It's good proof that she loves you."
"If bullets and hot water and an empty belly are proofs, she loves me
a great deal, Jan Thoreau! Though I don't believe she meant to hit me.
It was a woman's bad aim."
Jan left him beside a good fire, and turned into the southwest to burn
Langlois and his cabin. The red flag still floated where he had seen
it weeks before. The windows were thicker with frost. He shouted, beat
upon the door with the butt of his rifle and broke in the windows. The
silence of death quickened the beating of his heart when he stopped to
listen. There was no doubt that Langlois lay dead in his little home.
Jan brought dry brushwood from the forest, and piled it high against
the logs. Upon his sledge he sat and watched the fire until the cabin
was a furnace of leaping flame.
He continued westward. At the head of the Porcupine he found the
remains of three burned wigwams, and from one of them he dug out
charred bones. Down the Porcupine he went slowly, doubling to the east
and west, until, at its junction with Gray Otter Creek, he met a Cree,
who told him that twenty miles farther on there was an abandoned
village of six teepees. Toward these he boldly set forth, praying as
he went that the angels were guarding Melisse at Post Lac Bain.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113