Corporal Cameron of the North West Mounted Police: A Tale of the Macleod Trail

line in straggling camps, straggling because, though the tents of the railway men were set in orderly precision, the

s and Sergeant Ferry found the duty of keeping order among the navvies, but more especially among the outlaw herd that lay in wait to fling th

ame to Cameron and to the Sergeant as well a place of refuge

h it a letter for Constable Camer

tedly the thief, and had left that same day riding a particularly fine black broncho, I made a guess that we had been honoured by a visit from your friend Raven. That guess was confirmed as correct by a little note which I found waiting me from this same gentleman explaining Little Thunder's absence as being due to Raven's unwillingness to see a man go to the gallows who had once saved his life, but conv

, so White Horse, Rainy Cloud, those Piegan chaps, and the rest of them are allowed to wander about at will. The country is full of Indian and half-breed ru

duty to her and to that other nurse

ter and imparted some of

who, when he found a congenial and safe companion, loved to spin a yarn-"a bad half-breed who had been arrested away down the line, jumped off the train and got away to the Blackfeet. The Commissioner happened to be in Calgary and asked the Superintendent himself to see about the capture of this desperado. So with a couple of us mounted and another driving a buckboard we made for Chief Crowfoot's encampment. It was

perintendent, hardly waiting to

dreds about the tent outside, all armed, and wild for blood, you bet. I could hear the Superintendent making his statement. All at once he stopped and out he came with his man

Here's a pass for you on the railroad and for any three of your men. But let me warn you tha

er with a lighted match. Any moment a spark might fall, and then good-bye. And it is this same nerve of his that holds down these camps along this line. Here we are with twenty-five men from Laggan to Beaver keeping order among twenty-five hundred railroad navvies, no

be much trouble just

expect men to wait a month or two. That makes them mad and the tinhorn bunch keep stirring up trouble. Might be

ng yarn the door was flung open and a

he Sergeant, springing

car ran away-

lip with those cars," grow

found a number of navvies frantically tearing at a pile of jagged blocks of rock under which could be seen a human body. It took only a few min

f a man came tearing his way through th

ing on his knees. "Oh Jack, lad,

d upon the face of his friend, smiled and

r back, does

e yet. He is coming

, you," he said, touching a man on the arm, "run

d form upon it the blood streaming from wounds

head, and you," pointing to Jack's friend, "take his feet

ent the little nurse met them

Sergeant," she added, passing into a smaller tent at one side of t

y come?" enquir

re! Now we must lift him on to this stretcher. Ah, here's Nurse Haley," she added in a relieved voice, an

d with apparent ease, assisted by the others, lifted him to the table. "A little further-there. Now you are

biting back his groans and wit

You'll soon be fixed u

I'm all rig

or were here!" groan

po?" enquired Nu

s, give

rm, swift-moving fingers as th

this bleeding s

said the little nurse. "One or two wil

en busy preparing bandages, dropped them, turned,

e than once before, Cameron found himself suddenly forgetting al

he had been in some far away land. Without a single word of greeting he allowed he

bove a face of radiant purity, of deft fingers moving in swift and sure precision as they wound the white rolls of bandages round bloody and broken flesh, of two round capable arms whose lines suggested strength and beauty, of a firm knit, pliant body that moved with easy sinuous grace, of eyes-but ever at the eyes he paused, forgetting all else, till, recalling himself, he began again, striving to catch and hold

at's gone wrong with my eyes, or am I clean off my head? I will

desire to protect her crude simplicity from those who might do her harm. With a vision of that Mandy before him, the drudge of the farm, the butt of Perkins' jokes, the object of pity for the neighbourhood, he could readily summon up all the feelings he had at one time considered it the correct and rather fine thing to cherish for her. But for this young nurse, so thoroughly furnished and fit, and so obviously able to care for herself, these feelings would not come. Indeed, it made him squirm to remember how in his farewell in the orchard he had held her hand in gentle pity for he

of desperate violence

o' Mis C

ng him the note. "You're in luck." There was no

aid Cameron as h

t's

ea

red the Serg

, you go i

re at him frankl

said Cameron rat

enquired t

I'll

John, turning awa

e thing!" gr

up any bluff with me, yo

mind as to the attitude which it would be wise and proper for him to assume toward-ah-Nurse Haley. Why not resume relations at the point at which they were broken off in the orchard that September afternoon a year and a half ago? Why

ty-kept the stream of talk rippling and sparkling in an unbroken flow. Whenever a pause did occur they began afresh with Cameron and his achievements, of which they strove to make him talk. But they ever returned to their own work among the sick and wounded of the c

the tent walls came the sound of singing, low-toned, rich, penetrating. He had n

g home, no

to sin a

wear the br

ng home t

home; we're

ng home t

rse Haley appeared, radiant, fresh, and sweet as a clover field with the

how pure her face under the brown gold hair, how dainty the bloom upon her cheek, and that voice of hers, and the firm lithe body with curving lines of budding womanhood, grace in every curve and movement! The Mandy

other tent summo

le nurse eagerly. But, light-footed

shed back his plate, leaned forward upon the table

ve you done to her?" And the little nurse l

e done to us

. I left her-well-you know what. And

doctor emphatically, "a

ron igno

me?" he said

rse, is she qu

wledge my sin and my folly is before me.

mean exactl

beginning at the top

r h

es

f form-her style-her manner. Oh,

little treatment, massage, with some help from the doctor. Her hands? Again treatment and release from brutalising work. Her figure

came to us we were in despair; and for three months she kept us there, pursuing us, hounding us with questions. Never saw anything like it. One telling was enough though. Her eyes were everywhere, her ears open to every hint, but it was her soul, like a bird imprisoned and beating for the open a

e nurse, "it

you?" said the doctor impatiently. "S

Cameron had

er transformed that coarse integument into its own pure gold. What was that fire? What divine touch had kindled it? And, more important still, was that fire stil