A wave of mirth crossed Jessie’s face like a ripple on still water.  Her voice mimicked his.  “Why do you want to saw off an old maid on that two-fisted man you’ve knew ever since he was knee-high to a grasshopper?  What did he ever do to you that was so doggoned mean?”

“Now looky here, you can laugh at me all you’ve a mind to.  All I’m sayin’ is—­”

“Oh, I’m not laughing at you,” she interposed hurriedly with an assumption of anxiety her bubbling eyes belied.  “If you could show me how to get your two-fisted man when he comes back—­or even the one with the red coat and the spurs and the fine line of talk—­”

“I ain’t sayin’ he ain’t a man from the ground up too,” Brad broke in.  “Considerin’ his opportunities he’s a right hefty young fellow.  But Tom Morse he—­”

“That’s it exactly.  Tom Morse he—­”

“Keep right on makin’ fun o’ me.  Tom Morse he’s a man outa ten thousand, an’ I don’t know as I’m coverin’ enough population at that.”

“And you’re willing to make a squaw-man of him.  Oh, Mr. Stearns!”

He looked at her severely.  “You got no license to talk thataway, Jessie McRae.  You’re Angus McRae’s daughter an’ you been to Winnipeg to school.  Anyways, after what Lemoine found out—­”

“What did he find out?  Pierre Roubideaux couldn’t tell him anything about the locket and the ring.  Makoye-kin said he got it from his brother who was one of a party that massacred an American outfit of trappers headed for Peace River.  He doesn’t know whether the picture of the woman in the locket was that of one of the women in the camp.  All we’ve learned is that I look like a picture of a white woman found in a locket nearly twenty years ago.  That doesn’t take us very far, does it?”

“Well, Stokimatis may know something.  When Onistah comes back with her, we’ll get the facts straight.”

McRae came into the room.  “News, lass,” he cried, and his voice rang.  “A Cree runner’s just down frae Northern Lights.  He says the lads were picked up by some trappers near Desolation.  One o’ them’s been badly hurt, but he’s on the mend.  Which yin I dinna ken.  What wi’ starvation an’ blizzards an’ battles they’ve had a tough time.  But the word is they’re doing fine noo.”

“West?” asked Brad.  “Did they get him?”

“They got him.  Dragged him back to Desolation with a rope round his neck.  Hung on to him while they were slam-bangin’ through blizzards an’ runnin’ a race wi’ death to get back before they starved.  Found him up i’ the Barrens somewhere, the story is.  He’ll be hangit at the proper time an’ place.  It’s in the Word.  ’They that take the sword shall perish with the sword.’  Matthew 26:52.”

Brad let out the exultant rebel yell he had learned years before in the Confederate army.  “What’d I tell you about that boy?  Ain’t I knowed him since he was a li’l’ bit of a tad?  He’s a go-getter, Tom is.  Y’betcha!”