The World For Sale, Volume 1.

er! She's goin' to try

Jack-of-all-tra

it alone. Low water, too, when every rock's got its chance

er, had a sportsman's

k. He knows. He done it himself years ago when there was rips in the t

Druse girl th

he liked with the Bl

couldn't make the bank if she wanted to. She's got to run 'em. Holy smoke, see her wavin' the paddle at Tekewani! O

untry sit up some day-by gorry, she'll make Manitou and Le

Miss Druse! Well done, I say-well done!" exclaimed Jowett, d

hers of foam struck the bow of her canoe. The waters were so low that this course, which she had made once before with her friend Tekewani the Blackfeet chief, had perils not met on that des

f his race that, after the first warning, when she must play out the game to the bitter end, he made no further attempt to stop her. The Indi

mbling and occasionally cursing, but watching with fascinated eyes this adventuress of the North, taking chances which not one

Osterhaut as he ran. "They don't care a split pea what happe

unged along; "but she's foreign, and they've all got the

for a crazy loon, tha

'

t turns her agin you? You want her to kiss you on the high cheek-bone, but if you go to play the cat-o'-nine- tails round her, the high cheek-bone gets froze. Gol blast it, look

d right, memory of her course at work under such a strain as few can endure without chaos of mind in the end. A hundred times since the day she had run these Rapids with Tekewani, she had gone over the course in her mind, asleep and awake, forcing her brain to see again every yard of that watery way; because she knew that the day must come when she would make the journey alone. Why

s of beautiful brown "plug" tobacco as a token of her gratitude-night and day she had heard this spirit mu

hich followed us, invisible yet whispering inspiration to us. But sometimes we only hear It, our own soul's oracle, while yet our years are few, and we have not passed that frontier between innocence and experience, reality and pretence. Pretence it is which drives the Other Self away with wailing on its lips. Then we hear It cry in the night w

tempting death in

simply the one word, "Now!" She knew that she must do it; she had driven her canoe out into

eat faster, if he were on the march. It was, "The Druses are up!" When that wild tribe took to the saddle to war upon the Caravans

North where the River S

nd the new towns of Le

s wer

Druse, the giant, was

to her and to those wh

s, to Osterhaut and Jo

utes only, in which ev

be a cat

ooting on safely to the next test of skill and courage-on, on, till at last there was only one passage to make b

e fought the weakness down. It was as though she forced a way through tossing, buffeting shadows; as though she was shaking off from her shoulders shadowy hands which sought to detain her; as though smothering things kept choking back her breath, and darkness like clouds of wool gathered about her face. She was fighting for her life, and fo

ve the canoe straight onward, as a fish drives itself through a flume of dragon's teeth beneath the flood. The canoe quivered for an instant at the last cat

ver these brain-bells were, and she was as one who enters into a deep forest, and hears far away in the boscage the mystic summons of forest deities. Voices from the banks of the river behind called to her- hil

this other. Her girlhood was ended-wondering, hovering, unrealizing girlhood. This adventure was t

gain her eyes were drawn into a stupefying darkness; but now there was no will to fight, no energy to resist. The paddle lay inert in her fingers, her head drooped. She slowly raised her head once, twice, as though the call of t

it swung round and lay athwart

girl had collapsed, and they knew only too well that her danger was not yet past. The canoe might strike against the piers of the bridge at Carillo

and long-nosed pike. As he sat in the shade of the trees, he had seen the plunge of the canoe into the chasm, and had held his breath in wonder and admiration. Even at that distance he knew who it was. He had seen Fled

the dragon's teeth; and as he had something of the devil in himself, she seemed much nearer to him than t

angry self-reproach, he flung the oars into the rowlocks of his skif

now and then turned his head to make sure that the canoe was still s

with the avowed object of amalgamating three railways, of making the place the swivel of all the trade and interests of the Western North

meal or know the reason why. He was only thirty-three, but his will was like nothing the West had seen as yet. It was subl

o had tried to "do" the financier in a horsedeal, and had been done instead, and was now a devout admirer and adhe

by gol, he's goin' to do this trump trick first; he's goin' to overhaul her before she gits to the bridge. Loo

than all the people of Lebanon and Manitou put together. Fleda had won old Tekewani's heart when she had asked him to take her down the Rapids, for the days of adventure for him and his tribe were over. The adventure shared with this girl had brough

ne thing which could r

een checked and rebuked

being drunk. Danger fa

rought the danger

low, if anything should happen to this white girl whom he worshipped in his heathen way, nothing

derelict canoe; the bridge was near also. Carillon now lined the bank of the river with its people. They ran upon the bridge, but not so fast as to reach the

s the second cataract, and she would never

n being could be as she lay with white fa

for her," he said, as he fas

thought of the fish he had caught, of "the big trouble," he had been thi

tinued with a quickening look. "She'll be all right in a jiffy. I've got room for her in my buggy-an

the waiting people on the banks of Carillon, and the ring

ed, as eager hands reached out

with a laugh, and drew Fleda'

with delicacy and gentleness, he lifted he