“Non! Jamais, par Dieu!” Jules shouted fiercely at him. “V’ere ees ma femme an’ Le Grand? Ah mus’ go ce soir!”
“It aire too bad, me lad, thut ye’re no opin to sic a chaince. Aweel, God ha’ maircy on yere soule!” He whistled sharply as he finished, and the store was suddenly filled with Indians.
“Take him awa’ and look after him till sun-oop, thin shoot him!” the factor ordered, and Jules was buffeted and hustled out of the store. The guards goaded and insulted him; they tied him hand and foot and pushed him headlong into an empty tepee, without blankets or food, and left him there, powerless.
He lay on his back and unconsciously listened to the heavy, gruff voices whose hoarse murmur penetrated to him from the fireside beyond. Then a tremor of rage thrilled him; the powerful muscles twisted and bulged, but the fastenings held and the thongs cut into the skin. Jules gave up and was still, while fears and hopes for Her crossed and recrossed in his brain. “V’ere dey go? Par où dey gon’?” he whispered to himself time and again. The restrained circulation in his arms and legs pained, and thumped audibly, it seemed to him; his hands had lost their feeling and were growing cold. Time dragged slowly on; all had become silent in the post, when some one came into the tepee and stood in the darkness, chuckling.
“Le Pendu,” Jules thought, but said nothing.
“Eh, tu!” his visitor said, pushing him with his foot. No answer. The Indian kicked Verbaux hard. “Wak’ hup, cochon, beas’!” he growled.
Jules’s anger seethed, but he gave no sign of it. “Vat tu vant?” he asked.
“Notting,” the other answered. “Ah comme for to tell dat cette vomans an’ l’Indien be los’ certainement; dey gone au nord, loook for toi, an’—ha, ha! c’est drôle—you den comme here! Bien, c’est bon comme ça; Ah tol’ to you dat you mus’ be au Hodson Baie Compagnie, hein?”
“Oui.” Jules spoke quietly, resolved not to let his tormentor know of his sufferings.
“You be keel dans le matin, an’ Ah goin’ shoot toi, Verbaux; den mabbe Ah go fin’ dat femme?” he laughed and stepped nearer to Jules.
The latter heard the Indian close to his feet, though he could not see him, and raising his tied legs, he shot them forward viciously with a straight hip thrust and caught the other in the stomach.