The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-12-30
Chapter 33
THE DEPARTURE


 FTER LeNoir had gone to sleep, Karakhan left the cabin and walked down the lake shore. uncon- sciously seeking the open where walls did not limit his mood.
 He could hardly yet believe his good fortune. He had never dreamed Sonya was searching for him or even that she liked him well enough to join him. He could easily imagine it of Helen Mathieson or others like her. but not of Sonya Volkov.
 In the course of his dealings with her father and brother at Victoria. he had met her and immediately thrown over the Mathieson girl for her; but she had proved the most elusive creature of his wide experi- ence. At times he had even been a little afraid of her-and now she was actually coming to him.
 He believed he understood those six weeks. Her letter. especially one sentence of it. explained her aloof- ness there in Victoria. She'd been playing a girls shy game with him. leading him on, perhaps feeling her self hampered by the presence of her father and brother; but after he had dropped from sight .. "Your disappearance was an awakening for me, an unbearable realization of what I had lost" No coyness there, but cry of sheer longing for him,
 A mile down the lake shore he came to a small cove. screened by sweeping pines-a beautiful little retreat with its tinkle of water and scent of cloudberry blossoms. Lean ing against a lichened rock, he watched pair of Harlequin ducks tipple and feed in tho shallows. In the back of his mind he was imagin- ing Sonya Volkov there with him in that seclusion; but his thoughts were gradually sobering. for those two suspicious strangers kept in- truding, jarring discord in his fancies.
 He knew now that they were not prospectors, whatever else they might be. Gold hunters would hard ly have disregarded that warning at the pass; and after that night at tack they would certainly have got out of the country as fast as a canoe could take them.
 To judge by LeNoir's account they were a pair of competent devils. A small voice whispered that this Ralston was one of those damnable Mounted, who had struck his trail somehow and was sticking to 1t like a human bloodhound.
 It put him in dilemma. He was in danger and ought to escape. Though LeNoir had thirty-some men now and stood every chance in the world of wiping that party out still something might slip up and those two might bore on through to his refuge. By all the rules of caution he ought to go.
 But to leave just when Sonya Volkov was on the way to him and lhe had the prospects of having her there during the soft summer moons
 =. For once he could not make a clean-cut decision.
 Suppose. he reasoned, that he let LeNoir go south with the main band of Klosohees and spring his attack. LeNoir could send back runners and keep him constantly informed of what was happening. If Ralston was killed and all danger from him was ended with the bang of fnality. well and good; he would stay there and wait for Sonya.
 But if Ralston was not killed, he would escape. There would still be time. That plane in the hangar was an ace up the sleeve. It gave one an almost magical power of vanishing. TT bothered him more thal. little l to think that he might have to leave Sonya in the lurch. so helpless. so ar-back in those appalling noun. tains. But he had long since passed the point of allowing any scruples to stop him. or any dalliance. however l pleasant. to endanger him. His own I safety came first.
 On his return he stopped at the hangar and looked over the plane lcarefully. It needed bit of work frayed control leads to replace. fouled plugs to scrape, few trifling adjustments to be made; but in gen. eral it lad come through the winter l in fly-away shape. He checked the gas again to reassure himself.
 The wing tanks showed ffty-four gallons. with six more in the emer-