To-morrow I begin my first
work--for money."
He heard what she said after that as if in a dream. When he went out into
the day again, with her word to his people, he knew that in some way
which he could not understand this big, cold world had changed for him.
To-morrow Cummins' wife was to begin writing letters for the Englishman!
His eyes glittered, his hands clenched themselves upon his breast, and
all the blood in him submerged itself in one wild resistless impulse. An
hour later Jan and his four dogs were speeding swiftly into the South.
The next day the Englishman went to the woman's cabin. He did not return
in the afternoon. And that same afternoon, when Cummins' wife came into
the Company's store, a quick flush shot into her cheeks and the glitter
of blue diamonds into her eyes when she saw the Englishman standing
there. The man's red face grew redder, and he shifted his gaze. When
Cummins' wife passed him she drew her skirt close to her, and there was
the poise of a queen in her head, the glory of mother and wife and
womanhood, the living, breathing essence of all that was beautiful in
Jan's "honor of the Beeg Snows." But Jan, twenty miles to the south, did
not know.
He returned on the fourth night and went quietly to his little shack in
the edge of the balsam forest. In the glow of the oil lamp which he
lighted he rolled up his treasure of winter-caught furs into a small
pack.
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