Argosy All-Story Weekly, January 13, 1923 — page 153: what you’re looking at

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

THE FREE TRADER. 616 2 Se “T know you will,” Helen began as she and to hush up any scandal. It is a rare leaned back and looked at him. And then she sprang free. She had caught a glimpse of some one outside and peeked out of the window. ‘“ Macleod is coming,” she whispered. “1 must go.” As she opened the door she looked back at him with an expression of faith and trust that wiped out all remembrance of the win- ter’s struggle between the uncompromising spirits and gave to him a determination that somehow he would free her of this dread thing. CHAPTER XXI. MORE EVIDENCE. F the district manager was surprised to find Helen leaving the Chester dwelling house he did not show it. “T’m sorry she had to know we found that fur,” he said when he was seated. ‘‘ She had endured too much already.” “She would have had to know it some time,” Alan answered, “and she still be- lieves her father is innecent.” ‘Naturally. She is devoted to him. Sometimes I wonder if her aderation hasn’t kept his arrogance alive.” “ But do you think he is guilty?” ‘“What else can I think? I don’t want to. He has been a faithful servant of the company nearly all his life. If it were pos- sible I’d hush this up. I'd be glad to.” ‘Why don’t you?” Alan asked. . ‘“Tcan’t. My hands are tied. The thing is bound to get out. And at the first hint Rippingale and Starmer will be down here. Fur land isn’t what it used to be.’ “Vou think the evidence warrants your making the charge?” “Tt compels me to!” Macleod exclaimed angrily. “I wish that dammed, nosey preacher had stayed at the mission where he belongs. If it had been only the loss of the fur we could have hushed it up.” Alan caught a glimpse of hope. Macleod might be one of the younger men who saw the new trend in fur land, but he was still of the Great North, clannish, ready to go to any lengths to defend a fellow servant and beautiful spirit of solidarity which com- mon devotion to the history and traditions of the great company has developed among those who serve it. “ He’s not the first man to run amuck,” Alan urged. ‘““T understand that perfectly. No one knows better than J what fur land can do to a man’s mind. It is the old fellows like Mears who give us trouble. For forty years he has been running a post, shut off from the world, living among people of an inferior race, king of a small district. His word has been Jaw. He has never known restraint. It is really a revival of feudalism we have had here in the north, and with it has come the arrogance and mistaken sense of unlimited power. “Mears is the product of such a system and now he is the victim of it. If the Great North could save him it would leave nothing undone. “| realize, too, that I am partly to blame. I tried to discipline him and the accumu- lated pride of forty years would not stand it. I don’t think he ever intended to kill Allardyce, but he lost his head and struck that blow. Then he became desperate and burned the building. He thought the fire would conceal the murder and the theft of the fur.” “ But he worked hard to save the fur in the loft,” Alan objected. “He had to when you were there, and then, of course, if he saved it all there was proof of theft, and theft would divert sus- picion, ‘There is another factor. For months he has been brooding, has believed the com- pany was not treating him fairly. It is-a common delusion these old fellows have, and he felt justified in taking any measure to even up the score. How he intended to get out and sell the fur, only he knows. It was probably as crack-brained a plan as his whole line of action has been.” “Then you agree with me that he really is not sane?” Alan asked. “In a way, no. Not any more than any of those old fellows ever is. They all be- come warped and distorted. He is only an extreme instance.” CO) .ook €O SPs 2) Se z ioe ae —— | ea » ha Ae * et &