The Valley of Silent Men / A Story of the Three River Country

death-grip that was tightening in his chest he drank it in deeply and leaned over so that

lling with the aroma of the spruce trees from the heart of which its unplaned lumber was cut. The breath of it was a thing to bring cheer and hope. Its silvery walls, in places golden and brown with pitch and freckled with knots,

yes," Kent had said a year before, when he and Cardigan had picked out the site. "If

specimen, looking out o

inst Nature, the murder of his beloved wilderness. For in his soul that wilderness had grown to be more than a thing of spruce and cedar and balsam, of poplar and birch; more than a great, unused world of river and lake and swamp. It was an individual, a thing. His love for it was greater than his love for man. It was his inarticulate God. It held him as no religion in the world could have held him, and deeper and deeper it had drawn him into the soul of itsel

was lazily turning out its grist. Not far away the wind-worn flag of the British Empire was floating over a Hudson Bay Company's post that had bartered in the trades of the North for more than a hundred years. Through that hundred years Athabasca Landing had pulsed with the heart-beats of strong men bred to the wilderness. Through it, working its way by river and dog sledge from the South, had gone the precious freight for which the farther North gave in exchange its still more pre

brigade that had chanted its songs up and down the water reaches of the land for more than two hundred and fifty years-was starting north. And he knew where it was going-north, and still farther north; a hundred miles, five hundred, a thousand-and then another thousand before the last of the

s of the Athabasca, fighting the Death Chute, hazarding valiantly the rocks and rapids of the Grand Cascade, the whirlpools of the Devil's Mouth, the thundering roar and boiling dragon teeth of the Bl

erre's big red throat swelling in mighty song, for Pierre's wife was waiting for him a thousand miles away. The scows were caught steadily now in the grip of the river, and it seemed to Kent, as he watched th

head he heard the velvety run of a red squirrel and then its reckless chattering. The forests came back to him. Across his cot fell a patch of golden sunlight. A stro

he could not conceal. He had brought in Kent's pipe and tobacco. These he laid on a table until he had placed his

r it myself now and then,"

ay hurry it up a bit," he s

the pipe and tobacco. "It's

match. For the first time in two weeks a cl

is starting n

er freight," replied

settle the matter by a swim through the Death Chute. The man who came through first was to have her. Gawd, Cardigan, what funny things happen! Follette came out first, but he was dead. He'd brained

the hall was the approaching

nor,"

osed again, the staff-sergeant was in the room alone with Kent. In one of his big hands

ng them on the table. "And I-well-I'm breaking regulations to come up an' tell you s

of it was joy. He had feared that O'Connor, like Kedsty, must of necessity turn against him. Then he noticed somethi

on, Kent. Mebby my eyesight was better because I spent a year and a h

got to go all over i

oor. Kent had seen him that way sometimes in camp

on't believe you did, and Inspector Kedsty doesn'

ha

according to Hoyle, as the regulations are written. But he's doing it. And I

a dying man's word-you haven't m

aw works, but sometimes it ain't

es

s. "Mind if I smoke with you?" he asked. "I need it. I'm shot up with u

ent. He sat up straight

do I. Never saw her before. That's why I am wondering about Inspector Kedsty. I tell you, it's queer. He didn't believe you this morn

he was, standing in the path not ten feet ahead of us, and she stopped me in my tracks as quick as though she'd sent a shot into me. And she stopped Kedsty, too. I heard him give a sort of grunt-a funny sound, as though some one had hit him. I don't believ

er with my hand, and not until she was that close did she take her eyes from Kedsty and look at me. And when she'd passed I thought what a couple of cur

half in two as he lea

d left in his face, and he was staring straight ahead, as though the girl still stood there, and h

I must go back to see Dr. Cardigan. You have my

some expression of disbelief from

g to the Criminal

coming from the S

told him he was free, and unlocked his cell, he came out of it gropingly, like a blind man.

Ked

sn't sixty and she less than twenty. She was pretty enough! But it wasn't her beauty that made him turn white there in the path. Not on your life it wasn't! I tell you he aged ten years in as many seconds. There was something in that girl's eyes

let hadn't got me, I assure you I wouldn't have given Kedsty that confession, and an innocent man would have been hanged. As it is, Kedsty is shocked, demoralized. I'm t

e up-river scows and was merely taking a little constitutional," he suggested. "Didn't you eve

to free McTrigger, coupled with the lie that he was coming back to see Cardigan. And if you could have seen her eyes when she turned them on me! They were blue-blue as violets-but shooting fire

ins to get interesting," said Kent. "It's a matt

saw that girl once, you would never forget her again as long as you lived. She has never been in Athabasca Landing before, or anywhere near here. If she had

always said you were the best clue-analyst in t

cited. But it seemed to me that from the moment Inspector Kedsty laid his eyes on that girl he wa

e said, nipping off the end of the cigar with his teeth. "And you forget that I'm not going to hang, Bucky. Cardigan has given me unt

aff-sergeant's heart. He rose and looked through the upper part of the window, so

said. "And if I find out anything

a tremble in his voice, a break i

mp of his heavy feet as