CHAPTER VII? Continued ? 9 ? And ' Rickman ran into water to his knees, clasped the lieutenant's hand with a fervor which matched the tone of his words. Up the lake shore the glow of a great Ore stained tree tops and spread across the water, lacquering it in black and gold. Drums sound ed and the nasal voices of native women singing in chorus reached them, punctuated by shrill whoops. The grand medicine was in prog ress. The rum which Rodney had promised was taking hold on hearts and tongues. Rickman explained this to Capes' query and rubbed his hands. "He'll be there," he said. "The renegade, he'll be watching the dance! A fitting moment to drag him to answer this charge. Capes I" "Tonight? He doesn't suspect pur suit, does he? My men are worn. Homing will do, surely, and ? " "You may have been seen I And if word reached Shaw that soldiery is at hand? What then. Capes?" "But to march among the Indi ans with muskets? They're drunk, by the sounds. It might mean dis aster, Rickman!" "You mistake my meaning. We can go to Shaw's gate by following the shore. The place will be guard ed. I'll reveal myself and tell the guard I want word with Shaw. That will bring him. Yes, and on the run!" He shrugged his shoulders and lifted upturned palms in significant gesture. "We may as well be done with this, I suppose," Capes said and paused because a figure was run ning toward him up the slope; a small, cloaked figure. "Lieutenant Capes? Lieutenant Capes?" A woman? Calling for him? Here in this wilderness fort? They'd had no warning whatever that Annette Leclere was here, that she was running breathlessly up the slope, once she learned Capes' whereabouts. "Lieutenant Capes?" she cried again but it was Burke Rickman who spoke. "Annette!" She came to a halt before them, one hand against the door frame for support, the other holding the long, maroon cloak close about her throat. Silence. Dumbfounded si lence. And Capes, confused by the tableau, stammered: "Ma'm'selle! Where did you . . . what brings you . . "Orders, Lieutenant I I bring you orders from the commandante ! " She fumbled within the cloak as she spoke and brought out and thrust toward him a limp, frayed packet. "Orders? What orders do you bring me, M'm'selle?" "Orders calling you back," she said in a whisper, as if the comple tion of her errand had drained all the remaining strength from her body. "Orders revoking the orders that . . . brought you here." She swayed then despite her hand on the wall and might have fallen had not Capes stepped quickly to ward her, shoving the stupefied Hickman from his way, and en circled her shoulders with an arm. Rickman'a mouth opened but no words came. "From the beginning this charge against him has been known to be absurd," she said easily. "But still, with the persuasion and persistence put behind the effort to ruin Rodney Shaw, the officials have not had the courage to follow any other course until Giles spoke." "Giles?" "Giles! The man has been as frightened of company vengeance as any other. But when it became known that Rodney bad bested you here. Burke Rickman; when the last unfair move in the cruel game you play was made apparent . . then forces were brought to bear upon Giles which brought from him the truth. "Then," she said, "the problem was to overtake you. Lieutenant, and stop this unwarranted and disgraceful arrest. There was none to come. A detachment had been ordered to Detroit. The major could spare no men. Someone had to come and . . . there was no one else." Her voice broke and she ?wallowed bravely. "FooUl" moaned Rickman. "It can't be I It's not believable that any such order could have been is sued 1 I demand. Capes, that you read that order I" The other drew himself up. "I read It," he said stiff ly, "but not because of your de mands, Rickman. Please under stand, I know my duty I" It would peel a man's ears, the major bad declared to Annette, and aurely it had effect on the ears of this young lieutenant because his ears reddened as he scanned the lines of script. . will disregard order to bring the alleged fugitive Shaw to Michilimackinac . . will conduct yourself as though you were un aware of traders' contentions . . . will return to this post immedi ately with do delay* for any reason whatsoever . . Capes folded the sheet slowly, thrust it into a tunic pocket. He drew a deep breath, as of relief, and settled his belt decisively. One of Rickman's hands twitched upward as though a blow had stung him. The lieutenant stepped past him, confronting Annette. He was puzzled, glanced briefly at Rick man, and addressed the girl. "In a place of contention such as this," he said, "an island encamp ment seems advisable for a mili tary party. May I . . . may I offer the security of my detachment as a neighbor? Or ... or are there other plans?" "I thank you, Lieutenant," she said, her gaze going to Burke Rick man. Then, significantly: "I will follow directly." Capes hesitated, then bowed and disappeared through the doorway. CHAPTER VIII The girl stood there, holding the cloak about her, facing Rickman. "Annette? This . . . this means what?" "That at last I can speak truth!" she said, "after these weeks of shame and humiliation. Two great privileges have come to me tonight. The one is in that I have repaired, as far as it could be repaired, a And There Wildly Dancing Was Running Fox. great wrong which I did Rodney Shaw. The other is that I can con fess to you the falsity of my words at our last meeting. From the hour I struck at Rodney by betraying his plan to you I was in misery. And that morning of your de parture, when you came to me for your farewells . . . when I begged you to remain; when I embraced you and kissed you," ? with a shud der ? "I was only acting a part." "Acting?" "Acting, Burke, to save my . . . the man I love." "All I wanted you to believe that day was that I desired you. to stay. I loathed you, I hated you, but I wanted you to delay, that Rod ney might have some chance to capture the thing he wanted so!" , She spoke that, slowly, with great intensity. "So that's your object, eh?" the trader cried, grasping her shoulder. "So you confess to me your love for this upstart? You make this jour ney to save him and humble me? Is that it? Well, if that's it?" "Burke! Let go! You hurtl" "D' you think I'll let you have him? D' you think I'll let him have you? Why, if it takes the last breath that floods this throat I'll wipe this upstart out and leave for you not the memory of a strutting fool but of a corpse, spoiling in this wilder ness!" "Burke!" Her cry was faint and she wrenched in his grasp. His fin gers slipped from their grip on her arms, caught the cloak and as she writhed out of it and stumbled free he flung the garment behind him into the room. "With soldiery here, you'd do that?" she cried and her words stayed him. "Do you think that after this forced march, the military will re turn at once?" she taunted. "Men must rest, after such effort. And while they rest, warning will be given. Be assured of that. Burke Rickman. Sufficient warning will be given and protection for decent men will be at hand!" She backed a step or two, turned, began to walk down the slope and broke into a run. Annette found Capes awaiting her on the shore. Would it bt distasteful for his party to encamp near hers? he asked. She protested that it would be reassuring and comforting. "Then we'll move out to one of the islands," he said. "And be fore dawn, we'll leave this place behind I" ? thankfully. She gave him ? curious look but, for the time, made no remon strance . . . And so a trader paced the beach, poison seeping through his veins, gnawing his lips, muttering to him, self, smiting the sand in helpless spite with his moccasined heels. An enraged beast, this Burke Rickman. Up and down he paced, heedless of the growing clamor from the gathering of Pillagers. Rickman had not detected the alterations in the sounds from the calumet. The throb of drums, the chants of wom en, had grown louder and faster with the passage of time. Occasion al whoops and yelps had grown to a continuous chorus of boastful cries. And then, of a sudden, it climaxed in an ensemble of screams and screeches and dwindled sud denly to no more than a mur mur . . . At dusk the drums had begun to sound, women seated in a wide cir cle about the post and fire, beating the tightly stretched skins with their palms, chanting to the measure they set of the greatness of all Pil lagers. The old men danced into the cir cle, stomping, bending forward then back, uttering valiant cries, swing ing near and nearer the post as they sometimes sang, sometimes shouted to their own greatness. Younger men trickled in, singing and shouting of their achievements until the space about the fire was filled with prancing, slowly swirl ing bodies. Up and up to an unplanned crisis, the savage spectacle pitched itself. Up and up went the tempo of the orgy; louder the singing, faster the drum beats, broader the boast ing . . And now beside the post danced Running Fox, the son of Flat Mouth, beating the ground with his heels, not lifting the balls of his feet. "Ee-eyah!" he cried and struck the post with his half axe and told of the wolf he had caught with bare hands. "Ee-e-yah!" he screamed and struck again and shouted that he had outrun a frightened deer. Another youth danced close, head almost to his knees, stomping and gasping a song. Mongazid. this, in from his summer hunt with his mind, until rum fuddled it, filled with thoughts of his chosen maid, Nodding Spruce. "Ee-e-yah!" cried Running Fox again as Mongazid raised his torso and bent it far backward from the hips. But on the movement he caught sight of Nodding Spruce, her teeth gleaming as she beat a drum and swayed and sang. She was so lovely, so desirable; and the thought of the presents it would take to win her father's favor cleared the boy's stupefied brain for a moment, drove back even the frenzy of the calu met And there wildly dancing was Run ning Fox, son of a chief, who on occasion looked tenderly at the girl and who now shouted his boastful lies. Mongazid stopped his dancing as Running Fox shouted another boast. He swayed drunkenly before the son of the chief. "The forked tongue!" he cried. "It was not Running Fox who clubbed the bear. It was Monga zid! It was Mongazid, and Running Fox would steal the glory of a broth er!" He dropped his axe, and fumbled in his girdle. The trade knife gleamed in his hand as, furious, he launched himself upon his tribes man. The steel crunched across a rib, plunging to the hilt, and as Mongazid wrenched it free, a crim son gush bathed the other's breast. He stood an instant and then with a brave cry, collapsed beside the post. That caused the quick silence; that brought them crowding close. ? giving Mongazid opportunity to slip away. And when they had lifted the lolling head and saw that the flow of life was running into sands , instead of limbs, the wailing be gan ... It was that wailing which Anally attracted Burke Rickman's atten tion. He stared, scowling, toward the scene of wailing and it was then that he made out a* canoe coming toward him from the westward, sil houetted against the Are glow. "Who are you?" Rtckman asked. "Mongazid, trader. I come for the shelter of the company trad er's lodge." Rickman grunted. He owed Mon gazid nothing. The youth had re fused to trade with him but a few days before. "Speak quickly, then," he growled. "I go to the company house be cause I have poured sand over the son of Flat Mouth, who is the broth er of your enemy." Rickman grunted. "Killed Flat Mouth's son?" "It is so. It was the dance of the Calumet. Running Fox boasted lies; he took the glory from my song with his lies. When I heard him stealing my great deeds my knife struck deep to his heart. I lay in the darkness a long time. Flat Mouth went to his lodge to meditate while they wailed. Then he came back and stood by his son's body. He made a talk. He said that for killing his son I nfust bring him three packs of beaver before the leaves come again. If I do not I must bare my breast for his knife. If I do not come for that he will take the life of my brother. The company trader's heart has much room. I come to him to be his slave if he will save me from my enemies who are his enemies. I cannot live alone." Scowling, Rickman listened. Here was a native in need; here was ? hunter whose life was at stake and one in such a strait may be used. Inspiration swept and shook him, making his mouth dry. "Mongazid sees with a clear eye," he said. "He can never escape the fury of Flat Mouth alone. He was wise to come to the house of the great company. In the trade it is skin for skin. In your trouble it is a life for a life. Open your ears," he said and stepped closer and looked about and spoke softly. Mongazid listened, betraying no emotion. When Rickman had fin ished he grunted. "My life for the little trader's life it is. But the hunters are his friends. The old men are his broth ers. Mongazid would not live to come for the three packs of beaver you promise." The young man could not Invade Fort Shaw and slay the master. He could not stalk him where others were about. The problem, then, was to entice Shaw away, to give Mongazid's trade gun a chance be yond observation. And, at the same time, arrange the circumstances so that he, Rickman, would be above suspicion . . . "Wait here," Rickman said grim ly: "Let no eye see you. Lie in these bushes and I will come. Flam ing Hair will make the way smooth for Mongazid to earn his packs of beaver I" Conrad Rich rolled from his blan kets at Rickman's barked word. "Into your clothes, man! and get Philippe." And so three men, one fearful, one bewildered, one silent and in tent, went hastily along the shore toward Fort Shaw. "The guard is alone," Rickman whispered. "He stands there with the gate wide. The place is emp ty; the others are watching the mourning. Come!" (TO BE CONTINUED) Indians Linked With East in Trick in War Songs; Japanese Used Same Scheme Even in their music, American Indians have preserved small clues suggesting oriental ancestry. Not that Indians are to be thought of as descendants from Chinese or Japanese civilization. Their stem ming off from an ancestral tree goes far back to Mongolian-type tribes that roamed to the northeast tip of Siberia and thence, from time to time, crossed into the northwest tip of Alaska. After that they were Americans, and their descendants "Indians.'* They brought some crafts and cus toms with them. They learned many new ones in America, and some groups like the Mayas evolved high civilization. Anthropologists are greatly in tar es ted to detect what Indians owed to Asia, and from what parts of that homeland they gleaned their old cul ture. * Now, it develops that Indians in the Southwest had a psychological trick in war songs, of raising the song a semi-tons as it progressed and keeping it there to the end. It was exciting. And remarkably enough Japanese used the tame de vice in stirring warrior* by song. Miss Prances Densmore, who has studied music of many Indian tribes, first noted this similarity when Pueblos were singing old war songs recently for her to record, re ports a writer in the Kansas City Star. Reporting this and other sim ilarities between Indian and Old World music. Miss Densmore dis claims any intent to theorize on the Indians' past. She is merely pre senting facts, which may have sig nificance. From an authority on oriental music. Miss Densmore learned the Japanese got the idea of raised pitch in war singing from Chinese priests, who brought it from India in the Seventh century. If Pueblo an cestors got the ides from a common source ? or Invented it ? in the Old World, that must have happened far earlier. Pueblos were well estab lished in the Southwest by that time Keeping Up ? Science Service.? WNU Service. Crows Are Enemies of the Wild Ducks in Breeding Season Control Methods Are Recommended by Expert Washington. ? Crows are ma jor enemies of wild ducks in at least a part of the great wild duck breeding grounds in Can ada, a survey by E. R. Kalm bach of the United States bio logical survey shows. Of 312 duck nests studied, 31 per cent (156 nests) had been ravaged by crows. Other causes of destruc tion had accounted for another 20 per cent of loss, so that of all the nests that started the season with hopeful batches of eggs, only 49 per cent turned out live ducklings. It is possible, however, Mr. Kalmbacb notes, that part of the egg destruction by crows might have been wreaked after the parent ducks had abandoned the nests for other causes. Furthermore, he cautions, this survey was made in a part of the nesting area where the crow con centration is unusually high, and where a large duck population of fers unusually great temptation to raid for eggs. Bow They Should Be Controlled. For practical control purposes, Mr. Kalmbach recommends : "Crow-control operations on duck breeding grounds should by all means be entrusted only to those who fully recognize the hazards as sociated with human intrusion on waterfowl nesting grounds. The work should not be carried out haphazard or by mass action de void of careful supervision. There should, in fact, be solicitude for the privacy of every nesting duck. "At winter crow roosts, where control is possible at a lower cost per bird, the benefits with respect to waterfowl are, in turn, less di rect, sihce only a part of the birds present at these roosts actually en ter the problem of crow-waterfowl relationships on the breeding grounds. Upper Cambrian May Have Had Land Plant Life Cambridge, Mas*.? Plant* have lived on land many million* of years longer than is commonly supposed, if fossil plant remain* ex amined by William C. Darrah of the Harvard Botanical museum here really are what they very decidedly look like. The fossils are spores, minute one-celled bodies that serve instead of seeds with lower plants that pro duce no true seeds. These particu lar spores have the form and mark ings that characterize spores of the ferns and their relatives. But the formation they come from, a boghead coal deposit in Sweden, belongs to the Upper Cam brian geologic age, 500 million years or more ago, when there were sup posed to be no land plant* living, and none to come for many mil lions of years. It appears to be a projection of land-plant life into a hitherto unsuspected past. Age of Earth Checked by Potassium "Clock" New York. ? A radioactive potas sium "clock," latest aid to scien tists seeking to know the age of the I earth, indicates that the world is less than 3,000,000,000 years old, Or. A. Keith Brewer of the United States bureau of chemistry and soils reports inW i use muurs m AND I FEEL UKE A Q NEW PERSON ALMOST tag IMMEDIATELY/ V The Jve> me tree# tnd mount uns And never stopping d*y or ra$kt^_ _ I? itnes me i riding through \ the jky.