They maddened him--for a time, and Le
Beau's ugly soul was filled with joy as Miki launched himself again and
again at the sapling bars, tearing at them with his teeth and frothing
blood like a wolf gone mad. For twenty years Le Beau had trained
fighting dogs, and this was his way. So he had done with Netah until
The Killer was mastered, and at his call crept to him on his belly.

Three times, from a window in the cabin, Nanette looked forth on these
horrible struggles between the man and the dog, and the third time she
buried her face in her arms and sobbed; and when Le Beau came in and
found her crying he dragged her to the window and made her look out
again at Miki, who lay bleeding and half dead in the cage. It was a
morning on which he started the round of his traps, and he was always
gone until late the following day. And never was he more than well out
of sight than Nanette would run out and go to the cage.

It was then that Miki forgot The Brute. At times so beaten and blinded
that he could scarcely stand or see, he would crawl to the bars of the
cage and caress the soft hands that Nanette held in fearlessly to him.
And then, after a little, Nanette began to bring the baby out with her,
bundled up like a little Eskimo, and in his joy Miki whimpered and
wagged his tail and grovelled in his worship before these two.

It was in the second week of his captivity that the wonderful thing
happened. Le Beau was gone, and there was a raging blizzard outside to
which Nanette dared not expose the baby. So she went to the cage, and
with a heart that beat wildly, she unbarred the door--and brought Miki
into the cabin! If Le Beau should ever discover what she had done--!

The thought made her shiver.

After this first time she brought him into the cabin again and again.
Once her heart stood still when Le Beau saw blood on the floor, and his
eyes shot at her suspiciously. Then she lied.

"I cut my finger she said," and a moment later, with her back to him,
she DID cut it, and when Jacques looked at her hand he saw a cloth
about the finger, with blood-stain on it.

After that Nanette always watched the floor carefully.

More and more this cabin, with the woman and the baby in it, became a
paradise for Miki. Then came the time when Nanette dared to keep him in
the cabin with her all night, and lying close to the precious cradle
Miki never once took his eyes from her. It was late when she prepared
for bed. She changed int