his birch-bark rode the choked
current. And then, the stark realization that he had lost her, and the
shadow of his new trouble, would bring him rough awakening.

Meeting no canoes of Cree hunters bound for the trade, for it was yet
early, in nine days Marcel turned into the post. He smiled bitterly as
he saw in the clearing a handful of tepees. Around the evening fires
they had doubtless already convicted Jean Marcel, alive or dead.
Familiar with the half-breed weakness for exaggeration, he wondered in
what form the story of the cache on the Ghost had been retailed at the
trade-house. Well, he should soon know.

The howling of the post dogs announced his arrival, stirring Fleur after
her long absence from the sight of her kind to a strenuous reply.
Leaving his canoe on the beach Marcel went at once to the Mission, where
the door was opened by the priest.

"Jean Marcel!" The bearded face of the Oblat lighted with pleasure as he
opened his arms to the wanderer. "You are back, well and strong? The
terrible famine did not reach you?" he asked in French.

Jean's deep-set eyes searched the priest's face for evidence of a change
toward him but found the same frank, kindly look he had always known.

"Yes, Father, I beat the famine but I have bad news. Antoine is dead. He
was----"

"Yes, I know," Pere Breton hastily broke in. "They brought the word. It
is terrible! And Piquet, is he dead also?"

"Yes, Father," Marcel said quietly. "Joe Piquet was killed by Fleur,
here, after he stabbed Antoine!"

"_Juste Ciel!_ Killed by Fleur after he stabbed Antoine?" repeated the
priest, staring at the husky.

"Yes, I wish to tell you all first, Father, before I go to the
trade-house--and Julie?" Jean inquired, his voice vibrant with fear of
what the answer might be.

"Put the dog in the stockade and I will call Julie."

Ah, then she was not married. Marcel breathed with relief.

"We have been very sad here, wondering whether you had starved--were
alive," continued the priest. "The tale Piquet's uncle, Gaspard Lelac,
and sons brought in day before yesterday made us think you also might
have----"

"Did they say Antoine had been stabbed?" interrupted Marcel, for the
priest had avoided mention of the cause of Beaulieu's death.

"They said they found his body." Pere Henri still shunned the issue.

"Where?" demanded Marcel.

"Buried on the river shore!"

"They lie!" As Marcel had anticipated, the half-breeds had embellished