The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wilderness Trail, by Frank Williams

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Title: The Wilderness Trail

Author: Frank Williams

Illustrator: Douglas Duer

Release Date: January 11, 2010 [EBook #30925]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WILDERNESS TRAIL ***

Produced by Gardner Buchanan

THE WILDERNESS TRAIL

by Frank Williams (Francis William Sullivan)

Illustrations by Douglas Duer

published by Grosset and Dunlap
New York, 1913

Copyright 1913
by W.J. Watt & Company

_Published June_

CONTENTS

I UP FOR JUDGMENT
II ILL REPORT
III A MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE
IV INTO THE DANGER ZONE
V DEATH TRAIL
VI THE LAST STAND
VII JEAN PUTS IT UP TO HER FATHER
VIII THE ALARM
IX THE BROKEN PIPE
X THE ESCAPE
XI A HOT SCENT
XII MARIA TAKES ACTION
XIII A RESCUE AND A SURPRISE
XIV A FRIGID IDYL
XV PREY OF THE PACK
XVI FEARFUL DISCLOSURES
XVII THE COMPANION OF MANY TRAILS
XVIII IN NEW CLUTCHES
XIX A FORCED MARCH
XX AWAITING THE HANGMAN
XXI A NOTE AND ITS ANSWER
XXII SECRETED EVIDENCE
XXIII THE BROTHERS
XXIV NINE POINTS OF THE LAW
XXV AGAINST FEARFUL ODDS
XXVI RENUNCIATION

CHAPTER I

UP FOR JUDGMENT

"And you accuse me of that?"

Donald McTavish glared down into the heavy, ugly face of his
superior--a face that concealed behind its mask of dignity emotions
as potent and lasting as the northland that bred them.

"I accuse you of nothing." Fitzpatrick pawed his white beard. "I
only know that a great quantity of valuable furs, trapped in your
district, have not been turned in to me here at the factory. It is
to explain this discrepancy that I have called you down by dogs in
the dead of winter. Where are those furs?" He looked up out of the
great chair in which he was sitting, and regarded his inferior with
cold insolence. For half an hour now, the interview had been in
progress, half an hour of shame and dismay for McTavish, and the
same amount of satisfaction for the factor.

"I tell you I have no idea where they are," returned the post
captain. "So far as I know, the usual number of pelts have been
traded for at t