Adventure, August 1917 — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

36 night, one from the east, the other from the west. ‘‘What luck?” he called as their canoes drew together at the mouth of the bay. ‘‘Any bottles?” She shook her head. “No, but I’ll race you to the beach.” They had had many such races in the old days and it was not without a thought that there would be no more that Stanton ac- cepted the challenge. Perhaps it was his dejection that robbed him of the spirit to win, but Joan pulled away from him easily. Her short, quick strokes, her recovery like a flash of light, lifted her canoe so that it seemed fairly to ride on top of the water. Breathless, laughing, she réached the beach, drew the canoe broadside with a swirl of the paddle, and stepped out before Stanton had touched the sand. “T didn’t know you could paddle like that,’ came a voice from behind her, and she turned to see Wallace standing there. ‘“‘Not paddle, and living all my life in the North country!” she exclaimed. And then she added: “Did you find it?” Wallace shook his head. ‘““‘Where did you look today?” “T took the south shore and didn’t miss a foot of it.” . “There is no chance there,” said Stanton, who had come up. ‘That’s all higher ground. The slope is the other way, toward the north and west.” | “But I had gone over that in the two days before. There is something uncanny about this.” ‘“‘And the whisky, too,” answered Stan- ton. ‘““‘What did they buy today?” asked Joan. ‘‘Nothing much. A little tea and a little tobacco.” “Did you keep them in sight every minute?” ‘Every minute. Only two families came, and neither they nor Fleenor were out of my sight or hearing in all the time they were there.” ‘“‘And there wasn’t a bottle?” asked Joan. “There aren’t any bottles, or jugs or glasses or kegs!’’ exclaimed Stanton in despair. ‘“‘There wasn’t even a tin can in what those Indians got today, or any other day, so far as I have been able to learn.” Joan looked from one of the young men to the other. Despair was so evident in Adventure each face she impulsively reached out a hand to each. But immediately she drew them back and, running up the beach between the two, began to laugh. It was a whole-souled, hearty, genuine laugh, a merry, happy laugh, the sudden burst that comes from joy and a joke and tenderness. Stanton and Wallace looked at each other with quick questions in their eyes. “Do you understand women?” asked the engineer. ‘I don’t. I don’t think either of us could find a laugh like that anywhere in our systems. It would be the hardest thing for me to do right now, to laugh. And this whisky business seems to have you in the same boat.” “No, I don’t understand women,” re- plied Stanton slowly as he watched Joan running to the house. ‘Only I think I do understand Joan. If I can judge by the past, she has a joke on me. I knew it out at the mouth of the bay when she dared me to race.” ‘“‘Perhaps it is just as well,”’ said Wallace. “It’s not their game, the things men have to buck up against. They are spared it, and they ought to be. We can’t expect - them to take our troubles seriously, and I’m glad they don’t. Now, I don’t want to burden you any more, for you seem to have your hands full, but I came over to ask if you know of any possible place where the river might have broken out of the lake. You have lived here so long you probably know every foot of the ground.”’ Stanton turned and looked out over the water, sketching in his own mind the varied and intricate shore-line. “Tt’s this way with me,” Wallace con- tinued when the missionary did not reply. ‘“Madison is the man who is going to finance this if it suits him. He gave me three days to find where the river went to. The three days are up. He goes back in the morning. It means the end for me. “TI don’t care so much for myself, but it has been sort of a religion with me, putting this thing through for my father’s sake. I’ve got to do it, Bancroft. I can’t lose. And tomorrow morning he goes back to the railroad. If you could give me some idea, some hint as to where it could be, I might be able to get him to stay one more day.” ‘‘You tried that west shore?” “Every foot of it. Twice now.” “‘There’s where I’d look for it. It’s the cComicloook (© S|