Adventure Magazine Cover, April 3, 1918 — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

Ee by Missowa and Waseyawin, they carried the fight more fiercely to their foes. The Northwesters were beaten back from the boom they hoped to break. Carlisle at the head of his men seized McLeod and bodily hurled him out on the farther shore. “Get the partners!’ he shouted above the crazy din. “Smash the other partners and the whole crowd will break!’ ‘“‘Are ye no seein’ [ ha’ got ane?” rum- bled Lewis, sloshing in the water like a hippopotamus. He had a neck-hold on McGillivray, and even though Sager leaped upon his back he staggered out to the shallows, cast McGil- livray into the saskatoon bushes like a discarded sack and tore Sager off as a man would pluck a climbing cat. “Ane an’ twa!” he amended. ‘Where are yon ithers?” “Ba gar, here—dese two!” chuckled Drummond as he and Galt backed the McKenzies out on to the stranded ice-cakes with their hammering gun-butts. Jarvis was smiting McDougall with his fists, fighting as he had fought many a Lon- don street fight in the years that were gone. He struck the Northwester at will upon the face and neck, all that showed above the rippling surface, but without warning McDougall drove his knee under water into Jarvis’ stomach and Jarvis staggered violently back against the boom. McDougall turned and madly splashed ashore, while Jarvis gazed after him with a surprise and agony on his Cockney face. “Stryke me blind in the blinkers! That’s a foul, I s’y!” he gasped and promptly col- lapsed across the logs. Up-river a tremendous shout burst out. Carlisle wheeled waist-deep, and a trium- phant laugh broke from him. ‘Wells is coming!’ he encouraged his men. ‘Now, all together! Give them blue perdition!” Wells’ fleet was swinging ’round the Devil’s Elbow at a dizzy speed, the canoes boring forward in long jumps, throwing the water aside in rolling ridges, the paddles making the surface boil. They cheered as they came, all the loud-throated men of the ‘Seepanock Channel, all the river scouts he had picked up on his way down. “Skin for skin!’ they roared to their battling fellows, and immersed warriors found breath to answer back. Adventure “Long live the H. B. C.!” Fresh and strong and numerous Wells’ force struck the Northwesters in the back, and under the pressure of his advance they scattered for the shore like a herd of caribou to join their beaten leaders. Heading the rout, Carlisle saw a bedraggled figure he recognized, the hawk-nosed Dentaire with his mustaches plastered over his cheeks. “By Jove, there he is!’ Carlisle cried. “Look, Eugene. Look, Galt. Dentaire— you remember? Did you ever know the like of that? Ready to die of fear of small- pox and never got it!” Dentaire heard Carlisle’s laugh and took it for an imputation on his bravery. ‘*Bon Dieu, can we fight enemies with our backs as well as our fronts? Also, it is of a circumstance condemnable that our leaders run away. It’s all over with us!” He gesticulated frantically while all the other partners cursed him as they drew out the injured Todd and many more before they broke and clawed a way up over the benchland and off through the park lands, “Missowa! Waseyawin!” Carlisle . or- dered. ‘‘Take the Indian hunters and trail them well clear of the river. Without canoes or many arms they’ll have to beat a way south to the Assiniboine trails, so don’t bother them any further than to see that they keep moving. Lewis, take Jarvis and the rest of the hurt men up to the ost.” “You Galt have Spotted Deer get ready to take my despatch to James Bay and then get plenty of men to pry out that jam in the chasm. This place ought to drain by night, and we'll pick the fur packs and gear off the dry bottom. And you, Eugene, look after the canoes and salvage what you can.” Amid fresh, joyful shrieks from their squaws, the hunters scrambled away on their mission, and Lewis and Galt set about their respective tasks, while Carlisle waded back to the boom with Eugene. Since the struggle began, he had had no opportunity to even glance aside to where he had left the others, but now he saw them in the same spot, Andrews bent over the prostrate Richelieu lying on the logs, Wayne standing beside with his rifle-butt grounded and Joan beckoning with anxious hands. “Diablel’’ exclaimed Eugene. ‘‘W’at she be want now? W’at’s wrong dere? I ain’t be see any wan.” COnmniclboo S (C@