swift lick of her tongue. With
the rope trailing behind, the end of which Jules and McCain seized to
control the dog in case she became unmanageable, Julie Breton opened the
door of Marcel's room, where with fever-flushed face the unconscious man
lay on a low cot, one arm hanging limply to the floor. When the husky
saw the motionless figure, she pricked her ears, thrusting her muzzle
forward, and sniffed, and as her nose revealed the glad news that here
at last lay the lost Jean Marcel, she raised her head and yelped wildly.
Then swiftly muzzling Marcel's inert body she started to spring upon the
bunk to wake him, when Julie Breton's arms circled her neck and aided by
the drag on the rope, checked her.

"Down, Fleur! No! No! You must not hurt Jean."

Seeming to sense that the mute Marcel was not to be roughly played with,
the intelligent dog, whimpering like one of her puppies, caressed the
free hand of the sick man, then, ignoring the weight on the rope
dragging her back, she strained forward to reach his neck with her
tongue, for his head was turned from her. But Jean Marcel did not return
her caress.

Puzzled by his indifference, then sensing that harm had come to the
unconscious Marcel, the dog raised her head over the cot and rocked the
room with a wail of sorrow.

The wounded man sighed and turning, moaned:

"They took Fleur and now they take Julie. There is nothing left--nothing
left!"

At the words, the nose of the overjoyed dog reached the hot face of
Marcel, but his eyes did not see her.

Again Julie's strong arms circled Fleur's neck, restraining her. The
slant eyes of the husky looked long into the pale face which showed no
recognition; then she quietly sat down, resting her nose on his arm. And
for hours, with Julie seated beside her, Fleur kept vigil beside the
bed, until the priest and McCain insisted on the dog's removal.

When Jules brought a crying puppy outside the window of the sick room,
for a time Fleur listened to the call of her offspring without removing
her eyes from Marcel's face. But at length, maternal instinct
temporarily conquered the desire to watch by the stricken man. Her
unweaned puppies depended on her for life and for the moment mother love
prevailed. With a final caress of the limp hand of Marcel, reluctantly,
with head down and tail dragging, she followed Julie to the stockade.

CHAPTER XXXII

FROM THE FAR FRONTIERS

For days Marcel's youth and strength battle