"I have come to save you."

There was a shiver of the sufferer's body. This discovery would either
make him stronger or kill him. Hume knew this, and said: "Lepage, the
past is past and dead to me; let it be so to you."

There was a pause.

"How--did you know--about me?"

"I was at Fort Providence. There came letters from the Hudson's Bay
Company, and from your wife, saying that you were making this journey,
and were six months behind--"

"My wife--Rose!"

"I have a letter for you from her. She is on her way to Canada. We are to
take you to her."

"To take me--to her." Lepage shook his head sadly, but he pressed to his
lips the letter that Hume had given him.

"To take you to her, Lepage."

"No, I shall never see her again."

"I tell you, you shall. You can live if you will. You owe that to her--to
me--to God."

"To her--to you--to God. I have been true to none. I have been punished.