reton, you give me great happiness--when you say you believe
me--are still my friend."

"Oh, la, la! Nonsense!" she cried, dabbing with, a handkerchief at her
wet eyes as she recovered her poise, "you are a boy, so foolish, Jean.
Do you think that we, your friends who know you, will permit this thing?
It is impossible!" And changed the subject, nor did she allow him to
return to it.

CHAPTER XXIII

IN THE EYES OF THE CREES

Day by day the ebb-tide brought in the canoes of returning Crees.
Gradually tepees filled the post clearing. And with the coming of the
hunters from the three winds, was heard many a tale of famine in far
valleys; of families blotted out; of little victims of starvation and
disease; of the aged too frail to endure through the lean moons of the
rabbit-plague until the return of the caribou, which had spelt life to
those who waited.

Tragedy there had been, as in every winter of famine; but however
sinister were the secrets which, that spring, many a mute valley held
locked in its green forests, no rumors of such, except the tale of the
murders on the Ghost, had reached Whale River. Pitiless desertion of the
aged and the helpless, death by violence, doubtless, the starving moon
had shone upon; but none had lived to tell the tale, none had seen the
evidence, except those who had profited with their lives, and their lips
were forever sealed. And so, as Marcel had foreseen, to the gathering
families of Crees who themselves had but lately escaped the maw of the
winter, the tale of the Lelacs, expanding as it travelled, found ready
acceptance.

As yet, Jean, chafing under the odium of his position at the post, had
not faced his accusers. But the plan of his defense which had been
decided on after a conference with Gillies and Pere Breton, depended for
its success on the trading of their fur by the Lelacs, and the uncle and
cousins of Joe Piquet for some reason had traded no fur. So the proud
Frenchman went his way among the hunters at Whale River with a high head
and silent tongue.

Many of those who, the spring previous, had lauded his daring in
entering the land of the Windigo and voyaging to the coast by the Big
Salmon, now, at his appearance exchanged significant glances, avoiding
the steady eyes of the man they had condemned without a hearing. Shawled
women and girls, who formerly, at the trade, had cast approving glances
at the wide-shouldered youth with the clean-cut features, now wh