AS YE SOW
Fresh from a London hospital though he was, John Hunter found that the
condition of Julie Breton demanded the exercise of all his skill as a
surgeon. But the operation, aided by the girl's young strength and
vitality, was successful, and she slowly overcame the grip of the
infection.
Four days after Marcel reeled into Whale River with his battered dogs,
bringing the man who was winning back life for Julie Breton, an
exhausted dog-team limped in from the south. Rushing into the
trade-house the white-faced Wallace grasped Gillies' hand, hoarsely
demanding:
"Does she live, Gillies?"
"She's all right, Mr. Wallace; doing well, the doctor says," answered
Gillies. "She's going to pull through, thanks to Jean Marcel and Dr.
Hunter. I take my hat off to those two men."
Wallace's eyes shifted to the floor as he ventured:
"When did they get in?"
"Oh, they came through against that blow in three days and a half. The
greatest feat of man and dogs in my time. When did you leave East Main?"
Wallace stared incredulously at Colin Gillies' wooden face.
"East Main? Why, didn't Marcel tell you?"
"No," replied Gillies, but he did not say that his wife had been told by
Hunter of the presence of Wallace at Fort George the night Marcel
brought the news. However, the factor did not further embarrass his
chief by questions. And Wallace did not see fit to inform him that not
until the wind died, two days after the relief party started, had he
left Fort George.
"I suppose she's too sick to see me?" the nervous Inspector hazarded.
"Yes, no one sees her except Mrs. Gillies and Hunter."
"Well, I'll look up Father Breton," and Wallace went out followed by an
expression in Colin Gillies' face which the Inspector would not have
cared to see.
For a week Wallace remained at Whale River and then, assured by Dr.
Hunter of Julie's safety, left, to return later. When, meeting Marcel in
the trade-house, he had attempted to thank him, the cold glitter in the
eyes of the Frenchman as he listened with impassive face to the halting
words of the Inspector of the East Coast, filled Colin Gillies with
inward delight.
When Gillies bade good-bye to his chief, he said casually, "Well, I
suppose we'll have a wedding here in June, Mr. Wallace."
"Yes, Gillies, Father Breton and I are only waiting for Julie to set the
date. Good-bye; I'll be up the coast next month," and was off.
But what piqued Gillies' curiosity was whether Dr. Hunter had told Pere
Breton just what happened at Fort George when the tragic call for help
came in on Christmas night. Jean Marcel's mouth had been shut like a
sprung trap, even Jules and Angus did not know; of that, Gillies was
sure. But why had the doctor not told Pere Breton, as well as Mrs.
Gillies? He was Julie's brother and ought to know. If Hunter had
enlightened the priest, then Colin Gillies was no judge of men, for he
had always admired the Oblat.
The first week in February Julie Breton was sitting up, and Mr. Hunter
bade good-bye to the staunch friends he had made at Whale River. Not
always are the relations between Oblat or Jesuit, and Protestant
missionaries, unduly cordial in the land of their labors, but when the
Reverend Hunter left the Mission House at Whale River, there remained in
the hearts of Pere Breton, his sister and Jean Marcel, a love for the
doctor, clergyman and man which the years did not dim.
One day, later on, Marcel and Fleur were making their afternoon call on
Julie, who was propped in bed, her hair hanging in two thick braids.
"We leave in a few days," Jean said in French. "Michel is anxious to get
back to his traps."
"Oh, don't go so soon, Jean. I haven't yet had an opportunity to talk to
you as I wished."
"If you mean to thank me, I am glad of that," he said, his lips curling
in a faint smile.
"Why should I not thank you, Jean Marcel, who risked your life like a
madman to help me? I do now thank you with all my heart. But for you, I
would not be here. Dr. Hunter told me I could not have lived had he
arrived one day later."
With a gesture of impatience Marcel turned in his chair and gazed
through the window on the world of snow.
The dark eyes in the pale face of the girl were strangely soft as they
rested on the sinewy strength of the man's figure; then lifted to the
strong profile, with its bony jaw and bold, aquiline nose.
"You do not care for my thanks, Jean?" she asked.
"Please!" he begged. "It is over, that! You are well again! I am happy;
and will go back to my trap-lines."
"But it is not all over with Julie Breton," she insisted.
He turned with brows raised questioningly.
"It has left her--changed. She will never be the same."
"What do you mean? Dr. Hunter said you would be as strong as ever, by
spring."
"Ah, but I do not speak of my body, Jean Marcel."
He gazed in perplexity at her wistful face. In a moment his eyes again
sought the window.
For a long space, she was silent. Then a suppressed sob roused him from
his bitter thoughts and he heard the strained voice of the girl.
"I know all," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"Mrs. Gillies, and Dr. Hunter--when I asked him--told me--long ago. We
have kept it from Pere Henri. It seems years, for I have been thinking
much since then--lying awake, thinking."
"Julie, what has been worrying you? Don't let what I did cause you
pain," he pleaded, not catching the significance of her words. "It's all
right, Julie. You owe me nothing--I understand."
"Ah, but you do not understand," she said, smiling at the man's averted
face.
"Julie, I have suffered, but I want you to be happy. Don't think of Jean
Marcel."
"But it is of Jean Marcel of the great heart that I must think--have
been thinking, for days and days." She was sitting erect, tense; her
pale face drawn with emotion.
"I tell you I know it all," she cried, "how they--_he_, feared to start
in the storm--and waited--ordered you to wait. But no wind or snow could
hold Jean Marcel, and in spite of them, he brought Dr. Hunter to Whale
River--and saved Julie Breton."
Dumb with surprise at her knowledge of what he thought he and Hunter
alone knew--at the scorn in her voice, Marcel listened with pounding
heart.
"Yes, they told me," she went on, "how Jean Marcel heard the news when
he reached Whale River and, without sleep, that night hurried south for
help, swifter than men had ever travelled, because Julie Breton was in
peril. Dr. Hunter has told me all; how you and Fleur fought wind and
snow to bring him to Whale River--and Julie Breton. And now you ask her
not to thank you--you who gave her back her life."
Only the low sobbing of the girl broke the silence. In a moment the
paroxysm passed, and she looked through tears at the man who sat with
bowed head in hands, as she faltered:
"Ah, will you not see--not understand? Must I tell you--that
I--love--Jean Marcel?"
Dazed, Jean rose. With a hoarse cry of "Julie!" he groped to the bed and
took her in his yearning arms.
After the years--she had come home.
Later, Mrs. Gillies looked in to see a dusky head on the shoulder of the
man who knelt by the bed, and on the coverlet beside them the great head
of Fleur, who gazed up into two illumined faces through narrow eyes
which seemed to comprehend as her bushy tail slowly swept to and fro.
* * * * *
In June there was a wedding at Whale River, with an honored guest who
journeyed up the coast from Fort George for the ceremony, John Hunter.
The Mission church overflowed with post people and the visiting Crees,
few of whom but had known some kindness from Julie Breton. In the robes
of his order, Pere Breton faced the bride and groom. Beside the former,
gravely stood the matron of honor; her gown of slate-gray and snowy
white, carefully groomed for the occasion by the faithful Jules, glossy
with superb vitality; her great neck circled by a white ribbon knotted
in a bow--which it had required days to accustom her to wear--in strange
contrast to the massive dignity of the head. From priest to bride and
groom, curiously her slant eyes shifted, in wonder at the proceeding.
The ceremony over, the bride impulsively kissed the slate-gray head of
the dog while a hum of approval swept the church. Then, before repairing
with their friends to the Mission House, where the groaning table
awaited them, Julie and Jean Marcel, accompanied by Fleur, went to the
stockade. Three gray noses thrust through the pickets whined a welcome.
Three gigantic, wolfish huskies met them at the gate with wild yelps and
the mad swishing of tails. Then the happy Jean and Julie gave the whelps
of the wolf their share of the wedding feast.
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=Sinister Mark, The.= Lee Thayer.
=Sin That Was His, The.= Frank L. Packard.
=Sir or Madam.= Berta Ruck.
=Sisters-in-Law.= Gertrude Atherton.
=Sky Line of Spruce.= Edison Marshall.
=Slayer of Souls, The.= Robert W. Chambers.
=Smiles: A Rose of the Cumberlands.= Eliot H. Robinson.
=Snowdrift.= James B. Hendryx.
=Snowshoe Trail, The.= Edison Marshall.
=Son of His Father, The.= Ridgwell Cullum.
=Son of Tarzan, The.= Edgar Rice Burroughs.
=Souls for Sale.= Rupert Hughes. (Photoplay Ed.).
=Speckled Bird, A.= Augusta Evans Wilson.
=Spirit of the Border, The.= Zane Grey. (New Edition).
=Spirit-of-Iron.= Harwood Steele.
=Spoilers, The.= Rex Beach. (Photoplay Ed.).
=Spoilers of the Valley, The.= Robert Watson.
=Star Dust.= Fannie Hurst.
=Steele of the Royal Mounted.= James Oliver Curwood.
=Step on the Stair, The.= Anna Katherine Green.
=Still Jim.= Honore Willsie.
=Story of Foss River Ranch, The.= Ridgwell Cullum.
=Story of Marco, The.= Eleanor H. Porter.
=Strange Case of Cavendish, The.= Randall Parrish.
=Strawberry Acres.= Grace S. Richmond.
=Strength of the Pines, The.= Edison Marshall.
=Subconscious Courtship, The.= Berta Ruck.
=Substitute Millionaire, The.= Hulbert Footner.
=Sudden Jim.= Clarence B. Kelland.
=Sweethearts Unmet.= Berta Ruck.
=Sweet Stranger.= Berta Ruck.
=Tales of Chinatown.= Sax Rohmer.
=Tales of Secret Egypt.= Sax Rohmer.
=Tales of Sherlock Holmes.= A. Conan Doyle.
=Talkers, The.= Robert W. Chambers.
=Talisman, The.= Sir Walter Scott (Photoplay Ed.).
Screened as Richard the Lion Hearted.
=Taming of Zenas Henry, The.= Sara Ware Basset.
=Tarzan of the Apes.= Edgar Rice Burroughs.
=Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar.= Edgar Rice Burroughs.
=Tattooed Arm, The.= Isabel Ostrander.
=Tempting of Tavernake, The.= E. Phillips Oppenheim.
=Tess of the D'Urbervilles.= Thomas Hardy. (Photoplay Ed.).
=Tex.= Clarence E. Mulford.
=Texan, The.= James B. Hendryx.
=Thankful's Inheritance.= Joseph C. Lincoln.
=That Affair at "The Cedars."= Lee Thayer.
=That Printer of Udell's.= Harold Bell Wright.
=Their Yesterdays.= Harold Bell Wright.
=Thief of Bagdad, The.= Achmed Abdullah. (Photoplay Ed.)
=Thieves' Wit.= Hulbert Footner.
=Thirteenth Commandment, The.= Rupert Hughes.
=This Side of Paradise.= F. Scott Fitzgerald.
=Thoroughbred, The.= Henry Kitchell Webster.
=Thread of Flame, The.= Basil King.
=Three Black Bags.= Marion Polk Angelloti.
=Three Men and a Maid.= P. G. Wodehouse.
=Three Musketeers, The.= Alexander Dumas.
=Three of Hearts, The.= Berta Ruck.
=Through the Shadows with O. Henry.= Al. Jennings.
=Thunderbolt, The.= Clyde Perrin.
=Timber.= Harold Titus.
=Timber Pirate.= Charles Christopher Jenkins.
=Tish.= Mary Roberts Rinehart.
=To Him That Hath.= Ralph Connor.
=Toilers of the Sea, The.= Victor Hugo. (Photoplay Ed.).
=Toll of the Sands.= Paul Delaney.
=Trail of the Axe, The.= Ridgwell Cullum.
=Trailin'.= Max Brand.
=Trail to Yesterday, The.= Chas. A. Seltzer.
=Treasure of Heaven, The.= Marie Corelli.
=Trigger of Conscience, The.= Robert Orr Chipperfield.
=Triumph of John Kars, The.= Ridgwell Cullum.
=Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, The.= Baroness Orczy.
=Trodden Gold.= Howard Vincent O'Brien.
=Trooper O'Neill.= George Goodchild.
=Trouble at the Pinelands, The.= Ernest M. Porter.
=T. Tembarom.= Frances Hodgson Burnett.
=Tumbleweeds.= Hal G. Evarts.
=Turn of the Tide.= Eleanor H. Porter.
=Twenty-fourth of June.= Grace S. Richmond.
=Twins of Suffering Creek, The.= Ridgwell Cullum.
=Two-Gun Man, The.= Chas. A. Seltzer.
=Two-Gun Man, The.= Robert Ames Bennet.
=Two-Gun Sue.= Douglas Grant.
=Typee.= Herman Melville.
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=Under the Country Sky.= Grace S. Richmond.
=Uneasy Street.= Arthur Somers Roche.
=Unlatched Door, The.= Lee Thayer.
=Unpardonable Sin, The.= Major Rupert Hughes.
=Unseen Ear, The.= Natalie Sumner Lincoln.
=Untamed, The.= Max Brand.
=Up and Coming.= Nalbro Bartley.
=Up From Slavery.= Booker T. Washington.
=Ursula Trent.= W. L. George.
=Valiants of Virginia, The.= Hallie Erminie Rives.
=Valley of Content, The.= Blanche Upright.
=Valley of Fear, The.= Sir A. Conan Doyle.
=Valley of Gold, The.= David Howarth.
=Valley of the Sun, The.= William M. McCoy.
=Vandemark's Folly.= Herbert Quick.
=Vanguards of the Plains.= Margaret Hill McCarter.
=Vanished Messenger, The.= E. Phillips Oppenheim.
=Vanishing of Betty Varian, The.= Carolyn Wells.
=Vanity Fair.= Wm. M. Thackeray. (Photoplay Ed.).
=Vashti.= Augusta Evans Wilson.
=Viola Gwyn.= George Barr McCutcheon.
=Virginia of Elk Creek Valley.= Mary Ellen Chase.
=Virtuous Wives.= Owen Johnson.
=Voice of the Pack, The.= Edison Marshall.
=Wagon Wheel, The.= William Patterson White.
=Wall Between, The.= Sara Ware Bassett.
=Wall of Men, A.= Margaret Hill McCarter.
=Wasted Generation, The.= Owen Johnson.
=Watchers of the Plains, The.= Ridgwell Cullum.
=Way of an Eagle, The.= Ethel M. Dell.
=Way of the Strong, The.= Ridgwell Cullum.
=Way of These Women, The.= E. Phillips Oppenheim.
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=Weavers, The.= Gilbert Parker.
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=West Wind Drift.= George Barr McCutcheon.
=What's the World Coming To?= Rupert Hughes.
=What Will People Say?= Rupert Hughes.
=Wheels Within Wheels.= Carolyn Wells.
=Whelps of the Wolf, The.= George Marsh.
=When a Man's a Man.= Harold Bell Wright. (Photoplay Ed.).
=When Egypt Went Broke.= Holman Day.
=Where the Sun Swings North.= Barnett Willoughby.
=Where There's a Will.= Mary Roberts Rinehart.
Transcriber's Notes:
Page 41: Changed etes to etes
Page 52: Changed Companee to Company
Page 66: Changed uninterruped to uninterrupted
Page 113: Changed eyrie to eerie
Page 273: Changed matchles to matchless