Part 17 (1/2)

More than once she was upon the point of attempting another visit to Snare Lake, and in all probability would have done so had not Big Lena flatly refused to accompany her under any circ.u.mstances whatever. And this att.i.tude the huge Swedish woman stubbornly maintained, preserving a haughty indifference alike to Chloe's taunts of cowardice, promise of reward, and threats of dismissal. Whereupon Chloe broached the subject to Harriet Penny, and that valiant soul promptly flew into hysteria, so that for three days Chloe did double duty in the school. After that she nursed her wrath in silence and brooded upon the wrongs of MacNair's Indians.

This continued brooding was not without its effect upon the girl, and slowly but surely destroyed her sense of proportion. No longer was the education and civilization of the Indians the uppermost thought in her mind. With Lapierre, she came to regard the crus.h.i.+ng of MacNair's power as the most important and altogether desirable undertaking that could possibly be consummated.

While in this frame of mind, just at sunset of a keen October day, the cry of ”_la brigade! la brigade!_” reached her ears as she sat alone in her room in the cottage, and rus.h.i.+ng to the river bank she joined the Indians who swarmed to the water's edge to welcome the huge freight canoe that had rounded the point below the clearing. Chloe clapped her hands in sheer joy and relief, for there, proud and erect, in the bow of the canoe stood Lapierre, and behind him from bank to bank the Yellow Knife fairly swarmed with other full-freighted canoes. The supplies had arrived!

Even as the bow of his canoe sc.r.a.ped the bank, Lapierre was at her side. Chloe felt her hand pressed between his--felt the grip of his strong fingers, and flushed deeply as she realized that not alone because of the supplies was she glad that he had come. And then, his voice was in her ears, and she was listening as he told her how good it was to stand once more at her side, and look into the face whose image had spurred him to almost super-human effort, throughout the days and the nights of the long river trail.

Lightly she answered him, and Lapierre's heart bounded at the warmth of her welcome. He turned with a word to his canoemen, and Chloe noted with admiration, how one and all they sprang to do his bidding. She marvelled at his authority. Why did these men leap to obey his slightest command, when LeFroy, to obtain even the half-hearted obedience she required of her Indians, was forced to brow-beat and bully them? Her heart warmed to the man as she thought of the slovenly progress of her school. Here was one who could help her. One who could point with the finger of a master of men to the weak spots in her system.

Suddenly her brow clouded. For, as she looked upon Lapierre, the words of MacNair flashed through her mind, as he stood weak from his wounds, in the dimness of her fire-lit room. Her eyes hardened, and unconsciously her chin thrust outward, as she realized that before she could ask this man's aid, there were things he must explain.

Darkness settled, and at a word from Lapierre, fires flared out on the beach and in the clearing, and by their light the long line of canoemen conveyed the pieces upon their heads into the wide door of the storehouse. It was a weird, fantastic scene. The long line of pack-laden men, toiling up the bank between the rows of flaring fires, to disappear in the storehouse; and the long line returning empty-handed to toil again, to the storehouse. After a time Lapierre called LeFroy to his side and uttered a few terse commands. The man nodded, and took Lapierre's place at the head of the steep slope to the river. The quarter-breed turned to the girl.

”Come,” he said, smiling, ”LeFroy can handle them now. May we not go to your cottage? I would hear of your progress--the progress of your school. And also,” he bowed, ”is it not possible that the great, what do you call her, Lena, has prepared supper? I've eaten nothing since morning.”

”Forgive me!” cried the girl. ”I had completely forgotten supper.

But, the men? Have they not eaten since morning?”

Lapierre smiled. ”They will eat,” he answered, ”when their work is done.”

Supper over, the two seated themselves upon the little veranda. Along the beach the fires still flared, and still the men, like a huge, slow-moving endless chain, carried the supplies to the store-house.

Lapierre waved his hand toward the scene.

”You see now,” he smiled, ”why I built the storehouse so large?”

Chloe nodded, and regarded him intently. ”Yes, I see that,” she answered gravely, ”but there are things I do not see. Of course you have heard of the attack by MacNair's Indians?”

Lapierre a.s.sented. ”At Smith Landing I heard it,” he answered, and waited for her to proceed.

”Had you expected this attack?”

Lapierre glanced at her in well-feigned surprise.

”Had I expected it, Miss Elliston, do you think I would have gone to the Southward? Would I have left you to the mercy of those brutes?

When I thought you were in danger on Snare Lake, did I----”

The girl interrupted him with a gesture. ”No! No! I do not think you antic.i.p.ated the attack, but----”

Lapierre finished her sentence. ”But, MacNair told you I did, and that I had timed accurately my trip to the Southward? What else did he tell you?”

”He told me,” answered Chloe, ”that had you not antic.i.p.ated the attack you would not have armed my Indians with Mausers. He said that my Indians were armed to kill men, not animals.” She paused and looked directly into his eyes. ”Mr. Lapierre, where did those rifles come from?”

Lapierre answered without a moment's hesitation. ”From my--_cache_ to the westward.” He leaned closer. ”I told you once before,” he said, ”that I could place a hundred guns in the hands of your Indians, and you forbade me. While I could remain in the North, I bowed to your wishes. I know the North and its people, and I knew you would be safer with the rifles than without them. In event of an emergency, the fact that your Indians were armed with guns that would shoot farther, and harder, and faster, than the guns of your enemies, would offset, in a great measure, their advantage in numbers. It seems that my judgment was vindicated. I disobeyed you flatly. But, surely, you will not blame me! Oh! If you knew----”

Chloe interrupted him.

”Don't!” she cried sharply. ”Please--not that! I--I think I understand. But there are still things I do not understand. Why did one of my own Indians attempt to murder MacNair? And how did MacNair know that he would attempt to murder him? He said you had ordered it so. And the man was one of your Indians--one of those you left with LeFroy.”