The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-12-09
Chapter 21
THE BATTLE

HE BA l LG
 AT THE mouth of the pass the lA next morning, Curt stood up in his canoe for a last look ahead. To get his party through that narrows was a job that he would gladly have handed to someone else. He had the uneasy feeling that eyes were watch Ing his three canoes and dusky hands were toying with futed ar e9Ms.
 .The pass was more than a mile .1ig. with strong current to buck and no midstream islets to take refuge on. He and Paul had secuted it out that morning while the others were still asleep. and had discovered only one favorable circumstance.
 Sometime that spring lightning fire had swept down the east shere. ctitting swath half mile wide. and burning to the very water edge Along that whole east shore there was hardly place where a rabbit could have made it's form.
 If the Klosohees were watching the pass, they had to be on the west side. By hugging the east landwash with his party, he could make them shoot all the way across the river. No bows that he had ever seen could do effective work at that distance.
 Before sitting down, he gave his final orders: Paul and I'll lead, Sonya and Francois'll come next, Ralph and Jocku last. We'll keep strung out in single file so it'll be harder to hit us. One other thing nobody shoots at those men unless say shoot. Jocku, that's meant for you and Francois"
 They skirled in,o the narrows. In spite of the stiff current they put the rods behind them. hoping to slide through unmolested.
 A quarter way through, 1t hap pened-the thing Curt had expected Twenty yards ahead of his canoe something plunked into the water Watching the opposite shore closely he saw second object, so swift thai 1t seemed a mere flash, come whizz ing out of a rocky ravine and sai across the river in low gracelu arch. It too fell ahead.
 Another and another followed. no aimed at the three craft but delib erately placed in front, as warning to turn back. They came faster ant faster till perhaps fifty arrows hat been shot. Then they suddenl! stopped.
 The range of those horn bow daunted Curt. They could do dam age at that distance. They could d, deadly work.
 He stopped and let Sonya's craf glide up alongside.
 .'You lie down, girl, flat in you canoe. Don't expose yourself; you'l be taking chances on your life l yyou do." He pulled her blanket rol beside her and laid his own sleeping poke on top of it for extra proteo tion.
 "Francois, you and Jocku dip thos paddles deep and fast. The quicke we get through here, the less tim they'll have to make targets of us.
 They skinned on. hugging tn east landwash.
 s THEY came exactly opposit A the rocky ravine, the Klosohee opened on them again, this time i earnest.
 If the arrows had come singly they could have been lodged by a alert person, for their polished head glinted in the sun and their fiigh twas visible at the height of its arcl But they came too thick to watcf one struck Paul's paddle, upraise for a stroke. and pierced clea through the ash-heart blade.
 One hit the canoe in front Curtis knees. clipped through th tiIfn side. and whanged into th spruce-gum pot. Behind him som body yelled. He turned and sa' Ff4ncois grabbing at his hat as fe{E into the water with an arro tllfough the crown.
 Ralph had gone pale. but he keI lhis eyes straight ahead and was pa' dnng valiantly. Tenderfoot thoue hewas, in those hectic moments thu bronght out mans real nature ! lsHowed more courage than tt 'breeds who had spent all their live in the bush.
 Disobeying orders, Sonya had g; up, seized her paddle and was hel ing Francois.
 "Get down." Curt ordered he .Don't you know you're liableto killed?"