The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-12-09


 saving. Well, aren't the rest Of you?" An instant later vicious ar row whizzed over her. so low that she lodged and gasped. Another splintered the thwart she was sitting against. A third hit the sleeping poke which Curt had placed at her side. If the poke had not been there, that third arrow would have shot her through the breast.
 Francois shipped paddle and grabbed for his rifle.
 Drop that" Curt snapped at him. You can't touch em. They're in cover, we're on open water. That paddle will get you out of danger quicker than gum!
 Bent low they clipped on up stream, trusting to sheer luck.
 Slowly the arrows tailed off, began falling behind, and finally stopped altogether as the range became too great.
 Curt let the other two canoes catch up and looked them over. Nineteen. arrows in the three craft, it was g miracle that none of his party had been killed or '. ,.ounded Ralph aicked the sweat from his face and stared across at the forbidding woods. with fright in his eyes. Francois and Jocku were ready to turn in their tracks and whip back south. Sonya was the coolest of the lot.
 He picked the arrow out of the sleeping poke ann examined 1t curi- ously. A superb piece of workman ship, it's obsidian head was pointed to needle sharpness and its shaft was neatly feathered with split hawk-quills.
 Paul touched his arm and pointed to the rocky ravine across the river. "THEY'RE leaving the ravine. l Watch. There by the four birches goes one now"
 Curt glimpsed shadowy figure slipping into buck-brush thicket. Another and another followed. Eight l of them. To be only eight, they cer- l tainly had let loose flock of arrows.
 He knew why they were hurrying up stream. Their first ambush had l failed but they still had time to lay l another one before his party could get through the pass. No use to race them; they were loping along game trail while his canoes were fighting a ten-mile current. There was noth. ing to do but go ahead. keep a sharp lookout, and try to get by them again.
 He gave the word. and his party
 went on.
 Near the upper end of the narrows a long granite rock jutted out into the river. extending fully third of the way across and at its tip a big pile of breakup debris had lodged. quite sufficient to hide eight men.
 Curt looked at it sharply as the canoes approached. If the Klosohees l were hiding there. it was suicide to
 try to get past.
 l On above it lay big river-widen-
 ing, the end of the pass. It tempted
 him, that broad sun-glistening water.
 In ten minutes his party could be
 skimming out uron it.
 He reached his binoculars. drew
 the granite rock up close. studied the pile of debris, but saw nothing suspicious. He had almost made up
 his mind to take the risk. when a
 magpie with a stolen egg in its bill
 came Tapping down stream. Direct
 ly above the rock it suddenly breasted up high. nearly tumbled over itself in the air. dropped the egg. and veered abruptly out across the river.
 Curt and Paul looked knowingly
 at each other. That magpie was a dead give-away. There were men
 lying behind that drift. The three canoes pulled in to shore and landed.
 Sonya spoke up. q know how you can do it! We're not stopped! We can't pass them on the river. but why ; can't we portage around them? Just as we would at rapids or falls!" The move was 50 simple and self evident that Curt felt ashamed foI not thinking of 1t himself. If his party kept three hundred feet bach from the water edge. they would bt . entirely safe. They could portage their stuff at one hitch and be up al that widening in ten minutes. .I Paul and Francois shouldered ont !. canoe. load and all, and headed fol the bank above. Jocku and Ralpf staggered after them with the sec ond. Curt handed the paddles ant ' his rife to Sonya. swung up tht
 third canoe and followed. :. At the bank he put down his load : told the others to wait there. ant started back along the beach. Directly opposite the ambush h' walked out on the sand to the rivel edge. palms out ir the sign for peace : It was a risky act; at so short range he was completely at thei mercy.
 ;. fcopyright, I9ss. William B. MoUery 
 T Monday, Curt faces death.