1t had fallen against his fathers shout
der Then he was motionless again,
his eyes seeking about him like balls
Of living flame. Death was in the air.
He was breathing it. He was hear
ing it. At last, irresistibly 1mpelled
to answer the spirit of death, he sat
back on his launches and howled. 1t
was not Odds howl any more than 1t
had been Jeems' voice speaking to his
father few moments before. 1t was
ghostly sound that seemed to quiet
even the whispering of the leaves, an
unearthly and shivering cry that sent
echoes over the clearing, with grief
for company.
1t was this which brought Jeems out
of the depths into which he had fallen.
He raised his head and saw his father
again, and swayed to his feet. He be-
gan seeking. Close by, near the pile
Of apples which she had helped him
gather from under their trees on the
slope, he found his mother. She, too,
lay with her face to the sky. The little
that was left Of her unbound hair lay
scattered on the earth. Her glorious
beauty was gone. Starlight, caress-
ing her gently, revealed to her boy the
hideousness of her end. There, over
her body, Jeems' heart broke. Odd
guarded faithfully, listening to grief
that twisted at his brute soul. Then
fell a greater silence. Through long
hours the burning logs settled down
into flattened masses of dying en-
bers. The darkness came which pre-
cedes the day, and after that, dawn.
Jeems rose to face his blasted world.
He was no longer youth but living
thing aged by an eternity that had
passed. 1t was Odd who led him in
the quest Tor Hepsibah Adams. He
sought like one half blind and yet
sensad everything. He saw the tram
pied grass. the moccasin-beaten earth
at the spring, a Ratchet lost in the
enigMs. Mnv on the hatchet an English
narah Saat he did not find his uncle.
In she salne gray dawn, stirring with
the 'wir,:s Of birds and the play of
squ3rrak among the trees, he set out
for Eonf eur manor.
B@ ceSried the Ratchet, clutching II
as IL the wood his fingers gripped held
life which might escape him. Be
cause Of this Ratchet there grew In
him a slow and terrible thought that
had the strength of chain. The
weapon, with its short hickory handle
it's worn iron blade, it's battered head
might have been flesh and blood cap
able Of receiving pain or of giving W
secret, so tenacious was the hold OF
his hand about it. But he did not
see the iron or wood. He saw only
the name which told him that the
English had come with their Indians
or had sent them, as his uncle had sc
often said they would. The English
Not the French. The English.
And he held the Ratchet as If Il
were an English throat.
But he was not thinking that. Th'
part Of him conscious Of the act wa.
working unknown to the racultie.
which made him move and see. Hi:
thoughts were imprisoned within
stone walls, and around these wall!
hey beat uId trampled themselves, oil
-ss's alike, telling him the SANE