se
upon whom it made the least impression were those most vitally
concerned--MacNair's own Indians. So quietly had the incident passed
that not one of them realized its importance.

With them MacNair was _God_. He was the _law_. He had taught them to
work, so that even in the lean years they and their wives and their
babies ate twice each day. He had said that they should continue to
eat twice each day, and therefore his departure was a matter of no
moment. They knew only that he had gone southward with the man of the
soldier-police. This was doubtless as he had commanded. They could
conceive of MacNair only as commanding. Therefore the
soldier-policeman had obeyed and accompanied him to the southward.

With no such complacency, however, was the arrest of MacNair regarded
by the henchmen of Lapierre. To them MacNair was not God, nor was he
the law. For these men knew well the long arm of the Mounted and what
lay at the end of the trail. Lean forms sped through the woods, and
the word passed from lip to lip in far places. It was whispered upon
the Slave, the Mackenzie, and the Athabasca, and it was told in the
provinces before MacNair and Ripley reached Fort Chippewayan. Along
the river, men talked excitedly, and impatiently awaited word from
Lapierre, while their eyes snapped with greed and their thoughts flew
to the gold in the sands of the barren grounds.

In the Bastile du Mort, a hundred miles to the eastward, Lapierre heard
the news from the lips of a breathless runner, but a scant ten hours
after Corporal Ripley and MacNair stepped from the door of the cottage.
And within the hour the quarter-breed was upon the trail, travelling
light, in company with LeFroy, who, fearing swift vengeance, had also
sought safety in the stronghold of the outlaws.

Chloe Elliston stood in the doorway and watched the broad form of Bob
MacNair swing across the clearing in company with Corporal Ripley. As
the men disappeared in the timber, a fierce joy of victory surged
through her veins. She had bared the mailed fist! Had wrested a
people from the hand of their oppressor! The Snare Lake Indians were
henceforth to be _her_ Indians! She had ridded the North of MacNair!
Every fibre of her sang with the exultation of it as she turned into
the room and encountered the fishlike stare of Big Lena.

The woman leaned, ponderous and silent, against the jamb of the door
giving into the kitchen. Her huge arms were folded