pers took council. The caribou meat, flour and
remaining fish, counting Jean's cache at Conjuror's Falls, would take
them into February. After that, it would be rabbits through March and
April until the fish began to move. In the meantime a few lake trout and
pike could be caught with lines through holes in the ice. Also, setting
the net under three feet of ice could be accomplished with infinite
labor, but the results in midwinter were always a matter of doubt.

"You had all September to net fish, but what did you do? You grew fat on
deer meat," flung out Jean bitterly, thinking of his hungry puppy who
required nourishing food in these months of rapid growth.

"How much feesh you got in dat cache?" demanded Piquet, ignoring the
remark.

"About one hundred fifty pound," replied Marcel.

"Not on Conjur' Fall, I mean at de lac."

The fish Jean had netted and cached at the lake, on arriving in October,
were designed for his dog and already had been partly used.

"Only little left at de lac," he replied.

"Dat feesh belong to us all; de dog can leeve on rabbit."

Piquet's remark brought the blood to Jean's face.

"De dog gets her share of feesh, do you hear dat, Joe?" rasped Marcel,
his eyes blazing. "You and Antoine got no right to dat feesh; you refuse
to help me and you laugh when I net dat feesh. De dog gets her share,
Joe Piquet!" Marcel rose, facing the others with a glitter in his eyes
that had its effect on Piquet.

"We have bad tam, dees spreeng, for sure," moaned Antoine. "I weesh we
net more feesh."

"Well, I tell you what to do," said Jean. "Eef de feesh do not bite tru
de ice or come to de net, we travel over to de Salmon, plentee beaver
dere."

At the suggestion of moving into the unknown country to the north, with
its dread valleys peopled with spirits, the superstitious half-breeds
shook their heads. Rather starve on the Whale, they said, than in the
haunted valleys where the voices of the Windigo filled the nights with
fear.

With a disgusted shrug of his wide shoulders, Marcel dismissed the
subject. "All right, starve on de Ghost, de Windigo get you on de
Salmon."

With the disappearance of the caribou the partners began setting rabbit
snares to save their meat and flour. Jean brought up the last of his
fish from Conjuror's Falls but refused to touch his cache at the lake.
With strict economy and a liberal diet of rabbit, they decided that
their food could carry them into March. Jean wish