tate of things.

De Courtenay was but a man, and what man, looking upon Maren Le Moyne,
could fail to love her?

Therefore, he freed his rival of all blame.

And Maren,--oh, blameless as the winds of heaven was Maren!

What had she given him that he could construe as love?

Only a look, a blush to her cheek, the touch of a warm hand.

In his folly he had hailed himself king of her affections when perchance
it was but the kindliness of her womanly heart.

And what maid could be blind to De Courtenay's sparkling
grace,--compared to which he was himself a blundering yokel?

Thus in bound darkness he reasoned it all out and strove to wash away
the anger from his heart.

And presently there came dawn. First a cold air blowing out of the
forest, and then a deeper darkness that presently gave way to faint,
shadowy light.

Here and there tall figures came looming, ghostly-fashion, out of chaos,
to take slow shape and form, to resolve themselves into tapering lodges,
into hunched and huddled groups.

And with light came action.

McElroy saw that around the central lodge before the gate there was a
solid pack of prostrate Indians covering the ground like a cloth, and
from this centre came the tom-toms and the wailing.

It was the lodge of the chief and within lay the stark body of the
murdered Negansahima.

As the faint light grew, one by one the warriors rose out of the mass
like smoke spirals, drawing away to disappear among the tepees. Soon
there came the sound of falling poles and McElroy knew that they were
striking the camp.

For what?

Why, surely, for one thing.

A chief must go to the great Hunting Ground from his own country; in his
own country must his bones seek rest.

They would journey back up the long and difficult trail down which they
had just come to that vague region from which they hailed.

But what of him, and of De Courtenay, if he was yet alive?

He wondered why they had been reserved.

The light came quickly and he looked eagerly around on the moving camp.

With quickness and precision the whole long village was reduced in a few
minutes to rolled coverings, gathered and tied utensils, stacked packs
of furs, and ranged canoes already in the water lining the shore.

He could not help a feeling of regret for this wild people, coming but
few suns back with their rich peltry, their pomp, and their hopes of
gain, as they prepared for the back trail, the whole tribe in deepest
mourni