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Updated: June 7, 2025
Did you ever sit on a case of dynamite just about to blow up, Jean?" "No, M'seur. It must be unpleasant." "That dream was what turned my hair white, Jean. See how white it is whiter than the snow!" Croisset looked at him a little anxiously as he ate his meat, and at the gathering unrest in his ayes Howland burst into a laugh. "Don't be frightened, Jean," he spoke soothingly. "I'm harmless.
"You must be sure that you make no mistake," he heard the half-breed say. "Go to the waterfall at the head of the lake and heave down a big rock where the ice is open and the water boiling. Track up the snow with a pair of M'seur Howland's high-heeled boots and leave his hat tangled in the bushes.
"If you will pledge me your word of honor that you will make no attempt to escape I will give you the use of your legs until after breakfast, M'seur. What do you say?" "Have you a Bible, Croisset?" "No, M'seur, but I have the cross of our Virgin, given to me by the missioner at York Factory."
"Ours was the happiest post in all this great northland, M'seur," continued Croisset after a moment's pause; "and it was all because of this woman and the man, but mostly because of the woman. And when the little Meleese came she was the first white girl baby that any of us had ever seen our love for these two became something that I fear was almost a sacrilege to our dear Lady of God.
Jean lifted a warning hand. Faintly there came to them through the forest the distant baying of a hound. "That is one of our dogs from the Mackenzie country," he went on softly, an insinuating triumph in his low voice. "Now, M'seur, that I have brought you here what are you going to do? Shall we go on and take dinner with those who are going to kill you, or will you wait a few hours?
"After I have looked into your pockets I will free your hands so that you can smoke. Are you comfortable?" "Comfortable be damned!" were the first words that fell from Howland's lips, and his blood boiled at the sociable way in which Croisset grinned down into his face. "So you're in it, too, eh? and that lying girl " The smile left Croisset's face. "Do you mean Meleese, M'seur Howland?" "Yes."
For a moment Howland forgot his caution and bent over to examine the trails, with his back to his companion. When he looked up there was a curious laughing gleam in Jean's eyes. "Mon Dieu, but you are careless!" he exclaimed. "Be more careful, M'seur. I may give myself up to another temptation like that." "The deuce you say!" cried Howland, springing back quickly. "I'm much obliged, Jean.
His teeth gleamed in the enigmatic smile that had half undone Howland in the fight. "You are mistaken in some things, M'seur," he said quietly. "Until to-day I have fought for you and not against you. But now you have left me but one choice. I will take you to Meleese, and that means " "Good!" cried Howland. "La, la, M'seur not so good as you think.
His heart was throbbing as if he had just finished climbing a long hill. "That was the man who tried to kill me. But Meleese the " He could go no further. Scarce breathing, he waited for Jean to speak. "It is Pierre Thoreau," he said, "eldest brother to Meleese. It is he who should say what I am about to tell you, M'seur. But he is too full of grief to speak. You wonder at that?
"I must carry you, M'seur Howland," he said; and as he staggered out on the ice with his inanimate burden, he spoke softly to himself, "The saints preserve me, but what would the sweet Meleese say if she knew that Jean Croisset had come so near to losing the life of this M'seur le engineer? Ce monde est plein de fous!"
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