nhood with so much love and
devotion. And she was thirsting, as only a mother can, for the story of
it.

"So. Marcel him say. An-ina listen."

CHAPTER XII

KEEKO RETURNS HOME

Keeko had beaten the winter where Marcel had failed. But then Keeko's
journey had been southward towards the sun, where the forest sheltered,
and the river pursued a deep-cut course to the westward of the great
hills supporting the wind-swept plateau of Unaga.

For all these easier conditions, however, the journey was a hard beat up
against the sluggish flow of the river. It permitted no relaxation, and
only a minimum of rest. Then the portages up the rapids had been
rendered doubly laborious by reason of cargoes such as the girl and her
Indians had never been called upon to deal with before.

It should have been a happy enough journey. Was it not in the nature of
a procession of great triumph? Had not Keeko's summer labours been
crowned far beyond her dreams? Surely this was so. The ardent little
feminine scheme, worked out on a sick bed, and executed with great
strength and courage had been brought to a complete and successful
issue. Oh, yes. The shadows which had threatened Keeko's future had been
completely confounded. She knew beyond a doubt that she was independent,
as her mother desired her to be. When the moment came she knew she was
in the privileged position of being free to cut the bonds which had
hitherto held her to the man whose brutality was surely enough driving
her suffering mother to the grave.

But depression weighed the girl down. Look forward as she might, hope
would not rise at her bidding. Marcel had been snatched out of her life
like a shadowy dream, and the future offered her little enough comfort.
Then there was her mother, and all that might have happened at the post
in her long absence.

It was in such a mood that she emerged into the horseshoe loop of the
river and beheld the dark walls of the old Fort Duggan. Her pretty face
and serious eyes reflected her feelings as she piloted her boat towards
the landing in the cold, crisp air of the brief daylight. Furthermore it
was with no easing of her mood that she beheld the figure of her
step-father on the landing awaiting her approach.

Just for a moment she wondered. Just for a moment she asked herself if
he had had warning from some stray Shaunekuk of her coming. She realized
a spasm of fear that perhaps prying eyes had witnessed her caching of
the gre