"What if Iowaka had been
here then?"
CHAPTER XXI
A BROKEN HEART
The day following the fight in the forest, Dixon found Jean de Gravois
alone, and came up to him.
"Gravois, will you shake hands with me?" he said. "I want to thank you
for what you did to me yesterday. I deserved it. I have asked Miss
Melisse to forgive me--and I want to shake hands with you."
Jean was thunderstruck. He had never met this kind of man.
"Que diantre!" he ejaculated, when he had come to his senses. "Yes, I
will shake hands!"
For several days after this Jean could see that Melisse made an effort
to evade him. She did not visit Iowaka when he was in the cabin.
Neither did she and Dixon go again into the forest. The young
Englishman spent more of his time at the store; and just before the
trappers began coming in, he went on a three-days' sledge-trip with
Croisset.
The change delighted Jean. The first time he met Melisse after the
fight, his eyes flashed pleasure.
"Jan will surely be coming home soon," he greeted her. "What if the
birds tell him what happened out there on the trail?"
She flushed scarlet.
"Perhaps the same birds will tell us what has happened down on the
Nelson House trail, Jean," she retorted.
"Pouf! Jan Thoreau doesn't give the snap of his small finger for the
MacVeigh girl!" Jean replied, warm in defense of his friend.
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