? Why couldn't MacNair have been the one to have
the interest of the Indians at heart? And why couldn't Lapierre have
been the one to browbeat and bully them?"

She paced angrily up and down the room, and kicked viciously at the
little ball of paper that was Lapierre's note. "He couldn't browbeat
anything!" she exclaimed. "He's--he's--sometimes, I think, he's almost
_sneaking_, with his bland, courtly manners, and his suave tongue. Oh,
how I could hate that man! And how I--" she stopped suddenly, and with
clenched fists fixed her gaze upon the portrait of Tiger Elliston, and
as she looked the thin features that returned her stare seemed to
resolve into the rugged outlines of the face of Bob MacNair.

"He's big and strong, and he's not afraid," she murmured, and started
nervously at the knock with which Big Lena announced supper.

When Chloe appeared at the table five minutes later she was quite her
usual self. She even laughed at Harriet Penny's horrified narrative of
the fact that she had discovered several Indians in the act of affixing
runners to the collapsible bathtubs in anticipation of the coming snow.

Chloe spent an almost sleepless night, and it was with a feeling of
distinct relief that she arose to find Lapierre upon the veranda. She
noted a certain intense eagerness in the quarter-breed's voice as he
greeted her.

"Ah, Miss Elliston!" he cried, seizing both her hands. "It seems that
during my brief absence you have accomplished wonders! May I ask how
you managed to bring about the downfall of the brute of the North, and
at the same time win his Indians to your school?"

Under the enthusiasm of his words the girl's heart once more quickened
with the sense of victory. She withdrew her hands from his clasp and
gave a brief account of all that had happened since their parting on
Snare Lake.

"Wonderful," breathed Lapierre at the conclusion of the recital. "And
you are sure he was duly charged with the murder of the two Indians?"

Chloe nodded. "Yes, indeed I am sure!" she exclaimed. "The officer,
Corporal Ripley, tried to get me to put off this charge until his other
trial came up at the spring assizes. He said MacNair could give bail
and secure his liberty on the liquor charges, and thus return to the
North--and to his Indians."

Lapierre nodded eagerly. "Ah, did I not tell you, Miss Elliston, that
the men of the Mounted are with him heart and soul? He owns them! You
have done well