The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1931-03-05


she had raised his soul to splendid
heights of courage and resolution.
They passed his mothers gar
dens of flowers where choice
blooms were nodding, filled to
Oyerflowing with ripening seeds;
they skirted the turnip field where
a purple-breasted crop lay waiting
for spicy frosts to give crispness
and flavor to its hesh In a place
where fresh dirt was scattered
about were tools used yesterday
axes and shovels and hickory pry-
ing poles and the big double
baded grub hoe which Hepsibah
had made at Tonteur's forge. On
a stump partly dug from the earth
was one of Hepsibah's pipes made
of half a corncob with hollow
reed for stem.
Jeems stopped and looked about,
his throat almost tenaing for the
old familiar call to Hepsibah. But
the stiffness warned him. Like a
friend ii was whispering the
sacredness of another trust His
eyes turned to the lovely head
near his shoulder. In a moment
Toinette raised her eyes to meet
his, and even with his mother they
had not been so deep and gentle.
"They must have caught my
uncle out there" he said, keeping
his voice steady and gazing over
the forest tops Of Forbidden
valley. ''He set the signal fire for
us and then was killed. | would
go and find him, if ii were not for
YOU
4 will go with you," answered
Toinette.
But Jeems turned west and did
not look back at his home or be-
tray the choking in his breast. He
found himself talking to Toinette
as if she were the child of the old
days, and he. changed into a man,
were explaining things. He de-
scribed for the first time how the
savages had come while he was on
his way home from LusSan's place,
and gave his reasons for believing
they had departed in haste, leav-
ing many things, like gathered
crops of fruit and grain, which
they would surely have taken had
they not been pressed by circum-
stance. He was sure they had not
gone farther down the Richelieu
but had turned back through For
hidden valley to the Mohawk coun-
try. Their own hope was to swing
westward out of the path of
stragglers, then eastward again to-
ward Lussan's. Tomorrow or the
day following, he would have her
safely at the next seigneurie, and
there she would find means to be
taken to her friends in Quebec. He
would then join Dieskau to fight
the English. The important thing
was to reach Lussan's tonight. The
Indians would not go near there,
for they believed all abandoned
places to be Inhabited by ghosts
and evil spirits. If they stumbled
upon it by accident they would
get away as quickly as possible.
He still held her hand as dark
ness gathered closer. In this
gloom she whispered:
Does your arm hurt, Jeems?"
"No, had forgotten it,"
"And your face-where / struck
you?"
II had forgotten that, too"
Cpro ot HIM tn1cbnI bic cbo11lJo,
lightly. He could not tell what il
: was, for they were in a pool o.
darkness. But whatever it nigh
have been, falling leaf, twig
, even shadow itself-it filled hin
! with strange exaltation. Out o.
the wreck Of a world obliteratet
in scourge of horror he had ;
soul beside his own to fight for
, Twice in the next hour Ode
halted and gave a growl which
. warned of danger in the air
Jeems strained his eyes to see ant
his ears to hear--and once more
when they stopped to listen, hi
felt the gentle touch against hi
shoulder.
They struck a deer run and fol
lowed it into plain between tw,
lines of hills where a devastatn,
fire had passed some years before
Here they Travelled through
young growth of bushes and tree
reaching scarcely above thei
heads, with the light of the star
falling on them. 1t stirred sof
: radiance in Toinettes smooth hal
] and illumined Jeems' face unit
the wounds made by her hand
were plainly revealed. The
climbed the northernmost hill afte
a time, and at the top of it stoppe
again to rest.
Jeems. like Odd, stood tense an
+, listening, searching the slumbrou
distances of the wilderness whic
lay about them. He caught al
movement and all sound, the d
). rection of the wind, the shiftin
i play of the shadows, the almos
noiseless flutter of an OWLS wing
, over their heads.
And then he knew what ha
touched his shoulder in the darl
y ness-Toinette's cheek pressin
. against it for a moment as light
! as feather.
S He felt her trembling. Whe
t she looked at him, her eye
: rested on the brand of the muske
barrel which lay in a red strip
S across his forehead The star
seemed bigger and clearer whe
d at last they came to the half mil
S of abandoned road which ended i
b Lussan's clearing. 1t was tn
S road down which Jeems ha
2 watched Tonteur and Paul Tach
| and q I1f.n11d Iittln ,,,.;..a4..... -; l. 4