The Huntress   By: Hulbert Footner (1879-1944)

( Photoplay Edition "The Huntress" ) ( A First National Picture )]

THE HUNTRESS

By HULBERT FOOTNER

AUTHOR OF

"The Fur Bringers," "The Woman From Outside," "The Owl Taxi," "Thieves' Wit," "The Substitute Millionaire," etc.

A. L. BURT COMPANY

Publishers New York

Published by arrangement with The James A. McCann Company

Printed in U. S. A.

Copyright 1922, by

THE JAMES A. McCANN COMPANY

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE FISH EATERS' VILLAGE 1

II. MUSQ'OOSIS ADVISES 11

III. AT NINE MILE POINT 21

IV. THE VISITOR 36

V. THE DICE DECIDE 46

VI. A FRESH SURPRISE 57

VII. THE SUITORS 70

VIII. THE LITTLE MEADOW 85

IX. BELA'S ANSWER 98

X. ON THE LAKE 107

XI. THE ISLAND 120

XII. THE NEXT DAY 136

XIII. ON THE RIVER 149

XIV. AT JOHNNY GAGNON'S 164

XV. THE NORTH SHORE 177

XVI. AT THE SETTLEMENT 193

XVII. AN APPARITION 207

XVIII. THE "RESTERAW" 222

XIX. THE NEW BOARDER 234

XX. MALICIOUS ACTIVITY 246

XXI. SAM IS LATE 258

XXII. MUSCLE AND NERVE 267

XXIII. MAHOOLEY'S INNINGS 278

XXIV. ON THE SPIRIT RIVER 290

XXV. CONCLUSION 304

THE HUNTRESS

CHAPTER I

THE FISH EATERS' VILLAGE

From within the teepee of Charley Whitefish issued the sounds of a family brawl. It was of frequent occurrence in this teepee. Men at the doors of other lodges, engaged in cleaning their guns, or in other light occupations suitable to the manly dignity, shrugged with strong scorn for the man who could not keep his women in order. With the shrugs went warning glances toward their own laborious spouses.

Each man's scorn might well have been mitigated with thankfulness that he was not cursed with a daughter like Charley's Bela. Bela was a firebrand in the village, a scandal to the whole tribe. Some said she was possessed of a devil; according to others she was a girl born with the heart of a man.

This phenomenon was unique in their experience, and being a simple folk they resented it. Bela refused to accept the common lot of women. It was not enough for her that such and such a thing had always been so in the tribe.

She would not do a woman's tasks (unless she happened to feel like it); she would not hold her tongue in the presence of men. Indeed, she had been known to talk back to the head man himself, and she had had the last word into the bargain.

Not content with her own misbehaviour, Bela lost no opportunity of gibing at the other women, the hard working girls, the silent, patient squaws, for submitting to their fathers, brothers, and husbands. This naturally enraged all the men.

Charley Whitefish was violently objurgated on the subject, but he was a poor spirited creature who dared not take a stick to Bela. It must be said that Bela did not get much sympathy from the women. Most of them hated her with an astonishing bitterness.