dead man, "and then he will go into the lake."

He headed his Malemutes back to the forest. Then he ran out and cut
the traces of the exhausted huskies, and with his whip scattered them
in freedom over the ice.

"Go to the wolves!" he shouted in Cree. "Hide yourselves from the
post, or Jean de Gravois will cut out your tongues and take your skins
off alive!"

When he came back to the top of the mountain, Jean found Iowaka making
hot coffee, while Jan was bundled up in furs near the fire.

"It is as I said," she called. "He is alive!"

Thus it happened that the return of Jean de Gravois to the post was
even more dramatic than he had schemed it to be, for he brought back
with him not only a beautiful wife from Churchill, but also the half
dead Jan Thoreau from the scene of battle on the mountain. And in the
mystery of it all he reveled for two days; for Jean de Gravois said
not a word about the dead man on the lake beyond the forest, nor did
the huskies come back into their bondage to give a hint of the missing
missionary.




CHAPTER X

RED SNOW-FLOWERS