. He reverted with difficulty to the fact
that he had wished to get as far as possible, not only beyond pursuit,
but beyond the temptation to return voluntarily and give himself up. He
knew, in those days before the treaty, that he was safe from
extradition; but he feared that if a detective approached he would yield
to him, and go back, especially as he could not always keep before
himself the reasons for not going back. When from time to time these
reasons escaped him, it seemed as if nothing could be done to him in
case he went home and restored to the company the money he had brought
away. It needed a voluntary operation of logic to prove that this
partial restitution would not avail; that he would be arrested, and
convicted. He would not be allowed to go on living with his children in
his own house. He would be taken from them, and put in prison.

He made an early start for Tadoussac, after a wakeful night. His driver
wished to break the forty mile journey midway, but Northwick would not
consent. The road was not so badly drifted as before, and they got
through a little after nightfall. Northwick remembered the place because
it was here that the Saguenay steamer lay so long before starting up the
river. He recognized in the vague night-light the contour of the cove,
and the hills above it, with the villages scattered over them. It was
twenty years since he had made that trip with his wife, who had been
nearly as long dead, but he recalled the place distinctly, and its
summer effect; it did not seem much lonelier now than it seemed in the
summer. The lamps shone from the windows where he had seen them then,
when he walked about a little just after supper; the village store had a
group of _habitans_ and half-breeds about its stove, and there was as
much show of life in the streets as there used to be at the same hour
and season in the little White Mountain village where his boyhood was
passed. It did not seem so bad; if Chicoutimi was no worse he could live
there well enough till he could rehabilitate himself. He imagined
bringing his family there after his mills had got successfully going;
then probably other people from the outside world would be living there.

He ate a hearty supper, but again he did not sleep well, and in the
night he was feverish. He thought how horrible it would be if he were to
fall sick there; he might die before he could get word to his children
and they reach him. He thought of going back t