Croisset reached out and took his hand.
"M"seur, I would like to help you," he interrupted. "I liked you that night we came in together from the fight on the trail. I have liked you since. And yet, if I was in _their_ place, I would kill you even though I like you. It is a great duty to kill you. They did not do wrong when they tied you in the coyote. They did not do wrong when they tried to kill you on the trail. But I have taken a solemn oath to tell you nothing; nothing beyond this--that so long as you are with me, and that sledge is behind us, your life is not in danger. I will tell you nothing more. Are you hungry, M"seur?"
"Starved!" said Howland.
He stumbled a few steps out into the snow, the numbness in his limbs forcing him to catch at trees and saplings to save himself from falling.
He was astonished at Croisset"s words and more confused than ever at the half-breed"s a.s.surance that his life was no longer in immediate peril.
To him this meant that Meleese had not only warned him but was now playing an active part in preserving his life, and this conclusion added to his perplexity. Who was this girl who a few hours before had deliberately lured him among his enemies and who was now fighting to save him? The question held a deeper significance for him than when he had asked himself this same thing at Prince Albert, and when Croisset called for him to return to the camp-fire and breakfast he touched once more the forbidden subject.
"Jean, I don"t want to hurt your feelings," he said, seating himself on the sledge, "but I"ve got to get a few things out of my system. I believe this Meleese of yours is a bad woman."
Like a flash Croisset struck at the bait which Howland threw out to him.
He leaned a little forward, a hand quivering on his knife, his eyes flashing fire. Involuntarily the engineer recoiled from that animal-like crouch, from the black rage which was growing each instant in the half-breed"s face. Yet Croisset spoke softly and without excitement, even while his shoulders and arms were twitching like a forest cat about to spring.
"M"seur, no one in the world must say that about my Mariane, and next to her they must not say it about Meleese. Up there--" and he pointed still farther into the north--"I know of a hundred men between the Athabasca and the bay who would kill you for what you have said. And it is not for Jean Croisset to listen to it here. I will kill you unless you take it back!"
"G.o.d!" breathed Howland. He looked straight into Croisset"s face. "I"m glad--it"s so--Jean," he added slowly. "Don"t you understand, man? I love her. I didn"t mean what I said. I would kill for her, too, Jean. I said that to find out--what you would do--"
Slowly Croisset relaxed, a faint smile curling his thin lips.
"If it was a joke, M"seur, it was a bad one."
"It wasn"t a joke," cried Howland. "It was a serious effort to make you tell me something about Meleese. Listen, Jean--she told me back there that it was not wrong for me to love her, and when I lay bound and gagged in the snow she came to me and--and kissed me. I don"t understand--"
Croisset interrupted him.
"Did she do that, M"seur?"
"I swear it."
"Then you are fortunate," smiled Jean softly, "for I will stake my hope in the blessed hereafter that she has never done that to another man, M"seur. But it will never happen again."
"I believe that it will--unless you kill me."
"And I shall not hesitate to kill you if I think that it is likely to happen again. There are others who would kill you--knowing that it has happened but once. But you must stop this talk, M"seur. If you persist I shall put the rawhide over your mouth again."
"And if I object--fight?"
"You have given me your word of honor. Up here in the big snows the keeping of that word is our first law. If you break it I will kill you."
"Good Lord, but you"re a cheerful companion," exclaimed Howland, laughing in spite of himself. "Do you know, Croisset, this whole situation has a good deal of humor as well as tragedy about it. I must be a most important cuss, whoever I am. Ask me who I am, Croisset?"
"And who are you, M"seur?"
"I don"t know, Jean. Fact, I don"t. I used to think that I was a most ambitious young cub in a big engineering establishment down in Chicago.
But I guess I was dreaming. Funny dream, wasn"t it? Thought I came up here to build a road somewhere through these infernal---no, I mean these beautiful snows--but my mind must have been wandering again. Ever hear of an insane asylum, Croisset? Am I in a big stone building with iron bars at the windows, and are you my keeper, just come in to amuse me for a time? It"s kind of you, Croisset, and I hope that some day I shall get my mind back so that I can thank you decently. Perhaps you"ll go mad some day, Jean, and dream about pretty girls, and railroads, and forests, and snows--and then I"ll be your keeper. Have a cigar? I"ve got just two left."
"_Mon Dieu!_" gasped Jean. "Yes, I will smoke, M"seur. Is that moose steak good?"
"Fine. I haven"t eaten a mouthful since years ago, when I dreamed that I sat on a case of dynamite just about to blow up. Did you ever sit on a case of dynamite just about to blow up, Jean?"
"No, M"seur. It must be unpleasant."
"That dream was what turned my hair white, Jean. See how white it is--whiter than the snow!"
Croisset looked at him a little anxiously as he ate his meat, and at the gathering unrest in his ayes Howland burst into a laugh.
"Don"t be frightened, Jean," he spoke soothingly. "I"m harmless. But I promise you that I"ll become violent unless something reasonable occurs pretty soon. h.e.l.lo, are you going to start so soon?"
"Right away, M"seur," said Croisset, who was stirring up the dogs. "Will you walk and run, or ride?"
"Walk and run, with your permission."
"You have it, M"seur, but if you attempt to escape I must shoot you. Run on the right of the dogs--even with me. I will take this side."
Until Croisset stopped again in the middle of the afternoon Howland watched the backward trail for the appearance of the second sledge, but there was no sign of it. Once he ventured to bring up the subject to Croisset, who did no more than reply with a hunch of his shoulders and a quick look which warned the engineer to keep his silence. After their second meal the journey was resumed, and by referring occasionally to his compa.s.s Howland observed that the trail was swinging gradually to the eastward. Long before dusk exhaustion compelled him to ride once more on the sledge. Croisset seemed tireless, and under the early glow of the stars and the red moon he still led on the worn pack until at last it stopped on the summit of a mountainous ridge, with a vast plain stretching into the north as far as the eyes could see through the white gloom. The half-breed came back to where Howland was seated on the sledge.
"We are going but a little farther, M"seur," he said. "I must replace the rawhide over your mouth and the thongs about your wrists. I am sorry--but I will leave your legs free."
"Thanks," said Howland. "But, really, it is unnecessary, Croisset. I am properly subdued to the fact that fate is determined to play out this interesting game of ball with me, and no longer knowing where I am, I promise you to do nothing more exciting than smoke my pipe if you will allow me to go along peaceably at your side."
Croisset hesitated.
"You will not attempt to escape--and you will hold your tongue?" he asked.
"Yes."
Jean drew forth his revolver and deliberately c.o.c.ked it.
"Bear in mind, M"seur, that I will kill you if you break your word. You may go ahead."
And he pointed down the side of the mountain.
CHAPTER XI
THE HOUSE OF THE RED DEATH
Half-way down the ridge a low word from Croisset stopped the engineer.
Jean had toggled his team with a stout length of babeesh on the mountain top and he was looking back when Howland turned toward him. The sharp edge of that part of the mountain from which they were descending stood out in a clear-cut line against the sky, and on this edge the six dogs of the team sat squat on their haunches, silent and motionless, like strangely carved gargoyles placed there to guard the limitless plains below. Howland took his pipe from his mouth as he watched the staring interest of Croisset. From the man he looked up again at the dogs. There was something in their sphynx-like att.i.tude, in the moveless reaching of their muzzles out into the wonderful starlit mystery of the still night that filled him with an indefinable sense of awe. Then there came to his ears the sound that had stopped Croisset--a low, moaning whine which seemed to have neither beginning nor end, but which was borne in on his senses as though it were a part of the soft movement of the air he breathed--a note of infinite sadness which held him startled and without movement, as it held Jean Croisset. And just as he thought that the thing had died away, the wailing came again, rising higher and higher, until at last there rose over him a single long howl that chilled the blood to his very marrow. It was like the wolf-howl of that first night he had looked on the wilderness, and yet unlike it; in the first it had been the cry of the savage, of hunger, of the unending desolation of life that had thrilled him. In this it was death. He stood shivering as Croisset came down to him, his thin face shining white in the starlight.
There was no other sound save the excited beating of life in their own bodies when Jean spoke.
"M"seur, our dogs howl like that only when some one is dead or about to die," he whispered. "It was Woonga who gave the cry. He has lived for eleven years and I have never known him to fail."
There was an uneasy gleam in his eyes.