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Then he felt the revolver belt dragged from about his waist and his long sheath-knife withdrawn from its sheath. Then, and not till then, the pressure on his chest relaxed, and the hand that had gripped his throat released its hold. The next moment he was lifted to his feet as though he were a mere puppet, and the voice of Jean Leblaude broke harshly upon his ears.
And the lonely giant, Jean Leblaude, slept the light slumber of the journeyer in the wild; the slumber that sees and hears when danger is abroad, and yet rests the body. He dreamed not, though all his schemes had gone awry, for he was weary. "Aim-sa! Aim-sa! I come!"
He gazes with staring eyes upon the woods as though he sees the vision of the woman that has inspired his cry. On, he speeds towards the beasts whose chorus welcomes him; on, to the dark woods in which he plunges from view. Jean Leblaude, standing within cover of the woods which lined the creek, was lost to all sight and sound other than the strange scene enacted at the store.
You an' me are goin' to talk, Victor Gagnon." The trader glanced angrily at the man with the hood. "See here, Jean Leblaude, you allus had a crank in yer head, an' I don't cotton to cranks anyhow." "But you'll cotton to this," replied Jean drily. "Eh?" "It's nigh on to three year since you an' sister Davi' took on together," he went on, ignoring the interruption, and speaking with great feeling.
"Wal, that's settled," he said to himself. "The boodle stops right here. Now we'll see, Jean Leblaude, who's runnin' this layout. Ther's whiskey aboard that train. Mebbe you ain't like to fergit that. You'll taste sure. As ye jest sed, 'we'll see." The trader knew his man. The great Jean had all the half-breed's weaknesses as well as a more than usual supply of their better qualities.
The trader looked long into the cavernous moose-eyes of the Hooded Man while he choked down the rage which consumed him. He knew that he was a prisoner in his own store. Resistance would be utterly useless against such a man as Jean Leblaude. In his scheme for obtaining wealth Victor had omitted to take into consideration one of the great factors of a life of wrong-doing.
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