CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
There are times when death is a shock, but not a grief. And so it waswith Nanette Le Beau. With her own eyes she had looked upon theterrible fate of her husband, and it was not in her gentle soul to weepor wish him alive again. At last there had overtaken him what LE BONDIEU had intended him to receive some day: justice. And for the baby'ssake more than her own Nanette was not sorry. Durant, whose soul wasonly a little less wicked than the dead man's, had not even waited fora prayer--had not asked her what to do. He had chopped a hole in thefrozen earth and had buried Le Beau almost before his body was cold.And Nanette was not sorry for that. The Brute was gone. He was gone forever. He would never strike her again. And because of the baby sheoffered up a prayer of gratitude to God.
In his prison-cage of sapling bars Miki cringed on his belly at the endof his chain. He had scarcely moved since those terrible moments inwhich he had torn the life out of the man-brute's throat. He had noteven growled at Durant when he dragged the body away. Upon him hadfallen a fearful and overwhelming oppression. He was not thinking ofhis own brutal beatings, or of the death which Le Beau had been aboutto inflict upon him with the club; he did not feel the presence of painin his bruised and battered body, nor in his bleeding jaws andwhip-lashed eyes. He was thinking of Nanette, the woman. Why had sherun away with that terrible cry when he killed the man-beast? Was itnot the man-beast who had struck her down, and whose hands were at herwhite throat when he sprang the length of his chain and tore out hisjugular? Then why was it that she ran away, and did not come back?
He whimpered softly.
The afternoon was almost gone, and the early gloom of mid-winter nightin the Northland was settling thickly over the forests. In that gloomthe dark face of Durant appeared at the bars of Miki's prison.Instinctively Miki had hated this foxhunter from the edge of theBarrens, just as he had hated Le Beau, for in their brutish faces aswell as in their hearts they were like brothers. Yet he did not growlat Durant as he peered through. He did not even move.
"UGH! LE DIABLE!" shuddered Durant.
Then he laughed. It was a low, terrible laugh, half smothered in hiscoarse black beard, and it sent an odd chill through Miki.
He turned after that and went into the cabin.
Nanette rose to meet him, her great dark eyes glowing in a face deadwhite. She had not yet risen above the shock of Le Beau's tragic death,and yet in those eyes there was already something re-born. It had notbeen there when Durant came to the cabin with Le Beau that afternoon.He looked at her strangely as she stood with the baby in her arms. Shewas another Nanette. He felt uneasy. Why was it that a few hours ago hehad laughed boldly when her husband had cursed her and said vile thingsin her presence--and now he could not meet the steady gaze of her eyes?DIEU! he had never before observed how lovely she was! He drew himselftogether, and stated the business in his mind.
"You will not want the dog," he said. "I will take him away."
Nanette did not answer. She seemed scarcely to be breathing as shelooked at him. It seemed to him that she was waiting for him toexplain; and then the inspiration to lie leapt into his mind.
"You know, there was to be the big fight between HIS dog and mine atPost Fort O' God at the New Year carnival," he went on, shuffling hisheavy feet. "For that, Jacques--your husband--was training the wilddog. And when I saw that OOCHUN--that wolf devil--tearing at the barsof the cage I knew he would kill my dog as a fox kills a rabbit. So westruck a bargain, and for the two cross foxes and the ten red which Ihave outside I bought him." (The VRAISEMBLANCE of his lie gave himcourage. It sounded like truth, and Jacques, the dead man, was notthere to repudiate his claim.) "So he is mine," he finished a littleexultantly, "and I will take him to the Post, and will fight himagainst any dog or wolf in all the North. Shall I bring in the skins,MADAME?"
"He is not for sale," said Nanette, the glow in her eyes deepening. "Heis my dog--mine and the baby's. Do you understand, Henri Durant? HE ISNOT FOR SALE!"
"OUI," gasped Durant, amazed.
"And when you reach Post Fort O' God, m'sieu, you will tell LE FACTEURthat Jacques is dead, and how he died, and say that some one must besent for the baby and me. We will stay here until then."
"OUI," said Durant again, backing to the door.
He had never seen her like that. He wondered how Jacques Le Beau couldswear at her, and strike her. For himself, he was afraid. Standingthere with those wonderful eyes and white face, with the baby in herarms, and her shining hair over her breasts, she made him think of apicture he had once seen of the Blessed Lady.
He went out through the door and back to the sapling cage where Mikilay. Softly he spoke through the bars.
"OW, BETE" he called; "she will not sell you. She keeps you because youfought for her, and killed MON AMI, Jacques Le Beau. And so I must takeyou my own way. In a little while the moon will be up, and then I willslip a noose over your head at the end of a pole, and will choke you soquickly she will not hear a sound. And who will know where you aregone, if the cage door is left open? And you will fight for me at PostFort 0' God. MON DIEU! how you will fight! I swear it will do the ghostof Jacques Le Beau good to see what happens there."
He went away, to where he had left his light sledge and two dogs in theedge of the timber, and waited for the moon to rise.
Still Miki did not move, A light had appeared in the window of thecabin, and his eyes were fixed on it yearningly as the low whinegathered in his throat again. His world no longer lay beyond thatwindow. The Woman and the baby had obliterated in him all desire but tobe with them.
In the cabin Nanette was thinking of him--and of Durant. The man'swords came to her again, vividly, significantly: "YOU WILL NOT WANT THEDOG." Yes, all the forest people would say that same thing--even LEFACTEUR himself, when he heard. SHE WOULD NOT WANT THE DOG! And whynot? Because he had killed Jacques Le Beau, her husband, in defence ofher? Because he had freed her from the bondage of The Brute? BecauseGod had sent him to the end of his chain in that terrible moment thatthe baby Nanette might live, as the OTHER had not, and that she mightgrow up with laughter on her lips instead of sobs? In her there rosesuddenly a thought that fanned the new flame in her heart. It MUST havebeen LE BON DIEU! Others might doubt, but she--never. She recalled allthat Le Beau had told her about the wild dog--how for many days he hadrobbed the traps, and the terrific fight he had made when at last hewas caught. And of all that The Brute had said there stood out most thewords he had spoken one day.
"He is a devil, but he was not born of wolf. NON, some time, a longtime ago, he was a white man's dog."
A WHITE MAN'S DOG!
Her soul thrilled. Once--a long time ago--he had known a master with awhite heart, just as she had known a girlhood in which the flowersbloomed and the birds sang. She tried to look back, but she could notsee very far. She could not vision that day, less than a year ago, whenMiki, an angular pup, came down out of the Farther North withChalloner; she could not vision the strange comradeship between the pupand Neewa, the little black bear cub, nor that tragic day when they hadfallen out of Challoner's canoe into the swift stream that had carriedthem over the waterfall and into the Great Adventure which had turnedNeewa into a grown bear and Miki into a wild dog. But in her heart sheFELT the things which she could not see. Miki had not come by chance.Something greater than that had sent him.
She rose quietly, so that she would not waken the baby in the crib, andopened the door. The moon was just rising over the forest and throughthe glow of it she went to the cage. She heard the dog's joyous whine,and then she felt the warm caress of his tongue upon her bare hands asshe thrust them between the sapling bars.
"NON, NON; you are not a devil," she cried softly, her voice filledwith a strange tremble. "O-o-ee, my SOKETAAO, I prayed, PRAYED--and youcame. Yes, on my knees each night I prayed to Our Blessed Lady that shemight have mercy on my baby, and make the sun in heaven shine for herthrough all time. AND YOU CAME! And the dear God does not send devilsin answer to prayer. NON; never!"
And Miki, as though some spirit had given him the power to understand,rested the weight of his bruised and beaten head on her hands.
From the edge of the forest Durant was watching. He had caught theflash of light from the door and had seen Nanette go to the cage, andhis eyes did not leave her until she returned into the cabin. Helaughed as he went to his fire and finished making the WAHGUN he wasfastening to the end of a long pole. This WAHGUN and the pole added tohis own cleverness were saving him twelve good fox skins, and hecontinued to chuckle there in the fireglow as he thought how easy itwas to beat a woman's wits. Nanette was a fool to refuse the pelts, andJacques was--dead. It was a most lucky combination of circumstances forhim. Fortune had surely come his way. On LE BETE, as he called the wilddog, he would gamble all that he possessed in the big fight. And hewould win.
He waited until the light in the cabin went out before he approachedthe cage again. Miki heard him coming. At a considerable distance hesaw him, for the moon was already turning the night into day. Durantknew the ways of dogs. With them he employed a superior reason where LeBeau had used the club and the rawhide. So he came up openly andboldly, and, as if by accident, dropped the end of the pole between thebars. With his hands against the cage, apparently unafraid, he begantalking in a casual way. He was different from Le Beau. Miki watchedhim closely for a space and then let his eyes rest again on thedarkened cabin window. Stealthily Durant began to take advantage of hisopportunity. A little at a time he moved the end of the pole until itwas over Miki's head, with the deadly bowstring and its open noosehanging down. He was an adept in the use of the WAHGUN. Many foxes andwolves, and even a bear, he had caught that way. Miki, numbed by thecold, scarcely felt the BABICHE noose as it settled softly about hisneck. He did not see Durant brace himself, with his feet against therunning-log of the cage.
Then, suddenly, Durant lurched himself backward, and it seemed to Mikias though a giant trap of steel had closed about his neck. Instantlyhis wind was cut off. He could make no sound as he struggledfrantically to free himself. Hand over hand Durant dragged him to thebars, and there, with his feet still braced, he choked with his wholeweight until--when at last he let up on the WAHGUN--Miki collapsed asif dead. Ten seconds later Durant was looping a muzzle over his closedjaws. He left the cage door open when he went back to his sledge,carrying Miki in his arms. Nanette's slow wits would never guess, hetold himself. She would think that LE BETE had escaped into the forest.
It was not his scheme to club Miki into serfdom, as Le Beau had failedto do. Durant was wiser than that. In his crude and merciless way hehad come to know certain phenomena of the animal mind. He was not apsychologist; oh the other hand brutality had not utterly blinded him.So, instead of lashing Miki to the sledge as Le Beau had fastened himto his improvised drag, Durant made his captive comfortable, coveringhim with a warm blanket before he began his journey eastward. He madesure, however, that there was no flaw in the muzzle about Miki's jaws,and that the free end of the chain to which he was still fastened waswell hitched to the Gee-bar of his sledge.
When these things were done Durant set off in the direction of Fort O'God, and if Jacques Le Beau could have seen him then he would have hadgood reason to guess at his elation. By taint of birth and blood Durantwas a gambler first, and a trapper afterward. He set his traps that hemight have the thrill of wagering his profits, and for half a dozensuccessive years he had won at the big annual dog fight at Post Fort O'God. But this year he had been half afraid. His fear had not been ofJacques Le Beau and Netah, but of the halfbreed away over on Red BellyLake. Grouse Piet was the halfbreed's name, and the "dog" that he wasgoing to put up at the fight was half wolf. Therefore, in the foolisheagerness of his desire, had Durant offered two cross foxes and tenreds--the price of five dogs and not one--for the possession of LeBeau's wild dog. And now that he had him for nothing, and Nanette waspoorer by twelve skins, he was happy. For he had now a good match forGrouse Piet's half wolf, and he would chance his money and his creditat the Post to the limit.
When Miki came back to his senses Durant stopped his dogs, for he hadbeen watching closely for this moment. He bent over the sledge andbegan talking, not in Le Beau's brutal way, but in a careless chummysort of voice, and with his mittened hand he patted his captive's head.This was a new thing to Miki, for he knew that it was not the hand ofNanette, but of a man-beast, and the softness of his nest in theblanket, over which Henri had thrown a bear skin, was also new. A shorttime ago he was frozen and stiff. Now he was warm and comfortable. Sohe did not move. And Durant exulted in his cleverness. He did nottravel far in the night, but stopped four or five miles from Nanette'scabin, and built a fire. Over this he boiled coffee and roasted meat.He allowed the meat to roast slowly, turning it round and round on awooden spit, so that the aroma of it grew thick and inviting in theair. He had fastened his two sledge dogs fifty paces away, but thesledge was close to the fire, and he watched the effect on Miki of theroasting meat. Since the days of his puppyhood with Challoner a smelllike that which came from the meat had not filled Miki's nostrils, andat last Durant saw him lick his chops and heard the click of his teeth.He chuckled in his beard. Still he waited another quarter of an hour.Then he pulled the meat off the spit, cut it up, and gave a half of itto Miki. And Miki ate it ravenously.
A clever man was Henri Durant!