ion, choosing to stand in the eyes of his friend as an intended
murderer, notwithstanding which Poleon let the matter drop--for was not
his friend a good man? Had he not been tried in a hundred ways? The
young Frenchman knew there must have been strong reason for Gale's
outburst, and was content to trust him without puzzling his mind to
discover the cause of it.

Now, a secret must either grow or die--there is no fallow age for
it--and this one had lived with Gale for fifteen years, until it had
made an old man of him. It weighed him down until the desire to be rid
of it almost became overpowering at times; but his caution was
ingrained and powerful, and so it was that he resisted the temptation
to confide in his partner, although the effort left him tired and
inert. The only one to whom he could talk was Alluna--she understood,
and though she might not help, the sound of his own voice at least
always afforded him some relief.

As to Poleon, no one had ever seen him thus. Never in all his life of
dream and song and romance had he known a heavy heart until now, for if
at times he had wept like a girl, it was at the hurts of others. He had
loved a bit and gambled much, with equal misfortune, and the next day
he had forgotten. He had lived the free, clean life of a man who wins
joyously or goes down with defiance in his throat, but this venomous
thing that Runnion had planted in him had seeped and circulated through
his being until every fibre was penetrated with a bitter poison. Most
of his troubles could be grappled with bare hands, but here was one
against which force would not avail, hence he was unhappy.

The party reached Flambeau on the following day, sufficiently ahead of
Stark and his men for Lee to make known his find to his friends, and by
sunset the place was depopulated, while a line of men could be seen
creeping slowly up the valleys.

Gale found Alluna in charge of the store, but no opportunity of talking
alone with her occurred until late in the evening, after Necia had put
the two little ones to bed and had followed them wearily. Then he told
his squaw. She took the news better than he expected, and showed no
emotion such as other women would have displayed, even when he told her
of the gunshot. Instead, she inquired:

"Why did you try it there before all those others?"

"Well, when I heard him talking, the wish to kill him was more than I
could stand, and it came on me all at once, so that I was mad