in English.

I was too dispirited and dejected to obey him at first. But soon I
managed to fall to, and I was surprised to discover how ravenous I was.
I had eaten hardly anything for days, and only a few mouthfuls since
morning.

As I was eating there came a scratching at the door, and the Eskimo-dog
pushed its way into the cabin and came bounding to my side. I stroked
and petted it, and gave it the remnants of my meal, while Pierre
watched us.

"You know him dog?" he asked.

"I saw it in New York," I answered. "It brought me to Mlle.
Jacqueline."

My mind was very much alert just then. It was as though some hidden
monitor within me had taken control to guide me through a maze of
unknown dangers. It was that inner prompting which had forbidden me to
say "Mme. d'Epernay."

I had a consciousness of some impending horror. And I was shaking and
all a sweat--with fear, too--gripping fear!

Yet the old name sounded as sweet as ever to my lips.

The Indian drew the stool near me and sat down. "You meet Mlle.
Jacqueline in New York?" he asked.

"I brought her back," I answered.

"I know," the Indian answered. "I meet Simon; drive him from St.
Boniface to _chateau_. He want shoot you. I say no, you blind man,
him leave you die in snow. I take Ma'm'selle Jacqueline to St.
Boniface when she run 'way. Simon not here then or I be 'fraid. Simon
bad man. He give my gal to Jean Petitjean. My gal good gal till Simon
give her to Jean Petitjean. Simon bad man. Me kill him one day."

I saw a glimmer of hope now, though of what I hardly knew; or perhaps
it was only the desire to talk of Jacqueline and hear her name upon my
lips and Pierre's.

"Pierre Caribou," I said, "wouldn't you like to have the old days back
when M. Duchaine was master and there was no Simon Leroux?"

He did not answer me, but I saw his face-muscles twitch. Then he
pulled a pipe from his pocket and stuffed it with a handful of coarse
tobacco. He handed it to me and struck a match and held it to the bowl.

When the tobacco was alight he took another pipe and began smoking also.

I had not smoked for days, and I inhaled the rank tobacco-fumes through
the old pipe gratefully. I was smoking, with an Indian, and that meant
what it has always meant. A black cloud seemed to have been lifted
from my mind. And I was not trembling any more.

But how warily I was reaching out toward my companion.

"Pierre, I came here to save Mlle. Jac