



Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: The Settler]




                              THE SETTLER


                                   BY

                            HERMAN WHITAKER

                               AUTHOR OF
                     "THE MYSTERY OF THE BARRANCA"
                           "THE PLANTER" ETC.



                      HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
                          NEW YORK AND LONDON



                       [Illustration: Title page]




                 COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY HARPER & BROTHERS

                PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA




                                   TO
                                 ALYSE




                               *CONTENTS*


CHAP.

      I. The Park Lands
     II. A Deputation
    III. The Trail
     IV. The Coyote Snaps
      V. Jenny
     VI. The Shadow
    VII. Mr. Flynn Steps into the Breach
   VIII. When April Smiled Again
     IX. The Devil
      X. Friction
     XI. The Frost
    XII. The Break
   XIII. The Camp
    XIV. The Red Teamster
     XV. Travail
    XVI. A House-party
   XVII. --And Its Finale
  XVIII. The Persistence of the Established
    XIX. The Wages of Sin
     XX. --Is Death
    XXI. Persecution
   XXII. Denunciation
  XXIII. The Charivari
   XXIV. Without the Pale
    XXV. The Sunken Grade
   XXVI. Winnipeg
  XXVII. The Nature of the Cinch
 XXVIII. The Strike
   XXIX. The Bluff
    XXX. Fire
   XXXI. Wherein the Fates Substitute a Change of Bill
  XXXII. The Trail Again




                             *THE SETTLER*



                                  *I*

                            *THE PARK LANDS*


The clip of a cutting axe flushed a heron from the bosom of a reedy lake
and sent him soaring in slow spirals until, at the zenith of his flight,
he overlooked a vast champaign.  Far to the south a yellow streak marked
the scorched prairies of southern Manitoba; eastward and north a spruce
forest draped the land in a mantle of gloom; while to the west the woods
were thrown with a scattering hand over a vast expanse of rolling
prairie.  These were the Park Lands of the Fertile Belt--a beautiful
country, rich, fat-soiled, rank with flowers and herbage, once the
hunting-ground of Cree and Ojibway, but now passed to the sterner race
whose lonely farmsteads were strewn over the face of the land.  These
presented a deadly likeness.  Each had its log-house, its huge tent of
firewood upreared against next winter's drift, and the same yellow
strawstacks dotted their fenceless fields.  One other thing, too, they
had in common--though this did not lie to the eye of the heron--a
universal mortgage, legacy of the recent boom, covered all.

At the flap of the great bird's wing a man stepped from the timber and
stood watching him soar.  He was a tall fellow, lean as a greyhound,
flat-flanked, in color neither dark nor fair.  His eyes were deep-set
and looked out from a face that was burned to the color of a brick.  His
nose was straight and large, cheeks well hollowed; the face would have
been stern but for the humor that lurked about the mouth.  Taken
together, the man was an excellent specimen of what he was--a young
American of the settler type.

"Gone plumb out of sight," he muttered, rubbing his dazzled eyes.  "An'
he wasn't no spring chicken.  Time to feed, I reckon."

A few steps carried him to his team, a rangy yoke of steers which were
tied in the shade.  Having fed them, he returned to his work and chopped
steadily until, towards evening, his wagon was loaded with poplar rails.
Then hitching, he mounted his load and "hawed" and "geed" his way
through the forest.  As he came out on the open prairie the metallic
rattle of a mower travelled down the wind.  Stopping, he listened, while
a shadow deepened his tan.

"Comes from Morrill's big slough," he muttered, whipping up the oxen.
"Who'll it be?"

Morrill, his near neighbor