White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-03-19


Words spoken in voice he had never
heard from her lips entreating his for
giveness for years of misunderstood
ing were like the peace Of the day
itself about his heart. Out Of ruin
she had raised his soul to splendid
heights Of courage and resolution.
They passed his mothers gardens OF
flowers where choice blooms were nod
ding, filed to overlooking with ripen.
ing seeds; they -skirted the turnip field
where purple-breasted crop lay wait
ing for spicy frosts to give crispness
| and flavor to its flesh. In q place
where fresh dirt was scattered about
were tools used yesterday-axes and
shovels and hickory prying poles and
the big double-bladed grub hoe which
Hepsibah had made at Tontenrs forge.
On stump partly dug from the earth
was one Of Hepsibah's pipes made Of
half corncob with hollow reed
for stem.
Jeems stopped and looked about, his
throat almost tensing for the old
familiar call to Hepsibah. But the
stiffness warned him. Like friend Il
was whispering the sacredness of an.
other 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 it were not
for YOU"
81 will go with you" answered
Toinette.
But Jeems turned west and did not
look back at his home or betray the
choking in his breast. He found him..
self talking to Toinette as If she were
the child of the old days, and he,
changed into man, were explaining
things. He described for the first
time how the savages had come while
he was on his way home from Lus-
sans place, and gave his reasons for
believing they had departed in haste,
leaving many things, like the gathered
crops Of fruit and grain, which they
would surely have taken had they not
been pressed by circumstance. He
was sure they had not gone farther
down the Richelieu but had turned
back through Forbidden valley to the
Mohawk country. Their own hope
was to swing westward out Of the
path of stragglers, then eastward
again toward 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 Lus-
sans tonight. The Indians would not
go near there, for they believed all
abandoned places to be inhabited by
ghosts and evil spirits. II they Stun
bled upon it by accident they would
get away as quickly as possible.
He still held her hand as darkness
gathered closer. In this gloom she
whispered:
'Does you arm hurt, Jeems?"
"No. / had forgotten It,"
"And your face-where I struck
your"
II had forgotten that, too"
Something touched his shoulder
lightly. He could not tell what it was,
for they were in a pool Of darkness
But whatever it might have been, q
falling leaf, twig, even shadow itself
1t filled him with strange exalta-
ton. Out of the wreck of a world
obliterated in scourge Of horror he
had soul beside his own to fight for.
Twice in the next hour Odd halted
and gave a growl which warned Of
danger in the air. Jeems strained his
eyes to see and his ears to hear-and
once more, when they stopped to
listen, he felt the gentle touch against
his shoulder.
They struck deer run and fol-
lowed it into plain between two lines
of hills where devastating fire had
passed some years before. Here they
travelled through young growth Of
bushes and trees reaching scarcely
above their heads, with the light Of the
stars falling on them. It stirred a
soft radiance in Toinette's smooth
hair and illumined Jeems' face until
the wounds made by her hands were
plainly revealed. They climbed the
northernmost hill after time, and at
the top Of it stopped again to rest.
10 e+o
listening, searching the slumbrous dis
tances of the wilderness which Law
about them. He caught all movement
and all sound, the direction of the
wind, the shifting play of the shadows,
the almost noiseless flutter Of an owls
wings over their heads.
(TO BE CoNTINUED.)
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