The Coolidge examiner., 1931-05-01


his blood run hot in his body.
With a group of young ladies
from the netghboring seigneurie,
she had come down froIn the big
house, and he was almost in her
path. with Peter Lubeck at his
side. 1t was Peter who advanced
a step or two toward them. Ex-
cept for his action TOinette would
not have turned, Jeems thought.
He pulled himself together and
stood with his head barred, as cold
and impassive in appearance as a
soldier at attention while his heart
beat like a hammer. TOinette had
to face him to return his COM
panion's greeting.
1t was impossible for her not to
see him when she made this move
ment. But there was a slowneSS
in her discovery, an effort to keep
from looking at him which was
more eloquent than words. 1t had
not been her desire to speak to
him.
Il he needed courage, IL was this
enlightenment which gave it to
him. He inclined his head when
she met his gaze. Her face was
flushed, her eyes darkly aglow,
while his own cheeks bore only
the color of sun and wind. He
might never have known her, so
unmoved did he stand as she went
on her way.
She had slightly nodded, her
lips had barely formed a name.
Later, after the feast on the
green. came Tonteur's spectacular
feature of the day. military re-
view of his tenants. with wives
md children Witnessing the mar
tial display. The male guests. who
had drilled in their own seign-
euries. Joined TOnteur's men. Only
Henri Bulain and Jeems were not
among them. Henri, sensitive to
the fact, and to save Catherine
because of it, had started with her
over the homeward trail half an
hour before. Jeems had remained.
This was his answer to TOinette's
cOntempt-that he was not of her
people. that his world was not cir
cumscribed by the petty bOun-
daries of the seigneurie. He stood
with his long rifle in the crook of
his arm. conscious that she was
looking at him. and the invisible
shafts from her eyes, poisoned
with their disdain, stirred him
with the thrill of a painful tri-
umph. He could almost hear her
calling him an English Beast again
A coward. One to be distrusted
and watched. He did not sense
humiliation or regret. but only
final widening of what had always
lain between them.
He bore this feeling home with
him. 1t grew as time went on, and
with its growth an increasing rest
lessness came over him. News
creeping through the wilderness
and reaching every corner, like the
whispering winds, kept an un-
quenchable heat under the ash of
these fires, tanning the embers in
to flame in spite of him. Secrets
were no longer secrets. Rumors
had grown into facts. Fears had
become realities. England and
France were still playing at peace
in their mighty courts. In the
sunlight they were friends, in the
dark they were seeking each
others lives like common cut
thrOats.
And the thirteen little Colonial
governments of the English, quar-
reIing like small boys among them
selves. just beginning to walk
alone, feeling the significance of
the new word American. cheated
by their parent, laughed at by
their parent. hated by their par
ent, still yearned for the love of
that parent as children have
wanted love from the beginning
of time, and were loyal to it.
SO tragedy began to move, to
build out of death, out of betrayed
confidence, out of dishonor and
fraud and pitiless murder the
American and Canadian nations of
the future.
Eighty thousand French and
more than a million English in the
New world made ready for the
sacrifice. Massachusetts enlisted
one man out of eight Of her male
population. Connecticut, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, New
York, and the others followed her
example.
Children, loyal, proud to fight
and hating the French ferociOusly
Then came BraddOck, preceding
Wolfe. to call them worthless
trash"
And New France, a glory of sun
and land even now gutted of her
prosperity by corruptions brought
from Louis and La Pompadour,
sent out her own sons to fight and
kill, valiant, glad, confident-and
hating the English implacabIy!
With them. on both sides, went
Indians from almost a hundred
tribes-red men who had once
found honor in fighting, but who,
now skulking and murderous and
vengeful, found their souls in
pawn to the great White Fathers
across the sea who had prostituted
them with whisky, bought them
with guns, maddened them with
hatreds, and who paid them for
human hair.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Not Unusual