ch met his gaze
unwaveringly. "Jean Marcel," he said, "I have known you since your
father brought you to Whale River as a child. You have never lied to me.
True, the circumstances are unfortunate; but you have told me the
truth. We did not believe that you had killed your comrades; you would
have starved first; nor did Gillies or McCain or Jules believe in the
truth of the charge of the Lelacs. They are waiting to hear your story.
Also, since hearing your side, I see why the Lelacs are anxious to have
it believed at the trade-house that you were responsible for the deaths
of these men. They are grinding an axe of their own. It is not alone
because they are kin of Piquet that they wish to discredit and injure
you."

"How do you mean, Father?" Marcel asked, curious as to the significance
of the priest's last statement.

"I will tell you later, my son. You should report at the trade-house
now. They are waiting for you."

Cheered with the knowledge that his old friends were still staunch, that
the factor had waited for his return before expressing even an opinion,
Marcel hurried to the trade-house.

Meeting no one as he passed the scattered tepees, he flung open the
slab-door of the log-building and with head high, entered.

"Jean Marcel! By Gar, we hear you arrive!" roared the big Jules, rushing
upon the youth with open arms. "You not starve out, eh?"

Then Gillies and McCain, wringing his hand, added their welcome. Surely,
he thought, with choked emotion, these men had not turned against him
because of the tales of Lelac.

"Jean, you had a hard winter with the rabbits gone," suggested Gillies.
"You must have found the caribou this spring?"

"Yes, I find de caribou, M'sieu, but I travel far for dem; eet was hard
time een Mars."

"And the dog, you didn't have to eat your dog, Jean?" asked McCain.

Marcel's face hardened.

"De dog and Jean, dey feast and dey starve togeder. I am no Cree
dog-eater. Dat dog she save my life, one, two tam, dees winter, M'sieu."

Never had the thought of sacrificing Fleur as a last resort entered the
mind of Marcel in the lean days on the barrens.

"Well, my lad," said Gillies heartily, "we are sure glad to have you
back alive. We hear there was much starvation on the East Coast this
year, with the rabbit plague and the scarcity of deer."

They also, Marcel saw, were waiting to hear his story before alluding to
the charges of the half-breed kinsmen of Piquet.

"M'sieu Gillies,