Evening star., 1933-12-24
44uFORBIDDEN VALLEY
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clash with all that he had seen Of her
during two weeks of intimate associa-
ton. In Helen MathieSon one could
understand such a flight; Helen was
blinded and entirely dominated by pas
sion.
But Sonya was not Helen Mathieson
Sonya had gone through more In her
Life, she was more mature, deeper Of
e he 1e In har hen oEs Ehe did nos Seem Por
who would ever let passion overrule her
sense Of right.
Her association with Karakhan was
simply out of harmony with all the rest
Of her nature.
When they got up to go on, he saw
that Ralph had drifted back to the
border line of consciousness; his eyes
half open, his lips moving. He was too
far gone to talk, but he recognized his
friends and understood what they said
to him, Curt bent down, encouraging;
Don't let go, Ralph. We're leaving
the Lilluars and taking you out. To-
morrow at this time you'll be in Prince
Rupert, and there they'll fix you up"
! Twice more during the rest of the
night Ralph came out of his stupor
for a few moments. The second time
he tried hard to tell Curt something
Curt believed 1t was something about
Sonya, for her name was distinguishable
in the broken whispers. But whatever
1t was, 1t went unSaid.
| Morning came at last, with the gray
Smoke-mist curling up and trout break
ing the surface in silvery flashes.
They stopped 10 minutes to rest, and
then hurried on all the faster, now that
they had light to travel by. With Tenn
Og in the PROV, guiding them down the
river that he knew so intimately, they
shot over dangerous white water with
out paustng to scout course. Their
hands were blistered from the paddle
work, their arms ached intolerably, but
| for Ra1ph's sake they drove themselves
to the limit.
One hour of mercilesS padding, then
! five minutes Of rest: another hour and
another five minutes rest on the sand
in that steady relentless fashion they
reeled of the long miles of the fight
South.
| At noon they came to a sluggish
lake of reed patches and sloughs where
ducks and geese and teal in countless
numbers had their Summer rookeries
AS they were threading a shortcut
channel, Curt glanced back toward the
lake head and happened to see colony
OF little black terms rise out of slough
| uA1o CAP1OOC 44hC pun Va 4CdI1l6TS,
with shrill cries of alarm.
Evidently something out Of the ordi-
nary had flushed them As he kept
teal go up, lower down the slough, in
dicating that the cause Of the alarm
whatever it might be was coming down
| stream.
Suspicious, he and Paul stopped,
backed into a thick clump of flags and
waited A minute later two canoes
came skimming around a reedy point
and headed down toward them. Travel
ing light, three Stalwart men to a boat.
they had come South even faster than
his party.
To let them go past would only have
meant an ambush and fight further
down river. They had to be stopped.
Waiting till they were within easy range
he and Paul opened on them with a
sudden blast. The ricocheting bullets.
smashing through the wind-water line
of the craft, sank them before the
thunderstruck KlosoheeS could realize
that ambushing was game which two
could play at. With their canoes found
ering under them the six leaped out
and swan for the nearest flags.
Muddied and bedraggled, they stood
on their bit of quivering bog and stonily
waited to be shot, as Curtis canoe nosed
across toward them. Curt looked them
over. Like Tenn-Og they were tall,
rugged men, hardy mountaineers-as
virile type of Indian as he had ever
seen.
Tell 'em we're not going to kin EN-"
he bade Tenn-Og. Find out where the
main band Is and what they're doing,
and where the white girl is"
He listened closely as Tenn-Og talked
with the six, but he could not undef-
stand a word of the clicks and grunts
except the names of Siam-Klale and
LIE Noir.
When the palaver was over and he
had made sure that the six men could
get across to the shore, he backed the
canoe off and headed his party down
stream again.
wa. thsir tragic burden, Curt and