when they cheered him once more, he
said: "We have come safe through, and I'm thankful. But remember that my
comrades in this march deserve your cheers more than I. Without them I
couldn't have done anything."

"In our infirmities and in all our dangers and necessities," added Jeff
Hyde. "The luck of the world was in that book!"

In another half-hour the White Guard was at ease, and four of them were
gathered about the great stove in the store, Cloud-in-the-Sky smoking
placidly, and full of guttural emphasis; Late Carscallen moving his
animal-like jaws with a sense of satisfaction; Gaspe Toujours talking
in Chinook to the Indians, in patois to the French clerk, and in broken
English to them all; and Jeff Hyde exclaiming on the wonders of the
march, the finding of Lepage at Manitou Mountain, and of himself and
Gaspe Toujours buried in the snow.

VII

In Hume's house at midnight Lepage lay asleep with his wife's
letters--received through the factor--in his hand. The firelight played
upon a dark, disappointed face--a doomed, prematurely old face, as it
seemed to the factor.

"You knew him, then," the factor said, after a long silence, with a
gesture towards the bed.

"Yes, well, years ago," replied Hume.

Just then the sick man stirred in his sleep, and he said disjointedly:
"I'll make it all right to you, Hume." Then came a pause, and a quicker
utterance: "Forgive--forgive me, Rose." The factor got up, and turned to
go, and Hume, with a sorrowful gesture, went over to the bed.

Again the voice said: "Ten years--I have repented ten years--I dare not
speak--"

The factor touched Hume's arm. "He has fever. You and I must nurse him,
Hume. You can trust me--you understand."

"Yes, I can trust you," was the reply. "But I can tell you nothing."

"I do not want to know anything. If you can watch till two o'clock I
will relieve you. I'll send the medicine chest over. You know how to
treat him."

The factor passed out, and the other was left alone with the man who had
wronged him. The feeling most active in his mind was pity, and, as he
prepared a draught from his own stock of medicines, he thought the past
and the present all over. He knew that however much he had suffered,
this man had suffered more. In this silent night there was broken
down any barrier that may have stood between Lepage and his complete
compassion. Having effaced himself from the calculation, justice became
forgiveness.

He moistened th