ackward, and it seemed to Miki
as though a giant trap of steel had closed about his neck. Instantly
his wind was cut off. He could make no sound as he struggled
frantically to free himself. Hand over hand Durant dragged him to the
bars, and there, with his feet still braced, he choked with his whole
weight until--when at last he let up on the WAHGUN--Miki collapsed as
if dead. Ten seconds later Durant was looping a muzzle over his closed
jaws. He left the cage door open when he went back to his sledge,
carrying Miki in his arms. Nanette's slow wits would never guess, he
told himself. She would think that LE BETE had escaped into the forest.

It was not his scheme to club Miki into serfdom, as Le Beau had failed
to do. Durant was wiser than that. In his crude and merciless way he
had come to know certain phenomena of the animal mind. He was not a
psychologist; oh the other hand brutality had not utterly blinded him.
So, instead of lashing Miki to the sledge as Le Beau had fastened him
to his improvised drag, Durant made his captive comfortable, covering
him with a warm blanket before he began his journey eastward. He made
sure, however, that there was no flaw in the muzzle about Miki's jaws,
and that the free end of the chain to which he was still fastened was
well hitched to the Gee-bar of his sledge.

When these things were done Durant set off in the direction of Fort O'
God, and if Jacques Le Beau could have seen him then he would have had
good reason to guess at his elation. By taint of birth and blood Durant
was a gambler first, and a trapper afterward. He set his traps that he
might have the thrill of wagering his profits, and for half a dozen
successive years he had won at the big annual dog fight at Post Fort O'
God. But this year he had been half afraid. His fear had not been of
Jacques Le Beau and Netah, but of the halfbreed away over on Red Belly
Lake. Grouse Piet was the halfbreed's name, and the "dog" that he was
going to put up at the fight was half wolf. Therefore, in the foolish
eagerness of his desire, had Durant offered two cross foxes and ten
reds--the price of five dogs and not one--for the possession of Le
Beau's wild dog. And now that he had him for nothing, and Nanette was
poorer by twelve skins, he was happy. For he had now a good match for
Grouse Piet's half wolf, and he would chance his money and his credit
at the Post to the limit.

When Miki came back to his senses Durant stopped his dogs, f