The Bells of Canada

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Bells of Canada

CCX "00 y 15ATI'S EVE or not, that oid rattle-trap to Dalton to-night," said the grizzled trapper, giving his peculiar sniff, ioung Hiirold crossed the room and looked through the coarse glass at the vast, breathcatching loneliness of snow, lit by the pale, rosy light of evening. Black peaks in the distance, frozen streams, a few trees weighted low with white masses, and somewhere, somewhere out there, a tiny track. An Indian could scarce have found it, but Harold knew it, knew it well enough to guide along it. the decrepit but faithful tourer, by her doubtful lamps, and the stars. "1 don't pretend to like night trekking," lie answered, "but it's the last chance for wee'.rs. We've been stuck here all Christmas with thaws, and there's another one coming. And if I don't get Mary and the kids that radio before they come back, I'll never know the end oi' it." "The world's too fiill of fools," grunted the old man, "but come on, you should make it and be back by midnight. If you ain't 1 guess I'll come looking for you, like I always do." The "rattle-trap" was good-humoured that night, and Harold "hit" Dalton by nine. The stores that were to keep life in the little North Canadian family in the months to come, a little richer than usual (for was it not New Year!') were loaded aboard, and with

An Adventure Story by DAVID ATKINSON (15)

them the unspeakably precious radioset. Mack on the homeward journey. They were sliding smoothly, jvheels locked. where the track crossed the sheer ice of a. glacier, with a great mountainside on the left, when Harold saw the avalanche. He thought, the thaw had started too soon, and .jammed wide the throttle, to hurtle beneath the menacing mass, which roared toward the car with gathering momentum, and rocket into the untracked glacier itself. He never knew exactly what happened then. He heard the avalanche

thunder by, saw a tremendous rock come bounding at him, and swerved desperately, grabbing J .he brake. The old car lurched, the wheel bucked, and everything seemed to revolve, and go dark. Harold sat up. It was dark, but yet there was a sort of strange, luminous, freezing glow. He ielt around. Cold, chilling walls. Ice. All ice. With a start he realised he was inside the glacier, in a deep fissure, a crack, i Now he could see, all about him, the J Christmas stores, and, yes, far above a great mound of snow, with a wheel forlornly protruding —the car, on its side. He scanned the walls. There was no way up. He shouted, but in ten minutes his voice cracked, and he lelt dreadfully cold and ill. They would come to look for him, but they would see only snow, and i more snow. !! they ever found the crevice, they would find a frozen body, t a few pitiful provisions, and—and, he] leapt up. a wireless set. There was a coil of wire in the stores, it was a brief job to erect the crude aerial. Feverishly he tested the radio. It had landed in soft snow, the valves j and batteries were intact. Harold tuned i in, and listened. From the little box came the soft! music of bells. It was midnight, and far, far away, men were ringing in j a new year a year whose joys and i sorrows lay hidden. Could they know, those distant ringers, how sweetly their chimes fell on the ear ot a doomed*, man? Harold turned the knob to the j full, till the sound blared forth, and threatened to split his ear-drums. Then he lay in the snow and waitedAnd to the sound ol those wild bells came the old trapper, with his and his rope. '"Like J always do, he had said. , , When Mary arrived the next day with "the kids," she found her husband a trifle weak, but smiling. ••Well. Hal, vou took care ol the radio," said Ma'ry, looking proudly at her new present. "Not exactly." said Harold, rather think it took care of me. Ancl then he told her why.