canning the mountain closely. Suddenly he motioned. A hundred feet up
there was a great round hole in the solid rock, and from this hole there
came a feeble cloud of smoke! The other two saw also. Cloud-in-the-Sky
gave a wild whoop, and from the mountain there came, a moment after, a
faint replica of the sound. It was not an echo, for there appeared at
the mouth of the cave an Indian, who made feeble signs for them to
come. In a little while they were at the cave. As Jaspar Hume entered,
Cloud-in-the-Sky and the stalwart but emaciated Indian who had beckoned
to them spoke to each other in the Chinook language, the jargon common
to all Indians of the West.

Jaspar Hume saw a form reclining on a great bundle of pine branches,
and he knew what Rose Lepage had prayed for was come to pass. By the
flickering light of a handful of fire he saw Lepage--rather what was
left of him--a shadow of energy, a heap of nerveless bones. His eyes
were shut, but as Hume, with a quiver of memory and sympathy at his
heart, stood for an instant, and looked at the man whom he had cherished
as a friend and found an enemy, Lepage's lips moved and a weak voice
said: "Who is there?"

"A friend."

"Come-near-me,--friend."

Hume made a motion to Late Carscallen, who was heating some liquor at
the fire, and then he stooped and lifted up the sick man's head, and
took his hand. "You have come--to save me!" whispered the weak voice
again.

"Yes; I've come to save you." This voice was strong and clear and true.

"I seem--to have--heard--your voice before--somewhere before--I seem
to--have--"

But he had fainted.

Hume poured a little liquor down the sick man's throat, and Late
Carscallen chafed the delicate hand--delicate in health, it was like
that of a little child now. When breath came again Hume whispered to his
helper "Take Cloud-in-the-Sky and get wood; bring fresh branches. Then
clear one of the sleds, and we will start back with him in the early
morning."

Late Carscallen, looking at the skeleton-like figure, said: "He will
never get there."

"Yes, he will get there," was Hume's reply.

"But he is dying."

"He goes with me to Fort Providence."

"Ay, to Providence he goes, but not with you," said Late Carscallen,
doggedly.

Anger flashed in Hume's eye, but he said quietly "Get the wood,
Carscallen."

Hume was left alone with the starving Indian, who sat beside the
fire eating voraciously, and with the sufferer, who now was tak