Short Stories
Then Leclere picked up the whip and proceeded almost to
cut him to pieces, at each stroke of the lash crying: "Dis taim Ah
break you! Eh? By GAR! Ah break you!"
In the end, exhausted, fainting from loss of blood, he crum-
pled up and fell by his victim, and when the wolf-dogs closed in
to take their vengeance, with his last consciousness dragged his
body on top of Batard to shield him from their fangs.
This occurred not far from Sunrise, and the missionary,
opening the door to Leclere a few hours later, was surprised to
note the absence of Batard from the team. Nor did his surprise
lessen when Leclere threw back the robes from the sled, gath-
ered Batard into his arms and staggered across the threshold. It
happened that the surgeon of McQuestion, who was something
of a gadabout, was up on a gossip, and between them they pro-
ceeded to repair Leclere,
"Merci, non," said he. "Do you fix firs' de dog. To die? NON.
Eet is not good. Becos' heem Ah mus' yet break. Dat fo' w'at he
mus' not die."
The surgeon called it a marvel, the missionary a miracle, that
Leclere pulled through at all; and so weakened was he, that in
the spring the fever got him, and he went on his back again. Ba-
tard had been in even worse plight, but his grip on life prevailed,
and the bones of his hind legs knit, and his organs righted them-
selves, during the several weeks he lay strapped to the floor.
And by the time Leclere, finally convalescent, sallow and shaky,
took the sun by the cabin door, Batard had reasserted his su-
premacy among his kind, and brought not only his own team-
mates but the missionary's dogs into subjection.
He moved never a muscle, nor twitched a hair, when, for the
first time, Leclere tottered out on the missionary's arm, and sank
8