In O'Grady's there
was something larger and darker--a club, and Jan dropped his end of the
canoe with a glad cry, and drew one of the knives from his belt. Jackpine
came to his side, with his hunting knife in his hand, measuring with
glittering eyes the oncoming foe of his race--the Chippewayan.
And Jan laughed softly to himself, and his teeth gleamed again, for at
last fate was playing his game. The fire had burned O'Grady's canoe, and
it was to rob him of his own canoe that O'Grady was coming to fight. A
canoe! He laughed again, while the fire roared over his head and the
whirlpool thundered at his feet. O'Grady would fight for a canoe--for
gold--while he--HE--would fight for something else, for the vengeance of
a man whose soul and honor had been sold. He cared nothing for the canoe.
He cared nothing for the gold. He told himself, in this one tense moment
of waiting, that he cared no longer for Marie. It was the fulfillment of
the code.
He was still smiling when O'Grady was so near that he could see the red
glare in his eyes. There was no word, no shout, no sound of fury or
defiance as the two men stood for an instant just out of striking
distance. Jan heard the coming together of Jackpine and the Chippewayan.
He heard them straggling, but not the flicker of an eyelash did his gaze
leave O'Grady's face. Both men understood. This time had to come. Both
had expected it, even from that day of the fight in the woods when
fortune had favored Jan.
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