stranger. Although they
owed him much, he thought, yet these Huskies wished to make him pay
dearly for the dog. Still he was glad to get her, even at such a price.
So he went to the cache, loosened the lashings of his fur-pack, and
returned with two prime marten pelts, offering them to the Esquimo.

Again Kovik's round face was divided by a grin. The wrinkles radiated
from the narrow eyes which snapped.

"You lak' seal in riv'--ketch boy. Tak' de dog--we no want skin." And
shaking his head, the Husky pushed away the pelts.

Slowly the face of Marcel changed with surprise as he sensed the import
of Kovik's words. They were making him a present of the dog.

"You--you geeve to me--dese puppy?" he stammered, staring into the
grinning face of the Esquimo, delighted with the success of his little
ruse.

Kovik nodded.

"T'anks, t'anks!" cried Jean, his eyes suspiciously moist as he wrung
the Husky's hand, then seized that of the chuckling woman. "You are good
people; I not forget de Kovik."

He had done these honest Esquimos a wrong. Now, after the fear of
defeat, and the bitterness, the puppy he had coveted was his. He was not
to return to Whale River empty handed, the laughing-stock of his
partners. It had been indeed worth while, his plunge into the bad-lands,
for in two years he would have the dog-team of his dreams. Some day this
four-months-old puppy should make the fortune of Jean Marcel.

But little he realized, as he exulted in his good luck, how vital a part
in his life, and in the life of Julie Breton, this wild puppy with the
white socks was to play.

CHAPTER III

THE FRIEND OF DEMONS

When Marcel put his canoe into the water the following morning, to cross
to his net, three young Esquimos, who had been loitering near Kovik's
lodge, followed him to the beach, and as he left the shore, hurled at
his back a torrent of Husky abuse.

What he had hoped to avoid had come. It would have been better to listen
to Kovik's warning against delaying his departure and attempting to fish
at the rapids after the salmon arrived. The use of the boy's spear, the
day previous, had brought the feeling among the younger men to a head.
They meant to drive him down river.

Removing the whitefish and small salmon, Jean lifted his net and
stretching it to dry on the shore, recrossed the stream. On the beach
awaiting his return were the Huskies. Clearly, they had decided that he
was possessed of no supernatural power