on him. I was quiet as a puma. I have a stout cord in my pocket,
and another about my body. Just as he was stooping over the fire, as
Gordineer did, I sprang upon him, clasping him about the neck, and
bringing him to the ground. He could not get me off. I am small, but I
have a grip. Then, too, I had one hand at his throat. It was no use to
struggle. The cord and a knife were in my teeth. It was a great trick,
but his breath was well gone, and I fastened his hands. It was no use
to struggle. I tied his feet and legs. Then I carried him to a tree and
bound him tight. I unfastened his hands again and tied them round the
tree. Then I built a great fire not far away. He begged at first and
cried. But I was hard. He got wild, and at last when I leave him he
cursed! It was like nothing I ever heard. He was a devil... I come back
after I have carry the message to the poor girl--it is a sad thing to
see the first great grief of the young! Gawdor was not there. The pumas
and others had been with him.

"There was more to do. I wanted to kill that puma which set its teeth
in the throat of my friend. I hunted the woods where it had happened,
beating everywhere, thinking that, perhaps, it was dead. There was not
much blood on the leaves, so I guessed that it had not died. I hunted
from that spot, and killed many--many. I saw that they began to move
north. At last I got back here. From here I have hunted and killed them
slow; but never that one with a wound in the shoulder from Jo's knife.
Still, I can wait. There is nothing like patience for the hunter and for
the man who would have blood for blood."

He paused, and Lawless spoke. "And when you have killed that puma,
Pourcette--if you ever do-what then?"

Pourcette fondled the gun, then rose and hung it up again before he
replied.

"Then I will go to Fort St. John, to the girl--she is there with her
father--and sell all the skins to the factor, and give her the money."
He waved his hand round the room. "There are many skins here, but I have
more cached not far away. Once a year I go to the Fort for flour and
bullets. A dog-team and a bois-brule bring them, and then I am alone as
before. When all that is done I will come back."

"And then, Pourcette?" said Shon.

"Then I will hang that one skin over the chimney where his gun is--and
go out and kill more pumas. What else can one do? When I stop killing I
shall be killed. A million pumas and their skins are not worth the life
of