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"How do you do," the man said, slipping a mitten and holding out his bare hand. "My name is Snass," he added, as they shook hands. "Mine's Bellew," Smoke returned, feeling peculiarly disconcerted as he gazed into the keen-searching black eyes. "Getting plenty to eat, I see." Smoke nodded and resumed his marrow-bone, the purr of Scottish speech strangely pleasant in his ears. "Rough rations.
The hundreds of wolf-dogs in the camp had lifted their nocturnal song, but under the volume of it, close at hand, he could distinguish the light, regular breathing of Snass. Labiskwee tugged gently at Smoke's sleeve, and he knew she wished him to follow. He took his moccasins and German socks in his hand and crept out into the snow in his sleeping moccasins.
Everybody feared him. He was terrible when angry. There were the Porcupines. It was through them, and through the Luskwas, that Snass traded his skins at the posts and got his supplies of ammunition and tobacco. He was always fair, but the chief of the Porcupines began to cheat.
How long ago?" "Fourteen or fifteen years," Smoke answered. "So he pulled through, after all. Do you know, I've wondered about him. We called him Long Tooth. He was a strong man, a strong man." "La Perle came through here ten years ago." Snass shook his head. "He found traces of your camps. It was summer time." "That explains it," Snass answered.
And the more Smoke learned from her, the more the mystery of Snass deepened. "And tell me if it is true," the girl was saying, "that there was a man and a woman whose names were Paolo and Francesca and who greatly loved each other?" Smoke nodded. "Four Eyes told me all about it," she beamed happily. "And so he did not make it up, after all. You see, I was not sure.
East, west, and south they were hemmed in by the high peaks and jumbled ranges. Northward, the rolling country seemed interminable; yet they knew, even in that direction, that half a dozen transverse chains blocked the way. "At this time of the year I could give you three days' start," Snass told Smoke that evening. "You can't hide your trail, you see. Anton got away when the snow was gone.
The bachelors, who had sworn youthful oaths to speak to no maidens, were uninterested in the approaching ceremony, and to show their disdain they made preparations for immediate departure on a mission set them by Snass and upon which they had planned to start the following morning. Not satisfied with the old hunters' estimates of the caribou, Snass had decided that the run was split.
On occasion Snass, with parties of strong hunters, pushed east across the Rockies, on past the lakes and the Mackenzie and into the Barrens. It was on the last traverse in that direction that the silk tent occupied by Labiskwee had been found. "It belonged to the Millicent-Adbury expedition," Snass told Smoke. "Oh! I remember. They went after musk-oxen.
And then Snass strode in to the fire through the falling snowflakes, and Smoke's opportunity was lost. "Good evening," Snass burred gruffly. "Your partner has made a mess of it. I am glad you had better sense." "You might tell me what's happened," Smoke urged. The flash of white teeth through the stained beard was not pleasant. "Certainly, I'll tell you. Your partner has killed one of my people.
Beyond the glow from the dying embers of the fire, she indicated to him to put on his outer foot-gear, and while he obeyed, she went back under the fly where Snass slept. Feeling the hands of his watch Smoke found it was one in the morning. Quite warm it was, he decided, not more than ten below zero. Labiskwee rejoined him and led him on through the dark runways of the sleeping camp.
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