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Page 18
In spite of his fat and his size, Wakayoo was not a glutton, and after
he had eaten his fourth fish he pawed all the others together in a
pile, partly covered them by raking up sand and stones with his long
claws, and finished his work of caching by breaking down a small balsam
sapling so that the fish were entirely concealed. Then he lumbered
slowly away in the direction of the rumbling waterfall.
Twenty seconds after the last of Wakayoo had disappeared in a turn of
the creek, Baree was under the broken balsam. He dragged out a fish
that was still alive. He ate the whole of it, and it tasted delicious.
Baree now found that Wakayoo had solved the food problem for him, and
this day he did not return to the beaver pond, nor the next. The big
bear was incessantly fishing up and down the creek, and day after day
Baree continued his feasts. It was not difficult for him to find
Wakayoo's caches. All he had to do was to follow along the shore of the
stream, sniffing carefully. Some of the caches were getting old, and
their perfume was anything but pleasant to Baree. These he avoided--but
he never missed a meal or two out of a fresh one.
For a week life continued to be exceedingly pleasant. And then came the
break--the change that was destined to meant for Kazan, his father,
when he killed the man-brute at the edge of the wilderness.
This change came or the day when, in trotting around a great rock near
the waterfall, Baree found himself face to face with Pierrot the hunter
and Nepeese, the star-eyed girl who had shot him in the edge of the
clearing.
It was Nepeese whom he saw first. If it had been Pierrot, he would have
turned back quickly. But again the blood of his forebear was rousing
strange tremblings within him. Was it like this that the first woman
had looked to Kazan?
Baree stood still. Nepeese was not more than twenty feet from him. She
sat on a rock, full in the early morning sun, and was brushing out her
wonderful hair. Her lips parted. Her eyes shone in an instant like
stars. One hand remained poised, weighted with the jet tresses. She
recognized him. She saw the white star on his breast and the white tip
on his ear, and under her breath she whispered "Uchi moosis!"--"The dog
pup!" It was the wild dog she had shot--and thought had died!
The evening before Pierrot and Nepeese had built a shelter of balsams
behind the big rock, and on a small white plot of sand Pierrot was
kneeling over a fire preparing breakfast while the Willow arranged her
hair. He raised his head to speak to her, and saw Baree. In that
instant the spell was broken. Baree saw the man-beast as he rose to his
feet. Like a shot he was gone.
Scarcely swifter was he than Nepeese.
"Depechez vous, mon pere!" she cried. "It is the dog pup! Quick--"
In the floating cloud of her hair she sped after Baree like the wind.
Pierrot followed, and in going he caught up his rifle. It was difficult
for him to catch up with the Willow. She was like a wild spirit, her
little moccasined feet scarcely touching the sand as she ran up the
long bar. It was wonderful to see the lithe swiftness of her, and that
glorious hair streaming out in the sun. Even now, in this moment's
excitement, it made Pierrot think of McTaggart, the Hudson's Bay
Company's factor over at Lac Bain, and what he had said yesterday. Half
the night Pierrot had lain awake, gritting his teeth at thought of it.
And this morning, before Baree ran upon them, he had looked at Nepeese
more closely than ever before in his life. She was beautiful. She was
lovelier even than Wyola, her princess mother, who was dead. That
hair--which made men stare as if they could not believe! Those
eyes--like pools filled with wonderful starlight! Her slimness, that
was like a flower! And McTaggart had said--
Floating back to him there came an excited cry.
"Hurry, Nootawe! He has turned into the blind canyon. He cannot escape
us now."
She was panting when he came up to her. The French blood in her glowed
a vivid crimson in her cheeks and lips. Her white teeth gleamed like
pearls.
"In there!" And she pointed.
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