guessed something before. All he said was, 'Well,
Ned, all my bridges is burnt behind me, as you know, anyhow, and if
it hadn't been for you, there'd be no need of asking any one for
Marie, for I'd have been gone. So I can't well say no; and she might
go farther and fare worse for sure. So I'll just leave it to Marie
herself, and if she says so, so it shall be.'

"And that's all there is to tell about it. Sure people often wonders
how others came to live 'way down on these lonesome shores. But
Marquette Islands have given me fish and fur and good life, with ne'er
a cent owing to any man, and there's four fine youngsters to help out
when we can no longer fend for ourselves."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Seals.

THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE

"They brought in a blind man last night," said the house surgeon. "It
only seemed a case of starvation, so I didn't call you."

"Where is he from?"

"About thirty miles in the country down north somewhere. Apparently he
has been living at the bottom of a bay 'way out of the line of the
komatik trail. Formerly he could get firewood easily, and a few bay
seals and game to live on. He seems too proud to let people know how
badly off he was."

"What's the history?"

"He has a wife and two girls, who appear to be in almost as poor shape
as he is himself. He has been gradually growing blind for some time,
and was up here two years ago to see the eye specialist. His name is
Emile Moreau."

"A Frenchman! Why, I remember the man perfectly. A slow-growing
cerebral tumor."

He had been under observation for some weeks, and we had had to decide
that he would not be benefited by an operation. So he went away,
promising to return soon. But this is the way he had kept his promise.

A few minutes later I stood by the bedside of the blind Frenchman. The
poor fellow was a skeleton, with the characteristic sunken face and
fallen skin with which we are familiar in those living on what we know
as "dry diet." He had nothing to say for himself except, "Times has
been none too good, Doctor. It is a bad country when a fellow can't
see where he is going. 'T is many an odd tumble I've had, too,
knocking around." Emile had been away from France for many a long day,
and the only English he had ever heard was the vernacular of our
Northern Coast.

"How's your wife and the kiddies you told us about when you were here
last time? It strikes me that they may have had a tumble too."

"Well, I 'lows, Doctor, the