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Page 11
Nepeese had grown up like the willow, slender as a reed, with all her
mother's wild beauty, and with a little of the French thrown in. She
was sixteen, with great, dark, wonderful eyes, and hair so beautiful
that an agent from Montreal passing that way had once tried to buy it.
It fell in two shining braids, each as big as a man's wrist, almost to
her knees. "Non, M'sieu," Pierrot had said, a cold glitter in his eyes
as he saw what was in the agent's face. "It is not for barter."
Two days after Baree had entered his trapping ground, Pierrot came in
from the forests with a troubled look in his face.
"Something is killing off the young beavers," he explained to Nepeese,
speaking to her in French. "It is a lynx or a wolf. Tomorrow--" He
shrugged his thin shoulders, and smiled at her.
"We will go on the hunt," laughed Nepeese happily, in her soft Cree.
When Pierrot smiled at her like that, and began with "Tomorrow," it
always meant that she might go with him on the adventure he was
contemplating.
Still another day later, at the end of the afternoon, Baree crossed the
Gray Loon on a bridge of driftwood that had wedged between two trees.
This was to the north. Just beyond the driftwood bridge there was a
small clearing, and on the edge of it Baree paused to enjoy the last of
the setting sun. As he stood motionless and listening, his tail
drooping low, his ears alert, his sharp-pointed nose sniffing the new
country to the north, there was not a pair of eyes in the forest that
would not have taken him for a young wolf.
From behind a clump of young balsams, a hundred yards away, Pierrot and
Nepeese had watched him come over the driftwood bridge. Now was the
time, and Pierrot leveled his rifle. It was not until then that Nepeese
touched his arm softly. Her breath came a little excitedly as she
whispered:
"Nootawe, let me shoot. I can kill him!"
With a low chuckle Pierrot gave the gun to her. He counted the whelp as
already dead. For Nepeese, at that distance, could send a bullet into
an inch square nine times out of ten. And Nepeese, aiming carefully at
Baree, pressed steadily with her brown forefinger upon the trigger.
CHAPTER 5
As the Willow pulled the trigger of her rifle, Baree sprang into the
air. He felt the force of the bullet before he heard the report of the
gun. It lifted him off his feet, and then sent him rolling over and
over as if he had been struck a hideous blow with a club. For a flash
he did not feel pain. Then it ran through him like a knife of fire, and
with that pain the dog in him rose above the wolf, and he let out a
wild outcry of puppyish yapping as he rolled and twisted on the ground.
Pierrot and Nepeese had stepped from behind the balsams, the Willow's
beautiful eyes shining with pride at the accuracy of her shot.
Instantly she caught her breath. Her brown fingers clutched at the
barrel of her rifle. The chuckle of satisfaction died on Pierrot's lips
as Baree's cries of pain filled the forest.
"Uchi moosis!" gasped Nepeese, in her Cree.
Pierrot caught the rifle from her.
"Diable! A dog--a puppy!" he cried.
He started on a run for Baree. But in their amazement they had lost a
few seconds and Baree's dazed senses were returning. He saw them
clearly as they came across the open--a new kind of monster of the
forests! With a final wail he darted back into the deep shadows of the
trees. It was almost sunset, and he ran for the thick gloom of the
heavy spruce near the creek. He had shivered at sight of the bear and
the moose, but for the first time he now sensed the real meaning of
danger. And it was close after him. He could hear the crashing of the
two-legged beasts in pursuit; strange cries were almost at his
heels--and then suddenly he plunged without warning into a hole.
It was a shock to have the earth go out from under his feet like that,
but Baree did not yelp. The wolf was dominant in him again. It urged
him to remain where he was, making no move, no sound--scarcely
breathing. The voices were over him; the strange feet almost stumbled
in the hole where he lay. Looking out of his dark hiding place, he
could see one of his enemies. It was Nepeese, the Willow. She was
standing so that a last glow of the day fell upon her face. Baree did
not take his eyes from her.
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