flowing
bosom, and rubbed the fingers back and forth so they might feel the
texture. But the jewelled butterfly which loosely held the fold in
place was insecurely fastened, and the front of the gown slipped to
the side, exposing a firm white breast, which had never known the
lip-clasp of a child.

Mrs. Van Wyck coolly repaired the mischief; but Li Wan uttered a loud
cry, and ripped and tore at her skin-shirt till her own breast showed
firm and white as Evelyn Van Wyck's. Murmuring inarticulately and
making swift signs, she strove to establish the kinship.

"A half-breed," Mrs. Van Wyck commented. "I thought so from her hair."

Miss Giddings made a fastidious gesture. "Proud of her father's white
skin. It's beastly! Do give her something, Evelyn, and make her go."

But the other woman sighed. "Poor creature, I wish I could do
something for her."

A heavy foot crunched the gravel without. Then the cabin door swung
wide, and Canim stalked in. Miss Giddings saw a vision of sudden
death, and screamed; but Mrs. Van Wyck faced him composedly.

"What do you want?" she demanded.

"How do?" Canim answered suavely and directly, pointing at the same
time to Li Wan. "Um my wife."

He reached out for her, but she waved him back.

"Speak, Canim! Tell them that I am--"

"Daughter of Pow-Wah-Kaan? Nay, of what is it to them that they
should care? Better should I tell them thou art an ill wife, given to
creeping from thy husband's bed when sleep is heavy in his eyes."

Again he reached out for her, but she fled away from him to Mrs. Van
Wyck, at whose feet she made frenzied appeal, and whose knees she
tried to clasp. But the lady stepped back and gave permission with her
eyes to Canim. He gripped Li Wan under the shoulders and raised her to
her feet. She fought with him, in a madness of despair, till his chest
was heaving with the exertion, and they had reeled about over half the
room.

"Let me go, Canim," she sobbed.

But he twisted her wrist till she ceased to struggle. "The memories of
the little moose-bird are overstrong and make trouble," he began.

"I know! I know!" she broke in. "I see the man in the snow, and as
never before I see him crawl on hand and knee. And I, who am a little
child, am carried on his back. And this is before Pow-Wah-Kaan and the
time I came to live in a little corner of the earth."

"You know," he answered, forcing her toward the door; "but you will go
with me down the Yukon and forget."