For a week life continued to be exceedingly pleasant.  And then came the break—­the change that was destined to meant for Kazan, his father, when he killed the man-brute at the edge of the wilderness.

This change came or the day when, in trotting around a great rock near the waterfall, Baree found himself face to face with Pierrot the hunter and Nepeese, the star-eyed girl who had shot him in the edge of the clearing.

It was Nepeese whom he saw first.  If it had been Pierrot, he would have turned back quickly.  But again the blood of his forebear was rousing strange tremblings within him.  Was it like this that the first woman had looked to Kazan?

Baree stood still.  Nepeese was not more than twenty feet from him.  She sat on a rock, full in the early morning sun, and was brushing out her wonderful hair.  Her lips parted.  Her eyes shone in an instant like stars.  One hand remained poised, weighted with the jet tresses.  She recognized him.  She saw the white star on his breast and the white tip on his ear, and under her breath she whispered “Uchi moosis!”—­“The dog pup!” It was the wild dog she had shot—­and thought had died!

The evening before Pierrot and Nepeese had built a shelter of balsams behind the big rock, and on a small white plot of sand Pierrot was kneeling over a fire preparing breakfast while the Willow arranged her hair.  He raised his head to speak to her, and saw Baree.  In that instant the spell was broken.  Baree saw the man-beast as he rose to his feet.  Like a shot he was gone.

Scarcely swifter was he than Nepeese.

“Depechez vous, mon pere!” she cried.  “It is the dog pup!  Quick—­”

In the floating cloud of her hair she sped after Baree like the wind.  Pierrot followed, and in going he caught up his rifle.  It was difficult for him to catch up with the Willow.  She was like a wild spirit, her little moccasined feet scarcely touching the sand as she ran up the long bar.  It was wonderful to see the lithe swiftness of her, and that glorious hair streaming out in the sun.  Even now, in this moment’s excitement, it made Pierrot think of McTaggart, the Hudson’s Bay Company’s factor over at Lac Bain, and what he had said yesterday.  Half the night Pierrot had lain awake, gritting his teeth at thought of it.  And this morning, before Baree ran upon them, he had looked at Nepeese more closely than ever before in his life.  She was beautiful.  She was lovelier even than Wyola, her princess mother, who was dead.  That hair—­which made men stare as if they could not believe!  Those eyes—­like pools filled with wonderful starlight!  Her slimness, that was like a flower!  And McTaggart had said—­

Floating back to him there came an excited cry.

“Hurry, Nootawe!  He has turned into the blind canyon.  He cannot escape us now.”

She was panting when he came up to her.  The French blood in her glowed a vivid crimson in her cheeks and lips.  Her white teeth gleamed like pearls.