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Held Up. ♦—>•

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Held Up. ♦ — By HAROLD BINDLOSS. (ALL RIGHTS RESERVE?).) It was a still, cool night late in the fall when two men. clad in ragiged blue canvas sund jackets of deerskin stained with green stains by glacier clay, came plodding down a. trail which winds through, the ranges of British Columbia into the wilds of Caribou. Forty years ago that trail was worn deep by the feet of a multitude pressing feverishly northwards in. search of gold, and the bonee of dead men and horses were strewn along it. To-day the forest has reclaimed much of its own, and portions of the road are covered with willows, for the alluvial dig- gings are worked out now, and the precious metal is won in a few places by hydraulic monitors whose owners are joint-stock com- panies. Still, men of experience say there is more treasure yet hidden in the wilderness between Quesnelle and the Peace River than ever was taken out, and at intervals detach- ments of the unfortunate go up in search of it. Some come back with a little, and some never come back at all. Carson, the Englishman, and Cedar Cross- ing Lee had, however, been unusually success- ful, end now, with shoulders aching urnder their burdens, trudged behind the weary pack-horse on their homeward journey. By the next nightfall, all well. they should reach a log-built settlement from which a. waggon road Led to the post where a stage would bear them swiftly south to civilisation again, and for this reason they had determined to cover at least another league before they camped. Carson's feet were bleeding, and the straps had eaten raw wounds in his shoulders; but these were minor discomforts, for the trea- sure of the north is not to be lightly won, so he whistled old snatches of English ballads while the stately pines loomed up out of the dimness and vanished again behind. On either hand the huge, tapered trunks rose like mighty columns, their great branches meeting as though they were arches of the groined roof above, while stray shafts of moonlight filtered through vast patches of shimmering radiance athwart the trail ahead. Also, as usual in that region, the boom of a glacier-fed river rose from unseen depths below, and in places well framed by festoons of whispering needles there opened hirT-irro "him" « majeaiiSTm&aSL&vet&tBtr ing snow. He halted for a. moment to adjust his burdens, two blankets, an a heavy packet in wrappings of hide, while- the moofuligh't bea.t do" n upcn his bronzed face with the long hair falling about it and keen, fearless eyes. "We might hold out for another hoar, but that's the meet," he aaid. The poor Cayuse is dead beat. too. I don't know why, bat up there I hadn't a. oare, while now I feel e&rurjgiely anxious to make the settle- ment. Well. no one can march for ever, and well start with sunrise." Lee, of Cedar Crossing, who was similarly caparisoned, laughed as he smote the horse's flank, and there was a clattering of shovels, axes, tin pans, and kettles as the tired beast blundered on again. He was a. forest rancher, who, like others of his kind, spent much of tune wandering through the wilderness in search of minerals which he did not often find. I guessed you were getting jumpy." he paid. "One usually feels that way towards the end of a lucky journey, especially if he's young. Thinking of that girl in the old country, say? WelL you've enough to go horns and see her. I'm too old for such fool- ing even if I hadn't Elisa. Going to start a. Store a-t, the crossing and indent fee a post- office instead." He started, for as if in answer a. weird, unearthly laugh rang out of the stillness, and, cixajig-iog into a mournful wail, died out far up in the silence of the black hill. side; then smiled feeCly as he said: "Only a. loon. Never liked to hear M. Tha.t Warned distressful bird seems to know when there's trouble Gamins'. Guess we'll get on a last rustle. They quickened their pace, brushing through the dewy coolness, while the scent of pine and cedar huxtg heavy in the air, but Carson hardly noticed it. Already in fancy he breathed the fragrance of English roeee, while the sombre conifers gave pibace to sunny meadows ridged with whitening hay. Also the faces of his kinsfolk rose tip before him, and among them one which was not that of a relative smiled at him wistfully with tear-dimmed eyes, as it did the day he turned his back on the Mother Country. Now he could go back and see them all, while even after that his share of the gold would enable him to seize u.pon one of the open ings which present themselves to the adaptable man with a few dollars in the seaboard towns. He was eatiitled to a space of leisure, he thought after four weary years of dis- appointment and ill-paid labour in the Dominion, and he had won it hardly enough, facing snow-slide, starvation, and dearth in the northern wilderness. Then he shook the reverie from him when the tr ail wound aJong the edge of a slope of shale which diropped steeply to the river1 whoBe roar reached them more hoarsely. White mist curled up towards them from below, a-nd. on the other hand, the climbing pines seemed epires of blackness, while the moon, which now hung over their shoulder dear of the trees, cast long shadows down the trail. Caution was needed here, and Carson wished his comrade had not t.a.lk.ed 80 freely before the loungers in the store of the first outpost of civilisation where they had slept two nights earlier. It stood at the branching of the ways where one trail led north-west towards the desolations of Caewar, and sometimes desperate, broken men who had lost their all came back at that season along it. Still, he knew the mcst part of the tree prospectors were honest as the day, and. tdied to forget Ms growing uneasiness as he listened to the calling of the river" and the whi'sper of the panes, until Lee, grasping the Û¡y¡¡,.ses rein., stopped suddenly. "Stand said a hoarse voice. got jou covered. Hoild your hands Then Carson^ who set his teeth, staring tnto a thicket of sal-lal and withered fern saw the end of a rifle barrel that glinted Tinder the moon. ■ He was by no means a timid man, but he knew that sudden death wculd overtake him a.t the first move, and elecching his fingers ha.rd raised both hands above hu head. I'hat's better." said an unseen man, ironi- cally. Thought you were going to be too Joa,te with it. Don e want any useless un- pleasantness. and we'll be satisfied with wha.t you have got with you. Now, one at a time- the short man first. Slip the traps off your shoulders and let those packages go. You can unbuckle the sling of the rifle, too." Lee growled something which was not a. Messing, but his Winchester fell clattering on the trail, and the hide package followed with » thud. Meantime Carson, whose nerves were tingling with the effort to restrain himself, moved one foot slowly into the shadow that orept towards him. Another few inches and he would be out. of the hateful moonlight when there might be a chance for a bold dash for liberty. Already balancing himself on the other heel, he prepared for a spring, and then the tension on his muscles slackenad Again, for a secdnd voice said: Stop where you are. Another move and you won't know what's hurt you. I'm watching you." The sprays above a low cedar branch rustled, and Caraon, who caught the dim out- line of another barrel turned upon him, did as he was bidden After this, while Lee stood ap unloaded, looking badly ashamed of him- self, the first speaker said: "Stand there against tho hemlock while we tend to you. Drop all those things about yen—so! The Cayuse? Guess we've no use for muling round a camp outfit, and we'll leave him with you. He's branded, with a. bite on the off ear, too. Got anything else of value. No! Then march out straight before you, and something will happen to the first who looks behind him." Lee struck the Cayuse pony savagely with his 21st.. and when he moved dejectedly up the train Carson strode beirnd him faoed with dismay and fury, for the gold they had earned so hardly, lounderhig through snow-choked passes, and swinging the shovel from early dawn until starlight shimmered on the spectral glaciers. lay in the red dust befciad. Worse still, the long- expected journey home and the cha-noea of » future had com with it. 80 once more he attached M< ri<t)t --d until the na.Ua Mt ato _1X1 'I Mia. M .be -]a 1-- Ii tàI6 be must begin the weary abrogate penni- less a-i;a.in, while there was one at home wbo bag waited long, hoping against hope for good tidings from him. For perhaps half a mile they continued silently, until where the trail dipped to the noisy" river and the roar among the boulders drowned the sound of their spiritless stops Carson sat down on a. fadieu hemlock. "You had better rest a while, Lee. and talk things over; there's no hurrs now," he said, bitterly. "Good heavens! What pitif,il cowards we were to let ourselves be robbed of all we had without a blow, by men wa couldn't even see." Taatr's just it!" was the answer "You couldn't see them; they could see you, and it's no use arguing with the man who's watch- ing you over the foresight with a- steady squeeze on the trigger. No; it's safer to do whatever he aeks you. I'm feeling it, too. and Eliza will talk considerable whan I come back again with notbing--&,nd your English shot-gun hanging all the time against the Cayuse's near side, out of their sight, hut just where I couldn t get it. Say, do you figure on spending all the night here?" Carson's eyes glittered with a. dangerous light, as, lifting the weapon down, he opened the breach. Two cartridges filled the ohambers, but these he slipped out, replacing them with others whose w ads bore the lettars B. B. No," he answered, grimly. "Yoi see, 1 want that. gold particularly. As I think I told you, there's a. girl in the old country who expected great things of me. and has been disappointed—badly. Somehow I missed my chances hitherto, and. and now, for 11" sake, I'm going to make a last effort. We've had an object-lesson of the fact that the man with I.i.- finger on the trigger is master Well, it's a. trick that two can play at, and it's no great matter if it doesn't succeed. I'm tired of being a failure, and it will he I bettor, perhaps, for her." (TO BE CONCLUDED TO-MORROW.)

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