Page:The trail of the golden horn.djvu/196

192 and as he seized the trapper’s outstretched hand in a firm grip, his bronzed face flushed with pleasure.

“Thank you, sir,” he replied. “I am pleased to know that you appreciate my poetic chatter, and that it has done something to dispel the clouds of darkness from your soul. I hope the rest of our discerning company will make a note of this. It is certainly great to have such peace and harmony reigning in our midst. This has been a regular old-time experience meeting. I shall now call on the sergeant to lead us in singing the ‘Doxology.’ He has a wonderful voice, which once heard can never be forgotten.”

The truce agreed upon that night was a real one. It was a calm after storm, peace after conflict. All were weary after the toil of the day and for lack of sleep, and it was a great comfort to sit near the bright fire and talk about the events of the last few days. Marion’s face grew grave as Hugo told about finding the half-breed girl, lost, demented, and how he had taken her to one of his cabins, and from there to The Gap. He passed lightly over what that journey had meant to him, and how for several miles he had been forced to carry the unconscious girl in his arms.

“Poor Zell!” Marion said. “She was so bright and animated when we left Big Chance. She was longing to hurry back to be once more with her wounded young lover. She must have become lost when she went after the wood.”

“The girl was not lost at first,” Hugo replied. “She was carried off by that villain, Bill, the Slugger. I have proof, and when we come face to face there will be another kind of experience meeting. The mean, contemptible cur! Why, he even rewarded the hospitality of the missionary at The Gap, that noble man of