A gentleman Adventurer.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume LVIII, Issue 82, 6 May 1926, Page 2

A gentleman Adventurer.

OUR SERIAL STORY

Suddenly ih« unexplained Hack* they had seen outside the iort windows on the. morning alter the storm flashed into his memory. Old Father Abraham with his uncanny Indian (perception had declared they were mad® li v the racquets of the two young men from the Lake of tire Marshes, and Waby-stig-wau had laughed at him for an old romancer. Charles burst into a. shout of laughter. “The Highland Fling! Poor old Thunder and. Lightning! They thought 1 was a raving Dervish. And no wonder, not being Scutch!” When he was, able to explain Percival joined in the laughter till they fairly blew the smoko in rings about the dingy room. The visitor stayed one short, joyous week, and then returned to headquarters with the good news. But Young Thunder had unwittingly done his friend a much greater good turn than even his kindly heart had planned.. Up at Fort Mackenzie, Chid Factor .McPherson listened to the explanation of young Stuart’s madness, and a sympathetic look crept into his kind eyes. “I’ll get him out of there next winter,” lie confided to his pipe that evening. CHAPTER XXVII. The Grand Traverse. All along the Red River and up the Assuvihoine there could ho heard the first mutterings of the storm that was soon to rage around the little Settlement'and threaten the *peace ami security of all Rupert’s Land.

The French Metis were restless and discontented. .Murmurs of secession

whirled to and fro on every wind that swept the white prairie. Men re* fought Sevonoaks at raoemceting or wedding, and Pierre Falcon’s rebel songs were sung at ©very dance. Bub of a lesser rebellion, a quietly laid plot to supplant the Governor of Assiniboia District and put another in his place, there was never a hint. Walter Melbourne, its instigator, was too wise for that • a very wolverine for caution was t.he, ■‘Chatako.’’ But lie had left one weak spot in his armour of secrecy. He had spent the years of his exile in the north quietly laying his plans. A nature naturally disposed to be kindly, had been warped and embittered by some injustice “hr 'his' sentence, and by a long exile in the north. So ho had passed the winter of his discontent planning revenge. Ho had used Marcus Fraser as his tool. He had despised him so thoroughly that he had not troubled l to take any of his usual precautions where he was concerned.

Marcus, indeed, in his old lethargjic days was but a paltry force to. Ik; reckoned with. But he was a man again, and especially alert to any danger that might menace the friend who had rescued him from tho pit. And rummaging ono day in his cassette he found an old letter that Melbourne had once shown him and had forgotten again. It was a letter written by Chief Factor Mac Neill to his nephew, and contained a full, though carefully-veiled, account of their plans to have the Governor removed. Fraser was about to throw the Jeter into tho .fire when something made him hesitate. Instead, lie wrote a full explanation of its contents ami sent both by runner to Fort Mackenzie.

Chief Factor McPherson was a. loyal friend to the Governor. The winter packet had been sent off, and so n special messenger had to be dispatched to Fort Garry. And, remembering the gjallant, unconquerable spirit of the young Chief of Fort Hearne, who had danced away In’s melancholy in, the lonely .outpost; ho brought- him down to Foiq, Mackenzie and sent him out with Ids message. Ami so, all unconscious, Charles was hastening southward with tho weapon for the downfall of Jus two enemies. He knew only that his message was urgent; that it must be in the hands of Governor McTavish before the Council met at Norway House. Tho winter of his exile had opened suddenly into the spring of freedom. He had gone to the uorthland two winters before a hot-headed impetus boy; he was returning a man, steady and restrained with something of the quiet patience of the land where lie had spent his exile. The promise upon which his mother’s faith had rest:, ed Had not failed. The angels wlio had been given charge over him had kept him from evil she had dreaded. Ami now she whoso prayers had set them on guard along his pathway had gone to tli e laud of answered prayers where sh© could keep a more careful watch over her sou. And so there wore angels around and ahead of him on his perilous journey. And a terrible journey it had been down the bitter winter trails of the uorthland. But his two sturdy Indian friends were with him,, and his feet had bean winged with hop© and freedom.

And now the trackless forests and the icy wastes were past. They had crossed the Saskatchewan and • here was Spring coming dancing up over the prairie hills to meet them. Wild geese called to each other through the grey skies, and at night as they slept by their fire the heat of strong northbound pinions passed over their heads.

BY MARION KEITH

They left thoif dogs and slc<l at a small past on tin; Saskatchewan and took lo horses, and as Charles was asking for directions from the halfbreed postmaster the man uttered, n magic word. - “Fort Winnipegosis!” shouted Charles. “Where. Chief Factor McDonald is? No, wo can't stay here the night. March, Hay! To see MacDonald again, and the Lady of Athabasca Lake! And they would b 0 sure to hav.e news of Flora ! He set off at such a gallop that even iho patient Young Thunder grunted uncoiuprchcndingly and wondered audibly why Waby-stig-wan was in such desperate haste. It was the- custom for a Company brigade,whether travelling by land or water, to make a. gallant approach to a fort, like the English coaches in the brave old days, that dashed'into a village to the music of winding horns and galloping hoofs. In like manner the great stage-coaches of the Company came np to a post with flashing oars and singing boatmen, dashing dogs with •jangling bells, nr an advance cavalcade of galloping horses. 4

So (hough there were only three iu his little company Charles determined that they should make a good appearance ho tore the Lady of Lake Winnipagosis. Before reaching the clearing aarrouliving the fort he had a bath in an icy pool of the Greenhill River, casting some of his most ragged clothing upon its sweeping current, much to the dismay e f his frugal followers. H. e had bought a now shirt and sash at the last post, and so, dressed and mounted and looking like the prince who was suddenly changed from a pauper, he galloped down the bank of ithe stream and across the ford, He was as brown as Young Thunder and his blue eyes and his waving fair hair 'made a- strange contrast, but ho was as straight and as hue a young athlete as the day he first, sat loot on Rupert’s Land. And so he rode up to the fort like a young knight approaching a castle, rode out of the wilderness of his bitter exile, bearing the white shield o> his honour all unsullied. He rode blithely and eagerly, but with no faintest dream of the wonder awaiting him on th« castle wall. Fort Winripegosis,’ the headquarters of the Winnipogosis District, stood northwest of the „ lake that gave it its name, and some twenty miles south of the great Saskatchewan. Here the rolling prairie country had almost reached the dignity of hills, and though there still spread out wide vistas of open grassy plains, the country was well dotted with parks, and the lakes and rivers wore shrouded in luxuriant growth. The. fort stood upon a splendid hill overlooking the Greenhill Khei,: a tangled twisted stream that evntually found its way down to the great lake, it was a neatly arranged place, for the Lady of Athabasca, Lake reigned here, and already the touch of her hand could he seen. All the buildings and the sixteenfoot stockade surrounding them were whitewashed, and gleamed in the spring sunshine against their velvety background ol pinc-clad hills. Along the top of the log wall, lacing the river, and stretching from' tlio wido gates to either corner ran a platform, with a. three-loot parapet. U made a pleasant promenade on summer evenings for the lady of the lon ( . castle and her children,. Though spring had just commenced to sail up the frozen creeks and rivers, and rebel patches of snow in the woods and hollows still disputed hoi reign, the day was warm and the smith wind was balmy. “The snow is all gone from the castle wall, Alice,” the Bourgeois said at breakfast that morning. You must all walk there and wave us a welcome when we get hack from our shooting.”

surely will,’ said Ins \\ ii <i. «Just one breath of that breeze from tho prairie will _ bring back your roses. Flofa mine,” she (cried gaily. ' When Alice MacDonald had gone down to lied Diver with her husbmd the ‘spring before, she had brought Mora Carmichael back to spend the v inter .in her forest castle. „ For early in the previous winter Mrs Murray bad closed her weary eyes on the bleak plains of her exile and gone borne. When they bad hud away in Kildonan churchyard the woman who had been her second mol her Flora’s brave spirit gave way belore her grief and loneliness. Her pale face and altered looks made her unde anxious, and he gave his consent to a winter with her friends. He hoped, too, that the loneliness of such, an isolated P'ist would bring her t" her 'senses, and show her hoev fortunate she was to he situated at Hod Hirer “And I hope you will reason with her,” ho said to her hostess before they left, “and try to make her see her duty, f don’t know what the world is coming to ‘ when women set themselves against all authority. ” cTo he Con tinned V