A Gentleman Adventurer.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume LVIII, Issue 68, 20 April 1926, Page 2

A Gentleman Adventurer.

OUR SERIAL STORY

“It was only a fi«e adventure,” she j cried gleefully. “Th© hard part is often played by the women who have to wait long lonely years at home. And 1 didn’t come out alone, you know. My sister and her husband came with me, and little Flora Carmichael joined us at Toronto in Canada. Did you meet Flora m Red River?” 1 ' . At last it had come! Charles felt) a lump rising in his throat to choke him. He blushed up above the white ]iiv 6 that showed where Ins voyagelir cap began. „ “Yes—yes—that is I—l met her, he stammered. “Oh, do tell me about her! I suppose she is a young woman now.” It was impossible for s the lady not to notice that her guest was more than interested' in the subject.. She uas suddenly struck with an illuminating thought. Could it he possible that. ! this was the young man, himself, who i had filled up so much of a letter her husband bad brought her the night before ? , . i “Why,” she cried, clasping nei f hands in girlish delight, “I do believe you must be the Young Chevalici ! Charles was filled with a wild surmise.' “How *!ici you know ” he "ishered. “Oh J am not so far removed from the world after all,” she laughed teasingly, “Come, tell me all about Flora! And Mrs Murray, is the Avell?” . ■ Charles drew his chair near her and found his tongue. Of course he did not try to describe Flora; Flora looking out frpii her beaver lion net on Sunday morning; Flora in her blue silk gown, overflowed by a cascade of golden curls, sitting at uie piano in the Candlelight singing “Brignal Banks”. Flora on Polly Noir” riding along the King’s Highway lik© a young princess; that was impossible for the motal tongue. But somehow the wise lad’. r x Af&abasoa Lalve managed to discover that these were the pictures that danced before, his sight night and day. , Without his knowing it she found out more about him in their half-hour by the fireside than her husband had in the intimacy of a two-months’ {voyage together. He even’ told about the ride they were to have taken on the afternoon lie and she guessed a great deal more than ho told. ' And! she listened with the sympathy his mother would have shown arid the words she spoke were like balm to the lonely boy’s heart. She spoke, us her husband had, of’ the long way round that sometimes had to be taken, but to the tme and the brave it always led home. She glanced proudly out into the hall where MacDonald Avas standing talking to his apprentice clerks.. “My husband hyd to Avait long years for the home he longed for. He had to travel hundreds of miles and explore many lakes and rivers as a sort of apprenticeship.” “But that Avas nothing Avhen he knoAV you Averc Availing for him,” said Charles as he rose reluctantly to say good-night. She smiled. “Are youi quite sure there- isn’t some one Availing for you?” she asked. “There always j* for the man Avho is true to the best. Good-night, Monsieur Chevalier, rest AA-ell’, and do try that nice feather bed ; I am so proud of it.” He Avas aAvay early the next morning with his two Indian guides in their hirchlbark canoe. The whole household were down t« the shore to AVish him Godspeed.’ The last sight, of the fort a. she rounded an island .shoAved him the Lady of the .Lake standing by hew husband’s side, high on the shore, Ava.ving her handkerchief. He saluted reverently. Perhaps he dimly guessed her high office. For here Avas another -Angel

stationed on guard at one of the Prices in his life where its bulwarks might not be strong; a radiant lovely Angel, strong and immovable, holding the white shield of Home. For she, too, hail been “given charge over hint.” . f CHAPTER XXI. A Husbandi'for Madama Hawkins. Two Indians and one birch-bark canoe were a poor substitute for the rollicking, singing. dancing, voyaoeurs with their twelve long York boats. But this was the equipment Cameron had intended' for the rebel on tile whole journey, and Charles blessed Marie Rose many times in the raw wet days and chill nights as he was paddled silently down the Great Slave River. He missed t-e gay nonsense of the Metis tripmen; the Indians were quiet and stolid, and pushed swiftly onward, for the snort summer was almost gone and the nights were cold and foggy. Young Thunder was the high-sounding title of his steersman, a stalwart Ohipowyn with a -stately arc demeanour, while the other man went by the undistinguished name of “Oskineque,” a word meaning “The Young Man.” and -as the two were inseparable, Charles gave the latter the- complimentary title of “Young Lightning.” On their second day, paddling down the winding river, between tall dark linos of forest, they rounded a point, and came upon a black bear swimming across their bows. Charles had

BY MARION KEITH

seen very lit tie game ui that long journey, for the lingo, yelling, splashing, singing iscrjvuib that twisted its way up tlio rivers when tluv brigade was on a. trip frightened all tin Id creatures miles away from their unify track. Ho gave a boyish shout at the unusual sight ami grabbed his gun. As the canoe shot within range I Lightning made a lunge at Brum i with his axe. He struck but only wounded the animal, and the lingo brute reared itself furiously against them. Young Thunder, in the stern, was nearest the enraged animal, and was so intent upon saving the canoe from being overturned that ho had no chance to save himself. .Bear caught his' arm) with a sweep of his terrible paw, but at the same instant Charles’ rifle spoke, and Bruin sank slowly into the water. Young Thunder made light of’his hurt, but Charles insisted upon making camp early, and while Lightning fried 1 boar steak for supper he bound up the wounded: arm. The next day he took one of the paddles himself, thereby cementing a friendship that was to serve him, in a, later evil hour At Fort Thompson, on Great Slave Lake, he had to part with his India; guides. From here a boat'was goin: across the lake and down the Mae kcuzie river with iish to Fort Mackenzie, tli6 headquarters of die district, where Charles was to report With many handshakes and present! of knives and tobacco he bade fare well to his friends. The Company’] boat was in charge of a young ap prentice clerk like himself and wai manned by a half-dozen half-bree< Indian boatmen. It ivas good to hav< the company of a white man again Templeton was a jolly fellow win railed at the-Company night and day and whistled and sang as though i’ were th© finest service in the worldThe forest was bare of faiage, the nights and mornings were frosty, am the days filled with, chill rains bj the time they sailed down upon For Mackenzie. It stood in a clearing high upon a steep rocky bank, ringec by the dark forest. In. the centre o the squaT'fe before the Chief Factor’s house stood a little lookout post witl a stairway leading up to it. Here ? half-breed was hurriedly mulling in the flag and a bell in the little towci was clanging forth their welcome t< the northern fortress. Seated' at- the .mess -table ■ an houi biter Charles felt a glow of joy ir Ihe comradeship of his fellows again There were four officers belonging to the place and two or three others from outlying posts. The Chief lactor ' was a genial fellow, a child «i ’ the Company, having a full-breed mother and a, half-breed wife. Next t( Charles sat a young man named Per Ajivial,, an apprentice clerk toward; whom his heart warmed, for'he lok ed and acted like Johnny Moßani There was Ogilvio, a great patm-.dist whose name stood liigh in the annals of the Smithsonian institute, who was over Fort B-sulissoiii far down m Hu Barren Lands f and there was an ok brown and wrinkled giant who was post-master in the Company’s farthest post down th© Mackenzie. The food was good, but server without- ceremony. it was a roualj bachelor existence they' lived at I l oi l Mackenzie,' far removed from the re lined atmosphere of Athabasca House “Now, Mr Stuart, pour out youi news!” cried- the Bourgeois, when they had drunk the health of his lot est ‘.arrival. “You’re straight funn Fort Garry and ought to know evuy tiling!” Tjicv plied him with questions? Hcu was old Murder? Who was llicja* 1 man he had knocked down ? Mlipi was Governor Mc-Tayish coming back? And what was in store fen Mac Neill when be returned? •>'! meet “Chatako” Melbourne, at way? “Chatake” . was out with Jus gnu to bring down something rich in the way of promotion. Mac Neill was his uncle and had schemed to get him

placed at Fort Garry, etc., etc. Charles answered all the questions he could with safety. He related the circumstances of his introduction to Mr Melbourne,and it wa s received with a- hilarity that showed the “Pelican” was not very popular :,t. Fort Mackenzie. But he had much to conceal regarding Cameron, at least, and he preferred to listen, especially while Ogilvie talked. He was one of those great men whom the Company did not want, hecause he cared more for birds and inv sects and shells and stones than lie did for beaver skins, and lie knew far more about the habits' of the caribou and the sea! than he did about their pelts., His tales opened up a new world to Charles : hi s pet golden eagle, captured near Fort Radisson; the wise old wild gander that went honking drearily up and down in search of its lost mate, never to ho comforted h” taking another: the pulcky sand-hill crane that would fight a man if wounded ; the sagacious grebe that made her nest in the reeds go that it would rise and fall with the water; the. trumpeter swan amr*Franklin’s gull, that beautiful rosy-feathered creature—Ogilvie made them - almost human. They did not talk, Company "business —at the table where Ogilvie dined, hut they Uvea the romance of the wild life about them which so many had failed to see, (To be continued.)