ing
mechanically a little biscuit sopped in brandy. For a few moments thus,
then his sunken eyes opened, and he looked dazedly at the man
bending above him. Suddenly there came into them a look of terror.
"You--you--are Jaspar Hume," his voice said in an awed whisper.

"Yes." The hands of the sub-factor chafed those of the other.

"But you said you were a friend, and come to save me."

"I have come to save you."

There was a shiver of the sufferer's body. This discovery would either
make him stronger or kill him. Hume knew this, and said: "Lepage, the
past is past and dead to me; let it be so to you."

There was a pause.

"How--did you know--about me?"

"I was at Fort Providence. There came letters from the Hudson's Bay
Company, and from your wife, saying that you were making this journey,
and were six months behind--"

"My wife--Rose!"

"I have a letter for you from her. She is on her way to Canada. We are
to take you to her."

"To take me--to her." Lepage shook his head sadly, but he pressed to his
lips the letter that Hume had given him.

"To take you to her, Lepage."

"No, I shall never see her again."

"I tell you, you shall. You can live if you will. You owe that to
her--to me--to God."

"To her--to you--to God. I have been true to none. I have been punished.
I shall die here."

"You shall go to Fort Providence. Do that in payment of your debt to me,
Lepage. I demand that." In this transgressor there was a latent spark
of honour, a sense of justice that might have been developed to great
causes, if some strong nature, seeing his weaknesses, had not condoned
them, but had appealed to the natural chivalry of an impressionable,
vain, and weak character. He struggled to meet Hume's eyes, and doing
so, he gained confidence and said: "I will try to live. I will do you
justice--yet."

"Your first duty is to eat and drink. We start for Fort Providence
to-morrow."

The sick man stretched out his hand. "Food! Food!" he said.

In tiny portions food and drink were given to him, and his strength
sensibly increased. The cave was soon aglow with the fire kindled by
Late Carscallen and Cloud-in-the-Sky. There was little speaking, for
the sick man soon fell asleep. Lepage's Indian told Cloud-in-the-Sky
the tale of their march--how the other Indian and the dogs died; how
his master became ill as they were starting towards Fort Providence from
Manitou Mountain in the summer weather; how they turned back and