IN BLUE CREEK CANON. CONTENTS. I. A COUNCIL ON SKATES 7 II. To WELCOME THE COMING GUEST … 23 III. THE EVERETT HOUSEHOLD 44 IV. ON THE CROSS-HEAD 61 V. THE MEETING IN THE WATERS …. 77 VI. MARJORIE S PARTY 92 VII. JANEY S PROPHECY 110 VIII. IN THE DARK 127 IX. CAMPING ON THE BEAVERHEAD … .145 X. UP THE GULCH 163 XI. quot SWEET CHARITY S SAKEquot 180 XII. HOME WITHOUT A MOTHER … … 199 XIII. AT THE NINE-HUNDRED LEVEL … .216 XIV. THE BEGINNING OF THE OLD STORY … 233 XV. MR. ATHERDEN 250 XVI. THE COMPLETED STORY 268 XVII. THE TRAGEDY OF THE UNEXI-ECTED … 283 XVIII. UNDER ORDERS 299 IN BLUE CREEK CANON. CHAPTER I. A COUNCIL ON SKATES. A STRONG southeast wind was blowing up the canon and driving before it the dense yellow smoke which rolled up from the great red chim neys of the smelter. To the east and west of the town, the mountains rose abruptly, their steep sides bare or covered with patches of yellow pine. At the noh, the canon closed in to form a narrow gorge between the mountains but towards the south it opened out into a broad valley, through which the swiftly rushing creek twisted and turned along its willow-bordered bed. A half mile below the town the creek suddenly broadened into a little lake that was now frozen over, forming a sheet of dazzling ice, upon which a quartette of boys and girls were darting about on skates. quot quot as a sudden Ugh gasped one of the boys, gust of wind, coming straight from the east, brought