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Bloody, eyes discolored, mouth and nose steadily swelling, the foreman moved away with his battered crew, finally to disappear in the forest. Ba'tiste reached for the cant hook, and balancing it lightly in one hand, sought a resting place on the edge of the flume. Houston sat beside him. "What on earth can it all mean?" he asked, after a moment of thought. "They go back get more men.
"Wait! Five thousan' bridge timber, ten by ten by sixteen feet, at the three dollar and ninety cents." "Yes " "Ten thousand feet of the four by four, at " "Ba'tiste!" Houston had risen suddenly. "What have you got there?" The trapper grinned and pulled at his gray-splotched beard. "Oh, ho! Golemar! He wan' to know. Shall we tell heem, eh? Ah, oui " he shook his big shoulders and spread his hands.
He stumbled slightly as he made the next rise in the road and went on slowly, silently, toward the cabin. There Ba'tiste found him, slumped on the bench, staring out at the white and rose pinks of Mount Taluchen, yet seeing none of it. The big man boomed a greeting, and Barry, striving for a smile, answered him. The Canadian turned to his wolf-dog. "Peuff! Golemar!
"Well," came at last, "there's no harm in thinking about it!" It was thus that Ba'tiste found him, still dreaming. The big voice of the Canadian boomed, and he reached forward to nudge Barry on his injured shoulder. "And who has been bringing you flowers?" he asked. "Medaine. That is Miss Robinette." "Medaine? Oh, ho! You hear, Golemar?" he turned to the fawning wolf-dog. "He calls her Medaine!
He almost dragged the younger man away, hurrying him toward the sled and its broad-backed old horses. "We must go to the cabin, oui yes! Hurry " Houston saw that he was trembling. "Eet is the thing I look for the thing I look for!" "Ba'tiste! What do you mean?" "My Julienne," came hoarsely. "Eet is my Julienne's!"
The French-Canadian still stared at the ruins. "Eet is all Ba'teese' fault " "I thought you were my friend, Ba'tiste." "Sacre! I am." "Then show it! We'll not be able to make a case against the firebugs even though you and I may be fairly sure who did it. Anyway, it isn't going to break us. I've got about fifteen thousand in the bank.
She had only heard, in her own brain, the iteration of Ba'tiste's calling. Would he reach Askatoon in time? she wondered, as she shut the door. Why had she not gone with him and attempted the shorter way the quick way, he had called it? All at once the truth came back upon her, stirring her now. It would do no good for Ba'tiste to arrive in time.
"I fine Ba'tiste Maxime twenty dollars for defamation of character. The money to go for the poor." "You hear that, ould sand-in-the-sugar!" said Mrs. Flynn. "Will you let me kiss ye, darlin'?" she added to Rosalie, and, waddling over, reached out her hands. Rosalie's eyes were wet as she warmly kissed the old Irishwoman, and thereupon they entered into a friendship which was without end.
"She she didn't tell you anything before she went?" Ba'tiste shook his head. "She would not speak to me. Nothing would, she tell me. At first I go alone then yesterday, when the snow, he pack, I take Golemar. Then she is unconscious. All day and night I stay beside the bed, but she do not open her eye. Then, with the morning, she sigh, and peuff! She is gone." "Without a word."
At the doorway, Ba'tiste, his big hands fumbling, caught the paws of Golemar, his wolf-dog, and raised the great, shaggy creature against his breast. "No," he said in kindly, indulgent fashion. "Eet is not for Golemar to go with us. The drift, they are deep. There is no crust on the snow. Golemar, he would sink above his head. Then blooey! There would be no Golemar!" Guide lines were affixed.
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