move away. They watched it with a feeling
akin to sorrow, as the blue water widened between it and their island.
It had been something to break the monotony of their existence; and even
its loud roaring was a relief from the dreary sameness of their days.
For hours they sat there, watching it make its slow way northward; nor
did they take their eyes from it till it was but a dim, misty fog-bank
on the blue horizon.

They had not been alone. Beneath them, on the shore, squatted the cub,
watching its northern home drift slowly away; once it made as if it
would have plunged into the waves and followed it, but, seeming to
change its mind, paused at the water's edge.

When Claude and Marguerite went back to their hut, they put forth their
united strength, and succeeded in dragging the ponderous form of the
bear out into the open air. Claude had watched the Indians skin wild
beasts with no better implements than their rude flint knives, and had
learned the process by which they cured the skins. On the following day
he set to work to remove the strong white hide. It took him the whole
day, but at night he and Marguerite had the satisfaction of seeing it
spread to dry on the roof of their hut. All through that night they
heard the piteous cries of the young bear, as it prowled helplessly
about. Their own suffering made them sympathetic, and next day both made
every effort to coax it to them.

At last the bear-skin was spread, broad, and white, and soft, on their
floor. To their delight they found that their new comrade would steal in
at night and rest upon the soft rug, creeping away in the early morning,
just as the first robin announced that day was beginning to break.

Gradually it grew accustomed to them, and ere a month had passed it
would take food from their hands, although it would not allow them to
touch it. But before the summer had passed, and the September leaves
began to turn, it would crouch at Marguerite's feet, and rest its snout
in her lap as she petted and fondled it.

All through the summer Claude grew stronger and stronger. The gods were
good to him, for a time was coming when all his man's strength would be
needed.

CHAPTER XV

When Roberval returned to his castle, and the great iron gates flew back
to admit him, he was amazed to see, standing in the courtyard, the
stalwart form of La Pommeraye. He knew that the young man had gone to
Canada, and he had hoped that the New World, which had sw