him through her tears her presence had been like that of some
wonderful and unreal creature who held the control to his every
act in the cup of her hands. He thought no longer of himself now.
He knew that to him she had relinquished the mysterious fight
under which she had been struggling. In her eyes he read her
surrender. From this hour the fight was his. She told him, without
speaking. And the glory of it all thrilled him with a sacred
happiness so that he wanted to drop his paddle, draw her close
into his arms, and tell her that there was no power in the world
that could harm her now. But instead of this he laughed low and
joyously full into her eyes, and her lips smiled gently back at
him. And so they understood without words.

Behind them, Jean had been coming up swiftly, and now they heard
him break for an instant into the chorus of one of the wild half-
breed songs, and Philip listened to the words of the chant which
is as old in the Northland as the ancient brass cannon and the
crumbling fortress rocks at York Factory:

"O, ze beeg black bear, he go to court,
He go to court a mate;
He court to ze Sout',
He court to ze Nort',
He court to ze shores of ze Indian Lake."

And then, in the moment's silence that followed, Philip threw back
his head, and in a voice almost as wild and untrained as Jean
Croisset's, he shouted back:

"Oh! the fur fleets sing on Temiskaming,