The Maid of the Whispering Hills

her red-rose face aghast, "he will

rt shot up the main way of Fort de Seviere to whe

of the small stream to the east where nine canoes lay bottom up upon the pebbly shore, to the great dark wall of the forest shouldering near on three sides. To him r

eviere, factor of the Company and governor of the handful of humanity lost in the vast region of the Assiniboine. But to Fr

the world!-whips that great grey husky leader of his team, because it did but snap at his heel beneath an idl

am a mist of tears and the heart of the l

tly from the factor's

ttle one?"

. But hurry, M'sieu,

l. An aged Indian of the Assiniboines squatted at the water's edge mending the broken bottom of a skin

e of those pictures a man sees but few times and never

nded the post there stood two figures, a man and a woman, and between th

but the head of the woman, shining like blue-black

face. It was evident that she had but just reached the spot from the fac

er and the factor s

at his side, but he put out a comm

er voice cut cold and clear in the sun-filled mo

the heat lightning that flutters on the waters of Winipigoos in the hot summers the cruel

forward, while the little maid co

stride retribution le

nd tawny as finest tanned buckskin, double itself hard and lea

and DesCaut, catching his heel on a buried stone's sharp jut, we

t her, leaning forward, and there wa

a mighty laughter from the two youths on

went f

the long dog-whips, "you deserves death but you have been beate

im, his lips snarling back from his teeth and his eyes measuring the factor

ard the gate and the two voyageurs no

their mirth, and Pierre Garcon reached

ge to silence, swung p

til he disappeared, fe

d the little

nd smoothing the short ears deaf to her soft words, and sat rocking to and fro in an ecstasy of grief. Beyond SHE stood, that tall woman, stoo

he new people who arrived last

is face, those dark eyes smouldering like ban

oice that made the blood stir vaguely within the factor's veins, "does M'sieu have

berately away, walked down toward

ers that swung slightly with her free walk, had passed from view. And not alone he, for the two voyageurs alike gaze

bent above the l

le one, let go. The dog is

, and with the audacity of her beauty and life-l

be done when one sleeps, so? He is so strong at the sledges and he did not whimpe

heeks; and McElroy went to the river and filled his cap with water. This he poured into the open jaws and s

e side with its broken ribs, fluttering the lids over the fierce ey

t of a big-framed man, and entered the post, the little maid at has side. Near the gat

family of Francette they went, and the f

e yours," said he, "for he is worth

a glimpse of the tall stranger

Hudson's Bay Company in that year of 1796, and a goodly stream

of the conqueror, it faced the rising sun with its square stockade, strong and well built, log by

ity of voyageurs, trappers, coureurs du bois, and

and the world that opened beyond the setting sun; renegades of the lakes and forest came for and found its ready hospitality, and into it came at all sea

d honest friendship stood that most admirable of men, Edmonton Ridgar, chief trader and anything else from accountant to armou

ssive book of accounts always open on its face, its hand-made drawers filled with the documents of the Company. Here McElroy was wont to take account of the furs brought in, to distribute recompense, and to enforce the simple law. Attached to this room on the south was the great store-room, packed with those articles of merchandise most likely to seem of worth in savage ey

r had their living, furnished scantily with a bed and table, an open

d come in the dusk of the previou

elongings in packs on the shoulders of the men,

erness of every land. They had met the factor at the great gate and entered in to rest and feast, as is the rule of every fire. By morning had come

ueezed somehow into the already overcrowded stockade, and

e tall girl, had come with the strangers, yet he had not noticed her until that moment

man was there before him, a picturesque figure of a man, big and graceful and dark of brow, with long black curls beneath his crimson

nt, M'sieu,"

p and read eagerly down its lengt

ort de Seviere on the Assiniboine River,-Prix Laroux and wife Ninette, Pierre and Cif Bordoux and their wives Anon and Micene, F

amed for a moment in the

it had pleased him, that

to his new acquisition, "we will