Argosy All-Story Weekly, December 2, 1922 — page 121: what you’re looking at

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

PRIDE OF THE NORTH. - “ How long ago?” ; ‘“ Two—yes, over two hours!” Jason Kirk frowned, his jaw hardening, his eyes narrowing. His words came more rapidly : ‘Your dogs are fresh, Louis?”’ “They haven’t felt harness in five days.” “{ may borrow them, please?”’ “ Naturally, and anything else I own. I do not forget the time when I was—’’ “Then, please, Louis, have some one put them to the lightest sled you own, as oie ly as possible. I’m going upstairs for a moment, and will get out the back way, so kindly have them there. Also, I ask you to keep this private.” “Tt is locked in a tomb, M. Kirk.” Jason Kirk, with what was justly reputed to be one of the fastest and strongest dog teams in the Northland before him, was assuredly going to prove the contention re- garding their speed. He was an expert driver who could get to the soul of a husky, and never had he needed to as now. He knew that Sven Landquist, when sober, was a taciturn man who minded his own business and stuck to his code of honor; but he knew, likewise, that Sven Land- quist, drunk, was a beast without reason who stopped at nothing to further his passions. He remembered—and could never forget —that night some two years back, when he had saved Eloise Lorges, a girl who had refused Sven, from the Scandinavian. He could not forget, either, that Gervaise Ar- magnac had also not accepted Landquist, and that the latter was on one of his pe- riodical drinking bouts, and—that Lac Morte lay to the north. Of that trip to the post there is not much to tell. Though Sven himself, equipped with a sturdy and rapid team, made good progress,. Jason Kirk proved conclusively that Louis Leblanc was right in dubbing his string one of the best in the country. For all the couple of hours start the other man had, the American was cutting it down at each mile he covered. Halfway there, when he stopped and closely examined the tracks of the huskies in advance, his experienced eye told him 591 that he was not more than an hour behind; at two-thirds of the distance he: was cer- tain that he was not above twenty to twenty-five minutes in the rear; and when finally he came to the rise in ground that was only a scant hundred yards from the post itself he judged that the Swede, at the very outside, had beaten him by perhaps ten minutes. Jason Kirk, then, acted quickly. Slip- ping off the sled, and bidding the well- trained huskies to remain silently where they were, he crawled along on his knees to the top of that small knoll. A _ single glance instantly showed him Landquist’s team of dogs at the front door, as well as a broken window at the side of the cabin. From it, too, there came a grating, trium- phant laugh. His face grim and slightly whitened, Ja- son made for the fringe of spruce trees at the rear of the domicile. The agony in his throbbing leg was forgotten as he dragged himself forward. Knowing the interior of the post well, he set out for a window at the back that would give him a view into the same room to which the Swede had forced his entrance. In a full sixty seconds, at the most, he had managed to reach the window without attracting the attention of the tired huskies in front. Then, swiftly, he got to his one good foot. A quick, short sigh of relief escaped hit as he took in the scene before him. Ger- vaise Armagnac, in dressing gown and slip- pers, was standing against the farther wall. Her face was drawn, deathly pale, but yet in those fine eyes there blazed the scorn and the pride of her blood. In front of her, perhaps a couple of yards, was Sven Land- quist. There was the desire of hell in the Swede’s eyes, in his face that had turned bestial, in his gloating voice that rang with guttural anticipation. “You theenk Sven Landquist no good enough, heh?” he was saying, as he ad- vanced with clawing hands. “ You t’row away decent offer of marriage, heh? Ha, ha! Fortusam, my proud woman, but you goin’ find out—” Simultaneously Jason stuck his revolver through the pane of glass and spoke. “ Put ’em up, Landquist!” Gomichbooks.com