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Updated: August 1, 2024
And like fire touched to powder, swiftly as lightning illumines the sky, the glory of it blazed in Reese Beaudin's face. And all that were there heard him clearly: "I am Reese Beaudin. I am the Yellow-back. I have returned to meet a man you all know Jacques Dupont.
And there is a rumor, m'sieu, that the Yellow-back will be at the Lac Bain dog sale." Reese Beaudin rose slowly to his feet, and yawned in that smoke-filled cabin. "And if the Yellow-back should turn the tables, Joe Delesse, think of what a fine thing you will miss," he said. Joe Delesse also rose, with a contemptuous laugh. "That fiddler, that picture-drawer, that book-reader Pouff!
"He is a woman's dog," repeated Reese Beaudin without excitement, yet so clearly that every ear heard. "He is a woman's pet, and M'sieu Dupont most surely does lie if he denies it!" So far as memory went back no man at Lac Bain that day had ever heard another man give Jacques Dupont the lie. A thrill swept those who heard and understood.
Paquette, like a stunned cat that had recovered its ninth life, was scrambling from the platform. The Indian was already gone. And Reese Beaudin had tossed his coat to Joe Delesse, and with it his cap. His heavy shirt was closely buttoned; and not only was it buttoned, Delesse observed, but also was it carefully pinned.
I am Reese Beaudin, who ran away. I am Reese Beaudin, Sergeant in His Majesty's Royal Northwest Mounted Police, and in the name of the law I arrest Jacques Dupont for the murder of Francois Bedore, who was killed on his trap-line five years ago! Fitzgerald " The hooded stranger leaped upon the platform. His heavy coat fell off. Tall and grim he stood in the scarlet jacket of the Police.
And swifter than eyes had ever seen man move at Lac Bain before, Reese Beaudin was out of his way, and behind him; and then, as the giant caught himself at the edge of the platform, and turned, he received a blow that sounded like the broadside of a paddle striking water. Reese Beaudin had struck him with the flat of his unclenched hand! A murmur of incredulity rose out of the crowd.
But no sooner was Dupont up than Reese Beaudin was in again, with the swiftness of a cat, and they could hear the blows, like solid shots, and Dupont's arms waved like tree-tops, and a second time he was off the platform. He was staggering when he rose. The blood ran in streams from his mouth and nose. His beard dripped with it. His yellow teeth were caved in.
In the moments that followed one could almost hear his neighbor's heart beat. Nearer and still nearer to each other drew the two men. And now Dupont crouched still more, and Joe Delesse held his breath. He noticed that Reese Beaudin was standing almost on the tips of his toes that each instant he seemed prepared, like a runner, for sudden flight.
To his lips he raised a great megaphone of birchbark, and sonorously his call rang out in French, in Cree, in Chippewan, and the packed throng about the caribou-fires heaved like a living billow, and to a man and a woman and a child it moved toward the appointed place. "The time has come," said Reese Beaudin. "And all Lac Bain shall see!"
Reese Beaudin turned, facing them all, the wintry sun glowing in his beard, his eyes smiling, his head high unafraid now, more fearless than any other man that had ever set foot in Lac Bain. And McDougall, with his arm touching Elise's hair, felt the wild and throbbing pulse of her body. This day this hour this minute in which she stood still, inbreathing had confirmed her belief in Reese Beaudin.
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