Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1919 — North of Fifty-Three [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

North of Fifty-Three

by Bertrand W. Sinclair

Cmri&t

BYNOPBIB. CHAPTER I—The story opens tn the town of Granville, Ontario, where Miss Kaael Weir is employed as a stenographer in the office of Harrington and Bush. She is engaged to Jack Barrow a young real •state agent, and the wedding day Is set. While walking with him one Sunday they toeet Mr. Bush, Hasel's employer, who for 'th* first time seems to notice her attractiveness. Shortly afterward, at his request, she becomes his private stenographer. After three months Mr. Bush proposes marriage, which Hasel declines, and after a stormy scene In the office Hazel leaves her employment. Mr. Bush warning her ho would make hsr sorry for refusing him. CHAPTER IT—Bush makes an effort, by • gift of flowers, to compromise Hasel In the minds of. her friends. She returns them. The next day Bush la thrown from his horse and fatally hurt. Ho sends for 'Hasel, who refuses to see him before ho dies. Three days afterward ft nounced that he left a legacy of 16,000 to Hasel. "In reparation for any wrong I may have done her." Hasel recognises at enco what construction will bo put upon the words. Bush had his revenge. CHAPTER lll—Jack Barrow, In a fit of jealous rage, demands from Hasel an explanation of Bush's action. Hasel's pride Is hurt, and she refuses. Ths engagement is broken and Hasel determines to leave Granville. Bhe sees an advertisement for a school teacher at Cariboo Meadows British Columbia, and secures the situation. ? CHAPTER IV—Cariboo Meadows lain a wild part of British Columbia and Hagel, shortly after her arrival, loses het* way while walking in the woods. She wanders until night, when, attracted by the light of a campfire, she turns to It, hoping to find somebody who will guide her home. At the fire she recognises a character known to Cariboo Meadows as ’•‘Roaring Bill Wagstaff," who had seen ter at her boarding house there. He promises ffo take her home in the morning, but she Is compelled to spend the night in the woods. ‘ CHAPTER V—They start next day. Hazel supposes, for Cariboo Meadows, put Wagstaff finally admits he is taking her to his cabin in the He Is respectful and considerate and Hasel, though protesting Indignantly, is helpless and has to accompany him. I CHAPTER VI-At the cabin Wagstaff provides Hazel with clothing which had been left by tourists. There they pass the winter. Wagstaff tells her he loves her. but in her Indignation at her "abduction” sift refuses to listen to him. CHAPTER VH—With the coming of 'Spring Hazel Insists that Wagstaff take ner out of the mountains. He endeavors to persuade her to marry him and stay, but on her persistent refusal, he accompanies her to Bella Cools, from where she can proceed to Vancouver, i CHAPTER VTII—On parting. gives Hazel a package which she ers later contains 81.200 and a map which will enable her to And her way tothe cabin IF she desires to go back. At Vancouver Hazel plans to return to 9™?: vllle. but on the train realizes that she loves Wagstaff, and decides to go to him. She leaves the train at the first stop. . CHAPTER IX-With the aid of rfffl’" map she finds her way back, and the pair ."tmv*r to a Hudson Bay . fc . po fl an ?L_?r? married After some months they decide to go farther Into the mountains to a •pot where Bill is confident there is gold.

CHAPTER X. En Route. Long since Hazel had become aware that whatsoever her husband set about ijolng he did swiftly and with inflexible purpose. There was no malingering or doubtful hesitation. Once his Ini nd was made up, he acted. Thus, upon the third day from the land staking, they bore away eastward from the Clearing, across a trackless area, traveling by the sun and Bill’s knowledge of the country. • “Some day there’ll be trails blazed through here by a paternal government,” he laughed over his shoulder, “for the benefit of the public. But we don’t need ’em, thank goodness.” The- buckskin pony Hazel had bought for the trip in with Limping George ambled sedately under a pack Containing bedding, clothes and a light Shelter tent. The black horse, Nigger, be of the cocked ear and the rolling bye, carried in a pair of kyaks six Weeks’ supply of food. Bill led the tvay, seconded by Hazel on easy-galted bilk. Behind her trailed the pagk norses like dogs well broken to heel, patient under their heavy burdens. Off In the east the sun was barely clear Of the towering Rockies, and the Woods were still cool and shadowy, run of aromatic odors from plant and [tree. There was no monotony in the passing days. Rivers barred their way. These they forded or swam, or ferried a makeshift raft of logs, as seemed most fit. Haps and mishaps alike they accepted with an equable spirit andthe true philosophy of the trail —to take things as they come. When rain deluged them, there wfls always shelter to be found and fire to warm them.

If the files assailed too fiercely, a smudge brought easement of that ill. Each day was something more than a mere toll of so many miles traversed. The unexpected, for which both were eager-eyed, lurked on the shoulder of each mountain, in the hollow of every cool canyon, or met them boldly in the open, naked and unafraid. Bearing up to where the Nachaco debouches from Fraser lake, with a Hudson’s bay fur post and an Indian mission on its eastern fringe, they came upon a blazed line in the scrub timber. Roaring Bill pulled Up, and squinted away down the narrow lane fresh with ax marks. “Well,” said he, “I wonder what’s coming off now? .That looks like a survey line of some sort. It isn’t a trail —too wide. Let’s follow it a while. ‘Til bet a nickel,” he asserted next, “that’s a railroad survey.” . Half an hour of easy Jogging set the seal of truth on his assertion. They came upon a man squinting through a brass instrument set on threq legs, directing, with alternate wavlngs of his outspread hahds, certain actjvl-

ties of other men ahead of him. “Well, Til be—” he bit off the sentence. and stared a moment tn frank astonishment at Hazel. Then he took off his hat and bowed. “Good morning,” he greeted politely. "Sure,” Bill grinned. “We have mornings like this around here all the time. What all are you fellows doing in the wilderness, anyway? Railroad?" "Cross-section work for the G. T. P.,” the surveyor replied. “Huh,” Bill grunted. “Is It a dead cinch, or Is it something that may possibly come to pass In the misty future?" “As near a cinch as anything ever 18,” the surveyor answered. “Construction has begun—at both ends. I thought the few white folks tn this country kept tab on anything as Important as a new railroad.” “We’ve heard a lot, but none of ’em has transpired yet; not In my time, anyway," Bill replied dryly. “However, the world keeps on moving. I’ve heard more or less talk of this, but I didn’t know it had got past the talking stage. What’s their Pacific terminal?" “Prince Rupert—new town on a peninsula north of the mouth, of the Skeena,” said the surveyor. “It’s a rush job all the way through, I believe. Three years to spike up the last ra.lL And that’s going some for a transcontinental road. Both the Dominion and B. O. governments have guaranteed the company’s bonds away jm Into millions.” “Be a great thing for this country—say, where does It cross the Rockies? —what’s the general route?" - Bill asked abruptly. "Goes over the range through Yellowhead pass. From here it follows the Nachaco to Fort George, then up the Fraser by Tete Juan Cache, through the pass, then down the Athabasca till It switches over to strike Edmonton.” “tJh-huh,” Bill nodded. “One of the modern labors of Hercules. Well, we’ve got to peg. So long." . “Our camp’s about five miles ahead. Better stop In and noon,” the surveyor invited, “if It’s on your road.” “Thanks. Maybe we will," Bill returned.

The surveyor lifted his hat, with a swift glance of admiration at Hazel, and they passed with a mutual “so long.** “What do you think of that, old girl?? Bill observed presently. “A real, honest-to-goodness railroad going

by within a hundred miles of ouP shack. Three years. It’ll be there before we know it. We’ll have neighbors to burn.” ' “A hundred miles I" Hazel laughed. “Is that your idea of a neighborly distance?” “What’s a hundred miles?” he defended. “Two days’ ride, that’s all. And the kind of people that come to. settle in a country like this don’t stick in sight of the cars. They’re like me—need lots of elbow room. There’ll be hardy souls looking for a location up where we are before very long.

You’ll see." They passed other crews of men, surveyors with transits, chainmen, stake drivers, ax gungs widening the path through the timber. Most of them looked at Hasel In frank surprise, aiid stared long after sne passed by. And when an open bottom beside g noisy little creek showed the scattered tents of the survey camp, Hasel said: “T.et’s not stop. Bill." He looked back over his shoulder with a comprehending smile. “Getting shy? Mnke you uncomfortable to have alt these boys look nt you, little person?” he bantered. "All right, we won’t atop. But all these fellows probably haven’t seen a white woman for months. You can’t blame them for admiring. You do look good to other men besides me, you know.’ So they rode through the camp with bnt a nod to the aproned cook, who thrust out bls head, and a gray-haired man with glasses, who humped over a drafting board under an awning. Their noon fire they built at a spring five miles beyond. At length they fared Into Hazlgton, which is the hub of a vast area over which men pursue gold and furs. Some hundred odd souls were gathered there, where the stern-wheel steamers that ply the turgid Skeena reach the head of navigation. A landrecording office and a mining recorder Hazleton boasted as proof of it* civic importance. The mining recorder, who combined in hlmaelf many capacities besides his governmental function, undertook to put through Bill’s land flgal. He knew Bill Wagstaff. “Wise man,” he nodded, over the description. “If some more uh these boys that have blazed trails through this country would do the same thing, they’d be better off. A chunk of laud anywhere In this country is a good bet now. We’ll have rails here from the coast in a year. Better freeze onto a couple uh lots here in Hazleton, while they’re low. Be plumb to the skies In ten years. Natural place for a city, Bll?. It’s astonlshln’ how the settlers is cornin’.” There was ocular evidence of this last, for they had followed in a road well rutted from loaded wagons. But Bill Invested In no real estate, notwithstanding the positive assurance that Hazleton was on the ragged edge of a boom. - “Maybe, maybe,” he admitted. “But I*ve got other fish to fry. That one piece up by Pine river will do me for a while.” Here where folk talked only of gold and pelts and railroads and settlement and the coming boom that would make them all rich. Bill Wagstaff added two more ponies to his pack train. These he loaded down with food, staples only, flour, sugar, beans, salt, tea and coffee, and a sack of dried fruit Also he bestowed upon Nigger a further burden of six dozen steel traps. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

The Surveyor Lifted His Hat With a Swift Glance of Unconcealed Admiration at Hazel.