The Danger Trail | Page 9

a club," continued Croisset. "Come,
we must go."
The smile had gone from his face and there was a commanding
firmness in the grip that fell on the young engineer's arm. Howland was
conscious that things were twisting about him and that there was a
strange weakness in his limbs. Dumbly he raised his hands to his head,
which hurt him until he felt as if he must cry out in his pain.
"The girl--" he gasped weakly.
Croisset's arm tightened about his waist.
"She ees gone!" Howland heard him say; and there was something in
the half-breed's low voice that caused him to turn unquestioningly and
stagger along beside him in the direction of Prince Albert.
And yet as he went, only half-conscious of what he was doing, and
leaning more and more heavily on his companion, he knew that it was
more than the girl's disappearance that he wanted to understand. For as
the blow had fallen on his head he was sure that he had heard a
woman's scream; and as he lay in the snow, dazed and choking,
spending his last effort in his struggle for life, there had come to him,
as if from an infinite distance, a woman's voice, and the words that it

had uttered pounded in his tortured brain now as his head dropped
weakly against Croisset's shoulder.
"Mon Dieu, you are killing him--killing him!"
He tried to repeat them aloud, but his voice sounded only in an
incoherent murmur. Where the forest came down to the edge of the
river the half-breed stopped.
"I must carry you, M'seur Howland," he said; and as he staggered out
on the ice with his inanimate burden, he spoke softly to himself, "The
saints preserve me, but what would the sweet Meleese say if she knew
that Jean Croisset had come so near to losing the life of this M'seur le
engineer? Ce monde est plein de fous!"
CHAPTER IV
THE WARNING
In only a subconscious sort of way was Howland cognizant of anything
more that happened that night. When he came back into a full sense of
his existence he found himself in his bed at the hotel. A lamp was
burning low on the table. A glance showed him that the room was
empty. He raised his head and shoulders from the pillows on which
they were resting and the movement helped to bring him at once into a
realization of what had happened. He was hurt. There was a dull,
aching pain in his head and neck and when he raised an inquiring hand
it came in contact with a thick bandage. He wondered if he were badly
hurt and sank back again on the pillows, lying with his eyes staring at
the faint glow of the lamp. Soon there came a sound at the door and he
twisted his head, grimacing with the pain it caused him. Jean was
looking in at him.
"Ah, M'seur ees awake!" he said, seeing the wide-open eyes. He came
in softly, closing the door behind him. "Mon Dieu, but if it had been a
heavier club by the weight of a pound you would have gone into the
blessed hereafter," he smiled, approaching with noiseless tread. He held
a glass of water to Howland's lips.

"Is it bad, Croisset?"
"So bad that you will be in bed for a day or so, M'seur. That is all."
"Impossible!" cried the young engineer. "I must take the eight o'clock
train in the morning. I must be in Le Pas--"
"It is five o'clock now," interrupted Jean softly. "Do you feel like
going?"
Howland straightened himself and fell back suddenly with a sharp cry.
"The devil!" he exclaimed. After a moment he added, "There will be no
other train for two days." As he raised a hand to his aching head, his
other closed tightly about Jean's lithe brown fingers. "I want to thank
you for what you did, Croisset. I don't know what happened. I don't
know who they were or why they tried to kill me. There was a girl--I
was going with her--"
He dropped his hand in time to see the strange fire that had leaped into
the half-breed's eyes. In astonishment he half lifted himself again, his
white face questioning Croisset.
"Do you know?" he whispered eagerly. "Who was she? Why did she
lead me into that ambush? Why did they attempt to kill me?"
The questions shot from him excitedly, and he knew from what he saw
in the other's face that Croisset could have answered them. Yet from
the thin tense lips above him there came no response. With a quick
movement the half-breed drew away his hand and moved toward the
door. Half way he paused and turned.
"M'seur, I have come