She jumped from her
stool and ran to him; but this time, instead of hoisting her above his
head, he hugged her up close to his breast, and buried his face in her
soft hair. His eyes looked over her in triumph to Cummins.
"Up, Jan, up--'way up!" cried Melisse.
He tossed her until she half turned in midair, kissed her again as he
caught her in his arms, and set her, laughing and happy, on the edge
of the table.
"I am going down among the sick Crees in Cummins' place," said Jan to
Williams, half an hour later. "Now that the plague has come to Lac
Bain, he must stay with Melisse."
CHAPTER XIV
A LONG WAITING
The next morning Jan struck out over his old trail to the Hasabala.
The Crees were gone. He spent a day swinging east and west, and found
old trails leading into the north.
"They have gone up among the Eskimos," he said to himself. "Ah, Kazan,
what in the name of the saints is that?"
The leading dog dropped upon his haunches with a menacing growl as a
lone figure staggered across the snow toward them. It was Croisset.
With a groan, he dropped upon the sledge.
"I am sick and starving!" he wailed. "The fiend himself has got into
my cabin, and for three days I've had nothing but snow and a raw
whisky-jack!"
"Sick!" cried Jan, drawing a step away from him.
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