FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152  
153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   >>  
d his head with satisfaction, and tucked the letter away. "Seguis," said the girl, when he prepared to go, "what is your motive in doing this? You haven't answered my question." "My motive and my desire in this matter," he replied feelingly, "is to secure your own happiness; nothing else." With that, he turned away, and coasted swiftly down the hill to the edge of the forest whence he had come. "My own happiness!" repeated the girl to herself, as she saw him disappear. "How strange a thing for him to say! And, yet, if only Donald is alive and safe I shall be happy--in knowing that he can still think of me." Five minutes later, a wind-driven snow-storm that had threatened all the morning broke with terrible fury, and, scarcely able to stand against the blast, she made her way down to the deserted cabin, just as the returning factor appeared at the edge of the woods. CHAPTER XXII SECRETED EVIDENCE It was an hour before sunset, but so uniform had been the darkness all day that neither Donald nor his two companions realized that night was close upon them. Hour after hour they had struggled onward through the blinding, bewildering storm, shelterless and without food, straining forward to the only place where these things might be obtained--Sturgeon Lake. Now, when the blanketing night was almost fallen, they sighted the charred ruins that had once been the warehouse of the free-traders, with a sigh of relief. A shout from one of Donald's companions brought the five men who had been left out of their tents. A shriveled female form joined them, and with a clutch at his heart the prisoner recognized old Maria. Fortune, whose plaything he had been all this day, was indeed kind to him at last, he thought. He remembered certain trite observations concerning opportunity knocking at a man's door, and the obvious duty of a man to seize such opportunity, and bend it to his own use. If this were opportunity, he said to himself, he would make the most of it. During that all-day struggle with the storm, Donald McTavish had come into his own again. The passive acceptance of fate that had buoyed him even to the shadow of the gallows, had gone from him now. He was all energy and aggressiveness. He resolved to bring matters to a head within the next few days, or know the reason why. What motive had moved Charley Seguis to send him to Sturgeon Lake, he did not know, nor did he care. He only remembered that he was
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152  
153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   >>  



Top keywords:

Donald

 

opportunity

 

motive

 

companions

 

remembered

 

Seguis

 

happiness

 

Sturgeon

 
clutch
 

female


joined
 

shriveled

 

prisoner

 
things
 

Fortune

 
plaything
 
obtained
 

recognized

 

charred

 

sighted


warehouse

 

relief

 
fallen
 

traders

 
blanketing
 

brought

 

energy

 

aggressiveness

 
resolved
 

gallows


acceptance

 

buoyed

 

shadow

 

matters

 

Charley

 

reason

 

passive

 

obvious

 
knocking
 
thought

observations

 

struggle

 

During

 

McTavish

 

strange

 

repeated

 

disappear

 

minutes

 

knowing

 

forest