f the
craft. Removing from the boat the fish he had caught, he was about to
lift and place it bottom up on the beach when the bow of the approaching
birch-bark suddenly swung sharply and jammed into the stern of his own.

With an exclamation of irritation at the clumsiness of the people in the
offending canoe, Jean looked up to stare into the faces of the three
Lelacs.

"You are good canoeman," he sneered, roughly pushing with his paddle the
half-breeds' canoe from his own. That the act was intentional, he knew,
but he was surprised that the Lelacs, convicted of theft, and on parole
at the post awaiting the Company's decision as to their punishment,
would dare to start trouble.

As Jean shoved off the Lelacs' canoe, the half-breeds, as if at a
preconcerted signal, shouted loudly:

"W'at you do to us, Jean Marcel? Ough! Why you beat me wid de paddle? He
try to keel us!"

The near beach was deserted, but the shouts in the still night were
audible on the post clearing above. The uproar waked the sleeping
huskies at the few remaining Esquimo tepees on the shore, whose howling
quickly aroused the post dogs.

It was evident to Jean that his enemies had chosen their time and place.
Obeying scrupulously the orders of Gillies since the trial, Marcel had
avoided the Lelacs, holding in check the just wrath which had prompted
him to take personal vengeance upon his traducers. Now, instead, they
had sought him, but from their actions, intended to make him seem the
aggressor.

"Bon!" he muttered between his teeth. Life had little value to him now,
he would give these thieves what they were after.

"You 'fraid to come on shore? You squeal lak' rabbit; you t'ief!" he
taunted.

Continuing to shout that Marcel was attacking them, the Lelacs landed
their canoe and the elder son, evidently drunk, lurched toward the man
who waited.

"Rabbit, am I?" roared the frenzied half-breed, and struck savagely at
Jean with his paddle. Dodging the blow, before the breed could recover
his balance, the Frenchman lunged with his one hundred and seventy
pounds behind his fist into Lelac's jaw, hurling him reeling into the
water ten feet away. Then the two Lelacs reached him.

Gasping for breath, the younger brother fell backward, helpless from a
kick in the pit of his stomach as the maddened Marcel grappled with the
father. Over and over they rolled on the beach, Lelac, frenzied by
drink, snarling with hate of the man he had tried to destroy