River
again when June came north. And Fleur, fretting back there in camp at
his absence, after the lean days would revel and grow gigantic on deer
meat.

Painfully Marcel crawled within easy range of the nearest caribou. As he
attempted to line his sights in order to hit two with the first shot, as
he had often done, the waving of his gun barrel in his trembling hands
swept him cold with fear. The exertion of crawling to his position had
cruelly shaken his nerves. So he rested.

Then he carefully took aim. As he fired, his heart skipped a beat, for
he thought he had missed. But to his joy a caribou bounded from the
snow, ran a few feet and fell, while another, stopping to scent the air
before circling up-wind, gave him a second shot. The deer was badly hit
and the next shot brought it down.

The tension of the crisis passed, the shattered nerves relaxed, and for
a space the starving hunter lay limp in the snow. But warned by his
rapidly numbing fingers, he forced himself to his feet and went to the
deer. Out on the barren beyond the sound of his rifle scattered bands of
caribou were feeding. Meat to take them through the big "break-up" of
April was at hand. The lean face of Jean Marcel twisted into a grim
smile.

_He had beaten the long snows._

Stopping only to take the tongues and a piece of haunch, Marcel returned
to his hungry dog. Frantic with the faint scent of caribou brought by
the breeze off the barren, the famished Fleur chafed and fretted for his
return.

"Here, Fleur, see what Jean Marcel got for you!"

The husky, maddened by the scent of the blood-red meat, plunged at her
leash, her jaws dripping with slaver. Throwing her a chunk of frozen
haunch which she bolted greedily, Marcel filled his kettle with snow and
putting in a tongue and strips of steak to boil, lay down by his fire.

CHAPTER XVIII

SPRING AND FLEUR

At intervals during the day Jean drank the strengthening broth, too
"bush-wise" to sicken himself by gorging. By late afternoon he was able
to drive the rejuvenated Fleur to the barren and bring back the meat on
the sled. The days following were busy ones. At first his weakness
forced him to husband his strength while the stew and roasted red meat
were thickening his blood, but as the food began to tell, he was able to
hunt farther and farther into the barrens where the main migration of
the caribou was passing. When he was strong enough, he took Fleur with a
load of meat bac