you that some day you
and I shall be friends! At this moment you hate me. But I know it is
through ignorance you hate. I have small patience with your ignorance;
but, also, at this moment you are the only person in all the North with
whom I would trust my Indians. Lapierre, from now on, will be past
charming them. I shall see to it that he is kept so busy in the matter
of saving his own hide that he will have scant time for deviltry."

Still Chloe appeared to hesitate. And through MacNair's mind flashed
the memory of the rapier-blade eyes that stared from out the dull gold
frame of the portrait that hung upon the wall of the little
cottage---eyes that were the eyes of the girl before him.

"Well," he asked with evident impatience, "are you _afraid_ of these
Indians?"

The flashing eyes of the girl told him that the shot had struck home.
"No!" she cried. "I am not afraid! Send your Indians to me, if you
will; and when you send them, bid good-by to them forever."

MacNair nodded. "I will send them," he answered, and, turning abruptly
upon his heel, disappeared into the scrub.

The journey down the Yellow Knife consumed six days, and it was a
journey fraught with many hardships for Chloe Elliston, unaccustomed as
she was to trail travel. The little-used trail, following closely the
bank of the stream, climbed low, rock-ribbed ridges, traversed black
spruce swamps, and threaded endlessly in and out of the scrub timber.
Nevertheless, the girl held doggedly to the slow pace set by the
canoemen.

When at last, foot-sore and weary, with nerves a-jangle, and with every
muscle in her body protesting with its own devilishly ingenious ache
against the overstrain of the long, rough miles and the chill misery of
damp blankets, she arrived at the school, Lapierre was nowhere to be
found. For the wily quarter-breed, knowing that MacNair would
instantly suspect the source of the whiskey, had, upon his arrival,
removed the remaining casks from the storehouse, and conveyed them with
all haste to his stronghold on Lac du Mort.

Upon her table in the cottage, Chloe found a brief note to the effect
that Lapierre had been, forced to hasten to the eastward to aid LeFroy
in dealing with the whiskey-runners. The girl had scant time to think
of Lapierre, however, for upon the morning after her arrival, MacNair
appeared, accompanied by a hundred or more dejected and woe-begone
Indians. Despite the fact that Chloe had known