thereafter, found its way into the hands of Corporal MacGregor. Tonetah and Thurston were at the camp when Waters returned. At the first opportunity, Waters told Thurston all that had occurred. Tonetah was resting quietly in the shade of the cabin, squatted on his haunches and smoking his pipe. The two other men went inside and held a hasty consultation. "Your best plan is to go as he wishes you to," Waters advised. "I don't know what old Humphreys will wire me; but after Jim has gone, we can do as we see fit. This stupid guide hasn't any suspicions, and, if he has-well, we can get rid of him easily enough. With Jim out of the way, we can dig a small fortune in a few weeks, cash in the dirt down at Beaujeau and then make tracks for other parts." "But we'd better get those bonds before we go," said Thurston. Acting on his thought, he walked to the rude closet where Jimmy kept his things, and, opening the door, searched for Downes's heavy mackinaw. Rudely he ripped open the lining. A cry of amazed anger escaped him as he drew out the bundle of folded newspapers. Waters stared at him unbelievingly. An oath from Thurston indicated the other's rage. "The crafty crook!" Thurston exclaimed. “He wants to turn me out because I'm a thief, and all the while he's made off with my bonds! Nice virtue, that! No wonder he wants to get rid of me!" BU CHAPTER XIX OUT Waters was smiling despite the dark look on his companion's countenance. "Don't get so excited," he said. "The bonds only amounted to twenty thousand dollars. Let him have them. We can get much more than that out of the claim, and I can make a hit with Humphreys by having the sheriff from Paquinaus arrest Jim Downes." Thurston stared at him in wonder. "What do you mean?" he demanded suspiciously. "How can you have him arrested?" "By announcing that he has the bonds which you stole. He hadn't left New England at the time you took them. Naturally, you know where they came from and what they were. We'll prefer charges against him and say that you came up here purposely to locate him. Then, when he's safely in jail-" Waters paused and, kissing his hand into the air, made a mock bow of triumph to the surprised Thurston. Thurston laughed. "It's rather a daring game," he said cautiously, "but worth trying. Of course, I can't substantiate the charge, and "That's true," Thurston agreed, "but it will mean 'good night' to me from Mary Downes if she ever learns the truth!" "Then you are keen on marrying Mary?" Waters asked him. "Yes," admitted Thurston. "She's the only decent element that's ever come into my life despite the fact that my family were rich and influential. I've been a natural-born black sheep and I thought-when it was too late-that she might prove the incentive to change me. However, I guess I'm in the thing too deep now, to back down. I'll stay here and you go on down to the village and announce that Downes He stopped abruptly as the door opened, and Tonetah walked leisurely into the room. The Indian gave a grunt as he observed them. He proceeded to prepare the evening meal. With consummate skill he started a rabbit stew, and the two men, taking advantage of the guide's preoccupation, slipped outside the cabin. "Downes will be back shortly," Thurston said when they were alone. "Hurry up, for he will undoubtedly pack up his nuggets, to-night, and be starting in the morning." "On thinking it over," Waters said, "I don't quite see how I can file the charges against Downes. I never owned any bonds-there is no reason why I should be in possession of them. Hadn't you better go to the sheriff?" Thurston thought for a moment. "Perhaps you're right," he decided finally. "I'm putting myself in danger, but I can undoubtedly make a better case against him than you can, so I'll go." "Stop at the telegraph office and find out if there's anything there for me.” Waters asked, as Thurston made ready for the journey. The sun was setting over the western treetops, gloriously coloring the wild northwestern scene, as Thurston started away in the direction of Paquinaus. He had scarcely gone when Jim Downes appeared at the opening which led out of the forest. He waved one hand to Caleb. The other held a yellow envelope containing a telegram. As he approached, he tossed it to Waters, who seized it eagerly, and, with a guilty flush, tore the mes sage open. "Do anything to prevent Charles return," he (Continued on page 150) When Your Life Bark Runs into Snags and Shallows By ORISON SWETT MARDEN HEN a man of courage starts out for himself he knows perfectly well that he is going to have all sorts of difficulties, almost insurmountable obstacles to contend with. No matter what line of business he enters, he knows that hard times will come every little while; that business panics may overtake him; that sickness and accidents are liable at any time to cripple him, but he doesn't hesitate to move on; he doesn't vizualize all sorts of obstacles and snags ahead and hold back for fear of them. If he did he would never get anywhere. He simply makes up his mind that, in spite of obstacles, setbacks and difficulties, he will hold steadfastly to his course. He knows that there is a power within him that will carry him to his goal. He believes he can succeed in his life purpose. He makes up his mind that he will, and no power on earth can hold him back. THE HE worst kind of obstacle is the one that has no reality at all, that exists only in the mind of the coward and the weakling. As John Locke, the philosopher, says: "The ideas and images in men's minds are the things that govern them and to them they all universally pay a ready consent." The man of courage and grit, refusing to be frightened by the obstacles in his path, holds, even in the darkest hour, a bright vision of success just ahead. The weak, spineless man reverses this mental process. In addition to the real obstacles to be overcome, his frightened imagination conjures innumerable others that have no reality but what he gives them. From the moment he begins to steer his life bark for himself he sees nothing but snags ahead. His strained eyes, looking beyond the needs of to-day, see only disaster and failure in the future. Doubt, Fear, Despair and their numerous relatives, rise in front of him and all around, threatening to swamp him. Such a man is defeated before he ever encounters a real obstacle. HOW TOW do you face the voyage of life, my friend? How do you approach snags, real obstacles? What do you do when you can't see the way ahead of you, when it is black and threatening and everything in the direction of your goal is enveloped in gloom? Do you weaken? Do you show the white feathergive up and turn back? Or do the very obstacles that confront you stiffen your backbone and make you all the more determined to win out? It is in such a supreme crisis that the man of courage, sustained by the light of his inward vision, rises to the height of his divine manhood and sweeps on past all obstacles to find victory. A great scientist said that when he encountered what seemed an unconquerable obstacle, he invariably found himself upon the brink of some important dis covery. Every significant victory, every great achievement in the lives of men and nations, is the fruit of courage in facing and conquering difficulties. The discovery of our own country is one of the most splendid examples of this. No accumulation of obstacles, though they were piled mountain high, could discourage Columbus or turn him from his purpose. Dismissed as a fool from one European court after another, he continued to push his suit in the face of a mocking, incredulous world, until finally King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, won by his earnestness, helped him equip his little fleet. Ease, pleasure, position, life itself if need be, must be sacrificed to the attainment of his object. Fresh disasters, new obstacles, storms, leaky vessels, mutiny of sailors-nothing could shake his purpose or turn him aside from his goal. But for such indomitable souls there would be no such world as we live in to-day. Even though he may be temporarily defeated again and again, the man who defies obstacles and in spite of everything keeps pushing ahead is always a victor in life's battles. And his heroic example lives on through the ages to spur to their highest endeavor millions who come after him. CENTU ENTURIES after the death of Scotland's great hero, the Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth, struggling for his country's independence, said in an address: "You know the story often related of Robert Bruce. Defeated and hunted down by his enemies, fleeing before them, concealed in a rock cave, he saw a spider climbing up the uneven wall, to reach the spot where it was to spread its net. Six times it fell from the rocky surface, but the seventh time it reached its goal. This was a lesson for the despondent Bruce. The spider taught him one word-again and ever again— and he freed his country. And again and ever again is our motto, too." When your life bark runs into snags and shallows; when obstacles loom like mountains ahead of you; when storms break and you are in danger of being engulfed by the waves; when you are almost overwhelmed by some crushing defeat, then is the time to hold fast to your courage and determination; then is the time to say with Robert Bruce, with George Washington, with Grant, with Foch, with every great soul who has plucked victory from defeat, "Again and ever again." It is easy to push ahead, to be cheerful and buoyant, when everything is encouraging, when there is a hopeful outlook; but when there is no light above the perate circumstances, great poverty and hard. ships have ever developed the giants of the race How do you think George Washington, or Ben Franklin, or Abe Lincoln or Christopher Columbus, or Robert Bruce would have regarded the barriers which you, perhaps right now, are thinking impassable? Why, they would have laughed at them. It is doubtful whether they would have noticed them at all Compared with the obstacles which they pushed out of their way on their march to victory they are nothing. You will never make much head way in your career until you realize that the only obstacles than can bar you from success are bogies of your own creation-Doubt, Fear. Despair. horizon; when disaster seems imminent; when one is smarting under defeat; when doubt, discouragement and despair are struggling for mastery, then to hold one's faith, one's courage, without complaining, to push ahead at such a time with cheerfulness and zest, this is a triumph, indeed, this is the victory of man over all human weakness. Men and women who do this are made of the sort of material in honor of which the world builds its monuments. They are the men and women who help the world along. The man or woman who has not had to overcome obstacles, who does not bear the scar of desperate conflict, has never been heard of. Opposition, hard conditions, des 1921 Health-the Everlasting Reality O nothing else touching his life can the aphorism "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he" be To more fittingly applied than to a man's health. Health can be established only by thinking health, just as disease is established by thinking disease. Just as you must think success, expect it, visualize it, make your mind a huge success magnet to attract it if you are to attain it, so if you want to be healthy, you must think health, you must expect it, you must visualize it, you must attract it by making your mind a huge health magnet to attract more health, abundant health. As long as physical defects, weaknesses, or diseased conditions exist in the imagination, as long as the mind is filled with visions of ill health the body must correspond, because our bodies are but an extension of our thoughts, our minds objectified. Health is based upon the ideal of the body's perfection and the absolute denial of disease, the denial of everything but the ideal condition; upon the idea that only that which is good for us can be real in the highest sense of the word; that all physical discords are only the absence of harmony, not the reality of our being, the truth of us. Health is the everlasting reality, disease is the absence of reality. It is only seeming. In proportion to the physician's ability to suggest perfect soundness of body to his patient, to visualize him as physically perfect; in proportion to his power to see and to impress upon the mind of his patient the image of the ideal, instead of that of the diseased, discordant, suffering individual, will he be able to help him. T HE thing known as "The World" EDITOR'S NOTE HOMAS L. MASSON, the author of LIFE. While Mr. Masson has made a national reputation as a humorist and is, perhaps, the most prolific producer of jokes in the world, he is also a keen philosopher and sees the serious side of life from a practical angle. You will enjoy his article because it is the work of a man who is alive to the philosophy of success. Mr. Masson holds that every man is his own Sisyphus. Now, Sisyphus was the crafty and avaricious king of Corinth which city his father, Eolus, founded. Sisyphus was condemned in Hades forever to roll to the top of a steep hill a huge stone which constantly rolled back again, making his task incessant. is the kind of a thing that most men hang around their necks, and it goes bobbing around them, as they walk along, getting very much in their way, and causing them considerable inconvenience and pain. It appears to be fastened to them so insecurely, that they cannot keep it from thus bobbing about, yet all attempts to get rid of it are unavailing. And so they stumble on, cursing their luck, and wondering why they were ever fastened to such an unpleasant obstacle. They keep trying over and over again to tame it, to get it into some orderly manner of procedure, but it is always surprising them, knocking them down with the back impact and they never seem to get the best of it. Some of them, indeed, endeavor to go so fast that the world drags on after them-for a time. But it always catches up, and swings them off their feet. They resemble in this respect the ancient Sisyphus, who was condemned to roll a boulder up a hill, but no sooner did he get it up, than it rolled down and he had to begin all over again. We are always beginning all over again with our individual worlds, and never quite get over the top of the hill. The world of course, is the thing that a man makes himself, as he goes along. It is a small you will stop and think that this must be so. world at first, but it gradually gets bigger. It gets more interesting for a lot of folks, while at the same time it gets more burdensome. Some of them succeed in smoothing it off a bit, so that its edges are not quite so jagged. Some of them learn, by very hard practice, to cajole it a little, to dodge it a little, to keep it a little under control. But the effort is very likely to exhaust them in the end. The singular part about all this is that they think there is only one world that they are pulling along. But in fact, there are as many worlds as there are people. Each one of us is carrying along a world of his own. "This is your world and my world" you are apt to say, but it isn't at all. My world is mine and yours is yours, but there is no big world for all, there is only one world apiece for each one of us. If a moment you will see The world you think that you share in common with others, is only your world after all. When you go out, your world goes out, and all the other worlds that others are carrying along are just their individual worlds. To realize that, to feel it, is to begin to get somewhere. |