The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-12-05
Chapter IS WHO IS RALSTON?

x ' WnO 10 nNI0t pNs ! IT was twilight in the mountains. s T Where the sun had dipped be, s hind the northwest ranges it had left in the sky plaque of reddish | golden. bordered with purple. Only 5 q poorwill. whistling it's repetitious Z mating call near the Klcsohee lean. to's. and family of young musk rats splashing about the crude han s gar which housed Karakhan's plane, ]. broke the deep mystic hush. His refuge, at the heacwaters of { the Lilluar. had been all that Kara khan had hoped for. and more. The < big cabin. his home for nine months, was comfortable with handmade fur niture, bear rugs on the floor, spa cious fireplace and even small ra- dio.
 s At his door lay a jade-green lake, ice-fed, teeming with steelhead and grayling. Just west of the lake two great mountains, Sunali and Dinag- 5 gwah. had given him unimaginable shooting moose and caribou. big horn and goat and the surly trun- ding grizzly.
 The vigorous life outdoors had braced him. hardened him. The old weariness had vanished. In it's stead new energy fiov ed in his veins.
 Yet he had grown tired of it all Tired of the monkish austerity Tired of his isolation from the world of men-and women. Tired of the rotgut whisky which LeNoir brought. Tired of slaughtering big horns and hearing the lonesome scream of the eagle. Tired of the superstitious Indians who harbored him and who had fallen under his sway The city was drug in bis veins. and he could not live for long without it.
 A few months more of this, till he was sure that the hunt had been completely abandoned, and then his flight out, port in the Orient, free dom-and the wide world before him! His fortune now. lowering near three millions. gave him power to hunt bigger game. If he only ? could deliver some smashing blow against the Soviets, who had exiled him. confiscated his estates, killed < his relatives and bounded him for years-that would be scope for his talents and game worth stalking! But LeNoir's report was ripple ot wind across the placid water Was the breed lying?
 He lit goose-tallow candle and set 1t where it shone or LeNoir's face, but left his own in shadow. IL was possible that just before the flight out, when there va. no pros, pect of more money. the breed would betray him to the Mounted in . order to collect reward. Even dis z counting that risk. it was never wise X to leave anyone behind who knew too much.
 With no scruple or 'ompunction or gratitude for LeNoir's faithful service, he intended to play safe by doing away with tho man. He would need one more batch of sup plies. in August. He would let Le' f;oir make that trip. And then he would quietly slip him 2 dose of the strychnine with which LeNoir poi soned wolves on his fur path. = ''Just what sort of people are this Curt RaIston and these two Mich ols?" he asked, trying to trip Le N0ir up.
 LeNoir told him again, repeating the whole story.
 Karakhan's doubt about the re port vanished. The details came too readily to be manufactured. and they squared exactly with his frsl account.
 TAPPING a fresh cigarette. Kara : 4 khan reached the candle for 2 light. He had never known a Sonys ! or Ralph Nichols; but the descrfp 5 tion of the girl-golden-brown hair { brown eyes. a faint accc1t--fiashef 2 . picture of Sonya volkov before ' him.
 E His blood ran faster at the thought of her-in his loneliness ho would E have given small fortune to have 2 had her there. But of COLTS. 1t was ! ridiculous to imagine that this gir < might be Sonya Volkov. she had moi \ the faintest notion where he was; and she would not come to him any way. the little puritan.
 How far up :lie Lilluar did yor say they are?" he asked .eNoir.
 "Dey mus be most ... de pass now. leave dem bout forty-fivt miles below dere. an make bees hurre op here.~