ses.

"That ain't so bad fer two hundred yards--plugged him square in the
middle, too. God! I'd hate to die!" he muttered, and, turning, followed
the shore of the lake and struck into the timber in the direction in
which the other had been going.

An hour later he slipped silently behind the trunk of a tree at the
edge of a tiny clearing in the center of which stood a single,
smoke-blackened tepee.

The blue smoke from a small fire in front of the opening floated lazily
upward in the still air, and beside the blaze a leathern-faced crone
squatted and stirred the contents of a black pot which simmered from a
cross-piece supported at the ends by crotched sticks driven into the
ground.

The old squaw fitted the lid to the pot, hung the long-handled spoon
upon a projection of a forked upright, and, picking up a tin pail,
disappeared down the well-worn path to the river. With an evil leer the
man stepped boldly into the clearing and crossed to the opening of the
tepee.

Stooping, he suddenly looked within, where Jeanne Lacombie knelt upon
one knee as she fastened the thongs of her moccasin. The man grinned as
he recognized the silvery hairs of the great white wolf skin which the
girl had thrown across her shoulders.

"So you swiped the greener's wolf-hide, did you? I seen it was gone
offen the end of the bunk-house."

At the sound the girl looked up, and the blood froze in her veins at
the sight of the glittering eyes and sneering lips of Moncrossen. He
spoke again:

"You thought I was done with you, did you? Thought I'd forgot you, an'
the fight the old she-tiger put up that night on Broken Knee? But that
was in the dark, or there'd been a different story to tell."

The words came in a horrible nasal snarl, and the little eyes glowed
lustfully as they drank in the rich curves of the girl who had sprung
to her feet, her muscles tense with terror.

"Come along, now--an' come peaceable. You're _my_ woman now. I'm
willin' to let bygones be bygones, an' I'll treat you right long as you
don't try none of your tricks. You'll learn who's boss, an' as long as
you stay by me you'll get plenty to eat an' white folks clothes to
wear--that's a heap better'n livin' like a damned Injun--you'll soon
fergit all this."

His promises terrified the girl even more than the angry snarl, and
with a loud cry she tried to spring past him, but his arms closed about
her and he laughed a hard, brutal laugh of contempt for her puny
stru