“It will not!” Her voice cut sharply, and hard.  “What do you know of what the North will be?  You know it only as it has been—­as it is, perhaps.  But, of its future you know nothing.  I tell you the North will change!  It is a hard land—­cruel—­elemental—­raw!  But it is big!  And, when it awakens, its very bigness, the virile force and strength of it, will turn against its savagery, its cruelty, its brutishness; and above all other lands it will stand for the protection of the weak and for the right of things to live!”

The quarter-breed gazed into her face with a look of undisguised admiration.  “Ah, Miss Elliston, you are beautiful, now—­beautiful always—­but, at this moment—­radiant—­divine—­” Chloe seemed not to hear him.

“And that is to be my work—­to awaken the North!  To bring to its people the comforts—­the advantages of civilization!”

“The North is too big for you, Miss Elliston.  It is too big for men.  Pardon, but it is not a woman’s land.”

The girl’s eyes flashed.  “Suppose we leave sex out of it, Mr. Lapierre.  They said of my grandfather that ’the harder they fought him, the better he liked ’em,’ and that ‘he never knew when he was licked.’  Maybe that is the reason he never was licked, but lived to carry civilization into a land that was a thousand years deeper in savagery than this land is.  And today civilization—­education—­Christianity exist where seventy-five years ago the chance visitor was tortured first and eaten afterward.”

Lapierre shrugged.  “It is useless to argue.  I am in sympathy with your undertaking.  I admire your courage, and the high ideals of your mission.  But, permit me to remind you that your grandfather, whoever he was, was not a woman.  Also, that here, in the North, Christianity and education have failed to civilize—­the educated ones and the converts are worse than the others.”

The girl’s eyes darkened and the man noticed the peculiar out-thrust of the chin.  He hastened to change the subject.

“I am glad you have abandoned those plans.  They were useless.  May I now proceed with the building?”

Chloe smiled.  “Yes,” she answered, “by all means.  But, as this is to be my undertaking, I think I shall have it my way.  Build the store first, if you please——­”

“And the stockade?”

“There will be no stockade.”

“No stockade!  Are you crazy?  If MacNair——­”

“I will attend to MacNair, Mr. Lapierre.”

“Do you imagine MacNair will stand quietly by and allow you to build a trading-post here on the Yellow Knife?  Do you think he will listen to our explanation that this is a school and that the store is merely a plaything?  I tell you he will countenance neither the school nor the post.  Education for the natives is the last thing MacNair will stand for.”

“As I told you, I will attend to MacNair.  My people will not be armed.  The stockade would be silly.”