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a little at the time."
Jeanne pointed to the reflection of the fire on the river.
"If we should be pursued?" she suggested.
"There is no danger," assured Philip, though he had left the flap of his revolver holster unbuttoned. "They will
search for us between their camp and Churchill."
"Citius venit periculum cum contemnitur," remonstrated Jeanne, half smiling.
She was pale, but Philip saw that she was making a tremendous effort to appear brave and cheerful.
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Flower of the North
"Perhaps you are right," laughed Philip, "but I swear that I don't know what you mean. I suppose you picked
that lingo up among the Indians."
He caught the faintest gleam of Jeanne's white teeth again as she bent her head.
"I have a tutor at home," she explained, softly. "You shall meet him when we reach Fort o' God. He is the
most wonderful man in the world."
Her words sent a strange chill through Philip. They were filled with an exquisite tenderness, a pride that sent
her eyes back to his, glowing. The questions that he had meant to ask died and faded away. He thought of her
words of a few minutes before, when he had asked about Fort o' God. She had said, "My father, Pierre, and I,
WITH ONE OTHER, live there alone." The OTHER was the tutor, the man who had come from civilization
to teach this beautiful girl those things which had amazed him, and this man was THE MOST WONDERFUL
MAN IN THE WORLD. He had no excuse for the feelings which were aroused in him. Only he knew, as he
rose to his feet, that a part of his old burden seemed suddenly to have returned to his shoulders, and the old
loneliness was beating at the door of his heart. He rearranged the pack in silence, and the strength and joy of
life were gone from his arms when he helped Jeanne back to her place among the bear-skins. He did not
notice that her eyes were watching him curiously, or that her lips trembled once or twice, as if about to speak
words which never came. Jeanne, as well as he, seemed to have discovered something which neither dared to
reveal in that last five minutes on the shore.
"There is one thing that I must know," said Philip, when they were about to start, "and that is where to find
Fort o' God? Is it on the Churchill?"
"It is on the Little Churchill, M'sieur, near Waskiaowaka Lake."
Darkness concealed the effect of her words upon Philip. For a moment he stared like one struck dumb. He
stifled the exclamation that rose to his lips. He felt himself trembling. He knew that if he spoke his voice
would betray him.
NEAR WASKIAOWAKA LAKE! And Waskiaowaka was within thirty miles of his own camp on the Blind
Indian! If a bomb had burst under his feet he could not have been more amazed than at this information, given
to him in Jeanne's quiet voice. Fort o' God--within thirty miles of the scene where very soon he was to fight
the great battle of his life! He dug his paddle into the water and sent the canoe hissing up the river. His blood
pounded like that of a racehorse on the home-stretch. Of all the things that had happened, of all he had
learned, this was the most significant. Every thought ran like a separate powder-flash to a single idea, to one
great, overpowering question. Were Fort o' God and its people the key to the plot against himself and his
company? Was it the rendezvous of those who were striving to work his ruin? Doubt, suspicion, almost belief
came to him in those few moments, in spite of himself.
He looked at Jeanne. The gray dawn was breaking, and now light followed swiftly and dissolved the last mist.
In the chill of early morning, when with the approach of the sun a cold, uncomfortable sweat rises heavily
from the earth and water, Jeanne had drawn one of the bearskins closely about her. Her head was bare. Her
hair, glistening with damp, clung in heavy masses about her face. There was a bewitching childishness about
her, a pathetic appeal to him in the forlorn little picture she made--so helpless, and yet so confident in him.
Every energy in him leaped up in defiance of the revolution which for a few moments had stirred within him.
And Jeanne, as though she had read the working of his mind, looked straight at him and smiled, with a little
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