he ax and rushed to a grip.
Sounded then a sickening thud, and the huge woman pitched face downward
into the snow, while behind her one of Lapierre's outlaws tossed a
heavy club into the bush and rushed to the assistance of his chief.
The others came, and with incredible rapidity Chloe Elliston was gagged
and bound hand and foot, and the men were carrying her to the waiting
sled.

For a moment Lapierre hesitated, gazing longingly toward the cottage as
he debated in his mind the advisability of rushing across the clearing
and settling his score with Mary, the Louchoux girl, whose unexpected
appearance had turned the tide so strongly against him.

"Better let well enough alone!" he growled savagely. "I must reach Lac
du Mort ahead of MacNair." And he turned with a curse from the
clearing to see an outlaw, with knife unsheathed, stooping over the
unconscious form of Big Lena. The quarter-breed kicked the knife from
the man's hand.

"Bring her along!" he ordered gruffly. "I will attend to her later."
And, despite the hurt of his bruised fingers, the man grinned as he
noted the venomous gleam in the leader's eye. For not only was
Lapierre thinking of the proselyting of LeFroy, who had been his most
trusted lieutenant, but of his own disarming, and the meaning stare of
the fishlike eyes that had prompted him to abandon his attempt to
poison MacNair when wounded in Chloe Elusion's room.

It was yet early when, as had become her custom, the Louchoux girl
dressed hurriedly and made her way to the kitchen to help Lena in the
preparation of breakfast. To her surprise she found that the fire had
not been lighted nor was Big Lena in the little room which had been
built for her adjoining the kitchen.

The quick eyes of the girl noted that the bed had not been disturbed,
and with a sudden fear in her heart she dashed to the door of Chloe's
room, where, receiving no answer to her frantic knocking, she pushed
open the door and entered. Chloe's bed had not been slept in, and her
_parka_ was missing from its peg upon the wall.

As the Indian girl turned from the room, Harriet Penny's door opened,
and she caught a glimpse of a night-capped head as the little spinster
glanced timidly out to inquire into the unusual disturbance.

"Where have they gone?" cried the girl.

"Gone? Gone?" asked Miss Penny. "What do you mean? Who has gone?"

"She's gone--Miss Elliston--and Big Lena, too. They have not slept in
their beds."