ich
had been his burden. But now--

"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." It spelled blackness for Houston where there had
been light. "I--I--suppose you've taken charge of everything."

"_Oui_! But I have look at nothing--if that is what you mean."

"No--I just had something here that you ought to have," Houston fumbled
in his pockets. "She would want it around her neck, I feel sure, I
when she is----."

But the sudden glare in Ba'tiste's eyes stopped him as he brought forth
the crucifix and its tangled chain. The giant's hands raised. His big
lips twisted. A lunge and he had come forward, savage, almost
beast-like.

"You!" He bellowed. "Where you get that? Hear me, where you get
that?"

"From her. She--"

"Then come! Come--quick with me!" 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!"

Already they were in the sled, the wolf-dog perched between them, and
hurrying along the mushy road, which followed the lesser raises of
snow, taking advantage of every windbreak and avoiding the greater
drifts of the highway itself. Two miles they went, the horses urged to
their greatest speed. Then, with a leap, Ba'tiste cleared the runners
and motioned to the man behind him.

"Come with me! Golemar! You shall stay behind. You shall fall in the
drift--" The old man was talking excitedly, almost childishly. "No?
Then come--Eet is your own self that must be careful. Ba'teese, he
cannot watch you. Come!"

At a run, he went forward, to thread his way through the pines, to
flounder where the snow had not melted, to go waist-deep at times, but
still to rush onward at a speed which taxed even Houston's younger
strength to keep him in sight. The wolf-dog buried itself in the snow,
Houston pulling it forth time after time, and lugging it at long
intervals. Then at last came t