have killed Jacques Dupont! Half a man could have done it. Did he,
m'sieu? No, he did not. With his one arm and his one hand Jacques
Dupont whipped that Yellow-back, and he would have killed him if Elise
had not rushed in to sav e the Yellow-back's purple face from going
dead black. And that night the Yellow-back slunk away. Shame? Yes. From
that night he was ashamed to show his face ever again at Lac Bain. And
no one knows where he went. No one--except Elise. And her secret is in
her own breast."

"And after that?" questioned Reese Beaudin, in a voice that was
scarcely above a whisper.

"I cannot understand," said Joe Delesse. "It was strange, m'sieu, very
strange. I know that Elise, even after that coward ran away, still
loved him. And yet--well, something happened. I overheard a terrible
quarrel one day between Jan Thiebout, father of Elise, and Jacques
Dupont. After that Thiebout was very much afraid of Dupont. I have my
own suspicion. Now that Thiebout is dead it is not wrong for me to say
what it is. I think Thiebout killed the halfbreed Bedore who was found
dead on his trap-line five years ago. There was a feud between them.
And Dupont, discovering Thiebout's secret--well, you can understand how
easy it would be after that, m'sieu. Thiebout's winter trapping was in
that Burntwood country, fifty miles from neighbor to neighbor, and very
soon after Bedore's death Jacques Dupont became Thiebout's partner. I
know that Elise was forced to marry him. That was four years ago. The
next year old Thiebout died, and in all that time not once has Elise
been to Post Lac Bain!"

"Like the Yellow-back--she never returned," breathed Reese Beaudin.

"Never. And now--it is strange--"

"What is strange, Joe Delesse?"

"That for the first time in all these years she is going to Lac
Bain--to the dog sale."

Reese Beaudin's face was again hidden in the smoke of his pipe. Through
it his voice came.

"It is a cold night, M'sieu Delesse. Hear the wind howl!"

"Yes, it is cold--so cold the foxes will not run. My traps and
poison-baits will need no tending tomorrow."

"Unless you dig them out of the drifts."

"I will stay in the cabin."

"What! You are not going to Lac Bain!"

"I doubt it."

"Even though Elise, your cousin, is to be there?"

"I have no stomach for it, m'sieu. Nor would you were you in my boots,
and did you know why he is going. Par les mille cornes d'u diable, I
cannot whip him but I can kill him--and i