Where the Sun Swings North

able, where her husband, humming contentedly, was adjusting a gold-scale. Ellen's hands were

elf or to her husband. That he desired her she had now no doubt, and while she knew in her heart that she was in no way responsible for this, she felt more keenly than ever that bafflin

to their room at the post the night of the Potlatch dance. Jean, full of enthusiasm over the events of the evening came in from her loft-room to talk it all over with her sister. Little Loll

o your hair? Looks as if you had cut a chunk out of it!" There was concern in his fac

st experience, would shoot a man for less than the Chief had done? She valued above all things the trust and loving companionship that had blessed her married life. She hesitated, des

her face under the veil of her hair. "I-I

e, that it but opened the way for other lies. It placed her in the position of one obliged to carry ind

ad consented reluctantly, but he would not for the present accede to her wish to leave Katleean. H

mittal trader and the thin-nosed, shifty-eye Silvertip; and finally his decision to spend the winter on the Island in search of th

magnet for a man in the world, little fellow-except the love of a woman," he added softly with the s

ht to go eighteen dollars to the ounce! It's clean as a dog's tooth! Silvertip says he and some of his mates panned it one day at Kon Klayu while the Sophie Sutherland took on water. . . . Of course the party sent over by Kilbuck's Company didn't find much, but from what I hear they we

through a small microscope. During the moment's silence came

k Bill's going to hide his still and go into retirement until the cutter has finished investigating. Seems they're always suspecting him of making hootch!" Shane chuckled with amuseme

ders for the reefing of sails. During the first days of the voyage the awakening in a gale had always filled her with a great fear-a fear not for herself but for her family, her little son. She would clasp the sleeping boy more closely in her arms and lie with straining muscles, waiting listening, every sense painfully alert and her eyes hypnotically watching the garments on the opposite wall swing out and back with the roll of the ship. Gradually as the schooner righted itself after every roll Ellen's nerves would relax. Unclasping her arms, she

l Kilbuck. On the reef-sown coast of Kon Klayu it appeared there was no harbor where a ship might find shelter, and Shane needed money for his winter outfit. Half

e had been speaking some minutes and his fir

ip for the g

ast us all

the mining game, he still retained an eager joy in existence, a faith in men and women and something of the wonder of a b

her prow into hidden crescent coves, trying his luck with a gold-pan on unknown streams, always sure that the next shift of the gravel in the pan would reveal a fortune-all

he mysterious Is

shoals; shunned by ships and spoken of as a death trap by sailors. But one tree, other than alder and willow, grew upon it. Three hundred feet above sea-level on the high, flat top, a lone and stunted spruce rose from the tundra and breasted the heavy gales that swept the ocean. For f

guests of the White Chief until the tall steamer going south should take them back to the States. The trader, Ellen knew, had taken this arrangement for granted and she was certain she detected somethi

ke her to the Island later on when he went over with the remainder of Shane's outfit after the arrival of the steamer. Ellen was obdurate in her decision and once having committed herself she became a different woman. Whatever misgivings she held in regard to the enterprise she kept to herself. She plunged whole-heartedly into the preparations for the journ

ook him squarely in the eyes, but when she did so it was as if steel met steel. The feeling that she was playing a game of wits against the autocrat of Katleean was not without its interest for her. It was impossible entirely to conc

so quiet and aloof, and who, even when not drinking, avoided them all. Ellen observed a certain interest in him growing in Jean. A tentative question or two put to Kayak Bill revealed this, though it av

son for his connection with the dead Naleenah. Understanding of another's lapses comes with years

mild curiosity and faint pity, she managed to keep her sister at

she played. She wondered, if in her heart, the young girl played to him, and if he heard. And once, to her anxiety, as she sat listening to the silvery music floating out over the water,

hich had been the home of the deceased Add-'em-up Sam were shelves laden with dusty books, old magazines and piles of ancient newspapers. At Kayak Bill's suggestion the bookkeeper had packed the best of these in

, a paper fluttered to the floor. The girl picked it up, reading aloud the caption over a crude, penciled map: "The Island of Kon Klayu." She unfolded it and was smoothing out the creases that she might b

ered, with a gulp that threatened to send

ld not give him up, though he did nothing to relieve him. Shane, busy with his outfitting, found time to take care of Kobuk, rubbing him every day with a mixture of sulphur, lard and carbolic acid until he was practically cured. Jean and Loll had attended these treatments taking turns holding the bowl of

om their animals, and she knew that even one of those tiny needles, if overlooked, cou

Buddie sprang toward him with expressions of sympathy and endearment. The dog whimpered, raising his soft, dark eyes to their faces as if begging for help in his trouble.

her stood the White Chief who evidently had just come in. Both thumbs were hooked beneath his scarlet belt, and he was looking down at the dog

yes became

blood. "Well, this time we'll let the quills work through your brainless skull-or- Here, Hoots-noo-" he turned to th

protest Jean c

ed both her little hands about the man's arm. Her hazel eyes pleaded. Loll, too, was clingi

don't shoot Kobuk! We want

he boy, but he looked down into the fa

to me when she wants something," he said. "What are

, but Loll, sturdily refusing to

herished possession-an old broken revolver bestowed on him by Kayak Bill. "Here, I'll give you my pistol for Kobuk!" The earnes

ely on a box of pilot bread as

n which you will learn more of bye and bye." He turned to the girl. "I'm not such a bad fellow, Jea

man, pity for the moaning dog whose life depended on her decision. The

ced by the others in the tenseness of the moment, but before

her knee of the trader and looked u

head-"Jean doesn't like to kiss strange men-but I don't mind." And before anyone realized what was happening,

y. "You darling!" Half laughing, half crying

ve-" He broke off with a shout to welcome Ellen, whom he had just seen. "Hey, mothey! He's ours now. Gimme the pinchers!" He took them fro

the Borelands in extracting quills from the repentant Kobuk. For the first time in his life, perhaps, the pain-racked a

he pulled the last quill. "For the very first fine day we have we're off for the