NON; you are not a devil," she cried softly, her voice filled
with a strange tremble. "O-o-ee, my SOKETAAO, I prayed, PRAYED--and you
came. Yes, on my knees each night I prayed to Our Blessed Lady that she
might have mercy on my baby, and make the sun in heaven shine for her
through all time. AND YOU CAME! And the dear God does not send devils
in answer to prayer. NON; never!"

And Miki, as though some spirit had given him the power to understand,
rested the weight of his bruised and beaten head on her hands.

From the edge of the forest Durant was watching. He had caught the
flash of light from the door and had seen Nanette go to the cage, and
his eyes did not leave her until she returned into the cabin. He
laughed as he went to his fire and finished making the WAHGUN he was
fastening to the end of a long pole. This WAHGUN and the pole added to
his own cleverness were saving him twelve good fox skins, and he
continued to chuckle there in the fireglow as he thought how easy it
was to beat a woman's wits. Nanette was a fool to refuse the pelts, and
Jacques was--dead. It was a most lucky combination of circumstances for
him. Fortune had surely come his way. On LE BETE, as he called the wild
dog, he would gamble all that he possessed in the big fight. And he
would win.

He waited until the light in the cabin went out before he approached
the cage again. Miki heard him coming. At a considerable distance he
saw him, for the moon was already turning the night into day. Durant
knew the ways of dogs. With them he employed a superior reason where Le
Beau had used the club and the rawhide. So he came up openly and
boldly, and, as if by accident, dropped the end of the pole between the
bars. With his hands against the cage, apparently unafraid, he began
talking in a casual way. He was different from Le Beau. Miki watched
him closely for a space and then let his eyes rest again on the
darkened cabin window. Stealthily Durant began to take advantage of his
opportunity. A little at a time he moved the end of the pole until it
was over Miki's head, with the deadly bowstring and its open noose
hanging down. He was an adept in the use of the WAHGUN. Many foxes and
wolves, and even a bear, he had caught that way. Miki, numbed by the
cold, scarcely felt the BABICHE noose as it settled softly about his
neck. He did not see Durant brace himself, with his feet against the
running-log of the cage.

Then, suddenly, Durant lurched himself b