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For many succeeding days Jan took long walks alone in the forest trails, and silently thrashed out the two problems which Cummins had brought back from Churchill for him. Should he warn Jean de Gravois that a company officer was investigating the disappearance of the missionary? At first his impulse was to go at once into Jean's haunts beyond the Fond du Lac, and give him the news.

Glancing at my watch, which I had bought in Philadelphia, I saw that the hands pointed to half after seven. I had scarcely finished my toilet before there was a knock at the door, and Madame Gravois entered with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and her bottle of medicine in the other. "I did not wake Monsieur," she said, "for he was tired."

After the Governor, one by one, the waiting Associations fell in line, each with its own distinguishing sash. So the procession moved off into the narrow streets of the city, the people in the Place dispersed to new vantage points, and Monsieur Vigo signed me to follow him. "I have a frien', la veuve Gravois, who lives ver' quiet. She have one room, and I ask her tek you in, Davy."

Neither of them knew the part which Jean de Gravois was to play in Jan's life. Every hour after the half-breed's arrival quickened the pulse of expectancy at the post. For six months it had been a small and solitary unit of life in the heart of a big desolation. The first snow had smothered it in a loneliness that was almost the loneliness of desertion.

"You go inside, or you'll take cold." Mr. Renault protested, asked about all the residents of Gravois way, and finally obeyed. Eliphalet's heart was in his mouth. A bolder spirit would have dashed for liberty. Eliphalet did not possess that kind of bravery. He was waiting for the Captain to turn toward his wagon. He looked down the area instead, with the light from the street lamp on his face.

You saw Cummins the factor?" "Yes, he was there." "And and Jean de Gravois, the chief man?" "He was away. Mon Dieu, listen to that! The dogs are fighting out there!" "A moment, m'sieur," begged Jan, as the Frenchman made a movement as if to run in the direction of the tumult. "The factor had a daughter Melisse "

The recollection of the scene in the street by the Arsenal that May morning not a year gone came to Stephen with a shock. "I saw him," he cried; "he was Captain Grant that lived on the Gravois Road. But surely this can't be the same man who seized Paducah and was in that affair at Belmont." "By gum!" said the General, laughing. "Don't wonder you're surprised. Grant has stuff in him.

Partial order being restored, Mukee and Per-ee took charge of the snarling Malemutes, and, surrounded by Williams' men, the trapper stalked to the company's office. He was Jean de Gravois, the most important man in the Fond du Lac country, for whose good-will the company paid a small bonus.

Everybody liked Gravois, for he had a big soul in him and was as fearless as a lynx; and he liked everybody, including himself. He explained his early arrival by announcing in a nonchalant manner that after he had given his Malemutes a day's rest he was going on to Fort Churchill, to bring back a wife.

Melisse came to him still as his sister, abiding in her glorious faith in him, unaware of his temptation; while he, Jan Thoreau He thrust a hand inside his coat and clutched at the papers that Jean de Gravois had read. Then he drew them forth, slowly, and held them crumpled in his fingers, while for many minutes he stared straight out into the gray gloom of the treeless plain. His eyes shifted.