e
thicket on the shore of the little muskrat lake. In the early gray of
the morning the old Indian was startled by the sound of a shot.

He peered cautiously through the branches and saw a man pitch forward
among the rice-stalks. Five minutes later another man carrying a rifle
passed within a hundred feet of him and disappeared in the timber in
the direction of Blood River Rapids. When he was gone Wabishke ran
swiftly to the fallen man and conveyed him to the wigwam, where he
plugged the bullet-hole with fat and bound up the wound.

Two hours later the bushes parted and Jeanne Lacombie burst panting
into the wigwam. The girl uttered a wild cry at the sight of her
brother lying motionless upon the robe and dropped to her knees at his
side.

"Moncrossen," grunted the Indian, and watched in silent wonder as the
girl leaped to her feet and, seizing an empty pack-sack, began stuffing
it with food. Snatching a light blanket from the floor, she swung the
pack to her shoulders and without a word dashed again into the forest.

CHAPTER XLVIII

THE WEDDING

The events incident to the wedding of Bill Carmody and Ethel Manton are
indelibly stamped upon the memory of every person present. The day was
warmer than any preceding one, with a lowering, overcast sky. The dark,
soggy snow melted rapidly, and the swollen surface stream gnawed and
tore at the honeycombed ice of the river.

In the cook-shack Daddy Dunnigan superintended the labors of half a
dozen flunkies in the preparation of the Gargantuan wedding feast which
was to follow the ceremony, and each man of the crew worked feverishly
in the staging of the great event.

The table, which extended the full length of the grub-shack, was
scrubbed until it shone and was moved to one side to make room for the
heavy benches arranged transversely, one behind the other.

The wide aisle between the table and the ends of the benches, leading
from the door to the improvised altar at the farther end of the room,
was carpeted with blankets from the bunk-house, and suspended from the
ceiling immediately in front of the altar swung the massive horseshoe,
fresh and green with sprouting grain.

During the afternoon a warm drizzle set in and the men completed the
preparations amid a muttered cursing of the weather.

An ominous booming and cracking now and then reached their ears from
the direction of the river where the sullen, pent-up waters threatened
momentarily to break the