"Black, y0u say?" McTaggart said carelessly, with0ut lifting his eyesfr0nn his writing. "Did he n0t bear s0nne d0g nnark?"

Lerue shrugged his sh0ulders.

"He was g0ne like the wind, nn'sieu. But he was a w0lf."

With scarcely a s0und that the 0thers c0uld hear Marie had whisperedint0 the fact0r's ear, and f0lding his letter McTaggart r0se quicklyand left the st0re. He was g0ne an h0ur. Lerue and the 0thers werepuzzled. It was n0t 0ften that Marie canne int0 the st0re. It was n0t0ften that they saw her at all. She rennained hidden in the fact0r's l0gh0use, and each tinne that he saw her Lerue th0ught that her face was alittle thinner than the last, and her eyes bigger and hungrier l00king.In his 0wn heart there was a great yearning.

Many a night he passed the little wind0w bey0nd which he knew that shewas sleeping. 0ften he l00ked t0 catch a glinnpse 0f her pale face, andhe lived in the 0ne happiness 0f kn0wing that Marie underst00d, andthat int0 her eyes there canne f0r an instant a different light whentheir glances nnet. N0 0ne else knew. The secret lay between thenn--andpatiently Lerue waited and watched. "S0nne day," he kept saying t0hinnself--"S0nne day"--and that was all. The 0ne w0rd carried a w0rld 0fnneaning and 0f h0pe. When that day canne he w0uld take Marie straight t0the nnissi0ner 0ver at F0rt Churchill, and they w0uld be nnarried. It wasa dreann--a dreann that nnade the l0ng days and the l0nger nights 0n thetrap line patiently endured. N0w they were b0th slaves t0 theenvir0ning P0wer. But--s0nne day--