arms
about your throat--you remember, M'sieu--and whispered that for one
kiss I would go and forget. In the gentleness of your heart you kissed
me--and--she saw that kiss. Saw me lying in your arms as if you held
me there from love,--saw and turned away. She made no sound in the soft
dust, and when I loosed your face from my clasp she was gone! So I
broke your faith, M'sieu,--so I dragged forth one by one all the sorry
happenings that have followed that evil night."

The muffled voice fell silent, save for the sobs that would no longer
be withheld, and there was an awful stillness in the room, broken by a
stick falling on the hearth and the added roar in the chimney.

When Francette raised her weeping eyes she saw McElroy's face above her
like a mask.

Its lips were open as if breath had suddenly been denied them, its
wasted cheeks were blue, and its eyes stared down upon her in horror:

"Oh! O God! Rette!"

She screamed and sprang up, to run back and crouch against the empty
chair beside the hearth.

The figure upon the bed, half-risen, worked its lips and then fell back,
and the little maid raised her voice and screamed again and again in
mortal terror.

It brought Rette running from where she had waited in the trading-room.

She raised him, and her face was red with rage.

"What have you done! You evil cat! What have you done to the man?"

But McElroy's breast had heaved with a great breath, sweet as the wind
over a harvest field to a tired man, and he looked up at Rette with eyes
that seemed to be suddenly flooded with life.

"Done?" he whispered; "done, Rette? The child has given me salvation!"
And then he held out a shaking, thin hand.

"Come here," he said softly; "come here."

Fearful, trembling, tear-stained Francette crept back, and the factor
took both her small hands in a tender clasp:

"I thank you, little one," he said, "from my heart I thank you,--there
is nothing to forgive. We are all sinners through the only bit of Heaven
we possess,--love. Go, little one, and cease this crying. Know that I
shall sleep this night in a mighty peace. You have given me--life!"

CHAPTER XXX THE LAND OF THE WHISPERING HILLS

Springtime once more kissed all the wilderness into tender green. From
the depths of the forest, lacing its myriad branches in finest fluff of
young leaves, came the old-new sound of birds at the mating, rivers and
tiny streams rushed and tumbled to the lakes, and overhead a sky