hing in the
world was speaking to him from out of that picture. His mind was dazed.
He swayed a little. He heard a voice, low and sweet, and so distant
that it came to him like the faintest whisper. "I am coming--I am
coming, Billy--coming--coming--coming--" A joyous cry surged up from
his soul, but it died on his lips in a strange gasp. A louder cry
brought him back to himself for a moment. It was from Brokaw. The
sergeant's face was terrible to behold. He rose to his feet, swaying,
his hands clutched at his breast. His voice was thick--hopeless.

"The match--went--out--" He staggered up to Billy, his eyes like a
madman's. Billy swayed dizzily. He laughed, even as he crumpled down in
the snow. As if in a dream he saw Brokaw stagger off on the frozen
trail. He saw him disappear in his hopeless effort to reach the
Indian's shack. And then a strange darkness closed him in, and in that
darkness he heard still the sweet voice of his wife. It spoke his name
again and again, and it urged him to wake up--wake up--WAKE UP! It
seemed a long time before he could respond to it. But at last he opened
his eyes. He dragged himself to his knees, and looked first to find
Brokaw. But the man hunter had gone--forever. The picture was still in
his hand. Less distinctly than before he saw the girl smiling at him.
And then--at his back--he heard a strange and new sound. With an effort
he turned to discover what it was.

The match had hidden an unseen spark from Brokaw's eyes. From out of
the pile of fuel was rising a pillar of smoke and flame.

THE HONOR OF HER PEOPLE

"It ees not so much--What you call heem?--leegend, thees honor of the
Beeg Snows!" said Jan softly.

He had risen to his feet and gazed placidly over the crackling
box-stove into the eyes of the red-faced Englishman.

"Leegend is lie! Thees is truth!"

There was no lack of luster in the black eyes that roved inquiringly
from the Englishman's bantering grin to the others in the room. Mukee,
the half Cree, was sitting with his elbows on his knees gazing with
stoic countenance at this new curiosity who had wandered four hundred
miles northward from civilization. Williams, the Hudson's Bay man who
claimed to be all white, was staring hard at the red side of the stove,
and the factor's son looked silently at Jan. He and the half-breed
noted the warm glow in the eyes that rested casually upon the
Englishman.

"It ees truth--thees honor of the Beeg Snows!" said Jan