ch afraid that he will not
accept my wager!"

Bateese did not answer. He was looking over David's shoulder. He seemed
not to have heard what the other had said, yet there had come a sudden
gleam of exultation in his eyes, and he replied, still gazing toward
the raft,

"Diantre, m'sieu coq de bruyere may keep ze beeg word in hees mout'!
See!--St. Pierre, he ees comin' to answer for himself. Mon Dieu, I hope
he does not wring ze leetle rooster's neck, for zat would spoil wan
great, gran' fight tomorrow!"

David turned toward the big raft. At the distance which separated them
he could make out the giant figure of St. Pierre Boulain getting into a
canoe. The humped-up form already in that canoe he knew was the Broken
Man. He could not see Marie-Anne.

Very lightly Bateese touched his arm. "M'sieu will go into ze cabin,"
he suggested softly. "If somet'ing happens, it ees bes' too many eyes
do not see it. You understan', m'sieu agent de police?"

Carrigan nodded. "I understand," he said.

XVI

In the cabin David waited. He did not look through the window to watch
St. Pierre's approach. He sat down and picked up a magazine from the
table upon which Marie-Anne's work-basket lay. He was cool as ice now.
His blood flowed evenly and his pulse beat unhurriedly. Never had he
felt himself more his own master, more like grappling with a situation.
St. Pierre was coming to fight. He had no doubt of that. Perhaps not
physically, at first. But, one way or another, something dynamic was
bound to happen in the bateau cabin within the next half-hour. Now that
the impending drama was close at hand, Carrigan's scheme of luring St.
Pierre into the making of a stupendous wager seemed to him rather
ridiculous. With calculating coldness he was forced to concede that St.
Pierre would be somewhat of a fool to accept the wager he had in mind,
when he was so completely in St. Pierre's power. For Marie-Anne and the
chief of the Boulains, the bottom of the river would undoubtedly be the
best and easiest solution, and the half-breed's suggestion might be
acted upon after all.

As his mind charged itself for the approaching struggle, David found
himself staring at a double page in the magazine, given up entirely to
impossibly slim young creatures exhibiting certain bits of illusive and
mysterious feminine apparel. Marie-Anne had expressed her approbation
in the form of pencil notes under several of them. Under a cobwebby
affair that wr