“But surely you know the country.  You will advise me.”

“Yes, I will advise you.  I am with you in this venture; with you to the last gasp; with you heart and soul, until that devil MacNair is dead or driven out of the North, and his Indians scattered to the four winds.”

“Scattered!  Why scattered?  Why not held together for their education and betterment?  And you say you will be with me until MacNair is either dead or driven out of the North.  What then—­will you desert me then?  This MacNair is only an obstacle in our path—­an obstacle to be brushed aside that the real work may begin.  Yet you spoke as though he were the main issue.”

Lapierre interrupted her, speaking rapidly:  “Yes, of course.  Bear with me, I pray you.  I spoke hastily, and without thinking.  My feelings for the moment carried me away.  As you see, the marks of the Brute’s hands are still too fresh upon me to regard him impersonally—­an obstacle, as it were.  To me he is a brute!  A fiend!  A demon!  I hate him!”

Lapierre shook a clenched fist toward the North, and the words fairly snarled between his lips.  With an effort he controlled himself.  “I have in mind the very place for your school, a spot accessible from all directions—­the mouth of the Yellow Knife River, upon the north arm of Great Slave Lake.  There you will be unmolested by the debauching rivermen, and yet within easy reach of any who may desire to take advantage of your school.  The very place above all places!  In the whole North you could not have chosen a better!  And I shall accompany you, and direct the building of your houses and stockade.

“MacNair will learn shortly of your fort—­everything is a ‘fort’ up here—­and he will descend upon you like a ramping lion.  When he finds you are a woman, he will do you no violence.  He will scent at once a rival trading-post and will hurt your cause in every way possible; will use every means to discredit you among the Indians, and to discourage you.  But even he will do a woman no physical harm.

“And right here let me caution you—­do not temporize with him.  He stands in the North for oppression; gain at any cost; for debauchery—­everything that you do not.  Between you and Brute MacNair there can be no truce.  He is powerful.  Do not for a moment underrate either his strength or his sagacity.  He is a man of wealth, and his hold upon the Indians is absolute.  I cannot remain with you, but through my Indians I shall keep in touch with you, work with you; and together we will accomplish the downfall of this brute of the North.”

For a long time the two figures sat by the fire while the camp slept, and talked of many things.  And when, well toward midnight, Chloe Elliston retired to her tent, she felt that she had known this man always.  For it is the way of life that stress of events, and not duration of time, marks the measure of acquaintance and intimacy.  Pierre Lapierre, Chloe Elliston had known but one day, and yet she believed that among all her acquaintances this man she knew best.