Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 7, 1925 — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

; NORTH STAR. quietly said, “Down!” The three dogs sank to the ground at rest. A misty look came into the old man’s eyes; a mist that effaced the girl standing before him; the painted scene of snow that was behind her; the great trunks of the artificial trees; effaced them all as if they were non-existent, as if the removal of their mockery had given him clear vision with which his sight could travel beyond two thousand miles—to the north and to the west, where the solitary cabin maintained its lonely state in the small clearing in the great pine woods. Where there was no sound within or with- out. With its heavy wooden shutters closed and fastened tight. Its door barred, until his hand should see fit to open it again. Where it squatted in lumpy insignificance at the base of a proud, tall tree and cast its minute shadow on the ground beneath the clear unsullied brilliance of the pale in- different moon, eee we ee CHAPTER IIL. ABIDING FLAME. Ee OR eight months, mademoiselle, have I watched North Star from his birth. There were five in the litter. Now the mother and two of the puppies they are dead. One could see that the three who were left would be masters of their kind. But that was a surety! And of the three, one I believed in my heart would be a king of beasts. = “Men say one cannot judge a puppy. That five—six—seven months must pass be- fore one can be of a certainty. But I, Michael Lebombard, I know! I look—I tell—and how? Because it is into the eyes that I look, mademoiselle—into the small, clear mirrors of the soul. Into the eyes of my three puppies I look. In none do I fin’ wickedness, or sleepiness, or fear. “Bon! So far is each of a perfection. Two more months they pass. I look again. Still are the eyes a recompense to my dili- gence, my love, my care. But this time what do I see? In the eyes of one, in addi- tion to goodness, to alertness, to great cour- age, there is something else. Mademoiselle can guess, is it not so, what it is?” ~~ Marcia quietly shook her head. She would have liked te have shaken it with energetic impatience. But she knew that. so to do would only further controvert her purpose. It was Wilbur who answered Le- bombard’s question. ‘You found nobility,” he said. Again, as Wilbur spoke, a tremor seemed to run over North Star. He turned his dark oval eyes upon the youngster and held them fixed there. “MM siew’ has discrimination. he know?” _ “You couldn’t miss it.” “It is there, as m’szew’ say, and wiil be there until death. In this pup’s eyes I ‘see it and then I knew the Bon Dieu he had granted me the happiness of owning a dog who would be great even among: the great. 3 ““T sought a name for that dog. One must be had at once, that he might know, like humans, that he was an established being in the order of society. But that was a problem, 2’ sieu’! No earthly name, it seem, would suffice. For what name bestowed upon temporal rank could do honor to the nobility and high purpose of this beast? Not king, m’sieuw’—nor officers of govern- ment or state. “IT took my problem to the kin’ face of the night and found my answer in the stars. In the north it hung like an eternal flame— a fire of beauty and, m’szex’, of service— service to adventurers, to braves who face the unknown spaces of the lan’ and sea— a guide—a help—a promise—the North Star. That and that alone should be a worthy namesake for my dog.” The cloudiness had completely passed from Wilbur’s eyes. He returned the dog’s regard with one as clear, as searching as his own. He nodded his head absently to Lebombard in agreement. He could not understand the strange impulse that was coming over him. It was as definite as if it had been the result of something physical. An attraction—a mag- netism—a, feeling almost of embarrassment, as if veils had been snatched aside from a whole vista of reserves, and in the mutual look that passed between himself and the dog there existed a positive understanding. How did Ecomichooks LD (E)