Newspapers / The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, … / Feb. 25, 1937, edition 1 / Page 8
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fflMftT Sh'^B THIRD INSTALLMENT SYNOPSIS: Ellen Mackay, on her way from school at Winnipeg, to join her father at Fort Edson, mioses the boat by which she was to travel. Hearing, that another boat U to start north in the morning, Ellen goes to the owner, John Benham, and begs Mm to give her a pa&iage. To her sur prise he flatly refuses. With axe And hammer and a handful of spikes, Benham went silently to work at the plow of the scow. With the poles spiked up right and a length of tarpaulin unearthed from the cargo, he fashioned a small enclosure. To finish it off he brought out the blankets Pierre Biishard had pro vided for her and placed them in the new-built cubby. "When we tie up for the night the men shall gather you enough spruce tips for a comfortable couch," he announced. "This will afford you reasonble privacy!" Then, without another word or look he stowed the axe away, strode among his men and stood tnere, bringing out a short black briar pipe which he clenched TOBACCO GROWERS, TRUCK GARDENERS! We introduce the Greatest Planter of all time §iy MASTERS' NEW IMPROVED WW 1937 PLANT SETTER ■ 1/ Plants. Masters built the first practical automatic plant set- HO'm let over forty years ago. Since then it has been contin- IW J Covers ana ually improved. Our new 1937 model is the last word MMilf _ —it (ias no competition. Others may imitate but never ■■ill "™ l * equal Masters efliciency and durability. T.obacco BK I l*fiM> AM- buyers say they can tell when a crop has been Masters' planted by its uniform high quality. They ttxTl Oneration gladly pay highest prices for this finer yield. 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Benham himself did not come near her, but sent Pierre Buschard with several heaped dishes of savoury, steaming food and ( a pannikin of scalding tea. By the time she had finished her supper the Indians had brought numerous armfuls of fragrant spruce tips for her bed. Ellen arranged her own couch, then, with sudden determination, went ashore. Benham faced her. "I'm going for a little exercise," she said defiantly. "Or am I a prisoner?" "Not in the least," was the quiet answer. "Only do not go too far. It is nearly dark and these woods are uncharted." Unconsciously, Ellen stayed longer than she had any intention. When she finally threaded her way back to the fire but a single figure remained seated before the fading flames. It was Benham. He looked at her without speaking. A stir of response gripped Ellen. She knew he had been wait- THE KLEIN TRIBUNE, ELKTN, NPRffl CAROLINA ing her return. "I'm sorry," she said, qultely. "Sorry if I've kept jyou from your rest. But somehow I it seemed that I had at last come home, after being away too long. I realize I am very much in your debt." Benham nodded. "I under stand," he said, softly. "I too have been away—and come home. And I often sit like this. It is at night that all this speaks." A brief ges ture encompassed the wilderness about them. Ellen was startled. Most men she had known in the north coun try came hardened to its beauties. But there was something almost poetic in John Benham's simple words and tone. In some intagible way" it seemed that a bond of friendship of common under standing between them was born at that moment. For a long time Ellen stood there across the flames from this strange, still, elemental man. Her mind seethed with truant thoughts, and words that fright ened her lay close to her lips. Then one of the sleeping Indians stirred in his blankets. The spell was broken. Ellen moved away. "Good-night," she callel softly. "Good-night—John Benham." The low, sturdy log buildings which comprised the Hudson Bay Post at Port Edson, were spread out against the rising slope of a low, thickly-wooded ridge which mounted from a short beach of shingle on the west shore of the Mackenzie River, the last and mother river of those three great streams which carried the brig ades of the fur traders into the vast bosom of the north. Down the Athabasca River to Lake Athabasca, from there along the broad, smooth reaches of the Slave River to Great Slave Lake, then at last into the twisting flood of the Mackenzie, John Ben ham's brigade had found its way. Long, dreamy days and still, mys terious nights had passed in num ber since the day of the start, and no\fr, at the death of still another day, the brigade tied up there on the beach below Port Edson. Side by side on the leading scow Ellen Mackay and John Benham stood in silence and watched the end of the journey materialize out of the gathering river mists. A strange camaraderie had grown between these two. Time, enforc ed companionship and youth had worked slowly but surely upon them. They were not lovers in any sense of the word. If such fires burned within them, then such fires were smouldering ones, hid den banked fires which would need to know the ache of absence before thoroughly and conscious ly realized. Yet each recognized in the other a kindred spirit, an un derstanding heart. The parting was commonplace enough. Ellen stepped to the shore and her baggage was placed beside her. At the head of the slope by the fort buildings a group of Indians were gathering. Benham gestured towards this group. "ITiey will take care of your luggage," he said slowly. "It Is best that I leave immediately." Ellen hesitated. "That first day, below Cascade Rapids—the morn ing you discovered that I had stowed away—you spoke of ex acting payment. I—what is that payment. John Benham?" The look he bent upon her was fathomless. "I would save you from that payment if I could now. But I'm afraid that you must pay, just the same. Not to me—but to others." "I—l don't understand." "You will." He held out his hand. "Good-bye, Ellen Mackay." For a moment her hand tem bled in his. Then he had stepped back on to the scow. His deep voice called orders. The Crees bent to the sweeps and a moment later the hungry river current was wafting him off into the mists. Something gathered in Ellen's throat. She looked away and started feverishly up ttye slope. And now, coming towards her from the buildings was a little group of Indians, led by a stooped shambling, white-haired man. Ellen looked aghast. "Father!" she cried, "Father!" She flew to him, to this stooped and gnarled patriarch. What had happened? When she had left, four years before, this father of hers had been tall, ruddy and stalwart, almost as tall and stal wart as John Benham. And now . . . How thin were his hunched shoulders! How feeble his step! She began to sob. It seemed that neither could speak Intelligently now. Slowly they climbed tlie slope together and entered the factor's cabin. It was dusky in the cabin. The door closed behind them and the old man sank into a chair with a deep, quavering sigh. "So ye have come at last, lass," he said, and his voice was thin and high. "I was afraid—afraid ye had for gotten me, when De Soto passed without ye." Ellen looked at him wide-eyed. "Father—could you believe that?" There was hurt reproach in her voice. "I came immediately. I am a Mackay," she finished proudly. "Thank Gqd for that, lass. And who was it that brought ye?" Before she thought the name slipped out. "John Benham." The old factor seemed to reel In his chair. His sagging head came up. His hands gripped the arms of the chair in bloodless in- "Y©' came with—who?" Something icy closed about El len's heart. Yet she had to an swer. "With John Benham, father. He was very kind to me, where he had reason, perhaps, to be other wise." The old man started to his feet and began to laugh, in high, shrill, senile cachinnatlsns. He stumbled to and fro across the confines of the room. Suddenly the laughter ceased and he be gan to curse—curse with a venom that was ghastly. "Damn him!" -he shrilled. "Damn him! He's taken every thing ttom me now. All he had left to me was a wee bit of pride —and now he has taken that. You the daughter of Angus Mackay travelled from yon distant landing to this fort with that squaw's whelp, that thieving free-trader. And mark ye, little fool, he'll boast of it. Great God! Why .did not the sickness of last winter take me off? I would have been spared this—spared this." Ellen was both sickened and frightened. There was something ghastly about this old man's wail ing rage and his imprecations. And this father of hers, who had wasted away to such a shell, seem ed almost like another person to her. But she drew upon her young strength and went to him. Quiet ly but remorselessly she forced him back into his sea f and drop ped upon her knees beside him. She attempted to soothe him with words such as she would have used on a child. "You must rest, father. You are not well. You have been too long alone. I am young and strong. You must let me take most of the load from your shoul ders. I have not forgotten how to handle the Indians or to grade a fur." Again the old factor laughed and it seemed to Ellen that all the elements of despair were in that laugh. He was shaking; a man palsied by the scalding out pourings of rage and hate. Over and over again he muttered the name of John Benham, cursing and reviling. It was long before he quieted, and the reaction left him weak and shrunken. His eyes, staring out beneath shaggy brows were glazed and bloodshot. He panted weakly for breath. At that moment all the murky shadows in the world seemed to close in on Ellen Mackay. 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'Krm-AiMm and Shstkproof Steering on Matter P> Un mJih ©aly. == great, ovcrwixclniiiig misfortune, been John Benham! John Ben nam! Something stirfed and surged through her veins. Behind her was a long line of fighting an cestors, a lineage reaching to the far, gorse covered highlands of Scotland. Here before her lay bat tle of another sort, yet battle none the less. With a click of her white teeth she caught up the gage. Gone In an instant were all mem ories of that thousand-mile trip from the north. In a flicker of an eyelash she placed John Ben ham In new status. An enemy now —an enemy who had shattered and brought near to death her father. At last the insanity of rage left Angus Mackay. One thin hand came out and rested on Ellen's dark head caressingly. "Forgive me kiss," he murmured. "But only the great God knows what I have been through. It is hard at my age, to see defeat and disgrace looming just before the grave." It was late when she kissed her father good-night and went to her room, the cozy little cubby that had been hers since a babe in swaddling clothes. A shaded lamp suffused it with a gentle, homely glow. It was carpeted with deep, rich furs, even to the enor mous hide of a polar bear, in the Ready to Sell Your Chickens This Spring, Call or Visit The BRENDLE PRODUCE CO. For Best Prices PHONE 308 ELKIN, N. C. gleaming pelage of which she sank to her slender ankles. Prepared by the loving hands of CMtchie, her bed lured her be neath a spotless counterpane. On a little table In one corner was a bowl of wood violets, which Moo sac had gathered and which fill ed the air with fairy incense. Swiftly she disrobed, blew out the light and slipped between cool, caressing sheets. But as she re laxed the darkness brought many i||| fk HEADQUARTERS LAWNSEED FERTILIZERS We Have All Kinds In Stock SHADY LAWN GRASS KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS WHITE DUTCH CLOVER ORCHARD GRASS RED TOP OR HERDS TIMOTHY GRASS LIME - BONE MEAL COMMON, KOBE AND KOREAN LESPEDEZA All Kinds of Garden and Flower Seeds IT'S TIME TO PLANT - SEE US TODAY F. A. Brendle & Son P. A. Brendle Elkin, N. C. J. D» Brendle Thursday, Febn'» r y 25, 1937 thoughts and many images. Try as she would she could not keep a certain picture from drifting before her closed eyes. It was that of John Benham, as she had seen him many times. He stood before her again, clean, splendid, powerful, his strong, still face grim and purposeful; his brilliant eyes adream with the mystery of the wilderness. Continued Next Issue
The Elkin Tribune (Elkin, N.C.)
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Feb. 25, 1937, edition 1
8
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