WEALTH OF THE WILD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21456, 1 April 1933, Page 12 (Supplement)

WEALTH OF THE WILD

By L. C. DOirrHWAITE . ..„ a u , , A .. „,„ * " • Author of " The Unicorn." " Fourflush Island, etc.

CHAPTER XXVl.—(Continued) ißoy looked at him keenly, and the man's small eyes twinkled. At that moment, however, whatever the latter would have said was interrupted by a voice which hailed them from a near-by cabin—a dwelling which already Roy had noticed as slig;htly larger and more prosperous looking than the few other desolate habitations which surrounded it. Tho owner of the voice was a stoutish lady of, at that moment, somewhat threatening aspect. Oh, you, Red!" she hailed again. What's work done that you and it ain't on callin' terms?"'

Red looked distinctly sheepish, and well under cover, made a gesture of resignation.

"'Lo. Mame!" he called back with rather nervous geniality.

But the lady's voice came back more commanding than before.

" You do your hallo-ing from the middle of the Saskatchewan River an' the inside of your scow. An' if yor don t come back with a fair load o' fish you an' me'll engage in a brisk exchange of back-chat." Red said hoarsely and below his breath:

" Hire me bo'! For the love o' Pete, hire me to take yer to th' Creek. Tell her thirty dollars. If there's no money in it sh'U jack up on me comin'. Berlieve me," he assured Roy fervently. " I haven't had no chancp o' puttin* me legs tinder the table of a poker-game since I dunno when!"

It came to Roy that Red's suggestion contained distinct possibilities. Without rest he would not be able to make Cinnamon Creek by himself, but with Red at the engine there would be nothing to prevent him sleeping in the canoe.

Observing his hesitation, Red proceeded eagerly to press his point. " Give me what you like, only tell Ma,me, thirty bucks," he urged. The faint indication of a smile flickered for a moment at the corners of his mobile mouth. " 1 don't turn in to her all I earn, though the may think it," ho added gratuitously. " Who's the dead-beat you're tradin' lies with?" called Mrs. Hooper suspiciously, and crossed over to investigate. By the time she reached them Roy was on his feet, though a shade uncertainly. He raised his cap—the one Slim Peters had lent him—as she came up, an attention at which she regarded him suspiciously.

" Your husband has been good enough to accept the job of driving my canoe to Cinnamon Creek, Mrs. Hooper," Roy announced courteously.

Closer view disclosed her as by no means so formidable as when seen from a distance. Strong and stout and sternlooking she may have fceen, but there was humanity, not unmixed with humour, larking somewhere in the background of her clear, brown eyes.

You're a sick man, ain't yer ?" she said, with a kind of stern sympathy.' I'm a very tired one, Mrs. Hooper," paid Roy, "and unless your husband drives the canoe I can't afford the time to rest."

The harder lines into which her mouth had set were belied by the sudden irrepressible twinkle Of her eyes, as, turning an apparently indifferent shoulder to Roy, she addressed her husband.

" It's good to see someone who knows what hustle is," she said- You'd better take the job on; you may learn how it's done! Try an' get the habit." Bed's face lighted.

I'll start in right now," he said, endeavouring to free his voice from pleasurable excitement. ,

CHAPTER XXVH

; AX THE REGISTBAH'S

Together the three made their way to the shack, in the transit to which Roy was grateful to Mrs. Red's unobtrus. ve but surprisingly efficient support. The parlour of the cabin was furnished with an eye to more solid relaxation than usually is to be found in the oil-clothed and lithographed discomfort of those stiff interiors. The chairs were roomy and comfortable. There were books on shelves ranged about the room. As well as a home-made system of central heating, to obviate the necessity of that last word in ugliness, the usual slow-combustion stove, Red had built into the wall an open brick fireplace.

Once inside the shack, Mrs. Hooper insisted upon tucking Roy into one of the big chairs whilst Red made preparations for the trip, and a few minutes later brought him a cup of tea, and as she expressed it, " stuck around to see as he dr;mk it.'' -

" How much did Red say for you to tell me you was payin' him for the trip?" she asked quietly. Adding, after a pause: " .And how much are you really payin' ?"

"There was something said about thirty dollars,'* Roy told her. " It wasn't settled definitely." ■ "I bet''it wasn't!" she said significamly. " Not," she added, " as both Red an' me ain't happy about it. Red's happy because he thinks he's bull-dozin me into lettin' him go to the Creek, an' I'm. happy because I was sending him to ibuy stores, anyway, an' now I shall soak him the thirty dollars he'll try an' bluff me he's gotten from you. Well, that thirty buck .is better in my stockin'foot than in his poker-game, anyway," she wound up philosophically.

Red ' came into the room at that moment, his face more shiny than usual from a muscular application of yellow soap. He carried a deplorable 6uitcase, which, he informed Roy, contained his ■" store clothes." "You feelin' not BO sick now?" he inquired. Roy's vitality was still low from strain and want of sleep, but the faintness had left him, and his head felt tolerably clear. '• Fit arid waiting," he said reassur-

ingly. Red went over exuberantly to embrace his wife, an attention which, despite loud-voiced protest, she made but halfhearted attempts to avoid. It was plain to Roy that, however disguised, an unusually deep affection existed between this eccentric couple. Once they were embarked. Red made Roy a bed of pillows amidships. Then ho tucked blankets about him and put a pillow at his head. "Go to it, son!" he said. "There's a bite of supper an' a swig of coffes when you happen to wake, but it don't matter wjien that is. Sleep hearty!" By the time Red had attached a tow-line to his carne aud started the engine, Roy was

Ihe river was unusually calm, and the canoe being but lightly laden, rode smoothly and evenly. Lulled by that caressing motion, the soft, pine-scented breeze playing lightly oia his face, he seemed conscious, even in sleep, of the ret armng vitality which flowed like a stream throughout his whole bodily and mental organism. It was after eight o clock when he awoke for the first time. He lay luxuriously for a few moments, content with the sheer physical enjoyment of a renewed sense "of comprehension and alertness. It seemed to him now that during the past f« w days, as his peed for rest increased, so, cumulatively,

A STORY OF LOVE AND ADVENTURE IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS

ho had lost his perception of what went on about him, so that at last his actions had come to bo automatic and without life, like those of a man on tho verge of anaesthesia. 1 . .• At his first movement, nowever, Red greeted him cheerily. " How's it goin' 1" he inquired. "Fine, thanks," said Hoy, and then: " Seen anything of Slim Peters and his seaplane ?" Red nodded.

" Sure," he said. " Passed 'em at half after five, about a couple miles the Landin' side of Cumberland House, an' still

a-goin'." So that, it would appear, disposed finally cf any danger from the airman, Roy wondered amusedly what Slim's feelings would be upon being greeted at Pickerel Landing with the news of his own presence at, and departure from, that delectable community. However, now that the way lay clear before him to the goal there was no use bothering his head about Slim or anyone else. Except, of course, Nell.

Having eaten, Roy lighted his pipe and lay back on his pillows. Overhead the sky loomed immeasurably distant, the iridescent stars liks lamps suspended by invisible cords.

And as he lay there dreaming, with Red silent, imagining him to be asleep, his thoughts turned inevitably to Nell.

Throughout the whole of his adventurous journey from the Lobstick Claim, she had never ceased, however subconsciously, to occupy his thoughts. Even in that sleepless interval between the island and Pickerel Landing, and which now faded into unreality behind him, always he had been aware of her.

Dui'ing that period of solitude and introspection he had realised that to her woman's heart ho had failed her. He went over the ground again and again. Was he justified in sacrificing her on the altar of his own sense of duty, or should he have sacrificed his father on the altar of liis love for her ?

And always in the end came the answer endlessly reiterated. If, penniless, he had married her, loss of self-respect would have been inevitable, and would have proved a dull, grey shadow over their love. She would have had to share the penalty, and, being a woman, the greater burden would have been hers. Lulled by the subtle motion and the rhythmic throb of the engine, he fell at last into a deep and refreshing sleep. When he awoke it was to find the eastern sky dyed to luminous opal and primrose. The deep silence of the woods was broken only by a soft breeze that played over the bordering rushes as by the quiet breath of sleep.

The morning, untramelled and unspoilt, belonged wholly to Nature. The air was clear and fresh as in the dawn of time. Red sat motionless, sucking at an empty pipe. Even when he saw that Roy was awake, he contented'himself with a quiet nod. It was not until the eastern glow had deepened gradually up to regal scarlet, and the sun blazed upwards above the trees to fill the sky with splendour that he spoke.

That's the only thing keeps me at th' Landin'," ho said soberly. " Just that little old sun a-shinin' an' a-glowin'." Roy suppressed any surprise that the soul of a poet should be concealed beneath so material and workaday an exterior. He knew how inarticulate were these men who had lived hard and comfortless lives only because the North, which promises all and gives nothing but its beauty, has hynotised them with its strange, compelling charm.

At about half-past six they passed under the big iron bridge at Cinnamon Creek.

"Well, what to do?' inquired Red, when the canoe was moored.

Before answering, Roy stepped aside to speak with a man in overalls, who was busy probing the interior mechanism of a canoe engine.

" Guess you'll find old O'Dowd 'bout half-after eight," he said in reply to Hoy's question.

" Red," said Roy, " I'm so hungry that the inside of Tom Long's would look to me like the grill room of the Waldorf Astoria. Bnt I've claims to register, and until that job's done there's no breakfast for me. I'm going to be right there the minute that office opens." Red looked at him narrowly for a moment.

" Well," he said at last, " not bein' one to butt in on what don't concern me, I'll go book a room at the Prince Regent, an' meet you at Tom Long's half-after eight, or thereabouts."

" Good enough," said Roy, and passed from the jetty across to the main street, and from thence to the unmade road where was the .wooden shack that was dignified by the single sign, " Land Titles Office."

The padlock was still on the door, so lighting his pipe, he sat down on the wooden steps and waited. At eight-fifteen, although O'Dowd was not due for another quarter of an hour, Roy became affected with a touch of panic. For, high above the. river, he had noticed a dark speck which could - only be Slim Peters' seaplane. Five minutes later he was conscious of the low vibrating hum of the engine.

Though he could not see how Peters' presence in Cinnamon Creek could effect his own mission, be was seized with an unrest for which he was quite unable to account. He told himself that for all Slim Peters knew to the contrary the claims had long sinco been registered by those who had stolen them.

And yet it was with increasing unrest he watched the seaplane grow in size until even the pilot's head was visible against the clear background of the air. Lower and lower it swooped until, with a rush and roar, it passed from sight behind the line of buildings on the main street. A moment later his mind pictured it taxi-ing importantly on the river surface.

A figure in a drab tussore suit turned out of tho main street at that moment, in whom Rov joyfully recognised Dan O'Dowd, wno greeted Roy with cheerful curiosity.

" An' where you left the rest of the bunch, Mr. Coniston ?" he inquired. " That's what I've como about," said Roy.

" Then I guess you want to register," observed Dan, producing his keys. " Walk right in!" he invited, as the door swung open. Once Dan O'Dowd was settled in his chair, Roy producer* his proxies and a rough map of the property. Glancing at the former, at first casually, and then with quickened interest, the official was guilty of a low whistle of surprise. " Fifteen claims!" he exclaimed. " Say, that's some going! At five bucks per each that'll bo seventy five dollars." Roy paid over the amount, and to enable him to fill in the necessary forms O'Dowd scanned the map. As he did so his amazement grew

" Where's this?" he demanded incredulously, and upon receiving the information, pressed eagerly for particulars. At last, still only half convinced, he handed Roy a largo scalo map of the district. " Sketch it there," he instructed. paving outlined the stream for Grassy River, Roy stopped. " You've got me beat, Mr. O'Dowd," he admitted. " You see, I only know the lake as far as our own claims." Dan stared.

" Well, if that doesn't beat the band!" he exclaimed. " Guess we'll have to send a survey party to give it the once-over." Roy slipped the titles into his pocket, and, happenning to glance up, he saw Slim Peters pass the window. A moment later came the sound of footfalls on the wooden steps outside.

(COPYRIGHT)

" Someone coming, Mr. O'Dowd," Roy muttered hastily. " There's one or two things I want to ask your advice on, so I'll wait in here until your visitor has gone."

Without pausing for a reply, he slipped into tho stuffy inner office, the door of which he was careful to leave a little ajar. A second later the outer door opened, and Slim Peters advanced to the table.

" Howdy, Dan !" he said, a note of confidence in his voice.

" 'Lo, Slim, you back again ? " O'Dowd said easily. Wrecked, weren't you 1 " "Wrecked nothing!" the airman protested. " Just a bit of engine trouble. But listen, Dan, I've something here as'll make you sit up and take notice. Yes, I'll say so! " Ho paused dramatically. " What'll you say when I tell you I've discovered a now lake—one as has never even been mapped or surveyed? " Watching silently, Roy could see O'Dowd's features stiffen.

" I'll say," he said coolly at last, that I'm from Missouri. You've gotter show me! "

The airman broke into an exultant grin. i

" Sure, I'll show you," he said cohfidently, and threw on the table a Bmall piece of high-grade quartz Mr. Murrian had given him as a souvenir of the rescue. " I'll hand you the location right now—the location and particulars of three claims I want to register for Eddie McDonald, of the Landing." If he had anticipated his announcement would arouse O'Dowd to any particular demonstration of excitement, he was disappointed. After long years of compulsory listening to anticipations which, had they been realised, would have made Aladdin's Cave look like the last day of a jumble sale, the Land Title official had acquired an almost inhuman mastery over his features.

" Mark your find right here," he said, handing Slim a large-scale map duplicate to the one which already had been brought into service. Bending over this, Peters traced with his pencil the course of the Grassy River. Suddenly he stopped and drew a mark at right angles from it, which he enlarged eventually to a rough oblong. He placed his pencil then at a point on the right bank almost at the junction of the stream and the lake. " There's the lake, Dan," he said confidently. " And right here is Eddie McDonald's claim."

After the most cursory examination of the map, ODowd drew a battered case from his pocket, selected a cigarette, lighted it, replaced the case, and, leaning back in his chair, regarded the airman long and thoughtfully. " What were you doing on ground level ? " he asked quietly at last. As Slim's eyes met O'Dowd's calm but penetrating glance, his face hardened. " Say, what're you handin' me, Dan ? " he said shortly.

" Handin' you ? " The official's voice was even and unemotional. " I'm not handin' you a thing. I'm just askin' you what was a man on aerial survey an' fire patrol doin' to stake a claim ? "

From the sudden light that flickered into Peters' eyes it was evident that with the form of the other's query had come inspiration. " What's a fire patrol to do when he sees smoke? ' he demanded coldly. "Pass by, or go to find out ? "

" But supposing," said Dan, removing the ash from his cigarette with a casual finger, " that when he gets down he finds it's no forest fire that's started up, but only a camp-fire ? " With a leisurely hand he pushed across the table the map which first had been used, and pointed to Roy's markings. " Guess you don't get away with it, Slim," he said. The airman's face was livid. " Not when it's Eddie McDonald's claim?" he questioned loudly. "One he asked me to register so's to save him leavin' the lake ? "

O'Dowd tapped the table pensively with his pencil. What day was it you left him ? " he inquired. •" Three days ago—Tuesday," replied Slim quickly, and faced O'Dowd's calm eyes defiantly. Abruptly then, but leaving both maps on the table, the official closed and locked his drawer. " You're a liac Slim," he eaid calmly, " and a poor liar at that. Eddie was right here in the Creek on Tuesday. I had supper with him in Tom Long s. From pallor the airman's face suffused suddenly to scarlet. Then _ suddenly his eyes seemed to brighten as if from within and he brought his fist down on the table with a forcewhich shook the room. " Where Eddie was, or where Eddie wasn't, don't amount to a hill of beans! he shouted. " That there claim s his, an it's gotter be registered. Just you bite on to that. It's gotter be registered. See ?" Unruffled, very carefully, O'Dowd rearranged the various articles on hia desk to their original positions. " Upon production of the necessary particulars. Eddie McDonald or Eddie Mac anybody else may register any claim on that lake with the exception of those already held in the names of Murrian, Coniston, Clargos and Pullen," he said, with deadly quietness. He turned over the first map and pointed to the detailed plan of the full fifteen claims. With the document face upward once more, he indicated the marks made by Roy. " Apart from those," he said, " the whole lakeside is McDonald's for the stakin'."

For a full minute there was silence. Unused to and bitterly resentful of defeat, the airman was beaten, and knew it. Anything unofficial he could have fought, but against the Department of Mines he was powerless. A formal state ment of the circumstances from O'Dowd to the authorities, and the seaplane now riding so comfortably to the tide would have some other pilot. Irresolute, his line of action confused and uncertain, one fact above all others 6tood out amid the chaos of his thoughts. Tho Englishman had " beaten him to it," and in doing so had saddled him irrevocably with tno consequence of a gross betrayal of trust.

He was aroused by O'Dowd's cool and discriminating voice. " What's the big idea, Slim?" he was asking. " I thought you knew better than that you'd put over crooked business such as this." The airman's face set in a sneer. " What's it got to do with you what the big idea is, anyway?" he snarled. "I just started something, that's all. An'an'—well, it looks like I've lost out," he wound up sullenly. And then Roy stepped out from the inner room. Instantaneously, his face blazing, Peters made his rush—and at the same time was shouting profanely to high heaven, After a moment, then, his struggles ceased, locked in a ju-jilsu grip from which any attempt to escape was agony. O'Dowd sprang to his feet. This time there was no doubt that his official dignity was aroused. Peters met his glance for a moment, and then his eyes fell before the other's authority. Not until then did O'Dowd speak. "Let the hooks off him now, Mr. Coniston," ho said, and through his teeth addressed himself to the airman. " You start rough-housing in my office, and I'll have Sergeant Wells put you in the cooler so quick you won't know what's hit you." Keeping his eye alert, Roy did as he was bidden. O'Dowd, makiD*; it clear that he wished for a quiet wora with Slim, Roy bade that fair-minded official a cordial goodmorning and passed out into the street. (T© be continued daily)