Deep in the night a long, mournful howl, repeated again and again, roused the sleeping post. Straightway the dogs of the factor and the Crees, followed by the Eskimos’ huskies on the beach, were pointing their noses at the moon in dismal chorus. With muttered curse and protest from tepee, shack and factor’s quarters, the wakened people of the post covered their ears and sought sleep, for no hour is sacred to the moon-baying husky and no one may suppress him. One wakes, and lifting his nose, pours out his canine soul in sleep-shattering lament, when, promptly, every husky within hearing takes up the wail.
The post dogs, having, alternately, and in chorus, to their hearts’ content and according to the custom of their fathers, transformed the calm July night into a horror of sound, again sought sleep with noses buried in bushy tails. Once more the mellow light of the moon bathed the sleeping fur post, when from the stockade behind the mission rose a long-drawn note of grief.
The dark brows of Père Breton, watching beside the delirious Marcel, contracted.
“Could it be?” he queried aloud. Curious, the priest glanced at his patient, then went outside to the stockade. There, with gray nose thrust between the pickets stood Fleur. As he approached, the dog growled, then sniffing, recognized a friend of the master who sometimes fed her, and whined.
“What is the matter, Fleur? Do you miss Jean Marcel?”
At the mention of the loved name, the dog lifted her massive head and the deep throat again vibrated with the utterance of her grief for one who had not returned.
“She has waked to find the blanket of Jean Marcel empty, and mourns for him!”
Père Breton returned to his vigil beside the wounded man.
When the early dawn flushed the east, the grieving Fleur was still at her post at the stockade gate awaiting the return of Jean Marcel. And not until the sun lifted above the blue hills of the valley of the Whale did she cease her lament to seek her complaining puppies.
At daylight McCain and Jules, coming to relieve the weary priest, found Julie sitting with him. The wound was a long slashing one, but the lungs of Marcel seemed to have escaped. The fever would run its course. There was little to do but wait, and hope against infection.
Greeting Julie, whose dark eyes betrayed a lack of sleep and whose face reflected an agony of anxiety, the men called Père Breton outside the mission.
“The Lelacs will not go south for trial, father,” said McCain dryly.
“What do you mean? Why not?” demanded the astonished priest.
“Well, because there’s no need of it now,” went on McCain mysteriously.
“No need of it! I don’t understand. They have done enough harm here. If they don’t go, the Crees will do something”
“The Crees have done something,” interrupted. McCain.
“You don’t mean” queried the priest, light slowly dawning upon him.
“Yes, just that. They overpowered and bound the guard, last night, and—well, they made a good job of it!”
“Killed the prisoners?” The priest slowly shook his head.
McCain nodded. “We found them both knifed in the heart. On the old man was a piece of birch bark, with the words: ‘This work done by friends of Jean Marcel.’”
The priest raised his hands. “It would have been better to send them south. Still, they were evil men, and deserved their fate. Tell nothing of it to Julie. She has taken this thing very hard.”
When Wallace and Gillies had surveyed the bodies of the dead half-breeds, the factor turned grimly to his chief.
“Well, Wallace, I don’t see how we can send the Lelacs south for trial now. They wouldn’t keep that long.”
“Gillies,” said the inspector with a frown, ignoring the ghastly witticism, “I want you to run down the men who did this. Whether they deserved it or not, I won’t have men murdered in this district without trial. The lawlessness of the east coast has got to stop.”
Gillies turned away, suppressing with difficulty his anger. Shortly in control of his voice, he answered:
“Mr. Wallace, I have put in many years, boy and man, on this coast, and I think I understand the Crees. To punish the men who did this, provided we knew who they were, would be the worst thing the company could do. When the Lelacs stole Beaulieu’s fur and rifle, they put themselves outside the Cree law, and as sure as the sun will set in Hudson Bay to-night, the Lelacs would never have got out of the bush alive this winter.”
“I know,” objected Wallace, “but to overpower our guards and kill them under our noses”