tores of Big Bcmidge, and on them there young Gale about being a woman hater at her cabin. He suggested that it might nelly. The moon had disappeared, and the
the most beautiful head that each great and a grouch because some girl in the be preferable if he call in the afternoon, wavering light of the lanterns, playing
rtiat can paint, but I best describe her East had. as you say, thrown him over, but she laughed at him with her lips and upon the torn object on the trampled
hen I say that the finest of these was They wondered at her nerve, they said, eyes and asked him if he feared the snow, and dancing erraticaUy among the
oarse as a horse blanket beside the living so rar out in the woods, with only wolves. So Connelly went at night. He trunks of the tall pines, produced a verv
eauty of the girl that stood in the trail, one old woman for companion. They won- had no gun of his own, but Senrick, the queer effect upon us all.
THE SUNDAY FICTION MAGAZINE, MAY 28, 1916.
I took oft my cap at last, with a hand tfered why she was out there and who she cookee. gave him a Luger pis-
feat trembled, and my lips seemed numb was, and from that I guessed that the tol. 1 went outside that night
vhen I tried to say quite unconcernedly, woman in white had left some things to and stood in the chip-lit-
B"jou, mam'selle." be conjectured. s
Bon Jour, monsieur," she replied in a Then one night late in De-
oft low voice. I had expected her to re- cember Logan shaved with
ly in Knglish, and ii added, you may be- great care and put on his serge
love, something to my surprise when she suit and new mackinaw. Con-
eplied in French that was far better than nelly said many things that the
ha patois of the habitant like that of the other men at camp
ultured people of old France. She did not thought to be funny.
ay anything else, but stood there with the and Logan admitted
mile on her lips and in her great dark that he was going to
yes with the long lashes. I could think Eagle Island. H e
f no remark to make, and stood in her took his rifle with
K'ay, like one wnose
mbs are stone and
Lhose mind is thick
ith liquor.
And then I noticed
hat the smile had
one from her eyes
er eyes. At sieu, ior
he still smiled with
er lips and as-if the
prder had been spoken
stepped aside into
te snow-laden brush.
nd she walked by
fie, still smiling with
er lips. I stood look-
g after her, and she
fist one glance over
er shoulder, and
ithout words from her I
new in my deepest soul that
had been commanded to
)Uow. And I. Jean Larue,
ho had looked little on
romen, trailed her like an
bedient dog those four miles
ick to the Diamond H ill
imps.
It was afternoon when we
rrived at the first skidways,
nd every man there, from
w a m p e r s to toploaders,
opped in his tracks and
ared at her. She stood
uletly a little off the road
ad watched them when they
isumod work. The smile
as back in her eyes now,
ud I heard passed from man
man, in half a dozen
ngues, M sieu, exclama-
lons on her beauty.
And Buck Logan, who
as a handsome man, and
bought himself, perhaps.
most fit. to bid her wel-
m, went over to her and
lisea nis nai, aim wimu iu nor in r.ns- nun, anu it'll imme
kh. And she responded in the same ately after supper.
ngue, speaking as excellently as she had was a clear night, v
token briefly to me in French. still and cold, and I
Later that afternoon I saw her talking thermometer on I
hd laughing with Richard Connelly, who outside of the bur
me from the Kast and had an excellent house registered 36
tucation. He shaved dally, witn the same grees below zero. 1
re as if there were some one at camp About 10 Larson, the
fio cared about his appearance, and now, straw boss, called some
suppose, he rejoiced. of us out to listen to
Only tour or nye men nau me great me nowiing or the wolves. The unusua
ttuerity, M'sieu, to approach the beauti- stillness- of the air made the cry of the
I visitor, and among them was not to be wolf pack strangely distinct. The long.
mbered. I noticed, the son of the owier. eerie quavering of the wolves sent a chill
en spending a few weeks at canjp. His down my spine. The sound came from the
me was Harvey Gale, and he was per- west, and McGraw, who was standing be
ps the best fitted to converse with the side me, said he thought that it came from
aiiRe young lady. He was handsome in the Vicinity of Eagle Island.
slighter and more refined way than big
fick Logan, and his learning, I should for Logan the next morning. We found then rose more rlearlv nvcr in the west, around him and said:
ve judged from his arguments with his skeleton in a tangled thicket on the It seemed to draw closer to camp, and "Will you kiss me before you leave?"
nnelly. was greater than that of any mainland, in a straight line and about two suddenly above the wail of those gray He turned Abruptly, clasped her In his
ler man at the Diamond Hill. miles from Eagle Island. He had been devils I heard I swear it. M'sieu the arms, and kissed her once upon the Hps.
But he walked past the girtr scarcely torn to pieces by the wolves. Search as shriek of a man. I went into the cook And as he did so her hand crept to his
incing at her, and her eyes followed-him war would, we could not find his rifle. To camp, where a light still burned brightly, waist and removed his revolver quietly
ard the little office, and I who took all of us that seemed rather strange. We and told Swanson. the new foreman, that from his holster. Then he hurled her w
ilia to watch thought that the smile had didn't go on to Eagle Island, but the next' I thought the wolves had gotten Connelly, from him, as if by main strength, and
atn gone out of them. But while she afternoon, when the girt in white ap- He" turned out the whole tamp, and armed with an inarticulate crv started runnlnr
ked she was smiling with her lips, and peared, Connelly told her. I heard him with all manner of guns, axes and clubs down the path. The girl stood there, in
king to Logan and Connelly. remark to Harvey Gale with what seemed we started out in search. the light of the newly risen moon, and
Often in the next week she came to like just a trace of elation that she took it The lantern light and the shouts of watched- him. I was hoping, M'sieu. that
'iit, and always Logan and Connelly damned unconcernedly. eighty men scattered half a hundred she would go within, that I might make
ked and laughed with her. They talked It was hardly a week before Connelly wolves that fought over something on the my conge unnoticed.
but her at their trivate table, and joked accepted her invitation to call upon her summit of Shoepack Ridge. It was Con- But she did not. Instead, she extended
It was not the odor of warm blood
that did It. Most of us had faced the
, . nynviaus vi vioieui upam ere mat. nut
' Connelly's pistol was missing from its
holstar nnri mnM . w , . i i
- "VI. W3 xuuuu in ino
' Blll-lnu rwlfn K 1 ,J .
uiuuu-nuaiieu snow, i need
not tell you that wolves do not eat
steel.
-In the farthest circle of dim light I
thought for a moment that I had seen a
flitting figure in white. And others beside
me, M'sieu, who had never heard of old
Dr. Galloway or of Joe Tesreaux, the
guide, said that they thought they heard
a sound as of some one laughing.
The next day Harvey Gale talked to
the girl in white, and many days there
after. And then one day when they did
not think themselves overheard young
Gale promised that he would call that
night. ona the girl laughed and said that
no doubt he could muster out the camp
for a bodyguard. The young man s face
flushed and he said that he thought that
he was capable of froveiing about without
chaperonage. He snid-that he would leave
camp quietly, to avoid unnecessary ex
planations. And so he did
He was not alone, however. I followed
him, M'sieu, at a distance, that he might
not know that he was shadowed. Ten
minutes after he had crossed the glare ice
and was well in among the thick ever
greens of Eagle Island, I followed. I trav
eled up the narrow, twisting trail silently,
because I wore moccasins, while I cpuld
hear the frozen snow creaking beneath
Gale's boots.
From my covert of fir I watched him
approach the cabin. He knocked, and the
door swung open. Framed as a slender
silhouette against the warm light within
wns the pirl in white. I climbed a little
scrub pine cautiously enough and waited.
It was the, coldest night of the year, I be
lieve. It had been 40 below that morning,
and must have been a6 cold that evening.
The frost-rimmed pines crackled with a
sound that resembled an occasional rifle
shot. I have never seen the northern
lights so bright since then'. Their long,
wavering fingers, blue, yelfeow and green,
danced against a black sJy, like the beck
oning fingers of fate.
After a while I
heard Gale's voice
raised within the
cabin, as if in argu
ment. Clearly
enough, once I heard
him say: "My God,
no! I couldn't! It
couldn't be!" The
girl's reply I could
not hear. But no
more that night
could I discern any
words from the con
versation within.
Ages later, it
seemed to me in my
cold, cramped hid
ing place, the door opened and cast
a cheerful beam of light across the
gloomy clearing. Gale emerged, and with
him, clinging to his arm, was the woman
tered yard, "M'sieu, and listened for in white. He seemed struggling to tear
the howl of the pack. And, sure himself away, and said something in a low
enough, about 10 o'clock, when the rest of voice tnat awakened her rippling laugh,
the camp were asleep, it broke forth clear- His right arm was crooked before his
ly enough, this time to the southeast. But y' nd hi wa extended, as If to
I joined the party that wetlt out to look the sound sTew fainter and fainter, and nold her ofr- 1ut she entwined her arms
A 4,
1 R S j&J
.tlli it 'i sr rw I 4
Mon Dieu! It was a beua
tiful yoang girl we saw, anc
she was dressed from henl It
foot in white.