lak' heem die, mebbe."

Stefan bellowed out an oath and began running towards his house at a
tremendous gait. Papineau jumped on his toboggan and followed, only
catching up after they had gone a couple of hundred yards. When they
reached Olsen's, the latter went in, shouted out the news and came out
again. With the help of Papineau he hitched up his own great team of
five.

"Tank you for lettin' me know, Papineau," he said. "I get ofer dere so
tam qvick you don't belief, I tank. So long!"

"'Old 'ard! 'Old 'ard!" shouted the Frenchman. "Vat for you tink Pat
Kilrea an' McIntosh, an' Prouty an' Kerrigan and more, an' also vomans
is goin' up dere to de Falls? Dey say go visitin'. Dey don't nevaire
go make visits before dat vay. An' dey h'ask me all 'bout de
_demoiselle_, de gal vat is up dere, an' I see Mis' Kilrea an'
Kerrigan's voman look one de oder in de face. Look mean lak' de devil,
dem vomans! I dunno, but I tink dey up to no good, dem crowd. If I no
have to stay for _docteur_ I go right back qvick. D'ye tink dey vant
ter bodder Hugo, or de lady, Stefan?"

The latter swore again.

"If dey bodder 'em I tvists all dere necks like chickens, I tank," he
cried, excitedly. "How long ago did they leave?"

"Vell, most a h'our, now, I tink, and dem's Kerrigan's horses, as is
five year olds an' stronk lak' de devil. Dey run good on de five-mile
flat, dey do, sure, an' odder places vhere snow is pack nice."

This time Stefan didn't answer. He shouted at his team, that started
on the run, but Zeb Foraker's St. Bernard, who could lick any dog in
Carcajou singly, chanced to leap over the garden fence and come at
them. In a moment a half dozen dogs were piled up in a fight. Stefan
stepped into the snarl. A moment later he had the biggest animal, that
was supposed to weigh close to two hundred, by the tail. With a
wonderful heave he lifted it up and swung it over his master's fence
into a leafless copper beach that graced the plot, whence the animal
fell to the ground, looking dazed. It took several minutes to
straighten out the tangled traces and the leader was hopelessly lame.
He had to be taken out and left at home. All the time Stefan's
language brought scared faces to the windows of neighboring shacks. It
was a good thing, probably, that few people in Carcajou understood
Swedish. Still, from the sound of it they judged that it must be
something pretty bad. Finally he was off again, lacking the smartest
animal in his t