The Coolidge examiner., 1931-05-22

| for years of misunderstanding
were like the peace of the day it.
self about his heart. Out of ruin
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, filed to
Overtiowing 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 flesh. 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
bladed grub hoe which Hepsibah
had made at TOnteurs forge. On
a stump partly dug from the earth
was one of Hepsibahs pipes made
of half cOrncob with a hollow
| reed for a stem.
Jeems stopped and looked about,
his throat almost tensing for the
old familiar call TO Hepsibah. But
the stiffness warned him Like a
| friend it 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
60 and find him, If it were not for
/ you"
Il 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 be, 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 1t 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?"
mo, had forgotten it."
"And your face-where | struck
you?"
IL had forgotten that, too"
Something touched his shoulder
lightly. He could not tell what it
was, for they were in q pool of
darkness. But whatever it might
have been, falling leaf, a twig.
even shadow itself-it filled him
with strange exaltatiOn. Out of
the wreck of world Obliterated
in a scourge of horror he had a
soul beside his own to fight for
Twice in the next hour Odd
halted and gave 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 a deer run and fol-
lowed it into a 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. 1t stirred a soft
radiance in T0inette'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.
JeemS. like Odd, stood tense and
listening, searching the SlumbrOus
distances of the wilderness which
lay about them. He caught all
movement and all sound. the di-
rectlon of the wind, the shifting
play of the shadows, the almost
noiseleSs flutter of an OWLS wings
over their heads.
And then he knew what had
touched his shoulder in the dark
ness-Toinette's cheek pressing
against ii for moment as lightly
as feather.
He felt her trembling. When
she looked at him, her eyes
rested on the brand of the musket
barrel which lay in a red stripe