crowd of
wondering lumber-jacks brought up the rear.

At the storehouse Moncrossen paused. "I'll fetch the key from the
office," he leered; but Bill turned to a man who stood leaning upon his
axe.

"Smash that door!" he commanded; and a half-dozen men sprang to the
task. The next instant the door flew inward, and the men crowded into
the building to return a few moments later bearing the old squaw,
gagged, bound, and wrapped tightly in a blanket, but with the undimmed
black eyes glaring upon them like a hawk's.

The cords were cut and the gag removed by willing hands. Someone held a
bottle to her lips, and she drank greedily. Jeanne dropped to her knees
by the old woman's side.

"He has come," she whispered. "M's'u' Bill, The-Man-Who-Cannot-Die, has
come to you." Wa-ha-ta-na-ta nodded her understanding, and her beady
black eyes flashed.

"She must have water!" cried the girl; "and food!"

At the words a half-dozen men rushed toward the cook-shack, returning a
few minutes later laden as to victual a regiment.

CHAPTER LI

THE PROMISE FULFILLED

Again the interest centered upon the two big men who faced each other
on the trodden ground of the clearing. Other men came--the ones who had
fled from the rollway, their curiosity conquering their fear at the
sight of the dead man.

And now the greener was speaking, and the tone of his voice was gentle
in its velvety softness. His lips smiled, and his gray eyes, narrowed
to slits, shone cold--with a terrible, steely coldness, so that men
looked once, and shuddered as they looked.

"And, now, Moncrossen," he was saying, "_we will fight_. It is a long
score that you and I have to settle. It starts with your dirty schemes
that Stromberg wouldn't touch.

"Then, the well-laid plan to have Creed bump me off that night at
Melton's No. 9; and the incident of the river, when you broke the jam.
You thought you had me, then, Moncrossen. You thought I was done for
good and all, when I disappeared under the water.

"There are other things, too--little acts of yours, that we will figure
in as we go. The affair on Broken Knee, when you attacked this young
girl; the shooting of Blood River Jack, from ambush; the second attack
on the girl at the foot of the rapid--and the brutal starving of
Wa-ha-ta-na-ta.

"Oh, yes; and the little matter of the bird's-eye. I have the logs,
Moncrossen, all safely cached--the pile of ashes you found was a blind.
Quite a long score, tak