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ed that day on the spits. Men, women, children, and dogs had stuffed themselves until there was nothing left. It was the silence of Mutai--the "belly god"--the god who eats himself to sleep each night--that hovered strangely over this Post of Fort O' God, three hundred miles from civilization. There was a light in the Factor's room, and Challoner entered with Miki at his heels. MacDonnell, the Scotchman, was puffing moodily on his pipe. There was a worried look in his ruddy face as the younger man seated himself, and his eyes were on Miki. "Durant has been here," he said. "He's ugly. I'm afraid of trouble. If you hadn't struck him--" Challoner shrugged his shoulders as he filled his own pipe from the Factor's tobacco. "You see--you don't just understand the situation at Fort 0' God," went on MacDonnell. "There's been a big dog fight here at New Year for the last fifty years. It's become a part of history, a part of Fort O' God itself, and that's why in my own fifteen years here I haven't tried to stop it. I believe it would bring on a sort of--revolution. I'd wager a half of my people would go to another post with their furs. That's why all the sympathy seems to be with Durant. Even Grouse Piet, his rival, tells him he's a fool to let you get away with him that way. Durant says that dog is HIS." MacDonnell nodded at Miki, lying at Challoner's feet. "Then he lies," said Challoner quietly. "He says he bought him of Jacques Le Beau." "Then Le Beau sold a dog that didn't belong to him." For a moment MacDonnell was silent. Then he said: "But that wasn't what I had you come over for, Challoner. Durant told me something that froze my blood to-night. Your outfit starts for your post up in the Reindeer Lake county to-morrow, doesn't it?" "In the morning." "Then could you, with one of my Indians and a team, arrange to swing around by way of the Jackson's Knee? You'd lose a week, but you could overtake your outfit before it reached the Reindeer--and it would be a mighty big favour to me. There's a--a HELL of a thing happened over there." Again he looked at Miki. "GAWD!" he breathed. Challoner waited. He thought he saw a shudder pass through the Factor's shoulders. "I'd go myself--I ought to, but this frosted lung of mine has made me sit tight this winter, Challoner. I OUGHT to go. Why--(a sudden glow shot into his eyes)--I knew this Nanette Le Beau when she was SO HIGH, fifteen years ago. I wa
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