Burned Bridges

ent and the thrust of two paddles carried the canoe around t

Ah theenk," Breyette voiced his conviction. "Fe

MacDonald answered carelessly

, me," Mike agreed. "A

t parting with any one or anything. It was to him like taking a last look before a leap in the dark. Thrown entirely upon his own resources he felt wholly inadequate, found his breast filled with incomprehensible misgivings. The wor

suffering an acute

for such a sound. The stillness was not like the stillness of a park, nor an empty street, nor any of the stillnesses he had ever experienced. It was not a kindly, restful stillness,-not to him. It was the hollow hush of huge spaces emptied of

said. Passing over the other things MacLeod had mentioned for his benefit Thompson, in his dimly realized need of some mental stimulus, could not think of a white man and a scho

e theological harmonies. He had never had any doubts or equivocations. Faith was everything, and he had abundance of faith. As a matter of fact, until he encountered MacLeod, the factor of Fort Pachugan, he had never crossed swords with a man open and sincere in disbelief based on rational grounds. He had found those who evaded and some who were indifferent, many who compromised, never before a sweeping denial. He could not

an issue. Somehow this man Carr began to loom in the background of his thought as a commanding figure. At least, Thompson said to himself as he passed through the fringe o

indly at a distant mark. It would take him a year to learn the first smatterings of their tongue. A year! He had understood that the Lone Moose Crees were partly under civilized influences. Certainly he had believed that

. Thompson could not quite understand what had become of this sum. There was nothing but a rat-ridden shack on a half-cleared acre in the edge of the forest. T

familiarity with the outdoor world extended to dogs. But he had heard sometime, somewhere, that it was well to put on a bold front with barking curs. He acted upon this theory, and the dogs kept their teeth

ddressing the older man, a spare-built man with a trim gray beard and a disconcerting direct gaze. "I am a newcomer to t

yriad of fine creases radiating

e that meeting me might prove a doubtful

tack while he was in the act of waving a flag of truce. But he perceived that th

ke yourself, a newcomer to Lone Moose. You may be able to exch

rose to shake hands. (Carr's friendliness seemed a tr

east a generation to make one permanent. Have a seat, Mr. Thompson. What do you

e had no ready defence against that sort of thing. He took a third chair between the two of them and occupied himself a moment exterminating a

so different from my expectations that I find mysel

iritual?" Carr

d Thompson

e answere

ssion he had ever permitted h

ive region. But I daresay you hope to accomplish a va

rcely perceptible, a matter of inflection. Mr. Thompson

u seem to be fully aware of my mission h

smi

rived in one's vicinity. As to my doubts-first and last I've seen three different men sent here by your Board of Home Missions. They have made no more of an impression than a

not an illusion," Thom

. "What I mean is that the people who send you here have not the slightest conception of

," Thompson relu

usiness in any case. We won't get on at all if we begin by discussing theology, and diss

e in the talk. Carr got out his pipe and began stuffing the bowl of it with tobacco.

e has the sporting instinct. It hasn't become a commonplace routine with

first vocal

o dodge about after things in the woods with a gun. Keeps you fit, for one thing. Lots of compan

it so," Mr. Tho

n on the deuce of a job,"

to dispute that. He had pe

ation langu

silent unless they have something to say, who think more than they speak. The spinster aunts had been voluble persons, full of small chatter, women of no mental reservations whatever. The young men of his group had not been much different. The reflective attitude as o

sense to realize, was totally unlike theirs. He could do nothing but sit still, remain physically inert while he was mentally in a state of extreme unrest. He ventured a b

or the sake of intelligent companionship. He was like a man sentenced to solitary confinement. Even the temporary presence of a jailer is a boon to such, a break in the ghastly solitude. But he was fast succumbing to a despair of reaching across the barrier

happened to Mr. Thomp

he presence of a woman. Yet it cannot be gainsaid that it does happen. It was so in Thompson's case. Staring into the clear pools of Sophie Carr'

t was purely an instinctive revelation. A blind man whose sight has been restored, upon whose eager vision bursts suddenly all the br

sins. A woman's eyes, her hair, her hands, her bearing-these things had never obtruded upon his notice before. Yet he saw now that a shaft of sunlight on her hair made it shimmer like ripe wheat straw, that her breast was full and rounded, her lips red and sweetly curved. But it was not alone tha

t a cold, passionless tolerance in his attitude toward women. Technically he was aware of sex, advised as to its pitfalls and temptations; actually he could grasp nothing of the sort. A very small child is incapa

irl at his elbow singed him like a flame. If he had been as

that rose in his face. And as if there was some mysterious mode of communication established between them a faint blush deep

tested. "Keep you

e two men and the girl. "My daughter. Mr. Thompson is the

showing this incomprehensible state. The girl's manner put him a little at his ease. She gave him her hand, soft warm fingers that he h

sionary to Lone Moose?" sh

ction he had noticed in her father's comment on his mission. It pained Thompson. He had no availabl

n is in the kitchen and w

lood. He was sadly perplexed. Measured by his own standards, even to harbor such thoughts as welled up in his mind was a

g along," he said to Carr

wy hand with the first trace

ination we'll match our theories of the human problem, maybe. Of course we'l

n Thompson, a little thicker through the chest, and not quite so tall. One imagined rightly that he was very strong, that he could be swift and purposeful in his movements, despite an apparent delibe

l, whistled shrilly, and a brown dog appeared hastily from

son. "There's a slough over beyond your diggin's

to step acro

the type one expects to find here-permanently

ou ought to see the books he's got. Amazing. Science, philosophy, the poets-all sorts. Don't try arguing theology with him unless you're quite advanced. Of course, I know the church i

ry himself here so long. Is it a fact that he is married to

an Indian woman, right enough. They've got th

son a quick s

od," said he. "She

almost ch