the subject. Jean had some vague
notion that, ten miles from the fort, he might leave her, and retire
into the woods without having been seen. The idea had also occurred
to Donald, but he had put it aside unhesitatingly as the act of a
coward. It little mattered to him what was his fate, as long as he
knew that Jean was safe, and was near him.

That evening, the one before their departure, they held mournful
obsequies over the happy two weeks that could never be repeated in
their lives. They had just sat down to a dinner of rabbit (of
which they were getting heartily tired by this time), when the
sound of bells came to them, and they rushed to the door. With
shout and crack of whip, a dog-train roared up from the south, and
came to a steaming halt in the glow of their hearth.

After the first excitement Jean, suddenly realizing her position,
had shrunk back into the farthest corner of the cabin, her face
scarlet and her heart beating. Donald, to spare her as much as
possible, met the man outside, and immediately there were glad
cries of recognition.

"Well, McTavish, how the deuce do I see you here? You ought to be
up at the fort. But, say, old man, I'm glad you broke out. That
thirty-day term smelled to heaven when the old man gave it. Good
for you!"

"And you, Braithwaite?" cried Donald, delightedly; for the man was
an old friend--a store-keeper at the fort. "What are you doing up
this way, and who are the boys with you?"

Donald was greatly surprised that the two men on the sledges did
not rise.

"We've been having trouble at Sturgeon Lake--pretty rough stuff,
too," was the explanation; "and these boys got shot up a little.
Probably, you know 'em--Planchette and Napoleon Sky, the Indian."

"Yes, yes! You don't say! So, the Sturgeon Lake trouble has come
to that point, has it? I was afraid of it. I knew those fellows
were desperate. They gave me a taste to show they meant business."

"They sure did, Mac. But, say, that isn't the worst. The Old Nick
himself is shot up, and hitting the high spots with fever. We're
afraid to move him, and--"

"Wh--what's that?" asked a trembling feminine voice from the doorway.
"Who did you say had fever?"

During an instant of pregnant silence, the universe stood still
for all those there present. The crisis was come more quickly than
Donald had expected.

"Well, by heavens, Mac," blurted out Braithwaite, "I didn't know
you did this sort of--er, were away on a vaca--"