“What are we going to do?” cried the girl.

“There is only one thing to do,” answered Lapierre quickly.  “Walk to the school.  It is not such a long trail—­a hundred miles or so.  And you can take it easy.  You have plenty of provisions.”

“I!” cried the girl.  “And what will you do?”

“It is necessary,” answered the man, “that I should make a forced march.”

“You are going to leave me?”

Lapierre smiled at the evident note of alarm in her voice.  “I am going to take two of the canoemen and return in all haste to your school.  Do you realize that MacNair, now that he has lost his winter provisions, will stop at nothing to obtain more?”

“He would not dare!” cried the girl, her eyes flashing.

Lapierre laughed.  “You do not know MacNair.  You, personally, he would not venture to molest.  He will doubtless try to buy supplies from you or from the Hudson Bay Company.  But, in the meantime, while he is upon this errand, his Indians, with no one to hold them in check, and knowing that the supplies are in your storehouse, will swoop down upon it, and your own Indians, without a leader, will fall an easy prey to the hungry horde.”

“But surely,” cried the girl, “LeFroy is capable——­”

“Possibly, if he were at the school,” interrupted Lapierre.  “But unfortunately the day before we ourselves departed, I sent LeFroy upon an important mission to the eastward.  I think you will agree with me upon the importance of the mission when I tell you that, as I swung out of the mouth of Slave River at the head of the canoe brigade, I saw a fast canoe slipping stealthily along the shore to the eastward.  In that canoe, with the aid of my binoculars, I made out two men whom I have long suspected of being engaged in the nefarious and hellish business of peddling whiskey among the Indians.  I knew it was useless to try to overtake them with my heavily loaded canoe, and so upon my arrival at the school, as soon as we had concluded the outfitting of the trappers, I dispatched LeFroy to hunt these men down, to destroy any liquor found in their possession, and to deal with them as he saw fit.”

He paused and gazed steadily into the girl’s face.  “This may seem to you a lawless and high-handed proceeding, Miss Elliston,” he went on; “but you have just witnessed one exhibition of the tragedy that whiskey can work among my people.  In my opinion, the end justifies the means.”

The girl regarded him with shining eyes.  “Indeed it does!” she cried.  “Oh, there is nothing—­no punishment—­too severe for such brutes, such devils, as these!  I—­I hope LeFroy will catch them.  I hope—­almost—­he will kill them.”

Lapierre nodded.  “Yes, Miss Elliston,” he answered gravely, “one could sometimes almost wish so, but I have forbidden it.  The taking of a human life is a serious matter; and in the North the exigencies of the moment all too frequently make this imperative.  As a last resort only should we kill.”