George Tracy Marsh

“ Already the umiaks of the Eskimos had followed the ebb tide down to the great bay, bound for their autumn hunting camps along the north coast.
When Jean Marcel had traded his fur and purchased what flour, ammunition, and other supplies he needed to carry him through the long snows of the coming winter, he found that a substantial balance remained to his credit on the books of the company; a nest egg, he hoped, for the day when, perchance, as a voyageur of the company with a house at the post, he might stand with Julie at his side and receive the blessing of the good Père Breton. ”

“ So, with the letter of the factor, on which he could draw supplies at the southern posts, Jean Marcel shook the hands of his friends and, sliding his canoe into the ebb tide, started south as the dying sun gilded the flat bay to the west. He waved his hand in farewell to the group of company men on the shore. He saw above them the figures of Julie Breton and the priest. As Julie held aloft something white, she and her brother were joined by a man. It was Inspector Wallace. ”

“ We walk not to-day!” He stroked the slate-gray back which trembled with her desire for a run with the master; then circling her shaggy neck with his arms, his face against hers, while she fretted as though she knew Jean was leaving her, he said: “Till we meet, Fleur!” ”

“ Dat M’sieu Wallace, he sweet on you’ girl w’en you were up de coast. You stay till he leeve.”
For this Jean had an outward shrug of contempt, but the rumored attentions of Wallace to Julie Breton, during his absence, sickened his heart with fear. Was he to lose her, too, as well as Fleur?
Before supper, at the mission, Père Breton urged him to return to his trapping grounds and spare himself the toil of a hopeless quest down the coast in the face of the coming winter. Julie was adding her objections to her brother’s, when a knock on the door checked her. ”