the one you were
telling me of?" demanded David skeptically.

"It is the sam'," almost shouted the hunter. "I hav' know the name when
I hear it, but never could I remember. But I think he dead long time,
because after his son who he hav' love much get kill by tree, he turn to
wil' man an' run 'way to Canada, an' no one know after where he hav'
gone. Of a truth we hav' done well not to meet him. No wonder you say
'urry an' get away, M'sieu' Tom."

"Yes, I knew the danger if you didn't," returned Tom. "He had been gone
three days when you came and I was expecting him back at almost any
minute. Now I understand why he called me his dear son. How we managed
to dodge him is a miracle."

"Finding you was a miracle!" was David's reverent exclamation. "I feel
as though I'd been living in a nightmare and just awakened from it."

"_Le bon Dieu_ never forget the one' he lov'," nodded Jean positively.
"An' he hav' lov' Mam'selle Grace an' M'sieu' Tom much or we never fin'
the M'sieu'." Jean made his usual sign of reverence for the Supreme
Being in which his faith was firmly grounded. "Now we mak' ready to
spen' another night outdoors. Jean will watch while his frien's sleep.
To-morrow an' we see the camp. Then, M'sieu' David, it is for you to go
to the village an' sen' the message that we hav' not fail, to those who
watch an' wait."

Late the following afternoon the overseer of the lumber camp received
the surprise of his life. The sight of two exhausted, weather-beaten men
who toiled painfully into his front yard, bearing a rude litter on which
reclined a third man, sent the amazed Scotchman racing joyfully to meet
them. A little later Tom Gray was surrounded by the comforts which had
so long been denied him. After a hearty meal and a brief rest, David
Nesbit set off for the village on the overseer's horse to telegraph to
Grace Harlowe and Mrs. Gray the glorious news that Tom Gray had been
found and would soon be restored to them.

But David had also another equally important commission to execute which
directly concerned Jean's "wil' man." After sending the two telegrams he
went at once to the home of the county sheriff, who lived in the
village. Completely disgusted with the lax manner in which the sheriff
had conducted the search, David reported to him the finding of Tom, with
a scathing arraignment which the inefficient official accepted in
scowling silence. Convinced by David's rebuke that it was high time to
redeem h