in the village, rather the reverse, and this was due to
the regulations governing peace.

If two men quarreled it was on the full understanding of the possible
and probable consequences; namely, a brief and effective life and
death struggle, followed by a sudden and immediate departure from the
fold of the survivor. Hence, scandal was held in close check, and
traveled slowly, with the slow twistings and windings of a venemous
snake. But for this very reason it was the more deadly, and was the
more surely based upon undeniable fact. The place was just now
a-simmer with suppressed scandal.

And its object. It was only a year since Eve and Will Henderson's
marriage. A sufficiently right and proper affair, said public opinion.
There were of course protestors. Many of the women had expected Eve to
marry Jim Thorpe. But then they were of the more mature section of the
population, those whose own marriages had taught them worldly wisdom,
and blotted out the early romance of their youths. It had been a love
match, a match where youth runs riot, and the madness of it sweeps its
victims along upon its hot tide. Now the tide was cooling, some said
it was already cold.

After their brief honeymoon the young people had returned to the
village. The understanding was that Eve should again take up her
business, while Will continued his season up in the hills, hunting
with his traps and gun. He was to visit Barnriff at intervals during
the season, and finally return and stay with Eve during the months
when the furs he might take would be unfit for the market. This was
the understanding, and in theory it was good, and might well have been
carried out satisfactorily. All went passably well until the close of
the fur season.

Eve returned to the village a bright and happy woman. She took up her
business again, and, perhaps, the novelty of her married state was the
reason that at first her trade increased. Then came Will's visits. At
first they were infrequent, with the arranged-for laps of time between
them. But gradually they became more frequent and their duration
longer. The women wagged their heads. "He is so deeply in love, he
can't stay away," they said. And they smiled approval, for they were
women, and women can never look on unmoved at the sight of a happy
love match. But against this the men shrugged their shoulders. "He's
wastin' a heap o' time," they said; "pelts needs chasin' some, an' y'
can't chase pelts an' make love t