lders. "Christmas maybe, perhaps next June.
No one knows."

Marcel was strangely elated at the news. Julie was not yet out of his
life. She would be at Whale River on his return from the north. Even if
he were held all summer she would be there as of old.

The welcome of Julie and Pere Breton at the Mission temporarily drove
from Marcel's thoughts the coming separation. Far into the night the
three friends talked while Julie's skillful fingers were busy with her
trousseau. She spoke of the postponement of her wedding, due to the
presence of Inspector Wallace at the headquarters of the Company at
Winnipeg. Julie's olive skin flushed with her pride, as she said that he
had been mentioned already as the next Chief Inspector. Wallace had
already become a Catholic, but the uncertainty of the time of his return
to the East Coast might cause the delay of the ceremony until the
following June.

Marcel's hungry eyes did not leave the girl's face as she talked of her
future--the future he had dreamed of sharing. But the wound was still
raw and he was glad to escape the acute suffering which her nearness
caused, by leaving Fleur and her puppies in Julie's care, and starting
with McCain the following morning, in a York boat loaded with
trade-goods, for the north coast.

In August the York boat returned from the Komaluk Islands and Jean drew
his supplies for another winter on Big Salmon waters. To Gillies, who
urged him to accept a regular berth, and put his team of half-breed
wolves on the mail-route to Rupert, for the winter previous the scarcity
of good dogs along the coast had been the cause of the Christmas mail
not reaching Whale River until the second of January, Marcel turned a
deaf ear. In another year, he said, he would carry the mail up the
coast, but his puppies were still too young to be pushed hard through a
blizzard. Another year and he would show the posts down the coast what a
real dog-team could do.

Glancing at McCain, Gillies shook his head resignedly, for he knew well
why Jean Marcel wished to avoid Whale River.

On the morning of his departure, as Jean stood with Michel on the beach
by the canoe, surrounded by his four impatient dogs, Julie stooped and
kissed the white marking between Fleur's ears, whispering a good-bye.
Turning her head in response, the dog's moist nose and rough tongue
reached the girl's hand.

"Lucky Fleur!" Jean said to his friends.

"It's sure worth while being a dog, sometimes,"