Marie Esquint was a woman of nerve.  She told Mrs. Joe to shut up, and she turned Carey over.  He was conscious, but seemed dazed and could not help himself.  Marie put a coat under his head, told Paul to lie down on the bench, ordered Mrs. Joe to get a bed ready, and went for the doctor.  It happened that there was a doctor at the Flats that night—­a Prince Albert man who had been up at the Reservation, fixing up some sick Indians, and had been stormstaid at old Auguste’s on his way back.

Marie soon returned with the doctor, old Auguste, and Tannis.  Carey was carried in and laid on Mrs. Esquint’s bed.  The doctor made a brief examination, while Mrs. Joe sat on the floor and howled at the top of her lungs.  Then he shook his head.

“Shot in the back,” he said briefly.

“How long?” asked Carey, understanding.

“Perhaps till morning,” answered the doctor.  Mrs. Joe gave a louder howl than ever at this, and Tannis came and stood by the bed.  The doctor, knowing that he could do nothing for Carey, hurried into the kitchen to attend to Paul, who had a badly shattered arm, and Marie went with him.

Carey looked stupidly at Tannis.

“Send for her,” he said.

Tannis smiled cruelly.

“There is no way.  The wires are down, and there is no man at the Flats who will go to town to-night,” she answered.

“My God, I MUST see her before I die,” burst out Carey pleadingly.  “Where is Father Gabriel?  HE will go.”

“The priest went to town last night and has not come back,” said Tannis.

Carey groaned and shut his eyes.  If Father Gabriel was away, there was indeed no one to go.  Old Auguste and the doctor could not leave Paul and he knew well that no breed of them all at the Flats would turn out on such a night, even if they were not, one and all, mortally scared of being mixed up in the law and justice that would be sure to follow the affair.  He must die without seeing Elinor.

Tannis looked inscrutably down on the pale face on Mrs. Joe Esquint’s dirty pillows.  Her immobile features gave no sign of the conflict raging within her.  After a short space she turned and went out, shutting the door softly on the wounded man and Mrs. Joe, whose howls had now simmered down to whines.  In the next room, Paul was crying out with pain as the doctor worked on his arm, but Tannis did not go to him.  Instead, she slipped out and hurried down the stormy street to old Auguste’s stable.  Five minutes later she was galloping down the black, wind-lashed river trail, on her way to town, to bring Elinor Blair to her lover’s deathbed.

I hold that no woman ever did anything more unselfish than this deed of Tannis!  For the sake of love she put under her feet the jealousy and hatred that had clamored at her heart.  She held, not only revenge, but the dearer joy of watching by Carey to the last, in the hollow of her hand, and she cast both away that the man she loved might draw his dying breath somewhat easier.  In a white woman the deed would have been merely commendable.  In Tannis of the Flats, with her ancestry and tradition, it was lofty self-sacrifice.