rens to streams which join the Big Water many, many
sleeps to the northeast, where at last he found the returning deer.

"This spring, when the Ghost was free of ice, Gaspard Lelac and his
sons, wishing to visit their kinsman, Joe Piquet, travelled to the camp
of the three hunters. What they found there they will now tell as they
told it to me when they came to Whale River. After you have learned
their story, Jean Marcel, the man who returned, will relate what
happened on the Ghost under the moons of the long snows.

"The Company has sent to visit Whale River its chief of the East Coast,
Inspector Wallace. He will hear the stories of these men and decide
which of them speaks with a double tongue. It is for you, also, when
they have spoken, to say whether Gaspard Lelac and his sons bring the
truth to Whale River, or Jean Marcel. You know these men. Hear their
talk and judge in your hearts between them. Gaspard Lelac has put the
blood of Antoine Beaulieu and Joe Piquet on the head of Jean Marcel. The
fathers at Ottawa and the Chiefs of the Company at Winnipeg will not
suffer one of their children to go unpunished who takes the life of
another.

"Listen to the speech of these men. Look with your eyes into their faces
and upon what will be shown here, and judge who speaks with a double
tongue and who from an honest heart. Gaspard Lelac will now tell what he
saw and did."

As Gillies finished, a murmur of approval filled the room, followed by a
tense silence.

Lelac, a grizzled French half-breed with small, closely-set eyes, which
shifted here and there as he spoke, then rose and told in the Cree
tongue the story he had retailed daily for the previous month.

Wishing to visit his nephew Piquet, he said, and learn how he had
weathered the hard winter, in May Lelac and his sons had poled up the
Ghost to the camp. There they found an empty cache and part of the
outfits of Beaulieu and Piquet, the latter of which they at once
recognized. Alarmed, they searched the vicinity of the camp, and by
chance, discovered the body of Beaulieu buried under stones on the
shore. There was a knife wound in his chest. They continued the search
in hope of finding Piquet, as his blankets and outfit, evidently unused
for months and eaten by mice, were strong proof of his death, also; but
failed to find the body. Of the fur-packs and rifles of the two men
there was no trace, but a knife, identified later as belonging to
Antoine, they brought