of the valley, he had
dug away the snow for his fire and sleeping place, lashing above his bed
of spruce boughs a strip of canvas which acted both as windbreak and
heat reflector. When they had eaten their slim supper, he freshened the
fire with birch logs, and sat down with Fleur's head between his knees.
The "Starving Moon" of the Montagnais hung over Jean Marcel.

"Fleur, you know we got onlee two day meat left? W'en dat go, Jean
Marcel go too--een few day, a week maybe; and Fleur, w'at she do?"

The husky's slant eyes shone with her dog love into the set face of her
master. She whined, wrinkling her gray nose, then her jaw dropped,
which was her manner of laughing, while her hot breath steamed in the
freezing air. Vainly she waited for the smile that had never failed to
light Marcel's face in the old days at such advances.

Dropping his mittens Jean held the massive head between his naked hands.

"Jean Marcel feel ver' bad to leave Fleur alone. Wid no game she starve
too, w'en he go," he said.

Fleur's deep throat rumbled in ecstasy as the hands of the master rubbed
her ears.

"Back on de Ghost, Fleur, ees some feesh and meat Joe and Antoine left;
not much, but eet tak' us to Whale Riviere, maybe."

The lips of Fleur lifted from her white teeth at the names of Jean's
partners.

"You remember Joe Piquet, Fleur? Joe Piquet!"

The husky growled. She knew only too well the name, Joe Piquet.

"Eet ees four--five sleep to de Ghost, Fleur, shall we go? W'at you
t'ink?"

The strained face in the fur-lined hood approached the dog's, whose eyes
shifted uneasily from the fixed look of her master.

"We go back to de Ghost, Fleur, or mak' one beeg hunt for de deer?"

The perplexed husky, unable to meet Marcel's piercing eyes, sprang to
her feet with a yelp.

"Bon!" he cried. "We mak' de beeg hunt!" He had had his answer and on
the yelp of his dog had staked their fate. To-morrow he would push on
into the barrens and find the caribou drifting north again, or flicker
out with his dog as men for centuries had perished, beaten by the long
snows.

In the morning he divided his remaining food into four parts; a
breakfast and a supper for himself and Fleur, for two days. After
that--strips of caribou hide and moss, boiled in snow water, to ease the
throbbing ache of their stomachs.

Eating his thin stew, he shortened his belt still another hole over his
lean waist, and harnessing Fleur, turned resolutely east into c