r-. is ADAIR COUNTY X2 S 2 ' M . , 1 MI'M'MM'MM -av rmAE23 G2F WILLIAM MacLEOB KAINB Copjrltht. 1907. by SYNOPSIS. CHAITER I As a representative of Ciia government Gordon KUlot is on bla -rxy to Alaska to Investigate coal claims. Oc tho boat he meets and becomes in lcetsted In a fellow passenger whom he learns Ib Sheba O'Neill, also "going In." -Colby Macdonald, active head of the land Sf2JjbIng syndicate under investigation, sctrxes aboard. Macdonald is attacked by mine laborers whom he had discharged. i3sil the active intervention of Elliot prob xbly saves his life. CHAPTER II Elliot and Macdonald ("become in a measure friendly, though the Waiter does not know that Elliot is on a -znlssion which threatens to spoil plans of .Alacdonald to acquire millions of dollars through the unlawful exploitation of im-.-sicnsely valuable coal fields. Elliot also "Kets a line" on the position occupied by VaIy Selfrldge, Macdonald's right-hand isttazi, who Is returning from a visit to "tfco States," where he had gone in an attcrt to convince the authorities that tb-e was nothing wrong In Macdonald's" -nitiK3ds. CHAPTER III Elliot secures an intro tSiictisa to Miss O'Neill and while the Ubcxt is taking on freight the pair set out So -climb a locally famous mountain. They -venture too high and reach a position iram which it is Impossible for Miss O'Neill to go forward or turn back. CHAPTER TV Elliot leaves Sheba and &.t Imminent peril of his life goes for as- aistaace. He meetn Macdonald, who had ,ytme alarmrd for their safety, and they .iStirtt and rescue Sheba. CHAPTER V Landing at Kusiak El liot Sn.N that old friends of his. Mr. and Mrt. P.iet. are the people whom Sheba bat coipe to visit. Mrs. Paget is Sheba's -ottstn. t dinner Elliot reveals to Mac fonald he objet of his coming to Alas lot. Tli two men, naturally antagonistic. -ww al. become rivals for the hand of Sheba CHAFER VI Macdonald, foreseeing '"a.ilure -if his financial plans if Elliot rfaTnE -'ie facts, sends Selfrldge to Ka s'iaI. arrange matters so that Elliot will 'of- reived as to the true situation. x . "ffi ini ivnti-tf- ji hio Ttv l r Earfur,' .ii. wanders from the trail. He '- Lll J IjltlWU Jl 4AIO 111.1 VU ty-i -.. horse in a marsn ana is com- Vt , tliTrtTi nwar i-ifln nnrl nrnvI3inTl: uii ail unnecessary -clothing. After long Mrusgij he realizes, that he will never i. .. .j.aittin, wiiu ivjibJ ?.. .w '. imorlili onrt rncltmo ntrrenlf Tf teaxh. -An'1 he's good," added Sheba eager- .j. "iv never tains or it. but one 6als tut splendid things he has done." Tbe :.oung.man smiled, but not at all wofrz-Siiouslv. Ho liked the stanch jB&ilfc 'f the girl in her friend, even tfewtch ids Investigations had not led Mm to accept goodness as the out- ..seiwllng quality of the Scotsman. , -1 don't know what we would do i ion through a sun-bathed universe wi'Hout him." Diane went on. "Give I washed clean of sordidness and mean .Ji.r ten y rs and a free hand and j ness J&H&a wil' i fit for white people to ; It was the seventh night out that Wve in. 11 - attacks on him by news- .gspes-s and . igazines are an outrage." "It's plain that you are a partisan," - charged Gordon gayly. Tm against locking up Alaska and throwing away the key, if that is what jm moan by a partisan. We need this -ownitr.- opened up the farms settled, tae mi -.es worked, the coal fields de vilojht . railroads built." -T2j. Kusiak chamber of commerce aeglit send you out as a lecturer to gg- ;mblic opinion, Diane. You are -ane est lusiastic little booster for free-1 opportunity" laughed the an. -.veil!" Diane joined in his It was one of her good oat she could laugh at herself. say I do sound like a real es- .innblet, but it's all true any- Jiarc.' Ctortl n left Kusiak as rcluot "WaJJjr Selfridge had done, thou 1 -f s ' V jz&-ir 9 -" ""Feefty-mile Swamp Ees a Monster That Swallows Men Alive." -.reasons for not wanting to go were qtiite different They centered about . dusky-eyed young woman whom he bad seen for the first time a fortnight Sefore. He would have denied even to almself that he was in love, but when ever he was alone his thoughts re--srerted to Sheba O'Neill. At the big bend Gordon left the river boat for his cross-country trek. Near 4Iie roadhouse was an Indian village -where he had expected to get a guide -ibr the journey to Kamatlah. But the -JSsMng season had begun, and the men l&ad all gone down river to take part r 2Fzfl& JV&Z85Z5BT William MacLeod P.alne. The old Frenchman who kept the trading-post and roadhouse advised Gordon not to attempt the tramp alone. "The trail it ees what you call dan gerous. Feefty-Mile Swamp ees a mon ster .that swallows men alive, mon sieur. You wait one week two week free week, and some one will turn up to take you through," he urged. "But I can't wait. And I have an of ficial map of the trail. Why can't I follow it without a guide?" Elliott wanted to know impatiently. The post-trader shrugged. "Maybeso, monsieur maybe not. Feefty-Mlle it ees one devil of a trail. No checha koes are safe in there without a guide. I, Baptiste, know." "Selfridge and his party went through a week ago. I can follow the tracks they left." "But if It rains, monsieur, the tracks will vaneesh, n'est ce pas? Lose the way, and the little singing folk will swarm in clouds about monsieur while he stumbles through the swamp." Elliot hesitated for the better part of a day, then came to an impulsive decision. lie had a reliable map, and anyhow he had only to follow the tracks left by the Selfridge party. lie turned his back upon the big river and plunged into the wilderness. There came a night when he looked up into the stars of the deep, still sky and knew that he was hundreds of miles from any other human being. Never in all his life had he been so much alone. He was not afraid, but there was something awesome in n .. nAll r.n ab-J- . f T.I,-. 1 . ! .1 "ullu B" tuiinj ui ma muu. rri,n ,.i.-e e iir 5niM,i(m nm-fr vf.v i ij grew fainter after a night of rain. More rojn fen. and thev were obliterated nl- ' v , ,, togeincr. Gordon fished. He killed fresh game ior jus neeus. witen ne came on tne tracks of moose and caribou. Some- tlmes' startled, they leaped into view lulie close enougn lor a snot, out ne usea m rme oniy to meet nis wants ii-.y.i ... The way led through valley and morass, across hills and mountains. I wandered in a sort of haphazard fash Elliot suspected he was oil the trail Rain sluiced dowi! in torrents and next day continued to pour from a dun sky. His own tracks were blotted out and he searched for the trail in vain. Be fore he knew it he was entangled in Fifty-Mile. His map showed him tho morass stretched for fifty miles to the "Come, Old Timer. One Plunge and You'll Make It Yet" south, but he knew that it had been charted hurriedly by a surveying party which had made no extensive explora tions. A good deal of this country was terra Incognita. It ran vaguely into a No Man's Land unknown to the pros pector. The going was heavy. Gordon had to pick his way through the mossy swamp, leading the pack-horse by the bridle. Sometimes he was ankle-deep in water of a greenish slime. Again he had to drag the animal from the bog to a hummock of grass which gave a spongy footing. This would end in another quagmire of peat through which they must plow with the mud sucking at their feet. It was hard, wearing toll. There was nothing to do but keep moving. The young man staggered forward till dusk. Utterly exhausted, he camped for the night on a hillock of moss that rose like an Island In the swamp. Elliot traveled next day by the com pass. He had food for three days more, but he knew that no living mdn had the strengtfh to travel for so long la such a morass. It was near mid day when, he lost his. horca. Tha oni. lb iintly as I fiAuxK -v5 V H"' P gh his i AiVVS tiHS)- nSm t rs -1 'r-sir mal had bogged down several times and Gordon had wasted much time and spent a good deal of needed energy in dragging it to firmer footing. This time the pony refused to answer the whip. Its master unloaded pack and saddle. He tried coaxing; he tried the whip. "Come, Old-Timer. One plunge, and you'll make it yet," he urged. The pack-horse turned upon him. dumb eyes of reproach, struggled to free its limbs from the mud, and sank down helplessly. It had traveled its last yard on the long Alaska trails. After the sound of the shot had died away, Gordon struggled with the pack to the nearest hummock. He cut holes in a gunny-sack to fit his shoulders and packed into it his blankets, a saucepan, the beans, the coffee, and the diminished handful of flour. Into it went, too, the three slices of bacon that were left. no hoisted the pack to his back and slipped his arms through the slits he had made. Painfully he labored for ward over the quivering peat. Some times he stumbled and went down into the oozing mud, minded to stay there and be done with the struggle. But the urge of life drove him to his feet again. It carried him for weary miles after he despaired of ever covering another hundred yards. With old. half-forgotten signals from the football field he spurred his will. Perhaps his mind was already begin ning to wander, though through it all he hold steadily to the direction that alone could save him. When at last he went down to stay it was in an exhaustion so complete that not even his indomitable will could lash him to his feet again. For an hour he lay in a stupor, never stirring even to fight the swarm of mosquitoes that buzzed about him. Toward evening ho sat up and undid the pack from his back. The matches, in a tin box wrapped carefully with oilskin, were still perfectly dry. Soon he had a fire going and coffee boiling in the frying-pan. From the tin cup he carried strung on his belt he drank the coffee. It went through him like strong liquor. Ho warmed some beans and fried himself a slice of bacon, sopping up the grease with a cold bis cuit left over from the day before. Again he slept for a few hours. He had wound his watch mechanically and It showed him four o'clock when he took up the trail once more. In Seattle and San Francisco people were still asleep and darkness was heavy over the land. Here it had been day for a long time, ever since the summer sun, hidden for a while behind the low, dis tant hills, had come blazing forth again in a saddle between two peaks. Gordon had reduced his pack by dis carding a blanket, the frying-pan, and all the clothing he was not wearing, nis rifle lay behind him in tne swamp. He had cut to a minimum of safety what he was carrying, according to his judgment. But before long his last blanket was flung aside. He could not afford to carry an extra pound, for he knew he was running a race, the stakes of which were life and death. Afternoon found him still staggering forward. The swamps were now be hind him. He had won through at last by the narrowest margin possible. The ground was rising sharply toward the mountains. Across the range some where lay Kamatlah. But he was all in. With his food almost gone, a wa ter supply uncertain, reserve strength exhausted, the chances of getting over the divide to safety were practically none. He had come, so far as he could see, to the end of the passage. CHAPTER VIII. Gid Holt Gees Prospecting. As -soon as Selfridge reached Kamat lah he began arranging the stage against the arrival of the government agent. His preparations were elab orate and thorough. A young engineer named Howland had been in charge of the development work, but Wally re arranged his forces so as to let each dummy entryman handle the claim en tered in his name. One or two men about whom he was doubtful he dis charged and hurried out of the camp. The company boarding house became a restaurant, above which was sus pended a newly painted sign with the legend, "San Francisco Grtll, J. Glynn, Proprietor." ,The store also passed temporarily into the hands of its mana ger. Miners moved from the barracks that had been built by Macdonald into hastily constructed cabins on the in dividual claims. Wally had always fancied himself as a stage manager for amateur theatricals. Now he justified his faith by transforming Kamatlah outwardly from a company camp to a mushroom one settled by wandering prospectors. Gideon Holt alone was outside of all these activities and watched them with suspicion. He was an old-timer, sly but fearless, who hated Colby Macdon ald with a bitter jealousy that could not be placated and he took no pains to hide the fact. He had happened to be In the vicinity prospecting when Macdonald had rushed his entries. Partly out of mere perversity and part ly by reason of native shrewdness, old Holt had slipped in and located one of the best claims in the heart of the group. Nor had he been moved by per suasion, threats, or tentative offers to buy a relinquishment He was obsti nate. He knew a good thing when he had It, and he meant to sit tight The adherents of the company might charge that Holt was cracked in the upper story, but none of them denied he was sharp as a street arab. He guessed that all this preparation was not for nothing. Kamatlah was being dressed up to Impress somebody who would shortly arrive. .The first thought or jjolt was that a group of big capi talists might be coming to look over their investment. But he rejected this surmise. There would be no need to try any deception upon them. Mail from Seattle reached camp once a month. Holt sat down before hl3 stove to read one of the newspapers he had brought from the office. It was the P.-I. On the fifth page wao a little story that gave him his clue. ELLIOT TO INVESTIGATE MACDONALD COAL CLAIMS The reopening of tjie controversy as to the Macdonald claims, which had been clear-listed for patent by Harold B. Winton. the Commissioner of the General Land Office, takes on another phase with the appointment of Gordon Elliot as special field agent to examine the validity of the holdings. The new field agent won a reputation by his work in unearthing the Oklahoma "Gold Brick" land frauds. Elliot leaves Seattle in the Queen City Thursday for the North, where he will make a thorough investigation of the whole situation with a view to clearing up the matter definitely. If his report is favorable to the claimants the patents will be granted without further delay. This was too good to keep. Holt pulled on his boots and went out to twit such of the enemy as he might meet. It chanced that the first of them was Selfridge. whom he had not seen since his arrival, though he knew the little man was in camp. "How goes it, Holt? Fine and dandy, eh?" inquired Wally with the professional geniality he affected. The old miner shook his head dole fully. "I done bust my laig, Mr. Sel fish!" he groaned. It was one of his pleasant ways to affect a difficulty of hearing and a dullness of understand ing, so that he could legitimately call people by distorted versions of their names. "The old man don't amount to much nowadays." "Nothing to that, Gid. You're young er than you ever were, judging by your looks." "Then my looks He to beat the devil, Mr. Selfish." "My name is Selfridge," explained Wally, a trifle irritated. Holt put a cupped hand to his car anxiously. "Shellfish, did you say? Tha' 's right. How come I to forget? The old man's going pretty fast, Mr. Shellfish. No more memory than a jackrabbit. Say. Mr. Shellfish, what's the idee of all this here back-to-the-pcople movement, as the old sayin' is?" "I don't know what you mean. And my name is Selfridge, I tell you," snapped the owner of that name. "'Course I ain't got no more sense than the law allows. I'm a buzzard haid, but me I kinder got to millin' it over and in respect to these here local improvements, as you might say, I'm doggoned if I sabe the whyfor." "Just some business changes." Holt showed his tobacco-stained tooth in a grin splenetic. "Oh. That's all. 1 didn't know but what you might be expecting a visitor." Selfridge flashed a sharp sidelong glance at him. "What do you mean a visitor?" "I just got a notion mebbe you might be looking for one, Mr. Pelfrich. Like as not you alfi't fixing up for this Gor don Elliot a-tall." Wally had no come-back, unless it was one to retort In ironic admiration. "You're a wonder, Holt. Pity you don't start n detective bureau." The old man went away cackling. If Selfridge had held any doubts be fore, he discarded them now. Holt would wreck the whole enterprise, were he given a chance. It would never do to let Elliot meet and tall: with him. lie knew too much, and he was eager to tell all he knew. Macdonald's lieutenant got busy at once with plans to abduct Holt. "We'll send tho old man off on a prospecting trip with some of the boys," explained Selfridge to Howland. "That way we'll kill two birds. He's back on his a? soxsment work. The time limit will be up before he returns and we'll start a content for the claim." Howland made no comment. He was an engineer and not a politician. In his position it was impossible for him not to know that a good deal about the legal status of the Macdonald claims was Irregular. But he was a firm believer in a wid-open Alaska, in the use of the territory by those who had settled it. "Better arrange it with Big Bill, then, but don't tell me anything about it. I don't want to know the details," he told Selfridge. Big Bill Macy accepted the job with a grin. He had never liked old Holt, anyhow. Besides, they were not going to do him any harm. nolt was baking a match of sour dough bread that evening when there came a knock at the cabin door. At sight of Big Bill and his two compan ions the prospector closed the oven and straightened with alert suspicion. He was not on visiting terms with any of these men. Why had they come to see him? "We're going prospecting up Wild Goose creek, and we want you to gc along, Gid," explained Macy. "You're an old sour-dough miner, and we-all agree we'd like to have you throw In with us. What say?" The old miner's answer was direct but not flattering. "What do I want to go on a wild-goose mush with a bunch of bums for?" he shrilled. Bill Macy scratched his hook nose and looked reproachfully at his host At least Holt thought he was looking at him. One could not be sure, for Bill's eyes did not exactly track. "What's the use of snapping at me like a turtle? Durden says Wild Goose looks fine. There's gold up there heaps of It" "Let it stay there, then. I aln'f going. That's flat." Holt turned to adjust the damper of his stove. "Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't say that," drawled Bill insolently. rxne man' at the stove caught the change In tone and turned quickly. He was too late. Macy had thrown him self forward and the weight of his body flung Holt against the wall. Be fore the miner could recover, the other two men were upon him. They bore Wm to the floor and in spite of his struggles tied him hand and foot Big Bill rose and looked down derl sively at his prisoner. "Better change your mind and go with us, Holt. We'll spend a quiet month up at the head quarters of Wild Goose. Say you'll come along." "What are you going to do with me?" demanded Holt "I reckon you need a church to fall on you before you can take a hint. Didn't I mention Wild Goose creek three or four times?" jeered his captor. Holt made no further protest. He was furious, but at present quite help loss. However It went against the grain, he might as well give in until re bellion would do some good. Ten minutes later the party was moving silently along the trail that led to the hills. The pack horse went first, In charge of George Holway. The prisoner walked next, his hands tied behind him. Big Bill followed, and the man he had called Dud brought up the rear. Macy had released the hands of his prisoner so that he might have a chance to fight the mosquitoes, but he kept a wary eye upon him and never let him move more than a few feet from him. The trail grew steeper as It neared the head of the canyon till at last it climbed the left wall and emerged from the gulch to an uneven mesa. The leader of the party looked at his watch. "Past midnight We'll -arup here, George, and see If w'e can't got rid of the 'skeeters." They built smudge fires of green wood and on the lee side of these an other one of dry sticks. Dud made coffee upon this and cooked bacon. While George chopped wood for the fires and boughs of small firs for bed ding. Big Bill sat with a rifle across his knees just back of the prisoner. "Gid's a shifty old cuss, and I ain't taking any chances," he explained aloud to Dud. Holt was beginning to take the out rage philosophically. He slept peace fully while they took turns watching him. Just now there would be no chance to escape, but In a few days they would become careless. The habit of feeling that they had him se- curely would grow upon them. Then, reasoned Holt, his opportunity would come. One of the guards would take a chance. It was not reasonable to suppose that in ths next week or two he would not catch them napping ones for a short ten seconds. There was, of course, just the pos sibility that they intended to murder him, but Holt could not associate Self ridge with anything so lawless. The man was too soft of fiber to carry through such a program, and as yet there was need of nothing so drastic. No, this kidnaping expedition would not run to murder. He would be set free in a few weeks, and if he told the true story of where he had been his foes would spread the report that he was Insane in his hatred of Macdonald and Imagined all sorts of persecutions. They followed Wild Goose creek all next day, getting always closer to its headwaters near the divide. On the third day they crossed to the other side of the ridge and descended into a little mountain park. The country was so much a primeval wilderness that a big bull moose stalked almost upon their camp before discovering the presence of a strange biped. Big Bill snatched up a rille and took a shot which sent the intruder scampering. From somewhere in the distance came a faint sound. "What was that?" asked George. "Sounded like a shot Mebbe it was an echo," returned Dud. "Came too late for an echo," Big Bill said. Again faintly from some far corner of the basin the sound drifted. It was like the pop of a scarcely heard tire cracker. The men looked at one another and at their prisoner. "Think we better' break camp and drift?" asked Dud. "No. We're in a little draw here as good a hiding place as we'd be llke- A Man Staggered Drunkenly Into View. ly to find. Drive the horses Into thej brush, George. We'll sit tight" Dud had been busy stamping out Qi tue cnmpnre wmie uoiway was driv ing the horses Into the brush. "Mebbe you had better get the camp things behind them big rocks," Macy conceded. Even as he spoke there came the crack of a revolver almost at the en trance to the draw. One of the men swore softly. Tha gimlet eyes of the old miner fastened on the spot whore in another moment his hoped-for rescuers would appear. A man staggered drunkenly into view, ne reeled halfway across the mouth of the draw and stopped. His eyes, questing dully, fell u?on the camp. He stared, as if doubtful whether they had played him false, then lurched toward the waiting group. "Lost and all in," Holway said in a whisper to Dud. The other man nodded. Neither of them made a move toward the stranger, who stopped in front of their camp and looked with glazed eyes from one to another, nis face was drawn and haggard and lined. Ex treme exhaustion showed in every movement He babbled incoherently. "Don't you see he's starving and out of his head?" snapped Holt brusquely. "Get him grub, pronto." The old man rose and moved toward the suffering man. "Come, pard. Tha's all right Sit down right here and go to it, as the old sayin is." He led the man to a place beside Big Bill and made him sit down. "Better light a fire, boys, and get some coffee on. Don't give him too much solid grub at first" The famished man ate what was given him and clamored for more. "Coming up soon, pardner," Holt told him soothingly. "Now tell us how come you to get lost" The man nodded gravely. "Hit that line low, Gord. Hit 'er low. Only throe yards to gain." "Plumb bughouse," commented Dud, chewing tobneco stolid'y. "Out of his head that's all. He'll be right enough after he's fed up ami had a good sleep. But right now he's Mire some Exhibit A. Look at the bones sticking through his cheeks," Big Bill commented. "Come, Old-Tinier. Get down in your collar to it Once more now. Don't 1' down on the job. All together, now." The stranger clucked to an imaginary horse end made a motion of lifting with his hands. "Looks like his luiwss is bogged down in Fifty Mile swamp," suggested Holt. "Looks like." agreed Dud. The old miner said no more. But his eyes narrowed to shining slits. If this man had come through Fifty Mile swamp, he must have started from the rivor. That probably meant that he had come from Kusiak. He was a young man. talking the jargon of n college football player. Without doubt lit was, in the old phrasing of the North, a chechako. Gideon Holt's sly brain moved keen ly to the possibility that he could put a name to this human derelict they had picked up. He began to see it as more than a possibility, as even a probability, at least as a fifty-fifty, chance. A sardonic grin hovered about the corners of his grim mouth. It would be a strange freak of irony If Wally Selfridge, to prevent a meeting between him and the government land agent, had sent him a hundred miles into the wilderness to save the life of Gordon Elliot and so had brought about the meeting that otherwise would never have taken place. Continued next week From Mississippi. Camp Shelby, Dec. 27th '17. The Adair County News. Dear Sir: This fine warm p. m. will write a few lines to let my friends know where I am located. This leave3 me fine Have gained ten pounds since I have been at this place. All the hoys from Adair county are wll except Rob ert Arnold, of Knifiey. He has oneumonia, but is impDving slowly. The News is a welcome visitor to my tent every Friday evening. 1 will close by saying I would be glad to hear from any of my friends. Yours truly, John Weatherford, 131 M.J. B. N. Co. D. Camp Shelby, Miss. A Bargain. The Farmers Home Journal is recog nized as the leading farm paper of the State. Every farmer should sub scribe for it- We have made a special arrangement with the publisher of the Farmers' Home Journal by which that paper and the Adair County ISews are put in reach of all. Here it is: Farmers' H. Journal, per year ?1.00. Adair County News per year S1.00. Both one year for S1.65. This proposition will be good for several weeks. Subscribe now. THE ADAIR COUNTY NEWS $1.50 I --