CHAPTER XXI
A BROKEN HEART
The day following the fight in the forest, Dixon found Jean de Gravoisalone, and came up to him.
"Gravois, will you shake hands with me?" he said. "I want to thank youfor what you did to me yesterday. I deserved it. I have asked MissMelisse to forgive me--and I want to shake hands with you."
Jean was thunderstruck. He had never met this kind of man.
"Que diantre!" he ejaculated, when he had come to his senses. "Yes, Iwill shake hands!"
For several days after this Jean could see that Melisse made an effortto evade him. She did not visit Iowaka when he was in the cabin.Neither did she and Dixon go again into the forest. The youngEnglishman spent more of his time at the store; and just before thetrappers began coming in, he went on a three-days' sledge-trip withCroisset.
The change delighted Jean. The first time he met Melisse after thefight, his eyes flashed pleasure.
"Jan will surely be coming home soon," he greeted her. "What if thebirds tell him what happened out there on the trail?"
She flushed scarlet.
"Perhaps the same birds will tell us what has happened down on theNelson House trail, Jean," she retorted.
"Pouf! Jan Thoreau doesn't give the snap of his small finger for theMacVeigh girl!" Jean replied, warm in defense of his friend.
"She is pretty," laughed Melisse, "and I have just learned that is whymen like to--like them, I mean."
Jean strutted before her like a peacock.
"Am I pretty, Melisse?"
"No-o-o-o."
"Then why"--he shrugged his shoulders suggestively--"in the cabin--"
"Because you were brave, Jean. I love brave men!"
"You were glad that I pummeled the stranger, then?"
Melisse did not answer, but he caught a laughing sparkle in the cornerof her eye as she left him.
"Come home, Jan Thoreau," he hummed softly, as he went to the store."Come home, come home, come home, for the little Melisse has grown intoa woman, and is learning to use her eyes!"
Among the first of the trappers to come in with his furs was MacVeigh.He brought word that Jan had gone south, to spend the annual holiday atNelson House, and Cummings told Melisse whence the message came. He didnot observe the slight change that came into her face, and went on:
"I don't understand this in Jan. He is needed here for the carnival.Did you know that he was going to Nelson House?"
Melisse shook her head.
"MacVeigh says they have made him an offer to go down there as chiefman," continued the factor. "It is strange that he has sent noexplanation to me!"
It was a week after the big caribou roast before Jan returned to LacBain. Melisse saw him drive in from the Churchill trail; but while herheart fluttered excitedly, she steeled herself to meet him with atleast an equal show of the calm indifference with which he had left hersix weeks before. The coolness of his leave-taking still rankledbitterly in her bosom. He had not kissed her; he had not even passedhis last evening with her.
But she was not prepared for the changed Jan Thoreau who came slowlythrough the cabin door. His hair and beard had grown, covering thesmooth cheeks which he had always kept closely shaven. His eyes glowedwith dull pleasure as she stood waiting for him, but there was none ofthe old flash and fire in them. There was a strangeness in his manner,an uneasiness in the shifting of his eyes, which caused thehalf-defiant flush to fade slowly from her cheeks before either hadspoken. She had never known this Jan before, and her fortitude left heras she approached him, wonderingly, silent, her hands reaching out tohim.
"Jan!" she said.
Her voice trembled; her lips quivered. There was the old gloriouspleading in her eyes, and before it Jan bowed his unkempt head, andcrushed her hands tightly in his own. For a half-minute there wassilence, and in that half-minute there came a century between them. Atlast Jan spoke.
"I'm glad to see you again, Melisse. It has seemed like a very longtime!"
He lifted his eyes. Before them the girl involuntarily shrank back, andJan freed her hands. In them she saw none of the old love-glow, nothingof their old comradeship. Inscrutable, reflecting no visible emotion,they passed from her to the violin hanging on the wall.
"I have not played in so long," he said, turning from her, "that Ibelieve I have forgotten."
He took down the instrument, and his fingers traveled clumsily over thestrings. His teeth gleamed at her from out his half-inch growth ofbeard, as he said:
"Ah, you must play for me now, Melisse! It has surely gone from JanThoreau."
He held out the violin to her.
"Not now, Jan," she said tremulously. "I will play for you to-night."She went to the door of her room, hesitating for a moment, with herback to him. "You will come to supper, Jan?"
"Surely, Melisse, if you are prepared."
He hung up the violin as she closed the door, and went from the cabin.Jean de Gravois and Iowaka were watching for him, and Jean hurriedacross the open to meet him.
"I am coming to offer you the loan of my razor," he cried gaily."Iowaka says that you will be taken for a bear if the trappers see you."
"A beard is good to keep off the black flies," replied Jan. "It isapproaching summer, and the black flies love to feast upon me. Let usgo down the trail, Jean. I want to speak with you."
Where there had been wood-cutting in the deep spruce they sat down,facing each other. Jan spoke in French.
"I have traveled far since leaving Lac Bain," he said. "I went first toNelson House, and from here to the Wholdaia. I found them at NelsonHouse, but not on the Wholdaia."
"What?" asked Jean, though he knew well what the other meant.
"My brothers, Jean de Gravois," answered Jan, drawing his lips untilhis teeth gleamed in a sneering smile. "My brothers, les betes decharogne!"
"Devil take Croisset for telling you where they were!" muttered Jeanunder his breath.
"I saw the two at Nelson House," continued Jan. "One of them is ahalf-wit, and the other"--he hunched his shoulders--"is worse. Petraud,one of the two who were at Wholdaia, was killed by a Cree father lastwinter for dishonoring his daughter. The other disappeared."
Jean was silent, his head leaning forward, his face resting in hishands.
"So you see, Jean de Gravois, what sort of creature is your friend JanThoreau!"
Jean raised his head until his eyes were on a level with those of hiscompanion.
"I see that you are a bigger fool than ever," he said quietly. "JanThoreau, what if I should break my oath--and tell Melisse?"
Unflinching the men's eyes met. A dull glare came into Jan's. Slowly heunsheathed his long knife, and placed it upon the snow between hisfeet, with the gleaming end of the blade pointing toward Gravois. Witha low cry Jean sprang to his feet.
"Do you mean that, Jan Thoreau? Do you mean to give the knife-challengeto one who has staked his life for you and who loves you as a brother?"
"Yes," said Jan deliberately. "I love you, Jean more than any other manin the world; and yet I will kill you if you betray me to Melisse!" Herose to his feet and stretched out his hands to the little Frenchman."Jean, wouldn't you do as I am doing? Wouldn't you have done as muchfor Iowaka?"
For a moment Gravois was silent.
"I would not have taken her love without telling her," he said then."That is not what you and I know as honor, Jan Thoreau. But I wouldhave gone to her, as you should now go to Melisse, and she would haveopened her arms to me, as Melisse would opens hers to you. That is whatI would have done."
"And that is what I shall never do," said Jan decisively, turningtoward the post. "I could kill myself more easily. That is what Iwanted to tell you, Jean. No one but you and I must ever know!"
"I would like to choke that fool of a Croisset for sending you to huntup those people at Nelson House and Wholdaia!" grumbled Jean.
"It was best for me."
They saw Melisse leaving Iowaka's home when they came from the forest.Both waved their
hands to her, and Jan cut across the open to the store.
Jean went to the Cummins cabin as soon as he was sure that he was notobserved. There was little of the old vivacity in his manner as hegreeted Melisse. He noted, too, that the girl was not her natural self.There was a redness under her eyes which told him that she had beencrying.
"Melisse," he said at last, speaking to her with his eyes fixed on thecap he was twisting in his fingers, "there has come a great change overJan."
"A very great change, Jean. If I were to guess, I should say that hisheart has been broken down on the Nelson trail."
Gravois caught the sharp meaning in her voice, which trembled a littleas she spoke. He was before her in an instant, his cap fallen to thefloor, his eyes blazing as he caught her by the arms.
"Yes, the heart of Jan Thoreau is broken!" he cried. "But it has beenbroken by nothing that lives on the Nelson House trail. It is brokenbecause of--YOU!"
"I!" Melisse drew back from him with a breathless cry. "I--I havebroken--"
"I did not say that," interrupted Jean. "I say that it is brokenbecause of you. Mon Dieu, if only I might tell you!"
"Do-DO, Jean! Please tell me!" She put her hands on his shoulders. Hereyes implored him. "Tell me what I have done--what I can do, Jean!"
"I can say that much to you, and no more," he said quietly. "Only knowthis, ma chere--that there is a great grief eating at the soul of JanThoreau, and that because of this grief he is changed. I know what thisgrief is, but I am pledged never to reveal it. It is for you to findout, and to do this, above all else--let him know that you love him!"
The color had faded from her startled face, but now it came back againin a swift flood.
"That I love him?"
"Yes. Not as a sister any longer, Melisse, but as a WOMAN!"
The Honor of the Big Snows Page 21
