It meant facing a death from which those who listened to the
old factor shrank with dread; yet, when the call came, they responded
to a man.
Cummins and Jan ate their last supper together, with Melisse sitting
between them and wondering at their silence. When it was over, the two
went outside.
"Mukee wasn't at the store," said Cummins in a thick, strained voice,
halting Jan in the gloom behind the cabin. "Williams thought he was
off to the south with his dogs. But he isn't. I saw him drag himself
into his shack, like a sick dog, an hour before dusk. There'll be a
red flag over Lac Bain in the morning."
Jan stifled the sharp cry on his lips.
"Ah, there's a light!" cried Cummins. "It's a pitch torch burning in
front of his door!"
A shrill, quavering cry came from the direction of Mukee's cabin, and
the two recognized it as the voice of the half-breed's father--a
wordless cry, rising and dying away again and again, like the wailing
of a dog. Sudden lights flashed into the night, as they had flashed
years ago when Cummins staggered forth from his home with word of the
woman's death. He gripped Jan's arm in a sudden spasm of horror.
"The flag is up NOW!" he whispered huskily. "Go back to Melisse. There
is food in the house for a month, and you can bring the wood in to-
night.
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