week life continued to be exceedingly pleasant. And then came the
break--the change that was destined to meant for Kazan, his father,
when he killed the man-brute at the edge of the wilderness.

This change came or the day when, in trotting around a great rock near
the waterfall, Baree found himself face to face with Pierrot the hunter
and Nepeese, the star-eyed girl who had shot him in the edge of the
clearing.

It was Nepeese whom he saw first. If it had been Pierrot, he would have
turned back quickly. But again the blood of his forebear was rousing
strange tremblings within him. Was it like this that the first woman
had looked to Kazan?

Baree stood still. Nepeese was not more than twenty feet from him. She
sat on a rock, full in the early morning sun, and was brushing out her
wonderful hair. Her lips parted. Her eyes shone in an instant like
stars. One hand remained poised, weighted with the jet tresses. She
recognized him. She saw the white star on his breast and the white tip
on his ear, and under her breath she whispered "Uchi moosis!"--"The dog
pup!" It was the wild dog she had shot--and thought had died!

The evening before Pierrot and Nepeese had built a shelter of balsams
behind the big rock, and on a small white plot of sand Pierrot was
kneeling over a fire preparing breakfast while the Willow arranged her
hair. He raised his head to speak to her, and saw Baree. In that
instant the spell was broken. Baree saw the man-beast as he rose to his
feet. Like a shot he was gone.

Scarcely swifter was he than Nepeese.

"Depechez vous, mon pere!" she cried. "It is the dog pup! Quick--"

In the floating cloud of her hair she sped after Baree like the wind.
Pierrot followed, and in going he caught up his rifle. It was difficult
for him to catch up with the Willow. She was like a wild spirit, her
little moccasined feet scarcely touching the sand as she ran up the
long bar. It was wonderful to see the lithe swiftness of her, and that
glorious hair streaming out in the sun. Even now, in this moment's
excitement, it made Pierrot think of McTaggart, the Hudson's Bay
Company's factor over at Lac Bain, and what he had said yesterday. Half
the night Pierrot had lain awake, gritting his teeth at thought of it.
And this morning, before Baree ran upon them, he had looked at Nepeese
more closely than ever before in his life. She was beautiful. She was
lovelier even than Wyola, her princess mother, who was dead. That
hair--w