im back."

"Don' you tell him I want him back," she said. "I hate him!"

"Can I tak' horses?"

"Yes," she cried suddenly. "Go tell Sam I crazy 'bout Mahooley. Tell
him I gone wit' Mahooley. He rich. Give me ev'ryt'ing I want."

"I not tell Sam that kind of stuff," returned Musq'oosis scornfully.

"It is truth," she insisted sullenly. "I goin' all right."

"If Sam come back sorry you feel bad you gone wit' Mahooley."

"No, I glad!" she cried passionately. "I hope he want me when it is
too late. I want turn him down. That mak' me feel good."

Musq'oosis debated with himself. It was a difficult case to deal with.

"Tak' the team," said Bela. "Tell Sam all I say."

The old man shook his head. "W'at's the use if you goin' wit'
Mahooley, anyway? You wait a while. Maybe I bring him back. Mak' say
him sorry."

Bela hesitated. Angry speech failed her, and her eyes became dreamy.
In spite of herself, she was ravished by the picture of Sam at her
feet, begging for forgiveness.

"Well, maybe I wait," she said.

Musq'oosis followed up his advantage. "No," he said firmly. "Not lak
travel in wagon, me. Mak' my bones moch sore. I am old. I not go
wit'out you promise wait."

"Not wait all tam," declared Bela.

"Six days," suggested Musq'oosis.

She hesitated, fighting her pride.

"If you go wit' Mahooley, Sam get a white wife," went on Musq'oosis
carelessly. "Maybe him send letter to chicadee woman to come back."

"All right," said Bela with an air of indifference, "I promise wait
six days. I don' want go wit' Mahooley before that, anyhow."

They shook hands on it.

CHAPTER XXIV

ON THE SPIRIT RIVER

The sun looked over the hills and laid a commanding finger on Sam's
eyelids. He awoke, and arose from under the little windbreak he had
made of poplar branches.

Before him rolled a noble green river with a spruce-clad island in the
middle, stemming the current with sharp prow like a battleship. On the
other side rose the hills, high and wooded. More hills filled the
picture behind him on this side, sweeping up in fantastic
grass-covered knolls and terraces.

The whole valley up and down, bathed in the light of early morning,
presented as fair a scene as mortal eyes might hope to behold.

Sam regarded it dully. He looked around him at the natural meadow
sloping gently up from the river-bank to the grassy hills behind, a
rich field ready to the farmer's hand and crying for tilth, and he
said to himsel