The Red River Half-Breed

r train was skimming over the snows. From a distance one might have supposed it a flig

, shoes were formed of thin wood turned up in front; their width prevented the sledges sinking materially. But the speed was what saved them better from being submerged in the twenty-five feet dead level snow. Moreover, the steersmen, so to call them, of the queer craft, were both fitted for their posts

depended the lives of all in those two vehicles. Those following might

blast as a bronze statue. Now and again a whirl of wind caught up the ice crystals and encircled his erect figure within the crue

ious thrill which the rapidity of the course

guards of the party leader. The second snow ship carried the more valuable property and the "new hands," who co

most conveyance with his daugh

this escort, nearly thirty s

templated founding a city on the line of the British Pacific Railway. He never invested his money on hearsay, and he would not ask his friends to

ith him the sole object of h

plexioned Italians do their most to mar our proper conception of that ideal of the druidess. At the officers' ball at

off the original project till spring; and, in the meanwhile, assented to her wish to see something of the marvels which were currently reported of the Yellowstone Basin. By the greatest good luck, an Indian was at Fort

niversal homage to talent in the scorned aborigine, it was the English secretary of Sir Archie, and that distrust seemed to be caused by a kind of jealousy at being consigned to the other sailing sledg

re stripping the trees of bark and moss in secret coverts; even the Arctic fox kept secluded behind the tops of trees

field, the ice-clad mountains, the mighty wind that hurried the two ponderous sledges on

ir chat. Visions of hot tea made lips water, whe

w obstacles cropped up which the Indian had not avoided

it of the snowy plateau. It was so swiftly "lifted" that in an hour or so all believed

d his muscles, for they s

curious monotonous chant, which amused Miss Maclan. Her fa

he remarked. "What a funny song!

ver been so rude before. "It's a death song. Look out, mates. Au gu

ty different spots sent up its echo, and what seemed wolves bo

first sledge was over the precipice; in five the second followed. Three or four men leaped out of this-of the other it was impossible to do so in time, and it sank in the snow of which their leap broke the crust.

force had not relaxed their murderous intentions. Dragging the dog sledges to a hollow, where they could light a fire un

lled them in the long night. Over the whites the Indians showed no emotion save a brutal rejoicing. But it was different when they discovered the body of their countryman. Not only were they a little perplexed how to regard a suicide which so profited the tri

heir martyr-hero, and, bestowing on his corpse the prize

h gun, to adorn his last sleeping place. May the fear inspiring Crow nation never know t

of the men on the snow at present. When the thaws came, the dead Crow, laid upon this platform, would be for

and worthless, intrinsically, as the cut paper of the Chinese. But when valuables can

o their doom by the pretended Chippeway. Not till the stealing up of the whitened wolves proved they had long since left the wind untainted with their

utchery following the hurling of the l

her in its folds as the circularly rising column of cold air from below caught it and momentarily swelled it out. By this accident the swiftness

o add a zest to their regale. All she had heard of the redskin's merciless treatment of women captives impressed her. She crept still more deeply into the cavity of the rotten tree, and waited with little hope. Not a sound to cheer her in her neighbourhood. Absorbed in prayer

re. They probed the snow and every cleft of the rocks to secure the hairy trophies from the hapless crews of the snow ships. Not one could have been found alive, for at eac

th from her nook would betray her. She did not see, therefore, that, unable to be

were overwhelming. The snow was trampled and pulled about by the searchers. Dead bodies, gashed

e for her to recognise her late companions. To find her father was a vain i

ion. On the edge of the precipice, gorged wolves, that had devoured the voyageurs up there, were lazily contemplating the

thirst far from quenched by sucking a snow

western desert, the great mass of the Rocky Mountains looming up beyond, impressive, insurmo

the ironbound soil under the snow to inter this mangled débris

g snow, would have set her in action. But at the first step towards the nearest corpse, with its trunk bristling

of protruding pines where the deceptive Indian guide reposed

ale face was even visible; with a steady hand some of the trophies which adorned the monument were unhanged from the branches-the knife of Sandy Ferguson, the English r

the face of the bluff, sniffed danger. As the spectre proceeded, the largest squatted, and emitted a lugubrious howl. All the oth

ubitably at her, the conviction was too strong for her overtasked nerves. She murmured a prayer, and turned to flee frant

dian halt almost at the edge of the sealed up cavity wh

he exclaimed, with the de

secretary o

n, these brave, patient, devoted, cheerful hunters and campmen, that young lady never to be too much pitied! It brings the tears into my eyes-miserable solitary mourner that I am to try to do so much barbarity justice. Heaven knows that I came out here with no prejudice against the red ma

the time no response was given him. Then, having made a meal on the height, where the same fatal tale

absent in tracts, he found that the wily savages were not to be foll