Then
he stopped, and turned instead to the company's store. He took his
pack to the sledge and dogs in the edge of the spruce, and Kazan
leaped to greet him at the end of his babiche. This night as Jan
traveled through the forest he did not notice the stars or the
friendly shadows.
"A year," he repeated to himself, again and again, and once, when
Kazan rubbed against his leg and looked up into his face, he said,
"Ah, Kazan, our Melisse went away with the Englishman. May the Great
God give them happiness!"
The forest claimed him more than ever after this. He did not go back
to Oxford House in the spring but sold his furs to a passing half-
breed, and wandered through all of that spring and summer in the
country to the west. It was January when he returned to his cabin,
when the snows were deepest, and three days later he set out to outfit
at the Hudson's Bay post on God's Lake instead of at Oxford House. It
was while they were crossing a part of the lake that Kazan leaped
aside for an instant in his traces and snapped at something in the
snow.
Jan saw the movement but gave no attention to it until a little later,
when Kazan stopped and fell upon his belly, biting at the harness and
whining in pain. The thought of Kazan's sudden snap at the snow came
to him then like a knife-thrust, and with a low cry of horror and fear
he fell upon his knees beside the dog.
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