s growl that was very different from his usual bark.

Madge went to the door, feeling very uneasy. She opened it, after
slipping her hand under Maigan's collar. Upon the tote-road she saw a
large sled that had been drawn by a pair of strong, shaggy horses,
which a man was blanketing. From where she stood she heard confused
voices of men and women, all of whom were strangers to her. They
seemed to be consulting together. Finally they came down the path
towards the shack, nine or ten of them, walking slowly and looking
grim and unfriendly. Maigan was now barking fiercely and Madge had to
struggle with him to prevent his dashing out towards them.

CHAPTER X

Stefan Runs

Philippe Papineau rode nearly all the way on the toboggan, sparing the
dogs only in the hardest places on rising ground. The animals had been
well-fed on the previous night and the trip around the trapping line
had not been a hard one. It represented but a mere fifty miles or so,
over which they had only hauled one man's food in three days, with his
blankets and a small shelter-tent he used when forced to stop away
from one of the small huts he had built on the line. In fact, there
had been little need of three dogs, but Papineau had taken them
because it kept up their training. In the pink of condition,
therefore, the team bade fair to equal Stefan's best performances.

The Frenchman was within sight of the smokestack rising from
Carcajou's sawmill when he opened his eyes, widely. A pair of horses
was coming along the old road, drawing a big sled. As the old lumber
trail was used only by dog-teams, as a rule, this surprised him. A
moment later he clucked at his dogs, which drew to one side, and the
horses, from whose shaggy bodies a cloud of steam was rising, came
abreast of him. The sled stopped.

"Hello there, Papineau!" called one of the men. "Going in for
provisions? Thought you hauled in a barrel of flour last week."

"Uh huh," assented Philippe, non-committally.

"Is that fellow Ennis over to his shack?" asked McIntosh, the
squaw-man.

"Uh huh," repeated the settler.

"D'ye happen to know whether there's a--a young 'ooman there too?"

"Vat you vant wid dat gal?" asked Papineau this time.

"We're just goin' visitin', like," Pat Kilrea informed him. "It's sure
a fine day for a ride in the country. And so that there young 'ooman's
been up there a matter o' three-four days, ain't she?"

"I tink so," assented Philippe.

"D'ye kn